Connection Unknown: Chapter 1 Part 5 of 9 (Patreon)

“I looked it up on the forums. Seems like we’ll be fighting on that ice planet. Its like conquest, where you attack, or defend the different nodes across the planet,” Jynx said.

“Sniper it is,” Fin said sagely, as if it were his choice all along.

“You even listening?” Jynx said.

“Conquest, capture the nodes, shooty things.”

“How we getting down there?” Luke asked, slowing at some ladders. He used his hands to orient himself along the ladder in the direction he wanted to go. Down or up: it was a frame of reference, spacers tried to remove from their minds in low-g.

“Remember them docks and the dropships?” Jynx couldn’t hide her excitement.

“Badass.” Fin laughed, causing Luke to grin.

“This is one hell of a demo, or DLC,” Luke said, studying the detail as he passed through decks and past other people running in bots, and all the different layers of assembly lines.

“This is a whole new game. The graphics—they’re some of the best I’ve seen. Like, if you scratch your bot, it actually leaves a scratch,” Jynx said.

Luke turned another corner. “And she’s gone, into the land of the game dev nerd.”

“Ah, it was good while she was sane,” Fin commiserated.

“Dicks. But seriously, this is next-level graphics. All these bots, and there’s no lag jump between connected servers? The net-code must be unreal.”

“Yeah, seems pretty smooth.” Luke grabbed onto a ladder, using it to slow himself and then spin, orienting his feet to the new catwalk. He clicked his heels together and released the ladder. His mag-boots brought him to catwalk firma once again.

“I think I’m here.” The volume of bots was thicker, funneling into large hatches with “Armory,” followed by a number, stenciled in white above.

Luke grinned as he walked inside. The walls were covered with displays of weapons, attachments, and bots.

“Pull up your in-game terminal and when you’re inside the armory should give you weapon buying options.” Jynx said.

“Got it.” Luke brought up a terminal in mid-air.

[Bot]

[Primary Weapon:__]

[Secondary Weapon:__]

[Upgrades:__]

[Misc.:__]

[Carrier:__]

Clicking on the different slots gave him the option to pick out rifles, machine guns, snipers, pistols, attachments for his bot, non-combat-related gear, and storage capacity.

[Rifle]

[Cost: 1926 Platinum/1 Credit(s)]

“What are you running for weapons and gear?”

“Got a pistol, and machine gun.” Jynx said. “The pistol is free, but the machine gun costs thirty-three thousand, eight hundred and twenty-two plat. That’s like twenty real creds,”

“Big spender,” Luke said.

“Bite me, freighter boy.”

“Fin?”

“I got an Anti-Material Rifle, or big sniper to the uninitiated. Little cheaper. This game is gonna be hella expensive unless we make some plat.”

“How many free-to-play games have we played, and how many times have we spent more than what a normal game would cost?” Luke asked.

“Haven’t paid a credit more, but that’s going to turn this into a grind fest to earn platinum and compete with the pay-to-play people,” Fin grumbled.

“Yeah, no way I could spend this much every day to play. Damn.” Luke scrolled through the gear. “Wait a sec, there’s a sell button here too. Gives me a price on the button. Less than the buy price, but still a price.”

“I just found the marketplace. Pretty damn empty but you can trade with. Holy, you can trade for credits!” Fin sucked in a breath between his teeth.

“What you mean?”

“Like straight gear for credits, you put it up on the marketplace and then you can buy and sell in credits, don’t need to use plat.”

“That’s a thing?”

“There are only a few games that use it, most don’t want to because it means that people can move money out of their economy.” Jynx said. “Its also a little game breaking, and it kind of makes the game currency a real currency, as people put a value to it with credits.”

“So you’re saying we could get a bunch of gear in here and sell it for credits?”

“Yup! And that’s not all, I checked the store, there’s miners, factories, everything we can sell raw materials, components and ships.”

“Before you two start coming up with plans of Sphere World domination, lets get into the fight huh?” Jynx said.

“Break some skulls,” Fin said.

