by Terra Snover
“You were on the right track, a DoS attack is where a computer is used to flood a server with information and stop it from working. Like that one that was used on Wolf Den right before the United States collapsed.” Amber paused for a second and pondered, “Or was that a DDoS attack?”
“It was DDoS.” Alexander looked at Amber in disbelief.
“Well, anyway, it makes servers stop working like they should.” Amber gave me a short nod as if that was all that needed to be said. I still really didn’t understand, but hopefully my lack of understanding wouldn't be a huge problem. Technology and I never really got along. “How in the world did you make something that could do a DoS on Another Online without the System killing you?”
“It is because the DoS isn’t the only thing it does. The machine is first and foremost a castle defence.” Alexander smiled, obviously pleased with himself.
“The gears and cogs in the walls! You made a DoS out of tech from the nineteen hundreds?!” Amber looked impressed with whatever this all meant.
“That, and the things Var was making with magical enhancements.” Alexander vaguely gestured to me.
Alexander and Amber both looked at me intently. I just stood there, feeling like a child confused about what the adults were talking about. “I did what now?”
“Var, what did you think you were doing, enhancing gears and whatnot?” Hell’a snickered.
“Um, killing time?”
“Oh, my simple creature, how I adore you.” Hell’a moved closer to me and stroked my cheek.
“You know, you can chill it with all that lovey-dovey stuff, Hell’a. We don’t need to placate the System anymore.” Amber crossed her arms and frowned with all her might.
“I’m not placating the System.” Hell’a’s voice was smooth, sensuous, and extremely playful. Then I felt something cold and wet move up my cheek and into my ear. I jumped and moved quickly away from Hell’a. “Did you just lick me?!”
“Maybe.” She smirked at me and then eyed a fuming Amber.
“Will you all stop it with the sexy stuff?” Alexander crossed his arms and turned away from Hell’a and me.
“Oh, you are one to talk.” Amber glared at him.
“Oh, come on, Amber, Milly and I are allowed to have sex if we want, we are both adults.”
“Oh, I really don’t think-”
“Okay, can we all chill out and talk about this D, O… D thing instead of all this sex talk?!” I really wanted to get back to things that mattered.
“Var is right.” Alexander looked away from Amber and back to me. “The DoS is designed in a way to make the System freak out and stop watching us, punishing us, anything really.”
“Wouldn't that kind of destroy the world?” Amber interjected. “I mean, I’m all for ending the world, but if we wanted to take it over wouldn't we need AO to be there?”
“From what we can tell, the System doesn't drive everything, like we don’t think it has anything to do with the game mechanics.” Hell’a slid her hand over mine as she spoke.
“Wait, what?” Man, I wished I had paid more attention to my programming class in secondary school.
“Sigh…” Alexander placed his forefinger and thumb on the bridge of his nose. “Alright, think about it like this, you have a factory full of machines making things.”
“What kind of things?” I asked without thinking.
“It doesn't matter what they are making!” he snipped at me. That pissed me off, even if we didn’t need to talk in character anymore I was still his queen, he shouldn't talk to me like that. “Anyway, the factory doesn’t only have the machines, it has an AI supervisor watching the production. The AI supervisor isn’t necessarily needed, if they left the factory the machines would keep making stuff without a problem. Well the System is the AI supervisor, and AO is the machinery. So theoretically the world will keep going but without any of us needing to worry about the System looking over our shoulder.”
“Okay, so everyone could just do whatever?” I nodded; that made sense.
“Exactly, and with us being the most powerful people in all of AO we could truly rule this world.” Hell’a squeezed my hand.
“But the one thing we couldn't work out was how to get the damn thing powered. Every power stone in AO works fast, draining its power reserve in a matter of seconds. But if you can make items now that shouldn't be a problem anymore!” Alexander took a step to me. “We could get this attack underway anytime we want!”
