Orion opened his eyes and found himself floating above an ocean of lava. The waves moved languidly, but there was still an ebb and flow to the molten rock. The sky overhead was daffodil yellow with wispy black clouds trailing above. The islands below were chained together in a series of archipelagos, the island covered in tropical trees, sandy beaches, and an active volcano on every large island. Orion realized he was back in Seas of Spiritus, hovering over the Sea of Sear.
A shadow blotted out the sun as a keening cry broke the silence. Orion turned to see a fiery bird of paradise wheel around, two long peacock feathers with yellow eye patterns on the tips. Seven balls of flame orbited around the great phoenix’s head as it breathed fire at something in the distance. A circle of volcanic vents was just below him, each belching black smoke that formed a ring around the boss arena. The biggest island opposite from the entrance had a massive volcano carved like an Easter Island Moai head, lava pouring from the eyes like fiery tears. Built on top of the head sat a giant bird nest made of palm trees and ash.
Orion felt excitement fill his chest as Ashwing the Unquenchable made another pass, breathing fire at the Deck Puncher. As Orion was drawn closer he saw that the ship had changed again. The top half still looked like a ghost ship, but the bottom had iron plates protecting the hull from the sea of boiling rock. The cannons were now frosted over with ice as they fired at the phoenix.
The short cannoneer was now decked out in what looked like a blacksmith’s apron and slacks. He was otherwise shirtless, sweat pouring down bronzed muscles. Lazar was still piloting the ship, navigating the sluggish waters and dodging shadows just before fireballs collided with the deck. The Lizardfolk looked quite comfortable in a red aloha shirt with a pineapple pattern.
A distressed squawk from above drew his attention to Starbeard in the crow’s nest, firing an icy blunderbuss at the phoenix. His captain’s outfit was red with yellow trim, and his tricorn hat had a long orange feather in the brim. The giant bird turned, opening its mouth to breathe fire on the brazen Orc the when two shadows leapt from lifeboats on the water.
Armor was wearing a stone-like full plate suit with a moai head helm. Defying all gravity, Armor soared upward and pierced the phoenix’s underbelly with a wickedly barbed trident. Seal Woman jumped from the opposite direction and cleaved into a wing with a greataxe made of polished narwhal horn. The buff seal woman wore an orange feathered mantle which fluttered behind her like wings.
Undeterred, Ashwing belched a column of flame at Starbeard, who took a direct hit before he could leap off the crow's nest. Blackened to a crisp, Starbeard fell to his knees. Bird Woman, wearing a red sarong and the white plague mask, did a fly-by and a beam of light restored the charred captain to full health.
With an angry screech the weakening phoenix came around again for a second pass. Trailing smoke from multiple injuries, the attacking avian opened its beak for another fire breath.
Starbeard took aim and shot the blunderbuss into the open maw. The icy shot froze the mouth shut, and the gout of fire had nowhere to go. Smoke and ash erupted from the boss as it exploded from within. With a muffled cry of dismay, the phoenix fell towards the moai island and crashed.
The corpse quickly burned to ash, leaving only an ornate chest decorated like a Fabergé egg. The crying stone head rumbled and rose from lava, the lower jaw sinking below the bubbling surface. Inside of its mouth was an endless expanse of ocean with no land in sight.
The scene shifted around him and Orion watched the party split the loot between themselves. Like before, Starbeard was sitting off to the side. His ghostly beard was replaced with one made of fire. He seemed content to lounge against a palm tree as his friends laughed and tried in new gear.
The blacksmith broke off from the group and walked toward Starbeard. Orion was surprised to see Shorty rolling toward in a wheelchair that looked like it was built from a modified lifeboat. He also noticed that the Orc captain sat up straighter at his approach.
“Whatcha got there, Aurelio?”
The name Aurelio stirred something in Orion’s memory. It felt important but the more he tried to remember the faster it fell away from his mind. For some reason the man’s voice filled Orion with a deep sense of yearning.
“Hey, Cap’n!” The shorter man called out cheerfully, “Look what dropped!”
