[Diving]
— Emily ‘Lady’ Piggot —
“And so… let the adventure begin!”
Ancalagon’s voice boomed; Piggot-… No, Lady felt it in her bones.
It was a readying thrum, revving her revitalized energy to new heights. It was the opening theme to a mission the likes of which even her storied trooper career had never seen, imparted in just a few words and some Draconic theatrics.
The theatrics weren’t for their sake. All the parties had already been dropped into Ancalagon’s Dungeon at various locations around the edge of the Zone. They were for the sake of the stream, the millions of viewers who were tuning in for the Second Dive. Word had spread after the first. Few wanted to miss out on the second.
Lady stood with her chosen troopers in the active Dungeon. Her first impressions of the SOX Zone weren’t what she was expecting.
Instead of dying, decaying brown, she looked around and saw the opposite: living, thriving green.
They’d been dropped on the side of a road, a somewhat major, European-style highway. The only signs of death and abandonment were manmade. Cars had been left here, and at some point after, stripped for parts. The road was overgrown and cracked, nature pushing onto and through the construction.
But other than that, the sky was a pristine blue, the trees bordering the road were a healthy green, and the air even felt… fresh in her lungs.
She knew the Zone was ground zero for all but apocalyptic nuclear fallout. But now, what must have been decades after the event, nature was in good spirits. After so long in Brockton Bay’s urban decay, it was a — literal — breath of fresh air.
Lady readied herself for her first step back into the field, crushing long-absent nerves with the ease of old experience.
“Think of it as a three-day special operation. Simple. Sure. ‘Cause those always are,” Lady muttered to herself, finishing in a deadpan.
“Alright,” She turned to speak to her troopers. “Let’s take stock.”
“Present and ready, sir,” The first trooper reported.
Maia, a somewhat new transfer to the Bay and Lady’s command. She was good, as good as any other trooper under her, but relatively young. Only a few years out of PRT basic and the Recon Specialist school she’d attended after.
In the party’s Ancalagon-sourced awakenings, she’d ended up with the Raven spirit. It fit her, but Lady didn’t expect anything else from Ancalagon’s magic at this point.
“I’m in one piece, sir,” The second trooper, Xian, chuckled.
He was an older trooper, but solid. Both physically and personally. Xian was a Bay native, but he’d fallen in with the PRT rather than the late Lung’s ABB or its predecessors. A good soldier, with a good sense for keeping morale up through easy-going humor, no matter how FUBAR a situation was.
He was partnered with the Mountain spirit.
The last trooper in Lady’s party just grunted, “Hngnn.”
Luiz was a trooper of few words. He was loyal, though, and efficient — brutal in how determined he was to carry out his orders. He tended towards explosive solutions, fitting for a demolitions expert.
He was partnered with the Boar spirit.
Their whole party had awakened as ‘physical adepts’ by Ancalagon’s terminology. He’d explained that meant their awakened magicks were turned inward. Lady thought she could feel it, as strange as the new sensation was. Even beyond her recovery, she’d never felt better, stronger, more energized, like she had distilled life in her veins.
“Kit check?” Lady requested.
She checked her own kit, too, even as she asked. She’d personally signed all of the requisition requests, sparing no expense for what she was determined to make a proper showing of PRT competence.
Participating in Ancalagon’s Dungeon could be considered… a special occasion, and Lady had even called in favors to get the best equipment she could. All good, solid, well-understood engineering, too. No Tinker required.
They all wore the usual trooper body armor, but it’d been beefed up with more purposeful, mil-spec rigs and plate carriers. Better still, they didn’t have to play nice — like they usually had to with capes — so they had actual firepower at their disposal.
“All green, sir,” Maia immediately called back, having already been checking herself over.
She had a P90 PDW for her sidearm, a fully-kitted and modernized M1A DMR for her primary, and all the gadgets she’d need for recon duties.
“Likewise,” Xian confirmed as well.
He carried a modded AS Val, the weirdo, for his primary, but at least he had a good ol’ Glock for his sidearm.
“Hn,” Luiz grunted in the affirmative.
As much as Lady thought he needed a rifle as his primary, Luiz had a modded UMP. It was the .45 variety, at least. And he used the saved weight from the submachine gun for a whole lot of heavier ordinance, carrying a 40mm grenade launcher and stocking his rig mostly with ammunition for it. To say nothing of the other explosives he was hiding… somewhere.
“All set, then,” Lady nodded.
She kept things simple and effective for her own armaments. A modded HK416A5. She’d used the very same rifle in… Ellisburg. It’d served her well there. It would serve her well here. And if 5.56 wasn’t enough stopping power, she had a special commission Desert Eagle she’d been dying to use at more than just the range.
“We’re moving out. Xian, you’re driving,” Lady ordered.
As part of the Corps’s ‘starter kits’ for the Second Dive, Ancalagon had given all of the parties — even the ones who didn’t strictly need it — armored transportation. Light IFVs, essentially, without any mounted armaments, but still eight-wheeled, all-terrain monsters.
Lady was glad for his assurance that they weren’t tinkered vehicles. Depending on how it performed, she might have to see about buying a few from the Corps.
