Hello everybody, boy that took a while to type. With work and everything i had only a couple of hours a day to work on the story.
Sorry for the delay, Please enjoy.
**
"There he goes again commander" The soldiers said as Hades began to weave his way through the spiders.
"What do you mean by again?" Kate asked as she fired blindly into the darkness. "Hades arrived just before us? Right." She asked the commander.
"No he has been here for a few hours, since the last attack. He sprinted out there in full throttle not stopping for anything. He look liked he was possessed by a spirit that called him to the dark." The commander said as he aim his canon and fired into the distance.
"He survived out there on his own while being surrounded by hundreds of spiders?" Questioned Kate sceptically to the commander of the base.
"Yes he did but now isn't the time for this. Just shut up and kill some motherfucking spiders." Yelled the commander to Kate as she had stop firing at the spiders.
Kate and the rest of her group, soldiers included began to fire everything they had at the spiders. No end was in sight and the group was running low on ammunition. When they finally ran out of bullets the spiders breached the hole in the wall and over ran the group. The group died and began their journey in their chosen city. However that’s a story for another time.
**
As Hades leaped out of the breach he ran across the wall of the base. The base was about 800 meters long and continued in a straight line until it reached a clearing. The clearing was filled with spiders of all sizes, there was no way to sneak through to the other side. On the other side was the safety of the forest, well he thought it might be safe.
Hades needed a way through, his amour was already tattered and torn making him look like a beggar. The durability was probably five at the most, any more damage and it would break. It was the same for the weapons they were badly damaged and needed replacing.
"Should I use frenzy to kill all the spiders?" Hades asked himself. "No that would be a bad idea for several reason. If I make too much noise I could potentially attract more spiders. I have no way to stop frenzy and would kill and kill until I was dead." Hades thought to himself.
Hades was in a predicament of how to advance. On one hand he could try his luck and go guns blazing or he could try another approach. After an hour or so of thinking he decided to try a distraction and sneak his way past. Now he had to think about what would catch the spider's attention long enough for him to sneak past.
Hades tried to throw a rock away from him, he caught the attention of 2 maybe 3 spiders at most, this was not enough nowhere near enough to pass undetected. Close by he noticed a lake but it was not the lake that caught his attention but what was in the lake.
In the lake was several large reptilian creature, they looked like crocodiles but walked on to legs. They were more intelligent than your average water dweller. Hades thought he could use these lizard men to make a distraction, if he could get the attention of both the reptilian men and spiders he could use the noise to attract the other spiders.
"Ok now here's dinner, come and get me" Hades yells to the Reptilians. The reptilians look up at the strange man and begin to chase him as he vanishes in to the darkness.
Hades throws a rock to get a few spiders attention and steeped against the wall. All he could do was stand as still and silent as he could. He stared at the reptilians as their aggro went from Hades to the oncoming spiders.
The sounds of battle attracted even more reptilians and spiders. The reptilians had sharp teeth and claws which they used to scratch and tear at the spiders. The spiders had poison and overwhelming numbers to their advantage against the reptilians.
"Now's my chance" Hades says as he slowly sneaks through the spiders. When he got the attention of a spider he would use his hand and break the neck and suffocate the beast to death. Since this was the starting area the spiders had relatively low health and were easy to kill.
Hades was lucky that there were status effect that piled damage on a beast. On a stronger beast these would not work and Hades would have been in a real bind. But thinking these things was pointless as he had now reached the forest. The forest was pitch black, the roots of the trees were above the soil making visibility of the forest non-existent. The height of the trees was astonishing, looking up it was impossible to see the top of the trees.
The forest was dead silent almost void of life. No birds in the trees, no animals in the shrubs. Hades was lucky to find a population of reptilians in a river to use as a diversion. Hades hesitated to enter the forest. Not knowing what to expect is a scary thing.
Having entered the forest, Hades was perched on a branch wondering what to do next. Hades was on his quest to find out what happened to the soldiers sent out of the base. What he knew was that the soldiers were sent to find the disturbance that caused the spiders to become aggressive.
Hades didn't know there location, if they were alive or not. If they were alive he needed to know there situation, how many were wounded, why no one ever went back to the base and so on. If they were dead Hades would bring back their dog tags if they had them. For now he had to find them.