“Fine, just give me a sec.” Luke tried to balance out the cost versus reward of all the weapons. A freighter owner’s son, he’d picked up creds here and there—not much, though—and was holding onto every credit he could. He needed two thousand a month to keep his dad off his back and keep gaming.

Luke bit his lip. He had a few hundred creds. But this could be the opportunity I’m looking for, if I can get gear and sell it here. He cleared his throat, pulling himself back.

“Guess that leaves it to me to get something more reasonable. You got the firepower and long-range covered. Gonna stay with the rifle and take the pistol, too.” He mumbled to himself, hitting [BUY] before he could second guess his options, again.

[Rifle]

[Cost: 1926 Platinum/1 Credit(s)]

[Pistol]

[Cost: 0 Platinum/0 Credit(s)]

[Proceed to Armory 5-Port 18]

“All right, we’re on the other side of the pickup,” Fin said.

“Right,” Luke said. A new way point line appeared in his vision, tracing to the far end of the room.

A dozen armored doorways with numbers above them were ringed in green or red light.

Some bots stepped forward onto conveyor belts in front of the doors, locking their feet down.

The lights turned green, and the conveyor pulled the bot through the doorway. Arms reached down, attaching gear to the bots, taking off components, plugging others in, and locking to the bot’s frame.

Luke’s line took him to a different door. It went green and slid open, revealing others standing at ports where gear was delivered.

He’d only gotten a glance, but the room was like a vending machine of weapons. Rifles, machine guns, ammunition, and grenades were pulled from the wall by arms, deposited in crates, and delivered to the ports.

Luke went to the one labeled “18.”

A crate pushed out of the port.

Luke opened it. A rifle and magazines in an ammo belt were laid out.

He grabbed the rifle and blue areas highlighted in his vision. A diagram of the bot rotated in the corner of his HUD, showing [mag clamp surfaces]: two on his chest and back, more on his lower back, his stomach, his hips, and legs.

“Nice.” Luke examined the rifle. It worked just like a normal rail rifle: charging handle, magazine, trigger—simple and effective. Best of all, it felt right in his grip. He cleared the rifle and fired off the action. “That feels crisp as hell. Nice feedback.”

Luke pulled a mag from the belt and loaded it. The readout screen blinked red, the weapon forcefully safed.

Luke attached his rifle to his back and hooked the fighting belt around his hips. It slipped into fasteners built into the bot.

“Yeah, it’s just sharp…like, the gunplay is sweet,” Fin said.

The crate closed and dropped down and away, and a red light appeared above the port.

Luke headed for the door at the other side of the armory. He came out into another wide hallway. Corridors and armories led to air locks with red chevroned exteriors leading to the docks. “Looks like we don’t need to cycle through air locks. Guess they’re going full out with the robot thing.”

“Dude, we could walk on the surface of Sphere World without a suit, double bonus!” Fin whooped.

Fin and Jynx were waiting for him. Fin’s sniper was on his back as Jynx held her machine gun.

“Armory is pretty cool, too. They went into every detail.” Jynx let out an appreciative noise.

“So, how do we get to the planet?” Fin asked.

“Follow the people?” Luke gestured at the bots heading through the air locks.

“Sure.”

The flow of people guided them through the doors to the docks. Dozens of squat dropships caused the deck plates to hum with their massive articulating space/atmo engines, landing and taking off. Dual turrets mounted on their belly, sides, and roof, rotated and tested their range of motion. Some bounced and moved to a random beat.

[Turtle Dropship]

[Used to transport troops into combat]

The game’s soundless communication was alive and well as some bots returned the turret’s gesture by squatting.

Luke snorted as the dropships closed their ramps and their compartments filled with bots. Dropships eased up from their landing pads and pushed forward out of the massive openings looking over the planet below.

It was a swirl of grays, whites, and blues, the layers of the clouds, icy peaks peering through as storms rolled across its landscapes. Even as harsh as it was, it was beautiful, as only nature’s spaceships could be.