Play 2 Wage: Linked

When I pushed the helmet of the body-rig up and away from my face, to my dismay, I discovered that Tevin was already in my booth waiting for me, now wearing a mid-sized hardshell backpack.

That part was not so bad, but it unnerved me that he had been allowed into my booth while I was still under. What was even worse, my new shield-bearing escorts were also present. Katie, the Council Liaison ‘Executive’, or Enforcer depending on who you asked, was also standing there chatting with Tevin.

Katie noticed me linkout immediately and gave me another of her pretty smiles, stepping across a painted line on the floor they all stood behind and offering me a hand to climb off the saddle.

“Welcome Mr. Spenser. I heard you would be back shortly, so I thought I’d drop by and see how things are going. Tevin here was just telling me how long you two have known each other.”

I tried to keep the wariness I felt off of my face, offering a smile in return while I took her hand and stood.

“Hello again, Katie.” I replied, unsure of what to say next, and hoping that this would not become the new routine. Having her check up on me daily as I left the Link was not my idea of a good time.

She took my curt reply in stride, her smile unwavering. “All the way back to the pre-link days, it seems like a whole life time ago. Tev used to be one of my best, if you didn’t know. It’s nice to have him back in the station from time to time. I wish I could have kept him around, but that's the thing with talent, always on to bigger and better things!”

Tevin caught up by this point, grinning and doing his best attempt at waggling his eyebrows and side nodding over to her. I was reminded of our conversation this morning, and despite myself, I felt my face start to heat up and quickly looked away from him.

“Yeah, uh, about that actually. The shepherds, I mean, I noticed a new post set up on our street. Was that you?” I questioned.

“Of course! Your work is very important to all of Arktria. We do our best to protect all of our Citizens, but some are worthy of… special attention.” She replied, making some frighteningly heavy eye contact. “With the recent fire bombings and terrorist activity in your district, I thought it prudent to secure a perimeter to make sure you and Tev here make it in safely each day.” I got another one of those bleached-white smiles along with her answer.

I broke the eye contact for a moment and glanced at Tev, who was still grinning. “Do you have any plans to deal with the gang activity in the area too? I got some pretty hostile looks from one of the crews last night as I got home. They probably would have jumped me again if your guys weren’t wrangling up some purists down the road.”

She nodded, “We’ve been monitoring the area and working with our network of insiders to get more targeted intel.” A fierce undercurrent emerged at the corners of her pearly smile. “Our laws prevent us from a total sweep through and clean up, unfortunately, but you can rest assured that we are doing everything within our ability to watch your back, Nick.”

I suppressed a shiver that ran up my spine and nodded, turning and brushing past her and making my way towards the locker where I had stashed my street clothes.

Tevin finally spoke up, his voice a little too loud in the echoey metal construction of the booth. “So Nick, did you have any luck getting some equipment from the dwarves, or one of them skill book thingies you were asking about?”

I felt a jolt of panic run through me, I had no idea how Katie would react to the plan with the dwarven faction and I really needed to keep her on my good side.

I spoke over my shoulder as I rummaged through my locker, not wanting to look at either of them just yet. “Ah, about that. It’s more complex than I had thought. I was planning to think about it overnight and make decisions tomorrow.”

Katie remained silent, and after a pause Tevin replied. “That makes sense, big things goin’ on and everyone always says to not rush into things. Did you sell some of those gems?”

I let out a sigh, and turned to face the pair. Katie was watching me, her smile was finally sheathed, but the new look of interested curiosity was no better.

“No… bro. I kept the gems, and…” I glanced from Tevin and back over to Katie, “I might as well give you a heads up. I think I got a better deal after making some friends within Clan Theedrite.”

Her intrigued look leaned closer to confusion and I pressed on. “I know I just got the Accord from Rosso and things are going good there, but the dwarves were pretty convincing. They said they would gather their leadership for the decision and make an offer to the Council about me. I have no idea how long that will all take, or what their offer will actually look like, but they seemed pretty enthusiastic about it.” I ended with a somewhat nervous smile of my own.

