by Alex Knight
She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tight, locking the hierarch in place. Moran screamed, veins straining in his neck as he fought to break free.
“All right, now Titus,” Kaiden said, turning to him. This next part was going to be critical but they had to finish the combo before Thorne died. Then her damage would push them through to the win.
Ability: Matter Shift
Moran disappeared from Thorne’s grasp, fading into nothing. He reappeared a moment later.
“Behind you!” Kaiden shouted but the hierarch was already attacking.
One, two critical hits to Thorne’s back and the last bit of her health slipped away.
Party Member Killed!
Thorne collapsed like a bag of rocks, armor clanking to the ground as she went down in a limp heap.
Shit! The combo doesn’t work if we can’t root him first.
Kaiden stepped up to distract Moran, to keep him in place, but it seemed he’d caught on to what was happening.
Ability: Improved Last Rites (passive)
When you reach 0% health this ability triggers. You have 30 seconds to kill all opponents in a 50-foot radius of your point of death. Every kill made during this time extends the kill timer by 3 seconds. Should you succeed, you will be given 1% HP back. If not, you will die. Kills made during this time earn no EXP. Abilities can be used during Improved Last Rites.
Thorne’s ultimate ability kicked in and she came back from the dead – like Kaiden had known she would – but Moran was too clever. He activated Lightspeed and darted away, easily clearing the fifty-foot radius Thorne was bound within. She was alive for thirty more seconds and could deal damage, but not if Moran stayed outside the radius of her death, which she couldn’t leave.
Zelda had slipped into Sniper Mode now and she activated her hammer-rifle’s special ability, then fired three Improved Kinetic Grenades at Moran, trying to drive him back toward Thorne. They detonated in bursts of laser and flame, but with Lightspeed active Moran was too fast. He took glancing damage as he slipped out of their range and further away from Thorne.
Titus followed him as well, but he might as well have been a toddler chasing a cheetah.
Even with a partial hit from her multiple grenades Zelda was able to use Lock On so her attacks wouldn’t miss Moran, which was a start, but it wasn’t going to force him into Thorne’s radius, which had quickly become the most important part of the plan.
We can’t access the broadcast controls while Moran’s alive, and he knows that. We leave ourselves too open if we do. He’s going to delay until Thorne’s Last Rites wears off, or Killswitch is complete. That’s his plan, Kaiden knew. It was clear the tide of the fight was turning, but Moran didn’t need to kill them and everyone knew it. If he simply harassed them long enough, Killswitch would ensure his victory.
Still moving too fast to see, Moran weaved in and out of the group, striking with critical hits whenever he was close and blasting away with ranged attacks when he wasn’t.
Kaiden’s Dual Wielding was over now so at the least he was able to block several of Moran’s blazing-fast hits on his shield. Titus was forced over to Zelda to keep her alive. Everyone took damage, though. Everyone except Thorne, who was technically unkillable while Improved Last Rites was active.
All right, new plan. Or rather, an alteration on the old. Moran was fast – too fast to hit. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be caught; it just meant Kaiden needed to move at the same speed as him.
Ability: Lightspeed
Kaiden body reverberated with energy as the ability activated. And then everything seemed to slow down. Titus spun in slow motion, hefting his shield around to block an oncoming attack. Zelda pulled the trigger on an Improved Burst Arrow and Kaiden watched as the laser oozed out of the barrel of her hammer-rifle. Moran moved to dodge it, but Lock On made sure it hit.
With Kaiden’s Lightspeed active, Moran was the only other person in the room moving at regular speed, and he just had time to turn to look as Kaiden tackled him from the side.
They tumbled to the ground and the double damage debuff on Lightspeed set both of their health bars to flashing. Kaiden’s health dropped even further as Moran caught him with a sloppy hammer strike. Kaiden lashed back.
Twenty-three percent for me, thirty-eight for him.
Moran snarled, then attacked again, and Kaiden fell away, narrowly avoiding the blow. With both of them taking two hundred percent damage on any hits – thanks to Lightspeed – it wouldn’t take many blows to reduce either of them to zero. Moran knew this just as much as Kaiden and he stormed forward now, ready to kill him – again.
Kaiden blocked the attack on his shield, then fell to the side, inching toward Thorne. Moran pounced, swinging once more. Kaiden rolled away from that blow but it still caught his shoulder and his health dropped to eight percent.
Moran could feel victory looming. It was obvious in his eyes. He was transfixed. Obsessed.
Moran swung his hammer for a killing blow.
Kaiden threw caution to the wind and lunged forward. He slipped just under Moran’s blow and danced away. Moran growled, then spun to chase him.
Yes, come on. Chase me. Chase me!
But Moran pulled up short. He paused, then looked down to his feet. He was one step from entering the radius of Thorne’s Improved Last Rites. Kaiden’s panicked retreat hadn’t been so panicked after all. It’d been intentional, but Moran had caught on.
“Ah, well.” Kaiden shrugged. “Close enough.” He lunged forward.
