A Jump into the Unknown (Reality Benders Book #5) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  “Die, foul beast!”

  Psionic skill increased to level one hundred five!

  Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred eight!

  You have reached level ninety-five!

  You have received three skill points (total points accumulated: nine)

  The giant spider in metal armor with a transparent hood on his head just stayed stock still, his two frontmost arms extended to land a finishing blow on the prostrate human. It was a miracle, but I saved the last of the eight La-Shin Faction players.

  Timka-Vu. Human. La-Shin Faction. Level-112 Machinegunner.

  Ugh... We could catch our breath a bit now – I was holding the enemy down tight, and still had more than enough Magic Points. Beyond the partitions, I could hear an active firefight and screaming. Despite the suddenness of the attack, a few crew members were still alive and offering resistance to the intruders. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the other frigate sections, but the situation in the state room was under control.

  “Timka, looks like you got lucky. You got rescued twice today.” I took a sturdy cord out of my inventory and threw it to the dark-skinned curly-haired boy, who was standing up and looking around in a daze, wearing absolutely threadbare clothing. “Take this and tie up that Meleyephatian’s arms while I hold him down! And don’t be too careful, just yank his arms behind his back! And hurry up before the other enemies come pay us a visit.”

  Timka-Vu started twisting the Meleyephatian’s segmented arms with a crunch, seemingly breaking something and severing tendons. Yes it was cruel, but I didn’t know any other way to immobilize the dangerous eight-legged freak. Hmm... Something in the captured enemy’s face seemed dimly familiar. I took a closer look.

  Successful Perception check!

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level eighty-six!

  Woah! I know this Meleyephatian! Although he was wearing a full set of silvery armor instead of a leather belt and red bandanna, and his name, class and level were totally different this was Wizzz 889, there could be no doubt. The very same stoned Programmer with bizarre mannerisms that fixed the Immolators for me!

  By the way, speaking of the Immolators... Two of the three dangerous robots were not folded up, they were simply lying in the cargo hold in an inactive state. I could try to turn them on from a distance and send them against my enemies along with the Small Relict Guard Drone, which I couldn’t exactly locate at the moment. By the way, what was it actually doing without any commands from me? Odd... In theory, the Small Guard Drone should have been automatically attacking the Meleyephatians as soon as the game system identified them as enemies. But I never got any system messages to say it killed enemies, earned me skill-ups or anything. I opened the drones tab and everything became clear. The small drone on the starship was inactive. Either something had disabled it, or it had been totally destroyed. Seemingly, the Meleyephatians had taken the Pride of the Bushy Shadow’s negative experience into account and thought up a way of taking my trump card out of the game.

  I’d have to manage without the ancient drone somehow. Especially given the shooting on the starship had practically fallen silent. There was just the odd lone shot coming from somewhere in the right fuselage of the double ship. One of my troops was still holding out over there. But nevertheless, there would be enemies coming into the state room at any moment. We needed to stop them or at least distract them somehow. But wouldn’t it be risky to turn on the Immolators, given one of the Meleyephatians attacking my ship set them up? It would, of course, though I doubted there would be any malware in the code. The false Programmer set up the robots a while ago, when no one was even thinking about evacuating Meleyephatians on my frigate. In fact, I didn’t even have this frigate yet! But something else had me afraid. The bulky and clumsy robots with their colossal firepower might just blast my fragile starship to smithereens. But still, I didn’t see any other way out.

  Machine Control skill increased to level one hundred one!

  On my command, both of the usable Immolators got up and headed to leave the cargo hold. Based on the thundering blasts coming from the neighboring corridor, the metal door blocking the robots’ path had been blown away in a combined volley from their twelve plasma cannons. Ugh. I wish I knew what exactly was going on there so I could control the combat bots on my own rather than relying on their algorithms. If I were in my berth, I’d simply patch into the security camera system from the captain’s terminal. But now I’d have to invent another way... I tried to mentally access one of the robots’ video cameras.

  Hard. I don’t even know how to go about trying. But just when I thought I was making some progress...

  “Coruler Gnat La-Fin, the enemy has been tied up!”

