“Those bastards are rising through the ranks damned quickly!” hissed Hind a week later as the newest members of the rebel faction celebrated Maggi Becker’s promotion to captain. “Too damned quickly.”
“And they’re rubbing it in the other’s faces,” Biyu added, face twisted as she spoke.
Mai looked around the room, most of the other rebels seemed just as put out, questioning why they weren’t being allowed to progress as quickly as the others.
“I’m glad that we’re out of that circle to be honest,” she explained. “Being from a cell, instead of from the original army, we’re kind of separate from the other rebels, although we’re still part of them. Our people can continue to progress just by carrying out the rebel faction missions as well as any missions from the city.”
“Ha, free spirits, that’s us!” laughed Hind.
Mai’s heart felt as though it was breaking. Free spirits? She couldn’t even tell if she was acting of her own will, or whether what she was doing was a pre-programmed routine. She didn’t actually care much as it further her own cause that of hurting the players as much as possible, but the thought that she might be stopped from succeeding kept her awake night after night.
“I’m going to suggest to Yen Ching that he rein them in a bit. Slow down on the rebel faction missions and have them go out into the city. They still haven’t even attempted PROTECT NETHER CITY FROM ALL THREATS.”
Hind sneered. The fighting caused by the first set of missions had finally died down, and the rebels had been successful in limiting the damage and deaths to members of those factions as much as possible. Still there had been civilian deaths and Mai had cried herself to sleep when she heard about the losses.
Nothing to be done but to push on, this city will be free.
“I’ll go see him now,” Mai took her leave and walked to the command centre. Yen Ching practically lived in the command centre. Before it hadn’t made much sense, but now she understood what he was, she knew that he was busy micro-managing the faction and its business aspects, maybe even logging in and out of the game at that point as well.
Afterall, when we go to sleep, are we truly going to sleep?
She immediately quashed the thought, thinking of her favourite song instead. Thinking too deeply about her own existence would surely drive her mad, and she had too much to do to allow that to happen.
“Yen Ching, might I have a word?” The rebel leader was hunched over the table, discussing an area of the city with one of the majors. Another player.
“Certainly,” Yen Ching dismissed the officer then turned a patient gaze upon her. “How might I help?”
“The new recruits. People are concerned at how quickly they’re progressing. And how they’re not doing any other missions other than those which help them directly to progress. Nothing to actually help the faction.”
He frowned at that, motioning for her to wait as he blink-clicked a menu open and waved his hands as he scrolled.
“They have indeed progressed quickly. And I can see that they’ve not tackled any faction mission as yet, however, once they have completed the next round of missions, I’ll ensure that they have to complete faction missions before they progress once more.”
“Won’t the next round see Maggi Becker reaching major?”
“Yes, yes it will. She’s an ambitious lady, always happy to help out. Glad to have her and her people aboard. They’ve well and truly adapted to rebel life.”
She ignored the pointed words, pretending as if she hadn’t even heard them.
“I don’t trust them,” there it was out in the open.
“Why ever not?” Yen Ching’s eyebrows rose somewhat comically.
“Because they switched factions as soon as things got hard. They’re not truly rebels, they’re social climbers who decided they didn’t want to get killed in the last round of fighting.”
“Well, they certainly seem to be proving their worth,” Yen Ching smiled, although it was more of a baring of his teeth. Mai saw the truth behind his words. The new recruits were climbing through the ranks and offsetting Mai’s influence on the core rebels.
“Oh, I’m sure they are,” she replied with a smile. “I just don’t believe that they have the rebels, or yours, best interests at heart.”
“Well, we’re agreed that they’ll go out into the city after the next round of promotions. They’ve had their opportunity to show just how dedicated they are to our cause then.”
Mai jerked her head in a nod, gave a small bow and left Yen Ching to his plotting.
“What do you mean we can’t have another mission?” all heads turned as Maggi Becker’s voice filled the canteen.
“I simply mean that you can’t have another progression mission until you’ve completed a faction mission, not that you can’t have another mission,” spluttered a colonel.
“That’s not right, we should be able to complete any missions in any order we want!” Maggi Becker slammed her hand down on a table, sending cups spilling.
The colonel that she was berating was one of the few NPCs officers. She’d clearly noticed that it was usually the NPCs who gave out missions, with the players happy to take a back seat.
And now Yen Ching’s issued his order, he can hide behind that poor bastard, she cringed as Maggi Becker kept yelling at the man, knowing that this was partially her own fault.