“On it, sir. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to… dodge… any bumps in the road,” Xian said, smirking.
Maia flinched. Then, she scowled and punched Xian on his arm, “Bastard.”
Lady chuckled. It felt good to do so freely again, back in the field. Ancalagon’s tutorial had been an unpleasant but appreciated warm-up for her. She didn’t think many others participating in the Second Dive thought so, though.
“Mount up,” She said. “We’re headed… northeast. And keep sharp. There’s no telling what we’ll run into on the way. From yesterday’s briefing, though, I very much doubt it’ll be sunshine and roses.”
IIIII
About 20 minutes into their drive deeper into the Zone, there was a tremendous crash that made Xian bring the IFV to a stop.
The cacophony was distant, but not distant enough for Lady’s liking.
“C4. 1.5 pounds,” Luiz grunted, instantly knowing the source of the distant explosion by sound alone.
“Wonderful,” Lady muttered, mostly to herself.
Xian grinned, “Detour, sir?”
“It’s in our way, by the sounds of it,” Lady nodded. “Get us a bit closer. Find a hill we can peek over if you can, or some other kind of cover if you can’t. We’ll check it out, at least, but I was hoping for more time to get our feet under us.”
Xian pushed the IFV back into drive, continuing down the road they’d been dropped on. Half a klick down the way, he veered off, forging a path through the overgrown nature around them. It was slow going, but Xian’s careful driving and the monstrous IFV kept them from getting stuck.
In the back, Lady could feel Maia’s tension ramping up. She was the youngest trooper in the party. Not completely inexperienced, just less than the rest.
Lady turned in her seat to look at the young trooper, “You good? You’re our eyes, Maia. I need you steady.”
The younger woman met Lady’s gaze. Something in it must’ve given her strength, the steadiness Lady needed from her. Maia nodded.
“I’m good, sir. I won’t be the one who lets the Lady down.”
“Oh, stuff that,” Lady waved. “Don’t let your commanding officer down, girl. Fame goes out the window when you’re side by side in the field together.”
“It’s still an honor to be working with you in your prime, sir,” Xian pointed out. “Can’t deny that much.”
“No need for the pedestal, Xian,” Lady snorted. “I’ve been out of action for longer than you’ve been in it.”
Luiz chuffed, “Exactly.”
“Yeah, sir, that is, uh, kind of the point of the pedestal…?” Maia agreed, awkwardly chuckling. “You’re a legend that was old even when I was in school.”
“I’ll just have to pull you three up to my supposed level, then,” Lady said. “Let’s make you PRT legends with this mission. It’s certainly unique enough to qualify. All you’ve gotta do from here is give me your best, and I’ll make sure you go home with the world knowing your names.”
Maia looked at her with stars in her eyes, barely stopping herself from saluting from her seated position, “Y-Yes, sir!”
“You could’ve had Dragon’s Teeth, sir,” Xian said. “You chose us instead. How could we give you anything less?”
“… Point your finger, and I’ll make shit disappear,” Luiz agreed, saying some of the most Lady had ever heard from him.
Lady nodded, “Then I don’t regret turning down the Dragon’s Teeth in the slightest.”
The next few driving minutes were spent with a ready mood in the IFV’s cabin. Lady could literally feel her troopers fortifying themselves, Mars whispering her soldiers’ morale in her spiritual ear.
Maia readied herself with an understated hyperness.
“She will take flight if you give the word,” Mars told her.
Luiz did so with a rising tension, C4 primed for the explosive signal. And Xian did so with an easy smile on his face.
“~He has full faith in your leadership. He will be the bulwark you can rely on.”
‘And me?’ Lady thought back at her totem spirit.
“~You are sure of yourself already, veteran. Proven. Do you need to ask?”
Lady snorted in her mind, ‘Fuck no.’
Outside, the sounds of battle penetrated through the IFV’s armor. Xian brought them to a stop with a wooded hill between them and what should’ve been the sounds’ source. Lady wasted no time dismounting, and her party of troopers followed.
Closer to the action now, the cacophony was familiar and almost reassuring. It wasn’t just gunfire and explosions, but more esoteric effects, too. It sounded like a cape fight.
Lady dropped prone as she crested the hill, not chancing the silhouette even with the trees around her to break it up. Her troopers dropped beside her. They all looked out over a small, strangely cleared valley and the action within.
Two squads, Lady cataloged, about 10 strong each. They were clashing at close range, engaging each other from across a small stream at the center of the valley.
A constant song of gunfire rang out in coordinated solos from the firing instruments, single shots and three-round bursts. Purposeful shots, Lady thought. Experienced and well-trained. These were soldiers. PMCs at the least.
The equipment she saw reflected that assessment. Most wore body armor comparable or better than what her party had. The ones that didn’t had… other equipment advantages. On one side, two power-armored hardsuits stood at the forefront of the fight, serving as personal-sized walking tanks. On the other side, three of the PMCs looked like something out of a transhumanist’s wet dream.
Cyborgs, chromed to the gills. Lady’s mind immediately flashed to Glory from Ancalagon’s Hoard and her intimidating cyberarms. The cyborgs in front of her looked more… modern, if Lady had to put their augmentations into words. Not modern for Earth Bet, even most Tinkers; modern for the Sixth World.
