“I was there that day. I saw it. It was as if the sky itself had been ripped apart. It was like a harpy’s talons, digging through an old, blue sheet.

The world shook, I shook, the light came and then, there was nothing left except…

…There was nothing left of that forest except for a few silhouettes around a hill-top outside of it, surrounded by clouds, by dust. There was so much dust. The shadows of their bodies stood there, frozen, like statues. It was like they were just… imprints left on the world, shadows burnt into the fog itself by the force of the blast.

And then I looked away. I fell into prayer.

There was nothing left.”

~ Excerpt from an interview with a witness of the first event, priest Thistlewood, recorded by historian Foundrich of the society of chroniclers, fifty years afterwards.

Gottlieb whistles, admiring the blast from afar. His hands still hold the controls, his finger is still hovering above the button.

It’s beautiful. It’s always so beautiful. It’s like watching an angel crashing into the world.

Something chimes from next to him.

[Battle complete]

(Gottlieb) has killed:

(Goblin{LVL 1})(Goblin{LVL 3})(Mush-mush{LVL 3})(Goblin{LVL 3})(Goblin{LVL 1})(Feral Boar{LVL 5})(Goblin Shaman{LVL 4})(Goblin{LVL 1})(Goblin{LVL 1})(Goblin{LVL 3})(Goblin Archer{LVL 2})(Orange Mush-mush{LVL 1})(Goblin Archer{LVL 1})(Mush-mush{LVL 1})(Goblin{LVL 1})(Goblin{LVL 3})(Goblin Assassin{LVL 1})(Orange Mush-mush{LVL 1})(Goblin{LVL 2})(Goblin{LVL 1})(Goblin Chieftan{LVL 8})(Goblin{LVL 4})(Blue Mush-mush{LVL 1})(Feral Boar{LVL 5})(Feral Boar{LVL 2}) …

You got [10/10] EXP ! *+~- [LEVEL UP!] -~+* You are now level 2! You got [20/20] EXP ! *+~- [LEVEL UP!] -~+* You are now level 3! You got [40/40] EXP ! *+~- [LEVEL UP!] -~+* You are now level 4! You got [80/80] EXP ! *+~- [LEVEL UP!] -~+* You are now level 5! You got [14/160] EXP ! [You have {5} attribute points to apply] [You have {2} ability points to apply]

Gottlieb blinks, staring at the weird screen again. This isn’t one of his monitors. This one is just… kind of floating in the air. It does look a lot like his terminals though. Even the font is the same. That’s kind of weird, obviously.

The man stares at them for a moment, before looking back at the monitor, at the chaos below. He wonders if the chicken-lady is going to be okay?

He can’t tell anymore. The orbit of the station and the planet are still out of whack, he’s lost sight of her and given the curvature of the planet, he doesn’t think that he’s going to see her again until this time tomorrow.

“Kai, save the chicken lady’s position,” he says, getting up. Things are getting weird.

[Requested accepted]

Activating smart-ground-asset-tracker

‘Chicken lady’

Success!

Gottlieb nods, looking at the new window. Is this something Kai is doing? They don’t have holograms on-board as far as he knows.

“Attributes?” he mutters to himself, looking at a window. It has his name on it. He’s familiar with this kind of layout. It’s a little like one of the games he has hidden on his second screen. He likes to play it when Richter is on the other side, because she can’t see it from that angle and it makes it look like he’s super busy. “Hmm…”

Gottlieb stares at the screen and then shrugs, pressing anything at random.

GOTTLIEB Level: 5 Experience: 14/160 Class: Orbital Gunner Sub-class: None Race: Human Home: The orbital-weapons platform [Currently moving to continent {5}] STRENGTH: 5 [+] DEXTERITY: 7 [+] INTELLIGENCE: 8 [+] WISDOM: 5 [+] LOVE: 6 [+] LUCK: 9 [+] [Raised STRENGTH +1](To 6) {4 Attribute Points remaining}

It’s hard to say what exactly that did. Is he stronger now? If so, he doesn’t really feel it. Then again, why would he?

