Chapter 51

The Escape

17:46 Ship Time

“Me?”

“You,” she nodded. “I was expecting you to log back in sooner, but it is understandable with how time works in-game. Please, come in.”

She turned and led us to what looked like her office. She bid us to sit and then she walked around the very nice wooden desk and sat down herself.

“Thauro said that you had an opportunity for Retsas, and if Olnain is here then it must be important.”

“One of my friends saw the notice that Olnain was looking for brass to make shell casings. We were making over to the foundry when we ... stumbled over a large amount of brass ingots.”

“Twelve and a quarter tons, to be precise,” Olnain said.

Araku’s eyebrows rose briefly, before falling back down. “You coming to me means that you need transportation, which, in turn, means that you’re here to negotiate.”

Nodding, I turned to look at Olnain. “How many casings do you get out of a pound of brass?”

“It depends on the caliber of the bullet. For smaller rounds, like the ones for your pistol, about one hundred or so. For higher caliber rounds, like the ones used in the fixed guns up on the wall, only thirty.”

“Alright, so we’ll average that out to about sixty-five shell casings per pound of brass,” I said, getting a nod out of Olnain before turning back to Araku. We’ll give you all eighteen hundred brass bars we found, which would be how many rounds, Ben?”

“Roughly one million seven hundred fifty thousand, give or take a few thousand.”

“And in return?” Araku asked.

“I’m sure Olnain can determine how much that much brass would be worth. We want thirty percent of the total value in credits and another thirty percent of the total value in barter tokens, both to be delivered back to our base before we give you the location.”

“Say I agree to your terms, what is stopping you from taking the credits and tokens and not following through?”

“That’s obvious, isn’t it?” Ben said. “Just kill the two of us and then position some snipers so they can see the entrance to our base. We’d be stuck there, forced to either wait it out or delete our characters and restart. Our friends would still be out there, but they wouldn’t be able to come back to Retsas or go back to the base. That would give you time to scour the area looking for the ingots. You’d find them, eventually.”

“True,” she nodded. “Alright, I accept. On two conditions. The first is that after receiving payment you lead a few of my men, along with a radio, to the location of the brass bars. If this isn’t some elaborate ruse, then they will radio back and we’ll mobilize.”

“Fair enough. And the second condition?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“You explain to me how you, as humans, have access to The Escape when your planet isn’t technologically advanced enough to travel through your own system yet.”

“If you know that we’re humans then that tells me you did your research and have the answer already. What’s your interest, anyways?”

“I’m just a curious person,” she replied, though I couldn’t tell if that was the truth or a lie. “So it’s true. Scyftans are on Earth and at least some of the population knows about them. Interesting. Okay, you have a deal. Olnain, do you have the numbers yet so we can get this thing started?”

He nodded. “Nine credits per pound of brass ends up being around seventy three thousand credits. As for the barter tokens, last time I checked we were valuing them at around fifty-seven credits each. Dividing seventy-three thousand by fifty-seven should be somewhere around twelve hundred seventy.”

“Twelve hundred eighty,” Ben corrected.

“Twelve hundred eighty, then,” Olnain said.

“I’m assuming that you’ve got flare guns?” I asked, looking at Olnain. “We’ll need two of those as well.”

“For?” Araku asked.

“We don’t have a radio, so we can’t contact our friends to let them know that you’ve accepted. If a convoy of vehicles approaches without us letting them know, they’re likely to start shooting as soon as they’re able. We need to fire one off here, and then another one later on.”

“Olnain, go grab a flare gun, and get geared up. You’ll be going with them to verify that it is eighteen hundred ingots of brass and not some other metal,” Araku said before turning to Zagred. “Tell Zejat to get the Draxogo ready to move. You two come with me. We’ll need to head to the bank to get that much credits and barter tokens. There is nowhere else in town that carries that much of either at once.”

The bank was one of those small-time banks you might see in a rural town, being a relatively small building, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t protected. There were steel bars over all of the windows, and there were also a couple of heavily-armed guards inside. It was a little bit weird that we didn’t have to hand over our weapons, but we had much less firepower than Araku and her guards did.

Araku just walked up to the counter, which was separated by what looked like bullet-proof glass, and had the teller gather the credits and barter tokens. There were no questions asked whatsoever, the teller just nodded and turned to get them. While she was gone, Araku turned to Ben and I.

