Star Divers- Dungeons of Bane

by Stephen Landry

  With a small growl, Aiko crawled towards me, uninjured.

  ‘Alive,’ Gorge answered first, moving his cybernetic jaw back into place.

  ‘Here,’ Kira said next, adjusting her neck.

  ‘Present,’ Chaz called out from the ground.

  ‘I’m okay,’ said Cass, ‘is Nel offline?’

  ‘Nel isn’t answering, I think the intercoms went down with communications, I’m trying to get in touch via a terminal,’ I answered. I moved through several lines of code. I was unsure of what I was doing, for the most part just feeling my way across the ship’s terminal. It was a simple text-based graphic system similar to MS-DOS. After struggling for a few moments I managed to open a channel with Nel.

  ‘Alive?’ I typed.

  ‘As living as a robot can be.’

  ‘Condition?’

  ‘Damaged; body in self-repair mode; diagnostic not good.’

  ‘Can you control the ship? Where are we?’

  ‘Arrays disconnected; damage to ship is devastating.’

  Air: Online

  Gravity: Online

  Communications: Offline

  Hull Integrity: 34%

  Weapons: Offline

  STL Drive: Disabled

  Ion Drive: Offline

  Shields: 14%

  Agility: 0%

  Armour: 55%

  Fuel: 8t (currently running down)

  Max jump avail: 0 Ly

  Nel showed me the ship’s stats again. They had dropped since I looked at them last, but that wasn’t important. I knew that was happening.

  ‘Can you get us out of here?’

  ‘Negative.’

  ‘Can you tell us where we are?’

  ‘Negative.’

  There was nothing Nel could do to save us. The Lady was falling apart.

  ‘Finish self-repair, disconnect from ship’s servers and meet us on the bridge; be careful not to blow out the air,’ I typed to Nel.

  ‘Affirmative.’

  I filled everyone in on the situation. We had few options but luckily we did have a way to communicate in a way that would have been impossible if we were limited to the game.

  ‘Cass can you logout and contact Lady Gray and send us a rescue?’ I asked.

  ‘No problem, but we still don’t have any idea where we are.’

  ‘Can we pull up our jump co-ordinates?’

  ‘We were set to make a jump to quadrant five but we missed, most likely we overshot it because of the energy surge, we could be anywhere between the Spire and where we want to be,’ answered Gorge.

  ‘Can we figure out where we are via the stars?’ Chaz asked.

  ‘You are welcome to look, but without a star map or at least one already identifiable object we are lost,’ answered Kira.

  ‘I’m logging out now, I’ll have Lady Gray see if they can get a lock on Nel from the Titan. Since Nel is Corpse Diver property, she might be able to locate us via item finder,’ Cass said.

  ‘Nice idea, we’ll wait,’ I smiled as Cass logged out, her avatar going blank in one of the bridge’s command chairs.

  Three Hours Later

  Air: 60%

  Gravity: Online

  Communications: Offline

  Hull Integrity: 25%

  Weapons: Offline

  STL Drive: Offline

  Ion Drive: Offline

  Shields: 10%

  Agility: 0%

  Armour: 45%

  Fuel: 5t (currently running down)

  Max jump avail: 0 Ly (25 max)

  Nel came through an airlock attached to the broadside of the bridge Usually used for ambassadors or VIPs, the air dock was just large enough for a person six-foot tall and three feet wide. Enough for Nel to slip through. If worst came to worst we could use space suits. The ship was becoming nothing more than salvage.

  We had started losing air not long after Cass logged out. The hull was also being bombarded by small meteorites, which meant we were inside some star system but I was unsure which one. We even tried Chaz’s idea of looking at the stars but nothing did any good. There was nothing we could identify, even with Nel’s help.

  I sat with my back against the wall, Aiko lay beside me with her head on my lap. I was afraid. Afraid that would be the end of all of us. That our luck had run out. Why was Cass taking so long?

  ‘What if one of us goes outside and re-aligns the array?’ asked Kira.

  ‘It could work but whoever risks it could die in the process,’ Gorge said.

  ‘Why not you?’ she called back.

  ‘I’m not ready to give up my life when help is on the way,’ he answered.

  ‘Maybe the lack of oxygen won’t kill you; as soon as our avatars start to suffer from an inability to breathe we’ll automatically be logged out. We won’t have a chance,’ said Kira.

