by Dan Thomas
“I get it, I understand. Murf is dead to me in-game.” Chopsticks sighed. “Let’s get it over with, get our stuff back, destroy the Ravagers, and then go back to doing what we do best.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Max shivered. “Unless they just kill Murf and take the dino.”
“Why do you have to say that?” Chopsticks asked. He placed his hand protectively on the Lambeosaurus’ shoulder, which hummed quietly as it watched the jungle around them curiously.
“I just wanted to see if you’d be more upset about me or the dino.” Max chuckled as nervous excitement filled him. “It’ll be fine.”
With a thought, he brought up his character screen, navigating to the connections tab. Where it listed his Crew status, he selected the red leave crew button. Quitting the crew made this all seem so much more real. Talk was one thing, action another.
“Yeah, how could they resist a manager of a corrupt company?” Chopsticks sniggered. “You should make sure you drop that into conversation.”
“A corporate workhorse, that’s Murf.” Max chuckled. “And don’t forget I was the youngest winner of TechKids back in the day.” Max straightened his bag on his thick hide armor. “But I’m here in Primeva just being a regular guy.”
“That’s it, a rich kid just trying to be a regular guy, which is why Murf wants to join the Ravagers because they play by the rules,” Chopsticks’ words were laced with sarcasm.
“Murf will take them down from the inside.” Max gave a mental command to Pluto and the dino stopped walking. “I need to go on alone from here.” They’d taken a huge risk with Chopsticks coming this far. If any of the Ravagers crew saw them, the plan would be doomed before it had even started.
Chopsticks gave Pluto one last pat on the shoulder. “Look after him. I was lucky as it was to find a Lambeosaurus so soon after release.” His eyes unfocused for a second, and then Max got the notification that the Coprolite Crew were trying to gift him Pluto. He accepted.
“I will.” Although Max doubted he’d have any say over what happened to the Lambeosaurus once he’d used him as a bargaining chip to join the Ravagers’ crew.
“Take care, Murf. You have a lot of responsibility on your newbie shoulders.” Chopsticks pulled him into a bear hug and slapped him on the back.
“Ah, I thought we weren’t going to do hugs or long goodbyes. And Remember, Murf’s a noob, but I’m not.” Max joked to cover his unease.
“Yeah, well, this might be the last time I see Murf.” Chopsticks let go of Max and took a step back.
“What do you mean?” Max asked.
“Nothing.” Chopsticks shuffled his feet, kicking a large nut into the jungle as he avoided the question.
“Okay?” Max wasn’t sure he even wanted to know.
“My dino watch group said they’ve heard rumors of new players disappearing.” Chopsticks looked up at Max. “That their accounts just vanish. You know, they can’t be recovered by a password change or anything like that.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “I thought that group just watched for the new releases of dinos and how to catch them, I didn’t realize you all wore tinfoil hats.”
“Hey, it’s not like that, it’s not like we say that birds aren’t real or anything,” Chopsticks glanced at the ground. “Come on, you must have heard about it, you spend a lot of time on the forums.”
“Look, if it happens, it happens.” Max shrugged. “It’s a throwaway account. It always was.”
He gave Pluto a command and the dino stepped forward. There was no point dwelling on stuff he couldn’t change.
“Good luck.”
“I’ll talk to you later.” Max lifted his hand. “Out of game. Never in-game.”
“I get it...catch you later, alligator.” Then he was gone, melting into the jungle.
“Okay. It’s just you and me.” He patted Pluto’s shoulder, mirroring Chopsticks. “I’ll try to take care of you.” But once he’d joined the Ravagers, he’d have no direct say over what happened to the new dino. “Not real, just an AI,” he reminded himself as he told Pluto to follow.
Max walked on in silence, Pluto trailing behind as they picked their way through the jungle. Before long, they came to an abrupt end in the trees.
Max paused for a moment, still debating whether he was ready. His training had slowed down dramatically after he had hit level fifty in most of his character stats, but Max couldn’t help that he needed to push on. Though in reality, it would have only been an excuse for stalling.