“You could open up an account here, if you wanted. It would greatly reduce the risk of carrying a large amount of credits or barter tokens around.”

It would definitely be very nice.

“What’s that entail?”

“Well, since there is a high risk of dying when you’re outside of the town, there is only one practical way to keep money secure. Whenever an account is open, we take a picture and assign the account a password. Only someone who provides the correct password and matches the photo we have on record would be able to access the account.”

“What do you think? Fifteen, twenty?” I asked, looking at Ben.

“With Mason?” he scoffed. “Double it, at minimum.”

“You’re right,” I chuckled and turned back to Araku. “We’ll do that.”

As soon as the teller got back with everything, Araku had the woman open an account for us. All five of us would be able to access the account, thankfully, but Mason and the girls would need to come back to have their pictures taken and so they could have their own password assigned. The process was relatively quick. After leading us into a side room, the Kobaloi woman, named Melni, had us stand up against the wall one at a time and snapped a quick picture of us both and made sure everything was set up on the computer.

After two minutes or so, she grabbed two small pieces of paper and wrote down our respective passwords. She handed them to us, suggesting that we memorize them and then burn the pieces of paper, before leading us back out to the front where Araku, Qish and Zagred were waiting. The latter of which was back from the tasks Araku had given him and carried an extra radio.

We ended up depositing thirty percent of both the credits and the barter tokens before putting the rest into two separate metal cases. With everything squared away Araku led us back outside.

Both Ben and I stopped upon seeing what was waiting on the street. It was a massive armored vehicle, though it didn’t look like it started out that way. In fact, it looked like a box truck, though a heavily modified one at that.

It was hard to tell how many wheels it had since there was metal skirting that stopped only a few inches off the ground, but it seemed like there were three wheels per side. Everything was armored on it, including the windshield which was little more than slats of steel affixed at an angle, which would deflect the vast majority of weapons fire from the front. There was also a cowcatcher attached to the front, similar to one you would find on a train. Just in case there was something that needed to be driven through.

It certainly seemed like it was built to punch through roadblocks or even buildings if the situation demanded it, having a pretty hefty ram bar affixed to the front of it as well. The back of the truck was retangular, like a box truck, but one that had a heavy machine gun affixed to the top, similar to something you would see on a humvee or lightly armored vehicle.

The backdoors were open and, because the vehicle was so tall, there was actually a ramp that extended down to the ground. At the base of that ramp, Olnain, Thauro and another man were waiting. This man was clearly a Saurian, sporting a long tail, not dissimilar to that of a crocodile, while also having a long maw and some very deadly-looking teeth. He also had a scar that ran diagonally across his left eye, though whatever had caused it didn’t seem to have hit the eye itself.

“What’d you call it? The Draxago?” I asked.

“That’s right,” she replied. “We named it after an animal native to the Ork homeworld. It is a big, heavy four-legged animal that has an incredibly well armored skull. One can go through walls or knock down trees with ease.”

“It definitely looks like it can do that.”

“That it can,” she nodded before walking to the rear of the vehicle.

“This is Horr,” Araku said, gesturing to the Saurian. “He’s the leader of the team that will be accompanying you. He and his team will make sure that you get back to your base safely and will make sure that the location where the ingots are is secure before the rest of us arrive. John, you’ll ride in the front so you can give Zejat directions both to your base and to the brass. Everyone else will ride in the back.”

I nodded and turned to Onlain. “Do you have something for me?”

He handed over the flare gun and two flares. I quickly loaded one of the flares, aimed straight up and fired it.

“Alright, good to go,” I said, loading in the second flare but not firing it quite yet.

Araku didn’t have anything else to say, so she let us climb in and get underway. The driver, as it turned out, was another one of those cyclops-looking guys, though I had no idea how he was seeing where he was going. Because of the angle of the slats and the height we were at there was some visibility, but that extended maybe twenty feet. If that.

“How are you able to tell where you’re going, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“You don’t know?” he asked in return as we exited the southern entrance. “Eye this big isn’t just for show. Kukawu have ability to see through material. For me, there no impediment.”

“Oh. So that’s why Thauro looked me up and down a few times?”

“Make sure you not have any bombs. Araku enemies try kill her many times. None get past the Kukaku,” he said, puffing his chest out a little bit.

