Chapter 11 - Hope on the Run - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG
A schrogae ship emerges from the outpost, its cargo hold still open. The inside is even more cluttered than the cargo aerolito the group used as a home, a jumble of disparate items tossed in seemingly at random. Silas leads the way, pushing aside boxes and squeezing through the mess to a hidden door. "No time to fix much. Liora, head to the command bridge; your copy's struggling to pilot by itself. The cargo hold door won't close, which means we can't accelerate or climb too high," he informs.
Liora nods and streaks through the door like a lightning bolt. Almost instantly, she responds over the comlink, "Team, I'm at the flight controls, connecting now to the universal interface. I'm going to lower the altitude and maintain speed. Silas, I'll launch the reconnaissance drone; I can't see anything from here. The sensors are busted and covered in grime."
"Hold on, Liora, I have a better idea," says Silas. "There's a gun turret on the lower deck with a transparent dome in better conditions. I'll have Petra take the aircar's sensors there while Frank and I try to seal the cargo hold door and isolate the inside."
"Let's go get the sensors; just point me which ones they are," Petra says as she collects the devices from the aircar. “Silas, are you sure you want to close that door? Wouldn't it be wise to have the aircar ready in case this ship goes down?"
"We'll have to take the risk. We need to isolate the compartments to increase our speed and save some time if we have to descend and repair the ship, but don't worry about falling - this isn't really a plane; it's an airship. A plane has to stay aloft by maintaining speed, and an airship floats because of a special kind of distortion. We have a pocket dimension device connected to this ship’s structure that creates a huge toroidal-shaped bubble of distorted space around the ship. It counteracts over 1200 tons of cargo in the lower atmosphere because of the buoyant force of the air against the near vacuum spatial bubble. We will be floating unless something blows up the engine from inside, but if that happens, a closed door will be our least concern." Silas replies.
Petra nods and heads off with a hefty load of sensors. Despite the challenge, she can sense that she's far more muscular now than when she first started training in Gate. Petra quickly passes through the passenger area, a hall dominated by oversized couches and tables covered by a protective tarp emblazoned with the Northern Valley symbol - identical to the one at the outpost as if it were brand new and never used. Reaching the open doorway to the command bridge, she finds Liora rushing around at super speed, desperately trying to patch things up.
“Hello Petra, today's training will be despair-based airship mechanics! There’s a tube staircase down at the bridge entrance. Watch out; the steps are quite spaced. Go ahead and set up the sensors as I just sent you on the comlink. My copy will help you," Liora hurries to explain while frantically running back and forth across the bridge, repairing a myriad of things simultaneously.
"I'm on my way!" Petra replies, halfway down the staircase, carefully placing the sensors as she goes. "That lounge back there looks like it's never been used."
"Right, this was a brand new ship. I think most of the stuff here is unused. Shame, this ship seems really good to me," Liora pauses to pay attention to a gizmo that's sputtering out smoke. "Well, no matter, it's a miracle anything works after seven thousand years without maintenance."
"This ship must be tough. Machines on Earth would have rusted through in far less time," Petra comments while assembling the devices.
"This ship on Earth would've oxidized a lot faster. The temperature is a lot lower in Gate. There's oxygen but hardly any water vapor. Most of the ship was sealed; anyway, the electronics were either broken or needed recharging. From what I can see, Silas managed to get at least one gravity engine running with a thrust booster, plus enough basic support to keep the structure aloft. We're basically in a hot air balloon with a jet stuck in the end," Liora explains.
Petra focuses on finishing assembling the parts and following Liora's copy's instructions. Meanwhile, they hear Frank talking to Silas over the comlink: “OK Silas, can't hear anything over the wind. I've managed to hold the hatch, but it's jammed."
"Perfect. Once I clear the jam, pull it up to the yellow mark, and then I'll try to reposition the latch. Got it?" Silas replies, and after a while, "Now!" They all hear a clanging metal sound echoing inside, followed by an immediate shift from the ship's background noise to a chilling silence. Liora notices several devices coming back online on the bridge.
