Which is to say, a collection of hastily written twaddle.
All in one place, as it gets written. Enjoy!
All in one place, as it gets written. Enjoy!
Chapter Two
No. Not here, outside of my dreams.
I look up at the name, glued to the bed. Unable to move, even if I wanted to. I'm too shocked to even think of moving.
What is his name doing here? And why is the tile attached to it? I stare at the name, trying to understand. I finally get up, and get it off of my ceiling. The piece of tile was held up by some wire wrapped around it and tacked to the ceiling, and the name was just the same stuff bent to spell out the name.
I'm not going to be able to get to bed. Not after something like that. I decide to go use the dreamscape. Its one of the few places I feel totally calm.
The dreamscape is like this whole other world, universes really that are dependent upon you for creation. It allows for you to be placed into these scenarios, these video games, and you get to play it out. I don't know the whole science behind it, but when it first came out, you got strapped into a seat basically, and the computer takes a scan of your brain. A second persona is then created within the video game that is you, identically, down to the all your memories, and then while you're asleep or plugged in, your computer persona runs through the game.
So its not like its really you playing the game, but more like your electronic doppleganger is for you. At the end of the game, or the simulation of sorts, the memories created during that game are "downloaded" into your brain. The electronic copy of you floating about in cyber space becomes dormant, stored into a personal storage device, that the player keeps so that you don't need a rescan every time you play.
Originally, it needed you to be strapped into these large chairs to allow the sounds to hit the body correctly to hypnotize you in a way, or just the vibrations, or something along those lines, but now its to where it all can be on a small device clipped over your ear, not much larger than earphone. Some people wear them everywhere they go, using them as earphones until they have a quick moment to relax, slip under, and enter the dreamscape.
Working for CrossTechD, I have one of the newest models on the market, a small earpiece about the size of my thumb that runs in a narrow strip up over my ear. It communicates with the nearest computer terminal to boost my signal, finding other players from all across the world. A game or two might be exactly what I need to relax me.
There's a humming sound as the device in my ear starts up (Its the CR 1512, genetically imprinted to work for me alone) and some shifting lights appear in front of me. They've got the system down to where it partially hypnotizes you at the beginning using just slight sounds to direct what you see and such. The lights clear to reveal a green screen in front of me, just slightly larger than a computer screen. Shows me recent connections used, games I tend to play more often, and a portion is devoted to the news. I'm just glancing around the screen, trying to figure out if I want to play along with some pals from across the world or start playing a game by myself when I notice something odd.
There, under recent connections is the name Peter again;
/subroutineactive 114.aa45 changeusr indentity: Peter.CSD0001 *******
It's there for only a moment, as soon as I notice it, it flickers out and disappears off screen. I frantically try going to my connections page, to see if its there, but theres no record of any connection under the name Peter. I head back to the main page.
I must of just been imaging things. I should probably go see a doctor about it. I mean a lot of stress, and now imaging that his name is all over the place? This Peter who I haven't even met but dream that I am all the time?
Whatever. I need to relax, and thats why I started playing in the 'scapes originally. I go to my friends and find a dreamer (Its what all of us users are called. They used to call it gamers, but less and less console games can actually compete beyond arcade use with the dreamscape tech so now they call us dreamers) from Eurasia named King. At least, that's the dreamertag for him (her. Unsure on that bit actually) He's playing the most recent shooter, some far future alien space invasion game, where we still use projectile weaponry. Which boggles me... Wouldn't we eventually get to laser weapons if we've developed space travel far enough to hit aliens? But then again, I'm not developing the games.
I decide to join him. The screen flashes twice, and then my vision goes out. Everything's black, and I can't see, but I feel the armor I wear in the game begin to solidify around me. A glimmer of shining white light appears, a pulsating dot. It shifts around a bit, and colors start to shimmer into it as well. Suddenly, the light grows faster, looking as though I'm speeding towards the end of a tunnel, my surroundings being light up, just a gray empty holding chamber without a wall, and the lights almost to me, I can see a field, some human looking characters in a firefight with something gigantic and obviously hostile, the lights passing me by, and the gray walls are gone and I'm standing in the middle of the grassy field, the fight just up ahead. Smoke and the smell of charred flesh and gunpowder reaches me, burned streaks in the grass looking like deathly scars burned into the golden waist high landscape.
