by Hugo Huesca
“You are going to space us?”
“Sorry, it’s the best I could think off, given the circumstances,” I told her.
“I can work with that. Walpurgis? Hurry!”
Walpurgis came out of the cabin three seconds after Rylena and I. As she ran out, she threw her entire pack of plasma grenades into the room without turning back.
We didn’t see the explosion, but we sure as hell felt it, as did the entire ship.
The light carrier hangar wasn’t far off from the cabin. Even then, we reached it at the last second before the Jump went by and the ship’s engines roared with mighty effort as they came to life.
I could see space filled with fighters and spaced soldiers floating around stunned, trying to figure out what the hell had happened as their oxygen reserves slowly depleted. Some of them were already using their suit’s jets to float back to the ship. They weren’t going to make it.
The carrier trembled all around us as we were half-way through the hangar. Our magnetized boots made running feel like wading through water, but it was quicker than floating around aimlessly. Unless…
“Jump!” Rylena exclaimed and the three of us did at the same time. I turned my own oxygen jets on at full power and flew out of the hangar like a superhero, arms fully extended in front of me. One second later, space all around the ship tore itself apart and engulfed the carrier, leaving behind only the floating remains of the cabin. The ship jumped to its death, I knew, since doing so with its cabin blown to seven hells would tear it apart just as well as warping to the core of a star.
I floated through empty space, turning my jets off before I ran out of oxygen. Running them at full power left me with only seconds of breathable air, but it was worth it just to imagine the face of Stefania Caputi as we gave her a figurative middle finger.
The inertia sent me spinning without any control and I caught glimpses of the spaced PDF soldiers flying towards empty space where their carrier had been. I saw Rylena and Walpurgis spinning around not far away from me. It would have been a hilarious sight if it wasn’t so grim.
The PDF navy was already sending a stream of fighter ships towards us to capture us again. Even if the warp had killed Caputi’s avatar, she had re-spawned almost immediately and was directing her fleet from afar. Perhaps she was even on her way again.
“We ain’t giving them the Keygen,” I said with a calmness that surprised me, “only reason they have to want it so badly is if there’s a weapon on the other side of Validore, right?”
Before the fighters caught up with us, I was going to take off my helmet and let the void do its thing, I decided. It wouldn’t be a bad way to go. With the golden planet in my field of vision and the stars all around us, and the fleets of the PDF and the Posse colliding as explosions rocketed through their ranks.
I realized their negotiations must’ve failed. Even better, Rune was providing me with a personal show all around me, in every direction, a consolation prize for trying and losing.
In the distance, a Posse of Iron dreadnought that looked dangerously like a lawsuit from Star Wars, exploded when the heavier PDF equivalent caught its side undefended and emptied their macro-cannons on the Posse vessel’s exposed belly. In the silence of space, it was like watching a silent movie with one hell of a director.
Yeah, show those assholes who’s boss.
As the battle raged on and my vision began to tint red when my oxygen reserves finally died, a tear appeared in space not a hundred meters away from me and a ship poured into physical reality.
That’s one way to save time, PDF, I thought bitterly as I reached for the locks of my helmet.
Something familiar about that ship stopped me. It was bigger than a fighter. In fact, it was big enough to carry one in its miniature-hangar. I hadn’t seen those hull colors before in either of the two Alliances. Blue and ivory white, with the starfighter’s name painted in white letters over a black line that ran across the middle of its streamlined armor.
Its name was Te-di 01.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Dogfight
“Buckle up, kids, reinforcements are here!” blared a man’s voice inside my helmet.
“Beard?” I asked.
“You bet!”
The Diplomatic Immunity got as near us as it could without ramming us over and Walpurgis used the last dredges of oxygen on her suit to carry us to the open cargo bay underneath the ship. She did so just in time, too, because my screen was so red I couldn’t see my surroundings anymore.
I took out my helmet as soon as the bay was closed and artificial atmosphere was restored one second later. Rylena and Walpurgis did the same. In the real world, we would probably be facing brain damage from oxygen deprivation. In Rune, I got to watch with relief how my vision returned slowly to normal.