Ahead of them was a large area of grass. There were still tree stumps dotted across the land where the Ravagers had cut a large swath of the forest down around their hill fort.
Max and the rest of the Crew had scouted out the area many times in the past as they unsuccessfully tried to find a weakness to exploit in the Ravagers’ base, and every time they came back, it seemed more and more impenetrable. The stone ring wall of the fort atop the hill had now been reinforced with a mass of metalwork, complemented with three squat lookout towers built just behind the wall.
The road that led down from the entrance to the plateau had been walled off as well, and as Max squinted, it looked like there was a second walled-off road leading down to the river that flowed past the other side of the hill. The whole construction bristled with spikes along the top and the base of every section of the wall. It seemed the Ravagers had even gone to the length of rolling boulders along the bottom of the hill to impede any truly large animals or vehicles heading for their base.
Max sighed, he hoped that he could find some fatal weakness within, otherwise this whole plan was dead in the water.
“I never thought I’d be walking through their front gate,” Max admitted to Pluto, who looked at him with round eyes.
Keeping alert, Max steered the dino across the grassy area. The green blades brushed the ankles of the Lambeosaurus in a comforting swish-swish, but Max wasn’t about to be lulled into letting his guard down. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as they came close to the boulder clusters. The ground was worn here, obviously well-traveled by animals of all sizes.
With the signs of travel, the lush grass, and ample supply of water, he’d expected to see at least a couple of small dinos out here. There was nothing. No sound, no movement. Only the breeze stirred the green stalks which moved like a wave, uninterrupted from one side of the grassy plain to the other.
“Ah!”
A bullet whistled past him, the crack of gunfire spooking the dino, but Max kept it under control. Typical Ravagers, showing off to the newbie as he approached. Or maybe they just wanted him dead so they could steal his dinosaur.
“Whoa, don’t shoot!” Murf held up his hands as he caught sight of movement from the boulders to the left. A flash of movement from the wall at the base of the hill warned him of more Ravagers.
“Stay there!” Mamba’s helmeted head popped up from behind one of the large boulders to Max’s left. He placed a hand on the boulder he had been hiding behind and vaulted over. “What do you want?”
Max’s hand twitched at his side, but more movement told Max he’d be dead before he’d even drawn his weapon if he tried to attack one of the people who had tormented him and his friends for so long.
It was tempting to try, but Max hadn’t trained Murf for weeks just to die at the door of the Ravagers’ base. Instead, he plastered a smile on his face.
“Hi.” Max raised his hand and waved back, forcing himself not to mock the Ravager. They needed this to work, so he had to convince the Ravagers to take him in. “I’m, uh, looking for the Ravagers.”
Gritting his teeth and keeping his focus on Mamba, he stepped forward, leading Pluto behind him.
“That so? What have you got there?” Mamba warily walked toward him, his eyes darting toward the cover of the trees behind Murf.
They clearly have enemies if they’re so suspicious, Max rolled his eyes as he grinned and looked up at the dino as if he didn’t know its value. “I caught this one on th
e other side of the forest.” He jerked his thumb behind him in no general direction.
“Nice one, those guys have only just been released into the game. Seems you know what you’re doing.” Mamba sensed he wasn’t about to be killed on the spot and sauntered across the rest of the open ground between him and Max. His eye was drawn to the galaxy blue of Pluto rather than the newbie character.
“Oh, no, beginner’s luck.” Max gave a little self-deprecating snigger.
“Modest, I like you already.” Mamba grinned, his white teeth flashing like a predator about to sink his teeth into his prey.
“Does that mean you’ll let me in?” Max asked excitedly. “I heard you guys take in newbies and help them learn the game.”
Mamba’s expression darkened for a moment and his smile faltered. “Who told you that?”
“Oh, some guy I met in one of the Hubs when I was buying this.” He raised his hand and waved the laser gun at Mamba.
