The Hybrid War (Alpha Rome Book 4): LitRPG Series, page 1
The Hybrid War
a novel
by Ros Per
Alpha Rome
Book#4
Magic Dome Books
in collaboration with 1C-Publishing
Alpha Rome
Book #4: The Hybrid War
Copyright © Ros Per 2022
Cover Art © Ivan Khivrenko 2022
Designer: Vladimir Manyukhin
English translation copyright © Taylor Margvelashvili 2022
Published by Magic Dome Books in collaboration with 1C-Publishing, 2022
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-7619-520-2
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
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Table of Contents:
Chapter One: What Now?
Chapter Two: Put Through the Wringer
Chapter Three: More Questions, More Doubts
Chapter Four: Getting Down to Business
Chapter Five: Reptilians
Chapter Six: A Very Brief Battle
Chapter Seven: The Aftermath
Chapter Eight: Going Up Again
Chapter Nine: The Colony
Chapter Ten: The Mayor of the Colony
Chapter Eleven: The Ruins of the Complex
Chapter Twelve: The Research Center
Chapter Thirteen: The March MPC
Chapter Fourteen: The March Forward
Chapter Fifteen: Planning for Impending War
Chapter Sixteen: An Unexpected Invitation
Chapter Seventeen: The “Safe” Zone
Chapter Eighteen: Big Poppa and the Top Players
Chapter Nineteen: Final Preparations
Chapter Twenty: The Feast Before the Fight
Chapter Twenty-One: The First Steps
Chapter Twenty-Two: Assault on the Lifts
Chapter Twenty-Three: An Unimpeded Incursion
Chapter Twenty-Four: Smugglers
Chapter Twenty-Five: Plans Derailed
Chapter Twenty-Six: Journey to Level Fifteen
Chapter Twenty-Seven: One Last Leap
Chapter Twenty Eight: An Unexpected Twist
Chapter Twenty Nine: The Server
Chapter Thirty: A Hero’s Reward
About the Author
Chapter One: What Now?
I SAT ON THE EDGE of the wide bed, elbows resting on my knees, staring at a single point in front of me. It had been a week since I had been appointed the commander of base Level Zero, but I still had no idea what to grab onto first, and at this point I had incomplete information and still didn’t fully comprehend what was going on in Alpha Rome.
And Wolfhound, the asshole, didn’t let me have any meaningful conversation with him, saying that it was better for me to rest for a week, gather my thoughts, and only then make decisions and talk about pressing matters with a sober mind. He was right, of course, they’d had everything set up here for a while, so at the moment, there was nothing in particular depending on me, and both my men and I really did need a break, but he was still an asshole.
Over the course of the week, I only got a couple of useful things done. For starters, I got in touch with Delaney and let him know I found his daughter. And at the time, I was in a nearby technical building where the cryogenic capsules are kept, and was looking at the capsule where his daughter lay in cryosleep. I won’t repeat the epithets he used when I refused him the remaining parts of the kit and said that for now, I wouldn’t return his daughter to him.
I don’t know what was going on in his head, but he didn’t write back for quite a while, whereas for the past three days he’d been flooding me with messages, nearly promising me mountains of gold if I would only return his daughter. But I had absolutely no desire to do so, because by returning the young lady, I would be handing over a hefty sum of information to a potential adversary, and practically for free.
On the other hand, I could understand where he was coming from. Of course, not all fathers were that concerned about their children, but in light of Alpha Rome’s dire fertility problem, parental instincts here were clearly amplified. Be that as it may, the first order of business was to have a real talk with Wolfhound, as he was probably the only one of the bunch who understood certain things firsthand — not from his own conjectures, but from real experience working at the base. Maybe he’d present me with some options.
And the last important task of the week was renewing my correspondence with Carter, Sonny and Andrey after almost complete radio silence. While things were relatively simple with Andrey — I told him I was going to the bottom with Alyona, but that we were still working according to the previously agreed upon plan, after which he simply sent me periodic information bundles without waiting for a response — the situation with Carter and Sonny was much more complicated. They’d bombarded me with messages for several days in a row, asking where I’d disappeared to and why I wasn’t replying, although I regularly processed Carter’s task list and sent him new tasks when they updated. In the end, I sent a letter to both of them, which I mulled over for a couple of hours to make sure I didn’t include any superfluous information, while simultaneously trying to reassure them.
