Lost in Geometry: A Field Commander’s Reflections

Lost in Geometry: A Field Commander’s Reflections

Chapter One: Going Home

No matter how many times he tucked himself into this bed, he couldn’t get used to… the smell. Yes, the smell -- that was what bothered him.

It smelled clean, devoid of the familiar scents of scorched earth, sweat, blood, and incinerated powder. For all of his 33 short years on Rubi-Ka, it was those scents that had nightly lulled him to sleep since his earliest days. But a soldier’s life sleeping in foxholes and in the burnt out shells of OmniTek facilities on the front lines had taken it’s toll on his body and mind.

So when the scientists at Jobe asked him for their help in exploring the newly discovered ShadowLands, he took them up on their offer -- luxury apartment and all. He rolled his tightly muscled Trox body onto its side on the overly starched sheets and rubbed his one good eye. How long had it been since he’d slept soundly? Weeks? Months?

Across the room, the tattered “Worst Case Scenario” paper calendar shouted the month and date to him in huge, ugly orange letters and numbers.

A year.

“That’s it,” he grunted, pulling the sheets back. “I can’t take this damn place anymore. LIGHTS, 50 percent!”

His good eye squinted into the glare, and he charged across the room with both hands in front of him. His gear was neatly arranged on the shelves of the wall unit, and he began pulling it down. After all, he was a Field Commander, and even if this was a velvet-lined civilian domicile, keeping his things organized still mattered to him.

As he finished cramming the last of his shiny new Faithful and well-worn Azure armor into his bag, he stopped suddenly, smirking sideways at the always-filled garden tub bubbling cheerily nearby.

“This is one solider who ain’t gonna go soft in his old age,” he muttered.

Twenty minutes later, Field Commander Iron Roedran Will was walking as fast as he could towards the portal, the nondescript Jobe Real Estate building fading into the inky distance somewhere over his shoulder.

He returned the salutes of the Jobe scientists he passed on his way out, and his huge smile (rarely seen) should have told them something. Tonight was the last night he’d be staying as their “guest” in Jobe.

His work was long done, the zones of the ShadowLands long since explored, charted, and described by himself and perhaps two dozen other diehard Clan and Omni mercenaries. The Beast had been killed in the final zone, his screams reverberating across every zone of the planet… and beyond.

It was time to go home. To Tir.

Chapter Two: The Past, The Present

A quick walk across the Jobe platform and into the woompah… he felt his molecules pull apart with a WOOSH –- and he was staring at the familiar, though gaudy fish pond on the other side. He turned and half-ran across Old Athens, glad for the late hour, encountering no one.

One more woompah ride later, and he materialized inside Tir.

Home.

The night manager at the Happy Rebel gave him a quick nod as Roe banged his way into the bar, his Massive Bolt Charger clanging against the metal doorframe.

Good, he wasn’t recognized. His credit chip was good, and by the looks of the two passed out soldier’s bellied up to the bar, the new manager could care less who he was -- getting paid was the priority.

A minute later, he strode down the hall to his room and opened the door. “Now this is more like it,” he thought, throwing his bag onto the table, causing it to creak and lean to one side under its enormous weight.

There was no window. A broken chair littered the floor, and the bed was comprised of a filthy mattress thrown in a corner. A single naked bulb flickered dully overhead. The stench of stale ale, sweat and something not unlike a wet dog permeated the room.

He was asleep before his head hit the dusty, thin excuse for a pillow.

Then dreams came, as they always did. But his time, they were much more vivid, much more real.

It was as if someone had slotted a gigaquad of raw data into his NCU, and forced him to recount and/or watch snippets of his past, out of order, out of context…


PERSONNEL DATAFILE: TENRY
Her name is Tenry, and everyone at this place seems to know who this chick is. Except him.

Which is odd, since over the past 33 years Roe had come to know nearly every Clanner on Rimor –- male, female, or Trox. But this was a dream, he reminded himself, and watched his younger self shake this nanomage’s hand.

She looked fragile to him, but her eyes burned an intense blue. This was one adventurer he didn’t want to meet in an alley somewhere, especially at his fledgling level. Nanomage or not, she meant business.