  Jesus God damn Christ! I was ready to strangle Timka-Vu with my own hands. He distracted me at the absolute worst time and broke my concentration. But I held back and, mentally counting to five, simply ordered the soldier to search the Meleyephatian, then take his weapon and anything else of any value. And meanwhile, the firefight on the ship started back up with renewed vigor!

  Machine Control skill increased to level one hundred two!

  Machine Control skill increased to level one hundred three!

  You have reached level ninety-six!

  You have received three skill points (total points accumulated: twelve).

  Twelve points to spend!!! Excellent! And I hope that is not the end of it. So then, Immolators. Suppress and burn these spiders to ash! Show no mercy!

  But just then... Three feet away, a new player entered the game. A short and scruffy Miyelonian in shining white armor holding two glimmering blades in his paws. The tom-cat got his bearings instantly, stashed his blades and stuck a gas mask on his snout. I couldn’t see the level or name of the soldier, but only members of the First Pride wore white armor. They were the best of the best, the elite of the Miyelonian armed forces. And that meant this big fluffy beast of the north had come to take down the Meleyephatian invaders. And based on the way the firefight increased in intensity throughout the starship, he hadn’t come alone.

  Not paying any attention to the two surviving people, the First Pride soldier examined the bound prisoner efficiently. Gracefully, clearly knowing what he was doing, he opened the Meleyephatian’s helmet and stuck a cloth soaked in some intoxicant right between the dangerous mandibles of the prisoner’s lower jaw. The Meleyephatian fell silent right away, knocked out cold by either a narcotic or paralyzer. The Miyelonian then closed the prisoner’s helmet, walked over to a wall panel and opened the doors into the corridor with no hesitation.

  “Timka, don’t you dare! He’s on our side!” I warned the foolish La-Shin Faction soldier, who was aiming his laser pistol at the Miyelonian’s back. “In fact, we’d better go help him!”

  But they didn’t need our help. The battle was over very fast. The Scanning pictogram finally reloaded and I activated it, then familiarized myself with the results and shook my head in pity. Only three members of my crew were still alive on the frigate: boarding team commander Gerd T’yu-Pan the Shocktroop, new (though that depends on perspective) Gunner Gerd Eeeezzz 777, and the last of the three Kirsan repair bots, which managed to hide in a narrow utility cavity beneath the floor in the left fuselage.

  I SLOWLY WALKED THE corridors of the blood-soaked starship, looking over the dead bodies of my comrades and the Meleyephatian raiders, studying the carnage and shaking my head grimly. Seven Meleyephatians were taken prisoner, including the one I captured. The leader of the Nest of the Horde Frontrunners himself then, Leng Sooweesssh Eleven we were not able to take alive. I found his body shot full of holes next to the corpses of Destroying Angel and Grim Reaper. I checked the loot right away. Such a high-level player as him might have had some very interesting stuff, but the only trophy that dropped was a silver band from an ancient Precursor signet. But it was missing the stone itself, which made it utterly useless. What a pity.

  And as for my ace in the hole – the Sm
all Relict Guard Drone was lying on the floor, having rolled behind some collapsed shelving. Externally, it was undamaged, though inactive. I’d hand it off to Kirsan to see what could be done. And right next to it was the body of Ayni. Honestly, I couldn’t tell whether the Miyelonian was in the game when she was killed or if the Meleyephatians shot her inactive avatar while the Translator was out calling in help. In any case, Gerd Ayni did her job and the First Pride got here before it was too late.

  I also found the body of the dark-furred Journalist Gerd Undi Ar Miyeyauu beside her bloodied video camera, which was still recording. At first I wanted to erase everything because there could potentially be compromising material. But I changed my mind. She died a hero’s death and pursued her journalistic endeavor to the very end. To my eye, that meant Gerd Undi had earned the material on her camera. I turned it off and put it in my inventory. I’ll give it to her next time we meet.

  And then I came across the first survivor. It hurt to look at boarding team commander Gerd T’yu-Pan. There wasn’t even a scrap of undamaged flesh left on him with all the tear wounds and laser hits. His armor was torn to shreds and the Shocktroop’s life bar was pulsating in the range of one or two percent. Nevertheless, when he saw his captain, he tried to stand but the First Pride Miyelonian Medic attending to him shouted not to be ignorant and to get back down.