She listened intently while I spoke, playing with the hem of her tailored jacket with one hand. Most of the way through, her smile returned and she let out a little giggle as I finished.

“That’s very interesting, Nick. You have done a good job so far, and you're obviously capable. I’m not nearly as involved with or concerned about Linked-worlds politics as I am real-world, so you don't need to look so nervous.” Her eyes flit up and down, still watching me. “We’ll just have to see what comes of it.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, glancing at Tevs’ now worried face, he was clutching the stock of the rifle strapped to his chest, and shifting his weight back and forth on his feet nervously.

This time, I stepped forward and offered Katie my hand for a handshake, hoping to distract her from Tevins antics. “Thank you, Katie. I appreciate you coming in to check up on me, and all the work you're doing to keep us safe. It's been a long day though and we picked up some groceries that we should probably get home quickly. If you don’t mind, I’m ready to make like a baby, and head out.” I tried the joke, and a smile. Partially from my own nerves, and partly to see how she would react.

She shook my hand and let out a short single laugh, “Hah, understandable. Don’t let me detain you. I look forward to our next meeting and word on how your deal with the Zk’Aek dwarves is received.”

She gave me one last smile and spun on her heel before quickly walking out of the booth, her attention already back on the tablet she had held against her side through the conversation.

One of the two shield-bearers gave a slight shrug, and flashed me a thumbs-up again, keeping their hand low down by their waist.

I watched her go, and then shot Tevin a warning glare. He gave me an apologetic look in return and lowered his gaze to the floor before answering.

“I messed up, didn’t I?”

I held my glare for a moment, and then let out a big sigh, deflating. “Yeah, I’d hoped to keep that quiet, let the higher-ups hash it out before word came down. Who knows how it will shake out though, the dwarves could reject the deal before it even reaches the Council. Maybe it’ll buy some goodwill with Katie, letting her be the first to hear it.” I offered a small smile to the big guy and slapped his armored shoulder as I started to leave the booth.

Tev perked up at that, and gave me another of his big grins. “Yeah! Maybe it will, I’ve never seen her talk like that to anyone either. You could really use some ‘Special Attention’ if you ask me.” He laughed, I blushed, and the thumbs-up guard silently shook their head, before all four of us left the booth to run the gauntlet back to the travellers station.

I was still unused to the lights-out treatment as I pushed my way through the dark curtain, but Tevs hand on my shoulder gave me some confidence as we took a few steps into darkness. When the lights came back on, we joined the stream of people heading out of the gate.

Tev spoke through the comm-channel and my earpiece as we walked along the fenced off highway. “So, really. You should make a move on Katie, I know you don’t wanna hear it, but it's important man. People can’t just go through life like that, and if you play your cards right you’d probably end up with even more perks.”

I shot him another glare. “C’mon, let up with that already. I’m not gonna get with someone who could ruin my life with one bad remark.”

“Then who? You never leave the apartment in real-life, and have pushed everyone away at work. You’re never gonna meet anyone at the rate-.”

Tevs’ words were interrupted by a huge crunching metallic crash as an old garbage truck, with metal plates crudely welded onto it as makeshift armor, broke through a closed garage door and crashed into the security fence about 50 meters ahead of us. The truck blasted the concrete barriers into chunks, ripped the fencing from the posts and jammed into one of the trailer trucks that was waiting in the slow moving line that was always present this close to the station.

The garbage truck pushed the semi into the side of the train that was picking up speed as it chugged away from the massive commercial hub that surrounded the Link-ship. The train kept moving, filling the air with the screeching wail of metal on metal, scraping and tearing at the trailer as the train's momentum carried it forward.

The sirens on all of the nearby security towers added to the cacophony of noise, and the chatter of gunfire quickly joined it as more rusted vehicles roared out of the closest side street and skidded to a halt around the breach in the fence. Dozens of crudely armed and armored people spilled out of the vehicles and returned fire. The back end of another trailer truck pushed its way through the intersection, releasing even more people who poured out of the back of the trailer and began rushing the pinned vehicle.

