Jane led the way for Dan, Li and Angie towards the building where the Combat Game would take place. The transports had either taken off and flown elsewhere or powered down. Without the sounds of their engines, Dan had to listen to the creepy ambience of the land around him.
Such a drab and desolate land without any sounds of wildlife or wind blowing or leaves rustling was an experience Dan couldn’t quite draw any comparisons towards. In his home town, he at least encountered distant gunfire or ran into some gangs when he was out and about. Without the Alpha Corp facilities built here, this abandoned land was a destination Dan would have preferred to visit only once.
Dan and his team entered through the front doors of the facility and he saw numerous lines formed at the desks.
“Be patient and wait in line to get yourselves checked in,” Jane said. “And remember to stick together. You’re all competing as a team.”
She looked around and then placed her hand on Dan’s shoulder. “In case I don’t see you, good luck. To all of you.”
Dan grinned. “Thanks Jane. We’ll tell you all about our rounds of ass-kicking.”
Jane nodded and then exchanged glances with Li and Angie before walking off. She still stood in the vicinity most likely supervising the other agents entering the Combat Games.
Dan stood in line with Li and Angie behind him. Looking around the place, Dan saw various uniforms that strayed away from the standard of sleek body armor and long coat. To his left, Dan spotted groups of agents in grey body armor without coats. Their backs protruded with boosters and rockets and upon closer inspection of their armor, numerous pieces seemed more angular and sharp compared to the sleek and contoured lines of regular Alpha agent armor.
Dan felt someone poke his back and he glanced over his shoulder. Li pointed his finger at a line of nine agents to their right. “See those guys over there with the matching silver coats? Those are the Spec Ops Hellhounds, the shard I got recruited into before transferring to the Alpha Corp.”
“I see. You know any of them?”
“The Hellhounds are a relatively small subsidiary shard of the Alpha Corp. I see a few familiar faces, but no one who I personally worked with,” Li said. “Oh and the guys you were checking out earlier with the jetpacks, those are the Genesis Talons.”
Dan turned around. “Wait, they got jetpacks?”
“Indeed,” he said. “They’re another subsidiary of Alpha. They specialize in shock and awe tactics. They’re equipped with specialized or heavy weapons and they rain hell on their enemies from above, either from the air or from the high ground.”
“That sounds awesome,” Dan said. “So you’re flying around with a jetpack and just shooting at people with rockets?”
“A bit of a simplification but yes,” Li said.
“But wait, if they’re allowed their jetpacks, doesn’t that give them an unfair advantage over everyone else, including us?” Angie asked.
“The shards don’t believe in equality Angie. Either you find a way to overcome the enemy’s strengths, or you simply die,” Li said with a straight face.
“Wow, that’s grim,” she replied.
The line moved along and eventually, Dan was up next. He glanced around and didn’t see a receptionist or anyone else at the desk. All he saw was a computer screen in front of him.
“The hell? So no ticketmasters or pulling numbers out of a hat?”
“It’s a matter of efficiency,” Li said.
Text began popping up on the display.
Welcome to the Alpha Corporation’s bi-annual Combat Games.
If you are competing, please place your finger print into the reader ti the right of the computer and register yourself and your team.
Dan took off his glove and placed his thumb into the black square. Immediately, the computer scanned him and threw his info on the display.
Agent: Dan “Arctic” Orion
Age: 18 M
Shard: Alpha Corporation
Rank: Tier 1 | Level 19
Strength: 28
Agility: 22
Endurance: 21
Intelligence: 28
Supernatural: 13
Healing Factor: Moderate
Reflex: Superior
***You are now registered as a contestant. Please allow your teammates to register as part of your team. If notm then skip this procedure.***
Li and Angie followed suit, both of them putting their fingerprints into the reader and Dan got a chance to see their current up-to-date stats.
Agent: Li “Arctic” Phantom
Age: 21 M
Shard: Alpha Corporation (formerly Spec Ops Hellhound)
Rank: Tier 1 | Level 24
Strength: 27
Agility: 35
Endurance: 28
Intelligence: 30
Supernatural: 1
Healing Factor: n/a
Reflex: Superior +
The display then transitioned to pulling up Angie’s stats.
Agent: Angie “Arctic” Bloodliner
Age: 20 F
Shard: Alpha Corporation
Rank: Tier 1 | Level 20
Strength: 25
Agility: 26
Endurance: 24
Intelligence: 21
Supernatural: 4
Healing Factor: n/a
Reflex: Superior
***Three agents have been registered. Is this your team?***
Yes/No?
