By David C. Daoust
Arachnoid- the very latest offering, to the vast amount of gamers that populated the Onion and in Chance’s Opinion– the best game ever.
He’d spent weeks on the single player mode, hammering through the story line, spending every waking moment trying to level his in-game skills. He missed classes, even skipped out on work, but whatever, he could find another job, eventually. All he could see when he closed his eyes was the inside of that cockpit, his mind memorized every key and what it would do…
He was obsessed with Arachnoid. Nothing else had filled his Farwall since he bought it. He was determined to be the very best Spidermech pilot in the Hub. When the first multi-player raid finally dropped, he was the first one in. He gobbled it up like a turkey dinner.
It was advertised for weeks as the ‘Dragon Moon’ raid, yet upon release he was surprised to find the name changed to the ‘Arachnoid’s Brood’ raid. For the most part people figured this was intentionally misleading to keep people from any spoilers. ‘Cause well, what did Dragons have to do with anything thus far? Whatever, Chance didn’t care– long as it was new content.
The Single player campaign had set up most of the story for the first Raid. Mostly, throughout the single player campaign, they were fighting off giant spiders of varying sizes, all the while they sought out clues to answer what could be happening to the native ‘Drump’ giants.
One by one the Drump were disappearing, yet no one knew where they were going. It was a mystery many people had theories about. Most people just assumed they were being eaten, yet Chance insisted there must be more going on- otherwise the story would not revolve around clues to finding them. This point shut many a troll up, before they even started.
The players finally got their answers once the Raid opened.
As the in-game story goes, Strategic Command finally located some of the Drumps, wrapped within cocoons within the Arachnoid Queen’s nest; trapped within, to be used as food for the Arachnoid Hatchlings that would eventually erupt from their eggs.
Their mission- invade the massive nest, clear all Drump from within, and then blow the eggs to hell.
Chance was way out in front as soon his Mech went online. The small map on his hud displayed a red arrow, pointing them to the Queen’s Nest. The swarm of Spidermechs soared through the rocky lands of the Galdar moon.
The nest came into view, it was a sight. Like a massive town, complete with border walls, yet where one might view buildings and structures in such a town, there were instead huge piles of eggs, webbed in place.
Many a Spidermech, began firing upon the gruesome walls that skirted the sprawling nesting grounds. Many more joined in, despite the lack of score.
Chance skipped right over, began tearing through the massive lumps of piled eggs. His hud identified those with Drump inside. He knew he would have to clear those, before he could fire on them, so instead targeted the webbed structures that his hub marked as already ‘clear’ of the Drump. He fired missile after missile, eggs and webbing exploding and burning, green ooze dripping in his wake.
His score skyrocketed. All too easy, he almost laughed.
Yet, suddenly, Arachnoids appeared all over, attacking the Spidermechs that were low enough, or hurling projectiles at those in the air.
He was excited to take on new enemies.
Chance quickly found he could not target them though… he could not target anything but cleared egg piles. There was a moment of frustration, where he was sure it was a glitch in the game. He took to evasive maneuvers, projectiles rained around him. Half having fun, half frustrated that he could not fight back, he was too busy saving his Mech to really decide what to do.
Many people were saying the same thing over voice chat, with the addition that some of the Drump were attacking them as well; at least it wasn’t just him that was bugged. He was determined to do what he could to keep his high score- as were many others.
They did just that, evading as much damage as possible, while still achieving the objective. Once the clear egg piles were toppled, they began tearing through the egg piles, chasing the dimwitted Drump from within, and blowing the rest of it to fiery oozy bits.
Word spread of an ally within the nest, not a Drump but not an Arachnoid either. From all accounts it was huge, larger even than the natives; Titanic. No one knew anything about it, but it was able to attack their attackers. Many kept close to it, as they barreled through destroying the surrounding webbed structures.
People thought maybe they were meant to escort the titan, so that it could do the damage while they achieved their objectives.
Chance never got a look at the supposed ally. Yet he lost one of his friends when it, suddenly and unexpectedly, began attacking the Spidermechs! It ripped his friend’s Spidermech’s head clean off.
Word spread fast to stay clear of it.
This only reinforced the idea that the whole raid was bugged to hell!
As they approached the center of the nest, they got the first view of the Arachnoid Queen herself. She sat huddled; the biggest Arachnoid Chance had yet to see in the game. Huge, it was like… like the size of a Drump-sized Starport! The small comical ‘Z’s’ above her head, informed she was sleeping. The fact that she could not be targeted, told them she was not an objective yet.
Chance was excited to take her on. Maybe once they finished the first objectives?
Suddenly, a cascade of energy washed through the nest, sparkling blue light enveloped him, and the power in his virtual cockpit went out.
His Mech plummeted to the ground!
He was only surprised for a moment. This was something that happened in the single player campaign, some of the Arachnoids had the ability to disrupt their Spidermech’s energy flow. Never on such a large scale though, and for the most part they were able to evade such blasts.
Chance was convinced this attack came from the Queen. After a moment, a ‘Backup Power Light’ came on- Chance just had to wait for his Spidermech to kick back on…
Sure as fire it did, and Chance launched into a hover as he began to run diagnostics… voice chat was buzzing. Everyone was convinced that the monstrous Queen had awoken.
Something strange happened then—strange, like, everything went hostile! All the Drump, that were previously green blips on the map, and unable to attack them, suddenly flipped to red, which usually meant they were about to attack the nearest player.
There were a lot of Drump flickering on the map display. All now Hostile!
Chance did not know what caused it, but he was a seasoned gamer. He’d seen this kind of switch, as had many of the other gamers. Things were about to get hectic and they were completely outnumbered.
The call was sent for a full retreat. Without even looking back, the Spidermech’s charged out of the nest.
Chance knew better than to stay back on his own, despite wanting to at least witness the Arachnoid Queen in action!
In the Single Player Campaign, when things got too overwhelming, they all learned, the best thing to do- was to get clear of danger, and burrow into the ground.
That’s exactly what they did; they burrowed as far and as deep as they could. As did Chance, as far and as deep as he could, before his screen, suddenly and inexplicably, went black!
From what he heard over voice chat, so did everyone else… they all lost connection to the game at the exact moment.
Chance threw his control up into the air in frustration as the black Farwall in front of him, read ‘no connection’.
Discussion ¬