“Holy fuck! Go! Go!” Tev shouted through the headset, pushing in front of me as he brought his rifle up. He fired three shots, sending one of the closest men in a spasm to the ground, then he reached back and grabbed me by the front of my jacket, and began to haul me towards the buildings. I heard a few bullets whip past us, one of them bouncing from Tevs shoulder pauldron leaving a bright scar in his gray armor, before we made it into the alcoved entrance of an abandoned and locked up storefront.

Tev pushed me against the wall, he released his grip on my jacket but kept his hand pressed against my chest to hold me in place. I looked over to him, gripping his forearm with one hand and fumbling to get my plasma knife out of my pocket with the other.

“Let me go!” I yelled.

He peeked around the edge of the alcove, and more gunfire ripped by, shattering the masonry of the corner we hid around.

He ducked back behind the cover and I saw his helmet swivel over as he looked at me, and then he brought his rifle up and peeked back around the corner, firing a few shots.

“Tev! Stay out of it! They’re not-”

An explosion went off nearby, throwing me back against the door, and catching Tevin’s shoulder as he prepared to return fire again. The blast threw his rifle from his hand, snapping his sling, and knocked him back from his corner and onto the ground in the center of the little alcove. Chunks of shrapnel and a cloud of dusty smoke washed down the old road passed us.

I shook off the momentary stun from the explosion and screamed, “No!” unable to even hear myself through the sound of the building fire-fight and the ringing hum in my ears. I crouched down, keeping away from the corner and grabbed one of Tevs feet. Bullets continued to whiz through the air, some pinging off his armor as he lay there. I heaved on his foot, attempting to pull him further into the cover.

I strained for a moment, unable to move his power-armored body, noticing in my struggle that his right arm was blackened and pock-marked with small craters where the blast had hit him. I felt his foot move, almost pulling me off balance, but I managed to let go before I fell onto him.

A pair of men came running into view from around the corner, one of them shooting at the tower down the street while the other grabbed at Tevins rifle that lay on the ground next to him. He spotted me as he got a hand on the rifle, and I opened my mouth for a battle cry that I still couldn't hear as I jumped at him, triggering and swinging my knife in a sweeping cut.

The plasma knife burned straight through the crude steel-plate he wore over his chest, scorching a line two inches deep across his chest and causing him to fall back, flailing his arms and firing off a few random shots from the antique rifle still in his other hand.

The other man turned from the tower and began to swing his weapon towards me, but something big hit him in the upper chest or shoulder, spraying us with gore and ripping one of his arms off, sending it twirling through the air towards the highway as he crumpled.

I fell back into the alcove, shouting at Tev to get back into cover. He grunted in reply through the head-set, and slowly rolled over and started to crawl out further to grab his rifle, more shots bouncing off his armor, flaking chips off of the exotic plating with each strike.

I screamed at him some more, and then my attention was drawn upward as a blast of wind pushed the billowing clouds of smoke and dust into my eyes, and then cleared the street of the obstructing smoke and dust.

One of the quad-engine shepherd drop-ships was flaring its jets to slow a rapid descent as it opened up with its cannon on the hi-jackers' vehicles. The doors on either side of it already opened and a dozen fully kitted out shepherds jumped down to the street level, using guide-ropes to slow their 10 meter fall.

I watched as a window across the street blew outwards and multiple lines of smoke tipped with bright fire lanced out from the upper stories of the buildings around us. The drop-ship tilted to one side and tried to maneuver out of the way, but one of the rockets scored a hit on its tail section and exploded, causing it to start to roll backwards and stall before falling out of the sky, scattering the armored troops still sliding down the zip-lines across the parallel roads and railways.

More windows shattered above us, causing bits of safety glass to rain from above. If it had happened in a movie, it would have been a perfect time for a slow-motion shot. The flames reflecting from a million shining diamonds in the sky above as the dropship drunkenly crashed into the line of waiting trucks and onto the top of the train. I could vaguely hear the twisting crash of more metal on metal as the carcass of the dropship rolled along the top of the heavy train as it finally derailed and ground to a halt.

