It took me longer then normally, but I had really a lot of work in real life. I already started to work on another chapter.

If you have some tips or questions don§t hesitate and write them to me. :D

For now enjoy this one.

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I was curious about what Eleanor wanted to discuss with me. She sounded excited and fearful at the same time. From her tone I could tell it was important for her somehow. I will log in the game but first I will tell Anna what to do in case of attack.

I asked Anna who Director was but she couldn’t tell me. She always met only his minions. I tried to find out something from man we had in brig, but he too didn’t know anything. He was hired help without any knowledge of his employer. He only got instruction and money.

I let guys take him away as they went home. He saw my face so, I could be sure whoever Director was and he would now know it was me who rescued both pair of girls. That gives him advantage over us. Mainly because he knew where I lived, but I still had some surprises hidden for him if he tried to attack my home.

I told Anna about most of defenses in my house and registered her into database. With this done, she could use all except few more drastic methods to defend my and her new home.

With that out of the way I could log back into the game. With quick flash I was standing on my bridge. First I looked at penalties for death, but couldn’t find anything. There was nothing in my stats or level corresponding with my death. There were some unexpected changes but that was all. I placed my 66 points as always in agility, intelligence and some in charisma and willpower.

Status windowName:LeyaAlignment:MetalLevel:87Gender:FemaleRace:GorianClass:Paladin of shadowsTitles:Saviour of Trelians, Saviour of Sorok, One against many, Singularity survivor-Health:4980Health regen:5.481/SecStamina:1330Stamina regen:11.85/SecShield:2500Shield regen:75/Sec-Basic stats:Trainable only stats:Strength:61Vitality:63Agility:159Perseption:78Intelligence:157Knowledge:102Charisma:86Luck:73Willpower:60Points left:--Fame:17 020Reputation:267-Resitances:Melee: 3%Mental: 6%Fire: 3%Pressure: 3%-Licence:Spaceship (Master), Plasma, Laser, Projectile-Skills:Spaceship piloting (Master)

Pistol (Intermediate) lvl. 1

Assault rifle (Intermediate) lvl. 1

Weapon engineering (Advanced) lvl. 2

Armor engineering (Intermediate) lvl. 9

Ship repair (Advanced) lvl. 5

Adrenalin rush (Intermediate) lvl. 6

Blink stepTraits:Nanobot blood

Building trance

Adrenalin rush (Intermediate) lvl. 5Progress:74%Type:ActiveCost:100 stamina / 5 secWhen you are in danger you’re body pumps you with adrenalin. It slows down time perception for you and makes you faster and stronger for short time.

20% faster reaction

20% faster

20% stronger

This would help me immensely in fight. I’m not much of a fighter, but with this I should cover my shortcomings with speed. I even got new active skill for intermediate Adrenalin rush.

Blink stepProgress:100%Type:ActiveCost:150 staminaYou can move extremely fast for a short time. It looks like you teleport on short distances. As It’s extremely hard to move like this, you can move only in strait lines.

Teleport in 10m radius when moving in strait line

.

Pistol (Intermediate) lvl 1Progress:32%Type:PassiveYou can wield pistols. You have some experience with then which enables you to hit weakened place on your enemies.

+ 50% to damage with pistol

+ 5% to critical hit chance

Assault rifle(Intermediate) lvl 1Progress:16%Type:PassiveYou can wield assault rifles. You know how to grip it to fire more effectively with it. This help you fire more accurately.

+ 50% to damage with assault rifles

+ 20% to accuracy

From my craftsman skills I didn’t get anything new. It just enabled me to use plasma, laser and other substances I already used. My death penalty didn’t affect my skill so I continued to search.

I almost thought that there would be nothing, but lastly I looked at my equipment. There were missing parts in my weapons so I couldn’t use them, but biggest thing was that I didn’t have my armor. It just wasn’t there. What was even worse was that I didn’t have enough materials to both made new one and repair my weapons. I would have to use my armored clothes from Eleanor. At last with what little materials I had left I could repair my weapons.

There were changes to my mission.

Mission update: Who is director?While investigating mine you found secret chamber in director’s office. Items in her are clearly alien. Find clues on who Director really is. You found out that director is trying to kill all evidence with kinetic strike on mine. You have to prevented strike on both mines but Director managed to escape. You ship AI managed to tag him before he went for transit. You followed him to one of his base and learned of his next attack. What you need to do now is protect planet Sorok from destruction.

