Star Divers- Dungeons of Bane

by Stephen Landry

  ‘So you didn’t think I would win?’ I asked.

  ‘Not at all,’ she exclaimed with a slight stutter, turning red. ‘We couldn’t take any chances.’

  ‘You could have clued me in on the plan.’

  ‘We were worried if we told you, maybe you wouldn’t have given the race your all,’ she said her face still blushing. She was probably right. Not to mention I would have wanted to be a part of their raid.

  ‘So are we working with the Silvermanes?’ I asked.

  ‘Same deal as if you had won.’

  ‘How long till we reach the vault?’

  ‘Fifteen minutes, give or take, we are plotting a course that takes us out of view of the Titans, hoping they don’t put any soldiers on the ground near there either or we’ll be in for another firefight we don’t have the resources for,’ she answered. ‘Now how about giving your familiar a name?’

  ‘I still haven’t thought of anything.’

  ‘How about Blade!’ Gorge said.

  ‘Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s a girl,’ Kira said.

  ‘How do you know that?’ I asked without thinking, Kira knew everything, she had already scanned the familiar three times and looked it up and down in her lap while I was watching the holo.

  ‘Ekke!’ said Chaz.

  ‘You know that is slang for a loser right?’ Kira.

  ‘Not a loser, just someone that doesn’t go into crowds and draws a lot, I use to be a proud Ekke, thank you,’ said Gorge. ‘Sorry,’ he added, taking the hint not to suggest anymore names.

  There was a moment of silence.

  ‘Aiko,’[1] I said.

  ‘I like that,’ Kira smiled, ‘hello Aiko.’ The little creature smiled.

  I moved my finger in the air motioning for my user interface to appear in my vision. I studied it for a moment and gave my familiar a name.

  +50 XP - ‘You’re #1’

  I levelled up.

  Level 33

  15 Points to Spend

  Adrenaline 45

  Affinity (weapons) 15

  Agitation 15

  Animal / Aquatic Expert 35

  Artillery 15

  Attack Boost 5 (+5 Bonus)

  Blast Attack Boost 5

  Blast Resistance35

  Bleeding Resistance 45

  Botany 5

  Bow Expert 5

  Capacity Boost 5

  Capture / Tame 15 (+ 50 Familiar Bonus) = 65

  Carving 10

  Charisma 25 (+10 Bonus)

  Constitution 5

  Critical Boost 50

  Critical Affinity 50 (+10 Bonus)

  Defence 5

  Detection (stealth) 30 (+10 Bonus)

  Divinity / Fame 5

  Evasion 5

  Explosives 15

  Fire Attack 5

  Fire Resistance 5

  Focus 35 (I add +5 points) = 40 (+5 Piloting Bonus)

  Fortification 5

  Gambler 5

  Guard 5

  Hacking 25

  Handicraft (crafting) 5

  Heat Resistance15

  Health Boost 15

  Hunting (survival)5

  Hunger (cooking)5

  Ice Attack 5

  Ice Resistance 15

  Intimidation 5

  Iron Body 5

  Latent Power 5

  Luck 25

  Medical Specialist 15

  Mind’s Eye 5 (+10 Piloting Bonus)

  Navigator 5

  Nullification 5

  Paralysis Attack 5

  Paralysis Resistance 5

  Peak Performance 5

  Piercing (Damage Boost)5

  Pilot 5 (+20 Bonus)

  Poison Attack 5

  Poison Resistance 5

  Poison Duration5

  Psionic5

  Recovery 5

  Stamina25 (I add +5) = 30

  Sheath Speed (reflexes) 5

  Strength5 (add +5) = 10

  Stun Attack 5

  Stun Duration 5

  Stun Resistance5

  Survival 15

  Tool Specialist 5

  Training5

  Name: Aiko

  Level 1

  Friendly

  Mana: 100

  Health: 100

  Stamina: 100

  Adrenaline 50

  Agitation 15

  Attack Boost 5 (+5 Bonus)

