Chapter 1: And So It Begins
~
Atlas woke up to a singular thought.
“Today is going to suck.”
Groaning, he sat up in bed, shaking his head. The last remnants of a dream faded away, something about blue cats and purple dinosaurs feeding each other custard pie.
The bedside alarm was screaming in his ear, its horrible shrieking designed specifically to make sure he didn’t roll over and go back to sleep. He hated waking up in the morning. Getting a job required him to, so normally he could blame it on that, but today was a Saturday.
In that moment of half-wakefulness, he truly considered calling his mom and telling her he couldn’t make it. Maybe his car wouldn’t start. Or, there was construction blocking his street. He’d given those excuses to his boss before. But no, she’d figure it out instantly. Then he’d be in even more trouble.
Flipping the covers off, he shivered as the late fall chill seeped through the floorboards. A quick steaming shower later, and he felt much more awake.
Breakfast was a slice of toast and jam shoved into his mouth as he quickly dumped cat food out for Billyboy. The rangy miscreant took great pleasure in using his legs as a scratching post, and once again Atlas wondered why he kept the creature around. Honestly, if his roommate hadn’t left the stupid cat when he bounced on the lease, Atlas would never have gotten a pet.
Scrambling to throw on his old blue-navy jacket, he naturally tripped over the half-inch concrete step ledge in front of the door. “Gah!” His mumbled exclamation caused the loosened toast to slip far enough out, and with his hands preoccupied with fumbling around the jacket pockets to find keys, he could only watch forlornly as the remnants of his breakfast splattered across the sidewalk.
“Seriously?”
Shaking his head, he quickly locked up the building and then sped down to the battered Jeep sitting on the side of the street. Did the car look worse than normal? Surely the pine green paint job he’d just gotten wasn’t already fading? Ugh. The engine turned over, slowly at first, the sound of grinding emanating from beneath the hood.
“Come on!” Pounding the steering wheel seemed to help, as it finally turned over, coughing its way into life. Pushing the speed limit, but only slightly, Atlas maneuvered through the lazy weekend traffic towards his parent's house. A glance at the clock showed he was already a few minutes late, but it should be fine. He flipped on the heater, the temperature outside not quite losing its autumn briskness in the sunlight.
Cold air blasted into his face. With a sigh he redirected it, but today had officially been labeled “one of those days”. It sucked it was on a weekend, but nothing he could do about it. Momma had asked for help, and Atlas was under no illusions that it was a request.
A few hectic minutes later and he was coasting into the driveway of an older suburban home. Already outside he could see a bundle of high schoolers, and his stomach gave a little lurch. Nah, surely she wouldn’t…
“Hey Bro!” A teenage girl, her dark cornrows still being braided by a friend, waved in his direction.
Atlas sighed. Of course it was babysitting duty.
~
“Look Mom, I’m just saying I have a lot to do and…”
“I know honey.” His parent in question gave his cheek a motherly pat. “But you promised me a free day, and I’m calling it in. Lexi needs a new dress for the holidays, and I don’t have time to take her to the mall. So you’re the chaperone, congrats. Go grab your laundry basket and throw it in the washroom, I’ll take care of it later. Also, grab a bowl and some grits on the stove real quick, they’re still warm.”
Sighing, Atlas just gave in. Arguing with his mom would be about as effective as wrestling a bobcat. No real way to win, just get bloodied in the process. Plus, he had promised.
Once a second (sort of) breakfast was shoveled down, and the aforementioned laundry thrown on top of the washing machine, it was time to face the music.
Outside, five lively and very talkative girls were in the process of loading up. Lexi gave him a knowing grin but thankfully didn’t rub it in. The same couldn’t be said about Josiah.
“So, ya hanging out with girls all day huh? Man, what a bummer.” The fourteen-year-old swung in the porch swing, a giant book nestled in his lap. He glanced up at Atlas, a mischievous smirk crossing his face.
“It’s too bad you didn’t take that scholarship to Detroit, huh?”
Atlas struggled for a second, then gave in. “Ok, first off, Detroit sucks. Secondly, remember how I promised to pay you back for that pie incident? Ya, I’m thinking it’s noogie time.”
His little brother lost the smirk and immediately dropped the book. Slowly, he started backing away. “Now hold on, it was just a joke! No harm right? Right?”
Josiah must have seen the glint in Atlas’ eye, cause he took off like the hounds of hell were chasing him. Atlas just grinned, satisfied that the ongoing threat still worked.
Jogging over to the vehicle, he noticed Lexi shaking her head. “Seriously bro, one of these days he’s gonna be as big as you, and whatcha gonna do then?”
Atlas shrugged. “Probably get beaten up. I ain’t that worried.”
Rolling her eyes, she punched him in the shoulder, then held up a bag. “I grabbed some snacks and the ebook reader. Hopefully, you won’t be too bored. Now hurry up, we’re wasting daylight.” Immediately after which she jumped in the Jeep. Atlas grinned, feeling a bit better, and moved to follow.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
At least Lexi was cool, for a little sister that is.
~
Atlas settled in for the long haul. It had already been several hours at the mall, but the girls showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. At least the designers of shopping centers had begun to figure out the benefits of having a place for husbands and boyfriends (or bored older brothers) to sit and rest a bit.
He would read and occasionally watch as his sister and her friends twittered and giggled from one store to the next, often stopping by his seat to drop off more bags. Every once in a while, they’d come by and have him move several hundred feet in some other direction, where they’d start the process all over again.
He truly, absolutely, had no understanding of why they seemed to enjoy this so much. Atlas had always been the kind of guy to walk into a store knowing exactly what he needed, spend five minutes looking at his options, then pick the best one and call it good.
Whatever. He unpaused the video he’d been watching about how to smelt magnetite iron from river sand. Much more enjoyable.
Twenty minutes later all the girls surrounded him and began to drag him to the food court, lunch now being the objective of choice. Atlas took a glance at the various offerings of a modern food court and was less than excited. Ah well.
One scarfed-down roast beet and cheddar sandwich later, he decided he might as well start another book. There was this really interesting sci-fi series about futuristic robot goats that caught his attention. Maybe it was worth a glance. Settling in, he quickly became oblivious to the surrounding murmur of fellow shoppers.
It was 11:59 am.
~
Head Director Fediraol Szlipa watched the panels ahead, his six eyes scanning all incoming and outgoing information. Everything registered as clear on all channels.
Beneath and around him, several hundred thousand individuals worked on their assigned tasks, creating a literal hive of constant communication, the buzz of speech fading into comfortable normalcy.
He glanced to the side, through the horzi-liquid walls surrounding the station. Beyond, the void of space and the beauty of the universe spread out into a mind-bending kaleidoscope of color and power.
This expansive system station was his domain, his brainchild. Oh, the years that had gone into making this a reality. But it was worth it.
A notification flashed up before him. Everyone was waiting for confirmation.
He pulled up the waiting tab, the system panel shining brightly before him.
{All confirmed participant worlds have been added. All patrons and competing guilds have been registered. All level designs have been approved. Opposing Galactic governing factions [The Farician Empire] and [The United Republic of Gaalzin] have confirmed system activation and moderation.}
{Do you wish to enact the system event [Grand Tournament]?}
{Yes/No}
This was the moment his entire life had been building towards. Now… finally, may the wars that had torn this galaxy apart be put to rest.
With a deep breath, and a quick prayer to the Enlightened One, he confirmed the prompt.
~
At exactly 07:00:00 USTC (Universal Solar Time Coordinated), every major city on Earth, along with numerous smaller population hubs, were assailed with suddenly appearing silver orbs, each the size of a small car.
All of these orbs smashed down within a group of more than a hundred people, no less. Each remained utterly still after reaching the ground for exactly 21 seconds before a pulse rippled out into the surrounding crowds.
Out of the nearby people, precisely 21 per orb were connected via an electrical tether. This line led inside the orb, and each of those selected found themselves completely frozen, unable to even twitch their lips in response.
To the appearance of everyone nearby, those trapped souls were then melted, obliterated, and turned into dust. It was disturbing to most, horrific for all, and confusing to the world. Exactly 365,428,572 individuals left the planet’s surface that day, disappearing into the ether along with the devices that had consumed them.
Mass panic was left in their wake. Everyone was asking questions, fingers pointed at any that might be worthy of the blame. Governments went into damage control, and mutual destruction peaked its head over the horizon. Thankfully the world didn’t immediately implode, but it was a close thing.
Twenty-one minutes later every electronic device capable of picking up a signal, be it a smartphone, TV, or radio, all began playing the same message with audio and video.
A well-dressed human woman in her prime stood before an opulent podium crested with jewels unlike any on earth, her smile unwavering yet professional. Her eyes seemed to carry unapproachable knowledge and her voice was like clear rain, tone somehow both apologetic and still utterly powerful.
“Greetings, people of the newly discovered inhabited systems. We are excited to announce that each of your civilizations has been deemed worthy of incorporation into the greater known universe. In accordance with the Viam Inventionis Treaty of 12209, this will be accomplished in the form of a Grand Tournament, broadcast freely to each participating world and inhabited quadrant. The Treaty also protects newly discovered species from extinction, slavery, or being extorted purely for resources by any governing body, current or future; as well as providing specific Regulations regarding world source reclamation.
We understand this might be shocking to the new participants, so please allow me to address a few points.
A selection of random inhabitants have been taken from each world, and are currently being prepared for participation in the Grand Tournament. These chosen people have been given the incredible opportunity to compete for all they love, true representations of the average individual among your worlds.
These actions are necessary to determine the level of quality your civilizations have to offer, as well as what local genetics have arisen. Contained within your people might be secrets of unimaginable value to the greater universe! In order to better protect such prospects, the Collective Allied Systems have jointly crafted a means of detailed inspection and evaluation concerning newly discovered planets or system-wide inhabitants.
These guidelines are listed in the Codicem Conductum and are by which the Grand Tournament is structured. A copy of the Codicem will be provided to each participant world for further inspection at the conclusion of this message.
There are many rewards possible for those individuals participating, including but not limited to a planetary regency. More details on this topic will be discussed as the Tournament continues.
It has been determined that in order to ease the sudden crisis brought about by such a change of existence, each of your worlds will be provided with a rudimentary planet-wide AI system. This system will help answer many of the questions I’m sure you now have, as well as negating your more advanced weapons currently in place. Please understand, this is simply because we do not wish any unfortunate accidents to occur while the Grand Tournament is in place.
At the conclusion of this message, the global AI will activate, and allow you to interact with it personally. We ask that you familiarize yourself with the nature of this system, though you shouldn’t find it too difficult as it has been based on your current technological level.
For the duration of the Grand Tournament, a nightly update will be given on the status of your world’s active participants, as well as any other necessary information concerning your integration into the wider Galactic community.
Finally, the premiere episode of the Grand Tournament will feature a small excerpt on each of your planets, introducing the greater galactic population to our new hopeful citizens! Look forward to some potential new tourists after the Tournament has been completed!
And now, for all those watching in anticipation, I give you the 257th… Grand… Galactic… Tournament!!!