The Allbright System - A Sci-Fi Progression LitRPG Story

Over the next forty-odd minutes, with the consistent assistance and protection of Kellerman’s squad, Thea reaped through the Stellar Republic’s lines with unerring precision and ruthlessness. Original bodies were dying by the dozen, as she continuously fired her rifle as if possessed by the spirit of a vengeful god.

“I don’t know how you’re doing it, but by the Emperor… This is honestly somewhat frightening. Keep up the good work, Private.” Kellerman commented absently, shaking his head in a mixture of disbelief and elation.

The westernmost side of the front had started actively pushing back against the Stellar Republic, as Thea’s work had started paying dividends. With hundreds of original bodies missing, thousands of soldiers were no longer being created by the enemy forces. This eased the pressure on the defensive installations of the UHF, even allowing them to get a few resupplies for the rapidly depleting, projectile ammunition necessary to feed the HMGs!

However, not everything was going according to plan…

Over the last ten minutes, Thea had developed a headache that grew worse by the second. Every shot she took, every original body she checked, the headache grew. At this stage it had become so bad that her vision had started to blur. She had tried ignoring it at first, but now it was actively interfering with her objective.

“SL, I… I’m having a major headache from this… I’m gonna need a break…,” she muttered with a slight slur in her speech, stepping away from the position at the front of the trench she had occupied for the past half an hour.

With visible concern, Kellermans’ squad medic rushed over and forcibly removed her helmet.

“Wha... What are you doing?!” Thea exclaimed in surprise, trying to push the medic away.

“Sit still, Private. Let the medic do his job. This is an order!” interjected Kellerman from the side with a steel and force in his voice, that she had not heard before.

Taken aback by the situation and the sudden shift in demeanour from both the squad and Kellerman, she simply sat down on some sandbags and looked through blurry eyes up at the squad medic.

The medic, who’s name she didn’t know yet, had placed his bag next to her and pulled out some kind of device. Through her blurry vision, she had no way to identify it, as much as she wanted to. He held it up to her eyes and started fiddling around with the touchscreen.

“Private, can you tell me what’s going on? Despite the headache, got any other symptoms?” came his concerned voice after a second.

“Ahhh… everything’s slightly blurry, I guess. Probably just need some water… I’ve been concentrating for a while…,” she replied, once again with a slight slur in her voice.

She realised now that her mind was hazy. Just trying to formulate the reply had proven to be exceptionally difficult for her.

‘What in the void is happening to me..?’

‘Did I get hit…? Is this what major blood loss feels like?’

She slowly raised her right hand in front of her face, trying to take a better look at it, but she was stopped by the medic, who had taken off his helmet.

“Private, I need you to relax. You’ve likely overstrained your Focus… if I had to guess… by a large margin. What in the Emperor’s name were you thinking?!” the medic chided, while he pushed down her hand, concern visible on his now unarmoured face.

“...Focus…? I…,” before she could finish the sentence, her vision blurred into an incomprehensible mess and she felt herself fall over.

Thea found herself in a rudimentary metal shack. She was laying down in a field-bed, with an IV-drip strapped to her arm.

“What.. where the fuck am I…?” she muttered, trying to remember what exactly had happened before she blacked out. She remembered being with Kellerman’s squad, shooting at the original bodies of the Stellar Republic’s army. Thinning their ranks, to try and create some breathing room for the defence… but that’s it.

There was no recollection in her mind for when she passed out or what had led up to it.

Frustrated, she looked around for any clues.

She found herself in a field hospital. Around her bed were privacy screens, which shielded her from outside view, but also in-turn limited her view to the outside.

The screens were likely holographic projections, like they were common in most hospitals. Having them be semi-real made it a lot easier for the doctors and nurses to access patients when they needed to, while still providing the necessary privacy. It was rare to see physical barriers between hospital beds nowadays, but in some rare instances, such as specific ICU’s, it was not unheard of.

Everything was covered in a lightly golden coloured glow, which was easy on the eyes, while the metal walls, the holographic privacy screens and even her beddings were kept in the typical UHF colour palette of matte grey with some dull crimson accents.

Thea noted to her positive surprise that the field hospital did not have a smell to it.

When she had visited the hospital in the Undercity before, she had often complained about the strong smell of antimicrobial solution to Old Man James. Her nose was fairly sensitive to those kinds of pervasive and strong smells and they had often caused a sneezing fit for her, when she was confronted by them. She hated visiting hospitals especially due to that reason.

As she was looking around and trying to figure out where to go from here, one of the privacy screens turned translucent, before Kellerman’s squad medic stepped through into her “room”.

“Ah, thank the Emperor. You seem a lot better now, Private. How are you feeling?” he immediately started, before stepping closer and fiddling with a datapad that he pulled out from one of his pockets.

