Status: 5/5 (Completely Learned)
The maximum distance of my Active Ability was 30 meters. Moreover, I could blink three times before my Active Activity went on cooldown, with only a one-second delay between each blink. The cooldown of my Active Ability was 30 seconds.
As to my Passive Ability called Sixth Sense, its cooldown was 1 second and its range was 125 meters. If there was some unidentified kind of danger within that area I was not aware of, then my Passive Ability would warn me about it. It would also tell me if someone or something pointed a weapon or threw a grenade at me and from what direction to expect the attack. It would also warn me if there were traps or enemies nearby. The mysterious voice would also even tell me if many people died near my location.
So Spectral Protector was an extremely useful skill, that was for sure.
It was the most recent skill that I learned, but I had not yet had an opportunity to try it out in combat. I was excited to test it out on our next mission.
I had not learned a single skill for my Ultimate Ability yet, so when I leveled up again I might learn one. Or I might learn some other useful skills for my Passive Ability like Tracker or Malicious Whispers 1. I did not decide yet.
As always, after our last mission, we took a break for a few days. After having rested, we were ready to go on another mission.
We walked up to the Control Panel. Above its round surface hovered a 3D holographic image. It was the map of the Universe. We had the Control Panel to show us available missions, and a lot of sparkling dots appeared all over the map.
We examined the available missions and then tapped on one of the dots. Instantly, a piece of explanatory info popped up above it.
> Goal: Kill a team of space pirates.
> Reward:
> 1. Experience points: 5,000
> 2. Money: 25,000 credits
> Recommended level: 30-35
> (Do you want to see additional information on this mission: (Yes/No)
We tapped the Yes button and a piece of additional info popped up on the holographic screen.
> Place: A mining colony on the Pertlos asteroid in the Sot Lodikar asteroid belt in the Sot Lodikar solar system.
> Amount of mining colonies on the asteroid: 1
> Amount of workers: 723 people
> Mission description: There is a big mining colony on Pertlos, one of the biggest asteroids in the Sot Lodikar solar system. A few hundreds of people work in the mining colony, extracting valuable minerals, which then are transported out of the Sot Lodikar solar system on an interstellar transportation space ship. A few weeks ago, the transportation ship was attacked, the crew was killed, and all the valuable minerals that were being transported were stolen. The next transportation ship was also attacked and robbed. So there seems to be a team of space pirates lurking somewhere in the Sot Lodikar solar system, waiting for a transportation ship full of valuable minerals to leave the asteroid and then attacking and robbing it. Your mission is to deal with the criminals.
> (Do you want to accept this mission: Yes/No)
I tapped the Yes button. As soon as I did so, all the information on the holographic screen disappeared to be replaced by a single message.
> You already have an active mission. You need to finish your current mission before you can pick another one.
So our mission was to board the pirate spaceship and kill all the criminals. Simple enough.
Echo then told us the details of our plan, and we spent some time discussing it. It was not the first time when we had to board an enemy spaceship. During the past six months, we had completed all kinds of various missions. We had fought a wide range of aggressive creatures on different planets and planetoids, as well as dealt with bandits and pirates on space stations and spaceships. We had become very experienced fighters by that point.
When on our space station, we preferred to wear casual clothes. So after we got in the Preparation Room, we changed into our uniforms. Then we armed ourselves.
Since Nate was a Front Line—a tank—he preferred to arm himself with powerful weapons such as shotguns or squad automatic weapons. When on a mission, the British guy also wore bulletproof full-body armor. It did not allow him to move fast, but he did not need to. His job was to protect the rest of us, not to run around.
So when we were to deal with some aggressive creatures or mutants, Nate took a shotgun. And when we were up against human enemies, he took a squad automatic weapon. It held a lot of bullets in its magazine and packed quite a punch. It was not very accurate though. Not that it needed to. When armed with a SAW, all Nate needed to do was aim his squad automatic weapon in the general direction of our enemies and held down the trigger, spraying a volley of heavy-caliber rounds at them and sending our enemies panically scrambling for cover.
Vlad was a damage dealer, so he liked to use powerful weapons too. He usually took an accurate assault rifle. Our current mission was no exception—the Russian took an assault rifle with an under-barrel grenade launcher.
As to Alyson, she liked to use something light and automatic like machine pistols. While she had become as an experienced and skillful fighter as the rest of us, she was still not very strong, so she preferred to use weapons that had little to no recoil like lightweight machine pistols. For our current mission, the girl armed herself with dual machine pistols. She shoved them into holsters strapped around her thighs.
Just like Alyson, I liked to use light firearms. But not because I was physically weak, but rather because I was a flanker. I had to always be on the move, circling our enemies and attacking them from different angles before disappearing out of sight before they could fire back at me. So movement speed was extremely important for me. Which was why just like Alyson, I used lightweight and easy-to-handle firearms. But unlike the girl, I liked to use weapons that were more accurate than machine pistols. So I usually armed myself with a submachine gun.
