Kaizen Sanctuary (The Exoskeleton Codex Book 2)

by Sean Kennedy

  Joni was smiling as though keeping a secret. Kage was Zen, much harder to read, while Majka looked serene, as she always did. Only Butai had the trace of a smug expression, but Jacob wasn’t sure it was all that malicious, he just seemed to be like that. A few moments later, Teeva returned holding the handle of a sword, complete with an ornate tsuba guard. “...With this!” Teeva said and held it out to him.

  The moment his hands touched the handle, electronics hidden beneath the ray-skin wrapping hummed into solid state life. Jacob looked up, “I’m sorry, what is this?”

  “It’s a takrizatchi, and it's how you’s gonna make some money bro.”

  “A takrizatchi is an aug-weapon, it can be any virtual blade actually.” Joni said, “All physical weapons are automatically takrizatchis, but not all takrizatchis are physical. To call it a sword would legally imply it’s a weapon, so it has its own designation. That particular takrizatchi is a katana.”

  “That’s a sweet Japanese sword bro,” Teeva interrupted and winked.

  “Right,” Joni nodded, rolling her eyes as she continued, “takrizatchis are the most common type of weapon you'll find online. Did your uncle clone your old shield’s reality logs into that helmet?”

  “He said he did,” Jacob said, and his visor closed as he vanished behind its emerald mirrored curve. The HUD display sprang to life, confirming A/VR access.

  Thinking through for both prompts, Jacob saw the Dojo’s steel bulkheads transformed into ornate paper walls, and the canvas cushions became vibrantly colored silk once again. His enviro-suit looked dust free, as though just pulled from the plastic.

  The subtleties of the Japanese castle were much stronger than they had been with the iGlasses, the smell of tea on a spring breeze, the way his breathing echoed in the room, and the disturbances his shadow made against the tatami mat were vibrant details in augmented reality.

  “Oh wow, this is WAY better!” Jacob said, and heard Butai laugh. Jacob turned to see him broad-chested, with his hair tied back in a tight bun, as immaculately groomed as any shogun, in his black ninja garb

  “How do you mean better, Jacob?” Majka spoke, and Jacob turned to see her augmented white form blending with the paper walls.

  “It’s just ... way more intense,” Jacob said, “it's like ...trying to describe silence.”

  “Interesting,”’ Majka said, “you seem to have boosted your connection.” Her layered white kimono shimmered as she stepped into the circle of cushions.

  Jacob smiled, but wasn’t sure what was happening.

  “It’s cool bro, she can't hurt you here, it's just to check you out,” Teeva whispered.

  “Oh,” Jacob said still holding the takrizatchi in his hands.

  “Can you draw the blade?” Majka asked, and Jacob reached through his suit’s senses to feel the inner workings of the virtual weapon.

  It took a moment for his body to adjust to it, like a new garment settling against his skin. Then with a thought, a long slightly curved blade flew impossibly from the hilt.. The handle’s gyros mimicked the weight and balance of its virtual blade as Jacob turned it over in his hands. Everyone cleared the silk cushions from the center of the room and Jacob had a sickening feeling.

  “Neither of us will be hurt Jacob, this is just training,” Majka said, “It won’t have the same effect as combat on public servers.” As she spoke, she drew a long straight sword from beneath her robes

  “Your sword, I mean, your takrizatchi is different,” he said.

  “Not all takrizatchis are the same, some are swords, some are machetes or daggers. Some fighters can use two blades at once, however, it's less common than people think. This takrizatchi is a Chinese Jian.”

  With no warning, Majka stepped forwards in a long stride, thrusting the double-edged blade in a deep lunge. Jacob reflexively parried with the tackrizatchi, and as the clap of steel faded, Jacob found himself standing ready, at a forty-five-degree angle to Majka’s attack.

  She rose gracefully, and her blade retracted as it vanished beneath her robes. “You have good reflexes.”

  “Oh,” Jacob said, “is that it then?”

  “That's all Majka needs bro, she’s the best of us with a blade.”

  “Oh right,” Jacob said and felt little embarrassed, “I forgot swords were so important.”