My streamlined message said that I couldn’t reveal anything now and that I was sorting out my inheritance, and therefore, they’d have to handle things on their own for a while. I really hoped that they would understand the situation, otherwise I’d just have to ignore the mountain of messages they sent back. It’s extremely difficult to coordinate several different moving pieces when there’s a strict limit on the amount of information you can give them. Although somewhere at the edge of my consciousness, an idea was forming. Not even an idea, but an echo. All I had to do was cling to it and pull it into the light. So, stop thinking! Don’t think about a single thing, empty your mind completely. Give the opportunity for this shadow to materialize into something substantial and come out into the open. Something told me this was the best solution in this situation…
A wet tongue tip traveled along my spine, between my shoulder blades and, reaching my neck, made me flinch and lean forward, practically bringing my shoulder blades together to touch. With a playful laugh, she bit my earlobe and whispered languidly in my ear.
“Prrr…”
“Sweetheart, you derailed my train of thought.” Turning around, I smooched Alyona on the cheek she presented me.
“What were you thinking about?” Laying her chin on my shoulder and hugging me, she pressed her chest against my back.
“I was just thinking about what to do next. There’s an outpost on level five, but as soon as it changes status, the Silver Guards, or at least some of the corporate combat detachments, will likely rush there immediately. That’ll just lead to a bloodbath, and there’s no sense in that. There are Andrey’s fighters, a lot of well-trained men, I even personally trained some of the commanders in my time, but again, we can't bring them here to reflash the neural interface, because they can get information on the location of the base through the Server. Mainly, that it’s still operational. And setting a meeting point, as you can imagine, is just asking for an ambush and all sorts of ill-wishers. Overall, no matter what side you view it from, it’s a complete ambush. I just can’t even figure out where to start.”
“Hm…” Her claws drummed thoughtfully against my ribs. “If there are a bunch of civilians, and children among them, then it won’t just be impossible to withstand a direct clash, it’ll also put us at risk of complete destruction. But they’re probably expecting mobile sabotage tactics from our side, and have already begun to take appropriate measures. And, in fact, the Server will expose us right away, which means that it won’t just be corporate troops opposing us, but also the SVF, and anyone who knows how to hold a weapon, as they’ll have plenty of motivation right before their eyes.”
“Well, yeah,” I agreed. “Most of our combat experience won’t be applicable here. We’re used to planning operations taking into account landing from space, conducting battles in a vacuum, relying on the support of naval artillery…and a lot of other things. But in Alpha Rome, most of this is virtually impossible to apply.”
“Then we’ll have to develop a type of hybrid warfare based on our experience and the local environment. But that can be done later, after you talk with Wolfhound and the various branch commanders.” She started nibbling at my ear again, and her claws, like spiders, crawled lower.
“You’ve had a lot of time, you could have come up with something a long time ago.”
“I had no motive before,” she sighed sadly. “I thought I had lost everything.” Her voice quickly took on a playful tone. “But now everything’s changed! Alright, enough hard brain work. We’ll figure things out after your meeting, which isn’t for another three hours, so we have time for another kind of strenuous activity.” Her hands finally reached their final destination down below. “And I see you’re already all warmed up.”
God knows why I reacted this way. We’d been together for how many years and already learned each other inside out. But no matter, two can play at that game. Breaking free from her embrace, I grabbed her wandering hands and, gently throwing her on her back, held her wrists above her head so that she couldn’t cover herself as the fingers of my other hand traced the most sensitive parts of her naked body.
“That’s not fair!” she tried to squeak.
“You asked for it. And like you said, we have a whole three hours,” I said in the voice of a stern professor, continuing to tease her with my barely perceptible touches until, biting her lower lip, she writhed underneath me like a snake. Although I knew perfectly well that if she had really wanted to, she could have broken free long ago.
We only wrapped up twenty minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, both exhausted, but extremely pleased with one another. I’ve never understood married couples who look for something on the side, because a long life together gives you the opportunity to study one another and bring each other maximum pleasure.
Laying on top of me with her hands folded across my chest and chiseled chin propped up, Alyona stared into my eyes with the slight wandering smile of a contented cat, her knees bent and feet swinging in the air. But not a minute later, with a slight start, her eyes unfocused and she sighed sadly, pouting her lips and lifting herself off of me.
“We’ve got to get ready. We have to leave in fifteen minutes if we don’t want to miss our impromptu meeting.”
Turning around and swinging her hips tauntingly, she made her way to the closet where our clothes hung. Many may not agree, but to me, she was the perfect woman. She, of course, had her small flaws, but I thought they only enhanced her beauty. Or maybe I’d just gotten so used to her that she’d become a standard, but it didn’t matter. As I admired my wife, I even laughed at the thought that popped into my head.
