Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure

by Kevin Sinclair

  “Why are you here, Fystr? Why did you not leave with the ships?”

  “You’ve stolen my girlfriend. I won’t stop killing until I’m dead, or I have her back.”

  He started laughing, “So, all your friends have left, and you have stayed here to massacre my men, for the woman?”

  “Yes.”

  “Really. So, we could have just handed her back and you would have stopped?”

  “Absolutely. Why did you kidnap her?”

  “I didn’t, nor would I have. But some in my employ are less than savory. A Fystr slave would be worth a great deal on the Galactic Markets.”

  “Ember is not a Fystr. She’s human.”

  “What is the difference?”

  “Humans are essentially the slaves of the Fystr. Every planet in our part of the galaxy is filled with humans who are prevented from evolving as a species. One of the Fystr enlightened a few of us and allowed us to evolve as we should. But then the Fystr rulers found out and have chased us across the galaxy.”

  He looked at me with shock, “So, you are saying that you are not a Fystr?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Those guys are a bunch of wankers.”

  “How do you fight so well? Are the Fystr even more powerful than you?”

  “They’re definitely fearsome, scary bastards, but I’ve killed a few so far.”

  “I can believe it. You’re more than a bit intimidating yourself.”

  “Well, I try to be a peaceful guy, but for one thing; If anyone hurts Ember, I don’t even have the words for what I’d do.”

  “I want you to know we had no choice but to try and waylay you. The Fystr promised to destroy our planet if we didn’t help, but I am sorry Ember was taken. It was a foolish mistake by one of my men. We want no more bloodshed here. If we give you Ember will you stop? She is unharmed.”

  “As long as no one attacks us, then of course.”

  “That is a given. We have few enough fighting men left after that. Where will you go once you have her back?”

  I laughed this time, “I’ve no fucking clue. That only matters once I have Ember back.”

  “You are leaving the planet though, yes?”

  “I would if I could, but I don’t have a ship to leave on.”

  “I can give you a small craft that’s big enough for six people.”

  “And you’re sure you’re not going to try and kill me?”

  “We have tried and failed, and it turns out that we were the architects of our own doom. Now I hope to repair some of that damage.”

  “There’s another problem. I can’t fly a spaceship.”

  “I will teach you what I can. However, it will be only the essentials. The rest you will just have to work out for yourself. I can set the navigation to a planet where you may find a pilot.”

  “Okay. I accept your terms.”

  The giant sighed, “Good. I am glad we have an accord.”

  “Can you spare a couple of translators too?”

  “Sure, why not,” the giant sighed. “They are basic technology in this quadrant.”

  We settled into a strange silence. Me and Havok were standing across from a giant and a couple-hundred armed men, still covered in blood and other stuff that I didn’t even want to think about.

  “So… Uh… Where’s Ember?”

  “Don’t worry. She is being brought over now.”

  “Good,” I said, as I tried to wipe the gore off me. It was time for the suit to really earn its stripes today. I did what I could, then looked up to the giant.

  “So, do you have a name?”

  “Yes I am Drabu the Eighth.”

  “Cool. So, Drabu. Why are you really helping me?”

  I must have made an odd picture for him and he let out a belly rumbling laugh before he answered, “We need to survive. Life is hard. We had no choice but to do what we did, but none of us expected what would unfold with you.”

  “Well, thank you. And I’m truly sorry for killing so many. I’m glad we could talk and stop this because I really did intend to kill everyone who got in my way.”

  “I believe you. You are a strange contradiction. For someone to be so violent and destructive, yet caring and considerate.”

  “Ember is all I have. All I care about. The whole universe could burn as long as I was with her.”

  “That’s very sweet of you, Shaun,” said Ember’s voice coming from out behind the building.

  I rejoiced. The people escorting her made a quick exit as I ran over to her and scooped her up in a hug, tears running freely down my face.

  “Ugh! Get off me. You’re gross!” she cried.

