Destiny Among the Stars - Scifi - LitRPG - Adventure

Luca didn't rappel so much as scooch.

One slow, humiliating meter at a time, he eased down the cable like a terrified kid on a metal slide. His boots scraped the hull, his knees knocked metal braces, and the cable creaked with every awkward shift. So much for that moment of wonder he'd felt. Reality was a bitch.

The stars spun slowly around him as he moved lower, inch by painful inch. His calves burned from tension, which was impressive considering zero-G meant he wasn't even technically using them.

Above him, Chris adjusted his grip and said, way too casually, "You're doing great, man. Really commanding that line."

"Shut up," Luca muttered, white-knuckling the cable.

Below, Ryan's voice crackled through comms. "Zoe, you seeing this?"

"Yeah," she breathed. "The star band. It's not right."

Luca frowned. "How?"

"Not the Milky Way. Configuration's wrong. No Orion Arm. Core's too wide." A pause. "This isn't our galaxy."

Luca risked a glance sideways. Beyond the looming gas giant, stars formed a thick cluster in a tight band. Not right to him, but Zoe would know. She always knew.

"What the fuck," Luca whispered.

"She's right," Ryan said, uncharacteristically quiet.

"Definitely off," Danny added.

A long pause followed, just their breathing and vacuum-choked comms.

Joey cut in. "It's a System construct. Simulated space. Doesn't matter what skybox it painted."

"Feels real to me," Zoe shot back. "Those Nullmaws weren't fake."

"This isn't an illusion. We're here. Wherever 'here' is."

Luca swallowed hard. The pain was real. The danger was real. They'd lost too many friends to underestimate the System.

He grimaced and kept scooting, eyes locked on the cable. Not the stars. Not the distant green planet. Not the endless void. Just the next meter. And the next.

Chris was close behind him, silent now. Probably enjoying Luca's little existential crisis.

"I mean," Luca said, breath fogging his visor, "if this place is real, like actually real, we might be able to find a working ship down here. Or a fighter. Something still functional."

Another long pause.

Ryan's voice returned, a grin in it. "Now that sounds like a Luca plan."

"Yeah, well," Luca muttered, scooting another half-meter, "just trying not to float off into fake space and die screaming."

"Baby steps," Chris said. "Literally."

As soon as they reached the deck, a notification flashed on Luca's interface:

[Mission Objective: Secure the battleship and defeat the AI-controlled defenses. 10% Complete]

God, this was going to be a pain in the ass.

Up ahead, something shifted in the ceiling. A blur of motion above the beam struts. A dark shape retreating into shadows.

"Contact," Luca whispered.

A red laser swept across the corridor, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. For a moment, none of them moved.

Danny shifted his Warhammer into a ready stance. Great, Luca thought, the warhammer again. Then again, he couldn't talk, still clinging to his own outdated Tomahawk. At least he knew it was a bad idea.

"Alright," Danny said. "Let's make this happen."

They entered what remained of the weapons bay.

A multi-deck graveyard of scorched metal. Ruptured plasma cannons were jutting from walls like broken bones. Thick armor plating peeled back, exposing dead circuitry. The entire deck collapsed into a treacherous maze of shredded bulkheads and dropped into the void.

The only thing still functioning was a single plasma turret hanging from the ceiling, its sensor painting the ruins with a sweeping red light.

"Cover," Ryan hissed.

Danny pulled Luca down behind a collapsed bulkhead as a plasma bolt slammed into a nearby wall, leaving a glowing scar. Two more bolts followed. The thing was firing blind, tagging any movement in its corridor zone.

Emily cursed and adjusted her grip on her plasma blaster. Her left arm hung awkwardly at her side. Joey was close behind her, scanning the area and sticking tight.

"We need to disable that turret," Chris said. "Or reroute power. Or something."

Luca nodded toward the far wall, where a recessed access panel blinked faintly. "Cover me."

He activated his suit's camouflage, and yeah, it didn't fool the turret. The glowing sensor tracked him instantly, forcing him to drop flat and crawl. His TL8 suit wasn't made for this. He pulled himself forward, inch by inch, through the broken plating, praying his armor wouldn't tear.

Zoe, of course, just activated her grav-lock boots and strolled forward. Her sleek Phantom suit faded as the camouflage field cloaked her outline, and the turret ignored her completely.

Lucky bitch, Luca thought, a little jealous.

They reached the panel and hid. Luca pulled out his trusty TL8 hacking pad. The screen flickered, slow to boot. Figures.

Zoe whipped out a TL9 pad with a ridiculous chrome casing.

"Where the hell did you get that?"

"Greenhouse in the last portal," she replied. "You were taking a nap."

"Of course."

She was already connected while his pad still booted.