"Everything good there, Silas, Frank?" Petra asks.
“Well, that went smoothly!” Frank answers.
“All clear. Frank and I will grab a few things from the aircar and join you on the bridge.” Silas concludes.
"Wonderful. I'm almost done with the sensors. Just need to get down to the bottom of the turret and set up the camera." Petra says, descending the staircase and taking a seat in the chair.
Petra is now in an almost entirely transparent gun turret on the ship's lower deck. The glass is heavily soiled in parts, but she can make out Gate's endless darkness pierced by a faint light emanating from the ship's nose just above. Petra could hardly see the darkened horizon against the dark red sky. She turns on the last sensors and raises her arms, stretching in the turret's chair for a few moments, enjoying this unexpectedly lovely place and astonishing view before climbing back.
After a few minutes, Silas and Frank arrive on the command bridge. Petra climbs the stairs and joins the others. A sense of relief hangs in the air as Liora gives a status update:
“Alright, team, we’ve got some system stability. We can maintain a significant constant speed; we're gaining a lot of time on the Golems. Plus, I found this ship's flight records about this region; the news is great. At our current speed, we have just two and a half days of travel north before we completely exit the spiral, which continues far beneath the earth. We could wait at the edge of this safe zone for another two days until the Golems get close. I never realized this place was so big! It’s almost as large as the Metropolis plate - people could build a giant city here!" Liora informs.
"Good! Our priority will be fixing this ship before leaving the spiral, but we have to remember I’m still downloading audio-visual records from the Northern Valley. And from what I've seen, there's some alarming stuff about the Lady of Tempus, as well as the deceased archmage, Dukliasse. I just found out he was an old politician from the same guild of extermination mages as the current mayor of Metropolis, the one who humans fondly call Emperor Biggus." Silas says, already turning to look at Liora.
Liora paces back and forth, visibly shocked. Her super-speedness makes everything more disturbing. Silas shakes his head silently while Frank and Petra barely recognize their friend.
"I always had a bitterness about all of this, Silas. We're far from Metropolis, but maybe it's time to discuss these things openly with everyone. Because I understand that information about Dukliasse’s motivations when he was here could be crucial to solving our problem. But it won’t be easy, and it makes me feel sick just thinking about it,” Liora says, her speech rapid.
“Let’s take it slow. Who are these extermination mages?" Frank asks.
Liora continues to pace the command bridge, her words tumbling over each other: "They drive me crazy. In short, they're a cabal of segregationists who used the cataclysm as justification to gain power during the early years of New Metropolis. Seven thousand years after that, they changed, but they didn't get any better; they just became more powerful and dangerous. Shit hit the fan when Biggus became head of the MBSI, the Metropolis' Bureau of Special Investigations, turning that agency into a stronghold of his guild. A year after he made the department a bootlickers puppet house, a series of attacks penetrated the city’s defenses. A couple of years after that, he ‘won’ the mayoral election based on fear. Mayors in Metropolis have 20-year terms. There's a senate that can call for new elections after 5 years, and there’s also a limit of 3 elections and a total of 40 years per millennium for the mayoral position. Since he was elected during a crisis, he sold the idea of an imminent new cataclysm, which never happened, but in his speech, it was always him saving the city. As a result, he staged a coup, stripping the senate of the power to call new elections. And by now, it's been 58 years since Metropolis's last election. He maintains power with a self-made title of ‘Interim Regent,’ but the regime has become increasingly authoritarian year after year, and that explains why humans call him emperor. As you might imagine, in Gate, a dictator never dies."
Frank throws his arms up and exclaims, "But they're a guild of political mages? We don't need more enemies right now."