PMCs would obviously kit themselves out as best they could for combat. It did make her briefly wonder why Glory’s cyberware was so brutal and jarring to look at. Surely with a Dragon as her sponsor, she had access to even better equipment than the PMCs could requisition.
Lady shook her head, pushing the small mystery to the side.
Below, one PMC dropped dead from a well-placed headshot, peeking his head out at an unlucky moment. Another was dragged into cover by a comrade, riddled with shots that had penetrated their body armor.
The cyborgs seamlessly coordinated an assault against the power-armored tanks, two rushing one, and the last cyborg taking the other from a distance.
The distant cyborg directed a pair of drones into the assault. One stayed defensively posted around its controller, firing off what looked to be a railgun that ripped an arm off the power-armored enemy and sent them stumbling. The other drone flew straight in on rocket thrust and detonated on impact to leave a crater where a ton of armor just stood.
“… Want,” Luiz muttered to the rest of the party.
“Easy now, big guy,” Xian joked. “We’ll get you your boom.”
The other power-armored PMC let loose on the two rushing cyborgs with an underarm-mounted minigun. One of the cyborgs was as big as the power armor, but shirtless and bearing undeniably natural horns on his head.
“~Dermal armor, artificially enhanced muscles, fortified internal organs, composite bones, biotech steroids,” Mars helped Lady assess the target and advised how best to take him down. “Eyes are still soft. A shot through them to the brain would kill. Or-…”
As if taking a breath, the minigun spun up and unleashed hellfire at 2000 RPM. The big cyborg was ripped to literal pieces by the volley, flesh and chrome flying to decorate the valley floor.
“~Overwhelming firepower will do the job just as well,” Mars finished, sounding amused.
Xian whistled, “Damn, that’s one dead… Troll…? The horned ones are Trolls, right?”
“That’s what the Sixth World info packet Ancalagon sent us home with said,” Maia confirmed. “Feels a bit uncanny to see them in person. Not as uncanny as a Case 53, but still… different.”
“Earth Bet has parahumans. The Sixth World has metahumans. The key part of both is the latter word: human,” Lady reminded.
The other cyborg reached the power-armored PMC in a rage at her partner’s gruesome death. Anywhere else, Lady imagined she would’ve been a beautiful woman. A femme fatale, even. On the battlefield now, though, she was a raging valkyrie.
Unnaturally red hair billowed like a halo around her head. She was as shirtless as her partner had been, augmented flesh on full display. Her arms and legs, however, were fully black. From the latter, rocket boosts shot her into a screaming leap. And from the former, burning blades extended from her forearms to carve through power armor like butter.
“What I would let a woman like that do to me…” Xian whispered, putting on a playful sigh.
“Same…” Maia nodded in a trance before shaking sense back into herself. “I mean-! As if she would ever give you a shot, old man!”
“Focus,” Lady ordered. “This is a perfect example of what we’re up against now. We should be taking notes, not thirsting after the mostly naked murder-borg.”
The power-armored PMC tried to fight back in close quarters, but their strikes were lumbering compared to the valkyrie murder-borg’s agility, even with the armor’s assistance. The valkyrie severed one armored arm, then a leg, and her enemy fell. Then, with a vengeful shout, the valkyrie stabbed both her burning blades through the power armor’s helmet, ending the PMC inside.
With both power-armored tanks dead, the tides seemed to be turning. The cyborg squad pushed them back with good coordination; Lady could see they weren’t wholly reliant on their augmented specialists.
Then, from the other side of the stream, a unique-looking PMC stood into view for the first time. He was the only one in the fight without body armor, instead boasting regular, baggy clothes, a rasta-colored hat over white dreads, and smoking a strange pipe even through the action.
That old hippy, complete with a peace symbol necklace, had no place in a fight between futuristically equipped PMC squads, but he was there anyway. And with a waving of his hands, a deep breath of smoke, and a sense of energy in the air rising from him, he changed the genre of the fight.
“Hippy fucking mage…” Xian muttered, caught somewhere between bemusement and amusement. “This really is a weird world the Dragon has thrown us into.”
The ‘hippy fucking mage’ cast a spell, and the spirits of the world — magicks that Lady was still coming to terms with herself — answered.
From the center of the valley, the stream came to life. It reared up as one serpentine body with rushing rapids for scales and solid bubbles as fangs. The stream serpent spirit struck at the opposing PMC squad, feral and fierce.
The valkyrie was swept up in coils of water, screaming bubbles into the spirit’s engulfing body. The other cyborg and the rest of the squad moved to help her, targeting the mage in the backlines. The railgun drone fired off again, a streak that carved into the mage’s cover.
But the other squad’s fight wasn’t relegated to just the new magicks. The rest of the grunts coordinated, taking advantage of their mage’s provided distraction. A single shot, well-picked, cut off the drone controller cyborg for good. They fell dead, and so did their drone.
Then, with magic at their back, it was just a matter of cleaning up the rest, Grunts vs. Grunts. The mage’s side of things did so in short order.