“Um, I hate to burst your bubble, but I don’t know how to make an item like that. All I have been able to make so far are items that give skills that already exist in the game. I have no clue where to start to make an infinite power stone.” I looked at my lap to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room. Of all the people to get the power to code it had to be me, the girl who flunked every computer class she ever took. “Maybe I could just give one of you the same tags I have so you can program stuff?”
“That could work. I can do it.” Alexander took another step to me.
“And so can I, I wasn’t half bad at scripting in the real world,” Amber added.
“That isn't a bad idea, but have we forgotten the risk involved in giving us all these powers?” Hell’a leaned back a bit, her eyes scanning the room, stopping for a moment or two when she made eye contact with us.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, you see, you having these powers are one thing, your code is a mess of glitches and whatnot from when you became the Red Queen and your other adventures in the System Hivemind. It would take a keen eye to spot any modifications in your code.” That was true, in our time messing around in the Nothing, Hell’a and I took a look at my code and it was full of random bits of script and nonsense code, a total mess. “But ours, on the other hand.” Hell’a waved her arm to indicate the others in the room. “It would be easy to find. If a GM even glanced at our code the game would be over and this all would have been for not. I even think you need to remove the player tag from each of us after we are done talking, just to be safe.”
“That isn’t completely true,” Amber interjected. “I was also upgraded at the same time as Var, I would imagine that my code would be a mess also. Maybe I could get away with getting changed also?”
“Var, mind taking a look at her?” Hell’a let go of my hand. I gave a nod, walked over to Amber and opened her terminal. I didn’t know what I was looking for exactly, but the mess of code that I saw in mine wasn’t hard to spot. I took a minute or two looking things over and found that her code was also a mess, not nearly as bad as mine, but still, there was some junk script in there. “It’s kind of bad, maybe someone would miss it if they weren't looking super close.” I closed her terminal and frowned. “But again, I’m not a coder, I don’t know what people would or wouldn't see.”
“It may be worth the risk, we do need this powerstone.” Hell’a stroked her chin, I could hear her fingernails drag across her skin.
“It is super worth the risk because if we don’t do this the DoS will never happen,” Alexander grumbled, exasperated.
“True.” Hell’a stood and moved next to Amber and I, her gaze focusing on Amber’s eyes. “Can you do this, child?”
“I’m not a child, and damn right I can.” Amber kept her eyes locked on Hell’a. The two stood there like two fighters in a ring who were about to throw down.
“Alright.” Hell’a nodded and returned to bed. “Have at it, Var, and try not to glitch her into non-existence.”
“Uh, do what now? Can I really do that?” I stared at Hell’a who only shrugged. I slowly turned to Amber with what I expected was a look of pure terror.
“Var, I trust you, you can do this.” Amber grabbed my hands and gave me a soft smile, but I could sense the slightest bit of unease in her voice and face. I bit my bottom lip, removed my hands from Amber’s and opened her terminal back up.
I spent the next few hours carefully changing her code, copying the bits from mine that I thought
were giving me the ability to make and edit everything. After everything was said and done, we had given Amber the power to edit code but we were unable to figure out how to make it so she could make items. I really didn’t want to keep messing around with her very being so I called it quits. “I’m sorry, that’s the best I can do…” I frowned.
“No, this is great!” She was currently messing around with a coins code to practice. “I can totally make this work.”
“Good, I think it’s time we call this first meeting adjourned. I grow weary of this.” Hell’a was lying in bed, looking at her nails.
“That, and I think we have all been here with each other for far too long, we don’t want anyone getting suspicious of us,” Alexander added.
“Yeah, Var, you remove the player tag from Hell’a, and I’ll do Alexander.” Amber closed the coins terminal and turned to face Alexander.
“Alright.” I gave a nod and walked over to Hell’a.
“I think we need to reconvene to see where we stand. How about we all meet here at midnight in three days' time?” Hell’l looked at each of us as she spoke. We all nodded and I turned Hell’a’s player tag off. Without a single other word, Amber and Alexander left the room. I saw Amber linger in the doorway, watching Hell’a and me. Hell’a slowly wrapped her arms around me and pulled me towards the bed. I lost my balance and fell face first onto the bed, Hell’a pulling me into her cold body. When I managed to look back to the door it was closed and Amber was gone.