Danny marched up ahead, Warhammer slung over his shoulder, mag-locked boots sending him forward in heavy, even strides.

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"Danny," Ryan called out. "Don't get cocky."

"I brought the hammer," Danny replied. "I intend to use it."

Another turret came online with a soft ping, tracking to their left. A nullmaw dropped from the ceiling almost simultaneously, limbs outstretched.

"Heads up!" Chris shouted.

The thing landed on Ryan, and they went tumoring.

Chris fired, plasma rounds cutting through the creature's side. It shrieked silently in a vacuum, flailing, then exploded in violet gore.

Danny slammed another with his Warhammer as it tried to ambush from the wall. The impact cracked the entire support panel behind it.

They moved up under turret fire. The maze of collapsed weapon housings made for perfect cover, but it also meant navigating tight corridors and floating through open kill zones. Plasma bolts slammed down in arcs, tearing glowing trails across the walls.

Ryan blasted one of the smaller drones that zipped overhead, its sensor light blinking red as it spiraled into a wrecked vent.

Zoe's TL9 hacking pad synced with the interface in seconds, and soon she was navigating through complex screens. Luca clutched his outdated TL8 pad, trying to make it work. The damn thing had been through so many delves with him, but right now it felt like a brick.

"Almost there," Zoe muttered while red warning lights lit up along the wall. Just as a turret swiveled toward Danny's exposed flank, she stabbed her pad forward and hit the final override.

The turret powered down with a hiss and slumped in its housing. Her screen pinged again. "Got a partial map of the deck too."

"Good work," Luca said, still wrestling with his slower system.

Unfortunately, the drones weren't tied into the same network. The whine of another one came from the far corridor, sensors pinging like an alarm bell.

"Drones!" Ryan shouted. "No time to celebrate."

"Two more turrets ahead," Zoe said, voice calm. "One left, one forward."

Emily grit her teeth, using her good arm to swing her plasma sword into a clinging nullmaw. The creature hissed as she carved upward through it, her stance a little off.

"I got the left one," she muttered.

Joey was still glued to her, eyes watching her vitals on his HUD.

Luca tapped his pad, trying to bypass its protocols. He linked into the turret grid. Old Varnathi architecture. Again? Just like that bunker. Not user-friendly. Definitely not intuitive.

"Luca," Zoe said, checking her screen. "You gonna override this thing, or should I start shooting?"

"Working on it."

Her cool new TL9 hacking pad blinked again, not that Luca was looking at it out of the corner of his eye jealously.

"Done."

The turret in front of them spun left and shut down, ten just powered off entirely.

Luca stared at his still-loading interface. "Your gear's just better."

"TL9 pad, makes a difference," she said, grinning at him, her dimples showing and already moving to the next console.

Chris moved up, rifle ready. "Movement in the far hall."

Danny stepped forward, armor hissing. "Let them come."

Nullmaws struck in pairs from upper platforms. Chris and Ryan lit them up midair. Danny taunted a third, slamming his hammer into the deck.

"Over here, purple freak!"

The nullmaw lunged. Danny caught it mid-pounce with a rising swing. Its body crumpled around the blow, limbs twitching.

They pushed forward, clearing the last room. Joey climbed over the remains of a shattered drone housing and pulled open a sealed access panel. Inside, packed tight under layers of shielding and heat tubing, was a locker.

[Item Acquired: Centauri Mk-64 Phantom Tactical Vest (TL9)]

Luca blinked. "No way."

Emily turned. "You found it?"

"Yeah! One of my two missing pieces. Danny," Luca called out, grabbing a broken floor tile to steady himself. "Let me stash this in your bag."

They kept moving. The weapons deck stretched on, a vast ruin of collapsed rails and shredded gantries spanning the space like broken spider webs. They floated or climbed, sticking to Zoe's path.

Then, from behind them, Chris yelled.

Luca spun, grabbing a twisted beam to stabilize himself. His shoulder jarred as he twisted just in time to see a nullmaw drop from the rafters. Something long and fast, like a vine with teeth, snagged Chris by the leg and yanked him upward into the gloom.

"Chris!" Emily shouted.

Chris kicked and thrashed, his heavy rifle swinging uselessly as he flailed in zero-G. The nullmaw wrapped around his lower half, jaws wide and slavering. A second more and it'd be chewing through armor.

A sharp whine split the air, and a plasma bolt lanced out, punching straight through the nullmaw's chest. The creature froze, convulsed, then exploded in a spray of violet gore.

Chris tumbled midair before Joey caught his arm and pulled him steady.

Floating in the distance, five drones emerged from behind a mangled support beam. Black shells with glowing red sensors like angry cyclops eyes. Their marking tags pulsed faintly.

