In Search of the Uldans, page 11
part #2 of Galactogon Series
“Halt!” someone yelled and my HUD informed me that the suit had blocked a manipulator beam. I shook my head, recovering my senses—the landing had been rough and for a couple of moments I had lost my breath. Stretching my limbs, I jumped up and looked around. The two guards were looking with puzzlement at the remains of their manipulators. They obviously did not expect to meet someone who was encased in an armor suit on the top floor. Two blasts of plasma quickly cleared the corridor, turning the guards into flickering boxes of loot. I did not receive any alerts about losing rapport with the Qualians, since I no longer had any.
Afraid that I would lose the element of surprise by running around in search of stairs or an elevator, I pointed my blaster at the floor, pulled the trigger and went plummeting down to the floor below. If I had more time, I would definitely wander around the cells and free whoever was being held here. Maybe I’d even earn a couple unique missions for my blatant rudeness toward the Qualians, and yet the timer was counting down before my eyes, reminding me that I might lose my marine soon.
When the dust settled, I pulled off the same trick, leaving behind another pair of twinkling crates. The enemies had no chance. Kiddo and her XO had no protection. One random shot from the guards—and our entire escape would go to hell.
It took me a good while to bust down to the second underground level—the prison had seven floors. Having blasted the guards, I called through the external loudspeaker:
“Marin-a-ah!”
All I heard in response, was a rustle from the vertical tunnel I had made in the floors above. Apparently, the guards who approached the noise tried to figure out what was going on and how to react to it. I also realized that prison cells could be soundproofed, and Marina did not hear me, as I did. So I had to call her on the PDA:
“What cell are you in?”
“I don’t know! You’re already here?” Marina couldn’t wait to get out.
“Uh-huh. Do you hear anything?” I bashed in the nearest door and looked inside. Empty.
“No. I mean, I can hear you smashing pots and pans into the mic, but otherwise nothing.”
“That’s too bad. I’m here on the second underground level, looking for you and your prince. Step away from the cell door just in case. We wouldn’t want any workplace accidents occurring. Safety first and all that.”
“Okay, okay. Make some more noise.” Another door flew off its hinges, and again there was no one in the cell. “No, I don’t hear anything. The cell must be soundproofed.”
“In that case, just sit tight and wait. Warn Anton so I don’t crush him with the door either.”
I busted down another door and quickly glanced inside. And having grown accustomed to finding nothing, I almost jumped back as I encountered a pair of frightened Qualian eyes. This race even kept their own people in their dungeons. Cursing and telling him to scram, I tore the next door off its hinges. Empty. There were about fifty cells on this floor. It seemed my search could go on for a long time.
I ended up stumbling across Anton first. The Qualians had left him in his clothes, confiscating his armor suit, as I expected. Squinting from the bright light, he was about to go outside, but I stopped him:
“Stay here a little longer. I’ll come pick you up after I’ve found Marina. It’s dangerous to go without armor.”
I found the girl next door. Leaving her with Anton, I returned to the shaft I had made in the prison building and patted myself on the back for my foresight: The overhead floors already bristled with the reinforcements’ blasters. A short flight upward and several salvos from my blasters cleared the way. Remaining at the first underground level, I hung my head down and yelled:
“Get out! Quickly! Grab my hand. I’ll haul you up one at a time.”
Marina climbed up first and demanded a blaster. I winced—this was a shameful oversight in my plan. I knew that the players in prison would be without armor or weapons, but didn’t think of this trifle—a small shield generator and spare blasters for the fugitives. It was a good thing that my inventory had a couple forgotten assault blasters lying around. Kiddo hissed something with displeasure but took the weapon.
I reached in to extract Anton but encountered the Qualian prisoner I’d just released instead. He was dangling in the hole, trying to clamber up to our floor. I couldn’t care less about his fate, but he was getting in the way of my escape. So yanking him up with a quick jerk, I hauled up Anton after him. Marina immediately aimed her blaster at the Qualian.
“Don’t shoot,” I ordered, about to jet up to the ground floor.
“What do you need him for?” Marina hissed through her teeth.
“What do you need to shoot him for? Do you miss your pirate ways?” The girl’s reaction surprised me. Her voice had anger in it and her look didn’t bode anything nice for the ex-prisoner. It was the kind of look you give to your sworn nemesis. The last thing I needed was for Marina to start losing her mind, confusing the game with meatspace. I wonder when the last time she exited the game was…
“They must be crushed like the cockroaches they are,” Captain Kiddo’s demeanor confirmed my fears. Damn, why now? I hate potential problems. The girl really was immersing herself into Galactogon much deeper than was good for her. Then again, I wasn’t about to lecture a grown woman about the dangers of VR immersion. If Marina wanted to drive herself mad, it was her brain to do with as she pleased. At the same time, at the moment, any problems could grow to become critical.
“In that case, this cockroach is a pet of mine and only I have the right to crush him. Let’s not tinker around each other’s brains and business, partner. Okay? Good. Wait for me here, I’m going to climb higher.”
