ABANDON SHIP

Angie stopped her team. The map in the corner of her HUD showed her they were close to their destination.

“This hasn’t been too tough yet.”

“Uh, they’re letting us burn in the equipment before it gets too tough,” Mike chimed in. “But game-wise,” he let that thought hang.

Angie started talking. “Game wise they’ve been easy on us. That won’t last. On the other side of this door, we need to be ready for more. I don’t know if it’ll be a boss or a bunch of these Tu’Con grunts.”

“It’s go time,” Mike insisted, “It’s go time.”

As if on cue, the Captain’s image appeared in their visors. Like every other player on the ship, Angie cursed and tried to swipe the image from the center of her HUD to a corner. It was no use, the Captain was full screen in her HUD and blocking out almost everything.

“Abandon ship, abandon ship. All hands abandon ship. We have sustained critical damage. All hands get to your escape pods. Good luck and God’s speed.” The image disappeared.

On the bridge the captain was devastated. He was an NPC, an artificial intelligence non-payment character. Still he had thoughts and personality and a huge sense of honor and duty.

His ship was crumbling. He had given the worst order he ever could have- abandon ship. Now he yelled at his bridge crew to get to their pods. They ignored him. All of them were NPCS, AI, as well. If any player walked in the bridge they would have seen them act like real people. If real people would stay at their posts that is.

Stupid people, the captain thought. The ship shuttered. A glance at the damage board showed more decompression on deck 6 port side. Stupid marines firing accelerators and tossing armor piercing grenades inside a starship! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Stupid TU’Con bastard ramming and boarding his ship, his baby. I’ll be dammed to hell before I let the TU’CONs have my ship.

A console popped and showered sparks. The helmsman’s mate jumped back. He shook his hands instinctively, but none of the sparks did any damage.

“Get off the bridge!” The captain roared. “I’m not going to tell you again!”

“Sir,” it was his executive officer, “if you’re going to fight this ship to the last, I’m with you.”

Over the intercom, from engineering, “We’re not rats, sir.” Had the comms officer left the video on? No matter. The captain was full of pride in his crew.

“We’re not going down without a fight!” He pointed at the TU’CON carrier. “Ramming speed.”

THE LANDING BAY

“Shit!” Somebody said over the squad intercom.

Uh, I told you it was go time.” That was Mike, and he was right.

Door on three. Mark go left, I’ll go right,” Angie ordered. “Mike shoot from the door, Heather you too.”

Everybody tensed. Three seconds later Angie nodded and Mike did something. The door opened. On the other side was a war.

Normally the cavernous lander prep bay was an orderly place. The Hanger Deck Chief kept order with an iron fist. The landers had always been parked in their designated places. Even when Engines were dropped for maintenance, it was orderly and as neat as possible.

If the deck chief was still alive he would stroke out immediately after seeing the state his beloved bay was in.

One of the landers must have exploded and flipped two of her sisters. Burn marks and bullet holes were everywhere. Debris was scattered. Billowing smoke obscured visibility.

And there were laser bolts. Lots of Laser bolts criss-crossed the lander prep bay as TU’CONS fought marine players.

Angie had to push Mark to get him moving through the door and to his side. Angie ran to hers and crouched down, looking for a target. She found one and aimed.

“Wait,” she ordered. It didn’t look like Mark was about to shoot and Mike hadn’t pulled his trigger either. “If the haven’t noticed us,” Angie paused.

Mike picked up the thought. “Lets sneak. Good plan.”

“Heather, come here.” Heather ducked through the door and got alongside Angie. “Cover us.” Heather didn’t respond, but raised her rifle. Mark has been quiet too.

She pushed that aside and called up her map.

“Those landers aren’t going anywhere,” Mike advised.

Thank you corporal obvious. She found what she was looking for on the map. Her concentration was broken when Mike suddenly opened fire.

“They spotted us,” He explained. His shots were on target, the TU’CON sported two extra holes in his head.

“Mark, go left, in 49 meters is a door. Take it. That should lead to a hallway with escape pods.” There was no hesitation in Mark this time. He started to trot forward. He kept his rifle aimed forward. Mike followed. Heather was next and Angie last.

A laser bolt hit in front of Heather. She screamed. Mike and Angie were quick on the trigger. Mark fired too, but not as quickly. Heather swore.