A few minutes later, Tenry had added Roe (he was level… 71?) to the list of mercenaries working inside the Little D facility in Mort desert, and the two began to chat. It was obvious that they were both of similar age, and as the morning sun shone down upon them and the other 15 clanners waiting their turn, they became quick friends.

For nearly three months the two were inseparable, first earning their way through their 70’s in Little D, then graduating to Big D, and working through the 80’s and into the early 90’s with gusto. All the while, Roe and Tenry made a host of friends, often leading teams for entire days at a time, keeping lists of newcomers, and in general keeping the facility under siege at all times.

Roe smiled in his sleep then, remembering the day the two were waiting their turn, playing dice with a group of 10 other mercs waiting outside Big D, warming their hands by the exhaust vent, huddled close for warmth.

“Roe, I think it’s time you joined me, joined us,” she said, holding out her credit chip for his last million credits -- as usual. Rolling a winning pair was never Roe’s strong suit. It seemed plastic dice and the helpbot both seemed to work against him those days.

“What do you mean, join ‘us?’,” Roe said, frowning, coupling his chip to hers and starting the transfer.

“Join Coven,” she said. “Coven of Hunters. We’re one of the best group of Clanners you’re ever going to meet. Besides, I can tell you could use some help,” she laughed.

“Me, need help? Pfff,” he heard himself say. “In all the time we’ve spent out here together, all the OT losers we’ve sent to reclaim, you really think I’m gimp enough to need help?”

Damn right, he grumbled in his sleep. In those days, he didn’t need nobody. Just himself, a full ammo clip and his trusty TMS reflect nano.

“You’re not open to help improving yourself, fine,” she replied. “Don’t ask for help. But I think you’re Coven material, Roe. We don’t accept just anyone. You know how to treat people, how to stick in a fight, and be sure we all go home with something to show for our trouble out here.”

It didn’t take him long to accept her offer, and he was started when his NCU lit up with the /org invite message. She was high enough to invite him, and that impressed him more than anything. Obviously, she’d been trusted with far more than recruiting lowbies into the Coven family. He clicked Yes and was amazed to see dozens of welcome messages appearing in his com.

Coven was… is… a large guild. And look at some of these levels! Violax was 173, Fleat 169, Georgekg1 an impressive 175. These were clearly veteran members of the resistance, and his 87 levels paled in comparison. But they were eager to bring him into the fold, and soon he spent most of his days working alongside his new guildmates, his new family, in Mort, and beyond -- learning, leveling, and, eventually taking his own leadership role as a Commander, then later, a General.

With level 100 calling, dozens of Coveners signed up to help eradicate the Cyborg’s a few miles from the Little/Big D compounds. Clearly, this level 87 solider saw these borgs as his greatest challenge, and young Roe gritted his teeth as the memory of three of the monsters bearing down on his team flooded his brain... followed by a blow to the head, waking up with his limp arms wrapped around the reclaim terminal, his teammates nearby… his mind wandering to the next memory…

“God, how about something funny this time. That hurt!”

CAMP DATAFILE: Superior Sentinel Armor
TIMESPAN: 81 Hours
# OF RAIDS: 51
TARGET(S): Supply Master Eel and General Kaehler Jr.
HIGHLIGHTS: Playback this camping? Would take nearly a week!

Still, he had many memories of sending out calls for help to bring down Supply Master Eel and General Kaehler Jr. with dozens of friends. Hell, by the end of the three months it took him to finish his full set, Roe was sometimes leading two raids a day to earn the necessary points to snag the elusive helmet.

“Bah, and I don’t wear a scrap of it today,” he scoffed. He forced his mind to choose another data chain, and felt himself falling down a dark tunnel of memory, and lost time…


GENERIC MEMORY DATAFILE: South Gate Antics
Commander Steel was mouthing off somewhere nearby. He knew it was Steel, because no one used the words “Nooblette” and “Noobinatrix” except for that moron.

Not that he could blame him. Roe spent nearly every waking hour from level 110 to 200 hanging out near South Gate in Tir, chatting with Steel and his guards day in and day out.

