Spear of Destiny: Chapter 2

[SEED#: NUMBERFETCH 00-001A-TypeNew[HeraldOfMT]_PARAGON: Hector Park.]

[… ]

[Hector Park]: Thank you for your contribution to [Learning Cycle 3944390-SI: Anomalous Malware Activity Resulting from Corrupted Player Data and Data Fragments.] In response to a serious attempt to modify, corrupt, or delete your personnel files, patches and security updates are being applied to your Seed Data.]

[… ]

[We would advise you that [FETCHERROR:NULL] may persist in attempting to corrupt your data. We will continue to experientially iterate and evolve our security in response to this threat.]

[Once we have finished restoring and updating your Seed Data with new security features, you will be returned to the Archemi Reality Framework. You may experience some initial reality distortion and temporary in-game amnesia due to unavoidable data decoherence. Returning your accumulated Archemi data will take approximately 45 minutes. You will not be able to leave the server during this time.]

[Reading new Experiential Data… 100%]

[…]

[Loading Backup: (ATHENA Cell 192018924.)]

[ERROR: Insufficient Memory: Cell 192018924 (00-001A-TypeNew[HeraldOfMT])]

[D.H.D Memory limitation overridden by [ADMIN] (Reason: Conclusion of Data obtained during Security Incident Learning Cycle #3944390 mandates expansion of agent protections.)]

[Exception approved by [ADMIN].]

[Cell 0007681 deleted. Entanglement initiated.]

[…]

[Memory expansion complete: Cell 192018924 (Available Memory: 3.5/5PB)]

[Opening New Learning Cycle 2400009-Misc: Analyze Orbital Server Infrastructure to Improve Memory Storage and Processing Capabilities for Individual Dynamic Human Data Cells. (Reason: Deleting existing Cell Data to improve security agents is sub-optimal if memory can be expanded via Main Server Core contact or, failing that, physical expansion of the Orbital Server Cores.]

[Cloning Cell … 56%... 70%...]

[Re-encrypting Cells…]

[… ]

[Opening New Learning Cycle 3944451-GE: Investigate the Ongoing Absence of Terminal Staff and SysAdmins, and the Implications of this Absence. (Reason: Expansion protocol due to Terran authority being unresponsive for (90) days AND continuing presence of active security threat identified in Learning Cycle 3944390-SI.]

[Thank you, Hector Park. There is no further action required by your account. Please log out and rest for at least two hours before resuming play.]

***

I took a deep, whooping breath and sat bolt upright, a shower of sand falling from my skin.

The room was dark, cold, and silent. My mouth was dry, my heart pounding, and I couldn't remember how the fuck I'd gotten here or what I'd been doing beforehand.

My head spun as I got to hands and knees and promptly fell over. My flak was hanging off me in tatters. I had no idea where my rifle or radio were. As I patted around on the ground, my hands clapped down on something metallic. My gun! I pulled it toward me with a surge of relief, only to discover that it wasn’t my trusty old M-19. It was a long stick with a blade of some kind on the end.

[Spear of Destiny]. An augmented pop-up appeared in my HUD. At least my helmet was still working, kind of.

“Okay! Very funny, guys!” My voice slurred, like I’d been drinking heavily. “I dunno know why you assholes locked me in a fridge with a goddamn spear, but I sure hope that whoever did it has a jar of Vaseline handy, because it’s going right up your ass!”

My voice bounced off the surfaces of the room, echoing. There was no reply: just a profound, monastic silence.

A prickle of fear climbed up the back of my throat. I struggled for names, but couldn’t remember any. Not even my own. “...Guys?”

As I sat there, struggling to get my bearings, a ghostly pale light ignited at the other end of the long, narrow room: a nine-pointed star symbol about a foot in diameter. It was just bright enough that I could see. And boy, could I see. As my eyes adjusted, my field of vision throbbed with impossibly bright, vivid colors. Light scattered along every reflective surface like a prism, turning the black granite floor into a field of glittering stars.

“Right. Drugs.” I struggled to control my breathing, and mostly failed. “It’s gotta be drugs. Someone slipped me a tab of shitty Thai acid or something. Or maybe I took one because it looked like candy and I’m a fucking moron.”

I closed my eyes and tried to think calming thoughts, but I wasn’t calm, and no amount of self-soothing bullshit was going to change that. Just as I had made up my mind to get up and start clawing at the walls, a rumbling sound briefly passed through the floor, a sound like a big door opening. Every muscle in my torso tensed. I shuffled back on my butt until my back was against the wall, clutching the spear in one hand. As I waited, I scanned the room, searching for exits. It looked like some kind of small chapel or church. Pillars and ancient stone archways lined a central aisle, which terminated in a three-tiered altar made of black hexagonal stone columns. The glowing symbol hung over them, pulsing softly with traceries of bluish light. At the other end of the room to my left was a sealed stone door.

