Chapter 2.2 - Tutorial 2

"Plotting course to ships main core", the computer replies.

I was really getting sick of that grating voice, seriously first chance I got I was buying something a lot more soothing. The holographic display on my computer lights up and plots a simple course through the ship. The ship was a transport ship with most of the space dedicated to passenger cabins and cargo space. The ship's design was pretty straightforward so I wouldn't be crawling through any ducts or anything like that to get to the core. Thinking about my plan there was something else I needed to know, "Computer can you track who is on board the New Dawn still?"

The computer chimes up, "Affirmative. Tracking fifteen life signs."

"Can you cross reference the life signs with the ships manifest to determine whether the remaining life signs are crew, passengers or pirates?"

"Affirmative."

"Alright, display the location of all life signs, mark passengers and crew as blue and pirates as red."

A few moments later several indicators appear on the schematics of the ship showing the locations of the life signs. There were only a few blue indicators, the majority of which were near the escape pods. Only one blue indicator wasn't and it was located on the bridge and surrounded by five red indicators, "Computer can you show me the bridge?"

"Affirmative."

The holographic display turns into a video screen. On the screen, I can see three of the five pirates on the bridge and the single non-pirate. The non-pirate is wearing a uniform similar to the stewardess I rescued, though the insignia on his shoulder is a lot more intricate. The non-pirate is a man, human looking, and appearing to be somewhere in his fifties with gray hair and a few wrinkles on his face. The wrinkles really stand out beneath all that red blood. He's in really bad condition, all four of his limbs are bent in the wrong direction, and it looks like he's been shot in each of his shoulders, arms, and legs. I'd say it's pretty clear he's being tortured to death and isn't likely to survive much longer.

Hero or not seeing someone treated like that really pisses me off, these pirates deserved everything I was going to do to them. I had no delusions about rescuing the man and saving his life, there was really nothing I could do to help him. Maybe, just maybe, he would live long enough to realize someone had taken revenge on the pirates for him, it was the best I could offer.

"Okay, show me the map of the ship and the route to the core again."

The screen changes to the information I asked for, I study the route and spot two red dots in my way, but the ship isn't large enough for there to be alternate routes. Seems like I would have to kill at least two more pirates. I unplug the cable from the ship's terminal and my computer to store it back in the [Hackers Toolkit] and store the kit back in my [Utility Belt]. It was time to get to work and get that man some revenge.

Following the map I'd downloaded I made it almost all the way to the core before coming up on the last known position of the second pirate that is supposed to be in my way. I'd run into nothing on the way here, the ship was extremely quiet, the only thing moving was the flashing red lights in all the hallways. I was currently on the middle deck of the ship, the same deck my cabin was on. The ship was comprised of just three decks, the top deck being the location of the bridge and crew quarters, the middle deck being passenger cabins, cargo holds and the core of the ship and the bottom deck being cargo holds and the escape pods.

Right now I was at the end of a passenger cabin lined corridor that ended in a right turn. Around the corner would be the door leading to the computer core. So far I hadn't run into any pirates, the first one that was in my path earlier wasn't there when I arrived, but I was pretty sure the pirate near the ship's core would still be there, likely guarding it. I carefully peek around the corner and sure enough, there's a very bored looking pirate standing across the hall in front of the door leading to the core.

The pirate looks much like the first one I killed, just a slightly different physical appearance. He was probably human with long dark greasy hair and an unshaved face wearing rags and another one of those cheap looking hammered sheet metal armor plates. I'd forgotten to check out the armor on the first pirate, but frankly, even if that armor was of epic proportions I wouldn't wear it. It just looked so crappy and I had a reputation to uphold! Okay not really, I just had standards okay?

I duck back around the corner out of the sight of the pirate and try to decide what to do. He was close enough that I could reach him quickly, and his [Machine Gun] was hanging from his shoulder so it would take him some time to pick it up and then aim it at me. That would give me a few precious moments to close distance or to get off a few shots from here. I wanted to take him down fast and hard though, preferably with a single shot. I think it's time to use a little magic. I open my system menu and select one of my spells to double check the description of it.

Overcharge Weapon Rank: 1 Mana Cost: 9.7 Casting Time: Instant Range: 1 Weapon you are touching Description: You overcharge a weapon you are holding. If the weapon’s next attack hits within 10 seconds, the attack deals 4-24 additional damage if the weapon is a single target attack. If the weapon attacks all creatures in an area or fires multiple projectiles at once, it deals an additional 2-12 damage. In the case of multiple projectiles at once the bonus damage applies to each projectile.

