Chapter 1: First Blood

Chapter 1:
First Blood

 

REAL. This was actually real.

That posed a problem.

Why was this happening to me? I couldn’t think of a single good reason, yet here I was.

“What’d I do yesterday?” I wondered. I went to work as usual. I came home from work as usual, ate dinner as usual, showered, gamed for a while, and went to bed—as usual. None of the clichés held true. There were no weird messages creepily appearing on my computer screen, no trucks decking me to transport me to another world. It was just a regular day—well, aside from this.

“Completely bizarre,” I complained. But complaining wasn’t going to do me any good. Gotta be positive. If this was real life, then I had somehow made my way into Stella Online, and I just had to accept it. Did that mean I could live the mercenary life I enjoyed in the game? Bound by no obligations, rising up in the universe by my own strength. Yeah, that sounded great. It was a hundred times better than being stuck in a network administration job with no hope of advancement. Besides, I could make use of my specialties here.

Nice. Suddenly, I was in a much better mood. If I’m stuck here, I might as well enjoy it. Yeah, that sounds good to me! I still had a few concerns, but there was no sense dwelling on them if I was stuck either way.

With that settled, I had to figure out where the heck I was. The Galaxy Map should have confirmed my current location, but when I opened it, all I got were the words “NO DATA” in huge, heartless letters.

Well, that wasn’t good. The vast frontier of this universe presented a major navigational hurdle. I couldn’t just wander around blindly and hope things worked out. In the four years since Stella Online launched, no one had managed to reach the center of the galaxy. I couldn’t be sure this place was identical to the game, but I had to assume it was close, which meant it was massive.

I gave up on ascertaining my current location and checked on the status of my ship. I didn’t have a bounty set on me; that was a relief. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about getting caught by the galactic police and sent to jail right off the bat.

Next up was checking on my affiliation and belongings. It looked like I was nothing special, just an ordinary guy. I didn’t even belong to a mercenary guild. My name hadn’t changed from when I played Stella Online, though.

Meanwhile, my current funds stood at a whopping zero Ener. Seriously? I was broke?! What about all the money I saved up while playing? My heart dropped as I went to check the ship’s cargo, my last hope.

It looked like I had a small amount of food and water stored among the ship’s cargo. How considerate of…whoever prepared all this. I didn’t have the faintest idea who my anonymous benefactor might be, but at least I wouldn’t starve.

Apart from the food, I had a small cache of flak ammunition and two spare energy packs.

“Rare Metal too, huh? And quite a lot of it. That’s pretty sick.” The universe of Stella Online had abandoned paper and coin currency long ago. Everyone now used a digital currency called Ener. Not only did this make transactions easier and more convenient, it also left an electronic record of every interaction.

One of the best ways to get Ener was Rare Metal, a scarce but necessary commodity throughout the galaxy. Finding Rare Metal was like digging up silver or gold back on Earth—precious, in small supply, and valuable just about anywhere.

Space pirates and others who preferred to stay off the books especially loved Rare Metal. It was a physical good, which made it harder to track than electronic currency. Of course, this meant that cruising around with a ship full of Rare Metal made you a tasty target for pirate NPCs and other less savory sorts out there in the universe. In game terms, those NPC encounters would get much more frequent if you had Rare Metal on board.

“Warning! A vessel of unknown affiliation is scanning this craft,” the support AI blared.

“That didn’t take long,” I said. Being scanned by another craft didn’t necessarily mean I was being targeted by space pirates. Maybe there’s an issue with the ship’s frame? It was entirely possible the scan came from a benevolent third party just trying to help.

The far more likely possibility was that I simply looked suspicious as heck.

Why would a ship carrying so much metal—something used for anonymous transactions—be parked in an empty sector of space? It was just too sketchy. It would be completely reasonable to believe I was here to make illegal bargains with space pirates.

“A vessel of unknown affiliation has brought its weapons systems online,” the support AI droned. Welp, it looked like the goddess of fortune would not smile upon me today. I didn’t have a bounty, so those weapons had to be space pirates.

“Hey, bro. Whatcha doin’ out here? Funny place to take a nap.” I didn’t recognize the voice that crackled over the intercoms.