Thea was able to take a proper look at the medic for the first time, now that her vision wasn't completely blurred. From her sitting position, she looked up at the medic who stood around 1,85m tall, towering over her bedridden self.

He looked to be a couple years older than her, maybe around 20 years old, if she had to guess. He had golden-brown coloured skin and short, black hair which was shaved on both sides of his skull, leaving only the centre with a strip. She thought that it looked kind of odd, but not necessarily bad, wondering absentmindedly what Kellerman’s hairstyle was like.

Suddenly realising she hadn’t answered the man and instead simply stared at him, she quickly caught herself and strung together an answer.

“Ahh.. Doin’ alright, I guess. What exactly happened? What am I doing here? Did I get hit?”

Putting away the datapad in his hands, he looked down at her in a frown with his hazel brown eyes.

“You overused your Focus. A lot. Frankly, you’re lucky to be alive. What moved you to be so reckless?” came the simple answer, mixed with a serious tone of confusion.

“... Focus?... Lucky to be alive? What are you talking about?” Thea responded in utter confusion, a figurative question mark written across her face.

“... I.. What? What do YOU mean? You should know about Focus and overusing it. It’s taught like.. day one of basic?” the medic uttered, equally confused.

Thea flushed, suddenly realising her mistake.

She was in a Deep-Dive Simulation at the frontlines of a war involving fully fledged marines of the UHF. They had all gone through years of training, both of physical, mental and educational nature. Naturally they were supposed to know these kinds of things, if they were as life-threatening as the medic indicated, yet she had just admitted to having no idea what was going on…!

Before she could find an answer to her conundrum however, she felt a sudden pang in her head, as if she had just been hit with a massive sledgehammer, causing her to topple over in the field-bed and scream in pain.

“WHAT…?! What’s happening, Private?!” the squad medic exclaimed in shock, while quickly pulling out his datapad again. His fingers flicked across the screen, as he frantically looked to Thea and back at his pad for any indication on what might be going on.

Just as quickly as the pain had come however, it had disappeared. The only thing left with her, that indicated it had ever been there, was a lingering sense of unease coupled with a mounting sense of imminent doom.

“I.. I don’t know. I just had a massive headache out of nowhere, but it’s gone now… I need to… How long was I out?” She quickly tried to explain and calm the medic, as much as herself.

Silence followed for a few seconds, as the medic carefully examined her expression. A deep sigh escaped him, before he put away the datapad again and answered her question.

“It’s been about an hour. Thanks to your work we managed to push back the westernmost flank, but…,” he stopped for a second, a pained look on his face.

Thea hated ‘but’s. Always had, always would. Nothing good ever came after a ‘but’.

“Unfortunately we lost the second line of trenches. While we had some amazing progress on our end, the entire battle is still not going our way at all. They simply overwhelmed the central and eastern positions, swarmed into the trenches and overran the rest of it in a matter of minutes.

“We managed to save a lot of our marines on the westernmost side, thanks to your work in particular, as we had a couple extra minutes of leeway, but we lost more than four-hundred marines in the second line overall…,” the medic finished his sombre report, the pained look on his face deepening.

Thea had been right once again. Nothing good ever came after a ‘but’!

She had been so happy to have seen the progress they had made on the westernmost flank, thanks to her in particular. It had really felt like she was single-handedly turning the tide of the battle… but a war was more than just a few soldiers, she now had to accept.

Regardless of her, apparently life-threatening, efforts they had still lost hundreds of marines and the entire second line of trenches. To her, it felt like her efforts had been in vain, despite the assurances to the contrary of the squad medic next to her…

The sense of doom in the pit of her stomach continued to increase, as those thoughts raced through her head. With a frown, she looked up at the medic.

“I… I need to get back to the front. Now. Something… I think… something bad might happen soon,” she tried arguing, her words failing her.

How was she supposed to properly articulate this feeling, in a way that would be convincing?

Especially when it didn’t even make sense to her, nor gave any detailed information…?!

With raised eyebrows, the medic looked intently at her for a few seconds.

“... Kellerman’s orders DID say I should make sure you have clear lines of sight at all times…,” he muttered, a grin forming on his face, which Thea mirrored.

“But! Only on one condition: You need to reign in your Focus usage. I can’t risk you dying on us. You might not Zero out, but who knows how long the respawn vats are still active,” he added, with a serious face.

“I’ll try. I promise,” she quickly answered, before getting up from the field-bed, grabbing her rifle, which was thankfully placed nearby, and sprinting out of the field hospital behind the squad medic who was already walking towards the front lines.

‘Wait. Did he just talk about respawning…?’ Thea suddenly realised, as she was following the medic through a maze of field hospitals.

Were the NPCs in this Deep-Dive Simulation allowed to respawn too? She had never heard of such a mechanic in a game before.

