Ceo
23:25 Hours CST,
August 3rd, 2133
‘I never expected the spell to be that powerful, nor did I expect it to cause damage to all players in its blast radius.’ I thought, simply staring at the menu in front of me.
Beneath me was an aerial view of the Vost Dor side of the map Palisade. It was empty, but slowly filling up with movement on the ground as people respawned in.
The games menu was simple to say the least, a selection of 3 classes was available, Infantry, Vehicles, and Specialists. At the top right corner of the tablet-like menu was a button that would send me to an external menu. I had over 3000 points left, so I pressed the “specialist” button and a submenu opened to the right of the main options, there were Officer, Medic, Engineer, Flamethrower, and Stormtrooper.
I pressed Officer, and then the deploy button, darkness briefly surrounded me and I was in a trench on the Vost Dor side.
Quickly taking a look around I saw other players were spawning in, the entire place was a mess, items that effectively wasn’t bolted down were scattered amongst the entire Vost Dor side of the map. Kyntari and Noxu bodies were piled up against the larger manned pillboxes, several Behemoths were on their side, one of the tracks in the trench line. Snow began to once more fall on the map, and as such slowly covered the dead and destruction that this place experienced.
Not wanting to stand around doing nothing, I headed to the bunker the officers used 20 minutes earlier. The one used to plan out the disastrous attempt at ending the stalemate with a nuclear bomb or a pseudo magical nuclear bomb, the irony was no flag was taken or moved. Everyone just died, what a weird spell to award someone.
I thought it would be more like a moab than anything else but nope it was a full on nuclear bomb.
Moving through the body riddled trenches I quickly arrived at the Main bunker, which guarded the final flag. It was built inside the hill, a reinforced concrete rebar wall protruded out from the side of the hill, several large holes were cut out from the wall facing towards the Broken Wall, several HMGs and field gun barrels were pointing out of these holes.
I went up to the side of the hill towards one of the side entrances, there I was met with an open steel door. On the inside was a long hallway, lit up by incandescent light. Another open steel door separated the entrance of the bunker from the main hallway, to the left of me was another steel door, which only led to several flights of stairs that led to a complex web of tunnels that led to other bunkers.
I entered the long hallway, after walking a dozen feet, to the left of me was a simple wooden door, on the other side of the door I was met with a relatively large room which can hold 11 people standing. There was a desk at the front of the room, with several drawers, and an empty rifle rack next to it. The desk, drawers, and rifle rack all came from my external inventory that I had designed myself. A bit of flare if you would say.
At the back of the War Room, was a wall with a simple wooden door. That was Colonel''s Quarters, which at the moment was my room, the wall and everything that was in it also came from my external inventory.
Everything was covered in a layer of dust, the game Pordier at War was well known for its extremely detailed background. Very little of which was scripted, and mostly from the physics engine, which probably contributed to why they are declaring bankruptcy.
Focusing in the top right corner of my vision, the time was currently 23:29 pretty soon a game wide announcement will occur.
Moments later a message appeared in front of me, “Game Shut Down in 30 minutes.”
I made my way out of the bunker intorear trenchline. The Chat log was in a sense going crazy, on both sides many called for a cease fire for the last 30 minutes of the game till shut down, which in game is around a day and a half.
I agreed with their sentiment, and brought out my clipboard.
“Cease fire, don''t shoot unless shot at first.” I quickly wrote out on my clipboard. Sending out the message, morse code went off and if you knew it which I actually did, sounded like what was written. A wall of text appeared in the sky.
Everybody stopped what they were doing and quickly read the message, followed by cheering.
From what I could see, some were leaving for no man’s land for what I had to guess was to remove mines so it’s safe to cross or to the other side to interact. Some went to repair artillery batteries even though they would be deleted in thirty minutes, others simply explored the map, the other side probably did the same.
Soccer was played, aiming competitions were held, boxing matches occurred. A lot of things actually happened, sometimes distant explosions could be heard followed by the kill feed adding a new casualty to the list.
I was currently sitting in a recently repaired trench in no man’s land with a dozen other players.
“Wait, you''re from Japan? How did you get past that firewall that separates East Asia from America?” Someone asked, there was a yellow armband with the rank insignia of a lieutenant.
The person who was asked that question was on the Noxuia side, “I use-“ before the foreign player could finish he was interrupted by the person from before.
“You know what don’t tell me I heard they record everything and use it to black mail people. Best to keep it a secret.” The Lieutenant said.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked.
“Sure, go ahead.” The Japanese person said robotically, clearly the work of a translation software on the Japanese players’ end.
