Central Osiris
6:30 P.M.
Tantalus spoke for the next twenty minutes. He revealed as much as he could to Colonel Feldrast. He touched on such topics as: the true nature of Ferrum as a video game, the fact that the Revenants were trapped in the game by GM, the similarities between Ferrum and the real world, the fact that the Revenants cannot read the written language of Ferrum, and the probable actions that the Revenants would take in the coming days.
Most of the other Revenants in the room left as Tantalus spoke. Maria Feldrast and her subordinates listened closely to Tantalus’s words, but the speech was immensely uninteresting to those who already knew the information.
“I could talk for many more hours about my world, but it would be unnecessary,” said Tantalus. “Ask any Revenant, and they will tell you basically the same thing I just told you. Well, assuming they’re telling the truth, that is.”
“You’re right,” Colonel Maria Feldrast said, looking up from her notebook, “I don’t believe you. You’re trying to tell me that my entire world was created and sold for the entertainment of entities with a culture that is barely more developed than my own. Surely,” she gave a mirthless chuckle, “a people that could create such technology would have evolved past the need for war, and they certainly would not count mass-murderers among their number.” She looked toward the door through which Ashcroft had disappeared with a cold glare.
“You’d think that,” Tantalus said with a self-deprecating smile, “but it's unfortunately not the case. If it makes you feel better, you are free to believe that the Revenants are all insane. But… if this is a psychosis, it is a shared psychosis. All of us share memories of the same world, and this truth can be empirically tested. I would recommend that you do so in the coming days.”
The Colonel snapped her notebook shut. “You have given me much to think about. I will bring this information back to Archduke Edwin, and he will decide what to do next. Based on what you tell me, I assume you do not intend to help us in our attempts to bring Ashcroft to justice.”
“You are correct,” Tantalus took out a cigarette and began the process of lighting it. “I recognize that what Ashcroft did is wrong, and I will do my best to make sure it does not happen again. Beyond that, there’s nothing I can do.”
“I have one more question before I leave,” the Colonel looked Tantalus directly in the eyes. “Do the Revenants consider us to be humans… or animals?”
Tantalus paused and took a long drag from his cigarette. “That depends on the Revenant. We all believe that you are sentient pieces of computer code. Within this accepted premise, there can be philosophical disagreement. Some say yes, some say no. I can’t speak for all Revenants.”
“Then I’ll make my question simpler,” the Colonel said, the slightest hint of anger appearing in her tone for the first time since Tantalus had met her. “Do you think we are human?”
Tantalus’s gaze briefly flicked over to FullDan, the only Revenant other than Tantalus who remained in the room, before he spoke.
“Yes,” he lied. “I wouldn’t be trying so hard to keep the peace if I didn’t.”
“Well…” Colonel Maria Feldrast said, “I suppose there’s nothing more to gain from this meeting.” She paused before saying, “Tomorrow, seven A.M., bring ten of the most important Revenants to the Ducal Palace. There, you will meet with the Archduke under the Edict of Nonviolence, and you will receive new orders regarding the defense of Osiris.”
“Aye, ma’am,” Tantalus said without conviction, and he did not salute. “That list of ten will include Ashcroft, I’m sorry to say. Are you prepared for that?”
“Yes,” the Colonel said evenly.
“Good,” said Tantalus.
Maria Feldrast and her entourage began to leave. Hearing the sound of motion from the other room, the Revenants returned to the room occupied by Tantalus and FullDan. Ashcroft winked at Maria Feldrast as the two passed close by each other in the hallway. Colonel Feldrast did not react physically or verbally.
The Revenants called to the meeting by Ashcroft reconvened in the second-floor foyer. Most of them looked annoyed at their time being wasted, but FullDan and ConcreteBeats looked concerned at the situation that had just unfolded.
“Tantalus, why did you…?” Fulldan began to speak, but Tantalus held his hand up in a sign for silence.
“Not until we’re sure they’ve all left,” Tantalus said.
“Oh, they’ve all left, I’m sure of it,” ScaryClock said.
“How can you be so sure?” Tantalus asked.
“I just took the Enhanced Hearing Talent,” Clock said. “I listened to their footsteps. They’ve all left, and they didn’t leave any stragglers.”
“Alright, good enough for me,” said Tantalus. “FullDan, you were saying?”
