Redemption : A LitRPG Space Adventure (The Last Enclave Book 2)

by Morgan Cole

  A documentary I'd seen flashed through my mind. It had been about flatliners. Crazy people that killed themselves to try to get a view of the afterlife. Your body could die and you could still get back up and live a normal life if you revived before brain damage set in. I grabbed Regar's tumbling form, stabilizing him, and laid my right hand on his chest just above where his armor ended.

  I struggled with the Interface for a long, stretched-out moment before it finally understood my intention and gave me the option I needed. I wished I'd had one of the stasis pods that had saved Kiril on the Spike, but this would have to do.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Stabilize and seal First Seeker Regar Cost: 75 Nanite Clusters, 6kg tier 2 organics, 2.5kg tier 2 metals

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  I hit the "Stabilize" option that appeared. Immediately, Nanite Clusters flowed out of my armor and into Regar's corpse. The Nanites had plenty of organic matter to use to stabilize and seal the wounds, taking it from the bottom half of his body. For the metals, they cannibalized his armor. His metal was mostly tier 3, but I hoped there was enough tier 2 that it would be able to accomplish what it needed.

  The Nanites flooded into his body and sealed up his torso as I watched, skin flowing across sundered flesh followed closely by a rapidly thickening coat of protective metal. The bottom half of his body was cut loose after the Nanites were finished salvaging what they needed from it. Regar's ravaged legs and pelvis drifted away.

  The Redemption was beside me and coming to a relative stop when Marty spoke. "Oh shit, what's that?”

  Chapter Forty-Six: The Signal and a Quest

  "DON'T TELL ME, A BATTLESHIP. A space station the size of a moon?" I asked, dreading the answer.

  "No, but I just got an encrypted signal, a big one. It was really powerful, and it came from the dead scout. Shit," Marty said.

  "Not quite dead. Go finish it, would you?" I asked.

  Marty muttered, and the Redemption turned swiftly and disappeared. Seconds later the light of her weapons persisted for a few seconds while Marty turned the remains of the Vassago scout into a fine mist.

  "I'm sorry, man, that was my fuckup. No clue what's in the message. It just looks like junk to me," Marty said.

  "Brick can decrypt it. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's not good for us."

  "I have started the decryption process. The signal is heavily encrypted and decryption is unlikely to be fast," Brick said.

  Shortly after, I eased Regar's comatose form into the Redemption. I gave a mental order and the gate on the rear wall popped open, showing the Pax gate room on the other side.

  "Brick, get some bots to the gate room. Regar's really hurt."

  "Dispatching," Brick replied.

  Spider bots began to flood into the room and then through the gate. They formed a rectangle on the floor, lifting two of their little arms each, ready to receive the load. I set Regar's torso down gently. Once enough of them were in place they went through the gate, and then out of sight down the corridor.

  "I will make him comfortable in his quarters. When he's conscious, I will provide him any and all materials he needs to complete his regeneration. He will be fine, Jake. Don't worry," Brick said.

  "We need to know what that signal was, Brick."

  "The decryption is still in progress. I am using all the computing resources I have available in order to break it, but it is unknown when I will be successful."

  "I can tell you what it was," Metra said. "You don't need to decrypt it, Brick. It's a status report. The AI ships always broadcast one when you kill them. The only way to stop it is to kill them so fast they have no chance to get it out. They're tough enough that that's usually a problem."

  "What's that mean for us?" I asked. "It's a status report of their deaths, but it's traveling at light speed. The closest solar system is over four light-years away. It'll be years before they see it."

  "During the war I read that the AIs seeded listening posts in deep space around the systems they were attacking. They just had to poke through one of their little rifts in space way out in the deep black. If Vassago is sane now then what makes you think it hasn't started doing that again? No, my guess is we've got weeks or months."

  "Nothing like a deadline to get the heart racing," Marty said. "Nothing we can do about it now."

  "You're right," I said. "It's just put some pressure on us. As if we didn't have enough. Let's get back to work. We've got to clear out all these Ferals before we go back to Earth."

