Shepherd's Crook: Omegaverse: Volume 2
Read Shepherd's Crook: Omegaverse: Volume 2 Online
Authors: G.R. Cooper
Tags: #Science Fiction, #LitRPG
Shepherd’s Crook
by G.R. Cooper
Copyright © 2015 G.R. Cooper
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.
Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.
The information in this book is distributed on an “as is” basis, without warranty. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
About the Cover
The photograph on the cover is from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft mission, showing Saturn, its rings and the moon Titan.
The photo was taken on May 6, 2012 when Cassini was about half a million miles away from Titan.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Usage of this photo for the cover in no way implies any endorsement of the product by NASA or any NASA employee.
Usage of this photo, however, definitely implies full endorsement of NASA and NASA employees by the author.
Support space research and exploration!
For my Mom.
Because she’ll kill me if I don’t!
Prolog
Charlottesville VA, USA
Duncan Sheriden walked down the brick pedestrian mall through the late summer evening, weaving his way through the crowds out enjoying the crisp September front that had just come through over the Blue Ridge mountains. Autumn would soon arrive, and this anomalous weather in the usually oppressive late summer heat would become the norm as the season turned the area into one of the most beautiful in the world. The lush green would, almost overnight, be replaced by an ardent splash of color as the leaves changed.
He arrived at a little brewpub, tucked into the corner of an alleyway, and looked through the window. His friends Matt, Vince and Clancey sat talking at the bar, while behind it Shannon poured drinks for them and the crowd of customers.
Duncan thought back over the past few weeks - to the series of events that had begun in this very bar. Over many nights of drinking, his friends had convinced him to purchase a virtual reality helmet and join them in the Omegaverse; an open world, science-fiction, massively multiplayer online game. Reluctantly, he finally had.
From the first, he had realized why they were so enthusiastic about it. He had not only been drawn in by the amazing realism of the experience, the camaraderie of sharing it with his friends had also captivated him. A loner by nature, he felt more at ease within the game world. Perhaps, he mused, the natural barrier of the computer interface placed enough distance between himself and everyone else that he could feel comfortable.
Then there had been his incredible, unbelievable, luck. From the start he had been showered with a wealth of fortune in the game. The first night, he had received a rare object - a ship-powered rail-gun mounted with a formidable scope - that he’d been able to auction off, within the game, for a literal fortune. That fortune he’d turned over into a top-of-the-line clipper ship, which he named Shepherd Moon, that allowed him to travel freely, to explore, and, most importantly, to mine and trade.
In addition to the rail-gun, he’d found an artifact - unique, as far as he knew - that allowed him to establish himself as the sole player to trade with a hostile alien race. A trade route that brought, so far, a constant and large increase in his wealth.
But all of that paled compared to his singular luck in finding, and claiming, an entire space station. He was still exploring the possibilities that provided; still trying to grasp the implications it brought.
All he knew about it, so far, was that it had provided him with a business partner. An Indian man named Phani. A good man, seemingly; conscientious, ambitious and smart. Duncan had no doubts about their partnership - it felt ‘right’, from the very beginning, when Duncan had saved Phani from attack by a privateer. As a result, Phani had entered into a deal with Duncan where the American purchased, through monthly payments, a very expensive terraforming kit.
The privateer, named Eric, captained his ship, the HMS Westy, with a force of iron will. He’d hunted Phani - driven by desperation to piracy - down, despite the man’s pleas. Duncan had no choice, he felt, but to save Phani; and to do that he’d had to reveal the secret of the space station, Shepherd’s Crook. A secret that he’d kept from the very friends who’d talked him into playing the game in the first place. The very friends he saw sitting, laughing, through the bar window.
Duncan turned, began walking back up the pedestrian mall, to return home. Alone.
Omegaverse Creative Design Document: Section V, part 1 (FTL - Introduction);
V.1. Faster than light travel
There are three distinct faster than light ship travel types in the game. The first, instantaneous, is limited to missions generated in mission control modules; they simply ‘arrive’ at the destination (whether on ground or in orbit) as soon as all players are ready.
The second two types, however, greatly affect gameplay, and each has subtle, but important, differences.
