Marcus wakes up 200 years into the future Mars as he is pulled out of his cryogenic sleep and recovers from his neurological disease. Starting his life anew, the life he lived is gone, and everyone he knew is dead. He has some relatives, but 200 years of separation had made them strangers.

  Still, with his new found chance in life, Marcus needed to start getting reintegrated into this new world. He talks with his assigned psychologist, Ylenka, while being supported by a stipend provided by the state.

  Finding a job is hard in the future, having been an engineer before, his qualifications are badly out of date, training is in the cards but with Marcus still in recovery, would be well in the future. Everything so far has been alien, the Martian gravity being weaker than what he knew back on earth, the technological progress and the appearance of aliens, who under the threat of persecution, has to be treated with the utmost respect by humanity.

  Marcus needed something familiar, so he tried VR. Seeing the selection, he decided on the game, Aim Down Sights, which gave him access to a world ruined by war.

  Plugging into VR felt right. Marcus’s in game responds well to his commands, unlike his real body where he still had to train it to learn basic motor functions, moving in the game felt instinctive. Reviewing his starting locations, Marcus chose the location UNCS Light of the Stars, a ship that crashed in the middle of a city, breaking in half but still retaining enough of its functionality that it had become the hub of the area. It provided protection for the players, along with access to basic services like food, water, and guns.

  With his previous experience in 2 gun competitions, Marcus found the gunplay intuitive. His honed skills gave him a leg up against the other players, with the 200 years of him being on ice bringing about the suppression of the 1st amendment right of bearing arms. It caused the cultural knowledge to atrophy. With the ban being lifted a year before, and the interest surging back up on the interglobal consciousness, just like with medieval combat and samurai culture.

  Logging in, Marcus loved the novel sensations. The dirt, the grime and the dirtiness unlike the sanitized air of his new Martian home. He wandered about, finding Stoner, the ship trader dealing with the traditional small arms.

  They make small talk, Marcus is given a weapon to which he tries out in the range. He finds out that there is an in-built Aim assist which subtly overrides player controls in order to aid with aiming and shooting. He finds the feature lacking, slow, and the process of aid repulsive. It was a crutch. He quickly turned it off and relied solely on his muscle memory and years of practice.

  After familiarizing himself with the game, he gets the feel for it and tries out the challenges. He placed high, which caught the attention of Stoner, who complains with how the players aim are bad, he is rewarded along with an offer for a job. But since the slot is only for one person, and that there are two of them, Marcus would have to compete for the opportunity. Marcus is intrigued, and accepts.

  He meets with Columbus, the job creator, and Ylena, the other competitor. It was a simple time trial through rooms and obstacles which tested their reaction speed and aim. Marcus won. Ylenka was a good sport, and sends him a friend request.

  With Columbus funding the operation, Marcus is supplied with an MDR in 5.56x45mm. Energy shields which greatly negates damage from Energy weapons, but is vulnerable against ballistic projectiles. This divides the game between PVE with the use of energy weapons and PVP, using guns. Columbus needs top shooters because his quest requires protection from both players and monsters.

  Columbus leads the way, sharing little information about his objectives. Marcus was fine with the arrangement, focusing solely on making sure that Columbus is protected. They navigate through the bowels of the ship, through crawl spaces and into a breach underneath, giving access to an underground tunnel leading deeper into the city’s massive metro network.

  They dropped down into the depths. Columbus led them through Monster nests, past cave-ins using mining equipment to map out and find ways through. They find a new type of enemy, goblins. Marcus takes them out with ease to which they later find a mural in the tunnel walls, near a bulkhead leading into a train station. Columbus studies the mural only, for him to level up past the assigned limit and activates the automated defense system of the station calibrated to react to players within a certain level.

  The turret was armed with a heavy energy weapon. Columbus and Marcus managed to survive the encounter and get through using a dedicated Energy shield, but not without damage. Columbus had been fatally wounded from the encounter, but a phoenix regeneration stim allowed him a full recovery.

