by Alex Knight
Colonel Tarsin? Who the heck is that? Colonel wasn’t a rank frequently handed out in the Corps. Thorne knew all the ranking officers of note and she’d never heard of a Colonel Tarsin. Especially not at such a low level.
He was a wiry man, with long hair tucked into his helmet but still sticking from beneath it in several frazzled strands. His expression looked equally frazzled, though he was trying to hide it behind what Thorne figured was supposed to be cool confidence. Looked more like he was suffering from indigestion.
“You have your orders. Now see to them,” the colonel commanded.
There were several grumbles, and Thorne cocked her head to the side at that. That was strange. Since when did wardens complain about their orders?
“Don’t question me!” Tarsin barked. “Do your jobs!”
Several of his soldiers shook their heads, but Dawson clapped his hands and they fell into line. The shield wardens locked their shields together, the blast wardens took aim, and the power wardens, including Sergeant Dawson, raised their hammers.
“You’re wanted on charges of treason, aiding and abetting known terrorists, and endangering the safety of the public,” Sergeant Dawson said.
So that’s what they’re pushing, huh? Straight from Moran, no doubt.
“Quite a list there,” Thorne fired back. “Apparently I’ve been busy.”
“Apparently.”
I need thirty charge to Heroic Leap on to the closest shuttle. Any extra charge I’ll dump into breaking down the door and getting inside.
She checked her charge bar. Her shield had gained five charge from the shot the blast warden had taken to trigger combat.
Twenty-five to go, then. If I get in close to the wardens, the shuttles will have to hold fire. That’ll be step one. Hopefully I can live long enough to make it to step two…
Thorne raised her hammer.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s do this.”
Chapter Seven
Welcome to Nova Online
“Finally!” Kaiden almost shouted as he loaded into the game and spawned inside the Veritas II. Titus and Zelda appeared next to him a moment later, their characters glowing for a moment as they finished loading in.
“My account was locked,” Kaiden said. “What was that all about?”
“Same,” Titus said, a frown plastered across his face.
“That makes three of us, then,” Zelda said. “That sounds coordinated. Almost as if—”
“Captains!” a friendly voice called out. “It’s a pleasure to have you back.”
Acton was striding toward them from the cockpit. It hadn’t been that long since he’d seen him last, but given everything that had transpired, it sure felt like it. Not to mention it just felt good to be back in Nova Online. In the real world it was all hiding and plotting, running and looking over his shoulder. In Nova, he could defend himself. In Nova, he was strong. Strong enough to maybe – just maybe – bring down the Party.
“The ship wasn’t the same without you,” Acton said, gesturing to the room around them. “For one, we haven’t had to do anything even remotely suicidal.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get used to that,” Kaiden said with a laugh.
“He’s right. We’ve work to do,” Zelda added with a sharp nod.
The first officer straightened at the mention of work.
“Of course. Very good,” he said, then gestured out the cockpit windshield. “If you look outside, you’ll notice absolutely nothing of distinction. That’s because, per your last orders, we’ve taken the ship ‘somewhere out of the way.’”
“And where is that?” Kaiden asked, peering out at a vast expanse of featureless, empty space.
“Dead space. Away from any relevant stars, out of the shipping lanes, and far from any combat zones. We are, functionally, in the middle of nowhere.”
Yeah, I guess that qualifies as safe.
“The ship’s still a fair bit banged up from the excitement at the void tear,” Zelda said, reading the information displayed on the monitor on the near wall. “We’re going to need to get that repaired. What’s the nearest station that could handle it?”
Acton narrowed his eyes.
“With all due respect, Captain, but we’re not expecting any more... excitement, are we? Or should I ready the crew?”
Kaiden chuckled at that. “Nothing so crazy as playing bait and flying between two warring fleets,” he said. “All the same, I can’t promise easy flying either.”