Now if I was reading this spell right, using it on my [Mana Pistol] would amp the damage from 1-6 to 5-30 damage. But if I used it on my [Mana Shotgun] then it would amp the damage of each pellet from 1-4 to 5-16, meaning if I could close the gap and hit the pirate with all five pellets it would deal a staggering 25-80 damage. Even if the pirate had double my health the odds were pretty good that just one blast would take him down. This seemed like a good plan to me, quick, efficient, and a lot less likely to get me shot.

Decision made I store the [Machine Gun] in my [Utility Belt] and pull my [Mana Shotgun] out of its shoulder harness. I double check the energy gauge to make sure it's still at twenty charges, I know I haven't used it and I know it was fully charged earlier, but it was always better to make sure of everything you could before going into a life or death situation. I take a slow deep breath to calm my nerves and prepare to cast the spell.

Because of my [Arcane Knowledge] skill, I know all I have to do to cast a spell with a casting time of instant is to say the spells name out loud. I take one final deep breath to calm my nerves. If I didn't take the pirate down in the first shot the odds were pretty good he would be shooting back at me and getting shot would not be a pleasant experience. I grip the [Mana Shotgun] tightly in my hands and crouch down a little.

I leap around the corner and charge towards the pirate, "[Overcharge Weapon]!"

I feel the mana leave my body and pour into the shotgun, the lightly glowing blue lines on the weapon turn red and glow brightly. Small discharges of electricity spark off of the now red lines as I charge the few feet between the pirate and myself. The pirate is at first surprised and then gets determined as he reaches for the [Machine Gun] hanging at his side. The distance is short and his moment of surprise is enough for me to get within a foot of him and pull the trigger on the shotgun.

The gun roars loudly and kicks violently in my grip as it blasts out the overcharged pellets of mana in a bright red burst. With such a short distance between the barrel of the shotgun and the man's chest, there's just no space for him to even attempt to dodge the gunfire.

Damage Dealt: 51 Piercing Experience Gained: 150 (100+50%) Shooting +1 New Skill Long Arm Proficiency 1/100 (+0 Might)

The blast from the shotgun slams into the man's chest, ripping his flimsy armor to shreds and blows out behind him. Blood coats the door at the mans back and leaks profusely from the gaping wounds in his chest and back. The [Machine Gun] he'd just barely managed to get a hold of clatters loudly to the floor, followed a moment later by the man's body crumpling lifelessly.

The red glow and sparks are gone from the [Mana Shotgun] though a hint of smoke leaks from the barrel and fills the air with the smell of ozone. I kneel down next to the body and take off his [Utility Belt] to check its inventory, at the same time I dump five mana into the [Mana Shotgun] still in my hand to refill the charges on it. The pirates [Utility Belt] contained pretty much the same thing as the previous one, extra ammo and a credit stick. I pull out the credit stick and check the balance on it, 164 credits. Not a bad haul from one dead pirate.

I shove the pirate's body out of the way and hit the panel to open the door to the core, naturally, it doesn't open. Sighing I kneel down and take out my [Hackers Toolkit] and once more proceed through hacking open the door. This door takes a couple of minutes to hack, the security on it was quite a bit higher than the security on my door and a little higher than the security protecting the schematics of the ship. Well, that made sense since this was the heart of the ship after all. A little less than ten minutes later the door lets out a hiss and pops open. I pack up my tools and shove the door open the rest of the way.

Computers +1

Hacking +1

Experience Gained: 60 (40+50%)

I step into the room for the ship's core and I have to say, it's not exactly impressive. The room was extremely utilitarian, the walls almost all completely blank except for the back wall that had a single computer terminal on it. I was expecting something... I don't know more impressive? Something that would be a science fiction feast for the eyes maybe? But no, two blank walls and a wall with a single terminal is all I get. With a sigh, I walk up to the terminal and go through the process of plugging a cable into the port of the terminal and attaching it to my personal computer, "Alright computer, let's see if we can gain root access to this terminal."

"Acknowledged. Connecting to ships main core.", the computer replies in that grating voice.

The holographic display changes to show the two columns with the column on the right scrolling at a pretty decent speed. The number of bits of data I need to inject into the code is easily five times more than any previous hack I had performed so far. This was going to take a little while.

About fifteen minutes later I drop the last bit of code into the proper gap in the security program and the right column turns green. My personal computer speaks up, "Root Access to ships systems gained. You now have complete control of all ship's systems."

