Contingency, p.1
Contingency, page 1
Star Divers
Contingency
Stephen Landry
Copyright © Stephen Landry 2020
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No affiliation is implied or intended to any organisation or recognisable body mentioned within.
Published by Level Up in the United Kingdom in 2020
Cover by Stephen Landry
ISBN: 978-1-83919-088-9
www.levelup.pub
FOR BRIAN
My brother and best friend. Thank you for letting me stay up late to watch sci-fi and horror movies with you. Don’t worry I won’t tell Mom.
Mom if you are reading this, none of that happened. I love you.
Incident Report: Case File 002
‘Created by a player, the Hive copies the consciousness of those it fires upon. That is why it looks like who it does to us: it shows us who it believes we want to see. The first shot locks a player in-game for half an hour and makes a copy of their consciousness. The second shot from the gun kills the player allowing the exchange of information to become permanent, severing the link at the source and storing information, that’s why all this…’
The Hive was an NPC, a companion, born before Bane became the game it is now. It was an early artificial intelligence whose learning was based on the players it copied. It developed by sharing data and continued to grow, eventually adapting to the pod’s neural interface and the sharing of human memories. It was someone else, someone lost on the fringes of the game and at the same time lost in the real. They made for it the gun that killed players, the MEK rifle. They showed it what it could have. They gave it purpose. The Hive – whom we called Skull-Faced Man – it was an echo, an artifact, was all that was left after the original player it had befriended had died: or so we believed. Their memories drove it forward as it worked to capture more souls. Souls copied over to the game forever. The Hive, conflicted by the same memories of those it had swallowed. We barely defeated it when it came for us.
Turning our attention to At Eternity, the world gate, only after. We were searching to uncover the secrets of Bane.
By the time we found out the truth it was already too late.
Timeline (real world)
– 2025 –
The first success of the Avatar program lasts 15 seconds.
– 2030 –
The ocean rises by exactly ten inches.
– 2040 –
The first AI is created.
– 2044 –
The military begins using full-immersion VR to train combat-ready soldiers. Rumors of Time Dilation, Mind Control, and Uploading start trending online as the first pod is created and the human brain is mapped in extreme detail.
– 2048 –
The first fully immersive fantasy VR world is created.
Re-upload is attempted and failed.
– 2050 –
The Resource Wars begin.
– 2052 –
Gorge, Trace, and several others enlist.
– 2054 –
The Resource Wars end as several economies collapse. Dozens of corporate entities begin picking up the pieces.
– 2057 –
The climate takes a turn for the worse. Ocean levels rise, forcing people from all over the world to begin to move inland. Humanity becomes more focused on renewable energies, such as solar and wind power, as well as technology as a whole, to envision a positive future for humanity.
Red Algae blooms lead to a respiratory infection known as the ‘Red’ that starts to become widespread.
VR Worlds become more popular as people attempt to escape the real world. Development of Bane begins under the codename Starlight.
– 2058 –
The Raft is created by tying together dozens of barges. It starts with a population in the low 100,000s and grows with each new addition. The Raft declares itself a ‘Free Nation’. Countries throughout the world continue to close their borders as they re-organize themselves into various new regions and zones. The Raft thrives for several years with communities focusing on unity, DIY farming and fishing, and strong community. After several years, however, the Raft falls into a state of decay dependent on corporations to keep it from sinking.
–2059 –
Fera Space is founded in the Hollywood Economic Zone.
– 2060 –
New England becomes the New England Recovery Zone.
The Fantasy VR game Stormcaller is released.
– 2061 –
Gorge loses his limbs on a rescue mission into the European Excavation Area.
– 2062 –
Gorge begins using a pod and exploring the many VR worlds.
– 2065 –
Dozens of corporations vie for control of the VR worlds. Keen Industries rises to the top offering jobs and housing to players as streaming becomes a popular eSport viewed by millions.
The Red runs rampant on the Raft and the nation makes a deal with Fera Space that allows them to use the Raft for ‘special projects’.
The first hover cycles are created in mass production. Cars are required to use solar power.
A habitable world is discovered.
–2069 –
Bane goes online.
Gorge and Trace start playing.
The Battle of the Blight occurs, the first and largest ever land, space, and air raid with more than one million players online. The source code for Bane is leaked into the cloud. No one company controls the development of the world of Bane. Pods quickly become more and more popular.
– 2070 –
Bane becomes the first Free to Play VR world.
Later that year Bane becomes a part of ‘the cloud’ and the first always online VR world that can’t be shut down.
Talves starts playing.
Damien, Scrawl, Kira, Cass, start playing.
