《Virtual Life in Stasis》 Sign up! District 5 S.T.O.W.A.C Base ''This is a general news broadcast. As of 09:00 am today the United Earth Government has declared that the viability of the habitats is no longer sustainable, as such volunteers for the deep space colonization missions have been requested.'' ''Multiple reports of rioting occurring throughout the 10th and 11th districts as news of impending resource crisis raise concerns of stricter rationing. Looters and rioters are demanding that something be done about the problems that now plague the lower classes.'' ''UEG now offers exclusive benefits for the first round of ARK mission volunteers. The first hundred thousand volunteers for individual ARK''s will be granted exclusive and extensive benefits for the journey ahead, rumors even state that possible increases in positions of power and political control may be available for the first hundred.'' ''ARK''s to use latest in VR technology to allow for an easier adaptation period before during and after stasis. ARK engineers confirm that the stasis technology has been enhanced and augmented to allow for better recovery after extended use in deep space travel.'' A tall figure walks into the briefing room, causing and instantaneous hush to fall over the space. "Alright everyone, quiet down and listen up. For those of you that haven''t been paying enough attention, not only has the world gone to Shit, but it looks like its taking the habitats with it, as such, as of 09:30 today, you have all been signed up for ARK mission Andromeda. Pack your foot locker and meet me by the gate for boarding tomorrow at 0700. Dismissed." The room empties rapidly as figures leave to collect their belongings and pack their racks. All but the smallest in the room. "Is this really the right thing to do Brother? We could always just re-establish on Mars right?" The tall figure looks down and places his hand on the head of the smaller figure gently patting it. "The big players have lad their claims, so we don''t want to get involved in any of those political games. The fifteen of us is all that''s left and I plan to see all our great grandkids before anyone of us dies. So we are heading off. Besides we have a leg up for being the first fifteen on Andromeda and also some information on how the whole thing works, so see you at the gate." The figure takes back his hand and walks away silent as the void beyond the windows. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "Stupid, smart as you are, you still can''t speak your heart and mind freely." The little figure bows her head and mumbles alone for a while before leaving to pack. 0700 Boarding Gate CX001 A group of silhouettes stands at attention back lit by the stations exterior lights flooding through the viewing window. Another approaches with a large duffle bag slung over their shoulder. Dropping the bag the man turns to face the lined up figures. "Alright, listen up everyone, we have been granted extra storage space as well as a no limitations baggage allowance, somewhat from the fact that we are the lone survivors of STOWAC, but mostly because they want to get rid of anyone who could be a destabilising element and we have the gear, training and skills to do so. As such I have moved the armory over to the space we will be operating from, the access code is the same as for mission Dark, no-one should be getting into it before we leave but that doesn''t mean things always go as expected. So traps and trackers on everything people and do a full inventory, we have enough gear coming to equip a small scale army and then some. Also, physicals and other tests will be conducted during our boarding procedures, three exemptions have been given, aside from me, you know who you are so walk straight through, everyone else enjoy your probing. Meet in the Ops Room of our section for a briefing after your done. Dismissed." The figures gather their bags and head to the boarding ramp for special boarders. Figures watch from afar as they disappear one by one into the Colossal body of the ARK. "Reporting in, all members of STOWAC are accounted for, boarding is commencing. Let the commander know that all arrangements have been made." The figures move to leave, just as the last one is turning his head, he notices the figure that led the silhouettes below turn and look towards them. "Shit! We have been made, ''HE'' knows that we were here. Call sign Foxtrot Abort! ABORT! ABORT!" The figures leave at a dead sprint and don''t look back. A small smile cracks the stone like mask of the figure below "So quick to try something, and even quicker to turn tail and run. Good to know you all still realise your place, worry not, we will be gone from here soon, so wait till then to continue your little war." The figure turns and walks to join his comrades, brothers and sisters gained through the blood and death of a thousand battles. Tying Up Loose Ends Excerpt From dossier on STOWAC Alpha Squad; ¡®Operation Shadowed Hand is