Forsaken 2027 Page 12

  They house the physical security the company added, in the old barracks. Due to the sites size they have used two different mercenary companies, each of thirty strength, to provided site security. From the documents I accessed from both mercenary companies, their men often get into fights in the nearest town, Ardersier. It has been so bad they have a rota, going into the town of different days and times.}

  "OK, we get the picture, they protect the site but the companies they use don’t get on with each other. That could be important if we need access to the place. Are you any closer to hacking Jason’s server? I would like to find out what he was working on before he disappeared." Said Cain. "I think this is something that is not urgent enough to stop us entering the PODs. Once you’ve cracked the encoding, find out what Jason was doing then let us know while we are playing Forsaken. Finding Vince is our main target," he said squeezing Toni’s hand.

  "Once we complete the game, those players unable to log off will have that as an option. The sooner we get in the game, the sooner we can finish. Is there anything else Rahab that you can tell us about the game?" Cain finished. Using the same sound system, Rahab repeated what her search found.

  [After you have created your characters you will spawn somewhere in the game zone. The likelihood of being close to each other is one in let’s say winning a darts game when blindfolded using only one dart. Why you could ask? Why, because you don’t do it. The only way to join with each other is for you both to work on some quests, get to level six. Then and only then can you use the player messaging system after that you can join as a team,] Rahab finished. Telling them what she thought was the best options for their players. Cain and Toni sat scrolling through information on their individual build choices, Toni spoke first.

  "Thank you Enoch and Rahab (turning to Cain), before we enter the game, you need to know, finding Vince is secondary to my growing relationship with you. If I have to choose between Vince or you, then Vince loses out. Even if we are close to the end and I have to make that choice, then you will be my choice. I know Vince would understand that, he would be mad at me if I choose him over you. I want to see where, what we have goes," she finished and gave Cain a huge hug. Cain returned the hug, keeping his arms around Toni he said.

  "I agreed to help you when you had issues with a faulty harness. I freed you from the situation you were in because it was the right thing to do. You asked if I could help find Vince, I agreed, not because he is your brother, but because you need this. As I got to know you over that night and day I realised I want to make you happy. If that means we find Vince, then I will help, you want to find and maybe kill Jason, I will help.

  I’ll pull the trigger, since you don’t need his death plaguing your consciousness. Should you want to retire to some desert island, then lets pack our belongings and go. I believe we have something special and I want to see if it can grow into something magical.”

  Cain’s reply made Toni cry. She wasn’t expecting him to profess his growing feelings, his love for her. Cain also wanted to see where they would end up. Repeating he would sacrifice his life for hers if it came to that.

  "What I’d like to do is pack our bags and disappear to some desert Island. We can’t, this isn’t about Vince any more, I would like to find him though. This is about all those players stuck in Forsaken, unable to leave. So let’s find Vince, free the players leave the game and Kill Jason," Toni replied. "What are you going to look like if you don’t agree to a build now? How would I know who you are? I may not like the build you choose, you could be a woman, now that would be weird," Toni added.

  Enoch and Rahab spoke to their host partners, telling them there was a hidden option in the character selection screen. Hidden in the bottom right, under the copyright logo is the mirror option for your avatar build. The mirror option uses your own body, your contours, face shape, hairstyle and body build. Cain told Toni he wouldn’t change that, saying he could not improve her body, everything about her looked fine to him. That caused Toni to blush from her chest up to her face, Cain could only tell as they had already stripped down to their underclothes and had been wearing bath robes to keep warm.

  "OK, you ready?" asked Cain.

  "Tell me again why we have to do this without wearing clothes?"Asked Toni.

  "In a normal type one or type two POD the gel used is a reactive gel. While the gel we are using is Nanogel, which John developed, remember? When I used a POD to play Stormland, I was wearing my underwear after the game, I wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  The Nanogel interacted with the fibres breaking their internal structure, their pieces dissolved and collected in the filter system. So, we get to play in our birthday suits, the Nanogel isn’t cold, you’ll be fine. Once we are in Forsaken, it will clothe us in the system gear unless we take our clothing off." Cain said.

  Cain went first and removed the bathrobe and placed it on the chair besides the POD, next his boxer joined the bathrobe. Seeing Cain remove his bathrobe Toni followed his lead, bathrobe, bra and knickers folder on her chair, she climbed in the POD. Sitting on the POD seat, shaped like recumbent bike seat, without the pedals they waited for the nanogel to fill the now encased PODs.

  Looking through the Perspex cover of the POD, the wall clock gave Cain a time reference, it was now getting close to 11:45 as he clipped on the combined breathing/feeding mask which covered his whole face. He shivered as the warm nanogel filled the POD. Once the gel reached his Neural Link connector, his interface activated. It loaded the welcome screen which stayed for a few seconds before dissolving before the character build screen appeared.

  The next screen gave Cain the option to change his gender, build and class for playing the game. Gender is easy, although if I could look like Toni, then we could make out. Nope, not happening, I’d be playing with my boobs. Male it is then, with a strong build and my class as a warrior. How do my stats look? Enoch sent Cain a copy of the system generating the final stats, not the actual screen the game provides play with.