For that Hades decided to follow the spiders as they pulled back and find the nest, which was his only guess to the location of the soldiers. Hades jumped down from the branch and began to travel through the edge of the forest following the trail of spiders that were travelling to the base. After a few hours of walking the ground changed from dirt to webs.
Hades had some close calls at the border of the forest were some spiders would look in his direction. Every time he felt his heart stop and skip a beat before the spiders continued on. After 8 hours of travel he decided to take a rest as his satiety was flashing red at 10% left. Hades took out his back pack, he had 6 loaves of bread left and 3/4 canteen of water. Hades ate a single piece of bread because these was no game to hunt in the forest and took sips out of the water. Hades had to ration out his food for as long as he could.
Hades continued along the border of the forest for five days. During this time Hades had some extremely close calls where a spider would walk all the way to the tree Hades was hiding behind. After 15 of these close calls Hades gained a new skill.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Experience:Stealth (Passive)Beginner124%Having avoided many situation where you should have been discovered you have truly learned what it means to remove your presence.Effects:
* Lowers presence by 10%.
* Makes one lighter on feet movement speed increased by 2%.
Skill is classified as rare. It is active as long as the person wills it to be active. Will deactivate if willed, discovered or attacked.
During this time Hades food only lasted three days. He almost had tears in his eyes as he ate the last piece of bread and as the last drop of water evaporated before it hit his tongue for Hades it was game over or so he thought. Hades had survived the two days after he ran out of food by eating nuts and berries. The berries were mostly poisonous and unappetizing. With the nuts Hades usually got a mouth full of dirt and twigs but he did what he had to do. After two days of this Hades gained a new stat and skill.
New Stat:SustenanceYou are likely to use less stamina when performing an action. Stat distribution is impossible, stat will rise depending on actions the user makes.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Experience:Iron Stomach (Passive)Beginner134%Having had to eat the least nutritious and hard to stomach food, your stomach composition has mutated to pull the need nutrients from most things often deemed unsuitable.Effects:
* Able to draw more nutrients from food 5% increase to satiety increase from foods.
* Increase of 2% poison resistance.
* 10% increase in time taken for satiety to lower
Iron stomach is constantly active. As level increase you may be able to go days without food.
As Hades continued walking, on the sixth day there was finally a change of scenery. The scene before Hades was bizarre to say the least. The scene was of a plain overshadowed by the mountains during a sunrise. The plain almost looked like it had been divided down the middle, on one side was full of lush greenery with flowers and small animals scurrying around and the other side was withered and bare. You could say they were two sides of the same coin, one was dead the other alive.
On either side of the clearing different groups of spiders were gathering, it was the strangest sight to behold. As Hades knelt down to stay out of view he noticed on the lush side were various types of tarantulas and other forest spiders gathering. On the withered side was a gathering of what looked like to be undead spiders with skeleton knight mounted on top.
On the lush side hades noticed 4 people out of place they wore military out fits and were armed situated at the back of the spiders. As the sun cleared the mountains both sides began to charge at each other. Almost like a gigantic game of chess. Both sides were evenly matched with continuous reinforcements from the back arriving.
After a couple hours of surveying the situation, Hades made his way down from the forest of webs to lush side of the plain. Hades had a hunch that the soldiers he was looking for were right in front of him. He stealthy made his way to their camp not wanting to draw attention to himself.
Having moved stealthy from his position, he moves around the battlefield to the soldiers at the back. Hades was concentrating on moving forward while not noticing he was also being tracked.
"Crunch" Hades heard a sound behind him. He immediately stopped fainted going left, spun around to the right noticing a rifle at his back, he uses his palm to knock it to the left of his body as three rounds left the chamber. Hades uses his left hand to grip the barrel of the gun while his right hand disconnects the shooter hand from the grip of the gun.
She releases the gun and Hades throws it to the floor as the girl takes two steps back drawing her knife and pistol from their holsters. Hades discard his SMG as it would get in his way and draws his pistol and knife also. They both stare at each other for a few minutes before both charging at each other. They both side step two rounds fired from the barrel of the pistols, Hades steps a second too late and his pistol is hit and destroyed.
Hades approaches the women fast, bring his left hand up; with his palm facing up and the outside of the wrist is brought to the hand with the pistol of the women and pushes it away. He immediately brings his wrist around the hand gripping it firmly as the handle of the knife in his right hand is brought to the wrist of the shooter were the impact forces the shooter to release the gun. This all occurred within 5 seconds.
