by Alex Knight
As he spoke, Kaiden pulled up a menu detailing the specifics of their ship. Sure enough, it was fully repaired. And under ‘boarding crew’ it now listed their new hires and veteran survivors.
Boarding Crew (6 human marines), Journeyman, tier 4
Boarding Crew (14 turen marksmen), Journeyman, tier 3
There was more specific information available on the units themselves, but Kaiden wasn’t interested in that at the moment. For the time being, it was just important they had boarding crew.
“Very good, Acton,” Zelda said. “Let’s put those remaining credits to use, huh? I was perusing upgrade options for the ship. I saw there’s a more efficient shield system we could pick up. The Mark 5 All-Stops, I believe.”
“Very good, Captain.”
“And there was some turen hull armor in stock, I noticed. Let’s refit our hull with it.” She looked at Kaiden and Titus. “It’ll give the ship a ten percent armor increase while slimming down our profile, reducing the range at which we can be spotted on radar.”
When has she had time to go through all of that? Kaiden shook his head, amazed as usual at her foresight.
“Absolutely,” Kaiden said looking at Zelda, then to the first mate. “Let’s do all of that.”
“Most assuredly, sir. Though that will deplete our account almost entirely.”
“About that,” Thorne said, then shrugged. “I’ve a fair few credits lying around. Easy to stockpile when the Corps was paying for everything,” she said with a sheepish grin.
“How much?” Zelda asked.
“It’s not a limitless amount,” Thorne said bluntly. “But it’s enough to help us kit out our army, once we have one. Or buy some last-minute upgrades for the ship, once we know better what it’ll need.”
“Fair enough,” Zelda said.
Good to know we’ll have some additional funds to fall back on should we need it, Kaiden thought.
“Purchase those upgrades, Acton,” Zelda said.
“Very well, Captain,” Acton said, then returned to the cockpit. As he did, a message appeared in Kaiden’s vision.
“Guys, I have good news,” he said, smiling as he read the text.
Friend request to Recruz: sent.
Status: accepted.
Chapter Twelve
“Yo, what’s up?” Recruz’s voice came through the call as the video clicked on and an image resolved from a blurry picture into something more coherent. A projection of Recruz’s head, the tops of his shoulders, and a bit of background hung in the air in front of Kaiden.
“Hey there, uh, Recruz. This is Kaiden,” he said, trying not to act nervous and failing spectacularly.
“He knows who you are. The magical technology of caller ID exists in Nova, believe it or not,” Zelda whispered sharply.
“I know, I know,” Kaiden said, shooing her away then turning back to the video call. Recruz stared back at him, seemingly unimpressed. He wore a helmet with a tinted glass front that made it difficult to make out his exact features. In the background, it looked to be chaos. At least a dozen or so figures were duking it out in a battle, abilities and explosions firing off left and right.
Recruz didn’t even wince as steaming soil and a few pieces of what might have once been a voidspawn rained down on top of him.
“Hey, uh, so. It looks like you’re busy. I just wanted to call and see if we could maybe, uh, set up a meeting with…” Kaiden hesitated. Really should have thought this out more. God, this is going to sound stupid. “With the leader of Maximus?”
Recruz must have hit a setting in his helmet as the glass front de-tinted, revealing his face. It was laughing, deep and long. He shook his head and caught his breath.
“Hey man, good one.” He glanced over his shoulder, then ducked as another player flew through the air just past him. He turned back to the video call.
“Look, Kaiden. If you want to join Maximus, that’s cool. I don’t need to give you the spiel, I’m sure you know who we are. But we do have level requirements. And look, dude, I know who you are. You’re wanted by like every warden in game – and hey, that’s kinda cool. Tons of great opportunities for PVP there. But dude, seriously.” He set his features in a stern expression. “You’re level thirty-three. That’s like, not even a good joke. You need to be at least level fifty before you can hope to do anything relevant in hardcore PVP.” As if to punctuate his statement, something exploded in the background, but Recruz hardly even flinched. A shockwave washed over him and for a moment the video was obscured by a storm of dust and debris.