And everday at some point, Roe would return to this spot suddenly, usually dropping on all fours on the reclaim pad losing the last of his Bronto Burger lunch as he rerezzed to life, and Steel would call over from where he always stood:

“Hey Roe, You Noobinatrix! Omni thug got the better of your sorry trox butt? That 40 seconds of nanoshutdown when TMS goes down really suc…”

But this time, somebody or something had cut him off. “Ahh! Oh my god, how long ago did this happen?” he thought. He heard himself laughed out loud back in reality, a deep belly laugh that made him turn over on the nasty mattress.

In the memory, Roe turned to look, catching sight of the smurf through the tangle of 30 or 40 Clanners –- a lone Omni Fixer sporting a new GA IV, laying into good ol’ Commander Steel with his manex!

Steel whistled to his nearby guards, and the firing really started. “I mean,” young Roe thought, “who does this 150ish Omni think he is? Taking on Commander Steel and four of his elite guards all at the same time?”

Suddenly green auras popped all around the group. Ahh, time for some kiting!

As much as Roe wanted to join in and defend Steel, there was nothing he could do. Back in the good ol’ days, attacking guards or, Ross forbid, one of the city commanders, wouldn’t open you up to personal attack.

So as Roe cleaned out the reclaim terminal and started putting himself back together, he watched the Omni have his way with Steel... running around, healing as best he could, keeping Steel and company from moving much… for all of 45 seconds.

As the Clanner’s jeered and taunted additional guards to join in, the sounds of Steel screaming “Omni Nooblette! DIE!” made Roe laugh harder than he had in a very long time.

Finally, the Omni charged the gate with two bulbs of health left, and, as usual, made his way inside and over to the arena to make a name for himself –- rooting and ganking whomever got in his way.

Steel lowered his weapon as the Fixer finished derezzing through the gate, and turned his attention back to Roe, who had moved closer.

“Son, get your Div9-wielding butt in there and take him down, NOW!” he shouted. “What kind of a soldier are you anyway? Get it done!”

“Hey Steel,” he heard himself say, as his young counterpart dug around in his new CAS armor pants pockets for a credit. “Here’s a Rosscent,” he said, flipping the coin quickly in Steel’s direction, “give it to a Clammy who gives a rat’s ass.”

Commander or not, Roe didn’t care. He was quick to anger back in those days. Noobinatrix indeed. FFS, Roe was closing in on 175 at that point, his boosted Hellfury and Hellspinner burning holes in his inventory. Soon he’d be calling the shots around here, and he might just give Steel a try… one on one… just for fun.

His team had healed up inside the gate, and were starting to get restless for another mission. “Roe, you wanna roll one this time?” he heard Zodgirl say over the con. “This time, let’s get a 202 mish in BS. You know the sliders for max xp, right?”

Sigh. Broken Shores… again. And OF COURSE he knew how to position the sliders. Not that he got too mad at her, Zod was… great to look at while they hunted down another wanted man for some rich nobody.

Someday Omni had to raid BS and shake those houses down. I mean, why did the crooks who gave us the best XP always end up there? Surely they’d come up with something better than doing one thing to earn the best XP? Couldn’t they? Doing the same thing over and over is just so… boring.

He shook his head and hoped that someone somewhere would take a stab at a new, dare he say, enjoyable way to level. What could be worse? Killing the same monsters outdoors for the best XP, that’s what. He smirked inside his dirty helmet, and headed over to the shiny new mission terms across from Steel.

Clicking a forgotten bravery token in his hud’s inventory display, he saw his counter click to 1400.

“And a new token board in the future would be nice too…”


CAMP DATAFILE: Azure Reveries Armor
TIMESPAN: 482 Hours
# OF RAIDS: 228
TARGET(S): The Merceneries
HIGHLIGHTS: By far, the second largest single chunk of his career (only marginally behind his time leveling in missions in Broken Shores) was spend in Eastern Foul Plains, helping Joe Two Fingers bring communications to Otacustes, resulting in hundreds of Mercenary kills.

“God help me,” he thought, “I still head out there from time to time and the raid group often doesn’t have a letter for Ota handy.” He wished more clanners would learn how to get the white envelopes that began the spawn process leading to Ian Warr, Peter Lee, Ris Lee, Nelly Johnson, and Patricia Johnson.

