by Alex Knight
That’s a good point, Kaiden thought. He’d had just about enough of being under-leveled in every fight. That they’d made it this far was a miracle, but they couldn’t rely on luck and creative strategies to win every battle.
“The in-game level cap is sixty,” Zelda said, running the numbers in her head. “We’re all what, thirty-one right now?”
“Thirty-four here,” Thorne added.
“So we need to gain twenty-six to twenty-nine levels before we even attempt this,” Kaiden said. “That’s a lot of grinding. And, as you said earlier, every day we waste is a day the Party grows more desperate. More dangerous.”
“It sounds like we need a training montage,” Titus said, grinning a little. A bit more like his usual self, then. Being around Thorne clearly had him on edge, and Kaiden couldn’t blame him, but he had missed the levity the big man often brought to their otherwise dire situations.
Titus looked around the room as if waiting for something, then sighed.
“No upbeat rock song? No quick cuts to all of us killing countless mobs as our levels skyrocket? Dang.” He huffed. “I guess that means we’re doing this the hard way. One level at a time.”
“The hard way, certainly,” Zelda said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it the smart way, too. We don’t have time to waste just mindlessly grinding. Being max level won’t count for anything if we don’t have the allies to storm Warden HQ, so we should do both at once, or as much as we can.”
“Like we did when preparing to attack the freighter,” Kaiden said, thinking back to their strategy then. “Everywhere we go, we pick up as many missions as possible, then complete them while en route to where we need to be next.”
“Exactly,” Zelda said. “But this isn’t a few levels we’re talking about. We need to max our characters. We need to be on this grind hard.”
“All right, then.” Kaiden nodded. “Sleep is for the weak anyway, right? We’ll push through until we hit max level. That’s only one part of the solution, though. We still need to find allies. Other players crazy enough to attack Warden HQ with us – and a lot of them.”
“Bernstein had some names in the database, didn’t he?” Titus asked, gesturing toward the hard drive containing it. “A list of potential allies?”
“Some names of sympathetic individuals, some notes on powerful players he thought might be able to help, even some contact info for them, but nothing concrete,” Kaiden said, remembering what Zelda had shown him. “It looked more like the result of a brainstorming session, but I don’t think he made much headway on it.”
“That’s a good start, though,” Thorne said, leaning forward. “We can work with that. Who’d he list?”
Zelda pulled up the database on her handheld console, opened her mouth to speak, then stopped. She squinted at Thorne with suspicion.
“We’re literally talking over the specifics of this plan in a bunker I own,” Thorne said, rolling her eyes. “The database is here and so are you. If I wanted to call in the Party, don’t you think I’d have already done it?”
She has a point. Again. Kaiden was getting awful tired of that being the case.
“This is all happening very quickly,” he said, looking at Zelda, then Titus. And finally, Thorne. “You were the enemy for so long, it’s hard to think of you as an ally now.”
“Exactly,” Zelda said, then shook her head as if pushing away the thought. “Trust isn’t an easy thing to just hand out. Not after what we’ve been through.”
“I get it,” Thorne said, and her expression said as much, for whatever that was worth. “But I can’t help you if we’re not all on the same page.”
Kaiden looked to Zelda. She met his eyes, and he nodded. She sighed, then did the same.
“There are four groups whose support must be won in order to take Custos by force,” she said, reading from Bernstein’s notes. “The first is Maximus.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Thorne said. “Top PVP guild in the game. If you showed up to a battle with them at your back, you wouldn’t just be bringing fighters. You’d be bringing the most experienced PVPers.”
“That sounds real good to me,” Titus chimed in. “Everything is easier when you have the proper muscle backing you up. But how do we set up a meeting with the head honcho? He’s the one we have to convince if we want them with us.”
“Any chance you have a back channel or something?” Zelda asked Thorne.
“I’ve got nothing,” she said with a shake of her head. “Shackled a few of his boys over the years – mostly when their PVP battles got out of hand – but beyond that, I might as well be a stranger to them.”
“They have recruitment officers listed on their guild website,” Kaiden said, searching with his own handheld console. “We can friend one in-game and reach out.”
“It’s not ideal, but it’ll have to do.” Zelda looked down to Bernstein’s notes again. “The second group we need on our side is the free wardens.”
“Ooh, now that one I can do,” Thorne said, leaning forward again. “They aren’t organized or anything, but I’ve seen plenty of wardens graduate out of the program. Can pull up contact info for most of them, too. I know a few of them resent the Party, even if they did complete the program. With a bit of prying, I’d wager I could uncover more than a few whose interests would align with ours.”
“Now we’re talking!” Kaiden said. Considering the daunting obstacles ahead, a bit of progress was a huge relief. “But we have to be careful. If any are loyal to the Party, they could blow the whole plan.”
“I’m not going to tell them specifics,” Thorne said as if that should have been obvious. “Not until it’s too late for the Party to react, at least. Do you know how many operations I’ve set up where secrecy was essential? Trust me on this one, Kaiden.”
‘Trust’ is a word getting thrown around an awful lot these past few days.