Ability: Shield Bash
The stun caught Moran full in the chest. It didn’t deal any damage, but it locked him in place for two seconds. And two seconds was just enough time.
“Titus!” Kaiden shouted but the big man was already on it.
Ability: Improved Shield Charge
He came in like a bus, slamming into Moran from behind and driving him several steps forward. Several steps into Thorne’s reach.
“Improved Grip Like Iron,” Kaiden shouted. “Let’s give it one more try.”
Thorne lunged forward with the ability and grappled Moran. He kicked and flailed, landing hammer strike after hammer strike on her, but in Improved Last Rites she couldn’t be killed. How did you kill what was already at zero percent health?
Ability: Enfeebling Strike
Loads charge into your hammer. On a successful hit, this charge floods into the target’s nervous system, making them more susceptible to pain. Increases damage taken by target by 50% for 10 seconds.
Kaiden lunged forward and slammed his hammer into Moran’s ribs, then reeled back before a counterattack could kill him.
“The thing I pity you for most,” Kaiden said, pulling his eyes up to Moran’s, “is that you’ve forgotten what it means to have allies you can rely on. Friends to have your back.” He backed away.
“Boom,” Zelda said, then pulled the trigger on the ability she’d been charging. She was in Sniper Mode, and Moran hadn’t touched her, but her health was down to five percent. It became apparent why as Kaiden’s visor read out the abilities she’d chosen for the finisher.
Ability: Pain for Gain
You may sacrifice 25% of your max health to make your next attack deal 2x damage. If you sacrifice 50% of your max health that attack will deal 4x damage instead.
Ability: Inferno Shot
You fire an explosive, superheated blast that ignores 50% of the target’s armor. Deals 3x base damage to all targets in range (allies included). Takes 7 seconds to charge (must be stationary).
The attack was like nothing Kaiden had ever seen before. Inferno Shot on its own was a terror to behold but this was something else entirely. When the Warden Corps army had marched out what felt like forever ago Kaiden had thought they were the most frightening thing he’d seen. An asteroid about to destroy a planet, a natural disaster given shape and purpose – but this, this was more. In every way. It was like staring into the heart of a star as it went supernova. An asteroid could t
ake out planets, but this would take out solar systems.
Kaiden’s eyes burned like nothing he’d felt before as Zelda’s supercharged Inferno Shot tore across the room. The explosion as it hit Moran shook the room so hard Kaiden toppled over and dirt and debris rained down from the ceiling. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the impact was felt all across the asteroid, shaking all of Custos to its core.
In the midst of the nuclear inferno, Thorne was laughing madly. She was invincible for two more seconds while Improved Last Rites finished up and she watched firsthand as Moran’s health drained away to nothing. His health pool was massive and he’d tanked pretty much everything they’d thrown at him so far, but there was no tanking this. His health drained to nothing, then his armor burned off, then his body entirely. When the attack ended, Thorne was left standing, her arms wrapped around nothing but a faint scorch mark on the floor.
Warden Hierarch Slaen Moran killed – 20,000 EXP gained!
Achievement Unlocked!
Harbinger of Upheaval – 10,000 EXP!
You’ve toppled the leader of all law and order in the universe and brought about a new age. It’s time for change to take root in Nova... and beyond. A new age is on the horizon.
“That’s what’s up!” Titus said, pumping a fist in the air.
We did it. Holy shit. It... it actually worked.
“No time to celebrate,” Zelda said, and she was right. The timer was down to four minutes now. Far less time than Kaiden would have preferred.
Moran’s death had fulfilled the ‘kill all enemies within fifty feet of your place of death’ condition of Thorne’s Improved Last Rites and she was fully alive again, if one percent health could be considered fully alive. But it was enough to do what she’d come to do.
She rushed to the broadcast control console and began working the controls.
“Every extra second we can give people to consider the broadcast is needed,” she said as she worked. “No time to waste. We need as many downloads as possible. Spread this bad boy far and wide. Titus,” she said over her shoulder. “Come here, hold this down.” She gestured to a touch screen and he stepped up and pressed his hand to it. “Takes two people to do this part.”
“But I was able to do it with one—” Zelda began before Thorne cut her off.
“One can upload but It takes two people to activate,” she reasserted, then shot Zelda a look. She turned to Titus who had his hand planted on the screen. “Good, keep that there.” She moved a step to the side to an identical control panel. She repeated the procedure she’d done on the first one, then pressed her hand to that console’s touch screen and looked back to Zelda. “It’s ready,” she said. “Database?”
Zelda produced it from her inventory, the opened padlock appearing in her hand as she ran up to the console.
“There,” Thorne said, nodding toward a slot in the front of the console. Zelda held the padlock up, then gave it a quick kiss.
“For Bernstein,” she said and slid it into the slot. The console accepted it with a faint whirring.
“Good, good.” Thorne said with a nod. “All right, it’s ready to go.” As she said it, a button rose from inside the console. It wasn’t huge and red. Didn’t look intimidating. Didn’t even look important. Instead, it was just a simple button with one word written across its face.