  They press on, with Columbus searching for clues and accessing computers. Through one of the doors, they discover Songbird Station, a settlement of goblins and is led by their Chief, Tiul. Having just survived the encounter with the still active turret, they couldn’t simply go back, and with Columbus’s decision, they surrendered.

  In their cages, both men noticed that their quest hadn’t failed yet.

  The next day, Marcus finds that he is alone, with Columbus having gone and started negotiations, he is led to Columbus where he meets with Chief Tiul, and Bo; a player who managed to get ahead of them from the discovery. Marcus is given a list of parts and materials, paid for by Columbus. Columbus needed information for his quest, and went with the most direct bribery.

  Marcus recognizes an opportunity. Before the fight leading to the station and watching their equipment, Marcus notices that they are using simple pipe weapons, and inquires about their armorer’s need for parts and plans to provide for them while also finishing Columbus’s needed tasks for him. With the information, Marcus connects with Bo with their shared engineering background and convinces Bo to design weapons for the goblins using as simple and little parts as possible, challenging his Mechanical Engineering skills for it along with sharing that it would be good practice.

  Getting his guns and equipment back, Marcus is guided out of the station where he has to find his own way back through the surface back into the ship. On the way, he encounter’s Rex and Anna, who are both in a situation, being ambushed by a large pack of mutated beasts.

  Marcus assists the beleaguered group. The presence of a player using projectile weapons, established for its use in PVP, decides to retreat, leaving Rex and Anna to tend to their wounds and what is assumed to be their fate.

  He met with both Rex and Anna, discovering that they have been kicked out of the group using the loophole of them being accused of abandoning their teammates along with the penalties. Marcus decides that they group up instead and they all head towards the direction of the ship.

  On the way, they find a newly spawned Scav hideout overlooking a skyway, which is the quickest way back to the ship. Rex and Anna preferred to simply go around the roadblock and find another way through, but with Marcus on a time crunch and scouting the location, decides to take out the bandit hideout with what they have. Fighting NPC’s, Marcus takes them out, and finds that they have more loot than they could transport.

  Marcus shares this problem with the two, to which they share a connection they have: Battlebus, a battle taxi service to which an armored vehicle would head to your location for exfiltration or infiltration.

  Having had his fill of combat and still suffering his wounds as a result of the fight, Marcus takes them up on the offer to which an M113 armored personnel carrier arrived, driven by Ripley and Adept.

  They loaded up their loot and were quickly back to the ship. Marcus pays for it using Columbus’s credit and also sets up a time slot for delivering the needed material for his errand for Columbus. With a wave, Marcus splits with Rex and Anna.

  Still suffering the results of his wounds from the fight, Marcus opts to get himself healed using the ship’s autodoc before logging out. He needed surgery to pull out the bullets still lodged in his body, closed by his regeneration stims. As he gets underneath the knife, he feels excruciating pain as the blade cuts into his body and starts rooting around.

  He is kicked out of the pod, followed by inquiries from the VR pod’s manufacturer as to the reason for the issue. Later, it is found that there is nothing wrong with the equipment. It is deemed to be a personal issue for Marcus himself and is banned from accessing the pod. But the game is starting to be a good way for Marcus to make money. Needing to clear his head from his inability to do anything with the problem, he goes for a run for him to encounter a Scion and takes him up on its previous offer for assistance, to be able to get back on the game despite knowing the dangers.

  His restriction from accessing the game is lifted and Marcus logs back into the game, he starts handling to find the listed equipment which turns out to be much harder than he initially thought. Some of the electronics listed are restricted for sale, making him turn into the black market, using Columbus’s contacts.

  He heads to Stoner, extending his proposition. Marcus would get access to Stoner’s scrapped weapons for small parts he could recover. In exchange, he would be buying them at higher prices than Stoner would get if he would just send it to the forge to be melted.

  As he goes to contact the NPC black market, with their rates much more expensive than the normal, he sets up pickup for the rest of the needed equipment.

