Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin sprinted full out down the narrow winding corridors. Bullets ricocheted off the metal walls all around him, occasionally a lucky shot would impact his kinetic shield generator causing an ever-darkening red flare. It was a small personal unit and offered only limited protection, one or two more hits and it would be game over unless Benjamin could find shelter soon.

“What have I gotten myself into?” he panted out as he ran.

“You are currently on level thirty-nine moving aft through battery thirty nine’s maintenance corridors, would you like your current location displayed via Personal Combat Drone number two’s halo projector? Warning! Personal Combat Drone number two is currently engaged with level thirty-nine security forces. Shall I redirect Personal Combat Drone number two for this task?” The voice spoke to Benjamin through a speaker on the side of his interface goggles.

“Negative! Keep P.C.D. two engaged with security forces, have you found an access tunnel yet?” Benjamin said hoping fervently that a rhetorical question hadn’t just gotten him killed.

“Acknowledged” The voice said. “There is a service tunnel thirty yards ahead and to the left. Marking the location on your display now.”

As he ran around another bend a wall panel like all the others he had passed, was outlined with bright green lines on the lenses of his interface goggles. The panel was ahead and to his left just like he had been told.

He darted for it readying his blast pistol. He started shooting the outlined hatch five paces out and by the time he reached it there was a gap large enough to put a fist through. He did just that, dropping his last, and favorite, Repair Drone onto the now exposed cluster of wires.

“Get it open.” He said spinning around and taking a knee, firing wildly back the way he had come. He nearly shot his Personal Combat Drone as it hovered around the corner. The P.C.D.’s kinetic shield flaring a deep red, on the verge of collapse as it traded fire with the security forces pursuing them.

“Come on, come on, come on” he chanted in time with each shot he fired. The security drones had rolled into view, they looked like a cross between robots found in a galaxy far far away and a steam powered relic patrolling a dwarf’s ruined city. They fired what amounted to belt fed shotgun rounds through their humanoid limbs, being fed up from the spheres that served as their legs.

The blast pistol gave out a warning trill before it stopped firing. The barrel had overheated and the built-in safety mechanism had shut it down before permanent damage was done. Benjamin thought about overriding the shut off but decided against it, the small projectiles were having no effect on the security force’s shields anyway.

There was an audible click from the panel as the latch keeping it closed popped open. Holstering his momentarily useless bolt pistol Benjamin thrust his hand into the fist sized hole he had made and retrieved his repair drone before leaping into the opening. He knew from two days experience here that he would be safe on the next level.

“Call the P.C.D now.” He said before he fell into the darkness. He heard the voice’s affirmation of his order just as he hit the bottom of the shaft and blacked out.

* * *

Arbiter

The Arbiter stood in the void, staring intently at hundreds of screens. Each of these screens showed the progress of a Soul, a Human, as they battled their way through the trials. Around him stood the avatars of a little over a dozen World lords. All that remained of an entire universe’s population in one room.

“I still don’t understand why the Creator gave us these weaklings when what we really need are a few entities like the Arbiter there.” The voice sounded like rocks smashing repeatedly against one another in a laundry machine. “Hell, this one alone could hold the line alone for a thousand years.”

The Arbiter glanced away from his charges just long enough to catch the World lord’s eye who had spoken. It was monstrously huge, looking like a gnarled oak tree had wound its roots around a crumbling pile of rocks before walking away, stones and all.

“It is not our place to Question the Creator Granite,” the Arbiter said to the moving mountain of living wood and stone the World Lord had chosen for its avatar. The Arbiter had been denied the chance to fight the corruption as it seeped into his old universe, without direct orders to do so he would never personally engage here on this selfish being’s behalf.

“Just be thankful he gave you any aid at all after you turned from him to wage endless eons of civil war with each other.” He aimed that last comment at the whole gathering, it sickened him that the power-hungry World Lords had all but driven themselves extinct in the pursuit of power. He could count all those left alive using his human fingers and toes.

“I for one am thankful,” Said Shipwright. “We cannot fight the corruption as we are and weak as these humans may be, I can see potential in them…most of them anyway” It added looking at the unconscious form laying at the bottom of a maintenance shaft in his trial room.

“Don’t count him out yet Shipwright,” said Erlking. “He hasn’t failed until he’s dead and he just reached level forty. Your starting trial was only to reach level fifty, wasn’t it? He is almost there.”

“Perhaps, but he won’t make it now. He lost too many drones brute forcing his way through to level twenty before he started conserving resources. With what he has left he will be lucky to make it another three levels…and what kind of name is Erlking anyway?” It added testily pointing one of its lens topped metal tentacles at the antler headed, lithe humanoid form dressed in beast hides.

“The Erlking is a creature from human mythology. When we picked our human names, I felt it most closely resembled what I am.” The Erlking answered still looking at Benjamin’s unconscious body. “Pass or fail when this one is done with your trial, I would like him to try mine.” He looked toward the floating screens and continued, “I will trade you him for Miss Benz and…Mr. Briggs” he said, pulling the two screens in question forward.

The Arbiter looked at the two humans the Erlking had brought up for trade. Frank Briggs was an overweight teenager with tear tracks on his face. He was however using the resources he had been provided with to the fullest and looked like he would achieve his goal in short order.

