Human bodies were strewn across the hallway like a giant petulant toddler had decided to trash his toys and go home. Blood and excrement painted the walls in sickening hues, and grayish organs spread along the floor like a living—or in this case—dying carpet. Aidan heard muted groans from those still alive, and he detected a man gasping his last breath just a foot away from where he stood at the threshold between two realities.
The scene was so realistic that Aidan felt acidic bile rising in his throat. He took a steadying breath and glanced back the way he had come. It was strange, the warrior realized. Not a single sound had emanated from the other side of the door. If Aidan had studied the carnage around him, he would have assumed it had just happened. If it was just a simulation, it was probable that this scene hadn't even existed while he was looking through those crates. Likely, this scene had generated just before he passed through the door—the same as when a video game loads content just before the character enters the room to save processing power.
Turning back, Aidan wondered what this hallway of death was designed to test. His resiliency? His morality? He wasn't sure, and it didn't matter. There was a reason the Fed had refused to clue him in on the contents of the test. Whatever happened here was a gauge for the kind of man that Aidan was. His only option was to soldier on the best he could, and to do that, he needed information.
He slowly walked through the nightmarish tableau and looked for anyone alive. As he searched, he realized that it wasn't just human bodies present. He squatted down to study the corpse of what looked like a giant otter. It was far taller and leaner than the average human. Due to its slumped position, it was challenging to assess precisely how large the creature was. Aidan estimated it was at least 10 feet long from fur-covered tip to tail. He didn't get any helpful information from the System, either.
??? Technician Lvl ???
Aidan frowned at the notification but continued his inspection. The being—alien—he amended to himself, had six limbs ending with claw-tipped fingers. It sported a long tail and looked as if it could walk on its two hind legs. It was clearly dead, with a shotgun-shaped weapon lying lax in its paws.
Further study showed quarter-sized cauterized holes punched through the thin armor plates on its chest and the fully-enclosed helmet. The Marine didn't detect any other wounds, so Aidan surmised that the laser holes were the cause of death. The impacts looked about the same size as those left by his weapons.
An enemy, then, Aidan noted to himself.
Looking closely at the equipment itself only brought more question marks to his HUD.
He was about to rummage through the alien's gear in search of more clues when a loud groan disrupted him.
Aidan glanced up and saw a nearby human reaching weakly toward him. The Marine hastened over to the man and started to check his vitals. The soldier's pulse was erratic, and his breathing was labored. A cursory inspection showed that there was either a large wound or a series of minor injuries in the man's gut. Blood was freely running and pooling on the metal deck below him.
"Water," the soldier gasped.
Aidan knew the man was going into shock. He didn't have a first aid kit, but he wasn't sure it mattered. There wasn't a first aid kit in the world that could fix such a large gut wound. The best he could do was scrounge up some water.
"I don't have any on me," Aidan replied. "Where can I find some?"
The man blinked slowly in apparent confusion.
"Check your inventory," he rasped.
Aidan frowned. He figured the man hadn't understood him and was about to repeat his question when a prompt appeared.
Success! Inventory unlocked.
The Marine stared at the message for half a second before he thought the word "inventory." A small five-by-five grid appeared in his vision's lower right-hand corner. It was mostly empty, but he found a metal canteen in the first slot and a couple of bricks that could've been ration bars in the second.
He mentally selected the canteen and was shocked to find the item in his hand. Gently putting his rifle across his thighs, Aidan unscrewed the top of the canteen and then held it to the wounded soldier's mouth. The man drank greedily as the water splashed across his lips. When he started to sputter, Aidan pulled the canteen away and screwed the lid back on. With another thought, the canteen returned to his inventory.
"Thank you," the soldier's voice sounded a bit stronger.
Aidan knew that the man didn't have much time left, so he tried to collect more information.
"What happened?" He asked the man.
“We were…attacked…” The soldier replied. Each word sounded like it cost the man just a little bit more of his life force. "Routine patrol…the Ornychi…boarded us."
The man took a deep breath and spat a bloody projectile at a nearby alien corpse.
"Big bastards…not normal techs."
"Where are we?" Aidan asked.
The dying man blinked in confusion again. "We're in Sol…this is our starship…UNS Vanguard."
A prompt appeared in Aidan's view as the last words passed the soldier's lips.
Mission updated. The UNS Vanguard (AA-1) is on a routine patrol in the Sol System. The Ornychi have boarded it and slain the majority of the ship's defenders.