“What’s so funny?”
“Well, my love, I was thinking that I’m probably the only man who knows exactly what his wife will look like when she’s old.”
“Hey now! I’m planning on staying young forever!” Then, after a little thought, she admitted, “Well sure, with all the jokes people make about it, at least you have a sense of certainty about the future.”
Jumping up from the bed and reaching for my things, I hesitated a couple seconds, considering whether to don my armor, but then shrugged the idea off, hastily climbing into my everyday overalls. If there was any danger in me walking around the base without my equipment, it would have presented itself long ago. And there was no point wearing it for status, because it wasn’t a complete set. Even though I could fill out my equipment at the officer warehouse, I decided to keep my grabby hands out of the stash for the time being. While officially, I was the commander, my real status was still not entirely clear to me. Speaking of status! My eyes unfocused as I called up my main stat menu.
Name: Volper
Level: 39
Armor (mean value): 2
Health: 70/70
Hunger: 23/140
Thirst: 12/140
Exhaustion: 7/70
Carrying capacity: 2.3/70
Attributes:
Strength – 7 (184,000 SP required to upgrade)
Agility – 9 (230,000 SP required to upgrade)
Stamina – 7 (184,000 SP required to upgrade)
Perception – 9 (230,000 SP required to upgrade)
Intelligence – 6 (161,000 SP required to upgrade)
Intellect – 3 (92,000 SP required to upgrade)
Luck – 8 (207,000 SP required to upgrade)
Charisma – 5 (138,000 SP required to upgrade)
I don’t know what had done it, running from the guards, the battle that ensued, or maybe just carrying a heavy load for so long, but my Strength had risen a point just a couple of days ago while doing push-ups during the morning warmup. While my Stamina had jumped during my, uh…workout with my wife. Alyona wouldn’t let it go for a few hours afterwards, constantly giggling and jeering at me, saying: “You poor thing, I really wore you out — they even had to give you an extra stamina point to keep up,” and so on.
And then there was the opportunity to upgrade my stats using service points, although the prices were simply astronomical, but I was just happy to have the option. Moreover, after talking it over with the missus, we came to the conclusion that this was only available to Skurfaifers under control of the Heart. It was only an assumption — this was the first time Alyona herself had seen the option, but considering the fact that the function only became available after my piconites were reflashed and wasn’t available to the others, we put two and two together.
There were only two downsides: the first was the number of service points needed — on my own it would take years to earn enough, if not decades — and the second was the lack of a functional button to make the purchase. After brainstorming again, we concluded that a special Skurfaifer capsule or medical unit was most likely needed to do the operation. After all, it would essentially entail changing the composition of my body through piconites. But there was still the chance that all I needed to do was have the right number of points in my piggy bank, to use the analogy the Server gave.
“Coming?” Alyona’s voice pulled me away from contemplating my stats.
“Mhm.” With a nod to accompany my laconic response, I headed for the door.
The main building where our room was located had become accessible, as had a few of the technical buildings, but the administration for the settlement was still being run out of a two-story building erected about a hundred meters from the main building. So I had to go outside and trudge over there. As it turned out, everyone was there waiting for us, although we arrived three minutes before our scheduled meeting time.
Besides Wolfhound, there were five other men and a girl sitting around the table discussing something animatedly. They immediately fell silent as soon as we entered the room. There was a second's delay as seven pairs of eyes studied me, after which a man with a thick beard, protruding shoulders and frowning bushy eyebrows slammed his hand on the table. His robust stature and the fact that his palm was the size of my two fists made this an imposing gesture.
“I’ve said my opinion! I don’t see the point in hanging around here.”
Immediately getting up, he strode towards the door in a broad, sweeping stride, completely ignoring the fact that Alyona and I were standing in his way. Well, no problem, I could move, and even pulled the Witch aside and out of his way. As he walked past, I noticed that he scanned me with narrowed eyes, continuing to frown, and went out the door, slamming it ardently. Turning my gaze to Wolfhound, I raised my eyebrows in a silent question. He massaged his temples with two fingers and exhaled heavily, then tried to reassure me.
“Don’t pay any attention to him, that’s Staumper, our head of internal security and part-time counterintelligence. He doesn’t like sudden change, he’s always expecting some kind of hidden agenda.”
“Well, he’s counterintelligence, that’s his job,” I shrugged, taking a seat at the table. “As I understand it, he’s not too happy about the fact that some unknown schmuck just showed up here out of the blue and is now his boss.” I wasn’t even asking, simply stating a fact.