  “Too late for that. I’ve already covered you,” I said, then kissed her deeply. She didn’t stop me.

  “Well, thanks for coming, Shaun. Not that I doubted you, my amazing buffoon. You’ve certainly made an impression on what’s left of the locals.”

  “Did they treat you okay?”

  “They did, actually. After a few hours of your rampage they were too terrified to do anything to me. They were going to use me as a hostage but couldn’t get you to listen. You just kept killing, apparently. I told them to send me out to you, but they thought I was lying. And didn’t want to rile you up anymore,” Ember explained, as we walked back over to Drabu.

  “You know Ogun’s left us here, right?”

  “Yes. I was told. What are we going to do?”

  “Drabu is giving us a ship. I told him we couldn’t fly, so he’s agreed to teach us the basics. He’s gonna set our navigation system to fly to another planet where we might pick up a pilot.”

  “Cool. Glad to hear you’ve things in hand for once. Normally, it’s just ‘I dunno’.”

  We had reached Drabu, so I spoke to him instead of responding to Ember, who was being an ungrateful asshole. “Okay. What now?”

  “I will take you straight to the ship. It is a hunk of junk, but is all we have available to give.”

  C10

  Flight of the Navigator

  Drabu, the giant leader of this town, walked us back to the docks. They only had six ships in their hanger. I felt terrible that I’d decimated their people and was now taking an entire spaceship off them.

  I turned to Drabu. “I’m sorry again that you have to give us a ship just to get rid of me. I don’t know what the future holds for us. Even so, if I can bring the ship back or repay you I will. I intend to really fuck the Fystr up, so I hope that helps you.”

  “I don’t know why I believe you. I’m naturally a very cynical person, nonetheless I do. Are you controlling my mind somehow?” he said.

  “No! I hadn’t even thought about entering your mind.”

  “That’s a relief. What is also a relief is that the Fystr have bypassed our planet. We received a communication that they acknowledge we held your shipmates up, and there will be no repercussions.”

  “Ah well. I’m happy for you. Kind of. I hope our shipmates don’t get caught.”

  “Ogun is proving to be a pretty slippery customer so far,” Ember said.

  “You noticed?” I said back.

  “This means I can spend a little longer explaining the workings of the ship. It doesn't have a name, as such. Just its manufacturing number: MC-8314-Fe. I should be able to have you ready by tomorrow night. Then, I must ask you to leave or what remains of my town will become rather unhappy with me. As for sleeping, if you wouldn’t mind staying on the ship. The food synth machine should be full.”

  “Yeah. We got no problems with that,” Ember said.

  Drabu began talking us through an array of functions on the ship’s controls. I literally retained not one iota of information. By the time night had fallen, Drabu left us alone promising his return in the morning. I strangely trusted the big bastard, so we made our bed and fell sound asleep in each other’s arms.

  The following day we went over what we’d been taught and then Drabu continued with his crash course. Ember was much better at taking the informatio
n in, but then she did have a Metal Clarity of eighteen percent, compared to my poxy two percent. I found all the information absolutely mind-curdling. When Drabu left later that day Ember and I were exhausted, and I still felt like we knew fuck-all.

  When he came back the next morning, he plotted a route to a planet called Ipsis into the ship’s navigation system. He suggested we should definitely try to find a pilot, or we’d be totally screwed.

  The planet we would head towards was a well-known mercenary hangout. Fighters mainly, but there would be pilots, engineers, and general shipmates. Few people carried a full-time crew, so there were always subcontractors needing work.

  With our goodbyes said, Ember punched the launch sequence in from her notebook and we rose from the ground. It was a truly terrifying experience taking a ship that the owner had called a ‘hunk of junk’ up into the vacuum of space.

  I mean, we were two clueless idiots who hadn’t even believed in spaceships just over two months ago. We had no business flying a spaceship. Yet, here we were! Freestyling it through a distant part of the galaxy. I couldn’t decide whether it was a fascinating, or absolutely terrifying experience. On the Thoth we were too busy training and living. We had been nowhere near the bridge and could easily forget we were flying through space. Now, on this tiny little bone-shaker that we had to actively fly; shit just got real.

