Chapter 1

Warfare Online!

Star ducked behind cover as several explosions went of near his position. The dying screams of men and women from both sides of the war sounding in the distance as he psyched himself up to make the run across two hundred yards of no-mans land between his position and the enemy bunker from which he heard the steady and heavy thumps of a thirty mil cannon firing repeatedly at his men, along with the rapid sound of a fifty cal machine gun firing intermittently.

“What’s the plan?” Star heard his longtime friend Geoffrey call through his headset.

Star looked the no-mans land over carefully barely peeking his head out from the low concrete wall that was serving as his cover. His mini map indicator showed that his entire squad was set up to storm towards the bunker from multiple angles. He looked over his inventory for anything that might help in this situation. It was times like these that Star was glad he was a premium player in this game. His inventory was maxed out, he had infinite ammo, and every type of grenade, at least here in free play, infinite medpacks, infinite MRE’s and a canteen that never went dry. After having been playing for five years Star had seen this situation from both sides of this very same battle dozens of times, and he knew exactly what to do.

Selecting his smoke grenades Star issued an order to his squad, “On my mark, throw as many smoke grenades as possible, wait for fifteen seconds, then charge.” He practically yelled before counting down, “Three... Two... One... Mark!!” And he lobbed his double fisted smoke grenades out into the no-mans land. Then he waited.

At the fifteen second mark he leaped over the concrete wall and began sprinting into the smoke curtain that the thirty plus grenades had laid out for his squad. With all of his stats maxed out Star was not concerned that he would run out of stamina before he reached the bunker, even at full speed. Most of his squad were just rando’s and would not have the same advantages, but Geoffrey was close to his equal and together they had faced much worse than this concrete bunker. Hopefully he would avoid being hit by a lucky shot from the defenders. Being shot and killed in Warfare Online sucked. The company prided itself on the realistic feel and flavor of everything within the game. The number of wavers and papers that needed to be signed just to play the game to protect the company from everyone who entered and were such pussies that they got PTSD from the game had almost turned him away from it years ago. Sure Star did hate dying in the game, but he would never shy away from the challenges and pain that one needed to experience to win. Besides in free play it was a given that he was going to end up dying at least once to take over the point. So Star charged fearlessly forward.

Star’s maxed out character stats were beyond what a human could actually hope to accomplish without some serious cybernetic upgrades. He could run a mile and a half in three minutes with this body, and that was without him even trying hard. If he pushed it to the max he would be fully capable of running that distance in two minutes. So needless to say, the two hundred or so yards across the no-mans land melted away and Star quickly found himself leaping over the last bit of fortifications and into the trench that led to the bunkers entrance.

The second he landed in the trench Star pulled out his dessert eagle and unloaded an entire magazine into one of the defenders, then threw the gun for all he was worth at another farther down the line. Killing them both in as many seconds. Star whipped his M-4 around his body and charged at the bunker door. Not slowing at all, Star shoulder checked the door and it blew inward. He heard a satisfying crunch as the door was ripped from its hinges and crushed the player who had been behind it. Without pausing and without hesitation Star dove around the corner and into the fortified room where these people were holding his army off from and began firing.

The firefight was epic and Star managed to take ten people down with his opening salvo before he took several rounds to the chest. The pain was extreme, and the darkness that was overcoming his vision was as terrifying as always but Star managed to reach down and extract his WARPAD from a pocket and saw the killstreak counter. He smiled as he called in the Drone Strike on his location and flipped off the remaining enemies before one of them placed a rifle to his head and pulled the trigger.