After we took our weapons of choice and put lots of spare mags into the pockets of our combat vests, we left the Preparation Room. We drove the Humvee into the back of the dropship. Sure, our mission was to board the pirate spaceship, so we would probably not need our military off-road vehicle. Still, we decided to take it anyway. No matter what our current mission was, we always took the Humvee. You never knew what to expect in our line of work.
We got in our cryogenic chambers and were put to sleep. As soon as we woke up, we climbed out of our pods.
“Warriors,” we heard the AI speak, “we have reached our destination, the star system Sot Lodikar.
“Have you detected the enemy ship we had to board?” Nate asked.
“Yes,” Echo replied. “A few minutes earlier, I spotted the pirate spaceship lurking in the system, a little way away from the asteroid belt. I activated the invisibility mode and guided the dropship next to the airlock of the pirate spaceship. The enemy spacecraft is stationary for the moment. The crew of the pirate spaceship must be waiting for another transportation ship loaded with valuable minerals to leave the asteroid Pertlos—where the mining colony is located—so they can attack and rob it. The pirates are not aware of our presence. Not yet anyway. While we are invisible to the computer systems of the pirate spaceship, our dropship can still be spotted visually if one of the members of the pirate crew checks the feed from the external airlock security camera. So you need to hurry. You have to board the pirate spaceship before we are detected.”
We did not waste time talking to one another. We knew what we needed to do, so as soon as Echo stopped talking, we stepped into the cargo hold and began to put on our space suits, which also doubled as combat suits. We would have to leave the dropship and enter open space, but it did not worry me in the least. It was not our first rodeo. It was not the first, second, or even third time when we needed to enter open space. Six months ago, we were just gamers who wanted nothing more than to play a virtual reality multiplayer video game. And now we were experienced fighters who knew how to fi
ght both on planets and in the vacuum of open space.
After we put on our space battle suits, the air was sucked out of the cargo hold and the artificial gravity was deactivated. Then the cargo door slowly swung open. We saw what we had expected to see—a side of another spaceship. It was huge, a hundred times bigger than our dropship.
The enemy spaceship was about thirty meters in front of us. We pushed off and activate the small engines of our space suits. After the initial burst of speed, we immediately killed the engines, allowing the momentum to carry us out of the dropship and take us toward the pirate spaceship.
We silently floated through open space toward the spacecraft. When we got within about five meters of it, we activated our boots that had magnetic soles. We turned around in midair and then stepped on the side of the huge spaceship, attaching ourselves to it it. We then walked to the airlock and stopped next to it.
“Echo, what are you waiting for?” Vlad grumbled, his voice coming through the communication unit in my helmet. “Open the freaking door!”
A text message from Echo popped up before my eyes. It read, “I am working on it. You need to wait a minute, warriors.”
Vlad waited exactly three seconds before speaking up again, “What’s taking you so long? It’s just a lousy pirate spaceship!”
Another message from the AI popped up in my HUD, “It is done. I have just hacked into the system of the spaceship. I do not have full access, though. Still, I will be able to open the airlock for you, warriors. Just give me a few more seconds. Be patient, please. Okay, it is done. You can get in now.”
The door of the airlock soundlessly slid to the wall. We wasted no time getting in. Nate pushed a button and the door slid shut behind us. Then the air sucked in.
Now that we were inside the spaceship, we were affected by the artificial gravity again.
We brought up our weapons and pointed them at the inner door of the airlock. We were inside the enemy spaceship. We did not know how many pirates we were up against, so we had to assume the worst. They might have already spotted our dropship and might be waiting on the other side.
I knew that as soon as we saw enemies, Nate would use his Active Ability to deploy an energy shield in front of us to protect us from enemy bullets.
However, despite our expectations, when the inner door slid aside, we saw no enemies. Leading with our firearms and aiming down the holographic sights, we stepped out of the airlock to find themselves in a corridor. We quickly looked around, sweeping our weapons around the interior of the spaceship, looking for enemies. There was none in sight, which meant that we had not been spotted yet. However, it was a matter of time before the enemy crew became aware of our presence. We had to act fast so they had no time to regroup.
As we began to move down the corridor, a message from Echo popped up before my eyes. It read, “Let me remind you, warriors, that you need to locate the bridge and use the main computer to give me the full access to the spaceship.”
“Geez,” Vlad grumbled. “We know what we’ve got to do, dummy. Ain’t our first rodeo.”
We had our fair share of boarding enemy spaceships, so we had a pretty good idea where the bridge was situated. We quickly moved in that direction, our firearms at the ready.
Another message from the AI emerged in my field of vision. “Just wanted to make sure you did not forget your objectives and priorities.”
Vlad began to say something but suddenly shut up as a few armed men burst into the corridor from one of the doors.
They then opened fire on us even before they could get a decent angle at us. Half a second before they opened up, Nate used his Active Ability to deploy an energy shield before us.