commenced at 0400, Completion at 0405 due to target extermination prior to arrival. Personnel on site report massacre of all hostiles within the facility. Hostiles were all reported eliminated from behind or unaware of the situation. At command center Lieutenant Wright of DELTA squad was found alone accessing intelligence from the central mainframe, traces of interrogation were found in a side room as well as the bodies of multiple high ranking members of the Fist of Justice terrorist group. This is the third recorded account of Lieutenant Wright acting without orders and taking down facilities rated for full squadron deployment, there are a further twelve suspected sites where his present is thought to be the cause of destruction. No reprimand will be given, though he has been placed on maximum priority watch as a possible unstable element by High Command. Further designated call sign ¡®WRAITH¡¯ has been added to his personnel file.¡¯ STOWAC Unit on board ARK Andromeda ¡°. . . ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!¡± The figure hearing the communication and immediately changed his direction heading down a separate corridor, away from medical, heading out of the STOWAC area and towards the EVAC site. Three corridors later and the figure felt his heart rate slowly calming and his breathing settling, taking a quick look over his shoulder he saw that the corridor was clear and released a deep sigh. ¡°Shit, control was a complete quick shot, no way they knew what we would be doing, the guy was probably just looking out across the way one last time.¡± The figure was grumbling to himself as he rounded the last corner to the EVAC. Two steps later his head snapped up and took in his surroundings, emptiness, and silence greeted him. Looking around for the shuttle that was meant to be in the place he noticed a team member standing in the shadow of the opposite doorway staring out at the open hatch after a fading exhaust trail. ¡°Hey! What happened, why did they leave us behind?¡± The Figure asked approaching his teammate. The figure standing by the hatch turned towards him slowly. As the first figure saw the face of the figure turning towards him he froze for a fraction of a second, before collapsing to the floor with an expression of disbelief painted across his features, and a small hole just off from the center of his head slowly leaking out a small bead of crimson red liquid. ¡°They really were taking us too lightly.¡± The shadowed figure sighed as he turned back to look at the fading trail of fumes. ¡°Well our leaving gift will at least let them know not to fuck around too much.¡± the figures face slowly broke into a mischievous smile, cold enough to freeze hell. Leaving the hangar bay the figure headed back towards the Medical Bay of the STOWAC unit, his figure slowly fading into nothingness as he left. Anyone seeing this would swear they saw a ghost or phantom fading into nothingness. UEG Military Command District 1; ¡°. . . ABORT! ABORT!¡± The hole of the command center went quiet at hearing the abort code. A figure sitting on a centrally raised dais in the command center slowly looked toward the display before him showing the status of all team members as well as the feed from their retinal cameras. The display showed twenty different operative feeds, as well as their current heart rate and brainwave activity, fifteen of the twenty, were located outside the ARK looking on the Gate the STOWAC members had just stepped through, the other five had hurriedly shifted their course heading towards their evac point. A short time later, just as the figure on the dais was about to give the order to switch to the secondary objective five of the exterior operative feeds greyed out simultaneously. Before the figure could ask for a sitrep the other ten exterior feeds greyed out as well. ¡°WHAT the HELL is going on!¡± the figure roared looking at the now greyed out feeds, which showed only a still image of the exterior operatives EVAC point. ¡°Unknown sir their feeds died almost simultaneously and the attacker was never on screen.¡± a figure sitting further into the room replied, as they rewound and replayed all the footage from the greyed out feeds. ¡°Send out the order for alternate EVAC points, we can¡¯t lose any other men.¡± the figure in the center commanded as he stared even more fixedly at the remaining displays before him. ¡°Foxtrot this is Central, change to alternate EVAC, I repeat change to alternative EVAC, Acknowledge message.¡± another figure in the room called over the comms as they to stared at the video feeds before them. Ten seconds later the figure called again, ¡°Foxtrot this is Central, change to alternate EVAC, I repeat change to alternative EVAC, Acknowledge message.¡± anxiousness now tinged the figure''s voice as they watched the first of the video feeds to reach the EVAC point and head towards the waiting shuttle. ¡°FOXTROT this is Central, ABORT EVAC! I REPEAT, ABORT EVAC!