The blare of the klaxon jerks me awake; and within moments I'm on my feet, pulling on my safety suit and jacket; followed by the matching pair of boots. The automated systems in the rather too-stiff clothing aligns itself almost instantly, and with the feeling of pressure against my skin, the clothing snugs itself tight against me, forming a perfect seal in case of atmosphere loss. All told, it took less than 30 seconds for the procedure to come to an end.

The entire time, the klaxon is wailing like a banshee, loud and persistent enough to wake the dead. At least until the jacket collar rises up over my neck, and the built-in comm unit crackles into statical life.

“This is the Station Commander speaking! All hands, all hands! Report to battle stations! This is not a drill! Repeat: All hands report to battle stations! This is not a drill! Drex are inbound! Perimeter defense field has been breached!”

The message repeats several times, but I've already bolted out the door. Along with what seems like every other person who's living on the station, we all rush to our designated battle stations. Its a massive log jam, though; without any semblance of order. Only fear.

And it only gets worse as the enemy nears the station and open fire indiscriminately. The station itself shudders under the impacts, and the groaning sounds of metal being twisted, broken, warped and slagged echo through the air.

With all the pushing and shoving, the place has turned into a madhouse of fear and desperation; with people running and the air taking on the stink of burnt wiring, rubber, and superheated metal and human sweat.

Its become a jungle gym.

Even I'm forced to start shoving people out of my way. There aren't any other thoughts in my mind except doing what I can, even if it means simply getting the hell out of the way.

Only a few others seem to have the same thoughts, and soon enough we're grouped together in order to provide a forward momentum that pushes against the struggling tide of humanity.

This isn't a military instillation, after all. Its a mining and industrial station.

Buried in the heart of a massive asteroid, the station's only real defense is the rock that surrounds the steel and carbon fiber that supports the human life within. It doesn't even have a proper shield generator. Only a reflector shield that's used to bounce rogue asteroids back into the fast mining field outside.

But bare rock cannot cope with the concentrated laser fire or the solid munitions of the mass drivers that are already pounding the station. The few laser batteries are already returning fire; but they're soon rendered useless; either slagged by laser fire or turned into smoking, leaking craters by the mass drivers.

Nearly four thousand steps later, and I arrive at my combat station, which is basically an engineering station, currently running rapid system repairs. The place is almost deserted, with everyone who's checked in being assigned to a damaged area as quickly as they can be dispatched.

Its no different for me. The automated computer assigns me a mission almost as soon as I step into the room, and I grab my helmet, toolkit, and emergency kit as quickly as they hit my personal locker. The helmet matches the rest of my suit, and I slide it over my head and it seals into place with a hiss of suction before the holographic lights blink on, showing the status countdown.

70...80...90...95...99...100.

As soon as the numbers flash green, the numbers disappear and a full schematic of the station comes up. The picture it puts forward isn't good though. Various sectors are damaged or are in the process of being bombarded into wreckage.

Hooked into the central control network, the readings are updated in real-time, and already the warnings for atmospheric breaches are being noted. I barely have time to check out my assigned position and the worktable that comes with the job when main power suddenly goes out; plunging the station into darkness for all of two seconds.

The backup power kicks on then, and instead of the previous gentle glow that had lit the place; the harsh white light that comes up instead castes harsh shadows in every direction. Central Control is down though, and after a moment of static in my HUD, my suit automatically switches to internal control and connect to the local network.

The holographic projection from before has become a static thing, no longer updated in real-time, and instead the local control network appears as a green highlighted area within my vision. My orders had been canceled, and all I can do is grit my teeth while I wait for something, anything to tell me what the hell to do.

”This is the Commander! All hands are to evacuate immediately! Repeat: The evacuation order has been given! Drex infiltration has been reported! All hands to the escape pods!”

The words come in jumbled over the command frequency, and it takes several repeated cycles before I could understand what is being said. My comm unit takes several more in order to catch up itself; but I've already headed out of the engineering room; although I'm forced to shove at the door in order to slide it open. Without main power, there's no automated system to open the doors anymore.