  Ylenka contacts him to meet, Marcus agrees and waits ahead only for him to meet with a group of players warning him of Columbus. Marcus thought little of it as he meets with Ylenka, who presses him for information about the Columbus’s job but Marcus refuses to divulge any information. Ylenka later pivots to asking Marcus to teach her about marksmanship. Marcus accepts, even throwing in the rest of Ylenka’s team, Honest Scribes, in. He is offered money for the service but settled for a favor instead. Marcus divulges that the reason he is very good at shooting is that he is from 200 years ago.

  After making so many deals for his service, he is offered by the game of a class: Mercenary. He accepts, seeing as it is a unique class and fits his current playstyle.

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  While he waited for the delivery of the equipment sourced from the black market, he is approached by Demented who is curious of who beat him from the ship leaderboards, and offers him a place in their guild. Sable rock Tunnellers, SRT. Marcus, having his Mercenary class, instead offers to be put in employment instead. The price is steep, given that Marcus didn’t want to be part of the guild and is only using it as a polite excuse.

  Demented balks at the price, tries to negotiate it down, to which Marcus quips that some players are willing to pay for that rate.

  He meets with Adept and Ripley, running Battlebus services and loads up the supplies. They head out of the ship and arrive at the location where Marcus had the goblins pick up and haul the supplies for him.

  He heads down to the station with his gift for the Chief, a PKM machine gun he looted off the scavengers before. Columbus is not present for the moment and Marcus also finished the delivery of the needed equipment and materiel for his behalf. Using the goodwill given by the gift and the completion of the delivery, Marcus offers an offer for the chief. That he could serve as the station’s gunrunner, supplying much needed weapons for the defense of the station, in exchange, he would be able to have access to one of the station’s main trade, the tea.

  Having tasted the tea during his first visit, Marcus saw the potential of the herb. Despite giving small bonuses, it lasts long and would be worth it for the players just for the added stats. Chief Tiul, holding his newly acquired weapon, is convinced and agrees to the setup. He is then given an initial batch to sell to the ship.

  Knowing that just the agreement would be able to shake up the station’s economy, Marcus approaches the station’s Armorers and extends them a peace offering. A weapon design which is a combination of the m3 grease gun and the Australian Owen gun, combining the robust and ease of manufacture that takes into account the station’s low industry. The Armorer’s are content with the gift, followed by the sale of weapon springs and parts.

  His business in the station finished, Marcus used the tunnels to have direct access to the ship and met with an NPC vendor he met during his first day in the game, Malinka. He gives her the offer to be the one to sell the product to which she agrees as Marcus is only expecting pay after disposing of them for him.

  The next day, IRL, Marcus meets with the manufacturer’s of the pod following the event and his unique situation, there, he meets with the researchers where he would be supplied by an experimental version of the pod and a contract for him to serve as a guinea pig for the improvement of the product. One part of the contract is that the Scion would also be observing him for their own reasons. Marcus, having little choice, agreed.

  Marcus then finds himself in his room, looking at his millennium pod that came with him in the event of him being cryogenically preserved. He watched the messages his brother and his family left along with a disassembled family 1911 heirloom.

  Marcus logs in and finds the Scion already plugged to his connection. He logs in and buys guns from Stoner. He is not happy with the bulk purchases as it brings suspicion on him but lets it slide this once as Marcus was simply buying used guns that are sold to Stoner. Marcus agrees that it would be the first and last time and runs the batch of guns back to the tunnels.

  On the way, Marcus asks the Scion why with the billions of people living around the solar system, he simply had the luck to be associated with the aliens. It divulges that it was all to observe him. As he was from the 21st century, back when humanity is considered to be much more violent and in extension, Marcus too. It is feared that Marcus would turn to crime.

  Marcus is furious at the information, for being profiled despite not doing anything illegal. He orders that the Scion simply observe and not talk to him.