Why would it be necessary in the first place? They simply existed to flesh out the world for the player, after all. If they died in combat, then that was it. They did their job, in adding to the feeling of a real war. Why would they need to respawn?

‘And what in the void does “Zero out” mean?’ she thought to herself, as the two of them passed the last line of field hospitals.

She now realised that she had been brought all the way to the top of the UHF fortifications. She was close to the underground tunnel system, which she had arrived through just hours ago with Captain Sable.

Having a wide view on the battlefield below, Thea once again realised just how insignificant she really was, as a singular soldier in this massive battle.

No matter where she looked, marines were running around, shooting their weapons or transporting things. Thousands of them. Much more than she had initially thought were at this particular front, by an order of magnitude.

Towards the lower trench lines, the view was even more shocking.

The fighting had advanced close to the third trench lines and seemed fiercer than ever. The Stellar Republic soldiers were literally throwing themselves at the UHF defences, continuing to use their weird duplication ability to soak up projectiles and lasers alike, while inching forwards, minute by minute.

The entire field of battle from the bottom of the hill up to the third trench line was covered in so many corpses, that it was impossible to tell what had originally been the actual ground.

She did note, however, once she zoomed in with her rifle’s scope, as they waited on a group of marines which were transporting a massive crate of ammunition in front of them, that many of the corpses as well as their equipment from the lower section of the hill had started to… dissolve.

She had to check multiple times, as she wasn’t quite sure what she was seeing, but was certain that many of the corpses had indeed started liquifying into a weird grey-coloured goo that was now covering parts of the old battlegrounds.

‘At least cleanup might be easier than expected… I guess?’

She had myriads of questions about the whole situation, but was afraid of asking them, in fear of exposing her lack of training once again. So instead, she simply stayed quiet and followed behind the medic, as they made their way towards the first line of trenches from the top of the hill. She’d make sure to riddle Old Man James with all of them, once she got out of this damned simulation…!

As they made their way towards the seventh line of trenches as seen from bottom of the hill, in which Kellerman’s squad resided, Thea continuously scanned the entire battlefield.

The feeling of mounting doom had not left her since that sudden bout of strong headaches in the field-hospital, much less abided. It had continuously grown worse, the further she walked towards the front lines and it made her extremely anxious.

Unfortunately, nothing had caught her eyes so far.

She tried nudging the weird feeling that she felt whenever she scoped in on an original body into action, hoping it would somehow give her a hint as to what was causing the discomfort. It was easier said than done however, as she had no idea what exactly any of these feelings even were.

They never felt quite like part of her body.

While the feeling of doom she was struggling with right now, felt like a massive pit in her stomach, she could tell that it wasn’t quite located in her stomach. It was more like there was an invisible wall between the feeling and her physical self.

The same had happened when she had nearly shot the scouts and when she was scouting for original bodies. The feeling of wrongness never quite originated from her physical self, despite feeling like it was anchored there.

As such, trying to nudge it into action or even interact with it at all, proved extremely tricky. She also ran into the issue of getting another headache, as she was trying to activate the feeling again. She was likely using this Focus, as the squad medic had called it, in trying to interact with that other half of the invisible wall.

Frustrated by her lack of knowledge on the topic and her inability to do anything about it without revealing her existence to the NPCs of the simulation, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The squad medic turned around to her nearly immediately and inquired, “Private? Are you alright? Why did you stop?”

Thea was impressed with his attentiveness and fast reaction, considering they had been running at nearly full speed through tight trenches in the middle of a war zone.

“I… This feeling. It’s not going away. The further we go towards the front, the worse it gets. I don’t know why, I don’t know how to control it and trying to concentrate on it causes a headache. Is there anything you can do to help me?” she ultimately opened up after a few seconds of silence.

Despite the medic wearing his helmet, Thea could easily tell that he was frowning. His body language was easily readable, as his shoulders had slumped slightly.

“... I don’t know what your deal is, Private. You’re the most odd marine I have ever run across. While you seem to not remember most of basic training, you are aware of a lot of things in the advanced one. You don’t seem to understand Focus use, yet you’re chugging it down like liquor. Add to that your, frankly, ludicrous precision with a rifle and I’d nearly call you a spy. I’m still not convinced you aren’t one, although at the same time…

“You’ve killed a lot of freaks and helped out a ton of our guys today. Also, Kellerman seems to trust you, so I will too… Just this once. If you fuck this up, I will put you down in a heartbeat, you understand me, Private?” the squad medic explained with a cold and serious tone.

Thea was thoroughly blindsided by the medics reply.

She had merely wanted to ask for some kind of painkiller or something to help with that whole Focus thing, yet she had ended up gaining more than she bargained for.

Not only had he admitted to thinking of her as a spy, but also provided a lot of insight to her as to why he thought so. It cleared up a couple of questions she had been wondering about as well.