  ‘You don’t think the same thing will happen to me?’ asked Gorge.

  ‘No, I don’t. I think you are more machine than man.’

  ‘Stop it, both of you. Why are you arguing? We still have several hours before our air goes bad. Cass has plenty of time to rescue us,’ interrupted Chaz.

  I was tired of them arguing but knew there was little I could do to stop it. The seed Kira had planted within me had begun to bear fruit and it was obvious she was harbouring some kind of anger towards Gorge.

  Three and a half hours...

  ‘You know, going up against Lady Gray, it wouldn’t be a fight, it would be an act of murder,’ Chaz said. I was wondering why he said it. Nobody stood a chance against the Lady on their own. That was a fact. She was a high-level player that wasn’t just a prodigy but she had armour and equipment that cost just as much as her Titan.

  ‘Why would you want to go up against her?’ I asked.

  ‘I’m just thinking aloud: what if she cut us off, we’d have no choice,’ he answered back. The thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Lady Gray had invested so much into us, it seemed pretty lame to think she would let all of us die out here in the void.

  ‘You’re worried she abandoned us?’ Kira asked,

  Chaz was sour. ‘I’m pretty sure I just said that.’

  ‘Sorry, yeah. If she did that, she would lose her reputation. And if something happens to us in game our secret goes public,’ Kira pointed out.

  ‘You’re blackmailing her?’ Gorge laughed, questioningly.

  ‘Not blackmailing, I just made sure there was some insurance in place should anything happen to my avatar.’

  ‘Blackmailing; lucky you don’t have an accident in the real,’ said Chaz.

  ‘She wouldn’t do that,’ I immediately spoke up.

  ‘How do you know? Do know the Lady personally?’ Chaz asked.

  I wasn’t sure exactly what to say so I said nothing.

  ‘Of course he has met her in the real, don’t be stupid,’ said Gorge. Chaz went silent after that as was Kira.

  Another hour passed while Nel tried and failed to reboot the communications. I thought about logging out to get something to eat. I was feeling uneasy in the tight space. The walls felt like they were starting to close in on me. I could feel the seeds of doubt, or mistrust, my loss of faith growing as I looked at the players around me. Chaz, the noob, Kira, the intimidator, Gorge, the robot, Nel, the mule. My own familiar Aiko felt like my only true friend.

  ‘You have a heavy heart,’ Gorge was staring at me.

  ‘How would you know?’

  ‘You lost your friend and since that time haven’t stopped. Now here we are, all of us, face forward against a wall we can’t climb nor move around. Four of us trapped in a void,’ as he spoke of our being trapped in the void, I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or himself. His eyes looked around the room and back towards me, ‘I understand what it feels like to lose a part of yourself, to lose family, to lose what makes you whole. To run for so long only to be forced to stop.’

  ‘What do you know?’ asked Kira.

  ‘And you; you lost your brother. You lost your family and yet you ar
e still here playing the game, searching for truth, running the business you and your brother built. It’s amazing. Neither of you have stopped to breath the air around you, to look forward into the future, to define yourselves. Both of you are so young and yet so full of pain, suffering, guilt. Believing that it should have been you that ventured into the Cold Zone. Believing that it should have been you that died. Afraid of everyone and everything you meet and yet you still move forward.’

  ‘I AM NOT AFRAID!’ Kira shouted. Gorge had hit a nerve.

  ‘Afraid of me, of what I am. Don’t think I’m unaware you ran a search on me. You are afraid of what you can’t find. Afraid of the unknown.’

  ‘And who wouldn’t be afraid of the unknown?’

  ‘The unknown is why we are here. It is not wrong to be afraid of it, however it is wrong to hide away your true self and live a lie. I know you think I’m not real,’ Gorge was smiling through his beard.

  Kira looked like she was ready to draw her gun. I could see her hand shaking. Gorge hadn’t moved but it was painfully obvious he would be faster if they both drew on one another, not to mention that Gorge was cybernetic and could probably take even Kira’s strongest weapon.

  ‘I am not an NPC.’

  ‘Tell me what you are,’ Kira demanded.

  Gorge looked down. I could see a pain in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I thought we could all trust one another, knowing who we were in Bane, in this world and that our actions would be enough,’ he began. He looked over at me and Aiko, ‘I can see doubt in your eyes.’