“I’m not trying to join Maximus,” Kaiden said, brushing off the attack on his ego. Only level thirty-three? Come on, man. I know that’s not anywhere the level cap, but I worked hard for this! “My friends and I, we need to talk to your guild leader. He’s going to want to hear what we have—”
“Nah, he’s probably not,” Recruz cut him off. “Anyway, good talking to you, Kaiden. Send us an application once you hit level fifty. We’d love to party up sometime and gank some wardens or something.”
“Wait, Recruz! You—”
The call ended abruptly. Kaiden looked up at the others who’d been gathered around watching the call.
“So... that didn’t exactly go to plan,” he said.
“You kind of failed to mention the part where we’re in possession of a top-secret database and on a mission to bring down the Party but need their help,” Zelda said.
“Yeah, well... he failed to let me get a word in,” Kaiden retorted.
“Hold up. I’m gonna call his ass,” Titus growled, then started a video call.
“Yo, what’s up?”
“Listen here, punk. You just hung up on my friend, but if you know what’s good for you, you’re gonna listen to what he has to say.” Titus gave a stern look, then moved toward Kaiden as if to include him in the video call.
“Nah, I’m cool.” Recruz ended the call.
Titus cursed, then a moment later, cursed again. “He blocked me!”
“Yeah, kind of saw that one coming,” Thorne said, grimacing as she leaned back in her seat. “Those Maximus guys don’t take well to authority. Only really listen to orders from their guild leader and his officers.”
“Oh, so you’re an expert on them, then?” Titus retorted, but there wasn’t much malice in it. Seemed the big man was more embarrassed than anything.
Thorne raised her hands in a gesture of peace.
“Just trying to help,” she said.
“Then help us figure out what to do next.” Titus turned toward the others. “This guy’s not listening to us. We should go around him, find another way to set up a meeting with Maximus’ guild leader. What was his name again?”
“PlayaSlaya,” Kaiden answered, calling the popular figure to mind. Aside from being the founder and leader of Maximus, he was one of the game’s most successful PVPers. Drew in a big audience with the weekly tournaments he’d once fought in and now hosted. Not to mention the massive PVP battles.
“Look, this isn’t anything new,” Thorne said, rising from her chair and beginning to pace around the room. “I ran into stuff like this all the time as an agent. Being a representative of the Party, no one wants to talk to you. But sometimes you have to talk to them. So you go and find them. Calling someone is one thing, but a more personal touch tends to work wonders.”
Kaiden frowned at her words. “You want to go find this guy in real life?”
Thorne burst out laughing, and for the second time in the past few minutes Kaiden found himself nursing a wounded ego.
“No, nothing like that,” Thorne said. “Where’s Maximus located? I’m saying we should go to their guild base. They can hang up a video call but they’ll have a bit more trouble removing us in person. Or, in-game in person, I guess.” She waved her hand. “Whatever you want to call it.”
Hmm. Well, I don’t hate the idea. There was some value in just cutting right to the heart of things. And besides, this meeting was too important to just l
et go.
“All right, I’m down,” Kaiden said with a shrug.
“Agreed,” Zelda said. “But let’s grab a bunch of missions on the way. It’ll be a bit of a flight over to Maximus’ guild base. They’re, what…” She checked a menu visible only to her. “Three systems away. We’ll cover that distance quickly in a light cruiser like the Veritas II, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make the best use of our time.” She rose from the table and turned toward the cockpit. “Recruz mentioned leveling up, anyway. If we show up stronger than we are now, maybe it’ll buy us a bit more legitimacy. Probably won’t, but we need the grinding anyway.”
Practical as always, Kaiden thought. She was right, though.
“Sounds good,” he said. “We’ll check the major stations on the way, see what we can—”
“Captains!” Acton shouted from the cockpit. “We have something of a situation brewing here.”