Liora tries to calm herself down, but her mind is racing too fast. She says, “You're right, Frank. The pieces of a puzzle are still falling into place in my mind, and I wouldn't say I like the image forming. Extermination magic school is used to kill in a way that prevents anything from being revived. If these guys are after Seneca, they may be doing this to people on your Earth…"
"Maybe so. But let’s be cautious before drawing any conclusions. Banning people from being revived would still be completely against the law, no matter the reason. And Dukliasse didn’t seem to come here after Seneca. I think we’ll find out more soon. The archmage's network connections were completely secure. Still, he set up his shelter in the middle of the street, not even bothering about the city cameras recording everything, if he even knew they were working,” says Silas.
“Silas, the law also says that we should have had a mayoral election… but I agree with you. We need to be sure what happened. It turns out that this school of magic was restricted in Metropolis. The extermination mages guild of Metropolis didn't just oppose the control; they advocated for its indiscriminate use, including against people in Metropolis convicted of certain crimes. And it gets worse. According to their ideology, doing so would make society stronger."
"So, that would be a kind of death penalty, then? So a condemned person could never be revived?" Petra asks, drawing a parallel.
"During the time of Old Metropolis, there were rules to control the process of bringing people back to life and to monitor critical cases, with various protocols for the particular situations of each culture and period. We also have to consider the chaotic process of reviving people; even so, the problems were sporadic and easy to resolve. Back then, people had the option of socializing or living alone inside their cubes, and all basic resources were provided on a large scale. The economy was important, but it was complementary to people's lives; everyone had the freedom to do what they wanted with their time. The highest penalty back then was a type of ostracism, precisely to prevent the emergence of tyrants, so this idea of bringing in a radical proposal for punishment also served to divert attention. If the extermination mages guild had implemented their proposals before the cataclysm, the law of ostracism would likely have been applied against them. Their idea was to replace the law that bothered them with one that would be quite useful to them."
“Liora, can you give me a clear example of this guild's proposal? From what I understand, things work differently here from Earth, and I don't want to jump to conclusions. Could someone be punished by ostracism for making a radical political proposal?" Petra asks, trying to balance the positions.
Liora ponders a moment before continuing, "No one was punished for making criticisms or proposals, but that doesn't mean people weren't punished for their actions. You couldn't commit a deliberate crime and claim it was a political proposal as a justification. If I remember correctly, a logician from Earth called Gödel already pointed out similar inconsistencies. I remember some hypocritical speeches from the extermination guild accusing their political opponents of being criminals, which in practice was a veiled threat. Along that same line of thought, early on, the guild defended a psychopathic idea right after the cataclysm without respecting mourning while fear was still unbearable. According to them, for each galaxy, only the strongest species should be revived and maintained in Gate, and the rest should be exterminated through magic. Biggus belongs to a species called bo that also came from the Milky Way. Obviously, he considered himself superior to all humans. Consequently, the guild defended the extermination of all humans, as well as many other Gate species. It served to bring fanatics into their fold, but it wasn't popular outside their ranks. When they needed to, they modified this proposal but kept the ideology. They simply swapped species for criminals in their arguments to gain votes and then generalized it to individuals who, according to their criteria, made society weaker. Now, let’s think about what was happening back then, long before they came to power. What Dukliasse came to do in the city hardly has any connection with Seneca because it was only recently, through our project, that the possibility of bringing people from your Earth back to life was discovered ." Liora continues, still at breakneck speed, letting her adjectives run free.
"Or maybe they knew by that time, but they did nothing. They waited until Biggus became mayor. That way, instead of reviving people and letting them live, they could do the opposite." Frank theorizes.
"That could be it, Frank..." Liora reflects. "I'm not so sure anyone knew. The people who died in the cataclysm couldn’t be revived, and that includes people in other personal dimensions. Nobody knows why Seneca was different. We still have a lot of missing pieces to this puzzle." They all fall silent for a few moments.
“Right now, it’s best to concentrate on surviving. Or our efforts will be in vain. We still don’t even know if it’s feasible to travel on this ship. We need to organize a plan of action for the next two days," Petra concludes.