From behind his back, the blacksmith produced an egg the size of a basketball. It was crimson, with orange and yellow speckles making it look like a bonfire.
Starbeard gasped, “[Ashwing’s Egg]! That’s amazing! This item has a one percent drop rate.”
Aurelio’s face, while still blurry, clearly lit up at that. “Yup! And we want you to have it.” He said, “You did land the killing blow. Besides, we all know how much you wanted it.”
Starbeard held up his hands, “Oh, no. I couldn’t-“
The egg was pressed into his chest. “Just take it, you doofus! You’ve been farming this pet for years, you absolutely deserve it.”
Starbeard took the egg with shaking hands and he stared at the egg reverently. He brushed his hand over the egg gently, holding it up to the light. “Death and rebirth.” Starbeard said, almost to himself. “A powerful creature that once blighted these seas, given another chance to fight as a companion to the ones who slayed it. Second chances…”
“Everything okay?” Aurelio asked.
Starbeard stood up, “No. But I hope it will be. I want to take you somewhere. Will you come with me?”
The shorter man tilted his head, “Sure, but what’s this about?”
“I’ll let the gang know, wait here,” Starbeard rushed off again.
The scene changed again and Orion found himself standing on a tropical island. There was a large cave in front of him, half hidden in the tropical foliage and vines. A stick cracking behind him drew Orion’s attention to Starbeard leading the bronzed man through the jungle, wheeling the chair through the rough parts.
He was drawn inside and marveled at what he saw. The inside of the cave was expertly carved into a cathedral of living rock. The walls were embedded with glowing crystals of every color. There were paving stones down the aisle that glowed, leading up to a heart-shaped pink quartz that decorated the raised dias in front of the altar. The walls had more glowing stones carved to look like stained glass windows.
“What is this place?” Aurelio asked in an awed whisper.
Starbeard parked him on the heart and smiled, “These are some unused assets of the game. Reggie told me about it, off the books, so this is our secret okay? It was supposed to be a mini boss room, but they couldn’t get the theme to work with the Sea of Sear’s aesthetic.”
“Well, it is beautiful. Thank you for showing it to me.” The blurry face smiled up at Starbeard.
Starbeard knelt and took the leather gloved hands in his own and looked at the seated figure. Orion stared at the scene, mouth agape. Something important was happening, he could feel it, almost remembering.
“Enrique,” Starbeard said softly. “I love you.”
The pixilated face of Aurelio Ironsides suddenly came into sharp focus. The small bronzed figure was clearly a Dwarf, and a strikingly handsome one at that. Enrique’s face was slightly rounded, with softer features. His nose was slightly upturned, with full lips and warm brown eyes. He had a curly mop of auburn hair on the top of his head with the sides trimmed in an undercut. Instead of a beard, however, Enrique’s sideburns grew out into two spirals that framed his face.
Memories came flooding back to Orion and he tried to yell, but no sound left his throat. Tears ran down his phantasmal cheeks as he tried to call out, to beg for Enrique to see him. More than anything he was desperate to feel the touch of his lost lover, but was forced to watch the scene in agonizing silence.
The Dwarf blushed and smiled, “Aww! I love you too, buddy.”
Starbeard shook his head, “No, I mean I’m in love with you. We’ve danced around it for years, joked about it, even flirted. I think a part of me always knew, I just wasn't ready to admit it. I never meant to lead you on…I just…I don’t want to regret anything because I was too scared to say something.”
Enrique pulled his hands back, “Ryan, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”
Starbeard looked at his hands, stricken as if Enrique pulling away had physically hurt him. “I have cancer,” He whispered.
The Dwarf gasped and covered his mouth with his hands.
“I caught it early, and the prognosis is good but,” Starbeard bowed his head. “If there’s even a chance something goes wrong, I don’t want to waste any more time on ‘what ifs’. I want to spend however long I might have left with the people I love without worrying about distance or my business.”
