The Days Of Fear: A TO Novel - Chapter 5

[Pythor 1,354]

PREVIOUSLY ON T.D.O.F. -- http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=377892 CHAPTER 4

 

C H A P T E R   5

 

 

Sure enough, the following morning’s Tanki Newspaper did mention the incident. Above the article was written in small letters “author unknown”. The title, “Hacker Returns: Dark Days Ahead” drew in many viewers, including Michael. He skimmed through Underwood’s article, then logged into the UGAHDA website. The chat page loaded and Michael was greeted by the brisk tone of Underwood’s voice.

 

“Good Morning.”

 

“Morning. I saw the article you wrote…” started Michael.

 

“Oh that, ha… our team writer, Valdstoistein, managed to get that published,” chuckled Underwood. “I don’t write myself.”

 

“But how did he get that into the newspaper?” questioned Michael. “Only reporters have that authority.”

 

“I have connections,” was all Underwood would say and Michael knew better by now than to push the question.

 

“However, new developments have turned up during the night. I think you would like to know?”

 

“Of course!” exclaimed Michael.

 

The sound of papers rustling preceded Underwood’s next statement. “Last night three more maps were hit. A total of 26 more accounts were lost, including that of the esteemed writer @Flexoo. Interestingly enough, all tankers involved so far have had M3 combos equipped. I’m not positive what that means yet, but certainly higher ranks are in the greatest danger. I need you to enter battles with all Legends today. If a gold drops, contact me immediately. Meanwhile, I have other leads to investigate.”

 

“All right then,” replied Michael. “I’ll start right away.”

 

“I’ll send one of my men with you. Look for the nickname Shindig. He’ll be on in about ten minutes.”

 

Michael exited the voice call and logged into the game. The morning sun’s rays hit his laptop, providing an annoying glare. As he waited, Michael opened the General 1 chat and absentmindedly scrolled through the most recent posts. Almost immediately he sat up erect in his chair. Obviously more than just 26 tankers were hit. The chat room was amazingly crowded. Every fifth post or so was a low ranked player complaining about losing their Legend account. As of yet, it seemed like no one had connected the gold boxes to the issue, but sooner or later they would figure it out. At least five chat moderators were present, trying to calm everyone down. Instead, the chaos just intensified. Michael quickly went to the bathroom and returned to find that the General 1 chat had been literally “overloaded” with messages. In its place was the words “Server error 151”.  First time that’s ever happened, thought Michael. It must be pretty bad.

 

A couple minutes later he received a battle group invite from “Shindig”. He immediately went into the battle queue and within five seconds was loading into the battle. He had left the UGAHDA tab open on his laptop to ensure quick communication with Underwood. Michael was normally rusty skill-wise in the morning, and today was no different. Whether his 5-12 record that first battle was due to chatting a bit with the Shindig guy, or because he had been using Wasp the day before and was too lazy to change it, he couldn’t say. Either way, no golds dropped during the battle, and 8 minutes later Michael was back in the queue. A notification on his friends list appeared, but when Michael opened the tab it was just another invite from Shindig. He thought that was odd since he had already added Shindig during the battle, but shrugged and credited it to some glitch in the game. It wouldn’t be the first one lately. Michael closed his friends tab and sat back in his seat, waiting for the second battle to begin.

 

Michael sighed heavily when he saw the map…  Highways. His arch nemesis of maps. A groan escaped him when immediately after spawning in, he was sniped by an enemy shaft. "At least it’s CP mode…," Michael thought, looking on the bright side. Probably the best mode for this dump.

 

He surprised himself by going on a short kill streak, defending the center highway. However, it was abruptly ended when Michael failed to see an enemy Rail come out of hiding and deal him fatal damage. As he was respawning, the long awaited gold box siren went off. Michael froze for a moment, then hurriedly switched over to the voice call.

 

“Underwood… Red alert… Gold is dropping!”

 

No answer.

 

Michael went back to the Tanki tab and scanned the battle chat to see if Shindig had said anything. Nothing… It was then that Michael glanced over to the other side of the screen and saw that “Shindig” had left the battle seconds before. What was happening?... A million thoughts were racing through Michael’s head. If he didn’t act soon, he might lose his account. It had taken him two years to make it to this point, and he couldn’t let that all go to waste.

 

He went back to the voice call and fairly shouted “A gold is dropping!” When he was again met with silence, Michael switched back over to Tanki just in time to see the gold inches from the floor of the map, where tanks gathered underneath like baby chicks getting fed by their mother. He had only seconds to respond, yet his brain couldn’t get his hands to move to the red X at the top right of the screen. At that moment 3 things happened at once. The gold box was caught and the words “RailgunTanker has caught the gold box” appeared at the top of the screen. The floor of the map began to shudder. And Michael jerked his mouse up and exited the battle.

 

For a full minute Michael sat in his chair, breathing heavily and looking dazed. He uttered a long sigh of relief when he realized he had left the battle in time. He thought of the other oblivious tankers he was with in that battle who hadn’t been so lucky. They would have to start back at Recruit and redo the agonizing grind it was to reach Legend. In that moment Michael resolved that he would no longer just investigate this for Jeff, but would seek to bring this hacker to justice.