Sun glints across my visor as I look towards the fight, pull my gun close to my body, and charge yelling at the top of my lungs into the chaos.
I look up at the name, glued to the bed. Unable to move, even if I wanted to. I'm too shocked to even think of moving.
What is his name doing here? And why is the tile attached to it? I stare at the name, trying to understand. I finally get up, and get it off of my ceiling. The piece of tile was held up by some wire wrapped around it and tacked to the ceiling, and the name was just the same stuff bent to spell out the name.
I'm not going to be able to get to bed. Not after something like that. I decide to go use the dreamscape. Its one of the few places I feel totally calm.
The dreamscape is like this whole other world, universes really that are dependent upon you for creation. It allows for you to be placed into these scenarios, these video games, and you get to play it out. I don't know the whole science behind it, but when it first came out, you got strapped into a seat basically, and the computer takes a scan of your brain. A second persona is then created within the video game that is you, identically, down to the all your memories, and then while you're asleep or plugged in, your computer persona runs through the game.
So its not like its really you playing the game, but more like your electronic doppleganger is for you. At the end of the game, or the simulation of sorts, the memories created during that game are "downloaded" into your brain. The electronic copy of you floating about in cyber space becomes dormant, stored into a personal storage device, that the player keeps so that you don't need a rescan every time you play.
Originally, it needed you to be strapped into these large chairs to allow the sounds to hit the body correctly to hypnotize you in a way, or just the vibrations, or something along those lines, but now its to where it all can be on a small device clipped over your ear, not much larger than earphone. Some people wear them everywhere they go, using them as earphones until they have a quick moment to relax, slip under, and enter the dreamscape.
Working for CrossTechD, I have one of the newest models on the market, a small earpiece about the size of my thumb that runs in a narrow strip up over my ear. It communicates with the nearest computer terminal to boost my signal, finding other players from all across the world. A game or two might be exactly what I need to relax me.
There's a humming sound as the device in my ear starts up (Its the CR 1512, genetically imprinted to work for me alone) and some shifting lights appear in front of me. They've got the system down to where it partially hypnotizes you at the beginning using just slight sounds to direct what you see and such. The lights clear to reveal a green screen in front of me, just slightly larger than a computer screen. Shows me recent connections used, games I tend to play more often, and a portion is devoted to the news. I'm just glancing around the screen, trying to figure out if I want to play along with some pals from across the world or start playing a game by myself when I notice something odd.
There, under recent connections is the name Peter again;
/subroutineactive 114.aa45 changeusr indentity: Peter.CSD0001 *******
It's there for only a moment, as soon as I notice it, it flickers out and disappears off screen. I frantically try going to my connections page, to see if its there, but theres no record of any connection under the name Peter. I head back to the main page.
I must of just been imaging things. I should probably go see a doctor about it. I mean a lot of stress, and now imaging that his name is all over the place? This Peter who I haven't even met but dream that I am all the time?
Whatever. I need to relax, and thats why I started playing in the 'scapes originally. I go to my friends and find a dreamer (Its what all of us users are called. They used to call it gamers, but less and less console games can actually compete beyond arcade use with the dreamscape tech so now they call us dreamers) from Eurasia named King. At least, that's the dreamertag for him (her. Unsure on that bit actually) He's playing the most recent shooter, some far future alien space invasion game, where we still use projectile weaponry. Which boggles me... Wouldn't we eventually get to laser weapons if we've developed space travel far enough to hit aliens? But then again, I'm not developing the games.
I decide to join him. The screen flashes twice, and then my vision goes out. Everything's black, and I can't see, but I feel the armor I wear in the game begin to solidify around me. A glimmer of shining white light appears, a pulsating dot. It shifts around a bit, and colors start to shimmer into it as well. Suddenly, the light grows faster, looking as though I'm speeding towards the end of a tunnel, my surroundings being light up, just a gray empty holding chamber without a wall, and the lights almost to me, I can see a field, some human looking characters in a firefight with something gigantic and obviously hostile, the lights passing me by, and the gray walls are gone and I'm standing in the middle of the grassy field, the fight just up ahead. Smoke and the smell of charred flesh and gunpowder reaches me, burned streaks in the grass looking like deathly scars burned into the golden waist high landscape.
