by Alex Knight
Continuing through the document, Kaiden found specifics on the guilds Odditor ran – all of them secretly – and the forces they could be expected to muster.
Player Guilds:
Explorers’ Federation
Focus: Exploration
PVP-ready members: 35
Combat Effectiveness: Low
Merchants ‘R Us
Focus: Freight Hauling
PVP-ready members: 14
Combat Effectiveness: Low
Boyd City Fence Repair
Focus: Manual Labor
PVP-ready members: 60
Combat Effectiveness: Medium
Kaiden had serious doubts about the legitimacy of that last guild. Fence repair? That’s not even a game mechanic. Odditor’s just being clever. ‘Boyd City Fences,’ more like. It was no secret Odditor, like most powerful players in the game, dabbled in illicit goods. The profits were too good not to.
Kaiden continued through the document, taking in the guilds Odditor ran. Eight, all told.. Too many for him to oversee personally, no doubt, but it was known he ran them through proxy leaders. Easier to distance himself from them that way. Proxy leaders or not, Whenstone’s document claimed they could all be counted on in the fight to come. That put the number of PVP-ready players and NPCs at around six hundred. Just about double that of Maximus, but looking at the focus of Odditor’s guilds, they were all more economically oriented That meant they’d be less combat ready than Maximus’ warriors, but still, numbers were numbers.
So, we’re looking at around nine hundred PVP-ready players with us. He stopped to think about that for a minute. That’s actually insane. When considered next to the approximately two hundred and fifty ships they’d also have with them, plus the Veritas II and the Borrelly, things were shaping up for them to have a rather nice army.
And still it wasn’t enough.
Thorne had estimated Warden Corps forces at Custos would number approximately one thousand five hundred wardens. There were a lot more wardens in Nova than that, but with a game so massive they were often spread thin. And there were other important sites which required guarding. As such, the Corps never stacked too many wardens in any one place at one time – unless there was an emergency.
Of the fifteen hundred expected at Custos, not all of them would be max level, of course. And many of them were prisoners participating in the warden program, so there was a chance they were still fairly new to the game, their loyalty to the Corps far from cemented. The bulk of the wardens would be PVP-ready, though, as that was a core focus of the class. Looking at things from a sheer numbers game, their assault was dead in the water, Kaiden knew.
But sheer numbers weren’t the only thing to consider. Time was also a factor.
Once the attack began, the Warden Corps would certainly call for reinforcements. Wardens from all over Nova would flock to Custos. If they were allowed to join the fight, it’d be over. Then there were Moran’s thugs to consider. No one had any idea how many of them he’d recruited into Nova, but it was safe to assume warden numbers would be bolstered a least a bit by them, especially in places of power like the HQ. Ellenton’s latest report on Dawson’s activity had revealed he’d recruited a fair number of free wardens to their side, but would that be enough?
The only boon of the entire plan was that Moran wouldn’t know it was coming. The element of surprise meant the warden leader wouldn’t be able to amass troops before the fight, but more importantly, that he wouldn’t be there himself. Thorne hadn’t gone into the specifics of Moran’s class, but Kaiden knew the basics. As commander of the Warden Corps Moran was allowed to be a special class: Warden Hierarch. Exactly what abilities that brought with it Kaiden didn’t know, and didn’t need to know. No part of this plan involved fighting Moran and he intended to keep it that way. In and out before the commander could react.
The whole plan hinged on the idea that neither the Warden Corps nor the Party knew this attack was coming. That was the only way it could succeed. The element of surprise was absolutely essential.
So, we need more soldiers on our side, but we need to keep things quiet. And as soon as we attack Warden HQ, we’ll be on a timer before reinforcements arrive.
Kaiden felt his jaw clench. All of their efforts up to this point had felt like they were finally making progress. Like they truly had a chance at this thing. But now, sitting down and running the numbers, it wasn’t looking good.
At least they didn’t need to outnumber the Warden Corps force. Considering the plan was to infiltrate Warden HQ and blast Bernstein’s database out to every player through the All-Frequencies Broadcast System, they didn’t actually need to ‘win’ the battle. No, their victory condition came through reaching the system control room. Everything after that didn’t matter. They could die in-game. Their forces could be defeated by Warden Corps reinforcements. All that mattered was sending the database out.
That’s something I can work with, Kaiden thought as his mind began working through the possibilities. We just need to get to that control room, which means the bulk of our forces are really just there to delay. An elite core of them will need to fight their way into the control room. If we can achieve that, we win.
So, that was the game plan, obviously. Even before he’d run the numbers just now, everyone had agreed on that. The problem, and the reason he’d decided to run the numbers in the first place, was that their current force was still too small to achieve not even total victory, but just the smaller objective of fighting into the control room. If the Warden Corps fielded fifteen hundred troops in defense of the base Kaiden needed to have at least that number of troops just to hold out long enough to buy him and the others time to make it to the control room.
But they were fresh out of troops. Maximus was on their side, plus a good hundred or so free wardens thanks to Dawson, and now Odditor and his guilds as well. And still that wasn’t enough.