Tev finally turned, rising to a crouch as he grabbed his rifle. He took two quick steps to build up speed and slammed his less injured shoulder into the steel-mesh that covered the abandoned storefront, shattering the glass and door frame behind it and pushing it slightly inward.

“You humans sure know how to get wild! That knife just cut right through that guy, awesome!”

I ignored Max’s clear voice, the only thing that I could really make out over the whining hum of my deafened hearing. I grumbled back at him, “Can’t you do something more useful?”

I slid along the wall and up next to Tev as he reached up with his free hand and started wrenching back and forth on the steel mesh that had stopped him from breaking through into the store.

I brought my plasma knife up and cut a line down the thick sections of hinged bars, and Tev quickly picked up on what I was doing, reaching over and pulling half of the seam away to make a gap that I quickly rushed through.

It was dark in the store so I kept my knife activated to give us some light as I ran into the dusty interior of the shop. I glanced back behind me and saw Tev hunching down to fit through the tear.

I tripped over something that had been laying on the ground just inside of the doorway, catching my forehead on the sharp edge of whatever it was. The knife flew from my hand, thankfully turning itself off as it clattered down a decrepit isle of barren shelves.

I groaned and rolled, trying to stand from what I discovered was a toppled shelving unit partially stuffed with rotted old clothing in ripped plastic bags, and boxes that felt damp to the touch and crumbled as I rolled off of the shelf.

Tev grabbed me by the jacket again and hauled me to my feet, kicking the shelf out of the way and barreling deeper into the store as gunfire started to punch holes into the steel-shuttered windows. I stumbled along after him, ripping myself free and losing a chunk of fabric and one side of the zipper on my jacket. I frantically looked around, trying to spot my knife, loathe to leave it behind and be forced to purchase yet another one.

I spotted a glowing red outline underneath one of the shelves, and mumbled thanks under my breath for the first useful thing Max had done in the situation.

“Those ass-hats aren't even here for you, you’ll be fine.”

I dropped to my hands and knees, grabbing the knife from under the shelf before standing and following in Tev’s wake as he bulled more shelves and piles of junk out of the way.

He pushed a straight path through the store, finally skidding to a halt and turning on a flickering light on the side of his helmet, paired with another on his rifle, which he swept across the back wall of the building. The light settled on a boarded up double door and we both started towards it, the whole room lit brightly for a flash as another explosion went off just outside.

This door didn’t even slow Tev down, not even bothering to lean his shoulder into it, he crashed through with his rifle raised, sweeping his lights across the mostly empty back room. To one side was a pile of old wooden pallets and more rotted cardboard. The other seemed to be taken up mostly by a massive walk-in freezer.

Just to the side of the walk-in was a steel door with a push-bar handle. Tev stomped over to it and kicked it in stride, heavily denting the door and causing it to fly open. It bounced off the wall and slammed back against his side as he stepped through. The ringing blow did not even cause his rifle to sway as he continued pushing forward.

I paused for a moment and glanced behind us through the broken double door and across the ruined store. I could see a couple of silhouettes in the light from outside, pouring into the store after us.

I cursed and ran down the hallway the steel door had revealed after Tevin. Calling to him through the ear-piece.

“Tev! Someone’s coming in after us!”

He almost instantly spun around, his armored boot scoring a deep gouge in the tile flooring as he pirouetted and scraped to a halt. I dodged out of the way and ran past him while he unloaded the rest of his magazine back the way we had come.

I sprinted as fast as I could to the end of the hall, making my own attempt at kicking in the next door that blocked our path. Similar to the first, it was a steel door with a push-bar parallel to the floor at about waist height.

I might be pretty strong, and weigh over 200 pounds of mostly muscle, but I bounced off the door, a sharp pain flaring for a moment in my ankle.

“Damnit!”

I turned around and looked for Tev, who was already coming down the hallway towards me, building up speed.

I got out of his way, pressing myself to the wall to the side of the door, and he crashed into it, this time knocking it clear out of the doorframe with his shoulder. Light spilled into the dark hallway and the noise of the gunfight and explosions came back to the forefront as I followed him out into a narrow and junk-filled alleyway.