Kaiden frowned as he jumped from his seat and hurried toward the cockpit. Zelda beat him there.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“A Warden Corps ship just pulled up outside the station. It appears to be scanning the ships in the area.”
“Looking for us?” Kaiden asked.
“If they aren’t, they will be once they scan this ship.” Acton strapped himself into his seat.
“Ah, crap,” Thorne said, joining them at cockpit entrance. “I should have realized this sooner. I was tracking you pretty successfully when I was in the Corps. We need to change this ship’s information. It’ll take a black-market mod, but I’m sure we can make a pit stop. Won’t be cheap, though.”
“Yeah, we’ll do that,” Kaiden said. “But first we need to get out of here.” He leaned down and peered through the windshield. Turen drones were still buzzing around the outside of the Veritas II, putting the finishing touches on the new hull armor.
“They almost done?” Kaiden asked.
“Moments away,” Acton confirmed, looking down at a progress bar on his console.
“We might not have moments,” Kaiden said, assessing the situation in front of them. At the entrance to the hangar a warden corvette was just passing through the force field that kept the air in and the void out.
A beam of light projected from the front of the corvette and fixated on the first of the landed ships in the hangar.
“Armor’s done, Captains,” Acton reported.
“Go, now,” Thorne said, gesturing toward open space. “The corvette’s in the middle of a scan. We need to be gone before it finishes.”
The engines on the Veritas II roared to life, the entire hull shaking as they did. In a matter of seconds, the pilot had them in the air and headed out of the hangar.
“Faster,” Kaiden said. “But not too fast. We don’t want to look like we’re running.”
“No real way to hide that,” Titus said. “They’re going to notice us.”
As if on cue, the corvette stopped scanning its original target and spun toward them.
“Gun it,” Zelda said to the pilot. “Now! Go!”
The ship lurched forward and Kaiden was near thrown off his feet as the engines kicked up their thrust to max.
“We can’t outrun a corvette,” Thorne said, then leaned down next to the pilot. “Ram them on the way past.”
“What?” Kaiden asked. “What do you mean? That’ll just antagonize them.”
“No, she’s right.” Zelda pointed toward the warden corvette. “Hit ‘em!”
Putting the new shields and armor to use sooner than expected, I guess.
The pilot dutifully obeyed and swung them to the side. The warden corvette seemed to recognize what was happening and tried to pull up.
It didn’t make it.
Kaiden was thrown to the floor and rolled a pace away as the Veritas II slammed into the other ship, then rebounded off and into the hangar floor. The others fell as well, tumbling this way and that as the ship’s shields flared outside and metal screamed against metal as they slid along the hangar floor.
Kaiden pulled himself to his feet in time to see the warden corvette in a similar state. And then it was gone as they blasted out of the hangar and into space.
-15 Turen Geniocracy faction prestige for improper station departure.
Kaiden read the message, then frowned.
“The turen didn’t much care for that.”
“Keep burning hard,” Acton said, flipping through a status report on damage to the ship. “We’ve a head start on that corvette now. With any luck, it’s too damaged to follow.”
And it appeared that was the case. Acton pulled up a rear-facing camera and it showed the corvette following, but at a slow speed. One of its engines looked destroyed and the rest were belching smoke.
“I think we’re in the clear,” Kaiden said. At the same moment, the corvette opened fire. A barrage of laser fire flashed against the Veritas II’s shields but didn’t make it through.
Something did, though.
The ship shook all at once, as if it’d been rammed. Acton flicked through exterior cameras until he found one showing the damage.
“Bad news,” he said, a frown stretching across his face as he pointed to the video screen. It looked like something was embedded in their hull. A small ship, maybe? Or a torpedo? Honestly, it looked to Kaiden like a hybrid of the two.
“That’s a boarding rocket,” Thorne said, then cursed. “We’ve got company.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Just down here.” Zelda led them in a sprint toward the rear of the Veritas II. “They’ve boarded through the cargo bay.”