  Blast Attack Boost 5

  Blast Resistance35

  Bleeding Resistance 45

  Charisma 75

  Constitution 25

  Critical Boost 50

  Critical Affinity 40

  Defence55

  Detection (stealth) 30

  Evasion25

  Fire Resistance 15

  Focus 35

  Guard 5

  Heat Resistance15

  Health Boost 15

  Ice Resistance 15

  Intimidation 20

  Luck 25

  Nullification 5

  Paralysis Resistance 15

  Piercing (Damage Boost)15

  Poison Resistance 15

  Recovery 35

  Reflexes35

  Stamina55

  Strength20

  Stun Attack 35

  Stun Duration 5

  Stun Resistance 15

  19.

  Trace

  TO: Hannah

  FROM: Breq

  SUBJECT: Family

  As much as I try to tell myself it’s just a game the truth is it is so much more than that. Life is all about making choices. I made a lot of really bad ones since I lost my parents. I can see that now. I turned my back on the world, turned my back on friends, the family I had left. I turned my back on the values that made me who I was. My father had worked in R & D, worked for Keen Industries. He once told me that what he was working on was going to change the world. That the world was changing, falling apart, that it had been falling apart for a long time. The oceans rose, millions died. Disease. Hunger. War. He told me how after the coast rose him and mom had lived on something called ‘the raft’. It was a community brought together around barges and an old oil rig. It was one of many settlements. I envied it now. He told me of the freedom. Fishing from the sea. Catching a shark in the early morning of spring. Staring up at the stars in the middle of the night. In many ways I was like him now. A scout, living with my own community.

  When I was young we lay on the roof and he pointed out the constellations and planets. Mars. Jupiter. I could remember watching meteors fall from the sky and looking at the moon through a haze of grey. Maybe that’s why I like Bane so much. No matter where I am I can see the stars no matter how artificial they are. Before he died he also told me of the cold. Of the fevers. Of the coughing children and how the water had started making people sick. How humanity had turned their back on nature and so nature turned her back on humanity. When mom became pregnant the two of them left ‘the raft’ and found work in Recovery Zone. It was here I was born. Here that both of them died. Am I to blame for that?

  Before working at Keen Industries my father was a part of a relief effort that gave food and shelter to the homeless. Maybe that was a part of the reason I ran away. Sleeping in the shelter, eating soup from the kitchen, wondering whether I too would catch a fever from the red tide. Living so close to the edge made me feel alive. I was lonely without them but I could look at others, others like me who had lost everything and I could see them. The good that they had done, the good they done for me. At the same time I was so angry. I saw the good that had been taken, stolen from me. For that first year I was filled with nothing but rage. I hated them for dying, for leaving. I hated the company. I hated the world. By the time the second year rolled around it was too late. I had lost my family name. I had lost my place in the world and couldn’t go back no matter how badly I wanted to. I was alone…after that I met Damien and I wasn’t.

  Sorry, I’m ranting a little now. I just thought you should know.

  - Breq

  Location:
Silvermane compound

  Maitreya

  We had to fly around three times before landing half a mile from the bunker. I left Aiko in Nel’s care. While it was true I was tethered to the creature, I could still put it in stasis if I had some kind of special quest I was working on. The problem with this meant that if anything happened to Aiko while I was away, I would still be responsible even while on my mission. I trusted very few players as much as I trusted Nel and as Aiko and I said our see-you-laters, I promised my familiar that I would return.

  Kira assigned us the quest.

  — Quest —

  Explore Trace’s Vault

  Created by: Moonrain Media / Kira

  Expected Difficulty: Unknown

  Rewards: Unknown

  As we took a shuttle down to the surface below, Nel had to take the ship off-world so we wouldn’t be discovered by any of the dozens of FTC fighters flying overhead every eight to ten minutes. We stuck to the trees as much as we could before finally making our way inside the back of the compound, which was made of spare starship parts that couldn’t be salvaged. Parts of reactors made up walls and a massive wing stood straight up from the ground like a giant buried sideways in the ground. The compound itself was unguarded. Nothing but scraps. Yueng planted a charger on one of the walls and we stood back as it blew apart. Dust and debris fell around us as we adhered respirators to our face. It was a safe bet that the vault was booby-trapped, so we were going to be taking extra precautions anyway. Not that it would make a difference. Poison gas was one thing but if the vault was rigged with acid or lasers we wouldn’t stand a chance. Assuming it had a failsafe that would lock anyone out that wasn’t Trace was also a fair bet.

