Chapter 3 Incarceration
(Author’s corner: First off, thank you Silver110 for commenting on the last chapter. I like your idea regarding his future race and class, so I guess since you were the first to comment I’ll use it. For anyone else, thank you very much for sticking around until some longer chapters come out. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you have any cool ideas or grammatical complaints. Thanks again and enjoy the chapter!)
Pain, yep that is what he felt upon waking up. There were rough-hewn ropes holding them behind him. At first he started thrashing around in surprise, but the pain was too much. He hadn’t noticed in his lucid state that the ropes binding his wrists and feet were attached to the ceiling. Whenever he moved the stress increased on the ropes pulling then up therefore pinning him, very painfully mind you. The bag was still tied over his head, he could tell it bit into his adams-apple. There were some people talking close by but he still couldn’t concentrate. The drugs were taking their time to wear off. A moment passed until he could start to understand where and what they were saying. Looking up and just to his left to hear clearer the voices stopped. Footsteps came closer and someone removed the thick bag from his head.
Stranger: The guy who removed the bag was pretty much the spitting image of some slaver. He had a black suit and with a mass of tattoos peeking out of the cuffs with a scorpion crawling up the side of his bald head. “Well how was the trip, I take it went well since your alive? Helps weed out the weak ones if you ask me. I say if you can’t even handle kidnapping, you wouldn’t even gonna last long enough to make a return. These rooms cost too much to rent for trash like that. You know how hard it is to rent rooms for 500 years in New York? Self-maintaining, none the less!” his other side of his head was dominated by a gruesome looking scar going from the back of his head wrapping around, it came all the way over to his eye. You could clearly tell the eye was a transplant because the blue coloring was slightly darker than the other one.
Jake: “W-what do you want? If you want my organs just get it over with!” He was trembling viciously at this point. Anger was pooling to the surface now.
Stranger: “Ah…But why would I waste you like that? Your worth too much to harm at this point, and besides no one’s going to miss you any time soon. We made sure who we picked met certain requirements like losing their job or home. Hmmm, yes you look like you’ll last quite a long time. Good choice by my part if I don’t say so myself.”
Jake: “What do you mean, I don’t understand. I don’t have anything you could use, and where the heck am I!”
Stranger: “Well, if you would listen you’d know we are in a New York apartment complex. Of course I’m not giving out the address any time soon seeing as it should be just about full now. Maybe in a hundred years or so I might check in on the drones, though I’ll trust them to watch the place.”
Jake: “How’d you know I was being kicked out? I only told a few people about that, and all them were in-game.”
Stranger: “Well, you see I have contacts working for me hacking and tracking bank accounts. If you strike up as a poor guy/girl, we simply run a background check. Wouldn’t want someone who was family oriented, otherwise you’d of been running to ‘em for help. No, we chose you because you’ll live longer and you’ll go unnoticed. Besides, you were pretty doomed as far as I can see so just thank me later. After we tracked you down it was just a matter of arranging a form of discreet transport.”
Jake: “Why should I thank you, this doesn’t seem to help me at all! From what I can tell you’re going to keep me prisoner for over a hundred years!”
Slaver: “First of all, stop yelling in here, it echoes something horrible in here. Second of all, you would probably have starved to death or something else just as bad. Just be happy I’m giving you a life and a job. However indentured it is.”
Moving aside the man revealed a small room much like his old apartment, though the pod looked much nicer and everything in the room looked sturdier. As a matter of fact, the television was behind a thick glass in the wall, and even the toaster was embedded deep in the steel counter. Also, his bag was on the futon. He was on his knees facing into the room so he couldn’t see the entrance. There weren’t any windows from what he could tell though.
Jake: “What is this, what do you want?”
Slaver: “Well that’s obvious, all I need for you to do is work. You see, that new game releasing tomorrow allows quite a few possibilities. Not only will you live for a really long time, but the economy in-game should go way up in the foreseeable future. That means the credits in-game will increase in value. So no matter if you just do menial labor you’ll bring in a hefty sum. So, you’re probably wondering how I knew all this long enough before release. I had some janitors checking up on a certain companies data bases and work up until just of late. You’d be surprised what people would do for an extra dollar every now and again. Was as simple as preordering a shipment of game pods and buying an old lot to build on after we knew what they planned. So, since we had access to their data bases we just added in a special sequence and location to start location with a switch to get you there.”
Jake just sat there in silence too stunned to believe what he was hearing. “So… I’m just being hired to play Space Age basically?”
