Cyber Squad
Level 1
by
A.K. Mocikat
Cyber Squad - Level 1
Copyright © 2021 by A.K. Mocikat
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Book Cover design by Ivano Lago
Chapter One
Everyone stood still. Waiting. On the lookout.
For once, no one spoke. If it weren’t for the wind blowing into their faces and the dark clouds moving over the wintery sky, one might have thought that the scenario had frozen – which would have been annoying, but nothing too unusual.
But that wasn’t the case this time. Everyone was so focused, so determined that even the most notorious chatters had fallen quiet.
“This is it, people,” an assertive voice said, breaking the silence. “All or nothing!”
Some heads turned and looked at the speaker while others kept staring into the lush woods surrounding the castle. Not far away, crows circled high in the clear, crisp air, waiting for the feast to come.
During the last siege, some noob smartass had thought it would be funny to throw fireballs at the crows while waiting for the attack. Although it was indeed hilarious to watch the animal NPCs[1] first burst into flames and then fall to the ground in the form of fried chicken, the fun for the smartass had only lasted for a couple of seconds.
Then he had dematerialized in front of everyone’s eyes.
The guild leader had removed him from the group and therefore the campaign. Sieges like these weren’t the right time for silly jokes. This was serious business.
All or nothing.
Kai agreed with that. If they won the battle, it would catapult every one of them into the Top K. The top one thousand players of the game, worldwide. The best of the best. This was not only cool because it would display on their tags, it also came with unique loot, 100k gold and a mansion in the Mountains of Valaria.
They had to win.
Kai froze. For a second, he thought he had spotted movement between the trees, but it was just the wind rustling through old leaves. A snowstorm was coming.
They all had played the campaign so often, they knew the signs that indicated such a storm. And it was very likely that the enemy was waiting for exactly that before they attacked. It was a common tactic after all.
But for now, no enemy movement was to be seen, and the medieval style music playing in everyone’s heads had a neutral and relaxed tune.
Kai looked up and studied his brothers and sisters in arms, standing in disciplined rows on the broad outer walls of a massive fortress.
The walls alone were so thick that two mounted guards could easily patrol them next to each other. They surrounded a huge courtyard and, in its midst, an impressive, medieval keep. It should be easy to defend a place like this, yet it wasn’t, and everyone standing there knew that only too well as they looked at each other – and the vast gaps between them on the wall.
The anticipation was almost tangible. Many of them had been playing almost non-stop for the last five days to achieve this great victory. And now it was so close.
The timer in the upper right corner of Kai’s HUD[2] showed that there was less than an hour to go. All they needed to do to win was hold their ground.
Defend this keep. At any cost.
“Remember,” Red’s voice filled everyone’s head. “Stick together with your assigned team, no matter what. No solo maneuvers. Check if you have enough health potions in your quickslots. Make it easy for your healers to keep you alive.”
He was an impressive figure. Sitting on his large, black stallion with fiery hooves and glowing red eyes. It was a premium item from the store, and a very expensive one.
Some items weren’t achievable through grinding or farming – they had to be bought for diamonds. Which were only attainable through real money.
It was all about status, in the real world and in the digital one alike.
Red’s tall and broad, overly masculine silhouette was dressed in black, ornamented armor. His handsome face hid behind a massive black helmet with two fiery horns at the top.
Above the helmet, his name was displayed in bright blue: Redrum666. And his level: 799 – the highest level achievable in the game. After that, only better gear would make a difference in stats.
On view above his level and visible to everyone was his title: Emperor.
He was the highest-ranked player in this campaign. And he had to keep this title till the campaign ended, then he would win. And with him the whole Blue team, which mostly consisted of one guild.
“Check your inventory, guys,” another familiar voice added. It belonged to Cloudgirl69, the second in command in the campaign and the guild – and Red’s spouse. At least in the game, since none of them would ever meet in real life. Apparently the two of them liked to play dirty on his coastal estate, if they weren’t busy raiding, looting, killing dragons or leading campaigns.
“Everyone needs at least three flaming oils and two fire trebuchets slotted. If you don’t have them, go to the vendor in the keep and buy some. But hurry.”
Even when she was bossy, her voice always sounded sexy. And rumors were that she was a hot redhead IRL.[3]
But if that wasn’t the case, her character in-game was enough to make everyone’s blood pump when they looked at her. Her elven body was shapely, and the silver armor revealed more than it covered. Of course, armor like that would be ridiculously useless on a real battlefield, but those were details no one cared about. Besides, her character class was Sorcerer and they used magic shields instead of heavy armor. Everyone knew that.
“Don’t forget to protect the aether-fire siege equipment, no matter what,” Red said.
Kai felt a soft poke in his side. He turned his head and looked into the beautiful, unearthly face of a female Dark Elf. She rolled her reddish, oversized eyes.
