Weight: 10 Tons (with a thick ballistic shell)
Health: 2000
Speed: 6
Agility: 5
Weapons: Primary - Gatling Laser Rifle (100 Damage at 600 RPM)
Secondary - Railgun (700 Damage 2 RPM)
Melee - None (however a long enough blade can be modded)
Heavy
Although unable to fly or hover for any given amount of time, there is no doubt that a heavy mech is a mobile fortress, equipped with sufficient firepower to destroy buildings, slug starships, and fight large enemies or hordes. Their dense armour plating made heavy mechs a force of nature. Unending. Unforgiving. The name of the heavy we had on board was Vex. It was also very expensive costing nearly a years worth of an average player’s salary.
Weight: 20 Tons
Health: 5000
Speed: 3
Agility: 3
Weapons: Primary - Enhanced Mutli-Grenade Launcher with tracking
(5000 Damage at 10 RPM) for short range.
Secondary - Long-range Laser Railgun
(1000 Damage at 5 RPM)
Melee - None
The Ibanez had been abandoned by everyone except my squad and a small, four-person crew to run the ship alongside Tel, Nel’s big ‘sister’. It was our ship now. Another present from Lady Gray. In a way, the others saw it as a reward for rescuing me from the guardian. We actually had our own starship! Something I had been striving for since I started playing and yet somehow it all seemed forced. Unearned.
Since Aiden was the highest level among us he was put in charge. He was also a tank. He was the only one among us with special abilities that included super strength without the use of power armour. Before joining us, Aiden used to fight in an arena in the Spire. Second in command was Eli followed by Cass. Pierce was Eli’s sidekick for the most part. Eli had been training him since he started playing and, slowly, Pierce had been catching up with her. Cass was, I supposed, my mentor too now that Damien had passed. I was the second scout in our group and would be following her lead during missions. Our job for the most part was stealth. Scouts were sent in first towards the front line to investigate and if possible, come up with a strategy to fulfill our mission.
Our other scout, Shiru, was a lone wolf before he joined the squad. Having lost his original level 40 avatar aboard the battle cruiser King Solomon, he joined us after hardening his skills as a sniper in the wastelands on the moon of Awarath Prime called Luminae - 4. When he joined, he asked us a personal favour. The retrieval of his own echo. We agreed and it was the first quest he went on with us. It was there we watched as he avenged his own death against a group of raiders known as ‘Devoted Domination’. I can still remember his battle cry as his eyes turned red and he began sniping them from afar. Shiru started at the top, killing the leader, followed by the rest of the Devoted’s crew. His first avatar had been a trader, a merchant that moved goods from one system to the next. Taking out the raiders made Shiru happy; it was clear how personal was the loss of his first avatar. He had spent the better part of the last year levelling up his weapon for that moment. After that, he was one of us. He believed in corpse diving as a kind of tribute to the dead, even if some of us were only doing it because it was all we could do to survive.
I didn’t know the others on the outside, like I knew Damien and Cass. When Damien joined another squad, I joined Echo-1 in his stead. For a while this meant having to prove myself to the other squad members, time and time again. Mostly we did smaller dungeon dives, around levels 5-20, with the occasional corpse dive around level 30. Damien had introduced me to Cass outside the game when the three of us went out to an arcade and art show together. It was the first time I had been to the city since my parents passed. It was also the first time I remember really smiling. I could still feel the pain on the side of my face from where she had hit me the other day. I moved my hand along my cheek as we were joined by Nel on our way to see the others. Shiru, Pierce, and Eli were all waiting for us in the bridge.
Giving my AI friend a smile, I walked behind Aiden and Cass. Brand was alongside me and he insisted on placing his arm over my shoulder and acting like we were best friends. I was still in shock. The last few days had been insane and at the moment all I wanted was to get back to playing the game.
When I walked in to the bridge, I could see several of the others sitting and waiting.
Tel was near a coms station communicating with another group, a squad that had just departed from the Ibanez a few hours earlier. I couldn’t make out the squad leader’s voice, but I could overhear some of their conversation.
‘Tel, we’ve got something. Quadrant five sector six. Planet Rem. Just outside the city. Looks like an old transport ship from before the pathways were established. She came down at the base of one of those fungal growths, I’m guessing that’s why they didn’t spot her from the sky.’
‘Copy that Recon. Please advise as to the condition of the craft.’
‘Recon. She looks pretty intact. I wouldn’t say one piece, exactly, but they sure built these things to last. Two of ours are about to make a sweep of the interior.’
‘Copy Recon. Can we drop in with a heavy?’
‘Negative. Not enough space, even a light would have issues, these old ships weren’t made for anything larger than a lift.’
‘Copy that, be on your guard and check for hostiles.’
‘Say again. Did you say hostiles?’
‘Roger Recon. Make sure your guys take every precaution. There’s a chance the core may still be active. That ship is most likely turning into a dungeon now. There is definitely going to be an echo inside. Maybe an artefact or two if you are lucky. Like you said, they built these things to last, I’m sure you aren’t the first player to find it.’
‘No kidding. But Hollows, after all these years? This looks more scripted than that.’