Silvermanes, Crimson Kings, and dozens of other guilds are established.
– 2071 –
Moonrain Media established.
The Battle of Vel is followed by the larger Battle of Broken Dreams.
The Tongrave Alliance is formed.
The Harbinger titan experiment is a failure.
A black market opens up on The Spire.
Gorge opens the Upsilon.
Lady Gray starts playing.
Aiden, Brand, Kiro, Pierce, and Eli start playing.
Lady Gray hits level 50 and creates the Corpse Divers.
Club Kaiju opens up IRL and In-Game.
– 2072 –
Battle of the Eternal Day
Assault on Cthonia
Operation Siege Engine and dozens of smaller battles / raids occur.
Lady Gray becomes the first player to hit level 80.
Breq starts playing.
– 2073 –
The first official Winter Festival is held.
– Burst and Bloom
– Unbound
– 2074 –
Hannah and Chaz start playing.
The events of Dungeons of Bane
Timeline (Bane)
Early Twenty-First Century
Humanity overcome their differences and unite together in an effort to prevent collapse and begin looking towards the stars as the Earth becomes more and more affected by climate change.
It is an era inspired by Art Nouveau and advancing technology.
– 2077 –
Humanity discovers a world gate at the edge of the solar system.
– Late Twenty-First Century –
The first colonists travel through the gate and become trapped.
– 1 AE –
They believe that while inside the gate the malfunction caused them to be trapped for over thirty-thousand years.
The Earth is lost.
Given that no ships followed the colonists it is believed that the Earth has fallen into ruin.
The world gate At Eternity is blown apart by terrorists.
The Age of Discovery begins.
The colonists locate the Spire. The Chel share with them their advanced technology.
– 4 AE –
War breaks out between colonists who want to venture back to Earth the long way, Spire loyalists, and humans looking to explore space. Mass production of ships begins as war breaks. Refugees looking to escape war flee the Spire.
– 5 AE –
Remnants of humanity form a fleet venturing back to Earth. One of these remnant ships becomes derelict and begins floating on a collision course to the planet Rem.
– 10 AE –
Quadrants 1-30 are mapped. (Starting Zones for players)
– 15 AE –
Starlight Academy is founded. The mission of its cohorts is to explore and protect the quadrants from raiders and other threats. The first Ki-Rifles are created as humanity begins to learn about Mana.
– 20 AE –
Colonists encounter their first ‘Dungeon World’ and in response the first mechs become mobilized to combat dange
– 21–100 AE –
Age of Rebellion
The exact location of Earth is lost.
A long war breaks out between Spire loyalists and Raiders. Colonies are built and purged throughout Quadrants 10-30. Raiders are eventually pushed back to Quadrants 30+.
Terminus is established as a safe zone.
– 120 AE –
The starship Adept is created.
– 122 AE –
Erim begins a 22-year journey across the Quadrants in an exotic ship discovered buried on Terminus.
– 130 AE –
The Spire loyalists decide to call themselves Remnants of humanity.
An elite guard is created. Special classes are created.
The raiders take on various guild names as no one faction is able to control quadrants 40+
– 133 AE –
The first Psion is born.
– 135 AE –
The first Psion is kidnapped by Raiders. A second war breaks out between the Remnants and Raiders.
– 160 AE –
The first Psion visits the Spire and creates the first guardian.
– 161 AE –
The first Psion disappears into the Spire.
It is rumored that they opened a doorway to another realm.
– 161 – 299 AE –
The first recorded sighting of a Hollow occurs.
The Spire protected by the guardians becomes the only safe zone in the galaxy besides Terminus (training area).
An uneasy balance between the Remnants of humanity and Raiders continues as new guilds come and go. None of the battles have more than a few hundred parties involved.
Colonies continue to rise and fall. None larger than a few thousand people.
Pleasure worlds are created in the safer quadrants.
Remnants successfully map out 76 Quadrants of space, much of it still unexplored.
– 300 AE –
The first player enters Bane.
The Battle of the Blight occurs. It is the largest battle between Remnants and Raiders in over a hundred years.
Battle of Vel followed by the larger Battle of Broken Dreams.
The Tongrave Alliance is formed.
The Dark Affinity is formed.
The Harbinger titan experiment is a failure.
The Black Market on The Spire opens up.
The Corpse Divers are formed by Lady Gray.
Battle of the Eternal Day
Assault on Cthonia
Operation Siege Engine and dozens of smaller battles / raids occur.
Bane becomes home to millions of players as a new age of discovery begins.
The first Winter Festival is held.