Slaver: “Well, you won’t be able to escape into the rest of the game world because of the location we put the base, but yes you are basically just working for me. As long as you don’t cause trouble you may even enjoy the experience. The base is actually located in a cast asteroid field surrounding a neutron star. The belt goes on for a couple lightyears surrounding it so now ones gonna make it in without the exact coordinate t jump. So, now that I’ve covered the bases, welcome to your room! You understand I can’t let you out of it so just order food when you want it. The game starts tomorrow, so the techs will come back around to log you in so try and get some sleep while you can. I want to take full advantage of the early game economy.”
With that, the slaver and a couple of random henchman walked out. As the last guy went to leave he turned around at the last moment and cut his bonds. He didn’t even try to do anything, the slavers all had knives and stun batons. Rubbing his wrists he turned and watched as they walked out and sealed a vault-like door behind them locking him in. One thing was for sure, he was not going to escape past that door. There weren’t even any handles or access panels to open it from the inside. He supposed it could be wireless, but dismissed it because it still wouldn’t help him. The situation wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d first thought anyway, and now he got to play the new game which he wouldn’t have got to do normally. Walking over to the futon he checked his stuff, it had of course been sifted for anything usable as a weapon or to communicate including his phone. Otherwise, he actually still ad everything. Knowing he was safe for now he finally let the relief run through him loosening previously tense muscles and before he knew it he nodded off on the futon. He would live after all…
…
..
.
He woke up early at about 6:30 in the morning, and went to the bathroom to do his daily duties.
Surprisingly, he was actually in a pretty decent mood despite being kidnapped. He was actually probably better off this way anyhow. He stepped into the kitchen feeling refreshed from his shower and turned on the stove. The fridge already had the staple foods like milk and eggs so he made breakfast while watching some more of the new. At least he wouldn’t fall behind on the news, at least not more than he was used to.
There was some random reports of the kidnappings, which he now knew was most likely him and everyone else here. Then the reports changed to the reruns of the interview and they talked about the hype building up over the release today. That reminded him how most things about the game were now going to be blocked from him almost dimming his mood, then he reminded himself that there would still be interesting stuff to do around the base and asteroid field. He didn’t have long to dwell on the topic though, because as he was just finishing up his meal there was a knock at his door and then it started opening a moment later. After it finished opened, a regular looking guy who looked like a technician hopped through along with some brutish looking beefy guys. They told him to head to the pod which he promptly did after placing his paper plate in the trash. The introduced himself as Dan and went to work plugging in a handheld computer onto the pod.
Dan: “So, how’s the morning treating you?”
Jake: “Oh I’m doing ok I suppose. How long is the setup going to take?”
Dan: “Not long, I just finished up logging in. The only real difference in creating a character for you is that I have to be here to let you have access to the creation process. Everything’s already preinstalled, so we’re just here to show you how to get in and start. The log-in is basically just a key to the game. Piece of advice for ya though, when you start don’t dawdle but don’t rush your character creation, you’ve got time. Once you’re done creating your character you’ll have to wait until the release time to actually play, you’ve got around thirty minutes though so you shouldn’t have to wait too long after your done.”
Jake: “Is it any different than the old ones during the log-in?”
Dan: “Actually, You have to use a small face mask and I’ve been told to warn you about the starting sequence with the IV’s and such. They are all automatic, and there’s about ten different tubes in all, counting the feeding and hydration line. It pinches a little the first time, but if you log in again it should have made some attachment points. Alright then, with that being said hop in. It should start filing with the nutrient gel after you put on the air mask. When it brings up the log in sequence on the screen just click on the game like usual. The main difference is the time it takes to log in and the pain I was talking about. Try not to fight it otherwise it’ll suck… a lot.
With that being said I stepped in and turned around. The pod tilted back slightly so he could lay down and a screen came to life in the middle of the glass door. Following his instructions I clicked on the only game available, Space Age. As soon as he tapped on it the screen disappeared. The pod loosed some straps grabbing him and holding him still by the arms, legs, torso, and head. Then a mask came out and pressed onto his face tightly. As soon as this finished, a bunch if scary looking arms tipped with needles of all shapes and sizes shot forth and immediately located their designated entry points. Before he could tense up they all buried themselves in his flesh. He was wrong actually, It was excruciating! They moved around inside him for a moment before deciding on a suitable position, then when it wasn’t satisfied five or so more needles found their way into his body! When the game took control and he started nod off into the game world he was overly relieved with the sudden lack of sensation.
…ENTERING CHARACTER CREATION…
…SPECIALIZED GAME POD…
…LOADING SPECIAL CHARACTER CREATION…
There was a blinding flash, then he was floating in a sort of limbo. He could see his body though, he simply just WAS the only thing that existed here. That was until the blue box appeared in front of him.