When Enrique didn’t say anything, Starbeard sat back on his knees. “Sorry, I know this is a lot to spring on you all at once. I don’t even know if you feel the same way abou-”
His words were cut off as the dwarf sprang up from the chair and hugged Starbeard around the neck. The captain looked stunned, unsure of how to react, arms awkwardly held out to his sides. When he heard the wracking sobs of Enrique crying against his neck, Starbeard wrapped his arms around the shaking man.
“Of course I l-love you, you big dumb idiot!” Still crying, Enrique pulled back and kissed Starbeard fiercely. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Enrique dissolved into tears again and Starbeard rubbed his back to soothe him. “I know. I’m sorry,” Starbeard said meekly.
Enrique leaned back and kissed him again. He placed thick Dwarf hands on the meaty Orc face and stroked his thumbs to wipe away Starbeard’s tears. Voice shaking, he asked, “You say the prognosis is good?”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Starbeard nodded, “Yeah. I mean there’s always some risk but I'll be getting surgery to remove the tumor next month. I just wish it didn’t take this to get me off my fat ass and finally tell you how I feel. But I swear I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
Enrique pressed his forehead against Starbeard’s and in the rainbow kaleidoscope light of the hidden cathedral, they kissed again.
“You’re damn right you will,” Enrique promised.
The darkness pulled Orion back again, tearing him away from his lost lover.
[Memory upload at 87%]
Orion gasped and sat up, bracing himself for impact. After a few seconds Orion realized he wasn’t about to hit the floor and uncovered his face. He was sitting in the bed in his underground bunker. That was a big comfort, and took the edge off of falling to his death. Orion let the panic fade and he lay back down, brushing his hands over his face. He felt tears streaming down his cheeks, and he tried to wipe them away. Staring up at the ceiling, he could clearly remember Aurelio’s face again. He felt guilty that he had forgotten someone that important to him. That longing at the sound of his voice finally made sense. He was feeling it now, just remembering their conversation.
Orion whispered, “I wonder if I’ll ever see you again.” Scrubbing his face and trying to rid himself of the melancholy thoughts, Orion swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He noticed his prosthetic was inexplicably missing again.
Orion sighed. “It was a good idea, buddy. Too bad it didn’t work. Not your fault, we had to have reached terminal velocity.”
Orion waited a moment and then looked up. He didn’t see his AI companion anywhere. “Apus?” Orion called out. Orion’s implant sparked again, giving Orion a painful neck spasm.
“Oh, goddammit!” Orion grabbed one of the spare pegs from the neaby end table and equipped it. “Am I going to need to keep repair kits next to the bed too?”
A few moments and one freshly crafted repair kit later, Orion’s HUD rebooted again and Apus reappeared in midair and fell through the workbench. After a few seconds Apus peeked back up through the table, looking embarrassed. The phoenix’s image shifted to the top of the counter and assessed the room, neck bobbing. A wing slapped his forehead in a human gesture and he groaned.
“It seems as if my plan didn’t work,” Apus said. “I’ve failed you, Sir.”
Orion leaned back and started making some spare repair kits. “Oh hush. It was an accident. Neither of us could have predicted what would have happened there. I just hope I didn’t accidentally collapse the entire mine we just built.”
Apus relaxed. “You are too kind.”
“Just practical. Nothing short of a parachute would have made that fall survivable. And in any case, it’s not a total loss. We still have this.” Orion placed the BioDome Generator on the workbench. “Can we make these?” Orion asked.
Apus turned and pulled up the engineering workbench’s recipes. “Not at your current level. This is way beyond your trade skills.”
Orion stood and put the new repair kits and a replacement leg in the nook behind his bed. He walked back to the table and placed the generator disc in a storage chest. “Pity.” Orion shrugged, “Oh well, at least we have it. Maybe we can’t make a dome yet, but we just saw a whole suburb down that tunnel. I think it’s time to meet the neighbors.”
Orion paused thoughtfully, “And possibly apologize for trashing someone’s house.”
As fortune had it, the collapsed mine was restricted to the big chasm Orion had made unearthing the BioDome. The fourth rest area was fine, though he reinforced the support beams with orgite plating just in case. He also built a camp, creating a tent, an engineering workbench with attached forge and two chests for storage. The issue now was getting down.