Acton nodded. “In that case, we’ll set course for the nearest station,” he said, then patted the pilot on the shoulder. “See it done, yes?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Actually,” Kaiden said as a thought occurred to him. “Set course for the nearest turen station. Our good standing with them might be necessary. We’d like to avoid any run-ins with the Warden Corps.”
“Very good, Captain.”
“Oh, and Acton?” Kaiden asked after a glance toward Zelda. “Which of our current crew would you say is the safest?”
“The safest, sir?”
“Least likely to die,” Titus corrected.
Acton seemed confused at the thought, and Kaiden found he couldn’t blame him. To be fair, it was an odd question. But the request attached to it was going to be just as odd.
“Well, I suppose if the ship were to be destroyed, we’d all die. Disregarding that…” He thought for a moment. “Were the shields to go down, the cockpit would be a prime target for an attacking ship. Sias,” he said, nodding to the pilot, “and I would be in a high-risk area. Likewise, were we to be boarded, the remains of our own boarding crew – much depleted from our previous adventure, I might add – would engage the trespassers. Thus, I suppose our ‘safest’ crew members would be the mechanics and core engineer. Their stations are deep inside the ship and their roles do not require them to participate in active combat.”
“But an unstable core is volatile and prone to exploding, right?” Zelda asked. “So I wouldn’t want to trust our core engineer with this job.”
“That just leaves the general ship mechanics, then,” Kaiden said.
“All right, then,” Titus said and gestured toward the exit of the cockpit. “Let’s go have a chat with them.”
“Braker, Johnson,” Kaiden said, making sure his words were very clear as he spoke to the two NPC mechanics. “You understand what we’ve told you, right?”
“Got a ship needs fixin’, I’m your man,” Braker said in what seemed to be his favorite of his extremely limited programmed responses.
“We’ll keep it shipshape down here, Captain,” Johnson said.
Titus laughed. Kaiden sighed.
“Lighten up,” Titus said. “It’s never going to come to this. You really think someone’s going to not only manage to find this ship, but also board it, defeat us, and have the good sense to check the crew for the database?”
“I really hope not,” Kaiden said with a glance toward the mechanics.
To be fair, it was a good plan, though it’d sounded better when Zelda pitched it. There was only one copy of Bernstein’s database in-game and it had to be kept safe. Taking it into a PVP zone would mean if its keeper died, the database could be looted. That was an unacceptable risk. So, the answer was clear: keep the database out of PVP zones. But how was that possible when everyone was going to be needed in the days to come? Well, why did a player need to hold the database? Why not give it to the least likely of the crew to die? It made good sense.
Looking at Johnson and, specifically, Braker – who they’d entrusted the database to – Kaiden was starting to think maybe it wasn’t the best plan after all.
I don’t have a better one, though.
“Even if we get boarded, and we get defeated, and whoever does all that thinks to search the crew, they still won’t be able to loot the database unless the ship is in a PVP zone,” Zelda said. “And Acton won’t let that happen. He has his orders. He’ll self-destruct the Veritas II long bef
ore any boarders take control of it.”
“No, no, I get all that,” Kaiden said, swallowing his doubts. “It’s just…” He gestured to Braker. “I’m worried he doesn’t understand everything we’ve told him. It seems a bit... above his pay grade.”
Braker gave a sharp nod. “Ship’s running just fine, Captain,” he said.
“Braker,” Titus said, leaning in close. “All you have to do is your job. Don’t worry about the item we traded you. We’ll come get it back whenever we need it. Got it?”
Braker nodded again.
“Got a ship needs fixin’, I’m your man.”
“See?” Titus held out a hand. “He’s got this, no problem.”
Kaiden sighed and started back toward the bridge.
“I hope so. It just feels wrong, giving up the database.”
“We’re not giving it up. We’re protecting it,” Zelda said. “Trust me, I don’t love the idea either, but you know what I like even less? Carrying that database into a PVP zone.”
Fair enough.
