Blood and Profit: Chapter 33

Connor checked the synchronization status between the bio computer and the rest of the ship a final time. Once it passed thirty three percent anything that went wrong would mean a catastrophic failure in the bio computer and another two years to grow a replacement. The sync status showed thirty seven percent. He took a deep breath and not for the first time missed the physical presence of his nanobot generator.

“Sir, team one has secured the landing bay.” One of the other twenty four members of his personally selected team announced.

Connor pushed off from the wall he was resting against and made his way over to the other side of the computer bay. He felt around the wall until he a panel lit up. “Thank god for sloppy corporate oversight.” He sighed with relief. He pulled his right suit glove off and placed his hand on the panel. It scanned his hand and the extremely well disguised door slid open revealing a maintenance hallway. He floated in zero gravity as his team went through the door into the artificial low gravity of the hall. Once they were through he passed through as well and the door closed behind him.

Every member of the team removed their suits to reveal tactical gear. Within a few minutes each of the newly revealed soldiers were assembled into four teams of six people. Their helmets had visors with heads up displays that showed them the way to the battleships bridge.

Connor had placed an arm band around his bicep that injected him with nanobots at the required intervals. He took the offered pistol from the leader of the squad he would be traveling with throughout the ship. He then quickly turned to the rest of the men. “With Laborite soldiers on the ship we’re moving to plan C. You all know your targets and goals, be smart, stay safe, shoot to kill.”

The men nodded and exited the maintenance hallway, splitting off in different direction to secure choke points along the route from the landing bay to the bridge and decrease any resistance. He and his team turned into a major hallway that they were planning on taking to the bridge and discovered an entrenched group of Laborite soldiers. He ducked back down the side hallway he had come out of along with two of the soldiers, one had taken a very powerful suppression bolt to the face and was dragged by his unconscious hand into the safety of the opposite side of the hallway by the other two members of the unit. “I need reinforcements in the primary command hallways follow my teams path and you’ll come up right behind us, there’s a group of at least six soldiers behind combat barriers and we need to clear them out.”

The channel wasn’t silent for long. “Bravo team is closest, we’ll double back.” Bravo team lead confirmed.

Connor switched channels until Rusty’s name came up with a countdown timer next to it. “Rusty we’ve been delayed, we’re going to be five or so minutes late getting to the bridge.” Connor alerted him.

Rusty’s voice came through along with what sounded like an warning alarm in the background. “You made it onto the ship, the timeline only really matters for everything except securing the ship.” Connor

“Unless we’re forced to move to plan B.” Connor pointed out.

Even with the alarms in the background Rusty sounded calmer than Connor expected “Lets worry about plan B if and when we get to plan B.”

Lidarion: Chapter 2

Bernard had cleaned himself up and changed into a tunic and pants that were more formal in nature and less covered with dirt. He made his way down the steps but was stopped by the conversation that he overheard happening on the first floor. Squints was discussing the trip with his sister and Trent.

“It’s long past time Brooke. For this and many other things to come to an end.” Squints stated with sadness in his voice.

“And what do we do if the truth returns everything back to the way it was?” She asked worry in her voice.

“The truth may not be the best option, but nothing can turn back time now. We have to deal with the way things are. And as unpleasant as it will be, I think Squints is right.” Trent offered.

“It would be less unpleasant if you didn’t decided this all needed to happen on a road trip to the other side of the planet.” Brooke pointed out.

Bernard was confused, he had no clue what ‘truth’ they could be talking about and whatever it was had to relate to him, and Squints had offered to take him on his trip to the Minotaur cliff city.

“Brooke I’m not saying you shouldn’t be a part of this process. I just think he’ll need proof, and some time to let it all sink in.”

Bernard couldn’t stand it any longer and came around the corner. “Let what sink in?” He asked nonchalantly.

Brooke was holding back tears and forcing a smile on her face. “That you’re not my baby brother anymore.” She explained.

Bernard returned the fake smile. “I haven’t been your baby brother in a long time, not that I can remember but just based off my age you had to have given up this “baby brother” thing years ago.” 

He pointed out.

