Bastions

by Jeff Sproul

  "I think it's important that we return to the topic that none of us are allies anymore," said Aegis. "We're free from all of Sage's terms, conditions and his ambitions. We can do whatever we want now."

  Riley pointed to the screen that depicted a cloud of dust, where Crimson City's center had been. "Contact your HQ. You left some people behind, right? Someone to keep guard while we assaulted the gate?"

  "Yeah," Aegis replied, before shaking her head and sighing. She gestured to bring up her inventory, then materialized her cellphone and brought it to her ear. A few seconds later, she spoke up again. "Gem? You there?"

  Riley watched Aegis's face for any sign of confirmation to Gem's wellbeing.

  Aegis's lips curled in a smile. "You're all alright then?" she asked. "Good. Um…stand by for now. We're still trying to figure that out. Just make sure you get everyone together and stay low. Oh, and Taurus and Thrash's people, along with the coalition forces, might be enemies now. I'll call back once I learn more." Aegis lowered the cell and looked to everyone. "My people are safe, but our HQ is wrecked. Gem and Domi were out on the edge of Crimson City, away from the vicinity of the blast. They're fine but…we have nothing to go back to."

  "We didn't have anyone watching the Bunker," said Laura. "We've mostly been using Crimson HQ anyway. It's likely destroyed along with everything else, due to its proximity to the blast."

  Chrono turned away and brought his hand to his ear. "Contagion, are you down there?"

  Riley looked over and realized that Chrono was probably calling his own HQ, which he remembered quite clearly. It was an underground cavern full of unique blue trees. And at the time that he'd been there, they'd also been full of the city's abducted NPCs.

  "If he's dead, wouldn't the contact name be missing from your list?" asked Riley.

  "The contact name is missing," Chrono sighed. "I'm calling the speakers in The Royals' HQ, hoping someone will respond. But to my knowledge and instruction, Contagion was the only one down there on guard duty."

  "We didn't have any good trap-layers, so we didn't leave anyone behind," said Laura. "So I guess all our bases are…gone?"

  "Looks that way," said Chrono with a hissing sigh. "I was hoping that The Royals' underground cavern would've been far enough away from Crimson HQ, but that blast must've been powerful."

  "Wait, if you were able to send a signal to the speakers in your guild HQ, then…it has to be still functional, right?"

  Chrono shook his head. "There's no way to know for sure. My system AI is telling me the signal is being sent. That's all I know. Contagion would've never left the base while we were away. He likes to stay back and out of the way of things. He didn't make it, and neither did Royal HQ."

  "So where does that leave us, besides totally homeless?" asked Aegis as her arms crossed. She then looked to Gella.

  Nobody was answering the question and Gella seemed to realize there was a strange silence. She turned her head and looked to her guests. "This ship doesn't function as a suitable HQ for many people. There aren't enough crew quarters for as many of you as there are. We don't have the resources to teleport you all around so that you can come and go. In fact, we don't even have a long-range teleporter. Just the local drop-beams. But even if you made one for us, we wouldn't be able to support it. What's that material you need for its function? Some sort of crystal?"

  Riley's eyes widened. "That's it! Poryte crystals!"

  "Yeah, that's the stuff," said Chrono. "Why do you sound so excited?"

  "Outpost Rose," said Riley. "The outpost I took. It's the farthest from each of the others. We can head there. It probably has the lowest resource output, right? But it does have poryte. So we should be able to get something out of it and bunker down there."

  "But it's likely that Taurus has already managed to grab all of the outposts, Rose included," said Chrono. "We have no idea how quickly they spread out. And remember, they're in a better position than us right now. First off, they have superior numbers to what we have left. Second, they'll be in a defended position."

  "Wrong and wrong," said Riley with a grin running ear to ear. "If we work together, we can claim an outpost. He can't have all his forces in one location. But we have to stick together and work together. We can turn this around. We killed a lot of Golem's forces, but we can't lose our momentum."

