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THIS WAS A TOTALLY different matter! Now my whole crew was packed into nice space suits, so we didn’t have to worry about toxic gas anymore. What was more, I didn’t even have to spend my own crypto to buy ammunition. My business partner paid the supplier out of her own personal savings. And when I approached Uline Tar to offer compensation, the Gecko woman just waved it off:
“We’re partners, that means we should both be investing in the starship and crew. Let me play my part too. I have money now, so I can afford it. When filling out the contract for joint control over the platinum mine on the asteroid, I got a solid payout from Viceroy Kosta Dykhsh. I suppose that my future husband payed me with my own money, which I transferred to him to cover the costs of our future wedding. But that doesn’t matter. What is important is that we don’t have to sit around penniless any longer. We’ll be getting one and a half million crystals every standard day now from the mining operation.”
Not bad, not bad at all. And meanwhile Vasily Filippov and Gerd T’yu-Pan had worked out a plan of attack. The first line was to be composed of the two giant Immolators, with twin brothers Vasha and Basha Tushihh and Eduard Boyko the Space Commando all wearing exoskeleton armor right behind. All three of the troopers also linked their energy shields together which made them even better (which Orun Va-Mart helped them do. He was also responsible for keeping their shields at full capacity during the fight.). This forward group’s main mission was to blow the gates into hangar 7-226 and block the narrowest point so the forty nimble Miyelonian pirates could not slip past and get to our less-armored crew behind.
The front line fighters were to be healed, ideally remotely, by Medic Gerd Mauu-La Mya-Ssa. And supporting fire would be provided by the second line: the German death-bringer twins, a Sniper and Gunfighter, Gerd T’yu-Pan the Shocktroop, Denni Marko the Bodyguard and Kisly the Machinegunner. Dmitry Zheltov also asked to be placed on the second line, although it was a pretty big stretch to say his Starship Pilot profession made him appropriate for short-range firefights.
After that came the nimble but poorly armored melee fighters: the Miyelonians Tini and Gerd Ayni with their lethal blades, along with newcomer Assassin Svetlana. Their mission was to clear enemy breakthroughs and protect our soldiers without getting out in front. Imran was appointed leader of that group. The Dagestani Gladiator was also armed with death-dealing blades and able to quickly move around the field of battle but, unlike the others, he had heavy armor.
All the rest were supposed to stay back. Vasily Filippov, who was only allowed to wear light armor, was told to survive by any means necessary so his Bard bonuses could stay active on our whole group. And he increased the resilience and movement speed of everyone, as well as improving accuracy for our twenty shooters. All those advantages were worth a lot and came only from having the Bard in our crew.
Beastmaster Valeri-Urla was also supposed to hide out in the back and simply survive. After all, I didn’t bring the Tailaxian along to shoot her laser pistol. No, she was here as the master of an invisible and deadly Shadow Panther. However, we were only going to use Little Sister in battle if there was no gas attack, otherwise the beast would just die right away. We also had to keep the Medic and Engineer out of the fray for the most part. Some of their skills required a wounded or damaged ally to be in their immediate vicinity though. So both players were given complete freedom and I was relying on their professionalism.
Uline Tar the Trader and Avan Toi the Supercargo I wanted to just send back to the starship because I had severe doubts about their worth in a fight. But Uline puffed up and promised to get “very mad,” if I sent her back. The gloomy Supercargo then clipped a Miyelonian trophy tail to his helmet – he’d earned it here on Kasti-Utsh III fighting side-by-side with me and Tini. But we had to leave him. We left the NPC Dryad as well, who would simply get lost here on the station and not be able to find the right ship.
So then, my crew’s positioning was all clear. All that remained was to figure out my place in it. I suspected I belonged in the first group, given my Listener Energy Armor provided excellent protection and had a 12,800-point forcefield keeping me safe and sound. However, boarding team leader Gerd T’yu Pan thought otherwise:
“Leng Gnat La-Fin, your place is in the back next to the Medic and Engineer. Coruler, you control the two Immolators and a flying drone. The squadron cannot afford to lose that firepower.”
Frustrating. With my Annihilator and the ability to mentally turn my most dangerous opponents against one another, I could be of value as a close-combat fighter too. But what could I do from the back? The robots could tell friend from foe all on their own. I didn’t need to help. Just stand and watch while my crew fought all around me? I looked with hope at Filippov, but the highly experienced military strategist was in solidarity with his counterpart from the magocratic world:
“Captain, don’t you think I want to be on the front lines with a fully-auto in my hands, shearing experience off dead enemies too? Unfortunately for us, the squadron needs us alive. So we need to stay safe in the back lines.”
* * *
A STRAIGHT, WELL-LIT corridor. The metal gates we were heading toward were five hundred feet away. I could already clearly make out the Miyelonian writing above it: “Hangar 7-226.” There was no possible cover for enemies in front of us. Scanning also didn’t reveal anything suspicious in that section of corridor. Nevertheless, something was off. I could sense it.
The ventilation grates? Yes, there were a few ventilation outlets lining the corridor. And I suspected the poison gas was going to come right out of there. But I wasn’t too scared of a gas attack. We were prepared for that. Something else was bothering me.