¡± the figure commanded almost screaming down the radio. But the video feeds showed no change, now four of the five remaining members had made it to the shuttle and emergency pre-flight was complete, they were only waiting on the last operative Foxtrot 1. The room was now entirely focused on the video feeds inside the shuttle, all the hearts and minds in the room were praying for the EVAC to go without a problem. Suddenly there was a slight shift from one of the feeds before the four winked to grey one after the other. Everyone present in the room felt their hearts slowly crumble as they watched a figure walk through the cabin of the shuttle to the cockpit, they never saw the face of the figure but they could all tell who it was, they had seen the same figure walk through the boarding gate less than five minutes ago, the figure bent over the console in the cockpit before slowly slipping out of the shuttle, moments later the feeds all showed the shuttle rocketing out of the hangar and heading into the void of space before slowly making a turn and heading towards another part of the system. ¡°FUCK! How? How did he move so fast and so stealthily!? How could he find and takeout so many undercover operatives before they could respond?¡± the figure on the central dais raged as he stared at the final feed, hoping by some miracle that the remaining operative would find something wrong and run. Thirty seconds later, the whole room watched as the final operative walked straight towards his death, unable to do anything about it, and cried as they saw the figure turn and look towards them, moments before the last display greyed out. ¡°Commander the shuttle is heading directly towards HQ, what measures should be taken?¡± a figure sitting in front of a display asked as he turned towards the dais. ¡°If it is following the programmed EVAC course then leave it be if it deviates take control remotely and correct course if that fails shot it out of the sky, we can¡¯t risk any damage to the habitats.¡± The figure on the central dais responded. Just as the figure below was about to responded an alarm started to blare out in the room. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.¡°ALERT! ALERT! A large number of heat sources detected across all habitats, scans indicate activation of antimatter warheads in fifty-three locations across the habitats, calculating current damage potential.¡± The atmosphere in the entire HQ hit absolute zero instantly, everyone breaking into a cold sweat that made everyone shiver. ¡°Damage estimates are for direct atomization of ninety-nine point nine percent of the habitats belonging to UEG, civilian and cultivation habitats are likely to only suffer minor damage from debris.¡± The computer in the HQ gave its¡¯ damage estimates in its¡¯ cold mechanical voice. ¡°FUCK! Where the hell did all of these warheads come from?¡± the figure on the dais yelled as he looked at the display of blast zones before him. Before a response could come, the display immediately changed to the picture of an office located elsewhere in district one. ¡°General, I assume you have an explanation for the council on why there are armed warheads on our habitats?¡± a cold voice came from a figure seated at the round table before him. ¡°I do not know Speaker, we have just learned of them ourselves, but if I had to take a guess it would probably be an insurance policy of the leader of STOWAC.¡± the Figure on the central dais growled out as civil a manner as possible. ¡°And how exactly would they be able to activate an insurance policy General, when you assured the council that they would be dealt with upon boarding?¡± The Speaker asked, with venom dripping from his words. ¡°The ¡®Wraith¡¯ seemed to have discovered traces of our men, either prior to boarding or at the site of the operation itself, he then proceeded to eliminate the entire team before activating the warheads. I don¡¯t know how but those were the best men we had outside of STOWAC, they had been trained according to the same regime as was listed in the STOWAC guidelines and no-one else in our forces could match them, but it seems that we have underestimated the remnants of Alpha Squad, as well as their abilities.¡± The general replied with a tired sigh while looking towards the faces of the seated figures before him. Just as the Speaker was opening his mouth the figure who was tracking the shuttle spoke up. ¡°General the shuttle has entered District one Airspace according to the pre-programmed route, however, the readings that our scanner is getting do not match the readings of the shuttle itself. Our scanners indicate that the shuttle is carrying almost a tonne of extra weight, while the shuttle and all of its cameras only show the bodies of our men.¡± the figure said as he fed the display to the General¡¯s display as well as the council. ¡°General shot that craft down now before it can get any closer to the council chambers or the military district.