Deep Dive Ch. 04 - Boss Rush

- Good for you, now, where is...

The connection turned to static and not even a second later I was laying on the ground not able to move a muscle.

The status effect [Stunned] flashed red just a few times before disappearing and I rolled onto my back, taking deep breaths. What the fuck was that?

I checked my HUD and noticed that my shield was down. Was that an EMP shock? It must have been a huge one, to reach me through all the walls and I couldn't even see the visual effect of the wave coming.

I tapped on my comm but only got more white noise. Not ideal, but checking further my suit still had its energy intact. I stood up and took out my rifle. If the boss battle started, and everything that happened hinted that it just did then I better be prepared.

I moved through the corridors as fast as I could while still staying on guard. Thankfully there was just one main path, so I wasn't worried about getting lost. What I was worried about instead, were noticeable vibrations spreading through the floor every once in a while and a distant echo of gunshots.

I mean, they shouldn't have a problem defeating the boss of a tutorial level, right? That was the most logical viewpoint, but I felt something was wrong. Not to mention that weird EMP wave that hit me earlier.

I picked up my pace, barely even checking the rooms I ran through. I tried to reach them on the comm again, but it was still broken. Or jammed. Same thing at the moment.

The sounds were getting louder and louder, so I knew I was on the right track. Touching the walls I could also feel the vibrations, a singular, strong one that happened every few seconds or so, and another one, too faint for me to pick up earlier. This new one was like a constant, low hum, like an idling engine.

Finally, I saw an opening. A simple, rusted ladder led down into the main area. At least that's what the plate hanging above it said. I put my rifle on my back and started climbing.

About halfway down I heard another impact coming from the area below as if a car crashed into the wall of the factory. The rumble that shook the building was also stronger than any before. I hang on tight and waited for it to pass.

Something hit me in the head, bounced, and kept falling. I caught a glimpse as it passed me. A screw. Then another one, hitting a few handles before it fell. Then a whole section of the ladder came crashing down, missing me by a few inches. It may have survived all that shaking until now, but before it didn't have to support someone's full weight.

I grabbed the side railing and started sliding down, hoping to at least shorten the distance of the fall before it all came apart. It kind of worked.

Between the hard landing on the catwalk below and getting hit by falling parts, I lost only four points of health. That put me at twenty-eight. I was starting to consider using the health kit, but then I heard the commotion behind me.

The metal walkway I was on gave me a clear view of the large hall below. Looking back I probably should have paid more attention to my surroundings, but I can't blame myself for focusing on a single thing in the middle of it all.

A mechanical beast, easily ten feet tall was standing near one of the walls, with three smaller figures scattered around. Through sheer perspective, I didn't immediately recognize them as my team members.

The boss tore its fist out of the wall and turned around, facing me and the others. Its size was one thing, intimidating as it was, but the build was something on a completely different level.

Vaguely humanoid in shape, except for the lack of a head, with two legs and two arms, it was much more than just an upgraded version of the enemies we already faced. With thick armor plating all over its body, jagged blades welded onto its limbs, and an oversized fist, more like a battering ram, on the left hand, it looked like an engineering nightmare. A nightmare that was hellbent on killing everyone in sight.

In the middle of its chest, two plates slid apart, revealing a large orb with a few camera lenses built into it.

The gunshots followed immediately after but were stopped by the shield, just a few inches short of hitting its target. When the volume of fire finally took the shield down the visor was again hidden behind the thick plating.

- Valerie! Val! - Veronica was the first to spot me - Help us!

I got up and grabbed my rifle.

- What do I do?

- I don't fucking know, nothing we tried works. Just shoot the goddamn thing!

That was a simple enough plan, except for a single thing. What do I even aim for when its head was inside its chest?

I braced the gun against the railing and was about to start shooting when it charged forward. Thankfully all of my teammates were quick enough to get out of the way as the metal behemoth took a wide swing with its siege-grade fist, which ended up hitting the wall on the opposite side of the room.

