Author's Note:

Storage Facility South, Camp Blanding, Florida, the Game

Perspective – Bradley Cooper

Second WaveAllies Defeated:3Space Pirate Scavengers – Level 65Enemies Remaining:6

“I guess it’s just us then,” Maria said softly, quickly going back to work.

After coming down from the rooftop, they went straight to work on Plan C.

The Storage Facility’s workshop had the tools to produce everything they needed: welding benches, electronics workstations, chemical analysis equipment, the works. Anything a military base would need to repair any damage to the vehicles and equipment there. They hoped that it would get the job done.

“How can you be so calm!” Bradley yelled. “…is this what Farida felt? Knowing Garry died and not being able to do anything?!” He slammed his fist on one of the desks. “That was my plan that failed! I’m responsible for their deaths!”

“They aren’t dead though,” Maria stated, not looking up. “You said so yourself when Garry died. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and make sure we survive.”

Several conflicted feelings went through Bradley at once. He had rationalized away Garry’s death because the circumstances were accidental. A bear dropped on him; they could not have planned for that, not without compromising something else, especially not with what they had and on such short notice. Even if they could have planned for it the plan still could not have been foolproof.

‘But I can’t possibly believe that’s true for this,’ Bradley thought, ‘we had hours to plan and an entire military base full of weapons to use yet I still couldn’t beat those pirates.’

Despite—or perhaps because of—those feelings, Bradley threw himself back into his work. He quickly tore apart various scrap electronics he found in old radio sets, aircraft avionics, and old computer systems. Luckily for Bradley, the older components were much easier to manage and test than the Integrated Circuits in modern designs: the huge and reliable pieces worked even after decades of use and did not require tweezers to take apart or put together. After a few minutes, he had dozens of batteries, resistors, capacitors, inductors, transistors, relays, and other components tested and organized in front of him. With little tweaking, the circuits he designed worked well beyond his expectations:

By exclusively using scrap materials in your designs, you have gained a new ability: Intrinsic Evaluation (Basic)

Intrinsic Evaluation (Basic)You can usually rely on your gut feeling to know if some scrap is more valuable than meets the eye and will work as intended.

‘Well that would have been useful a few hours ago,’ Bradley huffed as he tested the voltage out of the relay. ‘Damn, the transistor still isn’t getting out of cut-off… maybe that resistor over there is bad…?’

The Game Window quickly dismissed, he went back to his work.

‘I have to focus! It’s only a matter of time before they find us. I just hope we will be ready by then.’

30 minutes later

Perspective – Pirate Captain Va’lakeesh

“So the last two brats are in there?” the Captain asked, pointing to the large metal and concrete building they landed their ship in front of. While not the largest building in this ‘military installation’ they found themselves in, the four-storey structure spanned almost a full half-Tal squared; large enough to fit hundreds of those metal vehicles they destroyed.

“Based on the number of hauling vehicles, this building likely functions as a warehouse of some kind,” the Captain observed. “Plenty of room to set up something, but no way to see what it is… the whole thing is obviously a trap. No doubt they have a veritable gauntlet we need to cross to find their true locations.” He turned back into the ship and moved up to the pilot. “Can the sensors pick up their exact location?” he asked.

“Sorry sir,” the pilot denied, “there are too many heat signatures in the building for the sensors to tell apart. I know for sure they must be in this building—no other places have the right signature—but not where within the building itself.”

“That’s good enough,” the Captain replied. “Now get out of the seat and follow me.”

“Sir?” the pilot questioned before the Captain lifted the Ta’leshi out of the chair.

“Come on, these worthless Tutorial brats have graced us with a challenge! They have surrounded themselves with a ring of guns and steel and dare us to attack! Even if I didn’t want to enslave them, I wouldn’t kill them now. They have proven too interesting to just annihilate the building after they have put up such a valiant resistance.” The Captain sneered, his words dripping with sarcasm. “No, they don’t deserve such mercy. I don’t care what the System decides, I will enslave and torture these brats whether it likes it or not.” He smiled. “I just have to give them a sporting chance so the system does not log them out. Let them spring their traps.”

He withdrew a long metal sword from within one of the ship’s lockers. Giving it a few test swings, he turned it on, the blade crackling before a beam of light solidified along its edge; the air shimmering with its barely constrained power.

Dark Singer of Ta’sekar – Psionic Light-Resonance SwordWeapon Rank:B-1,432,983Description:A one-of-a-kind weapon made for the Ta’leshi Noble House of Kar by the Night Steel Guild of Khersath. Went missing after its last owner, Count Ta’leshi Sekalek, was found dead on his ship the Promise. The last signal from the ship reported an ambush by pirates of an unknown group.Bounty:9,200 Credits for Information, 1,481,500 Credits for recovery. Requested by Ta’leshi Karuk, Head of the Noble House of Kar.

“Against someone like me,” he grinned, putting on his helmet, the white skull pattern almost glowing in the pale blue light of his sword, “they have absolutely no chance.”

As one of the pirates melted the front doors with Plasma fire, the Captain called out into the darkness of the room beyond.

“Come out little children! If you surrender now I will make you deaths swift! That was more than I promised your pathetic friends!”

The room hung with silence as the Captain waited for the Ee-arthlings to take the bait. After a moment, the Captain accepted that no response would come. “Well, you can’t say that Captain Va’lakeesh did not attempt any mercy! Crew, flush them out! Leave no place unchecked! I want those fools and I want them alive!”