Dan simply tapped yes on the display and then the screen transitioned to a loading screen before the next message popped up.
You have successfully registered as contestants of the Combat Games. Good luck!
“Nice, we’re in,” Dan said. He put his glove back on.
“I guess we just wait for further instructions,” Li said, crossing his arms.
“Check out the party pooper over hear. What’s with that?” Angie asked Li. “Aren’t you excited?”
“I would prefer to know how the rounds are laid out before I get my hopes up about anything. I heard that the every Combat Games tournament is a different experience from the changing rounds. It would be too stale otherwise, for both the contestants and the viewers.”
“You’re lame, you know that?”
“I’d rather be ‘lame’ than be one of the annoying gnats hounding Dan on the transport shuttle,” Li said.
A sudden shriek of static filled the room and a large set of displays huddled around in a hexagon hung below the ceiling flashed to life.
“To all agents competing in this year’s Combat Games, may I have your attention please.”
The voice and the delivery of the lines sounded stilted and awkward. Dan couldn’t quite pinpoint the voice, but it sounded like a robotic voice that didn’t know whether to sound more masculine or feminine.
Angie giggled and said, “I could record my own lines, go ham with the filters and I would sound better than… whatever this is supposed to be.”
“Thank you for participating in the Combat Games. For this year’s exciting tournament, all agents ranked tier zeros and ones of the Alpha Corporation and its subsidiaries will be competing for various rewards and to advance their careers. Our judges will be critiquing the performances of our contestants and finding our upcoming talent. And to our viewers, you will be guaranteed to see the greatest combat sports broadcasted to your homes.”
“Wow, they’re really hamming it up. I could feel the excitement from this fake ass voice with an identity crisis,” Angie said, still poking fun at the strange computerized vocals.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“As with everyone Combat Games tournament, the rounds are ever changing and evolving, as determined by the Alpha Corp to give our contestants the best challenge to test their skills and wits. For this year’s tournament, our contestants will be competing in five action-packed rounds. To all agents, the details will be sent directly to your heads up displays for you and your tem to review and discuss.”
“Let’s see what they have in store for us this year,” Li said. “I heard they haven’t done five rounds in a while.”
“You serious?” Dan said.
Li nodded. “Usually, they stick to three rounds. The first one is usually a cutthroat sudden death elimination round of some sort. Maybe with all the recent influx of new recruits, they could be extending the Combat Games to five rounds to ease the newbies into it.”
The computerized voice continued. “The Combat Games’ five rounds will consist of the following. The first round will be an infection-style mode where contestants are divided into survivors and zombies. Contestants will need to score a minimum number of eliminations to be allowed access to round two.”
Fort the first time, Dan saw Li roll his eyes. “I knew it. This tournament is for embryos.”
“The second round is where the true excitement and challenge begins. Contestants will compete in a deathmatch simulation. Two teams will compete in a two against two deathmatch and swap out teammates until one team wins best two out of three.”
Li exhaled and walked back to the front desk and leaned against it.
“What did I tell you,” Angie whispered, pointing her thumb at the stealth specialist. “Party pooper.”
“Our first two rounds will be action-packed and will test out the survival and combat skills of our young and upcoming agents. The next three rounds will be announced and revealed as we progress throught the Combat Games.”
Dan tilted his head the hexagon formation of displays at the ceiling. “So, they’re cutting the rundown short?”
Angie chimed in. “Probably to create artificial hype and excitement for the viewers. Explain to them the first half of the tournament and then cock-block them by withholding info to drum up suspense and anticipation for the increasingly more challenging latter rounds. Manipulative, but probably good for ratings and viewer numbers.”
The voice droned on about instructions for the viewers on where and when to watch the live broadcast of the Combat Games and Dan mentally checked out just as Li had.
The center of Dan’s vision filled with a spinning icon and then popped up the actual layout of the tournament rounds.
Round 1: Zombie apocalypse.
Round 2: 2v2 deathmatch simulation.
Round 3: Cash grab. Multiple teams, 1 winner.
Round 4: Battle royale in the exclusion zone.
Round 5: Classic elimination one-on-one fights.
“Angie, Li, are you guys seeing this?”
“I have,” Li said with a chuckle. “Now things are getting interesting. It’s quite cruel of them.”
“What do you mean cruel?” Angie asked.
