“Syd…”

  My HUD blazed to life as something struck me in the back. In moments my stamina and mana bars dropped to zero and my avatar was forced to its knees. Recounting the tale for the people around the fire so many years later, I stuttered as the similarity to my downfall struck me but I quickly regained my footing.

  Sydney backpedaled and vanished just as several arrows impacted the ground where she had been standing along with a particularly nasty ice spell.

  Without the ability to move my neck I couldn’t survey much of the area but I appeared to be at the beacon of Silver Hill, a small mining town with a population of about fifty NPCs. The structures were mostly stacked stone with thatch roofs. Nearby I could hear laughing voices and quickly spoke over the open chat channel, “They locked me down, Syd. They must have had an animist with the ritualist focus hit me with their five minute cooldown. I’m not dead so they are using me to draw you out.”

  With a few rapid adjustments I reduced my viewpoint to a small window and streamed Sydney’s into my own, “It’s up to you. If you can drop the Animist, I’ll be back with you.”

  Sydney was crouched in one of the small huts. Nearby a group of terrified NPCs was huddled against the far wall. It appeared that they couldn’t see Syd and were directing their terror toward the PvP death squad outside. Through both of our feeds I heard one of the PvP players walk up to me and laugh as he put a sword to my throat, “We got one famous streamer here. Once we round up his coat tail riding bitch of a girlfriend maybe all his viewers will come over to our stream?”

  “There is one guy near me and maybe three others? Be careful Syd, these dipshits scream stream sniper to me.”

  Sydney nodded as, sure enough, the sound of footsteps approached the little hut she was hiding in. Her weapons briefly flashed green as she vanished from her current position and appeared behind one of the approaching players. When her blades struck the man went rigid and she grabbed him, throwing him into the path of several arrows and spells.

  She drove her blade into the mage beside him, causing her to seize up and tumble against the structure. As the players screamed out her location Sydney vanished into a shadow and I watched through her interface as she chose a shadow to teleport to as far away as she could manage.

  The lithe assassin appeared amidst a group of wary players and weaved her blades in a dance of graceful destruction. One of them screamed, “Shadow Stalk…,” before he was decapitated and kicked to the ground.

  Amidst them, a female avatar wearing a skull helmet and similar bone white armor raised a staff to throw up a shield of howling blue spirits. Syd’s blades slowed in the Ghost Wall and she tried to leap away but was too slow.

  A rogue amidst the raiders managed to weave his short curved blade past her deflecting strike and opened a deep wound in her side. She spun with the force of the strike and used both her bloody blades to cut down the rogue. The skull wearing animist raised her staff to throw a blue spirit past her. The tiny ape-like creature made up of blue flames landed on the body of the first decapitated swordsman and proceeded to climb into its neckhole.

  The body burst with blue flame as it immediately rose and grabbed up its weapon. Ignoring the raised creature she charged the animist as they drew a broad black dagger to accompany their staff. As Syd brought her blade to bear another tiny spirit crawled out of the caster’s sleeve and grabbed the dagger. Clutching the blade It pulled it from the Animist’s grasp and rose on tiny wings of blue flame to deflect Syd’s strikes. The force destroyed it but another spirit grabbed the dagger out of the air as the first faded to mist.

  Nearby more of the raiders were hurrying through the tents to rush to their teammates' aid.

  Cool as ever, Syd heaved both her short blades at the caster. The first was deflected by the dagger wielding spirit. Another screeched as it dove in front of the second. The animist’s defiant smirk vanished as the assassin leaped forward and drove her knee into their stomach. Stunned she could only watch as Syd sliced her throat and removed the spell that had locked me down.

  Back at the campfire I took my draw from the bottle, and swore that the RIG conveyed a sense of fire and saccharine sweetness to my connected mind.

  “And then she and I wiped out the rest of them.”

  Mystal looked enraptured by the story, Sakurai thoughtful. Nomura’s eyes were accusatory and his lips twisted into a lopsided frown as he growled, “Wasn’t that story more about your girlfriend than you? Cheater.”

  Grinning, I winked at the mage.

  Valerie spoke up then, her expression flat and unreadable, “Why were you killing these reptilian people?”

  Nomura answered off-handedly without thinking, “Rep farming. I know the exact spot. Big guilds always had it locked down.”

  He wasn’t kidding. My guild had turned the village into a machine of reputation production and were quick to warn away any other players who thought they could encroach on our territory. My thoughts of those days vanished as I noted a growing scowl on Valerie’s face. At that moment I realized my mistake.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “You ‘farmed’,” her emphasis on the word forestalled Nomura’s words, “these creatures?”

  My shoulders slumped and I gave her a flat look as I couched my response in game friendly terms, “They were a danger to the surrounding villagers. Wiping them out regularly boosted our reputation with the locals and provided our campaign with benefits.”

  “And what would you have done if your Remnant allies demanded a similar effort against my people? We are at odds are we not?”