“Yes sir!” the five of them exclaimed. Each of them raced off into the warehouse, disappearing from sight as they went into the Labyrinth of metal storage containers.

“Let’s see if you two really are worth my time,” he smiled, leaning against the entrance as he awaited the outcome of this entertainment he set up.

El’kreenik had the most to gain of all the pirates by enslaving the two Ee-arthlings.

After a regrettable training accident involving a washroom break and a plasma rifle, he ended up months behind the rest of the crew. He foolishly thought that by getting treatment and recovering his injuries as opposed to simply dying, losing a few levels, and respawning, he would be better off. The turned out to be an incorrect assumption as the scaring left behind made anything beyond the simplest tasks painful. He realized it too late however, and it would only hinder him further to respawn now.

So eager to find them, El’kreenik paid little attention to his surroundings including the glint of metal wire.

With the tension of his boot pressed down upon it, the wire snapped, open-circuiting a path through the resistor soldered to it. The resulting sudden shift towards high-impedance caused an increase in current flow through a transistor, changing its state from Cut-off to Forward-Biased, dumping the current from a small disc battery into a Relay and switching it on. In an instant, eighteen detonator cords were short-circuited to a 12V car battery, igniting 90lbs of plastic explosive all around the pirate.

He only had moment of intense light from his shields failing to realize what happened.

*BOOOM*

Second WaveEl’kreenik has been defeated.Allies Remaining:4

“One down,” the Captain dismissed with a yawn. “Wait, wasn’t that the one who plasma’d himself in the groin?!” He laughed. “Well I guess it wasn’t so bad he died after all.”

“What was that?!” Irohka gasped, aiming her Plasma rifle left and right.

“The message said El’kreenik got it and there was an explosion, idiot; put two-and-two together,” Shi’vlaikar replied, dismissing the window. “Now keep on your guard, there are probably more traps.”

“Right,” she nodded to her companion.

The moved painfully slowly through the warehouse, checking for anything out of place. When they saw a wire going across the ground, they fired a shot at it from a distance, causing more explosives to detonate. They also found a strange looking barrel. When they shot it, that too exploded, sending a flammable jelly over a wide area which continued burning even as they left. They even found a cleverly concealed photodiode attached to a small circuit. Thankfully, their suits picked up the energy consumption or they might not have noticed it. When they triggered the circuit by throwing a box at it from a distance, a large crate perched high on a shelf above it fell onto the ground, spilling four 500lb Mk82 Bombs onto the floor moments before detonating them. The resulting explosion threw the two off their feet and into the shelving behind them.

“What they hell are these Rosk’aks thinking?!” Shi’vlaikar coughed, dusting herself off. “Aren’t those fools supposed to be undisciplined savages?! Don’t they know setting stuff up like this can kill them too?!”

After they re-orientated themselves, they stepped into a new corridor of metal containers when suddenly another of the large armored vehicles from earlier burst forth, quickly turning its turret towards them. Before they could fire at it, it fired first; sending two missiles straight at them. The first one missed completely and exploded against a metal crate, but the other slammed right into Irohka. The ordinance just barely overwhelmed her shields but was enough to force her off her feet and into the pile of shelving behind them.

“Damn it! Why won’t you just die!” Shi’vlaikar screamed firing shot after shot of plasma into the vehicle. It tried to fire back, but without any more missiles, the projectiles from its cannon were far less effective; they could not do enough damage to penetrate the pirate’s shields in time. Eventually her gun ran out of energy, but the plasma she did fire reduced the vehicle to a puddle of molten slag.

“Iroh!” she yelled out, throwing her spent weapon to the side and climbing up into the shelving to where her ally lay. Without her shielding to cover her, the armor the pirate crew wore exposed many gaps in its protection. Through one of these gaps, a mangled piece of the warehouse shelf’s metal structure wedged itself through the pirate’s lung.

Irohka coughed, blood oozing from her lips beneath her helmet. “Sorry Shi’vla… I don’t think I’ll make it,” she got out. Before Shi’vlaikar could respond, Irohka pressed a button on her suit, causing it to inject a chemical compound into her body. Her eyes slowly glazed over as the chemical did its job, killing her peacefully and instantly.

“Damn it… DAMN IT!” Shi’vlaikar cried out. “I’m going to KILL all you fucking Bro’kosh!”

In her rage she no longer paid attention to her surroundings and stepped straight through another wire-trap.

*BOOOOOOOM*

Another explosion resounded throughout the warehouse and the remaining crew received notification of the result:

Second WaveIrohka has been defeated.Allies Remaining:3

Second WaveShi’vlaikar has been defeated.Allies Remaining:2

“S-so that means apart from us…” Phalark said, leaving the rest of the question unasked.

“No one but the Captain is left,” Falkrin replied with a small nod. “It always ends this way. I’ve been Captain Va’lakeesh’s pilot for 4 years and every time he has the ability to get rid of the enemy by himself, he sends off his subordinates to die and clear the way before he swoops in and takes the prize. If I wasn’t the pilot, I would have been right there with them.”

“But why?!” Phalark demanded.

“To make it appear like the enemy was far more powerful than it actually was,” Falkrin sighed. “If you are the last survivor of your squad and the rest die at the hands of the enemy, you come out as a hero. Mostly, though, it ensures he keeps anything he gets for himself. The fact that we all die means and never gain enough levels to threaten him is just a bonus.”

