Connor and the Wolves - 12. The Raid

“This is your house?”
Soren nodded, flicking on a light. Dust still covered nearly every surface, and the mould on the room had grown nearly another centimetre. He wasn’t sure how to get rid of that — the internet kept bringing up cleaning supplies he couldn’t make from scratch, and there was no way he could buy them.
There was no point in feeling ashamed. He did his best to keep the place clean when he had a chance. After this weekend, the house would be dust free, at least. It was better than going back to the Chonos’ house. He didn’t want them to think he was begging for food.
“I like it,” Altanchono said. “We should show Ma so she’ll stop complaining that we don’t clean enough.”
“She’d never let us set foot in here again.”
Soren ran a cloth over the kitchen table, clearing most of the dust so Altanchono and Kurt could set up their laptops.
“I’ll make us dinner,” he said, reaching for the acorn flour. “There’s meat in the freezer from last spring. I hope deer is okay.”
“You hunt?” Kurt asked.
“Uh, yeah. Just after school gets out for the summer, usually. I set up a few snares, wolf out, and chase a few deer into them. It’s hard, but I can usually catch a deer or two, and that lasts me most of the winter. I stay far away from the boars, though.” Soren shuddered, grabbing a pitcher of water. “My mom tried to hunt boar once. Dad had to heal her. It was… bad….”
He could still remember the hole in his mother’s stomach, the blood gushing… his father falling as his life fed his healing… and failed.
“Miles said something about you being a healer,” Kurt said. “I’m a little surprised you didn’t choose that for your character, especially if the gift passed you by.”
“Magic is no gift,” Soren scowled. “It’s a curse festering in the blood, and I want nothing to do with it.”
“It’s just a game,” Altanchono said. “I think it would be cool to move things with my mi-”
“Altanaa!” Kurt cuffed the other neko, growling something Soren couldn’t understand.
“Oh. Sorry….” Altanchono muttered.
Soren grunted, flattening the dough on the counter.
“Dinner will be done in an hour. Kurt, I’m in a good place for the raid, right?” he asked.
“Not really. You should ideally have tier four gear before really raiding in PvP,” Kurt denied. “But you’re in the guild flagship, you have a gun and a drone, and you can stealth, so you’ll be okay. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes to get online, so we can wait.”
“The raid isn’t until eight anyway,” Altanchono added. “Why are we raiding in Miner territory again? It seems stupid. They’re going to kill us all.”
“That’s need to know, and you, little blathermouth, do not need to know,” Kurt said. “Get over here. I’m going to toss on a healer set and I want you to outdamage me on the training dummy.”
Soren focused on dinner as the nekos worked on their characters. The smell of baking flatbread soon filled the house, and Soren stepped outside, heading to a freezer to grab some of the deer meat. He returned quickly, tossing the meat in a heated pan while waiting for the bread to finish. Another skillet heated some tomato sauce he’d kept in the freezer.
He sped up as time passed, hurrying to spread the tomato sauce across the bread. Sprinkling the meat on top, Soren chopped a green pepper and a zucchini, mixing them with the meat. A few mushrooms from his herb garden went on top, and Soren tossed the meal into the oven again, letting it heat up a bit longer.
Setting his computer up across from Kurt, Soren hurried to log into the game, placing his phone beside him.
“Dinner’s going to be ready in a few minutes. I’ve never really done anything this complex before,” he admitted. “Hopefully it doesn’t taste bad.”
“Huh?” Kurt glanced up from her screen, pulling an earbud off. “Oh, you’re on? Sweet, we can get going. We have 27 people, so you can hitch a ride on the command ship. Try shadowing one of the crew. I suggest James, he’s our medical officer.”
Soren grabbed the spare mouse Kurt had brought, plugging it into his computer. Mouse in hand, he followed Kurt onto the nearest ship.

