Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  Outside the windshield, I saw where we’d clipped metal walls, ships, and yellow repair machines. We kept spinning through the carrier’s hangar like a pinball gone wild. Human workers looked on in horror. Various less sophisticated robots tried to go about their tasks only to be bowled out of the way. Stains splattered our front window during our violent bouncing.

  I felt sicker than ever before. My stomach threatened to crawl up and explode. This was more intense than the scariest amusement park ride ever because we were still crashing. The only reason I didn’t black out was because it was expected, and [Mechanoid]s didn’t believe in getting knocked out by a little thing like violently colliding with another ship.

  “Our shields are gone,” Jeeves said as we spun in circles. We hit another wall as the engines sputtered. Vehicle damage impacted our display. One part of our ship was crushed. “This is bad.”

  “Live a little!” I tried to shout but failed as nausea came in waves. If this game had given me the [Red Imp] ability for altered time perception, things would be fine.

  We rocked to a halt. The spinning motion wound down, and after a few seconds, we were no longer colliding with random parts of the cabin.

  “I am once again formally registering a complaint regarding your definition of living,” Jeeves said.

  “Jeeves, once we’re done, you and Dusk get that bomb set up.” I choked back another wave of bile.

  My body moved to undo the seat belt clasp and roll for the door. I could see faces past the display: humans, robots, a few other species. They appeared slack-jawed. I had to distract them before they fired on our battered craft.

  “Jeeves, set up the bomb, figure out an escape!” I addressed the small creature in my arms. “Dusk, just like before—protect Jeeves.”

  Dusk’s tail had left curved indents along my arm. His head spun, and the [Messenger’s Pet] may not have heard me. I triggered my class commands for the pet, and brief rays of green rippled up and down my arm, signifying the abilities kicking into action. Hopefully, they would give the little guy a boost.

  I had no time to figure it out. There was a hole in our ship. I crawled through it quickly while fighting to right my mind after that roller coaster. Jeeves should be able to do something. People were flying about as air sucked out into space.

  Our ship was trashed and low on energy, but I was full up. [Anchor] and [Power Suit] activated, the heavy weapon Gatling gun came up, and I opened fire. Lasers blasted into two defenseless enemy ships, making their engines explode, on the room’s far side. I panned the laser over to a stack of boxes. Bolts of fiery doom tore the bottom ones apart, making the piles topple over.

  My goal had been to cause as much chaos as possible. The last of my energy drained, and I let the Gatling gun reabsorb into my body. I ran for a wall to plot my next move. People were shouting words that oddly didn’t make much sense. It felt like the indistinguishable screams of people burning, dying.

  I felt sick but wouldn’t let that stop me. During my travels in Continue Online, I had run into a lot of things that gave me practice at swallowing back revulsion. This was a game, these were AIs, but they would survive, or respawn, or be blessed by the Voices to reincarnate into butterflies.

  Aside from all those self-justifications, I had to choose to sacrifice their virtual existences, or let Xin and Jeeves suffer the consequences.

  I let a few additional shots go off from the smaller wrist laser as I used [Anchor] and ran for another set of boxes. Humans scrambled poorly out of my way. Most were desperate to hold on to the ground until the air lock reasserted itself. They resembled engineers or other types of noncombatants. They could run away, and that only increased the chaotic situation.

  “Jeeves?” I whispered. “How much time?”

  “Four minutes, maybe five. I need room to get out and plant the bomb,” it said.

  Everything slammed down as the hole we had created sealed up. A faint halo of energy shimmered over the gap. I cursed. If that had stayed open, we could have done this whole mission a lot easier.

  Dusk poked his head out of a hole in the ship’s top. The sucking sounds of space pulling out objects had slowed drastically. He looked around in both directions as if he was picking out a spot to sleep. Then he hissed toward the far direction.

  I did not like what his hostile noise signaled. If things were even, Dusk didn’t get upset. If things were badly against us, he chittered, chirped, spit small balls of fire, or clawed at the ground, then hissed. A tall hunched over creature strode in through a far hallway. Their form was large enough to take up the entire passageway. At least fifteen feet tall and four times my video game character’s weight.

  “Voices,” I muttered. “This will be hard.”

  I saw Dusk leap down and scamper off toward one of the air vents. This room sealed behind us.

  “My ship!” the newest creature shouted. Air vibrated from its voice, and a few humans were knocked over by the power of that sudden burst. The being was carrying some fighter plane’s wing like a club. “Who did this to my ship?”

  Armor up and down the giant’s body obscured its skin. Only the being’s mouth was uncovered—the better with which to yell, I supposed.

  “Sir!” A human worker ran up and saluted hastily.

  My vision wasn’t good enough to pick out all the details of the human’s face from here. The giant creature smacked the offending human.

  “Ma’am!”

  A new one didn’t even hesitate and stepped right up. “Ma’am! A Mechanoid craft has broken into our launch bay. They are behind this, Ma’am!”

  The newest soldier was sent flying in the same arc. Crashes from his body broke up the sound of fire crackling.

  “Ma’am! They’re hiding over there!” a third human said.

  This one did not get bashed away and instead turned to run down the corridor where this monstrous creature had come from. Apparently calling Auntie Backstab “sir” caused issues.

  “I wish you luck, User Legate,” Jeeves said quietly. Both its voices sounded nervous.

  “Thanks,” I muttered as the giant turned in my direction.

  All I could see, aside from a body encased in metal, was a huge mouth dripping rabid amounts of drool. Letters slammed onto my ARC interface, proudly informing me of an impending boss battle.

  Boss Encountered!

  Name: Auntie Backstab

  Health Pool: A lot

  Damage Output: Will end you

  Happiness Level: -16

  Details: Nobody’s sure what kind of creature she is. Secretly, some brilliant scientists decided to inject [Leviathan] DNA into a [Behemoth]. Their results ended up killing them. Commander Queenshand won this gentle giant’s trust by promising endless combat and choice spaceships to eat. She does have a morbid sense of humor and chose the name Backstab to help confuse her opponents. When successfully turning an enemy into artwork paste, she is often quoted as saying “Backstab successful!”

  “I will crush you,” the mountain of an NPC said. “I will grind you bones and turn you flesh into soup!”

  I looked at the creature easily twice my height. This abomination felt familiar, in the way so many things did between games. I was sure my current foe was a copy of Continue Online’s Uncle Meanface.

  “Sorry. Mechanoids don’t have flesh,” I shouted, hoping to keep her attention on me. Sorry was not on my list of currently felt emotions. Panicked, running through escape routes, sorting past options of health and energy, yes, but not apologetic.

  “Rarrrghhhgh!” the armored-up bulk of angry mass yelled. The sound bounced off walls and vibrated my core.

  Stunned! Abilities requiring focus suffer a 50% penalty.

  “Nngh,” I groaned. Not this ability again. My weapons required [Focus] to use properly. William Carver’s [Stubborn as a Mule] ability couldn’t save me in space.

  Auntie Backstab raised a huge arm that was bigger than my increased body. I immediately made a decision. Some fights involved comba
t and overcoming the enemy. Other battles simply required staying alive long enough to allow my team to win.

  I said a prayer to the Voices and AIs running this game, then I dodged toward the nearest doorway. The wall of mean crashed after me, sending various broken bits of fighter planes flying as it moved. Running away from a giant monster intent upon drinking me like a gelatin shot was frightening without [Blink]. I resorted to madly scrambling through the ship’s halls.

  “Move!” I shouted at a crew member standing in my way.

  The man had a perplexed look, and his eyes widened as the stomping noise behind me sank in. I made it past him and two boxes. The man cried out in alarm as Auntie Backstab tore through right behind me.

  “Gotta slow her down,” I muttered.

  Ahead of me, a small head poked out of one vent. Dusk hissed again and spit a batch of acid. I dodged around it in alarm. The little guy was up to something.

  Auntie Backstab either didn’t see the green puddle or didn’t care. Her giant armored foot slammed into it, sending minor amounts of liquid splashing around.

  “Arrgh! Stupid snot balls!” she yelled again.