We ran towards the cabin as soon as we could stand. “What happened?” I asked when we arrived. Beard was waiting for us in the Captain’s chair with a triumphant smile. “I thought you were blown with your ship.”
“Yeah,” granted Beard, “but I got better, you know? I respawned and I had no idea what’d just happened until I heard the commotion all over the game. Validore restored? I figured you guys may have been involved, so I caught a ride to the shipyard and picked up this beauty. I was on my way here when Rylena sent me your coordinates as you three drifted through space like cloth dolls. I used them to jump straight into the system and skip the blockade.”
“Took your sweet time, Gabrijel,” said Rylena, “five more seconds and we were goners.”
“You just saved our necks, man,” I told him as I patted him on the back. He grunted happily and turned back to the controls.
Several PDF fighters and other heavy bombers approached us with their targeting systems yearning to get a lock on the Teddy.
“Mind taking charge of the ship, Cole? I’m not that good a pilot myself.”
The controls looked the same as the ones in the Apollo Wing, without the wooden furnishing (after all, we were on a budget). It was the first time I piloted the Teddy, but it felt true, in my hands. Not quite like meeting with an old friend. More like meeting a girl at a bar and instantly falling in love. Or so I guessed. Since I wasn’t old enough for bars. Technically.
“Man your battle-stations!” exclaimed Rylena. She went straight for the co-pilot seat, where her Battlemind class would give the ship a bonus in all her systems.
“Damn, I wanted to say that,” Beard rushed over the topside Turret while Walpurgis silently took control of the frontal and side turrets.
“Alright, let’s do this!”
Instead of running away from the battle, I turned the ship’s nose towards the golden surface of Validore and pressed the accelerator to full. It wasn’t an escape route and the PDF fighters instantly closed the distance to us. Laser fire peppered our shields, but at this distance, it was sporadic enough to let the damage regenerate itself over time.
“You’re flying straight at the middle of the battle,” Rylena warned me. She was simultaneously suggesting alternative flight routes on the screens and fending off a jamming attempt from a far-away scout ship.
“I know,” I told her. I could see the Posse of Iron dreadnoughts and battleships clashing with the PDF armada all around us. The Posse lacked military training, end-game gear, organization, and the sheer methodical execution of the PDF, but they gained on them with ferocity. For them, this was a game. A game they were losing.
As we approached them, a squadron of fighters and starships caught us on their radar and separated themselves from the main fray to intercept us.
So far, no ship had managed to break the kill-wall of the Posse, mostly because they rammed three fighters into each single ship that made it through. That was great. We were going to be the first.
“Rylena, open a channel to PDF command,” I told her as the Posse of Iron ships flew in direct collision course with us, with the PDF fighters hot on our tails.
“Let the AI handle communicatio
ns!” came the strained advice from Beard. His turret was blaring right now, trying to fend off a cocky scout that was trying to outmaneuver us.
“We have an AI?” Rylena asked, “we never bought one for the Teddy.”
“It was a gift,” Beard said, “I installed it right before coming here. Give it a try.”
Rylena punched a brief command in her copilot console and a chirpy electronic voice blared through the ship’s speakers:
“IT’S ME! I’M ALIVE AGAIN! HOW CAN I HELP YOU GUYS?”
“Sounds familiar, Cole?” asked Beard.
“Not at all, why?”
“IT’S OKAY, MASTER COLE, I HAVE NO HARD FEELINGS. YOU MUST’VE HAD YOUR REASONS FOR LETTING ME SUFFER A HORRIBLE DEMISE. I BRING BACK MYSTICAL KNOWLEDGE FROM THE LAND OF THE DEAD!”
“What…?”
Oh…
“Are you Kipp’s Personal Assistant?” I asked. The distraction was big enough that the scout managed to close the distance with us and burn a quarter of the ship’s shields with a laser run. I sent us spinning in his direction and Walpurgis caught it with a plasma missile before it could dodge us.
