The Fall of Elysium (The Range Book #5): LitRPG Series, page 1
The Fall of Elysium
a novel
by Yuri Ulengov
The Range
Book#5
Magic Dome Books
The Range
Book #5: The Fall of Elysium
Copyright © Yuri Ulengov 2022
English translation copyright © Ksenia Akulova 2022
Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2022
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2022
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-7619-601-8
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
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Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
About the Author
Prologue
Earth Federation, Orion System
Rhapsody
Red Zone, a.k.a. Inferno. City ruins
IF BARKER HAD KNOWN what an unscheduled business trip to Rhapsody would turn into, he would never have agreed to it. Truth be told, he still didn’t know why he had done it in the first place. It must be the THC-Ultra that had made the decision for him.
“If I get out of here, I’ll quit for sure,” Barker muttered. “Cold turkey. I won’t even look at that crap again!”
A faint rustling noise came from the hallway. The game director froze for a moment, clutching a small-arms system he had borrowed from one of the dead Phoenix Group fighters with his sweaty fingers, and then started squeezing himself in an alcove in the wall. Oh shit! Get out of here! Get out of here, you monster! There's no one here! No one! Do you hear me?
The monster didn’t hear him. The rustling noise came through again, only to turn into the distinct sound of footsteps and heavy breathing.
Barker heard the creature suck in air with a hoarse, whistling sound. He imagined its flattened snout with a diamond-shaped bony ridge, an elongated nose, a forked tongue peeking out between its razor-sharp teeth, and nearly whimpered in fear. It all looked different on the screens in his cozy office at a distant orbital station.
Oh man!
If Barker knew how to pray, he undoubtedly would have started doing so. But the game director had always rejected religion, considering it a sign of weakness — until this moment. He was willing to believe in Christ, Vishnu, Krishna, or God-Emperor, if only it’d make this nightmare go away.
How the hell had he fallen for this?
The footsteps were getting closer.
Barker grasped the weapon as if hoping it would save him by its mere presence. The barrel was shaking in his hands, but missing the huge creature from a few feet away would be pretty much impossible, even in his current condition. Whether or not it would do any damage was a different question. The Phoenix Group fighters had used even bigger guns, but that didn’t help them.
Suddenly, Barker realized that his legs had fallen asleep. If he had to run, he simply wouldn’t be able to get up. And he’d probably have to run.
Damn it!
He tried to change position. It almost worked. Only at the last moment, as he tried to shift his body weight onto his other leg, the edge of his boot hit a small pebble, sending it rolling down the hallway.
Barker’s stomach dropped. The clattering of the rolling stone seemed to be audible blocks away.
The creature heard it, too.
Barker could physically feel the monster coming toward him. He knew it was the end. He had five seconds to live, no more.
Man, why had he gotten himself into this? Why??
Four.
The footsteps were getting louder. Barker pressed the stock into his shoulder, trying to aim at where the monster would appear.
Three.
He could hear the monster’s heavy breathing through the blood pounding in his temples. He felt that he could reach the creature with his hand. But if that were true, it would have attacked already. He still had a few more heartbeats left. And then...
Two.
Go away, you beast! Go away! Get out of here!
One.
The creature sucked in air through its nose so close that the hair on Barker’s head stirred. Something crunched under the monster’s clawed paws.
And then Barker, unable to believe his luck, heard the footsteps receding.
“Holy crap!” the game director breathed out after making sure the danger had passed. Hadn’t the creature seen him? Hadn’t it smelled him? He was covered in Xenos’ blood and guts head to toe, though, so it wasn’t surprising. God, had he really just gotten lucky?
At that moment, his communicator beeped — loudly and annoyingly. It was so loud that the sound even produced its own echo. It was weak and faded quickly, but it was enough for the creature to realize it had been duped.
The monster’s growling tore through the hallway’s silence, followed by a sound that would haunt Barker in his nightmares — assuming he made it out, of course.
The sound of claws dragging on the synthetic concrete.
