Chapter 4
CPT. Matt Williams charged toward the dark figure. He knew he needed to end this as fast as possible, and he wouldn’t allow anything to stand between him and getting back to his men. Matt had a great deal of faith that his company would do everything they could to hold the line, but it would ultimately be up to him to make it back somehow or they’d be without a leader.
Matt’s danger sense went wild, and he slid to a stop, just before the figure looked up.
“You’ve come to the land of eternal ice and snow, the domain of the winter queen. I am her guardian. The forest below whispers of your treachery and destruction. Why are you here, and what happened to the messenger I was expecting?”
Matt eyed the armored figure cautiously, not trusting their radio for some reason he couldn’t quite shake, he motioned for the Lieutenant to flank, setting up the best possible shot she could.
“We came here to kill an invader. He tried running when he should have stood and fought. If what you say is true, he was going to bring you a message. I couldn’t allow that, so I chased him here and killed him in the forest below. I’ll warn you now, if you stand with the forces invading earth, I won't hesitate to end you as well. I’d prefer if you surrender, but for some reason I don’t think that’ll happen.
A dark chuckle escaped the figure’s helmet as a gust of frigid air. “You’d be right in that. I am my queen’s enforcer, and her general. By the sounds of it, she has sent her daughters to invade your world, like so many before it. You will ultimately fall, in this battle or another just like it. But enough of this banter. I tire of your desecration of this place. Let us fight.
Matt immediately knew something was wrong when the .50 BAR rounds bounced off the air before reaching his target. Lyndis’s burst met with similar ends, and the HE grenades she’d launched had their blast re-directed into the frozen ground.
“Seems you have weapons that might actually be capable of harming me. I’ll have to take this seriously after all.” the figure muttered. Matt wondered for a second how he could hear the words inside his suit, as the external mic had frozen over during the climb. His wondering almost cost him.
The winter knight jumped forward, moving with incredible speed, before it slashed at Matt with a sword made from a shard of pale blue ice. The move was so unexpected, Matt reacted on instinct, sinking into a defensive stance, arms up to block his vitals. The move saved him, as a thick coating of rime covered the suit. A biting cold entered Matt’s arm in the same location the ice blade had struck the suit, and he howled in pain.
Lyndis did her best to draw attention to herself, going full cyclic with both guns, but it didn’t affect the armor-clad warrior. Somehow, Matt knew the creature inside the armor was grinning, and that pissed him off.
“Soto, I’m going to overload the suit. Get ready to pick me up and make a beeline for the black hole. I’m convinced it’s a portal that’ll get us back to earth.” Matt risked transmitting over the radio
“Will do sir. How do you plan to take the winter knight out with the suit though?” came the breathless reply.
Matt didn’t take time to visually check on his XO, instead he focused on fighting past the cold. The enemy knight seemed to have somehow heard them, as it hesitated, blade raised to strike a fatal blow against the exo-mecha. Matt took full advantage of it’s distracted state, locking the suits alloy fingers around the armor in a crushing death grip.
The knight howled in rage, stabbing his blade down again and again against the metallic fist.
Adrenaline hit Matt’s bloodstream in a potent double dose, and instead of checking himself for injuries, he quickly mashed the red “manual reactor overload” button, and slammed the lever under it to the stops.
Matt flipped the ‘eject’ switch just as Lyndis sprinted forward, and a blaring voice began a countdown from 3.
Absolutely bracing air seemed to suck the breath out of Matt’s lungs, and he somehow knew that his pilot suit wouldn’t protect him from the frigid temperatures of this place. His only chance at survival would be Lyndis making it to the portal in time. Assuming the black sun was a portal. And assuming it was actually hovering in the air above the rise, rather than there being some kind of optical illusion.
Matt hoped Lieutenant Soto would jump in before the countdown finished and they unleashed the equivalent of a tactical nuke on the enemy. Just before his chest made contact with the black void, a blue screen flashed before his eyes.
Boss Kill Detected!
Invasion Detected!
System Access Detected…
Assessment Completed.
Class Selection and Attribute Point Assignment Pending
Reward Earned
For successfully terminating an Invasion by following the boss back through the invasion portal and killing them, you have been awarded a limited title (Invasion Invader) as well as additional rewards for Earth, and an expanded class selection. Congratulations!
Matt waited for the familiar scene of earth outside Fort Moore, but instead realized he’d been standing in darkness for quite some time. He tried calling out to his XO, but no sound emerged.
Fighting the building panic, Matt tried moving, but something was preventing that as well. Eventually, just as Matt started to seriously worry about what was happening, he felt a frigid chill begin to sink into him. This wasn’t the kind of cold that came from standing outside in a snowstorm, or even the sort that came from spending too long in ice cold water. Matt realized with horror there was one term that made sense when describing the cold he was experiencing. This was the sort of cold that came from death.
The panic that’d been building in Matt’s chest won out when a voice filled the air, a sense of absolute power emanating from it.
“Fear not, Child of Man. I have come to thee last, bearing an offer and a warning."
Some tiny part of Matt’s brain, the part still somehow capable of rational thought told him he would be okay. Matt had a hard time believing that part of himself. He’d heard the term ‘eldritch horror’ before, but this was something even more than that. The thought that something like Cathulu might be interested in him enough to trap him here sent shivers down his spine. Matt remembered the returnees saying that beings who attained the highest levels were capable of exerting a force that could freeze you in place just by speaking, and he wondered what he could have done to draw the attention of something like that.