“I HAVE BEEN REFURBISHED AS THE DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. THANK YOU FOR THE NEW CHANCE AT LIFE, MASTERS. BEING DEAD WAS A DREADFUL EXPERIENCE. BUT DON’T WORRY, I HOLD NO HARD FEELINGS. NO HARD FEELINGS AT ALL.”
“Oh god,” Rylena muttered, “this is going to bite us in the ass later, isn’t it? Alright, AI, we need you to open a comm channel with the PDF chain of command straight to Crestienne, player name: Stefania Caputi.”
“COMING THROUGH! AND PLEASE, CALL ME FRANCIS!”
“Is this normal behavior for a PA?” I asked.
“Not at all,” said Beard, “I think its bugged. You should check the message it came with. I’ll forward it to you.”
The message was very short. It said:
I found this with your ID on it in the system’s cache last time we meet. Perhaps now you’ll find a use for it. Good luck with your quest. -DT-
I had enough time to realize what the “DT” meant before the connection with Stefania Caputi came through. I filed the message in a dusty part of my brain where it wouldn’t creep me out for a while.
“Cole Dorsett. You know you just killed yourself and your friends, don’t you?” Caputi said with a furious glare in her eyes. She was already in another ship like Rylena had predicted. Perhaps the PDF had a Quantum Safeguard in their Dreadnoughts. “The SWAT drones have already been authorized. You’re done, kid.”
“SWAT drones?” whispered Beard. I heard Rylena whispering at him somewhere behind me.
“Sure, sure,” I waved my hands dismissively, trying to pretend I wasn’t terrified for my life, “I guess they are. In the meanwhile, you realized your ships are shooting at mine, right?”
“That’s what happens when you become a traitor against the entire States, Dorsett.” If looks could kill, I’d be respawning right after the one Caputi gave me.
“Whatever. I just wanted to let you know we still have the Keygen. It’s right here in the ship with us. Just wanted to say that. By the way, we are driving straight into a dozen Posse of Iron fighters.”
Caputi opened her mouth as if to say something nasty to me, then her eyes opened with the sudden realization. Rylena laughed softly.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, Caputi started laughing. “Well played, Dorsett. You may have had a future in politics after all.” And she cut the communications, leaving us alone to charge in a mad suicide run towards the Posse mercenaries.
“What just happened?” Beard exclaimed. “And why the hell are you guys actual real-life-terrorists, now?”
“Cole pointed out to our friend Crestienne,” Rylena said, “that she may still get a hold of the Keygen if the drones get us fast enough. She just needs to get our mindjacks and search for it. But if we get killed by the Posse of Iron, that chance may go down in flames…”
Just as she finished her last sentence, the laser fire from behind us stopped. Instead, the PDF fighters spread like a flock of birds of prey behind us.
“MASTER COLE, YOU HAVE ABOUT A THOUSAND PARTY REQUEST FROM THE PALADIN DEFENSE FORCE. YOU ARE SO GOOD AT MAKING FRIENDS! YOU MUST HAVE LIKE A THOUSAND POINTS IN DIPLOMACY.”
“Accept them all, Francis.”
Just like that, we had gained several new wingmen and an entire Alliance gladly willing to eat plasma missiles in our stead.
Politicked.
When they saw the change in the wind, the Posse of Iron squad tried to go into defensive maneuvers, but it was too late. I pulled the controls and sent Teddy into an open half-turn that gave Walpurgis a beautiful line of fire right at the center of their formation. This time, she sent a volley of artillery missiles perfectly lined up for maximum damage. The missiles themselves caught no ship, but the thousands of plasma-charged fragments that exploded when their cores detonated did a number on the fighter’s shields.
My own wingmen capitalized instantly over the opportunity, flying in a suicidal straight-line against the mercenaries and emptying the PDF’s laser and plasma reserves. Three of them got caught by the Posse retaliatory fire, but by then it was too late. The two surviving enemy ships disengaged as the remains of their friends peppered their hulls, and flew back towards the bulk of the Posse forces.
“Great shooting, Walps,” Beard told her as he took potshots at the retreating fighters. Walpurgis didn’t even bother correcting him.
“I’m reaching Shooting 130 after this, I’m calling it.”
