Aces High (Reality Benders Book #6) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  I see... Okay then. It could be quite the intriguing opportunity. I chose “Yes.”

  ATTENTION!!! The Relict Faction’s player limit has not changed and is still 34,800.

  That means the Syam Tro VII Refuge didn’t have any game nodes. But that didn’t matter. Its hundreds of thousands of free virt pods represented a huge interest to me and humanity as a whole regardless. It was not only an “emergency bunker” where no Miyelonians, Meleyephatians or anyone else could bother my people while they took a break from the game. It was also a path to some remote part of the Universe. And on top of that, it was a place that held ancient history and technologies of the Relict race.

  Unfortunately, my conversation with the Technician stopped there — Gerd Uline Tar walked up to us grinning happily and seeming to be somewhat intoxicated:

  “Gnat, I adore you!” the huge furry woman embraced me. “We’re doing the rounds on the galactic news again!”

  I followed my tottering business partner into the main room. On the big screen, the anchor of the central Geckho news channel was reporting that the conflict between the fleets of the Trillian kingdom and the Meleyephatian Horde in the Taikhirhh-o-Tsykh system had ended with what we saw. The Trillian royal family had accepted an apology from the Meleyephatian ambassador and considered the incident settled.

  IT WAS THE EASIEST time I ever had landing on a planet. Tamara the Paladin made a very smooth and even delicate atmospheric entry and, after cutting speed, descended to an elevation of a few miles. Then it changed stabilizer sweep and came in for a soft landing like an airplane on the spaceport’s concrete landing strip. For the record, until very recently there had not been a good concrete landing strip with signals and markers. It was just a barren patch of land with dry untended grass. But now, beyond the completed landing strip, I saw Geckho workers pouring concrete over a large area, clearly preparing the spaceport to accept heavy machinery. It was nice to see Earth’s spaceport being improved so extensively. And there were several times more starships and other kinds of aircraft as well.

  Ten Shiamiru cargo shuttles. Two of them rented by my faction, the others were most likely transporting equipment for the planetary shield generators. I wasn’t too interested in the shuttles — it made perfect sense for them to be there. And I was just as unsurprised to see thirty Sio-Mi-Dori assault landing antigravs with camo paintjobs and Relict Faction emblems on their tail stabilizers. Yes, my First Advisor Mac-Peu Un-Roi the Mage Diviner told me he had come to an agreement to use the Geckho spaceport as my quickly growing faction’s main airbase.

  Next to the cargo terminal, there was a huge unmoving Geckho container ship, which looked like a flattened droplet of water. Next to it was the passenger landing module of some luxurious interstellar liner. Well, well! On the silver side panel of the grounded craft, I saw the emblem of the Tar-Layneh clan of space merchants. Seemingly, my business partner’s relatives had already started arriving for the upcoming wedding between Gerd Uline Tar and Viceroy of Earth Kosta Dykhsh. There was another passenger starship parked next to the dispatcher tower as well. Next to it, the local border service’s little old Sindirovu fighter-interceptor looked utterly minute. Just a few months ago, I had admired this interceptor as a piece of high spacefaring technology. But now I understood just how outdated it actually was.

  However, my attention was drawn by two handsome vehicles parked next to the farthest hangars — Tiopeo-Myhh II Miyelonian interceptors bearing the emblem of the Relict Faction. And right after I came down the gangway, I headed toward them accompanied by Uline Tar and a few other members of Team Gnat. Holy cow! These ships, which I had captured from pirates on Kasti-Utsh III, had really been given a quality repair job! There was nothing to remind you of the debacle at the station’s landing hangar, their crushed ailerons or the holes in their fuselages.

  When we came near, their crews scurried out, got into formation and stood at attention outside their starships. Two crews of five. Pilots, Navigators, Technicians and Gunners at levels ranging from fifty to seventy, and all of them had the ashen gray skin of natives of the magocratic world.