Only the valkyrie survived to be captured at the end of the fight. Lady gave it a few more minutes for the victorious PMCs to get moving and vacate the area. While the party waited, she debriefed them on what they’d witnessed.
“What have we learned?” She asked.
“That…” Maia hesitated. “That we might be kinda fucked, sir.”
“Disagree,” Lady shook her head. “The threats in the Zone are formidable. Different. But not absolute. We saw them die here, cyborgs and power armor alike. And the mage, without the spell he cast, seemed the most vulnerable to a bullet between the eyes. We’re used to going against stacked odds, anyway. This isn’t all that different, only today, we aren’t being forced to play non-lethal.
“With wits, gumption, and scrappy tenacity, I’m confident we’ll make the Zone know our names.”
“Different,” Xian chuckled. “Yeah, that’s one way to put it. I think you’re right, though, sir. That armor could still be penned, even the cyborg stuff. And mages are squishy if you catch them with their pants down. It’s a diverse threat-book we’re facing now, but not much more diverse than cape threats can be. We’ve got this.”
“Fight smart,” Luiz grunted. “Big boom is still the great equalizer.”
Lady laughed lightly at that, “There’s the fighting spirit I’m looking for. Keep on your toes, and we’ll pull through.”
She glanced back down at the valley floor. The remaining PMC squad there was starting to move on. They didn’t seem to loot much, other than what Lady could only guess were digital dogtags from the fancy future tech that holographically flashed as one merc confirmed each kill. Then, they were gone, taking the valkyrie prisoner and dismissing the mage’s spirit so that the valley returned to its former state.
“Now, how do we feel about looting the leftovers?” She asked. “Personally, I’m dying to get my hands on some… modern… firepower.”
Xian grinned, “It’ll be a shame to stash my Val-baby in the truck, but I wouldn’t say no to something with a bit more punch.”
Maia already had her eyes locked onto one fallen merc in particular, “I’m pretty sure that one’s DMR is actually a railgun. I wouldn’t mind that kind of upgrade, either.”
And Luiz just nodded, summing up his understated excitement in two words, “Big. Boom.”
IIIII
Back in the IFV and back on the road, the party took stock of their recent loot.
Maia was practically drooling over the new rifle she had, “God, sir, I think I’m in love.”
It was just as she’d been expecting: a not-so-pocket railgun. And Maia hadn’t put it down since she picked it up. She’d looted its former owner to his skeevies, essentially, taking the railgun DMR as a new primary and enough ammo to keep it shooting for a good while.
“It looks like it’ll do vicious work,” Lady replied to Maia. “No trouble getting your head around it?”
Maia shook her head, “It’s actually kinda simple, sir. I’m sure stripping and cleaning the rails will be different from what I’m used to, but the former owner kept it in good enough shape that I can figure all of that out later.”
Those were the benefits of advanced tech that was actually standardized and understood, instead of being Tinker black-boxed, Lady supposed. The Sixth World’s advancement was much more her style.
Luiz had looted a small 4-rotor drone and what seemed to be a portable, backup control system for it from the drone controller cyborg. Thankfully, the backup controls didn’t require the augmented kind of hardware.
Furthermore, they’d taken fresh, advanced-composite armor plates from plate carriers, slotting them into their own. They’d also looted ammo for the calibers they were already carrying, the futuristic rounds working like a dream even in their ‘outdated’ guns. Xian found 9x39mm Incendiary rounds, Lady found AP Sabot 5.56 rounds and EX-Frag .50 Action Express, and Luiz found a whole host of exotic 40mm grenades.
The strangest piece of loot went to Xian. He’d found a silenced, bullpup revolver pistol and hadn’t been able to resist. That man had very strange tastes when it came to firearms.
Various gadgets had been taken from the dead PMC squads, but until Lady had a better idea of what they did, they’d been thrown into the trunk. She wouldn’t jeopardize her party’s fighting efficiency with unknown tools until she got the chance to sit down with them and have Mars explain the various functions and flaws.
Other than armor plates and ammo, the only thing Lady herself had looted was a 12-gauge semi-auto shotgun. Some things in life couldn’t and shouldn’t be resisted, like the primal urge to utterly shred your enemies.
With the PMC battlefield stripped clean, though, they continued deeper into the Zone. They had plenty of ground to cover, each of the Second Dive’s parties having been dropped on the edge of the SOX’s approximately 3500 square mile containment area.
Lady imagined the drop-in points were relatively evenly spaced. It could just be a matter of time until they ran into another party.
The best way to accomplish Ancalagon’s assigned objective was still up in the air. They needed leads on Feuerschwinge, but if they could make contact with the locals, Lady couldn’t imagine those leads would be hard to come by.
How hard could it be to find a Dragon? She snorted, knowing she was tempting fate with just the thought.
Until then, they were headed, vaguely, towards the center of the Zone, and she was playing whatever they might encounter by ear.
Outside the IFV, spectacular scenery passed them by. This was good country, right in the heart of one of Europe’s most fertile and formerly productive regions. It was a shame that all of it had been written off and walled in, including a whole country, no matter how small.
But then, that containment had created a fascinatingly unique place — a Zone where nature was resurgent, and the inhabitants were left to a special kind of living.
