It was another boring day at the office. Lily sat in front of her computer and opened up her email inbox to check her messages.
There was an urgent message waiting for her from her boss. She opened the message to learn that she had been assigned as a tester for the new game spinoff “Conquest: Origins”.
The game was set to be released four weeks from now, and her group was responsible for making sure that all the bugs had been worked out.
She read the message over again and sighed. It was great news, but she already had a ton on her plate.
She looked at her watch. The lunch break was fast approaching, and she needed to eat something before getting back to work. Besides, testing code in her cubicle was the last things she wanted to do. She’d rather test it first hand at the Arena.
She exited her email program and jumped onto her web browser. She typed in "Conquest: Origins" into the search bar and scrolled down the list of results until she came upon a trailer promoting the upcoming release.
Surprisingly, the video made her excited to play the new game. It was visually stunning, and it featured a ton of different races battling each other in an attempt to dominate the galaxy.
She clicked the link at the bottom of the screen and it led her directly to the main Conquest website.
"Wow," she muttered. "This looks amazing!"
After playing Conquest for a few years, she felt like she had seen every possible gameplay mechanic. Yet here they were, adding an entirely new story-based experience to the game.
She shut down her computer and headed to the basement parking garage.
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Twenty minutes later she pulled into the parking structure of the Arena. She grabbed a quick bite to eat in the cafeteria, then changed into her gray duds in the employee’s only locker room.
Stepping out onto the lush green foam, she pressed on her right temple and toggled through her login options. A new option appeared.
Conquest: Origins [Beta]
After clicking on the new logo, two options appeared on a background that depicted a world surrounded by an inky mass.
Story Mode
Freeplay
The "Freeplay" option was grayed out, likely indicating that she would need to play through the Story Mode before the option would be unlocked.
As soon as she entered, she saw that the typical landscape of Conquest had completely changed.
Now this is interesting.
As she explored the menus, she saw that the graphics had been upgraded. Some of the textures were sharper and clearer than before.
It took her a few moments to adjust, but after she got used to the enhanced visual fidelity, she was impressed.
She noticed that the menu system was easier to navigate too. Everything seemed cleaner and more intuitive than before.
A notification popped up in the corner of her screen.
Congratulations!
You are now part of the Beta Test Team! You have access to special features and content not available to regular players. Please log into the game at least once a week to validate your status. If you do not, you may lose your beta privileges.
You may submit feedback for this game by clicking on the feedback button located on the bottom left portion of your screen.Thank you for contributing to the development of Conquest: Origins!
Lily grinned. She checked off the box that allowed her to receive instant notifications whenever a player submitted feedback. Then she selected the feedback button and began typing.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Hey, thanks for letting me join the beta! The new art style looks amazing. I love how it feels like it's designed for VR. I’m looking forward to testing! Keep up the great work!
Lily Thatcher, Beta Tester
She hit send and it appeared in the thread.
She browsed through the rest of the comments, and found that everyone was raving about the visuals.
─ Wow, this is beautiful.
─ Awesome. This looks really good!
─ Looks amazing. Can't wait to try it out.
─ I'm loving the new art style. It looks awesome.
She found a few negative comments as well, but for the most part, they were mostly positive.
She toggled away from the feedback screen, and launched into the pre-game video. It played out like a journal entry, as if she were experiencing it first hand inside the mind of the NPC.
> When Father first split the Light from the Darkness, we praised him. When the Beast emerged from Outer Darkness, we did not curse His name. Instead, we took up arms against the foe that had no form. We, corporal beings that we are, were terribly outnumbered and outmatched. Vast mobs of our people were wiped out, erased from existence as perfectly as paper thrown to the fire. And so, Father made the firmament. And, within that firmament, He prepared vast fires to repel the Beast, but they were not enough. One by one, the fires were smothered. No matter how much of the Beast we destroyed, a billion more entities were ready to smother, to choke. And so we consulted Father, and He formed us into grand armies. He built for us great battlefields on our home planet Kolob to combat the Beast, and we once more took up arms against it.