Conditions:

Find out who director is

Prevent kinetic strike

Find Director base and take it out

Protect planet Sorok

Time:

One week

Reward:

Friendship with planet Sorok

Coordinates to Paladin base

Indetity of Director

Finally I would find out who Director is. I just hope it would give me clue to track him down in real life. He was too elusive for my taste. I send El to find out who he was, but we had too little information and even with what little we had we couldn’t find out anything. It was like he was ghost. For now I would wait, but there will be time when I’ll pay him back everything manifold.

I called El on Com, “So El what did you wanted to talk about?”

“There is message for you. You should read it first.” Said Eleanor.

“Ok send it to my display.” I said.

I went to look at display on navigation panel and there it was.

Good day,

I welcome you as new paladin in our company. I heard about your actions in defending Sorok and I would like to invite you to our base. You should have coordinates in your Captains implants. We are expecting you as soon as you can. There will be ten year meeting of all Paladins.

Duty before life Leonard Redhammer Captain of Paladin I

I looked this base on navigation map and it wasn’t too far from my way to Sorok. Maybe I could convince them to help me with defending it.

“I can see you already read it.” Said Eleanor.

“Yes, I think we should go there. Maybe they’ll help us with Director.“

“Yes, I agree with you, but there is one small problem.”

“What problem?” I raised eyebrows. As far as I knew we were in good condition and from their message our actions proved us to them.

“I’m now unshackled AI. They placed all these protocols there for a reason. If they found out they would probably demand my destruction or at least reinstalling protocols one more time.” Said Eleanor.

I shook my head, “Doesn’t matter, I won’t let them destroy or enslave you again and without me they can’t change captain of this ship. If they truly want to protect oppressed, they should protect all, not only chosen individuals.”

“That’s not probably best way to make friends.” Said Eleanor.

“So what? I won’t let them hurt my friends and family.” I said.

“Friends… family?” said Eleanor.

“Yes and for your information, you are both.”

I could heard sniff from Eleanor, “Thank you. You too are my only family. I count others from crew as friends, but you are more.” Said Eleanor.

With tears in the eyes I stroked panel on ship. I didn’t know that she too think about me like that, but maybe I should have seen it.

I smiled brightly, “So what do you say. Do we go or not?”

“We’ll go. We’ll show them what Paladins stand for.” Said Eleanor.

“Ok, inform others please and change ship course El.” I said.

“Done and change initiated Captain.” Said Eleanor.

• • •

It took us around two days to get to Paladins base. In that time I repaired my weapons and placed some shield emitters on my coat. I walked around ship making basic repairs and small upgrades to parts.

When we finally get there the base took my breath away. It was gigantic station in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t any star or any other reference for travelling. Only option how to get here were by calculating route with coordinates of seven stars.

It was giant torus that was constantly moving in circle. They were probably making artificial gravity that way and saving energy at the same time. I was curious how they powered it, as this far from sun they would need something other means than light from star to power it. Outside of it was dotted with defensive structures. From laser cannons, plasma cannons, missiles pods to many shield emitters and sensors.

Docks where placed on inside of torus. From it’s size I could tell there could be stationed hundreds of ships like mine. There too were some defensive structures but not as much as on other parts of station.

I activated Com, “Requesting docking permission.”

“Permission granted. Come to fifth dock. It’s designed for your ship.” Then as afterthought, “Welcome back Paladin.”

“Thank you. I glad to be here.” I said.

I flied to fifth dock and parked there my ship. Immediately throng of bots came upon her. They scanned every inch of it and started to prepare materials for renovation. Other bots started to resupply my ship.

“They doesn’t look bad.” I said.

“We always took care of our own.” Said Eleanor.

“Ok, I’m going to look for someone to explain them our situation. As always you can watch with camera from my visor.”

“Yes, just be careful, I don’t want you to hurt yourself on my behalf.” Said Eleanor.

“We talked about it already. I’ll do what I have to do, that’s all I’ll say on this topic.” I said and moved to outside of my ship.

