(A Virtual Room at NERV HQ)
The Virtual Control Room was in chaos. Organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless. But Isaac wasn’t concerned. That was par for the course when you were rolling out a major event for players to enjoy, after all.
“All right, Martinez, I want you watching those secondaries in the Alliance. I know the main AI is saying they’ll sit this out, but some of the more hotheaded and criminally-minded players have migrated there, after the whole social order got thrown on its head thanks to the Kul’tirans and Yathru getting their teeth stomped in. I at least want some warning if something’s going to happen over there.”
“On it, boss!”
“Thompson, what is the Consortium doing?”
“They’re too busy fleecing Shadowgate for all they’re worth, and hunting down rogue ships that escaped the system. Their fleets on the Ihm border are on high alert, but they aren’t moving to an offensive stance. Sentiment seems to be that they want to consolidate existing gains before looking at new business ventures.”
“That’s fine. Keep an eye on them, but they shouldn’t be a problem. Yasir, what about the Confederacy?”
“There is a significant spike in chatter. Fortunately, the anti-Empire faction has suffered setbacks in the last couple years, so the call to invade, and strike back at the Empire is mostly people shouting into the wind. Doesn’t look like they’ll be entering the war unless things get much worse.”
“All right. Let’s keep this event a bit more controlled than the last few, all right? This is the first planned major event in the game, when we weren’t busy putting out fires, so I want it to go right.”
“No problem, boss.”
Isaac nodded to his team, and let them get back to their work. They knew their jobs, and they were good at them. The fact that they’d managed to put out all the fires players had started as they had been rampaging around the game world was nothing short of miraculous.
Actually, the fact that this was the first planned major event, when the game was over a year old at this point was pretty much unheard of for a live service game. Or, at least, one that was actually popular. They had worked hard to make a living, breathing world, and the players had driven so much content that no one had even noticed that NERV hadn’t sparked any planned events or content updates.
Even the Harvester incident, for all its impact on the game world, wasn’t a planned event. Well, it was a semi-planned scenario that they’d put in, but hadn’t expected to see so soon. The unlock conditions for that had been left to the game’s AI controller, and several battles with Nomads had apparently sparked a resource push from the X’thari.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Speaking of which… Isaac turned to another screen, where he was monitoring the Chaos Brigade. They had pulled in a few other Warhammer roleplayer guilds, it seemed, and they were turning their attention on the Irathx. So far, the conflict was limited to a single system, as the different ‘warbands’, as their guilds were called, rampaged about the inhabited worlds, pillaging, burning, and killing everything they saw (not necessarily in that order).
That situation looked stable, for the moment. Now that the Irathx were located, it wouldn’t take long for the chaos types to start striking into the greater Irathxi zone. The Chaos Brigade leader was apparently looking for names of the other prime warp entities, so he could spread their worship, and get power from them. The system he’d stumbled upon was only a couple systems away from a world with a major shrine, that would give him the first clue.
He was about to make a note to make sure someone monitored that situation, when he heard Morgan clear her throat behind him. Turning away from the screen, he smiled. “Hey, babe. Came down to see how the event rollout was going?”
Morgan nodded. “Yeah. We were able to turn the Imperial Civil War and the Second Battle of Coldana into major PR wins, but that was just us reacting to things. I want this to go as smoothly as possible. I know anything involving players isn’t going to go completely how we want it, but it would be nice if we could have an easy win for once, instead of scrambling, you know?”
Isaac laughed. “We weren’t exactly sitting on our thumbs down here during those times, either, you know! But yeah, so far, everything looks to be on track. Players in all polities are looking forward to it, and engagement metrics are through the roof.”
He looked back to the main display. “So far, the only polities that aren’t seeing significant player buy in towards the Imperium’s invasion would be the Imperium itself, and Black Star. Players everywhere else are already looking for ways they can get involved.”
Morgan frowned. “The Imperium I can understand. They were never the most populous faction amongst players, and the new turn they’ve taken has driven most of the Nomads to leave the area, or reroll entirely. But why not the Black Stars? I would think they’d be all over this?”
Isaac shrugged. “Well, there’s still time for them to get involved, but so far they have been more focused on development of Star’s Reach, and some of the surrounding systems, and they just came off the Yathru and Shadowgate incidents. So, they’re regrouping, looks like, and consolidating their gains. There’s also that Chaos Brigade business that they’re backing.”
“Chaos Brigade? Those crazy e-LARPers?”
“Yeah, those guys. Our favorite beta tester went and made a deal with them. They get reduced costs on upgrades to their gear and ships, and he gets copies of all their sensor data and the like, using them to test technology that he’s finding from that Enrichment Center he uncovered.
“Anyways, Black Star is busy maintaining and consolidating their current positions, pushing forward slightly on business terms, and backing the Chaos Brigade and their allies. So, they aren’t really paying attention to what is going on in the Empire, from what we can see. They have enough on their plate, without reaching for more.”
Morgan considered that for a second. “Hmm. Well, I’m sure that guy will get involved, somehow. With his connection to the throne, I can’t see him staying out of it entirely, if the Empress asks for help.”
“Hmm. There is a high likelihood that the Empress will ask him for help, in some way. But I’m not sure what that will be. The Black Star Navy can stand side by side with the Imperial Navy, they’ve shown that, but they aren’t really suited for static defense.”
“Right. Oh, speaking of that guy, the medical team has been going over the data from his pod. The accidental activation of the nano-surgery function has given them more data than they could have possibly hoped for. Combined with the results they’re getting from the autistic spectrum testers in those Starhunter ships, I think there’s a good chance the FDA approves more extensive human trials on the EVA-02 pod’s abilities.”
“Really, I didn’t think they’d be doing that, not so soon!”
“Yeah, but once the approval comes through, and we can advertise for trials, this is going to be HUGE! The medical potential alone is enough to ensure that DAtS keeps going for years. Hell, if it goes well, it might even pay off the project entirely, on its own!”
“That’s great, honey! Look, I’m almost finished for the day. Why don’t we go out to your favorite restaurant to celebrate, yeah?”
“That would be great, Isaac. Meet you at the car in thirty minutes?”
“Yeah, that should be enough time for me to shut everything down, and pass off to the next shift.”
“Ooh, I better get everything squared, too!”
Isaac grinned as Morgan turned, and dematerialized from the virtual room. Looking back to his console, he started inputting the commands to transfer functions to the controller for the next shift. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had forgotten something…