The impact shook the entire building, and only now I realized how long this was going on already. They were playing this game of dodging for the past few minutes, and still couldn't even get past the shields in time to land any meaningful damage.

I aimed, getting ready for the visor to pop back out.

- Wait for the plates to open up and hit it with everything you have!

- No shit! - I got a unanimous answer from all of them at once.

This time it got shot at from four different sources instead of three. I dumped an entire mag into it, James emptied both revolvers he dual-wielded while Veronica and Lazar poured more lead from a light pistol and double barrel shotgun respectively.

The orb slid back into the chest, unharmed, and the shield went down.

- Wait, so it deactivates the shield when the thing goes back in? It doesn't break? - I shouted down.

- Every time! - Veronica yelled back, getting ready to dodge the next strike.

- Maybe try to get close before the plating opens up.

- Tried it - Lazar cut in - already wasted four med kits between me and James. No point in trying again without a solid plan.

I scanned the room, looking for any clues, but it was as barebones as it could get. Four walls, no windows, one caved-in entry point that the team probably used to get here, and me on the catwalk twelve feet up. There was a series of lamps on the roof, but I doubt that breaking more things would help us in any way, and turning the lights off would be a one-way ticket to the grave.

Wait, breaking things.

I ran back to the spot through which I came. It was too high to reach now that the ladder came off, but that was not the point. The ladder came off. I could use it.

I grabbed the longest fragment I could find and slid it under the railing. Before it could fall I jammed my rifle under the last handle of the ladder and the railing, securing it in place for now.

- Guys, get up here!

This was all the encouragement they needed.

They grouped on the opposite side of the room to bait the charge and dashed to the hanging ladder as soon as the attack started. It wasn't long enough to reach from the ground, so they had to boost each other to reach it.

First came Lazar, since he was too heavy for either of the other two to lift on their own, then James helped Veronica up.

Now he was the last one on the ground, and the boss was ready for another charge.

- Climb up, make space for me - he placed one hand on the gun in the holster.

- What are you trying to do? - Vera was still hanging as low as she could, reaching for him - Get yourself killed?!

- Could you trust me just fucking once?! - he snarled while drawing a revolver and landing a shot on the visor with a single motion, focusing the attention of the boss on himself - Just move!

She hesitated for a moment, then begin to climb up.

James put the gun back in the holster just as the murderous machine charged at him. Like before, it took a wide swing, to cover as much space with a single strike as possible.

- I love attack patterns - he smirked.

With a perfectly timed roll, he found just enough space to slip between the body and the arm of the bot, narrowly missing jagged blades on both parts, as the boss crashed into the wall, missing the ladder by less than a foot and shaking the building again.

Not wasting any time James jumped onto the back of the opponent and up again, grabbing the last handle of the ladder and started climbing up.

Not a second later came another swing of the siege fist, low, near the ground, but by then all of us were fifteen feet up.

- You just had to show off, right? - Veronica tried to sound angry without much success.

- What can I say, I am a Dark Souls player - he smiled - also, that's why we don't just do melee against it. The damn thing may not see you, but it somehow can tell when you touch it despite being made from metal.

The thing in question finished the attack sequence and got ready for the next one. Except for this time it had to search for a while before it found us.

- Should we move? - I asked, taking my rifle back and letting the ladder fall.

- Nah, won't reach us - James answered crossing his arms.

Veronica wanted to say something but shook her head and moved closer to me, and away from the other two. Lazar was the last one to break down, but he also followed.

The robot charged again, this time swinging the fist as high as it could.

James looked down at the point of impact in the wall, a foot or two below his feet.

- Told you. All of the attacks were horizontal, never vertical. You can't hit far above your head with that - he shrugged - but you still doubt me.

- So, we are safe for now, but we still have no idea how to kill this thing - Vera pointed out - the entrance that we used is blocked by rubble, and the one Val came through is too high up. So what do we do now?

There was silence.

- Great - she continued - also, what took you so long to get here?

- You guys told me that you cleared the path, but I had to do it again.

