Peter stepped down from the transport and looked around the ruins. Nothing on the HUD. He held up his hand for silence and listened carefully.

There was something, for sure. Ghoul whispers, probably from the blasted wreckage of the building. That was good news. They wouldn’t have to walk far for their first encounter. It was a chance to size them up and see how much hand-holding he was going to need to do.

He gestured for the others to come down.

Today he had three clients, and they were all on their first trip deep into the ruined core of the city. They had already spent their time in the wilderness with the Free Tribes of course, or in the New Chicago Settlement, learning their way around and doing basic leveling quests. Now Peter had charged them each an impressive sum for a day in the danger zone with an expert. The best guilds were competitive enough on their admissions that Peter’s newb training business never lacked for clients.

Avanya_Lee3 was a Medic, level 10. No specializations apart from Herbal Lore, which Peter supposed could possibly be useful but was never going to be anyone’s must-have for a party. She was mousey and timid, and he wondered if this was really the right part of the game for her at all. Plenty of people ended up spending almost all their time in the woods building up the settlements, fighting bandit gangs, and extending the civilized area. There was more than enough content out there to keep them occupied for years. But for whatever reason she’d decided to join a Nexus Guild and try her hand at the high-level storyline.

So now it was time to find out how she reacted with the training wheels off.

She looked around at the torn concrete and rebar like she expected monsters to leap out at her at any second. As far as he knew, this was her first trip into the old Downtown.

“It’s okay, relax,” he said. “Anything bad is in there, I promise.”

He pointed to the darkened doorway of the ruins.

Number two, $ilent**Death, was a sharpshooter, level 11. Sharpshooter was the first stage in the ranged DPS skill tree that could branch out into anything from Atomics Guy to Psionic Assassin. So the standard choice for anyone who wanted to make stuff die from a safe distance. Almost any of which were good party choices for a deep run into the Nexus. He was wiry and tense, and didn’t chatter much. Peter got the feeling he might be a bit older IRL.

Which was the opposite of number three. A Brawler, level 11, who had been yammering nonstop in the transport until Peter had to tell him to shut up and listen. Everyone was paying for lessons from Major Carnage, after all.

#.Muscle_Man.# jumped down from the transport and laughed.

“Alright!” he boomed. “Show me where to start killing things!”

Brawler was the physical melee damage starting class of choice for boneheads. Lots of moves, decent damage output, and pretty showy from the start. It could range out to some seriously punishing hand-to-hand roles, but it was also one of the more complicated starting classes. So it needed people who were decent with the game somatics. But it usually attracted the noisy ones.

Of course boneheads had their uses now and then.

“Sssh!” Avanya_Lee3 hissed at him.

Peter threw himself into his Major Carnage persona again.

Got to work for the money, he thought.

“It’s okay,” said the Major. “The ghouls aren’t stupid. They always post sentries. I’m sure they all know we’re here by now.”

“The Horde, you mean,” Avanya_Lee3 corrected him.

The Major smirked. He wondered if everything she knew came from the official lore.

“Nobody calls them that,” he said, and tried to soften it with a grin. “The Cursed Horde is the lore name, but just ghouls is fine.”

“Great. Good to know what to call them,” said #.Muscle_Man.#. He was looking all over and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Can we start the actual training now? Where the ghouls at?”

$ilent**Death rolled his eyes and did a once-over on his weapon.

He’s careful, that’s a good quality, the Major thought. He had a good feeling about that one.

This wasn’t exactly a high-threat situation. After all, Peter wouldn’t get a lot of return business if he took his newbs out where they’d be over their heads. They were all relatively safe, particularly since Peter was wearing full armor with a powered exoskeleton and even a personal flight pack on his back. He was overgeared, but he was putting on a bit of a show for the clients. Plus if it came down to it he could destroy anything they were likely to find around here with barely a second thought.