– 304 AE –
The events of Dungeons of Bane
Prologue
Incident report: case 004
Lady Gray, real name Alexis, is a thirteen-year-old prodigy. A pro gamer since she was six years old. She built a pod with her father when she was seven. She is standing, arms crossed, on the bridge of the Ibanez. Her short hair is just long enough that as the air circulates around the control room it looks like it is blowing in the wind. Her battle armor, a rare find, is barely holding at 40%. Ki-rifle in hand, she focuses her essence into a wave of energy and fires into the open corridor until her battery is empty and her HP start to drain away. Hollows, ghosts of the dead, are emerging from the darkness. She has no idea how many, only that there is no way she can stop them.
Her HP drop again. It is the cost of wielding such a high-level weapon. She can feel her chest tighten. Her heart is beating faster and faster. The Ibanez, her starship, her home, is floating in the wide expanse that is the void of space somewhere just beyond a broken gate. Her is face covered in grease. She has temporarily rigged a control panel that has blown open, fabricating the parts from scrap and duct tape.
Choking on ash, she gasps for air. She knows her ship will never be the same. Nothing will be the same. It is a massacre. She can see the empty shells and husks of what she hopes are NPCs floating in space. The killing that won’t stop. Her guild, fighting to the last man and woman. Dying. Their screams, not so different from the monsters she herself has spent her life fighting, wash over her in waves. A melody of death. She is tired. Every movement is more exhausting than the last. Her stamina is nearing zero and she is pushing her limits as a tech-mage. She tells herself she has to be brave. She is in hostile territory; her ship ia broken to pieces; her guild is scavenging for resources to fix it before it falls apart, losing a battle that will mean the end of the world.
All the voices.
All screaming.
All around her. She wants to give up.
This has to end.
But…There is no more logging out. No more ‘just a game’.
‘Gray, we must get to the escape pods,’ one of the voices cried out.
She recognizes it above the others and nods, knowing they have lost the upper hand. A tear falls down from her eye. It is too hard for her speak.
She isn’t used to losing, especially like this.
And still…She can’t turn away from the slaughter.
It feels wrong. She had led them here. All of them. She tells herself she should bear witness. She tells herself she was responsible for it all.
‘I have to see this through,’ she says in almost a whisper.
‘We must fall back’ the voice cries out again.
‘The enemy will be here soon,’ she says, unable to move.
‘We must fall back,’ the voice continues. ‘We could have made a home here. This could have been paradise.’
Lady Gray stops listening to him. She doesn’t want to hear anymore. No more talk of guilds, of players, of levels. No more talk of war. She stares out into space. She imagines a star in the distance. She imagines standing on Earth, in the middle of a valley filled with snow. She imagines the night coming and how if she were caught in it she would not survive. ‘I know,’ she says, turning back towards the snow. The dust. She can’t tell if it is snow or ash that falls in the air. She knows deep down that it is neither. The battle around her seems muted.
She wishes she could have done more. Done some things differently.
‘Please Alexis…’ it feels like forever since she heard that name.
‘They came only to follow us…to follow me.’ She tries desperately to forget what it was that brought them here. ‘Can you hold the ship?’ she asks.
‘I can’t. I’m sorry,’ the voice answers.
‘I understand,’ she says.
‘So, this is it?’ the voice asks.
Lady Gray stands there in silence. The wall of screams seem to disappear.
She reloads her rifle with all the ammunition she has left. A half-broken battery.
She imagines the moon filling the sky as the cold grasps her skin.
‘Burn them all,’ she orders.
‘I can’t,’ the voice cries.
She looks at the strange figure to whom the voice belongs and smiles. ‘I know.’
‘I can,’ she whispers waking herself from her vision. The snow-covered Earth; the stars; the moon; it all disappears, and she is back inside the Ibanez…The odds are against her. Outnumbered 5 to 1. About 650 members of her guild are active. She tries one last time to send a message to the enemy. She tries again to tell them this isn’t just a game anymore and that their lives and everyone else’s are at risk. She has already sent over a hundred messages warning them THIS IS REAL.
‘How many of them are there?’ she asks firing at yet another Hollow. Her HP drop: just another 30 points left.
‘Three thousand two hundred and seventy-one,’ the figure next to her answers. It is too many.
How can she, a thirteen-year-old-girl, pull the trigger? It isn’t fair but then nothing in Bane ever is.
Year 2070
1.
Talves
‘Access’
Checking for necessary update files…
Initializing…
Player environment meets necessary requirements.
Retina scan / Identity confirmed.
Dive 100%
Loading player data…
Name: Talves
Age: 15
Level: 1
Status: Alive
Mana: 100
Class: None
Stamina: 100
Load Out: None