“Major!” the colonel pushed himself to his feet. “I am your superior officer, and you will speak to me as such. You have a mission. We all have the same mission, PROTECT NETHER CITY FROM ALL THREATS. Go and do your duty!” he thrust a finger out, pointing towards the direction of the camp gate.
Snarling, Maggi Becker signalled to her cronies and left the building.
“I really don’t like the look of that,” Dakota said. She and the others had sat with Mai to discuss the next round of missions and how best to protect the people of Nether City before Maggi Becker’s outburst had brought all other conversations to an end.
“Somehow I don’t think she’s going to be doing the mission she was given,” Jock watched as the last of the disgruntled players left the room.
“Get that from Becker’s sunny disposition?” Chan smirked. “I’d love to play poker with those people. I’d clean up.”
“Spread the word. Have our people get back to base if any are on patrol. We’re going to need them, replied Mai grimly. “Things are going to get hairy.”
Leaving them to that task, she approached the colonel who had resumed eating his meal.
“Colonel Junker, permission to join you?”
He looked up and smiled at her. It was an open and honest smile, and she realised that her reputation with him was much higher than some of the other rebels.
“Certainly, I’d be honoured. If it wasn’t for you, my recon platoon would still be using their old stealth cloaks. Those new uniforms you got us have worked wonders!”
And that’s why he likes me so much, good to know.
“I’m glad to hear it colonel. I was wondering what was all that fuss about?”
The smile disappeared to be replaced by a scowl.
“That bloody upstart, thinks she’s ready to be promoted to colonel. Her and her people have been progressing far too damned quickly for my liking. I’ve been here nearly twenty years, and it took all of that time to reach this rank. They’ve been here less than a week dammit!”
“I completely understand,” Mai kept her tone neutral, not wanting to be accused of having fed the colonel his words. “I expressed my very own concerns to Yen Ching just yesterday. Thankfully, he agreed that they have to be reined in somewhat. Which is why they should be going out and completing faction missions.”
“Only they’re bloody well not going to, are they?” he scowled again. “They’re going to mope about this base until something shiny comes and they’ll go and do that.”
“Fat chance, they’re not locals are they? Not like you. The only way they’ll get more missions is to do the ones we give them. And considering that Yen Ching has tasked me with creating the missions, they’re going to die of old age before they get another mission if they don’t complete faction missions.”
As she spoke, it suddenly dawned on her why Yen Ching had her creating the missions. She was an NPC. Players couldn’t create actual missions. They could ask people to do things, but those weren’t actually official missions. Even the missions that Yen Ching and the rebel council had fed into had been typed up and essentially created by her.
“I say, are you okay?” the colonel leaned forward and placed a hand on hers. “You look awfully pale.”
“Sorry, I’m fine. Fine. Just a bit tired.” Which was an understatement. She was utterly exhausted.
He took her words at face value and she changed the subject, learning more about him and the life he thought he had led. It seemed as though it had been a good one. He’d found the love of his life, was still married to her, and had three children who were all in the rebel army. Sad at the thought that none of it had happened or hadn’t happened in the time frame that he thought it had, Mai wrapped up the conversation and left the canteen.
Her redesign had made the rebel base far more defensible than it had been before, but she’d designed it with the intention to keep the enemy out. She hadn’t designed it for a situation where the enemy might already still be within the walls and not only within the walls but within the buildings themselves before the attack was launched.
Walking swiftly, but slowly enough to not draw undue attention, she made her way to the armoury and the bio-boost store.
“Sergeant-at-arms, how are we doing today?” She was fond of Gregs, the NCO tasked with running the armoury. Somewhat thick-set, he had once been an absolute unit of a man. Even with his belly hanging over his belt, she could see the strength in his arms and shoulders. He would make a formidable opponent.
“All good ma’am, all good. Come to check on the stocks?”
It was a duty she’d taken upon herself. Being in control of the stocks meant that she could fudge the figures and, if necessary, remove a few bottles from the store room without the tally changing.
“I am indeed. I have some people coming in from patrol. Going to give them a boost, so I’ll take two bottles.”
Smiling, the sergeant-at-arms keyed open the door and waved her through. It was a formality as she had the code herself, but Gregs liked to do things by the book, and she was happy to accommodate him.
Pulling up the store’s menu, she quickly created a pack and moved two bottles into it, activating her LARCENY, she moved another two whilst the sergeant’s back was turned.
LARCENY SUCCESS
STEALING FROM ONE’S FRIENDS, ALWAYS UNDERHANDED AND LOW
Wincing at the notification she slung the bag over her shoulder and stepped back out of the vault.
