World Seed: Game Start (42 page)

Since
I was part of the engineering team, naturally I was told the basic
specs of the ship. At warp, moving two parsecs an hour, we’d
reach the enemy in fifteen minutes. If they also charged at us, it
could happen much faster. “Celeste?”

The
holographic woman appeared at my wrist, having been bored this entire
time I spent cultivating. “Looks like it’s showtime,
boss!” She grinned widely to me at a change in pace.

“
Please
don’t raise any death flags…”

Seeing
my suddenly depressed look, Celeste simply tilted her head in
confusion, not knowing what I was talking about. Meanwhile, I stuffed
the two seeds into my inventory, and quickly left my room. As I
mentioned earlier, my quarters were a very dangerous location once a
fight broke out. I had no idea the size of the enemy, or their
numbers, and I likely never would since my job did not require me to
head to the command deck. I had, however, memorized the layout of the
ship, and had Celeste display my sector as a map in my vision, ready
to highlight areas I needed to move to.

A
couple of minutes later, there was another brief intercom
announcement. “All hands, prepare to drop to sub-light to
engage. Security personnel prepare to receive boarding parties.”
I saw people all around pulling guns out of their inventory and
standing guard, looking around as if the enemy could appear from
anywhere. With a shrug, I also retrieved my pistol and beam saber
from my inventory.

A
moment after the announcement, there was the first bang echoing
through the hull of the ship to mark the start of the battle. “Damage
in sector eight. Power line rupture in ventilation duct B-2!” I
heard Chief’s voice coming in loud and clear through the
intercoms, likely having been sent directly to me, as that was my
sector. After the report was finished, Celeste marked the ventilation
duct on my holo-map, and I ran there as fast as I could. There were
several more crashes that rang out through the ship, but no other
damages appeared in my sector before I made it to the vent.

Looking
inside, I could see the ruptured power line, one half of it flailing
about wildly while sparks flew out. Reaching out with my magic, I
forced it to reconnect with its other half before holding it in place
and crawling in. Once I was close enough, I let out a thin stream of
flame from one of my fingers and welded it together. Not the best
fix, but it was a good rough patch. Afterwards, I removed myself from
the vent before anything else in there had the chance to break.

Another
loud crash rang out, this one much heavier than the previous ones.
Again, Chief’s voice sounded out. “Shields are at
critical. Damage to life support, power couplings, and weapons in
sector eight. Prioritize weapons for now! Head to corridor A-25 and
repair the panel near junction 16.” This time, three damages
appeared simultaneously in my area, and likewise another red dot
appeared on my map.

However,
things weren’t as easy right now, as the captain’s
following announcement made everyone take a step back to prepare
themselves. “Shields are down, prepare for boarding parties.”
Moments later, as I ran towards the location I was given, I could
hear sounds of battle echoing out from the halls behind me. They
couldn’t have already made it here, right? Did they teleport
in? That was my best guess, especially when someone appeared directly
in front of me.

The
enemy was a large creature whose body seemed composed of natural
armor. It had a long spined tail whipping behind it, an elongated
dome-shaped skull with no eyes, and thin arms. If not for the pistols
it was carrying, I’d think it was some monster out of a horror
movie. The moment it appeared, it turned towards me and aimed its
pistols, preparing to fire at the only target in immediate range.

“
Celeste!”
I called out to my companion as I raised my own pistol and beam
saber. I wasn’t using my Aura Sight this time, because I wanted
to fully focus on this fight. Celeste drew three trajectory lines
out, two in red from the enemy’s pistols, and one in green from
mine. Naturally, I did my best to contort my body to dodge the
enemy’s fire. However, I only managed to dodge one, using my
saber as a shield to attempt to deflect the second. Thankfully, that
seemed to work, and the laser bounced off my beam saber, instead
crashing into a wall.

Taking
advantage of the brief pause while the enemy was surprised, I lined
up my own shot at the creature’s thin leg, and fired twice in
rapid succession. Though the first shot alarmed it greatly, and made
it resume battle, the second crippled its leg and made it fall to the
ground. Even if that was the case, I was not daring to approach any
closer, for fear that it’s tail could be used to attack me. I
simply did my best to dodge the trajectory lines as they approached
over me again and again, blocking them with my saber when a complete
dodge became impossible.