Jade Benz on the other hand had gone off script entirely. She was using the tools she had been given to smash everything in her path, blonde hair whipping around crazily as she laughed. The Arbiter remembered her clearly as she had interrupted him repeatedly. he checked his clipboard, looked like she was in her late twenties and had died of an overdose.

The mechanical body of the Shipwright whirred and clacked as it rotated between the three screens. It took a moment and replayed each from the start of the trial at high speed.

“I will do a straight swap for Frank Briggs, but I’m not touching the other one” it finally said, to which the Erlking nodded in agreement.

“The humans are only here as long as they choose to be. You can trade them all you like but only with their informed consent.” The Arbiter said, switching his focus to a different screen where another one of the humans was crushed to death by plant monsters. “Try to remember Granite that the Creator only allowed me to gather a limited number of Souls. If you continue to kill them indiscriminately, I won’t allow you anymore.”

“What does it matter if they are this weak?” Granite replied.

The Arbiter just sighed and shook his head. This was going to be a long assignment.

* * *

Benjamin Vryce

Benjamin woke to the sound of wrenching metal and the blue arcing light given off by a welder. He sat up looking around for the source of the light and sounds. Looking up he could see that the panel he had destroyed was being removed by Repair Drones and a new one welded into its place.

Looking down he saw his P.C.D. landed on the ground beside him. Its armor plating had been removed and the fist sized silver spider was crawling over the device, making small repairs. Benjamin was worried that it might have been damaged beyond repair when he saw the armor, but his interface goggles quickly informed him that it was mostly superficial and the unit would be operational again within the hour.

That was good. The Personal Combat Drone was numbered two of the six that he had started with and the last one still operational. The machine looked a lot like a dragonfly except the wings were two round discs that somewhat resembled helicopter blades, only enclosed for better protection.

The Repair Drone was an industrious little unit, and had worked tirelessly the whole time it had been in his possession. Anything that was damaged was soon found and repairs started. He had had three of them originally but this one seemed different to him, so much so that he kept it on his person to keep it better protected from damage. Partly due to this and luck it was the only one left.

“Status” he said aloud finally looking around where he had landed. He was answered by the mechanical voice from his interface’s speaker. The “rudimentary” A.I. that was light years beyond anything available on earth responded instantly.

“You were in operational for three hours and thirty-seven minutes. While you rebooted, the single remaining Repair Drone started field repairs on the single remaining Personal Combat Drone. The Personal Combat Drone is at ninety one percent combat effectiveness. Your personal shield generator has recovered to seventy six percent effectiveness. The Repair drone is fully functional as am I. I also estimate that you have approximately thirty hours of operating time left without food or water.”

Benjamin furrowed his brow. Unless it was his imagination the A.I. had gotten a lot snarkier lately. He looked up at the repairs taking place about ten feet above him. If the security Drones had been programmed to pursue targets beyond their own level, he would be long dead.

Looking at the resources he had on hand, and with the fresh reminder that he hadn’t eaten since he arrived, he knew that he could not make it down another ten floors like this. Each level got progressively harder and even if he hadn’t wasted drones getting this far it was doubtful, he would finish.

He had to think. This was a challenge that strength alone wasn’t going to overcome. He looked up through the gap again and the security drones stationed above. Back down at the Drones he had left and addressed the A.I.

“If you had access to a drone’s core, could you control its actions?”

The A.I. was silent for three agonizingly long seconds before it replied.

“If my processor core was to make contact with a drone’s control unit then yes, I believe I could take over its function. I would have to maintain contact however or the unit’s onboard programming would reassert control.” An evil grin spread its way across Benjamin’s face at that news, this might work.

Ten minutes later the Personal Combat Drone rose up to hover level with the new panel and shot several rounds into it. Once a new fist sized hole appeared it stopped firing and moved closer to the panel. The Repair Drone who had been riding its back jumped through the hole dragging the A.I.’s processer core with it.

After it disappeared Benjamin had nothing to do but wait. They had estimated it would take three minutes for the plan to succeed. Three minutes came and went without any changes, four minutes, then five. Benjamin was beginning to worry when at the ten-minute mark the panel above was suddenly ripped from the wall.

Standing in the newly made opening was a Drone his goggles had labeled a humanoid Juggernaut Class security Drone. Nearly nine feet of solid metal badassery covered with shield generators. Shortly after appearing it stepped off the edge and landed with a heavy thud next to Benjamin.

A long moment passed in silence, for a second Benjamin feared that his plan had failed and that he was about to die. Then the Juggernaut raised its arm and opened its hand. The Repair drone jumped from the now open palm into his waiting hands, and he smiled triumphantly.

“How did it go?” he asked, tucking the Spider into the pocket of the black mechanics overalls he had been given for this mission.

“Everything went according to plan.” Came a heavily synthesized voice from the juggernaut. “The armor was thicker than expected over the processor. The Repair Drone took longer than estimated to break through.” The security unit clearly had not been designed for speech, but the A.I. was making it work. There was little choice now that he had removed the processing core from his interface Goggles. it couldn’t communicate with or control them anymore.

Benjamin laughed out loud when he saw the arcs of blue light and looked up to see that the repair drones were once again welding a new panel into place.

“This changes things a little. I was planning to sneak the rest of the way down, bypassing all the security…but I haven’t eaten in nearly two days, and will only get weaker with time. Let’s brute force this bitch.”

They made it down another five levels before the juggernaut (along with the controlling A.I.) the P.C.D. and Benjamin himself were shot to pieces.