The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Escort Mission

The thing about doors is that they're for people who aren't running for their lives.

Me? I drove straight through the truck entrance.

"Get in!" I shouted out the window as I saw Adam and Blake fighting. I ended up driving right between them and one of the Spider Droids by pure chance and the machine thankfully halted its attack for a second, apparently uncertain whether it should be shooting at me. Or maybe it was the logo on the side of the truck, I don't know. Either way, I didn't slow as I passed them—couldn't afford to, honestly—but the two Faunus thankfully recovered quickly and I saw them hop on top of the truck through my mirrors.

I also saw the trail of smoke left in the wake of a rocket fly out of the back of the truck, presumably the work of Ram Man. A second later, I had to look away as it exploded right in the face of one of the machines—and wow, I felt that explosion even as far away from ground zero as I was. And it was loud, too; the movies don't do explosions justice. I had no idea where the White Fang got their rocket launchers, but whoever made them obviously didn't mess around.

I thought I would have been deafened by the sound—which would have been bad, damn it, why hadn't I thought about that when I saw him with a rocket launcher—but after the last sounds of the explosions died away, my hearing was left untouched. I wasn't sure if that was a Gamer thing or an Aura thing, but either way I wasn't going to complain right now.

"Damn it, Billy!" I heard a female voice snarl, sounding more than a little irate.

"Blake!" Ram Man, or maybe Billy, shouted, though I couldn't see why; the downside of driving a semi.

"Map," I said, nearly sighing with relief as the grid of streets appeared before me. Almost as useful, there were a trio of red dots moving on the map, close behind the blue marker of the truck. My eyes danced across the map for a moment before I swung the truck wide onto Afzan Avenue, passing through a holographic streetlight in the process. I was driving faster than the machines could move, at least for the moment, but given that one of them was clinging to the side of a building as I flew past, I was pretty sure they weren't lifted by roads for mobility.

I had to prioritize. Blake and Adam may have been able to combat those things directly, but I had a truck full of people who couldn't have even if they weren't wounded. If those things started firing on us, I couldn't trust the truck to standup under their fire. It wasn't enough to just stay ahead, I had to keep them from having a direct line of fire—and oh boy was that gonna be a fun trick to manage against people who could climb a building and bath me in fire at range. And given the size of this truck…

I had to stay on roads wide enough to maneuver on and connected to other roads I could switch onto before the machines caught up and keep track of the machines locations in three-dimensions and the size of the buildings around me so I could try to keep out of sight. But where was I even going? The bridges? No, I couldn't be certain they wouldn't be willing to follow us into the Commercial or Residential Districts, at which point who knows how many people could get hurt, even assuming we survived crossing it, which was unlikely if they caught us on the bridges. Unfortunately, there weren't all that many roads I could safely drive on, excluding those.

And there was the police to worry about, I was sure. The idea of just going to them and placing this mess in their laps was tempting but…no. I didn't know what the robots would do and if they were violent, a lot of good men and women could die. If they were Hunters, maybe…but they weren't. And even if the robots refused to fire on them, the police would almost certainly want to arrest the White Fang and I couldn't imagine them coming quietly. Given Adam and Blake's levels…no. I had to avoid the police, too. Which probably just meant avoiding the bridges, for now—it had been, what, five minutes since the Spider Droids got loose? Ten? The police wouldn't move in until they could mobilize a response capable of addressing the problem.

But if I couldn't cross the bridges, I couldn't get to…to what? Safety? Where could I take a bunch of White Fang members without them standing out, even if I could cross the bridges? Hell, discounting them, a beaten up, dust-covered truck would stand out all on its own. Where could I—

I had to slam myself back into the seat as a shape swung into the cabin, through my open window. I glimpsed hands grabbing the top of it, a blur flipping over and in, a heart-stopping moment where my vision was covered in black, and suddenly the was a woman in the seat next to me. Pale skin, long black hair, yellow eyes, black bow—Blake Belladonna. Ignoring the dust that covered her clothes and the smears on her face, she would have been beautiful under normal circumstances.