Sun glints across my visor as I look towards the fight, pull my gun close to my body, and charge yelling at the top of my lungs into the chaos.
Flashes of lights. Bolts of raw energy fly by my face as I run and dive into a higher clump of grain. A few more shots hit the dirt right beside me. I need to get out of where I'm at, find a way to escape them, but its all just grass, waist high. They would see it if I moved, but if I stay here...
A laser blast hits someone to the right of where I'm crouched trying to avoid being hit. The guy had stood up to get a quick shot off, but the enemy had been waiting. Half of his head was just gone, and what was left of it was charred beyond recognition. No time to scream, he had simply stood up, and that was the last thing for him. His lifeless corpse hit the ground with a soft thump, collapsing like a sack of potatoes.
If the lasers could burn straight through a human, battle gear and all, why the hell am I stuck using a projectile weapon? I quickly search the "memories" of my character. Apparently, humans didn't develop personal use laser weapons, even after several decades of space exploration in faster than light ships. Which is stupid, because now - I thought to myself - now I get to fight aliens, on an alien world, against laser weapons, with something that works on gunpowder and a piece of lead. Dumbest idea in the book.
Another bolt flashed through the grass, scorching the ground beside me. Even though it had burned the ground, it made my arm feel cold, as though the side that had been closer to the bolt had just been dumped into cold water. If this is what it felt like to just be missed by one, I couldn't imagine what being hit by one would feel like. Looking around, I can just make out a shack rising out of the grain. It's a little ways off, but I should make it there safe if I move slowly through the grass.
I start to shuffle towards the shack, keeping at a low crouch to make sure I stay beneath the waist high grass. Suddenly, an alien stumbles into the path I'm on towards the shack. Without thinking, my "training" kicks in. I swing my gun up from the resting position I was holding it in, and with a quick precision, I fire two rounds into it's skull, and then another round into it's chest as I roll to the side to avoid any returning fire.
There isn't any. I return to my low crouch from the prone position I had ended my roll in and move towards the alien body. It's helmet is broken, smashed in from the impact of the bullets, the ceremonial carved inlay providing stress lines along which it shattered. There's a thick liquid bubbling up from the shots to the chest, or at least what passes for a chest on these creatures. Their long curved bodies and spindly legs make it look almost like a cross between a snake and a spider, except the legs are all bundled together at the base of the body, and then you get your snakeish looking bends, and then a pair of hands, two on each side that can fold together to be one on each side, and the the helmet and the long hair that's always floating up as though they were swimming all the time. There's a kind of deadly beauty to them, a sort of flow to their body, each piece of armor and gear attached to their bodies without disrupting it, merely accentuating the remarkable smooth design of it all.
Marvelous work they've done with this one, I thought. Usually shooter 'scapes don't get such artistic or detailed enemies.
In the few seconds I spent studying the dead body, a flood of "memories" flushed in. The first discovery of these aliens, when our separate colonization efforts met on several worlds. Highly territorial, they didn't like us trying to use the same planets they thought they had claim too. However, peace was brokered on several of the first planets we encountered each other on. Sadly, it was short lived, as a rogue alien ran into a human colony on a new planet and slaughtered the colony. Their local planetary government wasn't going to hand him over to humans, and so push came to shove, and then from there it spread across all of the worlds we both occupied. Thankfully, the fighting has been restricted to those ares, and they don't seem to want to attack any of our established homes. Some sort of honor code I suppose.
More memories flash by, no time to understand what was happening really, just snapshots.
Leaving my Home world in a smaller four planet system to fight in a nearby system on another world that fighting had broken out on.
Finding a girl hidden in a refuse processing unit, barely holding onto life underneath a brilliantly blazing sun.
A sunset, bright orange over a green field, black marks scattered across it. A pillar of smoke rising from a pyre of dead bodies, as we preform a funeral rite customary across all systems in the United Human Systems. A beautiful view of the world, but I'm focusing on a girl helping move bodies to the pyre. Same girl that came from the colony whose members are now piled, going up in flames.
Night, the moon large and low in the sky, much closer to the planet than on any other world I'd seen, the craters all very easily visible. Melancholy tunes waft in the air - We won, but at a high cost on this planet.
Morning, the sun up bright and early, shining in through the window shades. Roll over, and there's the girl beside me. She's still asleep, her nose twitching as a lock of hair sneaks down her face to tickle her nose. I brush the hair back, resting my hand against her face.