  He completes his delivery and meets with Bo when the station is attacked. The Laser turret that guarded one of the entrances has been taken out by a rocket and the checkpoint is under assault. Marcus joins in on the defense and wipes the attackers out.

  Looting, Marcus finds out their names and discovers that they are part of a much larger clan. SRT. Researching about them, he found that they have just recently moved in and are already throwing their weight around. Marcus is worried that they might try and take over the station for themselves and with the turret protecting the station from attacks now in ruins, the station needed better defenses.

  Using his mercenary class, Marcus recruits manpower from the station after making the chief realize the danger of his situation. He then equips them along with giving training. They secure the underground route between the station and the ship, to which Marcus heads up and buys weapons for his Goblins, using his personal funds. He contacts Ylenka, needing more people to be part of the effort to defend the station and she agrees, taking in the rest of her group, Honest Scribes. He also takes in Rex and Anna, already considering the amount of credits that would be poured into the defense of Songbird station. Their rewards for participating would be the sharing of the quest to everyone involved.

  The station is then attacked once again by the SRT. The defenses hold and Crusty and his team are wiped out once more.

  Marcus goes back to the station, delivering guns and ammunition. They donate all of it and are rewarded with contribution points tied to the Songbird station. Contribution points are considered worth much more than the credits they spent. Marcus is then informed of the new attack.

  Marcus, thinking that they would need allies, approaches the TAS, Track, Assault, Squat, the local rival of the SRT. Marcus proposes that they combine forces against the SRT as the TAS and Marcus and his friends wouldn’t be able to handle them by themselves. The representative, Razer, agrees that he would get the word to their guild leader but the TAS have to first get a measure of them.

  They agree to conduct an operation.

  The target was a building overlooking the TAS base and the sniper that was posted atop it. The sniper has its own security which gives a bit of a complication. Marcus, with the help of Ylenka and the rest of the Honest Scribes, developed a plan where the Honest Scribes would stage a distraction to allow Marcus to sneak into the building and take out the sniper. Marcus would have to take out the sniper within the expected reaction time of the guild to send their Quick Reaction Force. All the while, TAS would be doing their own operation on the other side of town to delay the Quick Reaction Force as much as they could.

  With Razer serving as the TAS representative for the operation, it was a go. Marcus sneaks into the building after climbing through the building side and through a higher story window. The Scribes initiated their part of the plan by simultaneously hitting a machinegunner with a volley, taking it out in an instant. This allowed Marcus to sneak around and take out more SRT members, unaware of the threat already inside the building and weakening the defenders.

  Marcus headed up to the upper floors to take out the sniper itself to find that it was Demented himself. They fight. Marcus manages to win by bulling through and incapacitating Demented with an arm bar. Demented tries to kill Marcus with a hidden grenade but fails.

  Marcus takes the proof of kill; Demented’s dog tags and a dropped custom pistol. Razer and Ylenka, along with two of his men, meet with him. The assault on the building being a success with the defenders wiped out. They leave while Horn serves as the overwatch, relaying the developments on the ground; that the QRF has been retasked to their location and is now bearing down on them.

  On foot, they are pursued by Demented’s little brother, Crusty, and his team. With their objectives in hand and needing nothing else but to extract, Marcus, Razer and Ylenka and two of her team fought a fighting retreat heading towards the nearby extraction point, the entrance to the underground metro where Marcus’s team of goblins waits to guide them through the maze.

  In a rolling firefight, they did their best to get away from their pursuers only to be caught up by the SRT’s QRF. Razer volunteered to serve as a distraction that allowed Marcus and the rest to get away through the tunnels.

  Back on the Songbird station, Bo had been busy helping with its fortification. One of the biggest advantages Marcus recognized of the SRT was their quick reaction force, heavily armored and armed. But it shouldn’t be effective in a fight underground. Still the operation should be enough to distract the SRT and keep them off balance, and hopefully take their attention away from the Station.