As is, her most distinctive feature was the belt of ammunition across her chest and the rocket launcher Billy must have given her.

"What the hell was that!?" I snarled, the shock she'd induced fading after a flickering instant. "Can't you see me trying to drive here!?"

I nearly growled in frustration as Blake cast me a measuring glance, frowning slightly.

"You're a human," She observed.

"Not this again," I said, nearly swearing. I wanted to say something along the lines of 'This human's saving your skin right now; you got a problem with that!?' but the Level floating above her head reminded me that she could probably break me in half with one hand and that I should be diplomatic. "Tukson sent me, I saw you were in trouble, decided to help, and I'm too busy driving to deal with your suspicions. Unless you'd like to do it?"

She blinked calmly at me.

"I'm not suspicious," She said. "Just surprised. You're obviously on our side; if you weren't, all you would have had to do was walk away."

"Finally, someone gets it," I said, slightly chastised. I checked the map again, keeping an eye on the Map. "We can't cross the bridges."

"No," She agreed. "Even if it wouldn't put people in danger, we'd never make it across."

"You got another warehouse?" I asked.

"Off the side of Wilhelm, down by Elsie," She said and I checked the map. One of the Brothers, the Rivers on either side of the residential district, it flowed down to the very edge of Vale. I could follow it down into the Agricultural District, which wasn't my preferred place to hide from a bunch of robots—but thinking about it, I could see the appeal of a base near the river, if you suspected you might need to make a getaway. After a moment, a marker appeared on the map, showing the location, and I nearly sighed in relief.

"I know the place," I said. "Not gonna matter if we can't lose them, though."

Blake nodded and rolled down the window on her side.

"W-what are you doing?" I asked, trying to split my attention between the road, the map, and Blake. Focusing on the first suddenly got really hard when Blake lifted most of her body out the window, sitting on the edge before resting the rocket launcher on a shoulder and aiming behind us.

"Trying to shake our tail," Blake replied, frowning in concentration. "Can you get me a clear shot?

I wanted to swear. I wanted to ask her what she expected to do to one of those things when she must have known it wouldn't change a thing. I really wanted to close my eyes and hope I'd wake up and this would all be a dream.

Instead, I focused entirely on the map and the road, keeping track of where the dots seemed to be positioned. That amounted almost entirely too bad news—there was one on top of a building, or else climbing one as we worked. It was a little bit off from the river, where a lot of the factories were. If I assumed the worst, which seemed reasonable, it could probably shot at me from anywhere within several blocks of its location; I drew a wide circle around it in my head and told myself to keep far away from that. The other two were roaming the streets at a slower pace, probably coordinating to either drive us into their buddy up north. One was moving into position along Main Street and the other along Anderson, which was gonna suck one way or another since I was gonna need to be on one of those to get anywhere. We were going to have to get past at least one of them or we were sitting ducks.

Anderson was the one that led down to the Agricultural district but it had an intersection with Main I could use and save myself some time, but it might take my too close to the Circle of Death. Of course, Anderson itself was gonna be like a firing range past a certain point, which wasn't much better. I licked my lips, trying to figure out a way out of this, a way to get past a ridiculously overpowered robot without getting myself or my passengers shot, but I couldn't—

Or maybe I could.

I brought up my status window, hissing a breath out through my teeth. I didn't have a lot of time, so I considered my options quickly. I'd gained three levels, meaning I had fifteen points to burn, I just had to figure out where to put them. Strength or Vitality were out—it was tempting, to try to respond to my weakness, my helplessness, by improving my body. But I also knew the truth; even if I put every point I had in strength, I wouldn't be strong enough to defeat even one of those machines. If I put them all in Vitality, it wouldn't let me survive such a battle. Dexterity, maybe? No, at most that would give me more control over the truck, but that wasn't really my problem right now, unless it would let me ignore physics and the limits of the vehicle.

It came down to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck. And unless twenty-five points of luck would be enough to make lightning fall from the sky and smite my enemies, I don't think that would get me out of this—and relying on my luck seemed risky, even ignoring that it didn't benefit from my Aura. No, it seemed like I've to continue on the course I'd already set. Which to focus on then? Or should I split it? And if so, in what way?