“Ha ha ha! Nothing in particular. Don’t mind me,” I replied.

“Heh heh heh. Don’t be like that, bro. Here we are, meetin’ each other by chance out in space. Say, how ’bout you let me have some of your cargo? Then I might let ya off without any funny business.”

“I’ll have to refuse, but I’d be happy to sell it to you for a reasonable price.”

As we spoke, two more unidentified ships left faster-than-light travel with loud bangs. All three of them activated their weapons systems and prepared to fire.

The new ships showed up as models on my display. Their builds were a mess. The haphazard frames bore sloppily installed weapons that hardly looked ready for battle. Their hulls each had different cargo sizes. The frames, the weapons, everything about them was completely uncoordinated. In stereotypical space pirate fashion, dents and scratches marred the ships.

“Heh. Ain’t never seen a ship like that before. Who d’ya belong to, buddy?” their leader asked.

“No comment.” I scanned the unidentified, jet-black ships. Each one held somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 Ener.

“Heh heh heh. So you’re checkin’ us out too, huh? Guess we can’t help that. Hand over the cargo, buddy, and we’ll spare yer life.”

“Oh, all right. I suppose I have no choice.” Steeling my resolve, I carefully raised main generator output from normal to battle-ready. I took a breath. I might really have to kill fellow humans to get out of this, but the Rare Metal in my ship could mean the difference between life and death for me. Without money, I wasn’t going to last long out here. If someone wanted to fight me for it, then I had to protect myself. Even if that meant crushing these space pirates.

“That’s enough, buddy. Don’t wanna die, do ya?”

“Of course not.”

There was no question about what would happen to someone who lost their cradle—their spaceship—in outer space. Though they would probably die in the explosion long before suffocating.

Maybe I should have been afraid, but as I prepared to fight for my life, I felt oddly calm. Perhaps that was because my vessel was the Krishna.

The pirates’ ships were simple, balanced ships made for civilian use, nothing close to my Krishna. Worse, the models were several generations old and worn from use. Their main generator outputs, shield strength, and weapons were pitifully weak by comparison to mine. They probably neglected proper maintenance, leaving the ships’ plating all out of shape.

As for me, my Krishna was built for hardcore military use, and I’d customized it perfectly to my liking, making it the ideal personal battleship.

My shield and weapons strength far surpassed their shabby ships, and a military-grade sturdy hull protected me from their pathetic attacks. Quite frankly, defeat was inconceivable. This wasn’t going to be a fight; it was going to be a one-sided hunt. A curb-stomp.

I flipped my rising generator output to max level all at once and said, “I don’t wanna die, so I’m gonna fight back. Just so you know, this probably ends with you guys dying. Don’t blame me.”

“That’s big talk for someone facing three ships at once. You’re gonna regret this, buddy!” The space pirate ships that were circling swiveled to aim at me.

In that instant, I launched the Krishna forward full throttle.

“Wargh!”

“Wha?! He’s fast!”

The sudden g-force threw me back against my seat, but I managed to use the touchscreen to get my weapons online. Four weapon arms equipped with heavy lasers extended from the Krishna, while the weapons bays on either side of the cockpit deployed two flak cannons. I activated the sub-boosters and banked into a 180-degree turn, maintaining my momentum as I pointed the four heavy lasers at one of the space pirates’ ships.

“It changed shape!” one of the pirates screamed.

The continuous fire of my military-grade heavy pulse lasers easily tore through the ship’s shield, vaporizing its hull with small explosions. The lasers kept on burning, cutting right through the cockpit.

“All that with one shot?!”

I hit the throttle again, chasing after a ship trying to escape. The drag of the g-force made my vision go dark. Almost soothed by the sensation, I once again activated my heavy lasers.

“N-no, I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die, I don’t—” The volley of pulse lasers pierced mercilessly through his shield and stabbed the ship’s main booster as the pirate begged for his life. The lasers must have burned right through to the main generator; the second ship exploded in a burst of fiery light.

“Dammiiit! I’ll kill you!” The third pirate chose to fight instead of fly. Maybe the sight of his friends’ demise left him yearning for revenge. He readied his laser cannons. Once he started firing, avoiding the speed-of-light ammo would be next to impossible. I didn’t have many options open to me. All I could really do was dodge around erratically and hope that made it harder for him to target me.

