Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure by Sinclair, Kevin (black female authors txt) 📗

Ember and I waited on the ship. There was an air of excitement and tension. Going out into an alien planet. This was what dreams, or possibly nightmares, were made of. We went back to sorting Ember’s Cognition Room until Ogun returned.

It was four hours later when we were told over the ship’s comms to report to the armory. When we got there, Gus and Mick were waiting with another man. I recognised him, but I didn't know his name. He had short, light brown hair, average height, and a serious demeanor. But seemed normal enough.

"Ember," he said in greeting with a nod. Then, stuck out his hand to me and said, "Shaun. Nice to meet you finally. I'm Rob, and I'm happy to have both of you with us."

"Hi Rob. Good to be here,” I replied, then asked, “Hey Mick, Gus. You guys coming, too?"

"Sure we are," Mick said with a wry grin. "Let's hope it doesn't go as badly as last time."

"We won't have a repeat of last time, I'm sure," Rob said. "We just need to get in and out. We’ve arranged for the pickup of the supplies we asked for. There are currently five other crew getting the hover-loaders ready. They will be responsible for handling that end of things. We're only allowed ten people off the ship at any one time.”

“Why?” I asked. “Seems a bit odd.”

“Just their protocol apparently. It should be fine though. We’re a pretty strong team.”

“That we are,” Mick said with a shit eating grin on his face.

“I’ll be coordinating everything. I've been along to the supply store earlier, so I know where we’re going,” Rob continued.

“Gus, you will handle communications between us and the ship. Shaun, Ember, and Mick, you are protecting everyone else. You’ll be the muscle of this little operation, Shaun,” he chuckled.

“Good one!” I replied with as close to a real laugh as I could muster. Rob seemed okay, but that was a shit joke.

“Now any questions?” Rob asked

“How far do we have to go for these supplies?” This was from Mick.

“It’s about half a mile,” Rob replied.

Gus nodded, “Well within range of our comms, then?”

“Yeah. There should be no problems with that.”

“Can I take Havok?” I blurted out. It was all I really wanted to know.

“Most definitely!”

Havok whooped for joy.

Rob continued, “I’d say Havok is a minimum requirement. This place is as rough as toast.”

A shit analogy, but I decided I liked the guy after all.

“Now, is there anything else?” he asked.

“Are we actually expecting trouble here?” said Ember.

“No. We are not. There seems to be a grudging respect for us, which is unsurprising from what I hear the Fystr did to the other races of the Galactic Empire. Now, if you all want to get ready to leave."

Dutifully following the command, Ember, Mick, and Gus selected their weapons, and then we all donned our armor. Our team assembled in the cargo hold. Some of the members were still bringing the hover-loaders into position when the ramp began to lower.

The first thing to hit me was that the temperature was actually quite cool. There was an odd smell of sulfur in the chilly air. I think, because of the red color, I just expected the place to be warm. The roads were paved just like a normal town back at home, so with little fanfare, we went down the loading ramp and into the unknown.

This was our first time of actually seeing aliens. It was amazing and unexpected. Most of them were humanoid in appearance, with grey colored skin. They were fairly tall, probably about five-foot-ten, on average. Though, I did see a few beings of different colors and sizes.

Most of the population who passed gave us sly, mistrustful looks, but that was fine as long as no one was verbally or physically aggressive. All in all, it was a fascinating walk through the alien landscape.

When we got to the supply depot, we had to talk to someone called Lillano. She was the same as the majority of the aliens we’d seen. Grey skinned, with odd beard-like tentacles, drooping down from her chin. She looked at us, uttered a series of clicking noises. When we looked at her blankly, she angrily raked around on her desk. Finally, picking up a small machine, she hooked it around her ear and began speaking perfect English. I assumed the earpiece was a translator. “You’re back for your supplies?” she spoke, in a monotone voice.

“Yes we are,” Rob said. “If you could just show us the way.”

They let us through some roller shutters into the compound area, where our supply crates waiting for us. We quickly got all of the supplies on to the loaders we brought and headed back out of the shutter doors. They shut very sharply as soon as we left. A little too sharply for my liking.

I turned away from the supply depot, shrugging off the bad feeling. I shouldn’t have bothered. We were surrounded by a group of very aggressive and heavily armed aliens. There were about forty of them.

The guy in charge of the group started clicking at us. Rob shrugged and spoke back in English, “We don’t want any trouble. Just let us pass. We’ve a ship of armed soldiers. They will come if we are hurt.”

The alien clicked angrily at Rob again.

Havok spoke to me, “This shit’s about to get real! Shauny. Are you ready for some fun?”

“Not really dude,” I replied. Then whispered to Ember, “Why have we got no translators?”

“I don’t know. We do seem to be constantly underprepared, like having no comms. on the supply station,” she said back.

I was about to reply when Rob raised his voice to the alien, “We’re leaving, now. Let us through with our supplies and we’ll be gone.”

The Alien looked almost like he understood, then he fucking shot Rob! A brain fountain exploding from the back of his head... Shit!

We all