Spacebound Chronicles

Chapter 26: Winter

Since Tony had caused the Evergreen project to be nigh entirely rebooted, not only had they received reinforcements from other areas of the company, but every single person involved was taking work home. That Friday, not even Tony had gone to the happy hour, and Scott had to call off his weekend trip to see Carol.

None of that stopped Scott from procrastinating on Saturday night, however. That night was too important for work. While a folder filled with due Evergreen submissions rotted inside his laptop, Scott incarnated Logan Spacebound.

Back where it all began.

Surrounded by tall turquoise grass under an impeccable night sky, Logan awaited the three mysterious figures slowly approaching from the imposing construct of Shay’s Fortress. The dark castle where he had first seen the Chimeras, the starting point of the series of misfortunes that had outlined the last few months of Fantasy Stars’ universe and Scott’s own real life.

His ship, the Jumper, named per Carol’s suggestion and his love for pop culture references, was settled on the same spot as the lonely ship he saw through Snorri’s eyes long ago. The ship that, he now assumed, belonged to the late Meron Trius.

“Greetings,” Logan said once the three figures appeared.

The first was a human woman with an automatic laser rifle and a balaclava that only revealed her deep jade gaze. She was followed by a huge red-furred Rajaptor with a sledgehammer, who just scoffed as he boarded the ship. The last member of the crew was a Ryat, the six eyed species that according to lore fought for Shay on the long forgotten past and had an affinity for Dark Matter manipulation.

None of them greeted him back.

He followed his guests inside, and seconds later the Jumper departed, headed for Megafleet.

Each of the four took a seat in the cockpit, Logan on the helm.

“So, you’ve all been Chimeras for long?” Logan asked as they crossed lightyears of nothing, a purple vortex enveloping the ship beyond the viewports.

“If we were, we wouldn’t be sent on a suicide mission,” the Rajaptor grunted. “I liked this plan more when it was Meron sneaking us in there, and I already hated that plan back then.”

“Don’t be so negative,” the woman said, her voice muffled by the gray camouflaged balaclava. “If we go down, we go down in history. The first party to attempt the Megafleet raid!”

“It’s an official raid?” Logan asked. “Like raid raid?”

“Have you ever been on an Elite Raid before?” the Rajaptor asked. Why? What had Logan said to make him ask that?

“Erm… I actually joined the T-500 three days ago,” Logan admitted.

“MOTHER OF… s**t!” the brutish alien punched the wall.

“Hey, watch it!” Logan looked over his shoulder to the Rajaptor passenger. “The ship is brand new!”

“Of course it is brand new, you got it three days ago!” the woman remarked. “We are all going to die.”

“Hey, we are not going to die!” Logan screamed.

“What level are you again?” the woman asked.

“I’m… about to reach level 100.”

“Yep,” she replied calmly, “we are all going to die.”

“Stop saying that!” Logan ordered. “Now why don’t you tell me more about Elite Raids?”

The woman sighed, then explained:

“Not the best way to spend my last moments alive, but what the hell. They’re raids that result from a revolutionary player feat and contain a reward so massive or unique that it can only be complete once. Ever. If you try and fail, the game updates the raid defenses according to your performance.”

“For others, because you can’t try again so soon,” the Rajaptor murmured. “Elite Raids are exclusive T-500 content, and they’re always permadeath areas.”

“Do you know what’s so important about this thing we’re after?” Logan asked.

“I know it’s called Dark Matter Heart,” the woman spoke, “I know it powers and fuels all of Megafleet and the ships that doc there, and I know it used to be the core of a blackhole. What the guys upstairs want with it? Not a clue.”

“But whatever it is, if we do steal it…” the Rajaptor laughed. “The Solar League will be pissed, and we will be very rich and very famous.”

They flew silently a little while longer. Logan reflected on the things about to unfold, about the results of failure or success. He could not tell which he feared most. There was still an inherit shame in betraying the League and his guildmates. There was an even greater feeling of dishonor in betraying Snorri. Joey.

But Joey had wasted no time betraying him, berating him the second he opened up and told him the truth. The thoughts only felt truly disturbing when they started including the possibility of them running into each other during this operation.

“We need callsigns,” the woman broke the silence. “I’m not telling you my name.”

“We are four,” Logan pointed out. “How about… seasons?”

“It works. I’m Summer,” the woman said.

“Fall,” the Rajaptor claimed.

“Then I’ll be Winter,” Logan chose.

Lastly, they all turned to the Ryat, who had not said a word so far. He just shrugged, not bothering to voice the last available option.

“Right, so six-eyes is Spring,” Fall said.

“We’re almost there,” Logan said, then pulled a necklace from his pocket. It was a simple silver chain with a Dark Matter Diamond hanging from it.

“That mine?” Fall asked.

