The sensation of waking up in a digital world was still disorienting. The beeping of the medical equipment in his room was gone, instead replaced by what sounded like a warning klaxon. He opened his eyes, seeing the inside of the flightdeck, more of a flightdesk, as it was just the chair he was floating above, and a two foot console of buttons, switches, and screens, with a lever and what looked like a joy-stick on the outsides. The screens were all flashing an angry red, pulsing in time with the klaxon that was screaming throughout the ship.

He noticed a crack that moved with his head, but stayed still if he just moved his eyes. A moment was all it took for him to realize that he was wearing a helmet, and the visor was cracked. Logan sighed in frustration, as he didn’t see anything about this in any of the articles or videos he watched.

A voice spoke through the cacophony that was the inside of the ship. It sounded like it wasn’t coming from inside the ship, but the inside of his suit itself.

“Welcome to your brand new B-Safe brand space suit! Please register your name in the suit, and it will take a scan to make sure that you’re recognized by all of the systems integrated with the suit!”

A dark green screen popped into existence in the visor of his helmet. The light green words simply asking him to ‘Please enter name.’ He thought for a moment, but since this was to be his new world, he didn’t want a name that would scream gaming culture, so he just entered Logan.

“Thank you for registering your new B-Safe brand suit! It looks like it took some damage, but don’t worry! We have a tutorial for how to use the resources around you to initiate the self-repair protocol that every, and I mean every, B-Safe product contains!”

Logan looked around, seeing the B-Safe brand name on the individual pieces of his suit, and the brand repeated on almost every surface of the ship, but it was significantly more faded than the ones on the suit. The voice came again, but this time it was coming from the ships speakers.

“Welcome to your brand new B-Safe brand star ship! Your registration has been accepted from your suit! Uh-oh, it looks like your new ship has been damaged! A brief scan of your cargo hold shows that you have the resources to be able to initiate self-repair protocol! Would you like a tutorial on how to do this?”

He was getting tired of the happy, slightly tinny voice screaming at him, but he needed to know how to fix things if it came down to it. “Sure. Please play the tutorial on how to initiate self-repair protocol on the ship.”

“You got it! Initiating tutorial now!” A brief flash of white on the screen of the console, and it showed him tapping one of the buttons on the console. The screen then went back to the pulsing red light that he awoke to.

“Really? A single button requires a whole tutorial?” A frustrated sigh escaped him, as he leaned forward and pressed the button he was shown. The lights and warning klaxon shut off, leaving him in the dark, able to fully appreciate the view of the stars beyond the view port. Nebulae colored the pitch black expanse, while the ship slowly turned and a star came into view off the left side of the ship. The viewport darkened in response to the raw UV light to protect him, but he had to shield his face with his hand anyway, because it was just that bright. He saw three planets nearby, his pulse quickening with excitement, the desire to get the ship fixed and to fly straight to the nearest one making him impatient as he waited in the dark.

The lights flickered for a few seconds before coming back to life, but a nice soft white instead of the pulsing angry red. His console screen now showed a small 3D image of the ship and a few large round shapes with lines leading above and below. He figured those might be the planets nearby, as the positions looked about right in relation to where the ship was.

“Good news, the B-Safe brand star ship has fully repaired itself! Bad news; you’re about to be attacked by a small shuttle! You’re equipped with a small short range blaster that is controlled by the button on your joystick, and I’ll add an aiming reticle to your viewport!” The happy voice was beginning to grate on Logan’s nerves. Happy and cheerful, even when he was being told that he was being attacked. He didn’t even know how to fly the ship yet!

He grabbed the throttle and joystick, hoping they worked like he thought they would, and pressed the throttle lightly forward, giving a gentle hum throughout the ship while it crawled forward. He assumed it was a crawl, because without a good frame of reference, he had no idea how fast he was really going. The screen said he was moving at 10 units per second, but that didn’t mean much since the units were undefined. He pushed farther, getting pulled back into the chair from the momentum shift and teased the joystick to the left, which changed the angle the nose was pointing slightly. He was able to practice for a few minutes, getting used to the controls and how intuitive they were. He still didn’t know what half of the buttons on the console did, but he would figure it out in time.

The gentle white lights gave way to the angry red pulse as an arrow showed up in the viewport glass, pointing off to the right of the ship. He turned and the small shuttle came into view, the arrow changing into a box around the ship that was speeding toward him. One of the sides of the shuttle flashed, and the light sped to his ship and smashed into the side. A single warning sounded to indicate the hit. He saw the shuttle flash again, and tried to evade, pulling the joystick hard to the side.

He didn’t hear a warning sound, so he figured he avoided the shot this time. The problem became very clear, though; he couldn’t see the shuttle anymore. He turned around toward it again, slowing down to turn more quickly, and when he spotted it again, it was already firing again.

“You’re not the only one with a gun!” Logan screamed as he jammed his thumb onto the button on top of the joystick. A solid Whump sounded through the ship, and a streak of light sped past the shuttle. It took a moment to realize that while the red box was on the shuttle, the reticle in the center of his viewport was about three inches to the left. As he was slapping the forehead of his helmet, another warning sounded, telling him he’d been hit. The shuttle sped past him, and he quickly slowed down and turned around trying to maneuver to catch up to his enemy.

