Vivid Stars Online

The next morning I left the room where I’d stayed the night and moved down to the foyer to meet Linnea. I got there a little early, however, I didn’t have to wait long as she arrived at the exact time we’d agreed, down to the minute.

I walked out the door to meet her, getting my first look at my potential partner as I went. She certainly looked the part of a mercenary, tall, statuesque, blond, and decked out in gear. She had some kind of massive rifle strapped across her back, sharing space with a military-style pack.

It was black and covered in combat webbing with ammo packs and other gear strapped to it. While I was pretty sure my hiking pack held more total volume of gear, I couldn’t help but be a little jealous of her setup.

“Mr. Hope, I presume,“ she spoke crisp and clear English with a Swedish accent.

“Yep,“ I answered, far more casually. “Come on in and I’ll take us up to a meeting room.”

She nodded in assent before following me up to the third floor in silence. I couldn’t help but be somewhat intimidated by her professionalism, she was clearly taking this very seriously. I supposed that I probably should as well if I really wanted to make this game my career.

I led her to one of the meeting rooms and synched my watch with the projector. “OK,” I started as I pulled up the map and my plotted route. “So the mission is to find an additional source of food for the city. I’ve selected the great lake here as a likely target for fishing operations.”

I slid the map over to the lake as I continued. “I have also secured a landing site fifty-one miles from our destination. We will need to make the trek from there through unexplored, Beast-infested wilderness,“ I paused as I finished, leaving an opening for questions.

She was quick to respond. “I assume you have transportation prepared?”

“Yes,“ I said with a grin. “I have a VTOL aircraft lined up to take us there. It will take a little over an hour to get there from the edge of the city. I will be paying for transportation there and back, however, you will need to supply yourself with food, ammunition, and camping gear.”

She nodded in response, clearly expecting this. “I have your data on the Beasts you’ve encountered so far, it should be dangerous but doable with the two of us. You expect it to take six days?”

“Yep,“ I answered. “We might be done in five if we push it or potentially seven if we hit bad weather. I expect six is the most likely, however.”

“Understood. Then the only remaining issue is to agree on my fee. I am currently charging one hundred and fifty credits an hour. I believe that is a fair price, considering I am only level three.”

I nodded in thought. We were going to be out there twenty-four seven, so that was three thousand six hundred a day. Twenty-one thousand six hundred for six days. It was expensive, more than I’d paid for anything so far, however, I had little choice.

There was just one thing I needed to clear up. “I assume you're waiving the rights to any loot or resources that we discover?” If that was the case, then I could agree to it, as I could offset at least some of the cost.

“Correct,“ she responded with a sharp nod. “The Mercenary Guild always charges a single flat flee regardless of the wealth discovered or the danger encountered. Even if you were to discover a mountain of gold, my fee would stay the same.”

That was a relief. I could afford to hire her for this mission at least then and since she had mentioned being level three, I was sure she was a player. “Very well then, I would like to formally hire you for the mission then. How much do you need upfront?”

“Twenty-five percent,“ she said, cracking a smile for the first time. “That will allow me to gather sufficient supplies. If you wish to depart today, I will be ready in two hours, otherwise any time tomorrow works.”

I didn’t have any reason to put it off. As nice as it was to have had a break, I was getting angsty waiting around. It was past time to get back out there. “Today works, I'll send you the address where our pilot will take off from.”

I quickly pulled some more money into the game, gaining enough credits to send her a down payment along with the address. Then we shook hands, and she was on her way.

She certainly doesn’t waste any time, I thought as I watched her march off. Still, that’s probably a good thing. If nothing else, it will be nice to have a combat class along, I wonder what advantages she gets with it?

I would likely find out soon enough. In the meantime, I messaged Brian to let him know we would be there in two hours. With some time to kill, I synched up with the latest updates for the Explorer database.

As I had found nothing worth hiding so far, I simply uploaded all of my data without limiting it. That was more than enough for the system to send me the latest updates, which I had a quick look at.

Interestingly, there seemed to have been only minor changes to the borders. The borders to the West had been expanded a little, but nowhere on the level, I would expect if it was really all hands on deck.

I'll have to ask Bradford about that when I turn in the mission, I mused with a sigh. Something doesn’t seem to add up there.

Shrugging, I moved up to my temporary room to pack my gear. I doubted I’d have time to get any info out of him before I left. Besides, it was entirely possible he was holding off till I finished my first mission and became a full member.

It would make sense not to tell much to people you couldn’t trust yet. I’d just have to prove that we were all on the same side, hopefully finding a large food source would do that.