The attacker uses her knife to get Hades to take a step back which he does, however he throws a punch. Due to lack of energy the attacker was able to avoid the punch and in the same second was able to break Hades knee by kicking down before throwing an upper cut to knock Hades out cold.
**
Back in the hospital the nurses and doctors were watching Jonathon's game time while monitoring his vitals. Due to Jonathon's unique capsule, they were able to see everything from his perspective. They were intrigued with the way Jonathon played Solar Frontier.
Since the games release it has become an icon. A new way of life so to speak. Media coverage of the game was extensive after it took off. They had documented the starting areas as useless just a killing ground for new people to demonstrate how hard the game was going to be. The amour and weapons offered were not even worth it people believed as no one had even thought to patch and clean the weapons as an actual soldier would do.
They media followed many of the great players, so far some players controlled cities but the 3 largest guilds control the 3 continents on one planet and are currently at war with each other over dominance of the planet. There have been no large scale battles as they wish to gather support of neighbouring planets. At best it could be described as a cold war. The highest guilds had player levels about 150-200 while the inner groups were about level 250. The highest level in the game so far went to Lucifer at a staggering 277, he belonged to the Hart guild one of the top 3 in the game.
After 2 years of Solar Frontier being released about 1% of the universe had been explored and 2 races had been unlocked. The doctor was impressed with Jonathon's approach to Solar Frontier, normal people hesitate to charge head on into the enemy for fear of pain and death. The death penalty was being locked in a hospital for four days, in the hospital it was impossible to leave the room so people usually log out for a day. The price to leave the hospital was one level and proficiencies.
The doctor also played the game when he had a chance but was on the low spectrum of players as he had almost no time to play. He was jealous of Jonathon's luck in the game, getting a quest in the training area where he died in the first 5 minutes of playing.
"Doctor all looks good, heart rate is steady, blood pressure is normal and we read a 0.01% increase in muscle tone within the body. The Nano Knights are functioning normally and capsule parameters are normal." recited a nurse after checking Jonathon's capsule, his heart rate spiked after he was knocked out.
"Good continue to monitor and let me know of changes to his condition, I'll be in my office." Stated the doctor as he left for his office.
**
Hades awoke to find himself chained in a small cell. It seemed to be manmade in a cave, the floor was covered in straw and the ceiling was only about 2 meters tall. He could hardly stand without hitting his head. The cave was damp and covered in cob webs, Hades believed it be the spiders lair but which groups.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Hades notices the door open, the women who beat him walks in. She carries a plate of food with her.
"Eat" she commands as she hands him the food.
She leaves as Hades begins to eat the food. He was like a starved wolf, the food was gone on a matter of seconds. Hades noticing a second soldier, this time a man standing by the door.
"My name is Maurice and you are?" Asks the soldier by the door.
"Hades" he replies.
"What purpose do you have sneaking around the battlefield to our flank?" Questions Maurice.
"Well, I was searching for 5 missing soldiers from the base a few days west of here and now I sitting in a small cell wondering what's for dinner, I am starved." Answered Hades.
"Missing solider is it." Says Maurice as he walks to the cage with key in hand.
"Come with me to the dining hall, they should have something to eat." Said Maurice as he opens the cage door and releases Hades from the shackles. They both walk to the dining hall, grab a plate of food and grab a chair.
"So why were you searching for those missing soldier, Hades?" Questions Maurice.
"Well I got a quest from an old book, in that tattered library. I was to determine the condition of the troops and relay it back to the base. The hard part was finding the soldiers, I have no means of determining if they are alive or not. But I now have a fairly good chance of finding them alive, you see I saw four soldier in the middle of the spider fight. I believe those are the soldiers I'm looking for. Correct me if I'm wrong." replies Hades to Maurice as he eats some more food.
"Well you are certainly right, for the past five years we have been here fighting with the forest spiders to reclaim their home." Explains Maurice.
"Ahhh, why did you let him out of the cell Maurice?" Snaps the girl who knocked him unconscious.
"Calm down Sarah, he's from the base. It seems he was sent to find out our fate." Maurice says nonchalantly to Sarah.