“They’re such posers, both of them,” Kai heard his friend Stan over a private channel, which simulated a whisper. “Who do they think we are? Bloody noobs? Every idiot knows to protect the aether fire shit!”
Stan’s deep voice, with its heavy Australian accent, stood in stark contrast to the graceful elven girl, dressed in brown, tight-fitting leather. A collection of silver knives and daggers was strapped to her light armor, and a huge red-glowing bow was attached to her back.
VRRPG gaming had come a long way since its early days. Every player could select a voice for their avatar which would speak what they wanted to say in an almost natural way. Because of this it had become very difficult to tell if a player was male or female in real life. However, some players chose to use their own voice, or at least what they heard as their won voices in their heads. Stan was one of them. He wanted to be clearly recognizable as a male in real life.
“Everyone knows they’re posers,” Kai said with a chuckle. “Now shut up and focus! We need to win this!”
“And we bloody will!” answered the elven girl with the deep voice.
Kai’s character was a handsome Battlemage who would have looked like a Viking if he didn’t wear his helmet. He wore purple-black heavy armor that shimmered and had a flaming
great-sword. But he could also cast fireballs and summon lightning. LVL 799 was displayed above his head. He was one of the best players in the guild.
“You see anything?” he asked his friend. The Thief class had 20% better eyesight by default.
“Nope,” the Dark Elf next to him answered. “There isn’t shit out there.”
“Hm. Strange.”
It was odd indeed. The HUD showed that the campaign would end in 58 minutes and 15 seconds. What was the enemy waiting for? If their opponents wanted to win this, they needed to hurry. Important battles like this one could last for hours. Especially if one faction sieged a keep that another was defending fiercely.
Maybe they’d decided that the campaign was lost and had left it to do something else in-world instead of attacking?
His thoughts were interrupted by an excited voice yelling into the main channel.
“They’re inbound! They’re coming! Shit, there are so many of them!”
“Who? Where?” Red asked, trying to keep his voice calm.
“North-east!” Serene559, one of their scouts, answered. “Yellows and Purples!”
“What?” Red couldn’t hide his irritation. “Damn cheaters! Ok, everyone, north-eastern wall. Deploy the counter-siege engines. Move!”
Suddenly everything was moving hectically. Stan made a gesture with his hand, and his mount, an oversized lizard, spawned right under him. Kai did the same, and within the blink of an eye, he was sitting in the saddle of a huge leopard. The mount let out its characteristic growling hiss when he spurred it, then it followed Stan at breakneck speed. The castle was so huge that it would take way too long to run from one end to the other, which was why everyone was summoning their mount and hastening toward the action.
Seconds later, the walls vibrated under a massive impact.
The normally relaxed, medieval-inspired music everyone could hear in their heads was replaced by one of the battle themes. Its sound alone made Kai’s heart pound and his stomach tingle in anticipation.
The enemy had begun the siege. That was not good at all. If his team wasn’t able to set up counter-siege equipment on the walls within the next minute, the damage might be already too high to hold the outer walls of the fortress.
Kai swore inwardly, spurring his leopard on even more.
Why had Red made such a beginner’s mistake?
Yes, it was true that 90% of attacks happened at the front gate. It was wooden and much easier to breach than the stone walls. But it was also easier to defend. An experienced campaign leader at least considered an attack from the flank.
“Oh bloody fuck,” Stan moaned. “We’re so screwed.”
Everything shook under another massive impact.
“Aether-fire!” someone yelled in the main channel. “They got fucking aether!”
“How many units?” Red asked.
“Eight… maybe ten.”
“What?!”
Aether-fire, which glowed blue, was the most powerful weapon in the game. Such siege engines were extremely difficult to come by and therefore very valuable. Two or three of them could decide a battle. Red’s guild had five, which was a lot. But ten?
“It’s because the fuckers have teamed up against us,” Stan said dryly. “We’re toast.”
“Not yet,” Kai answered, jumping off his mount, which disappeared into thin air. “We still can do this!”
He had arrived at the wall that was under attack. Looking down, he doubted his own words and began to agree with his friend on the matter. They were going to be toast. Burned toast.
“That’s a motherfucking Zerg[4] down there!” one of their teammates with a clearly puberty-pitched voice cried out.
Kai and Stan exchanged a look.
“Toast,” the Dark Elf repeated.
At least fifty enemy players had gathered at the north-eastern wall of Castle Black Rock. Players of both enemy factions, recognizable by their purple and yellow game tags. It wasn’t against the rules, but it was highly frowned upon if two factions teamed up against one. They weren’t even supposed to communicate with each other and couldn’t share a voice channel. But experienced players knew how to work around such obstacles. When a massive army attempted a coordinated attack, they were called a Zerg. A term almost as old as gaming history itself.
Kai felt goosebumps as he watched the enemies crawling seventy feet below him, like a hive of raging fire ants. The world around him was fake, a digital construct created by a powerful game engine, but the adrenaline and sweat produced in his body were real. He felt his heart beating faster.