  That turned out to be easier said than done. It was days of monotonous labor. Brick designed a sweeping pattern for us to follow to make sure we got every single Feral that we could possibly, reasonably find in Pluto's orbit. He made it clear that getting them all was essentially impossible for us.

  One day into our clearing of Pluto's orbital space, Regar woke up from the coma I'd put him in and asked to see me.

  I stepped through the gate back to Pax. Regar was lying on his bunk in his monastic looking quarters, a light sheet covering the lower half of his body.

  He noticed me looking and chuckled. "Believe me, this is not my modesty. Rather, I'd spare you the sight of the bottom half of my body regrowing. It's rather unsettling the first few times you see it."

  "I don't know, I'm not easily unsettled," I replied.

  "Suit yourself then," he said, and threw off the sheet.

  The lower part of his body had been severed just below his solar plexus. Now, the regrowth had been going for a little while and was about halfway through rebuilding his pelvis. I watched as Nanites reconstructed the bone atom by atom, molecule by molecule. It was fascinating to watch, and yes, a little unsettling. I tore my eyes away.

  "I told you so," he said.

  I shrugged.

  "Jake, I continue to be in your debt. As I told you, this debt cannot be discharged, but I wanted to express my gratitude to you for saving my life, yet again. This isn't something I'm used to. Normally, I'm the one doing the saving, when young Seekers like you get in too far over their heads."

  "I told you, not a Seeker. I'm just a guy from Earth, trying to protect his planet."

  "Yes, so you said. Let's test that, shall we?" he asked.

  I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

  "The device, can you pass it to me?" he asked, and indicated the cylinder that we pulled from the military base. The Artifact. It was sitting on the other side of the small room, resting on his workbench.

  I picked it up and handed it to him.

  "I've been examining this, as I told you. It is difficult, as it is one of the most complex Artifacts that the Seekers have found intact."

  "It doesn't look intact. It looks like it's a part of something bigger," I said.

  "That is a fully intact component. I believe it to be a navigation system. In my simulations, when I feed it with our location data, it returns vectors to systems that are in its database. The text isn't a language I recognize, but I believe this to be an Artifact of an Elder species, rather than just one of the fallen Union members. I am very familiar with most of the fallen Union species, and this is not one of their Artifacts. I would wager much on that. It may be from a Grey vessel. I do not have the data I need to determine that."

  "Well, that's good news for you then, isn't it? You can use that to find your way to those systems; go do your seeking," I said.

  "Yes," he said, and paused. "This is where I try to put myself more into your debt, even though no such thing is possible."

  "Hold on, Regar. I've got a lot on my plate here. For all I know, I'm going to have a full-blown Vassago invasion here. Plus, we still don't know what's happened to the Union. We might be the last man standing, here."

  "You are right. You've taken on a lot of responsibility. More than most men your age. More than is wise, perhaps. I ask you to take on more. Not for the sake of your planet, but for the sake of the surviving people of this galaxy. Whatever's happened out there, know that billions and trillions
are most likely still alive. If we let the Elder AIs continue their conquest, continue to awaken from their dreams of insanity, eventually all life in this galaxy will be extinguished."

  My gut twisted. I knew the truth of what he was saying. It wasn't like a normal war, where both sides would assemble their forces and duke it out for territory until either one side was victorious, or they came to an uneasy detente. This was a war of extermination, and our side was losing. Hell, we didn't even know where the AI industrial base was. It seemed like it was in some kind of strange space between. Those tears in space didn't seem to lead to other places in the galaxy, but rather to some other dimension.

  Regar was trying to make me responsible for this, too. Just the thought of that extra weight on my shoulders nearly crushed me. I wasn't having it.

  "So what, now it's my responsibility to save the galaxy? I don't think so. I'll barely be able to save Earth. If I'm lucky."

  Regar's face fell. "You're right, I have no right to ask this of you. Your duty is to your people, your home world. I am a Seeker, I have left those responsibilities behind long ago, in exchange for higher ones, to all people."

