Condition Evolution 3: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure by Kevin Sinclair (ereader with dictionary .txt) 📕

me and you are going to have a serious talk too, now shut he fuck up,” I said, with a mentally projected growl.

He fell silent after that, leaving me to my thoughts for a moment. I would have to go and explain what had happened out here to Ember and the gang. There were a lot of eyes on me right now, and I would be glad to be able to get away from their stares for a moment.

“Everyone!” I shouted, as unfortunately I couldn’t just walk off. “Thank you all for your hard work. I’m sorry we were caught flat-footed like that, but you all did amazingly. I’m gonna go check on the situation with Ogun. I won't be long!” Then in a quieter voice for Rufus, I said: “Try to clear this mess up as best you can. We need to save who can be saved. We also need to deal with the inhabitants.”

He nodded in response, still looking pale and shaken.

With that I walked off into the Hunter ship to find where Ogun lay. Ember saw me first. Gus was leaning over the control panel.

“Shaun. Would any of them help?” she asked.

“No. They were uncooperative,” I said grimly.

“What are we going to do about them, then?”

“Nothing. They’re all dead,” I said, struggling to make eye contact.

Everyone but Gus looked up at me. No one looked horrified, which was good. I just got nods of grim acceptance.

I walked over to look through the transparent cover of the capsule, seeing Ogun’s battered form lying there. I felt a surge of queasiness; for some reason the bastards had cut his hands and feet off. It was a disturbing sight. If he had tried to protect us through all this torture, I owed the man a massive solid. Although I didn't know the full extent of what had happened, I felt a real sadness at how I'd thought about him in the past. For some time now, I’d begun to feel bad for him as my Clarity and Wisdom increased; I could see more clearly the choices he had to make each time he left us. There were really no choices at all. He had done the right thing each time. I’d even kinda done the same thing with Elyek on Arus. Though I knew Astrid was there to pick up the slack.

“What's the score, Gus? How do we do this?” I asked.

“We can't do anything at the moment. Elyek has looked over it with me, too. It needs the captain's bio-scan, I think,”

“Right. Well, let's go get his body then!” I said, a little confused that this hadn’t been done already.

“It will not work, Captain,” Elyek jumped in. “This is a different type of technology from what we used in the bank. This detects the vital signs of the operator in the scan. It will make sure the operator is not under the influence of any chemicals, or in a state of fear or heightened stress.”

“Oh, shit. That's no good then, because that fucker hasn’t kept it together at all,” I said, for some reason trying to bring levity to the hellish situation we were in.

“Shaun, you fucking idiot! Now is not the time for your shit jokes,” Ember said, thankfully just into my head, which was kind of appreciated.

No one else had spoken, so I continued. “Any suggestions, then?”

“We take the ship and the captain's body with us. There will be something we can do. It will just take time,” Elyek responded.

“Sounds like a good enough idea to me. Do we have enough crew to take both ships?” I asked.

“Yes. Although we are stretching our resources thin,” Acclo piped up immediately.

“It would be madness not to take these ships, Captain,” Elyek added. “They seem to be very advanced, even in comparison to the Thoth.”

“If we can, we will totally take them. Plus, it’ll mean we can put butts in the seats of even more weapon stations. We can get more crew eventually, even if it means going back to Torax and that fucking smugglers’ moon. It’ll be nice to know we have a stronger fleet for space battles; that’s something we’ve been massively underpowered for. Agreed?”

Everyone nodded, including Mick, but he looked thoughtful. “These really must be some of their best ships, right?” he said. “To catch up with us this far away. I mean, I still can’t believe they found us. Does it seem odd to any of you guys?”

Everyone looked confused, excluding me. “Yeah, Mick. I don’t know why, and we have a lot going on, but it feels like something was a bit off with them turning up like that. But to be honest, I wouldn’t know what to do about it. Everyone just keep their eyes open for anyone behaving suspiciously.”

Astrid replied, “Absolutely, Captain. I will have the Thoth covered.”

“Cool, let’s leave it at that for now. Acclo, Koparr, work with Astrid and Rufus to get well-balanced crews for each Hunter ship. Ten should be enough on each, right?”

“Yes Captain, right away,” Acclo answered before they left with Astrid and Koparr.

That left me, Ember, Calegg, Elyek, Mick and Gus. I slumped against Ogun’s pod and slid to the ground. I wanted to cry, to hurl, to be in a coma like Ogun.

“Shaun, are you okay?” Numerous voices said at once, worrying around me. Ember crouched down and put an arm around me.

“I really don't think I am. I’m not the right person to be running this shit-show. All those deaths. Plus, how many did I coldly order myself? I'm turning into a fucking monster, just like the Fystr.”

“Stop being a daft-ass, Shaun,” Ember said from my side. “You're a pretty awesome guy. We’ve just survived a stand-up fight with 40 Fystr. That would’ve been impossible even a month ago. Now, I’m glad you're upset; we’ve lost a few good people and it's heart wrenching. It’s one of the reasons why I love you, too. But the only thing similar about you and the Fystr is how