‘Containment packs at the ready, Recon Four. It’s not unknown. There should also be an interface in every compartment, so have your guys monitor their systems periodically. If there’s anything left alive down there it’ll be highly corrupted and looking to switch to a new power source. Your atmo-suits would look like gold platinum to a fading remnant right now.’
‘…Err, the guys left those packs in the rover, I’m just going to run them over to now.’
‘Copy Recon. Looks like our team finally showed up so we’ll be down to the surface shortly.’
Tel’s voice was similar to Nel’s although her character was more passive aggressive. Tel always sounded like she was annoyed in some way. Of course Tel was an advanced artificial intelligence that knew exactly what it was. Not that she would ever admit it or say it aloud but we could hear it as she went over missions. It was all routine for her, acting as our director of operations handing out missions and bounties.
Location: Planet Rem
Remnant Starship
The chance to explore an old starship wasn’t an opportunity we wanted to pass up. Twenty minutes later we were in the Quadrant 5 Sector 6 orbiting above the planet Rem. We dropped five minutes later, after picking our load out and boarding a shuttle. I grabbed Aegis along with an M7-7 rifle. We were followed by three several floating spheres that would record our actions aboard the starship.
— Quest —
Remnant
Created by: Echo-1
Expected Difficulty: Moderate
Rewards: Unknown
Details:
1. Search the Remnant Transport ship for supplies
2. Recover Transport ship data (0/1)
3. Rescue the Recon team
4. (Optional) Recover the ship’s core.
Level Requirement: 5
‘If I remember the map right, we should head down this hallway to left to reach the bridge. From there we should be able to restore some of the ship’s power and find the recon team,’ With a flickering light, Aiden pointed down a hallway and Cass turned to look.
‘Alright, Breq and I will take point. You just
tell us where to go, com three’ Cass answered as she began to walk down the hallway. A moment later, the lights went dark. I jumped. ‘Calm down rookie,’ Cass teased.
It was nice to hear her laugh again. I pulled myself together and fumbled with the flashlight on my rifle. Once it was on, Cass and I made a quick sweep to make sure it was still clear. Once satisfied, we continued forward with the rest of Echo-1 a few yards behind, their own light casting our shadows a long way down the floor ahead. ‘This ship’s probably three hundred years old, maybe older,’ Eli said. ‘No way anything could be alive in here, not even Hollows, not to mention Nel hasn’t picked up any trace of an echo.’
I turned my thoughts to the past, letting training guide me through the halls as I lost myself in the maze in the belly of the metal giant. The Remnants, whose ship we had so eagerly wanted to explore, had left the Spire just before the world gates had been reconnected and STL drives became a stable part of every large ship. The Remnants were a group of fanatics who had desperately wanted to see humanity colonize the stars: they had frozen themselves in cryogenic sleep and launched themselves away in their massive seed ships, ships which utilized ion drives and a prototype STL drive that was deemed unstable. Seven of the behemoths had been built and launched towards different stars that were believed to have planets capable of supporting life. Since STL travel had become the norm, only three of the Remnants’ ships had been found, all with missing crews. It was a mystery and one which our team was hoping to find out more about through a search of this ship’s remains. There was a main quest that involved the exploration of one of the lost ships, but it had been given several years ago and before I started playing. At the moment none of us could recall what exactly had taken place.
‘Hear something?’ Cass asked as she swept her rifle down to her left shining her light down another dark hallway.
I swept my own light over the region that Cass had been looking at, but didn’t see anything that looked out of place.
‘It was just the metal piping and conduits normal for any starship,’ I said.
‘I could have sworn,’ Cass moved forward, rifle at the ready as she approached a turn in the corridor. Together we looked around the piping, just around the corner of the starship’s lower deck.
‘Anything?’ Aiden asked from behind.
‘No, just ventilation or maintenance. It was probably just some local fauna that’s taken up residence. They said this place could be turning into a dungeon so let’s not get caught inside.’
— Quest —
Survive
Expected Difficulty: Veteran
Rewards: 1000 XP Bonus
A moment later, I was racing down the hallway, stumbling over debris I couldn’t see in the dark.
‘Right behind you!’ I shouted, and Cass stopped and turned around with her rifle at the ready. She couldn’t pick a target out of the frantically moving shadows, but pulled the trigger anyway. We heard the scramble of legs but didn’t stay to see if we got the kill. No EXP showed.
I rounded the corner ahead and passed through a doorway and paused for the others to catch up. As soon as we were through the threshold, the door slammed behind us. Just as it did so, there were several loud bangs against the bulkhead. Something was trying to get in.
‘What was that?’ yelled Eli.
‘Local fauna?’ asked Cass.
‘There is definitely an echo here,’ said Aiden.
‘Were those Hollows?’ I asked. I had seen Hollows before but normally they were immobile, just objects to avoid. Ghosts of the past but never much of a threat.
We continued onward toward the bridge, hoping the Hollows were behind us.
‘They’re supposed to be stationary, which means we are dealing with some kind of variant,’ said Shiru.