- Yeah, about that - James cut in - there have been a lot of updates going live. The first one was back when we were still flying the V-TOL, then it was silent for a long while, but after we split up something was happening every ten minutes. One of them turned the respawn on, and I think the mobs were reacting faster in combat.

- Is that normal?

- Not at all. I mean, one update, sure, maybe two if there is a hotfix. But to push and update live exactly every ten minutes, for the past hour? Someone must have fucked-up the production servers pretty badly.

- You mean ten minutes in-game? - I asked.

There was a brief silence again.

- Huh, good question. Yes, ten minutes in-game. I haven't even thought about it. But that wouldn't make any sense, the sync rate last time I played was like six point something, with ten-minute periods that won't even divide into a single-digit number. They would have to push an update with an accuracy down to the millisecond. Every single time.

The boss below us executed another charge, shaking the surroundings. Right, we were still technically in a battle, even if at the moment I was more interested in learning what the sync rate was than how long it would take the murder machine to figure out how to get us. Got to keep my priorities straight.

- Ok, so weird question - I wondered - is it possible to update the game from within the game?

- No.

- So how do they...

- I don't know, maybe they lowered the sync rate to five to one and set up automated updates every two minutes. Or maybe they set up the updates to match the sync rate no matter what it is.

- Instead of pushing a single, large update they make a series of small ones? - Veronica questioned - a series of updates that seem targeted specifically at making the tutorial harder I may add.

- Yeah, I know how it sounds, but do you have any other theory? - James leaned against the railing - why would anyone try to make the introduction to the game unbeatable?

- How long until the next update? - Lazar interjected.

James checked his HUD. Then blinked twice.

- Uh, eight.

- Eight what? - I asked.

- Six. Five.

- Oh shit.

We all looked at the boss, standing on the opposite side of the room and getting ready for another charge.

- Three, two, one.

Nothing happened.

- Well, that was anticlimactic.

Then one of the plates on its right shoulder moved to the side revealing a rocket launcher.

- Oh, come on!

James immediately draw his gun and emptied an entire cylinder into the visor of the bot, forcing it to close. That may be the one thing that saved us. Without the ability to see, the boss wasn't able to make any corrections which gave us enough time to scatter to the sides.

The missile hit the wall behind us, tearing a huge chunk of it apart. It was a miracle that no one suffered any serious injuries from the blast.

I move onto my hands and knees, coughing from the airborne dust around me when something grabbed me by the shoulder and threw me off the catwalk. I wanted to scream all the way down to the ground, but I hit the floor before I could even take a good breath.

I crawled backward, expecting to see the boss preparing for another charge or another missile launch, but instead, I saw just a regular office, with an old, moldy desk and a single rusted chair. And a huge hole in a wall, that Lazar threw the other two through right after me.

- Move away from the opening, don't want the thing to start aiming at us again - he grunted - and start thinking about how to kill it.

Veronica spat out the dust that got into her mouth and opened her HUD. It looked like a blank, grey slate, but she seemed to operate it just fine.

- Yeah, like if we haven't tried already - she pressed something on the floating display, and it turned horizontal while also getting bigger - here, I've got the map of this place. If you would store weapons in the building, where would you put them? Any ideas?

I moved closer with everyone else, but Veronica's HUD still was all solid grey.

- There is a large room over here, on the north side - James pointed at the panel - and to be fair the bigger the room the better, even if nothing is there, will be easier to dodge the attacks.

- Do you all see something I don't? - I asked - It's all grey.

- Oh, right - Vera pressed a few spots and the solid color turned into a simplified map - privacy setting, I can show you how to change them.

The floor shook from another charge, as we heard the robot collide with the wall. Stubborn thing.

- Hey girls, leave chit-chat for after we get out of here, alright? Unless you have some hidden supply of blue grenades to keep this thing occupied while you talk.

That reminded me.

- Hey, did you guys get hit with an EMP wave when the battle began? It took me out for a few seconds, and I was still some way at the back when you started the boss fight.

- No? - They all looked surprised, but Veronica spoke first - The boss doesn't, well, didn't have any ranged weapons or effects when we started. Maybe you just stepped on a trap or something.