MISSION: Repel the boarders and regain command of the ship
REWARD: Variable
Aidan dismissed the text with a thought and refocused on the soldier. His eyes narrowed as he realized that the man had passed while he was reading the mission update. With a sigh, the former Marine rose to his feet and glanced around for other survivors. He didn't see anyone else who could provide more information, but now that he had an inventory, Aidan realized he needed to stock up on more weaponry if he wanted to retake the ship.
The Marine silently apologized to his fallen comrades and searched their equipment. He picked up plenty of batteries for both his rifle and pistol. Aidan didn't find a limit to the number of batteries he could stack into one of his inventory squares. He did find that he couldn't mix the two types of batteries. Pistol ammunition had to go in one square, and rifle ammunition had to go in another.
Beyond that, he found a few black spherical objects with small circular indentations. His HUD identified them as grenades. He found a pulse grenade that could've been akin to an electromagnetic pulse and another two that were fragmentation grenades. These items took up another two spots in his inventory.
Aidan experimented with trying to put more weapons in his inventory and found that each weapon took up a whole slot. He couldn't stack them like he did the ammunition or the grenades. The Marine picked up another rifle and pistol but left the other where they lay. He liked the idea of having a backup but wanted to fill his inventory with something other than useless items. The casual gamer knew it went against every video game rule in the book, but he didn't think there would be some vendor waiting at the end of this simulation to help him salvage all the useless items.
Beyond the automatic weaponry, he found a sword of all things.
XSM-1/F Psionic Sword
Aidan picked it up and twirled the blade around in his hand. He had no experience with such weapons, but the description intrigued him. Psionics were the same as psychic abilities. Their wielders were supposed to be able to move things with your mind or enact other seemingly magical effects. He couldn't imagine the battlefield applications of throwing a sword with one's mind beyond entertainment value, but he stowed the blade in his inventory anyway. He hoped to find an opportunity to use it in the future.
Looking around, the Marine didn't find anything else of interest. There were a few tactical helmets, some boots, and gauntlets that would protect his body more than the black skin suit he was wearing, but it felt wrong to pillage the dead to that degree. Likewise, there were several alien weapons and body armor, but they wouldn't fit his shorter, bulkier frame. He was unwilling to use weapons even more unfamiliar than those he currently wielded. He wouldn't object to taking their equipment if it were helpful, but nothing caught his eye.
Newly equipped and holding his rifle at the ready, Aidan advanced through the next door. As he passed through, the heavy door closed softly behind him. The room beyond was something of a ready room. It was relatively small and served as a gateway for the passages beyond. In the back corner, a man lay half-collapsed against the single table in the room. A pool of his blood obscured the glowing screen embedded in the metal furniture. Above the corpse, a hologram of the solar system rotated slowly in peaceful contrast to the violence below. There was a door directly across from Aidan and one on either side.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Keeping his rifle pointed at the center door, Aidan checked the door behind him. It wouldn't budge. The lack of movement didn't surprise him. Every part of his journey was a test, and it wouldn't make sense for him to go back and change his answers. The Marine inferred something important was in this room, and picking one of the three available doors in front of him represented a choice.
Assuming he was safe for the moment, Aidan walked toward the fallen soldier. He confirmed that the man was dead and then placed his rifle down while he shifted the body away from the table. Once the man was down, Aidan raided a couple more batteries for his pistol and inspected the table.
There wasn't a straightforward method of navigating the cracked panel, so he placed his palm on the screen. A confirmation message rewarded his behavior.
Access Granted. Steele, Aidan. ID: T1US1O3G7
The hologram switched off, and only a navigation menu remained for Aidan to manipulate. He scanned through the options and found what he was looking for.
Ship Schematics. Download? Y/N
Aidan selected yes, and a progress bar appeared in a hologram above the screen. The download was completed in seconds, and then the progress animation disappeared.
Success! Mini-map Unlocked.
Aidan allowed himself a slight smile. Now things were beginning to look like the games he was used to. He experimented with the map in the upper part of his vision. He could resize the window, zoom in and out, and extend his range as far as the available schematics. Overall, he had a better grasp of the situation on the ship.
Beyond the map, Aidan found little use. He found an access log that he promptly downloaded, but everything else required more access than he had been permitted. The Marine would check the records for any valuable bits of information later. At the moment, Aidan felt like he was competing against the clock.