Hell’a stroked her claws through my hair and lightly scratched my scalp. The sensation sent shivers of pleasure down my spine. I let out a small groan and looked away from the door and closed my eyes. “My sweet, you had such a day, didn’t you?”
“Almost got my brain removed.” I slid my arms around Hell’a’s hips and pressed my head into her stomach.
“Well, then, I think you should rest. We can’t have you being on the verge of exhaustion and death, can we now?” Her voice was calming and I found myself drifting off.
“No… we can’t~” I mumbled, my head spinning. Suddenly Hell’a’s hand stopped scratching my head and her claws went deep into my skull! I jerked open my eyes and tried to pull back from her. I found I couldn't because there were tight wires pulled over my body, holding me onto my bed. Hell’a smiled and pulled hard at my head. I could feel the pressure of something ripping from my skull. There was a horrible tearing sound and then the pressure was gone. I managed to look to see Hell’a’s hand holding a mass of words and numbers flowing around in a dizzying blur of motion and light. “Now we just need to pull out the bits that don't suit us.” She purred and started to rip words out of the mass.
“May as well get rid of it all. There’s nothing worth saving.” Leon slipped into view out of the darkness.
“No, we can change the bits we don’t like. Just like I did before.” Lily moved from behind Leon, her face warm, but menacing. “I can make her just the way I need her.”
“She’s mine! You two don’t get a say in this!” Hell’a pulled the mass close into her, guarding it from Leon and Lily.
“No, it’s mine!” Leon darted at Hell’a, knife in hand.
“Don’t hurt my masterpiece!” Lily also ran for the mass. I tried to speak, I tried to tell them that I needed that mass, that it was who I was, but nothing came out of my lips. As the three fought for the mass, the wires tightened and I began to sink into the bed. They were so tight I couldn't breathe. The wires cut into my skin, I could feel warm drips of blood drip from the open cuts. I sunk deeper and deeper into the bed until I was completely submerged in silk, feathers and springs. I tried to shout or scream, but again, nothing escaped my lips. Deeper and deeper I sunk. Eventually, I felt cold air on my foot, then leg, hips, then torso, and finally the rest of me.
I fell a short distance until the wires that were pulling me down now tangled around me, holding me aloft in a dark, freezing-cold space. There was a howling wind that made my ears ring with its veracity. I pulled and twisted, trying to get out of the mass of wires, but I couldn't, I was stuck there hanging in the cold.
I hung there in the dark and cold. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, days to years. Time lost all meaning, the cold and darkness was all that I was; nothing mattered, I am nothing. “That’s right, give in to the emptiness, it is far easier than trying to hold onto who you were.” A woman's voice whispered from ahead of me. It was strange how I could hear such a soft sound over the winds. “Join me in the loving embrace of emptiness.” That voice, I knew it from somewhere. “My Sugar Dumpling, join your mother in oblivion.” And Mama came out of the darkness. Her body white, her long blond hair wet and plastered to her head and body. She reached up to me and stroked my cheek. I looked down and saw the long cuts that went down the center of her wrist. The gaping wound should have been bleeding profusely but the blood had long since drained from her body. She had a smile on her face but it was empty, there was nothing behind it. “Mama, how, how did you get here?” My words came out raspy.
“Sugar Dumpling, I never left you.” Her smile grew. “I could never leave you.” She traced the long, unkempt fingernail across my face. I could feel warm blood well up from where her nail cut into my skin.
“Mama, I-”
“Shush, my Sugar Dumpling, no need to speak, just come with me.” The wire loosened and untangled, dropping me to the ground. She kindly and gently lifted me into her arms like I was a small child again.