But they were also far enough from the safe zone to freak out the new players a bit. Driving in the transport, he’d given his standard lecture, laying out the kinds of high-level creatures you found as you got closer to the Nexus - mutant animals and plants, Singularity Fanatics, Free Tribe Raiders, Wildmen, Biomorphs and even the legendary creatures that started to show up deep inside the Nexus zone. Most of it was straight from the lore, but he gave them a few tips from experience too.

#.Muscle_Man.# looked tuned out for most of it, but the others listened carefully, obviously meaning to get their money’s worth.

The ruins around here were perfect for impressing the new players, since the horizon wasn’t blocked at all. You could see all the way to the remains of downtown Chicago. Some smashed remnants of the L made a picket nearby, heading away into the distance.

The eerie glow of the Nexus was visible even in daylight. They were just a few kilometers from the edge. Tall spires of shattered skyscrapers pointed towards the sky from somewhere inside it, but of course nobody had ever gotten really close to the center yet. Push too far in that direction and even the Major would be in trouble if he’d been on his own.

More than a few expeditions had tried to go all the way down to the center, only to get their asses handed to them. You had to hand it to Axiom, they had a long-term plan for content.

“Look at that!” said #.Muscle_Man.#, pointing towards the Nexus. “There it is! I can’t wait to get down there and kick some ass!”

The Major nodded.

“This is step one. First you kick some ghoul’s asses.”

“What do you want us to do?” Avanya_Lee3 said.

She was obviously going to need tending.

“I’ll take point, Muscle Man next to me, ready to go, okay? Watch out for traps. Avanya, you stay close to Silent D, and watch our backs and your own. Make sure nothing decides to try to flank us.”

$ilent**Death nodded and Avanya_Lee3 stood by him, looking around nervously. She had a light rifle and a sidearm - standard Medic arms at her level. He’d have to talk to her about upgrading that stuff asap.

“Most of all relax, okay?” the Major said. “This shouldn’t be too tough. We’re having fun.”

It was unlikely they’d run into anything serious around here. It was well-trodden ground, and ghouls took time to show up in large numbers after they’d been routed. He’d be surprised if they ran into more than scattered loners. But of course even a few of them would be trouble for a bunch of first timers.

“Come on, let’s go.”

They followed him into the ruin, or at least the other two did. #.Muscle_Man.# was right beside him, itching for a fight.

“I’ve only got like 200 points to level up,” he said. “All I need is one ghoul!”

“You’ll get it, don’t worry,” the Major said.

He was a bit worried about keeping the kid on a leash, though.

The big foyer looked empty. It had been some kind of office building, and there were several doors leading off.

The Major pointed at one. He could pick up sounds that way, for sure. Definitely ghouls. More than two.

I’ll try to lure one out.

Without any warning there was a crash, and a ghoul rushed out of a doorway at them, swinging a bent piece of rebar. It shrieked and dove straight for #.Muscle_Man.#.

Well isn’t that convenient.

“Shit!” the kid yelped, but to his credit he didn’t run. He jumped at it and delivered a flurry of blows that knocked the thing to the floor.

The Major gestured at $ilent**Death.

The sharpshooter was ready. A shot cracked and the ghoul screamed. Gut shot. It scrambled back across the floor and through the door into the darkness beyond leaving a bright red blood trail behind it.

“No you don’t!” #.Muscle_Man.# yelled, and without a look back he ran after it.

“Wait!” the Major shouted, but it was no use. The kid was already gone.

Nothing to do but try to keep him from hurting himself. He followed and signaled for the others to take up his rear.

The first thing he noticed in the next room was that the floor had caved in from above. He didn’t see any obvious threat though, and #.Muscle_Man.# was locked in battle with the wounded ghoul.

The Major walked over intending the one-shot the mob and then give him a lecture about not running off on his own.

That was the plan anyway, until the shrieks of a dozen ghouls suddenly filled the room. He looked up in time to see a whole crowd of the creatures leaping down from the floor above.

Were we just played?