Computers +1

Hacking +2

Smarts +1

Experience Gained: 112 (75+50%)

I grin broadly, "Oh this is going to be fun. First, scan all life signs on board and make sure everyone that isn't a pirate is either off the ship or dead."

A few seconds later the computer replies, "Scan complete. All life signs register as pirates."

The display pulls up the map of the ship and shows me the location of all the pirates, the majority of them seem to be working in the cargo holds to unload the stuff the New Dawn was transporting. There are a few moving through various corridors in the ship, but they just seem to be patrolling to keep an eye out for stowaways, like me. Well with it just being me and the pirates on board there was no need to hold back.

I move through the systems menu of the ship to find what I need, it takes me a moment to find it since I'm not sure what they call it in this game, but when I see it on the menu I know it's what I want. The Arcane Corridor Core, aka the FTL drive. Fortunately, while I scroll through the options and settings for the A.C.C. my skill ranks in [Engineering] and [Computers] come together to let me know what setting does what. I take a few moments to think about this knowledge and smile wickedly, "This should work."

First, I disable all the warning and safety systems attached to the ship's A.C.C., I didn't want anyone to know something was going on. Then I quickly change a few of the settings to unbalance the systems, when I make the last change my computer speaks up, "WARNING! The changes you have made will lead to a cascade failure culminating in a core meltdown. All core energy will be released at once."

"By 'all core energy will be released at once' you mean an explosion right?", I query the computer.

"Affirmative."

I nod, that's exactly what I wanted. I save the changes I've made and as I hoped none of the warning lights or system messages mention anything about the system being compromised or the A.C.C. beginning to fail. I quickly pack up my gear and store it all in my [Utility Belt], by my estimate I had about five or six minutes before the ship turned into a massive fireball of death and destruction. With everything packed I retrieve the [Machine Gun] and start running for the escape pod I had secured earlier.

Now, you might be wondering why I'm setting the ship to blow up instead of just venting the atmosphere and suffocating the pirates to save the ship. I could definitely do that, but there was a pirate ship docked with the New Dawn somewhere and I had no idea how big it was or how many pirates would be on it. Or anything else relevant. Just killing the pirates on the New Dawn would be fine, but would leave me with the problem of dealing with the remaining pirates on their ship. If I blow the A.C.C. though, it should hopefully not only kill all the pirates on this ship but all the pirates on their ship too.

Three minutes later I ran into a bit of a problem, just as I turned a corner close to the stairs leading down to the deck with the escape pods I ran into a pirate. This pirate was not like the other two I fought, his clothing wasn't rags and his armor was decent looking and not that cheap crap the others had on. As soon as he spotted me he lifted a [Machine Gun] that was a bit larger than the ones the last two had and began opening fire. I'd managed to get back around the corner and avoid being filled with many holes, but now I'm stuck here while he fires away.

I point my [Machine Gun] around the corner, only exposing the barrel of the weapon, and pull the trigger. The gun shakes in my hand threatening to dislodge from my grip with every forceful kickback from each shot fired. I had no proficiency with this weapon and firing blindly like this I wasn't likely to hit jack shit. It would force the other pirate to retreat into cover himself though or risk getting randomly hit by a bullet. True to my expectations his shooting stops a few moments after I open fire.

I pull back the [Machine Gun] and eject the magazine, there were only a half dozen rounds left in it anyways. I pull out one of the spares and slam it into the weapon, there was no need to prime the gun since I hadn't fired it until it was empty so there was still a round in the chamber. I peek around the corner and spot the pirate doing the same from thirty or forty feet away. Right about now I really wish I had a spell I could use in this situation, or better yet a full suit of power armor to protect me from head to toe.

The pirate ducks back behind the corner he's at, I can hear his voice, but I can't make out what he's saying. I can make a guess though, he's probably calling for help. This is bad. If more pirates come before I get to the stairs just past him I'm pretty likely to die, either the pirates will shoot me, or the self-destruct I'd set in motion would get me. Either way did not sound like a pleasant experience.

The pirate is still ducking around his corner and speaking. I really only had one option available to me, I had to break through. I charge around the corner while firing short controlled bursts from the [Machine Gun], I needed to conserve as much ammo as I could while making my way down the corridor. I aim at the corner that the pirate is hiding behind trying to keep him pinned there so he doesn't hop out and fill me full of bullets. My luck holds out and the pirate stays hidden behind the corner until I'm just a few steps away. I drop the [Machine Gun] and pull out my [Mana Pistol] instead, I needed to use a weapon I was proficient with to give me the best opportunity to kill this guy.