  Detonating the wall, we were swarmed by several Wraiths, bio-engineered in Trace’s lab and fitted with collars. Three of them went down without a hitch, but the fourth and final one began to mutate into something else as the others fell. Some kind of aberration. It was harder to kill than the others but nevertheless it still went down. Several of the Silvermane scouts that accompanied us had taken major damage.

  The second trap before reaching the vault entrance was just as difficult: a small minefield. Gorge and Chaz took point, disarming all of them one at a time. We wasted nearly forty-five minutes walking ten feet just to reach the access panel to the vault.

  ‘No wonder he didn’t get much company,’ Yueng said as Gorge handed him the last mine.

  ‘Acid mines; we were right, I think this vault is going to take more than just a key to get inside,’ Gorge walked up to the panel. In front of him was the insert for the key, alongside a hand print screen. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Instead of trying to hack his way through, Gorge simply laid his hand on the screen and inserted the key. In that moment I was sure we were all going to be blown to pieces. Never had I been so happy to be wrong. Gorge looked back at us and smiled, ‘that’s my ol’ buddy.’

  The vault opened to a staircase that led to another door. This door looked ancient, alien. Runes were etched all across it, like it had been dug up from ruins somewhere.

  ‘Stronger than ship metal, this is one of the most rare elements in the game,’ Kira said, studying the door with her hand.

  ‘I’d be careful,’ said Chaz, ‘might still be traps.’

  ‘Probably not. We made it past the welcome mat,’ she smiled back, motioning for Gorge to lead the way inside.

  ‘Bet you wish you had a camera on us right now,’ Cass laughed.

  Kira wasn’t so cheerful, ‘capturing things with cameras is about making memories immortal, I’m not sure I want to remember any of this, if those Wraiths and mines are anything to go by, I’m afraid of what we are going to see inside.’

  As Gorge opened the door I felt the hair on my arms stand.

  Location Discovered: Trace’s Vault

  Maitreya

  It was cold. Freezing inside. The vault, of course, was bigger on the inside. We weren’t surprised by that. Trace was more than a slicer, he was a master of deception. The simple staircase that we followed down to the alien door had actually taken us several levels below the surface of the planet. The moment Gorge opened the alien door the one behind us closed and we were sealed inside. This also wasn’t a surprise. The inside of the door had a place for identification and the key as well. That was Trace’s failsafe. No one could enter or leave without his permission and somehow Gorge had earned that. Fighting side by side with Trace must have brought Gorge close to him. Maybe as close as the five of us now. No. Closer. I had the feeling Gorge knew Trace in real life. Something about the way he spoke about him. The way it reminded me of my love for Damien and Kira’s love for her lost brother. These thoughts put me in mind of why we were fighting. There was no bargaining with Skull-Faced Man but if he was outside the Cold Zone did we really have to go through all this trouble anymore? Shouldn’t we be searching for clues on the surface, putting out bounties…no, that would end with others getting killed. We had to move forward with what we knew.

  Moving forward was all we could do. Gorge led us through the vault, which looked like a high tech but abandoned zoo.

  ‘Why are all the animals gone?’ Chaz asked.

  ‘Moved to a separate location? Maybe they disappeared with Trace’s death,’ Gorge answered.

  ‘You mean his capture, Trace wouldn’t go down,’ said Yueng.

  ‘He’s gone and you know it, the only reason we were allowed in is because this is mine now,’ Gorge replied.

  ‘Yours?’

  ‘A couple days ago I noticed the appearance of a new item in my inventory. It was a red key card, sent by Trace. The two of us use to joke about key cards and how they were used in some of the first games to open doors. Once, when the two of us were on tour, all we had for entertainment was an old system and we would take turns playing for hours.’