Yet the last few sentences had really sent a shiver down her spine. What exactly was he even talking about? She felt like she was missing important context once again, but this time it came with a frightening warning…

“I.. I’ll try my best not to disappoint!” she replied after a bit of deliberation.

If the worst came to pass, she could still respawn or simply fail the challenge. While it would suck to fail after putting in so much effort, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

After all, it was just a simulation.

Over the course of the next minute she was pulled over to the side of the trench she was currently in by the medic. He was currently removing the armour and gloves on his left arm, revealing the golden-brown skin beneath it.

“I’ll share some of my Focus with you, so do whatever you need to do to get yourself back on track. And remember, if you try to use my Focus to fuck with any of my marines, I will snap your neck before you can think,” he explained as he stretched out his arm towards her, after motioning her to turn around.

Thea felt thoroughly confused once again, but took his warning to heart. The medic was definitely magnitudes stronger than she was. She had no doubt he could follow through on the threats he had made. More questions arose at the same time, however.

How was he going to share his Focus?

And how could concentrating “fuck with marines”?

What in the void was the medic talking about?

Suddenly she felt a warmth radiate from her back into her mind, as the medic’s hand touched her armour between her shoulder blades.

‘Wh… what is this?!’ she frantically thought to herself, trying to keep a calm exterior. She did not want to get her neck snapped because she made a sudden, involuntary movement.

‘It does seem to help with the slight headache I’ve been having… Is this the .. Focus.. The medic was talking about? Is that like some kind of esoteric medicinal technique he’s using..?’

She had heard about those types of medicinal techniques before. They were not uncommon in the Undercities of the Federation, as the denizens could not afford contemporary medicine all the time. Lots of people would then opt into these more esoteric types, many of which were straight up frauds, but Old Man James had often said that there were some amazing healers out there, using similar methods.

Whatever the case may be however, Thea had a job to do. A job that her life might very well depend on, based on the medic’s previous threats. She tried concentrating on that sinking pit in her stomach again, attempting to nudge it awake in whatever form she could.

She was prodding, pulling and pushing against the invisible wall that kept the feeling from connecting to her physical body, until suddenly, she felt like a dam had finally burst!

Her mind was filled with a vision of herself, sitting inside of the foxhole she had dug hours ago, to the west of the trench lines that Kellerman’s squad was in. She saw herself look through her scope, aiming towards the battlelines, which were just reaching past the first trenches.

As she tried getting a better look, she felt her vision change. She went from being an outside observer to being inside of her own body again.

Being inside of her own body and looking through her ‘own’ eyes once again, she recognised this exact scene. It was playing out exactly one-to-one to how she remembered. It was shortly before she had figured out the trick to identify the original bodies.

‘Why.. am I seeing this? What is the point of this…?’ she wondered, desperately trying to understand what she was seeing and for what reason.

She simply let the vision play out in front of her, attention spread wide to catch every single detail, in the hopes of figuring out what exactly this vision was supposed to do.

She saw her alter-ego rapidly fire with her overcharged Mjollnir into hordes of duplicates, reloading energy cells as necessary and cursing in frustration at the futility of it all.

She saw her stop firing after the third energy cell, just as she remembered. This was around the time she had the epiphany that there were duplicates amongst the soldiers, she remembered.

Suddenly her vision turned to the western side, towards the steep slope to the west of her foxhole.

Thea had completely forgotten about the slope by this point, but during the time that the vision played in, she had dutifully and continuously scanned the area for any approaching enemies, so it made sense that she would be looking there now.

The vision abruptly stopped however, with this view as the last image in her eyes.

Confused, she tried to look around, but could not move her head. She was simply there to observe, so she had no autonomous control over the body she was currently staring out of.

Frustrated, she tried looking around for any hints. There had to be a reason the vision was showing her this. The simulation that was providing the vision had to have a reason for it, after all!

She spent what felt like around ten minutes, looking at everything she could see, trying to figure out the secrets of this vision, when it finally hit her. As it did, she was overcome with abject dread and pure terror at the implications…!

Around two kilometres away from her position, down the steep slope of the western front in the shadow-steeped valley of the red-brown dirt hills, she now saw something that she had completely missed before, when she had looked out towards this direction, the same way she was doing in her vision right now.

As she had continuously looked out towards the western slope, she had built an ingrained image in her head as to how it looked. After dozens of glances towards it, scanning over it and analysing the environment to search for any enemies, there was no doubt in her mind that the view she was looking at right now, was not the same.

The myriad of rocks on the ground, which she had previously used as different distance markers to zero her rifle with, had moved.

It was as if the entire hillside had been slowly inching itself towards the hill, slowly enough to not create any obvious tells, yet steady enough to be nearly in range of the UHF frontlines for whatever machinations the Stellar Republic had planned…!