So, what, then? Where could they find more support? Kaiden wanted his immediate answer to be The Syndicate, but they’d already said no. Even if PlayaSlaya or Odditor could arrange for him to speak before them again, what good would that do?
The problem remained. What could change the game in their favor?
That was the question he didn’t have an answer for. The question no one seemed to have an answer for. Not Zelda, Titus, nor even Thorne.
Kaiden swiped angrily and the projection of Whenstone’s document in front of him faded into swirling pixels.
“What about you, old man?” he asked aloud and opened up a copy of Bernstein’s database. “You always had an answer.” He began flipping through the files in the database, opening some, bypassing others.
But he’d been through all this before. So had Zelda. Together they’d combed every bit of Bernstein’s database and all they’d found had been evidence of more crimes, video recordings of Bernstein’s occasional ramblings, and in a few places, broken links from where the old man hadn’t been able to finish his database.
Except…
Kaiden paused.
This wasn’t here before.
Where once there had been a broken link, Kaiden now found it led to a new folder. And inside that folder were files he’d never seen before: more evidence of one of the Party’s many crimes. Similar to some of the others, but as he read closely, Kaiden was sure – he’d never read this particular case before.
Why is this here now all of a sudden?
The thought rooted itself in his mind and he couldn’t shake it. It didn’t make sense. No one had altered the database.
Hold up.
The thought hit him all at once.
Holy shit. How did I miss this?
He navigated to the database’s main screen and checked its change log. Sure enough, the most recent change was listed as today. A couple files had been added. But who did that?
I did, Kaiden realized as he checked his inventory.
Back at Odditor’s, he’d scooped up Zelda’s account information an
d the brass padlock representing the piece of the database Bernstein had lost to Odditor. He’d tried to open it – they all had – but it’d been password protected, and with no riddle to even hint at the solution. Zelda had been confident she’d figure it out sooner or later, but looking now, it seemed she didn’t have to.
Seeing as Kaiden was trapped in the medbay for healing while the others finished the next quest, he’d grabbed the database from Braker, the NPC they’d entrusted it to, and now that he was looking at the changelog, he could see exactly what had happened.
He’d had Odditor’s piece of the database as he’d added the rest of the database to his inventory. From the looks of things, having the two pieces in the same inventory had fused them back together. Kaiden looked closer at the changelog.
14:09:06 Database detected nearby…
14:09:10 Database confirmed nearby.
14:09:11 Location check begun…
14:09:15 Location confirmed: Veritas II – Bernstein08-owned vessel.
14:09:16 Database reconnection begun…
14:10:52 Database reconnected. All files updated!
Apparently, upon being in the same inventory, the two pieces had detected each other. And then… there was some sort of location check? Was that a safeguard Bernstein had built in? Kaiden hadn’t even known that was possible in Nova. But as the changelog showed, all files in the database had been updated – including those that had only contained broken links before.
Kaiden gave the database a few commands and the newly completed files came to the forefront of his vision.
Case file: evidence of corruption.
Case file: evidence of abuse of power.
Case file: suspected blackmail and abduction.
Case file: evidence of unlawful arrest.
He read through them and they all appeared normal. That was, until he came to the last file in the list.
Case file: Operation Killswitch
“Killswitch?” he said aloud. He’d seen the folder before, but it’d never contained any useful information. Now, however, he saw it was flooded with files. He clicked the first one and read about three sentences before opening comms to the others.
“Guys,” he said, trying not to panic. “You need to get back here, ASAP.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
“It was, was good you contacted me about this,” Odditor said from where he stood with Kaiden and the others. Around them, the elevator hummed as they descended down, down, down into the deep. Down to where Kaiden’s hope lay; to where The Syndicate waited, and to where maybe, just maybe, he’d find a chance to save Nova.
“We only found out about this because of the piece of the database you had,” Kaiden said. “We had a file on Killswitch, but it was empty. When the database was completed, we learned the awful truth.”
Odditor nodded at that. He’d changed since Kaiden’s desperate call to him. He was still eccentric, still himself, but at the same time, the airy detachment he’d worn had fallen away. This wasn’t a game anymore. The details Kaiden had found on Operation Killswitch had changed everything and even Odditor himself seemed to recognize that.
“The Syndicate will hear you out. I’ve made sure of it,” Odditor said. “But however this goes, I’m already amassing my forces. Whenstone is seeing to it. As for your plan,” he looked at Thorne, “it’s sloppy and unimaginative.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“But considering the, the circumstances…” Odditor sighed. “Well, we’re going to work with what we have.”
The elevator clanked to a stop and the door in front of them slid open. The stale, damp air of the deep-water base flooded Kaiden’s digital lungs but he hardly felt it. His mind was on the task ahead. He’d failed here once before, but that was no longer an option. Killswitch had changed everything. The attack on Warden HQ was moving forward immediately, with or without The Syndicate’s help.
There’s just the small matter that we’re all but doomed to fail without them...
