Cold War Rune: A Virtual Reality novel (Rune Universe Book 2)

by Hugo Huesca

  “This is all void if anything happens to my mom. And to Martinez’ kids. Get them all out without a single scratch and I’ll tell the alien president you’re totally his type,” I said.

  “If there’s something akin to an alien president, Cole Dorsett,” she said, “I think we’re all doomed anyway. Democracy wasn’t built for this brave new world we’re barreling towards.”

  I could see a bunch of PDF soldiers (Alliance-members? As if!) run towards her along with her robots. Whatever I thought about her, at least she worked fast.

  “Take care, my friends,” she told us. “I’d love to help you in Rune, but, you know. Threat of war and all.”

  And then the communications turned off.

  Rylena sighed. “Why do I feel like we just got touched inappropriately? I need an adult.”

  We caught up to the rest of the team in the Command Center, right in the spot where Jenkins had recruited me for the Quest. The only guy who wasn’t around was Jarred, the NPC accountant. I suspected he wouldn’t be showing his face anytime soon, if ever.

  Since Beard and Walpurgis had us in their Social screens too, they knew we were coming. I saw Derry’s grim face standing by the General Jenkins, Panarin next to him.

  Derry and Panarin were more or less Jenkins’ rank in each of their jobs, I thought, looking at them. Made for a fitting image, if ruined by both players’ mid-game gear.

  “Irene!” Walpurgis was the first to reach us. “What the hell, you two? I’ve been worried sick! You,” she pointed at my chest with an accusatory finger. “How dare you leave me standing around like a housewife while you run off? What about your sister! What about your mother? What about Irene…! No, wait, what about Irene? Weren’t you with the bad guys?”

  “Please, let’s not simplify a complex issue by calling Sleipnir the bad guys,” said Beard from his spot, but no one was in the mood.

  Rylena beat me to the answer. “Sleipnir blackmailed me, I pretended to go along with it, then ran off with Cole after we hijacked a Whistleblower.”

  “Ah. Got it.”

  I knew I should really let it stand, but it was just too much. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

  “Well…” Walpurgis smiled and I knew I’d fallen into some kind of terrible trap. Turns out, I was right. “I got to comfort your hot sister about her mean and nasty brother, so all in all I’m the real winner here.”

  “Oh, go f—”

  “Guys?” Beard shoved himself in the middle of us before we demolished the Center in a fight. “The Quest to save the world? General Jenkins is standing riiiiight there, you know?”

  Jenkins waved a confused hand around, as if in greeting. “Yes, I admit I’m a bit confused. The fate of the world? Earth is doing just fine.”

  That was a can of worms I wasn’t willing to open with the NPC. “My friend likes to overreact. Will you give us just a minute, General?”

  “You took out Lion Fang before I’d had time to eat dinner. You can take as long as you’d like.”

  I gestured for Derry and Panarin to come closer. If we were going to do this, I preferred if they knew the terms and conditions had changed.

  The ex-Director had distrust painted clear as day on his face. “So, you return after disappearing without a word, Dorsett, accompanied by a known Sleipnir collaborator, no less. Don’t you find it at least a bit disconcerting?”

  “More than a little, Derry,” said Panarin. The two of them towered over Rylena and I like a two-man jury. I looked around and caught Mai, Joseph, and Anders glancing at us. “More than a little.”

  We don’t have time for this.

  “You have to either trust us or piss off, sorry. We’ve no way of proving we’re on your side,” said Rylena. She wasn’t very high in the Persuasion ranks, actually. I nudged her gently and then faced Derry:

  “I lied about my reasons to go to the apartment. Nothing I told you was true.”

  “I already pieced that together, Dorsett. I’m not an idiot.” Derry ignored Walpurgis’ coughing behind him. “Your friend here explained how your mother got captured by Sleipnir. That’s a lot of leverage they have against you. Family and girlfriend in the hands of the other side? This operation has been compromised, and I’m canceling it.”