We passed through the next two floors without incident and I let my guard down. There were no guards to be seen. Marina had silently acknowledged my point about my ‘pet’ and stopped aggroing the Qualian. Having reached the second floor, I barely had time to assess the situation when a large clump of plasma smashed into me. I was thrown back a few meters, slamming into the concrete wall. The next blast came flying quickly after the first, wanting to make friends with me too. I looked at my screens: A beam cannon stood at the far end of the corridor, firing in tandem with the Qualian squad manning it. In this production I had been cast as the target. There was nowhere to go.
Yet my armor held. The red plasma bursts tossed me around, but they couldn’t breach my shields. My blasters locked on and the Qualian beam cannon lit up with a flickering shield, blocking my attack. The reply came instantly, but the wall behind me backed me up again. Noticing some movement on the right, I realized that things were getting worse. Four Qualians were bringing up a second beam cannon. My armor suit wouldn’t survive fire from two of those at once. Meanwhile, their shields blocked my attempts to defend myself. Without waiting for the second gun to be installed, and taking advantage of a pause in the first one’s fire, I darted into the doorway, retreating to my party. The way up was closed.
“Security?” Marina had already guessed what was going on from the plasma flashing in the hole in the ceiling. Knocking down one of the cell doors and killing the prisoner within, Marina drove everyone in, stuck her blaster out into the corridor and began to pump suppressive fire down its length. Nodding, I raised my blasters to protect us against any kamikaze attempts from above and called my ship:
“Brainiac, I need fire support ASAP. We are located on the second floor under the ship. The Qualians are on the third floor, about twenty meters south of our position. We can’t break through. Blast the walls and pick us up.”
“The probability of collateral damage to the captain of the ship are at least thirty percent. I strongly recommend leaving the corridor,” Brainiac wouldn’t shut up with his recommendations.
“If you don’t blast these walls, the probability of collateral damage will be 100%!” I yelled, shooting into the opening. The building around us shook and the opening filled with Qualians with beam cannons. These boys weren’t wasting their time! If we don’t hurry, we’re doomed! The building shook a few more times. The opening began to widen as hunks of concrete fell away. Screams sounded from above and dust filled the corridor. Unable to think of anything better, I covered my party with my suit, shielding them from the flying fragments.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked, as soon as the shards stopped spattering my shields. Our visibility was no more than a meter because of the dust, and my spatial scanner showed nothing but a hodgepodge of debris and ruins.
“So far, yes, but we can’t breathe,” Marina croaked and coughed. Activating the armor suit’s medunit, I injected all three of my companion’s with an equine dose of restorative solution.
“Get us out of here, Brainiac. Right this instant!”
“The passage has been created. I can see you, but I cannot extract you without the marine. Please follow my instructions. I will guide you to the extraction point. Leave the cell and move ten meters to the left, walking as closely to the wall as possible—there is a hole in the center of the corridor.”
“Get on my shoulders!” I ordered the Qualian, picking up Marina and Anton with my arms. They couldn’t hear Brainiac and I wasn’t about to waste time explaining what was going on. If they wanted to live, they would do as I say.
The Qualian wanted to live it seems. With the agility of a mongoose, the gray-skinned humanoid instantly climbed up onto my shoulders, shifted, settling more comfortably, and, went still, clutching my helmet. The armor suit’s servomotors howled from the load but went on functioning. I went out to the corridor, squeezed against the wall, and almost fell: The floor collapsed beneath me unable to withstand my weight. The stabilization system automatically fired the thrusters, allowing me to hover over the collapse. Very carefully, like a sapper in a minefield, I leaned forward, forcing the armor suit to fly straight. The floor was streaming under my feet but I didn’t dare step on it again.
“There is a cell door to your right. Go in.”
The door was locked, and my hands, like my blasters, were occupied with my passengers. I asked Marina to deal with the door. Sick of having nothing to do, Marina didn’t have to be asked twice. She aimed her blaster and unloaded its entire clip until a gust of fresh air cleared the dust around us. Waiting for further instructions from Brainiac, I was not ready for the panorama that opened up—the prison ended on the other side of the doorway. Brainiac had demolished half of the building to save our skins. Now Warlock hung hovering three meters ahead of us, her entrance glittering amiably. I leaned forward again and slowly dragged my rescues toward the ship.
“We will reach the end of our service life and get scrapped before you reach us, Cap’n,” the serpent gibed poking out from the orbship. Grabbing my suit, the engineer adroitly but carefully pulled us inside. “Okay. These three are coming with me to the medbay. Their condition is almost critical. You should have warned that they were without armor, I would have sent over a spare. Why save them if you’re going to finish them off yourself? Ah, young people.”
“Brainiac extract the cryptosaur!” I ordered, ignoring the snake. “It’s time to get off this planet.”
“There might be a problem with that.” Despite the fact that the engineer was occupied with healing the escapees, he did not stop monitoring the situation around the ship. “A few seconds ago, four cruisers ships entered the Raydon system. Either we make our getaway now or we won’t get away period. They’ll be in orbit in five minutes.”