The PMC fight they’d stumbled upon didn’t seem like an exceptional circumstance. There were probably a dozen more just like it happening right at that moment. And those were just the Zone-dwellers contracted by the ruling corporations. She was curious to see the other factions within the Zone that Ancalagon had briefed them on.
… Think of the enemy, and they shall appear. Lady almost cursed herself. She knew better than to let her mind wander in the field.
Along the highway, a moving ambush was sprung. A pack of motorcycles roared to life from both wooded sides of the road. They were shoddy, scrappy things, as were their riders — quintessential raiders or bandits if Lady had ever seen them.
Xian actually laughed at the sight, “Ha! Straight out of Mad Max!”
“Complete with the cannibalism, by the looks of it,” Lady dryly added.
The motorcycles and their riders were decorated with bones, stripped completely clean. Literal skull-cap helmets, clavicle handlebars, and rib cages worn around torsos on the outside.
The raiders brandished guns that looked worse than what her party carried, despite the Sixth World’s advancements, and melee weapons scraped together. They yelled and roared at the IFV, surrounding it as Xian kept them moving. Lady was sure they had nothing welcoming to say.
“~Ghouls,” Mars told her. “And not the sympathetic, admirable kind that try their best despite their curse. These ghouls are feral, giving into their worst MMVV cravings. They hunger for your flesh. They are too far gone to be reasoned with.”
“Ghouls,” Lady relayed the information to her party. “As bad as Nilbog’s spawn. Do me a favor, Xian? Run them the fuck off the road.”
Xian grinned, “As the Lady commands!”
With a twist of the wheel, the monstrous IFV swerved straight over one motorcycle-sharing pair of ghouls. They were eaten up beneath its many wheels with contemptuous ease. Xian brake-checked the next motorcycle, sending its riders flying completely up and over the hull.
“Sir? Boom?” Luiz requested.
Lady considered the request, “… Just one. Don’t waste any more ammo than that on these monsters.”
Luiz grinned, eager to fulfill his explosive purpose. He stood out of the hatch in the IFV’s roof, launcher in hand, and fired one of the exotic munitions he’d recently looted.
Three more motorcycles were engulfed in portable napalm. And instead of continuing the chase, the rest of the ghouls actually stopped around their burning comrades. They didn’t help, though.
In the rear view, Lady watched the remaining ghoul pack hungrily descend upon their still-burning fellows.
She scowled, “Nasty fuckers.”
Maia shuddered, “Sir? Permission to shoot ghouls on sight?”
Lady wanted to agree, but shook her head, “Those are supposedly the worst of them. Mars claimed they were feral, too far gone, and Ancalagon’s info packet said there were ghoul packs that engage in civil trade.
“They’re infected with some bad fucking juju… but they’re still human.”
“We know well what kinds of monsters humans can be, sir,” Xian said, his tone uncharacteristically sober.
Lady nodded in agreement, “The remaining humanity makes the worst of them more horrifying, not less. New world… but the monsters are eerily similar to the ones we know.”
“… That’s kinda fucked, sir,” Maia muttered. “I wonder how the other parties are handling all of this.”
IIIII
— Ancalagon —
Various views tracked the progress of all parties in the Second Dive for the stream’s audience of millions.
Calamitas, Jenevelle, and I presided over it all as the stream’s hosts. I was already thrilled by how well the adventure was going. The chat, it seemed, was equally thrilled by the show.
‘Damn! Mad Max road combat!’
‘Did… those guys stop the chase to EAT the burning ones???’
‘Ghouls, right? The pre-stream intro show mentioned them. Kinda terrifying to see them in action, though. Are they actually undead or just infected by ‘bad fucking juju’ like Lady said?’
‘I’m torn. On the one hand, it’s not real. Just simulations in the Dungeon. On the other hand, it WAS REAL in the Sixth World, ‘cause that’s what the Dungeon’s pulling all of this from, right? Just knowing literal, magically-infected zombies are possible…?’
‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep very well tonight…’
‘God, Lady’s cool. No wonder she survived Ellisburg. Running those cannibals off the road must’ve been cathartic.’
‘It’s good to see regular-ass people doing so well in the Dungeon. We really underestimate PRT troopers, don’t we?’
‘Well, yeah, they’re well-trained operatives that go up against capes non-lethally (and isn’t that kinda stupid when you stop and think about it?) on a regular basis. They’ve kinda gotta be badass.’
‘If becoming a cyborg will let me look like that valkyrie murder-borg chick, sign me the fuck up!’
‘That Troll, man… To pieces, you say? Brutal.’
‘I can’t get over the BULLPUP REVOLVER Xian picked up. Just… why? And why do I want one?!’
‘I liked the hippy mage guy. He reminds me of my uncle if all the sticky-icky he smokes gave him magic powers.’
“I’m impressed so far, I’ll admit,” Jenevelle commented on the party’s solution to the feral ghouls. “They didn’t let themselves get bogged down in a meaningless, lootless engagement, simply bulling through it instead.”
