Chapter 6

The noise and the colors were overwhelming, I knew that Noa and I had less than a minute before the shield failed and the bolts of energy would find us and blow us apart. Suddenly everything faded away and a message scrolled across my vision, my eyes following the text while my brain tried to puzzle out what was happening. I read the message and suddenly had hope. The message was brief and stated, you have entered a timed survival event if you can survive for 60 seconds while under attack you will be rewarded XP and credits, do you accept? The timer was counting down and I had about twenty seconds to make my choice. With my thoughts racing I accepted the challenge and suddenly everything came back to life, the shield failing, the blaster bolts hitting in front of us the thunder like noise.

Grabbing Noa I yelled in her ear, “get into stealth mode and crawl to the far corner of the shield lay flat on the ground and do not move.” Giving her a gentle shove I followed my own advice and then hit the pavement my form wavering and fading from view as I crawled up the far edge of the shield. Glancing at where Noa was supposed to be I could not see anything, hopefully, she was in position. With a shriek that hammered my hearing the shield failed and suddenly I could feel the air crackle as energy bolts slammed into the entranceway. It felt like hours but was probably seconds when suddenly sirens could be heard fast approaching the bank. Suddenly the blasters were silent and aside from the smell of melted plastic and ozone, nothing moved.

I called out to Noa but received no response, taking a quick look around I scurried over to where she should have been. There was nothing there but a few scraps of plastic and a few tatters of skin, one of the blaster bolts must have hit her with enough energy to almost totally destroy her cyborg body. It was apparent that there were not enough parts left over to identify Noa, indeed it would be impossible to see that she was a cyborg. I left the remains and slowly drifted down the street avoiding the semi-military police force that was beginning to arrive in increasing numbers. Eventually, I made it several blocks away and ducked into a cafe, making my way to the washroom. I up and made myself look presentable.

Looking at this mirror I said, “You're a handsome and lucky devil. Now let's go meet the uncle, level the fuck up and kill that bastard, Ong Bai.” Giving myself a wink for luck I walked out of the bathroom and hailed a single cab, giving the Ai the directions for my uncle’s home I traveled the distance in silence searching for a place inside myself to empty my anger but finding nothing. We arrived and with a sigh, I paid the cab and then drifted up to the house. Knocking on the door I prepared myself for whatever the game had in store for me as far a family was concerned.

The door opened and I stared at the kindly eyes of a man who looked about 50. He suddenly smiled and said, “You must be my nephew.” With that, he extended his hand out and gave my hand a firm squeeze. “Welcome, I was not sure you would ever turn up, to be honest, I thought that you were dead. Glad to see that I was wrong.” Smiling at him, I said, “Me to it was pretty nip and tuck for a while but in the end, it worked out and I am here.” Gesturing me into his house and closing the door behind me we walked into the main sitting room. The next couple of hours were spent in talking and getting to know one another. He was a little disappointed when I told him I would not be staying with him, but once I explained the danger he understood. Once it was time to leave I noticed that everything froze again and read the scrolling text that was in front of my vision.

Congratulations on completing your primary quest, you have arrived on Mars and met your uncle, you now may choose your pathway within the game. You have been awarded extra XP and credits. Ding, you are now level 11 and have two talent points to use. Ding, you are now level 12 and have two talent points to use. You may choose to save you talent points for a later date, but be aware that they offer a significant contribution to your avatars build and will help you level much faster. Also, while you may wait to do some research on various pathways within the game, the sooner you choose your pathway the sooner you will be able to activate the secondary talents based on your choice, Good luck, and good gaming.

Suddenly everything changed back to normal and I was reaching out to give my uncle a firm handshake. Taking my leave, I hailed a cab and went back to the hotel. Halfway there and I received a message from Noa, I am currently in the shuttles CPU, unfortunately, as soon as the shield went down I took a direct hit, I transferred to the shuttle in a burst beam and am fine. Unfortunately, I cannot help you physically at this point but will be on standby here. If I can do anything or learn anything I will let you know, take care.

I felt a wave of relief roll off me, I had hoped that Noa would survive, but had not really believed it. Suddenly my mood was much better and I began to smile. I had survived and would continue to do so, fuck Ong Bai and the pirates. Departing the cab, I made my way up to my room and entered the door once the biometric locks identified me. As I walked in I suddenly was enveloped in a mist of chemicals from an aerosol can. My military protocols kicked in faster than I could think and I had three men targeted. I suddenly knew that the knockout gas was just that, and it would have no effect on my cyborg body. While all this was going through my mind my body was in action, spinning to the side and kicking the first man in the knee. He doubled up screaming with his knee nothing more than a shattered mass of tissue and cartilage.