“I’ve only heard rumors and bits of information so I’m not exactly sure what happened since the last war ended. But has there been a notable difference in living conditions since then? From what I know the tariffs and embargoes initiated by the Miguel Administration devastated the East Asian Economy, especially Japan, which to my knowledge destroyed any good will the two nations had.” I asked.
“The last war? Between Japan and America?” The player asked.
“Yeah in the last ten years at least.”
“At the time I was only around 4 at the time. So I didn’t keep track of anything, but to my knowledge and from what my parents said about the past, but things were initially hard. Food was expensive, energy was still cheap and to my knowledge when the government defaulted, then suddenly everything became expensive. I remember overhearing my parents worrying about money whenever I went to bed at night, and my dad started to come home later, then my mother started to come home late from work. Even after I came home from school, they started to leave before I went to school. Eventually my father died from over exhaustion, and a few years later my mother. So I would say from bad to worse.” The player said.
”I’m sorry for your loss, thank you for telling me though.“
“It’s alright, I am just one of thousands of orphans forced to pick up a job to get by. I would like to ask how life has been for you in America?”
“Me?” I sighed, “I was actually born on Venus, descended from one of the first American colonists on the planet. Which is why I am curious about this stuff. For some context on Venus we don’t really have a capitalist economy where a currency is used internally, instead we essentially scratch each other''s backs. Life hasn’t been all that harsh, but simply filled with issues I was expected to know how to identify and, later deal with, but it never got bad enough where I lost both of my parents to overexhaustion, most of my family tree from Venus is intact.” I said.
”Then life on Venus must be good? At least way better than Japan?” The kid asked.
“From what I hear from you, yes by a long shot Venus is better.” I answered, we sat in silence for a few moments, the clock was 10 till midnight.
Someone broke the silence after a minute, who was a Rank Private who was looking at an external screen, “From what I am reading here Japan did have offworld colonies, though there has been no news on them. Colonel, do you know what happened to them? From what I can tell the Space Agency and Offworld Colony Agency have been pretty quiet about it.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I grimaced a bit, I had to be a little careful with what I say due to my position as Secretary of the Space Agency. “Japan did have several offworld colonies, they used to have a section dedicated to their colonists from when my home was a simple airship back in the 90’s. Though that was a minor addition to the colony that assimilated within a generation. Though there was a big story about a decade ago that the Japanese attempted to start their own colony on Venus.”
This caught the attention of the Japanese kid “Really, just around the time that the government defaulted on its debts.”
“Or right after the corporations took over.” I added.
“You said they attempted to establish a Colony. What happened to them whoever was in the Colony, I never heard of this at all.” They said, curious.
“Really? It’s common knowledge on Venus. No one establishes a colony without everyone else on the planet knowing” I said, “What happened to the colony is that it failed within the same month of their airship arriving.” I said.
“Airship? I thought you said it was a colony?”
“On Venus Airships are the basis of your colony, so they are pretty much treated synonymous, my apologies I didn’t make that clear. But yes they did have a colony once.”
“Do you know how it failed?”
“On Venus it''s very easy to tell why a colony failed, and it''s never due to starvation. But a failure to stay at the proper altitudes, the Japanese Airship dipped too low into the atmosphere and was crushed.”
“Do you know why they went too low?”
“According to the last known location of the airship, we aren’t sure why they dropped that low into the atmosphere without sending a distress call. At the time the no Japanese Organization took claim of the airship, though when their airship was finally crushed large amounts of lifting gases were released into the atmosphere, and the numbers were simply normal. The only explanation is that the Japanese crew of that airship willingly went down that low, their intentions are unknown. Though there are rumors of course from the few people who decided to visit the Japanese airship when they first arrived said the crew seemed agitated at them being there and in fact they seemed to be depressed to the point of suicide, though no one has confirmed those stories.” I explained.
“Honestly, if I were to commit suicide.” The kid started.
“What?” I said, dumbfounded.
“I’d do it in a place that hasn’t been corrupted by the worst of humanity, in a place where the only thing is the sky where no one can come and dig up your body and sell the organs. A place where the rules are simpler and not suffocating, a place where for a short time you can have a purpose, the most simple and pure of purposes, to survive, and even thrive. In my experience Japan hasn’t had any of that.” The kid said, despite the robotic voice I could easily tell he was steps away from crying.
I approached him and grabbed him by the shoulders, “Hey it''s alright, how about this I can ask the shipyard to prepare for the establishment of another colony on Venus. Then I can get some help from the American Government to get y’all out of Japan, if life is as bad as you say it is then I can give you a second chance. No an actual chance.” I said.
The kid gave a sniffle, “You can do that?”
“Yeah, I can, the hardest part would be getting you out of Japan but leave that to me. Just don’t commit suicide until then.” I said.
A player tapped me on the shoulder, “I know you''re having a heart to heart moment with this kid but the shutdown is in less than a minute. About 30 seconds from now.”
I nodded, “Alright then,” I turned back to the kid, “Don’t be surprised if an American knocks on your door in the next couple of weeks.” The kid nodded, “See you then.” 5 seconds till.
The clock hit midnight, and I was enveloped by white light around me. The light dissipated and I was still in front of the kid.
“Huh?” I mumbled, “We are still here.”
A moment later “What the hell is that smell?” Someone yelled
I smelled an iron smell with sulfur, grabbed and closed my nostril. Yet I didn’t gag. “It smells like blood and sulfur?” Looking around we were still in the game, or what appeared to be the game.
The trench I was in hadn’t been replaced with my living room or the virtual bluescape I used, the area was still covered in the same muddy blood stained snow that had covered the battlefield for the past 3 hours.
I took a step back from the kid, “Do you see me?” I asked him.
“Huh?” The kid said, cocking his head before saying something else in Japanese.
“It sounds like your translation software is offline.” I said.
The kid seemed to start to tear up, and sat down on the firing board.
I looked down at myself. I was still in the randomly assigned character from the game, the gray trench coat of Vost Dor, touching my head. I felt not only my hair which was longer than it should’ve been if I was out of the game, but another tuft of hair or fur. It was cat ears, which Vost Dor player characters had.
Just what is going on?
I swiped down on nothing in an attempt to bring up the menu that was required to be coded in by law.
Nothing happened, no matter what alternate gesture I tried, nothing worked. Contacting the moderators was out of the question, chat wouldn’t come up as well.
I saw the others trying to bring up their menus as well, they were clearly starting to panic.
“Colonel, what''s going on?” Someone asked in the growing panic.
Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked at me.
I sighed “I’m gonna be honest I have no clue what’s happening. I am just as confused as y’all are.” I said, I knew the result of what I would say. I had no lie to soften the blow.
Yet no one panicked and instead simply looked at me “What do we do?” Everybody looked at each other.
“First of all we need to get into contact with the others, and get out of this cold!” I said, pretty much shivering and trying my best to warm up.
Everybody else also realized it was freezing, who quickly agreed with me. We made our way towards the bunkers.
While I was heading there, I brought out my clipboard and hoped that it worked the same as it normally does.
I wrote down the order, tore out the paper from the clipboard, then it burned up in the air and reappeared in front of me floating without a care for gravity. I tried grabbing it but my hand just went through it, it was some sort of illusion.
“Everybody get to the bunkers, before you freeze to death we’ll figure out what to do once there.” Orders from CeoMacNCheese.
I made my way to the main bunker, and snow was starting to fall. Everybody else was slowly shuffling into the multiple bunkers present across the entire map. Vost Dor players weren’t the only ones present as some Noxuia players were with us.
I looked around and saw a couple of Noxuia Officers, their ranks I’d have to ask.
I approached the two officers, “Noxuia Officers.” I said getting their attention, they turned around to face me.
“What’s going on?” One of them immediately asked.
“As much as you do. I want to know have you received any information from your superiors? Colonel or Major? It doesn’t matter who.” I asked.
“Yes we have received orders. Colonel Rex sent out an order for everybody to head to the bunkers just like you told us to.” The Noxuia officer said.
“Can you send a message?” I asked
“We already did, the Major told us to stay here, they’ll try to get to the Vost Dor side when morning comes.”
“Tell them the Vost Dor Colonel will be waiting for them, if they can reach us.” I told them.
The other Noxu officer nodded and brought out their clipboard. “Going to send the message now.” The second Noxuia officer said, bringing out her own clipboard.
“I would like to ask what gender you are?” I asked.
“We''re both be male in real life. But the characters as you know are randomly assigned. You look female just so you know.” He answered, granted, the voice was more akin to a girl''s voice in pitch but highly masculine.
“What gender do we look like? Because you look like a girl, but your masculine sounding voice tells me you''re a guy.” The Noxuia officers asked.
“Smurf, Female, and blue skinned.” I responded.
They snorted at that response “Make sense, they are randomly assigned looks.”
I got serious once again. “Just keep me informed on their progress.” I said, “Before I go, what are y’all’s names?”
“Gamer or real name?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
They gave their names, afterwards I departed for the eastern entrance. There snow was starting to fall, covering the old blood ridden snow.
I still smelled the blood, and gunpowder. It was a horrid smell, a bit like space in fact. The wind was powerful, and freezing but I dealt with it for a little longer.
I looked to the front getting one last view of the Broken Wall but that view was short lived as a very heavy and dense fog moved in covering everything around me visibility was now non-existent.
The cold finally got to me, and I went inside. Closing and sealing shut the steel door behind me.