She got up and gave him a genuine hug. “We may be adults now, but you’ll always be my baby 

brother, and I will always love you.” He returned he hug which lasted longer than any of their other hugs that he could remember.

“Brooke I’m going to be gone for the summer, not the rest of my life.” He pointed out. She reluctantly let go of him and made her way into the kitchen.

“Yeah well. Neither if you is leaving till the morning, Dinner will be ready soon and I want to hear all about the darkest night celebration in the capitol.

Bernard listened along with Trent and Brooke as Squints regaled them with tales of the winter festival from their previous home. The food and the performances, the fireworks and the nightly celebrations of dance and song. He knew that there was more than just the sadness of temporary distance in his sisters heart and the fact that he could think of nothing but his own lack of memory as the cause or some form of symptom of that sadness worried him.

They ate dinner together and talked of old times. They told stories that Bernard had no real memory of but had heard so many times he could recite whole sections of them himself. He had initially been excited about his impending adventure with his friend, but try as he might he was unable to shake the feeling that his entire life would never been the same come tomorrow morning.

The Xp; Chapter 2

It’s a busy day in Finderal. A large city built around the player economy. At the very center of the city sat a large fountain depicting the three characters that started Finderal when the game was a text based Multi User Dungeon. Bob sat down and pulled her Sabertaur off her back. The combination of guitar and giant sword was slightly taller than she was if she stood next to it but she played it with a level of skill that made the imposing size of it disappear. Another player logged into the game sitting next to her. “I really appreciate you coming back Stygian..” She said without stopping her song.

The other player was hidden under layers of black and blue armor. “I was getting bored with real life.” Stygian replied.

Bob stood and slung her Sabertaur on her back again. “Do want to check your bags or need to do anything else to get familiarized with the game?”

Stygian stood up and shook his head in the negative. “No, let’s get going. If I start rummaging through my bags it’ll take me weeks just to figure out what’s worth anything anymore.”

Bob nodded and made her way out of the center of the city. Stygian followed. “Blackout’s meeting us at the dungeon entrance.”

Stygian laughed. “That fool is still around?”

Bob nodded. “And leveled half a dozen characters.”

The crowds were thick as they made their way through the scrolls and potions district. “so why the rush all of a sudden?” Stygian asked.

Bob was shoving people nearly twice her size out of her path. “Blackout’s got and acquaintance, who has a roommate that’s a data miner. He found the stats for a series of weapons in the expansion that’s about to come out that use nothing but old world materials.”

They cleared the scrolls and potions district and were now on the outskirts of town. Once they had finally put some distance between them and Finderal. Stygian continued their conversation. “Am I missing the part where this isn’t just sliding for dollars?” he asked slightly annoyed.

Bob turned around to clarify face to face. “LOTS of dollars.” She held her hands out wide as if describing an impossibly large fish. “Orb’s of questionable sanity are required for each one of these new weapons and this dungeon drops them like they are going out of style.”

Stygian pointed at something behind Bob. “Same shit different day, eh Bob?” Torcano asked.

Bob turned around angry and annoyed. “Jeez B.O. did you even try to fight him?” She demanded of her friend who was sitting defeated on the ground.

Blackout pointed at Torcano. “He snuck up on me, and my name is Blackout not B.O”

Bob shrugged. “Coulda fooled me, cause you stink.”

Stygian shook his huge armored head. “You two fight like an old married couple.”

Torcano looked at him in pleasant surprise. “Stygian! It’s been so long…I hardly recognized you!” he laughed.

Stygian shrugged his huge armored shoulders. “I’ve lost weight.” He offered. As they fist bumped.

Torcano turned his attention back to Bob and Blackout. “All right then, who tipped you of about the orbs?” he asked, looking intensely in Blackout’s direction.

“The…matriarch?” Blackout offered hesitantly.

Torcano shook his head. “Uh huh, sure she did. No matter, it’s an easy fix. I wouldn’t bother farming them here from now on. I dropped the percentages back down to a more reasonable level.

Bob kicks at the dirt. “It really gonna be like that?” She asked.