“Shit!” Mamba ducked and rolled across the ground, while Max continued to wave the gun. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an arrowhead gleam in the sunlight, the light flashing off it as the deadly head was aimed at Max.
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not loaded. It ran out of power when I was chasing down Pluto here.” Max patted Pluto. “I’m sure you guys can find a way of getting it to power up some more. I heard you had some good stuff.”
“What’s going on, Mamba?” Striker stood between the open gates of the base looking down on the scene below with a sneer.
Pity the laser gun didn’t have one more charge to knock that smirky smirkness off his face. Max continued to grin like a starstruck newbie as he looked over Striker’s armor, which was made of dark plates of a material Max didn’t immediately recognize. He’d had an upgrade since their encounter at the Strangler Vines.
“New guy, he comes bearing gifts,” Mamba called over his shoulder as he pushed himself back onto his feet and dusted off his clothes. “Gave me quite a scare...” He inclined his head, waiting for Max to insert his name.
“Murf.” Max winced inwardly, wishing he’d picked another name.
“Murf.” Striker strode down the hill, his gaze fixed on the laser gun in Max’s hand. “Cool weapon. Must have cost you.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to get killed on my first hunt, so I went in guns blazing.” He held up the laser gun, pointed it at the hills, and sidestepped with a ‘pew pew.’
Mamba turned away, his shoulders shaking as he laughed at Max. So far, so good, they would never mistake him for the cool-headed Holic.
Max let out a heavy breath. “Man, this game is cool, who thought I’d be able to experience blasting dinosaurs in the face with lasers?”
Mamba coughed into his hand before he straightened his shoulders and turned back to face Max. “Seems like you’ll fit right in.”
Striker sniggered unkindly. “Yeah, we have room for someone who likes to muck out the dino pens. Everyone starts with the grunt work and works their way up from there.”
“Sure!” Max said brightly. It was a crap job, literally. But it would allow him to move around the base freely and make an inventory of all the dinosaurs the Ravagers had tamed. Plus, he could check in on Jupiter, Saturn, and Charlie.
Striker’s eyes unfocused for a second as if he were looking through his character screen before he turned back to Mamba and gave a nod.
Max looked at them expectantly. “Does that mean I’m in?”
Mamba gave him a heavy pat on the shoulder. “It certainly does, Murf. Come on in, I’ll show you around.”
“Great, this is so cool.” Max stepped forward, leading Pluto behind him. This should be a time for celebration, but Max didn’t trust the Ravagers, not one bit.
“We’re a well-established Crew,” Striker told Max as he walked by. “You’re lucky Mamba took a liking to you. We don’t let just anyone in, you know.” He ran his hand down the side of the Lambeosaurus as if appraising a used car. “What did you say his name was again?”
“Pluto,” Max repeated as they walked the short distance toward the open gates.
“What a coincidence, we have a couple of other dinos called Saturn and Jupiter.” Striker followed behind Max as he stepped past the threshold of the gate. “Seems space is popular these days.”
“Really?” Max kept his eyes forward, looking at the path up the hill. The walls were spaced wide enough to easily walk triceratops-sized animals up, and cobblestones worn well into the ground kept the mud at bay. “And there was me thinking I was being original.” He cursed inwardly, if this all got messed up because of a name, he’d be mighty pissed. His hand gripped the laser gun tighter. He sure wished he had more charge for it. With a fully loaded laser gun, he could take them by surprise, kill Mamba and Striker and get away on the back of Pluto.
“Not a problem,” Striker said. “Names aren’t all that important, there’s a high turnover of dinos here.” The gates banged shut behind them. Pluto spooked a little, but Max placed a hand on him to calm him.
“We see a lot of action,” Mamba paused. “So, someone from a Hub suggested we’re your best bet, then?”
The hairs along the back of Murf’s neck stood on end as they trekked up in single file toward a second gate at the top of the hill. He’d seen police interrogations on TV, they kept asking the same questions over and over trying to trip their suspect up to incriminate themselves.