Normal people wouldn’t be 100% sure who fired the killing shot. The game system was sure. It was also sure who contributed damage.

Full screen across Mark’s HUD the words “+25 xp” appeared. “What the hell?” He had no idea how to stop these messages from appearing in front of his face and he couldn’t see a darned thing through them. 2 seconds later it disappeared.

Angie and Mike were yelling at him to move. “How the hell am I supposed to move if I can’t see?” Nobody answered him, except to yell at him to move.

He started to run again. His eyes were searching for the door. There it was up ahead. 10 meters, 5 meters. What?????

He was flying through the air. It was a short flight followed by a crash landing into the floor. The breath was knocked out of him. What the hell kind of game wouldn’t let him take a deep breath. A sudden searing pain in his thigh. What the hell?

He looked back. He had been shot. Another laser blast hit the wall. Mark looked for the shooter. He found him and pointed the captured TU’CON laser rifle. He jerked back the trigger and held it. Easier to hold it than gently squeeze. In the tutorial Gunnery Sergeant Emry said to squeeze it gently, like you were caressing a woman. F that. He held the trigger.

He let go when he saw the TU’Con slump over. There were two more bodies right there. No time to worry about that now. The door, he had to get to the door. It hurt to bend his leg.

Angie yanked him up and steadied him as he got his legs under him. “Nice shooting,” she said. “Let’s go.”

The others were already out the door. Mark followed Angie as best he could. He couldn’t see as messages about “+90 xp” filled his view screen. There had to be a way to fix this.

As they ran down the hallway the red lights blinked out. The ship was plunged into darkness. Seconds later, the red lights came on again.

The captain was making another announcement. Thank God it’s just audio this time. Mark was terrified that a critical second would be interrupted by the full screen image of the captain or XP notices would obscure his view. “Brace for impact in 1 minute,” the captain instructed.

Eight Star Marines were in the corridor when Mark made it through the door. He could see names and team names over their heads. Why am I seeing names now? I don’t understand!!!

One of the Marines, Beastboy6 from team BEASTBOYS, was at the hatch to a shuttle. Beastboy6 grabbed a marine named beastboy3 and yanked him through into the shuttle.

Xman235 was next. Beastboy6 pushed him away. “We’re full. Find your own damn pod.” Beastboy6 grabbed Beastboy2 and yanked him through the door. A glare and pointed rifle kept XMAN235 from coming through the door. Right after Beastboy6 stepped backwards, the pod door slammed shut separating the BEASTBOYS from everybody else.

“Stupid bastard!” XMAN235 swore. Another marine, Southaven was also swearing. Both of them were from team MYNdBendz.

Mark shook his head. “I thought we were all on the same side,” he said. Everybody ignored his naivete.

“YES!” Mike exclained as the hatch to another pod slid open. Heather was the first one through the hatch. Angie was in line next. Mark was the furthest away and was doing his best to hobble closer. His leg felt like it was on fire.

XMAN235 cut in line in front of Angie. Mike blocked his way.

Before either could speak, a door at the end of the hall opened and a space marine- TESTTESTQWERTY came running through. A TU’COn was hot on his heels.

The TU’Con hesitated. Everybody except TESTTESTQWERTY hesitated. Mike was half in the hatch and couldn’t get his weapon in target. Both Angie and XMAN were aiming, but Mark, Southaven and TESTTESTQWERTY were in the line of fire.

Slowly, painfully slowly, like he was purposely moving in slow motion, the TU’Con raised his laser rifle. TESTTESTQWERTY was running and yelling “Shoot! Shoot it!”

Mark raised his rifle. He didn’t have a shot. TESTTESTQWERTY was running straight at him.

Southaven only had a G78 accelerator rifle. He leaned to the side, jerked the trigger and blew holes in the hallway behind the TU’Con.

If the system had been throttling the TU’Con’s AI to give the players a chance, that blessing had ended. The TU’Con aimed and fired. It was a classic three round burst. His training sergeant was must be proud, Mark thought. Another three round burst followed immediately.

TESTTESTQWERTY’s armour held the first two bolts. The next four all hit the exact same spot and punched through. Gunny would be orgasmic if I could do that. Mark didn’t have time for another thought.

TESTTESTQWERTY screamed as he fell sprawling in front of and then into Mark. Mark jerked his trigger as TESTTESTQWERTY took out his legs.

