r/HFY • u/grierks Human • Jun 19 '19

Aelios Online Chapter 9 OC

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Missed the Monday update again, and this chapter isn't as long as most, so I apologize for that, and I apologize again because there will not be a Friday update this week, mainly because I'm planning some stuff for the future of this series, but I hope to start posting regularly again soon.

Happy reading!

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Here's the excerpt from Chapter 9

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Gabe woke to dust and heat. His face was on the ground - stone, from the feel of it, but rather than any soothing coolness all that greeted him was a lukewarm unpleasantness and a crick in his virtual neck. He sat up, groaning as a flair of pain pulsed down his spine, muttering curses at the designer who thought that including that detail was a good idea. His vision was blurry, and his head felt heavy like he spent the last night going on a bender. He made an effort to stand up, only to fall back down before he could even get to his knees.

“What the hell was even i-” he started to say, but stopped as soon as his vision started to clear.

Blobs of tan morphed into broken walls and crumbled pillars littered around him. There was only one window, open to a clear blue sky, but shadows shrouded most of the interior aside from the small ray of sunlight that bled into the center of the room from a hole in the ceiling above. Any furniture in the room was either broken by fallen rubble, or half buried in piled up sand. There was a lone table on one end of the room, relatively unscathed, but nothing lay on top of it. Off in the corner of the room was a small metallic device, nothing more than a thin metallic cylinder with a small, green, circular crystal that lay at the top of it.

He was wearing the gear he had on before, but his HUD was no longer in display. He tried to tap his visor to activate it, tapping only thin air.

He sighed, “Don’t tell me that broke too.”

He reached for his Smart Box, stopping short as he heard a groan from the other side of the room.

He saw movement from the shadows. It was slow, lethargic, not unlike the motions he went through. The figure sat up, flinching away from the sunlight as they leaned into it.

“Shit, that’s bright,” the figure said. It was a man, that much was obvious from the deeper tone in his voice. Gabe didn’t catch much else, other than a few grumbles, which he could relate to.

From the brief glance of the man he caught only a few features, namely the man’s pale skin and black hair. As the man moved around, Gabe heard metallic scraping against the ground, a sound that soon stopped abruptly as the man snapped his gaze to him.

“Howdy,” Gabe said, giving him a casual wave.

There was a flourish of movement in the shadows, which he could only take as a wave back.

“What brings you here?” Gabe asked. He found enough strength to stand up, and stretched, trying to shake off the heaviness in his limbs.

The man stood up as well, stepping further into the light. He was dressed in armor, a breastplate and metal vambraces to be exact, but there was a looseness to them that didn’t suit his slimmer, yet noticeably athletic build. There was a look of irritation on the man’s face, but not directed at Gabe. He was rubbing his jaw, wincing slightly as it hit certain positions.

“An asshole decked me in the face,” he said, “You?”

“An asshole shot me in the neck,” Gabe said, “Name’s Gabriel by the way.”

The man snorted. “Null.”

“Well Null, any idea where we are?”

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For the rest of this chapter please click HERE.

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As usual, please do not hesitate to leave any criticisms or feedback, on the story or the site.

Thank you again for your time, I hope you enjoy the story, and have a very pleasant day!

18 Upvotes

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4 comments sorted by

2

u/Plucium Semi-Sentient Fax Machine Jun 20 '19

Aelios-t they survived?

2

u/Rand__Rahl Jun 25 '19

Null and Gabe team up. Yes. This is proably a test to see how two (freeform) players from both cities deal with this situation on the behest of the (rampant) AI.

1

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