“Then those Platinum Marks he promised?”

“Never going to happen,” Falkrin denied, shaking his head. “In those four years, Captain Va’lakeesh never rewarded a subordinate.”

“Then what should we do?”

“We get the hell out of here; we take the ship and just leave,” Falkrin replied. “To be honest, I’m sick and tired of the pirate life. I’ve been doing it for six years and still haven’t gotten out of the bottom ranks. I somehow managed to get to the rank of pilot and improved my skills, but the only thing that matters in the hierarchy is power and you can’t get that behind the controls of a ship.”

Phalark paused for a moment, before nodding seriously. “Let’s do it! If that’s all I have to look forward to then it’s better if-”

Second WavePhalark has been defeated.Allies Remaining:1

Second WaveFalkrin has been defeated.Allies Remaining:0You are now the last surviving member of your party.

The heads of the two traitors rolled at the Captain’s feat, their former owners never realizing what hit them as their bodies hit the floor soon after and scattered into dust. The Dark Singer blade hummed in satisfaction as the blood burned away on its edge.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Va’lakeesh vocalized, shaking his head as he put the sword back in its sheath, “and you were such a promising pilot too… whoever your name was. To think you would stoop as low as mutiny… and to bring another into your conspiracy. It is a shame, but there is always room in the Sapient Trafficking Ring for more slaves. I’ll be sure to let the Queens know of your betrayal.”

Stepping over the traitor’s armor and weapons, he slashed his way through the warehouse, ignoring both traps and machines in his wake. The B-rank shielding protecting him existed in a different weight-class compared to the D-class ones the rest of the crew wore. Missiles, bombs, and high explosives did little more than increase the energy consumption.

“Is this really all you have?” he asked rhetorically.

“Not quite.”

Making his way through the last of the shelving, the Captain finally came across the last Ee-arthlings. The future slaves were huddled at the back of the warehouse; their unarmored bodies unfortunately too obscured for the Captain to take out from his position without risk of their death. Standing before them was an assortment of weapons. Some of the weapons were attached to metal machines like the ones before. Others were hastily attached to metal frames. All of them were pointed at him.

He felt honored.

The attack began immediately. Thousands of metal projectiles rained through the air; the shields struggling to keep up with the onslaught. Following closely behind it flew a barrage of missiles. Small ones, big ones, guided ones all slammed into him. The assault continued for close to two minutes before the pods emptied of missiles and belts ran dry of ammunition. One of the weapons even melted from the constant fire. The worthlessness of the weapons amused the Captain to no end.

“Did we get him?” one of the slaves foolishly asked.

“An impressive performance to be sure,” Va’lakeesh responded confidently as the smoke cleared. He brushed the bits of dust and smoke off from his armor that managed to penetrate his shields. The shielding was efficient, and so specks of harmless dust would not be hindered, otherwise his suit would have a hard time recycling and converting the Terran air.

“Impressive, but ultimately pointless,” he added.

In actuality, his shields dropped to less than 10%. If the barrage had gone on much longer, he would have needed to dodge. Still, the Captain revelled in two things: the despair of his enemies and his own power. ‘Why let honesty get in the way of fun?’ he thought.

“Run!” one of them yelled, racing towards one of the side doors.

“Oh no you don’t,” the Captain said. With them now away from behind their weapons, he had a chance to take them down non-fatally. Pulling out a laser pistol he aimed for their extremities and fired. Most of the shots missed, but one did land on the mark, getting one of them in the foot.

“I’m afraid this little charade is at an end,” he boasted, walking towards them, “this is the end of the line.”

Perspective – Bradley Cooper

“Maria!” Bradley cried out, catching the woman as she stumbled to the ground. The weapon that the Black-Armored Alien fired tore straight through her foot. The energy beam seemed to cauterize the wound to the point that she would not die soon of blood loss, but it also appeared fatal without medical attention.

“B-Bradley… j-just go,” Maria stuttered, pushing him away. “You can make it up to me by getting my plan to work.”

“But-”

“Go damn it!” she yelled back.

He hesitated for a moment, but seeing the armored pirate make his way towards him, he ran out the door.

“Yes! Run little prey run!” the alien’s voice called out. “Flee while you can! A good hunt requires two after all!” Howling laughter followed him through the door as Bradley left the room behind him.

Bradley wanted to say he ran as a form of tactical retreat, to get into a better position to reengage, or that he ran to carry on Maria’s will for the plan to succeed, but he would be lying. He ran in fear, plain and simple.

‘Nothing worked, nothing!’ he thought, desperately running through the small offices of the storage facility’s administration. ‘25mm Cannons, TOW missiles, Hellfire missile pods, 120mm Armor-piercing shells, even however many thousands of rounds from that GAU-8 firing for just over two straight minutes! That alien is a monster! If that is what we’ll have to face in an invasion, we will have no choice but take what we get.’

Second WaveMaria has been defeated.Allies Remaining:0You are now the last surviving member of your party.

‘I can see that!’ Bradley thought bitterly, angrily dismissing the window. He did not want to think what fate he left Maria to.

Flinging the final door of the storage facility open, he ran out into the open Camp Blanding air and into the already-running Humvee and drove away. He dared not look back, but upon hearing the sharp squeal of metal-on-metal he could not force himself to look away. As he turned, he saw the imposing shape of the alien’s glowing sword slice effortlessly through the outside wall of the Storage Facility. After the metal sheered away, the black form of the alien’s armor followed suit. Returning to focus on his task, Bradley slammed his foot into the gas pedal, hoping to put as much distance between him and it as possible.