"Well where to begin after we left the base our first destination was the source of the unusual weather and atmosphere patterns. We walked for days and finally reached this valley, the truth is always harsher than Fantasy. On that day we saw what had caused all the problems, a necromancer. He was creating undead from the spiders and also using enrage on other, where they become uncontrollable. We joined with the tarantula's to fight the undead but our forces were too small to deal with the enraged ones. The necromancer makes the spiders enraged and sends them to the base where the killed ones get turned into undead uncover of darkness.
The undead ones are then used to attack us and we are slowly losing the fight. We need the help of the base, attack from both sides and push them all the way back and kill that fucking necromancer. Is the best plan but we have never been able to get a message to the base will you do it for us?” Asks Maurice.
Quest UpdatedNo Man Left BehindYou have found the soldiers alive and well, but due to certain circumstances they have been unable to contact the base. You have been asked by the leader of the group Maurice to get word to the base and put forward his idea of using a pincer attack. The cause is believed to be a necromancer due to this reinforcements will be called from allied worlds.DifficultyDRewards:Event quest for levels above 300Failure:Death
Having the quest updated was a good sign. Now he will have to make his way back to the base which will take days. However if he could use some of the spiders Hades believed he could bring reinforcements from the base to begin to push the undead back to the hole from whence they came.
"Do you think it will be possible to borrow fifty tarantulas for the journey back to the base? My thinking is that having fast moving spiders will allow me to deliver the news to the base faster and return with fifty soldiers to reinforce our position here." Asked Hades as he finished reading the quest update.
"I don't know Hades we have no control over the spiders, you see they have a hierarchy of their own. You will have to speak to the Arachne Queen." Replied Maurice as the other began to feel a chill run down their spine.
"The Arachne Queen?" Questioned Hades.
"Yes, the tarantula's you see fighting are actually the soldiers of the Arachne. The Arachne can only be described as a humanoid type of spider. They resemble humans more than spiders but can spin silk from their hand and they have better stamina and strength than us." Explained Maurice. "They are an extremely reclusive race and hate trespassers. The only reason they tolerate us is because they hate the undead more than humans." Continued Maurice.
"Will it be possible for me to meet her Maurice?" Hades Asks as the door burst open.
"Seems like you don't need my permission." Laughs Maurice as he takes a sip of water.
As the door burst opened, there stood five individual, they were not human more like a mixing of human and spider, the Arachne. The five individuals almost made a pyramid as they entered the room. The one at the front had an air about her, she was difficult to approach was the best way to describe the feeling.
The other four seemed to be guards they were holding weapons and seemed to be on guard. They would not even let a fly get close to their Queen.
Hades left his chair and decided to approach the Arachne Queen and her guards. As he approached the group the four guards had a shocked expression on their face. They had never seen a man approach them without a hint of fear, having looked into his eyes they saw he was no ordinary man. Although they knew he was weaker than them they still were a little shocked at the scene.
As Hades got closer the guards surrounded him, they drew their swords creating a box around Hades neck and forcing him to his knees.
"Greetings Queen of the Arachne, I am Hades. I would like to request 50 of your soldier tarantulas to join me in my journey back to the base." Hades requested using a respectful voice.
The guards had steam blowing out of their ears, boy they were furious. But they settled down as the Queen took a step forward and looked down at Hades. Hades eyes never flinched he stared into the deep black eyes of the Queen. “I can't just give you fifty my soldiers." Answered the Queen to Hades request.
"Prove to me that I won't send them to their deaths, tomorrow lead our troops against the undead after the battle I will decide whether you are worthy to lead my soldiers." The Queen commands Hades.
Quest receivedSpider CommanderTo prove whether the Queen of the Arachne should listen to your request. She has asked you to lead the battle against the undead. Based on your performance she will decide how many spiders she will give you.DifficultyDRewardsTarantula Warriors, ??FailureDeath. Loss of spider forces
The quest system in Solar Frontier was a little different than people had predicted. A player may also get a job with in this job they get commissioned to do that job, this is not recorded as a quest. They may only have one commission at a time. Quest slots counted two and were separate from job commissions, these usually related to class and other things. Quests ranged from G difficulty to A difficulty, these usually involved a few planets at A difficulty. There were unique and rare galactic quests and the legendary and impossible universal quests.