  Gunner Eeeezzz 777 meanwhile I discovered at his workstation. Huge even by Meleyephatian standards, the blue-chitined veteran was huge. He removed his armor, which was shot through in several places and was laying a sticky medical tape over the two stumps where his left lower legs once had been. Even with six legs, it looked like a challenge, so I offered to help, which the Meleyephatian accepted. When I asked whether he might need to see our professional Medic, Eeeezzz 777 responded in badly broken Miyelonian:

  “Captain not worry no for reason. Nothing. Business as usual. I live through worse. Leg to grow back. I shoot cannon again soon.”

  I turned my attention to the four bodies of the Meleyephatian trespassers in the nearest corridor and residential berth. The three-hundred-year veteran Eeeezzz 777, despite his Meleyephatian race, remained true to his captain and resisted the incoming aggressors with verve. I also noticed that the Miyelonian troopers were not touching the Meleyephatian Gunner and basically were doing their best to pretend he wasn’t here.

  On the captain’s bridge, which the ship’s automatic security system tried to stop me from entering with a warning about pressure loss and other possible risks, chaos and devastation reigned. The monitors were smashed to pieces and covered in claw marks and gunshots. The bodies of Ayukh and the two pilots were both entirely desiccated and frozen. There were also some icy chunks of unidentifiable flesh strewn about... seemingly the remains of the Jarg. And the wall facing the cargo hold had a big hole in it. Seemingly that was the Immolators being a bit too zealous, or perhaps a grenade. But worst of all was the wall-screen, which had been broken straight through in several places, leaving nothing behind it but the vacuum of space. And that was how the air had been sucked out of three of the frigate’s sectors. Fortunately, the corridors of the combat ship were fitted with airlocks, so the rest of the ship still had adequate pressure. I walked closer and examined the holes up close. I pulled out one of the triangular quills stuck in the wall very carefully and looked at it. So it was the force of the Jarg’s explosion...

  A Kirsan wriggled out of somewhere (not the white one, one of the two simply metal ones) and also started studying the holes with its many mechanical little eyes and even stuck its thin arms into the holes. I pointed the repair bot to the dangerous quill in my hand and the holes in the body of the ship:

  “Do this first. The holes need to be patched up, then make sure you collect all these dangerous poison-covered little scales and burn them in the trash incinerator. And remind me when we get to the next decent station to buy some enamel paint. I’m gonna paint you green so I can tell you apart from the other one.”

  Then I left the repair bot and depressurized sector behind and headed to find the leaders of the Miyelonian elite squadron. We had to discuss what to do next. But first I came across San-Sano. The pigtailed redhead had seemingly set her respawn point on my ship and already come back. When I asked about that, she smiled in embarrassment:

  “Coruler, it was much worse on the Kurimiru shuttle. Death there was assured, and it would be an arduous and torturous way to go. So all our people set their respawn points on your frigate as soon as they had the chance. The others will be here a bit after me. I just got sent in first to see...”

  “Whether you’d die?” I finished her sentence. “Did you know that the gallant ‘ladies first’ tradition dates back to the stone age? When big strong warriors wanted to check if a cave contained a bear or saber-toothed tiger, they’d send one of the weaker women in first. How many millennia have passed, yet nothing has changed!”

  I wanted to leave the engineer girl and go look for the commander of the Miyelonian squadron, but he found me first. The short but wiry Miyelonian came up the spiral staircase and stopped a step away from me wearing an armored space suit which for some reason was not white but blood red.

  “Well met! I see Leng Gnat that you are alive and still wearing my trophy on your helmet. What can I say? It’s nice to see!”

  Authority increased to 78!

  What? Did we know each other? I only had two trophy tails on my helmet: one from the swindler at the Medu-Ro IV casino and another from Kung Keetsie’s fiancé. As far as I knew, neither of them served in the First Pride. I’ll admit, I was somewhat at a loss. The Miyelonian removed his helmet, and I finally saw the space cat’s name appear over his head:

  Gerd Lekku. Miyelonian. Pride of the Sharp Claw. Level-193 Brawler.