“No,” Logan replied while hanging the necklace on a hook on the ceiling above his chair. “This is yours,” he tossed another dark crystal over his shoulder, this one unchained, and Fall grabbed it midair.

Suddenly, the violet vortex outside faded to reveal the splendor of Megafleet and all its organized warships flying around a conglomerate of attached space stations and heavy cruisers.

“See that big space station over there?” Logan pointed at the largest structure on the agglomeration. “The Heart will be in its very core.”

“Yeah…” Summer said, standing up and peeking over Logan’s shoulder. “We are all going to die.”

***

Logan docked the ship, but before that he had to identify himself as the SLV Jumper, flying for the Katana guild of the Solar League. That was when he suddenly understood what purpose the Chimeras originally had for The Glimmer’s flight computer before Snorri snatched it from their hands after the Maze.

Then, concealed by visual stealth belts—which Logan learned where fueled by the excrements of Rainbow Slugs, the creature him and Jude had once escorted through the beach long ago—Summer and Fall left the Jumper. Once they were onboard Megafleet, the Jumper took off again.

Every member of the party timed five minutes, during which Fall and Summer wandered around the Commercial Ward of Megafleet, blending in with the universe of customers looking for bargains. When the timer ran out, they bumped into each other.

“Hey!” Summer, no longer wearing her balaclava, yelled a few seconds after they collided, stealing the attention of all passers-by and regional shopkeepers. “That furball stole my plasma-knife!”

Within seconds, level 250 security robots had overpowered Fall with their electric batons and returned the pickpocketed weapon to her rightful owner. Summer thanked the robots with an innocent smile, then vanished into the crowd as the robots dragged the Rajaptor away.

“Robbery in Megafleet is punishable by three hours of seclusion,” the robots repeated along the way to the Security Ward.

“Your belongings will be returned to you upon departure,” another robot—or was it still the same?—explained as it confiscated Fall’s Sledgehammer, stealth belt and the tiny Black Matter Diamond. While two robots dragged Fall to a cell, another one took the items to another location.

Another five carefully timed minutes later, the Jumper, drifted over the Security Ward of Megafleet.

“Still too far,” Logan mumbled, mostly to himself given how the silent six-eyed alien was the only other being present. “There! We’ve got reach!”

Logan then stood up, glimpsing one last time the dark crystal hanging above his seat. Before he left, he pulled the gem and kissed it for good luck, then turned to Spring:

“Okay, I’m going in. When you’re bringing the ship around, just press the green button to play my identification record,” Logan instructed the alien, who now took the pilot’s position. “Got it?”

Spring nodded.

“Okay. See you soon!”

With that Logan was gone from the Jumper in a dark vortex. Less than a second later, the Dark Matter Diamond among Fall’s confiscated property turned into Logan, who immediately saw a permadeath warning flash before his eyes. Fortunately, the evidence room was empty, so the largest unknown in the first phase of the heist had been dealt with. He only needed a few seconds to find Fall’s Sledgehammer and the stealth belt.

The hammer was way heavier than any weapons Logan was used to, especially considering how most of the time he just used his ever-upgrading palm canon for ranged attacks and his iron fist for melee. The sledgehammer’s weight, in fact, considerably slowed him down.

On the other hand, the stealth belt came in handy while navigating the holding area. Between extremely loud guard robots, a belt that made him nearly invisible, Snorri’s stealth training and a sackful of teleportation crystals, Logan never got close to being caught red handed.

Until he was.

While searching for Fall’s cell, he stopped before a barred door behind which a skinny red alien with huge gobbling ears jumped back and forth within his cell. Logan had given in to curiosity and knelt to check the information on the terminal beside the doors.

“Playing under influence; disturbing behavior; public property damage. Seclusion until condition stabilizes.”

The two red arms and a melody of crazed screams launched out the bars, startling Logan into falling on his back. Before he could get up, a guard robot had turned the corner and spotted him.

Logan started running down the hall, the guard closing in. Normally, he would have had no problem outrunning the machine, but the sledgehammer hanging on his shoulders was too heavy. He was about to drop the weapon, when two hairy arms stuck out of a nearby cell door and yanked the it from his grip.

As soon as the guard-bot ran past that specific cell, the massive weapon struck it down with an earsplitting clang. Walking over to the mangled metallic remains, Logan collected a mental chip and used it to free the Rajaptor brute who had just been reunited with his weapon.

Logan was already unbuckling the stealth belt to give it to the less subtle member of the party, but Fall stopped him halfway.

“You keep it. In here the bots aren’t as OP as out there, but they’re still too much for your level 99 ass,” the hairy brute said.

“Actually, I just reached 100,” Logan said. Still, he would gladly keep the belt.

“Besides, I have all I need!” Fall showed the entirety of his glinting fangs with an evil smile as he caressed the sledgehammer. “Come on now, Winter. Let’s go get the others.

“This is where the fun begins!”