The skittering sound was everywhere around Logan, as the devourers worked their way into and through the building, breaking down doors and shooting or tearing the militia members to pieces. Logan felt bad for anyone that wasn’t directly affiliated with them, as they were being caught up in a war that they didn’t have a stake in. He and his friends stood in front of the double doors that would lead into the main assembly room, the last room to be checked.

Meghan walked up to stand beside him, placing her hand on his left shoulder. “We’re ready when you are. Let’s bring these bastards down, for good.” Logan heard the others voice their agreement, sounding eager to get things moving. A clawed boot lashed out and broke the lock between the doors, flinging them both aside to slam into the wall. Gunfire immediately filled the chamber and the group dove to either side, attempting to dodge the many projectiles that flew towards them.

It was only a minute later when the world became quiet again, and Logan checked the HUD for his party information, noting that while a few people had been hit, nobody was in critical condition. Pat stomped over to the doorway and grabbed a grenade out of the pack on her back, throwing it around the wall. A few seconds later and a loud whump tore through the room, knocking dust off of everything. Jones pulled out his turret and threw it into the room next, and they heard it start to fire after setting up, the continuous stream of damage keeping people in cover.

Tony pulled his assault rifle into his shoulder and rushed through the door, using the damage reduction features from being a soldier to his advantage. Very little gunfire was added to the mix for a few moments, meaning it was probably safe for the others to follow. Logan charged in next, blade in his right hand and survival pistol in his left, and he saw that three small groups of people were in the room. Tony was moving to flank the group on the right, who hid behind a few benches that had been knocked over to create something to hide behind, so Logan didn’t pay them any mind, looking to the group that was the furthest from the door.

The group in the middle was huddled against the wall, behind the podium where the assembly speaker would stand. There were only three people but they were all outfitted in gear that looked rather impressive. He didn’t focus on that, using his abilities to teleport behind them, swinging his blade back and forth. The confusion was the lynchpin of his attack, as they were too focused on the door and the turret in the middle of the room. An arm fell, then a helmet, and the final player in front of him was directly in front of his pistol, so Logan pulled the trigger, executing the man before his friends had hit the floor.

Pat, Meghan, and Jones used their past teamwork to take down the group on the left of the room just moments later, and Tony was finishing up his group as Logan looked over to see how he was faring. Looking around showed that there was a live feed from this room, with the camera pointed where Logan was now standing. He motioned to the rest of them to stay back, putting his pistol back into his holster, but his blade he swung into the podium in front of him, leaving it sticking out of the polished wood.

“Looks like we have an audience.” Logan took a long pause, turning his head while keeping an eye on the screens until he found the spot the virtual camera was pointing from. “Direct eye contact is important, especially when you have six of them. Who I am is not important, but what I am very much is. I am the end of the Dust Haven Free States. Anyone in the city will tell you of the devourers I command that are currently tearing people apart, limb from limb, and the others who are like me, humanoid creatures who fight like the players I took them from.” He knew that a bit of exaggeration would help cause confusion, and it would help the other players change their armor so they weren’t immediately attacked for helping him.

Logan took a deep breath, trying to project more confidence than he actually felt. He knew this was the right thing to do. Sometimes being the thing everyone was afraid of was better than everyone fighting each other all the time. A new window crashed into his view, and he couldn’t dismiss it. Everyone else looked like they had received it as well, so he checked what it said.

SERVER NOTICE

A player has led a non-human race to dominate a capitol settlement on a planet. The planet will be fully captured in three (3) in-game days if the capitol is not recaptured by a human force. If another non-human force captures, this message will trigger again, allowing humanity to have another chance.

WARNING

The Devourer Hivelord has awoken. If Dust Haven is not recaptured by humanity, the species will once again be the scourge to the galaxy.

May we succeed where our predecessors failed.

After reading the message, Logan began to laugh. A deep belly laugh that he couldn’t control, which sounded a lot like a villain’s laughter from a cartoon. As he calmed down, he looked back to where the camera was, staring for a few moments as he figured some people might need to read it a few times before things started to sink in.