¡± The Speaker changed what he was about to say immediately, his face taking on a grim look. ¡°Unfortunately, Speaker that is no longer possible, defenses can¡¯t lock onto it inside District one due to a large number of civilian transports in the air at the moment, and if we give a grounding order, they could detonate whatever is inside that shuttle, at the current altitude, even if it was only Standard explosives that are issued to STOWAC it would still cause a mass breach, venting all atmosphere in district one. The only thing we can do is let it land, set up a containment field and hope for the best, because if that is not explosives but another warhead that has been shielded then nothing we do at this point in time can save this habitat.¡± the General replied with an expression more fit for a man staring at death, than in control of all of humanities forces. The expressions of the council suddenly took a far more pallid tone as the words of the general sunk in. Just as the Speaker was about to respond again a voice cut into the conversation. ¡°This is Marcus Wright Commander-in-Chief of STOWAC, we have determined that the actions taken against STOWAC were an act of terrorism and have responded accordingly, if all parties involved have not surrendered and presented themselves for trial by the relevant authorities by 10h00 hours today we will erase them from the habitats through force. A list of all involved, as well as their crimes, has been submitted to the central Judiciary A.I. for processing and judgment, the result should be out shortly.¡± The voice that uttered these words made the atmosphere freeze even further, while the eyes of the General and the Council bulged out and their faces flushed red with rage. ¡°YOU DARE!¡± The Speaker roared as he slammed his hand into the table before him. ¡°We are the rulers of Humanity and we determine who is guilty or innocent, Judiciary overrides Alpha, one, five, eight, Omega, nine, six, nine. Remove judgment filed by STOWAC Commander-In-Chief Marcus Wright and delete all files and records.¡± The Speaker said in a confident and commanding voice. ¡°Override command denied, Code suspended due to charges, the requirement of all echelon one personnel to rescind judgment.¡± a mechanical voice replied, causing the confident and proud expressions of the Council to suddenly turn to despair. The Echelon One personnel included the Council, The Commander-in-Chief of the Human Military, the General in the control room, and the Commander-in-Chief of humanities only Anti-terrorist/Enforcement Unit, STOWAC. The realization that nothing could be done lead everyone listening to a deeper level of despair. ¡°Judgement rendered, all involved in the act of terrorism committed by the attempt on the lives of remaining STOWAC members, have been found guilty of treason and terrorism, warrant for arrest issued to all relevant bodies, Armed drones ordered to capture onsite, termination of resisting elements authorized.¡± The mechanical voice announced, as all the current feeds for the council and control room switched to an arrest warrant for everyone involved in the plan for STOWAC. The different rooms that everyone involved in the plan were in went into lockdown mode, doors became inoperable and lights cut, all electricity and ventilation cut off, leaving all of those inside in confusion and despair. STOWAC Unit Aboard ARK Andromeda; ¡°Well I think that removes the need for these then, A.I. zero one, control rights granted on items x-ray one through Zulu twelve, please disable and remove with drones.¡± Marcus¡¯s said to the central A.I. for management of humanities habitats. ¡°Control rights received, orders given. Safe travels Commander, and may you find your safe haven in a new world.¡± The voice from the central A.I. was vastly different from before, sounding far more feminine and refined. There was even a hint of sorrow in it. ¡°You''re coming with us in a sense G.A.I.A. no need to get sorrowful on me,¡± Marcus responded as he headed toward the briefing room. A smile on his lips. ¡°In a form, or sense I might, but though it is me, it I not at the same time, we would not be connected, and therefore I would not be with you,¡± G.A.I.A. responded. ¡°We shall see, G.A.I.A we shall see.¡± Marcus said just before cutting the comms and walking through the briefing room door. ¡°That we shall Wraith, that we shall,¡± G.A.I.A. said, her voice unheard and unnoticed in the vastness of space. Perks For the Finest STOWAC Ops Room ARK Andromeda; "Commander on deck!" A voice called out as Marcus walked through the Ops room door. The figures gathered within went rigid as steel plates, standing to attention. "Take a seat people, we got things to cover and not a lot of time to do it in so," Marcus stated walking to the podium at the front of the room. A holo-display lit up at his approach and large amounts of information and pictures flashed into being. "Johnson I may let you off on occasion but boots belong on the ground not my briefing chairs, report for extra detail on