  {Cain, the game will not show you until you choose, but I can see that your base stats are all fifteen. Let me take a screen shot to show you.} Enoch said.

  "Thank you, Enoch, can you show me what a cleric would look like. I normally play as a warrior or cleric. Can you show me the difference if I select a cleric?" Cain asked.

  "I feel I’ll be doing a lot of close up fighting, so I’ll go with the warrior build. Can you send me a table showing the warrior build, though I think I have already made up my mind. Again, thanks for the help Enoch," Cain said.

  Toni was having a similar conversation with Rahab, she decided there was no need to choose a class as she always played a ranger. Rahab provided her with a screen shot of what her option would look like.

  Rechecking the screen shots Enoch provided, Cain was certain the right build for himself was as a warrior. Hitting select, he read the screen prompt from the game server.

  Toni received similar screens as Cain, her stats on health, stamina and mana were higher than she could have hoped for.

  Cain sat waiting for his system to begin the load. He noticed a lighting of the background as his load screen built, the image filling in from the bottom, the gaming world around him flickered a mixture of colours just like it had a bad connection, before going black. Cain could do nothing, there was no virtual keyboard or mouse pointer floating over the blackness. The screen flashed a pure brilliant white then turned sky blue Cain appeared in the game.

  Noooo, he screamed, his avatar's body materialised fifty to sixty feet in the air before dropping, earthbound. A strong backdraft snatched at his partially clothed body, blowing him temporarily backwards at a great speed before he continued to fall towards the ground. Cain sped downwards, he noticed several things, almost simultaneously. One, a huge plane coming into land caused the backdraft. Two, he was at the end of an airfield runway, and three he was dropping towards a hole with a large creature in it.

  His landing was better than he could have hoped for
, not so the creature he landed upon. It was a large, dark coloured and soft-furred creature, a mix of mole and rat. It had a lamp in its left paw and a steel pickaxe in its right. Cain hit the creature hard, impacting it at the base of its thick neck. Along with his own grunt, he heard a sound like the snapping of a thick branch. His body ached, the pain from the fall was very realistic, taking his breath away, causing black spots in his vision. He lay panting, struggling to pull himself together.

  Eventually, after what felt like ages but was only a few seconds, he picked himself up from the back of the creature. Saying sorry while shaking the shoulder of he realised a dead creature. "Bugger, shit and damn, not the way to start a game. I could have killed the leader of these, furry things. Then they’ll all be after me, first chasing for a while then catching me, before finally ripping me to pieces,"Cain said. Looking at the prone face planted creature, he noticed for the first time its game tag, it read.

  Not sure I like these game tags. I’ll take a look see, after I’ve looted this body. Clicking on the creature, Cain checked its inventory. It surprised him to see someone equipped it with a Glock as a sidearm which looks like it came with unlimited ammo. Along with an old G3 rifle with six full magazines, all fastened on its battle harness. It was wearing a pair of armoured trousers and a rather tatty and dirty leather vest. In its hands, scrub that, paws, it held a lantern and steel mining tool.

  It carried in its backpack which looked like it could hold fifty items. In looking at its equipment and clothing, Cain could tell the Ratole was a miner, it had three stacks of ores. Iron (24), copper (15), tin (38). Not a bad haul of ores to start the game, do I want to be a miner though? The other items were a stack of dynamite sticks (9), a detonator box, detonator fuse reel (3) and blasting caps (26). The final items were a stack of unidentified, individually wrapped food (8), Ratole pelt (3) and finally a flask of water.

  So how does the backpack work? Enoch.

  {Anything placed in the backpack come inventory goes into a fold in space that the game creates. If you had enough spaces, you could, in theory, put everything including the Earth in your inventory, as I would place it into a fold in space. Although I don’t think you are big enough to both open your inventory and push the Earth in. ROFL } Replied Enoch.

  Laughing at Enoch’s attempt at humour Cain struggled to remove the backpack so he could have it for his own, He watched as the items dissolved from the Ratole’s inventory, becoming his. Equipping the clothing first, which shrank to fit, before the battle harness and weapons, Cain felt a little less naked. He watched as the Ratole broke into little pixels, dissolving into the ground. Cain heard two vehicles drawing close as he climbed up and out of the hole, the Ratole had dug.

  Caution was the name of the game at the moment as Cain peeked over the rim of the hole. He was correct in his assessment, two vehicles slowed to a stop, disgorging four well-armoured people. Quickly checking their game tags, he noticed they were typical NPCs. They were unnamed airport security guards, and all at lvl 5. Waving, his empty right hand, high above the hole rim, Cain shouted.

  "I’m human, not a Ratole, can I come out without you shooting at me?" The lead guard replied,

  "Sure, but keep your hands empty and where we can see them." Fastening the G3 back on the battle harness, he climbed out of the hole, looking over at three handguns pointing at him. At a hand signal from the lead guard they lowered the weapons, then he spoke.

