The area around the airlock was… Worryingly quiet. Even as we broke apart into our individual teams, the plan was looking more tenuous. Troy had detailed to us the basics of what we could expect in terms of opposed naval boarding - the breaching moment was always the most dangerous. However, when we burst through the main airlock hatch, no gunfire had awaited us. 

We followed the plan regardless. It put me on edge, and given how tense Nitra was, it was unnerving to her too. Troy took point for the three of us, Lea’s team breaking off down a different direction to make for the server racks. We’d gone over the enemy ship’s plan the day before - It was a long straight line compared to our more organically designed ship, but was more typical for what the designs in this game were. The main section of the ship was one main corridor that ran its length, sprouting into a forward and aft section. The aft would usually contain the engineering and engines, while the forward was usually where the bridge could be found. In between were the cargo and quarters sections, though in this design the cargo sections had been replaced by massive data racks. This ship specifically had been modified to reposition the entry to these data sections behind the main security bulkhead for the engineering section, which is where Lea headed. Troy, Nitra and I were heading forwards, looking to capture the bridge as quickly as possible. 

I scanned across the main corridor as we moved forwards. There was temporary cover set up in defensive positions. Each had a weird crest on it, a shield with a large two-headed dragon spread across it. When I pointed that out to the other two, neither seemed to be familiar with it. Beyond that, the passageway was relatively tight, with slick black walls giving a dangerous mirror sheen. 

I paused a second, both Troy and Nitra pausing as I stopped. Something was bothering me as I stared at the mirrored walls, and I was struggling to put a word to it. The mirrors seemed… Off. As I stared at them, the revelation happened just as chaos erupted. 

“Get down!” I yelped out, diving for the temporary cover around us as Troy and Nitra did the same. Shots of red laser filled the passage where we had been standing. Some weren’t aimed for us though. They bounced off the reflective walls, and my revelation was correct. The lasers sprayed across the corridor behind the cover in showers of dangerous red light. The mirrors were all scattering reflective material. Normally only seen on hand-held shields to provide protection against those kinds of weaponry, whatever security team they had on board had covered the walls in the panels. 

I reacted, my ballistic pistol barking in my hand as I brought it around to shatter the mirrors aimed at me in my cover. I glanced at my teammates, who were not faring nearly as well. Troy took a hit in the leg and arm, and Nitra had her blue internal goop dripping out of a hole seared clean through her shoulder. 

Both however, seemed to have come to the same conclusion I had, and through the blue spikes of solidified goo Nitra had thrown into the wall adjacent to her, and Troy shooting them out like I had, we’d managed to secure our positions somewhat, even as scattered as we were. 

I braved a glance over the barrier I hid behind, heavy red lasers soon forcing me back down. There were three of the security team, one in heavy power armour with the large chain-laser. The remaining two were both in combat armour, firing laser assault rifles down towards our positions. 

Troy was shouting something, but I wasn’t paying attention. The large man braced himself next to his cover, then leaned over. He fired several bursts out of his heavy ballistic rifle, before ducking back down to avoid the return fire. Nitra joined in, carefully leaning around the side of her own cover to shoot back at them too. 

My heart was pounding - but I wasn’t panicked, like I thought I would be. Everything felt extremely clear, like a fog had been lifted that I didn’t know was there. Danger was still everywhere, but I found myself focused. 

I still wasn’t listening to Troy as I moved. My knife slipped cleanly from its sheath on my hip, pistol in the other hand. The world fell to a standstill as I moved. I pushed off the floor, suddenly coming over the top of my cover in a fluid motion. I could see the looks on the faces of the two security agents. Hardened resolve was written across both, but they seemed slow as I moved. I could watch their rifles move up towards me, even as their larger armoured comrade kept my friends pinned. 

I didn’t spare a second look, unconcerned. We were still a good twenty metres apart, and if I was to close the distance I needed to move quickly. My foot pressed off the wall next to me, pushing me down into a roll, narrowly dodging the red streaks of light that shot through where I’d been moments earlier. 

Fifteen metres. I raised my pistol and fired, pushing up from my roll into a sprint. Three shots, though none connected with my targets. 

They didn’t need to. The shots forced the two who had me in their sighs back into cover behind the door frame, which let me get closer. 

Ten metres. The large armoured one turned towards me, just enough to swing the line of fire of their large chain-laser to where I was moving. I watched like they moved in slow motion, twisting and dropping into a slide along the floor as their weapon’s barrels spun up and let loose the torrent of red light over my head. 

Five metres. My pistol barked again, shots aimed at the hands that held the big gun. I knew they’d never penetrate, but the reverberations and pain from the shots were enough to get the desired effect. The armoured figure seemed surprised at the pain, the chain-laser dropping as they stumbled back. The two unarmoured guards seemed just as shocked as I slid into the open doorway. 

My knife flashed, slashing across the back of their legs as I took advantage of their surprise. Both women let out surprised, pained yells as they stumbled and collapsed. I took the chance to swing my pistol around, firing two shots at each of their heads. 

Both went down, collapsing into heaps of unconsciousness. They were higher-levels, and that showed in the equipment they carried. The helmets they wore had done the job in stopping my bullets for the most part, though the gun had still done enough damage to knock both into the pain-tolerance protection system. While for the most part pain in-game was dulled there were things, like taking a couple bullets to the head at point blank, that could still cross the threshold for what someone’s brain could process. To protect players, Stellara Nova would instead cut the connection between avatar and player just before impact. 