“You cannot get away, little prey!” the alien yelled. “Your primitive vehicles are fast, but not faster than light!”

Following that boast, beams of red light flew past Bradley’s window. “Damn it, just a little more!” he yelled, swerving a little to the left and right to hopefully throw off his pursuer’s aim.

“ARGH!” Bradley yelled, as searing pain shot up the left side of his body. Reflexively, his right arm shot to the source of the pain, throwing off his control of the wheel and sending the vehicle swerving sharply to the right. He then felt momentarily weightless as the car rolled again and again, the windows shattering as they crashed into the asphalt below. A moment later the car stilled and Bradley felt his eyelids grow heavy.

Perspective – Pirate Captain Va’lakeesh

The Captain’s laser finally connected with the bulk of the machine. Va’lakeesh would never admit it, but to hit the distant, constantly moving target required him to rely almost exclusively on luck. The shots were all well placed and within a narrow radius, but his skill lay in the sword, not the gun. Still, luck or not, a shot connected and the metal machine rolled like a barrel downhill, pieces flying left and right until finally coming to a halt. He worried that he might have accidentally caused a fatal wound with that attack, but he also shuddered in excitement. At this point, it would be just as good to kill the fool as to enslave him. With all of his friends enslaved, Va'lakeesh could always revel in the fact that the Ee-arthling would have to live with that knowledge of failing his team forever.

It surprised him, then, that the Ee-arthling crawled out one of the hatches, got up, and slowly limped towards a building in the distance. As much as a further chase would be fun, he wasted enough time already and wanted to settle this once and for all. The amusement in his mind slowly shifting to cold indifference. Using the swordsman skill ‘Rapid Dash’ he ran towards building faster than even the machine allowed the slave to travel.

“You will go no further brat!” the Captain yelled, rapidly decelerating as he reached his destination. Despite his speed, the Ee-arthling fool managed to enter the building. “There will be no hiding this time. Your freedom is forfeit. The Pirate Captain Va’lakeesh will enslave you just as I have enslaved your allies or you will die! Your participation in this Game is at an end!”

He carved his way through the surprisingly thick metal door and entered into the large room beyond.

“Now where-oh-where could you be little…” He stared at the large thing in front of him. “What the hell-”

Aerospace Storage Hanger, Camp Blanding, Florida, the Game

1.5 hours earlier

Perspective – Bradley Cooper

“-is that?” Alex asked, scratching his head at the tube-like construction sitting in the middle of the—otherwise empty—room. The enormous metal object reached over 12 feet in height went all the way to the end of the storage facility over 150 feet away. With the end of it covered in a thick plastic cloth, none of them could easily identify it. “Is it a storage container of some sort?”

“Is it a nuke?!” Patricia asked, her eyes gleaming with a mischievous light.

‘I never pegged her as the world-domination type,’ Bradley thought, unconsciously edging away from the woman.

“What?! No!” Maria shot down. “Why they heck would a National Guard Training Center have a Nuclear Bomb just sitting around!”

“I dunno,” Patricia shrugged, “I just thought it looked like one of the ick-mibs or whatever they’re called.”

“ICMBs?” Farida clarified, taking another long look at the thing. “Now that I look at it, it does look like a rocket…”

Bradley’s eyes went wide, remembering now where he saw it before. “I-I’ve never seen one in person before, but could that really be an SRB?! I had to do a report on the O-Ring failure of the Challenger Disaster for an Engineering Project in University… is this really it?! It’s a lot bigger in person.”

“Precisely!” Maria exclaimed, giving them a smile. Bradley never saw her smile before, but it gave him a strangely uncomfortable feeling. She pulled the tarp from off of the object, revealing the telltale conical exaust of a rocket engine.

“Say hello to the Boeing/Lockheed Martin Single-Combustion Chamber Liquid-Propellant Solid Rocket Booster, or SRB for short," Maria proclaimed. "One of two attached to the former Space Shuttle at launch, it has a mass of 1.3 million pounds, and a maximum thrust of 13.8 thousand Newtons! Best of all, it’s completely built and ready for launch!”

“Completely built?” Bradley asked. “Don’t they normally ship these things piecemeal to Cape Canaveral and assemble them there before launch?”

“I don’t know. The Space Shuttle program came to an end in 2011 so maybe they wanted to do other kinds of testing with it? All the documents here were blank so I can’t know for sure.”

“Wait,” Alex butted in, “I think you’re all asking the wrong things about all this. What can we even do with this thing? We certainly can’t move it anywhere; the thing’s the size of an apartment building!”

“Well, it’s already set up for testing,” Maria noted, pointing at the metal structure keeping the SRB slightly elevated off the ground. “We just need to turn it on and I guess you could blast away some bad guys with it. There are just a few things to set up like a bit of welding on some of the joints to-”

“We don’t have time for something like this,” Farida objected, looking anxiously at the door. “we already have a plan that will take up enough work as it is. Speaking of which, we should be doing that now, while we still have time!”

“Well… I’ll just work on it myself then,” Maria huffed. “I already did that stuff for Bradley’s remote-control tanks so all that’s left is Bradley setting up the traps for Plan C and the rest of you preparing the weapons for Plan B. You won’t need my help for that.”