 

Feeling a bit better now, he was just about to return to the UGAHDA website when Underwood’s voice broke the silence. He sounded grim and spoke quickly.

 

“We’re being tracked. I don’t have time to explain everything right now. They’ve hacked into our website. Every word we speak is being heard by them… Quickly, locate the person you were playing with… It wasn’t Shindig… I’ll be right behind you… It’s a long shot, but it might work… Now go!”

 

Ready for action, Michael closed the UGAHDA tab, and first checked his friends list.  Apparently, Shindig’s imposter hadn’t joined another battle yet. Michael created his own battle group and, crossing his fingers, invited him. To his surprise it was accepted. Michael started the battle before the other could change his mind. It was a tense 30 seconds as the battle page loaded. Either the imposter hadn’t been relayed the information yet, or he was laying a trap for Michael. Michael himself hoped that Underwood was working quickly.

 

At first when he spawned into the battle, Michael didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. He spotted the imposter sitting still close beside him. Michael braced himself, expecting some glitch or hack to happen. However, before anything of the like could occur, an eerie voice cackled and spoke.

 

“Very good my servant,” came loud and clear. Michael looked confused for a moment. Then, as the voice continued, he could detect it was Underwood who was masquerading as the speaker. He must have somehow connected a voice call to Tanki.“You have done well. The new threat has been dealt with. Underwood’s forces are diminishing, and soon we will have no opposition.”

 

Michael realized his part in this episode was over, and he leaned back in his chair and waited to see how it would play out. Mabye this would be a big breakthrough. However, he couldn’t help but notice how unconvincing Underwood’s voice sounded. Michael half smiled as Underwood’s voice reminded him of some evil lord. That wasn’t really how the master hacker had sounded when he had heard it.

 

Asher continued, “You will be handsomely rewarded for your work.”

 

A new voice spoke, Michael assumed it was the imposter.

 

“But master,” he stammered. “The new addition to the enemy is not yet terminated.”

 

Underwood had obviously planned for this reply.

 

“WHAT!” he screeched, still trying to imitate what he thought the master hacker might sound like. “You fool! The payment is off… You are of no use to me now.” Underwood paused, thinking furiously. “When this is all over I will have everyone acknowledge that I am the true master of the gaming world.  As your last tribute to me you will call me by my name. WHO AM I?!” Underwood nearly yelled.

 

“But master… you…”

 

“WHO AM I!” Underwood again roared.

 

The imposter seemed to be hesitating. “You don’t sound like…”

 

Michael heard what sounded like Asher moaning. The next moment Michael saw the tank under the nickname of Shindig disappear from the battle. Michael himself exited the battle and sat there wondering what to do next.

 

A few minutes passed before he received a call from Asher. Underwood sounded normal.

 

“That was quite the encounter huh.”

 

Michael grinned, “Yeah, I’d say that.”

 

Underwood sighed, “They were going after you, ya know.”

 

Michael hesitated, “Why? Because I’m helping you out?”

 

“Yes. Any new addition to my team, they view as a threat. Some information I gathered recently and some educated guesses about how the master hacker runs his business helped me carry out the conversation with his worker.”

 

“Yes,” he went on, “Quite the encounter, but nothing gained. In fact, we are actually worse off now than before. I’ll have to create a new website… Luckily I had planned for that possibility, so none of our information or data fell into the enemy’s hands. The imposter must have photoshopped his nickname into Shindig, and fooled you into thinking he was the man I sent you. During my little talk with him, my team was working furiously to pick up data from his device, which we used to permanently shut it down. If nothing, this should at least show you who we are up against, and the power that he wields. Unfortunately, as you heard, his worker was too stubborn to reveal the identity of his master…”

 

“Well,” Michael spoke, “We’ll just have to use a different strategy to unmask the criminal.”

 

“It would appear so…” Underwood sighed again. “We go back to square one."

[kaisdf 3,320]

Article approved.

 

To say that this was an improvement on the last would be a massive understatement; part 5 was leagues better than 4. You took all of my points to heart, and so have an excellent piece here that flows, has plenty of story, and is just generally very good. Longer than most of the other parts, but I take that to be a merit, rather than a disadvantage.

 

Can't wait for part 6 :P

 

Also very accurate.

 

Edits:

• A few tiny changes here and there; nothing really notable.

[Lose 881]

better than what ill ever be able to write  :(

[Pythor 1,354]

Thx Kais! Yeah story was really flowing nicely when I was writing it last week.

[Person_Random 4,991]

better than what ill ever be able to write  :(

It's ok, you'll improve

 

 

unlike me

 

 

To Thor: I would like you to work on your descriptive dialogue, which will make part 6 better than part 5.

[thethiefofvictory 339]

Hmmm, that was good. You've improved, and I like that. :D Also, listen to Random's advice.

[Pythor 1,354]

Hey guys..sorry for the wait on chapter 6. It is submitted and should be released soon.