Connection Unknown: Chapter 1 Part 7 of 9 (Patreon)

“I went and read up on it. So, we get one free bot per day when we sign in, but that’s dependent on the number of people in the game—more people, and we have a timer for when our bot will be built. Though we can build them, apparently,” Fin said.

If I die, it’s going to cost thirty-five credits at least. He couldn’t play many games at that kind of price, or he’d clear out his balance.

“One minute! Don’t die too quickly and cap that node—I need the plat!” The pilot laughed.

“Fucking turret!” a gunners yelled as the dropship shifted its descent.

Luke switched to a turret view as it opened up, firing on the node in the distance.

Turrets along the wall fired streams of tracers into the sky, none came close to the Turtles.

The dropship gunners returned the favor. Their tracers tore up ice around the base. The “mountain” the node was built into was actually a massive glacier shelf near two kilometers tall.

“Hell yeah—pile it in!” the pilot yelled. “Shifting left!”

The Turtle showed her prowess as the gunners shifted their fire against the movement of the ship.

Other dropships moving with theirs released missiles, turning into streaks rushing towards the ground.

The racks clanked open as their own missiles joined the fight.

A half dozen missiles were loosed, by the dropships.

A few hit the glacier, causing part of the face to collapse, like an iceberg breaking into the sea. Others hit the ground, blowing up shards of ice. One hit the landing pad, turning it into twisted metal, and the other struck the left side of the base, blowing up a section of the wall and a turret.

“Woo-hoo! That’s what I’m talking about, Raptor!” The pilot cheered his fellow pilot as they dropped down and away, getting out of the base’s view.

The engines howled as the pilot brought their nose up, flicking his engines to eject downward. The superheated burners caused the stone-hard ice to turn into steam as he caught the dropship, slowing his descent and moving forward, the steam increasing the lower he got.

“Can’t land on this shit—else we’ll get stuck in the water,” the pilot yelled as the chairs released the bots. The lights turned yellow as the ramp dropped. Wind rushed in as the ship pressurized in a rush.

“Get clear of the water as fast as possible. Turns to ice real fast—bots should crack it off!”

A few tried to stand in the wind before it died down. Luke waited a few more seconds before using the handholds to stand.

The wind died down and those at the rear of the dropship ran out and jumped.

“Have fun and kill those bastards! I’ll be down with reinforcements as fast as possible!” the pilot yelled.

Luke moved with the line, running and jumping out of the dropship. He hit the melted ice, fifteen meters below. “No fall damage?” he ran clear of the water, headed for his first marker.

“Maybe? Maybe we just didn’t fall far enough?” Jynx said. The dropship moved forward to distribute its exhaust over more ice and spread out the bots.

“Maybe something to check out later when we’ve got bots to smash up?” Luke said as they ran away from the landing zone and down into a small ice ditch. The terrain was rough and untamed, creating iceberg hills and mountains across the area.

“Fuck, these graphics are good,” Jynx said.

“Better hope that they come out with this for real. Even if it’s an alpha, it ain’t bad,” Fin said as they moved through the ditch.

Luke jumped out, altering their advance along a path hidden from the node.

Their Turtle took off with a howl of engines. The turrets opened up on the node with parting shots. Its burners spiked and it streamed across the surface of Valhalla, ice crystals in its wake before it arced into the sky.

A dropship came in ahead of Luke, its engines burning through the ice and raising a plume of steam around it. The dropship balanced unsteadily as bots jumped clear of the dropship and ran for the node.

The longer the ship stayed there, the deeper the water was under the ship.

Several bots went chest-deep before the ship moved forward jerkily.

“Damn. Our pilot was so much better,” Luke said as they rounded an iceberg.

Luke came to a chasm nearly under his feet. “SH-iiiit!” He ran faster and jumped, clearing it and rolling. “Jump!”

“Mother fucker!” Jynx yelled as she landed on the other side.

“Holy baby Zeus!” Fin grunted as he landed.

“Well, the feedback is great.” Luke laughed in an “oh fuck we nearly died” way as he picked himself up.

“Fuck. How deep is that?” Jynx checked her footing and looked down the chasm.

“Who knows. Could be a few hundred meters or a few kilometers. Might not want to stand so close to the edge,” Fin said.

“This is Alpha Squad lead. We’re moving in from the southwest. Got good cover here, but the turrets know about us. Need some covering fire to advance.”

“Come on. The squad leads are getting antsy.” Luke jogged on but kept his pace down and rounded corners with plenty of space to see any chasms.

“So what—one area commander, then squad leaders, like Orion’s Belt?” Jynx asked.

“Yeah, and looks like open comms to the people in support, so the pilots, I’d guess.” Luke fiddled with the menus.

“Well, better you than me. I hate dealing with all those command chats and shit,” Fin said.

“Hopefully they don’t start talking about the weather.”

“Freeze your tits off cold with a side of blinding snow and winds like a banshee strapped to a microphone? Thankfully they didn’t feel the need to let us experience just how damn cold it is.”

They came out between two icebergs, looking at the “hill” they were going to use.

“Well, you bring your ice picks and climbing equipment?” Fin said, looking at the ice pillar.

“Let’s move around and find a better position. We need something as tall as it to be able to shoot at the node.”

Rolling machine gun and weapons fire exchanged in the distance bounced between the ice pillars.

“Well, we could try climbing it,” Luke said.

“You think we could?” Fin said.

“No way they programmed that,” Jynx said.

Luke moved to the hill, secured his rifle, and jumped. He stabbed his hands into the ice and they held. He kicked his feet in, and they stayed there.

“How far up am I?”

“Like a third of the way. Try it again,” Fin said.

Luke jumped again; he didn’t get his hands in properly and pushed off the ice and fell. He hit the ground without any problem.

“Let me try.” Jynx put her machine gun on her back and stabbed her hands and feet into the ice. She climbed it like a ladder: one hand up, then the other, then her legs; repeat.

“Coming right up!” Fin used her handholds and followed her up, with Luke right behind.

“I’m up at the top.” She lowered her voice.

“You know they can’t hear you,” Luke whispered back.

“Shut up,” she said, overcompensating. “I see the base. Shit is kicking off out there.”

Fin went over the ledge and joined Jynx on the top of the pillar.

“Come up and move to the left,” Jynx said.

Luke came up and peeked over at the base a few hundred meters away. They were parallel with the glacier shelf, looking into the base from the right side with the landing pad nearest them.

The left side had a soft incline leading up to the node. The craters from the missiles were being used as cover for their fellow bots, firing at the turrets along the wall as they advanced.

A missile streaked from the node, hitting a group of bots, making a new crater.

The top of the pillar had different protrusions to lie down and hide behind. Luke moved on his belly across the ground; Jynx was on his right and Fin on his left. Fin pulled out his bullpup AMR; he hit a catch, and the barrel shot forward, nearly doubling its length. “Fucking rounds as big as my thumb.” He muttered, shuffling forward in the snow and ice to get a good position, disappearing around a ice outcrop from Luke’s position.

“Got like a thousand rounds per box mag with this baby.” Jynx grinned. Pushing her machine gun forward on its bipod and then crawling up to it until she found a good position, digging her bipod into the ice, gripping the buttstock ahead of her shoulder and the trigger handle.

The wind picked up, covering them in ice crystals and creating eddies among the misshapen pillar.

The machine gun was pretty normal except for the fact it fed like a bullpup and the entire section from where the gun cover should have been to the weapons backplate was three-quarters magazine, a quarter mechanical innards and barrel.