Torcano nodded. “Sorry Bob, it’s my job.”

She glared up at him. “Being a dick is NOT your job.” She accused.

He smiled right back at her. “Always the silver tongue.” He turned his attention to Stygian. “I’d say welcome back but you were gone for nearly two years, been back almost twenty minutes and you already got wrapped up with these two, might want to think about finding new people to play with my friend.” Torcano offered before he waved his hand and disappeared in a flash of light.

Blackout stood up and brushed himself off “well, now what?” He asked.

Bob thought about it for a second and then perked up. “Sea of ever burning fury?” She offered.

“The sea of what?” Stygian asked.

“Oh man! Wait till you see this place, the artists really out did themselves!” She started heading off in the direction of the sea.

Stygian and Blackout followed. “Any good gear for a Ruffian in the sea?” Stygian asked.

Blackout nodded. “The gauntlets of eternal rage.” He answered.

Bob turned around and talked to them while walking backwards. “Oh yeah! Those drop off the magma squid!” She waved her arms in an attempt to interpret the squid, making both Blackout and Stygian laugh.

University of Console Heroics: Chapter 2

The student union building was completely packed. On any other day it would have been a great place to meet with friends, get lunch, talk to an adviser, work on a Greek life fund raiser, or any one of a hundred other social things that you might find yourself interested in doing throughout a semester of school. Today all of those things and more was happening with every possible student that could fit in the building.

The Nu Tau Delta sorority was running a fund raiser for the 1 up foundation, they were selling 1 cUP cakes and their table was easily the most popular place in the union. Tanya, Faith, and Lacey were manning the booth and being as nice and polite to their customers as they could as they took handfuls of cash.

Clay was sitting at the far edge of the food court area. From where he was sitting he could see the insanity of the fund raising table. He shook his head and returned his attention to his studies. His table was covered with several books all of which he was using to prep notes for a class. Porter swiped an unused chair and sat at the opposite side of Clay’s tiny overfilled table, His Rho Sigma Gamma shirt is black with camo colored letters.

“Dude! Last night was crazy awesome! Where were you?” Porter asked after taking a drink from his soda cup.

“I was working.” Clay replied without looking up from his notes.

Porter smiled and made a donut with his right pointer finger and thumb and moved it over his left pointer finger. “Like workin’ a girl?”

Clay looked up from his notes and put down his pencil. “No, working my job, over at Supply and Demand.” He clarified. Watching as Porter glanced at the dude sitting at the table next to Clay’s. He was in the middle of an intense phone call, completely ignoring his lunch as he yelled into his phone. 

“Dude are you even listening to me?” Clay asked.

Porter brought his attention back to his friend. “Of course I’m listening to you, and I don’t like what I am hearing. A job, really? Clay you are a Thug Studies major.” Porter takes the guys soda without a glitch.

“And I steal enough shit to make grades, so don’t worry about it.” Clay watched as Porter pulled a flask out of his pocket and poured a large amount into the soda. Clay dropped back into his book at Porter took a swig of his concoction.

Porter scanned the crowd in the union for a moment until he remembered why he had sat down in the first place. “Oh hey! You should come by the house tonight. We’re gonna order some pizza’s and play I’d steal it. The pledge with the lowest cash value of cars claimed has to wash every toilet in the house with a tooth brush.”

Clay realized he wasn’t going to get any more studying done with Porter at the table and closed his books. “As much fun as drinking and watching British car shows sounds, I gotta finish this for my class tomorrow.”

Porter took another drink and rolled his eyes. “Dude! We never see you any more, what’s with all the responsibility?” He picked up one of Clay’s books and looked it over. “History of the second dimension: the complexity of simplicity." What the hell is this crap?”

Clay swipes the book and the cup from Porter. He puts the book in his bag and takes a drink from the cup. “It’s the class I’m taking. I’m a senior, I’m set to graduate at the end of this year. I wish I could, but I can’t stay in college forever.”

Porter stole his cup back. “Speak for yourself, I’ma graduate the day I die.”

Clay packed his other books away one by one. “Oh sure, the way you drink we’ll be at the same graduation ceremony.”

