Read Online Multiplayer by John C. Brewer - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: John C. Brewer
Tags: thriller, Science-Fiction, Young Adult, Terrorism, racism, Virtual reality, iran, Reality, Iraq, singularity, videogame, MMORPG, MMOG
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done his job. He glanced over to C0L0N3L W35T in cryo and wished the vanguard could join them.
“Let’s go teach those mutated creeps a lesson,” came a voice, and Izaak looked over to see a massive merc in the slipgate, toting an equally massive chain gun. An auto-cannon and plasmace were slung across his back. Deion always made Hector feel better.
Moments later they slipped in at the same place at the base of the mountains. But this time they knew what was coming, they had decent characters, and Izaak didn’t stare nostalgically out to sea. Plus, Hector had queued up his favorite slaying tunes. But this was a thork brood pit like they had never encountered. Despite Darxhan’s chain gun and Izaak’s shotgun, and one grenade after another, the creatures kept boiling out of a nearby cave entrance like evil Energizer-bunnies.
They came in all shapes and sizes. From tiny rat-like creatures that attacked legs with pitchforks, to massive minotaur-like bull-thorks wielding maces. Their attacks were uncoordinated and direct but the sheer numbers were beginning to wear down Izaak’s shields. Even the big merc absorbed a blow or two. The first song played through and they were halfway into the second when Darxhan cried, “What the crap! I’ll be out of ammo before this song’s over!”
“Bounce!” Izaak cried, and each tossed a nano-smoke grenade then turned and lumbered down the mountain as quickly as possible toward the ruins at the foot of the hill.
“We ought to be able to lose them in here!” said Izaak, darting into the crumbling outskirts on the north side of Alanya. But it wasn’t like the Alanya he remembered. The real Alanya was filled with crisp hotels and condominiums, exclusive restaurants and clubs, and open-air cafes spilling over with vacationers, families, and townspeople in a perpetual carnival atmosphere. This one was empty and in ruins. Around them were crumbling buildings and derelict cars and machines, all abandoned during the Omega Wars. But the thorks were still snapping at their heels and their numbers had swelled; dozens now, all pursuing them with but a single motive.
“Scarobs!” said Darxhan, before they’d gone a block. “All we need!”
Just ahead a swarm of the man-sized, wasp-like creatures were crawling over an old sports car on segmented limbs, cutting through metal body panels with their plasma torches to get at the tech inside. If thorks were the ubiquitous nuisance monsters of Omega Wars , scavenger robots were the cockroaches. Six foot-tall, carbon-fiber and titanium cockroaches that could burn through armor in seconds.
Izaak tossed his last smoke grenade into the swarm. Their waist-mounted fans roared to life and the scarobs, with their hive-mind, simultaneously lifted into the air with a drone like a squadron of B-17s. In an instant, Izaak and Darxhan were surrounded in a matrix of spinning, razor-sharp wings. Darxhan’s chain gun was useless against them and his plasmace far too cumbersome. Izaak’s shotgun and arc sword were effective, but the semi-intelligent automatons soon learned to avoid them. They kept landing on Darxhan’s back and arcing into his armor and Izaak had to whack them off, at which point he exposed his own back. The only thing keeping them from being overrun was the viscous smoke, and it was beginning to clear. More scarobs swarmed in around them, when the thorks blundered in, snapping and snarling.
Back to back, Izaak and Darxhan fought off wave after wave as their shields dropped and their ammo dwindled. Thorks and scarobs piled up around them. Before long Darxhan had to drop his chain gun and move to his autocannon which was even less effective against the scarobs. Izaak ran out of shotgun shells and switched to his pistol.
“We’re going to die here!” cried Darxhan, as another scarob tried to breach his armor.
Izaak knocked it away at the last second as Darxhan targeted and destroyed a thork rushing up at them. “Sorry I brought you
“Let’s go teach those mutated creeps a lesson,” came a voice, and Izaak looked over to see a massive merc in the slipgate, toting an equally massive chain gun. An auto-cannon and plasmace were slung across his back. Deion always made Hector feel better.
Moments later they slipped in at the same place at the base of the mountains. But this time they knew what was coming, they had decent characters, and Izaak didn’t stare nostalgically out to sea. Plus, Hector had queued up his favorite slaying tunes. But this was a thork brood pit like they had never encountered. Despite Darxhan’s chain gun and Izaak’s shotgun, and one grenade after another, the creatures kept boiling out of a nearby cave entrance like evil Energizer-bunnies.
They came in all shapes and sizes. From tiny rat-like creatures that attacked legs with pitchforks, to massive minotaur-like bull-thorks wielding maces. Their attacks were uncoordinated and direct but the sheer numbers were beginning to wear down Izaak’s shields. Even the big merc absorbed a blow or two. The first song played through and they were halfway into the second when Darxhan cried, “What the crap! I’ll be out of ammo before this song’s over!”
“Bounce!” Izaak cried, and each tossed a nano-smoke grenade then turned and lumbered down the mountain as quickly as possible toward the ruins at the foot of the hill.
“We ought to be able to lose them in here!” said Izaak, darting into the crumbling outskirts on the north side of Alanya. But it wasn’t like the Alanya he remembered. The real Alanya was filled with crisp hotels and condominiums, exclusive restaurants and clubs, and open-air cafes spilling over with vacationers, families, and townspeople in a perpetual carnival atmosphere. This one was empty and in ruins. Around them were crumbling buildings and derelict cars and machines, all abandoned during the Omega Wars. But the thorks were still snapping at their heels and their numbers had swelled; dozens now, all pursuing them with but a single motive.
“Scarobs!” said Darxhan, before they’d gone a block. “All we need!”
Just ahead a swarm of the man-sized, wasp-like creatures were crawling over an old sports car on segmented limbs, cutting through metal body panels with their plasma torches to get at the tech inside. If thorks were the ubiquitous nuisance monsters of Omega Wars , scavenger robots were the cockroaches. Six foot-tall, carbon-fiber and titanium cockroaches that could burn through armor in seconds.
Izaak tossed his last smoke grenade into the swarm. Their waist-mounted fans roared to life and the scarobs, with their hive-mind, simultaneously lifted into the air with a drone like a squadron of B-17s. In an instant, Izaak and Darxhan were surrounded in a matrix of spinning, razor-sharp wings. Darxhan’s chain gun was useless against them and his plasmace far too cumbersome. Izaak’s shotgun and arc sword were effective, but the semi-intelligent automatons soon learned to avoid them. They kept landing on Darxhan’s back and arcing into his armor and Izaak had to whack them off, at which point he exposed his own back. The only thing keeping them from being overrun was the viscous smoke, and it was beginning to clear. More scarobs swarmed in around them, when the thorks blundered in, snapping and snarling.
Back to back, Izaak and Darxhan fought off wave after wave as their shields dropped and their ammo dwindled. Thorks and scarobs piled up around them. Before long Darxhan had to drop his chain gun and move to his autocannon which was even less effective against the scarobs. Izaak ran out of shotgun shells and switched to his pistol.
“We’re going to die here!” cried Darxhan, as another scarob tried to breach his armor.
Izaak knocked it away at the last second as Darxhan targeted and destroyed a thork rushing up at them. “Sorry I brought you
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