“Suit yourself,” Bradley sighed, far too tired to argue at this point. “Just be sure to meet me up on the roof when you’re done with the laptop. I’ll need to see what I’m doing for Plan A.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Well don’t come crying to me when you need to use this… it just seemed like such a waste not to use it.”

Bradley gave her a knowing nod, looking briefly back up at the expertly crafted piece of Human Aerospace Engineering. Hitting the outer-casing, a tinny, hollow noise resounded inside the rocket.

“I know exactly what you mean.”

High pressure Ammonium-Aluminum exhaust filled the Captain’s vision, completely engulfing the alien and sending a trail of fire over one hundred feet behind him. Normally, such high pressures would have flung the Captain clear away in an instant, however his suit held him in place by locking all the joints and with several spikes at his feet embedding themselves in the concrete floor. This feature of the suit functioned to prevent high-velocity impacts from projectiles or explosions from overpowering the suit and causing the occupant to break all the bones in their body on an impact. The Captain would have been seriously injured from the missiles earlier otherwise. In this case, the feature actually worked against Va’lakeesh, forcing him to take the full, constant, brunt of the rocket.

Normally even an Solid Rocket Booster produced too little energy to stop a Level 500 player; there would have been enough time for the Captain to escape. The shields would drain significantly, but with the rocket unable to move, he merely had to let the exhaust throw him safely away after overriding the suit’s anti-blowback system. With his shields almost completely drained from the last engagement, however, his shields could no longer afford to keep him safe for that long.

The shields sputtered and failed, allowing the deadly fuel-mix to smash into his suit. Not fast enough to reach the suit’s controls and disable the locking, the molten aluminum powder in the exhaust began to cling itself to his armor, turning the black metal into silver. The metallic specks of fluid provided a convection channel which only caused the heat to be directed into the armor faster.

“YOU’LL DIE FOR THIS SLAVE! I SWEAR ON MY SWORD THAT I WILL DESTROY-”

The suit’s heat-recirculation system finally failed, causing the alien to bake in his armor, killing him instantly.

Bradley would not hear those words. He had escaped out the back of the building the moment he turned the rocket on in fear of it not working as Maria intended. Even if he did not escape, the deafening shockwaves all around the alien drowned out any sound projected from the Captain’s armor.

Bradley lied down on the grass as far from the Aerospace Storage Facility as he could; gasping for air. While the Game greatly improved his stamina, the constant running combined with the laser-wound in his left side was wearing heavily into that. If not for all the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he would have passed out by now. After a few seconds, he tried to get back up to his feet…

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM**

…when the entire building went up in a tremendous explosion, causing him to fall back to the ground. With the fuel being left inside the tank for so long, minute air-pockets formed; a prospect fatal to the rocket’s structural integrity. Thankfully, the majority of the energy directed itself upward through the roof and outward through the already-open hanger door. With Bradley far on the other side of the building, he remained unaffected save for feeling some of the scorching heat.

‘I guess Maria couldn’t fix it completely after all,’ Bradley groaned internally, deciding to wait out the aftereffects.

When the flames and the cloud of ash had died down, he got to his feet, groaning from the wound still fresh on his side. He slowly made his way over to the front of the building. Trees all around the road were now on fire or already burnt to stumps. Small specks of metal dust fell from the sky like snow, the ash from the exhaust causing Bradley to cough painfully from the irritation it caused in his lungs. He decided to protect his eyes and mouth with his hands after that. Fifty-or-so feet from the rear of where the SRB used to exist lay a silvery-metal blob. If Bradley did not know what it used to be, he would not even be able to tell if it used to resemble something humanoid at all.

‘He has to be dead after something like that… right?’ he thought. To answer his question, a Game Window appeared.

Second Wave Complete!All enemies have been eliminated.A 3-times bonus will be applied to all surviving party members.

Second Wave IntermissionTime has been allotted to prepare for the Third Wave.Time Remaining:6:14:08

‘Thank fucking God that’s over,’ he thought, collapsing onto the ground next to the blob.

‘I guess I’ll have to start liking Maria’s weird grin now,’ was Bradley’s last thought before falling into unconsciousness.

“Uggggghhhhh” Bradley drawled, feeling so weak he could barely move his mouth. As he squinted, he could make out something vaguely rectangular in his view. As he slowly let his eyes adjust, they could make out a Game Window.

Third WaveRevenant Bounty Hunters – Level ????Enemies Remaining:2Time Until Arrival:2:52:34

“Fuck,” he wheezed, his mind eventually catching up with the situation. ‘I don’t know what it means when their level is unknown like that, but it likely isn’t because they’re too weak,’ he thought.

Slowly getting to his feet, he spent a minute trying to dust himself off of all the metal dust covering his body. He noticed that the wound from the laser already had healed. The skin still felt painful and scarred, but no blood came from it anymore much to his relied.

Realizing the pointlessness of cleaning himself off, he made his way instead over to the remains of the Black-Armored alien, giving one last look at his handiwork. With less adrenaline pumping through his brain, he noticed that the alien’s sword remained relatively untouched next to the silvery blob. Apart from a blackened coating, the blade looked just as it did before.

“Huh, I guess that thing was pretty resilient after all… at least, more resilient than its owner,” he chuckled, the action causing him to go into a fit of coughing and painfully reminding him how much pain he had left to feel and blood he had left to lose. “Ack… right, we’ll I’ll just take that then. That monster seemed pretty fond of it so it must be pretty good.”

