It’s not even 5 minutes later when Ali announces, “We’re entering a higher level zone soon, figure average level in the low-to-mid 20’s.”
Even before I can acknowledge it, Ali continues; “We’ve got trouble. There are 8 Hakarta warriors in a building to the left at the t-intersection. “
“Hakarta?”
“Large, aggressive green-skinned individuals with tusks who come from a warrior culture. Often hire themselves out as shock troops. Closest analogue are Orcs,” Ali explains hurriedly to me.
“About time,” I grin slightly beneath my helmet. What kind of fantasy would world it be without Orcs? As I spot the two-storey log building that dominates the Carcross cut-off, I note a slight glint in the bottom window. Instinct makes me start leaning to the side and I feel the beam punch through my shoulder, my body spasming around the damage. I’m sliding off the bike into a controlled crash, the pain too sudden for my body to catch up with it.
As momentum keeps me rolling on the ground, another blast kicks up the asphalt. Pain radiates through me, my shoulder a complete mess with a hole burnt right through it. I manage to trigger the quantum state manipulator (the QSM) just before a third shot passes through where I would have been, pain tearing through me again from the energy that passes through the dimensions. I finally come to a stop about ten feet and another dimension from my bike. I’m invisible and in another dimension so the Hakarta aren’t shooting at me anymore as I just lie on the road, dealing with my injuries.
After a time, I manage to gain sufficient control to cast my only spell, patching my wound such that I’m able to stand. When I turn to look at the building, the Hakarta are coming out in a group of five, their movements with that polished training you see in movies. Ali’s right, they are extremely muscular, green and tusky. At a glance, they’d be perfect orcs – if orcs wore body armour and carried beam rifles.
“What the hell Ali! They have rifles. Why didn’t you warn me?” I snarl as I stagger over to where my bike is, pain from the shoulder wound slowly fading.
“I did! They’re Hakarta, of course they have rifles!” snaps Ali, affronted.
“Orcs don’t have rifles. They’re Orcs!” I snarl, casting one last heal on my shoulder. It’s not fully patched, but it’s workable for now.
“I said the closest analogue is Orcs. I didn’t say there were orcs, I said they were Hakarta!” Ali says.
“Fuck it. Later. I need you to distract them so I can drop out and trigger the change,” I point away from me, bending down to the bike. I’m so not leaving Sabre here for them.
“Now he wants me to get shot,” Ali flies off, grumbling all the while. “Yohooo! Big, green and dumb, think you can hit me?”
The Hakarta react with speed, the Hakarta tasked to deal with him aiming and firing in a single swift motion. I turn off the QSM and trigger the change immediately, yanking the armor on. Unfortunately, a simple distraction isn’t good enough and the Hakarta covering my bike opens fire. Luckily, this one is caught mostly on the armor that slides over me. It still makes me jerk in reaction, sending me sprawling and I have to trigger the QSM once more as I roll away, the armor sufficiently equipped to come with me thankfully.
“Move! They’ve got a quantum grenade,” Ali shouts urgently and I bolt for it. The grenade hits the ground where I was and explodes, picking me up and throwing me forwards. It feels like a hundred burning needles have shoved themselves throughout my body and damage reports from the mecha suit start streaming in. I crawl my way away to the treeline and push myself till I’m a good distance away before I allow myself to breathe.
Thankfully, the Hakarta aren’t pursuing at speed so I have time to catch my breath. Ali keeps an eye out for me as I recover and check over the damage reports. Thankfully, nothing is broken irretrievably but a number of systems have re-routed to secondary circuits to deal with the existing damage.
“Still doing a sweep, they’ve got a scanner. Looks to be only a Mark V though, so you’ve got about 5 minutes before they’re in range. Run or fight boy-o,” Ali calls out.
Run or fight. I’m injured, in pain and outnumbered. They’ve got training, experience and levels on me. Good sense says run.
“Let’s kill them,” I snarl, retrieving my rifle and checking it for damage. Stupid but if I wanted to be smart, I’d be home. Two can play this game.
Bad news for the Hakarta. Their scanner works great, but if I’m no longer using the QSM it has nothing to pick up on. Curled up and ready to ambush them with Ali providing real-time updates on their positions, I get ready to take my revenge.
“Coming around the tree in 5, 4, 3…” intones Ali.
The Hakarta step around and I take my shot. The first shot goes for the scanner itself, blasting the valuable equipment into so much junk. Of course, the Hakarta holding it has it up to his chest so he gets shot too, though it doesn’t look like a killing wound.
I roll back into cover under the tree and keep rolling, letting the gradient of the hill get me out of the way of the return fire. A quantum grenade arrives soon afterwards, but this one does no damage as I’m still phased into this reality and the ancillary explosive damage in this reality is insufficient to breach Sabre’s armor at this distance.
I trigger the QSM the moment it’s safe and leg it to a nearby tree, spinning around and waiting. The Hakarta are aggressive, coming around my original sniping position and getting ready to finish me. They are disciplined and smart, coming around fast with each member having their own field of fire. Me, I just shoot the green bastard who is facing me straight in the face. As the others begin to swing around to finish me, I fire again before rolling behind cover and triggering the QSM.
Two more times. That’s as many times as I can use the QSM, if I keep my time in the other state short. I make sure I do, booting it not away from them but directly to them. When I get close enough, I drop back into reality, my rifle pointed straight at the third Hakarta, a moment before I pull the trigger. The blast catches it in the side of the neck, blowing his head clean off but I don’t have time to watch. There are 2 more left from the initial party, one wounded, and I need to finish them. I drop the rifle, swinging my right hand in an overhand chop direct into the arms of another Hakarta who is turning to bring his weapon to bear. Too big for close range combat, he never gets it to me in time before I disarm him and then behead him with the sword I call into being.
The last Hakarta doesn’t bother with his rifle, instead tackling me. I lose grip of my sword as I fall. Thankfully the shock absorbers in Sabre remove most of the damage and I get an arm in the way of the plunging knife, redirecting its force sufficiently that it doesn’t skewer me, just leaves a deep cut in the top of my shoulder armor. I grip him close with my arm then and recall my blade with my free hand before pummeling him with my pommel. His helmet stands the first few blows well enough but eventually shatters. A few more strikes leaves the Hakarta lifeless above me, at which point I push the creature off.
5 down. I cast another Minor Healing to staunch the bleeding in my injured shoulder where I’ve re-opened the wound and then proceed to loot the bodies. Surprisingly, the first body I loot gives me access to all their weapons and armor. I guess fighting humanoids who actually buy their equipment from the System is extremely profitable. I can’t help but grin, grabbing everything possible and dumping it into my inventory. By the time I’m done looting the bodies, I’ve received 5 Beam Rifles (Type IV), 5 Tier V personal body armor (3 significantly damaged), personal arms for each Hakarta and 3 Plasma Grenades along with 432 Credits.
“Ali, scout the building will you?” I begin to make my way back, wondering if I could somehow lure at least a few others out.