Scott had found the map app on the tablet, which was prepared for them, and decided to head off to the personnel quarters to get some rest. It was first in, first choice, so he decided to find one that suited his needs and character. Walking down the halls passing by a few rooms that were clearly geared more towards small families or couples, he started seeomg amd checking out the larger of the single rooms. Each room had its own little quirks, that made them seemed lived in,

One such room had a slight sports feel, the hoop over the waste basket and soft football like bean-bag, clearly not in Scott's style. It takes a while before he finds a room that suits him, with a drafting table and a few other nick nacks that reminded him of his previous life. He closed the door behind him and locked the door, and looked around the room. There were two beds, one of which was an upgraded SEVR-tech Pod which was inset into the floor, too be at the same height as the bed. The walls shifted between various colours as Scott moves towards the en-suite, dropping off his stuff by the draft table, too have a shower.

Having cleaned off the last few days under the warm water of the shower, Scott gets out, looking at his scruffy appearance in the mirror contemplating whether to shave or not. However as fatigue starts to wash over him, he walked out into his room and dropped onto the bed. The lights dimmed after Scott hit the bed, as he drifted off to a silent calm, tomorrow is for the worry, now is for rest.

The stress of having to mediate the emotions and general grumpiness of the stressed traveling group, wore on Michael's nerves. He held on, stoically, calm on the surface while hiding the raging anger beneath, why did he put himself in this situation... because he knew he could hold on and keep calm. He had more mental fortitude than the others, and without worrying his wife Claudia about his own condition he played the mediator. However his stress and anger were building up, due to trying to quell the constant squabbling, bickering and generally unimportant minor and maybe some major arguments. He felt grateful for his logic, but now he really wants to let loose, and the perfect tool for that is close by.

“Now we've eaten and drunk, I'll go to get us a room, I'll message you with the room number if you want to stay here.” Mike says to Claudia.

“I could use some sleep, but April is running around.” Claudia responds looking to the corridor as Harper walks back in eating what smells to be a chicken parma, bacon wrap and a barbeque sauce stain on her cardigan, “Harper can you look after April, we're going to get a room. When we've got one I'll come back.”

Harper gives Claudia the thumbs up, as she takes a large bite into the wrap with a look of deep satisfaction. Now the group disperses form the cafeteria, Doug took Dananel and Sheryl to find the medical facilities that were indicated on his map for a quick checkup. As Alice easily wrangles Jordan and a begrudging Lindsey into exploring a bit more of the facility, the zealous adventures and their chaperon. While the twin run wild with April, under Harper's supervision.

Coren on the other hand having left the group a while ago, in a fit of disbelief and anger had actually passed by the air purification and biological cultivation area. Some how she found herself in a library, surrounded by books, actual books, the smell of the paper and varnished wood of the bookcases soothed her mind a bit to calm down a bit. The thing is the war and bomb in the middle east that Scott had nonchalantly mentioned was actually responsible for a major loss to her family. Corin's mothers grandfather, grandmother and great uncle had died that day, because of that bomb. They had joined the army so they could help relocate more of their families out of the war zone. It just so happened that day they were meant to leave, they stayed behind to aide in the evacuation of a non-hostile nomadic tribe when the bomb dropped. Making her Grandmother a war orphan, who lost their inheritance to a fraud scheme for the war fund.

The secrets and possible lies, hidden from the light of day and under the umbrella of national and civil security. Corin has not felt such violation and rage before, the callousness with which Scott said it really struck the nerve, and if it was true even more so. She did not have a chance to really absorb the hit or look into the documents she got from the console, however this space was calming for her, allowing her to think and process. There was no computer or device in sight, except for her tablet, which was automatically connected to the wireless network within the library. Not that she had noticed yet, as she took some deep breaths trying to hold back her tears.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“There has to be a way...” Corin mutters to herself as wheels upto a desk, taking a deep breath then picks the chair up that is blocking her way. She tosses it over the couches slamming into the reading area, venting out some of that anger and stress, before making herself comfortable at the desk.

“The truth will out, or it will be forgotten and die to the lie,” Corin starts, steading her resolve, “and “I” won't let that happen!” Clearly repeating like a mantra, “Research, Review, Introspect, Reflect, Fact Find, Confirm, Review and Write. I will find the truth."

Sitting in her wheelchair, framed by the stonemasoned walls, exposing her working silhouette to an arch window of white light which fades into a lush green forest/park. While the subtle sounds of the woods and a gentle breeze work in coordination to aide in the relief of stress.