There was no point in running. No chance. Feeling something break inside him, Barker stood up and stepped into the middle of the hallway, pressing the stock against his shoulder. This time, the barrel didn’t shake. To his surprise, the game director didn’t feel anything but anger. And he seemed to have someone to take it out on.
Barker aimed at a shadow rushing toward him and pulled the trigger.
The first quick burst missed its target. Fortunately, the mercenary who had previously owned the weapon had loaded tracer rounds into the magazine, and Barker was able to correct his aim in time. Shifting his aim, he pulled the trigger again.
The bullets struck the creature’s snout, causing it to jerk back and nearly toppling it over. Barker felt a painful thrill grow inside him. Mixed with jubilation, it burst out as a wild, triumphant cry.
Stepping back, Barker tightened his grip on the handle and pulled the trigger again. Another hit. And another one. And another one.
The large-caliber rounds ripped chunks of flesh out of the creature, slowing it down with each hit. But that didn’t stop it from trying to get to its prey. At first it ran, then it walked. At the very end, it was crawling, unable to get up.
The click of the firing pin, announcing that the magazine was empty, coincided with the final convulsion of the monstrous body sprawled a few feet from Barker. The game director pulled the trigger frantically a few more times. Then, he put the gun down and let out a nervous laugh.
“Bitch…” he said through laughter. “Bitch... Take that, bitch!” he yelled as he kicked the lifeless body. “Not that scary anymore, are you?”
I’m losing it — a thought flashed through his mind. I’m going insane.
The Auto-Doc buzzed, pricking his shoulder twice. A couple of seconds later, the game director felt his mind clearing up.
As he staggered away from the slain monster, Barker leaned against the wall and threw up.
“Crap,” he muttered, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “Oh crap.”
He spent the next minute or so trying to figure out the mechanisms of the small-arms system and replace the empty magazine with a full one. When he finished, he slung the weapon over his shoulder and only then took the communicator out of his pocket.
How the hell had it beeped at all?
Barker unlocked the screen, glanced at the notifications bar, and nearly jumped in excitement. The network! The freaking network! Was this really going to end soon?
However, his joy was premature. There was no communication with orbit — neither text nor voice. Apparently, the communicator had picked up a signal from one of the remaining operational repeaters.
Damn it!
At first, Barker wanted to smash the gadget, but he held back. It could still come in handy. Its antenna, more powerful than in implanted transmitters, allowed him to keep an eye on the situation whenever the signal from the repeaters came through. Of course, he couldn’t send a message to orbit but at least —
Wait!
&n
A glimmer of hope forced his fear to recede. If he managed to send a message, there was a chance it would reach the recipient, provided the recipient was in this hemisphere of Rhapsody. After all, the repeaters couldn’t have all gone down at once, could they? No, they couldn’t have. So there was still a chance, albeit very slight. Given his situation, though, even the slightest chance of salvation shouldn’t be taken for granted.
But whom should he message?
The nearest Green Zone was Elysium. But would the signal reach there? Even when times were calm, communication would regularly fail in Inferno. At this point though, when communication with the satellites had been cut off, hoping that the signal would travel all the way and be successfully received was stupid. But there were no other options! Or...
Barker suddenly perked up. There was an option! It wasn’t guaranteed, but still.
Barker activated the chat, entered a seven-digit alphanumeric code into the Recipient field, quickly typed the message set to the highest priority, and, after a moment’s hesitation, clicked the Send icon.
The communicator beeped, thought for a few seconds, and then displayed a notification.
Message sent.
At that moment, the network icon blinked and went out.
The game director exhaled and slid down the wall as if all the air had been let out of him.
Well, he took the chance. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be in vain. Next, he needed to pull himself together, come to his senses, and try to survive until help arrived.
If it arrived at all.
Barker shook his head to drive the gloomy thoughts away and slapped himself on the cheeks a few times to liven up. Then, he got up, picked up the small-arms system, and tried to decide which way he should go. He had to find shelter, and the more reliable it was, the better.
Barker pondered, made up his mind and, clutching his weapon tightly, headed into the darkness.