  First, the interceptor captains debriefed me. I meanwhile was thinking that this imbalance in favor of natives of the other world could easily turn into a serious problem. I was after all positioning the Relict Faction as one bringing together both versions of Earth, but natives of my world currently composed less than five percent of my faction. Perhaps that served as one of the factors that spooked the Human-3 Faction away from closer cooperation — Relict and myself were still associated with the hostile magocratic world and the so-called “Dark Faction.” I would have to take urgent measures to counteract that imbalance.

  I just so happened to be examining my interceptors when suddenly my radio barked out. It was the dispatcher tower informing me that a diplomatic antigrav had arrived carrying the Viceroy of Earth, and he wanted to see me.

  “Your fiancé is coming,” I informed Uline Tar, and the Trader shrieked in fear, running swiftly over to our starship to quickly primp.

  Not even three minutes later, the Viceroy’s high-speed two-seat antigrav made a very tight turn in midair, started descending and landed just ten paces away from my group. While I tried to figure out how I should treat the Viceroy — technically not a prominent player, though the official Diplomat and representative of my suzerains — Kosta Dykhsh hopped out of the aircraft with uncharacteristic agility for his body type, walked over and gave me a brotherly pat on the shoulder with his heavy paw:

  “Kento duho, Leng Gnat! Friend! How glad I am to see you! I was already starting to worry that my bride’s representative, and my chosen woman herself might arrive late to the wedding!”

  “Kento duho, Kosta Dykhsh! Friend, we came as fast as we could! We probably even broke some speed records.”

  For the first time, this representative of the suzerains, who usually tried to keep his distance from me, was calling me his friend and allowed me close and even intimate contact. Of course, I did not object. By Geckho standards, a friend is not just some pretty little word, but a truly select and trusted individual. And what’s more, a friend is always forever.

  But the Viceroy did not come alone. And when seeing who he brought with him, a human woman, a few of the people in my group drew their weapons without a word. A second later, the Miyelonians followed their example, then the Geckho and even the Trillian.

  “Anna, you are not welcome here! Leave!” Imran commanded strictly, his blaster trained on the Medic girl.

  “She personally requested a meeting with Free Captain Leng Gnat...” Kosta Dykhsh was noticeably thrown off and even unpleasantly surprised by the cold reception his human companion received. “I was actually surprised by the degree to which Anna sought to cease all contact with her former faction until today.”

  “The captain asked me to come,” the blond-haired “Anya from First Med” pointed at me as if there was nothing wrong.

  Everyone looked at me, awaiting an explanation or order to eliminate the much-despised traitor. I noticed Dmitry Zheltov and Vasily Filippov’s fingers twitching on the triggers of the laser pistols they had trained at her. I then, after the initial shock had passed, activated the Scanning icon and... went down respectfully on one knee, lowering my head in a deep bow:

  “It would be a massive honor for me to work with you, Kung Eesssa, the Betelgeuse Planet Devouress!”

  Chapter Twenty-Four. The Army of Earth

  “IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME since anyone called me that...” surprise cut through in the blonde human’s voice along with wariness and readiness to take immediate action.

  Danger Sense skill increased to level one hundred one!

  Was that so? Despite the game’s precaution, I didn’t take aggressive action. In fact, I demonstrated peaceful intentions and sent both of the Small Relict Guard Drones spinning circles above me a bit higher. Anna looked down the barrels pointed at her and muttered out in dismay: “Vaa really did me a good turn when she
gave me this image of a human girl. It would be hard to find a worse option.” A second went by, then another. Then Anya was replaced by Ayni the Miyelonian, looking exactingly at the original standing three steps away and correcting a few minor imperfections.

  “Tailed one, I will wear your orange hide again. I feel comfortable in this form. I am accustomed to it,” false Ayni chuckled, very plausibly imitating the voice of the Miyelonian and paying no attention whatsoever to the bewilderment of the true tailed Translator.

