Skill disruption

Disables a target’s active skills of choice. Applicable to any type of living or not dead target. Contested uses of the skill have a 60% automatic success rate. Target must be located within a range of 5m when the skill is initially used.

Expert

Cost: 2P per target per up to 15 skills per up to 50 minutes of use. 3P per additional target. 1P per start range increase of 10m.

Domain benefit: Free extension of the skill to 5 additional targets. 85% chance of skill being free.

Skill contested

Used 2P 0L

Remaining 2847P 1L

Daniel sighed and used the same skill again. He didn’t know the exact combination of skills being used. They were stored by effect and not by name in the Console, meaning that he couldn’t deactivate any of the dependencies for this skill, because he was pretty certain it wasn’t ‘Disruption’ holding the door closed. So his only chance was to deactivate the entire lot – everything that whoever was keeping them out was using. But, the more Power he wasted on this, the more he started to get on board with the girls’ theory about this being just an abandoned office. Whatever was in the storage unit under the helipad surely wasn’t worth the effort.

Farrah’s sorry speech about remembering why they did the hard and annoying things came back to mind. He used ‘Skill Disruption’ again, as he shook his head, mocking the absurdity of those words. Neither Farrah nor Vega understood what was at stake for him. He was pretty certain Vega didn’t understand what the System was full stop.

Daan sat on the inclined access hatch and pulled up the Console. He read through lines of code, slowly scrolling to the relevant and familiar parts. The alphanumerical characters remained where they’d always been, not even as much as sparing him a glance of polite disinterest as he scrolled past.

He pulled up his skill usage log side to side to the console and scrolled through it as well. He’d been at it for almost a full hour, losing at a game of chance that was 60% in his favour. He felt tired, despite it not even being midday.

He sighed again, and scrolled through the Console, hoping that something would have changed in the thirty or so seconds he’d looked away for.

“Hey,” Farrah’s voice snapped him back to reality.

She’d come from the other side of the helipad, where judging by the noises she and Vega had taken the other door off its hinges too. Dan didn’t really care for property damage, nor for the pack of cheese and onion crisps she handed him. He did care about the fact that Farrah had changed tops and that something had definitely happened on the other side of the helipad shortly after they’d left. But every time he tried to think of something witty to say, his mind became blank and utterly void of any thoughts beyond the mental image of code slowly scrolling by.

“What happened when you used ‘Data Shield’?” Farrah asked.

She gave the access hatch a kick for good measure, clearly more so to occupy herself than to test Dan’s work.

“I can, umm, try punching through it as is,” Vega joined them, bag of crisps in her hand. “It’s, umm, just might alert anyone down there…”

“I am honestly starting to doubt there is anything down there beyond cleaning supplies,” Dan gave the hatch a kick.

Farrah chortled. The sound wasn’t one of amusement, but rather of disbelief.

“Your special bunker that you’ve been so insistingly adamant about in down there. How else do you explain my ‘Scan’ being disrupted, the doors, the helicopter, this,” She shook a tacky beach bracelet in front of him.

Dan sighed again. They could camp out here, and try this again tomorrow. But he didn’t have the energy to suggest or argue over this with Farrah right now.

“Data Shield you said?” He asked, tossing his unopened crisps packet to Vega, “Don’t get your hopes up.”

Vega protested about her destroying the door again, but Dan ignored her, not sparing either of the girls another glance.

Data Shield

Create a physical manifestation of the System Console of up to a directed 25x25m square or a sphere of the 25m in diameter. Move it at will. Control the physical properties of the shield at will.

Expert

Cost: 2P to create. 1P per 15 minutes of usage. Free to dispel.

Domain benefit: Range extension 5 times that of base range. 85% chance of skill being free.

Farrah took a step back, as a semi-transparent blue 2 by 2 meter square moved from the tip of Dan’s extended hand into the access hatch. It took him a second to align it perfectly against the slanted surface. Dark alphanumerical characters ran across the shield, as it lost most of its physical form. This wasn’t its intended use, but having two objects in the exact same space tended to break one of the two. And sure enough, the second Dan extended his shield about 50 centimetres in each direction and made it fully physical again, a discontent click came from the hatch. It was soon followed by the sound of metal breaking, and falling a short distance.

“Not exactly what I had in mind,” Farrah muttered but readied her pistol all the same.

“Okay, this should do it, try breaking it now, Vega,” Dan took a step back, dissipating his skill.

Vega promptly crossed the distance and brought the heel of her boot down on the hatch in half-circular motion.

The two sides of the hatch bent inwards, but no longer being attached to anything, they were easy to pull out and toss to the side.

Vega looked at Farrah, before stepping aside. Dan quickly took out his quiver from the side of his backpack, hanging it over his shoulder next to his crossbow, and also looked at Farrah, he wasn’t going to go down that deep dark hole first.

Farrah shook her head, amused by the situation, and moved forward, without leaving her rucksack behind.

“You should, umm, go second. It’s best if I close,” Vega spoke.

“No brooms or buckets here,” Farrah called out.

Dan could see that now, where her flashlight lit the start of a long staircase.

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“Geronimo, as they say,” he gripped his crowbar, stepping in.