  “OK, then leave. We can stop them by ourselves,” Rylena said. “Nothing you can do about it.”

  “Ryl?” I whispered to her using our private comm channel. “We need all the help we can get.”

  “He tried to kill us,” she whispered back, angrily. “He actually succeeded with Darren.”

  “Then he saved my life a day ago,” I told her. “Remember that? I at least owe him an explanation.”

  Then, out loud:

  “I went to the safe house. Got intercepted by Sleipnir. Turns out, Rylena and Martinez were deep undercover. Martinez didn’t make it, but we escaped. If you don’t believe me, you can talk to Stefania Caputi about it. She believes us.”

  Derry eyes narrowed into slits. “So your allegiances have changed, after all. What did you offer Caputi, Dorsett? No, you don’t even have to say it. You’ll get the Device’s software for her.”

  “I won’t stand for this,” said Panarin. “Derry, our terms stated clearly we would either stop the Device from being built entirely, or we would release it to both countries.”

  “Dude. You can have a copy for all I care,” I told him. It was true. My deal with Caputi only called for her receiving the software, not keeping it out of Panarin’s hands.

  It’s not like it’ll be of any use to him. Not without me to press the stupid button.

  Was that true, though? Limitations could be worked around with enough time and effort. If that was the case, it would be for the better, perhaps.

  “I don’t trust you, Dorsett,” Panarin told me.

  “Whatever. Then leave. I don’t care about your terms with Derry, I didn’t agree to them. You can either help us now and get a copy of the software, or you can take off and get shit. Your call, buddy.”

  “Spoken like a true American s—” Anders put a hand on Panarin’s shoulders and cut him off:

  “He has you by the balls, old man, have some class. Sucks when it happens to you, right?”

  At least Anders’ suspicions were culled. Mai just sighed:

  “I’ll follow the Director’s orders. But I think Anders is right, we have no other choice.”

  “How nice of you,” Walpurgis told her.

  But it seemed we had reached an agreement. Panarin didn’t say much after that, but there was no need. My crew didn’t even need him or Derry, and they both knew it.

  We needed Mai, because of her specialization and her fighter ship.

  We needed Anders and Joseph because they were end-game players, too.

  It was bizarre how the power had shifted. Generals and Directors were being left in the dust of their own schemes.

  “Finally,” said Beard. “I just want to finish building the goddamn thing.”

  He added through our private channel:

  “Irene, Cole, you and I are going to have a long talk after this. We need to discuss your taking stupid risks, okay? Pissing off powerful people is never a smart idea, no matter if you can get the jump on them in the short term. Panarin can make my life very difficult here in Russia, if he chooses. And John Derry returned from the dead and went straight to wage a one man war. Never underestimate that kind of obsessive behavior.”

  “I agree with Gabrijel,” said Walpurgis. “Even if we win today, we’ll have to spend the rest of our lives looking behind our backs. Let’s hope it’s worth it.”

  “We have no other choice,” Rylena said. “But you do. You can always walk away.”

  “C’mon, Master Rylena,” Francis butted into the conversation. “You don’t need Masters Beard and Walpurgis to know they love playing at heroes as much as you do. Get on with the Quest; you four know no one is walking away. Not me, either, because I don’t have legs. Not that everyone ever asks about me.�
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  “HAL 9000 is right,” Walpurgis said. “Nothing you can do to stop me, so let’s get on with it.”

  So, our team grew several members larger that day. I walked towards Jenkins just as the others started to think it was weird for Rylena, Beard, Walpurgis, and I to just stand there in silence.

  “Alright, General. Let’s talk about that base.”

  “Of course, Captain Picard. Like I promised, I investigated the matter as soon as you left. Took a lot more time than I thought. Apparently, there’s quite a lot of organizations comprised solely of the Federation’s super soldiers. Quite strange, if you ask me—I’m not aware of any other general keeping tabs on them.”

  “That’s because you’re a fake human being in a fake virtual world,” Derry said.

  General Jenkins ignored him like he wasn’t there at all.

