Condition Evolution 3: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure by Kevin Sinclair (early readers .TXT) 📗

“So, what will you do if I let you go free?” I asked, genuinely interested in the answer.

“We have no choice but to continue to hunt you and make sure we are more successful when next we meet.”

“So, basically, I have to kill you all here then?”

“I do not wish that end, but there is no other way.”

“Could you not join us?” Rufus said, coming to stand by my side.

I think I actually fish mouthed. I was more than a little gobsmacked that Rufus had suggested it.

The Fystr began to snicker among themselves. The new leader hushed them. “An interesting offer,” she said, eyes flicking from Rufus to me. “Would you have us?”

I turned to Astrid and Rufus. They looked at me for my reaction, but instead of speaking to them, I spoke to Ember in her mind. “I can’t believe Rufus just offered them that, can you?”

“He's a bit of a dick at times, so yeah. What are we gonna do about this?” she asked.

“Even if they say they’ll work with us, they won't. It's not in their nature. They see us as animals. They’ll just kill us later. They’ve no morals.”

“Yeah,” Ember sighed, “I'd have to agree with you. Can we imprison them in any way? How do you actually imprison a Fystr?”

“Astrid or Rufus might know a way,” I replied.

“Ogun will definitely know a way if we can get him back alive. He seems to have kept a lot of information from them about us, even under torture.”

“Yeah. I picked that up, too. Right!” I asserted. “You need to go in and find Ogun. Take all our team, along with Astrid. I'll keep an eye on these fuckers.”

“Okay, Shaun. Will do,” she said before returning to her normal state to speak to Astrid. “Come with me, Astrid.” She waved to the other members of our team – that she could see, anyway. Astrid nodded uncertainly; Rufus looked confused, but I ignored his stupid face, turning back to the Fystr.

“If you’re honest in your intentions to become part of the crew and support us in all of our future endeavors, including against your own people, then yes we’d have you,” I offered.

Her eyes almost seemed to glint as I said those words. “I will discuss it with what remains of our troop,” she replied.

“One more thing,” I said, “you'd have to give me access to your Interface Room.”

Her face fell at that, smug grin gone. “Just a moment, then,” she said, and turned to converse with the others.

Ember and Astrid had peeled off, and I gave Rufus a frustrated look, but the daft shit was oblivious, seemingly happy with his work.

After a minute of conferring, the lead Fystr turned back to me. “We are against mind invasion of this sort. However, in the promise of goodwill, one of us will submit to this interrogation.”

“Why not all of you?” I asked, heat entering my voice again.

“As I’ve just explained, we consider it an affront.”

“Better than death though?”

“Maybe not. However, those are our terms.”

“Very well, then. Let's have a look and see when my friends get back.”

“Where have they gone?”

I didn't reply. I just waited. It took ten minutes before Ember popped her head from the ship. She spoke into my mind: “Ogun is alive, barely. He seems to be in some kind of stasis capsule. We don't know how to free him. Gus thinks he can get him out, but not quickly. Shit Shaun, they've really done a number on him.”

“Damn. I’ll see if any of these bastards know how to free him,” I replied.

“Yeah, that would be good. I’ll go back in and tell Gus and Elyek.”

She went back into the ship, and I spun to face the Fystr once more. “I need one of you to get Ogun safely from the stasis capsule before we take this any further.”

“No. We won't be doing that just yet,” the Fystr woman replied. “We will keep him in there as our insurance that you will not do anything to us.”

“Are you kidding me? I could’ve had you killed at any time. You fuckers are infuriating.”

“Yes, but you have considered letting us go. You have also kept us alive. There is obviously value to you that we do not die,” she said with an I'm-cleverer-than-you look spreading across her face, like she had somehow backed me into a corner. She really hadn’t.

With Elyek and Acclo helping Ember, I found Hwista’s mind for my next order. “Kill them all, except the speaker. All at once if you can. I don't want to give them a chance to retaliate, hurt or kill any of you. We’ve already lost too many. And, sorry for asking you to do this.” And I was, I felt like utter shit.

“It’s okay, Captain. I agree with this course of action. I sense they are nothing but evil and have already indicated they wish nothing but ill will to us.”

I watched the lead woman intently for a few seconds when all those around her dropped to the floor, blood spurting from deep neck wounds. The Veiletians were brutally efficient.

“Okay”, I said. Her face must have been exhausted, from the amount of expressions it had been through: it had now settled on horrified. “I hope that clears up how much I value you all. Now are you going to help me get Ogun out of the stasis chamber?”

“I… I will. I need assurances from you that…”

That was the last thing she said as Havok took her head from her shoulders. It was so quick she barely saw it coming.

“My god, Shaun!” Rufus said over my shoulder. “That was brutal!”

I spun round to meet his eyes and spoke into his mind. “Don’t ever go over the top of me like that again,” I snarled into his head.

He went white and nodded in response.

“You should have killed them straight away,” Havok said into my mind, “You just wasted your own time there.”

“Havok,