Strike Blast was a first-person point of view fighting game against monsters from outer space attacking civilian planets. Del’s character was a Space Marine in 3050 AD. The world had been fighting against the insectile monsters for almost a century since they evaded Earth’s remote colonies. The Space Marines was given the task to defend the civilians and fight against the insectile aliens. Del had been playing this game for several years and he was an elite status in the Strike Blast game. Del’s character was named Zonig5.

He moved his character, Zonig5, toward the military barracks. Del saw the back of his character in third person point of view. He wanted to know what was on the mission for tonight. He saw the usual other Marines moving about and a few of them nodded to him knowing who he was. Del’s character could beat anybody here man-to-man in a tournament fight but he liked playing against the alien creature.

Del walked down the pathway. He was also looking for John’s avatar. He wondered if his friend waited for him or if he was already gone on a mission without him. Del almost used his chat option to talk to John, but he decided to walk around. He was feeling a little peevish and sad. Del decided to go to the front of the barracks to see the Battle Sergeant. This character was the main NPC who gave out the missions and also any news about new weapons or gear. Del won in the battle last almost a million space bucks and he can spend it any way he wanted. Yet, he already had the best gear and the best weapons. He walked up the barrack and moved through the doorway. It was squat green building and saw a soldier behind the desk.

The soldier said, “Hello Del, are you here for purchasing or missions?”

Del clicked his cursor over the weapons. On the right side of his screens he saw another question - weapons or armor? Del checked both sections, scanning if there was anything new. He didn’t see anything that he didn’t already had. He scrolled through each type of weapon and armor; he saw a flame thrower, but it’s the same weapon he already had except this one shot faster and had more ammo and easily reloaded, so he purchased it. He equipped his new weapon and didn’t see anything else promising and left the weapons screen.

Del was about to press on the storyline section but he saw a chat response; it was from John.

The message read, “I didn’t think you would be playing today?”

Del typed back. “I’m better. I’m a little hung over but I could beat anybody on this field.”

John said, “You want to play team battle against some people or do you want to play in story mode?”

Del hesitated and was thinking he didn’t really want to fight anybody at this time; he wanted to blast monsters.

Del typed, “I want to just fight against creatures.”

John said, “Lets do it.”

“Sure.”

Del brought up the holographic map of the Helios space galaxy.

John wrote, “Where do you want to fight?”

“I feel adventurous today. Let’s go over to the Queen’s home solar system. we could fight against the aliens there.”

John replied, “Hey wait a minute, I’m not sure. I don’t have enough armor and weapons.”

“Chicken! Do I have to hold your hand? I need you to watch my back,” he blurted.

“I can hold my own. You know I can, I could beat your sorry ass in a duel if I had too.”

“Ok. We’ll take the ship there.”

Del brought up the coordinates to the Queens space system and clicked on the fastest pathway. They both were shown on a spaceship flying through space. His screen on his laptop showed a view of space and then they went into warp drive. The stars streamed into lines.

Suddenly the view changed, and he saw several planets in different colors of dark reds, oranges and browns. And marked on each planet surfaces were several red flags marking the battle areas they could choose from.

Battle Sergeant appeared. He said, “Hello Marines! We need brave soldiers to fight off these insects. We need to take this planet. We can be closer to win this war.”

The screen changed. Words appeared: Please choose your Battle.

The chat box appeared. John wrote, “Hey let’s pick the final battle.”

“Are you sure? I can start with something lower. If you want something easy.” Del teased.

“No, I came here to battle.”

Del choose the planet on the far right. It was the color of tan and it was called Verona. He clicked on the flag that read final battle.

The screen changed and showed the back of the spaceship; it opened to sand dunes and next to him was John’s avatar, a burly marine with a flattop holding a large gun in front of him and a smoking cigar clamped to his mouth. He already had guns pointed forward. They floated above the planet’s surface.

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The Battle Sergeants voice said, “Are you ready?”

Del readied his weapons and ran out toward the sand. John was behind him. They jumped out of the back of the ship and landed on the ground. Del held his laser cannon pointed forward. He took a broad sweep around the area. All he saw was sand dunes. More marines of the earth’s confederation appeared next to him.

Del saw a chat from John. “Get you headphone on.”

Del almost forgot. His head was still tender, but he was excited for this battle ahead. He grabbed his headphone and place it over his head. He heard Johns voice.

“Yo, this fight is going to be amazing. we have to fight underground.”

“I’m ready,” Del said.

There were several large holes before them in a rocky outcrop. Sand flowed around them. John moved to the first hole. Del stopped John.

He said, “Wait.”

Del held his laser cannon and pointed it at the hole and shot inside. An explosion rocked the sands.

Del was about to go inside the tunnel but the Battle Sarge came up and said, “Hello Marines! This is going to be a tough mission. Go down there and take out all the eggs. Do not let anything stop you. Use your navigation tools. We cannot see all the tunnels down there, so be careful.”