From his early days at level 175 heading out to EFP for the first time via the fixer grid (and numerous trips to the reclaim at the hands of the blue warriors), to more recent raids when he could easily taunt, pull, and handle the mercs with ease, the 400+ hours were mostly tedious camping affairs, coaxing Otacustes from hiding, followed by an hour or two of coordinated chaos.

“Thank god for Ethernal,” he smiled. “without that kid, we’d be fighting Omni for every single merc everyday.”

CAMP DATAFILE: Augmented Fury
TIMESPAN: 44 Hours
# OF RAIDS: 18
TARGET(S): Notum Solider/Notum Trainee
HIGHLIGHTS: His mind wandered to another sore spot during his long career as a camper… err solider –- the nearly endless days of sitting in a single spot, killing the same poor, unfortunate area boss in hopes of finding the right item on their temporary corpses, sent to the reclaim for the millionth time.

Roe wasn’t sure what augmented his fury more –- that he regularly gave in to this method of obtaining the very best items or upgrades, or that many times he had to drag along a group of his friends to help him.

By the deep green leaves on the trees at this spot, and the small bridge a few yards away, he knew what this next memory was all about. There, buffing her nails with fury and tapping her white stiletto heels on the pavement was none other that the latest Notum Trainee.

“Ok toons, lock and load,” he muttered into his headset. “Notum Trainee number nine coming right up… and she don’t look too happy to be here. Let’s give her the traditional clammy welcome, shall we?”

Roe shouldered his boosted hellfury assault cannon, and squeezed off a quick burst. The NT recoiled from the blast, rolled her eyes, and started running at him. FAST.

The fight was, as always, fairly uneventful. This NT was more intent on killing Roe than the last eight, and she was putting on quiet a show.

However, Roe’s group had brought some new tricks to deal with this charmer. One by one his pals lined up behind the NT, and triggered their new Bearhug specials that they’d mastered in the ShadowLands.

And everytime a new Bearhug was triggered, the NT would shimmer with that signature white aura, and stand stunned for several seconds while the crowd laid into her.

A few minutes later she finally fell, screaming with rage, the white residue of the final Bearhug perk still lingering around her lithe form.

“Take another dirt nap, honey,” he heard himself say, leaning down and cleaning off some blood and grime from her almond-shaped face. “At this moment, this is me at my most masochistic. After you die, let your boss come in your worthless place. kthanxbi.”

The sound of the final head shot reverberated through the trees, several birds taking flight and crowing their displeasure.

Yes, yes! This was one of the true highlights of his career. This was raid number 12 on this location for Roe –- and at level 203, his patience was wearing thin. Who ever heard of a solider not getting his Augment Hellfury part from this place before he dinged 200? I mean, please!

Roe didn’t know it at that moment, but his wait was nearly over. As the group milled about, smoking cheap cigars and joking about the latest Mercs raid earlier in the day, a crackle in the air signaled the respawn on the bridge.

And there she stood, smiling, stroking her long black hair.

The Notum Solider had arrived.

“Ladies, this time it’s for real,” he muttered. Suddenly two high level Omni yalms cruised by at low altitude. “Crap, and some salarymen are here to steal her. We take her down NOW!”

He shouldered his Fury in one fluid motion and started shooting. “Incoming!” he screamed, as the NS winked at him, blew him a kiss, and started running at him FAST, TOO FAST!

For a tense five minutes, the NS had her way with the group. She bounced from toon to toon with wild abandon, laughing in their faces and trying her best to land her signature NCU wipe on anyone who dared to stand and fight her.

Once again, it would be their newly gained knowledge of the ShadowLands that would save them. Although Roe noticed that his NCU wasn’t being wiped this time (looks like that extra Nano Resist he invested in was paying off), he was taking heavy damage and the lone doctor was doing her best to keep him healed, and the NS off her butt.

From somewhere nearby, Roe heard a twig snap between shots and curses from the NS. It was Fireks, a fellow Clanner adventurer he’d teamed with a few times in the past. “Fireks!” Roe called out, “glad you could make it!”

“Wouldn’t miss it!” she said as she turned herself deftly into a sabretooth. “Now standback and check this out.”

If there was one thing the NS hated more than anything, it was a showoff. And an ADVENTURER no less, wanting to tank… HER?