Aiden’s voice came through our coms. ‘We need a power pack to restore power to the ship, after that I say we get the hell out of here.’
‘That could be a problem. Anyone have a power pack?’ asked Cass.
‘Nah,’ answered Aiden, ‘but there should be some around here somewhere. Nel can you scan the bridge? We came in through the upper decks: worst case we’ll have Tel blast a hole in this rig and climb our way out.’
‘If we blast a hole in the ship, that will just draw their attention.’ I wasn’t trying to argue with Aiden but I could tell he hadn’t thought it through. All of us were scared, yet somehow I felt alive again. It was the same rush of adventure I felt going against the guardian.
Our two leaders started in the direction of the Captain’s quarters, but as they did the door ahead of them slammed shut on its own. They froze and stared at the blocked pathway before them.
‘The ship’s AI is on to us,’ Aiden said.
‘It’s probably locked on to our power signatures, anything living and breathing. Right?’ I offered.
The environment was hospitable enough that we knew we would be fine for a few hours, maybe there was time enough to call for another squad or two, but what was more concerning was our lack of protection against the ship itself. When starships crashed on planets, they would adapt and become dungeons. The lore of the world said that it had something to do with the quantum drives creating a time pocket that transformed the area around into a living system.
I’d been so worried, I had forgotten to check on how Pierce was doing. The youngest player in our group and newest member, he was also one of the most intelligent and, it seemed, resourceful. Somehow, he had rigged his short grip energy takedown glove into the terminal.
‘Looks like we’re good to go,’ he said with satisfaction in his voice.
Power was back. The Captain’s quarters opened.
‘Contact!’ Aiden shouted, activating his mini-gun which seemed to almost appear out of thin air. Several well-placed shots hit a strange creature that collapsed on the ground. The creature looked like a cross between a regular soldier and some kind of reptile. Aiden moved forward, stepping over the body, and searched the area beyond.
‘Clear!’ he shouted. The rest of us moved forward keeping our weapons downrange and ready to fire.
‘What is it?’ Shiru asked.
‘No idea; Nel?’ asked Aiden. Besides being our pack-mule, Nel also had a database full of known creatures. Basically she was our guide to the universe.
‘Analysis shows Human, Dargon and Brosechel DNA present: it is a hybrid of some kind,’ Nel answered.
‘Take a sample, we’ll bring it back with us, maybe this is what the Hollows were guarding,’ ordered Aiden. Brand used a syringe from one of his med-kits to take a blood sample. The blood seemed to move as if it was alive.
‘Amazing, some kind of symbiotic life-form,’ he said.
‘Joking right?’ Cass said.
Brand looked up earnestly. ‘No seriously, it’s going crazy. We could probably use this to improve our armour.’
‘I don’t know, I took it out pretty easy,’ said Aiden, smirking.
‘With a mini-gun,’ added Brand.
‘Let me see it. That may be what we need to get out of here. There was an interface back over there. If I can just set it up properly maybe we can use the DNA in that thing to activate the starship’s security,’ Eli held out her hand and Brand handed over the syringe.
‘Make it fast, I can hear them crawling around outside. If they find a way in, we’ll be dead,’ said Aiden.
With a glance at me, Cass pointed over to a few crates which looked like they might provide some decent cover and when we had arranged them to best effect, everyone took up defensive positions. As I knelt there, rifle resting on a crate top, a camera hovered above me. I had almost forgot that people were watching all of this. It occurred to me to ask Moonrain Media for help. If there was anyone in the area that could have helped surely they would be on their way?
‘Any idea on time?’ I asked Eli.
‘About five or ten minutes? Depends how badly damaged the drive is.’
‘We’ve got incoming.’ There were several
Hollows breaking in through cracks in the bulkhead door. I reckoned we were about two minutes away from being overrun.
‘Interface connection established. Hacking.’ Eli grabbed his rifle and spun around to help us the moment his hack hit 100%. It hadn’t taken him long. He had poured almost every skill point he gained into maximizing that skill and I had never felt so grateful to him. Hopefully, now that he had identified us as crew under threat, the ship’s turrets would automatically search out and fire on the Hollows from both the inside and outside of the ship.
I quickly raised my sights and pulled the trigger. The rounds connected with a Hollow just as it burst through the final layers of the door, its momentum stopped mid-air as it fell to the ground, the glow in its eyes fading away.
+100 EXP
+100 EXP
+100 EXP
+100 EXP
+100 EXP
+200 kill streak M7-7 Lvl 2
‘They just keep jumping into our line of fire,’ Shiru said.
‘They aren’t designed with intelligence,’ I shouted over the sound of energy searing the air.
‘I think we earned our pay for today,’ shouted Cass. ‘And once we start data mining back at base, we should be able to find out how the ship got here and what happened to the crew. Might not even need to explore the rest of the ship if we can recover enough info.’
‘What about the core?’ I said. I was thinking about something Alexis had told me.
Pro Tip
Both starships and dungeons have ‘cores’. The core in a starship makes up one of the key components in the STL drive, however in dungeons the core is usually an object of power guarded by a boss or a part of a boss.
Star Divers- Dungeons of Bane Page 9
