Sliding Reality: Chapter 5 Part 1 of 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 5:

4/04/2242

The net expanded out into the Legion’s conference room around Luke. He was the last to arrive and the others were already talking. He wasn’t really sure why he had got the invitation. He nodded to Fin and Jynx who had her arms crossed, listening in on the conversation with the Legion’s leaders.

Minnie, Mitch, Dana, Ichika and Foster filled out the rest of the room.

"You want to buy what?" Minnie asked. The whole room was focused on Mitch looking unperturbed as ever.

"A station for people to live in." Mitch repeated, without a change in his voice or tone, raising an eyebrow at Minnie's outburst.

"Why?"

"To have a place for us to live in."

"Why would we need a station to live in? We have the asteroid base and the moon," Ichika pointed out.

"They don't have the required systems to support human life."

"Wait, you want us to build stations to support human life in Sphere World?" Minnie’s confusion rose a note into alarm.

"Correct."

Minnie sputtered and threw up her hands.

“I agree,” Foster said, Dana nodded as well.

“What? Why?” Minnie looked between them.

“It gives us options. The Federation are conscripting people, the Coalition are banning accounts. We don’t know what will come next.” Foster said.

“I agree, with one signature then everything we’ve worked could be taken from us, we could be turned into criminals.” Dana said.

“Let the governments do what they want, but we look after our own.” Ichika said.

"I am from Sol system, in my day job I am an accountant for the government. I am something of a specialist, in forensic accounting. If the governments are unsure if they can control Sphere World or they are unsure of their positions then they can act drastically and rapidly.” Mitch said.

"And you think that they will react in such a way that we need a station to hide in?" Luke asked.

"Several." Mitch said, looking at the people in the room. "I want to commission one of the small shipyards to continually produce station modules for people to live in. While I am doing this out of a sense of preservation of myself and you my friends and clan members. There are going to be others in nasty situations that may require somewhere to live, and there are no current habitable locations in the Orion system."

Glances were shared around the table between one another.

Minnie sighed and shrugged. “I can see the logic. I think it would be a waste of a shipyard if not for the fact this is all real. Hell I’m still having a hell of a time wrapping my head around that fact. Brings up, what do we want to do with the yards, with the factories? I don’t think that producing warships and weapons is going to be looked at in a good light.”

“Do you have a suggestion?” Foster leaned on the table.

Minnie’s eyes roved across the ceiling clicking her tongue, grimacing.

“We have three Corvettes due to be completed tomorrow. It would be best to finish those and that’ll clear them out. I’d say we keep working on the other ships today to keep people busy, need to coordinate with the yard leaders and plan to change our building queue tomorrow. Get one working on the station modules. Though what are the others going to build? And is anyone going to use the station?”

“I will be heading to Orion system by the end of the day.” Mitch said. “It will take me about six days to reach Orion, with the shipyard working on the station modules tomorrow, the first will be complete in four days.”

“Are you sure?” Ichika asked.

“I would rather not remain in Sol if they were to find out of my position within the government and the Legion it could create issues.”

“How will you get here?” Jynx asked.

“There are always enterprising people that are able to get one through certain barriers.”

“Smugglers,” Ichika grinned.

Mitch tilted his head.

“What about freighters?” Fin stepped forward. “We have one yard producing the station sections, the other two producing freighters, they’re not illegal. It would also solve our cash flow issue selling them.”

“My family are traders, we know people looking for freighters to get in on the trade.” Luke said. “We could sell shuttles as well, they’re simple and efficient.”

“There are also the ingots, people are always looking for more material.” Fin said.

“We should pull back all of our ships to Sanctorium as well,” Dana said.

“Right, and make sure that we secure all the weapons and gear in all of our controlled nodes.” Foster shared a look with Ichika.

She shrugged. “I like fighting, I’ll stick it out and see what happens, might be fun for a bit, but we’re going to lose people that were just playing to fight. We already are.”

That’s why I joined. While building appealed to Luke somewhat, he knew that over time it could just turn into a grind.

“Which is why we asked you three to join us.” Ichika looked to capture Luke and his friends with her eyes. “Our liquid assets have been nearly wiped out with people taking their credits and leaving. I like this Freighter idea because it means we can get an injection of credits. The people in this room have the most invested into the Legion. I want to know what your plans are, to stay, liquidate some, or liquidate all. I’m staying in, I live in a settled system and they’re not pushing any restrictions on us.”

“Stay,” Foster said.

“Stay,” Mitch said.

Luke had invested most of his earnings into Legion, growing to millions of Platinum. Tens of thousands of credits. He’d worked for this, he’d fought for it. He curled his fist. It might be childish, his stubborn streak coming out, but damn if he was going to let someone just take this from him.

“Stay.” Luke said.

“I’m in,” Jynx nodded.

“Same here,” Fin said. Luke shared a tight lipped nod with them both.

“I’ll remain invested,” Dana said. “But we need to adjust to our new situation and quickly. The greatest force in this game are the guilds, soon the factions are going to have their own groups in the game. We must assume that they all know what we are doing and work to remove anyone that doesn’t have the Legion first where it comes to Sphere World. In Orion system, they are another guild, one with a lot more real world resources.”

“Talking of guilds we need to watch out for them. All fighting has stopped and the leadership from the guilds have been called back to meet with their sponsors, they’re up to something.” Fin said.

“And none of them have stopped building weapons or gear.” Minnie added.

“The corporations will do anything to turn a profit. My mother controls several guilds. Now the game has become real, they’ll use that to their advantage.” Fin frowned.

Luke gave Jynx a furtive glance but she subtly shook her head. It was her father and Uncle, he wouldn’t tell the others her relation to Brad and Stuart unless she wanted to have it known.

***

Tao Walker joined the Merlouc Corporation conference room, formed from light woods, polished metal and glass.

He wasn’t alone, a half dozen heads turned towards, him, each of them a guild leader. Some from guilds he had fought in the past. Every guild here has entered into Sphere World.

They all recognized him and their connection, remaining silent, waiting. Miss Waris must have sent them a message as well.

He took a seat, mentally reciting where they were located in Sphere World and their known forces.

He didn’t know if it even mattered, with Sphere World being real everything seemed to be coming apart. All the time and funds that they’d invested now useless.

Other people arrived, nearly a dozen in all.

“Good, you’re all here.” Ella Waris, appeared at the head of the table, glancing up before tapping something out at a terminal on the table. “By the end of the day I want a report from each one of you on your assets within the Orion System and to sign employment agreements. Contingent on your upcoming performance.”

Tao blinked. “Performance?”

“The Orion System presents an opportunity, and we need to take advantage of it as soon as possible. You already have assets within the system that we can deploy to claim the most from Sphere World before there are rules and regulations to muddy the waters.”

Tao had done this kind of thing before, exploit a loophole before it could get patched, but this was agreements between factions and it affected the real world.

“As of this minute you are no longer just guilds sponsored by the Merlouc Corporation, you are all employees of the Merlouc Corporation. Your assignment is to fill out the reports and come up with plans to claim as many nodes that hold production value. Factories, shipyards, mining claims. Ten percent of the evaluation of the captured gear will be issued as a bonus to you and your guild members.”

“What about the views and the streams?” Holly of the Krixtan Guild asked.

“We’re not here for views, you are part of the corporation now, the only thing that matters is results and the results I want from you are as much land as we can use to mine for resources, the machines to do it with and everything we can build with.”