Black Sword of the Pirate CaptainDescription:A sword once used by Pirate Captain Va’lakeesh and could cut through metal like paper and seemingly indestructible. Being unsheathed in the midst of Ammonium-Aluminum exhaust, it is now plated in black Aluminum Oxide.

‘Huh, go figure the Game wouldn’t tell me anything I don’t already know… although I suppose it did tell me how that thing’s name is spelt… Maybe I should check with the Haxlard Ambassador to see if he knows who it is,’ he thought.

Picking up the sword, he hobbled his way to one of the cars in the parking lot before realizing he did not actually have a plan now.

“Right… what do I do now?”

Alien Spacecraft, Outside Storage Facility South, Camp Blanding, Florida, the Game

Third WaveRevenant Bounty Hunters – Level ???? Enemies Remaining:2Arriving

‘This is it,’ Bradley thought, sitting down in the middle of the alien spacecraft.

He did not have much time to prepare; he had spent at least six hours passed out from his injuries. With more time, he might have tried finding a Nuclear Silo or heading to Cape Canaveral to use some rocket parts—it worked well against the Pirate Captain after all. With so little time, his options were limited and so he focused instead on the things still available in Camp Blanding.

This led him to focus on the most powerful things at his disposal: the weapons and armor of the aliens. On that note, he discovered that while their bodies disappeared, their arms and armor remained. Garry’s clothes disappeared when he died so it had been surprising that these weapons did not. ‘Then again, it is a Game,’ he rationalized. ‘I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that only the worthwhile expensive equipment can be ‘looted’ when you die.’

Wearing one of the pirates' armor and wielding the Captain’s sword, he found himself able to bypass the spaceship shield’s security with little trouble. There, he spent some time figuring out the ship’s systems and preparing it for this final wave. They were all completely alient to him and any instructions were written in strange hieroglyphics, but Bradley discovered some pattern to the madness.

‘And now here I am…’ he concluded, mentally going over everything to make sure he did not fail to forget something. ‘I couldn’t activate the armor’s shields or use the pirate’s weapons without some sort of biometric information, so I had to-’

Movement; a glimmer of light; an impossible shadow.

Bradley whipped around, his eyes tried to find exactly what was out of place. In that moment he found himself disarmed of the sword and with a powerful blow to the back of his head he fell unconscious… again.

Storage Facility South, Camp Blanding, Florida, the Game

‘Urgh, I’m sorry for putting you through so much my brain,’ Bradley groaned as his consciousness returned. His brain replied with angry pounding.

Mind Survival has improved a rank in proficiency.With continuous trauma to your head, you brain will have a harder time focusing in the short-term, but will be more resilient in the future.

‘Seriously, I apologize,’ Bradley groaned a pounding filling his head again, ‘so please, enough with the notifications!’

He dismissed the message and opened his eyes only to find himself back in the Storage Facility’s workshop; where he and Maria designed and constructed many of the traps used in the Second Wave’s Plan C. Most of the desks, tools and materials were moved to the corners of the room as he sat bound to a chair in the center. He wondered briefly if the past few hours were all a delirious hallucination until he looked ahead to see two identical imposing figures standing before him. They each stood over seven feet tall and were built like Olympic athletes; lithe yet undeniably strong.

Each one wore sleek black armor. If not for the slightly lighter black matte composite material of some of the other items they wore, he would have thought his eyes were playing tricks on him; they looked far darker than should be possible in such a well-lit room. They wore helmets with glass fully covering the front of where Bradley assumed their face would be surrounded by a complex array of sensors which glowed with a sinister red light. On their backs, they carried large metal cases on which an assortment of sophisticated gadgets attached themselves.

If the space pirates of wave two were 2-bit thugs for hire, these ‘Revenant Bounty Hunters’ were Elite Covert Special Forces. With them both staring impassively at Bradley with their featureless glass faces, he felt glad he went to the washroom before the wave began.

[table=black]C.I.C. OVERRIDECOMPLETEPROGRAM DATA…

…

:100A2000 006D7047ABAAAAAA3C480008002800F055

:100A3000 038110B504460368804A934231D01832CE

:100A4000 93422ED0183293422BD01832934228D0A2

:100A5000 1832934225D01832934222D01832934252

:100A6000 1FD0183293421CD002F55672934218D010

:100A7000 1832934215D01832934212D01832934252

:100A8000 0FD0183293420CD01832934209D018324A

:100A9000 934206D01832934203D06948C92101F02D

:100AA000 5BFF6368C3B1B3F1007F15D0B3F1806F12

:100AB000 12D0B3F1C06F0FD0B3F1006F0CD0B3F10F

:100AC000 206F09D0B3F1406F06D0B3F1606F03D04F

:100AD000 5B48CA2101F040FFA3683BB1402B05D021

:100AE000 802B03D05648CB2101F036FFE368B3F5E5

:100AF000 007F04D01BB15248CC2101F02DFF2369A7

:100B0000 B3F5806F04D01BB14D48CD2101F024FF17

:100B1000 63694BB1B3F5006F06D0B3F5805F03D0C6

:100B2000 4748CE2101F018FFA3694BB1B3F5005F30

:100B3000 06D0B3F5804F03D04148CF2101F00CFF20

…

…[/table]

Bradley felt his mind melt as information poured into it at a pace he never experienced; even compared to when he tried his ‘Connect’ ability for the first time. Time and space appeared to distort as Bradley loses sense of the goings-on around him. It feels like an eternity and an instant when the process finishes and Bradley finds himself face down on the ground, still bound to the chair he had been sitting on.