I did not have time to stop and think about that as I was already springing at the next man, tackling him we went down together his half-drawn weapon falling to the floor under the impact. My left hand made a fist a third of the way down his back and my right hand slapped his chest, I could feel his spine shatter from the force of the blow. My eyes had already targeted the third attacker who was pulling up a weapon to shoot me. I swept my hand up and grabbed the fallen blaster, and somehow triangulated a kill shot to his head. I managed to shoot first, the impact of the energy bolt blowing his head apart as his body flopped down. His nervous system kept the trigger pressed until his hand hit the floor bumping the weapon free.

I grabbed the blaster and put the one I was holding in my pocket, then making my way to the man with the shattered knee I began to slap him. The room was a mess with brains and blood and dead people all over. An alarm was going and I knew that only a small window of time was left. After several blows, his eyes began to focus and his eyes narrowed with hatred as he looked at me. Suddenly a message appeared, you have achieved hated status with the Solarian Pirates. All pirates will attempt to kill on sight once you have been identified. In addition, a 20000-credit bounty had been placed upon your head. Have a great day.

“What the fuck,” I swore softly to myself, this was not good news, it was bad enough dealing with Ong Bai’s goons but now every pirate in the system. I looked at the pirated who was cursing me and shook my head. Then I turned off the in-game video recorder and got busy, I am not proud of what I did, but when you wait in hiding to kill someone you do not deserve much sympathy. In the end, I knew where the pirates local base was and the third pirate was in rougher shape. I stood up and walked over to the refresher in the washroom and cleaned myself as best I could. It was no surprise when the door opened and about 10 armored men entered the room.

“On your knees,” The first fellow screamed at me as his energy weapon tracked my every move. Dropping to me knees I was grabbed by two others and suddenly was escorted out of the room. We took the emergency exit and emerged in the alley behind the hotel. There was a command shuttle waiting there and I was quickly hustled into it and place into a restraint chair. Only when the chair powered up were the weapons put away. A powerful looking man came out of the small back area and walked over to me. Giving me a hard look he asked, “Is this one of the terrorists?”

“We have not searched him sir” One of the guards who had hustled me into the shuttle said. “Get his identity and give me a sitrep.” The Captain listened without any display of emotion as they verified my identity and then questioned me as to what had happened. I began to tell my tale only leaving out my questioning of the last pirate. Eventually, I was done and the Captain said, “Wait here I may have a few more questions for you.” I was still restrained in the chair so merely nodded. Suddenly Noa spoke on the low range frequency, “According to the laws of Mars you have done nothing illegal by defending yourself, the police have to either charge you or let you go. They may try to intimidate you into coming to the stations where they will continue to question you for hours hoping to have you slip up or admit guilt. I would not advise that you accompany them.”

The captain suddenly returned and nodded at me and said, “We are taking you to the station for further questioning, I need you to sign this form saying you agree to this and are accompanying us voluntarily.” With that, he thrust a pad at me waiting for me to sign away my freedom. “Not going to happen, I have not been charged with anything and I have no intention of accompanying you to your station. I have been attacked twice now and you folks have done nothing to but show up late. I am beginning to wonder who is in charge of the security forces on Mars, the pirates or the police.”

“You little shit I should pound you,” the Captain shouted at me. I was silent staring at him as he swore and when he finally told the other trooper to release me I stood up and walked to the exit. The Captain grabbed my arm as I neared the exit, “This is not over yet, I know there is something going on here and you are a big part of it.” Turning around I stared at him, “You are right something is going on here and instead of harassing me maybe you should be doing your job and finding out what is really happening.”

Leaving the command shuttle I walked around the building to the front of the hotel and entered the lobby. Going over to the desk I asked to see the manager. I wanted to know how the hell the pirates had made it into my room without tripping an alarm. The manager came out of his office and I could smell the fear on him. I knew that he had given them a key to enter my room. I listened to his excuses and lies for about 5 minutes and then said, “I am done here, you will be hearing from my lawyers.” Turning around I left the building and noted that a number of news crews were stationed across the street with cameras rolling filming everything. This gave me an idea.

Walking over the news people I noted that a few were looking at me so I went over to them. “Hi, do any of you want to know what has happened here?” Seeing that I had their attention and that more people were drifting over I smiled and said, “Some of you may know me, I was the only survivor of the pirate attack on the space liner Frack. My name is Duke and since I have been on Mars I have been attacked twice now by Pirates. The local authorities seem more interested in taking me into custody than in finding out what is really happening. I am sure that Ong Bai or Bai Ong the leader of the pirates is responsible. He is after me for reasons unknown and while I have been lucky so far, I fear for my life. If any of you have questions I would be glad to answer them.”

