The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) (20 page)

I can find out
, her voice scorched me.
May I?

“Go ahead, then,” I transferred the second nanite colony to her just in case. For an instant, the girl's familiar outline appeared in the twilight as the nanites had taken her familiar shape.

Kathryn suppressed a shriek. Foggs very nearly fired a burst at the mirage but it had already dissolved into a faint haze that floated toward the window, then poured out.

“Zander, you could have told us! What the hell was that?”

“Hush! Just a random replication matrix,” I whispered. I hadn't expected her to materialize just like that, either.

The data she sent was already streaming into my brain. The nanites had formed an ever-expanding sphere and were now sliding below amid the branches, invisible and soundless. Nothing could hide from their eye.

As if in confirmation, a whole string of red markers came up about a hundred paces away from the ruins.

Visually, the area was empty. But the analysis of their signatures left no doubt: those were Dargians.

“Please explain,” I whisper, forgetting to address her mentally. Foggs and Kathryn cast uncomprehending glances at me.

We're surrounded by Dargians. They're stealthed and ready to attack,
Liori replied
.

I sized up the situation. It was too late for us to get out of here. The circle of the red dots had already closed around the foothill, followed by another string of enemy markers.

I forwarded the data to the group. Whatever could have attracted the Dargians' attention? Or had they stumbled upon us by chance while inspecting the area untouched by the orbital strikes?

Foggs gulped. “How did you see them?”

“Doesn't matter. You'd better think about what could have attracted them here.”

I addressed no one in particular while staring directly at Kathryn. I was pretty sure there was something inside this hill. Still, Kathryn stared back at me without saying a word, fluttering her eyelashes. She looked scared.

Kathryn
, I sent her a mnemonic PM,
quit your nonsense
.
The entrance to the underground labs is down here somewhere, isn't it?

It is. But you can't go in!

Why not?

Our levels are not up to it. We'll die in there!

“There's nothing there!” Vandal's voice sounded in the earphones. “All I can see is a few hollows below the surface, some rocks, the forest and these ruins.”

“Which hollows?” I demanded.

“Looks like some old cellars. That's all I can see. Look, there's a small hill here and a gulley,” he forwarded us the image. “It looks like earth has subsided there.”

Indeed I saw a narrow hole in the undergrowth. It was difficult to say where it was leading. Below it, scans showed a small rectangular cavity leading into a short tunnel which ended abruptly.

“We'll hide there,” I said. I just hoped the Dargians wouldn't notice us. But even if they did, they couldn't attack us in the narrow channel: they'd have to take turns squeezing themselves through.

Vandal had already climbed down from the upper story. All four of us stole toward the barely visible hole that led into the stuffy ancient tunnels.

“Have a look what's down there,” I told Foggs while motioning Kathryn to take up her position.

Reluctantly she followed the order. I could see she wasn't at all happy with my dominance. Considering the level gap, it was only the memories of what she'd just suffered that kept her arrogance in check.

“All clear,” Foggs emerged from the hole and crouched, casting wary looks around. “I tell you it's an old abandoned cellar. It ends in a collapsed tunnel about fifty feet long. The supports are all rotten. It widens at the end, there're some stone arches in there. We could actually collapse the entrance completely, that way they'll never see us there. We have enough cartridges for a couple of days. Then we can get out.”

“Go down there and keep still,” I said. “I want to watch the Dargians for a bit. I need to understand what it is they want here.”

“Just don't do anything stupid,” Vandal grumbled.

Foggs disappeared into the dark below. Kathryn followed him.

* * *

I kept an eye on the area. I just couldn't figure the Dargians out. They didn't seem in a hurry to climb up toward the ruins. Were they afraid of something? The numbers of the red dots on my target monitor kept growing but I still had no visuals. None of the enemy had unstealthed yet. They'd surrounded the hill and concentrated at its base.

“Liori?” I must have been going mad addressing a bunch of nanites by name. “You think you could give me more info?”

I'll try... Zander
, her mental whisper was hot and gasping.

She transformed into a weightless mist, sliding away in a barely visible wisp of a mirage. Then, a few hundred feet away from hill, I saw a still-unstealthed group of squat soldiers. All of them were clad in identical heavy armor decorated with a fancy trident-style symbol.

I'd never come across the Disciples clan before. There wasn't enough information about them available. Some long-perished raids had reported sudden attacks by well-trained warriors. Some of them had managed to forward their images before being cut off. We'd never heard from any of them again.

I opened Wiki and looked it up.

Disciples: the Dargian army elite who worship the Founders as the creators of the Universe. Their philosophy is similar to our idea of the Paladin. The Disciples are idealistic zealots who treasure their religion and worship cargonite as a sacred metal. They believe that techno artifacts can work miracles, granting them strength and the protection of alien gods.

Then I knew it. “Liori, come back!” I called.

The Disciples had nothing to do with us nor with the surviving wildlife. Their stakes were much higher. Attracting their attention or trying to contain them was useless. In their eyes we were a grain of sand stuck in the gears of some global events.

The nanites returned and clung to my armor, forming an extra protective layer. I moved the ability activation icons to quick access slots. Now they were constantly hovering in my mind's eye albeit inconspicuously.

I hurried down the hole to join the others.

The cellar was rather small, its stone walls and ceiling exuding damp.

I squeezed into the collapsed tunnel, its wooden supports eaten through by some brown mold.

“Zander, what is it out there?” Foggs asked.

“The hill is surrounded by the Disciples,” I reached a small alcove that looked like the convergence of two shafts and looked around me. Nothing special. Squat stone arches must have once supported the collapsed ceiling which now blocked our way in heaps of rockfall.