Chapter 1
Earth Federation, Orion System
Rhapsody
Red Zone, a.k.a. Inferno
Avengers Clan outpost
THE MOMENT I MENTIONED the Invasion, the clan’s shared ComLink channel blew up with a loud cacophony of voices. I winced, grabbed the flask off my belt, and drank the rest of the water. Then I muted the main channel and called T-Bag.
“T-Bag, how is it going over there?”
Silence. My stomach dropped. Damn, were they...
“T-Bag! Come in!”
“What’s with all the yelling, Commander?” a voice said behind me.
I turned around to see the scout enter the module with Meg leaning on him. A wave of relief swept over me. Phew! They were alive, goddamnit! Alive!
“Wow!” T-Bag looked at the dead bodies scattered on the floor and whistled in astonishment. “Did you kill them all?”
“No, they got old and died,” I grinned. “What about you guys? Did you destroy all the morphs over there?”
“Yeah, right!” T-Bag said. “We were about to retreat into the gun room when the creatures went nuts. The smaller ones just dropped dead. The bigger ones started attacking each other. Some ran away like crazy. Long story short, we killed the ones that stayed and hurried over here to help you. But it looks like you’ve got it all covered.”
“I do,” I nodded.
Weird. What could have happened to the creatures to make them behave that way?
“If I may, boss, it seems that the Xenos from the various packs were controlled by the Queen. After we destroyed her, that control went away. The brains of the simplest organisms could no longer function without external control so they died. The more advanced specimens survived. However, their level of development didn’t allow them to adequately set priorities after gaining free will, and they began to fight among themselves,” Alice said in my head.
Controlled by the Queen? So that thing was the Queen? A sentient supreme Xenos? One of the types who organized the Invasion? Hmm, I’d never have thought that. She wasn’t particularly hard to kill. I wouldn’t call her smart either...
Although, who knew how smart she was by Xenos standards? She had been managing the Lair quite successfully, despite her limited abilities. She had taken over the outpost, mutated into a Jammer, and raised that morphosaur. Those intelligent zombies were also her doing. It wasn’t really up to me to judge her intelligence, though, given that I had almost gotten my entire squad killed. The only reason she was an easy kill was that she wasn’t a combat unit by design. That creature had different — organizational — tasks. So it all made sense.
Man, I’m starving!
The new biobots had been great, no doubt about that. They had provided me with the necessary energy reserves and reduced my energy consumption. The only thing was that the reserves had been generated at my own expense. I must have lost seven pounds. I desperately needed to finish up here and get some food.
“What’s that noise in the shared channel all about?” T-Bag asked.
The scout helped Meg get comfortable on the edge of the equipment table and looked around for a place to sit down.
“I’ll tell you later,” I grimaced. “I need to finish something here first.”
I went back to the interface, opened the contact list, found Trix’s name, and called the hacker directly via ComLink.
“Listen to me carefully,” I said. “You can panic and freak out later. Right now, we need to deal with the urgent matters: reboot the system, get control of the outpost, and start with the repairs. If I’m right about what’s going on — and I probably am — then we need to turn this joke of an outpost into an impenetrable fortress. So how do we reboot the core?”
I had to hand it to the kid — he pulled himself together in an instant. There was a moment’s pause, and then the hacker spoke in a cool and collected voice.
“I’m ready. Here’s what we need to do...”
* * *
“Done! Contact established! Altai, we did it!” Trix’s excited voice came through ComLink, making me wince.
Urgh, why yell?
“We did what?”
I looked at the core. Oh, I see. The orange sphere, almost completely dull after all my actions, began to glow again, getting brighter, the first micro-lightnings running timidly across its surface.
“I have the system under control. It’s just...”
“What?”
My heart skipped a beat. Had something gone wrong again?
“We can’t register the transfer of the outpost’s ownership to our clan! There’s no network! We can’t use our clan experience points towards the outpost’s progress, order resources, improve — ”
“Goddammit, Trix!” I couldn’t help myself. “What progress? Do you think this is a game again? Have you forgotten what’s going on around you? Can we control the outpost at all?”