‘Send.’
Titus stood on one side, holding his hand to the touch screen. Thorne was on the other, and for a moment, everyone seemed frozen. Then Zelda looked over her shoulder and met Kaiden’s eyes.
“You should do it,” she said.
“I guess, uh, this is it, then? Huh?” Kaiden asked. He stepped up to the button and in one smooth movement, pressed his thumb to it. It depressed with a soft click. A moment later, a message appeared in his vision.
**Full System Alert! Full System Alert!**
This is a Warden Corps All-Frequencies Broadcast.
Players of Nova Online:
The Party has been lying to you.
The Party has been abusing its power.
You’ve suspected it for a long time, but anyone who brings it up is silenced. Silenced, like our friend, Fred Bernstein.
He was killed for his work uncovering evidence of the Party’s abuse of power. In his memory, we send you this file. It’s his life’s work: an extensive database chronicling the Party’s crimes.
If you’re tired of living in fear, then now is the time to take action.
We won’t tell you what to do with this information. The truth should speak for itself. All you have to do is listen.
- Kaiden, Zelda, Titus, and Thorne
>> Download file?
**End Full System Alert**
Epilogue
It was seven o’clock in the evening on a warm summer’s night when Kaiden Moore sat down at his desk. Outside, the cicadas were singing and a cool breeze slipped through his cracked window, bringing with it the smell of the woods; of earth and pine, and just a tinge of damp. Just enough to send his thoughts back to those last few days in what had once been their home sweet swamp bunker.
It hadn’t taken long for Bernstein’s database to saturate through every level of media. A day to go viral online. A week to dominate the newsfeeds. Two weeks and it’d flooded into every home, every head, every mind. There’d been no escaping the database. It had been all anyone was talking about.
The injustices of the Party had been laid bare to the people, and then the people had passed judgment. There’d been protests, of course. In some areas they’d turned to violence as the Party had fought to subdue them. But in most areas, there’d been no such resistance.
Kaiden had seen it himself. Thorne had always said it, but he’d never quite believed it – not until he saw it himself. The Party hadn’t been rotten to the core. The majority of it had been made up of honest people. Just people doing their best to earn a salary and live their lives. When the news came out, when they’d learned what had really been happening, there was no other option: they’d turned on those responsible and the Party had collapsed. From within and from without. Kaiden had never expected it to go so swiftly, but then again, he’d never expected a lot of what had happened in the past year.
In the chaos that’d followed, some of the higher-ups had tried to hang on to power. But they hadn’t lasted long. Then there’d been others who, like Werner, had fled. Some, like Moran, had simply disappeared. An unfortunate reality of the chaos of the transition. The Party had fallen to pieces, and in the mess that followed there was no time for a coordinated effort to arrest those responsible for its injustices. But they hadn’t been forgotten.
It’d taken some time, but when things had finally settled down – when the country had achieved a semblance of stability and a transitional, democratic government had begun to emerge – one of its first actions had been to begin the investigation to track down Werner, and Moran, and everyone else who’d been in their inner circle.
Thorne had insisted Kaiden and the others stay with her at the bunker until things had truly settled down, and until the official word had come down that they were all unanimously cleared of the crimes the Party had accused them of. The charges had been dropped and their records cleared. In the eyes of the law, they’d once again become ordinary citizens. Or something like that.
Kaiden leaned back in his computer chair and smiled at the memory. Not because of what they’d been offered, but because of what they’d chosen to do with it.
After the world learned their story, their futures had looked set for fame and fortune. But they’d turned it down. They’d each asked to be spared the spotlight, declined the interviews and book deals. After all, they hadn’t been heroes. They hadn’t been rebels. They’d just been people who, when given the opportunity, had done what was right. They’d been ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances, they’d insisted. But if one thing was certain now it was that they would never be ‘ordinary citizens’ ever again. Especially not in Nova Online.
Kaiden had seen the rumors, of course. They’d run rampant. Hardly a week had gone by without someone claiming to have seen them in a far corner of Nova. Battling against a voidspawn army all on their own, or picked up just on the edge of a scanner’s range, flying the Veritas II off into uncharted space. But those were just rumors, and he knew better than anyone that they weren’t true.
To the outside world, it seemed as if their accounts had simply disappeared. Or, Kaiden thought, perhaps some suspected that something else had happened. That the accounts had quietly been turned into trophies and sold for a hefty sum each to a well-meaning if slightly odd collector.
Out of game, their stories were a bit harder to keep secret.
Titus had gone back to his family to help support them and be a role model to his errant brother – a task that had been made much easier when NextGen Games offered him a role in their motion capture department. Working on combat fluidity in character movement, and on the development team for black-market gameplay. A job he excelled at, Kaiden knew.
As for Zelda, well, her first priority had been to find her parents after they – along with thousands of others who’d been wrongly imprisoned – had been released from Party prison.