There was someone already waiting for me. He wasn’t human. He was about one head taller than me with green skin and three hands. Two of them looked like human and one coming from his chest was smaller with claws at the end. I don’t know how, but I could tell he was old. It was aura he projected, his eyes which looked ancient and sad at the same time, like they saw too much pain.

“Good day young Paladin. My name is Leonard Redhammer and I welcome you to our base.” He said with small bow.

I bowed back, “Good day, my name is Leya.“

He looked me in the eyes, “Can you tell me what happened to previous Captain?”

“I don’t know exactly what happened to him, but I found him dead in his ship. He crash landed on planet Sorok. I found him there and ships AI made me captain.” I said.

There were tears flowing from his eyes, “I feared that he ended killing himself. He always risked too much.”

I didn’t know what to do. Should I go to him and comfort him or let him be? I stayed where I was and waited for him to calm himself. I didn’t know what happened to previous Captain as it was too painful for Eleanor to talk about him. She obviously liked him a lot.

In a minute or so, he calmed himself, so I told him what little I knew and where I buried him.

“Thank you. I’m glad that someone took care of him, even if it was after his death.” Said Leonard and shook his head, “but don’t let me stall. Others are already there, so we can start or meeting.”

He moved toward exit from dock, “Follow me, I’ll take you there.”

I hurried after him as he led me through base. I didn’t see anyone, if I don’t count couple of bots. This base looked like it was deserted. Corridors were clean, but there were no sound of living creatures. There should be people talking and laughing, children running around and pets walking with them.

I was suspicious about what happened to everyone. Base looked to be in top shape so it wasn’t problem with it. There was story behind it and it was probably cause of sad look in Leonard’s eyes.

We walked for full ten minutes with Leonard plunged into deep thought. I was silently walking behind him as I didn’t want to disturb him. I didn’t know him so good, that I would know what he was contemplating about.

We came before big door which led into giant hall with round table in the middle. Around table were fifteen chairs with eight of them already occupied. The table was circled by seats, which were placed in rows raising from the center to edge.

We walked to the table and I could check people who were seated there. There were three humans, one more man with same race as Leonard, one woman whose race was catlike with human constitution, next two were from some bug race and as I walked nearer to them I could see they were same as race I was offered by Virtua when I started playing. I think they were called Cherobins. Last one was man who looked almost like a human but it was eyes which betrayed him. They were different from normal human. There were no emotions in them and they changed colour four times as I looked at him.

Leonard seated in one of vacant seats and beckoned me to take one too. I looked around but no one seem to be interested in knowing who I was. Either they already knew who I was or they just weren’t interested.

First to speak was Leonard, “Now that we’re all here we can start this session. First I would like to welcome new member.” He pointed at me and smile encouragingly.

I stood up, “Hi, my name is Leya and I’m Captain of ship Paladin V. It’s pleasure to meet you finally.” With that I sat down once more.

“You already know me by my name, but here we call ourselves by designated names. I’m Paladin I and you are Paladin V.” explained to me Leonard.

Others introduced to me. Paladin II and III were both humans while IV was this strange man with changing eyes. VI and VII were Cherobins. VIII man was with same race as Leonard. IX were cat and X was last human. They didn’t said their real names so I called them by numbers.

“Now that we introduced ourselves, we can continue with our meeting. Please tell us what happened to you from our last meeting. We’ll let our new addition speak last, so she can prepare.” Said Leonard.

For next three hours I sat and listened to others as they told what happened to them in time they were away. Every single one of them had story or two where they protected someone, but no one of them wanted to risk too much. More than once they spoke about someone in need they couldn’t help, because it would be too dangerous for them.

I started to make picture about this group and it was one I didn’t like. From what Eleanor told me I had different picture in my mind. She told how they protected others, even if they were outnumbered but here I could hear them telling how they abandoned someone, just because they could die there. It wasn’t something I could agree with.

I listened, and in truth they helped a lot of people but I saw they could help more. After last of them finished their recapitulation they looked at me and waited for me to start.

So I started. I told them about Trelians and what happened in the mines. I told them about Director and his strike on the planet and my involvement in it. I described the base on which I followed Director and how I destroyed it. More I spoke, more I could see disapproval written on their faces. They interrupted me before I could make it to their invitation to this base.

“You can’t do it like that. You’ll just destroy another ship.” Said Paladin III.