Porter looked out around the union again. “Oh sure! Two funerals but only one dead guy.”

Clay glared at his friend. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked.

Porter held his hands out to highlight the union. “It means that this is the life Clay. We get four years, maybe five years, if we’re lucky to live it up. Then society demands that we die from the neck up and complacently sit behind a desk, fuck that.”

Clay grabs the soda back and takes another drink. “Ok then, so how come the only other option is staying here and living from the waist down?”

Porter raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

Clay zipped his bag. “There’s more in this life for me than sex, drugs, and alcohol.”

Porter counted off the list on his fingers and then nodded. “Dude if you wanted to watch sports instead of Car commercials you coulda just said so. Clay’s shoulders slumped in frustration. Porter took his cup from Clay. “Seriously though, stop by the house tonight. Everyone would be glad to see you.”

Clay stands up and slings his bag over his shoulders. “I’ll try.” He offered heading off toward his Class. Porter noticed the guy at the next table was still having his conversation and had yet to touch his forgotten lunch. He waiting until the guy had his back partially turned and swiped it easily. Clay appeared over his should and took the drink.

Porter flipped Clay off without looking as he dug into his newly procured burrito.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 6

“Um, guys, I don’t think we should be standing here.” Warren said as Raptarus’ body began to grow at an exponential rate. The Shades ran for cover as he regained consciousness and got back to his now gigantic feet. He was easily fifty feet tall and just one of his feet could decimate any one of the buildings left on campus.

Warren looked around frantically. “Can you see where he is? My visor is flashing the words “Blinding Light!” When he said blinding light the jeweled centerpiece on his chest armor glowed for a second.

“I have the same words flashing in my visor!” Kelly offered. “What’s Blinding Light?” She asked as her chest piece lit up.

Sonya saw it and the words in her visor as well. “Everyone say it at the same time!” She commanded. 

They all stood and shouted “Blinding light!” together. Each of their chest pieces lit up, firing a beam of their light color to the same point in the night sky. Where their lights converged it got brighter and brighter until none of them, even giant Raptarus could not look at the light. When the light faded, They saw a giant robot in gleaming gold and silver.

“I’m dreaming, I must be dreaming.” Warren said to himself. And sat down hard. By the time his butt hit the ground the group had been teleported into the command center of the Blinding Light and Warren landed in his chair. They had precious little time to get used to their new toy however as Raptarus charged them with his staff. Everyone took their seat and in much the same manner as their suits felt a strong subconscious connection with the machine. Raptarus swung his staff for the right side of Blinding Light’s head. Kelly reflexively flinched her own hand as if she was about to get hit and the robot copied her.

“Something tells me this is all so very new to you children.” Raptarus took a step back and twirled his staff. “How long have you been the defenders of earth? Could this perhaps be your very first fight?” Raptarus used his staff to launch himself into a brutal kick that connected with Blinding Lights Chest knocking the robot off its feet and causing it to land hard on the pool building.

The kids should have been thrown out of their chairs but something about their suits held them in place. “We’re going to die!” Warren screamed.

“Shut up Warren! Get a hold of yourself!” Sonya yelled back. Kelly, how did you make the arm move?” She asked as Raptarus stood over them.

“I just moved my arm and the robot copied me!” She replied.

Sonya crossed her fingers and closed her eyes. “Please let this work.” She whispered to herself and kicked her feet out into the air as far as she could until she kicked her command console. Blinding Light’s right foot kicked out and caught Raptarus off guard. He flew back and fell hard.

“Nice Kick copycat.” Gordon called out. “Now how do we get back up?”

Through trial and error and a few minutes of exploring their consoles they were able to figure out what systems and limbs each of them was primarily responsible for. Sonya was the right leg, Warren was the left, Dante was the left arm, Kelly was the right, and Gordon was the head and chest systems.

“What happened to Raptarus?” Warren asked once they were on their feet again. They looked around and found him, he had fallen in just such a way that the schools flag pole had stabbed through the back of his head, and straight through his left eye. Gordon turned Blinding Light away from the scene. Dante took his helmet off. “Do not throw up in here man!” Warren yelled.

