A Game With No Rules (Perimeter Defense Book #4) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  * * *

  "Lika, have you talked with grandma Elisa recently?" I asked my eldest daughter at breakfast, as if in passing.

  "Dad, me and her talk all the time. At least once a week. So what?" Likanna asked, a bit on guard, as if she expected me to be mad at her for speaking with a close relative.

  "It's just that her birthday is the day after tomorrow, and I feel the need to congratulate her somehow. For some reason, she won't talk to me, but at least say happy birthday to grandma from me."

  Lika immediately grew calm and even started smiling:

  "Well, sure! By the way, grandma has been saying I should come visit her palace on Oveyete-VII for a long time. But she says you won't let me go to Sector Three, because Unatari and the Green House are enemies."

  "It's not that we're enemies... As a matter of fact, I have no problem with them. It's more that the Lavaelle family is dreaming of a way to bury me as soon as possible — either they're up to something in the Throne World, or they'll declare war, or they'll falsely accuse me of all kinds of sins, like they did before. I mean, what am I telling you for? You've probably seen all the messages about the Green House spoiling our relations. A new one comes in every week. And as for you visiting Sector Three... tell your grandma that I am not opposed to letting you visit her for a few weeks, just not today. Such a vacation must first be planned — I cannot send you on a simple passenger liner!"

  "Come on! I’ve ridden an ore ship before, and you didn't even get that mad," my daughter reminded me, but still agreed with me that a Crown Princess of the Empire would be better served by a comfortable and safe private starship.

  Miya set her fork aside and started thinking, even closing her eyes in agitation.

  "Likanna will definitely not be under threat in the Green House," the Truth Seeker told me confidently a minute later, then added a bit quieter. "But that's no guarantee that Lika will be allowed to come back. The Green House needs her as a tool to put political pressure on Unatari."

  I frowned and told my daughter:

  "Lika, in the next conversation, you tell grandma I have one condition: I'll let you visit the Green House, but only after I get an official guarantee that they will let you come back two weeks later. I wouldn't want you to be taken hostage, if a bad political situation arises, even if you're kept in a golden cage."

  "Alright, I'll go tell her right now!" My hyperactive little girl lit up and hurried to climb off her seat at the dining table. Standing in the doorway, Lika stopped and asked: "Dad, do you think Crown Princess Natalie and Astra could come with me?"

  I considered it seriously. Natalie royl Cruz could go wherever she pleased, as harming an Imperial Crown Princess was something no one would dare do — the reaction from all parts of society would just be too negative. But the rule of absolute untouchability did not apply to Astra. Everyone in the galaxy knew about my warm feelings for my favorite, so sending Astra into the lair of a potential opponent was an obviously risky and short-sighted step.

  Fortunately, I didn't have to refuse my daughter — Astra wanted to stay home all on her own, pointing to the colicky state of her little son as his first teeth were coming in. That solved all the problems right away. I gave my permission, and Lika ran into her bunk, squealing joyfully.

  Queen Miya turned to my favorite and said in a soft voice:

  "Astra, little Georg is howling in the playroom again. Ayna cannot manage him, and my Deia has started to bawl as well, following his example. Seeing how you've already eaten, could you quick go to the playroom and calm your boy?"

  As soon as the doors closed behind Astra, Miya said distinctly:

  "Georg, it's better to say this out loud, as the question is really extremely important and sensitive. Did I understand your thoughts correctly?"

  "Yes, Miya, you understood perfectly. Instead of the Crown Princesses, I will send Arites to the Green House in disguise. Popori de Cacha, after Lika’s done talking to her grandmother, make sure our communications center doesn’t let my daughter make any more calls to the Green House. And if Lika tries to call, have one of the Arites imitate her granny Crown Princess Elisa royl Clement and tell my daughter that her visit had to be postponed for some believable reason."

  The head of my guard appeared several feet from me and clarified:

  "Tuki-tuka-de-sa, how long should your daughter be stopped from communicating with the Green House?"