The man blinks, lifting his gaze to the screen again. One way to find out. He taps the strength button four more times.

[Raised STRENGTH +4](To 10) {0 Attribute Points remaining}

Something feels tight in his chest, or, more aptly said, on his chest. Gottlieb looks down at his standard-issue button-up that seems to be sitting a lot tighter than it was just a moment ago on both his arms and his chest. The man blinks, opening his shirt and looking, whistling for the second time today. He’s not exactly in fantastic shape, but he’s certainly a bit tighter looking and less squishy than he was just a minute ago. He feels like he’s been doing his standard space fitness protocol workout every day, like he should.

But he hasn’t.

So it is real.

“Huh…” says Gottlieb, raising his eyes to the giant gun above his head. He smiles, lifting an arm to flex his new muscles at it. “How do you like these guns, baby-girl?”

[Reprimand issued]

Orbital Gunner Gottlieb - Inappropriate workplace behavior

Context: (Inappropriate solicitation)

- Notifying the captain

Gottlieb turns his head to the side, looking at the monitor at his desk. “Fuck off, Kai!” he protests, closing his shirt again as he heads back to the console. The message blinks away, leaving the monitor at his desk blank. Fucking Kai. No fun allowed.

The man sighs, sitting back down at his station as he thinks about his predicament.

So, he’s somewhere else, above another world. That much is sure. The man glances at the many screens around himself. There are different rules here. There’s apparently some kind of… ‘system’ in place that has, in a manner of speaking, gamified the universe.

He shakes his head. That cosmic-event that the others had gone to watch must have been one hell of a doozy.

The man stares down at his crossed and clenched fingers, before turning his gaze to look at the empty chair next to him. Only the buzzing of the many terminals and computers around him gives any signal to life.

Richter…

Are they dead? Did something happen to everyone? He needs to get to the observatory and see for himself. Gottlieb stares back to the terminal, watching as masses of land fly by the still zoomed in camera.

Or what if he died? What if this is just…

What if it’s just… something else.

Gottlieb stares at the monitors, trying to make heads or tails of what he sees, of where he’s been brought.

Gottlieb sighs, sitting in the mess hall. Well, ‘hall’. It’s really just a rectangular room with two long tables and four benches. Adorning the wall is a counter, the kitchen is on the other side. But, well, ‘kitchen’.

The man stares down at his field-ration. Usually the cooks would prepare these out of stuff from hydro and package them up nice and neat. There are still tons left, as they usually made huge amounts of it and froze it. He heard a rumor once that they actually keep it in space to keep it from going bad.

The way it tastes, he’d believe it. Ass.

Gottlieb pulls open the green foil around his daily brick of nutritious, chalky powder, congealed fat and oils all mixed into one big, crusty, crumbly heap that is both somehow too dry and too greasy at the same time.

If this one has salt in it, he can’t taste any.

(Gottlieb) ate [Nutri-Ration{Green}] (Gottlieb) has recovered 10 STAMINA

The man blinks, staring at the window next to himself.

It vanishes a second later, leaving only the distant blue light at the end of the hall behind it.

Gottlieb nods to Kai, if only out of habit, before getting up and throwing his garbage away. Though… what’s the point? He may as well just leave it here. Gottlieb sighs, making a point out of it by just throwing the tray over his shoulder and letting it rattle noisily against the ground, the wrapper flying away and landing next to it.

Shaking his head, he leaves the mess-hall and stands there in front of the door.

…Now what?

He’s alone on the station. The rest of the crew is at best missing, at worst, dead. He needs to get into the observatory, but Kai is a hard-ass and won’t let him through the door. He could tether himself outside and jump to the window?

But then what? There’s no way inside from out there and he doesn’t know if it will do him any good if there’s no light.

No, he needs to go through the door. That means he needs permission from Kai. Though, it’s weird. Usually that door is open for everyone, all the time.

Gottlieb ruffles through his hair, staring down the empty hallways.