The NS turned from Roe and started wailing away. Only this time, her blows were bouncing off, Fireks HP bar barely twitching. What the hell?

Biosheilding. “Whoah!” Roe breathed into his com. “Looks like Fire has her BioShield perk pumpin. This is gonna be fun!”

The rest of the kill went like a textbook. Heal, bioshield, land a ton of damage, heal, bioshield… in less than five minutes, the NS let out her last breath and fell to the ground, just as shocked as the rest of us.

Easy… too easy. So many raids failed, so many hugged reclaims. And now, the NS was absolutely owned by the power of a single ShadowLands perk.

“Wow, shame Omni won’t let these bosses sharpen their teeth a little in the ShadowLands,” Roe heard himself say. “Cuz we can own these gals 10 times easier than we could even last month.”

The crowd parted and let Roe loot the remains. Sure enough, there was the upgrade part, tucked neatly into her back pocket. Wrenching it out, Roe slotted the perfect cylinder into the lower chamber of his Fury, and clicked the recessed button to kickstart the onboard software.

His Augmented Hellfury hummed back to life in an instant, the humming and occasional buzzing from its power source now silenced by the perfect pulsing notum disruptor that was slotted in its place.

It was his. Tick off one more insane camp… for this week.


CAMP DATAFILE: JAME Blaster
TIMESPAN: 48 Hours
# OF RAIDS: N/A
TARGET(S): Sinful Soul Dredges Adonis Bosses
HIGHLIGHTS: Interesting. This camp – although seemingly shorter than his marathon, multi-day armor camping affairs, was perhaps the most tedious he’d done. Over the course of a week he nearly went insane (and gained 20 pounds) by sitting in the same spot, killing the same respawned boss, to get the elusive and (let’s face it) originally overpowered JAME Blaster.

There was even an original mission report attached, with photos, dated Dec. 20 of last year:

Last week someone told me about a new weapon that was making all the kids crazy and keeping their parents awake at night with worry. This weapon – the JAME Blaster -- is a new Shadowlands drop. And it's uber. And docs, agents, traders, and, imagine that, SOLIDERS want 'em. Drops in QL 140-159.

Why? It's all about the minimum damage in the Shadowlands. The Augmented Hellfury does about 600 min damage on the SL mobs. The JAME does 1170, not to mention 8 sec bursts on average, nice crits, and fling. Anyway, I could go on and on.

This is a guide for how to farm one of your own. And if u NooB to SL, head your local sporting goods store. You're gonna need some camping gear. Me, for instance -- I spent FIVE days camping for this gun. FIVE.
And when I tallied up my play hours, I hit 48. My god. So, first... A FIRE. 8)

Ok, now your comfy -- but where? Two places.

First, you can camp the Soul Dredges at the huge ship (ARK) just above the words Dead Ends on your Adonis map. Head under the top of the ship and you'll see groups of Spirit Hunter mobs standing around doing the 2 step in circles. The Soul Dredge bosses spawn in the center of these clusters, and there are
four groups of mobs there with bosses.

The Spirit Hunters ain't worth killing. The Soul Dredges are.

Second -- where mine dropped -- is to the left of the wordsAdonis City on your map. See the line going straight down? Good. Follow that line, it's a road, you'll go through an archway. You see one set of Spirit Hunters there with a Soul Dredge in the middle. Run down the hill to the right and you'll see another set of mobs. The second Dredge -- the one that dropped mine -- is there.

Once a Dredge boss spawns, try to ask it nicely for a gun. "Ok, here's the deal, drop this gun ok? No? I kill j00 then." Hammer it hard and fast and hope no one else comes to KS or try to OD you. After all, you're a gimpy toon with no JAME, so pretty much anyone can attempt to OD you.

Loot another worthless ore. Rine and repeat. "Several" times. :x

For days.

