Stone Raiders' Return (Emerilia Book 6)

by Michael Chatfield

  “Agreed. Better to scale up than go from a simple building to an apartment. I knew that they were a smart idea, but I didn’t expect that they would look beautiful.” Lucy looked over the growing smithy with a smile. “We’ve come pretty far since we started, huh?”

  “Further than I thought possible,” Dave agreed as he looked from the smithy to the miners that were carving out places for parks, hollowing out towers for living quarters, training rooms, shops, and banks. Stone Raiders wandered around, helping out where they could or just taking in the sights. There was only a few hundred of the nine hundred and growing Stone Raiders Guild members here. Most had come and checked out the new city, staking out claims on rooms and living quarters.

  Despite everything they’d accomplished, there was still a lot more work to be done. The miners were carving out rooms, but they couldn’t do anything but massive runes. Dave had found that the repair bots with a light enchantment on their legs were the best at carving out the complex coding.

  “I was thinking the other day about Earth,” Lucy said.

  “Oh?” Dave looked to her.

  “How are you able to play so much? You’re an E-head, but I keep on seeing that you’re making decisions back on Earth,” Lucy said.

  “Well, that was some subtle questioning.” Dave grinned.

  “With the amount of questioning and information that I get from pulling apart coded messages or watching through the Aleph scouts we’ve got posted everywhere, actually asking a straightforward question is pretty nice.” Lucy smiled.

  Dave laughed. “Well, you do make a good point.” He crossed his arms. His face turned serious as he looked at Lucy.

  Her eyebrow quirked. “This is the part where you’re thinking of whether or not you should tell me something, something that might change our relationship?”

  “You’re good and I don’t know if I can tell you yet.” Dave shrugged.

  “Do you trust me?” Lucy asked seriously.

  “Yes, I trust all of the Stone Raiders, but this isn’t something as simple as trust or not,” Dave said.

  “Well, I’m happy you trust everyone here. Seems we did our vetting right.” Lucy smiled.

  Dave returned the gesture, relieving some of the tension in the air. “Okay, well, you might as well be my test subject. You want to learn the truth?”

  “Yes, I want to know the truth.” Lucy held his gaze.

  “Come with me.” Dave stood, and led her out of the city and toward the teleport pad.

  Chapter 10: Initiation

  “So, where are we going?” Lucy asked.

  “Just need to show you the power station. Stay close—don’t want you to stumble into any of the power couplings,” Dave said. He was acting odd.

  Though, what would you expect when the most powerful man in the world was found out and then I started asking questions about his life?

  It didn’t take them long to pass through the housing complex. Dave talked to the controllers and they opened a portal.

  Dave led the way into the power station. The air was thick with Mana while carts moved with large soul gems on them, each of them carrying a couple of the vault-classed gems.

  “We’re going to have to make a factory for those. Right now, we’re buying them from the Aleph. They’re being really nice, seeing as they need them nearly as bad as us. With us both being able to create them, then we won’t need to dump so much of it into the city’s power grid, and we can also start using them to supply the different nations with power,” Dave said as they walked through the large multi-story facility.

  “Supplying them with power? As in charged soul gems?” Lucy asked.

  “Yeah. Could turn into a new currency—soul gems for different items. Be a bit more stable than coins, which we could use to make things.” Dave didn’t head into the main area of the facility but a secondary command station to the facility.

  “But we’d need something less than a vault-classed soul gem for that,” Lucy said.

  “Well, we could make grand, greater, and those types with ease. I spent a few months working on soul gems to try to figure out how to make the vault-classed ones. I could use that same information, give it to a bunch of researchers and get them to figure it out.” Dave shrugged.

  “So, that’s why you helped to make that Mirror of Communication school? Have the people who are going there work on your projects that you don’t want to deal with?” Lucy laughed.

  “Well, it is pretty convenient and I would give them a share of the profits from the royalties, though I made that school for other reasons.” Dave activated a hidden rune in the command center. He indicated for Lucy to follow him and pushed a section of the wall, which turned out to be a doorway. Lucy followed. The door closed behind her.

  She stopped in complete darkness before lights came on. She stepped out of the short corridor and found herself in a massive room with a soul gem matrix across the walls. There were a few floors to the place, all with what looked like various labs.

  “What is this place? It’s not on the plans.” Lucy looked to Dave.

  “Well, I needed a place to make things where the Jukal couldn’t watch.” Dave headed up to the laboratories. Each were large rooms with a corridor ending in a wall. It looked as if it could be expanded if Dave willed it.

  “Jukal?“ Lucy asked.

  “We’ll discuss that soon enough,” Dave responded.

  Okay, so what are you making in here that is so dangerous? Lucy wondered what the hell he was trying to hide in a video game.

  “That.” Dave pointed to a large metal box in the corner with runes all over it. “And that.” His finger moved over to a spherical object with runes around it but not glowing.

  “Okay? Big metal boxes? What does this have to do with how you can play so much and still be out and about in the world?” Lucy shook her head and crossed her arms, thinking Dave was screwing with her.

  “Well, for that, you’re going to need to sit down and open your mind, because we’re going to have a long conversation that you’re not going to really like.” Dave opened his interface and sent a message before he grabbed one of the rolling spinny chairs that lay around the lab.