“The system has told you what I am, and that I’m here to stay. Anyone who was watching saw a brief example of what I can do, so if you think you can fight me face-to-face, bring it on.” Logan grabbed the handle of his blade and kicked the podium, breaking it in the process. “I’ll be waiting for you, right here.” He pointed the tip of the mandible at the camera. “Bring your best.”

The camera feed cut off, as Jones stood next to a panel with rows of buttons and sliders. Everyone was quiet, and nobody said anything for a few minutes. They didn’t know what to expect, but it sure wasn’t the complete takeover by a species that was hated by the entire galaxy. People started to break away and talk to each other, avoiding Logan as he sat down on what remained of the stage, only his five friends coming closer to him.

Meghan, Pat, and Jones stood together, like the group was when Logan first met them. It wasn’t too long ago they met outside the outpost in the dusty wastes. Tony and Wendy were together, looking tired with their shoulders slumped. They were dealt a rough hand in all of this, being shoved into the cave just for defending him against their former leader. He trusted them all, hoping they trusted him as well, but he would understand if the changes he had chosen to take on made it difficult.

“If you guys have to leave, I’ll be fine here. I’ve got this.” Logan spoke with hope, but he didn’t know if he could do this without at least some of them. They looked to each other, all five of them. Tony spoke first, the exhaustion clear in his voice.

“I think we’re out for now. We’ve helped with our part, but at least for me, I’m done. I’ll log back in when everything settles down in a real day or so, but I can’t keep up with this high-energy guerilla war that’s been raging for months. Maybe we can explore the galaxy together when all of this is over, but I’m tired of this dust covered rock.” He looked to Wendy, who only nodded in agreement to what he was saying. They both disappeared into digital noise, their party icons going dark.

“Meghan and I have class, and Pat… I’m not sure what she has going on.” Jones said, looking first to Meghan and then Pat, who spoke next.

“I have an appointment I have to get to. Behavioral counseling for my supposed anti-social tendencies. I’ll be gone until tomorrow, sadly, since these appointments are long and boring, and also in a different city, so it takes a few hours to get there and back.” Pat sounded annoyed as she spoke, kicking a piece of debris on the ground.

“That’s okay, guys. You came through when I thought I was going to be alone. I’ll have the queen and the others to keep me company, and maybe some of the other players will stick around to help out for a while. Hell, maybe we’ll get more players who want to fight the militia to join us, or to at least slow them down a bit.” Logan would be sad that his friends were gone, but he knew that they didn’t have endless amounts of time to spend inside of the game world like he did.

They all said their goodbyes before logging off, leaving Logan alone in the assembly chamber. After sitting there in silence for twenty minutes, Logan pulled another egg out of his inventory. During his time in the caves, all alone with nothing to do but kill devourers, he picked up a few of the eggs, knowing that it would be important to have more than one if he was able to get out. He placed it in the center of the stage, letting it take hold and hatch into another queen. He couldn’t tell the difference in the physical form of this queen, but she seemed to be more timid than the first one. She bowed, but didn’t speak, which suited Logan just fine for the moment.

Ordering another series of spawning pools to be made, she set to work to make the desired constructs. She chose to use one of the smaller rooms that led off of the assembly chamber, so he could have the entire room to fight in if it came down to it, which it likely would. As the adrenaline slowly faded from his system, something he didn’t know would take so long, he let out a large sigh. Logan was tired, and he knew that he would need to try to sleep at some point. Not actual sleep, but return to the real world to let his brain rest from the increased perception of time.

Sending orders through the hivemind was easy, and he instructed all of his workers and warriors to bring any corpses and pieces of bodies back to the room he was in, so the queen could use the biomass to make new devourers to help defend the city from the players who would be there soon enough to try to take the city back.

The hours ticked by, slowly but surely. All he had to do was wait for them to come to him.