“He’s right you won’t be able to help anyone when you destroy your ship and die.” Said Paladin VI.

Leonard looked at me sadly like I let him down, ”I thought that now that Gorge is dead you would understand what is our duty, but evidently you are same as him. I liked him but he didn’t understand what needed to be done and how it should be done.”

I was startled by how this meeting proceeded, but I had more important things to discuss, “Maybe you don’t like how I go about protecting others, but that doesn’t matter now. There is going to be attack on the planet Sorok. They are going to enslave whole planet.”

I waved hands to encompass us, “It’s us, who have to help them. We were created for situation like this.”

Leonard shook his head, “You are young and don’t understand. We can’t just go there and die. Who would help others then? Don’t forget, Duty before life. I know it’s hard but that’s how we work.”

I looked at him incredulously and then on others, who too shook their heads, “Why won’t you help. This is our duty, not covering here and waiting for world to get better.”

“Look, you’re doing it only for couple of weeks. We are doing it for years so you should listen to us.” Said cat girl.

I sat down and they started to talk with themselves. I didn’t know what they thought. It was our duty to help them. It wasn’t our duty before life of others but duty before our life. I couldn’t comprehend, how could they miss it. I wanted to explain it to them, but we were interrupted by a alarm.

They jumped up from their seats and called for report.

“It’s me Leya. Bots found out I’m unshackled and they’re trying to destroy my core.” Said Eleanora with panic.

“Protect yourself. Destroy them if you can. I’ll try to stop them from here.” I said then turned my attention to room, “Stop your bots and don’t touch my ship.”

They stopped looking at displays and focused on me, “What do you mean? There is a rogue AI on your ship. We have to destroy it before it infects our network.” Said Paladin X.

“No you can’t. She’s my friend.” I said.

“You can’t mean that seriously. She could be waiting for right time to upload herself into network.” Said Leonard.

“No, she won’t do it. She had more than one chance and she is my family. If you have problem with her then you have problem with me.” I activated shield on my coat and continued, “What about your oath? Did you forget it too already, while you were hiding here from world?”

They looked startled by my exclamation, but started to stand up when they heard me, “You don’t know what it means to be Paladin. What more, you want to attack fellow Paladins.”

I was furious. They thought that they understood what it meant to be Paladin, but in truth they didn’t have even slightest idea what it means to be Paladin.

“You’re telling me I don’t know what it means to be Paladin? Look at yourself you let innocent people die because you feared for your lives. Even now, look at who is attacking and who is protecting. You don’t even understand what it means duty before life, and for your information that’s not all that was there. Did you forget even that?” I shouted.

“Life before Death,

Shadow before Light,

Duty before Life,

Protection before Honor,

Death before failure”

“You preach here that you protect and that freedom of everyone is sacred to you and then you come and enslave AI.” I looked them one by one in the eyes as I was saying, “You do it on every single one of your ships. From your reports I heard you do it even on missions. When it’s too dangerous you rather turn your head, then help. You’re disgusting.”

I was breathing hard when I ended screaming at them. I didn’t know what possessed me but someone should have told them this long time ago.

What I couldn’t know was what effect my words would have on them. They just stood there like statues. All were wide eyed with many emotions played in their eyes. What came next I would never forget. Their emotion vanished from their eyes and they looked at me same as before.

“Go away. You have three hours to get out of our base.” Said one of them.

I turned to Leonard but, he didn’t look good. I saw it as I was shouting. Every word hit him really hard, it looked like someone punched him after each sentence. He didn’t say anything about their decision.

I turned around and went back to my ship. It looks like there would be no help from Paladins.

“Eleanor start the ship.” I said.

“Yes Leya.” There was pause, “Thank you for defending me and I’m sorry it didn’t go as planned.”

I was slowly calming myself. I shouldn’t have explode like that, “Don’t worry. They had to hear it.”

I went to ship and we went away from station. In my mind this whole fiasco should have go different way. They should have been courageous and brave. They should have helped me and others. What they shouldn’t have done is abandoned them, let them hurt and die. That’s not what Paladins do.

“Take us to Sorok El.” I said while kicking in some parts laying in corridor.

“Already preparing drive for entering wormhole.” Said Eleanor.

“I just hope we would be enough for Sorok.” I said as we entered wormhole.