“Gngh?! Urk…!”

I switched between rapid acceleration and sudden stops, trying to move the Krishna as unpredictably as possible. The jerky motions turned my stomach and left me nauseous.

“Grrr, how do you move like that?!”

The space pirate steadied his aim. That was certainly a change from the game. This couldn’t be a dream; the space pirates reacted like thinking, reasoning humans, just like me. The nausea intensified. Maybe it affected my maneuvering or maybe the space pirate’s aim simply outshone my evasive maneuvers. Either way, the pirate finally landed a shot on the Krishna.

“I-It didn’t work?!” The pirate growled with frustration and surprise. The Krishna’s shield blocked his laser completely, leaving me unscathed.

I think that’s enough.

I accelerated toward the pirate ship facing me. We dashed recklessly at each other, like a game of chicken. He got off a few more desperate shots, but his panic made him sloppy and sent his fire wide. Even when he managed to hit me, the Krishna’s shield rendered the attacks harmless.

“S-stop! Mommy—!”

I dodged the space pirate’s ship an instant before we would have collided, firing flak at him as I veered away. The high-speed shots saturated his shield, tore through it, and blasted through the hull of his ship. By the time the flak burst free, his ship looked more like metallic Swiss cheese than any kind of space craft.

“Hargh! Haah, haah…” I banked through a tight turn, wheeling around to watch the ship explode. My breath rasped through the cockpit. I returned the generator output to normal levels and, finally, took the weapons system offline.

The nausea subsided when the ship stilled and the g-forces relented. It wasn’t nervous nausea. Now that I’d stopped, now that it was over, I felt strangely calm.

“If that didn’t wake me up, this has gotta be real.” I shook myself. I’d survived. I’d more than survived. I took down three pirates bent on robbing me of my Rare Metal and barely broke a sweat. I had to stay positive now. If I didn’t, I’d die out here—if not physically, then certainly mentally.

 

***

 

“Well, this is a problem.”

There was no more denying it. This was definitely not a dream. And that posed some issues. What kinds of issues? Well, for one thing, I had no idea what to do about any of this. I’d woken up on a ship drifting along through the dead, black expanse of the universe. On top of that, I didn’t know why this was happening and had little hope of finding a way home.

“Maybe someone made full-immersion VR a reality when I wasn’t looking, and I’m actually in a full-dive scenario.”

I tried messing with a few consoles and screaming the words “open menu!” and “log out!” but no menu or button that would let me out of this reality appeared. What a cruel, cruel world.

I was at an utter loss. I had no choice: I had to do what humans do best and adapt.

“Depending on my perspective, this might not be all that bad.” I had my beloved ship. I had my piloting skills. Best of all, I clearly had the ability to trounce space pirates with ease. If there really was no way out of this, I could live the mercenary life I’d built in Stella Online.

I also had cargo I could trade for a decent sum of money. I might even be able to use my ship and my skills to hunt down more pirates for some extra cash. The three ships I’d already taken down were carrying 19,000 Ener. I didn’t know what prices were like in this world, but space pirates in fully equipped ships like those wouldn’t be carrying chump change. The 19,000 Ener wouldn’t buy a whole ship, but it would probably let me refuel Krishna, stock up on ammo, and do some maintenance.

“Oh, yeah. I should grab their cargo and data,” I remembered. In Stella Online, you could harvest cargo and data caches from defeated space pirates’ ships. It wouldn’t make you rich, but you could scrounge up some decent loot, maybe even learn the location of other nearby pirates. If the stars aligned, you might even discover the coordinates of a pirate home base. Locating, attacking, and defeating a whole pirate base would net you some serious treasure. You could also go the more noble route and just report it all to the galactic police. Not a bad payday, either way.

I navigated the Krishna in closer and gleefully stripped the pirate ships’ corpses of their cargo, data caches, and less damaged equipment. All Stella Online’s ships carried drones for this very purpose, and my beloved Krishna was no exception.

“Nothing important, as far as I can see.” I mostly found low-quality food and some booze among the pirates’ cargo. Alcohol could sell for a decent price, but some galactic empires—empires that governed star systems—outlawed it, making it a tough item to actually profit from.