“It is not good for you to linger here, your mind begins to glimpse things it should not. I will be brief. The Accords of Heaven and Hell forbid the three prime entities from interacting directly with earth. Fortunately there is a loophole, and each of us may select a champion from among mortal kind. The system seeks to infect the experiment we made earth for, and as such, we need it to fail in it’s primary goals. I have chosen you to act as my champion. If you refuse, you will be returned to earth with no further consequence. If you accept, you will be given a unique class, something that will help you, and by extension, Humanity, prevail against what the system represents.”
Matt’s soul shuddered at the thought. Something this powerful needed him? And wasn’t the system supposed to be helping them fight off the invasion. Nothing the voice told him made any sense, but he could feel in his bones that the entity that had spoken knew what it said was true, in a primal way.
“Our time together grows short mortal, what will you choose?” The voice queried. Matt’s perspective suddenly shifted, and he realized what the voice had offered. If he wanted America, and the human species as a whole to have a chance, he needed to accept this offer. Matt realized he didn’t have much time. He’d been just floating in the endless abyss for some time, and if he didn’t pick quickly, his soul would suffer some kind of permanent damage.
“I will accept. I’m not going to just wantonly slaughter anything that you throw at us, but my goal of saving as many humans as possible seems to line up with your goal of thwarting the system.” Matt acknowledged.
“Your agreement is all I require. When you return to earth, you will have a class assigned to you. Use it’s power wisely, as I can only hide so much from agents of the system. That is all.”
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The presence began to fade after it finished speaking, and Matt noticed a discernible lessening of pressure on his mind and soul. In that moment, he understood how true the statement about permanent damage to his soul had been. Being exposed to such irrefutable truths made physical had altered him on some fundamental level. The changes were slight enough now, but who knows what might have happened if Matt had remained undecided.
The chill continued to fade until Matt found he was able to move somewhat. Shortly after that the infinite darkness began to fade as well, a growing pinpoint of light illuminating the environment. Matt wondered how he’d get back to earth, but the problem soon sorted itself out.
One moment the previously inky blackness had been approaching a dark gray due to the illumination, and the next, Matt found himself back at gate 5 outside Fort Moore. A flashing red exclamation point blinked away in the upper right corner of his vision, and he noticed a few numbered bars in the upper left, but he ignored that for now. The system’s HUD view had been a subject covered in detail during the pre-assignment briefing for SRG soldiers.
Matt noticed the lack of surprise that his absence should have caused, and walked over to one of his soldiers to borrow a radio.
“Ah, there you are sir. We were starting to worry. All systems are green. How copy?” First Lieutenant Lyndis Soto replied once he’d radioed in.
“I copy loud and clear XO. let's finish clearing up any remaining elves and then head back to staging for debrief.” Matt ordered.
Most of the enemy had already been eliminated by fire and maneuver at the direction of First Sergeant Cabral, but Soto and Williams helped track down any stragglers that were hiding, likely hoping to collect intel, and let the lower enlisted mop them up. They needed to min-max who had classes and for they were.
Matt soon found himself back at a modified motor pool building that’d been set up to handle the mechanical and technical needs of the exo-mecha suits. The red flashing exclamation was getting hard to ignore, so Matt waved Lyndis off towards the debriefing room and began reviewing his notifications while making his way in the same direction.
Notifications Available
Summary Notification Review paused…
Welcome back Captain!
Would you like to review your notifications, or skip to your character sheet?
(Note, you can review all notifications at a later time from the messages->system tab of the HUD main menu)
[Notifications]/[Character Sheet]
Matt considered for a moment. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see any potential warnings or messages about that reality shattering presence, so maybe it was best to skip to the character sheet for now and review the notifications after he’d had a chance to decompress? So decided, Matt mentally selected the character sheet option.
Attribute
Score
Modifiers
Strength
6
+1
Dexterity
7
0
Constitution
7
-1
Intelligence
8
+1
Wisdom
8
0
Charisma
7
+1
Luck
2
0
Aggregate Stats
HP
Stamina
Mana
100 (98)
21
28
Soul Storage
Skill Tokens (3)
Gear Tokens (3)
Attribute Points (16)
Upgrade Points (1)
Currency ($104,578 USD)
($5,000 USC)
Other (None)
SKILLS
ABILITIES
SPELLS
Stealth (I)
Reap the Harvest
Touch of the Endless Abyss
Mental Fortitude (IV)
Commune
Touch of the Cold Grave
Hardened Soul (IV)
Student of War
Inspiration
Tactical Mastery (I)
Breach the Defenses
Heroic Taunt
Class
SubClass
Mastery
Hero (Death)
Siegebreaker
Tactician
Levels
8
Class Features
Hero (Death)
Heroic calling from a Deity or greater being
SiegeBreaker
Specializes in ending conflicts that seem to drag on
Tactician
Expert at directing friendly forces to maximum effect
The information took Matt’s breath away. He’d jumped 8 full levels, putting him just two behind the average returnee. What’s more, He’d acquired not just a class, but a subclass and a mastery. He’d apparently earned several thousand system currency, and been awarded skill and equipment tokens. He had no idea what upgrade points were, but they must be valuable if he only had one. Lastly, he had 16 unspent attribute points. The returnees had been very specific about using these only in a completely safe environment. Matt would have to bring that up at the briefing.