  "Two weeks at least, three would be better. That should be enough time for the Arites to gather evidence of my mother having contact with the Antagonists."

  My cousin and advisor Katerina, until that point immersed in silent thought, shuddered abruptly and spoke with unhidden horror in her voice:

  "Georg, when Lika finds out about this, she’s gonna be outraged! And that’s to say nothing about the Green House. We'd be spitting right in their faces! All the negative consequences are hard to read. Are you sure you’ve thought this through, cousin?"

  "Well Katerina, whether we want it or not, there is already an undeclared war between the Empire and the Antagonists underway. My mother's side is silently building their power, getting more and more territory under their thumb, and soon will become unstoppable. So, our priority mission is to draw all the conspirators out into the open, even if that means sidestepping the rules of common decency. Yes, our spies may not succeed, and the consequences of their unmasking then could be rather unpredictable. But in any case, this is an attempt to sharply change the course of political life in the Empire away from one that is not acceptable to us. And I'll deal with my daughter somehow."

  I called up the internal interface before my eyes and looked at the time. We had to go! A shuttle from One-Eyed Python already should have been docking on my flagship. Accompanied by Miya, Bionica and Popori de Cacha, I walked into the small ship hangar.

  "Admit it, Georg, did my wife tattle on me?" asked Duke Corwin ton Unatari, who’d come to meet me near the shuttle. He then lowered the gangway and led me to his pilot’s seat. "Did she say I had started drinking uncontrollably, wasting family money in the casino, and snuggling young girls on the sly...?"

  "She didn't not say those things," I replied, not denying it. "Katerina said you got bored, so naturally you could no longer sit around patiently waiting. My cousin wants her gallant space fleet officer back, not some effete nobleman, languishing in ennui. To be honest, I also prefer that brave war-dog, a man who was not afraid to argue with his commander. You used to remind me of myself. And although the old you didn’t always make my job easy, your One-Eyed Python was given an award as the best ship in the fleet in not one, but two training sessions!"

  Corwin turned and smiled. Small fires of interest lit in the captain's eyes.

  "My Prince, One-Eyed Python can still serve as a touchstone military cruiser. My crew is unmatched in the whole fleet in their professionalism and combat readiness. I give my word as an officer that none of my people will besmirch the honor of the Unatari State on this diplomatic mission!"

  * * *

  It happened after crossing the Blue House border, when the ships of my diplomatic mission were charging up at the Forepost-22 station. Miya woke me up. The Truth Seeker was extremely troubled, and hadn't even changed out of her thin nighty, which was red, like all Miya's outfits. My wife's crimson hair was ridden with bedhead, her eyes flaring a bewitching flame of frightening orange.

  "Georg, wake up! I sense mortal danger!"

  As if in confirmation of the Queen of Unatari's words, the lights flickered, and the cruiser switched to emergency power. A siren howled out a prolonged wail.

  "Tuki-tuka-de-sa! Intruders on the ship!" said one of my chameleon-body guards, appearing next to me. "They’re coming from the station! Our guard post at the airlock has been destroyed! Popori de Cacha is reporting that there is a heavy firefight in the corridor on the first deck. Our troops are taking losses and retreating to the freight elevators!"

  Phobos, who normally sat like a motionless statue next to the doors,
flew into action and leaned decisively with his flexible middle appendage on a scanning sensor on the wall. The wall panel moved silently aside, revealing a stand with firearms and a cabinet with light armored space suits. In a business-like manner, the Alpha Iseyek began handing out the laser assault rifles to the human security and chameleon bodyguards, who appeared from invisibility. Miya refused the laser rifle offered to her. That wasn’t her modus operandi.

  The huge praying mantis himself took a heavy infantry resonator, giving another to Rosss. A resonator is a terrifying close combat weapon that breaks down the cell walls of an organism. In the hands of a competent soldier, it can turn any living opponent into a heap of pulsating protoplasm.

  "My Princcce, must to wear," the giant Alpha Iseyek carefully took a silver helmeted suit from the stand and extended it to me.