>
> The monomolecular blade of my halberd cut through the inky mass of non-flesh. It was unlike anything that could be described. Lightning burst forth, a purifying light bent on destroying more of the Beast. Forward. Always forward, never back. No matter how horrible the fiend, no matter what contradictions of senses there were, I had to move forward. The inky black mass of monsters were impossible to see through. Sometimes I would see a limb. Other times eyes or mouths would become visible through the mass. They made no sound as they shifted or shuffled or phased…something about them couldn’t be described. Half solid, half mist, just…existing.
>
> Forward. Forward!
>
> A shell exploded not more than ten yards from me. I fell to the ground, the force of the thermobaric explosion beyond powerful. Ringing. So much ringing. Dizzy. Something sticky, something not quite… right. I…stood. Thick strings of a tar-like substance clung to my armor, to my boots, to my exposed skin. The black substance was lukewarm and sticky as pitch. Suddenly, a containment shell had formed around me. The shimmering azure of the shield flickered.
>
> Containment shells. Something big must be coming.
>
> They only used those when they needed to buy time. I looked around me. Thousands of other fields had formed, making a haphazard barrier that extended in both directions as far as the eye could see. Lumbering in the distance, I could see the black mass of monsters that had fallen so far from Father’s light that they could not even claim humanoid shapes.
>
> By Father!
>
> I hoped the barriers held. The Beast lumbering toward me was larger than the tanks that had fired the shells. Behind the writhing tendrils were flashes of horrible, slavering jaws with bits of chewed-up metal caught between the teeth. Images flashed in my head, horrible images of my squad. Had I…seen them? Getting devoured? My thoughts turned to Hitka…the last I saw of her, she had gotten overrun by the Beast.
>
> Is she…dead? No, no! Stop it! I have to think straight!
>
> One of them rammed into the barrier. The circular mouth sucked and gnawed, rows and rows of teeth grinding against something that wasn’t there. It consisted of just force, magical force. A thought that had simply been made tangible for a short time. Breaking through it would be like forcing a change of opinion by screaming incoherency. It simply didn’t register. I got on my knee, into the sludge. It felt thinner, now.
>
> Thank Father for that.
>
> I prepared the halberd, waiting for the shield to falter.
>
> Let the Beast impale himself.
>
> A shell fell on the Beast and it shattered into a thousand pieces. The non-flesh reduced itself to a dark puddle of…tar. A thick goo that couldn’t be properly described.
>
> I stood and tapped at the containment shell. Ice, fire, and lightning streaked across the surface. It still held up.
>
> Good.
>
> Pain suddenly rippled through my body. Burning, caustic agony. Tore through my nerves. Seized my muscles. Locked my mind to all rationality. The halberd clattered to the ground. I turned around. Flesh had been ripped from my calf. I pressed my body up against the shield. A flailing egg-shaped mass of darkness…Writhing, whipping tendrils beat against the magical shield. One of them was under me, looking, searching. Like an octopus looking for food.
>
> My calf pulsed in agony when I tried to move. I couldn’t pick up the halberd. Or even use it in this shell. Not enough room. Nowhere near enough room. I slowly went for my sidearm. The bolt of Father’s light shot forth, smashing into the egg. It let out a horrible cry, one that echoed in my ears and left a high-pitched ringing in its wake. I stood in the goo again.
>
> Then the shields fell.
>
> Forward. I picked up the halberd. Forward. Never backwards. Never retreat. I limped. Every step became a new torture tearing through my body. The silence that surrounded me was…deafening.
>
> Other than that horrid ringing, the high-pitched squeal of the monster, utter silence. No shells exploded. No bullets flew.
>
> I reached up to my ear, looking for my squad’s com pin. It wasn’t there. I felt the other ear. It wasn’t there either. No…no. Is…that why it’s so silent? I turned around. Maybe a retreat had been called.
>
> Had we lost? That must have been it.
>
> I felt the strength drain from my body, the sudden exhaustion of despair. We had lost, that had to be the only option.
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