  ‘Who are you?’ Kira demanded again. Gorge turned his gaze back to her.

  ‘I’m paralyzed from the waist down, I lost my arm and leg in the war. I eat through a tube in my stomach and have a nurse that works on my body. My pod is special. Linked to the game via a neural interface with wires running straight in through my spine. Experimental. In the real world I can’t move on my own, In Bane I’m me again, I have my body, my arms, the phantom pain disappears, I can live the life I want. I can eat food through my mouth,’ Gorge spoke with such sadness I felt my heart ache. Kira on the other hand looked like she wasn’t sure if she believed him.

  ‘I’ve sent you my file, uploaded through our party. I did a great job of hiding who I am in the real world because of the name I made for myself in-game. I’m sorry you misread that. I bulked a bunch of excess materials and sold them. That was the hardest part, selling it all, losing my merchant license on the Spire and becoming a fugitive, hiding my identity.’

  I felt like I had betrayed him. Gorge shouldn’t have had to tell us any of that. Not now, not ever. It wasn’t our business who he was in the real. Even if he was an NPC it shouldn’t have mattered because he was and always had been on our side.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said.

  ‘No worries, I’m sorry that I wasn’t honest sooner. I’m more machine than man. I live in Bane more than I live in the real world. Trace was one of my best friends. I hid parts of my story away because I was just as afraid as the two of you. Afraid of being seen as weak. Afraid if you knew who I was in the real you would feel sorry for me, that you might treat me differently. The two of you are not the only ones that have lost someone because of the man in the skull mask.

  ‘At first I joined you because I believed in your cause and what the two of you were facing. I am a part of this whether you want me with you or not. Understand that experience has taught me one thing. We will fail if we don’t trust one another.’

  And with that Gorge had cleared the air and I was left feeling like an idiot for my actions.

  ‘We will never think of you as weak,’ Kira said. It was her apology and in that moment I knew that we were a team again.

  Five Hours Later

  Air: 30%

  Gravity: Online

  Communications: Offline

  Hull Integrity: 15%

  Weapons: Offline

  STL Drive: Offline

  Ion Drive: Offline

  Shields: 5%

  Agility: 0%

  Armour: 35%

  Fuel: 0t

  Max jump avail: 0 Ly

  The Lani had been pulled into orbit around a gas giant.

  Comms back online

  FTC Comm Intercept.

  Field Unit: We have unauthorized vessel in grid 15. Sending a unit to check it out. Have support on stand-by.

  Five and a half hours

  ‘Stand back behind me,’ Gorge said turning the bridge into a barricade moments after we intercepted the FTC chatter. We knew they were docking at our airlock. This was a matter of life and death, the three of us currently had the most recognizable faces in the game. For half an hour we waited for them to reach our location and scan our ship. They would read six life signs. The four of us stood with our weapons ready and I ordered Aiko to stand down behind me next to Cass’s avatar.

  ‘At best they sent a six-man team, ten at most: if we manage to take them out we can use their ship to get out of here, we got this,’ I said encouragingly. Gorge grunted and Kira nodded her head. I was hoping for more than that but it was the best I would get given the circumstances. Nel was behind us as well beside Aiko and Cass. Worst case scenario, we would go out in a blaze of gunfire.

  ‘Attention, this is the No Guts, No Glory asking the crew of The Lady of Lani to surrender, we are coming aboard. Your vessel is heavily damaged and floating in FTC territory,’ the voice said.

  ‘Nice name for a ship,’ said Gorge, ‘get ready.’

  Sparks flew from the airlock as three FTC soldiers stepped through onto the bridge. As we opened fire, we were hit with a pulse that jammed our guns. Another three soldiers appeared with stun batons and swords. They wanted us alive. I unsheathed Aegis, preparing to attack, but before I could Aiko jumped out from behind us. Transforming from a wolf-like creature to a larger, almost dragon-like monster Aiko’s jaw unhinged and bit down on one of the soldiers. Another two fell backwards as Aiko’s tail extended outwards, swiping back and forth. As the first soldier fell to the ground unconscious, most likely dead, Aiko clawed and tackled the other three. About ten seconds later, our guns came back online and Aiko sat there dog-like, blue and white fur soaked in a pool of blood.