V.1.a. Interstellar Faster than light travel
Travel between star systems is restricted in that any ship leaving from or passing through a system must pass through the system’s jump point, if it has one. These jump points are placed (see Section IX, part 7 “The Interstellar Grid”) in a part of the star system deemed likely to see heavy traffic, as that system joins the Grid. Travel to a system off of the grid is an entirely different matter (see Section XII, “Exploration”)
Passing through the initial jump point on a journey begins an exponential increase in acceleration that, upon leaving the system’s gravity well (see Section XXIV, part 1 “Gravity Wells”) sees the speed above C begin to increase logarithmically (see Appendix E “FTL matrix”); thus the transit between systems is at a much higher velocity than intra-stellar FTL travel. Initial velocities, however, are much lower than an intra-stellar jump. Only after leaving the star system gravity well does the speed of an interstellar meet, then surpass, the speed of an intra-stellar jump.
Each system subsequently passed through acts as a slingshot effect. Dropping into, then back out of, each star’s gravity well serves to increase the exit velocity, up to the maximum (see Appendix E “FTL Matrix”).
These velocities cause another exponential increase; in the amount of tachyon emissions, detectable by specific sensors. (see Sections IX, part 3 “Tachyon emissions” and XVI, part 1 “Sensors; Passive; Tachyon”).
Note: Leaving from and passing through a given system at FTL speed requires passing through the jump point - arriving into the system, however, can be directed to any point within the star’s gravity well. If no destination is defined, however, the default will be that system’s jump point.
V.1.b. Intra-stellar Faster than light travel
Within a star system, faster than light travel is a constant (see Appendix E “FTL Matrix”). All ships travel at the same velocity. Over most distances within an intra-stellar jump, the time of flight is only a few seconds. Jumps of about an AU or less are instantaneous.
The main difference between Intra and Inter Stellar travel is that travel within a single star system does not require passage through the system jump point (if it exists - see Section IX, part 7 “The Interstellar Grid”).
Tachyon emissions are also vastly reduced, and are undetectable during intra-stellar FTL jumps (see Section ...
Chapter 1
Duncan Sheriden pushed his faceplate into the loose, black scree as he crawled his way up the hill toward the defensive position at the top. He paused behind a boulder, a large rock really, that he hoped would hide him, or at least cover him from the laser fire being poured downslope by the group of Arn at the crest.
“Are we having fun yet?” he asked, bringing up the tactical map that showed his position relative to the rest of his group. He was further along than any of the rest, he mused grimly. Were the rest using him as cannon-fodder; bait to draw the fire away from themselves?
If so, it wasn’t working. Most of the enemy fire seemed to be aimed at Pope, his friend Matt, further down the slope; also prone, but in a more exposed position.
“Hang on a sec,” Duncan radioed, then opened his backpack. He took out a small, baseball size object - a laser-refractor smoke grenade called a Snell grenade - and pulled the pin. Judging as best he could, he lobbed it toward Matt to provide his friend some cover. The grenade bounced close, then hit Matt in the head.
“Thanks,” laughed Matt, grabbing the grenade and tossing it a few feet upslope, between himself and the Arn. The grenade began belching smoke, hued green by the night vision filter Duncan was using. As the smoke enveloped Matt, Duncan saw that lasers fired into the cloud were being diffused and refracted by something - nobody understood the specific lost-tech responsible - that impregnated the smoke particles.
Matt was able to raise to his elbows and begin returning fire with his plasma rifle, through the cloud; as long as the smoke lasted he’d be relatively safe, his plasma bolts ripped through the refractive cloud without dispersing it. The Arn fire slackened as Matt’s accurate shots tore up the ground, the crest of the hill, in front of them.
Vince and Clancey each took the resulting opportunity to advance toward Duncan’s position, but the Arn quickly shifted to targeting them, forcing them to ground, perilously close to each other. Heavy laser fire tore into their position as they sought any cover they could find.
“Wait up,” said Shannon, over the radio, busy in the shuttle in orbit above their position. “I’ve got to recharge some shields.” Matt slowed his plasma fire, which also drew upon the conduit of power from the shuttle, to let Shannon focus more power on his friend’s shields, raising them more quickly.
Duncan peeked around the rock and noticed, for the first time, that all of the fire from the peak had been split between Vince, Clancey and Matt, which piqued his curiosity; none was directed at him. Then he realized why.
He rolled away, to the left, and slowly rose to a crouched position, testing his theory.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Clancey incredulously.
Without answering, Duncan rose fully, still untargeted, and continued making his way up and to the left, through the loose basalt, toward the right flank of the Arn position. As he began to approach the crest, its top silhouetted crisply in a halo of the Milky Way, undiffused and brilliant on this atmosphere-less planet, he could see the outline and movement of the four defenders, still spraying laser fire downhill toward his friends. He crept, as silently as he could, the last few meters, looking around to ensure that the four little green men at the top were the only ones around.