Outside, its a mad house. People are running, and the sounds of combat can clearly be heard even through my helmet. The bombardment of the station is still underway, and the damage can be clearly seen even from where I'm standing. The place has become an obstacle course. Some unlucky fools have even gotten crushed by the falling debris.

But there isn't any time to worry about them. If the Drex have already infiltrated the station, then this place only has minutes to live, if that.

I take off at a dead run, and start working my way through the debris. Jumping, rolling, ducking, kicking. Running as quickly as I can through the hallways, heading toward the outer layers of the station; where the escape pods are.

Too bad that fate has other plans for me.

I don't even make it half way when I'm suddenly blown to my left, up against the wall. The entire bulkhead to my right has been slagged by laser fire; opening the corridor into space like a tin can. Superheated metal splatters all over the place, only to be sucked into space as the atmosphere is vented. Thankfully I'm already suited. Some others aren't so lucky, and their screams of agony die as the very air their so desperate to breath is pulled from their lungs; the negative pressure causing their chest cavities to crush inward due to their unintentional exhale.

It is not a pleasant sight. Thankfully the force of the venting atmosphere sucks the bodies out into the void. Even I'm barely able to hold onto the railing that runs the length of the wall. The artificial gravity cannot keep up with the sucking pressure of space while only running on backup power.

But once the air is gone; a process that takes only about half a minute, the suction disappears and I'm able to work myself hand-over-hand along the passageway. At least until I hate the end, where the emergency bulkhead has slammed shut.

“For fuck's sake.”

I curse rather loudly; staring for a moment. Damnit! But there's no time to worry about it! I open my inventory and look at the supplies I'd managed to grab. I have a hacking tool; but it would take too long. But I do have a supply of short-fused demolition charges.

Bingo.

I pull out the block of what is basically Super C4, and sticking it right in the middle of the bulkhead, I press the detonator into the gel-like block, and start working back the way I'd come as quickly as possible after pressing the Arm button.

The countdown is only ten seconds; and at the end the BOOM! that rings out is powerful enough to be heard or rather felt even in space.

But the bulkhead is basically gone, and I'm able to get into the next compartment.

To my surprise, there are six other suited people there; starting at me in surprise.

Four of them are wearing Marine suits; low-powered armor and wielding a variety of weapons. Another has the red-crossed suit of a medic; but the last one is wearing an officer's command suit; which has a large communications array on the back. Its also lightly armored and comes with a firearm.

My own suit is that of an engineer or a technician. No armor or weapons; but with a variety of support systems and extra processing ability.

This room is also without any atmosphere.

“Oooh. It looks like rescue has arrived from an unlikely place.” The man in the officer's suit says, and I recognize that voice from the previous broadcasts. Its the station Commander.

“I was afraid we'd be stuck in here until the Drex managed to open the door. Or blast in from outside.”

It seems the man has a rather wicked sense of humor. Too bad my humor circuit was never operational to begin with.

But taking a quick glance around I can figure out what the problem is that seems to have stumped even the obviously highly trained marines. There are two doors, off to the right and left; and both of them are closed with reinforced bulkheads.

Unlike the door I'd just blasted through, these are heavy duty. The one on the right also seems to have been jammed shut with a few well-shot bursts from an energy weapon to the console. Probably to slow down any sort of pursuit. The one on the left hasn't been touched, except the console screen is cracked.

I barely let out a sigh and pull out my hacking tool.

“I'll deal with the door. Please cover me in case there's any enemies waiting on the other side.” I say simply, and the Commander gives a 'Ho ho' laugh behind my back as I get to work. Plugging the tool in, it lights up and I have to quickly align the spinning circles as well as input various pieces of code, starting from the outer edge of the formation and working inward.

I ignore the automated features of the tool, and do it all manually; speeding through it in two minutes flat. As soon as the red indicator light flashes green, the door unlatches with a hiss, and I step back while putting away my tool while motioning to the marines; who are standing at the ready.

