The Misadventures of Cyberdogs on the Dogcraft Server

Written by SummerFlower1234

The Journey from Sur 4 to Sur 5

Chapter 1 - Sur 4

Summer was riding her horse, Olive, to the Spawn on Husky from her little base in the flower forest. She loved walking along the RHN path that was put next to her base. It made going to Spawn easier and she didn’t get lost.

The smell of wood burning wafted down the path. Summer nudged Olive and they sped off. The Spawn campsite was nearby. Summer and Olive galloped down the winding path. Summer’s watch started beeping and she stopped Olive to take a look. It was Iron. One of the server admins. Summer’s heart thumped in her chest. She kicked Olive into a gallop. They crossed a bridge and went into the centre of camp and went down along the path towards the toilets. Summer brought Olive to a halt and hopped off and ran to the toilet and hopped in. Iron had given her a new mission and time was of the essence.

The campers at Husky took no notice of Summer. They were busy boat racing, hot dog roasting, pvping, flying around and train riding. For them, all was well at Camp Husky.

A few days later, a giant flash of light pierced the clouds and stretched across the sky. A roaring crash of thunder swallowed the sounds of startled Cyberdogs and echoed across the vast Husky Spawn Sea. The Cyberdogs looked to the eastern sky and noticed a dark, shadowy figure looming over them. Iron had arrived.

He floated across to the Camp Husky Information Centre and set up a transmitter. He turned around and looked upon the campers waiting in anticipation. He reached deep into his pockets to reveal a bundle of poppies, which he threw, to the crowd before him. They smelled sweet like cotton candy, unlike any poppy they had ever smelled before.

With a red gleam in his eye, and a flick of his wrist ‘pop’, he vanished into thin air. A faint robotic voice uttered, “see you in Sur 5”. As the voice diminished into silence, the scent of cotton candy in the air grew thicker. The campers became drowsy. One by one, they collapsed onto the ground and fell into a deep slumber.

...

Over on Camp Beagle, the Cyberdogs were enjoying a relaxing spa day in the natural hot springs atop Mount Pamela.

Princess, a Dogcraft Head Mod was catching up on her favourite show, ‘Who chopped down the Home Tree?’ at the Head Mod Mansion. Suddenly, her phone started dinging incessantly with urgent messages from Rosie the Copper Golem. “Code Red, Code Red, the Cyberdogs at Camp Husky have fallen into a deep sleep! Beagle is next.”

Princess exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! I’m not ready for this! I haven’t prepared! I haven’t packed my Red Bull!”

bBrain, the other admin of Dogcraft, strolled in through the door with a glass of #0024 golden carrot juice and his sunglasses and asked, “Honey? What’s wrong?” in his Texan drawl.

“Rosie just sent a message about players on Husky falling into a deep sleep. I guess Iron has started the migration?”

bBrain slowly stirred his drink. “Perhaps.”

“Can I do anything to help?”

“Maybe” bBrain lowered his sunglasses and smiled from ear to ear.

...

The Cyberdogs spent all morning in the spa or playing watersports. The sun climbed to its peak. It was time for lunch.

The Cyberdogs busied themselves with lunch and caught up with friends they hadn’t seen in a while.

“MUA HA HA HA HA HA HA”

A deep loud voice and a not so deep voice roared throughout the campground. This time there was not one shadowy figure floating in the sky, but TWO! “Prepare for trouble and make it double!” Princess and bBrain exclaimed.

The campers screamed in terror. “Oh no! The Admins corrupted a Head mod” shouted PerskyPuff. “What will we do now?”

The campers screamed and ran for their lives.

“Oh no,” said Princess “perhaps we overdid it?”

“Nah” said bBrain as he sauntered over to the notice board to set up a transmitter. “We need to have a little fun, too.” bBrain tapped a button on his wrist watch to chat with Iron. “Bruh, mission complete.”

A giant flash of light and a roaring crash of thunder announced the arrival of Iron. He looked at the screaming campers running around. He looked at bBrain and arched his eyebrow.

“Hey Iron. We might have overdone the super villain thing a bit” said bBrain.

Princess rolled her eyes at bBrain.

Iron shrugged his shoulders and pulled some poppies out of his pockets and then flew around the camp putting the Cyberdogs to sleep with the sweet scent of cotton candy. When Iron was finished, he flew back to Princess and bBrain.