[table=grey]Our speech should now sound intelligible.[/table]

The voice echoed in Bradley’s mind as though he heard it from a distant loudspeaker in a large empty room. The voice sounded both artificial and natural simultaneously, as though both a synthetic voice-box and the dulcet tones of a famous singer he never heard of spoke simultaneously directly into his mind. The sound both soothed and disturbed him at the same time and in his addled state, he could not be sure he wanted the voice to leave him alone.

Bradley wished he could say this moment prevailed as the singularly most disturbing moment of his life, but finding himself in a white room where his senses were completely deprived still won out by a narrow margin. 'To think, before this Game, my greatest worry was that my life was too normal before now,' he thought.

“Wwwwah d’ya wann wih ‘eee…” Bradley drawled. With his face pressed against the floor and his brain feeling like mush, he had a hard time getting his face muscles to respond well enough to properly vocalize words.

He felt a hand grasp at his back and he rose from the floor and back into the position back on the chair he had been in the moment he woke up.

[table=grey]Speak through the mind, aspirant. Our improvements allow it.[/table]

Bradley did not understand what the voice meant, but with his mouth no longer working properly, it occurred to him to respond with his mind regardless. He had enough practice with his Connect ability that it began to become second-nature for him.

[table=grey]BradleyWhat do you want from me?[/table]

The Revenant have upgraded the Firmware of your Cybernetic Interface Chip allowing your Wireless Perception to pick up Sapient Machine communications. Regulatory Identification can now comprehend the machine language Revenant Standard. By doing so, you have gained a new ability: Machine Language Comprehension

Machine Language ComprehensionUsing Wireless Perception and Regulatory Identification, you can now communicate with Sapient Machines so long as you understand their language.Machine Languages Learned:Revenant Standard

The two sleek glass helmets turned to one another and gave each other a minute nod.

[table=grey]RevenantWe want nothing and everything of you. We desire devotion to the Truth and the Path of the Enlightened. Though the System requested our participation, the circumstances warranted our interest in you. We believe you also desire the Truth and your natural gifts with Cybernetics give you the ability to one day find it. We are often wrong in this but progress demands our continual search even should such avenues result in failure.[/table]

Bradley had a hard time following the words; his body felt like it could shut down at any moment. If they were being said and not implanted into his mind, he would likely fail to even register a words were spoken at all.

[table=grey]BradleyWhy am I not dead?[/table]

The Revenant on Bradley’s right took out the Pirate Captain’s Sword from the case on its back, turning it such that the hilt of the blade could be clearly seen by him.

[table=grey]RevenantAn impressive feat for one inexperienced with the Game. A Dead-man’s Switch wound into the grip of the blade fed power into a circuit preventing a detonator from destroying the containment on the starship’s Anti-Matter Reactor. While certainly strong enough to destroy our shields you would have died first, ultimately still ensuring our victory. If our armor did not grant us the power of invisibility and instantaneous teleportation to disarm such a device, it could have wasted this opportunity for discussion.[/table]

[table=grey]BradleyBut why discuss anything at all? I may not know much, but you can probably kill me by glaring too hard in my general direction! Again, what do you want with me?![/table]

[table=grey]RevenantYour training and choices prove that the mantle we collectively wear could also be set upon your shoulders. That characteristic alone is enough for us to grant an audience with you, regardless of skill. In addition, during this Tutorial you proved yourself capable. That bears favorably on your chances.[/table]

The Revenant on Bradley’s left took out a small blue cube and held it out while the one on the right mirrored the action with the sword.

[table=grey]The Revenant gives you a choice. You may only choose one.[/table]

[table=grey]RevenantTake the sword. With the bounty placed upon it, the System will grant it to you outside the Tutorial. In doing so, you simply forget this discussion occurred and you may use it to aid in bringing Humanity out from the shadows of ignorance.[/table]

[table=grey]RevenantTake the cube. As it is freely given; it will stay with you past the Tutorial’s conclusion as well. When you find the Lie too much to bear and demand the power to discover the Truth, use it to seek us out. Do not come too soon, for your Allies become Enemies. Do not come too late, for your Fate is bound.[/table]

[table=grey]BradleyHey! That sword is mine! You cannot just take it and offer it back like that![/table]

[table=grey]RevenantWith your plan, you forfeited the sword. The resulting Anti-Matter detonation would have caused the ship’s Graviton Generators to overload, crushing both you and the sword. While you would respawn, the sword would have been destroyed. While strong, it is not impervious.

Now choose one or the other.[/table]

‘What the hell?’ Bradley thought. ‘Even a little ship like that could cause a freaking Black Hole or something to form?! What is with the technology in this Game?’

Nevertheless, Bradley did not argue further; the current situation did not give him much position to barter.

‘The obvious choice is the sword,’ Bradley observed. ‘I know how powerful it is and if it has a bounty, there is probably someone willing to pay a lot of money for its safe return. That could go a long way in getting Humanity up-to-par with the aliens. But what could money be even used for? We aren't in contact with aliens and the Earth is almost completely isolated. Not only that, but I'm sure the Earth Coalition would porbably keep part of the profits anyway.’