  “That's what made Immersion great!” Joni perked up, “Early on there were lots of augmented reality browsers, people would set up area’s and allow access to a bunch of different systems, but the same problems always happened.”

  “Problems?” Jacob asked

  “People are crap bro!” Teeva blurted out, and Joni went on, “Since immersion originally came from a flight simulator, the design philosophy allowed users to resolve conflicts by dogfighting, without involving moderators or admins or anything else. Other browsers failed because when they became popular, trolls would show up and game the system. There’d never be enough mods to ban everyone.”

  “So, no moderators?” Jacob asked.

  “Only local servers bro!” Teeva said,

  “So why not have guns, or tanks, or something?” Jacob asked.

  “They do exist, but only as many that are in reality, unless you join the Warscape,” Kage said, “but for open access Immersion worlds, it's mostly melee weapons.”

  “Unless they actually have registered hardware," Teeva said and gave Jacob a sly wink, “and that means you have to own the weapon in real life. You’d have to be military or mega-corp to have heavy weapons, it's super rare bro! Super ...Rare.” He nodded making sure Jacob understood.

  Jacob thought of sheathing his Takrizatchi Katana and the blade fell magically back into the handle.

  “How did you do that?” Joni asked wide eyed.

  “Uh, do what?” I thought we were done, Majka put her sword away and...” he looked around, “we’re not done?”

  “No,” Joni said, “I was watching your hands, and you didn't touch the button.”

  “There’s a button?” Jacob said turning the handle over in his hands to see a small black dot just under the tsuba guard. He touched it, and the blade flashed out. When he touched it again, it snapped back into the handle.

  “Huh!” Jacob said, “No, I didn't see that there.”

  “Then how did you collapse the blade?” Majka asked.

  “I just... felt it I guess, and it just moved, like my power-boks.”

  Jacob could tell that wasn’t normal by the way the others were exchanging sideways glances, except Majka, who never took her eyes from him as she was tried to make sense of it.

  “Oh, that’s cool bro,” Teeva said, “it’s just like... most folks can't do that. It’s almost like... you’re a ninja!”

  Jacob looked back to Majka as questions began to separate in his mind. “So, if everyone has weapons, what stops people from going and just cutting people up in a virtual world? If all that happens is they get kicked off for three days?

  “That's enough bro!” Teeva said, “ Like, if the Plague got me when I picked up your meds? I wouldn’t be able to sign for it when the drones showed up. Out here in the zone, Immersion is the lifeline to the world, cut that, and you’re done!”

  “You got attacked?” Jacob asked.

  “Yeah, Plague bro,”

  “Market districts that run no combat restrictions have other restrictions too that get put in play,” Joni said, “there’s not a lot of room for anonymous transactions. If you want to buy and sell anything not registered on a licensed market server, you have to do it in a free zone, which means that there can be combat, and that means you can get robbed.

  “But only what your holding? Right?” Jacob said, looking at Teeva

  “Yeah bro,” Teeva looked away for a moment, “I mean they can harvest your avatar too, if they want your skin, or ...whatever.” His voice trailed off.

  “So why would anyone fight at all, why not just disconnect when you're attacked.”

  “It takes twenty seconds minimum to login
or logoff,” Joni said, “depending on how busy the server is. If you just drop out, the system won't let you on for seven days instead of just three, so you're better off hiding all your kit in inventory and just running for it.”

  “Or just gank on your own blade Bro,” Teeva said, “three days off without getting robbed is better.”

  “Okay,” Jacob said, but wasn't certain exactly what to say next. The pause grew into an awkward silence.

  “Bro, you could totally use my sling!” Teeva said, motioning for Jacob to follow him over to the black support columns.

  He reached into his traveler's bag, and withdrew a tight ball of fabric that quickly revealed itself to be a long silken hammock. Teeva wrapped a rope from one end around the wooden post, layered, so it tightened with weight to grip the pole. He tied the other end to a second support before adjusting the tension. He pulled a small, lightweight blanket out of his bag to create a padded layer before holding it open and looking at Jacob.

  “Uh... What about Majka?” Jacob asked, and everyone chuckled.