“Anyway, we can’t worry about it now,” Zelda said. “We have to keep thinking ahead. You all sent friend requests to Maximus’ head recruiting officer, right?”
“Sent,” Kaiden affirmed, then checked in the game’s social window.
Friend request to Recruz: sent
Status: awaiting response
In the interest of protecting players’ privacy, you couldn’t directly message someone in Nova unless they were on your friends list. Well, you could, but it’d go to their spam folder, and considering the amount of spammers advertising mostly less than legitimate services, who checked their spam folder these days?
“No response here, either,” Titus said. “You think maybe he didn’t see the request?”
“I think he’s a busy guy,” Zelda said. “Remember, we skipped the regional recruiters and went straight to the head recruiting officer for one of the biggest guilds in-game. He’ll get back to us, but it probably won’t be quick. Don’t worry about it. In the meantime, let’s get this ship fixed.” She peered through one of the hull windows and toward the approaching cluster of lights that was a turen space station. “And then grab any quests we can. While Thorne’s figuring out her... situation on the Anakoni, we might as well get a head start on some grinding.”
“I wonder how she’s doing?” Kaiden mused. From how she’d described things, it sounded likely she was going to be making a new character. “I can’t imagine she logged on to many friendly faces.”
Chapter Eight
The shuttle on the left opened fire. Thorne sprinted forward; shield raised to block what little of the damage she could. Except, it wasn’t firing at her.
Huh?
She looked up to find the shuttle on the left had turned its guns on the one on the right. The wardens seemed caught by surprise as well, their eyes wide as one shuttle obliterated the other.
The defending ship’s shields flared to life, flashing with each impact as round after round screamed through the hangar. Under the direct barrage and from so close, the shields didn’t hold out long. Just about long enough for the pilot to spin the shuttle to face the assault, then catch the full force of the attack on the nose.
Chunks of armor and metal were blasted off the shuttle, and as Thorne watched, the health bar above the ship ticked away in a constant stream of damage. She could imagine the alarms going off inside it.
Shields offline! Hull integrity low!
“Who’s piloting that thing?” one of the wardens shouted. “Do we fire on it, sir? Sir?”
Sergeant Dawson wasn’t responding, though.
“Lieutenant!” Colonel Tarsin shouted up at the firing shuttle. “What the hell are you doing? I demand you stop!” Clearly this hadn’t been part of the plan. “Stop firing!”
All the better for me. Thorne tightened her grip on her hammer, then continued her charge toward the distracted wardens. She didn’t understand what was happening, but it didn’t take a strategist to see she could bend it in her favor. Maybe her odds had just become a bit less insurmountable.
“Sir!” One of the blast wardens was up in Sergeant Dawson’s face now. “Orders, sir?”
A message appeared in Thorne’s vision.
DM from: Dawson
“Good to have you back, Captain. This’ll take just a moment.”
What? Thorne hesitated, trying to understand the message. A moment later, its meaning became clear.
Sergeant Dawson swung his hammer in a rising blow and caught the blast warden in front of him right under the chin. The surprised soldier staggered back, then raised his hammer-gun and fired.
Sergeant Dawson blocked the blast with his buckler-like shield, then swung again and again, driving the warden back.
“This is treason, Sergeant!” Colonel Tarsin shouted, then gestured to the rest of the wardens. “Take him in, too.”
The wardens seemed to hesitate again, but the sight of Dawson attacking one of their own spurred them to motion a second later.
Thorne didn’t waste any time trying to make sense of everything. Clearly circumstances here had changed, but the pressing matter was to attack, so she did.
The wardens were just starting to respond to Sergeant Dawson’s surprise onslaught when Thorne reached them. She tore into the back of Colonel Tarsin first, landing two solid hammer strikes to the back of his helmet.
Critical hit!
+50% damage (Headshot)
Critical hit!