As I run into the corridor with the pirate I call out, "[Overcharge Weapon]!"

The blue lines on the [Mana Pistol] turn bright red just as they had on the shotgun earlier, even the small discharges of energy off of the now red lines are the same. The pirate turns to look at me in surprise as I pull the trigger while aiming at his center mass. The [Mana Pistol], which has never kicked before, lets out a loud roar of discharging energy and kicks back forcefully in my hand. A large bright red light flashes in my eyes before the compressed mana round slams into the pirate's chest.

Damage Dealt: 16 piercing

The red light fades from the gun returning it to blue but I immediately pull the trigger over...

Damage Dealt: 4 Piercing

And over...

Damage Dealt: 6 Piercing

And over again...

Damage Dealt: 6 Piercing Experience Gained: 225 (150+50%) Shooting +2

Until I get the message about gaining experience. The pirate falls over backward and blood quickly spreads from the multiple gunshot wounds. The first shot I fired, the overcharged one, had blown a large hole through his armor and dug a deep gouge out of his chest. The following shots had flown into the large gap of his armor and pierced what remained of his chest to finish him off. I don't have time to do a proper search of his [Utility Belt] because I am sure reinforcements are on the way. It's time to get the hell out of here. I grab the pirates entire [Utility Belt] and take it with me, it's got to be the heaviest one yet.

I charge down the stairs to the escape pod I secured and punch in the code to open the hatch. Just as I leap into the hatch I hear gunfire and bullets ricochet off the open hatch and walls. As soon as I am inside I seal the pod and yank on the release lever in my panic. This turned out to be a very unwise decision on my part. The engines on the escape pod instantly ignite and the pod accelerates like a ballistic missile, except in the gravityless space the acceleration is even more pronounced. The sudden thrust slams my whole body into the wall of the escape pod and pins me there as it continues to accelerate and rush away from the New Dawn.

Damage Taken: 8 Bludgeoning

While the pod rapidly accelerates and flies away from the ship I take a brief moment to note that getting slammed into the bulkhead of the escape pod not only hurt like fucking hell, seriously I'm surprised I didn't break something, but it also damn near killed me! Note to my future self, sit the fuck down and buckle in before pulling the launch lever on an escape pod in the future!

The escape pod continues to accelerate for a full two minutes before the speed finally levels off. With the drop in acceleration, my body is freed from the bulkhead and I begin to gently float in the weightlessness of the pod. No artificial gravity here. My whole body aches like one giant bruise as I float my way over to the viewport in the escape pod's hatch.

With the distance I have traveled, the New Dawn appears as hardly more than a grey spec when light from the faraway star in the center of the planetary system happens to glance off of the dull grey hull of the ship. I can't even spot the pirate ship that's likely docked with it somewhere. Any moment now though...

All of space as far as I can see turns bright white as the A.C.C. in the New Dawn overloads and fails. There is no sound in space, but the bright white flash of light instantly makes me shield my eyes for fear of going blind. I have no doubts that if I had left a minute or so later than I did that my pod would have been caught in that explosion and been destroyed. The sheer amount of energy released had to be greater than any nuclear explosion ever released on Earth.

Skill Gained Demolitions 1/100 (+0 Smarts) Demolitions +4

+1 Smarts Pirates Defeated: 100 Exp x13 Pirate Lieutenant's Defeated: 150 Exp x1 Pirate Lord's Defeated: 225 Exp x1 Known Pirate Ship's Destroyed: 1,000 Exp x1 Civilian Transport Ship's Destroyed: 500 Exp x1 Experience Gained: 4,762 (3,175+50%) New Perk Gained! Ship Killer You've destroyed a couple of spaceships and know what it takes to take one down. +10% to all damage you deal to spaceships (minimum +1 Damage). Level up!

Level up!

Automatically updating Health Point and Mana Point Totals...

Health Points: +14!

Mana Points: +10!

You have 2 Attribute Points to spend.

You may select 2 new Rank 0 Spells.

You may select 2 new Rank 1 Spells.

You have may select your first Magic Hack Ability!

You gain Specialization with all weapons you are proficient in using!

You gain Arcane Damage Focus!

You gain Technolore!