With the campers asleep, the three of them took one last stroll through Camp Beagle and reminisced over the good ol’ days. They made their way through the mess hall, past the flagpole, weaving through the thick forest and past the cabins. When they finally reached the latrines.

“This way!” bBrain shouted, and bolted to the abandoned toilets. Iron and Princess followed him. He climbed on top of a toilet, uttered, “see you in Sur 5”, and threw on his shades.

“bBrain wait!” shouted Princess, but it was too late. bBrain dove head first into the toilet.

SPLAT!!!

“... bBrain… the toilet portal is on Husky. This is Beagle.”

bBrain climbed out of the toilet, and squelched over to the showers. After he washed up,  he joined Princess and Iron outside. Princess looked at him over her sunglasses, “you know, you could have just washed up in the lake.”

bBrain straightened his shirt, “I’m much too civilized for that.”

A shrill beeping came from Iron’s wrist watch. He looked at Princess and bBrain and motioned for them to follow him. They flew up to the top of Mount Pamela and into the End Portal that resided in the hot springs.

In the End, Iron, Princess and bBrain walked across the Main End Island to a large space ship docked at the portal ring. They entered the ship. Princess found a large number of Hermitron cubes in the cargo hold. “Iron, what are those?”

Iron pointed to a display. It showed ‘Status: Husky - Full; Beagle - processing’.

“Ah, I see,” said Princess as she grabbed a Red Bull from the refrigerator.

Blinking lights at the communication display caught Iron’s attention. He turned around and looked at bBrain.

“Whatcha got buddy?” bBrain asked.

Iron hit a button and the voice of Rosie the Copper Golem came over the speaker, “The survey team is trying to contact Ironboundred.”

Iron hit a button and the display video turned on. SummerFlower1234 was there with a steaming pot of tea.

“Hi Iron”

Iron grinned at Summer.

“I found four possible sites. Just like you asked. Here are the coordinates. Nonium, RY44 and I will pick up Briggsmech and Scooberson on our way back and meet you in orbit.”

Iron nodded vigorously and spun around in circles. Summer laughed.

“Over and out.” The video turned off.

“All right, Iron, can you put those coordinates into navigation for me so we can get on the road?” asked bBrain.

Iron nodded and with lightning speed programmed the coordinates into the navigation panel and ran to his seat and strapped in. bBrain took the helm and started the fly sequence.

The journey to pick up the two Head Mods, Briggsmech and Scooberson, was peaceful. While the Admins and Head Mods deliberated which sites they should settle, Nonium and RY44 made their way to the cafeteria to make a pot of tea… theirs had mysteriously vanished while they were scouting a planet with Summer. As they sipped their mugs of hot tea, RY44 looked out of the port window and frowned. He nudged Nonium to take a look.

“Oh bother” said Nonium “did that star move?”

RY44 nodded as the two made their way to the bridge. A red light was blinking on the sensor display.

“That’s not good,” said Nonium as the red light became three and then five dots.

RY44 pushed the emergency button. A loud garish noise accompanied by a flashing red light filled the ship.

Scooby popped out of a hidden hatch and knocked over a chair. Summer, Princess, Iron and bBrain ran out of the meeting room door. Briggsmech was right behind them. He cocked his head as he entered the room. He lifted his leg over the back of the communications chair - Riker style - as he sat down. Scooby busied himself with a bag of Scooby Snax.

“What’s going on?” asked Briggsmech.

“The ship's sensors have picked up something on the radar.”

Summer looked at Iron and asked, “Do you think it’s them?”

Iron looked at Summer and shrugged.

bBrain went to the navigation controls shaking his head. “No way. We scrubbed everything. There’s no way they could have tracked us here!”

Summer, Iron and bBrain exchanged a glance. Princess hit a button and brought the viewscreen up.

“Okay, let’s see who they are.”

Dozens of strange shapes were floating in space, coming closer.

Scooby raised his eyebrows, paw halfway in his bag of Scooby Snax.

“What is that?” asked Briggsmech.

Nonium and RY44 stared at the viewscreen. Princess sipped her Red Bull thoughtfully. Summer pursed her lips.