This was too easy. The Pride of the Bushy Shadow was just letting us walk up to their sanctuary unimpeded. No barricades with gunmen crouched behind them. No laser or plasma cannons in the corridor strafing our squadron as we approached. There weren’t even any niches in the walls or ceiling concealing automatic turrets. You have to agree that’s weird, right? All my intuition was simply screaming that this was too easy and there had to be some hazard we hadn’t noticed. But my Danger Sense skill wasn’t making a peep.
Ugh, if only I had my wife Minn-O La-Fin by my side! The Princess of the magocratic world had a very finely tuned Danger Sense. I couldn’t even come close. Minn-O would have immediately confirmed my fears or told me the coast was clear. But Minn-O had stayed home and now she couldn’t help me here. And meanwhile I needed to make my choice. As it was I had already spent ten minutes standing in indecision, and the soldiers behind me were showing more and more signs of impatience.
“Well captain?” this time the standard question, in its tenth recent iteration, was asked by Denni Marko.
“I can’t see any danger,” I admitted honestly and behind me I heard a collective sigh of relief. “Nevertheless, we’ll wait for now! Let’s send one of the Immolators out in front.”
The several-ton robot walked forward and confidently headed down the corridor, its cannons fixated on the closed hangar door. There the Immolator covered half the distance, now two thirds...
Danger Sense skill increased to level seventy!
And that was when it all started. A bright red spot suddenly appeared in midair next to the heavy walking robot. And a second later, the gigantic Immolator crumpled and was pulled forward, bending and twisting its metal. The crunch of the armor plates and snapping of cannons was audible even from a hundred yards. The corridor walls in front of us also started bending in, some panels ripping away from their anchoring and getting pulled into the fray. In ten or fifteen seconds, the horrible crunching and scraping sounds were over. Then a rough three-ton ball of steel and plastic fell to the floor and thundered down the corridor in our direction, quickly gaining speed. I heard a few of my team members scream in fear behind me, and the hair under my helmet stood on end.
But the ghoulish bowling ball didn’t make it far. The second Immolator shot out a series of blasts, destroying the approaching ball of melted debris. Still vaguely ball-like, it flew another couple yards then fell apart and debris was strewn around the floor. All members of my squad were silent, not feeling capable of saying a single word. We almost just died!
“How lucky that we didn’t go with the robot!” Gerd Ayni broke the silence and started quivering.
“I can see the edge of the gravity crane’s range,” Basha Tushihh said, pointing an armored paw at the corridor before us. “We must not walk past that line!”
I had already figured out that the combat robot had likely been sucked into a very powerful gravitational field. A gravity crane working at full power? Most likely. They were often used for moving cargo, and many starships had them. But what could we do now? How to get out of the trap?
The obvious solution was to disable the gravity loader. But the problem was that I couldn’t see the machine anywhere on my mini-map. Too far away. And so I couldn’t use my Machine Control skill. I had to walk up closer.
Was I afraid? You bet I was! Basha Tushihh said that the gravity loader couldn’t operate beyond a line of small fallen wreckage, but it never had a reason to create a high gravitation zone beyond that. Things I’d learned in school helpfully jumped to mind, reminding me that gravitational forces diminished quadratically over distance. That meant that the attractive forces could still be very significant even ten steps away from the death zone. I could just be sucked in and killed.
But still this was a virtual game with its own rules. Anyhow, we all set our respawn points next to the entrance to corridor seven, so no Team Gnat players stood to suffer serious consequences if they died. Furthermore, the spacefaring races had advanced antigravitation technology and were perfectly capable of limiting the forces to a set zone. I was reminded of the way artificial gravitation zones ended just beyond starships when I was on comets before. Clearly something similar was being used here. I slowly walked forward.
After forty steps, I stopped ten yards away from the danger line. I couldn’t go any further. My heart gave an alarming prick, warning me of danger. But the Scanning skill just so happened to hit its cooldown time at that precise moment, and I immediately activated the icon. Got it! There we go! On the backdrop of many other items and dozens of markers for living creatures, walls and stationary starships, almost on the edge of the mini-map draw area, I saw what I was looking for:
Gravity loader. Chance of making inoperable 32.7%. Total control chance 18.1%.
Door control mechanism. Chance of making inoperable 27%. Total control chance 12.4%.
Scanning skill increased to level fifty-nine!
Great! First of all, I was interested in the loader. There was no need to take it under control. Breaking it was all the more I needed to do!
No luck. No again. Nope. It only worked on my fourth attempt. My magic points had gone down by more than half – each attempt cost my character quite a bit of mana. I was just burning through the stuff. I supposed it would be best to have Tini take care of the door. As a Thief, he would have an easier time than me. I only had a 12.4% chance of taking control...
Mysticism skill increased to level forty-four!
My Magic Points started gradually coming back. I then turned and shouted to my friends that the coast was clear. The huge Immolator took the first bold step forward. My friends then started off cautiously and unconfidently behind it. My crew had almost totally overtaken me... when suddenly I heard a hiss all around us. Streams of gas started pouring out of every ventilation grate and the corridor was instantly clouded with thick greenish-gray smoke! I couldn’t see farther than an outstretched hand!
Successful Perception check!
Some lightning-fast shadows slipped past. Lots of shadows. And almost immediately, two icons in my group window went gray – Beast Master Valeri and Engineer Orun Va-Mart were both dead!!!
“The pirates are out of the hangar and on the attack!!!” I shouted at the top of my lungs and almost immediately took a painful blow to the back. One of the Miyelonians was trying to stick his blades between my shoulders.
To hell with you, you don’t get to take my life! The Listener Suit’s forcefield drooped by a quarter but held fast. However, the discouraged Miyelonian was not fast enough to dodge my counterstrike. The first right hook of my armored glove made contact with the pirate cat’s ear, and he stumbled back. Half a second later, I shot his big-eared head clean off with the Annihilator.
Medium Armor skill increased to level sixty-one!
Rifles skill increased to level fifty-eight!
Sharpshooter skill increased to level forty-three!
Take that! Now you’ll appreciate how dangerous it is to attack Gnat! Then I realized that the Miyelonian pirate was dressed lightly and had no gas mask or breathing apparatus. Did that mean the gas had no effect on him?!
“This is just thick smoke, it isn’t toxic!” I shouted into the microphone, trying to talk over the din on the channel.
My fighters were all speaking at once, creating a garbled racket so I couldn’t make out anything. Furthermore, there was constant deafening fire from a machinegun and a few high-speed cannons. And we were taking serious losses the entire time – Uline Tar and Destroying Angel’s icons went dim. A second later Vasily Filippov also died. Denni Marko’s life had also fallen into the red zone (the Bodyguard was taking some of Valeri’s damage, and all of his own), but then he was back up to maximum an instant later – our Medic was a consummate professional.
“Everyone stop talking!” I barked, trying to restore order. “Okay now you can speak, but only if its relevant!”
Tini was the first to report:
“Captain, the enemy has broken through and is attacking our unarmored players! Ayni and I are barely able to hold them back! There’s too many of them!”
“And they’re as nimble as umbuks from Vuyez IV!” cried Vasha Tushihh, adding a couple of unpublishable phrases. “I can’t even hit them point blank!!!”
“How can you see anything in all this smoke??? I can’t see a damn thing! I’m firing blind over here!” Eduard Boyko shouted with notes of hysteria in his voice, generously showering the nearest wall with bursts from his automatic cannon.
Hold up! Miyelonians could see in the dark, so the smoke screen wouldn’t be bothering them. Geckho also had infrared vision. But what was making me so stupid?! I lowered my helmet’s IR lens. Woah, now that’s a lot better! Dozens of nearby red silhouettes started flickering. I heard the clang of metal on metal. I stashed the Annihilator. It was totally useless in this situation – no one was attacking me, the battle was twenty yards away. But then I took out the Targeting System.
Ugh, I wish I could tell which of these nimble little Miyelonian silhouettes is an enemy... So, by the looks of things, that one standing far from the main action is my Medic. Tini and Ayni would have to forgive me later, but I had no way of sorting the rest into friends and foes. I needed to hand out targets to the “blind” human shooters and helplessly frozen robots as quickly as possible. And I started generously doling out easily visible red markers to the skirmishing Miyelonians.
Targeting skill increased to level thirty-nine!
Targeting skill increased to level forty!
Targeting skill increased to level forty-one!
You have reached level ninety!
You have received three skill points (total points accumulated: four).
Tini’s icon went gray – my ward had died. It was either our enemies or friendly fire, I had no way of knowing. But Gerd Ayni was smarter and, at the first sign of danger, she made a lightning-fast pounce in my direction. I recognized the Translator and quickly removed the target marker from her. At a certain point, Kisly, Basha and Vasha all died. The Medic just about managed to “raise” the heavily wounded Imran, but he got killed next to the body of the Dagestani Gladiator. And I swear up and down I didn’t notice when, but our Starship Pilot had also died. Denni Marko was fighting like a lion, his health back down in the red zone. The Bodyguard’s fatal error was the fact that he stopped and took out a first-aid kit. Three pirates at once saw their opening and ended the bothersome enemy. Anyhow, a second later they were all lain low by a shot from the Immolator’s plasma cannon. And then... the battle came to an abrupt stop. I couldn’t even believe it when I glanced at the time and realized that the whole bloodbath lasted less than two minutes.
With a woeful gaze, I looked over my few remaining allies. Six of us had survived, not counting the Small Relict Guard Drone and the Immolator. Me, Gerd Ayni, Svetlana Vereshchagina, Eduard Boyko, Gerd T’yu-Pan and Avan Toi. The smoke gradually cleared, revealing a huge number of corpses strewn about the corridor and the wide-open doors to hangar 7-226. There were no enemies left inside. I knew that for sure. There was no sense for the pirates to divide their forces. They were hoping to win and I had to give them their due. They had come close.
“Loot them!” I commanded, myself falling to the floor completely drained. “Then we can go see the ships we captured.”