  “Well, this all seems rather creepy.” Lucy took a seat and faced Dave.

  “If you were to know what was real and what was fake—would you be interested?” Dave asked.

  “Sounds like a line from a movie. Do you have pills?” Lucy snorted.

  Dave gave her a sad smile. “For curiosity’s sake.” Dave leaned back in his chair, his eyes never leaving Lucy.

  Lucy thought about it for a while and shrugged. “I’d want to know what was real.”

  Dave scratched his head and sighed. “Okay, so technically, it’s closer to the year 3043 than the early two-thousands. Eight hundred years ago, Humanity was pushing their boundaries, reaching farther than anyone had ever gone before. They wandered into a spacefaring empire. They were called the Jukal Empire, tens of spacefaring races controlled by the Jukal species. Every planet, every race was given a job, compartmentalizing the races. Factories were not a thing and the Jukal controlled the market. The Jukal were used to aggressive species and others that they raised out of the dirt, making them think that they were some techno-gods.

  “And here was Humanity. We had multiple star systems under our belt and we didn’t want to become a part of their system. We wanted to trade and learn from them. Some nations started stealing from them to get tech, but most of Humanity were just wowed by the Jukal Empire and other races. We weren’t alone anymore. The problem was that the more time Humanity got to know the Jukal Empire, the more tech that moved between the two groups and the people who had been supporting the empire saw that there was another way to live, another group that might help them out of their slavery. Do you know what happens when someone shows the oppressed that there is another way?” Dave asked.

  “They fight? What does this have to do with anything?” Lucy asked, confused.

  �
��I’m getting there,” Dave said. “And yes, you’re right. When someone finds out that they have a way out of oppression, they fight. Well, the Jukal Empire didn’t want to give up their position. Empires do not go down easily, so they shut down trade and started to mass their ships.

  “Us Humans, we’ve fought thousands of battles since we started recording histories, even more before that. The Jukal tried to hide their actions, but they knew what was going on—spies found out. Humanity started to raid the Jukal and activate their war fleets. The Jukal technology was more advanced and they had numbers. Humanity started training people in VR and building fleets.

  “The Jukal, confident in their victory, started pushing into Humanity-controlled systems, intent on subduing us to make us useful or wipe us out.”

  There was a noise from where they had entered. A short Gnome walked into the room.

  “Hey, Dave, Lucy. So, what’s going on?” the Gnome asked.

  Lucy did an Analyze on him.

  Bob McMahnon

  Gnome

  ???

  “Who are you?” Lucy asked.

  “This is Bob, though we’ll get to that later.” Dave looked to Bob. “I’m telling her the truth. She’s our intel officer, so she might be able to tell me a better way to tell the rest of the Players and POEs. Grab a seat.”

  “Okay, well, this is sure to be weird as hell.” Bob grabbed a chair and pushed over to Dave. “Ha! These are great fun! Not as comfortable as my chair, though!”

  “Bob.” Dave sighed as he looked at the Gnome playing around in his chair.

  “Right, serious business and all that.” Bob used his small feet that barely reached the floor to move over toward them.

  “Okay, so, war took over. The Jukal Empire’s fleets hammered Humanity’s. While they put up a good defense and took out a lot of the empire’s forces, in the end the Jukal Empire had too many ships and they wiped out every Human they came across. Thousands fled in every direction and Sol system was destroyed. Now, the Jukal had a problem. Bob, I think this is your part.” Dave sat back.

  Bob cleared his throat.

  “With Humanity spread across the stars, the Jukal fleets had to go hunting to make sure that Humanity never made it back from the brink. It was a massive undertaking and their ranks were already greatly reduced. The Jukal fleet had been made for two purposes: to destroy ‘aggressive species,’ those that tried to upset the balance of the empire or actively trying to kill anything they could get a hold of, or conquering races occupying a planet’s surface that the empire wanted and didn’t agree to their terms. Now, these forces were gone for a few centuries, tracking down Humans and losing many ships in the process. The empire needed a way to fight off these species. I came up with an idea.” Bob scratched his cheek awkwardly and took a deep breath.

  “I didn’t want to see another race as brilliant as the Humans be just another entry in the empire’s victory books. I knew a number of Earth scientists and found their ideas refreshing and interesting. Thankfully, my interactions were never discovered by the empire. We needed a way to deal with the aggressive species without using the Jukal fleet. Humans used VR to become some of the greatest pilots and fighters seen. I studied the original VRMMORPG’s. Humans lost their inhibitions and acted freely. Caring less and acting on their whims, they were powerful. Jukal tech was on the level of magic, an interface made up of a nanoweave around a person’s brain and an integrated processor to take your thoughts, translate it through nanites and implants into reality. Appears to be magic, but it truly is just techno wizardry. I proposed to blend the two together: grow Humans and make them think they’re playing a game, then watch as they cut back the aggressive species. Sure, they were in a prison they didn’t know about, but they would survive as a species, even if it was in an odd zoo. You could continue to innovate and thrive.