“The third group is, well, not a group at all, but a single player,” Zelda interrupted before Kaiden had a chance to respond. “I’ve heard of him before: ‘Odditor.’ Wasn’t aware he ran any factions, though. And Bernstein didn’t list, or didn’t know, which they were. All the links to them in the database point to empty folders.”
Odditor? What kind of player name is that? Kaiden wondered. Though, to be fair, when it came to anonymous online accounts, people had a penchant for coming up with the strangest names. In comparison to some he’d seen, ‘Odditor’ was pretty tame.
“Who is this guy?” Titus asked. “And what does he do that makes him important enough to be on the same list as the top PVP guild and free wardens?”
“Odditor is kind of a figure from Nova folklore,” Zelda explained. “He’s been playing since the beginning. Max level now, and all that, but mostly a hermit. A lot of people know him because he streams these crazy obstacle course type events using a menagerie of monsters he keeps on his private moon.”
“He makes the monsters run obstacle courses?”
“He makes players run the obstacle courses... while trying not to get eaten by the monsters.”
Huh. Kind of like Marty’s arena, maybe a bit more sadistic. Does sound kind of cool, though…
“Really, I don’t know who would tune in to watch it,” Zelda said. “People are weird.”
“Oh, yeah. Totally.” Kaiden nodded profusely. “I don’t know who would want to watch that.”
“Anyway,” Zelda said. “Bernstein seems to think the guy is important. Says here: ‘Odditor lives up to his name. An odd fellow, to be sure, but one with numerous connections. On top of the guilds he runs (link), I believe he’s also a member of The Syndicate (link), and a highly ranking one at that. Perhaps even a founding member.’” Zelda cut Titus off as he tried to speak. “I know what you’re going to ask, but the links are broken. There’s been a few like that throughout the database. Stuff Bernstein didn’t finish, I guess. It’s possible he hadn’t finished this database before he got caught. Probably, it was never meant to be totally
completed, but was continuously growing as he learned more.”
“What’s ‘The Syndicate?’” Titus asked.
“More folklore, but this time it’s nonsense,” Thorne said. “We always heard rumors about ‘The Syndicate’ in the Corps. They’re supposed to be some secret group of powerful players. Puppet masters, pulling strings behind the scenes.” She laughed. “They’re just a myth the criminal NPCs prattle on about when they get caught, which has got the players thinking they’re real. There’s no evidence to support any of it.”
“Maybe they’re just really good at staying quiet,” Titus said with a shrug. “That’s the smart way to run an operation.”
“If there was a secret group of powerful players running things behind the scenes, the Warden Corps would know about it.”
“Well, you’re not going to like the last name on this list, then,” Zelda said, frowning at Thorne.
Having seen the database on the flight over, Kaiden knew what came next.
“The Syndicate,” he said.
Titus laughed and Thorne rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, okay. Well go ahead and strike that one off the list,” she said. “We’ll brainstorm a different faction to replace them. Maybe even to replace all of these, if necessary. There’s still a chance none of these people are crazy enough to join us.”
“Bernstein said these were the best options,” Zelda said. “We need to listen to him. He’s gotten us this far.”
“We’ve gotten us this far,” Titus said.
Zelda looked offended. “With essential help from Bernstein.”
“I’m sure that’s the case,” Thorne said, focusing on Zelda. “But all I’m saying is everyone is fallible. Everyone makes mistakes. We can’t just take Bernstein at his word during every step of the process. There needs to be room to adapt, to change as circumstances dictate.”
“That sounds like a whole lot of uncertainty to me,” Zelda fired back. “Bernstein knew what he was doing.”
“Bernstein’s dead,” Thorne snapped, then winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
But Zelda was red in the face, nostrils flared.
“He’s dead because of the Party. Because of your Party.”
“We’ve all made mistakes. I’m owning up to mine and doing something about them.” Thorne spoke calmly, precisely, but there was clearly a restrained anger beneath the surface. “And I’m not about to let this plan fail because of some blind devotion to the memory of a man. A smart man, undoubtedly, but we have to trust ourselves to make the right decisions going forward.”
“You sure bring up ‘trust’ a lot for someone who still worked for the Party less than a week ago.”
Thorne clenched one hand into a fist, then exhaled a long breath through her nose.
“Guys!” Kaiden shouted before she could stoke the fire anymore. “Calm down.” He gave Thorne a long look, then a similar one to Zelda. “This is stressful. Believe me, I know. This plan is damn near impossible. But it is a plan. A way forward. With the Party crackdown going on outside and the manhunt for us all not slowing down anytime soon, we don’t have time to spend here bickering.” He tried to soften his tone. “There’s a ton of stuff up in the air still. I get it. But the framework Bernstein set up is our best place to start,” he said, nodding toward Zelda. “Even if we need to adjust on the fly.” He turned to Thorne. “But we’ll discuss and agree on those decisions as they arise.”
Thorne gave a stiff nod at that.