  Luckily, we didn’t have to actually fly the ship yet. It had coordinates and a flight path programmed into the ship’s computer. We only had to supervise and monitor the various screens and alerts. All in all, I was stressed to bits. Ember seemed to cope better. Still, that didn’t mean much.

  During our seventh day of the ten day journey, the food in the synthesizer ran out. This didn’t fill me with joy. I was sick to my fucking core of starvation now. It just kept happening!

  My new physique demanded lots of meat and now I was meatless. I wondered how horses were so ripped from eating only grass and hay, then promptly realized that I didn’t care. Horses had nothing to do with my current predicament. At least we still had water. I reflected on a time when I had nothing but water once before, and this definitely wasn’t as bad as the troll incident. It was only three days without food. That was okay, I told myself. Things had been much worse.

  By the time Ipsis came up on our screens, I can honestly say that the last ten days were up there as the most stressful of my life. The endless boredom of watching computer systems, having no food to eat, and at the same time being utterly terrified. It really sucked. I felt I was massively out of my depth the entire time. The one saving grace was that I’d finally became intimate with Ember which offset the despair quite effectively.

  The ship began to descend, and a voice came over the ship's system. We could understand and speak back now, thanks to the translators. “State your business MC-8314-Fe.”

  “Looking for crew and a place to get some repairs,” I responded.

  “Copy that. Sending over coordinates for Docking Bay twenty-one.”

  Drabu had told us what to do here. Thankfully, Ember had written everything down and dealt with this dread-inducing responsibility.

  We landed without a hitch. I gave her a congratulatory hug. “You’re a bloody genius, Ember. Well done.”

  “No thanks to you, Shaun! And why are you sweating so much?”

  “It’s warm!” I said lamely.

  “No it’s not, Shaun. The cabin temperature has remained consistent throughout our entire flight. You should know. It’s one of the checks we had to make.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about Ember,” I said, as I put Havok on my back.

  “Do you even know if you can walk around with Havok like that?”

  “Nope. And I don’t care. Havok stays with us at all times.”

  “That’s my Shaun. You never know who we’re going to have to stomp,” Havok said.

  “Damn right Havok!”

  “Whatever you say,” Ember answered back, completely unaware of Havok’s opinion.

  “Let’s go find a pilot so we can get back to Earth.”

  We left the ship and were immediately confronted with the dock supervisor. A very pale, almost translucent green alien with willowy limbs, and a humongous head with really tiny eyes and mouth. They seemed fine with our presence, even bowing a little. It seemed the Fystr were like royalty; treated with grudging respect and barely concealed distaste.

  I was so mesmerized and creeped out by the contradiction of his face that I let Ember do all the talking, that, and she was badass. “We’re looking for the best places to pick up a crew member?” Ember asked.

  “Any one of the bars on the Fulinast Strike,” they answered happily.

  “What, and where, is the Fulinast Strike?”

  “It’s the street with all the merc bars on it. Go out here, turn left, then your third right it’s the biggest road in the city. Can’t miss it.”

  “That’s great. Thanks. Is there a limit to how long we can stay here?”

  “Yes. Until you can no longer afford to stay.”

  “How much is it to dock?”

  “One arlar a night.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the info,” Ember said, and we headed off into the strange alien city.

  “We might need a pilot, but we seriously need money more Shaun. No pilot will work for nothing, and we need to pay our docking fee. Let’s hit one of these bars and see what kind of things we can earn money doing.”

  “Lead on, my dear,” I replied.

  I received a punch to the arm in response.

  We stopped at the first bar we came across. I went straight up to the barman and spoke to him. Translators were awesome. “We’re looking for work. Are there any good money earners in the city?” I enquired.

  He looked at me like I was a piece of shit on his tentacle, then tentacled away.