Thankfully there isn't anything but corpses on the other side; but the new corridor is even more heavily damaged than the one I'd come through, even if it hasn't been breached yet. The four goons don't even seem to mind though, and start shoving everything out of the way, clearing a path in a methodical way.

“Very good. Come with us. We have a small jump ship in hanger B-4.” The Commander says, walking out just behind the marines, followed soon after by the medic. The information pops up on my holographic HUD, but I simply ignore it and step out behind them, keeping my eyes peeled. Just to make sure I stop long enough to engage the lock again, slamming the bulkhead closed with another hiss from the other side.

After that, we make our way slowly through the station. The four marines are good; making sweeps of each of the corridors we come across, and rooms; some of which we plunder for anything we can scavenge. Given everyones previous hurry, almost nothing has been touched; so we find weapons, ammo, various supplies and even two full repair kits. A lot of damage has been done, and is still occurring all over the station though.

Its slow going.

Sometimes we have to backtrack and go around places that have basically been slagged. Other times we find areas were the Drex infiltration teams have come through, and back up even more slowly.

By the time we finally reach the access to the hangers; we're all stepping very gingerly and have simply grown more and more nervous. Which is probably a good thing. If we'd tried to run right into the hanger, we would have been cut down.

The entire place is overrun with nearly two hundred armored Drex soldiers.

Even I flinch back at the sight of them after taking a peep through the bulkhead that had been cut through by a laser. The Drex are monstrosities. Ten feet tall and heavily armored; they look like giant bugs; heavily colored in black and grays and with various bulbous appendages sprouted from their bodies. Not a lot is known about the Drex; but I know one thing: they're just as brutal as they are ugly.

Each of them are also heavily armed.

And most of them are ganged around the only ship in the hanger. Even I grit my teeth after that look. But I reach up and hit the internal communication function on my comm unit, turning off the wide-range broadcast to line-of-sight.

“There's a lot of them in there. Any ideas on how to get to the ship without being cut into pasty ribbons, Commander?” I ask softly, although the Commander only shrugs a shoulder before motioning to one of the marines.

The marine in question pulls out a stealthed spy ball, and passes it to me. I take it, and after connecting it to my suit, nod and stand up, tossing the ball into the hanger. It instantly activates, turning translucent and nearly invisible. Its an invaluable piece of hardware. Using my fingers inside my gloves to control it, I start scanning around the room; keeping as far from the Drex as possible.

The Drex don't have good scanning tech; but they do have good eyesight and can possibly spot the ball if it gets close enough.

“Hmm... Most of the hanger is empty. No cover at all on this side.” I comm to the others; but continue to look around. There has to be something we can use. Anything. Anything at all that'll give us an advantage. Anything that'd help us out of this mess.

That's when I spot several things on the other side of the hanger. One is the Hanger Management Terminal; and the other is a large load of barrels. Getting close enough to figure out what is in the barrels is a bit of a hassle, passing through several wandering groups of Drex... but I do it and finally get to read what's printed on them.

Hazardous Materials. Flammable. Explosive. Bingo.

A slow grin spreads across my lips.

“Ah, found it. The terminal and barrels full of explosives.” I comm, and the murmurs of the others whisper against my ear.

“Very well. Here's what we're going to do.” The Commander finally speaks up, and starts laying out the plan. We make several interjections, and after about five minutes our plan is ready to go.

And I play the key part. Setting up the trap.

It takes a lot of work, and quite a bit of time. We'd pulled back to the maximum extent of my range; boosted by connecting into the Commander's suit and his communications array. From there, I use the spy ball to remotely access the Hanger Management terminal, setting up the ship to be flight ready. After that, I change a bunch of settings; and it takes even longer to write up my own programs and get them installed, bypassing all sorts of lockouts and security measures along the way.

It gets more than a little finicky.