“Good,” Kaiden said. He took a deep breath, then tried to shake the tension from his mind. “Guys, we can do this. I know we can. It’s not going to be easy, but when has it ever? We’ve made it this far, right?” He gave a small smile, hoping someone would join him. Titus, at least, gave a small nod. The big man had been locked out of the game for a week and was eager to jump back it, despite the daunting task ahead.
“Then let’s get to work. We need to log back in, group up, and get this plan going.” He clapped his hands together, trying to get them excited. “So, who’s ready? Let’s go kick some ass!”
Thorne held up a finger.
“That’s all well and good – and I’m all for it. There’s just one small complication.”
Kaiden frowned as she spoke.
“The last time I logged off was on the Anakoni, surrounded by wardens. When I get back in-game, there’s a good chance there’s going to be a welcoming party waiting for me – and not the happy sort.”
Chapter Six
“Remember, if you don’t hear from me within an hour, I’ve likely been Shackled. One of you will need to log out and disconnect my headset, otherwise I’ll be stuck in there,” Thorne said, feeling the gravity of her words as she spoke them. Odds were this would be the last time she logged in to her character. If the wardens Shackled her – and there’d certainly be an attempt to – there would be no rescue. She’d have to make a new character. Start over from scratch.
“We’ll be ready,” Kaiden said from across the room. He, Titus, and Zelda were booting up their headsets around the dining table. Thorne was at her desk doing the same.
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
“All right, then. See you on the other side, eh?”
Kaiden and Titus nodded. Zelda ignored her, still hot from the argument. Admittedly, that could have been handled better, Thorne knew. She hadn’t meant to belittle Bernstein – clearly Zelda admired him – but they also couldn’t risk—
Thorne stopped herself. There wasn’t time to get into all that now. She needed to be clearheaded for what was to come.
“Good luck, everyone,” she said, then pulled on her headset.
Welcome to Nova Online.
The text faded into view, then back out. Next, it would drop her into Nova. She’d seen the welcome screen so many times it all felt natural; the few seconds' pause after she launched Nova, then the welcome text, then the game. The world would materialize around her, would build itself up pixel by pixel in the blink of an eye, and she’d be in Nova Online once again.
Except that didn’t happen. The darkness surrounding her remained until another message appeared.
Log in unsuccessful. Account has been locked.
Locked? What the hell? In all her time as a warden she’d never had trouble with this sort of thing.
A password reset has been sent to the email address on file along with instructions to unlock your account.
You’re kidding me, right? I don’t have time for this! But there was no way around it. Thorne grumbled as she minimized the game and used the VR headset to find the email, follow the instructions therein, and unlock her account.
Welcome to Nova Online.
The message faded into view as she relaunched the game. A moment later, it was replaced with a familiar view: the hangar of the Anakoni. A place that had, for some time now, felt like home. From the looks of things, though, that was no longer the case.
“She’s here! Hammers at the ready, everyone!”
A line of wardens stood waiting for her. Seven in total, fully armed and armored. Thorne shook out her arms and reached for her hammer.
Two blasters, two shielders, and three power wardens, she thought, taking in their numbers. Levels twenty-nine, twenty-eight, thirty, thirty-four, twenty-one, twenty-five, and thirty-five respectively. Some lower than her, one higher. Mostly that was thanks to the Anakoni being in a low-level system. Not that it made much difference. Odds of seven to one were pretty much insurmountable even without taking levels into account.
And then there was the problem of the shuttles.
Thorne grimaced as she looked up at them. The side of the hangar she was on had been cleared, which left her no place to hide from the two shuttles hovering above. They were each tilted down, weaponry at the ready while their pilots watched through the windshields.
“What’s this all about?” Thorne asked, trying to look surprised.
The shuttles look like the strong point, but they’re a weaknes
s, she thought, a plan already forming. A desperate one, and not likely to work, but a plan nonetheless. There’s no winning this fight on the ground, but if I can force my way on to a shuttle it’s my best chance to make it out alive. Heroic Leap will get me up to one of them, then I just have to bash open the door before the other shoots me off…
The plan was ridiculous, but it was the best she had.
“You know very well what this is all about,” a voice shouted, pulling Thorne from her plotting. It was a voice she recognized. Thorne looked toward it with a frown.
Dawson
Warden Drill Sergeant
Class: Power Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 32
Dawson. A proficient leader, talented drill sergeant, and as loyal to the Corps as any. She’d marked him for promotion for his excellent work thus far, though the way things were shaking out, she didn’t see herself handing out any more promotions in the future. His addition to the enemy ranks made it eight against one, not counting the two shuttles. The already insurmountable odds were being stacked even more against her.
One of the blast wardens fired a shot and Thorne ducked behind her buckler shield. Her health bar flashed and a bit of damage trickled through, but that wasn’t the point of the attack. You couldn’t log out of Nova when in combat. The attack officially marked the start of a combat session as far as the game was concerned.
They don’t want me leaving. I’m sure they’ll go for Shackle as soon as my health is low enough.
“You’ll have to forgive us, Captain, but orders are orders,” Sergeant Dawson said.
“Don’t waste time explaining yourself to her,” another warden said.
Tarsin
Warden Colonel
Class: Blast Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 21