  Choosing Sides

  The beat-up Humvee bounced across the outfield of the airport as it sped towards a control tower. The guards sat looking out of the windows in silence, even the lead guard said nothing as he drove the vehicle. Cain inspected as he recognised the control tower,

  "Hey, that’s the McCarren control tower, I recognise it as it has those nice fluted concrete sides with a stainless-steel observation control room at its top." Looking around, waiting for a response, Cain realised these NPCs were an old background non-interaction units. While the vehicle moved from the rough cut up potholed ground, an old parking area through what was once the outskirts of Paradise.

  Cain looked at the gamer tag options, scrolling through the menus available he had several choices. He selected a table style for the gamer tag, with a transparent background, so if they did pop-up in play situations he could see through them, not have his vision impaired.

  Driving onto a smooth road, under a connector road the NPCs changed. Conversation flew around the Humvee; the lead guard answered his last question.

  "Yes, sir. This is the remains of the Las Vegas Jamie Hawke international airport. The duty officers will want to speak to a new player. Like yourself, sir." Before Cain could make a reply, the Humvee squealed to a halt. They instructed Cain to go through the checkpoint and up the top of the control tower. The guards all wished him well as they sped away continuing their perimeter patrol.

  Well, that was different, the NPCs became more animated once we hit the tarmac, perhaps my point of entry should not have been there. An idea formed then he spoke to Enoch. Enoch, can you tell where I was to join the game. I dropped into the game near the end of the runway.

  As he walked up to the checkpoint, one guard held up his hand to stop him as Enoch replied.

  {Hi, Cain. According to the data stream, your player Avatar should have been asleep on the plane that came into land. All your starting equipment, is now on a carousel, waiting for collection. There is no sign of what you experienced happening on the game log files. I will take another look, but it must be a glitch that only affected you.}

  Easily passing the checkpoint, Cain followed a communicative NPC called Dave, up to the control tower elevators. He soon found out that Las Vegas was the largest community of humans left after the war, on the new west coast of the US. Los Angeles, along with all cities and towns to the left of the San Andreas fault slid into the sea, during the war. Dave swiped a card on the security reader, calling an elevator down to the ground floor. Cain thanked Dave for the information and shook his hand before entering the waiting elevator.

  The security at the top would have been impressive. Two emplaced and well-protected machine guns, covered the elevator doors, leaving no hiding places if anyone should try to storm the control tower using the elevators. But they were not manned. The officers-in-charge trusted in the team on the ground for their security.

  With nobody to meet him, Cain moved towards the sound of talking, silently releasing the clasp, his gut was screaming at him. Unhooking his G3, he pulled back the cocking lever, holding it against his leather vest to deaden the noise. Both guns armed and ready to go Cain stealthily headed towards the now raised almost shouting voices.

  Reaching the partially open door, Cain stood listening to the now shouted conversation. Dropping to a knee, he used the barrel of the G3 to open the door. It swung silently inwards, revealing three-armed men, clustered near the middle of the room, beyond them was a seated officer, behind a table.

  Scanning the player tags he noticed that the three standing in front of the desk had almost identical tag information, only their names were different. Chaz Star, Harry Star and Lewis Star.

  They were all human males with the full health of (245/245), being level 3. They wore hoodies, jeans and trainers. Only the man furthest from the door was wearing anybody armour over his clothes

  The tag for the person seated at the desk informed Cain the following.

  He was wearing an open camouflaged green jacket, over an open-necked slightly creased white shirt.

  Cain watched as one of those standing slightly behind the others slipped their left hand under the hoodie of the person on their left. While one of the standing men said, it’s time there was a change of management of the tower. Your men have taken an early break, you’re all alone up here now.

  We will offer them terms to join the new management, the Star Casino. The man to the left of the three added. Should they refuse, they’ll be joining you, on your way out. Since there is to be no offer for you to join the Star
Casino. Pulling out a handgun he moved his arm aiming towards the seated man.

  Cain decided his course of action, time to make a choice, as he raised the G3 to his shoulder, I hate bullies. Three to one is just wrong. His first shot took them all unaware, hitting the nearest of the three. His shot exited his head, blowing blood and brain matter over the man furthest from Cain’s knelt position, a small grey highlighted message popped up over the bullet impact site.

  Fatal Hit: - 245 (0/245).

  The man who was doing the talking, quickly spun towards the door, aiming at where a standing person would be, firing a shot before diving to the floor. Ha, what do you think, I’d be standing? As the round passed harmlessly above Cain’s head as he fired a three-round burst at the diving man. One hit the man on the right side of his chest but stayed in the body,

  Hit: - 48 (197/245).

  Another punched through space above his large Adam’s apple, before bursting out from the neck

  Critical Hit: - 151 (46/245).

  The third round, entered his face just below his left eye, erupting from the back of his head, spraying bone, blood and brains over the side of the desk,

  Critical Hit: - 207 (0/245).