Then next half hour passed with me trying to answer as many questions as I could about what has been happening to me, but when the questions changed and they wanted to know how much money I had received from the insurance payouts I ended the interviews and thanking them walked away. I quickly snagged a cab and gave him the address of the weapons and armor shop. While we traveled, I was chatting with Noa, indeed she had been helping me with the interviews. We decided that after I left the weapon shop I should find a safe place to live and then go to the guild hall and select a guild. I should also go the Class hall and select a class and grab a few quests. Eventually, we arrived and I exited the cab. We were near the original Martian settlement, most of which had been developed in a cave system that continues far beyond where the settlement had ended.

It was mainly abandoned now, there had been a mass exodus to live in the dome once it was constructed. Many of the homes and buildings if you could call them that were now factories or warehouses. Further in were a few small shops and occupied homes and then the lower three levels were empty. It had a sad feeling to it, somehow whenever people leave a place that had been a home it retains just enough spirit to feel empty and sad. Shaking off these thoughts I walked over to the door and rang the buzzer. After a few minutes, the door was opened and a beautiful looking woman looked at me. After taking a closer look at her I opened my mouth in surprise and said, “You're a Cherry 2000. One of the original robots created for companionship.

The robot smiled at me and said, “I am based on that model but I am not a companionship model, I assist the smith at the forge and handle the sales. Please come in.” I followed her into the main office at the front and gave her the card I had received. After explaining what I wanted and was willing to pay she asked me to wait and left. Soon a small thin man entered and shook my hand while chatting nonstop. “Hello I am Pepe and I hear from Cherry that you are looking for some gear, armor, and weapons. This is the right place for that, I do not deal with mass produced crap from New China. All of my gear is had crafted with materials from both Earth and Mars. Come with me to the display room and have a look.

The next hour was both funny and educational. I liked Pepe and he was very knowledgeable about all the weapons and armor he had crafted. In the end, I was equipped with two boot daggers a hip dagger a small fist dagger located at the small of my back and a sword that resembles a Katana. I also bought an armored pants and shirt, along with vambraces, all of the gear was made of a mixture of alloys that Pepe said were much stronger than just Earth or Mars alloys unmixed. I was staring at several display cases containing projectile weapons and asked Pepe what they were used for.

“Those my friend are the latest in Winchester Crossman weapons. They have been developed for in ship fighting, as you know all energy weapons risk compromising a ship or station so these solid projectile weapons have made a resurgence. Hey are powered by compressed gas, in the old days they were referred to as BB guns, but these weapons are far more advanced than those primitive items.” I continued to listen as he explained the difference in ball size and velocity along with impact energy. Some of the balls were designed to release kinetic energy on impact, others were designed to release a gas load which could incapacitate whoever the ball hit.

In the end, I took also bought 2 guns, one of which rode high on my left hip in the cross draw holster, the other rode down on my right leg in a simple pull up holster. The weapons were loaded with 100 high impact balls and 50 gas balls. Wearing the weapons was perfectly legal on Mars and in space. On Earth, they were illegal to have. The anti-gun people had finally won and now citizens no longer had access to any weapons. The hope had been that it would stop the violence from crazy people. It had not, with the knowledge of the net available the attacks continued with homemade weapons taking the place of commercial guns. Every year hundred still died but not by guns.

Once I was finally equipped I gladly accepted a Tea from Cherry and chatted with Pepe for a few minutes. I mentioned I was looking for a permanent base, and did not want to stay at hotels anymore and was surprised when Pepe suggested I look at purchasing both a home in one of the lower tunnels or one of the small mining camps out on the plains. It was worth thinking about, even when Pepe mentioned that the lower tunnels were haunted by the ghosts of Mars. I laughed at that until I saw he was serious. “You can't be serious about ghosts?” I asked.

“There are things on Mars that we don't know about Duke. I have seen things that I can't explain and to be truthfully are a little scary. Just remember, the ghost stay in the lower caves and won't bother you unless you disturb them.” I could tell that he was serious and not wanting to offend him I smiled and said, “I will deal with any Ghosts with respect.” Finishing off the tea I thanked them both and made my way to the door. Cherry and Pepe both waving goodbye as I left. I could hear the locks of the door engage and once I left the small front yard I could hear a small energy dome activate. I asked Noa to download a map of the city to me with the original tunnels highlighted. She also sent the number of the realtor who was selling the housing units in the lower tunnels as well as a few of the nearby mining camps.

It was now getting late in the evening and hailing a cab I instructed him to go to the nearest cubicle hotel. These hotels were based on the original cubical hotels from Japan. They were basically a stacked set of rectangles. They also took cash and did not require you to submit identity papers. Once we arrived I checked in and soon was laying down with the shades pulled watching the local news most of which was about my interview. With a smile, I turned the video off and closed my eyes, I had a lot to do tomorrow and wanted to be rested.