“I agree, Petra. Let’s sort this out and then get your beds ready," Liora replies, calmer now. "Silas, do you have any idea what to do with this ship?”
“Well, I barely had time to check the list of the devices, much less the cargo. Based on what I've observed so far, which I find impressive, I can say that this ship is a pinnacle of advanced technology and would be only slightly below what's expected of the best commercial ships being marketed today. There’s a self-repair system that could help us a lot. I intend to get it up and running tomorrow. It consumes a lot of energy, but it’ll be far more efficient than trying to fix things one at a time. Apart from that, it’s a balanced ship, a bit focused on cargo but also capable of defense and transport. On the downside, we only have local communication systems and scanning equipment, which is worse than ours. But on the upside, we have an impressive camouflage device, a very robust defense structure for its size, and two heavy military-grade weapons I’d only seen in pictures before. There's also something strange, but..." Silas says, reviewing his notes on a terminal. His face has a question mark on it.
"Some kind of problem, Silas?" Frank asks. "First the Vabala and now this ship. It seems like people here were investing heavily."
“Well spotted, Frank. The people here spent a lot of money, and there seemed to be a great deal of political interest in developing this region. Regarding the ship's technology, on the list of devices, there are four separate ones for which I don’t know what they’re for. I just checked the self-repair list, and none of these are included. I’m not sure if these devices are actually on this ship or if they were only in the original design. The only one I can identify is an optional liquid atmosphere tank. As for the others, one seems to be a weapon, another is some kind of AI, and I have no idea about the third. Anyway, tomorrow, I’ll try to activate the auto-repair system, and then I’ll focus on the camouflage.”
“OK, there's a passenger area that apparently was never used. What about fixing up our cubes there?" Petra suggests.
“Yes, the passenger area has a large lounge we all passed through to get here. But there are also two levels above; on them, there’s a restaurant with a bar,” Silas says, while Frank throws his arms up, looks upward with a smile, and moves his lips, saying, "Thank you!" Silas continues, “And on the top level, there are 12 crew and passenger rooms with exterior windows and full life support. All are still deactivated. For tonight, we’ll stay on the first level on the couches near the bridge. I need to hit the pillow."
"You gave us some really badass expectations! I haven't seen a decent bed to sleep in for billions of years, so I could wait another day," Petra says with a smile.
Liora says, “I'll stay on the bridge piloting, and I plan to look at the city’s records. I’ll try to extract some useful information and build a knowledge database from it,” The others wave goodnight and go make their beds; they are pretty exhausted from the hectic day and still haven't rested from the stress of the escape or the fight with the schrogae undead.
Despite the chaos and uncertainty, the airship carried them sailing toward the future. For now, however, they could breathe. Hope was protecting them like a cloak in the cold, eternal night of Gate, which they had now learned to enjoy a little bit.
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Name: Silas "Archon" Cade Species: Ebex XP: 30+1 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Energy Magnitude 4 Super-Resistance (ebex) Magnitude 1 Super-Technique Magnitude 10 Unknowledge (ebex) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology: Architect Magnitude 12 Natural Combined Armor (ebex) - Know it all (party) - Skills Traditional Dancing (Dex) +2 Mathematics (Int) +4 Computer Engineering (Tech) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 9167 Equipment Superior safety clothes (AC 3) Northern Valley Shielded Bracers (1 parry), resized Silas´ Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) Other 3 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube) Flight surveillance drones (1x, normal tech) Airbike, speed +4 (boosted), flight (normal tech): Following 4 Golens Aircar, perception +4 (boosted), flight (normal tech)
Schrogae 5-engine cargo airship,
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life support +4,