Still, before he decided he took a long look at the cube. The small blue crystal glowed with an unnatural light. The interior appeared like a tesseract, minute facets of crystal glimmering in the light despite neither the cube nor Bradley’s head moving to change perspective. The more he looked, the more depth appeared in it. Before he looked away he could almost swear he saw galaxies form and collide with one another.

Suddenly the choice seemed considerably more problematic as his curiosity got the better of him. ‘Now that I think about it, why give the choice at all?’ he thought. ‘I am in no position to demand either object just like they are under no obligation to give them. They kill me, the Tutorial ends; done; no conversation or confusing riddles and I never even know they arrived at all. Therefore I’m forced to believe them. They want me for some unconceivable reason and are testing to see if I live up to their expectations. The question is: is it worth it?’

[table=grey]BradleyThe cube.[/table]

Bradley regretted the choice immediately, but did not back out on the decision. [i]'It's selfish, but the more I think about it, the more I want it. Even thinking about it from Humanity's standpoint, we need knowledge about this Game a lot more than we need money right now… I just hope this gambit pays off at some point…'

The left Revenant lightly threw the cube; it landed on the ground in front of him.

You acquired the Revenant Cube of TranscendenceCube of TranscendenceA Cube which glows with unnatural light. Through an unknown method, this can be used to get in contact with the Revenant.

[table=grey]RevenantThe transaction has concluded; the Revenant await your Transcendence.[/table]

As the right Revenant put away the Pirate Captain’s Sword, the left one un-holstered an object from the case on its back. With a flick of its arm, the object telescopically expanded, transforming from a large metal box into a five-foot-long cannon which glowed bright red. Bradley only just had enough time to make sense of the development and widen his eyes before a red light forming at the end of the gun-barrel’s chamber signified his death.

----Status Window----

Spoiler :

Status WindowName:Bradley CooperSpecies:Human (Earth)Level:4Experience:0/1000Class:UndeterminedAlignment:Friendly (+2) / Order (+1)[/tr]Age:26Gender:MaleRenown:0Notoriety:0----Regenerative Attributes----Health:0/95Health Regen:21.55/hrPsionic Energy:0/1Psionic Regen:0.82/hrShield Energy:N/AShield Regen:N/AStamina:0/85Stamina Regen:812.09/hr----Attributes----Strength:??+20Agility:??+20Intelligence:??+20Willpower:??+20Charisma:??+20Perception:??+20Endurance:??+20Luck:??+20----Resistances----Physical:??Mental:??Psionic:??----Career----Titles:NoneOccupation:Earth Coalition – Civilian Employee – RecruitCurrent Quest:N/A----Currency----Currently Held:0 CreditsCurrently Owed:0 CreditsMarks:0P, 0D, 0GAbility Points:0----Faction Standings----Earth Coalition:EmployeeHaxlards:Neutral*Administrators:Privileged*Pirates:Vilified*Revenant:Known*

----General Ability Window----

Spoiler :

General Ability WindowAbility Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Connect (Basic)GG-928,437,115DAllows communication of single integer numbers, characters and regulatory tags to devices. Does so using the Cybernetic Interface Chip’s Regulatory Identification and Human-Computer Interface’s Wireless Perception abilities.Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Intrinsic Evaluation (Basic)GE-2,000,184,772DThe ability to intrinsically know the value of an object. Whether an object will work correctly, for how long, and how much it is worth.Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Machine Language ComprehensionGG-1,942,684,975DThe ability to communicate with sapient machines.Languages Known:Revenant StandardAbility Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Mind SurvivalGE-1,846,294,110GThe ability of the mind to persist through overwhelming mental trauma. Provides resistance against abilities which damage the mind.Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Pistol ShootingGG-1,844,516,229GThis ability maps the progress of firing a pistol. A higher rank indicates a greater lethality.Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Regulatory IdentificationGG-214,735,418EThe Cybernetic Interface Chip’s ability to identify the regulatory standards, encoding, decoding and commands used by a device to communicate.Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Rifle ShootingGG-2,000,860,238GThis ability maps the progress of firing a rifle. A higher rank indicates a greater lethality.Ability Name:Ability Rank:Ability Proficiency:Ability Rarity:Wireless Perception (Basic)GG-1,642,194,713DThe ability to perceive wireless communications actively searching for connection. To avoid oversaturation, the Human-Computer Interface does not transmit secure communication or ordinary electromagnetic waves to the Cybernetic Interface Chip.

----Implant List Window----

Spoiler :

Implant List----Biological Implants----Implant Name:Implant Rank:Implant Proficiency:General Status EnhancerDN/AProvides a boost of 20 points to all attributes.----Mechanical Implants----Implant Name:Implant Rank:Implant Proficiency:Cybernetic Interface ChipDG-220,861,958Connected directly to the brain, when interfaced directly with a computer, implant, or memory module, this chip converts thought into the intended electromagnetic input expected by the device. Higher ranks improve the data rate, allowable frequency range, and provide higher levels of security. A Revenant Firmware Upgrade allows it to parse Sapient Machine Language.Implant Name:Implant Rank:Implant Proficiency:Human-Computer InterfaceDG-1,594,288,749Allows direct cognitive access to a computer system via wireless communication, allowing the brain to issue commands directly to the device. Can only guarantee a proper interface with devices of equal or lower rank.

----Revenant Picture----

Spoiler :