I chuckled, “And did you catch Lady’s subtle use of her spirit? Mars is giving her good, essential advice and information. Threat assessments, neutralization strategies, and the like. To a competent woman like her, that is one of the most dangerous advantages she could ask for.”
“Hmph, I enjoy her no-nonsense leadership, I suppose. She is, in fact… competent enough to pass the initial muster,” Calamitas haughtily admitted.
Jenevelle nodded, “We’ll have to see if she can keep up that momentum.”
“I’m most eager to see her apply her competence to PvP,” I said. “We might get the chance for that sooner rather than later…”
Piggot (or ‘Lady’, now that she was back in action) had given a good showing so far, but hers was only one of the parties participating in the Second Dive. The other parties were getting just as much action in the Dungeon and attention outside of it.
Both New Wave parties, for example, had used their parahuman powers to link up right from the start. They made up most of the flyers in the Bay, after all, and used that to their advantage.
‘Are they allowed to do that?’ Chat asked.
“Of course,” I answered. “Adventurers may use every power, wit, and material to challenge the Dungeon. It’s perfectly reasonable for parties that are used to working together to do so.”
‘… I can’t help but notice the Empire parties don’t seem to be teaming up like that, even though Hookwolf’s party has Rune to scout from above.’
‘Well, they did start on opposite sides of the Zone.’
‘Yeah, but Rune’s power is perfect for mass transportation. If they wanted to, they could. Is Hookwolf going rogue?’
‘Looks like Kaiser is playing the Dive conservatively, and Hookwolf is… not, to put it lightly (rip and freaking tear, dude, damn… Those cultists don’t know what’s hitting ‘em). Divide and conquer, maybe?’
‘Was I the only one to see the tension there in the pre-Dive meeting?’
‘Nah, there was definitely more heat between Kaiser/Krieg and Hookwolf than I was expecting.’
‘Heat…? @ SpecificProtagonist, if you’re here, whatever you do, don’t ship the nazis.’
‘Ew,’ Madison replied to that message in chat. ‘I do have SOME standards, ya know?’
Elsewhere, other parties were not having as easy a time of it as New Wave.
The MOX party had almost immediately stumbled upon a tricky Fae spirit that was keeping them trapped in an astral anomaly for the moment. It wasn’t entirely hostile, just playing with the MOX girls. At the very least, the ghostly Entity connected to them would be getting very, very good DATA from the experience.
“Come out and bargain with us, at least!” Psykos shouted into the unnaturally dark and twisting forest enshrouding them.
“~What do you have?/What did you bring?/What will you find?” The Fae spirit sang right back. “Can you afford to put me in your debt? Or will you end up in mine?”
“If they’re clever, they may gain much from that interaction,” I commented.
“Fae spirits are rarely ever worth the trouble,” Calamitas scoffed.
“It is the first line of communication that any of the parties has opened with the locals of the Zone,” Jenevelle pointed out. “And with a spirit, at that.”
“None know the twists and turns of the Zone’s astral plane better than those who have hands in creating them,” I said. “If they emerge whole and sane, perhaps our MOX friends will be the first to find a lead on Feuerschwinge.”
Miss Militia’s Protectorate party, meanwhile, was being relentlessly harried by the Zone’s paracritter population.
“I don’t know how, but this is your fault, Shadow Stalker!” Vista shouted as the party ran a fighting retreat from a swarm of flying snakes.
“It is, and it isn’t,” I informed the stream, chuckling. “These critters would be all around them regardless, but Shadow Stalker’s totem is currently testing her. The Jaguar wants to see her survive the wild, and it will reward her if she does. The rest of the party is simply being caught up in the test.”
‘Flying snakes… That’s absolutely fucking up something primal in my monkey brain right now.’
‘Kill them! Kill them with sticks and rocks and fire!’
‘They’re cute!’
‘They most certainly ARE NOT CUTE! The nope ropes don’t need MORE mobility! They’re bad enough as ambush predators!’
‘Smite ‘em with space, Vista!’
‘Why are there so many?! They just keep coming!’
‘Did… those vines just try to grab them?’
‘Bad SOX! You’re in Europe, not Japan!’
Vista was quick to put space between her party and the suddenly reaching vines. The source of those vines quickly revealed itself — a gorilla that must’ve escaped from the Luxembourg Zoo and mutated in the Zone to be covered with animated vines.
The beastly paracritter roared and pounded its chest. Vista cancelled just a portion of her space manipulation, and Dauntless stepped into it, power-enhanced spear at the ready. His totem, Theseus, helped him face down the beast, fortifying his courage and body with spirit.
‘There’s our hero!’ The chat cheered.
‘God, Vista’s wicked strong, isn’t she?’
‘Yeah, and she’s looking… stronger than usual. Which is saying something. Magic?’
‘Miss Militia’s just good, man. She hasn’t missed a shot, and those snakes can’t be easy targets. It’s not like aiming is part of her powerset, either.’
Dauntless held the Vine Gorilla’s attention. Shadow Stalker slipped around it, going ghost with both her parahuman power and the help of her new totem spirit. She sank into the shadows of the forest, coming out behind the beast with a crossbow bolt clutched in her hands.
While Dauntless stabbed at the beast, Shadow Stalker slipped the broadhead bolt into the back of its neck.
