Avarice: The Realm Chapter 8: Ratsi

Ratsi

Brandi Knock, also known as Ratsi. In the day after my capture of ReaperGoon, the intel staff at Fort Lincoln identify an item that I can use for my plan. Ratsi is planned to travel through a specific building tomorrow in a meeting with her boss. I assume she’ll probably touch the surface of that building’s door.

With the card Sticky Glue, I can attach the tracking half of Focus Teleport to an object that she’ll touch. When she touches it, the Focus Teleport card will be able to teleport me directly to wherever she is at any time.

This plan will only work once. The card Shroud, among other things, nullifies Focus Teleport. While I’ll still know exactly where Ratsi is at any time, I won’t be able to teleport directly to her. Since she doesn’t know my plan she most likely does not have a Shroud card active. The effect only lasts for twelve hours, and they’re not cheap.

I walk up to Fort Lincoln’s fast travel tower. “Jiniva,” I say.

Jiniva is a city in the Eastern Jungle Biome. It’s not the biggest, not by a long shot, but it does have a small, dedicated player population.

I am curried by the ball of light across the landscape until I land at Jiniva’s fast travel tower.

Jiniva is a city with a Maya influence. Step pyramids rise out of the jungle surrounding the city, and vines crawl across most of the stone surfaces. There are a couple of modern-looking buildings, but most of the houses look like they were taking straight out of Jumanji.

There doesn’t seem to be a considerable player population here, just as expected. Most of the people walking past are NPCs, probably here just to make the city feel lived-in.

The tallest building in the city is the one where Ratsi will meet Mandrake Signa. All I have to do is stick the Focus Teleport tracking module and make sure Sticky Glue’s activation condition is set to Ratsi’s touch. Since I know her username, I’m able to target her with Sticky Glue’s “landmine” function.

I set up the trap in the doorway and then back out. Since they know exactly where I am at all times, I place a video camera in the balcony of an inn that looks over the entrance. The room has been rented out for the next week.

I take the fast travel tower back to Fort Lincoln, enter my officer’s quarters, and watch the trap site remotely with a small screen.

Most of the people going in and out are NPCs dressed in business attire. The building is some sort of governmental entity. I also note several player guild members of several major guilds in Jiniva.

And then she arrives. Ratsi. She’s about as ordinary-looking as any lackey of an international terrorist can be.

When she touches the door handle, Sticky Glue takes effect. She recoils, shakes her hand out, and looks straight at the camera—but it appears that she didn’t see it. She enters the building and closes the door behind her.

I shut off the view screen and stand up. I could use Focus Teleport to get to where Ratsi is now, but she’s probably surrounded by goons and is too close to Mandrake for comfort.

I need to use Focus Teleport’s incidental track function to mark a good time to teleport to Ratsi. Preferably when she’s alone, or when she is in transit.

“Status,” I say. I open up my world map, and turn on the marker that tracks Ratsi. She’s still in the building having her conference with Mandrake right now.

I spend the rest of the day just watching Ratsi move from place to place. After her meeting with Mandrake, Ratsi takes the fast travel system to the city of Endiga. I assume that’s where she lives.

She does some food shopping, heads to a salon, and then goes home.

I take out the Lightning Cage card and flick it. We’re good to go. I put that card back for later use and take out Focus Teleport.

“Teleport: Ratsi!” I say.

A ball of black smoke surrounds me. Before I can orient myself, a knife stabs out of the black and glances off my armor.

“I knew you were coming!” says Ratsi, through the haze.

The smoke clears. I am standing in a cozy, well-lit living room. Ratsi is pressed against the wall.

“Binder,” I yell. “Lightning cage!”

“Binder,” says Ratsi. “Counterspell.”

My card spell fizzles.

“Footlock!” I say.

Ratsi taps her feet. “Aerial walk!” Her feet float off the floor. She tosses a dagger at me.

I dodge. “Slow movement!”

“Counterspell!” says Ratsi.

My spell fizzles again.

“Darken, night vision!” I say.

The room plunges into darkness, but I can still see.

“Night vision,” says Ratsi.

The whole room is cast in a monochrome series of outlines. Ratsi walks through the air towards one of the doors.

“Freeze object,” I say, and the door is frozen shut.

Ratsi attempts to open it, but can’t. “Destroy artifact!” she says.

“Counterspell!” I say.

Ratsi’s spell fizzles.

“Lightning cage!” I say.

Ratsi is surrounded by a cage of electricity. She is breathing heavily. “You got me,” she says.

I attach the threads of my apprehension module and capture her before the Lightning Cage expires. Ratsi disappears in a flash of light, and I put the module in my pocket.

“Unfreeze object,” I say, and I leave the room through the front door.

I walk quickly through the city until I reach the fast travel tower, and then I transit to Fort Lincoln.

Pierre and Garnet are standing next to the tower, chatting. Garnet approaches me.

“Do you have her?” she asks.

I hold up the module. “Bagged and tagged,” I say. “I burned through quite a few cards, though,” I say.

“That’s to be expected,” says Garnet.

“Right,” says Pierre. He takes the module from me. “We’ll make sure she doesn’t try to commit suicide.” He pauses. “Did you have trouble with rats?”

I shake my head. “The battle was too fast,” I say. “I didn’t give her a chance to summon anything.”

“Hrm,” says Pierre. “Well, you’re certainly taking to card combat.”

“It’s all about strategy,” I say. “The things you can do are pretty amazing.”

Pierre grins. “Two more targets to go,” he says.

“And both know I’m coming,” I say.

“Well, Ratsi knew you were coming, right?” says Pierre. “And you took her down.”

“It won’t be so easy anymore,” I say. “Both Mandrake Signa and Peter Cool are probably under the shroud card by now. I can’t use the same tactic twice.”