But Max had kept his story simple for a reason. And this was it. “Yeah, some guy saw me buying the laser gun and suggested I’d be a good fit.” He twirled the pistol around his finger to remind them he still had it in his possession.
“Which Hub was it?” Mamba asked.
“Uhh, do they have names? I dunno, it was over that way.” Max pointed behind him. “Maybe, I got a little turned around.”
“And did you get a name?” Striker asked conversationally. “It’d be good to know who to thank.”
“Nah, I was too interested in the gun.” He took aim at something in the distance and closed one eye but refrained from pew pewing.
“I don’t blame you. That thing couldn’t have been cheap...you know there’s a high commission on buying items from other worlds, especially weapons.” Mamba fiddled with a mechanism on the heavy wooden gate, before pushing one of the doors open to reveal a large area of space mostly filled with buildings. Max followed closely behind. “Welcome to your new home, Pluto.”
Max held his breath, waiting for them to attack, but Striker just chuckled.
“Mamba has a thing for dinos, the rarer the better,” Striker told Max. “He’ll show you where to put him and where the tools are to muck them out. The only thing I know about dinosaurs is they shit. A lot.”
Striker strode off, leaving Max alone with Mamba. Maybe he had gotten away with fooling them after all. He wiped his hand across his forehead, which was beaded with sweat.
“You’ll get used to the humidity,” Mamba told him.
“Great,” Max replied, not about to tell Mamba he was perfectly acclimatized to the jungle, it was the stress of infiltrating an enemy camp his sweat glands had issues with.
“Let’s get Pluto inside.” Mamba jerked his head for Max to follow him into the base.
As he stepped through the open gateway, his eyes fixed on the centerpiece of the base.
“Holy shit,” he said under his breath.
Chapter Forty
Mamba chuckled as he swung the gate closed. “Like it?”
“That’s a big gun,” Max said as he looked up at the turret on top of a stone brick tower in the center of the base. It had a barrel consisting of several smaller ends, like that of a Gatling gun, backed by a large firing mechanism and a seat. A sash of large ammunition hung between the main gun and a metal box, which Max could only imagine was stuffed full of bullets.
“Yeah, that one goes a little more than pew pew.” Mamba chuckled.
Max turned to look at him, trying to hide his horror behind a mask of awe. “And you
said that my little laser gun would be expensive, you guys must be loaded to be able to get that thing.”
Mamba shrugged. “Come on, Murf, I’ll show you around if you can stop gawking at the gun. Leave Pluto here and we’ll get him after.”
Max nodded. “Sure.” He glanced over his shoulder at Pluto which regarded him with deep brown eyes. “Stay here, buddy. Be back in a sec.”
Mamba walked across from the closed gate, set into a thick frame, toward a narrow watchtower built into the wall. It was a squat construction, and unlike the center, the tower had a base of stone with a wooden construction on top.
Max followed Mamba inside through a narrow door into a cramped staircase that circled up the interior of the tower, currently lit only by the outside light through slits in the wall. At the top of the stairs was a wooden trap door built into the timber ceiling, above a few metal rungs set into the stone bricks of the wall.
Mamba pushed open the hatch and climbed up onto the floor above. Max stepped over to the ladder and tried to hide a triumphant smirk. Being given the tour felt like being handed the key to victory. Even though it seemed there was a very large gun turret standing in the doorway. Max was still surprised that they hadn’t known they had it. But then they wouldn’t have been able to see it over the walls from the bottom of the cliff.
Max hauled himself up into the room that sat on top of the tower. It was open on all sides except for a waist-high barrier and several beams holding up the roof, and it was completely open to a narrow walkway that ran along the top of the wall.
Mamba stood leaning against the barrier, looking over the base. “Here we are, the best view in the house.”
Max joined him, copying his posture as he looked down at the base below. The central tower stood alone in an area of empty space. The rest of the buildings were situated around the outside of the base, closer to the wall. They were made mostly of stone, and some of the buildings even had tiled roofs.