Adrenaline instantly replaced any fatigue Dan had been feeling when his foot touched the top step of a metal stairway. It circled a circular well, that perfectly fit the diameter of the helipad. The steps were made out of that non-slip texture, with small spikes and holes every few centimetres. It was the kind of thing you’d see on a construction site, but he could swear he felt each of the steps pricking him through his shoes.

The dry air smelled of fresh paint and overheated electronics. The further down they went, the more noticeable an additional smell of disinfectant became. Along the stairway, small red indicators reflected the light of Farrah’s flashlight.

Dan saw the woman aim at something in the distance. No sound, or light came from her weapon, but as they continued walking, they passed fresh bullet holes in the wall. Whatever she’d been shooting at had long since slithered back into the microscopic cracks of the metal-lined concrete well, where it waited for Dan to finally cut his skin deep enough to allow the creature in.

Despite the vastness and depth of this well, Dan couldn’t help but feel oppressed. Like something was closing in on him and pressing the air out of his lungs. Perhaps it was the darkness, or the silence so thick he could barely hear his own footsteps. The stairway felt so narrow, and at one point Dan let go of the guardrail on his right because he felt as if it was digging into his skin too. He caught himself wondering if that was why both women wore gloves.

They arrived at a landing some fifty meters below.

When he looked up, he saw nothing but a spiralling row of red lights, that went on and on into darkness. Like the mouth of a worm-like creature, it waited patiently for them to start their ascent so it could swallow them whole.

“You’re right, this is Tech,” Farrah spoke, moving her beam away from the stairway. “I felt watched by the bloody cables the entire time.”

“I killed three, umm, I think. They were in between the power cables. It was, umm, strange,” Vega added.

Dan took a few steps towards the centre of the room. He didn’t like how the darkness hugged him, not firmly, but strongly enough to remind him of its presence. He needed to see the white circles Farrah’s flashlight cast on either side from under her rucksack. He needed to know that distance existed as a concept still. But he was quickly hit with the horrible realisation that if the top of the helipad was to collapse now, it wouldn’t be thick enough to kill him; only burry him under debris where he’d be left to starve, in the ever-waiting maw of the monster-well.

“Daniel? Hey, Dan,” Farrah snapped her fingers in his direction. “Weird shit is happening, and I’m still on Warren. Can you keep that as my domain? Is that something you can work around with ‘Skill Disruption’?”

“Fuck, warren? Yeah, now this all,” he gestured around, not elaborating further, “makes sense. So earlier my counter percentage would have been in the single digits…”

Neither of the women replied. Vega began walking around, scouting by the walls of the well, while Farrah gave him an expectant look.

“I don’t know what skill it would be, but that’s clearly what happened,” Dan sighed and walked back into the light. “How are your pools looking? Mine are unaffected but I have clearly been casting at lower mastery.”

“My pools are fine - as in, not abnormal,” Farrah checked, she skimmed over a long wall of text. Knowing that she didn’t have access to the Console, she must have been reading her notes. “There is speculation that ‘Skill Amplifier’ levels up into something that would let you edit skills, so I presume that’s what you’re talking about.”

“Weave,” Vega came up to the duo, “I thought you hadn’t picked it because it didn’t fit with your build. But at untrained level, if you get it now, you will mess up Farrah’s Power.”

“How do you know this?” Dan snapped. “Just – You worked for them, didn’t you? But then why are you here now? You should have gotten everything you wanted from the System before the End. Why are you humouring us? I’d make fun of your build, but you’ve optimised it, there’s nothing for you to gain here.”

Vega took a few steps back and glanced to the side.

“You two can continue this once we’re out,” Farrah spoke after giving Vega a few seconds for a reply, which never came. “What I need to know is: can I get ‘Scan’, ‘Identify’, and the marksman lot back without losing my power? If it’s no, then we move on.” She nodded. “The longer we banter here, the longer whoever’s causing all this will have to prepare.”

Vega nodded.

“Yeah, no. As I said, I have been using my skills at untrained. There’s nothing I can do.”

“You broke down the door,” Farrah objected.

“I think you can counter ‘Weave’ with ‘Skill disruption’.”

“Not at untrained versus expert.”

A noise came from within the walls. It was a clumsy bang, the sound of a pipe giving out under something too heavy for it. With her left hand, Farrah partially unclipped the flashlight, moving it in the direction of the sound.

The diffuse yellow beam illuminated an industrial ventilation pipe, that ran all the way around the well, piercing and disappearing through the wall over a large heavy metal door. On the side of the door, a small keypad patiently waited for input, while a few meters to its right, a heavier set of doors large enough to let a lorry, or a helicopter, through stood shut tight.

The noise came again, from within the vent, as one of its bottom sides gave out, and a pile of metal rubble fell to the ground.

“Fucking hate these guys,” Farrah muttered, “They’re worse than the tiny body parts…”

Dan and Vega exchanged a look. Neither of them knew what they were looking at.

“I’ll take it, Farrah continued. We need to figure out what skills are ‘Weaved’, and which ones aren’t. It affects the skill mastery, and the domain, right?”

