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Max crouched behind the large pile of rubble; his breath steady despite the adrenaline surging through his veins. The Urban Assault challenge zone sprawled before him. The battlefield was a massive labyrinthine mock-up of a war-torn city where five teams vied for supremacy. The goal was simple: capture the other teams' flags while defending your own.
The system had given the five teams an hour to find a defensive position and set up a camp with their three smart matter flags. Leah and Xavier were at the base rigging traps and blinds to hold their position while Max and Charlie took the hunter roles. They had quickly found their first target. Max stayed still as a statue as a system notification chimed.
[NanoTracker +1, NanoTracker reaches level 7]
[Stealth +1, Stealth reaches level 10, +100 XP skill cap award, +2 Bonus levels to Chameleon skill]
[Chameleon +2, Chameleon reaches level 9]
Charlie's voice came through clearly on Max’s internal comm. "[Okay, Max, I'm in position. You ready for action?]"
Max scanned the area. Team Utopia’s flags were in an abandoned office building just over two miles to the east. Max and Charlie had found the base of the ACME team, located in a fortified storefront to the north. Max’s tracker motes had “seen” them clustered here, making their scouting mission much quicker. Max also knew from the trackers that both Carl Mueller and Sarah Patel had gone out hunting for other flags leaving their remaining team: Jennifer, Ethan, and Brandon to guard the base.
“[I don’t know Charlie. I see Ethan and Jennifer, but Brandon is missing…and I don’t see the flags. Something’s wrong.]” Max said.
“[They must be here somewhere in the open. Remember what happened when Xavier tried to bury the flags?]” Charlie asked.
“[Yeah. That was painful and weird. The smart flags vibrated up to the surface, screaming both audibly and in the EM band. Alright. Give me another 5 minutes to get my motes in. I need to do it passively, so they aren’t detected. This feels like a trap.]” Max said.
Max had chosen his current position downwind by instinct, which meant that he needed to fly his motes around the encampment to the other side to take advantage of the wind’s convection current to float his motes in without power signals. He concentrated, directing them in place and watching closely as they floated freely into the space.
He was certain they had remained invisible. He extended his augmented senses and knew the motes were silent and invisible. The woman, Jennifer, was patrolling a tight perimeter with an impressive-looking rifle while Ethan was setting up some blockades on the far side. Max’s teeth came out in a feral smile when he noticed a large hole in his motes cloud.
[New Skill unlocked - Void Sense 1: Visualization through passive haptic feedback using free floating motes. Detect the invisible via remote contact. Enhance resolution with additional mote control and training.]
“[I’ve got it! A big void gap in my mote cloud. I’ll mark in on the shared OverLayer.]” Max sent.
"[Ok. I’m ready, Charlie. I’ll trigger the start. Make it look convincing,]" Max replied, a slight grin forming on his face. "[Remember, we need all eyes on you.]"
"[Don't worry,]" Charlie chuckled, "[I've got decades of experience at being hard to ignore. I’ll go for the grab and try to draw them away.]"
Moments later, an explosion echoed through the urban jungle, followed by the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Max had borrowed a copy of Xavier’s little puppet and given it a gun. He had just piloted the thing into a claymore to draw some defenders away. Max watched as a plume of smoke rose from a building to his left.
“Enemy detected western perimeter! I’m on it!” Ethan said, sprinting off with superhuman speed in that direction, hefting a long staff that crackled with arcs of power.
Charlie had made his move. He swooped in a powered dive from two buildings away, the second Ethan had rounded the corner and was out of sight. The older soldier had spent considerable time training with his new flying wings and came in fast. Unfortunately, Jen saw him instantly and dropped into a crouch triggering her gun in a burst of automatic fire.
"Incoming! Hostiles incoming on the eastern approach! Get back here, Ethan!" Jen’s voice barked through the air; her commanding tone was authoritative but pitched with desperation. It was clear combat might not be this group’s strongest area.
Charlie jerked and spun erratically, but Max knew Charlie couldn’t have avoided everything. He hoped his friend's armor skill was up to the job. Charlie crashed through the highlighted void area.
The illusion, painted by mote mirrors and holograms, shattered revealing Brandon standing amongst the team’s flags. The huge man swung an enormous mallet overhead and down, hitting Charlie solidly on the shoulder and driving him into the dirt. Charlie crashed into the ground in a plum of debris. The large defender delivered a devastating follow-up kick using his augmented strength. Charlie’s limp body barreled through a rickety wall of plaster and glass.
Echoing groans from the darkness of the hole in the wall transformed into laughing. The big man growled and did a double take. Charlie had managed to snag a flag before his rough exit.
“Damn it! The bastard grabbed a flag! After him!” Brandon and Jen both charged through the hole in the wall, lighting up the area with laser and kinetic rounds. Max smiled. The enemy team had two more flags planted in the ground…now, completely unguarded.
Max seized the opportunity, darting from his hiding spot and weaving through the debris. He could hear the muffled shouts of Jen and Brandon deeper into the abandoned warren, yelling orders at each other and cursing as Charlie stayed a step ahead. He focused solely on the task at hand.
