The Starfighter Invitation

28 pick up group

My tunnel opened up again into what I guessed was a staging ground: an airy cavern, well-lit, with various facilities dotted around: eating areas, lavatories, and a wall of sleeping pods. To my left I caught a glimpse of the big tram-thing leaving from a platform, having deposited a little crowd of arrivals.

"So this is really a group quest?"

[[At your Rank.]]

"Planning on telling me that after I died, huh?"

[[Planning on telling you that if you asked.]]

"Hmph. How big can the groups be?"

[[Up to five Bios.]]

"What about this Prestige Challenge? Is it group as well?"

[[Yes, it can’t be done solo. Minimum of three, maximum of five.]]

"And does it have, like, a recommended Rank or something?"

[[Eight would be a good Rank to aim for before heading there, and it has a maximum of twelve. It’s the System Challenge.]]

"That means?"

[[Most inhabited star systems have one Prestige Challenge that is considered the pinnacle of that system: the most difficult, complex or rewarding. And with intake systems like this, there will be Rank caps to prevent higher-ranked Bios assisting. System Challenges usually have multiple Challenge lines that can be used to qualify, so you can qualify for it anywhere in the system. They’re rarely, if ever, completed by the first to attempt them. Some take thousands of attempts. Most Challengers will hang back to view the attempts of others, rather than rush in blind, but they risk missing the chance to attempt the Challenge at all, for a new Challenge will be devised if the current is defeated.]]

"Wait, what do you mean view?"

[[Many lan Challenges are broadcast—you can find links in the social menus.]] Dio chuckled. [[If you truly want to discover our secrets, players who win the System Challenge will be given a 'boon'—a very open-ended reward that could oblige much more truth than I’d normally give.]]

Dio’s tone made clear that te thought there was little chance, and I was too aware of the growing player count to make a boastful response.

"Is the System Challenge on Mars or Earth?"

[[Neither. I would recommend brushing up on zero-G manoeuvres.]]

Zero-G manoeuvres sounded far more fun than tunnels that shot at you, but I couldn’t regret Mars, and briskly got down to the business of working out what next. A little food and rest were first point of order. After sitting down with a tray, I turned all my social options back on, and read through my guild’s in-game forums.

Five guildies had beaten me to space. A handful were already ranked in the sevens and eights. The forums had a thread on the System Challenge, which was called The Wreck. I was the only Corpse Light member on Mars.

After chatting for a while with Vasharda and Amelia, I searched out DS' party finder, then paused. "How would me gaining five or six Ranks before trying the rest of the Challenge series affect our bet?"

[[It would greatly increase the percentage of lie in my response.]]

I’d suspected something of the sort, and shrugged. "I generally prefer to group with guildies, but it doesn’t look like anyone is going to get to Mars within the next game day, and I don’t want to delay working on my rank, so I guess I’ll play people roulette. What’s the attitude toward honesty in The Synergis?"

[[Wildly varying with location and individual. Many value fair dealing, and there’s more than a few regions where they have local rules that amount to a very stiff code of honour. But others would think you a fool for not maximising every advantage. I personally prefer to make it clear that I’m lying, if I have reason to lie. It depends on the circumstance.]]

The party finder wasn’t too difficult to work out, and allowed me to use Stage 2 of the Challenge series as the basis of a search request. In return my HUD produced another arrow, along with a list of more than a dozen…

"Why are most of the details hidden?" I asked Dio, comparing my rank and location information to the absence of everything but age groupings for some.

[[Fragile Bio ego, usually. To make yourself look like someone of higher rank, or a person of reputation.]]

"Wouldn’t people of reputation be recognised?"

[[Some never compete without an active focus hiding their face. And appearance is a fluid concept in The Synergis.]]

"Even for lan Challenges?"

[[Bios of higher rank can usually manage Core modals with varying appearances—strength can overcome some of the disadvantages of poor synchronisation. Once you’ve ranked twenty, it’s only in the most intense Challenges that synchronisation becomes a real factor. Hiding rank is also very common in areas like this where lan duelling is permitted—the weak so they cannot be marked an easy target by the strong, and the strong to lure the weak, and all the permutations of that you can think of.]]

"You don’t have to accept lan duelling Challenges do you?"

[[No. Not your thing?]]

"Some rando spamming duel at me isn’t my idea of fun. We’ve had good guild duelling matches though."

My arrow had taken me to a big, quite beautiful wall mosaic, all swirls of tiny blue, black and brown squares. Before it, a small crowd of people were centred around a tall dark-haired guy with a Swedish accent, who was saying: "…it is only reasonable that we establish rank before deciding party makeup. How else can we decide?"

"I don’t see you turning off anon," an American—no, Canadian—man replied.

"Sixer trying to get a leg up," commented another.

As someone openly Rank Six, I decided not to participate in this argument, and found a convenient low bench to settle on study my options. Rank was not how I’d decide on party members—especially not when everyone here would be at least Rank Six, and no higher than Eight, which was the maximum that had been achieved in the game so far.

Admittedly, that seemed to be a fairly big strength increase, but I’d still base my party decisions on finding players who didn’t suck all the fun from the game. I understood the reason for the arrow now: most party finders didn’t take personality into account, but with a virtual game, you’d benefit from a chance to meet each other beforehand.

The main combatants of the argument I dropped from the list of potentials immediately. A step back from them were a pair of guys in matching outfits who were probably a team, and hanging behind them two near-identical teens who were obviously brother and sister—or pretending to be. A woman stood to their right, wearing an expression of boredom, but, hm, was probably grouped with the anti-six guy, judging from that exchange of glances. I began working out who else were already in small teams, then was distracted by a shoulder patch of a woman standing alone.

Discovery of my work produced a pleasant little glow. I hadn’t checked in-game sales—I didn’t know how to, in truth—but seeing my art in the wild was always a special moment. I promptly invited the woman to group on the grounds of good taste, added invites to the brother-sister combo, and picked a peaceably smiling wall of a man to round out the group limit. The invite message for each was a simple "Why are we wasting time?"

They all accepted, and I studied the little collection of tools and information that grouping had given me. A chat channel, names, guilds, and the little teammate directional pointers you see in shooters. No ranks, though, and none of the traditional health and mana bars. The twins were Imoenne and Arlen, the man was The Lewit, and the woman wearing my patch was Althea Goodnamesweregone.

"Great name," I said to her, as we collectively stepped away from the crowd.

"Thanks," she said, with an easy smile. She was a white woman, with a muscular frame and a high ponytail of bright red hair. "And thanks for the escape."

"Same," said the man, who was as pale-skinned and dark-haired as his name suggested, but in no other way reminded me of Goth stereotypes.

"Almost, we were mesmerised by the insistence that an argument was necessary," Arlen said, his French made notable by a pleasant but very young-sounding voice. I was competent in the language, but my inner translator still obliged with a smooth switch to English with only a little lag.

His sister added a short, shy nod in agreement. The twins were both very dark-skinned, their hair beautifully arranged in close caps of tiny braids specked with turquoise (Imoenne) and scarlet (Arlen) beads.

"I just want to see what’s next," I said, with a shrug. "Are we all set? No-one needs more prep time?"

"Good to go," Lewit said, was echoed by the others.