“Set the MUT to ‘scaffolding’,” Apus instructed.
Orion did so and fired the MUT at the hole. The Sen-Tech building gun started to create a spiral ramp sloping gently down towards the town below.
Orion tapped his foot against the ramp nervously. “It doesn’t seem very secure. There’s no support beams, no cables…what’s holding it up?”
“Game mechanics.” Apus said simply. “It works similarly to a certain Battle Royale game. The ramp looks rickety but it’s sturdy. They can even be used in fights to gain a tactical advantage if you get good enough with them. Perfect for a rifle-based warden build.”
Still worried, Orion grabbed a support beam and inched down the ramp, expecting it to collapse under his weight. When it remained reassuringly solid he let go of the wall and started walking down the spiraling scaffolding. It didn’t even shake under him. Bolstered by that, Orion casually made his way down while trying his best not to look down. Hours later the path touched down on top of the collapsed roof he smashed through.
Orion peeked through the hole and called out, “Hello?”
‘Sir,’ Apus didn’t speak but Orion heard the voice inside his head. ‘I think we should keep our voices down.’
Orion looked up and followed where his bird friend pointed. On the streets he saw movement. There were several shapes meandering aimlessly across yards and the streets. They looked like the monster robots that littered the base, but much less bulky. Their black metallic bodies were roughly humanoid, some still dressed like typical suburbanites. There were some outliers with extra limbs or bulbous growths, but these seemed almost like normal robots.
They didn’t seem to notice Orion. He didn’t recall seeing anyone down here when he fell, but he was pretty distracted at the time. It was possible that they weren’t around before but the sound of a full grown Org crashing through a building drew them here. “Creepy. Like a zombie movie,” Orion whispered.
Apus held up a wing, ‘I would recommend non-vocal communication, Sir. Just think at me, and I will be able to hear you.’
‘LIKE THIS?’ Orion thought as hard as he could.
‘No need to shout, Sir. We share a brain,’ Apus scolded.
Pushing that uncomfortable thought aside, Orion scanned the horizon. The suburbs surrounded him, white picket fences and two car garages as far as the eye could see. From his position on the roof he could see a forested area to the east. Purple conifers rose over the rows of nearly identical houses. The skyline of the BioDome curved down and appeared to connect to the ground just beyond the woods.
To the west he could see distant towering skyscrapers. Judging from that, Orion concluded that the center of the city must be directly below the crater. The dome near the impact sight was distorted, some of the panels showing a blue screen. As damaged as it was, the dome was still who preventing thousands of tons of rock and dirt from crushing the sprawling metropolis.
‘We need to figure out that crafting recipe.’ Orion thought. ‘The BioDome can take some punishment.’
Apus nodded, ‘Wherever we are, this society was clearly technologically advanced.’
It was a portable cassette player. Orion rubbed his eyes because his brain could not process what he was seeing. And yet, when he opened them again he was staring at a neon pink cassette player with matching headphones. Morbid curiosity got the better of him and he cautiously tried on the headphones. The headband fit like it was build for him, and soft foam covering the speakers. Orion pressed the button marked with a triangle.
The nostalgic sounds of electric keyboard and the steady beat of drums caressed his ears. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the first music he’d heard in weeks. He didn’t recognize the song, but it had all the markings of retro futuristic pop music. Orion could clearly see a cassette tape in the clear window of the music box, spinning away.
Pulling the headphones down around his neck and unconsciously clipping the tape player to his belt, Orion was starting to get a weird feeling about this house. Everything about it felt extremely familiar. The room he crashed through was clearly the master bedroom. With the splintered remains of a bed frame and torn rubber mattress, Orion would have sworn he fell through a water bed. The walls were covered in floral wallpaper, the windows had beige curtains, and next to the busted entertainment center was a smashed CRT TV. Feeling vaguely out of sorts, like he was intruding on his parents bedroom, Orion had continued exploring.