“You can do some good, I suppose,” Vista grumbled.
“Focus,” Miss Militia called, covering the party’s rear against the still-pursuing snakes.
“Oh, I’m focusing!” Vista called back.
A moment later, she summoned the sky into her space. Shadow Stalker just barely jumped clear before a lightning bolt struck the Vine Gorilla, double-tapping the beast for good.
“You stole my kill!” Shadow Stalker snapped at Vista.
“We’re a party!” Vista snapped right back, taking no shit. “My kills are your kills, and your kills are mine!”
“… You’re right,” Shadow Stalker actually admitted, much to the rest of the party’s surprise. “All that matters is that we survive.”
“Shall we check in on the other Protectorate party?” I asked the stream.
I knew something they didn’t, having kept track of each party’s location. The second Protectorate party — Armsmaster, Gallant, Clockblocker, and Kid Win — had had an easy time of the Dive so far. But they were about to cross paths with Lady’s party, which had stopped to take a short break and get a better lay of the land.
It was our first chance at PvP in the Dungeon, and as I switched the stream to follow Armsmaster’s party, I knew it would be well worth the watch.
“This should be good,” Calamitas smirked ever-so-slightly.
“Lady’s party has proven itself rather competent already,” Jenevelle commented. “I do hope they keep up that showing.”
“The real question,” I said. “Will be if they allow outside allegiances to color their performance within the Dungeon. Lady is the Protectorate party’s superior, after all. Will she be willing to go all out despite that? Will she… play for keeps?”
It quickly became apparent that she would.
“Incoming, sir,” Maia reported in her role as the PRT party’s overwatch.
“I know,” Lady called back. “I’d recognize the sound of Armsmaster’s bike anywhere.”
“Ancalagon provided all of the parties with transportation. I’m surprised Armsmaster still chose to use his bike,” Xian said.
“I’m not,” Lady snorted. “He can be insistent like that.”
‘Oh! PvP!’
‘Surely not, right? I mean, why would the PRT and Protectorate parties fight each other?’
‘Petty grudges?’
‘Letting off steam?’
‘In the Dungeon, just because they can, maybe?’
“The field is set,” I narrated for the stream. “And in the spirit of the Dungeon’s adventure, the parties may decide their own courses. Some will choose to team up, as we’ve seen from New Wave. And some will choose the chance to fight against those they would otherwise not be at odds with. Take notes, viewers. Many of you will find yourselves with similar choices once the Dungeon officially opens its doors.”
“If I were Lady, I would wish to humble my outside allies,” Calamitas stated.
“I believe I would take a more diplomatic path,” Jenevelle added her own opinion. “But I cannot fault Lady and her party for wishing to test themselves against the heroes they usually work with.”
“Maia, set up for the shot. They should be coming right down the road. We’ll have the drop on them, and we’ll take it. Luiz, get your new drone rigged up and ready. EX-Fragmentation,” Lady ordered. “Let’s show these capes how fucked they’d be if my troopers stopped playing nice with them.”
In the chat, the PRT spokesperson agent, Reave, sent an unheard plea to Lady, ‘Please, Director. The Youth Guard Rep is… kindly asking that you don’t use kamikaze drones on our Wards…’
‘… Yeah, they’re fucked. Capes are used to fighting other capes, not well-trained and unconstrained operatives.’
‘I think Armsmaster has a shot. He might be a bit arrogant, but it’s just because he really is that good, ya know?’
‘Good as a cape, not as a soldier.’
‘Man, I really hope this isn’t too gruesome. They’re still kids, after all.’
‘Fuck them kids.’
‘It’s a tough lesson, but shouldn’t the Wards learn that there are no such things as ‘rules of war’?’
‘Sure, if they were CHILD SOLDIERS! They’re kids with powers! I don’t think they really need such a rude awakening!’
‘It might keep them alive when it really counts. Best to learn it here in the Dungeon where the lesson can actually stick without major casualties.’
Armsmaster, having come into the Dungeon with his tinkered motorcycle, tore down the road in front of his party’s IFV. The Wards were safe within… except for the careless crack they’d left in their protection. The top hatch of the IFV was open.
The party never saw the ambush coming. Maia, lying prone with her new railgun at her shoulder, lined up the shot on Armsmaster in the lead. I switched the stream’s view to peek through the sniper’s scope alongside her.
The chat seemed to hold its breath. We could count every hair in Armsmaster’s beard, aligned in Maia’s crosshair. There was an exhaling of breath. Maia pulled the trigger.
With a hypersonic crack, Armsmaster came under accurate fire, the shot aimed straight at his beard. It was over in a flash, the railgun round just about striking true.
At the last moment, the Dungeon’s insurance kicked in. Armsmaster himself was extracted. His death was still simulated by the Dungeon, though, shown as him bursting into a shower of gold coins — a PvP reward from my Hoard.
He appeared beside me in the tower, none the worse for wear other than a small, telling scratch on his chin where Maia’s railgun round would’ve struck.
Instantly, he reacted, jerking to full but late readiness, “Wha-!”
“That’s you out, unfortunately, Armsmaster,” I told him. “Do you wish to know what killed you?”