Finally though that's all set, and I disconnect the terminal and move the spy ball over to the neatly stacked barrels, rolling it up onto the top of the stack.

“Okay guys, you ready?” I comm to the group, and wait as I get nods from everyone. One of the marines even passes me a sidearm, a simple pistol. It connects to my suit, and I put it in the holster that appeared on my right hip.

“Here goes nothing.” I mutter, and activate the program I had wrote for the spy ball. It de-stealths, and starts bouncing up and down on the metal barrels; attracting all sorts of attention. Within moments, more than half of the Drex are drawn to it; although they are weary of opening fire on explosive materials.

Too bad for them.

The ball detonates with with a surprising amount of force; and within moments the hanger has become a scene of carnage. It was by no means an easy feat, either. Rewriting the safety programming that keeps the power cells within the spy ball from experience feedback and overloads was a major hassle. But the end result was more than worth it.

The barrels go up in flames and then BOOOOOOOOOM!, more than half the hanger is up in flames and the Drex that were anywhere near the conflagration were instantly killed. Even they cannot withstand that sort of impact.

At the same time, we rush out of our hiding place and into the hanger, and I pull out the pistol and start lobbing off shots. I'm not that good, but the marines with their heavier equipment and superior equipment are more than up to the task. With them in a short wedge formation in the front, with the medic wedged in the middle and the Commander and myself running in step; we bulldoze a path right toward the waiting ship.

The Drex are in disarray, and for the most part are easy pickings. It takes them several moments to figure out what was going on; but when they finally realize that they are under attack, their counter attack is swift and heavy.

That's when I activate the second part of the plan.

Now that I'm within close enough range, I activate the programs I'd installed in the hanger terminal by remote. It responds instantly.

The ship had previously been slowly booted before; and now kicks on in an instant; bringing the engines into a quick pre-flight check; its directional thrusters moving within their full range of motion. Normally that'd be the end of it; but I'd instructed the on board computer to ignite the thrusters at the same time; shooting out superheated jets of fire.

Hot enough to burn the metal composite of the floor and ceiling. And anything nearby. Including the Drex.

Their armor metals and their weapons explode due to the heat, but it ends after only a handful of seconds. It wouldn't be good to break our ride, right? But it does the job; and the sudden attack from their rear casts them into disarray again; breaking up the neat formations that provided them their covering fire against our own attack.

“Go go go go!” The Commander yells over the comms, even as the entrance ramp into the ship opens up and comes down, the airlock automatically opening.

Actually getting into the ship is still a hard gamble, though. One of the marines takes a shot to his chest; and falls, and I and the medic rush forward and pick the man up; even as he's screaming in pain. The Commander gets hit in the arm, but keeps going after only a grunt. Another of the marines gets hit in the leg; tearing it to shreds from the knee down and ends up screaming and firing for all he's worth, yelling at us to continue on.

My own panted breath is steaming up the inside of my helmet; but there's a grin on my face. Its the first time my blood has boiled in a long time!

Finally though we make it up the ramp, even as the marine we left behind starts chucking out his set of grenades, covering our backs as I slam my hand onto the emergency close button. The ramp comes up with a BANG, locking us in.

“You, take the controls! Get this bird out of here!” The Commander yells at me, his face pale from the pain and blood loss. I barely nod and leave the injured marine to the other two and the medic and rush into the cockpit at the front part of the ship, having to climb a short set of bars to reach the upper level.

The seat is hard composite with a very thin lining of some sort of faux leather; but I still jump right into it and strap in before grasping the control sticks. The screen comes on before my eyes, and I can tell that the Drex outside are already shooting at the ship.

Thankfully it is at least armored enough to survive the barrage.

And the pre-flight check has already been done, so we're ready to get the hell out of Dodge. All that's left is for me to comm the Hanger terminal and deactivate the docking clamps and open the doors. Its done with barely a twitch of one of my fingers. Its one of the things I had overrode earlier. The hangers door open up with a hiss, sucking all the air out of the hanger and into the space beyond like a jet, pulling the Drex out with it.