Mike and Claudia had spent some time looking for a room they could agree on, and eventually settled on a small family sized suite. It had 4 rooms; a master bedroom, a smaller bedroom, main living area and a room for the SEVR-tech pods. The main living area had some musical instruments and a karaoke machine, which Claudia loved. Having staked their claim on the room, Claudia leaves to help out Harper and hopefully coax April to settle down for the night.

Once Claudia had left, Mike wrote a quick note for her, “Going to dive, need to relieve some stress, be back soon.”

Mike moves to the SEVR-tech room, it was then he noticed there were no suits. Were they supposed to bring their own? He needed to find out, so he grabs the tablet and looks up the information on the new pods. The instructions were written simply,

1. Take off all clothing and jewelry,

2. 2. Short duration <1day: put on the face mask on, Long duration >1day: insert mouth piece, breath normally. (recommended: use the mouth piece)

3. 3. Fully submerge in the stasis gel, then ENTR-link.

“Hahaha, wait till the others find out. You have to be naked to enter these pods, this'll be awkward for a while.” Mike states while stripping down, “Ohhh, it isn't cold, its rather nice. Just a bit tingly.” As he enters, placing on the mask while the lid above him closes and submerging himself in the gel.

ENTR-link

Finding himself in a blankspace, Mike looks around thinking about “Openworld” the game where this “Ono Heart Guild” have been exploring. As the logon screen appears, with a warning,

[You are accessing external servers, external and restricted protocols en-acted. Read me for more information.]

Mike bypasses the warnings and logs straight in, he is not interested in that at the moment, he just wants to get ingame.

The space around him distorts and he is standing back in the courtyard of their guild's keep, on the borderlands. Looking around he sees that it has been ransacked, burned and torched in someplaces, rage swells up and his characters rage bar is filled. Looking around in fury, when he notices a group of 10 people, who notice him too.

The leader of the group gives a slight nod to one of the group, who vanishes instantly. He then stares down Mike, who happens to be playing a bruiser class known as a berserker, with a secondary performance class of traveling bard. The fury and rage, becomes evident over Mikes character, as heat is seen rippling the air around him and his eyes turn red.

The group moves forward, with the leader watching Mikes character,

Leader  [Well you have finally shown your face, where is the rest of your group or are you alone?]

Mike responds by removing his battle axe from his back and activating his passive skill 'Intimidating Presence'. Mike has lost all reasoning at this point, as the leader of the group stands there confident but slightly shaken by the intimidation. Nonchalantly the leader starts pacing back and forward in front of his group who have also now drawn their weapons.

Leader [You know you can't beat us, it'll be better for you to just to cooperate and come with us. We'll know your location soon any way...] 

Unable to continue as an axe head is sticking out of his skull. The last image the leader sees a charging barbarian running at him as his body dissipates into pixels leaving behind a few drops.

Three members of the group fire off their guns, hitting Mike in chest, arm and leg, as he appears in front of three melee combatant classes. Mike swings in a sweeping attack against the combatants taking a couple more shots to his back and a few gashes from their blades, before activating his faux whirlwind axe attack. Taking out the 3 melee combatants, when one who had not acted yet released a stream of fire from his finger tip burning the right half of Mikes body. Throwing his axe at the one who just burned him, Mike takes out this nuisance at the cost of his right arm, before he notices the last member of the group who hadn't attacked yet was attempting to heal a fallen combatant.

Jumping over to the fallen mage, Mike is hit by two more shots as he slings his axe from the mages chest into the head of the healer. The healer not finished his work, dissipates into pixels, as the 3 ranged gunners look over at the bloodied berserker to their side. Frantically reloading their guns, unfortunately not quick enough before Mike appears in front of them with a bone dagger in his hand.

Slicing through the neck of one gunner, before using the gunners soon to be corpse to knock the others down to the ground. One of them gets off another shot at Mike, however he uses the corpse as a shield and gives them a vicious smile. Beating them to death with now corpse of their comrade, before releasing a loud and animalistic cry to the sky, as the bodies surrounding him dissipates into fragmented pixels fading into the sky.

Finally relieved of a lot of pent up stress, Mike calms down and looks to his health. It was not a close call at all, these guys seemed to be at a rather low level, maybe casuals at best but mostly noobs.

Mike [This may be troublesome, but fun.]  Wearing the same vicious smile he used to beat down the last two gunners.