Connection Unknown: Chapter 1 Part 6 of 9 (Patreon)

Amber lights spun as a barricade rose around a landing pad. Bots moved back as a dropship was carried out from Sphere World’s depths. The dropship was lowered to the pad. Sections of the pad dropped down and away; arms reached out as sections opened up, adding in new weapon systems. Belts fed in rounds as missiles rose up, cradled by the underwing racks.

Printing arms ran down the ship, changing the dull grays and black into a winter pattern with a polar bear charging into battle below the enclosed cockpit at the front of the ship.

A bot walked toward the ship with purpose. “All aboard the Polar Express! I need four gunners!”

Bots swarmed the dropship as Jynx hit Luke. “Look!”

Another landing pad had been barricaded off. There were possibly a hundred landing pads in this section alone.

This wasn’t a dropship but a space fighter, with cutting lines and a small profile. It landed on the pad, belts and arms sprouted from the floor, arming the craft like the dropship had been.

[Hellcat Fighter]

[Atmospheric and Space Capable Fighter]

A bot jogged up to the ship and climbed the short ladder. The canopy opened for them to jump into the cockpit. They wasted no time, bringing systems online and leaving in a trail of engine plume.

“Come on. We need to find a ride down… that one looks good.” Luke pointed at a dropship coming in.

The dropship rotated and landed on its pad. Sections of the deck parted as ammunition loaders hooked to the ship, feeding it rounds, and arms replaced spent missiles.

Luke and his group ran up to the ship.

“Welcome to the Comet! Grab your seats! Once we’re loaded, we’re going!” The pilot used the local chat, broadcasting to everyone in range.

The ship filled quickly. Luke took the farthest seat and sat. Locks in the back of the seat—like the locker and rack—hooked into his bot and secured him in place.

Gunners sat in chairs forward of the cargo hold, two on either side of a central walkway that terminated at the pilot’s seat in the nose of the craft. The gunners faced projections of what their turrets could see.

Fin nudged Luke. “Someone found the cosmetics.” She gestured at someone with several warning stencils across their bot.

“Dunno if it’s a pain job or a hazard.”

The lights inside the dropship flashed red as the ramp rose.

“Hey, you can access the dropship’s cameras,” Jynx said.

“How?”

“Use the ship interface.”

Luke found it and cycled through the cameras, changing his view from the cargo bay filled with bots bathed in flashing red light, to the cameras in the remote turrets. “We look pretty badass.”

He cycled through the cameras in the cockpit, mirroring his view to the pilot’s.

The pilot worked his console. The red lights stopped, signaling the hatch was sealed; he dialed up the power to the engines.

“Check flaps,” he called out to his gunners.

Luke switched, seeing them looking at the wing.

“Right flaps good!”

“Left flaps good!”

“Rear flaps good!”

“Decking good,” the belly gunner reported.

“Smartass.”

The crew laughed.

The pilot flipped through controls and took hold over the interface. “Fuck, this is smooth as hell. Going to make our payment back in just three more drops.”

“If you don’t crash first.”

The pilot flashed his middle finger behind him, to the gunners laughs.

Giving them a burst from the main engines, they rose from the deck slowly. The pilot used his thumb on the left Throttle Control Lever—or TCL—to orient the main engines in line with the dropship and pushed the TCL forward. The main engines flared, Luke’s bot shifted sideways in his harness as they exited the hangar. A few touches of thrusters with the right cyclic control, and they were free of the docks and headed toward Valhalla.

They slipped out of Sphere World, as other ships were coming and leaving.

“Copy Sphere World, flying the plot.” The pilot looked over his shoulder to his gunners. “Wave to the cannons now.”

The gunners laughed.

Luke cycled to a gunner, bobbing their dual-mounted machine guns in salute.

Rail cannons, missile tubes, and close-in weapon systems waited, dormant and patient across Sphere World.

That’s a lot of firepower. Luke let out a low whistle, using the cameras to study Sphere World’s exterior.

“Shit. That thing is huge,” Jynx said in their chat.