Holy shit! I mean... HOLY SHIT! I expected to get some experience for killing the remaining pirates, but I even got experience for destroying both ships?! Not only am I now level three, but I gained a ton of new stuff to go with the levels! Okay, let's take this one step at a time. First, calm the fuck down. I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. I needed to go through this step by step to learn what all my new things were.

Second, spend the attribute points, no need to let them go to waste. So I spend the two points I gained to increase my [Reason] from twenty to twenty-two. It would have no immediate effect, but I wanted to start getting it closer to my [Smarts] so that I not only got discounts on mana cost but increases to mana regeneration. I could have put a single point in my [Smarts] to up it to forty, but so many of my skills would grant me [Smarts] bonuses that I felt the points should go into [Reason] which had so many fewer skills at the moment.

Third, I needed to pick four new spells, two for each rank I had access to. For the Rank zero spells, I select Minor Telepathy and Floating Lights. Minor Telepathy will let me send telepathic messages a short distance and receive a reply, I figured it would be great for teamwork. Floating Lights was a simple utility spell that allowed me to create two floating orbs of light that I could move around, it would save me from needing a flashlight. For the rank one spells my choice was a bit harder to make. In the end, I chose Slip and Over Heat. Slip reduced the friction coefficient of surfaces making them... well slippery. Over Heat lets me send out a blast wave of heat in a small cone to deal fire damage. All in all, they were just fancy names for well known and effective spells in a myriad of roleplaying games.

Up next was looking through the list of available [Magic Hacks] and seeing what I could do. The list I can choose from isn't very large, and each choice seems to have a certain play style in mind. For example, there's one called [Arcanized Weapon] which is essentially the same thing as [Overcharge Weapon], except I get a bonus of 2-7 damage for every five mana I spend when activating the ability and it seems to have no listed upper limit. If I used it with all of my mana I could amp up a single shot from my [Mana Pistol] from 1-6 to 29-104 damage. Given that even the bottom of the damage potential on that single shot would be enough to take me out it seemed like an excellent glass cannon option. I like flexibility though and while huge damage is awesome, I found a [Magic Hack] that I honestly wish I'd had sooner. What I pick is...

Technomantic Proficiency: By spending 15 mana points to activate this ability you temporarily learn how to use a weapon of your choice in combat for 1 hour. This gives you proficiency with the chosen weapon.

So for a measly fifteen mana, I could use any weapon in the game with proficiency for an hour. That seemed like an excellent use of mana to me. It also had other desirable traits to it, for example when I'm making a new weapon I would be capable of properly testing every weapon I make. That alone makes it a good ability for me, but it also had proper applications in combat, I could have easily used the [Machine Gun] I had abandoned on the New Dawn properly if I had this ability back then.

Next up was the specialization with all weapons I was proficient in using. This ability was pretty decent, but not groundbreaking or amazing. It just added bonus damage to my weapons equal to my level. So as a level three my [Mana Pistol] would now deal 4-9 damage. Like I said, useful, but not groundbreaking. At least, not until you included the fact that I could now be proficient in any weapon whenever I chose, so instead of a small buff to a few weapons it was now a buff to all weapons, as long as I spent that 15 mana. If we imagine the combination of these two abilities with the [Machine Gun] I had, then the [Machine Gun] would deal a staggering 4-14 damage with full auto spewing out dozens of rounds in rapid succession. Fast forward to the level cap of twenty and that same basic gun is now doing 21-30 damage a hit. Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I like it.

I only had two things left to check out while I await rescue in this pod. First [Arcane Damage Focus]. This ability was pretty simple, it just increased damage from my damaging spells by ten percent. Nothing to write home about. Up last was [Technolore]. I'm not really sure how I feel about this one since it's so... ambiguous. The ability basically let me touch any technological item and get a sense of what information was contained in it. For example, if I touched a data pad that I took off of a military officer if would give me something like 'Military Records' or the like. I guess maybe it could be useful for a quick peek at something before hacking it?

Technolore: You can get a general sense of what information is stored on drives or other means of digital data storage when you touch them. The information you receive is very general such as "financial records" or "personal data". To get the more detailed information you will have to use a proper interface.

All in all though, I think it's a pretty good haul of abilities and I'm pretty happy with it. I've got a few more spells, a few more abilities, and a couple of attribute points, and even a perk. I'm definitely happy with this. I float my way over to one of the chairs in the escape pod and pull myself down into it to strap in and wait for my rescue. I check the pod's console and I am sending a proper help signal so all I had to do was sit back, relax and... oh, you know what? Forget that! I still needed to make my [Mana Capacitor]. Now, what could I put that into...