  Two messages popped up. One was the [Stunned] notification. I promptly stumbled into a wall as the effect hampered my movement. The second helped make up for it.

  [Oozed!] debuff applied to boss [Auntie Backstab]

  The boss’s [Speed] will be lowered by 10% per stack, for up to 5 seconds.

  The boss’s [Attractiveness] will be lowered by 10% per stack, for up to 5 seconds.

  Auntie Backstab’s [Attractiveness] was already in question. As for [Speed], five seconds was a lot of time. Especially if I could lure her into multiple stacks. Dusk popped out of another vent up ahead. It was a cue to lure our excessively loud, mean, and ugly boss monster into them.

  “I owe you cupcakes!” I said, my words echoing in the ship’s corridors as I dove around another corner. “So many cupcakes!”

  A pleased chirp came out of the vents. Dusk’s tiny raptor feet were skidding around rapidly as he tried to keep ahead of us. We made it up a hallway. Half a dozen ship workers either tried to stop me or ran to get out of Auntie Backstab’s way. Our mad dash around the ship’s hallways lasted a few minutes before something else went wrong.

  “User Legate, I seem to be in trouble,” Jeeves said.

  “Not neat,” I said in response.

  My arms and legs weren’t tired yet, but I had some message that my [Coordination] had missed a roll as my body fell to the floor. Auntie Backstab was close now. I got to my feet and ran from the hulk, looking for any obvious object to remove the threat with. There had to be something nearby that said, “Impale the boss here.” After six stacks of [Oozed!], the boss’s [Attractiveness] was like two pigs mating in a field of rotten pumpkins.

  Gooey leftovers from Dusk’s puddles caked the boss’s feet and legs. Her formerly shiny black-and-red armor looked like an evil Christmas decoration.

  “Dusk!” I shouted while slamming the [Defend] command for my [Domestic Trainer] class. “Protect Jeeves!”

  The [Messenger’s Pet] spit one extra ball of snot acid goo, then sprang out of the vent. The tiny raptor body flew past Auntie Backstab.

  “Crush little metal man! Crush little spitty thing!” she shouted.

  The long piece of wing she had been dragging around slammed abruptly into the space Dusk had just occupied. My friend hissed at her and spat a glob in the monster’s face.

  She howled. I backed up Dusk’s attack with a wrist laser blast to her face. Auntie Backstab didn’t lose much health, but she did howl in anger. The room quaked and vibrated as the giant half [Leviathan] thrashed wildly. The goop barely made her pause.

  I ran through the latest doorway only to find that we had reached the third floor. My newest route involved a walkway around the ship’s giant hangar. Jeeves was down below in the open. Dusk crawled down the wall swiftly, using his tail as an anchor. A crash behind me served as a reminder that their problems would be minimized by my running skills.

  Giant Gatling laser? Not enough. Her health pool was huge. Could my [Mechanical Minion]s be used to hamstring her? Technically there wasn’t a command for it, but Advance Online had been flexible enough so far. Maybe I could invent an ability on the spot. I could generate one minion without losing the [Power Armor] ability.

  “Stop running, metal man! I will only eat part of you!” the hulking monster yelled.

  My first tiny [Mechanical Minion] rippled and flowed into a ball. Watching a piece of me pull away like shedding metal skin was slightly creepy. I set it on the boss’s heels, literally. My former pelvis, hand, and leg bits ran off to attack their target.

  “I need my arms!” I replied. Part of me worried about the [Mechanical Minion]. Maybe she would think it was a snack pack or takeout being delivered right to her doorstep.

  “I will eat your legs then!” The idea made her start slobbering even harder.

  I felt as though the giant [Leviathan] was chasing me once again, an enormous maw filled with rows of teeth that promised painful crunching.

  The double laser sword came out next. I stabbed at anything that looked frail while running. Our thudding path across the hangar’s upper level was shaky at best. A few support struts and bound wires held up our causeway, so I cut them to slow the giant down.