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“Thank you sergeant. Any other visitors today?”
“Only the Major. The new one, Maggi Becker. Wanted to check out a bottle.”
Mai clenched her fists.
“Did you give her one?”
“Certainly not!” he spluttered through his walrus moustache. “Patrolling doesn’t require a bio-boost, not until they get back that is.”
“How did she take it?”
“Badly. Called me a number of rude names I won’t bother repeating and then stormed off. Said I’d regret not obeying her orders. Didn’t like it when I pointed out that Yen Ching’s orders were like the word of the Emperor around here.”
“Which way did they go?”
Gregs shrugged.
“I didn’t bother watching. As soon as they were out of the building, I closed the door and went to my inventory. We’re burning through the bases’ stock of nanites.”
“I know, peacekeeping is taking its toll. We’re due another expansion shortly which will see the base level up and we’ll get a nanite boost then,” Mai walked out of the room as she spoke, giving the sergeant a casual wave.
As soon as she was out of sight she cracked open one of the bottles and took a long hard slug, boosting her bio-mass to one hundred and seventy five per cent.
“Dakota,” she commed. “Maggi Becker tried to book out a bottle of bio-boost. Pitched a fit when she was refused by the sergeant-at-arms, and then treated him like shit. Our people back?”
“Just coming in now, where do you want them?”
“Get them into the base towers, the medical facility and the command centre. Have them move quickly, but without drawing attention to themselves. I don’t want to tip Maggi Becker off.”
“Roger that, moving.”
Mai called up her minimap, checking to see where Becker and her people were. They’d split into three groups but had been joined by some of the other rebels she knew were players.
“Dakota, Biyu. Chan, Hind, Jock, be aware, other members of the command staff have joined with Becker. I’m tagging them on the map. Group one is heading towards the command centre, group two is looping back to the armoury, group three is going for the canteen.”
“I’m heading to the canteen now!” commed Hind. “Got five people with me.”
“Heading to the communications centre,” Biyu commed.
“I’ll head over to the armoury, back you and sergeant-at-arms up,” Dakota’s voice was tight with anticipation of the fight to come.
“Don’t bother, the sergeant has a small squad with him at all times. People I can trust. We’ll hold them here. Back up the team going to the command centre.”
Spinning on her heels, she jogged to the armoury.
“Back so soon?” the sergeant-at-arms’ smile dropped from his face as he saw the worry creasing hers. “Problem?”
“Maggi Becker, she’s launching a mutiny.”
“That takes the biscuit!” cursed the sergeant, beckoning her into the armoury before slamming the door shut and engaging a myriad of locks. “How long until they get here?”
“Enemy squad on its way, I estimate in less than a minute.”
“Right you lot! Listen in!” roared the sergeant to his helpers. “Prepare to fight for this armoury. Armour up.”
They moved with a precision she hadn’t expected, her respect for the sergeant increasing as she watched them move through actions he had clearly drilled them in time after time.
“Always thought that this might happen,” he said grimly. “Never did trust the outsiders. Your lot were okay, but there was always something off about the others that come to Nether City. Always think they’re better than us for some reason.”
“Well, we have the chance to prove them wrong in this case, don’t we?”
“That we do, miss, that we do”, he grinned from ear-to-ear as he selected a heavy suit of armour.
There was a loud clang on the door, as if someone had walked into it expecting it to open.
“Sorry, we’re closed!” the sergeant spoke as he pressed on the door’s intercom. “Running a few drills. You’ll have to come back later.”
“This is Captain Grundig, open up! That’s an order!” they watched as the Captain banged a fist on the door, then flapped their hand about as metal defeated bone.
“Not very clever are they?” the sergeant commented as the mutineers milled about the door for a few seconds, clearly unsure what they should do.
“Looks like they’re still hoping they can get in here without a fight. Probably tasked with taking this building first before the rest of them attack. Dakota,” she held up a hand to forestall the sergeant’s next words, “Captain Grundig has appeared with a team. They seem a bit unsure as to what to do next.”
“Our people are still making their way to the canteen, Maggi Becker’s people beat them to it.” Mai cursed as she heard that. Always full, the canteen was a good place to take hostages.
“Weapons hot,” she ordered over an open comms channel. “Engage the mutineers wherever you can!”
The comms channel she’d selected broadcast to every member of the rebel faction and her ear exploded with questions as the rebels reacted to the news. Grundig and her people looked as one at the armoury’s camera, before having a quick huddle, weapons appearing.