Taking care to put the red box over the reticle this time, he aimed and gently pressed the button. The whump sounded once more, and the light struck the shuttle on the right side of its engines. It didn’t seem to be a kill shot, but he was going to have to get used to this somehow.

Or so he thought, as a large blast came from above the shuttle and destroyed it completely. He had to quickly slow down before racing into the debris field that used to be the one other thing he knew in this crazy space adventure so far. Angling his ship upward, he saw five ships in a V-formation, looking very impressive and shiny. Each one was different, sporting different brand logos, while one of them was the same as his ship. The thing that stood out to him was that each had the same symbol on the left side, with the words Dust Haven Free States emblazoned underneath.

A voice crackled through his ship speakers, “Well now, it’s a good thing we showed up when we did. Looked like the new guy might have been having some problems!” It sounded like a younger guy, cocky and full of bravado which was accentuated by the slight Southern drawl that came through.

“Hey now, I just got here. Gotta learn how to fight my own battles somehow, don’t I?” Logan replied, a little annoyed that his first kill was stolen from him by another player. He noticed that the ships didn’t stay in formation now that the threat was gone. They started to circle his ship, making him feel like he was in a row boat with sharks around him.

“That’s not a very gracious reply to the one who just saved you. What do you think, boys? Should we press him into service, for the glory of the Free States?” He didn’t seem like he was actually asking questions, but the malicious intent spilled into the laughter Logan heard from the five different voices on the channel. “New guy! Here’s the thing; you’re in our territory, and you’re in violation of having weapons without a permit. The punishment for that is your ship being taken for the fleet, and your service on the front lines of our fights.”

Logan growled to himself, angry at the situation. How could he have known any of that? How could he start in territory where he would be imprisoned or enslaved the moment he fought back when attacked?

“Computer,” Logan spoke. “Is there a way to warp or jump away from here?”

“Absolutely! Your B-Safe brand star ship is equipped with the minimum standard for interstellar travel, and all ships are required to have an emergency beacon jump feature! Unfortunately it looks like your emergency beacon is still located on the ship, so you won’t be able to travel to anywhere specific, if you do happen to travel at all!” The console screen showed him what button to press to drop the beacon, and the button to travel back to it.

Logan looked out at the ship that stayed in his view, red box around it as the ship took his intent into consideration of what was or wasn’t an enemy. The ship had two wings that split into four points, with a long pointed nose. He could see the four guns on the sides, and thought he could almost see a few missiles hidden in the shadows under the wings. He didn’t want to give up his ship when he just started flying. He wanted a fun space opera adventure, damn it!

Anger started to build in his mind. He lost his life and he didn’t know how. He lost four years to the darkness. He was given a chance to live again, and it was being taken away from him as well. The warning of being hit sounded, telling him he’d been shot. Probably to emphasize the position he was in. Five against one wasn’t good odds, especially when he just started and hadn’t been able to even explore the system menu properly! He saw the flash this time, before the warning sounded. The lights in the cabin darkening and returning to the pulsing red, mirroring his anger.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Logan growled.

“You don’t understand yet, but you will. You’re new, which means you haven’t been taught how to place a beacon. That means you can’t jump from here, and those B-Safe ships are garbage, so you can’t outrun us. You’re screwed, and either you give us what we want, or we blast you until you respawn, and then we do it again and again. Eventually you’ll either give up and hand over your ship, or you’ll just quit the game, which works for us, because this is our area, and we’re not looking forward to more competition for the dungeons in the area.”

There it was, explained directly to him. Submit or die. Again and again. He couldn’t quit, or he’d be giving up his new life. He wanted nothing more than to get away, but the leader of the Free States squad explained why that wouldn’t work.

“Fine, but I have to do one thing before I can hand everything over,” Logan responded, trying his best to sound completely and utterly defeated.

“Hey, that’s fine. Do what you need to. Cry a bit, say a prayer, whatever. We just need to go in five minutes,” the leader replied, sounding every bit as assured of himself as Logan expected. He eyed the console controls, the buttons lit up on the surface.

Logan pressed the Emergency Beacon Warp button.

At first, nothing happened. Then, slowly, space began to shift and warp around his ship. As slow as it started, it almost instantly became a field of blue and white swirls, completely blocking his view of the ships, the stars, or the planets he was near.

“Activated the Emergency Beacon Warp! Your beacon was unbound, but it seems that you’re going somewhere anyway!” The ship’s computer happily announced. All at once, the blue and white light disappeared, bringing a large planet into view. The console told him that he was moving at 100,000 units per second, which seemed excessively fast, and when he grabbed the controls to try to slow himself down or to try to turn away from the planet that was rapidly filling his view, nothing happened. He figured that the last few shots broke his ability to navigate his own ship, and now he was stuck inside as the atmosphere burned around him, telling of his impending doom.

The seconds passed by, as the ground came closer and closer to his view. He closed his eyes in preparation for the impact. He wasn’t even awarethat anything had happened until he peeked an eye open, and the only thing he saw was darkness with a screen in front of him.

You are Dead

Respawn in [1] Real World Hour(s)