  “So, working through them all took more time than listing them, as you could imagine. I could’ve delivered the unfiltered list and that would’ve satisfied the terms of our agreement, but in light of your previous services I decided to go the extra light-year. You’re looking for a secretive group of people, aren’t you? Well, I filtered each group for their relation to other soldiers and organizations. I found one who hadn’t even contracted external help to build their base and have kept contact to a minimal since their creation in the Federation Research Facility.”

  I would’ve hugged the old General if protocol allowed for such a thing. His information would have taken us a while to find out, even with Francis’ help.

  “Sounds like our guys,” I told Jenkins. The general nodded with satisfaction and produced a small, hack-proof data-cartridge from his inventory.

  “Here are their coordinates and the little we found out about their base. Their organization has no name, but we’ve found fifty soldiers operational, and almost a hundred strong in total. Today, the numbers may be bigger. There’s a lot of activity.”

  I held the cartridge and studied the tiny cylinder with fascination. It was the type of tech that would look out of place in the real world. The cartridge had a lid, so I removed it with a push of my thumb and found out why the cartridge was hack-proof. It contained a small piece of paper inside. How quaint.

  “Thank you, General,” I said with genuine gratitude. “You’ve been a great help.”

  “I suppose so. Very well, old chap. If there’s nothing else to discuss, I believe you and your team have pressing matters to attend to.”

  You wouldn’t know the half of it.

  “Oh yes. Until next time, General.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Infiltration 101

  Sleipnir was building a battleship, from the looks of it. Around the size of a dreadnought, with less firepower, but faster. The PDF fielded them in all their major engagements. The difference was that the PDF had a player-base of several thousand, and could afford to pay for them. A hundred players would never come close… Hell, they were barely enough to crew it.

  All the newly formed anti-Sleipnir task force (provisional name) circled around the hologram and started a heated discussion. Meanwhile, Spark Bandit came online.

  Our conversation was short and to the point, since Walpurgis had already briefed her in to what had happened with me. I told her once more I was sure that Mom and Harrison would be okay. If there was someone on Earth who could get them out unharmed, it was Stefania Caputi.

  “Then I’ll see you soon, bro,” Van told me. I could see her eyes almost burning with rage. “I’m looking forward to ruining the day of the motherfuckers who messed with us.”

  Behind her, something green and scaly grunted. The connection cut off.

  I let out the tension I had been hiding during our chat.

  “They want to be a major playing force,” Rylena pointed out. “To build one of those without grinding for years… They must be buying databytes with real money.”

  “It’s in line with Dervaux’s style,” Derry said. I briefly wondered if the drawings and information floating in front of us even made sense to him. “She likes to secure all the advantages, as fast as possible.”

  His gaze turned distant for a second. Rylena shrugged and continued:

  “They must have six or seven Diamond-ranked Engineers in their payroll. The construction is moving very fast, for a hundred people without NPC support.”

  “Weapons systems are operational,” said Walpurgis. “Twenty fighters, eight starfighters, ten freighters, ten orbital laser batteries, five plasma cannons, one lightspeed railgun. We’re a bit outgunned, people.”

  “There’s no way they can use them effectively,” Joseph said. “They’re too green. No way they have enough skill ranks.”

  “A lucky shot from the cannons still takes out the Teddy or the Lucky Star in one hit,” Walpurgis said. “And Cole’s good, but it’s hard to dodge well with twenty fighters on our tail.”

  I put my hand on Rylena’s shoulder, so she stopped her analysis of the data and looked at me.

  “What do you think of our chances in a space battle?” I asked. She was our Battlemind, after all.

  Her response was instant:

  “No way. We’re not taking out that thing with our current weaponry. Even with Mai’s fighter, the Teddy, the Lucky Star, your sister’s crew fighter’s… we simply lack the firepower.”

  Our eyes drifted towards the images floating in front of us. Francis had interpreted the handwriting and designed a half-armored battleship that we could study. A hundred different dots blinked around its surface; they looked like tiny ants slowly adding systems and armor in-between trips to the freighters that orbited the ship.