“Mai! What the blasted devils are you doing? Have you gone mad?” Yen Ching roared at her over another private channel.
“Yen Ching, Maggi Becker is launching a mutiny, I’ve sent people over to protect you. I’m in the armoury watching Grundig and some of his people trying to work out how to break in. Fight! Mai out.”
She cut the channel, then muted all comms bar those coming from her people.
“Looks like they’re going to try to blow the door,” mused the sergeant-at-arms as Grundig and his team placed a shaped charge over the door’s lock. “Fat chance.”
Retreating out of sight, the mutineers detonated the charge. There was a dull clong and the building shook, the camera’s view briefly obscured by the smoke from the explosion.
“Bet that cost a lot in bio-mass,” he pointed at the screen, the explosion had barely made a dent. “Reckon that was a Mark 2 charge. Think they’ll try a Mark 3?”
“What’s the difference?” Mai wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“Bigger boom. Costs about thirty per cent bio-mass and hurts like a bugger to create. If this was a tank, it would shred the entire thing with enough power to kill anyone a hundred paces beyond. With this door though? Need a Mark 5 at least.”
“And what about the wall?”
The sergeant turned to face her, mouth opening and shutting for a moment before he replied.
“Well, that depends on whether you matched the walls to the door when you built the building, ma’am.”
She winced, the honorific a clear admonishment. Opening the plans for the building, she looked at the specs for the wall.
“Mark 2?”
“Okay, that means they’ll need a Mark 3 to blast through. All doors and walls can only be defeated by a weapon one level above theirs. That’s a Mark 4 door, so they’ll need a Mark 5 charge.”
“Let’s hope they don’t … oh shit!”
“Everyone to this side of the wall! Brace for breaching charge!”
Mai ducked down behind a desk, forming a suit of armour suitable for the tight confines of the armoury. She would have preferred to form a mecha, but that wouldn’t have worked. She was just in time, the helmet closing over her head as the charge blew a gaping hole in the wall.
She popped up and cut down the first mutineer to enter.
KILL ASSIST!
Well, she thought she did, the mutineer’s mutilated body fell into bloody chunks as it was cut apart by laser beams. Looking around she smiled as she saw that all of the sergeant’s people had the new tri-barrels.
Because Maggi Becker and her people had only been in the base for a few days they hadn’t had the chance to take the tri-barrels from Bob’s armoury yet, and she had also asked Bob to stall if they had approached him for them.
All of which meant that she and the people in the armoury had a distinct advantage over the mutineers.
“Flash-bang!” the sergeant’s visor darkened as he called out the warning, hers following suit microseconds after. She felt rather than saw or heard the explosion as her suit cut out the effects. Glancing at the security screen, she saw that the mutineers were wearing a mix of armour, nothing like the grade she and her people were wearing.
They weren’t ready for a proper fight. Thought they had the element of surprise over the “dumb” NPCs. She hated these people more than she thought possible.
“Our turn!” roared the sergeant as he lobbed a stun-grenade at the breach in the wall. He was up and charging before it detonated, arriving on the heels of the explosion. Mai had barely moved before the sergeant and his people cut the stunned mutineers down.
“Hold the armoury!” she ordered as she joined them outside of the armoury. “Red-five is the password for anyone coming here. I’ll pass that on by private comm. You do the same.”
She didn’t wait for a reply, racing off towards the command centre. All about her, a battle was raging. Rebels fired upon anyone who attacked them, uncertain as to who the true enemies were, cutting down allies without even knowing.
Bastards are undoing all our good work!
A player stepped out, weapon raised, but dropped it as soon as he saw her, holding a hand out.
“Maggi Becker’s just entered the command centre. She’s not in the core of the building, just past the first defence,” he blurted out as she kept her weapon trained on him.
“You’re not with her?”
“Fuck no! I worked hard to level up here, and Yen Ching’s a decent sort. I want the rebels to be better than this.”
She clapped a hand on his shoulder, marking him as an ally on her minimap and then broadcasting that to her people.
“Any others like you?”
“Some, we can’t tell who’s with us and who isn’t until they open fire. And by then it’s too late,” his face fell. “We’ve lost at least fifteen of my friends.”
Fifteen less players, not a bad thing, even if they are loyal, Mai thought, still unable to get over the notion that they still viewed her as a play thing. Even if they didn’t necessarily say so.