[Suppressor Unit - Model: S-570]
AI-Controlled Defensive System
Engagement Status: Active

One swiveled and opened fire, plasma bursts chasing a nullmaw through a ceiling gash. The others moved in formation, sweeping search beams across the bay.

"Well, that's new," Luca muttered. "You think they're on our side?"

"They're not," Joey said. "They just hate the nullmaws more."

"Comforting," Chris coughed, checking his leg. "I owe one a thank-you."

"No, you don't," Emily said sharply. "They would've vaporized you for a better shot."

They drifted behind cover, scaffolding from an open round tube with a large crane. A torpedo launcher? In space?

"Nullmaws learned to stay out of their targeting paths," Ryan said, raising his plasma shotgun and firing. A drone shuddered, hull flaring before splitting open with a hiss of venting gas.

The remaining four snapped toward them like angry seagulls.

"Cover!" Danny barked, stomping forward. His Warhammer slapped a drone aside, sparks lighting across his chestplate.

Emily pulled Joey behind a broken barrier. "Two coming left!"

Luca fired three shots. First two missed. Third clipped a thruster. The drone spiraled into a strut, detonating in a silent white-blue blossom.

Zoe dropped to one knee, unfair since she was actually touching the deck, and took another with a sniper burst to the core.

"Show-off," Luca muttered, flailing to aim. "Someone kill that last one?"

Chris nailed it with his recovered rifle. The drone jerked, sparked, and exploded with a pulse of static that fuzzed their HUDs.

"Suppressors suppressed," Chris muttered.

"Nice one, Dad," Luca said, kicking off a nearby handhold and drifting back toward the group.

[+113,169 XP]
[+40,500 credits]

Zoe stepped forward, scanning the remains. "They're keyed to something higher up. This isn't random defense mode, they're responding to internal AI commands."

"Yeah?" Luca said, already drifting toward one of the loot boxes that had just appeared. "Well, here we go, baby. I knew this delve was going to be a goldmine."

[Item acquired: UltraCeram Schematic]
[Item acquired: RheTung Composite Schematic]

"Whoa," Danny said. "UltraCeram is TL9 reactor shielding. RheTung is for military-grade hardpoints."

Ryan's visor was practically fogging with excitement. "These are the toys, Luca. You can't build the real stuff without the components. The System's drip-feeding us tech for a reason."

"Still feels like getting socks," Luca grumbled, but even he could feel the significance. With the Phantom vest stashed in Danny's pack and these schematics, they were finally making real progress.

They reached a half-sealed blast door at the bay's far end. Locking bolts sheared off, control panel fused in place.

Joey shook his head. "Sealed tight. Pressure lock's dead. Need to bypass from the interior."

"Figures," Ryan said. "Thousand-year-old ghost ship with AI defenses and nowhere but forward."

Chris pointed to a nearby junction, a tunnel of ribbed steel with flickering red lights. "That leads deeper. Splits left and right about fifty meters in."

Emily floated beside Luca, nudging his shoulder. "You good?"

Their helmets touched lightly, the soft thump grounding him more than any HUD could.

"How's the arm?" he asked.

A small puff of static. "Still there. Still hurts."

"I'll make it up to you after."

"With what? Warm hands and a shitty massage?"

"Whatever it takes," he grinned, and she actually chuckled.

She squeezed his arm, then pulled ahead to join the others.

Danny took point, hammer ready, Zoe behind him.

Ryan and Chris brought up the rear, weapons scanning the half-lit corridor. Static hummed in their comms.

"Plan?" Ryan asked.

"Get deeper," Zoe said. "Find a terminal. AI core, right?"

"That's the goal," Luca confirmed.

"Split up?" Emily suggested.

"No," Luca said quickly. "Not until we know what's waiting."

Everyone looked at him. He cleared his throat. "Too risky."

Ryan shrugged. "For once, I agree."

Zoe flashed a grin. "Aww. He cares."

Luca rolled his eyes, focusing on the mission.

"Move," Emily said. "Cameras on. Comms synced."

They entered the dark.

The battleship's twisted corridors stretched before them. They moved in tight formation, the unknown pressing in.

Ryan worked a panel until a door hissed open. "There!"
"Nice," Emily snickered. "Danny's still faster."

They disabled remote sentry guns popping from walls.

[+37,723 XP]
[+13,500 credits]

"Take that," Ryan muttered. "Piece of junk."

He might be a tool, but he was good at what he did. Even in his glorified bodysock, Luca wouldn't let them down. Not this time.

Zoe's helmet light flicked across his visor. "Keep up, Scout Leader."

Luca pushed off the wall, forward into the dark. The battleship groaned, and deep within, a system hummed to life.

Red strobing lights descended from the ceiling in neat lines.

Luca froze.

In the vacuum, he couldn't hear a thing. But in his head, he heard it loud and clear:

INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT.