This is the page for Slipdrift, a story that is also part of the larger VL Chronicles book.  Slipdrift follows the un-named character ‘Yourself‘ through a deadly version of the Gun-Drift game he is forced to play.  ‘Yourself’ wakes up in a jail cell and realizes he is trapped in this game by Feyriko, a crime lord he had connections to in the past.  He becomes despondent due to the conditions, and seeing player after player killed in the game.

He befriends an alien Behemon that is very skilled and decides to help it get to the legendary five games victory that grants the players freedom. Each game is against harder and harder opponents and his own survival starts to become an issue along with ensuring the Behemon wins.  What occurs next makes ‘Yourself’ doubt everything he knew about the game.

 

Background:

The story takes place mainly through the lens of the highly popular game Gun-Drift that has been inverted so badly. In the typical game there are teams or solo players that battle each other using light rifles as they jet around using anti-gravity ‘drift units’ that are controlled by how many points they have making it tactical of the usage of them. The games are very popular with large amounts of credits and gems being bet on them, and the best players being treated as stars.

‘Yourself’ was a famous player that refuses to use his name both as a small tactical advantage and mostly out of pride of not having his name tarnished.  He is forced into a cruel choice of where people must kill each other, and anyone who refuses is simply shot by those who believe the escape after five games.

 

Slipdrift Characters:

‘Yourself‘ – Unnamed protagonist forced to survive

‘Behemon‘ – Unnamed Behemon alien allied with ‘Yourself’

‘Unknown’ – A voice that has hacked into his ICS system

‘Sword’ – Unnamed and rival player to ‘Yourself’, sword shaped Strive on his face

Feylon – ‘Yourself’s girlfriend

Feriko – Criminal lord of game

 

Slipdrift is currently available on Amazon here.

 

Trivia:

‘Yourself’ is one of the more cocky and angrier main characters in the VL Chronicles

‘Yourself’ picked that name as a slight tactical advantage hoping people would think they were somehow shooting themselves

‘Yourself’ has a real name, it is Slev, he appears in VayneLine 1 as a character they meet on Treeport

The title comes from that by ‘slipping’ the rifle into the drift field allows them to use its full destructive power to blast out.

 

 

Synopsis:

 

 

**Spoiler alert:

Warning what follows is an explanation of all events in the story which is meant to be read only after finishing the story in case of confusion**

 

The main character is an unnamed but famous Gun-Drift player who is captured.  He is forced to play a life or death version of the game where people kill each other to advance and are given freedom if they can last five rounds.

He has bad blood with the main guy running it, whose name is Feriko.  He comments internally how his girlfriend has a similar name: Feylon.

Upon registering his name as ‘Yourself’, he is scratched by an Aelisha running the computer, and he tries to attack her but is stunned.

He meets an alien Behemon, a huge creature but can move fast due to the drift units being anti gravity.  Deciding to ally with him, his reason is to see if five games truly is a way out.  He fights in the round and barely makes the cut.  In the end he sees a guy with a sword tattoo on his face and comments how he ‘has the spark’ a reference to being highly skilled.

He is occasionally contacted by an unknown voice on his ICS system who says it will help him if he makes it past the round.  He helps the Behemon, as well as connected by the voice again telling him to look at the walls.

For the final game of the Behemon, Yourself explores the walls to find out he can see Feriko at the very top.  The Behemon wins and is gone from the cell.  This does not last long as he is returned and seems despondent.

Yourself talks to another voice who is in fact Sword in the next cell over as well as they are both talking to the Aelisha attendant from earlier.  She is ‘Unknown’ who scratched them to implant nanites allowing her to communicate without being detected.

In the next round the Behemon goes berserk killing people before he is killed.  Yourself finally sees the face of Sword and pieces that they are secret allies together. Sword reveals he found out that the laser rifles can be powered up by shooting them through the drift field of their units.

They realize they can’t win their way out of this, and hatch a plan to escape by blasting their way out.  In the next game they meet together, and Yourself starts jetting upwards, he runs out of drift and thinks he is betrayed when Sword kicks his drift in and they fly up to the top, using the field manipulation of the drift unit and the rifles, they blast their way out.  They shoot Feriko, and almost shoot the Aelisha until they realize it was her who helped. They run to a cloaked ship she had waiting as they all leave.  She wants them to testify as evidence and after that they are free.  The story ends with him crying and a promise to see his girlfriend on the Aelisha ship.