“Wait in the antechamber,” Odditor said, pointing to the room ahead of them. “I’ll be in my suite pulling some, some strings.” With that, he strode off, quicker than Kaiden had ever seen him move.
Kaiden’s nerves only increased as he entered the antechamber. The last time he’d been here he’d fallen on his face. Failed spectacularly.
“Hey, you got this, dude,” Titus said, grabbing his shoulders and roughly massaging them like Kaiden was a boxer between rounds of a hard fight. “You’re going to kick ass out there.”
“You have to,” Zelda added unhelpfully.
“I know, I know,” he said, more to calm his own nerves than anything.
“Look, it’s simple,” Thorne said. “This is a threat like we’ve never faced before. We have to unite or we’re all done. That’s the bottom line. You’ll make them see that.”
She was right. That really was all there was to it.
Titus took down the tournament and won us Maximus’ support. Zelda ran the labyrinth and made an ally of Odditor. Now it’s my turn. Everything’s been leading up to this. So, uh, no pressure, yeah?
The door at the far end of the antechamber slid open with a slight hiss and all at once Kaiden could see into the great room of The Syndicate once more. The calamitous results of his last experience there rushed over him. The memories swirled in his head and a panic began to rise in him.
Oh shit. Oh shit. I’m going to mess this up. I’m going to screw up and we’re going to be dead in the water. I’m—
Titus slapped him on the shoulder, hard enough to jar him from his panic.
“Don’t overthink it, man.” He gave an easy smile that felt wholly inappropriate for the situation.
“He’s right,” Zelda said, stepping up beside him and leveling her gaze straight into Kaiden’s eyes. There was confidence in her look. More confidence than Kaiden felt in his entire body at the moment. She stared at him as if she was going to pour that confidence into him with her look alone.
“Don’t overthink it? That’s strange advice coming from you,” Kaiden said, trying to crack a joke. Zelda nodded stiffly, then broke her intense expression for the slightest of smirks.
“You’re not wrong. But it’s good advice. Get out of your own head. You know what you need to do.” She nodded toward the open door. “So, go out there and do it.”
Titus punched a fist into his open hand. “Give ‘em hell.”
Thorne crossed her arms and smiled. “What he said.”
“I appreciate it, guys.” Kaiden turned toward the door. “I won’t let you down,” he said and strode forward.
“We’re all charging off to our deaths at Warden HQ soon, so even if you do, at least we won’t be around to remind you of it for too long!” Titus called after him, and Kaiden didn’t need to look back to know Zelda had given the big man a shove.
Kaiden found himself smiling as he stepped through the door and out into the great room of The Syndicate.
“You’re wasting our time, Odditor!” a voice shouted from behind the opaque glass of one of the countless booths that surrounded the room.
“We’ve heard this rogue warden out before. He’s just a delusional kid who thinks he can change the world.”
“Get him out of here!”
A chorus of voices shouted down at Kaiden and echoed around the room. Doubts, annoyance, dismissal – it was almost all he could hear.
Almost. But there was something else. A voice inside that told him he couldn’t fail. Not now. Not again. Too much was riding on this.
When he’d thought about stepping into the room, Kaiden had been nervous. But after that first step, after Titus’ antics and everyone’s confidence in him, the nerves had all fallen away. Let The Syndicate shout. Let them doubt. They were going to hear him out, and everything was going to change.
“Imagine the end of Nova Online,” Kaiden said aloud. Few people heard him above the shouting, but those who did quieted. He couldn’t see them through the glass that front
ed each booth, but he could imagine them frowning at his words. He remembered how it’d felt when he’d first learned of Killswitch.
“Imagine a world without Nova,” he said, speaking louder this time, and more voices quieted.
“Ridiculous!” someone shouted. “NextGen would never allow it!”
Kaiden opened his inventory and selected Bernstein’s database. This was the first time they’d taken it off of the Veritas II and risked it in the open. But it was worth it. If they didn’t risk it now, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
Kaiden accessed the database and navigated to the folder entitled “Operation Killswitch.” As he did, he reached out and touched the projector panel in the center of the room. A hologram rose in front of him and all at once his view was projected into the air above, clear for all to see.
“Operation Killswitch,” Kaiden said, reading the words that had so recently become the focus of his every thought. The words that had changed everything.
“I’m sure you all remember the database I spoke of the last time I was here. Bernstein’s database. Well, until recently, it was incomplete. Thanks to a good friend and ally of ours, Odditor, we have completed it. And discovered the single greatest threat any of us have faced.”
There was a chorus of mumbling and sarcastic comments at that, but less so than before. Maybe the namedrop had bought him some time. Or maybe The Syndicate was starting to listen. Kaiden wouldn’t have blamed anyone for not believing him yet, though. He wouldn’t have believed it himself it he hadn’t seen the evidence. The evidence he pulled up now.
Internal memos stolen from the Party. First, rough ideas discussing the problem of Nova Online and NextGen games. The problem of Nova representing a space the Party couldn’t control. A space that could be used for dissent, for rebellion. A place free of Party censorship.