  For the record, I was not worried for the real Gerd Ayni — the orange Translator had interacted with Morphians before, and they had coexisted just fine. Ayni also had lots of problems with this specific Morphian, but I trusted the Miyelonian’s good sense. I couldn’t guarantee the other members of my crew would have such a calm reaction though, and I was most of all interested in the Trillians. And although the Gunner Gerd Ukh-Meemeesh reacted calmly and even indifferently to the coming of the Morphian, Amati-Kuis couldn’t resist when she saw this mortal enemy of Trillian-kind.

  Telekinesis skill increased to level thirteen!

  I did it! For the record, Fox did not need my help — the Morphian moved location instantly, just one foot — but that was all it took to get out of harm’s way. Then she nodded at me approvingly and looked curiously over the grouping of eight tiny poisoned blades, frozen two feet from where her head had been just a few seconds prior. She even picked up one of the throwing knives and gave the contact poison a cautious poke. She shook her head disparagingly, threw the dangerous item away and said something in Trillian to the Chef-Assassin. The real Gerd Ayni translated readily:

  “This would never kill a high-level Morphian, especially in Miyelonian guise. I’ll teach you a more effective method later. But for now, kid, I suggest that you not test my reaction speed again — I am not always this calm and kindhearted. And I am very good at cracking Trillians out of their armor shells.”

  I considered that a convenient opportunity to make an announcement:

  “Allow me to introduce the combat training instructor for the coming army of Earth: Fox the Morphian, also known as Kung Eesssa, one of the deadliest creatures in the Universe. I do not imagine a more qualified instructor could ever be found in this galaxy. As for you, Fox, I have one thing I need you to do other than training soldiers. We can discuss it later, as well as your payment.”

  Authority increased to 103!

  The “Miyelonian” gave a predatory smirk, clearly flattered by the way I had introduced her, and even bowed to me.

  “It’s always exciting to work with you, Gnat. With you around, one never knows what to expect day by day, and that adds some much-needed variety to my long life.”

  WE ALL FLEW IN ONE Sio-Mi-Dori to the Desert node, which was next to the spaceport and where the training camps for the terrestrial army were already located. And it was some new modification of the assault-landing antigrav, different from the kind we were used to, with an expanded troop hold and a large number of laser cannons attached to its hull.

  We were also dropping off another ten volunteers from the Human-3 Faction to the training camps so they wouldn’t have to make the eight miles on foot in the scorching desert heat, which was over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Gunfighters, Machinegunners, Shocktroops. I didn’t know all these players — they had first entered the game after I made my second flight on the Shiamiru and started showing my face very rarely beneath the Dome. But they all knew me. And to them, Gnat and my companions Imran, Eduard Boyko, Gerd T’yu-Pan and the aliens from Team Gnat were true legends, impossibly distant stars.

  Both Aynis were conferring quietly in the very tail of the troop hold and they were speaking a language I didn’t know, clearly chosen so nobody would understand them. But the Morphian and Miyelonian were speaking in a totally peaceful tone, so I wasn’t worried. I myself was talking with Gerd Valentina Koval — former head of the former Human-25 faction. I wanted to know the state of affairs in her node, my springboard to the large continent. And my new subordinate’s report gave me great hope:

  “The thugs you sent on those antigravs chased the Orcs back beyond the snowy mountains, and that’s a whole three nodes. Now an area twenty miles in diameter around the scientific complex is completely secure, containing no aggressive NPC’s or high-level predatory creatures. The laboratory is back up and running. My scientists have already all switched faction to Relict. The warehouses and pier on the shore of the big river are also working, accepting cargo ships. There are forts under construction in all six neighboring nodes as Gerd Mac-Peu Un-Roi the Mage Diviner instructed. And tomorrow or at worst the day after, the Relict Faction will have an additional six level-one nodes, while the Laboratory node will be growing to level two.”

  “What nationality are the scientists?” I asked and immediately guessed: “Mostly from the magocratic world, First Directory?”

  “Not at all,” Valentina surprised me. “The old guard is practically all Russians who came with me from the H25 Faction. The newbies are primarily all Germans. The German authorities were very intrigued by the experiments we were conducting in the Laboratory node investigating how the game impacts the human genome. As such they have provided us an essentially unlimited supply of new players of whatever professions we choose.”