Normally a forcefield would have come up to keep the atmosphere inside, but this time there's no reason to leave a bunch of living Drex behind us.

Sadly, I'm not trained to actually pilot even a small craft, so I'm forced to rely upon the automated systems to help out in that regard. But we still get out of there like bats out of Hell. At least, we were going to; except there's a whole fucking blockade of Drex ships waiting just outside.

The only saving grace is that they apparently hadn't expected anyone to try to get out from the inside. It makes them hesitate in opening fire; and I have the ship doing basic maneuvers as we boogy out of there.

“Brace for impact!” I yell as soon as the ship tells me that we've been targeted, and I have to take manual control as the ship drops me out of autopilot. I do my damnedest though. Out in space, its not like I can hit anything important. So I dive down, then up, pivoting left and right as fancy takes me, trying to shake the lock-on icons that have popped up in front of me.

“Get someone on the guns!” I yell again, and one of the unhurt marines does so almost as quickly as the words get out of my mouth.

All in all, it is not an easy flight. Especially for my first time. We take several hits, start leaking atmosphere and fuel, and one of our engines takes a nearly direct hit from a mass driver; nearly blowing us to bits before I could reroute the leaking fuel.

But we still make it out of the blockade. They aren't intent on chasing us; instead more interested on their prize, the station itself. Bunch of scavengers.

“I'm rerouting power to the jump drive, Commander! Where we headin'?” I finally say as the attacks die off, leaving us in eerie silence only broken by the slow hiss of leaking air. Thankfully we didn't take -too- much damage; and the jump drive was still functional.

“Head toward the nearest human colony. We have to report this as fast as possible. The Drex jammed communications before we even realized they were there, so no one else has gotten any warnings.” The Commander says, his voice thin and tired now. I'm still too filled with excitement to come down from my battle-high yet.

“Aye aye, sir.” I say, having the computer pull up the listing for the closest colony. Only about twenty light-years away. With the coordinates input into the computer, all I have to do is wait for the power in the drive to reach critical mass while pointing us in that direction.

“Too bad we couldn't rescue any of the escape pods...” I say then, finally realizing that we'd forgotten something.

“No point. With the blockade, any pod that made it safely into space would have been sitting ducks. They're probably all gone.” This time its the medic that replies, and I realize with a start that its a woman. I don't even have a retort to that though, either.

“Jumping in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...” I count down out loud instead.

-|- -|- -|-

The world goes white around me just as the jump drive activated, and I find myself sitting in a rather comfortable leather chair. In front of me is a coffee table with various drinks and snack foods, and I realize that I'm rather thirsty and hungry about the same time that the smell hits me.

I grab one of the soft drinks and a bag of chips and go to town, only belatedly realizing that I'm not even wearing the space suit anymore. It doesn't matter though. I'm too busy refreshing myself to be too worried.

For a couple of minutes I'm left to my lonesome, filling my empty stomach and drinking my full before a seat appears across the table, and a young woman appears seated in it, wearing a dark business suit with a skirt that barely reaches her knees, highlighting her long legs.

Dark brown hair that hangs down her back in a simple twisted ponytail, baby blue eyes; and a large rack that is pressed up against the tight material of her jacket complete the picture of a sexy office worker. Except for the thin-framed glasses that rest on her nose.

“Ara... We weren't expecting anyone to complete the Beta Test that fast. You can imagine the confusion that was caused when we suddenly received your status report. Not only did you complete the test, you did it in less than three hours; and with perfect results, to boot.”

The woman starts talking without any preamble, and I'm left shrugging my shoulders as I pull my gaze back up to her face, with something like a wry smile on my lips.

“It was fun. There wasn't any reason to draw it out.”

“Eh? I guess that must be true. Still, its more than a little amazing. Even the programmers who wrote out the level couldn't do what you did; and with the Engineer's preset, which is arguably the hardest choice.”