Assuming, of course, that the lake was actually viable. If it wasn’t, I was rather screwed. Sure, there would still be time to find something else, however, I would have dumped a large amount of money on this expedition for nothing.

Shaking my head clear of the negative thoughts, I move out to the station. No point in worrying about that now, I tried to console myself, you can deal with that if it happens. For now, just focus on getting to the lake.

Linnea found me next to Brian’s aircraft just under two hours after our meeting. She looked much the same as before, except that her pack was now bulging at the seams and had even more gear strapped to it.

“Ready to go? “I asked as she strode up.

“Yes, is this our transport?” she replied, actually sounding a little impressed. I wasn’t surprised, Brian’s eight-person VTOL was quite the sight.

“Yep,“ I said with a grin. “Pilot's already inside, you're welcome to the co-pilot seat if you’d like a better view.”

She blinked for a moment, before replying more quietly than usual. “Thanks,“ she said, tucking a strand of her shoulder-length hair behind an ear. “I’ll take you up on that.”

I simply smiled in reply. Little did she know that would leave her with the job of entertaining Brian. I was going to take another ‘nap’ on the trip and handle things back in the real world.

“Linnea, this is Brian, Brian Linnea,” I introduced them as I slipped into one of the back seats. “Linnea is the mercenary I hired to help with the mission.”

“Welcome aboard,“ Brian boomed happily. “It's good to see he’s being sensible this time and taking a professional.”

“It is nice to meet you,“ she responded as she moved into the co-pilot seat.

Without waiting for any more pleasantries, Brian began the takeoff sequence, eager as ever to get into the sky. A minute later, we were off, soaring towards the clearing I’d prepared earlier.

Once we were in the sky, Linnea began peppering Brian with a barrage of questions about the vehicle. She was either extremely interested in flying or an incredible actress, either way, she was certainly keeping his attention.

That worked perfectly for me as I slumped back to log out for an hour.

I came back into the game to find them still talking intently. At some point, they’d moved on to discussing spacecraft, something Brian seemed to have just as much knowledge on.

I let them speak, and a few minutes later, Brian noticed I was up. “Ah, you're awake, good thing too. We will be there in a minute.”

Of course, I’d timed it like that, however, I didn’t feel the need to explain. Instead, I simply thanked him and began checking my gear. I noticed Linnea doing the same out of the corner of my eye, all professionalism again now we were close to landing.

As promised, we slid down to land a minute later, Brian once again bringing us into a perfectly smooth landing. Linnea and I strode down the ramp and gave him a wave as he took off again, circling back to the city.

For a moment, we just stared at each other as we stood there in the wilderness before I realized she was waiting for me. “OK,“ I started a little awkwardly, “now that we’re out here, I guess we should discuss tactics a little.”

“My class is Psionic Aspirant, which is essentially useless right now. Combat wise I have my plasma pistol,“ I patted the gun at my side as I continued,“ and have put all my free points into Toughness. So far, this seems to have been reducing damage at least a little.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised you're going after Psionics given the planet we’re on,“ she responded with a nod. “If anything, I’m impressed you made it this far out. As for me, I have the Gunslinger class. It specializes in a single type of weapon, giving bonuses when you use it.

“My weapon is the long rifle,“ she pointed at the massive rifle on her back. “It is best at long to medium range, though can be used at short range if needed. As for my stats, Gunslinger focuses on Perception, Agility, and Strength. Behind that, I have been putting one free point per level into toughness.”

“Sounds good then,” I nodded as I thought about the combination. “How does this sound, then? I'll take point since I have the short-range weapon and more toughness while you support from behind. If we face a group, I'll lead them off to the side while you shoot them in the flanks.”

She grinned in response,“ Seems like a reasonable plan. Just don’t die on me, losing a client would look bad on my record. Even if you would come back.”

I nodded fervently in response. There was no way I was going to let myself die out here, not with how many resources I’d sunk into this. The expedition would cost me more than a month’s expenses when you combined hiring Linnea and the supplies I’d bought.

I couldn’t afford for it to fail, so I would do everything in my power to make sure that didn’t happen. “OK,“ I said as I pulled up my watch in combined map and scanner mode. “I have a scanner that should be able to detect enemies before they get too close.”

“If you can monitor our surroundings, I'll watch that and inform you if I find anything,“ I continued as I awkwardly raised the watch to eye level. I really need to find a better way to do this, I mused as I finished.

She only nodded in response as she pulled the long rifle off her back and began readying it.

With nothing else to say, I turned, and we began following my route to the lake.