  "What momentum?" asked Laura. "We just got obliterated on multiple fronts. We've lost everything, you realize that, right? I hope you've been saving money. You better have cashed out."

  "I know, I realize that," said Riley. "But we have to act now, if we want to even attempt to turn this around."

  "Then you better have some sort of plan, because I've got nothing," said Chrono.

  Riley glanced to each of them, then looked to Gella. "Gella. You've helped us out a lot, and there's literally nothing we can do for you in return. But can you take us somewhere else?"

  Gella gave a single nod. "Just upload the coordinates and I'll get you where you need to go. We're willing to assist however we can, just know that our own resources are limited and some of us use this game to help cover our own bills. Or, well…I guess the game is a bit different than the one we're used to, but you get what I'm saying."

  "I do, and we're incredibly thankful for your help," said Riley.

  "Extremely thankful," Laura added in.

  Riley walked over to Gella's terminal and pointed out the location of Outpost Rose. "Will you be able to keep stealth and use those short-range teleporters to drop us down into the base?"

  "Shouldn't be a problem," said Gella. "As long as they can't detect us. I will admit, the stealth on this ship is more…practical, than powerful."

  "Well, I did recently upgrade the scanners across all outposts in order to keep a better eye on Golem's movements," said Chrono.

  "Then we have to drop you outside of scan range, if you want the element of surprise," said Gella.

  "That's fine," said Riley as he stepped away from the terminal that Gella was at. "We have the element of surprise. They'll think we probably died down in that cave. They knew we didn't have a way out. And they just destroyed Crimson City. They won't be expecting a force of our size."

  "As meager as it is," said Chrono.

  "Melissa isn't aware of our actions here in Sigil, as far as we know," said Gella. "So as long as we limit our visibility and as long as we stay low and out of direct range of her fortress, we should be able to keep hidden, even though her fortress dwarfs our own in size, capability and…well, just about everything."

  "We can make it work," said Riley. "We just need a base of operations to prepare."

  "You still sound far more optimistic than you should," said Chrono.

  "Agreed," said Laura.

  "Well, I would say 'don't worry,'" Riley said with a smirk. "There's still a lot to worry about. I just think there's a chance, is all. And…well, it's a pretty small chance, but it's there. Not to mention, it'll be a fun challenge…right?"

  "We need to go back into the hold and get a clearer count for what we're capable of and who is still alive," said Chrono, as he gestured back to the rest of the ship. "It's likely that the players we lost will want to find their way back to us. At least, I'm sure some of my people will. I need to figure out what's going to happen with the rest of The Crimsons and anyone else that might be a straggler from The Weavers or Sappers."

  Chrono stood there for a minute and just stared off. "We took a big hit."

  "Yeah, we did," said Laura. "A lot of decisions need to be made and we can't wallow in our defeat."

  "We're en route to your outpost," said Gella. "I suggest using the time you have to discuss and figure your problems out."

  "Alright then, let's head back to the hold," said Laura.

  Chapter 32: What Next?

  The sun was still high in the sky, even though it had already been an incredibly long day. During their preparations to assault Outpost Rose, everyone took a few minutes to log off and use the bathroom or eat somethi
ng really quick. The majority of what was left of Crimson Alliance, or at least, what had once been called Crimson Alliance, was now back in the hold of the crystal ship, which was still in transit to the site.

  Riley stood amongst his friends, The Bunker Brawlers.

  Red and Green were discussing something quietly amongst themselves just off to the side.

  The Royals and what was left of the actual Crimson guild were gathered together around Chrono. From what Riley had overheard, there was some discussion about the remnants of The Crimsons joining The Royals.

  The Crimson Alliance was gone, disbanded at Sage's in-game death, which Brenda had logged off to confirm. But one of the questions on Riley's mind was 'did he survive IRL?' Thankfully, the answer was 'yes.' Sage was fine. Whatever had been causing the deaths of players in the real world when their in-game character died had been alleviated—as far as any of them were concerned.

  But along with the dissolution of The Crimson Alliance, The Crimsons had also been disbanded, since Sage had never set a successor. All of the Crimson hellions were now guildless.