  “Real people charmer, Shaun. Come on. I’ll try the next bar.”

  It was a mixed-bag of responses for Ember, eventually leading to, still no money. We couldn’t even buy ourselves a drink or food, and I was fucking starving. I was well overdue for some alien cow parts in my stomach. We were running out of patience with the Fulinast Strike, very quickly.

  Oddly, our savior came with a fist out of the blue. A strapping blue alien of similar dimensions to myself, but with a head full of ridges and folds. He was an ugly motherfucker.

  Havok warned me, so I was able to step back as his punch came in. He was clearly looking for a one punch knockout and over extended. Perfect for me as I thundered a knee into his midriff. It wasn’t the feel I was used to. There was bone in the area of his abdomen. With my enhanced Strength, the bone snapped, and the effect was dramatic. He went down hard!

  I quickly kicked his head to take the fight out of him, but heard a snap, just as Ember turned. She took in the scene and in an exasperated voice, berated me, “How? I had my back turned for one fucking minute, and you’ve managed to kill someone?”

  I held my hands up. “He attacked me, your honor. I swear it.” I actually felt awful. I really hadn’t intended to kill him. Just all this Strength I’d built up made it difficult to judge.

  The barman leaned over the bar and chipped in, “I saw. Fair fight. Your man won. Looks like you have made some money.”

  “What do you mean?” Ember asked, spinning around.

  “He was after the axe. The strong and quick survive here. Your man was strong and quick. Two blows and the Grobar was dead. Now his body and possession are yours. I can sell the body for you, for a small fee.”

  “Cool!” Ember said and bent down, brazenly stripping the body of valuables. She started handing things to me. A bag of coins was one of them. When she had finished, she asked the barman, “How much is the body worth?”

  “Three senlars and two arlars,” he replied without a thought.

  “How many arlars to a senlar?” Ember asked.

  “Ten,” he said.

  She looked at him doubtfully for a long second then spun aroun
d and walked over to a table where a beige alien sat. He looked smaller than most humans and very thin, yet the muscles on show on his arms bulged like steel cords.

  “Ere mate. How much is that body worth?” she asked him.

  He raised one side of his thick monobrow at Ember before he answered, “I don’t know. Maybe eleven, or twelve senlar.”

  “Where can I sell it?”

  “Information ain’t free, lady.”

  “Show us, and I’ll give you ten percent. That’s a senlar and two arlars for easy work. If, he’s worth twelve.”

  The alien jumped up, “Sounds good to me. Come on. I’ll lead you.” He drained his drink, then loped off on all fours.

  Ember turned to the barman. “Fucking cheat.” She scowled. He just shrugged.

  Ember turned back to me, “I’ll use telekinesis to carry the body, but you’ll have to hold my hand and guide me.”

  “Sure thing. Though, I can carry him?”

  “I’ve no doubt you can. Even so, I need to practice, and you’ve already done everything else. I’m starting to feel beholden to you and you know how I don’t like that. I need to show my worth. You nearly killed a whole town of fighters for me.”

  “Well, me and Havok did.”

  She smirked, “Thank Havok too.”

  “I can’t believe you're giving me credit, and Ember’s thanking me. I fucking love you guys.”

  “We love you too Havok,” I said, then looked to Ember and said, “I just want you to know, I still have no idea how to fly our rust-bucket. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t even be here, so quit your whiny shit and let’s keep doing this, together. If you need a load of people killing, here I am. For everything else there is you.” I took Ember’s hand and led her out the bar, followed by the disbelieving eyes of the patrons. Arguing with your girlfriend, while she casually levitated a dead body mustn’t be a thing here.

  Once outside, we found our guide standing erect and leaning against the wall like a regular… uhm, alien. He had a really dishonest look to him, but I tried to shrug that off. Maybe I was just being racist. It wasn’t his fault he looked that way, or it could be his monobrow. Once he saw us he took off on all fours again. We followed hand in hand with ‘big blue’ floating carefree behind us.