Not that we really needed it—the armed men’s aim was off, and most of their bullets did not even hit the shield. Most of their rounds sparked off the walls or arced over our heads. Those people were not sharpshooters, that was for damn sure.
It did not take a lot of effort for us to deal with the armed people. We fired back at them, and they burst into a run, scrambling for cover. Yet before they could hide, our bullets penetrated their bodies, knocking them to the ground, blood fountaining from the wounds and splattering over the walls.
Notifications of the experience points received popped up before my eyes.
“Scumbags,” Vlad muttered with scorn as we stepped over the dead bodies, blood still pumping from the wounds.
As we continued on down the corridor, a thought crossed my mind that the men we had just killed did not look like pirates or bandits. Not at all. It was strange, but I did not reflect on it. I had to keep my mind focused on the task at hand.
We continued down the corridors of the spaceship, making our way to the bridge. We seemed to have been able to enter the spacecraft through the airlock unnoticed. However, now that we had killed some of the crew members, the others must have become aware of our presence on the ship. They were surely going to find us and do their best to deal with us.
We continued to make our way to the bridge. I was expecting more armed men to pop up before us. However, so far no more members of the crew had showed up. It was really strange. It was the first time that we had boarded a pirate spaceship and had not met much resistance. It was really weird.
“Where the bloody hell are they?” Nate muttered.
It was obvious that the same thoughts were passing through the British guy’s mind.
As we continued looking for the bridge, I looked around, studying our surroundings. The interior of the spaceship was not that I had expected. It did not look like a pirate spaceship. Not at all. In the past six months, we had boarded a dozen or so pirate spaceships. This one looked like none of them.
I remembered the men we had killed a couple of minutes earlier on. Were they really pirates? Most likely. Who else they could be? However, they had been not fighters, that was for sure. They might have been engineers or something like that.
If that was the case, where were the fighters and why had they not attacked us yet?
Finally, we reached the door that should lead to the bridge. Sure enough, it was locked.
“Echo, what the fuck?” Vlad grumbled. He was in a mood bad, as always. “Thought you would hack open the door by the time we got to it.”
A message from Echo immediately popped up before my eyes. “I am working on it. Give me a second, please. Done.”
With a soft hiss, the door slid open and we burst into the bridge. We saw several armed men and women pointing their weapons at us. Before any of them could fire on us, Nate deployed an energy shield. We whipped our firearms up to aim at the enemies.
“Wait,” one of the crew members who seemed to be in charge here cried out. “Don’t shoot at them.”
Another crew member—a black-haired woman—looked at the leader and said, “What the hell are you talking about, captain?”
The man glanced at her and said, “There’s no way we can win this fight.”
“But we outnumber them like three to one!” The woman cried out.
“Yes, we outnumber them,” the captain said. “But unlike us, they are trained killers. Moreover, they are way better equipped than us and have way more powerful weapons. We have no chance of standing up against them. In a gunfight, they can kill us without breaking a sweat.”
The woman clearly did not agree with him. She was going to argue, yet before she could say a word, the captain looked at the other members of his crew and said in a loud voice, “Drop your weapons, everybody.”
The crew members hesitated for a second, then did as they were told. The woman was clearly not happy about it. She still had her weapon held tightly in her hands.
“Drop your gun, Jess,” the captain said.
The woman eyed the leader for a brief moment, then shook her head and tossed her machine pistol to the ground.
All the crew members unarmed and harmless, the captain shifted his attention to the four of us still aiming our guns at them
.
“See?” He said. “We’re not going to cause you any trouble. You can take what you’ve come here for. We’re not gonna resist you or interfere with your plans. All I ask in return is that you don’t touch my crew. Let us get to the lifeboats and leave the ship.”
“What are you talking about, mate?” Nate asked the question that was undoubtedly troubling all of us.
The captain silently watched the British guy for a second, then he said, “We know why you are here. For the minerals we’re carrying. It’s pretty much obvious, innit? So you can take them.”
“I can’t believe we’re gonna give up without a fight,” Jess muttered under her breath. “Freaking pirates. I hate them all.”
She said it very quietly, yet we heard it.
“I don’t understand,” Alyson said to the rest of us. “What is happening here, guys?”
Nate lowered his SAW slightly as he addressed the captain, “You are not pirates.”
It was a statement, not a question.
The captain looked genuinely surprised. “What? Of course, we are not. We’re just workers carrying minerals from the asteroid. It’s you who are the pirates robbing us, not the other way around.”
“The hell you talking about, old man?” Vlad grumbled. “Don’t you try to fuck with us.”
Vlad made a step toward the captain, but Nate stopped him by placing his hand on his shoulder.
“Wait,” Nate said to the Russian. “We need to find out what is going on here.”
“They’re trying to bamboozle us,” Vlad said. “That’s what’s going on here. Those fucking pirates think we’re dumb.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the captain said. “If you think that we’re pirates, you’re wrong. We’re just workers from the mining colony, and I can easily prove it.”
He took a step to the side, and Vlad instantly pointed his gun at the old man.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 26