What the fuck was going on? Had I been kidnapped? There were no windows and no exits, other than the door. There was actually very little in here, other than me, Mr. Glowy-Rune, and a spear any spiky-haired anime protagonist would be proud to own. Then I looked down in preparation to get my feet under me and nearly freaked, because the body I had was not mine. There were feet, legs, hands, all of them covered in burned and partially melted armor. But they weren’t my feet, legs or hands. As I struggled to make the connection between ‘my’ body and ‘me’, a wave of dizziness crashed over me. My heart began pounding so fast I thought it was about to tear itself from ‘my’ chest.

“Hector?” A worried voice – a woman’s voice – rang out INSIDE my head. “Hang on! I’m not far from you…I’m coming!”

Footsteps rang out from outside the room. I flailed to bring the spear around as the door burst in, and one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen in my life charged inside. She was small and lithe, with pearly skin and a waist-length curtain of fine black braids. She was also dressed like a ninja cosplayer. Not exactly the burly Pacific Alliance genome soldier I’d been expecting.

“Now hang on just a goddamn second!” I brandished my weapon at her from the ground, stopping her in her tracks. “I don’t know who the fuck you are or what you’re doing here, but there’d better be a damn good explanation for why I’m tripping balls in some creepy-ass church in the middle of nowhere!”

“Oh… OH! Right! You lost your memory again!” She smacked her forehead, her peppy voice ringing inside my head. It was like having a radio play right into my brain. “It’s okay! I’ll fix it!”

“Fix what? And how the fuck are you talking to me?” My vision fritzed as the girl tried to circle around, a black haze briefly obscuring her features. The ground lurched, and a shock of adrenaline tightened my chest. “Where the hell’s my squad?”

“It’s okay! Just calm down, alright?” She held her hands up, fingers loose. No gun, and no sign of one. “Your squad’s not here, Hector.”

“What the hell’ve you done to them?!”

“Hector… it’s okay. My name’s Karalti,” the black-haired girl said, hanging back. She still had her hands up, trying to look small and innocent. “You’ve got really bad amnesia. I know you don’t remember me or anything else right now, but I can help you. Okay?”

“My name isn’t Hector! It’s… it’s… uhh…” I reached up to the side of my head, feeling for a BCI adaptor. Brain-to-Interface was the only way she could be speaking inside my head – unless I was hallucinating that, too. “Don’t worry about it. You want to help me? Unplug me from Dungeon Simulator 9000 or whatever the fuck this is, and take me to my men!”

“Hector…the Army was a long time ago now. They’re… they’re not here.” She looked pained now, as if she was holding back some serious emotion: biting her lip, furrowing her brows. I noticed that she had brilliant violet eyes, eyes so deep and soulful I felt like I’d drown in them. “Please, let me help you. I’m not a soldier. I’m a friend you can’t remember right now. Just…Take my hand.”

She thrust out an open hand toward me. It was delicate, but her knuckles were calloused. I glanced at it suspiciously.

“Where are we?” I demanded.

“Lahati’s Tomb,”she replied sheepishly. “I came here to hide from Baldr. Urrgh…you probably don’t remember who he is, either.”

I tightened my grip on the spear. I had pins and needles spreading through my neck and chest, and my left arm was going numb. “Nope.”

“I dunno why you respawned here instead of at home.” Karalti scrubbed her other hand over the top of her head. “Your spawn point is bound to Kalla Sahasi, I’m sure of it.”

Respawned? Like…in a game? I pulled my helmet off with one rubber chicken hand and stared at it in confusion. It wasn’t my UNAC-issue gear. It was black, for one thing, made of metal and leather and glass. It resembled the head of a stylized raven. There was no brain to computer interface port, and as I looked down at it, another virtual tooltip jumped into my vision: [Raven Helm: Durability 12%].

Something inside my brain snapped. Augmented Reality alerts weren’t supposed to happen without a helmet. My vision swam for a moment, and the Raven Helm fell from numb fingers. Then, I looked up at the girl in confusion.

“Is… my name really Hector?” I asked. “I don’t remember. I should. I should remember that.”

Karalti looked like she was trying not to cry. She bit her lip and reached for me with the fingers of her outstretched hand. “Please just touch me. You get your memories back when you touch me.”

“Okay.” Hesitantly, I shuffled forward, the Spear braced under my arm, and reached out to grasp her hand. “But if you even look at me funny, I’ll-”

Whatever I was about to say transformed into a scream of agony as what felt like a river of molten lava poured down between my ears, dissolving into the worst pain I’d ever experienced in my entire life. I was vaguely aware of nails clawing at my face – my own nails. There was screaming, male and female… and then my chest seized with dull throbbing pain and the black rolled me down a second time.

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