  The human genome? So that was what the scientific faction was up to. Then why were they being so secretive? I asked that directly, but I didn’t get an answer — she just pointed to the nondisclosure agreement she had signed, which prevented her from talking to anyone not involved in their studies, even her faction head. And to the fact that the research was “strictly scientific in nature and hard to understand.” Just then, our Sio-Mi-Dori was nearing the big camp, surrounded by a high fence topped with barbed wire, so I simply read the information I wanted from Valentina’s thoughts. I must admit, it made my brows shoot up in surprise:

  “Initial subject: studying the fast regeneration and curing of any disease provided by the game that bends reality. Six months of research showed no change in amino acid composition, nor their sequence in proteins. People remain the same as they were before the game, both while playing and after. However, clear changes were detected to the quaternary structure of human DNA associated with growth in level, statistics and skills. If we can understand the correlation there, we might be able to create characters of any level, with any statistics and any set of skills. The effect is very difficult to study. We don’t know what direction to come at it from. But there has been significant progress in other areas. We have created embryos in the laboratory for all possible hybrid races: half-human half-orc, half-human half-elf, half-human half-harpy, half-human half-dryad, half-orc half-centaur. And our research into splicing fragments of alien DNA into the human genome has yielded extremely intriguing results. We might be able to grow humans with wings, humans that can breathe underwater, humans with a very long lifespan. In theory even immortal humans.”

  Yikes! I was not at all certain that such dangerous studies should be continued even though they could well usher in a totally new and fantastic epoch for humanity. But I still didn’t make any remarks on the thoughts I overheard, deciding to instead have a talk with Gerd Valentina Koval about that later, after consulting with my Chief Advisor and other specialists.

  I CAUGHT MY CHIEF ADVISOR at the training camp conversing with quartermasters of various other factions. Gerd Mac-Peu Un-Roi the Mage Diviner was very happy to see me, stepped away and with clear pride at a job well done gave an immediate report on recruitment progress:

  “Coruler Gnat La-Fin, we were able to get the news of the army draft out to all Earth factions through the Geckho. Kosta Dykhsh was a big help. Rumors have been swirling that the Viceroy’s future career depends directly on how successful we are at recruiting Humans into the Geckho army, so Kosta Dykhsh is being very fussy and sending representatives to every scattered nodes on the planet. To be honest, I took it upon myself to introduce a rule that factions with less than two hundred players
are exempt — they need everyone they have, and their continued progress is more important than us getting a couple extra boots on the ground.”

  My Chief Advisor fell silent, anxiously awaiting my reaction to his exception for small factions. But I agreed that it was reasonable — another couple soldiers wouldn’t change our situation, and new factions growing faster would pay big dividends in the future. Gerd Mac-Peu Un-Roi continued:

  “With the exception of eight factions from the big continent, we have already received confirmation from every group that they will contribute forces to the army of Earth. And those eight factions meanwhile, which have dubbed themselves the ‘Terrestrial Coalition,’ yesterday told an emissary of the Viceroy that they would give their answer in two days’ time.”

  The Mage-Diviner spent a second in silence, clearly looking at a countdown timer he had set and added:

  “The Coalition has just thirteen hours left to respond. If they don’t agree — we’ll have to do something, probably either compel them by force or use our authority for pressure. But overall, for now we are exclusively taking detachments sent voluntarily, we haven’t forced anyone. Momentum is good, so we just might get enough with volunteers only. Here in the camps, there are six thousand soldiers from our Relict Faction already in training, plus fifteen hundred each from La-Taka and Human-3. We also have received confirmation from the La-Varrez and La-Shin factions — they promise to send five thousand and four thousand two hundred fully equipped soldiers respectively, however they have not yet given us a timeframe. I also know that the Geckho have sent out ships to ferry soldiers from the H0 and H4 Factions. That’s another twelve hundred Koreans and two thousand five hundred Japanese from your world, Coruler.”