He was now in what looked like a teenage girl’s bedroom. He was surrounded by poster covered pink walls, a white desk, and a broken bookshelves filled with rotting plush toys. There was another blocky TV on a stand at the foot of the bed, and a chunky orange computer tower with a matching orange computer screen. With an impending sense of dread he lifted the computer mouse and looked at the bottom. He cringed at what he saw. He slowly twisted a little round plug, lifting it up to glare at the lint covered trackball. He tossed the ancient computer accessory on the desk with disgust. It was like stepping back to his childhood years. That was not a happy time for him.
‘This society created an energy dome that could withstand a direct meteor strike,’ Orion knelt and pressed a button on the tower. A slim square of plastic with a hole in the center popped out. ‘And their technology runs on cassette tapes and floppy disks.’
Apus just shrugged from his perch on a corded phone shaped like a cartoon ratillac.
Orion looked at the disk and tilted his head. The label had a picture of a covered wagon and the name ‘Org On Trail’ written across it. His translator didn’t even turn on, he could read the language like it was his own. Orion’s hair stood up on the back of his neck and he walked over to one of the torn posters. He brushed one of the half fallen pictures back up and pinned it to the wall. Stepping back he clearly saw five young Orgs in period appropriate clothing posing in a way designed to make teenagers swoon. The name New Kids In The Dome was printed underneath.
Orion looked at Apus, ‘Are we on an Org planet?’
Apus preened thoughtfully, ‘Unlikely. The Org worlds were completely wiped out in the Gate War. They’re the only race not represented in Sanctuary. If we are on one, I have no record of it.’
Orion pondered this, ‘Hence the Org you out there? mission. I’m really the only one?’
Apus’s expression changed to that faraway look he got when he was checking his records. After a moment he responded, ‘As far as I’m aware, Sir.’
Orion wasn’t convinced but he had no way of verifying his suspicions. He sighed and asked Apus, ‘So what’s the plan? We came here seeking water and found my childhood instead. Is this whole trip a bust?’
‘Not at all, Sir,’ Apus reassured. ‘In fact, this is perfect. Your MUT has one other feature you haven’t used yet. It can break down objects and save their recipes to your crafting list. Those items are then available to be built in your various crafting stations.’
Orion was dubious but equipped his MUT and fired it at the computer. After a few seconds, the tower vibrated, then broke into chunks of blue light and vanished into his inventory.
[New Recipe Added! Computer: Retro.]
Orion nodded, ‘Okay. New crafting stuff. This will come in handy trying to rebuild the base. Let’s see what else they’ve got.’
The next room was a cozy peach colored bathroom. It had a real toilet, sink and large standing shower with alien fish on the tattered shower curtain. Orion opened it up and sighed, wishing he could wash up. Wistfully he turned the hot water nozzle on the faucet.
Water immediately started spraying out of the showerhead. Orion’s brain had to reboot again as he processed this. He touched the stream of water and actually felt it getting warmer as it streamed over his fingers. In a dream-like state he walked over to the sink and turned on the tap. Water poured out into the bowl. Orion was stunned silent.
Apus flew over and scanned the water, ‘It’s potable.’
‘I hope that means it’s safe cuz I’m drinking the shit outta it!’ Orion cupped his hands and took huge gulps of water, splashing down the front of his breasts in his haste to fill up on fresh water. As steam filled the room, the desire to wash up overcame his need for water. He was naked in an instant, placing the cassette player on the sink and tossing the sweaty clothes in the waste basket by the toilet.
Blessedly naked, Orion jumped in the shower and let the hot water cascade down his curvy body. Rivulets of water flowed down his cleavage and down the valleys of his muscular belly. For the first time since character creation, Orion took a moment to appreciate his new body, cupping his breasts and giving them a soft squeeze. He smacked his thick thigh, which jiggled a bit but was mostly hard muscle underneath the soft teal skin.
Orion wrung out his damp hair and he could see dirt and grime circling the drain below. There was a wire basket half hanging on the wall of the shower with a mysterious yellow lump of something. He picked it up, gave it the sniff test and started to lather up with the floral scented bar, washing away a week’s worth of hard work. It was utter bliss.
“Oh yeah,” Orion said quietly, “We’re taking this with us.”