To prove her point, she fired a single laser shot and hit one of the ships straight in the middle, making it explode in a shower of silent flames.
All around us, the battle had shifted gears. The PDF was trying to take the heat of the battle away from us: even with our end-game ship, a cannon blast from a dreadnaught would blow us up instantly. To do so, the PDF was making deliberate mistakes, enticing the Posse to punish them and dive deep into their ranks. Several PDF battleships blew up over the next few seconds.
For all onlookers, it must’ve seemed as if the PDF command had suddenly gone insane.
Rylena’s new fly-paths took advantage of the PDF sacrifice. She had actualized them before PDF changed tactics, which meant I still had much to learn from her.
We set course towards Validore. The golden planet appeared to shine brighter as we approached, like it was eager to have its secrets finally breached. Wherever Rylena had hidden the Keygen, it was for sure acknowledging its quest was at an end.
“WE HAVE ANOTHER ONCOMING TRANSMISSION,” announced Francis, “SHIP’S ID: APOLLO WING.”
Rylena and I exchanged looks of panic. The last thing we needed was a legendary ship… oh, there it was. Coming at us from down the planet’s atmosphere, followed by two starships as big as Teddy.
Of course, the Posse had kept the Apollo in reserve, in case anyone managed to bypass the main battle in any way. Only a starship or a fighter could outmaneuver the fray… so they had waited for them with a legendary ship capable of outperforming any starship.
Even Teddy.
“Patch them through,” I said. My hands clutched the flight stick so hard I could feel my real hands tensing out there in the real world.
The Apollo Wing’s pilot wasn’t wearing a helmet. He wanted to make sure I recognized his face.
“Hey, Cole,” said my old rival, Lance, “fancy meeting you here. What’s a noob like you doing in the endgame quest?” He was piloting my ship. The ship he had stolen from me.
Silently, Rylena showed me on the screen a flight-path that could take us away from the Apollo and into the planet… if we were lucky, and our PDF wingmen sacrificed themselves to buy us time.
We had to make a choice. It was the best pattern we were going to get, but we would risk having the Apollo, with it’s legendary-level weaponry, blasting our backs all the way into Validore. The other option was dogfighting it out with those very same legendary weapons…
Rylena looked at
me with those fierce cybernetic eyes and raised an eyebrow. I looked back briefly. Walpurgis gave me a thumbs up and Beard made a gesture with his arms like swinging an axe.
“I’m here,” I told Lance, “to give you a flight lesson, asshole.”
“Oh, that sounds terrifying!” he laughed. I could hear the other crewman laughing as well. “You do realize this is a legendary ship, right? I’m seeing your stats on screen right now and we’ve shot down NPCs stronger than you guys.”
He shook his head sadly. “Not like you can come here so we can blast you to bits anyway. We have a Non-Aggression Pact, remember? If you get close enough to the planet, that’s going to count as a hostile attack on my Alliance. The Terran Federation will be here to bust your ass faster than you can say ‘boy, I really should learn this games’s rules before I go around playing at being a ship’s captain.’”
“That’s a lot of words for that metaphor,” Beard pointed out. Lance’s eyes flickered briefly in his direction.
“Whatever. Get out of my sight, scrubs. The grown-ups are playing. Lance, off.” He cut the communication.
The crew and I exchanged looks.
“He’s right,” said Rylena, “we do have a non-Aggression pact with the Posse of Iron. Getting in their fly-space would break it.”
“No chance we can out-run the Terran Federation?” I asked. I wasn’t shooting for long term survival anymore, not in-game or out of game. If we could reach Validore before their arrival, breaking the Pact wouldn’t matter.
Rylena shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe we could. Or perhaps they’ll warp straight behind us after the contract sends our coordinates to them. That’s a battle we can’t win.”
I had to make a choice. We could either risk it, or try to outwit the Posse of Iron somehow. They weren’t about to part ways for us to reach Validore, I realized, even if they didn’t know the real reason behind the “end-game quest.”
Perhaps the Terran Federation would go easy on us. We had helped them a couple times while building Teddy up.