- It wasn't anything near me, I didn't hear anything going off - I touched the map and zoomed in on the entrance that I came through - I started from here and called Veronica when I entered. I went down this path and around here I got hit with an EMP. I think. It's just a corridor, there weren't any traps.

- So it was right at the start of our fight - James was trying to put this all together - it must be connected somehow. Scroll down to the lower levels. Yeah, two stories down there is a large room, exactly underneath the path you took. If something activated it must have been there. And that's where we are going.

A giant fist burst through the floor and pulled it all down. The entire office dropped onto a lower level, giving us just a few seconds to figure out how to react before the next attack came. It was too little time.

I caught a glimpse of movement to my right and instinctually threw myself to the ground. Lazar, who was standing just beside me wasn't as fast. The fist slammed him into a wall and through it, throwing fragments of bricks around.

Someone grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me, but I noticed it only when I got hit in the face.

- I said, get moving! - James was screaming directly at me from just inches away - we will handle it!

He pulled me towards Veronica and then pushed us out of the collapsed office and into an adjacent corridor.

- Find that room! Figure out how to use it! - he ordered while pulling a pin on a blue-colored grenade - We will slow it down!

I didn't understand a word he was saying, but apparently, Veronica did since she pulled me along, further into the corridor and away from the battle. Only when I heard gunshots it got to me what just happened.

- Wait, we can't leave him! - I objected - He can't fight this thing alone!

- He is not alone - Veronica didn't slow down, leading the way - Lazar also stayed behind.

- Yeah, since he is dead!

- He's not, he's been through worst.

- He got punched through a fucking wall!

- He's been through worst - she just repeated - besides, how are you going to help them? By getting yourself killed?

That shut me up. Not because I did not have a plan, but because I realized how useless I was. If I went back, what would I do? I would be stuck in a close-quarters battle with no cover or places to hide, against a heavily-armored enemy who doesn't know the concept of personal space. I would be a dead weight for them, and simply dead after a short while.

Then it hit me. I was still thinking like me. Like the old me. The me who could take a punch and strike back, and was forced to prove it in the past. The me who would stand in the first line when shit went south and take everything head-on. But that was not the same me that I was right now. Right now, I couldn't do any of those things.

But at the same time, the current me wasn't weaker by any means. Far from it, in certain aspects, I was much more capable than the real-live me ever was. Or any other character I have played until now. It's just that I didn't use it. I wasn't playing to my strengths.

- What happened? - Veronica asked - Why did you stop?

Huh, guess I did. I need to work on running and thinking at the same time.

- It's nothing - I answered, picking up my pace again - Just had a change of perspective.

Vera stared at me for a few seconds, then looked at her ass, then back at me.

- Really? - she sounded only mildly disappointed - Now?

I laughed, caught up to her, and gave her a spank for good measure.

- No, not even close - I said - but you definitely helped, even more than you know. I will explain later, maybe, now lead on.

She looked equally confused and happy, and maybe even a bit proud, even if she didn't know what I was talking about. Still, she didn't question me any further, which I was thankful for.

With the help of the map, it took us just over a minute to find the room in question. Not that we could miss it once we saw the doors leading to it. Or more like a gate, since it was twice as tall as me and wide enough to drive a car through.

- Any idea how to get inside? - Veronica asked after trying to pull a handle.

- Push?

She just looked at me and pushed. Nothing happened.

- Right, I forgot to say the magic words - I said grabbing my rifle.

- Which are?

I put two bullets through the hinges on both sides.

- Bang bang.

She pulled on the door. I waited, giving her a stare. She pushed. The gate fell inwards.

- You can be real smug when you want to - Veronica walked inside - so you better not try that again with me.

- Or what? - I followed her and immediately forgot about what I asked her about when the automatic lights turned on.

The room was packed full of massive, electric generators, stacked in pairs along the walls, as well as big, silver battery packs and beeping consoles that took almost all of the remaining space. The floor was covered in thick cables running from one device to the other, and all of it was connected to what looked like a cross between a Tesla coil and a radio antenna.