“You’re pretty experienced, though,” says Garnet. “You’ll figure something out.”

“Do you have any planes I can parachute from?” I ask.

“Parachute?” says Pierre. “Sure. We have a couple of small prop planes that can do that. Why would you want to?”

“I think,” I say, “In this situation, a direct approach is best.” I turn to Garnet. “Do you have any cards that would help me direct myself while skydiving?”

Garnet nods. “Yeah,” she says. “Feather Fall would work great.”

“Get me enough copies of Feather Fall to get me through a skydive from the prop plane’s maximum altitude,” I say.

Pierre chuckles. “You’re definitely the daring type,” he says.

“I have to be, for my job,” I say. “Also, in order for this to work, we need to interrogate Ratsi and get her to tell us where Peter Cool is at a known time. We need to implant him with a Tracking Beacon card.”

“Do you think the Sticky Glue strategy will work a second time?” asks Garnet.

“I don’t think anyone noticed it,” I say. “Not even Ratsi herself.”

“Great,” says Pierre. “I’ll get my best interrogators on the job.”

I walk back to my quarters and stew on the strategy that I’ll use to take out Peter Draws. As I think, I fidget with the half medallion that I was given by the Black Marches.

I try to make a chunk of bismuth bronze, but it turns into a different kind of metal. I’m no expert, but it’s not the same sheen as the medallion. I decide to ask Garnet about that.

I leave my quarters—still waiting for that flash of inspiration to come—and head over to where I know Garnet will be.

I find her in the card library, sorting through a number of black cards. When I enter, she looks up at me.

“Can you help me?” she says. “I’m sorting a new shipment of supply cards.”

I kneel down beside her. “Before that,” I say, “Take a look at this.” I hand her the metal I conjured.

Garnet looks at it under the light. “Looks like it might be arsenical bronze,” she says.

“Arsenical?” I say.

“Bronze that uses arsenic instead of tin,” says Garnet. “Don’t worry,” she says. “As long as you don’t eat it or lick it, you’ll be fine.” She hands the metal back to me. “The MREs go on the second shelf.”

I spend about an hour working with Garnet, organizing cards. Most of them contain ammunition and food. Garnet says almost nothing as she works. I’m fine with that, as I am still thinking of ways that I can defeat Peter Cool.

When we are finished, we head over to the cafeteria.

An alarm sounds. Dozens of X-marines hurry past us. The tanks parked in the staging area are starting up, and a jet takes off from the runway. A dozen Apache helicopters rise from between the buildings.

Garnet puts her hand to her ear. “Looks like Avida is being invaded by zombies,” she says. She puts her hand down. “We’re not contracted to help, but I’m going. It’s up to you if you want to help.”

I nod. “I need to stimulate my senses a bit,” I say. I conjure my trusty bow and arrow.

“This way,” says Garnet. She leads me through the buildings until we reach the helicopter landing pad. Garnet has a few words with a helicopter pilot, and then the pilot makes a motion with his hand.

Get on.

I step onto the helicopter behind Garnet, just as it begins to rise. The wind surrounding me is incredible. We lift off. The ground pulls away, and the buildings of Fort Lincoln scroll past.

 One of the soldiers riding the chopper hands me a helmet with an earpiece. I put it on.

There are gigantic speakers attached to each side of the helicopter. I know exactly what they’re for.

Iron Maiden’s The Trooper begins to blast from the speakers, coordinated with the rest of the choppers.

“Nice,” says Garnet, giving the pilot a thumbs-up.

“Who pays for this stuff?” I say.

“The government says it improves morale!” says the pilot. He makes the metal symbol with his hand.

Indeed, I feel my blood pumping through my veins. This is quite the rocking way to enter a battle.

The city of Avida appears on the horizon. In between us and the buildings is a mass of squirming black that looks to fill an entire square kilometer.

“Are those the zombies?” I ask.

“That they are!” says the pilot.

As we pass over the mass of monsters, we strafe them with rockets and machine guns. It looks to do very little damage.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to handle this one!” says one soldier beside me. “There’s a lot of them goons!”

Two jet planes release cluster bombs into the mass. Again, very little damage was done.

“The order to evacuate Avida has been given!” says the pilot. He takes the chopper around the city’s central dungeon, which is identical to the one at South A Town.

“The brass says there’s almost a hundred thousand of them!” says Garnet.

“We’ll do what we can,” says the pilot. He takes the chopper back over the mass of zombies. We fire another two dozen rockets into their mass. Pieces of zombie offal fly everywhere.

And yet, the mass advances.

“Avida has been evacuated via the fast travel towers,” says a voice over the radio. “All units pull off.”

“There’s a gold card in there somewhere,” says Garnet, her eyes sparkling.

“Hold up,” says the voice on the radio. “Lieutenant Braze, what makes you think that?”

“There’s no way this would be designed into the game unless there was a reward,” says Garnet.

“Certainly,” says the voice. “We’ve considered that. But you know something, don’t you?”

“Sir,” says Garnet, “It’s just a hunch.”

“We’ll investigate,” says the voice. “For now, all units have been ordered to retreat.”

Our chopper peels off and heads back to Fort Lincoln.

“How often do zombies invade cities?” I ask.

“The wave attacks cities at random,” says Garnet. “Once they’ve destroyed everything, they move on to the next. There’s only one wave, and it moves slow, but it’s near impossible to defeat.”

“Has anyone tried?” I ask.

“Over the years, yes,” says Garnet. “But no one has succeeded.”

“And you think there’s a gold card reward for defeating them,” I say.

“Yes,” says Garnet. “And we’ll get it.”

“After I capture Mandrake and his goons, I think this might be worth my while,” I say.

“Indeed,” says Garnet. “But for now, you have to focus on your own mission.”

“Gotcha,” I say. “I’m on it."