“Bånet legges i vuggen ned
somtid gråte, somtid le
sove nå sove nå, I Freyja namn
Freyja bevare bånet
Min mor ho tok meg på sitt fang
dansa med meg fram og tilbake
Danse så med de små, danse så
så skal borna danse”
Her voice was so soothing as she sang to me. I watched her face as we moved deeper and deeper into the darkness. I didn’t even struggle, this was my fate. The two of us drew into the darkness and then nothing consumed us. Like it should be.
I opened my eyes, the sun shining through the window. I let out a long sigh and sat up. I was really starting to hate being able to dream or whatever this crap was. All I needed was years of pent up trauma rearing its ugly head when I needed to focus on taking over the world. I looked around the room and saw that Hell’a was nowhere to be found, but found Xor instead. Once she saw me looking at her she smiled. “My Queen, good morning.”
“If you say so,” I grumbled, pulling a pillow over my head. “Where’s Hell’a?”
“Mistress Hell’a left about ten minutes before sunrise, that was about four hours ago.” She pulled the pillow off my head. “I let you sleep in until ten because of the day you had yesterday, but now it’s time to get up.” She pulled my legs so I was now sitting on the edge of the bed. I grumbled more as she did so, but I didn’t put up a fight. She dressed me in a red wrap top and red pantaloons that were made of a thin, see-through material. Underneath, I had on a gold and maroon tube top and booty shorts. To top off the ensemble she slid on a hip scarf full to the brim with blood red gemstones and golden beads. She started to move me away from the door but I dug my heels into the ground and pointed to the closet, “You know what I want.” Xor let out a sigh and retrieved the trenchcoat.
“You know, this clashes something fierce with the ensemble, right?”
“Don’t care.” I slid the coat on. “What's on the cal-” There was a boom that rattled the entire castle. I darted to the balcony and tried to find where the sound had come from. I scanned the surrounding areas and found a hole in the castle wall. “What in the world was-” I started, but I was cut off by another explosion that shook the castle. “Okay, what in the hell is that booming?!” And as soon as I spoke, a tower of the castle wall collapsed. My eyes widened and I jumped off the balcony to the falling tower, flapping with all my might. I spotted a lone figure in the dust and debris, so I landed close by it. “Lady Hester, I didn’t think you would be so stra
ightforward in your attack, but I-” But I stopped, the figure I saw wasn’t the winged Puer Sole I was expecting but a heavily armored Human colored in deep crimson.
“Oh hi, you OP bitch, I’m here to mess up your castle just like you did mine!” screamed a voice I never wanted to hear again. “You may have bested me once, but this time your punk ass is going down!” The Crimson King pointed his morningstar at me. I guess it was time for a fight. Damn it...
Chapter 11
The Payback
I rubbed my temples, “Really? You? I, I don't have time for you…” I could feel the headache coming on. “Didn’t we beat you and your allies into oblivion?”
“You may have dropped my guild rank down to just about nothing, and made just about everyone quit my guild; but I have spent the last two years doing nothing but getting power so I could take you down! Now it’s time for your bitch ass to get pwned!”
“Eloquent as ever… Do you mind waiting here so I can get my underlings to deal with you? I really don’t have the energy or desire to dedicate to your nonsense.”
“You bitch! I’m the biggest threat you will ever face! I am the God damn Crimson King!” His voice cracked as he screamed. I just shook my head; this was ridiculous.
“Kid, just go away.” I turned to walk away, I did not have the drive to fight this guy. Then the acid blast hit me square in the back of my head. Lucky my barrier was there to take the hit, because that would have done some significant damage without it. I spun back around and glared at the king. How did he get such a powerful spell?! Wasn't he a warrior class?! That’s when I noticed the other figure behind the Crimson King. It was a massive green and black dragon, the size of Tundra! Its massive horns were battered and chipped. His wings looked like they had been cut and holes ripped in them. It was a Poison Elder Dragon. He caught an Elder Dragon like I had?! Well, this changed things. Elder Dragons were some of the most powerful creatures in AO and I’m pretty damn sure that they can permanently kill N0s.