  “Our mission isn’t to destroy the ship,” Walpurgis pointed out. “We only have to take their software from them, remember?”

  “That’s surprisingly non-violent for you,” Beard told her.

  “I want to board them, so I can kill them face to face.”

  Rylena and I stopped in our tracks and turned to face our friend.

  “If we get in, we have a fighting chance,” Rylena said.

  “Now I know you’re trying to betray us,” Panarin instantly said. “A force of almost a hundred versus less than ten? We’d get slaughtered!”

  “A battleship interior is bound to also have static defenses,” Anders said. “Turrets and explosives, sealed corridors. Gas…”

  “Yeah, we know how to trap a ship,” Walpurgis cut him off before he could think of more nasty examples. “We have a Diamond-ranked Battlemind and a super-AI. We can get around the defenses.”

  “Still, like Panarin said… us against a hundred?”

  “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll wrap them up as gifts,” Walpurgis said.

  “Can we stop with the macho bullshit?” I stopped them. “I think we can do it. There’s a hundred guys with low skills and few of them are end-game geared. If we manage to infiltrate the ship…”

  “That’s a hell of a big if,” said Derry.

  Rylena was studying the drawings again. She spoke without turning back. “I can get us in.”

  “Sure you can,” Panarin said with a sardonic smile. “Perhaps you’ll get us in wrapped as gifts for Charli Dervaux.”

  Man, Teddy isn’t built for more than four or five crew-members. It was starting to feel a bit crowded, to be honest. One Panarin and one Derry too crowded. I had to make an effort to remind myself they were well-meaning.

  “Let’s hear it, Ryl,” said Beard. “You come up with the plan, we make it happen.”

  She pointed at the freighters. “There. That’s how we get in.”

  “Ah, sure, good call,” started Panarin, who wasn’t used to being second-in-command to anyone. “We’ll just walk quietly towards the videogame spaceship and get inside while they’re not looking. Excellent.”

  To my absolute surprise, Derry was the first to answer: “We did something similar back then, Panarin. Remember Udresh?”

  “That was reality,” Panarin said. “You can’t swim throu
gh the night and plant bombs in a real battleship here, if I understand her plans correctly. I almost wish we could. It would be the only thing that made sense about this damn thing.”

  But with Derry on our side (or at least willing to hear Rylena out) Panarin had lost half his support. Rylena didn’t let him gather back any steam:

  “We won’t be swimming anywhere. The way freighters work; they run out of cargo, they go back for more. They can either mine raw material from asteroids or use databytes in main trade ports for advanced components.”

  I had heard all I needed to hear. I could’ve said the next parts myself, almost word for word. As recognition flared in Walpurgis and Beard face, I realized they’d understood it too.

  “While they’re loading up their cargo, we infiltrate the freighter and hide,” Rylena went on. “Then, when they return to the battleship, we can infiltrate that one and strike at them when they don’t expect it. Preferably using explosives.”

  That earned a smile from her friends. It was a plan taken straight from Kipp’s playbook. I’ve never seen my friend play with his former crew—my friends—in Rune, but they had shown me the replays.

  Walpurgis and he had done the same thing Rylena was proposing now. Hidden in the cargo compartments of a pirate ship, infiltrated their space fortress, and dealt with every NPC inside. Their leader, a player with green cybernetic eyes, had been pissed beyond belief when she realized her brief term as a self-appointed pirate queen had come to such an abrupt end. So she declared a one-girl-war against Walpurgis and Kipp. Thus began a series of campaigns, plots, fragging, and counter-fragging that lasted the better part of a year.

  As it happens when three people spend so much time together, they ended up becoming friends.

  Years later, it seemed, Rylena still remembered that first adventure. She caught me staring and smiled sadly.

  “No way I can say no to that plan,” Walpurgis said, in almost a whisper. “And it’s as good as we’re going to get on such a short notice.”