Afternoon, working in the fields. I had been only seventeen when I left my home world to fight, and am now twenty four, working to support me and my wife, the girl I had found in the refuse processing unit. She's now twenty two. Our son follows me through the fields, toddling about on his unstable three year old legs. I catch him as he stumbles, off balance from throwing the spare seed he had been given in a circle. Wiping the hard earned sweat from my brow and grinning like a fool in spite of the oppressive heat and overwhelming amount of work left to be done before the day is over.
Evening again. The moon is pale, even though its full. A few clouds skirt across its face as I sit in my fields, the two freshly dug graves still laying empty behind me. My wife - What was her name? Amber? Yes, that's it, Amber - and young son had passed away from a new disease spreading like wildfire across the world. Apparently it had been a bio-weapon developed by the enemy, who had come back to reclaim "their" planet. I was one of the lucky ones, somehow immune to the disease.
Sun. Bright lights. Flashes as laser fire burns past me. Burning heat from the sun, but freezing from the chill of the laser bolts. I dash from behind the post I was hiding behind, and gun down two of the aliens. I roll towards one of the bodies, avoiding fire from three other aliens nearby. Grabbing the downed alien's gun as I roll by it, I come up into a squat, quickly finishing off the other three. I keep the gun.
A different planet. Night. Slowly approaching a guard from behind, kill it quickly and silently with a knife. Watching with enjoyment as it's black life slowly seeps from it's body. I grab the gun the alien had been holding and head off towards their camp.
"That was for Amber" I remember saying softly under my breath as I hefted the gun.
Day again, and yet another planet. Trenched behind a small concrete panel that used to be part of the entrance to a mine. One of just a few hidden soldiers put in place to shepherd the aliens towards the mine shaft.
It just keeps going, more and more, until finally I'm arriving at this planet, and shipped directly to where the fighting is the hardest. Where I got sent to the forward company, in the fields.
All of this happened in just a few seconds, but it was long enough for an alien to get behind me without me noticing. There's an abrupt empty feeling, as if something valuable had been lost, and an intense cold. I manage to look down as my eyes glaze over, and I'm not surprised to see a hole in my chest. A prefect circle, sides all charred and burnt. I fall to the ground, dead.
A laser blast hits someone to the right of where I'm crouched trying to avoid being hit. The guy had stood up to get a quick shot off, but the enemy had been waiting. Half of his head was just gone, and what was left of it was charred beyond recognition. No time to scream, he had simply stood up, and that was the last thing for him. His lifeless corpse hit the ground with a soft thump, collapsing like a sack of potatoes.
If the lasers could burn straight through a human, battle gear and all, why the hell am I stuck using a projectile weapon? I quickly search the "memories" of my character. Apparently, humans didn't develop personal use laser weapons, even after several decades of space exploration in faster than light ships. Which is stupid, because now - I thought to myself - now I get to fight aliens, on an alien world, against laser weapons, with something that works on gunpowder and a piece of lead. Dumbest idea in the book.
Another bolt flashed through the grass, scorching the ground beside me. Even though it had burned the ground, it made my arm feel cold, as though the side that had been closer to the bolt had just been dumped into cold water. If this is what it felt like to just be missed by one, I couldn't imagine what being hit by one would feel like. Looking around, I can just make out a shack rising out of the grain. It's a little ways off, but I should make it there safe if I move slowly through the grass.
I start to shuffle towards the shack, keeping at a low crouch to make sure I stay beneath the waist high grass. Suddenly, an alien stumbles into the path I'm on towards the shack. Without thinking, my "training" kicks in. I swing my gun up from the resting position I was holding it in, and with a quick precision, I fire two rounds into it's skull, and then another round into it's chest as I roll to the side to avoid any returning fire.
There isn't any. I return to my low crouch from the prone position I had ended my roll in and move towards the alien body. It's helmet is broken, smashed in from the impact of the bullets, the ceremonial carved inlay providing stress lines along which it shattered. There's a thick liquid bubbling up from the shots to the chest, or at least what passes for a chest on these creatures. Their long curved bodies and spindly legs make it look almost like a cross between a snake and a spider, except the legs are all bundled together at the base of the body, and then you get your snakeish looking bends, and then a pair of hands, two on each side that can fold together to be one on each side, and the the helmet and the long hair that's always floating up as though they were swimming all the time. There's a kind of deadly beauty to them, a sort of flow to their body, each piece of armor and gear attached to their bodies without disrupting it, merely accentuating the remarkable smooth design of it all.