He didn’t have time to worry about it. Suddenly there were three ghouls wrapped around him, tearing at his armor, trying to pry it open. He smashed in the head of the one nearest to his hand with one swipe of his fist and then grabbed for the one that was on his back.

He heard a scream and looked over. Two more were on top of Avanya_Lee3. Her rifle had been knocked away and she was scrabbling to pull out her sidearm. Meanwhile $ilent**Death was backed up against a wall and fumbling with his rifle, trying to aim at one of them.

“Stay focused! Calm and steady!” he yelled. The Sharpshooter gave him a blank look for a fraction of a second and then brought up his rifle again, aiming for the one of the ghouls that was on Avanya_Lee3. Her health was already at fifteen percent.

“Damn it,” the Major muttered and tried to run for her. A ghoul had a grip on his legs and he barely moved.

Should have powered up.

That was an oversight. But before he could turn on the exoskeleton’s power, he saw Avanya_Lee3’s health turn black.

Too late.

There was no time to rez her right now, though. He flicked on his suit’s power and heard the whine that meant he could kick his way through a concrete wall with ease.

$ilent**Death finally got a shot off and one ghoul’s head vaporized. The other one jumped up from the floor and leaped at him, screaming. He fired wildly and managed to not hit the creature a single time before it was on top of him.

The Major glanced over at #.Muscle_Man.#. His Brawler skills had been overwhelmed and he was under a whole writhing pile of ghouls. His health collapsed and went black as well.

Damn damn damn. Not how a professional session should go.

This kind of screwup could damage his reputation. He needed to rez everyone and sit them all down for a serious talk about party discipline.

He leaped for $ilent**Death and killed another ghoul while the Sharpshooter fired into the crowd that surrounded the two of them.

At least there’s one semi-competent student here. Time to get serious.

The Major brought up his plasma rifle and held the trigger down, wasting energy like crazy but vaporizing ghouls one after another.

“Keep shooting!” he shouted at $ilent**Death.

Suddenly there was another sound - one the Major didn’t recognize. It was a weird, warbling chatter. It almost sounded like words. He looked up and some kind of Aberrant ghoul was staring down at him from the floor above. It wore a blue shirt and had something hanging around its neck that glowed.

Not good.

There was no time to worry about what kind of aberrant it was. He changed his direction of fire and seared a trail into the walls tracking up towards the creature. At the same time it threw something down into the room.

Grenade.

“Down!” he yelled and dove for the floor.

But $ilent**Death wasn’t as fast on the uptake, and in any case he wasn’t wearing armor that would have absorbed much of the blast. His health was at 30% and when it went off he went straight to black while the Major only dropped a dozen points.

Lost them all. Not an optimal outcome.

At least he didn’t have to worry about taking care of the kiddies now, and he could show them all how a pro does things. They’d all be watching, and if he gave them a show they might be more inclined to believe this had been their fuckup and not his.

He jumped up and threw his empty plasma rifle to the floor. He shrugged the pulse rifle off his back, kicked away a last living ghoul that jumped up at him, blew a hole in its chest, then aimed up for the creature that had thrown the grenade.

It was already halfway down into the room. It grinned at him and held up a long, jagged sliver of metal, polished to a shine.

Fat lot of good that’s going to do you.

But the creature turned and scampered into the next room before he could even pull the trigger.

No way. You are not getting away.

He ran through the doorway, fully expecting to find a bunch more of them in there as well.

Instead, he crashed through the floor and down into some kind of pit.

A trap. This is not my day.

At the bottom he had just enough time to notice something white and circular with a flashing yellow light. It was about six inches from his face. Four status displays on his HUD went bright red instantly.

Shit…

He started to give the command that would have rocketed him straight upwards about fifty feet without the slightest regard for any floors or ceilings in the way. It was a damage-heavy maneuver but perfect for sudden exits.

Unfortunately there was no time at all. He barely got the first syllable out before the device exploded and shot a iridescent shaft of light straight through his head.

His field of view went red.

I bought it too. Oh my god how embarrassing.