More shots whizzed over his head as Angie and Southaven finally had a sight of the target and fired. XMAN still couldn’t get a clear shot.

I’m so tired of falling. Mark bashed his head on the deck. Everything was blurry for a few seconds. A barely cogent thought And I am so tired of seeing those XP messages right in front of my eyes.

Mark rolled over and ponderously got to his knees. Back over at the hatch, he saw Angie nod. Mike went into the pod. XMAN quickly followed.

Everything was quiet. Totally quiet. Mark could see Angie’s mouth moving. She had to be yelling, but he couldn’t hear her. He started getting to his feet and moving forward. Angie fired laser blasts past him.

Mark flinched. She fired past him again. He turned to look back. More TU’Cons. I should have guessed that. It looked like one of them was shouting, but there was still nothing, no noise. TESTTESTQWERTY was just lying there.

He grabbed hold of TESTTESTQWERTY and started dragging. Southaven quickly joined him and they dragged TESTTESTQWERTY into the pod. Once inside, Southaven let go. The weight was more than Mark expected. He lost his grip on the body and almost toppled over.

Angie came in after them and the door slammed shut.

Mark didn’t bother trying to get to the benches. He just slumped to the ground. He was tired. Really tired. His leg hurt, badly. His head hurt worse.

With effort, Angie worked her way past the dead TESTTESTQWERTY and the live Mark, Inconveniently, he was sitting on the floor right in her way. She walked past the acceleration couches. The pod wasn’t big, but there was enough room for this number of people. It was designed to cram in 14 people.

“Launch us,” she yelled. She really wanted to yell at XMAN to get out of her seat, but it was more important to get clear of the Antonio Lopez and the collision.

A sudden jolt tossed her backwards. The pod launched away from the mother ship. Another, harder jolt as the pod accelerated. If Angie had she looked, she would have seen the Antonio Lopez bearing in on the TU’CON carrier.

Just this minute, she was much more concerned with their course. And that lag that Mark experienced. And Mark’s hesitation. And Heather was complaining about a tingling in her left hand. Her fingers kept spasaming. And a million other things that nagged at her.

First things first, “Where are we going?”

THE DEV CENTER: RAMMING SPEED

In the development center, Competition Project Manager Jasmine Lens watched the monitor. The Federation Alliance Star Ship Antonio Lopez was accelerating toward the TU’Con carrier Master Ti’hu.

There were a lot of people in the Dev Center Control Room. Most of them were techs. There was a tech assigned to each team. They were responsible for monitoring their feed, data in and out, network connection and even gameplay.

Jessalyn and Colin, the reporters, were watching the main screen. Their camera ops were shooting B-Roll, extra footage, of what was going on.

There were a few “luxury boxes” overlooking the control room. Sometimes the VIPs would come down into the control room. Right now, everybody was focused on the game’s main screen. Seconds ago the monitor showed Team Bloop, Team Beastboys and a half of Team MYNdBenz as they fought in the corridor of the Antonio Lopez. Before that Team PepMption was making their escape look easy. Right now, though, the monitor didn’t have one of the teams, it showed the current space sector. The Federation Alliance Star Ship Antonio Lopez was still accelerating toward the TU’Con carrier Master Ti’hu.

Jasmine leaned over to Lead Developer Billy Kline. “Amazing.”

Kline smiled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to code. It felt great to do this part.” They watched. Pods were escaping both ships, rats off sinking ships. People in the control center, people around the world who had signed into the live stream, everybody held their breath as the ships collided. Metal twisted and impossibly as the ships crushed into one ugly mass.

Then came the explosion. It was epic. A huge blue white flash of energy release. Then everything collapsed inward as if a massive black hole had appeared followed quickly by a massive firey explosion. An expanding fireball erupted around the ships followed by a cloud of debris. Soon, just two shattered hulks of intertwined metal remained, burning and arcing and shedding even more debris. Some of the debris wiggled and screamed.

It was a glorious spectacle of programming and effects. People who watched the stream through their VR gear could feel the full effects. The buffeting of the shock wave. The heat of the fireball. Even the pelting of minor debris. Yes, space was a vaccuum where nobody could hear you scream, but in this universe, the sound of the explosion, the shriek of twisting metal and even screams of the humans and TU’COns echoed.

Jasmine just stared at the spectacle. Kline smiled. They were going to make a fortune off of this scene.