Then he gave himself a mental push. Standing there like a noob and watching the hostiles approach wouldn’t help anyone.
Stan had already begun setting up his siege engine, and Kai did the same.
He only had to think Open Inventory and the HUD changed. Semi-transparent, so he still could see what was happening around him, the inventory opened and displayed everything he was carrying with him. With his eyes, he focused on the Siege Equipment tab and picked one of the weapons stored there.
A massive trebuchet began unfolding right in front of him, directly on the castle wall, which was now shaking under the impact of all kinds of projectiles: rocks, fireballs, ice and the dreaded aether-fire.
“Wall integrity at 43%,” Red shouted. “Hurry up, people!”
It took a couple of seconds until Kai’s machine was fully set up and ready to use. Then his HUD changed again, and now he was looking through the POV of the trebuchet.
A red circle showed the impact radius. He moved it over two enemy catapults and fired.
Glowing blue fire emerged from his trebuchet and flew in a massive ball toward the targeted enemies. They saw it and tried to evade, but they were too slow. Everything around them erupted in a cloud of deadly, blue flames.
“Ha!” Kai shouted, watching the life stats of the burning enemies he just had hit diminish at a crazy speed.
That was exactly why everyone feared aether-fire. It would sear your flesh from your bones within seconds if you didn’t use countermeasures, such as a cleansing spell, in time.
Satisfied, Kai watched as two of the opponent players dropped to the ground, their bodies turning into piles of ash. Their siege engines were ablaze and would be destroyed within ten seconds if someone didn’t use a repair kit on them.
Stan fired his stone catapult at the two players who had survived Kai’s aether-fire and were trying to repair the valuable machines. The rocks smashed both of them into pulp.
“Woohoo!” the Aussie called out. “Maybe you’re right and we have a chance after all!”
“Careful, they’re gonna target us now!”
Kai moved his trebuchet a bit to the right and adjusted its aim to hit the next enemies. It took a few seconds and made him extremely vulnerable to attacks. Of course, the other side wasn’t dumb and would target their aether-fire as well.
“Don’t worry. I got you,” a calm, female voice behind them said.
It was LifeSupportForYou2, a LVL 799 player and a top-notch healer.
The sorceress wore a majestic, gold-glowing robe and held a staff with a moving snake head on its end. She performed a gesture with her arms and a huge shimmering dome appeared around Kai, Stan and the other team members close to them.
Just in time.
Two glowing fireballs, one aether and one regular, hit the shield and disappeared.
“Shield integrity at 73%,” the healer said calmly. “Finish them off.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Stan said, and he and Kai fired their deadly loads on the fire ants below.
With LifeSupport protecting them, they were practically invincible, at least until she ran out of Mana, and that could take a while with her.
The tables began to turn as the two friends and other members of their team unleashed the full power of their defense. The Zerg quickly grew smaller in number, and the hostiles left their organized formation and started running around manically, trying to repair blazing siege
equipment or revive fallen players.
Kai laughed. “Look at them! Who’s toast now?”
Suddenly, the shimmering shield protecting them disappeared.
Surprised, Kai saw an assassin appearing from a dark cloud that had given him stealth. The black-clad hostile butchered LifeSupport with his dual-wield blades. It was over within two seconds. Not equipped for close combat, the healers were vulnerable to blade attacks. The shield only protected them from projectiles. Cloaked enemy players could easily pass through it and assassinate anyone inside.
“Well, damn,” LifeSupport said dryly while her virtual body sank into a puddle of her own blood.
Kai was stunned. Where had this Purple assassin come from? As long as the walls and gates were intact, no one could enter a keep.
“What the–”
He was interrupted by a yell.
“Breach!” Serene559 warned. “They’ve breached the gate! They’re flanking us!”
“Wankers…” Stan swore in disbelief.
The Zerg had been nothing but a massive diversion. While Red’s team rushed to the north-eastern wall to defend it against an enemy force that far outnumbered them, a small, tactical unit had breached the gate. Now, yellow and purple tags swarmed into the fortress.
Kai let go of his siege engine, drew his flaming sword and attacked the assassin. They had twenty seconds to revive LifeSupport before she was kicked out of the campaign.
“Retreat inside the inner keep!” Red commanded. “Now!”
Furious, Kai slashed at the assassin with his sword, which was almost the same length as his body and would have been impossible to lift even for a well-trained man in real life. The hostile parried with his daggers but would withstand the much stronger, heavy attacks only for a few seconds.
“You heard him, mate,” Stan said, running off along on the wall. “We need to retreat!”
“Damn it, Stan!” Kai growled, irritated. “I need your help here!”
“Sorry mate,” his friend said, disappearing into a dark cloud that would cover him from enemy fire until he reached the inner fortress.
Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure Page 1
