The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) (12 page)

“Let me go,” he croaked.

* * *

The dinosaurs circled above us for a while, then took off. Still, the whole thing left an unpleasant aftertaste.

Novitsky removed his helmet and sat down on a tussock. Hugging his knees, he stared at the distance. His chin shook. His lips were glum. Apparently, the metabolytes in his body were running low. This way he might burst into tears soon or even end up with another nasty debuff of his own making.

Considering his state-of-the-art macho avatar, he was a sorry sight. Just looking at him gave you the idea of this world's ugly deceptiveness.

I had no idea what to do about it. I knew of course that they had to be freaking out right now. It took me a whole year to get used to my own neuroimplant — and I did so in the safe and familiar environment of the Crystal Sphere where you didn't have to experience anything traumatic if you didn't want to.

“We're gonna die,” Novitsky began to shake. “We're all gonna die...”

The wind died down. Ash began falling from the sky, its flakes whirling gently in the air.

“Shut up!” Vandal snapped. “It's bad enough as it is!”

He seemed to have the opposite reaction to stress. Feverish spots flecked his cheeks with red. For some reason he'd removed his gloves and was now clenching his gun in white-knuckled fingers, casting paranoid looks around. He was about to lose it. He kept babbling, swallowing half the words and generously peppering his speech with gaming slang.

Foggs didn't say anything. He kept casting occasional glances at me, as if wondering whether I really was what I was supposed to be. Actually, I expected the lieutenant to corner me with questions about my ability to highjack the ship's controls but he didn't look as if he was capable of thinking straight at the moment.

So what should I do? Vandal: too unpredictable. Novitsky: a liability. Foggs: a dark horse.

As a matter of fact, I didn't need a group. But I just couldn't get up, turn round and continue on my way leaving them behind. I might have done so — some other time in some other world. But not here, not now. Phantom Server had made me rethink a lot of things.

“Now, guys,” I decided to spit it all out. I couldn't think of a better solution right now. Pointless dragging it out. Whatever I held back now I'd have to explain later whenever I had to use my inexplicable skills and abilities. “I suggest we stick together. This is a good game even though sometimes it can be tough going, I have to agree. I didn't sign up for any of this, either. But I got used to it... over time.”

“What d'you mean, over time?” Vandal choked, staring at me. “Have you been here long, then?”

“I'm one of the alpha testers. Been here for just over three months. So I've learned a thing or two. That's why I could take over the module,” I was economical with the truth, waiting for their reactions. If they freaked out, it was their problem. I wasn't going to force anyone to join me.

Novitsky jumped to his feet, swinging toward me. “Are you an Outlaw?” he shuddered, fear and animosity in his stare. What was this now? Had they been purposefully brainwashed?

“Does it make any difference?” Foggs spoke before I had the chance to reply. “Had it not been for Zander, we'd all be locked up now in Dargian cages. He saved us all and gave us a chance to level up a bit. Personally, I think it's good enough. Novitsky, can't you see what respawning is like here? This is hardcore! We'll all have to learn to survive, I'm afraid.”

“They can't have abandoned us here!” the lieutenant screamed, hysterical. “We need to lie low and wait! The second wave will wipe the Dargians out!”

Foggs smirked. “Which second wave? Haven't you read the quest message? No one's gonna come and wipe your nose for you! As long as the Dargian space defenses work, we're stuck down here. There'll be no cavalry!”

“Are they all mad?” Vandal lost it. “With these authenticity levels we won't last twenty-four hours! They've blocked the logout!” his voice grew hoarse. “And did you see the mobs flying here? There's no magic even! How do they expect us to heal? What do they think they're doing?”

I completely agreed with the last question. I kept thinking about it myself. What a strange approach to worldbuilding. What other weird technologies they might be testing now? Was the entire beta crowd supposed to die here trying to settle down on the planet? Why would anyone need such sacrifice? Why throw your players into the grip of agony, fear, death and torturous respawns? They could have thought of creating some safe locations and resurrection points. Still, I had a funny feeling there were none.

The lieutenant's face fell. “So what do we do?”

“We think out of the box!” Foggs snapped. “What's that for their imbalance shit? The local NPCs are way above us! If we follow the script we're toast! You wanna go and check if there're any respawn points nearby free from Dargian control? Be my guest.”

“Right, so what do you suggest?”

“I suggest we play it by ear.”

This Foggs must have been a player of considerable experience. I could tell he'd already grasped the gist of our situation.

“The mission has no deadline,” he said. “First we find a suitable location with some decent mobs and use it to level up a bit. Once we're level thirty or so, we'll think what to do next.”

Vandal nodded his agreement. “Zander?” he turned to me. “What do you say? Have you been on Darg before?”

“No. Didn't get the chance. But I do know how we can get out of here. I have a quest to locate a lost exobiologist raid. I suggest we do it as a group. They had a cargo module. I think it's our best chance to get out of here. Besides, from what I know, that region,” I pointed at the thin strip of the woods on the horizon, “isn't particularly dangerous.”

“Which is why?” Foggs demanded.

“When I accepted the quest, I was level twenty. So I'm sure it should be doable.”

“Don't listen to him!” Novitsky shouted. “He's an Outlaw! He's gonna feed you to the xenomorphs!”

“Where exactly am I an Outlaw?” I snapped back. “You check my stats first before accusing me of anything.”

“But how about healing?” Foggs turned the conversation back onto a practical track. “My stimpacks are all empty.”

“You use exo,” I cautiously introduced the new word. “You can use virtually every local monster to extract some ingredient or other,” I turned to the lieutenant. “You have a scanner?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Universal standard issue.”

