By David C. Daoust
Harper Blue was supposed to be doing her chores. The huge metal beast, her family called home, seemed to be in endless disarray, especially now that the entire moon was in upheaval. None of the Blues had much chance to straighten up in the sand crawler, not since the legion of Battle Drones tore apart the small port town it was parked within. The only structures left standing in said attack- were the Star Port itself, built in the middle of the town, and her mother’s theatre house, built in the shadow of the beast.
Her mother decided Harper and her little sisters, Dicey and Grace, should be able to handle the chores while she took her eldest sister, Sadie, for the First Wave gathering. Harper had argued. She wanted to be there for Sadie. She lost the argument.
Their rooms were a mess, laundry was piling up, beds hadn’t been made; sheets were probably foul by now. Harper knew she still had a mess spilling out of her closet- a mess that ultimately cost her one of her favorite childhood toys. The small talking bunny doll, which had now found permanent residence in the nook of Dicey’s arm, had been snatched from the pile. Harper decided she was okay with it. The little sneak must have been in her room though.
The list of chores was growing in her mind by the second, a list she needed to have done before her mother’s return.
All that being said- Harper sat comfortably in a small cubby, with a gaming visor on her head, plugged into the Hub.
Finally, she had a chance to look in on her latest game. She’d spent a couple weeks playing through the games ‘single-player campaign’. She finally got word of a multiplayer raid opening up, yet, thanks to the Drone Attack– she totally missed it!
The game was called Arachnoid.
It was all about these massive ancient spider monsters that started to hatch from prehistoric eggs planted deep within several moons of the fictional planet Galdar. The moons were populated by these dopey alien giants known as Drumps. They were hilarious in that they were completely useless, despite their great size.
The spiders, erupting from the soil all around them, were quickly taking over all the moons of the Galdar System. The addled Drumps, were vanishing one by one. As the story goes, ‘Galactic Peace Corp’ was called in to fight off the menace, find and save the Drump. The monsters were formidable. Wave after wave of commandoes never stood a chance. Strategic Command decided to fight fire with fire; built legions of Hybrid Spider Mecha, to fight off, what was now considered to be an epidemic.
The first part of the game- was all about learning to pilot the Mecha. The controls were a lot more detailed than most games, but Harper found it pretty easy to master. After that, the single-player Campaign, allowed for more customization. There were in game jobs you could learn; mining, engineering, and other stranger jobs. All of which taught your Mecha how to either empower the Mechas on the go, or repair them in the field.
Ultimately, these abilities consisted of a cast bar filling up once the action was chosen. With each cast, you would get a skill up. Pretty mind numbing really, but unlocking those abilities made the game that much more fun to play.
The campaign was great, but she was really looking forward to a multi-player raid! The game boasted raid teams of hundreds of people, all fighting for the same objective! This was a huge selling point for Harper. Unfortunately, she missed the first one.
Now, she was trying to log in to her Mecha, only to find she had to wait in a queue to gain access to the game. This was crazy– a queue? In the Hub? She rolled her eyes, found it hard to believe that these ‘hundreds-of-people raids’ were an actual thing now.
Suddenly, the walls around her seemed to vibrate. She ripped off her visor as the roar of the Sand Crawlers engine could be heard throughout.
Leaping from her cushions, she pushed through the door, ran down the hall to the cockpit. Practically kicking through the door, she found a lump of battered metal machinery in the center of the room. It took a minute for her figure out what she was looking at. As it moved, she realized what it was– A Battle Drone! Massive stout legs splayed throughout, as its bulbous backend shifted with its movements.
The massive metal machine had sliced through the ceiling of the cockpit, was now standing over the controls of the Sand Crawler.
Harper’s mouth dropped open as the Battle Drone started to drive the Sand Crawler!—recklessly it spun the vehicle about in a U-turn, jouncing about, charging through the endless sea of rubble below the wide treads.
Harper fell back with the sudden movement, landed hard on her rump.
The Battle Drone drove the Sand Crawler out of the town limits.
Harper could do nothing as they headed straight into the desert…
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