  "How about this instead? I'll try to get you somewhere in the Union that's still operational. Then you can call on your other Seeker brothers, and go off on an expedition without me. Does that work?"

  That wouldn't inconvenience me. I'd already promised Metra we'd go looking for her Void Tower. Determining if the Union was totally screwed was pretty high up on the priority list anyway.

  "Yes, that would be very acceptable, Jake. Thank you."

  The conversation seemed over, and I watched for an awkward moment or two as Regar turned the cylinder over in his hands, looking at it silently.

  "It's not like I don't want to help the galaxy. I do. But if I leave to go questing with you, when I come back everyone is going to be dead. I can't live with that."

  "If you don't leave, everyone might be dead anyway. Life is a series of choices, Jake. I will not pressure you to make the same ones I must. I will only accept whatever help you can give me. I will accept it with grace, and do what I can."

  "Alright. Get better soon, Regar. Maybe spend some time and figure out where we're going to be going. Somewhere close by."

  "I will. Good hunting, Jake."

  I recognized the farewell for what it was and excused myself. The door closed silently behind me.

  Chapter Forty-Seven: Solar System Tourism

  AFTER THAT UNCOMFORTABLE conversation, I returned to the Redemption through the gate and Marty and I continued our cleanup work. We took frequent breaks, just for our sanity. It was easy to have a luxurious break when you merely had to step through a gateway and you were back home. The only thing we needed to make sure of was that someone manned the Redemption's guns at all times. There were still a few of the larger, space-mobile Ferals out there. Letting one of them sneak up on the Redemption while we were both back at Pax taking showers or getting a meal would be a bad idea.

  When we were finally done with the cleanup, the haul was enormous. There were so many Nanite Clusters we had to empty the internal storage tanks three times. Luckily with the gate, that wasn't an issue. Brick simply facilitated the transfer through the gate and into the station’s internal conduits. At the end of our expedition, things were looking up.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Resources in Station Storage

  Nanite Clusters: 284418 (+225000)

  Metals (Tier 1): 611.0kg

  Metals (Tier 2): 314.9kg

  Metals (Tier 3): 12.5kg

  Organics (Tier 1): 62.1kg

  Organics (Tier 2): 170.2kg

  Organics (Tier 3): 912g

  Exotics (Tier 1): 22.4kg

  Exotics (Tier 2): -518g

  Exotics (Tier 3): 144g

  Radioactives (Tier 1): 26.1kg

  Radioactives (Tier 2): 2.2kg

  Radioactives (Tier 3): 23g

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Our materials were still low, but Metra's hauler was almost finished. Once it was, we would reclaim the satellite stations and bring Pax fully back online.

  The flight back to Earth was fun. We buzzed Saturn's rings, flying above, below, and through them. It was just as cool as it looked in the movies.

  We checked out the red spot on Jupiter. While we were there we surveyed Europa and landed. We couldn't find any monoliths.

  We checked in on all Earth's probes on Mars, most of them long nonfunctional. One of the rovers was still working. Marty landed Redemption ten meters away, and we both got out of the ship and walked over. Life on Mars hadn't been kind to it. It was weathered and moving slowly, but still attempting to take samples and pictures for the scientists back home.

  I gave it a friendly pat, and then Marty and I posed for pictures in view of one of its cameras. A few minutes later we were in Redemption and on our way.

  "Why did you just do that?" Metra asked, puzzled.

  "For fun," I replied.

  She snorted, but had no other comment.

  Epilogue

  A COUPLE DAYS LATER we were back in Earth orbit in a fully repaired Redemption. The cargo bay behind us was empty, the gate connection to Pax open and ready. I was wearing the Krigar Assault Armor, gleaming and pristine once again after repairs. Metra had spent some time on it during our preparation.

  Nearby—in astronomical terms—Brick's infiltration drones had docked with and compromised nearly every major communications satellite in Earth orbit, giving us access to the Internet again. He wasn't going to be able to hack the planet from high orbit, but Brick had some of his mojo back. Enough to do what was needed.