  ‘Good boy,’ I said, not quite sure what exactly happened.

  Chaz was looking with amazement at the dead soldiers. ‘Wow.’

  ‘None of them are players,’ said Kira.

  ‘That was amazing,’ said Gorge excitedly, ‘your familiar is one badass.’

  I wasn’t quite sure what to think. Aiko had levelled up twice. I put 15 points into Attack Boost and another 15 into Defence.

  ‘Having a familiar means always having someone at your side; the moment Aiko sensed you were in danger she reacted,’ Kira said reassuringly.

  We moved through the airlock and boarded the FTC ship. It was a small shuttle. Nel carried Cass’s body and we said goodbye to the Lani. As we drifted away we took one last look at our luxury liner, noticing how it looked like it had been run through a trash compactor. The entire hull was like crinkled paper, broken bits were floating in space, even pieces of Naomi’s Grace, Nel’s mech, were splintered where the entire backside of the ship was separated from the rest. Behind all that debris there was a blue ball of fire surrounding what had been the STL drive.

  ‘Do you think it would have turned into a dungeon?’ I asked.

  ‘Maybe, once it crashed somewhere, given enough time,’ Gorge said.

  ‘Blow it up,’ Kira said.

  ‘Why not leave it?’

  ‘If it becomes a dungeon it will have records of what happened, hidden messages, parts of our history will remain in the ruins,’ she answered.

  Gorge took the controls of the shuttle and destroyed the Lani.

  ‘Done,’ he smiled.

  ‘Sorry about your mech Nel,’ I said softly.

  ‘Apologies. Would you like some cookies before we die?’ Nel asked before going into a temporary sleep mode.

  ‘So where are we?’ I asked.


  ‘Quadrant Three, FTC space, let me give us a little boost and we’ll be just inside the Ilioneius Star System,’ answered Gorge.

  From the shuttle we could see a gas giant three times the size of Jupiter. Similar in colour to the nebula, the planet was made of red and purple gas clouds with dozens of storms raging across the surface.

  New Location Discovered: No Guts, No Glory

  / Ilioneius Star System

  The message appeared. This was my first time in this system.

  ‘Can we jump to the Spire in this?’ Kira asked.

  ‘No, we can’t, they will ask us for codes. They probably already have a second unit on their way after us,’ Gorge said.

  ‘Good thing I’m back,’ Cass said behind us, ‘what the hell happened?’

  Kira hugged her, ‘almost died, pirated an FTC shuttle.’

  ‘The Ibanez is on its way here along with Shiru and Pierce, they are going to provide us some support, sorry it took me so long.’ Cass smiled.

  ‘What about Aiden and our facade?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, you just bought a brand new state-of-the-art, high end and luxurious destroyer called the Crimson Killer,’ Cass said laughing. Now not only was I wanted throughout the galaxy by the Spire, the Crimson Kings, and anyone looking for a payday but I was rubbing it in their faces. I shook my head in disbelief; still, I couldn’t help but smile.

  Seven Hours Later

  Location: the Ibanez

  Ilioneius Star System

  We boarded the Ibanez and it was a relief to feel safe again. Both Shiru and Pierce joined our party and handed control of the ship over to Nel, who came out of sleep mode apologizing that that unfortunately the cookies had all been eaten and thanking them for not damaging the ship with their amateur flying.

  We had one day left before our mission to the Spire.

  Logout.

  23.

  The Core

  The Real

  After logging out, I could feel my hands shaking. It had been almost an entire day since I last ate and slept. Reynolds was waiting for me like usual, with a ball of rice and a protein blend. Although I felt like I couldn’t stomach the chalk taste, I downed it as he watched in approval. I was a puppet still and had to do what the company wanted. After dinner and another hour of study, I said goodbye to Reynolds and turned off the lights in my penthouse. It was still all so unreal. The bed was softer than anything I’d ever slept on before and some nights it seemed easier to sleep on the floor with a blanket beneath my head. This night…the night before our next quest I made a decision. I wasn’t going to live as a pet rat in a cage. I was young, human, and I wanted out. Maybe I was going stir crazy, maybe it was the pressure of the game. I contacted Hannah through the backdoor Kira had built and in the darkness of the night I planned my escape.