I could boost INT to twenty-six, which the bonus from my Aura would raise to nearly thirty-four. On the other hand, I could raise Wisdom to thirty and let my Aura raise it to thirty-nine. I could split it nearly half-and-half or into thirds or any way I wanted, but what did I need?

I had the Map before me. I knew all the options I had available. What I needed to do now was choose and choose well—pick the way out, pick the way to win, somehow save the people I'd chosen to protect. But would I see something new if I was smarter, notice something I'd missed? What if I didn't? What if I tried and wasted points to no end? Or what if I would have seen a way out and squandered it by spending my points on Wisdom? How did I decide when I didn't know the answer and my very life was on the line—and the lives of people I was trying to save? I couldn't.

So I did the only thing I could. Was it a wise thing? I don't know. Was it a smart thing? I didn't know that either. The only thing I knew for sure was that it was a very basic, very simple, very childish thing.

I didn't know what to do.

So I listened to my mother.

Dust, I hope I'm right.

I chose Wisdom and closed the window.

And then I twisted the wheel.

"Let's get out of this mess!" I shouted, turning the semi-truck in a maneuver that probably broke a dozen laws. "You really think that thing can take one of them out?"

"Adam can," She replied. "But only if we can get him a chance! You think you can?"

I merely smiled at her because, uh, no, I kind of wasn't. But I had an idea and this was our best shot.

I took Third West to Anderson and headed South, putting the pedal to the metal—I was going to need every bit of speed if I wanted this to have even a chance of working. The machine came into sight quickly, waiting in the middle of the street down the road—and it's really unfair that such a large machine could get into position so fast, even if I'd originally been heading North. But I didn't dwell on that thought for long, because I had more important concerns.

"Observe," I muttered, focusing intently. I ignored the stats, mainly to spare myself the knowledge of how bad things were, and focused on Weaknesses instead.

"That hole in the center of its stomach—that's its main eye!" I said and had to take a hand off the wheel to grab Blake by her shorts to keep her steady as she took a moment to brace herself and then fired. It hit dead-center with the camera and I shifted the truck into the left lane to put space between me and the last place it'd seen me.

And I didn't slow down. Not even a little. That sudden boost in Wisdom hadn't provided any miracle solution, sadly, it had only…clarified things a bit, made the choice easier to make, the conclusions easier to draw, and maybe, just maybe, giving me a little idea. I'd chosen Anderson not because it kept me from the Circle but because of its long shape, perfect for picking up speed at a time like this. There was no way to safety except past one of these things and nothing we had—except maybe Adam—was going to really hurt them. If we wanted to have a chance, we were going to have to do this just right.

If the Droid wasn't blinded, at least temporarily, it wouldn't work. If it had a chance to figure out what I was planning, it wouldn't work. If I didn't have time to build as much momentum as possible, it wouldn't work. Even with all of that put together, I still wasn't sure it would be enough.

But I'd had a thought. I knew the basics of the new ability I'd gotten, that 'Aura Channeling.' Hunters channeled their Aura through their equipment—through weapons and armor alike—increasing their power to harm or defend. It was a simple technique, but a stunningly powerful one if properly honed, based on a very simple principle; Mankind had risen to power thanks to the usage of tools and it only made sense to express the power of their souls in a similar fashion.

And what was a vehicle—such as this truck—but another of those tools?

It wouldn't be enough to defeat the machine. It probably wouldn't even hurt it all that bad. But I didn't need to, for this—I just needed to get through.

I dragged Blake back into the cabin as best I could with one hand. With the one I had on the wheel, I focused my power—all of my power, as I would upon one of my weapons but to a greater extent.

And then I ran a glowing white truck straight into a giant robot.

Mastery of the skill Drive increases! Drive's level goes up by one! Drive's level goes up by one! Drive's level goes up by one! Drive's level goes up by one!

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the shattering power of your soul, the skill 'Aura Crash' has been created!