“So how far can you see through things?”

“Not far, only few feet. Not through all material, either. Some block vision.”

I nodded and we made the rest of the first leg of the trip in relative silence. I only told him where to turn and where to stop, but otherwise he didn’t speak much. It was rather comical seeing a car go flying through the air at one point. Rather than go around it, Zejat just went right through it.

Once we arrived, Horr and his team got out and secured the area. That only took a moment, and then Ben and I were allowed out of the vehicle. It didn’t take long to store the credits and the barter tokens. We weren’t worried about someone entering our base and stealing them, because that was quite literally impossible. After setting them in the chest that our gear was in when we started playing, we exited and climbed back into the truck.

Before closing the door, I pulled out the other flair gun and fired it into the air. It was something that Mason thought up while I was switching to my old gear. The first flare would signify that we had made it safe and Araku agreed to our terms, while the second would signify that we had dropped off the credits and barter tokens at our base and were enroute to the factory.

Zejat knew the area pretty well, so I didn’t have to give him too many directions. I did suggest that he drive through the field and knock down the wall for easier access, but he said that that would just make everyone more susceptible to sniper fire. He drove through the industrial center without a care in the world, knocking cars all over the place before stopping at the building I had pointed out to him.

Horr and his team got out once again, making sure that no one was in the area before letting the rest of us out of the truck. They waited inside the entrance while Ben and I got Mason and the girls, just so there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings, before following us further into the building. Horr ended up following us, but the rest of the five men he brought with him into the building spread out, making sure it was clear.

Onlain gave the first two crates a cursory glance before he turned to look inside of the third. Whistling, he walked over and actually tried to move the crate before examining the ingots. When he was satisfied he turned to Thauro.

“It’s brass alright,” he said. “Enough to keep us well stocked for quite a while.”

Thauro walked over to the crate and bent down, looking pretty funny just looking at the outside of the wooden crate. A moment later, he stood back up.

“Completely full too. No bombs.”

Horr immediately used his radio to report back to Araku, who ended up responding herself. After Horr gave the coordinates to our location, Araku immediately burst into laughter.

“How in the twelve hells did no one find those sooner?” she asked over the radio, still chuckling.

“We have no idea,” I replied. “The only reason we found it is that one of my friends spotted a guy on the roof of the building. We found the crates as we were clearing it.”

“Did you say crates? I thought there was only one.”

“Of brass, there is. The other two contain some sort of equipment parts, either for machines here or whatever was being manufactured.”

“Ah, likely junk then. Either way, when the team gets there have them load one of those parts onto the vehicle and then close them back up, Onlain. Someone might know what they’re for. Who knows, they could be something useful.”

We were only a few minutes away, so it didn’t take long at all for the convoy to show up. It contained two vehicles almost identical to the Draxago, as well as a truck with a trailer in the middle. Horr immediately went out and had the men in each of the trucks move to the adjacent buildings, just to secure the area further.

At the same time, a small team of men ran inside of the building and began ferrying the ingots back to the truck. The crate was way too far into the building, so the four man team brought in two stretcher-like apparatuses and loaded as many ingots as they could carry at a time. With two groups of two, they were able to carry about thirty ingots at a time. It wouldn’t take long at all to load the ingots.

“So how’d you do?” Mason asked while we all stood and watched them work.

“Seventy-three thousand credits and twelve hundred eighty barter tokens,” I answered. “We deposited thirty percent of both at the bank. You three will need to go there to get your photo taken and have your password assigned so you can have access to everything. The other seventy percent of each is back at the base.”

“That doesn’t sound like much at all, but maybe that’s because of how many credits we’ve been making on our mining runs in Battlestate,” Sonja said.

“It’s definitely a lot,” Mason replied. “Remember how cheap the bullets and armor were? We could spend like two hundred credits a piece on armor and weapons and the difference would be insane.”

“How much is it for one of those thermal scopes you were all talking about?” Anja asked.

“On the list it was something like forty pounds of brass for one of the lower-end thermal scopes, double that for a high end scope. I don’t know how much credits or barter tokens we would need.”

“Six tokens or three hundred sixty credits for the lower end one, and thirteen tokens or seven hundred twenty credits for a high end one,” Ben answered.