  After training more of the goblin forces in the station, Marcus heads back to the ship and towards the bar to meet with the TAS leadership following the successful operation. Demented and Crusty were already waiting for him. Demented wants to buy his pistol back but it had already been spoken for. Demented tries to offer him a good deal for it but Marcus continues to refuse. Demented, recognizing that he won’t be able to convince Marcus at the moment, decides to leave.

  Razer arrives a while later with the TAS leader, Melnik, in tow. Marcus shows the proof of kills, Demented’s dog tags and his pistol, Melnik wants the pistol for himself, but Marcus has a better offer. He has footage from the Scion’s viewpoint, over Marcus’s shoulder for the whole duration along with Razer’s part, edited to make him look even more heroic.

  It turns out that Razer has already convinced Melnik. They have their own POVs of the fight and it was enough to want Marcus to join their guild. Marcus refuses, content with their current arrangement. Even informing them that the SRT had once tried to recruit him into their clan. Melnik understands and they continue their arrangement. They would keep fighting the SRT, mutually supporting each other.

  The TAS leave, but not before handing Marcus a security card for one of the storage locations inside the ship. He accepts it, not knowing what is inside. Marcus goes to check it out, and then runs to the TAS, who just received their own deliveries for a pair of Tigr armored personnel carriers fitted with remote weapon systems. They ask if Marcus wants to ride with them but he refuses, preferring to check out the storage gifted to him and marvelled at the racks of AKM and RPG-7s with rockets. It was melnik’s way of thanking Marcus for letting his grandson have a great time.

  With the plan to buy as much time for the station to fortify itself as much as it could, Marcus opted to take another operation against the SRT. The arrival of the TAS’s armored vehicles have somewhat evened the equipment disparity between the two clans, forcing the SRT to play more conservatively. As a result, Ylenka and his team had managed to figure out a route they preferred which allowed Marcus to stage a good location for an ambush.

  Using the new equipment provided they managed to initiate an ambush. They engaged the upcoming TAS convoy and hit the JLTV at the lead. They rained down grenades towards the dismounts followed by destroying a M35 2 and 1/2 ton logistics truck and the trailing up-armored humvee. They failed to destroy the JLTV, which managed to get away through the chaos.

  Following more attacks the TAS and SRT had established a ceasefire. With the SRT licking its wounds, it shouldn’t have enough fighting force to be a threat to the Songbird Station, but Marcus still kept training the defenders and hardening their strongpoints. They have managed to make it as defensible as they could be. Ylenka and everyone else extend Marcus an offer themselves, for them to set up a guild for themselves. Marcus decides that he would think about it.

  With some time for himself, Marcus heads back to the ship and meets with Columbus. Columbus offered him another job which needed tunnel fighters. The same role Marcus has been training his goblins to serve. Marcus takes the job but would start later, still with time, Marcus starts looking at his personal quests and decides to finish his own. He takes the goblins he was training and attacks a bandit camp containing his quest item, his father’s guitar. It went well, he retrieved the guitar along with other packages and headed back to Songbird station.

  He agrees to the creation of the guild, after a talk with his psychologist. They head down to the ship to register only for Ylenka to be accosted by a player serving as the reporter for current game news. Marcus leaves Ylenka and heads to the post office to surrender the other packages he retrieved from the bandit hideout, then to the ship administration to register his guild; Last Man Contingent.

  They spend some time at a newly expanded Malinka’s restaurant, Marcus takes everyone there to celebrate and reveals one other reason why he kept fighting for the independence of the station; his exclusive access to the tea being sold in the restaurant. There, he gives them his first order, to scout for viable locations for their upcoming guild base.

  While the rest were on the task. Marcus prepares for his job with Columbus, seeing Demented’s custom pistol, he had the idea of making his own. He sources a rifle from the player run Flea Market and bought weapon parts which he installed and tweaked for his own use. With Stoner’s assistance, Marcus is able to make his own unique weapon with unique effects and most importantly, low chance of dropping on death.