That’s close to where the mechanics normally work, Kaiden realized.
“Braker!” he shouted as he pulled up a video call with the engineering bay. “Lock the door to the engineering bay and stay inside. Don’t come out for any reason!”
“Got a ship needs fixin’, I’m your man,” Braker said with a nod.
“I think that’s a yes?” Kaiden ended the video call and turned his attention to the situation brewing in front of them. Zelda led them around a corner to find some damaged part of the Veritas II was leaking acrid black smoke into the hallway.
Well, I’m glad we just repaired this thing.
“How many wardens should we expect?” Kaiden asked, scanning the hall for any sign of movement.
“From a boarding rocket that size?” Thorne said from beside Zelda. “Three, maybe four players. Not a lot of room in those things.”
“Our turen marksmen and marines are on their way from the barracks,” Acton reported through comms. “And I’ve got eyes on you from the bridge. If there’s any way I can help in this fight, you let me know.”
“Got it,” Kaiden said, then nearly slammed into Zelda as she slid to a sudden stop.
“There’s our guests,” she said, then flicked her shield on.
She was right. There they were. Three of them in total. They stood in the hallway with the door to the cargo bay on one side and an airlock to nothing but space on the other. Kaiden focused on them and his visor brought up the specifics.
Esme
Warden Skirmisher
Class: Power Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 39
Alvarez
Warden Skirmisher
Class: Blast Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 38
Clarissa
Warden Skirmisher
Class: Shield Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 39
“A power warden, blast warden, and shield warden,” Kaiden said, speaking through comms now so their uninvited guests wouldn’t hear. “And all higher levels than us.”
They moved into a tight formation, the shielder in front, the power warden at her side, and the blast warden, Alvarez, at the back and already firing off Improved Burst Arrows.
“What’s the plan?” Titus asked, flicking his shield on and stepping in the way of the opening volley. The
shots had been aimed at Kaiden but Titus stopped them short.
“The blaster’s gonna stay back with the shielder,” Kaiden said, predicting their strategy based on his knowledge of Warden Corps fighting tactics. “And the power warden is going to rush us, try to keep us disorganized so the blaster can pick us off—”
Before he could finish, Esme charged, her massive hammer held high above her head. At the same time, Alvarez, the opposing blast warden, changed his target to Zelda and pulled the trigger.
Zelda ducked to the side, avoiding the attack but delayed from beginning her own, and Kaiden stepped toward the charging Esme, bracing for impact. He hadn’t blocked any damage yet, though, so he had no charge and thus no access to his abilities. The wardens were designed as a reactive class, not meant to instigate fights.
And yet, here we are.
Esme closed the distance between them in no time. Kaiden raised his shield, but at the last moment, she turned off in favor of advancing on Zelda.
Titus stepped into her way and blocked her initial hammer strike before responding with one of his own. She let it hit, not even attempting to block in favor of attacking as much as possible.
“Power wardens gain charge from blocking attacks but also from dealing damage,” Thorne said, rushing in to attack Esme from behind. “The more you let her wail on you, the stronger she’s going to get.”
Titus backpedaled, giving up ground as he tried to dodge the power warden’s attacks. He was a shield warden, though, so his dexterity wasn’t anything special, and his attempts to dodge the hammer strikes only lowered his defenses. Kaiden jumped forward to help him on instinct, but without charge his attacks weren’t going to do much. Esme ignored him, focused on Titus for the moment. She’d built enough charge for an ability.
Ability: Shield Break
Ignores armor, staggers the target, and deals 150% base damage.
Kaiden’s visor displayed limited information on the ability, as it did for all enemy attacks. Esme’s hammer burst with energy then slammed into Titus’ shield. The energy flashed forward, straight through his shield, and he was driven backward, a worrying chunk bashed from his health. Down to eighty-seven percent already – and Esme had only used one ability. With Titus staggered, Esme shrugged past Kaiden and his ineffectual attacks to turn back toward Zelda.