Obviously he is spooked. But… of what?

If he’s really the last one, then there’s just himself here. Maybe the bots that take care of hydro and electrical are still around somewhere and Kai. And the gun, of course. But that goes without saying.

Gottlieb looks up at the blue-light above the door, staring at it for a while.

An electronic chime rings.

Three hours have passed. Lunch is over. Time to get back to work.

Gottlieb sighs and heads back to his desk, simply not sure what else to do. The man falls down the tube, pulling himself into his office.

Even from here, he can see the window on his screen. He lifts his gaze, glaring at the blue dot above it.

Kai is everywhere.

[Reprimand issued]

Orbital Gunner Gottlieb - Inappropriate workplace behavior

Context: (Littering; Failure to return tray to counter)

- Notifying the captain

Kai sees everything, including the finger being held up to the camera.

The gun hovers above a new continent. One that Kai has affectionately named ‘continent five’, like the poet that he, she or it is. Gottlieb has never really established a gender for Kai in his head.

Gottlieb sits there with his hands folded and stares at the screen. There’s a city. He grabs his control and zooms in.

Humans.

It’s a human city. It looks almost…

Gottlieb zooms in a little further, waiting for the pixels on the structures to unblur as he notices that it looks very old-world.

It looks almost Medieval, in fact. But in an oddly clean and prim way. The houses are timber-framed and multistory, adorned with white plaster. It looks like a cozy, nice city, honestly. There are stone walls and there’s even a little tower there in the center.

He zips around with the camera, looking at different people living their days in what looks to be quiet prosperity. Men and women are running around, many of them carrying swords and…

“Kai, is that a staff?”

[Processing imagery]

[Validating image recognition request]

Staff confirmed.

“Huh…” mutters Gottlieb, watching as one of the robed figures holds her hands out to her sides, letting an arc of energy. Gottlieb taps the screen. “Kai. Is that magic?”

[Processing imagery]

[Validating image recognition request]

- Magic unconfirmed.

[Reprimand issued]

Orbital Gunner Gottlieb - Wasting resources

Context: (Used military optical installation and smart-context resources in order to identify the validity of magic)

- Notifying the captain

“Go fuck yourself, Kai!” barks Gottlieb, jumping to his feet and pointing at the screen. “Of course it’s fucking magic! Richter!” he says, calling over his shoulder to the left in order to get some backup. Richter always tells him to stop talking to the station’s AI, saying that it’s weird. But she doesn’t get it. She’s probably jealous of Kai too. Just like she is of the gun.

Nobody is there.

Gottlieb stares at the empty chair across from himself for a moment and then sighs, sitting back down, watching as the people beneath him live their lives, entirely unaware that they’re being watched from so far above the sky.

Magic, huh?

Wait.

He got attribute points before and spent them to get stronger, which isn’t very useful up here in space, but it is nice to be in better shape. But he also got skill-points.

He looks to the side, just in time for a menu to appear, floating in thin air.

[Gottlieb] You may choose {2} abilities [Forest-Hunter {1}](Passive) You have an easier time spotting all FOREST type monsters and do an additional 5% DMG to all of their kind. [Low Frequency Pulse] By forcing the fired particles of the gun to spread out wider before impact, fire a direct, non-lethal shock-wave to an area encompassing 150m without a projectile. [High Precision Strike] Reduces the power of the orbital-cannon by 95%, allowing a small, high-precision blast with a radius of 5m intended to take out high-value enemy ground assets while assuring the safety of environment and friendlies. [Firing Beacon] Launch a hand-held firing beacon to a ground asset. The asset can use this beacon to synchronize the station to their geo-spatial position. [Ranking {1}] Allows you to open all doors on the station that are marked with a clearance level of 1. [Solar amplification] Overcharges the solar-capacitors and raises the power of the orbital strike by an additional 15%

Gottlieb blinks, staring at the assortment of skills. They all seem fairly self explanatory except for that last one.

“Hmm…”

He leans back and thinks for a moment.