  “Don’t worry Jacob,” she said, and he watched Majka’s ghostly form step forward out of her body and stand one pace in front of her physical self. Her body dimmed to the dull gray of passive environmental forms, but she stared into jacob’s eyes as she stepped into the virtual, “I’ll be fine.”

  When Jacob sat in the hammock, Teeva whispered, “Don’t show off your armor bro.” There was such intensity in his eyes that Jacob nodded immediately. He lay back and Teeva patted his chest and said louder, “It’ll be a little different than your Uncle's server bro, when you're comfy, just spawn to VR, and you'll appear right here.”

  “Thanks Teeva,” Jacob said.

  “Everybody is a first timer sometime bro,”

  Jacob relaxed into the fabric. He thought of an Immersion virtual reality link, and his thoughts became a prompt. He flashed the double confirmation and felt himself drop, like stepping too far off a bottom step, and was suddenly standing in the Dojo. He turned to see a gray version of himself lying in the hammock. “Wow,” Jacob said under his breath.

  “First time in VR, I guess?” Butai asked.

  “I tried it at the house,” Jacob said and looked down at his Kaizen envirosuit, pleased to see he still had on his power-boks. He couldn’t have possibly looked more out of costume in a Japanese castle.

  Majka approached with the fluid ease of a raindrop. As she drew closer, Jacob realized this felt very different from the augmented reality swordplay. This felt like combat, and suddenly Jacob felt sick.

  Once an organism tastes war, it is changed forever.

  “Are you alright? " Majka asked, her face full of concern.

  “No... I just.... don’t want to fight with you.” Jacob said, and realized how bizarre it sounded.

  “Well derp, Bro! Nobody wants to fight Majka,” Teeva laughed along with Butai and Joni, but Kage didn’t laugh. Like Majka, his eyes were locked on Jacob, reading, watching, judging his every motion.

  “Why not?” Kage asked.

  “Because... I like you.” Jacob said.

  Majka stepped back and looked to Kage for a moment. “That's understandable, I'm sorry that...” she stopped, interrupting herself to listen.

  Jacob heard rapid footfalls approaching from outside, and had only enough time to shift his gaze to the paper dojo wall as it tore open, and a monster of a man sent parchment flying as he blasted into the room.

  He towered over all of them, his seven-foot muscular frame in a primate's hunch. He was shirtless, with a thick belt holding black leather pants that were torn away above assault boots with dented steel toe caps and chrome shin guards. A metallic mask covered his face, showing a cycloptic glowing red eye, like the dying heart of a star, shining in his forehead.

  An arm bulging with boosted muscle swung and hit Majka, sending her flying backward into a Dojo support post. Jacob heard a sickening crunch as her body wrapped around it, her legs slapped against her spine before she fell shattered to the floor.

  “No!” Jacob cried, and made two strides before sliding beneath the monster’s swinging arms and between its legs. He balled up and kicked, firing his power-boks as though jumping. His sprung stilt soles struck the maniac’s inner knee, and it exploded into shattered bone. The faceless beast roared in rage as Jacob retracted his sprung soles, letting his sliding momentum bring him into a low crouch.

  His hands found the takrizatchi, and as the wounded attacker reeled, Jacob fired both power-boks in a forward leap. Swinging it high, he ejecting the blade just in time to cleave through his collarbone and into the chest.

  His roar turned to a hideous gurgle as his torso split like a lightning struck tree. His ruptured lungs sprayed blood over Jacob’s envirosuit on an explosion of gore, and with arms twitching, the body slumped forwards into a butchered hulk as Jacob landed, holding his takrizatchi katana at guard.

  In the seeping silence, the strength of a splintered wall shard failed, and the thick paper whispered a final tear as it dropped to the Dojo floor. Jacob turned to see Joni staring at him, wearing the same amazed expression as Teeva, while Kage looked strangely calm, and that was Jacob's first inkling that something was amiss. He turned back to see the hulking monster vanished and the wall repaired.

  Jacob saw Majka standing beside the post where she’d fallen. “I'm sorry for the deception Jacob,” she said. His takrizatchi retracted into the handle as Jacob looked to Butai and saw he had the same awed expression.