“Then it'll be your job to analyze all the critters we meet. I'll forward you all the metabolyte databases in a minute. So?” I looked them over. “Are we doing it? Or are we all going our separate ways?”

“Let's make a group,” Vandal agreed easily — instinctively almost. Psychologically it must have been very important for him to regain the traditional gaming atmosphere. “Who's gonna tank?”

Foggs looked up at me. “Zander? Will you do it?”

This was an important decision indeed. Not many would agree to face the local mobs' attack at these authenticity levels. Our gear was more or less equal, but my abilities were sure to generate more aggro. If I took Vandal's pulse assault rifle, all the local mobs would be drawn toward me like moths to light.

I decided not to argue. He was probably right. “I could, I suppose.”

I sent them invitations to join the group but not before I checked how Ingmud's quest would look in their interfaces.

The quest chain hadn't changed. Not a word about the artifact. Perfect.

Vandal and Foggs joined without hesitation. Novitsky paused. Still, he apparently wasn't looking forward to going solo. With an unkind glare in my direction, he accepted my invite.

I waited for them to finish reading the first two steps in the quest chain, then answered their questions about Ingmud by saying that he was a hybrid character that was part of the latest update.

“Now you two,” I turned to Foggs and Vandal, “you'll be our damagers. Your pulse guns aren't that powerful so I don't think you risk aggroing anything. Whatever skill points you receive, I want you to invest them in Combat Skills. You,” I turned to Novitsky, “I want you to keep scanning plants. Scanning them and scanning them until you get the Exobiology skill.”

He startled. “Why Exobiology?”

“Because the quest raid just might have been wiped out already! What kind of a noob question is that? In order to survive, we will need metabolytes. And to do that, we must have an exobiologist in the group. Am I clear?”

He didn't look as if he was happy with the part given to him. Still, he didn't argue. I bet he held a grudge but that was his problem.

“Feeling better? Then get up and let's get going,” I nodded at the forest darkening in the distance. “It's no good us sticking out here like a sore thumb. We might cover a few miles before dark. But first, we're gonna pool all the stimpacks, batteries and life support cartridges.”

Vandal and Foggs didn't look surprised. Novitsky, however, put his foot down. “You're not getting my metabolytes! I need them myself!”

“I’ve had enough!” Foggs snapped. “Zander, just kick him out of the group! Let him find his own way!”

“No, guys,” Novitsky turned pale, “surely you're better than that!”

Suddenly Vandal grinned. His eyes filled with fury. “We are. But you,” he raised his gun, “you just might be not good enough. Should I send you to your respawn point, maybe? I'm sort of not used to walking around with an empty PK counter!”

Instinctively Novitsky recoiled, retracting his head into his shoulders. His name tag blinked and turned gray. When it reappeared, the word
Lieutenant
was gone. The game engine must have reevaluated his stats and removed the rank, turning him into a regular level-12 soldier.

I decided to interfere. “Vandal, it's no good us aggroing each other.”

Reluctantly he lowered his gun. “I tell you Novitsky, you'd better quit your nonsense. Empty your inventory now.”

* * *

It didn't take us long to share our stuff. I got the lion's share of all metabolytes which was only fair. We didn't have a healer so I had to take care of myself. Vandal and Foggs took all the pulse clips and micro nuclear batteries. They had to smoke potential enemies wisely,
with many strokes though with a little axe
, whoever had said that.

Novitsky got some batteries for his pressure suit, two pulse handguns and a stimpack.

“Just keep scanning the grass,” Vandal told him once he cooled down a bit. “Life will feel so much better when you have the skill. You might even start bossing me around, Mister Exobiologist.”

His grin was still more like a scowl but at least his glare softened.

The weather was changing fast. Low heavy clouds enveloped the sky. A gust of hot wind brought the disturbing scent of faraway fires.

I forwarded my group the updated maps of the area. To get to the forest, we had to cover about five miles of flat terrain overgrown with tall purple grass. Then we had to go deep into the forest and look for the cargo module's crash site. There were three open areas in the forest suitable for landing, all of them labeled with a question mark. The location which, according to Ingmud, had been his daughter's objective seemed to be situated on a tall hill slightly off the route that I'd mapped out.

Foggs chuckled. “Can't we just go directly to the raid's objective?”

Was he trying to double-check me? “It would be more logical to find their ship first,” I said. “I'm pretty sure they set up camp in the forest somewhere, not far from their landing site.”

“And what's on the hill?”

“Some kind of ruins,” I faked indifference. “I really don't know.”

It was pointless telling them too much about our next potential step in the quest chain. If Kathryn already had the artifact (and I had little doubt she did), then there was no point leading my group members into temptation. How much did I know about them, really? The potential value of this supposedly unique Founders' device could push these newbs to do something they might later regret.

Foggs didn't insist but changed the subject instead. “Listen Zander, what's with all this conspiracy of silence around Phantom Server? There're no guidebooks, no manuals, no forums, nothing. All that the tutorial zone had to offer was a gear guide. Plus this Wiki article about the world's history,” he kept walking, limping slightly and casting wary glances around. “Basically, just an introduction into the Founders' history plus a few words about their civilization and the Dargians. There were also a couple of pages about the fate of the First Colonial Fleet and Argus station. But nothing about character development. I'm a soldier and it looks like I'm stuck in this rank for quite a while. I'd like to know if there're any alternatives. You've just told Novitsky how he can level Exobiology. Wonder if you have a tip for me too?”

This guy was smart. Still, he wouldn't like my answer. “It all depends on your mind expander. What model do you have?”

Foggs shrugged. “A basic Neuron. Standard issue.”

“That's not good.”

“Why?”

“Because it only works via your gear sensors. Imagine you have to do some repairs. You'll have to change your regular combat suit to a Mechanic's one.”