capacity +1/+7,
maneuver +7,
speed up +1/+7,
flight (.01c normal tech),
space flight (.5c sub-light, normal tech),
stealth +3(superior tech 1000/1000),
inertial stabilizer +4,
gravity engine +1/+7,
Energy cells battery x10 (superior tech, 10 TP charge, 100/100),
Advanced Auto-Repair (superior tech, prototype bonus+, 20/20, consume 2 TP to regen 20 HP, or make 2 rolls to repair devices except for berserker mode+)
Double-layered full armor (superior tech, AC 4, 200/200),
2x Energy positional shields (superior tech, 2 parry, 500/500),
Structures (superior tech, 1/2000 HP, 2000/2000),
2x turret 9th sentinel artillery/ranged (superior tech, 120 fixed, Art.Rng., Hit: Dex/Tech, infinite ammo, 5000/5000),
Main gun - plasma cannon 5th generation shooter x4 (superior tech, 10, Rng., Hit: Dex, infinite ammo, 6400/6400),
long-range scan +2(superior tech, 1000/1000),
short-range communicators +2(superior tech, 100/100),
*berserker mode[*non-newtonian liquid atmosphere +4 (10000/10000), *tech meld interface 4x Tech/Dex/Str/Res (160000/160000), *8th circle retro-plasma saber x4 (2d12+1, Mle., Hit: Dex, infinite ammo, 10000/10000), *Avatar AI (superior tech, all Atts+4, 90000/90000)]
Name: Liora “Stardust” Gorgath Species: Oioioi XP: 29+1 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Energy Magnitude 2 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 24 Shardify (oioioi) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology Network (oioioi) - Structural (oioioi) - Know it all (party) - Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 Informatics (Wis) +3 Streetwise (Cha) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 8612 Equipment Double-trouble (5), ranged, hit: Dex, 2TP\turn, prototype (quirk: +3 hit when shooting twice a turn) Other Secure private network nano-connector Mk1: enables connection with Mag1 safety 2 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (fuel cube, shelter cube)
Name: Petra "Warden" Somerson Species: Human XP: 28+1 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 5 Super-Strength Magnitude 1 Super-Resistance Magnitude 15 Super-Wisdom Magnitude 4 Super-Constitution Magnitude 2 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Res) +4 Shooting (Dex) +4 Military Discipline (Mor) +4 Tang Soo Do (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 5281 Equipment Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn Sci-lab jacket (AC 3), regen, prototype (quirk: AC 2 to magical defense) Northern Valley Shielded Bracers (1 parry) Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube)
Name: Frank "Firebreaker" Summers Species: Human XP: 28+1/ 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 2 Super-Mana Magnitude 1 Super-Willpower Magnitude 1 Super-Strength Magnitude 12 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 8 Super-Intelligence Magnitude 2 Super-Constitution Magnitude 1 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 Bar Politics (Int) +4 Power Drinking (Res) +4 Drunken Fighting (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 5001 Equipment Dual-ray trigger happy riffle (5), ranged, hit: Dex, 2TP\turn Ebexian Flexoclava (d12), melee, hit:Dex Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube) Vabala, complete, open Northern Valley Shielded Bracers (1 parry) 2x Northern Valley Guard Armor (AC 2) 2x Northern Valley Stun Rifle (2), hit: Dex, dam: Dex, ranged, non-lethal option, unlimited ammo 4x
Superior Technology projects People on development Silas 12 research/day People on prototyping Silas 22 research/day People on production Silas, Liora (1 copy) 23 research/day Blueprints Flexoclava Foundation melee weapon + 1x internal energy generator 20 / 20 Research Sci-lab jacket Foundation main protector + regeneration 20 / 20 Research Dual-ray trigger happy riffle Foundation ranged weapon + energy(2) 30 / 30 Research Prototype Silas´ Flexoclava Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) 20 / 20 Research Sci-lab jacket of disbelief AC:3, regenerate (quirk: AC:2 for magical defense) 20 / 20 Research Double-trouble Damage: 5, ranged, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 2TP\turn (quirk: +3 hit when shooting twice a turn) 30 / 30 Research Production Flexoclava (complete: 2x) Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn 20 / 40 Research Dual-ray trigger happy riffle (complete: 1x) Damage: 5, ranged, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 2TP\turn 30 / 30 Research