  Nomura tried to remedy the situation with a half-hearted response, “More the Immolated cult guys…”

  Leveling a stare at the noblewoman I rolled my shoulders with discomfort under Valerie’s molten glare, “I, and others like me would have done the same to your people. I can not deny that.”

  Her words were slightly slurred as she responded, “As I thought, your hunger isn’t the only thing that makes you parasites.”

  Mystal’s eyes were filled with concern. She looked terrified that our little coalition was falling apart or that two of the very few people she knew were going to come to blows. She whispered, “Val, please don’t…”

  Closing my eyes I chuckled and calmed myself before looking to Sakurai and Nomura, “I’m gonna log. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

  Valerie started to speak but I had already unclipped my helmet and pulled it free.

  –

  Emerging into the deep red light of the dive room I brushed my sweat matted hair back to look up at the screen where the view of my avatar showed the dancing azure flames of the campfire and a scowling Valerie in the midst of a muted tirade.

  The connectors in my suit popped one by one as I pulled myself out of the chair muttering into the open air as I stretched, “What time is it Lydia?”

  “It is five minutes to midnight, Sugar.”

  Walking past the table toward the stairs I paused to look down at the envelope there. Taking a long contemplative breath, I considered it for a long moment and sighed. Snapping it up I tapped it on my fingers before muttering, “Alright, I’m headed upstairs, Lyd.”

  “Night, Mal.”

  Trudging up the stairs and through the door to the kitchen, I spotted a sticky note on the counter. It looked like two lines of gibberish followed by a thin line and Olivia’s name. I pulled it free as I tossed the envelope onto the counter as I made my way around to the sink. I opened the cabinet and pulled out the half full bottle of whiskey there. Setting it on the counter alongside the note, I stared at the bottle before reaching for the cap.

  A sharp thump echoed from down the hall, causing me to jump. My heart thumping I stuttered, “Olivia?”

  Starting down the hall I spoke to the open air, “Lydia, is anyone else in the house?”

  There was no response.

  Gulping down panic I made my way along the empty dark hall. Seeing a red glow coming from beneath the door to my room I paused. It was the slow strobing crimson glow of the dive room. As if unable to control myself I reached out and tugged open the door. Something struck me in the back and I stumbled forward into the brilliant red light.

  As I came to my senses I staggered backward with a curse, “What the fuck?”

  This… was not my room. I was standing and looking at a strobing red light inset into a metal wall across from me. From somewhere distant a voice echoed with the tinny strangle of an intercom, “Units 9-0 through 14-6 activated in sector 2256.”

  It was Lydia’s voice.

  Beside me there was the sound of plastic scraping against metal as I saw a figure, its form indistinct and hard to make out in the darkness, pull itself free from the wall and glare down the too tight hall. It turned on its foot in a precise movement and started lock stepping down the dark tunnel, only occasionally strobed with blood red light.

  The entire world shook around me and I staggered forward thrusting out an arm to keep myself upright. A strangled cry of terror passed my lips when I saw that the arm braced against the wall… MY ARM was made of dark blue plastic plates underlain by ribbed black tubing.

  The shock was immediately interrupted as something struck me from behind and pushed me forward. The cold voice that I recognized as my long time AI commented, “Unit 13-4, your connection is closed. Are you malfunctioning?”

  Staggering down the pipe lined hallway, I glanced over my shoulder to see another figure clad in glossy black plastic plates stalking after me. Hurrying away from the towering automaton, I rushed past human sized recesses in the wall to my left. All of them were empty.

  As the red light faded again a door opened in the wall to my right and the world lurched again. The force threw me through the doorway and into a dark chamber of black steel lit by guttering white lights set into the ceiling. Losing my footing I clattered to the ground and slid through something wet. Looking down, I recoiled in horror when I saw the form of a body at my feet.

  It was laying in a black tacky pool that looked like blood. Screaming at the top of my lungs I crawled backward through the sticky fluid, throwing myself against the wall as I gasped and shook.The world shuddered again and I turned to look upward.

  The Spiral. The same my avatar had just been looking up at, loomed above me. Vast and glorious with arms like a spiral galaxy with the strobing glow at its center. Before it streaked golden lines of light. The lines of brilliant light were close, too close, to what I realized was a massive glass wall that stood between me and open space.

  As I watched one of the streaks of light, arced in and before my eyes collided with something massive and glossy black. Debris burst free from the impact and hurtled out into space in terrifying silence. Less than a second later my entire world shook again as the debris from the strike hurtled toward the glass protecting me from the vacuum of space.

  Stumbling back again, I slid down into the spreading black pool of blood. Lydia’s voice echoed distantly, “Sugar? Wake up.”

  Sitting up with a start in the deep and steady red glow of the dive room I let out a strangled shout. The connectors on my back popped in succession and I wrenched my helmet off to hang bobbing from its cables beside me.

  Trying to catch my breath, I swept my eyes over the room and grasped at the sides of the chair.