“That much, really?” Mason asked, blown away by the price.

“Nine credits per pound,” I nodded.

“Huh. They must be pretty rare if they’re that expensive.”

“What about you three? See anyone else while we were gone?”

“Saw, no. Heard, yes,” Mason replied. “There was some sustained fire coming from the north-west about twenty minutes or so ago. It went on for two minutes before stopping entirely. We didn’t hear anything else except that racket you made when you arrived.”

“North-west? You mean towards the foundry?”

“It could’ve been there, yeah. It’s likely, in fact.”

We continued chatting until the bars were loaded and Horr came back in to ask if we were coming back to the town or staying here. There wasn’t any reason to go to the foundry unless we were looking for a fight, so we elected to join them and shorten the trip. Just before we left, the four man team came back in with some hammers and nails and closed up the first two crates again.

“Now those are some trucks,” Mason said as we walked towards them.

“Sure are. The driver just drove through everything, rather than go around. It didn’t slow us down in the slightest, but it looks like the cowcatcher and the ram bar will need some repairing when we get back.”

“Cowcatcher?” Anja asked, stepping up beside us.

“That’s the name for the angled bit at the front of the trucks. Their proper name is a pilot, but they’re called cowcatchers, cattle catchers or cow plows as well. You used to see them all the time on old steam engines. Since they’re angled, it allows objects in front to be deflected to the sides, rather than impacting head on. On our way here, we plowed through a car without slowing down in the slightest. It went absolutely flying,” I finished with a chuckle.

Horr radioed the other teams to return to their vehicles before waving my friends and I into the Draxago. It was my first time inside of the back of the truck since I wasn’t needed in the cab to give directions anymore, and I was amazed by the amount of room inside. Two benches ran along either wall, with enough room to fit twenty or so men.

The roof was a little bit lower in the middle, directly where the gunner was, and there was also a ladder leading up to a hatch so the gunner could retreat into the armored truck if things got too hairy up top. It would also allow one of the guys in the bottom to climb up top and man the gun if the original gunner got taken out.

Aside from that, there were also eight gun ports, three on either side, as well as two that faced the rear on either side of the door. They weren’t as visible from the outside, but once they slid open they would allow eight of the men in the back to fire from the safety of the vehicle. If there was anyone following one of these trucks, they would have a very bad day.

Horr and his men, along with Onlain, climbed in the back with us before the door was closed and the truck started moving. Even with the fourteen of us in the back, there was still a lot of extra room.

“So, I guess we’re going to be staying at the inn again?” Mason asked.

“We can definitely afford it now,” I answered. “Can we pay for a certain amount of time in advance, or do we need to log in once a day to pay for the next?”

“Either or, I think. We should probably just pay for one day at a time because we might want to actually head back to our base at some point. We would just end up wasting credits if we headed back while we still had a few days left. I want to head back sooner or later though. We have the credits to grab a torch, so we could cut our way through the next part of our base and see what is on the other side of that seized door.”

“That’s true. What do you think is on the other side of that door?”

“No idea, honestly. The area that we started in is basically the entrance, so anything behind that door would be the actual base. I would imagine that it will be in better shape than the part we’re in, but we’ll need to crack it open and see. It will be pretty easy to get everything we need to cut through the door, assuming there are small enough oxygen and acetylene tanks available. Otherwise it will be a huge pain in the ass, not to mention incredibly dangerous, to bring back the tanks.”

“What about thermite?” Ben asked. “It should be hot enough to cut through to the other side.”

“Those doors are pretty thick. Thermite could eventually cut through to the other side, but it would require multiple burns and a specialized setup. The issue with thermite is that it burns quickly, so unless we could focus the cutting power, it would only cut through slightly before losing power. A shaped charge could be a better option, but could damage whatever is on the other side.”

“We could always ask someone what the best way to do it would be. In fact, the best person to ask is here with us,” I said, looking over to Olnain.

I called him over, and then explained our dilemma.

“Thermite? I don’t know what you are referring to. The translator must be having problems with the word.”

“A translator? I didn’t realize there was one,” Ben said.

“A very sophisticated one,” Olnain nodded. “I’m speaking Orkish right now, and you’re speaking your own language. I don’t know the details, but a machine inside of each pod is able to determine what each word is and then translate it for people inside of the game who don’t understand the language.”