“There are miners and shuttles moving across the entire system, feeding it,” Fin said. “Bigger than anything humanity has ever built.”

“Can do whatever you want in a video game,” Luke said, changing his view back to the pilot’s. He tuned out the pilot, who was talking to other pilots in the area about where to set down and moving together.

“How big is this place?” Jynx asked.

“Eleven planets. Fourth one is a Martian. There’s a large asteroid belt between us and them. We’re at the fifth planet, an ice planet. Then, two subjovians. The first has rings, then a jovian, gas dwarf, a thin asteroid belt, gas dwarf and then the Kuiper. Pretty exciting system.” Fin gave his professional opinion.

“You sure this is a demo?” Luke asked.

“Gotta be, doesn’t it?” Fin spiked the question toward Jynx.

Jynx made a sound in the back of her throat.

“We’re going into atmo now. Just look at the detailing inside the cockpit. It’s nuts.” Luke rescued her.

The cockpit flooded with light as the pilot dimmed the view screen and cut off his thrusters, entering in on a glide and using his flaps.

“That input is crazy. Gonna weed out a bunch of people who can’t actually fly,” Jynx said.

“Good thing at least two of us have official licenses,” Luke said.

“School’s too scared to give me the qualifications,” Jynx said.

“Yeah, ’cause you think going upside down in atmo is just a nice way to view the ground.” Luke mused.

The pilot interrupted them on the local chat. “Welcome to Valhalla, fifth planet of the system. It is a balmy negative one hundred and forty-three C today, with a chance of explosions, shooting, and bot death. We are heading toward Monkey Balls node—and no, I did not make up these names and yes, they are all random as fuck. Whoever claims the node gets to name it—please use an actual freaking name when you get it and don’t copy another name! It’s a pain in the ass, trying to figure out which damn Asgard node we’re supposed to go to. Don’t be a tool, get a new node name, kids!”

Luke pulled up his map on Valhalla as they continued to drop into the planet’s atmosphere. He checked the search function, finding the Monkey Balls node.

The map outlined the node. It was built into the side of a mountain range that ran southwest to northeast.

“For you newbies: If you’re looking at the maps, you might wonder just what the fuck is going on. Use the search function to find the node to recon the place, and you can toggle between different maps. We’re coming in with three other Turtles—yeah, don’t know who named the dropships. Anyway. You can see the orange markers on the ground. That’s our insertion point, looking to come down there. We’ll adjust as we come in. Dunno what kind of terrain we’re looking at. Kuzinski, you want to go over the map? I gotta do pilot shit.”

“Dah, I got it,” a thicker accent from the Korzh or Chebovsky system said through the local chat.

Luke bet he was from Chebovsky.

“What we see here, right, landing pad, then road to node in mountain, walls cover most, turrets above wall. You get inside, find Command Post, capture it and control the node, name something better. You have four hours to build defenses, then node can be attacked again. Do not shoot ze shuttles, else get kicked from game. Don’t go against Sphere World rules, else get kicked.” Kuzinski stopped, the end of his briefing.

“Five minutes!” the pilot yelled. The engines came back online, this time with the deep growl of the atmo-hungry burners.

Luke looked out of the cameras. The ship had come through the worst turbulence, a few more black streaks on its paneling. Other Turtles cut through the sky, some moving toward, others shifting away.

He read the map again, looking for elevation.

“Thinking that we circle around to the east, find somewhere to set up with a line on that path into the node, and the turrets?” Luke pinged along a route to what might be a hill. Being in the same squad, Fin and Jynx could see all his pings.

“Sounds good. Can set up there, cover everyone as they go in,” Fin said.

“Don’t want to die too quick.” Jynx patted her machine gun. “Gotta make my twenty creds count!”

Luke cleaned up the markers on the map and went back to watching the cockpit.

“We’ll make a fire support base from the hills and hit them from range. It should make it harder for them to kill us, and we can test out the game. If we want to play more, then we’re going to have to figure out a way to grind out some plat for new gear long-term.” Luke cleared his throat. “If we die, do we need to buy the next bot?”