“The announcer tells us about the ‘action-packed’ first two rounds and then sends us the full list to our HUDs and look at what we’re dealing with. I already know that round three is going to be chaos with multiple teams battle each other over an important objective. Then there’s the battle royale with every team for themselves in the remains of a radioactive wasteland and then a one on one elimination, similar to a martial arts tournament. I can sense that a lot of these newbies won’t be ready for what’s coming. We’re going to see a lot of eliminations.”
Dan remembered his time on the transport on the way here and all the other agents who were in the same age range acting like fools in the presence of Jane Sunheiser. He looked around him and saw some of the same faces waiting in line, casually mingling with each other not anticipating the challenges that was to come in this tournament.
The announcer continued. “In this year’s Combat Games, we will be introducing constrictions, modifiers that will add new conditions and parameters to each round. Each team will receive a constriction that will either empower or hinder you, depending on how you conduct yourselves.”
Dan heard the collective sighs and curses from many other nearby agents.
“Constrictions?” Angie said. “Wouldn’t bullshit like that cause balancing issues by handing out arbitrary buffs and handicaps to each team?”
“Wait, it might be interesting,” Li said. “Even if they’re doing this just for the extra ratings and audience engagement, as agents we’re expected to operate no matter the circumstances, no matter how unfavorable our cards are. These Combat Games are supposed to better train us for the realities of conducting high-stakes missions in the future.”
Dan refocused his attention on the screens above.
“How these constrictions are laid out will be divided into two categories: one constriction will apply to the combat environment and another will apply to each individual team. A team that successfully completes a round will not only move to the next round in the Combat Games, but will be rewarded for winning with the constricitons set in place. Rewards will include, but not limited to, credits rewards, bonus experience points, new weapon and equipment unlocks and cosmetic skins. All constrictions will change and be swapped out as we enter the next round.”
“That seems easy enough,” Dan said. “So some special constriction will apply to the environment we’ll compete in and then we get our own special constriction that will apply for the duration of that round. If we win and kick ass, we reap the rewards.”
“Glad to see your optimism,” Angie said sourly. “This is going to get annoying. If they do some shit like telling us that the floor is lava, I’m done.”
“Dan has the right idea,” Li stated. “This will be a good challenge for us. Imagine if some big shot other than Michael Cynosa looks at our records and sees that we progressed through the Combat Games with all these ‘arbitrary buffs and handicaps’. They’ll know we can survive and persevere through rough conditions.”
Dan thought about Li’s words. While he also appreciated the challenge and intrigue of these constrictions, he looked around and saw that an overwhelming majority of agents didn’t share the same opinion.
“Hey Li, remember what you said about us seeing a lot of eliminations? I think you might be right,” Dan said somberly. A focused on a trio of Alpha agents who appeared even younger than him. “But it’s rough. It’s not fun seeing people wear the same uniform as you being left behind.”
“Even if it’s because of their own incompetence?” Li said. He took his eyes off Dan and shifted his gaze towards the side.
“Well, I guess you’re right. They did sign up for this,” Dan said. When Li didn’t respond and was looking in a different direction, Dan was about to say something.
Li stopped leaning against the desk and stood up straight. The shift in his teammate’s body language told him something was up.
“Something wrong?” Dan asked.
“I could swear there’s a team over there staring at us. I don’t like it,” Li said. He nodded his head in the general direction.
Dan glanced and tried to be discrete. His eyes checked out the long lines of other agents waiting to sign in and register and didn’t immediately see who Li was talking about. Then his eyes wandered toward a trio of agents in full armor, helmets included. Dan couldn’t tell for sure if they were all looking at him.
“Are you talking about those three over there? The ones in helmets and in grey? That doesn’t look like the same Alpha uniform to me.”
“That’s them,” Li confirmed. “Those guys are from the Prime Swords.”
“Prime Swords? Are they another subsidiary?”
“Yeah, they’re especially good with close quarters and melee. Check out the sword that one of them has.”
Dan continued watching the trio of agents. One of them glanced at the other two and began walking towards Dan.
“Well, this should be entertaining,” Li muttered.
Dan knew there was no mistaking where the agent was heading. The agent was firmly walking in a straight line toward him and Angie.
“Do you know them Dan?” Angie whispered.
“I didn’t even know the Prime Swords existed until just now. What do you think?”
The agent stopped just short of a few steps ion front of Dan. He took a closer look at the agent’s armor and admitted that the outfit was badass. The Prime Sword wore a full armored suit with a visored helmet that covered half the face. Dan saw his reflection in the opaque bleach-colored visor. The armor's colors were mainly a gunmetal grey matte finish with shining gold trimmings and accents.
Dan approved of the style.
Agent: Rachel Cutter
Age: 22 F
Shard: Prime Swords (owned by Alpha Corp)
Rank: Tier 1 | Level 23
Strength: 20
Agility: 24
Endurance: 22
Intelligence: 21
Healing Factor: Low
After an awkward moment of silence from both parties, the Prime Sword finally spoke. “Is your name Dan Orion by any chance?”
Dan detected a faint English accent even through the slightly digitized filter through the helmet.
“That’s me,” Dan said. “And who are you?”
“Rachel Cutter of the Prime Swords shard. I’ve heard quite a bit about you. You have no clue how lucky you are to be under Jane Sunheiser’s training. Many agents would kill to trade places with you.”
Dan blinked and then exchanged glances with Angie, who looked equally as confused as him. “Uhh, thanks?”
“My sincerest apologies for us staring at you from a distance. We were thrown for a loop at seeing you here. My squadmates and I have read the mission reports of the recent mission spearheaded by the great Michael Cynosa. A lot of the information was redacted even to our eyes, but we did see your name pop up numerous times in the report. You must be pretty damn good for Michael to trust you as a comrade.”
Dan had never once been bombarded with such praise from a complete stranger, nor was he made aware that post-mission reports were made public to all Alpha agents before today. He glanced at Angie to gauge her reaction to this.
His female companion had one hand on her hip while looking in a different direction. But Dan caught a brief side ways glance from the strawberry blond towards Rachel. Dan glanced at Li and all he saw was an incredulous look on the stealth specialist, likely sizing up a potential new opponent in the Combat Games.
“Yeah, that mission was a tough one,” Dan said. “I couldn’t have pulled through without the help from my teammates over here. So where are you guys from?”
“The Prime Swords are primarily located along the fringes of Alpha territory, similar to the Hellhounds. I needed a change of pace from defending our borders, so we signed up for the Combat Games. And it appears we’ll get a decent challenge with agents like you entering.” Dan couldn’t confirm it, but he thought Rachel was scanning him up and down. “It was good meeting with you Dan. And I’m looking forward to facing off against you in this tournament. I’ve traveled very far just for the opportunity to meet you. I’m sure you won’t disappoint me. You might even say that I’m your biggest fan.”
The Prime Sword extended her hand toward him. While his teammates weren’t too receptive of this agent, Dan saw no reason to deny basic courtesy.
“I’m excited as well. See you in the arena,” Dan smiled. He raised his hand and shook hands with the agent.
Rachel’s grip was tight and firm, more so than he expected. She let go of his hand and Dan fully realized how tough her grip was. Even if he hadn’t pulled up her stats, he knew she was strong.
But something bothered him. Even though both of their hands were fully gloved, Dan’s hand felt a freezing cold in his fingers as if someone had snuck snow inside his gloves.
The Prime sword turned on her heel and walked away in the opposite direction. She stopped abruptly and looked over her shoulder back at him. “Oh by the way, I have a teammate, Adrianna. She thinks you’re cute.”
Rachel refused to elaborate and walked through the line of agent back to her team. Dan stood dumbfounded wondering what to make of that conversation. He wanted to brush it aside and just assume it was just another contestant being friendly and establishing a rivalry. But something in his gut told him to be on his guard around Rachel.
“Oh yeah my girlfriend Adrianna thinks you’re cute. Like fuck off,” Angie mocked. She performed the head shake and fake smile to such a degree that Dan and even Li chuckled. “Yeah Dan, I’m now convinced you didn’t come here to compete in the Combat Games. You're here just for the ladies.”
“That’s obviously not true,” Li said. “Dan isn’t doing anything. It’s these women who are approaching him. He’s obviously got some charm and charisma that you lack. I haven’t once seen any suitable males walk up to chat you up.”
“Oh fuck you too,” Angie said casually. “Seriously what a creep. She says she came all this way you to meet you? Uh uh honey. Don’t be desperate.”
“Are you an agent or a dating coach?” Li asked. His deadpan delivery made it so that Dan couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.
Angie ignored Li and slapped Dan on the shoulder. “Do me a favor and demolish that creepy bitch when you see her in the arena. She gives me bad vibes.”
Dan looked at Li then back at Angie and smiled. “I’ll do you one better. We’re going to demolish everyone together.”
The robotic announcer’s voice once again blasted through the building and said, “For all those who have completed their registration, please proceed to the waypoint marker on your HUD. You will promptly begin the first round of the Combat Games, zombie apocalypse.”