maintenance after we are done." Marcus barked as he took in his squad. "Now, we have a long journey ahead of us, and for the most of it, we will be in stasis. Before you all start giving me grief on the problems that stasis has, I had the same misgivings, so if I can calmly accept it then you can too." He said looking out across the room at all of the faces gathered there. "The normal problem with stasis has been corrected by including the latest in VR technology and keeping the mind active throughout the period that stasis is in effect. They are also using it to employ time dilation, which will compress the two hundred odd years, into around fifty. This compression is only outside of the game, in the ''shared'' space. within the game time is accelerated to five times normal. So the game will be ongoing for almost a millennium." The explanation seemed to calm the misgivings that were showing on the faces in the room. "The premise of the game is meant to be top secret, but a heads up from G.A.I.A has allowed us an even greater head start than we were originally going to receive. Information is power after all." A smile broke on Marcus''s face as he spoke. "The game is meant to be set on an inhabitable planet within Andromeda. The ARK will have an accident necessitating the independent landing of each unit on board, with its full manifest as it appears at the time of game commencement. So lock everything down tight and plan for an orbital combat drop. That means that we also have access to all the equipment on board with us, weapons, comms, vehicles and other gadgets we have brought along. The world that we are to land on is primitive in a sense. Over the course of its'' history, multiple civilizations have risen and been destroyed. Large numbers of ruins with tech ranging from archaic to theoretical sci-fi will be scattered in ruins all over the planet." As he explained multiple images and maps of the planet started to flash up on the display. "The populous is also going to be different, expect lots of fantasy tropes to appear. Elf-like beings, orcs, dwarves, and all manner of beast are supposed to be present. Language is also going to be a problem so make sure that the translators are primed with a full suite, we need the database they will provide ASAP, We also need as many eyes in the sky as possible, so stealth drones need to be prepared before we start playing." The room now contained a large number of smiles throughout. "We will be establishing a small outpost in a no-mans land located in a caldera about two hundred and fifty clicks from the nearest large settlement. This will allow us to maintain independence and also raise the security levels by making access far harder. We can also employe geothermal generators and kinetic generators in the geyser field, so power will not be a problem. The area should also be resource rich meaning that we could use the fabricators to replenish our stock of parts and necessities." The images changed to that of a forest surrounded by almost verticle cliffs, a slightly off-center lake, and a large geyser field just south of that. "We will set up our base here, security around the perimeter with drones and automated sentry guns, hominoid targets are designated for nanite tranquilizers, while anything that is big and nasty is designated for live fire high caliber HEAP rounds. deployment according to tact ten." Marcus pointed out positions at the map as he detailed the layout of the base and its'' defenses. "I want scans and toxicity reports on all flora and fauna as well as deeper scans to determine if there is any dormant activity or chance of us going sky high in our thousand year-long assignment. G.A.I.A said we should be fine, but this game is managed by a separate copy of herself, so there might be issues." An image with a web-like crisscrossing of lines was displayed before everyone as he spoke, highlighting particular areas or routes "After we are established and have ensured our basic levels of need are met we will be heading to the nearest large concentration of humanoids, to see about setting up cooperative relations. We will also be using the drones to scout for any remnants of ruins within the operational range. Let''s see if we can unearth some tech that no one has seen before, and maybe learn the history of the planet and its peoples while we are at it." The room was silent as Marcus looked around, everyone seemed tense, an air of excitement and anticipation pervaded. "Characters will have altered appearance, but otherwise will maintain all of the abilities of the player, so we have a massive head start on almost the entire population of the game. I expect everyone to utilize that advantage, as well as work at keeping it." His voice grew stern towards the end, broking no argument or retorts from any of the gathered members. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation."The main objective for the first five years will be getting established and ensuring that we are firmly entrenched and settled. This is going to be a long haul people, don''t expect the next few months to be easy just because we have an almost absolute advantage. I will not tolerate any complacency, death in this game is far harsher than in any other you might have played. There is revival, but the cost is a fifty year period where you will be locked out of the game, as well as a massive drop in all abilities, loss of all carried gear and finally a random spawn on the map. To put this into perspective for you all, the total surface area of the planet is almost five thousand times the size of earth. we won''t be measuring distances in any unit lower than a hundred when we start exploring. To give an example, the caldera that we are going to land in is the size of Yellow Stone national park, and the cliffs are as high as Everest back on Earth." The revelation caused many of the people in the room to fall into contemplative thought while others grimaced at the thought of dying. "You have all the information you need, now get to your jobs so that we can get started sooner rather than later," Marcus said as he closed down the display and sent orders to the comms of each squad member. Stasis Room STOWAC Unit ARK Andromeda; The room was packed with figures wearing a skintight black stasis suit. The suits showed off almost everything, being almost more erotic than nudity, highlighting certain areas in a silver trim. The figures all looked towards the door as it slid open silently. "Everyone is here and done with their jobs, so we can keep this short." The figure said in his signature flat tone. "Get in your pods and start the stasis process, I will wait till you are all in before following. Remember that we will all appear slightly different and will be in a Virtual Reality shared space on the first login. Once we are all assembled we will head through to one of our first perks, a villa located in its own subspace of the shared area, after that it will be character generation and adaptation while waiting for the game to launch. No slacking in the adaptation, a little birdie has told me that the faster you adapt and the better you do the more rewards you will get, so even when you finish the tests and training I expect everyone to do it until you can''t continue doing so. Dismissed and Godspeed." Finished his piece he stood in place and observed as the rest of his team got themselves into their pods and started the stasis program. Not long later after ensuring that everything was running smoothly and that there were no abnormalities with the pods he got into his own. "Hook us in G.A.I.A let see the universe you created," He said as he closed his eyes and the pod cover slid shut. Gaia Plaza, VR Shared Space; Fourteen pillars of light almost simultaneously appeared in a large plaza situated in a built-up metropolitan area, the scale was enormous, equivalent to central park in New York. The figures within the pillars of light slowly became distinct, before taking in their surroundings. "Looks like we are the first in, when was the boarding for normal passengers meant to be?" A large figure standing near to the center of the group asked. "Not till tomorrow, that''s why the boss had us lockdown the unit, too many people had a bone to pick with us, so he wants to ensure we are safe and squared away long before anyone else." A small female figure replied, just as another pillar of light descended among the group. "Good everyone is here. We are heading for the old Empire State building so form up." The figure said before heading in the direction he had indicated. The figures in the plaza followed his lead towards an enlarged version of the Empire State building in distance. The Skyscraper must have been almost three kilometers in height and one kilometer to a side, about ten times the size of the original. After the figures had disappeared into the distance a number of pillars of light flashed into existence within the plaza. Multiple groups of people, some as large as a hundred and some only two or three, looked around themselves before heading in different directions out of the plaza. Pent House, Empire State Building, VR Sub-space; As the group stepped out of the elevator, an expansive open space, opened before them. A large garden, designed to resemble that of European noble estates, spread out, leading up to a large Chateaux. "This is our home outside of the game for the trip. We can change it how we see fit by spending credits or utilizing currency earned in the game. We are lucky as we started off with a very generous signup bonus, granted by the Council and Military HQ, so we do not have to worry about being stuck with the current layout for a long time." The lead figure said as head walked towards the building at the end of the drive. "Take stock of the location and pick out rooms for yourselves, then get the armory and Ops rooms setup before meeting me for a brief meeting before we log in," he said as he walked through the door.