  "I don't know if Sage wants to come back," said Brenda.

  "So he didn't suspect anything, he didn't see anything happen?" Laura asked.

  Brenda shook her head. "He said that the city was fine. He was watching everything and then he detected the fortress, right before everything exploded. He said that Taurus and Thrash never showed up at the HQ."

  "Did we try to message Sage from the crystal ship?" Riley asked, glancing to Laura.

  Laura shrugged. "Well, we didn't have any means of doing so. We lost our long-range transmitters when Taurus withdrew. We didn't have anything that could shoot a signal all the way to Crimson City. Even when we were in that ship, we were still just out of range. You were talking to Chrono at the time, but I asked Gella about their transmission capability, and she said they didn't have anything that could have communicated with Sage, due to the mechanics of how the two different games' technologies work."

  "I doubt it would've changed much, even if we could've contacted him," said Riley. "He would've just been on guard, or locked them out of the HQ. It wouldn't have saved him from that death ray. He would've still been in the HQ."

  "Yeah, that's probably true," said Laura.

  "So what's the plan now?" asked Amber Impaler, as he stood there with his arms crossed. "We keep fighting this Golem thing over and over again, but we haven't gained anything from it. We just keep losing over and over again."

  "We sorta won that first fight with Golem," said Glint. "But we did lose a lot of our number in the process."

  "And we just lost practically everything but our characters in the last couple hours," said Amber. "That earlier fight at their gate site should've ended this whole thing, but we lost that. Now we're much worse off than we had been. What are we supposed to do? Is Sage coming back? Who's in charge now?"

  "I'm in charge," said Laura. "And Chrono is in charge of the hellions, and Aegis is in charge of The Vigilant. But now we're back to being three individual guilds without an overarching alliance."

  "Wait, didn't The Vigilant have some people in Crimson City when it blew up?" Carla asked. "Did we leave them behind?"

  "No, we ended up diverting by where they were and picked them up, then set course for Outpost Rose," said Laura. "We have everyone that's alive. If people rejoin the game, they won't really have a place to go."

  "Hopefully they'll have Outpost Rose to go to," said Riley. "Once we take it."

  "So we're just going to roll into Outpost Rose and kill anyone guarding it?" asked Amber. "Even if they spread their forces evenly throughout the outposts that Crimson Alliance had, the defenses and defenders are not going to be fun to go up against. We have no ordinance to breach the wall. And aren't we going to be detected if this ship gets in close?"

  "We're bypassing all of that," said Riley with a smirk.

  "Huh?" Amber asked, giving Riley a strange look. "What are you talking about?"

  "I've got a plan," said Riley. "I'm going to go in there alone and disable the defenses. I just need a few people's powers to make it work."

  "That doesn't make any sense," said Amber. "You're going to go in there alone? You're going to be detected."

  "Oh, I'm sure I will be," said Riley. "But with your and Chrono's powers, I can make it work."

  "Why are you going in alone?" asked Glint. "Won't it be easier to send a group?"

  "If we send a group, they might alert Taurus or Thrash," said Riley. "If it's just one person, they might not try and warn anyone right away. They'll think they can deal with a single player. At least, that's what I imagine."

  "Sounds stupid," said Amber.

  "I agree. He's not really telling us much," said Carla, who had now crossed her arms. The two of them were practically glaring at Riley at this point.

  "It's going to work, I promise. We don't have a lot of options, and we can't risk losing anyone in an all-out assault."

  "Why not go in with Aaron?" Chase asked, as he gestured over to Aaron, who was in his human form, and not his Arbiter form.

  Riley and Aaron exchanged a knowing look.

  "I um…" Riley started to say.

  "Not much reason keeping it secret anymore," said Aaron. "It's not a big deal, I can tell them."

  "That's up to you," said Riley.