Thick bands swirled below the ships. Soren pressed his face against the window, his honey badger drone laying beside him as the fleet navigated the precarious rings that surrounded Aquilen. According to Kurt, the rings were the safest approach to the planet. Forty feet high, they nonetheless offered plenty of cover from the various ships that threatened to snipe targets from above or below.
“Good job, Elyon,” Kurt called across the fleet. “Just a few more kilometres and we can break for the atmosphere.”
“Hey Soren, you finish those pots?” James asked, pulling Soren’s attention from the icy rocks hurtling past the ship.
“Yeah,” Soren replied, searching through his inventory.
“Great. Head through the ship. I want an armour stim at every barricade and a health pot in every red container on the walls.”
“All hands, prepare for battle!” Kurt called through the ship. “Soren, your presence is needed on the bridge.”
“On second thought, give me the pots, and go see what SharpCat needs.”
“Uh… how do I…?”
“Accept the trade request and dump all the pots you made.”
It took a minute for Soren to trade the potions he’d made, getting a couple of silver in return for the effort. He hurried through the ship, practicing his jumping as he passed CatDog in the narrow halls.
Bursting onto the large bridge, Soren skidded to a stop in front of Kurt.
“We’ve spotted a Mydaran Miner ship below us,” Kurt said. “I want to give you the first shot at it. It’s a tier two tug, but if you can take it from the commander, it would serve as a decent scout, and an excellent first craft.”
“Don’t you need me onboard?” Soren asked.
“Not really,” Kurt admitted. “You’re here more for the experience than anything, and this is an excellent opportunity to gain that experience. It will be difficult. That ship probably has three or four NPCs aiding the pilot. If you want it, you need to take the ship now.”
“We’re in the same room,” Soren said as he hurried from the bridge. “Why’d you call me to the bridge to tell me?”
“Immersion. Plus, it’s kind of an unspoken rule that you use voice chat on raids. Keeps people from gaining an unfair advantage if they’re together like the three of us are.” Kurt shrugged across the table from Soren. “Really stupid, if you ask me.”
“Hey, Soren.” Soren grimaced as CatDog’s voice cut into his conversation. “If you’re heading across to that ship, deafen your headset until you reach the ship.”
“Oh yeah, good idea,” Kurt agreed across from him. “Just make sure you turn it back on the second you land. Things can get hectic fast.”
“Uh…”
“The little headphone symbol on the bottom of the voice chat,” Kurt said before Soren could ask. “Tap it, and it will make it so you can’t hear anyone over the chat. Altanaa and I will try to keep quiet for you.”
“We will?” Altanchono smirked. “But Khurtsaa, you know I’m a blathermouth.”
Soren snorted as Kurt smacked Altanchono. He turned his attention back to the game and followed CatDog through the ship to an airlock.
“Okay, for your first jump, double-check your suit and helmet. If you get hit in space, that’s it, game over,” CatDog said. “They’re below us, so Sharp is going to rotate the ship to bring the Miner in our sights.”
A door opened, and CatDog pointed into a narrow hall. Soren stepped inside, clicking his helmet on and pulling his sniper rifle from his back. His badger climbed onto him as the door closed behind him, and Soren waited, listening to the creaks and groans of the ship around him.
The door at the end of the hall opened, and he watched rocks slip by as the ship spun. Another ship came into sight.
“Push now! Headset off!” CatDog yelled.
Jabbing his finger into his phone, Soren jumped.

The silence was deafening around him. Bits of shattered rocks shot past him as he floated toward the enemy ship. He flinched away from a speeding stone, and his world spun.
Rocks and colourful bands of gas swirled around him in a dizzying vortex. His breaths came in short bursts as his rotation threatened his stomach. But there was no stopping the spinning.
Seconds passed, and patterns emerged in the bands around him. Rocks poked holes in the gases, drawing shapes he couldn’t identify.
Seconds turned into a minute. The shapes were dancing now, filling his vision with a rainbow of swirls.
He jolted as his body slammed into metal. For one heart-stopping moment, Soren thought he’d hit a rock. Another moment, another thought- he needed to grab the ship now!
A hand scrabbled on the metal hull, slipped off. He was rebounding, moving away from the ship.
Another jolt, as his drone grabbed his suit, and slowly reeled him back in. Soren turned, watching the ship glide under him as the badger dragged him to an airlock.
“Soren.”
He looked up from his screen. Kurt tapped her ear, and Soren turned his headset back on.
Instantly, the peace was shattered.
“Miners on all fronts! At least thirty ships!”
“They’re shielded against kinetic attacks! Elyon-”
Soren flinched as a ship broke apart on screen.
“Elyon’s down!”
“Altanmuur, open communications with the Miners,” Kurt said through the chat.
The shattered ship vanished as Soren was dragged into an airlock. Darkness took him, and he gripped his rifle, patting the gear across his body. His vials were set properly, his visor was showing the drone’s health and armour. Everything seemed to be working.
The press of a button put the badger to work, slicing into the controls of the airlock. The interior door hissed open, and a bullet shrieked past Soren.
He dropped into cover, grabbing a vial. A bar appeared before him, and Soren scrambled to fill it. Two parts electric, one part metal, and he hurled the vial at his drone.
The glass shattered, coating him and his drone. Their armour rose a point, and Soren peeked over the small barricade they were hiding behind.
“Mole says he’s a noob,” a voice said in his ear.
“Just means he’s more dangerous. He doesn’t have strategies for us to counter,” another voice said. “Keep the fire up.”
Soren ducked again as a pair of burning bullets whizzed past his hiding spot. Grabbing another vial, he filled the bar with fire effects, before hurling it over his barrier.
“Shit! Fire! Fire!”
“Soren. Listen carefully,” Kurt said, pulling Soren from the fight at hand. “We’re stuck in an antimagic bubble. The Miners are going to tear us to shreds. I need you to go to the airlock, and use your bot buster outside your ship.”
“Okay,” Soren said, darting back into the airlock.
His helmet went back over his face, and he stuck his head outside. A purple glimmer surrounded the fleet in the distance, and he could see dozens of lights around them, each an enemy ship waiting to destroy his friends.
Setting his rifle outside, Soren pieced together an electric bullet, launching it at the nearest enemy ship. The bullet crackled silently through space.
There was a blue spark. A red spark.
Flames erupted from the bullet and spread through the pocket of gases the guild had been focused on mining. Squinting through the fire, Soren felt a moment of satisfaction as the Miner fleet began turning, scrambling to flee. He’d helped the guild. He’d saved them.
Satisfaction turned to horror as the flames spread further.
“Kurt, I don’t think they’re stopping.” he said, watching the fire sweep toward the guild’s fleet.
“It’s not going to,” Kurt said calmly. “Thanks for your help, Soren. I’ll see you on the station.”
Fire flooded over him, and Soren watched his armour drop. A second later, brightness took him. Then his screen went dark.
“You have died. Please choose one item to preserve with your drone. The rest will be lost.”