  Well, well! So it was Kung Keetsie-Myau’s husband-to-be. I hope Gerd Lekku won’t demand satisfaction after I forced that tattoo on him. And why was he here instead of at the Great One’s side? I didn’t try and act clever, just asked both questions directly.

  “Satisfaction? Are you joking, Gnat? The thing you did changed me from one of Keetsie’s fifty odd admirers into her only one! I owe you bigtime! And as for why I’m here... The commander was informed about a group of enemy Spies tracking her fleet on Kasti-Utsh III and trying to leave the station on a frigate belonging to a man by the name of Gnat. I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that the Great One has been following you with great interest and sometimes even intervenes in your fate. So I didn’t wait for Keetsie to send one of her officers to arrest the Meleyephatian spies. I just volunteered. And it was the right move. Keetsie was very grateful... In fact, I was surprised just how much she appreciated it.”

  The fearsome Brawler fell silent and gave a satisfied purr. Clearly his memories of his last interaction with Kung Keetsie were pleasant. I didn’t have anything to add and, after a brief pause, Gerd Lekku continued:

  “The Great One gave me a team of twelve soldiers from her personal guard. The information we were given led us to believe we’d be facing around ten opponents, but it turned out to be several times more. But it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. It’s just a pity we couldn’t capture the ringleader. Some fool on your team sent him to respawn. But Leng Sooweesssh Eleven will respawn on the Kasti-Utsh station somewhere, so he’s as good as captured...”

  Gerd Lekku cut off midsentence because our starship gave a sudden jerk, then another. Notes of hysteria were added to the even hum of our thrusters. And the squealing sounded somehow foreign. What is going on?

  Danger Sense skill increased to level eighty-one!

  “I know that sound!” commented the Brawler, his ears perked up. “Our starship has been caught in a stasis net, and the hyperdrive blocked.”

  Damn! Just what I needed! I turned on the microphone and told the Gunner to take his seat at the laser cannons.

  “Wait Gnat. There’s no need for shooting yet!” the Brawler stopped me. “They clearly don’t mean to destroy the frigate, but cap
ture it. Otherwise they’d already be shooting. I want to see the crazed moron planning to board a ship with the First Pride inside!”

  Chapter Twenty-Five. Enemy of the Horde

  “LEVEL ONE HUNDRED ninety three! Coruler, did you see that?!” the Engineer girl couldn’t hold back an astonished comment right after the Miyelonian Brawler left to gather his team.

  The redhead’s spontaneity had begun to amuse me. I think I really will keep San-Sano in the crew. If of course she’s worth anything as an Engineer.

  “I’ve seen higher-level and stronger players. I even defeated that same one before. See, his tail is pinned to my helmet.”

  “Wow!” she said, only just having noticed the Miyelonian trophy tails. “It’s cool that you... But Coruler, what’s happening? Why are all the Miyelonians running around like crazy?”

  As a matter of fact, the group of five First Pride troops in high-tech armored white spacesuits was dashing past us toward the docking airlock with blades in their back sheathes and guns in their hands.

  “They’re preparing for battle,” I answered with all the ambivalence I could muster. “Our starship is just about to get boarded and the Miyelonians are getting ready to greet the invaders.”

  “Well, well!” San-Sano led a gaze over another group of Miyelonians who were rushing and reloading their weapons as they walked. “It’s fun out here in space. You never get bored. Don’t you think I should... you know... have some kind of weapon so I can help defend the starship?”

  “You?” I couldn’t hold back a smile. “Are you a Space Commando or Shocktroop? No? Then best leave that to the professionals. Those Miyelonians in white are the best hand-to-hand fighters in the Universe and will be just fine without you. Better you run over to the power unit and shield generator,” I said, motioning down the corridor and even placing markers on the devices. “There’s a very intricate coupling between the units there and your mission is to keep it all in working order. Honestly, everything is written in Meleyephatian and Miyelonian, but with good Intelligence and high enough skills, you’ll be able to figure it out. So go study the ship systems, given you’re now the only Engineer on our frigate. If you can handle that, then consider yourself part of the team.”