“Can we bind all the passengers to the ship?” I asked pensively. The players had found their bearings too quickly and reinforced with capital ships. I’d only been gone about ten minutes!
“Are you in the mood for reassurance or sincerity?” the snake maintained her wry tone no matter what happened.
“Keep it up and I’ll sell you to the Zatrathi,” I growled angrily. The snake sensed I was not in the mood for her jokes and replied strictly to the point:
“Negative. Binding to the ship is not feasible due to the absence of the planetary spirit. The marine needs help, Cap’n—the number of items he has harvested is too large for him to carry back to the ship on his own.”
“If he needs help, then we can go help him. The important thing is we do it in time,” I muttered to myself, reloading my armor suit’s powercells. My blasters had spent half of the suit’s energy.
“Get the droids ready. We have to retrieve the marine and the loot he’s found!” the ship banked sharply, landing right at the entrance to the stockpile. The gunner cleared the area of Qualians, allowing me and the droids to leave the ship. The front door had bulged from inside like a burn blister. As I looked on, it bulged and buckled and then burst, spraying us with shards of steel. My marine’s snout appeared in the newly-formed hole. All three eyes of the rhinoceros glowed with happiness from his successful mission as he dumped the loot in a huge pile right at the entrance.
“Let’s go!” I ordered the droids and flew into the breach. Grabbing the first item, which looked like an engine component, I dragged it back to the ship. The marine came trotting behind me, holding a square-shaped object of a mysterious purpose in his teeth. The properties dialog informed me that this was some A-class item, but I didn’t bother delving further. The engineer can figure out what can be used and what can be consigned to the cargo holds. In the meantime, we better be praying to all the gods of Galactogon that we can get off this planet.
“The loading is complete.” One trip by the droids was enough to secure the loot. I flew back to the ship, ordering:
“Emergency blast off! Set course for the ship graveyard.”
“ETA is one minute thirty seconds.” Despite my armor suit, I felt all the momentum of the abrupt launch, which pressed me so hard against the floor that I couldn’t even take a step.
“How are the passengers?” I inquired anxiously. Such inertia could have a bad effect on their health—up to the point of forcing them to respawn.
“First he picks up a bunch of stowaways and then we’re the ones who have to nurse them.” The snake returned to her normal mood, not passing up a chance to complain about the captain. “Your passengers are fine. I’ve placed them into medcapsules. They have another twenty seconds of rest ahead of them.”
“Send them to my cabin when you’re done.” I could not help smiling. If you forget for a moment that the snake is a regular NPC, you might imagine that she is a grumpy woman who’s married some poor oaf and is now constantly unhappy with him. Either the door in the kitchen creaks too much or he earns too little money, or he’s leaving his socks everywhere. And at the same time, she’s ready to bite the head off anyone who suggests that her husband isn’t the greatest man ever.
“What’s new?” Marina appeared after a minute.
“There are four cruisers maneuvering around Raydon. They are on the hunt for a terrifying and insolent pirate. They’ve brought fifty carracks with them. Several guilds have gathered here, but they haven’t yet decided who the leader is. I think that should gain us a couple of minutes. The ship graveyard is straight ahead. I have a spare armor suit ready for you. Gear up as fast as you can and go get your cruiser. To be frank, Marina, I don’t know how we are going to get out of here.”
“What class are the cruisers, Frank?”
“One C-class and one B-class.” Ignoring her bad pun, I checked the data. “We should have a fight on our hands.”
“We’ll see about that. Stay near the hull, and don’t do anything crazy. I’ll figure it out myself, just let me get home.”
“Don’t forget about the logs for the Precians. I need them immediately, as soon as you reach your ship. Everything else is secondary,” I reminded her about our earlier agreement.
“I’ll send you the logs.” Marina had already climbed into the suit and adjusted it to herself. “Thanks for getting us out. Do you have a suit for Anton?”
I shook my head without looking up from my screens. I didn’t have any other armor suits. Marina wanted to add something else, but the floor beneath her disappeared, and with a trailing cry, the girl fell out into space, choking on the phrase she had begun. A robotic arm grabbed the indignant pirate and placed her on a small platform. She shook her fist at me from there.
“The ship graveyard,” the snake announced. “I’m picking up several hyperdrive disruptors blocking our hyperspace jump. There’s also an EM cannon locking onto us. Warning! 25 torpedoes inbound.”
I am ashamed to admit, but instead of thinking about torpedoes flying at me, I stared at the graveyard. Lestran had taken The Space Cucumber and Warlock had never been destroyed yet, so I had never been here before. A graveyard as such did not exist. In the middle of space hung a small platform with a control panel. Captains and their crew approached and entered an access code for their destroyed vessel, which would then materialize immediately behind the platform. They joyful players quickly clambered inside and went off in search of adventure. In order to steal something from the graveyard, you had to not only know the code, but also the ship’s homeworld and status—that is, whether it had been destroyed or not.