“Gather the rest of your friends, take and hold the towers. Shoot any of Maggi Becker’s people If you see them with other rebels and they’re not fighting it’s safe to assume that they’re traitors as well.”
“Copy that,” he gave a nod clearly relieved to be following orders and ran off, shouting to someone out of her sight.
Pressing on, she tucked herself into the corner of a building, before looking out at the command centre. The door was gone, replaced with a gaping hole from which smoke was pouring. A couple of bodies lay crumpled on the ground, and she spotted movement inside the entrance.
Absorbing her tri-barrel, she swapped it for a grenade launcher. Taking careful aim, she raised the sight to adjust for the distance and fired.
KILL!
KILL!
HIT! 69%
STUNNED
BLINDED
DEAFENED
BLEED @2% PER SECOND
Mai was up and running before the notifications had even finished appearing, absorbing the grenade launcher, and swapping it for the tri-barrel. Leaping into the smoke-filled corridor beyond the entrance, she raked the area with laser fire, blindly shooting in all directions.
KILL!
Dropping to one knee, she took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm her breathing down. Nothing moved beyond, but she could hear shooting and shouts further on into the complex.
Rising, she made her way down the corridor, weapon panning as she did so, laser sight burning brightly in the smoke which still filled the corridor.
An officer burst out of a room a few paces ahead of her, shooting blindly over his shoulder before a burst of return fire cut him down in a spray of blood and gore. She cursed as she saw that it was Colonel Junker.
Taking a knee once more, she sighted on the door then turned off the laser, not wanting to give her enemies any warning.
“Did you see that shot! Critical hit, right through the spine! Last time that bastard will be getting legless!” laughed a cruel voice. She recognised it as one of Yen Ching’s officers, a woman called Ricketts who had always struck her as being a bit too keen to mete out punishments to soldiers who weren’t quick enough to follow her orders.
Ricketts strode into the corridor, weapon down, clearly oblivious to anything except for the sound of her own voice and the dead Colonel Junker.
Mai held her fire, waiting to see if the person the mutineer was speaking to would join her. A man appeared, one of Maggi Becker’s crew, he had his weapon resting on his shoulder. Breathing slowly, Mai triggered her laser sight, laying on the side of the man’s head.
With a gentle pull of the trigger she boiled the man’s brains, the heat of the laser causing the top of his skull to explode from the internal pressure.
KILL!
PLAYER NED QUINN ELIMINATED!
The woman turned, shock evident in the way her eyes widened, and mouth dropped open. Mai blasted her head clean off her shoulders with a quick sweep of her weapon. There was no blood, the lasers cauterising the flesh, filling the corridor with the stench of boiled blood, and burnt flesh.
KILL!
PLAYER JENNY RICKETTS ELIMINATED!
The sound of fighting inside the command centre rose to a crescendo and then died.
“Command centre clear!” called out a rebel. “Repeat, Yen Ching and the council are safe.”
“Good job, hold there. I’ll join you once we’ve dealt with the others,” she replied, nose wrinkling at the stench of the two mutineers.
*
“You can’t bloody do this!” sobbed one of the mutineers. With the death of Maggi Becker inside the command centre, and the failure to seize the armoury, the mutiny had fallen apart.
“I’m pleased to say that I can, and I will,” Mai snarled as she shot the woman in the back of the head. It was the tenth player she had killed in such a way. And each one had been an easy kill. None had done anything to assuage the rage she felt when she thought about what the players had done to people she cared about. And would continue to do.
The mutineers had been rounded up – none too gently - by the angry rebels. A court had been convened, and judgement had been passed by Biyu acting as judge. All of those who had aided and abetted the mutineers would face the death penalty as due traitors.
Shock had been quickly followed by indignation as the players realised that the NPCs meant what they said. Indignation had turned to fear as Mai had started to carry out the sentence.
INSTAKILL!
TITLE – EXECUTIONER!
YOU ACT IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE, REMOVING THE STAIN OF THOSE FOUND GUILTY FROM SOCIETY, PROTECTING THE INNOCENT FROM THEIR FUTURE PREDATIONS
That was one title Mai knew she’d never use when introducing herself as she worked her way along the line, shooting the rebels one by one as she did. Some begged, others sobbed, one or two prayed to the god or gods of their choices, more cursed her, a few went stoically.
How the hell are we supposed to rebuild after this? She thought as she looked at the rows of dead loyalist rebels laid out away from the execution line. They’d lost over fifty friends, and the damage done to the base was going to cost a lot to fix. It felt as though they were at square one. We’ll find a way, she vowed.