  I was going to walk up closer in order to take the hermetic suit with spherical helmet, but Bionica appeared in the doorway just then, panting, and shouted out in alarm:

  "My Prince, I've detected an unknown device attached to our cruiser's energy grid! I can say with over ninety-eight percent probability that it is a bomb!"

  "There's no time to get dressed!" Miya shouted, shoving me quite roughly through the door into the hall. "We have less than two minutes until the reactor explodes! We must run to the shuttles!"

  Accompanied by my guards, I hopped out into the corridor and dashed to the nearest elevator. But our whole group stopped sharply, because I heard intensive fire coming down the hall, then the muted sound of an explosion. The nearest door opened, and Popori de Cacha jumped into our corridor in a puff of smoke with two pistols in his hands.

  "Don't go that way!" shouted the head of my bodyguard, hurriedly locking the metal door behind him. "That corridor is full of assault soldiers in heavy armored suits."

  Almost immediately, muffled slamming could be heard from the other side of the armored door, then a burst from a high-caliber weapon. Where the shots landed, the metal bulged out a few inches. Miya walked up to a console in the wall and, placing her hand on it, melted the plastic panel and its buttons.

  "Now, the attackers will never get through! Let's go down into the service tunnel," the Truth Seeker said, pointing to a grate on the floor. "Faster! We have precious little time!"

  Bionica, showing surprising strength for a woman with such a delicate frame, ripped off the reinforced floor grate, revealing an access hole going vertically downward. The android set an example, diving down the service shaft. I went after her, climbing down the brackets in the semi-dark of the emergency lights past cables and pipes. It turned out to be a very short path — just half a minute later, I found myself in the rescue shuttle berth. There were two shuttles waiting there, ready to take off.

  "Faster! Faster!!!" Miya hurried everyone along, somehow having managed to clip a bag onto her shoulders with something round and heavy.

  I threw myself to the nearest shuttle, where my bodyguards and chameleons were quickly filling the passenger seats. But the Truth Seeker quickly grabbed me by the shoulder and sharply turned to another shuttle:

  "Georg, this way!"

  In no position to disagree, I ran where she pointed. The shuttle Miya had refused closed its doors, turned on its engine and sharply burst from place, noisily humming down the tunnel to the airlock. There were very few in the second shuttle, just the Alpha Iseyek Rosss, Miya, Bionica and me. Popori de Cacha sat down in the pilot's seat.

  "Alright, chameleon, start it up!" Miya shouted, having lost her normal self-control in her alarmed state. "There's only a few seconds until the reactor blows!"

  The shuttle abruptly started off. I hadn't managed to sit in the seat and buckle up yet, so I lost balance and somersaulted to the other end of the cabin, hitting my right shoulder painfully on a metal handle. My vision grew hazy. I felt like I'd broken something...

  Rosss the Alpha Iseyek picked me up gently, placed me in a seat and buckled my safety belts. And then... I was briefly blinded by a bright flash. Through the side porthole, I saw perfectly as One-Eyed Python bloomed into a bright white flower of flame. Fortunately, our shuttle managed to get out of the blast zone before it reached us.

  "I don't see the first shuttle!" came a surprised shriek from Popori de Cacha. "It isn't on the radar! How is that possible? They took off before we did!"

  Despite the searing pain in my shoulder, I found the strength to turn and look at my wife. For some reason, I had no doubt that Miya knew something about the first shuttle.

  "Yes, that shuttle has already been destroyed. I realized just in time that getting into it was an obvious mistake, just like staying on the ship. It would be just as much an error right now to dock on Emperor August. The cruiser is also doomed and will blow in a few seconds. We need to get out of here. Now!"

  "Where should we go, Miya? We're in a hostile star system on an unarmed shuttle! We don’t even have a warp drive to get near Mechanoid or jump away from the station."

  "I don't know, Georg. But staying here next to the station would be a mistake. I don't know why."