Dante shook his head. “Just needed to breathe…we won guys, it was a crappy haphazard win but he’s dead.”

They looked out at the ruins of what used to be a large portion of the school Sonya looked down at the smoking pile of rubble that used to be the theater. “Yeah” she huffed. “We won.”

Blood and Profit: Chapter 32

The battleship had a two huge landing bays on the rear. Each was more than enough space for the carriers to land. Toll realized he had no clue how this giant bio computer was even supposed to be installed into the ship, and it was far beyond time to ask anyone now, especially considering that he had no reason to know other than his own general curiosity.

With the carriers landed Toll had ten ships to patrol the area for possible threats. The first thing they did was check the far side of the battle station, it didn’t do much to put Toll at ease but there were no ships, no sign of battle damage, nothing at all out of the ordinary. They made their way back around the rear launch bay in time to see the bio computer being led out of the bay by what had to be a hundred or more people in spacesuits. Toll could see a large access hatch opening on the underside of the ship, just ahead of the landing bays. The computer was led by its handlers down below the ship and into the access hatch. Toll watched as the computer was moved fully into its space in the ship. Over a third of the space suited wranglers made their way back to the landing bay. Toll and the rest of the team continued to fly back and forth as they touched down in groups of ten on the landing bay.

As the last group of the suited assistants touched their feet to the floor of the landing bay. The hard doors started to descend. Toll counted to three but didn’t see any intercom activity. He opened a channel. “Corporate asset six five alpha nine zero tango, the rear landing bay doors are closing with our people inside, please discontinue landing bay lock up sequence.” Toll stopped his fighter and watched as the doors continued to close. He switched channels. “Rusty we need stop those doors coming down or this entire plan goes to crap.”

“Already on it, you’ll excuse the delay, I’ve never even looked at this ship’s code before so it’s a bit harder to stop the doors than you think.” Rusty shouted back at him.

Toll switched back over to the channel he had open to the battleship. “Corporate asset nine zero tango those doors are getting a might restrictive, what’s going on there on the bridge?”

With the doors half closed a voice responded to Toll.

“This ship is now the property of the Laborite Corporation. You’re people are trespassing on private property and will work off the debt they owe for their transgressions through the maximum allowed labor charge.”

Toll clipped his mask on and readied his flight combat systems. “Like hell they will.” He switched over to his squad channel. “Rejects, we need to keep those doors open long enough to get out people off that ship, shoot for metal breach only, lasers only kids, we don’t want to harm the forcefield in case there’s anyone in there that isn’t in a suit.”

Smart guy popped into the channel. “Hey boss the bottom doors are closing too.” Toll reoriented his ship to line of site the insertion doors. “Split off escorts stay with the command and control ships everyone else with me.” As he and the other six ships moved to break the insertion doors a fleet of Laborite battle cruisers came in at maximum drive and slowed to attack speeds unleashing what had to be fifty to sixty fighters. “Ok rejects we’ve still got two minutes to show time, make every shot count!”

Toll closed off his open channels and opened one to Connor. “This turned into a cluster in a hurry, tell me you are out of the insertion area.” He said, watching the first of his missiles head for the closing insertion bay doors.

“I am not, why?” Connor asked cool as a cucumber.

“Because they are closing your insertion bay doors, the landing bay door’s we just got notice that the Laborite Corporation has claimed the ship and a laborite battle fleet is on our doorstep with at least five squadrons of ships coming our way.” The middle looked to be a direct hit on the closing mechanism but did not stop it.

“Is someone shooting at us yet?” that was me, we’re trying to stop the doors without breaching the force fields.” Toll explained launching a second missile.

“Let them close Toll, I’m no good in this situation anywhere but here and if this gets worse we’re going to need this computer installed and fully functional. With the doors closed at least we’re safe. You just keep the rest of our people alive.” Connor instructed. Toll flipped the kill switch on his launched missile and it exploded harmlessly in the middle of nowhere.

“You’re the boss, boss.” He replied.

“Stay safe out there.” Connor added.