*DING*

You have completed the Universe Online Beta Test!Your mining station was ruthlessly attacked by the Drex, resulting in thousands of casualties. You could have escaped on your own; but instead you joined up with others and managed to escape with only a single casualty.

Number of Survivors: 6

Commander survived: Yes

Jump Ship operational: Yes

Times you were killed: None

Total Time during the Test: 2 hours, 37 minutes, 46 seconds.

You are the first person to complete the Beta Test.

The blue holographic projection comes up over the table, and I take my time reading it before nodding.

“It counts me as a survivor as well. We were lucky that we only lost a single marine.” I say after a moment, feeling quite proud of myself.

“The clock is still ticking for the other Beta testers, but you're already done. That's a great achievement, regardless. The best time for one of the staff here was just under four hours; and he lost three of the marines and the engineer. He'd chosen the officer preset.” The woman says then, flashing a great big and almost blindly white smile at me.

“Well, I basically just went with the flow. The starting briefing really helped, as did the tutorial. Especially the tutorial, given that it was in the same station. All I had to do was memorize the basic layout and play around with the available equipment until I was comfortable enough to know what I could do with it.”

My words are a bit modest, given that I'd spent over five hours in the tutorial, doing everything I possibly could do in that instanced zone. I'd basically given the Help function a fit with all of my questions.

“Hahaha! That is true. You're only one of four who went through the whole tutorial, and we're already re-writing the Help function so it can provide better support for the crazy questions you asked. But that's part of the beta testing process. Anyway! Not only are you getting the Beta Tester bonus, as the first person to complete the test and with such a high score, you're also going to receive bonuses and support when the game launches.”

The woman was rather excited, and even I have to raise my brow in piqued interest.

“Oh? Can you tell me about these bonuses? We were told we'd receive tester bonuses during the briefing, but no other information.” I ask without any preamble.

“Hmm... Hold on and let me see if I can say, 'kay?” The woman suddenly looks mischievous, and I nod as she pulls up her own panel and starts typing away on the interface. I cannot see anything from where I'm sitting, but I'm not to worried anyway.

“And the answer is... No can do. Apparently the higher-ups want to make sure all it comes as a surprise. Sorry!”

“Ah. Oh well. I'll find out as soon as the game launches anyway.” I reply, a little put off. The game is still six months away from launching. That's quite a bit of time to have to wait.

“Sorry about that. But I have been told that you are allowed to jump back into the Beta Test again. The management team is interested to see what you can do with the other presets. If you can beat the test in under three hours with the Soldier, Officer, and Manufacturer; you'll get an even better surprise.” Now she's starting to look like a wolf wearing sheep's clothing. There's a catch there, I just know it; but I'm not too worried.

“Sure. I'll need a couple of hours though before I log back in. I can only stay in the pod for five hours cause the doctors are worried.” I say, shrugging a shoulder.

“Oh... Hold on.” The woman says, suddenly taken aback and once more brings up the holographic panel.

“EH!? Allec Renn? The ALS patient? Oh my. Sorry, I didn't realize. No wonder management is interested in you. Also, the technicians will be coming to modify your Dive Pod in a couple of hours as well. So just log back in when you are able to. The Beta Test is going to last for the next week, so you have plenty of time.” Her response was expected, but I still sigh and shrug my shoulders.

“Alright. Thanks. I'll be seeing you later then.” I say with a cheeky grin, swiping away the notice that's still floating above the coffee table.

“Logout.”

The world fades to black.

-|- -|- -|-

Well, here we go again guys!

This is the start of a second story I started writing after ditching another one I had been thinking about.

This time its a sci-fi VRMMORPG! There's been only a few that I've found on RRL, but I hope this catches your attention!

I'm not going to give too much info about it just yet, but I'm sure you guys will catch on quick. Haha.

I'm also still working on my other story, Master of Dungeons; so there's no reason to worry about me quitting that project!

Its also in first person, which is a bit different for me.

As always, feel free to critique my work and leave messages and reviews!

Also, thank you for your wonderful support!

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