  I looked out the viewport. I was not interested now in the cloud of shimmering debris where the light cruiser had been, nor even the station with the heavy assault cruiser Emperor August docked at it (which is where, by the way, Popori de Cacha was steering our shuttle). I wanted to see the nearest planet, around which the space station was orbiting. There it was: a shade of reddish brown, dark, obviously with an atmosphere not suitable for breathing. But it was not a gas giant, nor a superheated ball of magma, and its gravity should have been somewhat less than crushing, based on the size of the planet.

  "Tuki-tuka-de-sa, there is a group of frigates on the near radar subscan! Five Claws with Blue House identifiers. They're headed our way!"

  "Popori de Cacha, immediately get our shuttle to the nearest planet and dive into the atmosphere! We need to hide from the enemy in the thick cloud cover. Then, try to land our shuttle on the planet!"

  The little ship staked a sharp curve and tore full speed into the gloomy, opaque atmosphere of the planet. I saw one last thing before we entered the reddish black clouds as our shuttle sped into the atmosphere, rabidly shaking and heating up as we entered the reddish black clouds: far behind us, next to the Forepost-22 station, there bloomed another bright flower of explosion.

  Emergency Landing

  ONCE UPON A TIME, I had entered the atmosphere of the Throne World on a similar shuttle also making an emergency landing, and it wasn't the most pleasant sensation. But, as it turned out, that was just roses in comparison with doing the same thing blind on an unknown planet. With the high G-forces, ghastly turbulence and burning of our wings, there was also a nasty scraping and piercing wail, reminiscent of a circular saw. As Popori de Cacha informed us, the dark clouds seemed to be made of fine-grained highly abrasive silicon dioxide, while the atmosphere of the planet consisted primarily of a mix of nitrogen oxides.

  A toxic atmosphere, and fine sand in a high quantity? Not the best conditions for flying! I looked out the viewport and led my gaze over something massive and dark, flickering along the left side of the ship.

  "What was that, Popori de Cacha?"

  "Tuki-tuka-de-sa, that was a rock face. The instruments are showing that there are many-mile high peaks all around here. We're traveling along a mountain ridge. There is no flat surface to be found. And on top of that, the windspeed is outrageous. It's a real hurricane. Worst of all is that our positioning system is failing due to the clouds of particles in the atmosphere. Also, the visibility is so bad I can’t see the obstacles fast enough."

  The situation he painted was extremely unpleasant. It was only a matter of time before our shuttle would slam into the next unexpected barrier in the dark cloud. I didn't distract the pilot any further and looked to Miya. The Truth Seeker was sitting all green — I didn't know my wife got nauseous from turbulence. Nevertheless, I needed her abilities.

  "Go help the pilot! We need to land this shuttle!"


  Miya undid her safety belt, stood up and clutched the wall handles, taking unconfident steps toward the pilot's cabin. With all the shaking, only her Truth Seeker abilities allowed her to foresee the shuttle's jerks and jumps far enough in advance to prepare. Finally, Miya reached the cabin and stood behind Popori de Cacha, placing her hands on the chameleon's shoulders.

  "Make a sharp turn downward! Now!!!" the Truth Seeker brayed almost immediately, and the shuttle made a tight hook, just barely avoiding a head-on collision with a sheer cliff that appeared a few seconds later right in front of us.

  We didn't manage to totally avoid the collision, though, losing a large part of one wing after grazing the cliff. By some miracle, Popori evened out our slight spiral and pointed the nose straight down. I saw a dark vertical wall in the viewport just ten feet to the right of our shuttle and, soon, an identical surface appeared to the left — we had entered some sort of crevasse. But there's always a silver lining: it wasn't at all stormy down here, so the turbulence was almost gone.

  "There's been a breach in our air system! A crack in the hull at the right wing joint!" Bionica warned.

  "Drop down and reduce speed! There is a small plateau up ahead where we can set down," Miya said confidently, and Popori de Cacha took the shuttle in for a landing.

  The sound of the engines changed tonality, we came down as softly as conditions allowed on a stone-strewn platform. I exhaled loudly — we did it! With my good left hand, I tried to undo my safety belt, but it turned out harder than I had imagined.