Toll sighed. “Not really in the job description.” He admitted, turning to face the oncoming squadrons with the members of the squad that weren’t protecting the command and control ships.

Lidarion: Chapter 1

In the kingdom of LIdarion there were many great cities, towns and even villages. Places with long and wonderful histories. Borderwood Keep was not one of them. The keep, all the shops, the homes, the town hall, and all seven farms surrounding it were less than five years old. The tiny population of Borderwood were all new settlers that were looking for a fresh start.

Bernard didn’t need a fresh start. He had moved here with his sister and her husband from the Capitol. A place that had never been particularly unpleasant in his memory. The winters were easier with neighbors to help shovel snow and share the work load of other wintertime maintenance. The winters in the keep could have been five times harsher and they still would not hold a candle to the wonder that was spring summer and fall. He had been drawn to the tiny keep gardens almost the very second he saw them on the day they arrived. He spent nearly every waking hour, learning, tending, and manicuring each plot of beloved flowers. Every winter was spent planning seasonal layouts for each plot and making sure that he had all the required seeds and bulbs in time for planting. He had never been given the job of master gardener but after three years and based on the way everyone deferred to his expertise, he had earned it.

This last winter had been particularly mild, with only a few weeks of mild snow to mark the darkest heart of the winter months, but the near freezing temperatures had stuck around long into what was generally thought of to be spring. But the day before had brought a warm rain and there was not so much as a light frost on the grass in the morning. The clear skies and the first warm sun in recent memory had brought everyone out of their homes. Bernard found himself drawn to work in the gardens along the inside of the east keep wall. Not far from the horse stables they had built for the in in the previous spring.

Bernard had become obsessed with a plant that he had seen in a pot carried by a trading caravan. The trader had called a tulip but it looked like no tulip Bernard had ever seen. IT flowered in all the colors of an explosive sunset. The barest sliver of white bleeding into ember yellow and orange fading into passionate burgundies and purples. He had purchased ever seed and bulb the trader had. He had spent a large portion of the winter prepping the seeds in pots and troughs so he could nurture them alone to the stage where they would finally flower. The bulbs he was planting now and felt a simple satisfaction as he placed each bulb into the earth.

A group of children playing some formless game of tag snapped him out of his meditative state as they ran by. ‘You kids be careful now!” he playfully called out after them. Several of them shouted back assurances that faded quickly as the game took them further away.

“We were never careful, why should they be?” a jovial voice asked behind him. Bernard sat up on his knees, a smile on his face.

“Squints!” He welcomed his friend by turning around. Squints was a Gnome and with Bernard on his knees they nearly came face to face.

“Bernard, this might be the first pleasant day in almost half a year and where do I find you?” He asked.

“Knee deep in a garden, for only fools let a pleasant day go to waste my friend.” Bernard offered getting to his feet.

“You and I have very different definitions of ‘wasting’ a pleasant day.” Squints replied.

“Indeed, so what brings you this deep into the wildlands my friend?” Bernard asked as they headed toward the home Bernard shared with his sister and her husband.

“It’s been nearly a year since we last saw each other, does a friend need any more of a reason to visit?” Squints asked.

Bernard shook his head. “Most friends need not even that much, but we are not normal friends, and your life does not afford you the freedom to travel the world in search of companionship” He commented, wiping his hands on a cloth he had pulled from the pocket of his pants.

“In deed, But with great responsibility comes mediocre power, and I have structured and guided my staff to work without me for their next few projects so that I might come this way, and if you are willing, quite a bit farther.” Squints explained, teasing his offer.

Bernard was intrigued. “How much farther? What do you mean, ‘if I am willing? What game are you playing librarian?” He questioned with an excited look on his face.

They arrived at the house and Squints stopped at the door. “Get cleaned up, let’s have dinner with Brooke and Trent, this is something they will want to be made aware of as well.”

Bernard shook his head. “You can never just get to the point can you? Always have to ‘tell the story.’” He complained heading up the stairs to his room.

Squints bowed. “Squints the royal librarian and professional point avoider at your service!” He stood up and noticed that Bernard was alrea