  One [Mechanical Minion] didn’t seem to grab the giant mess of armor’s attention. The [Oozed!] effect had just worn off. I wasn’t running fast enough. Further minions would help, but we needed distance. I scrambled across the wing of a spaceship that sat docked inside and within leaping distance. It tilted to one side. The struts holding it up were a partial casualty of my initial burst with the Gatling laser gun.

  My footing slipped, and my heavy metal body scraped against the wing in a tumble. One hand gripped at an edge of the wreckage to break my fall. I landed with far less grace than desired. [Blink] would have been neat to have here.

  [Mechanoid] bodies felt diminished pain from ARC feedback, but one leg ceased to function fully. Numbness intertwined with a deep ache. A message popped up displaying the [Hobbled] condition, but I waved it away.

  I had distance. Out came the big gun once more. Metal rippled into the Gatling laser, and my energy was burned on firing wildly at walkways where Auntie Backstab lumbered. She had stalled slightly due to our narrowed passageways. Despite the insanity of our chase, she seemed to care for the ship’s structural integrity. I did not.

  The full burst drained my energy. Her health bar had hardly moved. Once again, I affirmed in my mind that this was a fight to run away from. Maybe during my next contribution grab, like the [Leviathan] kill, I could purchase a nuke and deal some real damage.

  Auntie Backstab let out a roar and fell from the floor above. She crashed into the remains of a fighter spaceship and flailed about. Chunks of machinery went everywhere, doing damage to her own people. The ship wing she had been carrying around lodged straight into a wall.

  Dusk was currently chewing some larger human’s shoulder. The two of them spun around wildly, and more blasts went off. Jeeves was in a quiet corner of the room. The AI had a large red barrel in front of it and seemed to be connecting wires. They were holding their own. The boss monster clearly cared about my presence over anyone else’s.

  “How much longer?” I asked Jeeves with a hint of desperation.

  “Too long, User Legate,” Jeeves said. It sounded worried enough that the normally stoic butler was affected. “I am trying. It is difficult to function due to damage. I estimate three additional minutes before completion.”

  “Yeah. Okay. I’ll keep this one busy.” I glared at the mess where Auntie Backstab wallowed. Jeeves was hurt, and clearly not a fighter in reality or in the virtual world.

  “Dusk is performing exceptionally well,” Jeeves muttered.

  I kept moving my [Hobbled] body toward the tunnels. Dusk wasn’t killing the other men running around—just bringing them low and letting them run off. He
leapt around, charging soldier after soldier. Large blasts of energy were being shot. A glance at my combat map showed our forces dwindling. The [Wayfarer Eight] was under fire from the [Knuckle Dragger]’s remaining guns.

  “He does that,” I said, trying to make it another few feet.

  Time for more minions. I popped out four additional ones and set them on the struggling Auntie Backstab. Pieces of her armor were cracking due to the fall. They were each given weak points to target.

  My body reworked itself as the mass of four little terrors extracted themselves. I kept on moving my [Hobbled] self toward the tunnels, hoping for the safety of distance. There was a maze of interconnected corridors back there like an ant hill. It had to be enough.

  “Arrggh!” Auntie Backstab shook herself free. A shower of ship parts burst away from her landing spot. She grabbed a hunk of metal and shoved the offending object straight into her mouth like a handful of potato chips. She had broken free but focused upon eating and getting a weapon. One fist shoveled metal, showing her [Leviathan] genetics in action.

  I had five little [Mechanical Minion]s chomping at the boss’s bits. My own stride was reduced by a considerable amount due to my size reduction and limping. I activated one more minion and used it to help tear off a vent cover. At four feet tall, I should be able to crawl in.

  “Unit Hermes, Unit Jeeves, we will be unable to break through the enemy lines and retrieve you. The Wayfarer Eight will stay behind. We are jumping in four minutes. An exit is recommended.” Treasure’s voice cut over our communications and painted a terrible picture.

  “Jeeves!” I tried to use our group chat. “Tell me we’re making progress!”

  Auntie Backstab was busy yanking off a portion of the wall. I didn’t have time or desire to sit around waiting for an encounter with her latest weapon. Dusk had used the crawl space. It seemed like a good method of escape.