There were an unknown number of enemy hostile on board, and the kills he had stumbled upon were recent. He imagined that he was following just behind the boarding party. There weren't any explicit fail conditions for the scenario he found himself in, but it would be difficult to regain control over the ship from an entrenched and prepared enemy. Right now, his adversaries didn't know that he was following them.
With those thoughts in mind, he pulled up the map again to study the ship's layout. The storage room that marked his start point in the tutorial was no longer visible on the map. That probably meant that in regular times, the room didn't exist. What had replaced it was a docking interface that led to the ship's exterior. It was a safe assumption that an enemy spacecraft was currently attached to the UNS Vanguard. The hallway he had found the dying soldier in was still on the map and looked like it was a direct path to the ship's center. The ready room he was currently in was a form of access control for the rest of the Vanguard.
Aidan glanced up from his map to survey the ready room. He noticed two smoking craters in the ceiling where automated defenses had likely been deployed. Now that he knew what to look for, the veteran remembered that there were similar smoking scars in the long hallway. The dead soldiers had been stationed in the access corridor to repel the boarders, but the alien Ornychi had quickly overrun their position. With a likely fact pattern established, Aidan looked back at the map.
He was in the upper fore portion of the ship. The only thing higher was the command and control spaces toward the aft. On his level, there looked to be maintenance shops and gun emplacements on either side. He found the mess, crew quarters, and various small armories directly in front. Beyond those, there was a large drone bay and dedicated maintenance pay for the craft.
One level down, he saw a larger bay for shuttles in the aft, propulsion and more crew quarters in the center, and various maintenance shops in the fore of the ship.
The lowest level held dedicated ship stores and huge cargo bays. There were about half a dozen access ports to these areas of the ship, but Aidan didn't think it would be prudent to explore in search of more equipment. Anything down there would be too large to make a difference, and he might need more access to use them. For those same reasons, he discounted raiding the crew armories or trying to get into the shuttle and drone bays.
His only real option would be to choose a side corridor, salvage what he could on the move, and attempt to disrupt the raiding party before they made it to the command and control sections of the ship. There wasn't a direct path to those areas of the Vanguard for a good reason. In the event enemies boarded the starship, the defenders would seal the hatches in case of rapid decompression or funnel the boarders in particular directions. Typically, these redirections kept the enemy away from vital areas of the ship and gave the defenders more opportunities to ambush them.
A horrifying realization struck Aidan. These hatches were designed to limit flooding in naval ships, but they had a different purpose in space. There wasn't anything to stop the defenders from sealing portions of the Vanguard and opening the rest to the void. Suddenly, the closed helmets the aliens were wearing made a lot more sense, and Aidan felt a sense of foreboding. Any reservations about raiding the gear from his fellow humans went out the window. One of his highest priorities was now to be able to operate in the absence of breathable air.
He finally dismissed the map and readied his rifle. It didn't matter which direction he chose at this point. The boarding party likely split up to cover both sides of the ship. They needed to clear out most of the defenders to prevent potential ambushes and advance toward the bridge. With any luck, Aidan could defeat half the invaders, claim the bridge, and then use the fortified position to kill the remaining enemies.
Aidan turned toward the starboard side door for no reason other than being left-handed. If he had to shoot around a corner, it would be less awkward on the ship's starboard side. After a quick touch of his palm, the Marine was through the door and into the corridor beyond. As soon as the door opened, he could hear the sounds of conflict further down the hall. He listened to the clanging of metal on metal, the percussive sounds of projectile weapons, and the screams of the dying.
The veteran didn't break into a run, but he did stride confidently down the hallway. He quickly cleared the rooms to his left side but didn't enter them to raid equipment or look for survivors. There was the remote chance that a hiding enemy could pop him in the back, but Aidan took the calculated risk. He wanted to get to where the action was as quickly as possible, and the boarders weren't likely to be hiding around the ship when the bridge was still untaken.
He caught sight of his first alien in just a few minutes, which surprised them both. The Ornychus had just stepped from a gunner's nest and was carrying his shotgun-styled weapon at the waist. He didn't get a single shot off before Aidan nailed him in the throat with two trigger pulls.
The alien clattered to the deck, and Aidan rushed forward and kicked the shotgun out of the alien's writhing hands. Another front kick to the skull put the alien prone, and Aidan advanced to clear the gunner's nest beyond. He found two dead humans carrying pistols but no other enemies. Aidan reached behind him and pulled the dying alien into the gunner's nest. He was surprised at how light the creature was despite its height.