  Aaron sighed and then glanced to The Bunker Brawlers. "So, the only reason I was able to take the Arbiter form was because of a specific item that I'm able to craft. Each time I want to transform into Arbiter—which is a tier three form, by the way—I have to consume a very resource-intensive item. I only have one left. I used one in the fight earlier. So, I'm back to controlling monsters and that's it, unless I absolutely have to turn into the Weevil one last time."

  "Can you control Golem? Does it count as a mob?" Laura asked.

  Aaron nodded. "I can. It's based on my Mind attribute, as to how many of them I can control. It's kind of like the command potential system as to how many I'm able to control at a time, and the max capacity will slowly decrease with my energy. So…I'm useless in a player vs player situation. But I can still help against Golem."

  "So you were tier three, even back as far as vanilla Sigil Online?" Glint asked.

  "Yep. But it was limited," said Aaron. "I'm currently tier two, but with these items I could make, I was able to accomplish tier three for a time."

  "And you can't make them anymore?" Amber asked with a curious tone.

  Aaron shook his head. "I haven't been able to get my hands on the required materials in a while. I think someone with more money has been buying them up off the market. So, I'm sure there are other players out there that are utilizing them. But they're out of my price range and I can't make any more."

  "What about your home?" Riley asked. "Are you protected while you're away?"

  Aaron scratched the back of his head and slowly smiled. "Well, I told you I'd been wanting to sell my stuff off. And, well, I kinda did. I figured with the market system and everything else, I'd be able to craft from anywhere. So I was trying to wind down my setup. I wanted to have some extra funds to cash out before we went on this dangerous mission. So, selling things off felt like the way to go."

  Riley's brow furrowed a moment as he remembered the wallets that he'd given Aaron to decrypt. But he didn't want to mention them in front of everyone, so he figured he'd ask Aaron later about them. But he did ask, "Did you sell your home then? Or stop renting it?"

  Aaron nodded and then looked into Riley's eyes. "Yeah, everything is cleared out. I um…I'll talk to you more about it later, alright?"

  Riley nodded. "Sure thing," he said, as he then glanced away, not wanting to rouse suspicion.

  Laura reached over and tapped the band on her wrist. She checked the time, then looked to Riley. "You have the powers you need? We're almost there."

  "Let me go grab Chrono's real quick, then I'm good," said Riley. He turned and headed off toward The Royals. He slowly waded throu
gh the various hellion players of all shapes and sizes. They were insects, twisted animals and strange aquatic forms that also worked well on land. It reminded Riley that there was technically a large ocean out there. He wondered if any players had colonized it or exploited its resources yet. Surely they had. At this point, most of Sigil Online had been explored by one person or another, probably.

  Riley passed by The Royals, some of whom greeted him, while others were silent. It was difficult to read expressions on hellion players, so he didn't even try.

  At the center of the gathered Royals, Chrono was talking to a player that looked like some sort of toxic hyena. In fact, 'Toxic Hyena' was probably the player's name.

  Chrono spotted Riley out of the corner of his eye and turned to him.

  "Any news?" Chrono asked as Riley stopped a couple feet away.

  "Brenda says that Sage isn't sure if he's coming back. I really doubt he expected to go out like that," said Riley. "But other than that, we're nearing the site. I just need your powers to go with Amber's, and then I'll be fine to get this started."

  "And you're sure you want to go in alone?" Chrono asked. "I'm sure you'd benefit from someone going with you."

  Riley shook his head. "No, my best chance is to go in alone. I'll call when I need you all to teleport down. Or beam down, or whatever this ship does. Do you know how you're going to organize the hellions?" Riley asked, glancing around.

  "Well, I'm in the process of inviting them all to The Royals," said Chrono. "I've told them all that they can join, but they don't have to. Obviously they need to know that Sage probably won't come back, so…hopefully I'll get a clear head count, once you've done your part in the base. But we're ready to go now, if need be."

  "Well, the moment I leave here, you need to be ready. It's going to be quick."

  "Alright, we'll be ready," said Chrono.

  "Great, so, let me just—" Riley reached out and tapped Chrono's shoulder with the palm of his left hand. "There we go. All done."