This had been my goal. I was too far underleveled to do enough damage from range to actually kill them, but I could still take them out of the fight for now. 

I shifted my stance back up to my feet as I heard the armoured figure start to move again, and pushed myself towards their massive armoured body. My knife glinted off the artificial lighting as my focus brought her face into view. 

Wait. 

Her face?! I slammed into her, my body hitting off hers. I grabbed on, dropping my pistol as my knife pressed against her neck. 

“K-Kaela?” She asked, her short ginger hair drooping across her face as it fell away from the helmet she had been taking off. My eyes went wide as I processed it. It was that new girl I’d met on Union Station my first day as Kaela! 

“Avalyn, right?” I asked, after a moment collecting myself. My knife was still pressed against her throat, and she dropped her helmet to hold her arms up in surrender. 

“Yeah! Holy shit, what the hell are you doing here?” Avalyn asked, the moment hanging as we stared at one another. 

“Uh…” I glanced back down the hallway to where Troy and Nitra were now approaching. “We are on a job…?” I stammered out, losing all the energy and focus that had gotten me through the short fight. My body began to shake slightly, even as the knife kept close to Avalyn’s throat. 

“Why is she still alive, Kaela? We need to get moving.” Troy said sharply, glancing between her and I. 

“I uh… I know her… Met her on my first day in the game.” Avalyn answered for me, seeing my visibly wilting under the glare of the marine. Nitra came up behind me and gently lifted me off Avalyn. Her wound was wrapped with high-grade tape, which would hold until we could get Lea to properly repair it. Nitra ran her hand along the top of my head, getting the sweet spot just between my ears and I felt my body relax slightly. 

“Do you intend on giving us any more pushback? Could you signal your comrades to stand down?” Nitra asked, cutting off Troy before he could press her more. 

Avalyn shook her head, keeping her hands up in the surrender pose. “I’m done fighting. I owe Kaela for helping me out, and I’m not about to burn that good will for a contract. I can’t tell my friends to stop fighting, but honestly I think they’ll surrender instead of fighting to the death. It’s not worth the money, according to Dia.” 

“Good to know.” Nitra nodded.

“What…” I started to talk, before my voice caught in my throat. All three were looking at me now. “What if I offered you more money than what they are paying to stand down…?”

Nitra looked down at me, a slightly impressed face. Troy looked sceptical, but didn’t interrupt as Avalyn nodded slowly. 

“Yeah, that’d probably work. But I mean… You are only level 2, you probably can’t…” Avalyn trailed off as I opened the trade window with her, depositing about a quarter of my money that I’d pulled from my old accounts. She frowned, slowly counting the zeros tacked onto the end. 

“... How the hells do you have 14 million credits just to drop on this?” Avalyn asked, confusion written all over her face. I felt mine turning more and more red as all three of them stared at me. 

“I uh… Th-this is a second character…? Or… Well… fourth character, really…” I muttered out. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, it was way less than what your really influential players carried around on them. 

“Even with that many characters… To throw around that many credits so quickly… How do you have that much?” Nitra interjected, seemingly more caught off guard than anyone else. Troy was glaring at me with less intensity now, but definitely more curiosity. 

“Well… I play permadeath, so I make a new character every time I die… The first couple I went through pretty quickly, but I got the hang of it by my third… I never really spent much money, so it kinda stockpiled…” I nodded, looking up at her through my mess of white hair. 

“How long have you been playing this game, Kaela?” Troy asked, his voice level. He no longer seemed to be in much of a rush at this point, despite his insistence early on continuing to move. 

I took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. I rarely talked about this to anyone. “Since launch… So… Around five or six years?” 

“Damn.” Troy hummed in appreciation. “That explains your seemingly well developed skills.” 

“I uh… I mostly… was a mercenary fighter pilot…” I nodded slightly. “But I was good enough at the basics of the game. My last character lasted for around three years, so… By the time I died… Well, that tenth of my credits was a pretty big number…” 

“Well… My team just agreed that the 14 million is more than enough for us to break our original contract over. So… Guess that makes you the client now, Kaela.” Avalyn said, looking back up from where I assumed she had been looking at chat clients only visible to her. “I’m guessing you want to control this ship?”

“Y-yes please, if you can.” I nodded slightly, face still beet red. 

Avalyn reached down, grabbing both her helmet and her heavy chain laser with a wide grin. “Then let's get you to the bridge.” 

MaeveWerepuppy

Ugh, fight scenes are my bane. I hope this one was relatively coherent, but this is a chapter I plan on heavily revising in the future. I don't like writing action, at least on the person-to-person scale. The frustration of writing this kept me at bay a little bit. 

If you want great fight scenes though, and enjoy the VRMMO genre of stories, one I read through recently absolutely hits the mark. Check out Untouchable by Wyn for a book full of fast paced action, teenage angst, secrets and much more game-like elements! I binged this in like a day and a half, it was that good. No more spoilers though, just go enjoy the story! 

My contact is always open if you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding my writing! You can find me: 

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Don't forget to drink water today, 

Mae