Outlawed or not, if someone found the booze, the worst they’d do was confiscate it and give you a warning. It didn’t carry the high fines and potential exile that illegal slavery or hard drugs did. Those things might even provoke a physical response from the galactic police, and you definitely didn’t want to go toe to toe with them.

“Ooh!” The data caches were a hit. Not only did I glean the coordinates of the main station in this galaxy, but I also learned the location of the space pirates’ home base. I’d get more just from selling this info than anything I’d filched from the ships.

Unfortunately, the cache also revealed that there were no habitable planets in this star system. Nothing out here but asteroids rich with ore. That didn’t mean it was deserted. Those asteroids would have mining stations and prisons where criminals were forced to work, and there were several trading colonies stationed nearby.

“No data on nearby star systems, huh?” Unfortunately, the cache didn’t go beyond this star system. It wouldn’t help me find a neighboring system that might be friendlier. I had no clue where this star system was in relation to the rest of the galaxy, but accessing the information network at a station or colony was probably my best hope of finding out. “Might as well go for the trading colony, then.”

I set my sights on the largest trading colony in the star system. According to my information, I’d also find the police headquarters for this system on that colony. It would be a convenient place for receiving my bounty and selling the information I stole.

I set the main generator’s output to cruise and turned the ship toward the trading colony. A little nudge on the throttle got the ship up to ample acceleration so I could activate the faster-than-light drive.

The engine roared. The scenery around me bent and warped. Stars bled into streaks that flowed past the windows. I didn’t know the practical theory behind the FTL drive, and Stella Online didn’t really explain the details, but I knew it was mostly used for long-distance travel within star systems and I could definitely tell why. I was moving insanely fast. The universe rushed past my windows. Debris pinged against the ship but didn’t leave any real damage. Maybe there was some special technology keeping me safe?

My beloved Krishna also had a system for navigating between star systems: hyperdrive. The ship could slip into the hyperspace lanes between star systems to travel at speeds far faster than light. I didn’t know the particulars of the underlying theory, but the important part was that it’d let me hop between star systems. I didn’t really need to know all the nerdy details to make it work. I just had to sit back and enjoy the ride, which was fine by me.

I could also travel super-long distance via wormholes. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as just hopping into any old wormhole I happened to find. They were usually managed by NPCs belonging to galactic empires, and heavily regulated. Some players could help out the empires and get access to wormholes, but a normal mercenary like me wouldn’t be so lucky.

Even as I sped along pondering the mysteries of interstellar travel, I passed an enormous gas giant. The incredible sight made me want to turn off the faster-than-light drive and admire the awe-inspiring scenery of space, but I had to hurry to reach that trading colony. If I sat around ogling the wonder of space, I could get attacked by more pirates.

For now, my top priority had to be reaching the safe harbor of a trading colony and gathering information. I’d have time later to admire all the gas stars, asteroid clusters, and wondrous unknowns of space I wanted. At least, I hoped I would.

Still, I took in as many of the incredible sights around me as I could. I was no sci-fi nerd, but who could turn down a display like this? Curiosity was a valuable thing; it didn’t hurt to indulge it a little.

I was still stargazing when the Krishna’s support AI notified me that I was approaching my destination. I braced myself to turn off the FTL drive, but the craft decelerated much more smoothly than I expected all on its own. Whatever happened to inertia and all that? Maybe there was some force field protecting the ship that I didn’t know about. I used a touch pad in the cockpit to message the trading colony and request permission to dock in their hangar.

They responded promptly. “This is the Port Authority of Tarmein Prime, accepting your docking request. Um, Captain…I’m sorry. It seems the data regarding your name is corrupted.”

“Huh? Oh… This is the Krishna. My name is…” I hesitated. My name, huh? My real name was a pretty darn boring and common one, but maybe it would sound interesting and unique compared to the naming conventions of this universe. My in-game name was probably a safer bet, though. “Hiro. I’m Captain Hiro.”

Thus, on the tenth day of the eighth month of the 2,397th year of the Grakkan Empire’s calendar, the mercenary named Captain Hiro was reborn.