The Days Of Fear: A TO Novel - Chapter 6

[Pythor 1,354]

PREVIOUSLY ON T.D.O.F. -- http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=378189 CHAPTER 5

 

C H A P T E R   6

 

 

The next few days flew by. Michael and Aaren were competing in a baseball tournament this weekend, leaving them little time to conduct more research. Jeff returned home on Sunday morning and to celebrate his return, all four boys had another sleepover in Michael’s basement.

 

It had been almost a full week since the hacker had first struck, and the panic in the Tanki community was only rising. Developers and moderators tried in vain to calm the confusion, releasing three v-logs in two days to address some of the problems. An emergency newspaper issue was also released, but it only consisted of three articles since many of the reporters had lost their accounts over the past few days. The headline read “The Days Of Fear”. The article below went on to relate, or at least tried to relate, the happenings that had consumed the Tankiverse. Conspiracy theorists thoughtfully laid out their accusations and hypotheses in the forum.

 

In the game itself, tankers were hesitant to join battles and left in fear as soon as a gold box siren went off. The word had spread around that golds always precede the strikes. Oblivious tankers who had no idea of the occurrences of late were easily gobbled up by the master hacker. Where the lost accounts went, no one knew. There were absolutely no breakthroughs in the investigation for Underwood… That is, until that Sunday night.

 

“Yo Jeff, toss me the chips.”

 

“You’ve eaten like the whole bag.”

 

“Noo...,” exclaimed Connor in a guilty voice.

 

“Guys, keep it down… I’m trying to read through these comments.” Michael had been browsing through the forum for the past ten minutes, getting himself back up to date with what was happening.

 

“Did you guys check out Underwood’s new website yet?” Aaren questioned between a bite of hamburger. “It has a total count of the accounts that have been lost. It’s currently at...” he glanced down at his laptop, at the same time popping a piece of bun that had fallen off his burger into his mouth. “...781,” Aaren whistled. A second later he looked down again then proclaimed, “Now 783.”

 

Michael sighed. “We’re running out of time. If we don’t figure this out soon, there won’t be a Tanki Online community left.”

 

It was at that exact moment that Underwood called. He hadn’t spoken much to the boys since the past incident, only to text them the password to his new website. Michael had no idea when he picked up the phone that Asher had just hit the breakthrough they so desperately needed.

 

“Hello?”

 

Underwood skipped the formalities. “Listen closely. Over the weekend I’ve been doing some heavy research… And I believe it’s paid off. I don’t think the master hacker has returned to Tanki just to terrorize the game, although he most likely takes pleasure in this. No,” Underwood paused. “He’s most definitely looking for something.”

 

Michael raised his eyebrows as Asher continued.

 

“Let me explain. Yesterday, I ran across what seemed to be another one of the master hacker's workers. I traced him into a normal pro battle and watched as a gold box was dropped. As usual, the rumblings started and I expectantly waited for the floor of the map to give way. However, after a couple seconds the tremors subsided, leaving me quite puzzled. It seemed that our hacker wasn’t just targeting battles willy nilly, but had a plan that evidently wasn’t adjusted or suitable for this particular battle. Now this wasn’t enough to convince me entirely. But when you add in the fact that the only accounts that have been lost have been M3s, it proves that there is a point to this madness. It just so happens that before the strike I noticed that one tanker in the battle had an M2 hull equipped, even though he was on Legend.” Underwood paused to take a breath, then began again in exasperation. “What I’m trying to say is, there is a reason our master hacker is only targeting M3 tanks. There must be a reason…” he trailed off. “But it eludes me.”

 

There was silence for a few moments as both sides of the call were lost in thought. Then Michael spoke up.

 

“So what do you suppose we do about it?”

 

“Search up in the forum all you can about M3 equipment, specifically M3 hulls. Find out how they were designed and when they were released. If you see something out of the ordinary report back to me.”

 

Michael turned his head to gaze back at his friends. “You guys hear that?”

 

Connor yawned. “Sure thing chief.” Then he yanked off his sock and tossed it over in the corner before slipping into his sleeping bag.

 

“We will start research first thing in the morning,” Michael spoke back into his phone.

 

“Tonight would be better,” Underwood replied a little coldly. “Accounts are being lost at an alarming rate.”