“What disciples?” Foggs sounded sincerely surprised.

“Dargian army elite. They don't care about us as long as we keep our heads down. So that's what we're going to do.”

My PM box kept flashing. This was Kathryn. Was she finally ready for a chat? “What's up?”

“Zander, whatever happens, we must not enter the tunnels.”

“Mind telling me why?”

“I told you already! Genesis is very dangerous. The AI that controls it is nuts. Listen. Around a thousand years ago the Dargians discovered these labs in the tunnels under the hill. In their infinite wisdom, they activated the artifact. The evidence left is incomplete. We tried to decipher it but all we were able to understand was that the artifact created some truly monstrous life forms. Also, the Dargians had also released some exo viruses into the environment. The planet's organic life was in danger. A pandemic broke out. Before those events, the site used to have its own underground temple but the Dargians destroyed it and installed a force shield around it to prevent the monsters from escaping.”

I couldn't believe my ears. “Are you trying to say that a thousand years ago the Dargian civilization was considerably more evolved than it is now?”

“Absolutely. It was exactly this ecological disaster that set them back.”

“Why are they there then, surrounding the hill?”

“I think that their clan still has the access codes. They hope to breach the force shield.”

“It's suicide!”

“Zander, they have no idea what they're dealing with! They've preserved their religion but not the knowledge!”

“Can you please explain to me what they want?”

“Can't you see?” she snapped. “Eurasia's orbital strikes have doomed them! Now the death of all organic life is only a question of time! The Disciples believe that they can ask the ancient artifact to restore their planet! But don't you understand? They'll either die trying to breach the shield or they'll end up unleashing the monstrous life forms, including the exo viruses! There'll be no survivors left this time!”

That got me thinking. Could it be that Ingmud had issued an undoable quest? Or was it doable? My entire gaming experience told me that there was no such thing as a dead-end dungeon: there were only players unable to grasp the developers' idea or who'd failed to notice the hidden clues.

“I found a broken technology scanner in the rover. Were you going to use it to scan the artifact?”

Kathryn nodded. Her face lit up with surprise. “D'you have it?”

“Let's put it this way: I managed to copy its main module to my mind expander.”

“Zander, the best-case scenario for us would be if the Disciples die. They think they can use stealth to do the dungeon. Somehow I don't think it will work!”

“D'you know what kinds of mobs are in there?”

“I've no idea! These caves have been abandoned for the last thousand years! We found a couple of hand drawings but they're so idealized they tell you nothing about the monsters guarding the artifact.”

She paused. “What's the point in risking our lives? Even if the Disciples survive, we'll have plenty of time to locate Genesis, drill a hole and scan it before they do anything stupid!”

“And leave the planet to suffer its own personal Inferno?”

“What's that got to do with you?” she snapped.

“You have any idea how many players are here at the moment?”

“No, and I don't care!”

“Well, I do. If the Disciples manage to survive the dungeon, most of the players will die. Are you listening? They will die for good.
For real.
Their respawn points are bound to Darg. Ever heard of respawn purgatories? Of Gehenna?”

“Some will escape,” she mumbled.

“Yes, to spread the virus!”

“Don't you understand there's nothing we can do? Don't be such a goodie-two-shoes! It doesn't work here! We need to get in, scan the artifact, leave the planet while we still can and warn the Fleet. They'll cordon off the planet, set up a quarantine and shoot down any ship that might attempt to leave it.”

Nice girl. Calculating and mercenary, just like her daddy. She apparently had no illusions about Phantom Server left. No rose-colored glasses in her case. The problem was, the Eurasia fleet had been defeated. There was no one who could cordon this planet off. As long as the Dargians had their mysterious weapon, neither the remaining battleships nor the station itself would dare approach its orbit.

I still couldn't work out the developers' logic. Had they hired a team of nutcases to write the beta version? Was it normal, destroying the entire colonial fleet, then unleashing some deadly alien life forms onto the survivors? I should probably also count the introduction of avatroids. And of this megalomaniac Ingmud the hybrid with his desire to create an oasis of heaven within the confines of one fortunate space station, using a potentially deadly artifact that wasn't even meant for this purpose.

Talk about plot twists. The funny thing was, I was somehow involved in all of it.

I had no time to weigh up all the pros and cons. Should I agree with Kathryn's reasoning, maybe? The problem was, the hill was surrounded by two lines of Disciples. Some of them would go in while the rest would keep watch outside. There was no way we could battle our way past those elite warriors.

Realistically, what
could
we do? Should we block the entrance and sit it out here?
'Liori?'

'Yes?'

'Do you have the Mnemotechnics skill?'

'Sure.'

'Your Molecular Mist, what level is it?'

'Twelve.'

'You think you could cover us from the Disciples' sensors?'

'I could. But it'll only work at distances further than sixty feet. Fifty at the least. If they come closer, they'll locate you. They have excellent equipment.’

Problems. Would we be able to slide past the Disciples unnoticed? And if we could, would we have enough time to scan the artifact? I had no doubts we should do it. Even if the Disciples failed now, there'd be more raiders coming here until someone finally completed the dungeon. I had no reason to doubt Kathryn: if indeed Genesis had glitched big time it would result in a global disaster. In order to avoid this or mitigate its consequences, you'd have to have the artifact's scanner files available. I had no idea what Kathryn was going to do with hers but I fully intended to make my own copy which would allow me to rebuild the artifact and look into the reasons of its malfunction which would hopefully allow us to create vaccines against the alien viruses.