  “And you’ve never fought in VR before,” Kage said, the corners of his mouth betraying a smile. “

  “No,” Jacob said, “I don’t even know if that was what I was supposed to do there.”

  “That was a Plague simulation,” Majka said. “It’s designed to create a scenario to see how long an individual can last. I wanted to judge how well you interacted under stress.”

  “For your first time using VR, you did pretty great.” Butai said, turning to Teeva, “Where the hell did you find this guy?”

  Teeva was now nodding his head in exaggerated sweeps, “Ah...ah...ah...” he chanted in time, until his whole torso became involved. “Ah...ah...ah...” his hands and arms became a tribal bouncing, “Ah...ah... ahhhhhh YEAH!” He thrashed in ecstasy.

  “It was such a display that Jacob couldn’t help but laugh along with the others. He wasn't sure what his test meant, but from everyone's reaction, he assumed it was positive.

  “Jacob,” Majka said, “if you're interested, we’d like you to come on a mission.”

  “Sure!” He said, “When?”

  Majka looked around the room, meeting each person's eyes for agreement before turning back to him, “In twenty minutes.”

  Chapter 7

  Jacob stood in the VR dojo circle, just in front of his body’s hammock. Teeva on one side, Joni on the other, with Butai and Kage across from them. Everyone faced Majka; their physical bodies lay like sleeping statues behind their avatars.

  “We’re paid to fight?” Jacob asked.

  “Not exactly, we hire ourselves out as protection,” Majka said.

  “Against who?”

  Her voice held an edge of disgust, “The Plague.”

  Jacob turned to Teeva as Majka went on, “The Plague is a group that believes they will take over all the virtual worlds. That faceless monster you so quickly dispatched, was a Plague simulation.”

  “So, they’re like the Dead Droid Posse?”

  “They're way bigger than that, bro,” Teeva said.

  “Things are very different in the light,” Majka said. “Think of it this way, there's the physical world where we all exist, without power and augmentation.”

  “Sure,” Jacob nodded.

  “The augmented world is a layer that is applied to the physical world to enhance it. As augmented reality is a layer applied over the physical world, virtual reality exists as part of that same layer, but without the physical foundation.”

  “Okay,” Jacob said.

 
“The Plague came from a private Afterlife network, called Otherside,” Majka said.

  “I’m sorry, I don't know what Afterlife networks are.” Jacob shrugged.

  “Memory programs bro,” Teeva said, “You gotta have implants to use ‘em. You and me, we don't got any, so we can't get on.”

  “Not true,” Joni said, “there’s software now if you don’t want to go internal. There’s reports now of hostage malware in virgin bodies.”

  Teeva rolled his eyes, “Well yeah, you can run afterlife programming on external, but it kinda defeats the purpose, and bro doesn’t need to know that now.”

  “Well, he should know, or he might wind up hooking for a server after he dies!” Joni said,

  “But why install it? What's the point?” Jacob interrupted.

  “Afterlife software tracks every decision the user makes, what you look at, what flavors you like, the things you say, all of it and everything gets recorded,” Joni said.

  Jacob thought of having some software inside his head spying on him, “Why would anyone do that?”

  “For when you die bro,” Teeva said, smiling at Jacob’s horrified expression.

  “It's true,” Majka went one, “when someone running afterlife software dies, and if they have enough information stored, a simtelligent copy of who you are is generated in the light. What appears is an exact copy, that will do as you would do, say what you would say, and act how you would act based upon the recordings of your actions."

  “And you need life insurance bro,” Teeva said, “so you don’t see a lot of Afterlife out in the zone because who wants to give the dying coverage. Plus, once you cross over, your data is just sitting on some corp’s server, an’ you belong to them. You don’t have any more rights than a photograph bro.”

  “That’s what the right’s riots are all about,” Jacob said, thinking back to the ambient reports.

  “It's a big part of it,” Joni said, “The afterlife simtelligences have no rights now, so they can be bought and sold, and even copied without any consequence. If they get the online rights they want, the simtelligences will be granted the same rights as everyone else.”