Marvelous work they've done with this one, I thought. Usually shooter 'scapes don't get such artistic or detailed enemies.
In the few seconds I spent studying the dead body, a flood of "memories" flushed in. The first discovery of these aliens, when our separate colonization efforts met on several worlds. Highly territorial, they didn't like us trying to use the same planets they thought they had claim too. However, peace was brokered on several of the first planets we encountered each other on. Sadly, it was short lived, as a rogue alien ran into a human colony on a new planet and slaughtered the colony. Their local planetary government wasn't going to hand him over to humans, and so push came to shove, and then from there it spread across all of the worlds we both occupied. Thankfully, the fighting has been restricted to those ares, and they don't seem to want to attack any of our established homes. Some sort of honor code I suppose.
More memories flash by, no time to understand what was happening really, just snapshots.
Leaving my Home world in a smaller four planet system to fight in a nearby system on another world that fighting had broken out on.
Finding a girl hidden in a refuse processing unit, barely holding onto life underneath a brilliantly blazing sun.
A sunset, bright orange over a green field, black marks scattered across it. A pillar of smoke rising from a pyre of dead bodies, as we preform a funeral rite customary across all systems in the United Human Systems. A beautiful view of the world, but I'm focusing on a girl helping move bodies to the pyre. Same girl that came from the colony whose members are now piled, going up in flames.
Night, the moon large and low in the sky, much closer to the planet than on any other world I'd seen, the craters all very easily visible. Melancholy tunes waft in the air - We won, but at a high cost on this planet.
Morning, the sun up bright and early, shining in through the window shades. Roll over, and there's the girl beside me. She's still asleep, her nose twitching as a lock of hair sneaks down her face to tickle her nose. I brush the hair back, resting my hand against her face.
Afternoon, working in the fields. I had been only seventeen when I left my home world to fight, and am now twenty four, working to support me and my wife, the girl I had found in the refuse processing unit. She's now twenty two. Our son follows me through the fields, toddling about on his unstable three year old legs. I catch him as he stumbles, off balance from throwing the spare seed he had been given in a circle. Wiping the hard earned sweat from my brow and grinning like a fool in spite of the oppressive heat and overwhelming amount of work left to be done before the day is over.
Evening again. The moon is pale, even though its full. A few clouds skirt across its face as I sit in my fields, the two freshly dug graves still laying empty behind me. My wife - What was her name? Amber? Yes, that's it, Amber - and young son had passed away from a new disease spreading like wildfire across the world. Apparently it had been a bio-weapon developed by the enemy, who had come back to reclaim "their" planet. I was one of the lucky ones, somehow immune to the disease.
Sun. Bright lights. Flashes as laser fire burns past me. Burning heat from the sun, but freezing from the chill of the laser bolts. I dash from behind the post I was hiding behind, and gun down two of the aliens. I roll towards one of the bodies, avoiding fire from three other aliens nearby. Grabbing the downed alien's gun as I roll by it, I come up into a squat, quickly finishing off the other three. I keep the gun.
A different planet. Night. Slowly approaching a guard from behind, kill it quickly and silently with a knife. Watching with enjoyment as it's black life slowly seeps from it's body. I grab the gun the alien had been holding and head off towards their camp.
"That was for Amber" I remember saying softly under my breath as I hefted the gun.
Day again, and yet another planet. Trenched behind a small concrete panel that used to be part of the entrance to a mine. One of just a few hidden soldiers put in place to shepherd the aliens towards the mine shaft.
It just keeps going, more and more, until finally I'm arriving at this planet, and shipped directly to where the fighting is the hardest. Where I got sent to the forward company, in the fields.
All of this happened in just a few seconds, but it was long enough for an alien to get behind me without me noticing. There's an abrupt empty feeling, as if something valuable had been lost, and an intense cold. I manage to look down as my eyes glaze over, and I'm not surprised to see a hole in my chest. A prefect circle, sides all charred and burnt. I fall to the ground, dead.