FullDan’s body language once again indicated a distinct feeling of nervousness. Having known FullDan for several years, Tantalus knew that FullDan suffered from social anxiety, and this anxiety only really disappeared when FullDan thought he was alone, or he had something to focus on. Tantalus figured that this particular quirk is what made FullDan such a good soldier. In combat, FullDan was the most confident man you’ll ever meet. Outside of combat, FullDan was a nervous wreck.
“Sorry…” FullDan apologized. “You said that you consider the NPCs to be human. Is that true?”
Ashcroft scoffed as Tantalus said, “No. I want them to work with me, so I had to lie. My opinion might change later, but who knows?”
“Can we get to the actual meeting now?” Ashcroft asked impatiently.
“Almost,” said Tantalus. “I just need to ask if there’s anything else I should know about the situation at the North Gate.”
“Oh yeah,” Ashcroft said, snapping his fingers as he remembered. “We’re keeping some NPCs in the prison attached to the North Gate. We’ve been capturing NPC refugees that try to flee into the City through the North Gate. Well… we were doing that until the prison got full. I’d say we’ve captured about fifty of ‘em.”
“That’s horrible,” ConcreteBeats gasped.
“It’s not like we’re killing them,” Ashcroft said. “Well, not intentionally. That reminds me of a test we did on one of the NPCs. Emile here made one of the captured NPC officers pull the trigger on an unloaded gun. Emile had to physically force the guy to do it. As soon as the hammer struck, the NPC started screaming. He was dead in seconds.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
ConcreteBeats looked like she was about to throw up. Tantalus raised one eyebrow as he wrote something in his notebook.
“Interesting…” Tantalus said. “Good work, Emile.” Emile gave a wide smile. “Anway,” Tantalus continued, “On to the second meeting of the Revenant High Command. To begin with, everyone in this room must go to the Palace of Osiris at 7:00 AM tomorrow. Colonel Maria Feldrast has ordered all of us humble soldiers to attend a strategy meeting. Regarding the topics of this meeting: I wish to talk about starting a three-stage watch at the Gates, and I also want to talk about balancing the forces present at the Gates.”
A few of the Revenants groaned in annoyance at the sound of having to wake up early.
“I’d like to talk about removing the NPCs from the East and West Gates,” said Ashcroft. “I also want to talk about organizing a funeral for those who died defending the Gates today.”
Everyone in the room fell silent for a moment before Clock said, “And I’d like to talk about what I found during my scouting mission. I can go last, if you’d like.”
“Anyone else?” Tantalus looked at the Revenants around him. “If that’s all, then let’s begin. Should I go or do you want to go first?”
“You can go first, Commander,” Ashcroft said with a smile.
----------------------------------------
“That’s it for logistics right now,” Tantalus said after a long conversation regarding Osiris's supply lines. “Now, onto Ashcroft. Thank you all for being so patient.”
“Most of us are used to meetings like this,” said Ashcroft. “It’s just a bit strange to be doing one of these without Kingfisher.”
“Man, I wish he was here,” FullDan said wistfully.
“He’s got a wife and kids now,” Ashcroft said. “It’s probably for the best that he’s not in here with us.”
“You’re right,” FullDan said. “Sorry.”
“You don’t gotta be sorry to anyone, Dan,” Ashcroft said, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re an S-rank. In this world, that makes you a god.”
“Can we get back on topic, please?” Tantalus asked.
“Right,” said Ashcroft. “My first point of business: I move to remove the NPCs from the East and West Gates. The process doesn’t have to be violent, but the NPCs probably won’t give up the Gates without a fight.”
ConcreteBeats opened her mouth, but Mander spoke first. “Ashcroft,” he began. “What would we gain from taking this course of action?”
Ashcroft began to speak. “Essentially, the NPCs have shown themselves to be completely useless when it comes to defending the Gates. The Goblins have rifles that can easily penetrate their armor. Honestly, a force of about twenty Deluvians could probably take any of the Gates if not for help from the players. Basically, I’m saying that the negligible benefit we get from the NPCs is not worth the possibility that they’ll stab us in the back. I am much more concerned about enemies behind us than enemies in front of us. We delete a few pieces of code to save some lives. The choice seems simple to me.”
Mander and Cordelia spoke in refutation of Ashcroft’s motion. Mander said that the sorcerers at the East Gate killed a few Deluvians using their magic. He also said that there could be unforeseen consequences of making enemies of the NPCs. ConcreteBeats made the argument that the NPCs were indistinguishable from human beings, so they should have the same rights as humans. Quickly glancing around at the Revenants present, Tantalus could tell that Cordelia’s arguments didn’t convince anyone in the room.