"If you're going to lead the spiders in battle you’re going to need a new pistol as yours was destroyed" Maurice said after the Queen had left the room.
Item Received
RugerDamage17-20Durability56/75QualityCommonA slightly used pistol, that is of good design. It is light weight and comfortable to use is good for 700 rounds before needing to be recharged for 48 hoursRequirements:Pistol Mastery
"Take this as well" Maurice said to Hades.
Low Class Bio SuitAmour20Durability74/100QualityCommonThis is a Bio Suit that will reinforce the body increasing base stats:
* +10 Strength
* +10 Vitality
* +10 Agility
* +50 Stamina
RequirementsNone
Hades was given a new pistol and a Low Class Bio Suit. The bio suit is an accessory that increases strength and agility and other states. They are rare to get a hold of, close to 50 gold for the suit is the average price. The pistol was of good quality, it was light weight and had good balance.
**
The next day, dawn broke and the spider forces moved into position and waited for the undead to arrive. Hades battle plan was simple, he divided the group into two separate entities. The front was to wear down the undead if they could and the second would push to the forest. Every few hours the spiders would rotate and by the end of the day the undead had been pushed all the way to the forest.
Having won the battle the spiders began to patrol the area as the Queen Arachne approached. "You have done a great job in the battle. We will give 50 Tarantulas and 5 Arachne elite guard for your journey back to the base." Said the Queen before she left.
"Thank you Queen, I will bring the back unharmed with reinforcements." Promised Hades as he left for the base.
Quest completedSpider commanderYou were able to lead the spiders to victory with minimal loses and they have secured the area making it hard to penetrate.
"Also take this with you. It could come in handy later on."
Hades had received a mysterious bag but decided to open it later as he had no time. He decided to leave immediately for the best chance of success.
The journey with the spider was a short one. As he approached the base he could see that a battle had already broken out. The soldiers about 23 this time were firing in to the darkness trying to kill as many spiders as they could. There was no end to the threat and they inched ever closer to that same breach.
Hades and the elite guard of the Arachne watched the battle from a hill close by with the tarantula hidden behind them. The elite guard could use a little magic. Magic in Solar Frontier was not as easy to learn. Most magic was race related rather than ability or training.
The Arachne racial ability was a guiding light showing the path for their ally's.
"Guiding Light." Shouted the Arachne as Hades once again lost himself to his bloodlust.
The Tarantulas followed behind Hades as he engaged the spiders outside the base. There was always a chance Hades would go into frenzy but he used every ounce of will power to stay focused. Once he made a promise he was going to keep it.
"What is that?" Shouted one of the player as they watched lights descend into the battle like falling stars.
What they had seen was beyond belief, tarantulas from over the hill lead by a single man.
"It's Hades" commented the commander. However during this time the base let down their defence and the spiders had gotten in.
By the end of the battle most of the new players were dead but all the spiders attacking the base were dead. The tarantulas guarded the base as Hades Joined the commander in the briefing room. Hades explained the situation of the soldier and the necromancer.
"I see" says the commander.
Quest completedNo Man Left BehindYou have brought word of the fate of the soldiers sent out of the base. You have also brought a reinforcements for the base and a plan to destroy the necromancer.
"Event Quest 'Free planet Junk 4' has been triggered"
Your reputation with the soldiers of the Republic of Aiur have become friendly. Although small you have earned the respect of the base on planet Junk 4.
"Your transfer scripts are to the home world of the Republic of Aiur. Take this with you, it is a letter of recommendation to the training centres there. The trainer is an old friend of mine, he should wave all charges for training. I suggest you go there to learn a little more, especially control of your bloodlust." the commander recommends to Hades.
"You have down a lot for us, for that we are really thankful" says the commander as he pulls his pistol and puts a bullet through Hades brain killing him instantly.
But it is time for you to leave the commander thinks to himself. “Radio office send word to High Command, we have a Necromancer.”
“Yes sir.” Replies the radio officer.
“Come in command, this is outpost on Planet Junk 4.” The radio officer says. “We have a Necromancer. I repeat a Necromancer.”
“Roger that outpost.” Says the radio officer at High Command.
The radio officer at High Command flicks a switch and says in to the microphone “All forces to battle stations, a Necromancy has been spotted, this is not a drill.”
Last time a Necromancer had been spotted, it destroyed 500 worlds before it was stopped.