A burned out and abandoned frame of a big cargo van had been pressed against the door on the outside. When he ran into it the whole thing had slid a few feet away from the wall leaving bright scratches in the stained pavement. Tev pushed on the door again, sliding the van a bit further and giving us enough room to force our way out of the building.

Tev unclipped what I thought had been an armor plate from his chest and a small red light began to flash on it. He chucked the object back into the hallway as it began to hiss and release jets of some kind of gas, before pushing me ahead of him and down the alley, away from the open door frame.

Another muffled ‘whump’ of an explosion went off a few seconds later, even closer, and a burst of yellow-hot flames blasted out from the door and set some of the junk in the alleyway behind us on fire.

The ringing in my ears was starting to fade. I could just make out the sounds of gunfire amongst the roar of aircraft and explosions on the other side of the block.

We kept going down the alley, still headed towards our apartment. Before we could reach the end of the alley, one of the hijackers rusted pickup trucks drove down the street ahead. It had a mounted machine gun bolted to the bed, and there were multiple crudely armored fighters shooting back behind them as they drove on.

A second later the armored semi-truck, probably loaded with stolen goods, rumbled past in its wake. The trailer was quickly followed by another of the out-rider vehicles, this one dropping bloody bodies as it took fire from out of sight pursuing forces.

We hunkered down amongst the maze of junk that clogged the alleyway, watching for a moment. Another of the dropships flew overhead, sending a blast of wind down over us that stirred up lighter bits of trash.

I shielded my eyes and looked back down, noticing the terrified face of a gray bearded man who was attempting to hide in one of the burned out vehicles that clogged the alleyway. We locked eyes and he quickly shook his head from side to side, his mouth opening in a terrified silent plea.

I grimaced and glanced at Tev, then back to the bearded man and shook my head in return, bringing a finger up to my lips to hush him.

Tevin interrupted me by grabbing the torn front of my jacket again as he stood, pushing another rotting vehicle to the side as he cleared our path. He dragged me to the mouth of the alley and pushed me against the wall again behind him as he poked his head out, peeking around the corner in both directions. Another explosion sounded off in the direction the trucks had driven.

“It’s clear. we’re going to run across and through the burned out building with the boarded door. I want you directly on my six, hand on my shoulder. Understood?” Tevin ordered, his spiderweb cracked faceplate angling towards me for a moment.

“Got it.” I replied, and he started running across the street without hesitation, keeping his rifle trained in the direction the trucks had driven off in.

I glanced from side to side as we ran across the street. In the direction of the trade road and railway was a massive black cloud of smoke that towered into the sky, a dim orange glow lighting it from within. Two armored shepherds were running in our direction, rifles raised and trained on us.

They must have recognized we were not part of the enemy forces because they did not shoot at us as we ran. Tev once again shouldered his way through our targeted doorway and we rushed through into what looked like someone's old living room. A sooty and scorched couch and entertainment stand were set up to one side, and the walls were peeled and blackened.

Tev slowed his pace slightly, the floor creaking underneath his bulk as we continued through the dark interior room and into an open doorway. He turned on his lights again and we went past a slightly cleaned out room that looked like someone had tried squatting in it at some point, down another hallway, and through another nailed shut sheet of plywood that had blocked the back door. Tev stumbled and nearly face-planted down a 2-step drop that led into a garage. A section of the bottom panel of the garage door was broken inwards, letting a bit of natural light into the foul smelling building.

Tev scrambled to regain his balance and started to push on towards the opening, but I yelled at him before he could break through the doorway.

“Tev! Stop! We should take a moment. I saw shepherds coming down the street this way. I think the fighting has moved on.”

His armored helmet swiveled around to look at me, his shoulders rising and his stance shifting like he was about to grab me again and drag me out, before he seemed to realize what he was doing and hesitate.

“Right. We can take a moment. Are you hurt or anything?” He finally replied, and I let out a breath that I hadn’t realized I had started to hold. I looked around and sat down heavily on a soot covered freezer chest to catch my breath.