Task completed; Aidan put another round into his enemy's skull, but the creature's helmet ablated the laser. It took two more shots before the projectile finally pierced through the armor and left a smoking hole in the creature's skull.
Ornychus Technician slain. Experience gained: ???
The implications of the message weren't lost on Aidan, but he didn't have the time to explore the ins and outs of the system. It was enough to know that there was experience, which likely meant levels and stats were a mechanic in this scenario.
He briefly rummaged through the alien's gear and snagged another fragmentation grenade. Aidan was slightly surprised that the aliens were using what sounded and looked like projectile weaponry on a ship. Maybe they weren't concerned about the bullets punching holes in the bulkheads. Regardless, Aidan preferred his near-silent directed energy weapons. Hopefully, he could eliminate the threat to the ship before they knew he was there.
He looked over at the dead gunners and saw that they wore gray armor, complete with helmets, atop their black suits. Aidan debated whether he should take the time to equip himself or continue hunting for more enemies. He could hear sounds of conflict beyond his position and wanted to avoid being caught flat-footed.
After a half-second deliberation, he decided that the risk was worth the increased protection. A glance fed him a stream of information about the items.
SM1/BDA Modular Integrated Gunner Helmet
SM2/BBA Outer Tactical Panel
SM1/BDA Integrated Gunner Gauntlet (LH)
SM1/BDA Integrated Gunner Gauntlet (RH)
SM3/BBA Space Combat Boots
Aidan cursed whatever government bureaucrat decided to use acronyms for every set of military-issued gear. Some of it looked familiar, and some of it was utterly foreign to him. At least the names told him something about the functionality of the items. He set his rifle down and scavenged undamaged components from the two dead men.
The first item, the MIGH, looked like a basic motorcycle helmet and a combat helmet had a baby. It was more angular than an aerodynamic motorcycle helmet but was fully enclosed, unlike a combat helmet. There was no visor or any other indication that the wearer would be able to see from within. Removing it was pretty simple. It detached from the dead man's head with a slight hiss, and a second later, it was sealing itself around Aidan's own.
As soon as the helmet was fully sealed, hidden external cameras activated, and Aidan could see everything around him. He was amazed at the clarity. If Aidan didn't know any better, the veteran would think he wasn't wearing a helmet at all. He wished he had time to study everything in detail, but the boarders wouldn't wait for him to test out all the new gear.
The tactical panels came next. They were just a series of protective plates that covered the man's shoulders and encircled his thighs. They stuck directly to his skin suit without needing straps or buckles. The thigh plates even adjusted themselves to fit his taller frame. He had to remove his thigh holster to put them on, but when he held the pistol near his left panel, it attached to the equipment via a magnetic strip. Smiling beneath his helmet, Aidan tossed the unnecessary holster aside.
After securing the panels, he slipped his hands into the slim gauntlets. The IGGs had the same resizing properties the OTPs did, and soon he could barely feel them. As soon as Aidan equipped the gauntlets, a System message appeared.
Calibrating…
Calibration Complete.
A series of numbers appeared in the bottom right of his vision. It looked like the gauntlets had calibrated the number of shots he had in his rifle for the first digits. After a slash, the second number had the available ammunition on his plate carrier and in his inventory. Below those numbers, a smaller set appeared for his pistol. For a second, Aidan wished he had this kind of technology in the real world. Everything was helpful without being distracting.
A glance at the right-hand gauntlet revealed a small view screen networked to the ship computer. Just like the interface in the ready room, Aidan needed higher access to see more than he already had.
Finally, Aidan slipped on the boots. They were a similar fabric as his plate carrier with a protected toebox and a slightly heavier sole. As he slipped the shoes over his skin suit, they slightly resized to fit him better and sealed themselves along an invisible seam.
He quickly realized where the additional weight came from when he stood up. The boots had affixed themselves to the metal deck with a magnetic lock. Walking around required a shuffling gait that the Marine wasn't used to. He was thinking about taking them back off if he couldn't get the magnetism to disengage, but another message hit his screen a second later.
Magnetic lock disengaged.
Encouraged, Aidan practiced engaging and disengaging the boots with a thought. They worked perfectly and would save him if the artificial gravity on the ship suddenly stopped working. Geared up, Aidan picked up his rifle and moved back toward the entrance to the gunner's nest. The whole process probably took a minute and a half. He had been aided by the equipment's intuitive design and ability to resize and respond to mental commands.
Newly equipped and more lethal than ever, he was ready to bring the fight to the aliens.