“Out…?” He muttered in shock. “No, that’s… How?”
“The Director’s party was waiting in ambush. They heard you coming and took full advantage of the element of surprise,” Jenevelle recounted. “Even the best of us are vulnerable to a well-executed sniper shot.”
“This is simply how things go sometimes,” I consoled. “Every adventure runs the risk of being cut abruptly short.”
“Your Wards are next,” Calamitas warned. “Watch.”
Armsmaster did, with only one further request, “… Can I at least get my bike back?”
‘… Damn.’
‘I always suspected a good marksman could take out most capes at any time if they had reason to.’
‘Right through the beard, man. Brutal.’
Back in the Dungeon, the Wards in their IFV swerved in shock. Their leader had just burst into that shower of gold. Even without every gruesome detail of his death, what had happened was obvious. While they were reeling, the terrifying buzz of drone rotors could be heard.
Luiz’s drone flew overhead, unnoticed in the Wards’ panic. Before they could fully stop and dismount from the IFV, it came to a hover over the open hatch. A grenade dropped straight in.
I quickly switched the stream’s view to the interior of the IFV’s cabin. There, the three Wards had all turned to look at the dropped grenade with quickly rising horror.
“Oh, fu-…!” Clockblocker exclaimed.
The grenade detonated in a burst of fragmenting shrapnel that, again, just about struck true.
“-UCK!” He finished his exclamation… outside the Dungeon.
The Wards looked around frantically at the sudden shift in their surroundings. Kid Win quite literally collapsed on his back in relief.
“Thank GOD!”
“That… was awful,” Gallant said, shuddering. “Worse than any horror movie. I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life.”
“Learn from them,” Armsmaster said, trying for a lesson and silver lining. “They will ensure you know what to do if such a situation happens again. Clockblocker, you could’ve frozen the grenade and given the party time to vacate the blast radius.”
“Could’ve, yeah. Should’ve, even,” Clockblocker admitted, his posture looking rather drained. “I think I was the one who froze up instead.”
Armsmaster nodded, “And that is perfectly understandable. We’ll work on it.”
“Sorry, boys,” I said. “I’m afraid that’s the end of your Dive.”
“We’ll get ‘em next time,” Kid Win said from the floor. “Or not. I’m not eager to get back in there at the moment. Dying sucks, even if we didn’t actually die.”
“And it should,” I chuckled slightly. “All the more motivation to avoid it. Even without the final pain of death, I think you’ve learned valuable lessons in surprise and expectations. Your next adventures, when you’re up for them, will go very differently, I’m sure.”
‘… They’re useful for a reason, but, man, fuck drones.’
‘I guess we have confirmation for the Dungeon’s insurance policy now. It’s pretty damn effective if it was quicker than a hypersonic railgun slug and a close-quarters frag grenade.’
‘Lady stomp! That’s our unpowered queen!’
‘PRT troopers are SCARY!’
‘Yeah, especially when they don’t have to play by their usual rules.’
‘The Dungeon ‘deaths’ weren’t nearly as gruesome as I was worrying. Just abrupt enough to show what WOULD’VE happened, without all the unnecessary gore and whatever.’
‘Shower of gold, not shower of gore. Much more palatable. Is the gold like the crystals the Dungeon generates for its NPC enemies?’
‘I’d imagine it is, yeah. Rewards for PvP victories and rewards for PvE victories. I wonder what they’ll actually be used for when the Adventurer Corps is fully up and running.’
Turning to the eliminated party, Jenevelle politely asked, “Can I interest you in a warm beverage to help destress from that jarring experience?”
“Please,” Gallant nodded, his voice heavy with relief.
“Do you have anything especially caffeinated?” Armsmaster requested.
“And a blanket!” Clockblocker put in his request.
“… Yeah, hot chocolate and a blanket sounds really good right about now,” Kid Win agreed.
Leaving Jenevelle to nurse them back to comfort, I marked the Dungeon’s first PvP experience with an announcement, my voice heard by both the stream and the other parties in the Dungeon.
“First blood has been struck. Lady’s party has eliminated Armsmaster’s — a full party wipe. Armsmaster, Gallant, Clockblocker, and Kid Win are out of the adventure. They have been safely recovered by the Dungeon’s insurance system, as promised. The rest of you, however, are still in play.
“We will be watching closely as you continue, adventurers, for your adventure has only just begun…”
IIIII
[AN: God, I’m really excited for the Second Dive here. It’s going to be just… so, so much fun, I can already tell. I have the vast majority of it planned out now, only missing small details here and there that I’ll get to when I get to them. Satisfyingly covering all the various parties in the Second Dive will be a challenge, but I think I have a plan that’s up for it.
The Dive will probably end up taking the entirety of Arc 5, with Ancalagon’s Dragon-level Dive as the end-of-arc interlude. That should also be fun, and I already have a plan for it, too.
I think this chapter is a very good start to the arc. I also happened to finish it on my birthday, which is fortuitous lol. I’ll probably take a break from writing for the rest of that day because of that, but I’ll be back at the Second Dive bright and early tomorrow. The Shadowrun STALKER Zone calls to me…]