:shock:

Until one boss dropped a QL 140, and the next dropped a QL 154. Back to back! ;)

He involuntarily rubbed his ass back in reality with a sly grin. He had permanent muscle damage from that little affair. But two JAMEs back to back? Very, very cool. Speaking of camps with a dual outcome…


COMBINED CAMP DATAFILE: Massive Bolt Charger
TIMESPAN: 10 Minutes/78 Hours
# OF RAIDS: 1/29
TARGET(S): Efreet Ellis Inferno Boss
HIGHLIGHTS: Ah ha, finally a somewhat more recent file. A few months ago, news arrived from a trusted colleague working his way across the boss-rich, burnt-out fields of Inferno that a new solider weapon had been found in the remains of a nasty vortexoid named Afreet Ellis.

“When I saw the stats,” he thought, “there was no reason not to do whatever it took to get my hands on the best solo gun on the planet for our class.”

And raid Afreet Roe did. One morning, before dawn broke and his loot-hungry peers bothered to crawl out of whatever cave they’d slept in for the night, Roe, Jocelyn, and a few other steadfast clanners set out from Inferno Frontier to take the monster down. Jocelyn, as always, was a key asset to the mission. In fact, Roe was sure she was (and is) the best clan Bureaucrat on Rubi-Ka.

With a few deft waves of her hands, every single guard inside Afreet’s cave was rendered motionless. Sure, they could wriggle against their nano bonds as much as they pleased. Jocelyn made sure to recast the mezzes as often as it took to keep them at bay.

Within seconds of beginning the raid, Afreet was alone and noticeably agitated. It was obvious he saw what was coming, but, as with all the unique bosses Roe had encountered over his lifetime, Afreet would fight with every dirty trick he had as long as he was alive.

Healed by his small team, and Jocelyn joining in to add her shotgun’s damage to the pool, Roe tanked Afreet for a little over a minute before Ellis fell to the ground, broken and lifeless.

Roe walked down the hill and looted the corpse. And there it was.

A 230 Massive Bolt Charger. In one raid.

The shouting woke up two nearby teams of campers – but Roe could care less. He increased his Heavy Weapons skill to max the beneficial skill of this incredible find, and tried it on for size. It must have been made for giants –- it was huge, but it was fast!

And after a week of testing in every zone he could think of, Roe came to one conclusion. OmniTek may have nerfed the output of his JAMEs, but the Massive Bolt Charger was the next best thing. He could stand back at full defense, fire 1/1, land fling and bursts everytime, and always hit for the same amount. Along with an omni pal who’d managed to raid a similar version, Roe changed his equip nearly 100% to make the most of this incredible gun.

But the fun didn’t stop there. After a few weeks of MBC love, “I realized this gun was worth it’s weight in platinum, and then some,” Roe snorted. Within a few minutes of listing the gun on the Sale Network, he was flying at full speed towards Andromeda to meet an omni to make a trade.

And less than 10 minutes later, he strapped on the professional prize of a lifetime – his very own Robust Backpack. This rare gem fit his back like a dream… and brought into sharp relief his next task.

Heading back to Afreet for another Massive Bolt Charger.

Suffice it to say, after 29 raids and nearly 80 hours of camping later, “I was good and ready to find someone selling the best MBC to be had, and I had the credits to pay for it.”

Gryj was more than happy to make the sale, being perhaps the most well-known clan doctor on the planet for twinking herself into her very own QL 220 MBC some weeks earlier.

She had no use for the QL 260 in her bank, and, well, Roe did. The BILLION+ credit transaction took a few days to complete, but when it was over, the prize was his.

“The camping was insane enough,” he thought. “But at the end of that trial, I’d gotten exactly what I wanted. Ass boils and all…”


CAMP DATAFILE: Tir Rings
TIMESPAN: 177 Hours
# OF RAIDS: 63 Team Missions (High Commander Ace Tags)
TARGET(S): Fresh, Amateur, Rookie, Seasoned, Veteran, Ace Omni Showoffs
HIGHLIGHTS: One of the more interesting quests, all completed between levels 150 and 175. “Damn,” Roe thought, “if only I’d gotten the lowbies earlier in my career. Woulda helped a lot getting armor on.” Screw it now, too late. Got a full set, and was not overly hard to collect and cash in the dogtags. Besides, it involved wholesale Omni employee slaughter of all levels. How much fun was THAT?

Then without warning, the datafile closed, and the inky blackness of deep sleep finally overtook him…

Would he dream again tonight? What would come of him now that he’d finally cut loose?

Time will tell.

Stay tuned.