I
should be thankful that he didn’t always fire when he thought
he had a shot, because it saved me a bit of trouble. However, after a
few moments of this exchange, he seemed to figure out I was tracking
his pistols and stopped firing altogether. Instead, he simply watched
me dance around to try to avoid the lines which could possibly spell
my death if he decided to pull the trigger. I’m sure this scene
would have been far more impressive if he had kept firing at me.

Since
he no longer paused to give me an opening, I had only managed to get
a single shot off, which seemed to have been harmlessly absorbed by
his natural armor. I would really love to copy that when I get the
chance…

My
biggest despair came when he threw aside his pistols, and leapt
towards me with his remaining limbs. His clawed hands were extended
forward, ready to rip my throat out, so I did the only thing I could.
Stop, drop, and roll under the crazy monster alien! When I passed
under it, I wildly swung out with my beam saber, and managed to hit
possibly the largest part of its body, severing roughly half of its
tail.

The
enemy let out a sharp hiss as its tail fell to the ground. Wait…
no it didn’t. The metal floor let out a hiss as it was corroded
away from the blood leaking out of the tail. The alien itself seemed
to entirely ignore what should have been excruciating pain. It let
out a series of clicks and clacks, likely its native language, before
it leapt at me again. Unload into its face! That one thought
resounded in my head, knowing that diving under it wouldn’t
work twice.

I
wasted no time in lining up the shot and firing as many times as I
could, which was maybe three before it reached me and I began
flailing my beam saber. Although it was annoyed by this, it merely
shoved me aside as it dove past, grabbing its pistols and vanishing
as quickly as it had arrived. I looked down to the melted away parts
of the floor, and shuddered, being thankful that I had not been the
one hit by its blood.

“
Dammit,
we’re being overrun. Everyone, get to the nearest escape pods!”
This time, the panicked voice came from the captain of the ship, and
my holo-map changed immediately to show me where to go next. There
was an escape pod near the damaged section I was running towards, so
I simply kept my current course.

I
was surprised by the lack of people I saw on my way to the escape
pod, though there were many signs of battles being fought. Scorch
marks lined the walls, with intermittent sections of melted floors. I
could even hear a chittering sound coming from all around me that
scared me out of my wits. If it was possible for me to hide in my
grove, that’s exactly where I’d be right now.

Upon
reaching the escape pod, I found that I was the only one arriving to
this one, likely meaning I was the only one alive close enough to
come here. Using my Void Manipulation, I jumped into the pod and made
it into a void zone in the hopes that they wouldn’t be able to
teleport in as I hit the launch button. It was only at this point
that I saw the scale of the enemy. What I had assumed to be a half
dozen medium sized ships, possibly accompanied by a cruiser, was
instead a massive force that looked more like it was preparing for
war. Of the smaller ships, the fighters, there were too many to
count(341, Celeste helped). There were also a dozen other ships the
size of the Nostromo, and a single massive one that was at least
three times as big. All of the ships had similar designs to the alien
I had seen, with the same organic armor.

I
watched as over a dozen escape pods were jettisoned from the
Nostromo, all heading in random directions. Some had fighters
pursuing them, likely indicating they were key targets, while others
like myself were completely ignored. After a few moments of watching
the ship sitting in eerie silence while the enemy raiding party…
no, raiding army seemed to make no action, a computerized voice
sounded out in the escape pod. “Plotting course to nearest
planetoid. Initiating distress beacon. Estimated time of arrival, two
hours. Estimated time of rescue, unknown.”

Chapter 38:
Welcome to the Jungle

I
had two hours until I landed on an unknown world just beyond the edge
of wood elf space. So what did I do? Well, first of all I gave myself
a last name! Now that I knew I wasn’t able to introduce myself
in the game with my real name even if I wanted to, I at least wanted
to have the same last name. That way, if need be, I can just call
myself Mr. Hulett.

I
also took a moment to spend my five points from leveling up on
increasing my intelligence again, because I definitely needed more
mana if I wanted to pursue the path of a Xeno-Shifter. By my basic
estimates, an average animal like a wolf would take just over four
hundred mana to transform into. Taking into account the shift in
complexity and mana density, a magical beast should take around eight
hundred. With the same standard applied again, a monster would need
at least a thousand.

The
idea that a simple slime would take a thousand mana to turn into
annoyed me, but I was probably assuming a bit much. Naturally, some
monsters would be less complex than others, such as slimes. That
problem was sentient creatures. I had no idea the mana cost necessary
to turn into a sentient, as they could technically be evolved forms
of either an animal, magical animal, or monster. Either way, this is
what my stats looked like now.