…Please enter choose your race
A bunch of different looking people appeared in front of him running far off into the distance. There were probably close to a hundred or so starting races, hinting at an innumerable amount of new species to be found later on.
The current list may have been pretty long, however he noticed that some seemed to be greyed out. Mostly it seemed, he couldn’t play a race that needed another atmosphere other than space or oxygen. About a quarter of them were grey for that reason alone. However it seemed you couldn’t be of a race larger than seven and a half feet tall. That greyed out another 15. You couldn’t be something with too much of one stat or one that blocked certain abilities and you had to choose something human shaped with the same shape roughly. In all, what had seemed like about 100 races turned out to be around 10 that he could choose from. There were some lizard men, but he didn’t think he liked the way they looked. There were space-versions of elves, though they weren’t what he’d expected. They had no magic, actually the real elves had psi in this game but they were blocked too. They had too many biased racial traits. The elf things were actually called grims, and they were basically the alien version of humans with long ears, short hair, and completely black eyes. There were two of these, a light and a dark skinned version with the respective attributes of opposite hair and eye color. They had no magic, though they were really buff. In all they were pretty creepy so he passed them up. He could be a dwarf because of their lack of skill in psi, and they were good with machines. The only problem was their lack of agility and speed. Plus the max height for him was four and a half feet. He was actually about five feet six inches in real life at the moment, so he was screwed with the dwarf’s height penalty so he overall passed. The rest of the characters were odd looking aliens and were-humans. He entertained the idea of a class with a tail because who didn’t want one? They were balanced classes overall with a high psi level for the margins of availability, but they had really low intelligence or wisdom so it wouldn’t grow hardly any as he leveled. He thought hard on this but chose not to. If he was in space he needed someone who had intelligence to possibly work on machinery or use certain items or ships. He wasn’t actually sure this was a true speculation because the stats below it didn’t say anything other than the starting traits.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Finally he got down to the last three available to him, there were the cyborgs, androids, and of course humans still. The android would be cool and all, but they were brittle starting races and needed constant upkeep. Plus they didn’t eat, he liked food so he opted otherwise. Then it was settled, he’d take cyborg. Reaching out he was about to pick it but stopped about an inch away when he noticed they had no psi. This was a fiction and besides, he could just get better equipment to supplement himself instead. He didn’t want to cripple himself choosing a race without certain abilities or classes available. Humans had really low psi but it could be developed. And of course like any other game the humans had the most neutral stats. They were the most rounded of all the races, except of course the psi. Opting otherwise at the last second he simply went back to the first choice at the beginning. Choosing the twin image of himself looking back at him. The screen disappeared for a moment, then another screen showed up and a hologram of himself appeared about six feet away. There were sliders for all the looks and different tabs for things like hair color or length if you needed to be precise. He was limited to increasing his height by a half a foot, but he was still now six feet tall. Of changed his pale skin tone to a slight burn-tan like a real human in space would get over time. Next to this slider it said that this could evolve or change if he stayed planet on a planet long enough. The hair could be changed at barber but it didn’t grow unless you set it to. He put it at short then lengthened it just slightly to give the appearance of time in space travelling since you’d typically be busy. He kept the color too, it was a dark blonde almost a dirty blonde (haha) then he looked through the eye color, funnily enough he could have anything from pink to silver or gold eyes. He contemplated the cool silver eyes but dismissed it. He wanted to be somewhat realistic at least he was having a hard time choosing what wanted forever. When he finally reached the bottom of the list he was grateful for a certain cool choice to appear. He could choose three colors and his eyes would change at random however his body felt. He chose a dark green with a yellowish area around the middle as his first choice since that’s what he had naturally. Then he put in a dark navy blue with silver around the center and lastly he added a heavy brown color. With that done he added a little bit of muscle mass since he was super skinny then made his feet a bit larger so he wouldn’t lose balance with the extra height. Looking at his face he decided to keep that the same since this would be the only place he’d be interacting with people and wanted to be himself, though he wasn’t perfect so he fixed the blemishes and called it good.
Once he continued it gave a prompt asking for his name he wanted to be called by. He chose Jake, he was already himself so why not. Then it asked what he wanted his surname to be. That was odd, must be for some sort of customs, this time he just chose something random until he found a space title he liked. His full name ended up being Jake Marner.
As soon as he was done with the name another box appeared out of thin air with four different starting classes along with their respective skills.