Vega nodded, adding a soft ‘sir’, and moving out, further to the right, towards the door.

“I’ll hack the door I guess,” Dan asked, his eyes still glued on the pile of rubble.

Farrah made some sort of noise, before shooting at the closest edge of the pile. The shot was silent, and if not for the trace it made in the cement ground, which was mostly masked by its shadows, it would have been invisible.

The pile did not budge.

“Are you sure you’re not just going-”

It moved too fast for Dan to register. A mix of grey, white, and vivid fiery red lept from the floor and fell down almost as swiftly, with several buckshots lodged in its plated face. It looked more humanoid than most mutations, with arms and legs of appropriate length, albeit a little thin. Metal covered its limbs. It was impossibly thin, sliced in a fish-scaled pattern, and stretched over muscle and bones which had in places been replaced by cable and rebar.

It didn’t budge again, and this time Dan understood what it was planning.

It rose up, reaching to its back, and pulling a plate of metal – the one that had served as the bottom of that air vent, over its face. It lounged at Farrah again.

Dan was yanked back just as he decided to assist with his crowbar.

Another of those creatures had crawled out from the vent and had been creeping into leap range towards Dan.

“Sorry, Vega whispered, I thought you saw it,” She said.

She was holding a chunk of rebar that was dripping in viscous purple-ish blood. When Dan looked towards the door, he saw a mangled pile of rubble. Vega dropped the rebar, and dashed towards the creature, redirecting its hit meant for Dan.

His ‘Data Shield’ spawned around him, as he ran up to the door. The keypad was right under a black electronic screen, meaning that manually picking combinations would be useless. Yet, Dan still tried a few, because this seemed like the kind of place and situation where entering ‘0451’ into a keypad would be appropriately ironic. It didn’t budge, nor did it respond to ‘0000’.

He looked back at the girls. Vega had just ripped out the arm of the zombie. Before kicking it to the ground, and breaking its windpipe and vertebrates with her foot. Farrah had just fired an incendiary grenade into the air vent from her Steyr AUG. A scratching metal noise came from within, and two more of the mutants jumped down.

“All my combat skills are fine!” She called out, before pulling a facemask over her nose in a fruitless attempt to drown out the stench of burning plastic and flesh.

“Mine too! I wasn’t affected!” Vega yelled as she ran down the stairway, chasing something into the darkness.

“Okay, okay, I can do this …” Dan muttered. “I’ve hacked worse. Just-” he realised he still had ‘Skill Amplifier’. Even as untrained, it was a broken and OP skill.

Skill Amplifier

Increases the mastery level and domain benefits of all known and usable skills used within a cone range of a chosen source and height of up to 50 meters.

Expert

Cost: 1P per up to 4 levels of mastery increase. 2P per level of domain mastery increase.

Domain Benefit: 30% chance of choosing to cast dependant skill instead. 85% chance of skill being free.

“How badly do you need your nav skills, Devs?” Dan called out, as he activated ‘Skill disruption’.

“Less than I need Warren, I’ll live,” She yelled in return, before pushing a mutant off her and shooting it point-blank into its chin. She swore, applying pressure over a spot on her arm. “Wanker tore my jacket!”

Dan ignored her. She sounded just fine.

He didn’t know the exact percentages, on account of both his screens lying to him, but after casting ‘Skill disruption’ twice more, the long-awaited message appeared before him.

Skill contest succeeded

“Finally,” he grinned.

The locking mechanism of the door clicked open, and he looked back at the women, waiting for their go-ahead. Farrah waved vaguely in his direction, before shooting another of the mutants that’d lept down from somewhere along the stairway.

“Go,” She yelled.

“Wait,” Vega appeared before him, having clearly used ‘Run’ to get down the staircase. “Let’s umm, open it together.”

He nodded, jamming his crowbar between the doors to create an opening for Vega to slide in her fingers and pull it apart.

Several yellow lights floated at various heights in the otherwise deserted and dark hallway.

“There should be a generator room,” Dan spoke, not sure if the orbs were there by design or not.

“If only I had scan,” Farrah smirked, joining them. She was holding a bloody piece of cloth – most likely an old tank top – over four parallel gushes in her arm. “I’ll stay here on the lookout, you two go,”

“Isn’t this all for your quest?” Dan asked. He noticed the orbs started drifting towards him.

Farrah let go of the makeshift bandage, pressing her arm against her chest to precariously maintain it in place. She shot down the orbs with a single precise burst.

“Yes. I’ll see if I can figure out some trap, and I’ll join you. We can’t allow ourselves to be cut off from the way out,” She said.

Her conviction was enough for two, and Dan nodded. Vega was already halfway down the hallway, past the dimming orbs that lay on the ground.

“I’ll walkie-talkie to you,” Dan said.

“I don’t have that skill. Just yell if things get bad. Vega would help if I’m too far.” Farrah replied. “Clear rooms before you go in, okay?” She patted him on the shoulder with her good hand, and the tip of the rifle that was in it.

“Yeah,” Dan nodded.

There wasn’t as much excitement and anticipation in the air as he would have thought when he stepped through the threshold of the OBELISK bunker.