Unfamiliar shapes filled the screen. There were many rectangular shapes and they were attached to triangular shapes. Many had rectangles or squares cut out of the sides. They seemed to be houses. The shapes turned on their axis as they floated. They all had pieces missing from them.  

Briggsmech squinted at the screen and spun a few dials.

“I’ve isolated a signal. I’ll put it over the speakers.”

The raspy moaning voice of _Skyhook could be heard over the speakers. “Lotus not finished… Lotus not finished…”

Finally, bBrain drawled, “they call them the Death Knights of the Grimdog. They are the tormented spirits of unfinished projects that have followed us since Survival 1. They are the reason why bugs develop and lag increases the longer we are on a server or if we update multiple times without resetting completely. Their numbers increase as players start and don’t finish projects. Abandoned bases somehow create these spirits or ghosts, whatever you want to call them.

Everyone stopped and looked at bBrain. Even Scooby stopped chewing. The silence was broken by Nonium, his red face illuminated by the sensor screen as he checked the radar.

“Uh guys, there’s hundreds of them…”

Only beeping could be heard in the room as everyone took in what Nonium said.

Kak! Gurg! Khuraagh! Ghurg!

Startled, everyone stared at Scooby. He was pounding on his chest as he cleared his throat. His Scooby Snax went down the wrong tube. He pointed to the display with the four possible worlds for the new server. He waved at all of the worlds and pointed to Iron and the spirits. Iron looked at bBrain. bBrain shuffled his feet and whistled pitifully.

“bBrian, just tell them yours and Iron’s plan”, said Princess.

“Well, the plan is pretty simple. We pre-program the coordinates to the worlds we had Summer and her survey team scout out. Then Summer and the other Head Mods will go into their Hermitron Pods and will be jettisoned with the other Cyberdogs to the four worlds that Summer and her survey team were scouting out earlier. After everyone is at a safe distance, Iron and I will set up the ship to allow the ghosts of the Grim dog to enter the ship, at which point, Iron and I will blow up the ship to ensure everyone’s safety.”

Everyone shifted uncomfortably at the news. Scooby was so shocked he stood there with one paw in his bag of Scooby Snax.

Princess looked at Iron.

bBrain fell over suddenly as Iron withdrew his hand. Princess facepalmed herself. “Not like that Iron, now we have to carry him.”

Iron shrugged and threw bBrain over his shoulder and motioned to Princess to follow him.

Everyone took a deep breath before jumping into action. Nonium and RY44 grabbed their things and ran to the nearest Hermitron Bay. RY44 punched coordinates into the computer and climbed into a Hermitron stasis pod. Lights on the Hermitron stasis pods turned on as hopper minecarts collected them for launch.

Briggs and Scooby went to the second Hermitron Bay while SummerFlower1234 went to the third one. Iron and Princess finished loading bBrain into a Hermitron stasis pod in the fourth bay.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Princess worried. Iron hugged Princess and then turned to Summer.

“What are we going to do, Iron? I didn’t have time to get my tea,” SummerFlower1234 sobbed, tears streaming down her face. Iron put his hand on her shoulder and gave her his last box of tea, secretly relieved that he didn’t have to pretend to like drinking it anymore.

“For me?” blubbered SummerFlower1234 as she gave Iron a giant hug. Iron nodded and carefully put her into the Hermitron pod. He set the coordinates, launched all of the pods and then made his way back to Navigation. Iron flicked a few switches and buttons steering the ship towards the spirits. He powered down the ship and waited for the Ghosts of the Grim Dog to come…

The Ghosts swarmed around the ship and crawled in through the launching bays. The bays were dark. The Ghosts crept in. They found Hermitron pods lining the walls like glowing jewels. On the bridge, Iron was watching with anticipation as the Ghosts started to open the Hermitron pods. The lids opened, hundreds of white and red checkered cubes labeled TNT lined the inside of each pod. Iron took a key out of his pocket, inserted it into the console and turned it. The air filled with an orchestra of hissing. Curious, the Spirits inched closer for a better look.

KaBOOOM!!!

A flash of light lit up the faces of the observing Dogcraft staff as each of their Hermitron pods sped towards their respective worlds. The blackness of space enveloped the Hermitron pods. The air was heavy as they grieved their friend.