Del said, “I’m coming inside. Save me some monsters.”

He went down the hole while a group of marines followed him. It was dark inside and he turned on his lights. The walls of the cave were ultra smooth, and the path moved steadily downwards. The tunnel was large. It could fit a small tank. Del looked at his navigation map. His sensors didn’t pick up any movement.

Del had on his right hand a submachine gun which could shoot thousands of bullets and on his left he held a pistol, powerful enough to kill an insect creature in one shot but it has to be close. His laser canon was strapped to his back. Del scanned his ammo and shields. It was good. They walked downwards. Del was leading the way. His helmet flashlight barely penetrated the dark gloom. The tunnel opened wider into a main cavern which connected to other tunnels.

Del wondered why it took so long to fight. His sensors didn’t pick up anything. He was getting a little nervous. Scanning each of the tunnels, Del wasn’t sure where to go. He was about to asked another of the Marines but realized they were only non-playable characters and wouldn’t give him help.

John said, “Which way?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

John said, “Let’s looked at each cave then we’ll decide.”

“Okay, let’s try that.”

They walked close to each tunnel. It was cold because Del could see his breath in the air. This game was very lifelike he thought. He stopped and for some reason looked upwards. Del saw large beetles sleeping along the walls.

John said, “We need to find the eggs. We need to pick a tunnel.”

Del heard a chittering sound. The beetles awoke and started to stream downwards at them.

Del said, “Let’s rock-and-roll.”

He pointed his pistol at the nearest beetle and shot it point blank. Guts and blood shot around them. He was about to shoot another insect when they stopped moving all together. Their antennas were moving. A squealing sound came from a far cave.

A large beetle shot out of a tunnel and killed two of the Marines who was standing there.

Del said, “Use your flamethrowers.”

John was already firing his weapon hitting the large beetle’s body, but the bullets were not doing any damage. The large beetles mandibles shook. Razor sharp needles flew at them hitting their shields. Most of the NPC marines were killed. Del and John were lucky that their shields held, but Del noticed his shield went down to fifty percent. He couldn’t survive another attack.

Del switch his guns to a flamethrower. It was in his inventory. The weapon had limited use, but he had to use it. He positioned himself right in front of the large beetle. John was still shooting at the large insect distracting it. Del pointed his weapon at the creature’s head. He knew he was too close and could hurt himself or John, but he didn’t care. He sprayed his flamethrower in a wide arc across the large beetle’s head and body.

The creature suddenly caught on fire. The flames shot high above the cavern. The large beetle screamed in agony. It rushed toward him. Del knew this was going to happen, so he had his pistol ready. He shot the insect, blasting it destroying its face and body. Viscous blood and entrails hit the walls behind it. The large beetle fell to the side with flames rising upwards.

John said, “I need a little help here.”

Del turned upwards and saw the smaller beetles swarming toward them. John was in the corner fighting off a bunch of alien beetles. Del shot his laser canon and quickly picked off the creatures. They destroyed all the remaining alien insects in the cavern. The flames of the creature lit up the cave with enough light to see all around. The dead beetles were left all over, strewn in the cavern. When the battle was over, all the carcasses disappeared. They were left alone in the cavern.

“That was close,” John said.

The Battle Sergeant came up on the screen and said, “Congratulations Marines for clearing out this area. We equipped you with Quasar Bombs. You need to take out the nest.”

Del checked his inventory and saw the bombs in there. John inspected the different pathways and stopped at a tunnel at the far right; it was glowing with an intense green light.

“I think we need to go there,” John said.

They raced inside down the tunnel until they got into another large cavern. The cave was round. Del saw hundreds of glowing green eggs embedded into the walls. He heard a different sound. It was the rumble of excreting noises. Alien insects started to spawn around them.

Del said, “Incoming. Let’s clean up this mess and then destroy this nest.”

They shot at all the creatures killing in and shooting. John watched his back as he destroyed scores of alien beasts. And before they knew it they had destroyed all the aliens. Some the eggs exploded and was leaking green yellow goo.

“Yuck!” John said.

“Let’s place the bombs.”

They placed the explosives on different sides of the large cavern. They rushed out of the tunnel. On their screen, a timer appeared. It was counting down from five minutes. They were attacked several times while they exited but they had enough fire power to repel the creatures. They followed the light which led them out.

Their ship was stationed outside which its back doorway opened. They both jumped inside. They had time to spare. The door closed.

The Battle Sergeant appeared. “Great job! You both had received the gold medal. Get the hell out of there.”

The Battle Sergeant disappeared, and the screen showed their ship flying into space. The screen showed the tan planet. A large explosion plumed on the surface.

John said, “Awesome, we completed the alien invasion campaign.”

On the screen, it showed all the points they received as well as money. They got a million space bucks and one hundred thousand experience points.