  "Everything's ready," Marty reported, and clicked off the call he had been on with Theo.

  "Good. Now it's my turn," I said.

  I brought up the Interface and willed a real-time connection, targeting the northern outpost and Meredith, specifically. The connection established immediately, but Meredith didn't appear. It was the Union equivalent of the phone ringing. Five seconds later, she snapped into existence in front of me, as elegant as always even standing in Redemption's cramped cabin.

  The moment she appeared I stepped through Redemption's open hatch and reoriented toward the blue expanse of Earth below me, accelerating slightly. Meredith fell with me, now standing in open space and keeping pace with me. The connection between us would show my avatar, not what I was doing or where I was. For all she knew I was sitting comfortably having this chat rather than dropping into Earth's atmosphere at high speed.

  "Jake, it's lovely to see you," she said.

  "Meredith. I received your message," I said, my voice filled with the resignation and defeat I usually felt when speaking with her.

  "Wonderful. You fulfilled your part of the bargain marvelously well. Perhaps a little too well, since the flashes on Pluto were quite visible here on Earth. No matter, we can explain that away. Where are you now?"

  The outer surfaces of my armor were heating up as the atmosphere thickened. The strong Union material was in no danger of failure but the noise was getting rather loud, even filtered.

  "We are just deorbiting now. We'll be back on Earth soon," I replied. All very true.

  Below me, the clouds were starting to part and I could see where I was headed, a tiny dot of cleared space marked with a blue navigation marker courtesy of Brick.

  "I'll instruct the defenses to stand down on your approach. Once you're here we can have that chat. I'm so looking forward to hearing your story."

  "Yes, it'll be great," I said, only half-listening. The ground was approaching fast.

  "In position," Marty said.

  On the ground below I almost certainly looked like a meteor streaking in. Time for my grand entrance.

  "Meredith, hold on a second, would you?" I asked, and without waiting for her response shunted the call into the Union version of hold. Her figure disappeared.

  "Brick, you're up!" I ordered. He didn't acknowledge, but I knew he'd do what was required
.

  I was diving headfirst toward the ground at high speed. A hundred feet above the ground and less than a second before impact I flipped over and decelerated, all five grav plates working hard to devour my momentum. That was well within their capabilities, but I didn't bleed off all of my velocity. I landed hard, a perfect three-point superhero landing. It was hard enough to make a loud boom, but not so hard that it would destroy the stage below me. Everything had been carefully calculated.

  I stood up and stepped forward, my helmet retracting into a ring around my neck to expose my face.

  The carefully seeded crowd of press and True Believers all around the stage were gasping in awe, and hundreds of cameras were pointed at me.

  I smiled. Thanks to Brick and his army of communications satellites my entrance had been seen by the whole world, and my words would be heard by them as well. My voice filled the space, thanks to the same Union projector tech we'd used to fake the saucers. It was mounted on the Redemption somewhere in the sky behind me, invisible.

  "Hi, I'm Jake Monde. I'm here to tell you about the alien threat to Earth, and what we're going to do about it."

  Books, Mailing List, and Reviews

  IF YOU LOVED Redemption and would like stay in the loop about the latest book releases, promotional deals, and upcoming book giveaways be sure to subscribe to the Shadow Alley Press mailing list: Shadow Alley Press Mailing List. Sign up now and get a free copy of our bestselling anthology, Viridian Gate Online: Side Quests! Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time. You can also connect with us on our Facebook Fan Page: Shadow Alley Press.

  You can find even more books and awesome recommendations over on our Facebook Group Page, Fantasy Nation! Home to the best Epic, Urban, and LitRPG Fantasy around!

  Word-of-mouth and book reviews are crazy helpful for the success of any writer—or in, in our case, Publishing Company. If you really enjoyed reading about Jake and his crew, please consider leaving a short, honest review—just a couple of lines about your overall reading experience. You can click here to leave a review at Amazon, and thank you in advance: Redemption.