  ‘How old are you again?’ Chaz cut in.

  ‘Old enough,’ Gorge grinned.

  ‘The two of you served in real life together?’

  ‘It was after the fall, resources were scarce and the tides rose. I was young and found honour in defending what we had left.’

  ‘What happened?’ Chaz asked.

  Gorge turned away and pointed, ‘what we are looking for should be just ahead, I think in one of the locked boxes over there, I’ve added all of you to the vault’s personnel so you shouldn’t have any problems opening anything without permission but be careful. Trace never liked strangers messing with his things.’

  As the others walked towards the chests to search them, Gorge grabbed me by the hood of my jacket and called out to Kira. He pulled us aside, ‘follow me.’ Kira’s ear twitched. Together the three of us went deeper into the vault and passed through another alien door.

  ‘The two of you remind me of Trace and I,’ he said.

  ‘Thanks, I guess,’ Kira replied.

  ‘Right, you should be thanking me, what we are after is going to take us straight to the last level of hell,’ he replied.

  ‘What exactly are we looking for?’ I asked.

  ‘It will look like a metal brace, small, should be a few of them actually, a prototype, a type-one and a type-two. Somehow I can’t help but think Trace had made them for us. I’ve been thinking about this since the three of us were attacked in the Spire. Trace had a way of reasoning, seeing things no one else could. Patterns. He developed the braces as a mod originally to hide his own identity. Maybe he was paranoid,’ Gorge stopped, holding his hand up and the three of us ducked down readying our rifles.

  ‘Something is wrong,’ he said closing his hand in a fist.

  There in the darkness, thirty yards ahead of us, stood an old man with grey hair and a white beard wearing a pair of brown rags. Chains were wrapped around his wrists and a collar around his neck.

  ‘Is that Trace?’ Kira asked.

  ‘No, maybe what he looked like in the real world but not in the game,’ Gorge answered.

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘A mimic: guess
not all of his experiments disappeared.’

  ‘Do we kill it?’

  Gorge paused for a moment, then smiled. ‘I kill it.’ And with that he stood up and the mimic turned towards him and jumped. Gorge pulled out a knife from the ether and slashed its neck. The mimic screamed and the alien door behind us closed shut, separating us from the others. Grabbing the mimic’s wrist, Gorge pulled its arm back behind its back standing up and forcing the mimic version of his best friend to its knees. Taking his knife, he dug it again into the creature’s neck. I turned away and closed my eyes. I couldn’t believe Gorge could kill the creature without so much as a single hesitation. When I opened my eyes he tossed me a bloody metal bracer.

  ‘Trace always said I should be the one to kill him. It was cruel joke,’ Gorge grinned cleaning the mimic’s blood from his knife wiping it off on his dark sleeve. Kira and I both looked at him, I was sure he could see the fear and confusion in our eyes. A cruel joke? What kind of relationship did the two of them have?

  ‘That’s one. Two more to find.’

  ‘Do you think the others are going to be guarded by Trace clones?’

  ‘Nah, that joke is only funny once. Test out the bracer.’

  I handed the bracer over to Kira and at Gorge’s urging she left our party.

  ‘Now scan her,’ he said.

  Surprisingly, Kira’s identity read as that of someone totally different.

  Name: Rama

  Age: 17

  Level: 16

  Status: Alive

  Mana: 100

  Class: Paladin

  Health: 100

  Stamina: 100

  Load out: Empty

  Even her inventory read empty. It was the perfect disguise to use against a machine. Not that it would work against a player very well.

  ‘That must be the type-one,’ said Gorge, ‘the prototype couldn’t hide load out and the type-two will let you create a hologram over your own avatar to disguise against other players…kind of like how Aiden is pretending to be you right now,’ Gorge laughed, perhaps enjoying the thought that Trace had got to that idea before anyone else. When Kira rejoined our party her real stats became clear to us again. I wondered aloud why the bracer wouldn’t work in parties.