"Got you!" Max whispered, grabbing the nearest flag. His heart pounded as he sprinted back, retracing his steps as explosions echoed around the corner.
With the rules of the game, they could only steal one flag officially, but he and Charlie had just doubled their chance of success. If either flag made it back to their improvised base, the flag would officially be stolen in the system’s scorekeeping.
Max dashed into the twisted maze of alleys, following his map towards the safety of Team Utopia’s base. Max’s PreCog skill flashed a warning. He dove into a roll just as a power staff swung around the corner, narrowly missing his head.
“Too slow!” Max yelled and transferred the flag to his mouth to continue running on all four of his limbs. Using an augmented leap, he jumped up and continued running up the side of the building, his claws digging in. His system pinged, but he shook the notice away.
[New Skill Unlocked – Stiction 1: Utilize a combination of friction, adhesive, and Van der Walls force for the ability to stick to surfaces without grip or penetration. Useful for wrestling and jujitsu applications.]
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He bounded over the lip of the building and picked up the pace. Ethan swore down below, falling behind as trash and obstacles got in his way. He was unable to match Max’s speed.
"[Team Utopia, incoming with the prize!]" he shouted into voice chat, hoping his friends were ready to defend their hard-won flag. He heard Charlie laughing on the line as the man continued playing cat and mouse with Team ACME. Max heard Xavier grunting explosively in response and Leah’s voice rang out.
“[Better come back here quick! Almost the entire MVP team has our base surrounded, we need help!]”
Max had shown the team his trick of tagging the enemy teams and together they had protocols they had developed to scrub themselves from getting tagged in turn. While they were waiting for the last teams to arrive, Max tried to tag all the players present.
His tag for Dominic, Nigel, and Abigail seemed to be working but Team MVP had erased all tags every night. Max could not visualize and track them like he could the other teams. Team DAIE was tagged, but the Urban Assault event was triggered immediately when Team Luna AI had arrived. So, the AI mechs were untagged as well.
Team Utopia had an advantage with the tagging, but it wasn’t complete nor foolproof. Getting surprised by the MVPs was bad timing, but inevitable as all the teams were competing.
“[Fuck. Hold on! I’ll still …a mile away.]” Max dug deep and flashed over the rooftops. The stolen flag still held tight in his jaws fluttered violently with his explosive speed. The battlefield was somehow both too large and too small at the same time.
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The MVP team’s captain, Sonny, led the charge into the glade that Team Utopia had foolishly chosen to set up their flag. His team had clear lanes from every direction and Sonny capitalized upon it. Jacob had over-watch high above where he was coordinating the attacks and looking out for spoilers.
Lauren and Ben were converging on the camp. Sonny had left the idiot, Zach, to guard the team’s flags. He hoped the kid’s bad luck streak was over. They had armed him with protection, traps, camouflage, turret guns, and more but he seemed fated to ruin every strategy that Sonny and Jacob set up.
Sonny charged headlong into the glade straight for the large four-armed monster guarding Team Utopia’s flags. Leading with full auto fire from his exo-arm Gatling guns and forearm lasers, Sonny closed the gap. The beast had an air shield that slowed and ricocheted most of the kinetic rounds. The lasers seemed the more effective attack.
Sonny smiled as he charged. The small base had many traps that he and Jacob had been able to map out and avoid before the attack. This team was still lacking in skill to properly conceal them. A multitude of drones had been positioned around the glade, but Jacob had a swarm of Limpet devices that had swooped in, attached themselves to the sentinels, and used rocket charges to send them spinning off on wild tangents and out of the fight.
With a roar Sony crashed into Xavier, his Exosuit assisting in delivering a devastating blow. The enemy he’d identified as Xavier, blocked his powerful punch with his Rambler Longboard shield. The shield stopped the blow but was bent almost double with the force of the blow. Sonny’s satisfaction was short-lived as the air shield around the kid began to slow his follow-up attacks.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled, as his feet left the ground and he was lifted away. Sonny grimaced and triggered his focused EMP to disrupt the wave of foglets, tiny smoking particles rained from the thick air. The effort was too late as he was already twelve feet away and flying into the brush. EMP use in close battles was always risky, knocking out enemy and friendly devices alike.
Sonny’s perfect internal map of the surroundings showed him his teammate’s incoming attacks. Ben's lightning-fast approach vectoring in from the left, his plasma blades humming. Sonny bit his lip with realization. The four-armed kid must have unlocked his Fast Cog skills.
Xavier’s four lightsabers ignited and the pair crashed together in a flurry of energetic sword slices and ripostes. Ben was significantly faster, but four swords against two gave the defender a big advantage. Jacob’s assistance was revealed as the hissing sounds of Team Utopia’s intercepted and decrypted communication chatter played in Sonny’s head.
“[Fuck! My fog is supposed to be EMP-resistant. It’s resetting. Damn, at least it’s not fried.]” Xavier said as he backpedaled from the aggressive intruder. Sonny kickflipped up and scanned the glade, looking for the other defender, Leah. She was here somewhere. The MVPs had heard her over the intercepted communication line.
“[Xavier, fall back. Your Air Shield is still covering the flags. I’ll provide some cover fire to drive them back.]” Leah’s words sounded tinny in Sonny’s head. Jacob had added some slight sound distortion helping to segregate the enemy chatter from his own team.
Sonny’s mote swarm had fully entered the clearing and he saw the void gap just a second too late. Leah’s skill-based camouflage was disrupted as she opened fire with her spetsdods on full auto. Leah was rapidly descending from her high hover above the glade as her Strange Cloak flared to slow her.
Despite the rapid fire, her hands wove independently of each other, guided by her ricochet and multitasking skills. Sonny had to move quickly with his mental boost augs enabling him to intercept the stream of darts onto the thickest parts of his armor. Mini-explosions, shocks, and piercing darts failed to crack his defenses.
Sonny charged his pneumatic joints and leaped. Leah’s eyes widened as the armored leader tackled her in mid-air. She spun in place but Sonny hooked her around the neck with an iron grip. Leah’s claws extended explosively from her fists and she pummeled and slashed at her attacker as they fell.
Sonny was a master at wrestling and augmented fighting, while Leah was more used to formal sparring. His momentum and iron grip enabled him to control their descent. Leah focused on scoring some solid hits as they fell. Sonny absorbed the attacks with grim determination as several claw attacks pierced his armor. He timed and coordinated their combined landfall to smash Leah’s head into a tree trunk barrier. Sonny’s manipulation of the landing broke the tree in half and succeeded in knocking her unconscious despite her augmentations.
“One down!” He yelled in satisfaction, glad to see she hadn’t maxed her neural scaffold skill yet. Most newbies lacked the fortitude to level that skill. His AI alerted him to an update of his map from Jacob.
“[Incoming! South and East! Lauren, one is coming right at you! Evade! Evade! Evade!]” Jacob’s cries echoed on the comm channel. Sonny heard the explosions ripping through the trees in the south where Lauren had been inbound. He cursed but had no time to help, the other bogie was crashing into the glade from the east at high speed…the dog man!
Sonny spit blood from his mouth as he tore the unconscious girl’s claws out of his side and kicked her limp body at the charging Max. Sonny followed with a fusillade of automatic fire as Max skidded to a stop. The MVP leader's eyebrows went up as the dog man dove under Leah’s flying body and sprang up immediately after to interpose his body, protecting her from Sonny’s gunfire.
Sonny's battle lust raged as he recalibrated his strategy. Max had always been a wildcard in Team Utopia, known for his unpredictable moves. Sonny had been looking forward to taking his measure.
He smiled as he heard the crash in the woods. Jacob had “brought the house down” on the other, unseen bogie. The battlefield was a simulation of a war-torn city with hazy skies, but that was an illusion. The cavern ceiling was 200 meters above and Jacob was tethered in high overwatch. He had just dropped his collection of rocks on the incoming defender.
Max’s back was cratered with bullets but healing fast. Sonny had perfect clarity on all the battles occurring thanks to his team’s combined mapping skills. Sonny marched forward looking to quickly end the fight before Max could regain his feet. He pivoted in his charge to fling his pair of Bolo Drones at the embattled Xavier character as he closed in on Max.
Sonny was ready to deliver a coup de grace when his sensors picked up a spike of EM energy and a distortion in his sensor view. He flung himself to the side as a powerful maser beam lanced out from distortion.
Sonny had seen the VR shows of Team Utopia’s descent into the Resistance Training level. He had expected this mysterious attack. He had viewed Team Utopia’s combat tactics against those pterodactyls. Instinctually, he launched a rocket-propelled grenade from his exo-arm gun’s undercarriage at the anomaly.
The portal snapped shut before the grenade could enter. Sonny laughed and remotely detonated the grenade before Max could escape from its proximity. The blast flung the dog man, cartwheeling and unconscious, into the woods.
“Three down!” Sonny yelled. Jacob’s status screen showed Charlie buried under rubble, Leah still unconscious, and now Max. His teammate, Lauren, had been wrapped up with some type of restraint trap. Ben was rapidly advancing on the four-armed kid. Xavier was partial tangled from Sonny’s blindside bolo attack, disabling his left side arms. He was backpedaling fast.
Sonny grinned wide as he discovered an unexpected bonus. Max had dropped a flag that he was carrying. Sonny grabbed the flag with the ACME logo on it quickly. The smart flags would dissolve and reform back at their owner’s base if left unclaimed for more than thirty seconds. He dashed past the now evenly-matched sword fight between Xavier and Ben to grab one of Utopia flags with no one to stop him.
“[Two for the price of one! Disengage and fall back!]” Sonny sent on his private team comm band. He pivoted to exit to the north when he heard a warbling battle cry coming in stereo from every direction.
“LEEEERROOOYY!!!”
Sonny never saw the 400 kg mech frame that clipped him at the speed of a race car.
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