+50% damage (Headshot)
The colonel’s health bar flashed, then dropped to around sixty-five percent, but Thorne wasn’t interested in the damage so much as the charge she gained with each strike. Her passive ability, Improved Aggressive Mindset, gained her charge equal to fifteen percent of the damage dealt in each attack.
Colonel Tarsin spun and fired a Scatter Shot full into Thorne’s chest. She moved her shield to block as much of it as possible. Lasers exploded against her, draining her health bar, but those that hit her shield filled her charge bar as well.
Another attack from the blast warden landed, and Thorne watched her health bar drain even further at the impact. Not much, though; Tarsin was several levels below her.
She doubled down on her attack, trying to throw off her opponent's aim. That was the key to beating blast wardens – you had to stay right up on them. Their attacks were all long-ranged and they usually took a moment to fire. In comparison, swinging a hammer took no time at all. And for whatever reason, this Colonel Tarsin was only level twenty-one. That didn’t make any sense, but it did make him an easy opponent to kill.
Sergeant Dawson was surrounded by his own wardens now, taking attacks from all sides. He was getting buried under a barrage of Scatter Shots and Improved Chain Furies. Lasers exploded around him and hammers fell in a constant stream of damage. Dawson’s armor was crackling with energy and his own attacks lashed back at his numerous assailants in a frenzied blur.
He’s activated Through the Breach, Thorne figured. Doubles movement speed and reduces damage taken by thirty percent for ten seconds.
Even still, that wouldn’t be enough. No one could survive the onslaught he was facing.
The shuttles were exchanging fire, but not for much longer by the looks of it. The one that had attacked first still had its shield active while the other was missing large chunks of its hull. What was still attached looked like swiss cheese.
Throne glanced down to her charge bar. Fifty-four percent.
Plenty for Heroic Leap. Time to book a ride out of here. She looked up to the shuttle which had attacked first and began to line up her jump.
An explosion shook the hangar as the damaged shuttle hit zero percent hull integrity. It fell out of the air and slammed into the deck, then exploded in a crackling blue ball of energy as its core detonated. Thorne flinched away from the blinding light as splash damage tickled her health bar. The rest of the wardens had been closer to the blast, though, and took fifteen to twenty percent damag
e each.
“Now the rest of ‘em, El!” Sergeant Dawson shouted.
El? Thorne paused at that. Who’s El?
Sergeant Dawson leapt into the air and raised his hammer high. Heroic Leap, Thorne thought at first, then recognized the collection of energy crackling in his hammer.
No. She smiled. Much better. Earth Shatter.
Sergeant Dawson came down like a meteor and his hammer with him. When it struck the ground a shockwave burst outward, sweeping over the wardens surrounding him. They took no damage, but the attack knocked them to the ground.
“My turn,” she said, then called to mind what was sure to be a devastating ability when used against stunned foes.
Ability: Improved Chain Fury
Your combat prowess allows you to chain attacks together. For the next 5 seconds, each attack deals an additional 20% damage for every successful attack before it.
Cost: 50 charge
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Thorne activated the ability and her hammer began to shimmer as energy manifested around it in the form of glowing chains.
“No!” Sergeant Dawson rushed toward her.
She took aim at him on instinct, but he slid into place beside her then raised his shield toward the stunned wardens.
“What’re you—”
“Hit ‘em, El!” Sergeant Dawson shouted.
The still-flying shuttle turned its guns on the wardens – who were trying to climb back to their feet – and let loose. The hangar resounded with screaming lasers as the twin six-barreled guns mounted under the wings of the shuttle held nothing back.
The health bars of the stunned wardens plummeted in unison as metal and smoke was blasted into the air. The floor of the hangar itself buckled and groaned as it started to glow a molten red.
Blast Warden Tarsin assisted kill - 2,000 EXP gained!
The message flashed on Thorne’s screen as the health bar of the colonel dropped to zero. At the same time, the others died as well. Thorne hadn’t actually engaged them so the game didn’t give her credit for the kills, but six more death notifications trickled in across her screen.