MECHANIC
PILOT
TECHNICIAN
SOLDIER
Spacecraft Construction lv.1
Gun Construction lv.1
Tool Repair lv.1
Gun Repair lv.1
0G Maneuvering lv.1
Space Flight lv.1
Coding lv.1
Android/Implant repairs lv.1
Spacecraft Repairs lv.1
Handguns Use lv.1
Space Flight lv.1
Large Spacecraft Control/Flight lv.1
Medium Spacecraft Control/Flight lv.1
0G Maneuvering lv.1
Charisma lv.1
Ship Guns (small) lv.1
Ship Guns (med.) lv.1
Ship Guns (lg.) lv.1
Handguns Use lv.1
Hacking lv.1
Coding lv.1
Implants lv.1
General Research lv.1
0G Maneuvering lv.1
Psi Research lv.1
Blueprints lv.1
Robot control lv.1
Engineering lv.1
Handguns Use lv.1
Gun Repair lv.1
Explosive Weapons lv.1
Automatic Weapons lv.1
Semi-Automatic Weapons lv.1
Power Suit Use lv.1
Handguns Use lv.1
Rifleman lv.1(Sniper)
Basic Starting Gear:
Basic suit
0G boots
Basic o2 tank and space suit
Basic helmet
Basic tool kit(lg)
Basic welder (small)
Small hard shell backpack
Basic Starting Gear:
Small hard shell backpack
Basic flight suit
0G boots
Basic o2 tank and space suit
Basic helmet
Basic Starting Gear:
Basic suit
0G boots
Basic o2 tank and space suit
Basic helmet
Basic electronics kit
Small scanner -(blueprints)
Basic Starting Gear:
Basic suit
0G boots
Basic o2 tank and space suit
Basic helmet
Basic pistol
Basic Rifle
Well this ought to be the easy. While he didn’t want to fly huge ships and probably couldn’t in his situation, the piloting and soldier were both eliminated. Actually, that was odd that you could still choose soldier. Why would they give them weapons at all? They’d evidently didn’t trust us to start with some anyway, though that looked due to the special start he had going. Anyway, gun skills seemed like the easiest skills to acquire naturally in-game so he dismissed it and moved on. He liked the idea of fixing stuff and he also like studying and discovering stuff. The only issue was he could do that anyway and attempt to find stuff out on his own plus the chances were he’d be mining from the sounds of it. The mining would probably create all kinds of issues and malfunctions. If he could fix them himself it would make things a whole lot easier. That settled it easily enough. Plus he could possibly make a weapon and have some fun out mining or something? He’d have to hide it most likely but it sounded like the closest thing related to escaping besides flight, but he could learn that. Now he had a goal when the game started so that was good, now he wouldn’t go crazy maybe. He always found it easier to work when he had a goal in mind. Finally when he chose mechanic the fished? button appeared
When he clicked the done button a soft female voice spoke up from nowhere saying his character was created successfully, then a countdown appeared floating in the center of his vision. He only had a couple minutes left. That was close, he’d almost missed the initial release. As the minutes slowly ticked away he became more and more nervous. This was actually only his second large VR world he’d have been to. You had to be eighteen to play and he’d always been too focused on his current to pay much attention to the others. Let alone get a chance to switch it up and play something else, it always cost too much anyway.
Soon the timer neared zero and he clenched his eyes shut. He felt an odd shifting and then a feeling as if he were lighter. Opening his eyes, to see the inside of another capsule. For a moment he thought he’d been kicked from the game, but then he noticed the chilled frost on the glass and realized he couldn’t be. As the frost started to thaw he could feel a weird numbness to his body as he warmed up. The scene on the other side of the glass could be described as nothing less than science fiction. There were odd creatures crawling out of capsules like his he assumed on the other side of a narrow hallway, and he noticed how they were being treated by who he assumed could only be AI’s, though they looked pretty realistic from what he could tell. Suddenly a normal human opened his capsule flooding it with fresh air. He hadn’t realized how stale it was until now, frankly he’d been too busy holding his breath in shock at the sight that greeted him.
There was a sudden message as soon as he stepped out greeting him to the world.
WELCOME SPACE AGE!
YOU HAVE CHOSEN DRUNNDLE ORBITAL STATION
Warning: this station is within the unexplored depths of space highly secluded from the rest of the space. Are you sure you would like to start here?
YES-NO
(Author's note: Hello again, thanks for thanks for reading! Post a comment or idea if you have some, they are all appreciated. Also, I'm still trying to find out how to make boxes on here. They didn't transfer over from word so I'm hoping to fix it soon, just thought I would get this out to read for you. Have a great day!)