 

“I’ll see what I can do,” answered Michael, then quickly hung up. Before turning off his phone, he glanced at the time. It read 22:28.

 

“We’ll look it up after we watch the movie,” Aaren exclaimed, at the same time producing a DVD from his sweatshirt pocket.

 

“I’m going to sleep,” mumbled Connor.

 

“Michael and I will do the research,” piped up Jeff. Then, looking over at his friend, added “I think he’s already started.”

 

Indeed, Michael had already begun.

 

The lights were turned down for Connor, and Jeff and Michael proceeded to scavenge the forum for information on M3 hulls. Every now and then Aaren would exclaim loudly as he watched the movie using his laptop and headphones. After about ten minutes, Michael firmly nudged Jeff in the ribs.

 

“This is what we’re looking for. It says here ‘All of the M0, M1, and M2 hull prototypes were designed by Alex Broythers. However, the M3 hulls were solely created by a tanker nicknamed The_Inventor.’” Michael paused and looked over at Jeff, then continued out loud. “The blueprints outline all the main features…’ The rest doesn’t really help much,” Michael added, quickly scrolling through the remainder of the page. “Oh, at the bottom it says that The_Inventor also was the one who designed Railgun.

 

“Hmmm,” Jeff mused. “You think that’s important?”

 

Michael shrugged. “Maybe the Railgun page will tell us.”

 

A few minutes later the two boys were reading through the forum description of the turret.

 

“The straight shot emitted by Railgun is composed of a substance called Klyno,” Jeff read aloud. “Triggered by a reaction in the main chamber of the turret, the substance ignites and is forced out of the chamber through the barrel with tremendous force.”

 

“Yeah, but that’s all just fiction. For the readers enjoyment… right?” asked Michael doubtfully.

 

Jeff closed his laptop and stretched out on the ground.

 

“I imagine. But weird things have been going on lately. I wouldn’t take anything too lightly.”

 

Michael sat up, wide awake for the next hour, pondering over the current situation. When he finally lay down, he tossed and turned fitfully, trying to will himself to drift off. Just when he thought sleep would finally come, his phone rang. What on earth, Michael thought to himself. It's 2 AM. Then, when he realized it was most likely Underwood, Michael rolled over and floundered for his phone. He pressed the talk button and groggily propped himself up with his arm. Before Michael could say anything, Asher’s excited voice sprang out.

 

“The accounts! Underwood shrieked. “They’ve all been recovered!”

[kaisdf 3,320]

Article approved.

 

Part 6 :lol:

 

Lovely continuation of the story - great style, great flow, great content... Can't wait for part 7 :D

 

Your first paragraph was a bit too long, so I tried to split it up. Unlike other pieces, I didn't actually notice any issue. It's just worth noting that if paragraphs are too long, they can be hard to read, and if you have a piece with text walls and one word paragraphs (exaggeration? What's that?), it can look uneven - though this piece didn't suffer from either of those.

 

Edits:

• You need a comma after (as Microsoft Word calls it) the introductory element - i.e. "Yesterday, I ran", "As usual, the"
• The M in M0, M1, M2, or M3 is capitalised.
• If you use the 12 hour clock, it is a good idea to specify AM or PM, just to avoid confusion. Else I'm left assuming you mean the 24 hour clock, and wondering why you have 10:28 in the evening... (Ik I'm being pedantic, but I have to find something to put here, so hush :P)

 

Your work is very accurate overall, but I think it could do with one final check at the end. Read it out to a parent, friend (ikr what r those lol), or even a cookie - just read it out loud, you get a much better feel of the flow, and any necessary changes than if you just read it through.

This is the first time I've written anything under the Edits spoiler. Cool, huh.

[thethiefofvictory 339]

Well well, that was a good story! One thing though - I'm sure you've got the M3 and Railgun equipment information wrong... no?

[Pythor 1,354]

Well well, that was a good story! One thing though - I'm sure you've got the M3 and Railgun equipment information wrong... no?

Yeah, completely made up :) Obviously the whole story is fiction

Edited December 17, 2018 by pythor20000

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

This series is a lot of fun! 

[Person_Random 4,991]

Nice synonyms for said, improved dialogue.

 

 

Still could be more descriptive.

 

 

[Lose 881]

love it! always leaves me wanting to read more