When the vote was held, three people (Ashcroft, Emile, and ScaryClock) voted in favor of the motion, and three people (FullDan, Mander, and ConcreteBeats) voted against the motion.
Ashcroft laughed. “The first vote we hold… and it’s a tie,” he chuckled. “It’s up to you, Commander.”
Tantalus thought for a moment and said, “I promised the Colonel that I would do my best to prevent any further NPC deaths just now. The motion fails. Sorry, Ashcroft.”
Ashcroft smiled and said, “No skin off my back. Honestly, I was thinking of changing my vote when I heard Mander’s rebuttal.”
The committee then organized a time and place for the funeral. They decided that there would be a wake the next afternoon in the Osirian Central Park and an official funeral in four days. Tantalus said that he would get some people to set up the coffins and graves.
Once Ashcroft’s second point of business was done, Clock began to speak. “So, I logged into this game as soon as I could. Two hours had passed in-game when I received the message from GM. By this time, I was deep behind enemy lines. I must have gotten four or five miles out. I wasn’t able to get back until the Deluvian retreat from the North Gate gave me an opportunity to get back. Now, usually this wouldn’t be all that important, but I saw some crazy stuff that far out. I ran into a huge Deluvian camp that must have held a few hundred of ‘em. The camp had about a dozen pieces of field artillery, and they clearly followed some kind of military hierarchy. But here’s the thing,” Clock’s eyes lit up and her tone became excited, “their leaders had much more advanced firearms. I saw one with a high-capacity sidearm and a semi-automatic rifle.”
Everyone in the room lit up when they heard Clock’s words.
“What kind of rifle was it?” Ashcroft asked, glee in his voice.
“An M1 Garand,” Clock answered with a smile.
“Oh, we need to get one,” Ashcroft said. “Put a Garand in my hands, and I’ll kill all of the Deluvians attacking this city myself.”
“I’m sure we can all agree that acquiring better firepower is one of our primary goals,” Tantalus said. “If we can figure out how to mass-produce a Garand, all the better. We’ll have to figure out some reward system for whomever can acquire a Garand or a high-capacity sidearm.”
Within a few minutes, the meeting had ended, and the Revenants present began to go their separate ways. Ashcroft and Tantalus found themselves alone in the parking lot, Tantalus smoking his tenth cigarette of the day.
“That stuff’ll kill ya,” Ashcroft said.
“Ha,” Tantalus enunciated.
“Why are you smoking?”
“I’ve been craving nicotine ever since I logged in,” Tantalus said.
“Weird.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey,” said Ashcroft. “Do you think I should release those NPCs my group captured?”
“Not yet,” Tantalus said, flicking ash off his cigarette. “Tomorrow, they’ll ask us to release the prisoners and we, in an act of friendship, will release them. Just make sure there still are prisoners tomorrow. Also, Ashcroft?”
“Yeah?”
“I’d appreciate it if you would lay off the NPCs for a few days,” Tantalus said. “The Duke and Osirian military won’t be going anywhere until that ‘Edict of Nonviolence’ is gone.” Tantalus made large quotation marks in the air when he spoke.
“Sure,” Ashcroft said.
There was another beat of silence before Tantalus spoke again. "Something else has been bugging me for the past few hours."
"Yeah?"
"How did you know that the servers require 20% of the world's processing power?" Tantalus asked. "You'd need a lot of information to which we don't have access to even begin to guess at how much processing power the system uses."
A devilish grin appeared on Ashcroft's face. "You see," he began, stifling a chuckle, "I made it up."
"Ah," Tantalus said through lips that held a cigarette, his expression unchanged.
"I figured that the players needed a pick-me-up after your downer of a speech, so I decided to reframe the situation. This way they're not victims, they're heroes."
"I get it," Tantalus admitted. "Sometimes... you gotta lie to 'em."
At that moment, Emile pulled up in a bright red sports car.
“See you tomorrow,” Ashcroft said as he got in the passenger seat.
The sports car pulled off into the looming City of Osiris. The electric lamp posts all flicked on simultaneously, and Tantalus was struck by a chill. He flipped his collar up to the cold evening air and walked to his car.
[LtEmile]
https://i.imgur.com/9eIHgl8.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/9eIHgl8.jpg]