  “However, with time, it stopped being a secret project and started to become a reality show: watch the dumb Humans as they fight and keep the interesting aggressive species alive for entertainment! For five centuries, this has gone on. The Jukal fleet hangs out in a few systems and moves around the empire, but they aren’t the true fighting force of the empire. You are—Humanity’s unknowing slave race, the population of Emerilia. Translated from Jukal, it means Trapped Mind. I created a simulated prison, called it Earth and imbued Emerilia with technology to make it seem like a virtual reality game.” Bob’s appearance changed to what could only roughly be called a frog. It was purple, furry with a large stomach, bulbous eyes, and limbs that looked like hands but moved like seaweed in water.

  Lucy looked at the peculiar creature, not overly stunned.

  Bob changed back to his Gnome appearance. “I am Lo’kal. I started the Trapped Mind project,” Bob said, sounding sad.

  “Okay, so, what is this, some side quest?” Lucy asked. “That is some interesting transformation. Wish I could teach my agents that.”

  She looked at Bob and Dave, who looked at each other. Her smile fell from her lips at their serious expression.

  “Can you meet her on Earth?” Dave asked.

  “I can do it. Take me a few minutes to set up everything.” Bob stood.

  “Sounds good,” Dave said.

  Bob headed out of the room.

  “What are you talking about?” Lucy asked.

  “Could you log off for me? I can prove that this is real,” Dave said.

  Lucy snorted and stood. “I just wanted to know how you were walking around and playing this game so much. I didn’t know you would troll me this hard.”

  “I haven’t left the game in nearly a year.” Dave looked at her.

  “So, what? You have a body double?” Lucy asked.

  “Just, please, trust me. Log out and you’ll see.”

  “Fine.” Lucy opened up her menu.

  “Don’t do it in here. This is way too heavily warded for the AI to read you,” Dave said.

  “Okay,” Lucy said, getting annoyed with the prank.

  They headed out of the secret lab. The door closed behind Dave.

  “Is this okay?” Lucy asked.

  “This will work,” Dave said.

  Lucy pulled up her interface to find her logout.

  Log off commands

  You might be leaving, but your character is still here. Leave commands for them to complete while you’re away.

  (Beware: if you have your character stray into danger and they die, it will count as a normal death. Only soul bound items will stay with you.)

  Lucy didn’t put in any commands and pushed the window to the side.

  System Message

  Are you happy with your commands?

  Y/N

  We advise sleeping (Saving) before exiting.

  Lucy pressed Yes.

  Her world went black, before she found blinking LEDs looking down at her. She pressed a button on the hatch of the full immersion pod. It retracted; lines pulled out from her form-fitting suit that looked after her bodily needs while she was under. She got up and stretched. She was only slightly stiff, and not hungry or tired at all. She looked around her pod.

  She was in the E-head facility in Japan. There were eight identical pods on the walls around her, all of them humming slightly with their occupants inside. Lights turned on around her. She looked around, sighing and moving to the end of the room, where there were four more compartments of people in their immersion pods.

  That was when a Gnome appeared in front of her. One minute, he wasn’t there. The next, he was.

  “Hello, Lucy,” Bob said.

  “Hey Bob, funny prank.” Lucy rolled her eyes before she stopped. “Wait, how are you here? This—this is Earth?”

  Bob grew and changed, turning into a Jukal as Lucy took a hesitant step backward. Bob reached out with his hand, touching hers. It wasn’t some hologram or something made up; it was a real limb.

  “I won’t hurt you,” Bob promised, staying still.

  “Can you change into your other form?” Lucy aske
d, not too comfortable with the Jukal form.

  “Certainly.” Bob reduced in size.

  Lucy touched and prodded him. “What is going on?”

  “What Dave told you was the truth. Earth is a simulation made to get people to play Emerilia, to fight the aggressive species. Now, it’s a source of innovation, entertainment, and energy for the Jukal Empire. Look, I can even become immaterial,” Bob said as Lucy’s hand passed through him as if he didn’t exist.

  “And materialize again.”

  Lucy’s hand was stuck in his head, but as she pulled it out, feeling wet and slimy, his face didn’t change at all.

  “But? How? Why?” Lucy asked.

  “For that, you’ll find your answers in Emerilia,” Bob said.

  Lucy had a thousand thoughts running through her head. She checked; there was no interface. As she thought of logout, nothing came up. Everything that would be in a game wasn’t available.

  If he can be here and there at the same time and become immaterial here, then Earth and its laws can’t be real. I’ve already left Earth behind. With this, I’m just truly accepting that I am a true E-head.

  Lucy nodded, firm in her resolve even with hundreds of questions.

  “It looks like you’ve reached a decision. When you want to leave, just think of yourself waking up in Emerilia.” Bob smiled and disappeared.

  Lucy closed her eyes, thinking of the power facility. As she opened her eyes again, she looked at Dave, who was nervously playing with a band of ebony.

  Dave put the band away. Lucy made to talk, but Dave held up a finger.

  He pressed the rune again and the door to his secret lab opened. Lucy moved through; Dave followed.

  “How in the fuck is this possible? It—it’s fucking scary to think about, frankly!” Lucy rubbed her head and paced, clearly overwhelmed.