[Chapter 2]
Loading into the tournament, Leo looked around. He had landed in the center plaza of a small city. All around him were apartments and multi-story buildings with a fountain in the center of the plaza and a couple small trees resting in plots around the edge. Wandering the plaza and the streets were NPCs. They might seem lifelike at first glance, but Leo had played enough games to notice how all the NPCs repeated basic actions.
Leo spotted his team warming up off to the side and jogged over to join them. “Did I miss much?” he asked while moving his arms and legs to get used to the mesh version of his body. A girl wearing a black skintight bodysuit with gold highlights, angular plates of armor over her vitals, and gold shoes with white wing designs on the sides said, “Not much Leo, we were beginning to wonder if we needed to call a pause so you could fix Luke’s helmet” Jess stretched her legs like a runner while she spoke.
“I already fixed the helmet! It just decided to break again because it doesn’t like me!” cried Luke, AKA Minos, while doing push-ups, a large shield leaned up against a nearby bench. He wore heavy brown armor with a horned helmet on the ground next to him.
Leo chuckled at his friends bickering. “Remember, we use our tags while in the mesh Pegasus.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say Phoenix” Jess, AKA Pegasus, said while rolling her eyes at him.
Echo, AKA Artemis, was busy messing around on a tablet while Kat, AKA Hephaestus simply lounged on a bench.
“Artemis! How are things looking?” Leo asked once he was close enough.
“Pretty standard setup. Roughly one million civvies to get to four shelters on the fringes and one megashelter in the middle. Haven’t gotten to look at the surroundings yet but my initial guess is to expect at least one sewer attack but I’ll know more in a bit.” Artemis said, their voice monotone and direct.
“Does that mean I can set up my toys yet? I hate waiting!” Cried Hephaestus, lightly kicking her feet in a feigned tantrum
Leo chuckled at the antics his team got up to. “Hephaestus, you know we can’t set up defenses until the game actually starts. We’re lucky we can get Artemis’ drones up and going to do recon.”
Hephaestus simply groaned loudly as she slumped more on the bench.
A few minutes later a voice boomed into the air while a countdown flashing 5:00 appeared in the sky, “Welcome contestants, to the 5th annual Finals of Samurai Rush! We know the rules of the game are well known to you, but for the sake of any new fans watching we’ll go over the basics.”
Leo’s team gathered together to get ready for when the game would eventually start.
“First things first, the simulation is accelerated by three times, so one hour in the real world equals three hours for our Samurai.”
“The goal is simple: save as many civilians as possible while also killing as many Antithesis as you can. The game will be split into three stages with each team acting in their own version of the city.”
“The first stage will be a rush of smaller models who are here to scope out where the largest concentration of biomass is at. The second stage will be an attempt by the plants to break whatever defenses our plucky young Samurai have gotten setup. The third and final phase, should you all make it there, will be the chance for our Samurai to go on the attack to take out the hive once and for all.”
The announcer held for a dramatic pause to let the rules sink in, “You will have five minutes to set up any defenses you think you will need before the first Antithesis appears in the city. Good Luck”
As the announcer signed off a trumpet sounded and the countdown went to 4:59.
Leo got right to work, sending his team out. “Hephaestus, work with Artemis to figure out where best to place your turrets. Minos, since we don’t yet know where the plants are coming from I’ll need you on standby ready to go.” Minos nodded, picking up his shield and hoisting his LMG in the other hand. “I’ll be ready” He stated.
“Pegasus, you’re on civvie duty for now. Get them rounded up and into the nearest shelter. We can look at escorting them to the megashelter in the center later to make defense easier.”
Pegasus nodded before taking off with a trail of dust in her wake. Artemis and Hephaestus took off down one of the streets presumably towards the nearest sewer entrance. Leo and Minos hung around while Leo worked on getting his augs to display a readout of his team's health and energy status.
“How's the helmet treating you?” Leo asked Luke while getting everything set up
“It works like a dream. I’m always surprised at how well maintained your helmet is despite its age”
“Well yours would be that good too if you didn’t throw it in the van every time we needed to pack up. Without a case I might add” Leo chuckled
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Luke grumbled, “I don’t throw it that hard. Besides, the cases just add more bulk and we barely fit everything in my van the first time around.”
Leo just laughed at his friend before gesturing vaguely at the countdown, now reading 0:30. “We can worry about how much junk we can fit in your trunk later. Best be ready.”
Luke groaned while double checking his LMG and shield. “What we should worry about is your awful sense of humor.”
Leo called out over the team comms, “Check in. How we doing?”
“Hephaestus and I are both good. We got turrets set up on four out of five objectives. Ten seconds out for the last.” came Artemis’ voice.
“Pegasus is standing by in the Northeast mall. I’ve already identified the shelter as being in the Southern corner of the first floor.” Pegasus’ voice came over with a distinct sound of chewing.
Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Pegasus, did you seriously buy food at the mall?”
“Mmm-maybe?” Leo could imagine the wide eyed innocent look she would give him as he just sighed.
“Whatever, it’s your points. We have 10 seconds left. Artemis, what’s the status of the last turret?”
Hephaestus’ voice came over. “Turret is set. Moving back to plaza. Artemis is busy with her drones.”
At this point, the countdown slowly went down to zero. As soon as it did the NPCs in the plaza froze as a message scrawled across everyone's augs:
“INCURSION DETECTED! PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST SHELTER!”
Artemis spoke into the team comms. “Looks like we were right. Two separate incursion sites coming from the sewer entrances. Sending pings to the map. Turrets have it handled for now so we will work on civvies.”
Leo noticed two red dots appear on his HUD map. “Sounds good. Looks like you’re closest to the Southeast shelter. Minos, you’re on Southwest, I’ll take Northwest.”
Leo got confirmation from his team before he watched Minos start loping toward his shelter. Leo set off at a jog towards the shelter he was in charge of while also telling civilians to get moving. On the way, he noticed an NPC who seemed to have tripped and twisted their ankle, making them unable to walk. Leo stopped next to him and pulled a syringe out of his gun.
“Here, this will fix your ankle” He said, before poking the man's leg with the syringe. The entire thing seemed to melt into the man's leg before they watched the swelling go down. The man got up, thanked Leo, and took off running towards the shelter.
Leo finally reached the shelter and started ushering civilians inside. He was keeping an eye out for any stray antithesis but did not expect any to escape the turrets they had set up.
Suddenly, He heard screaming coming from a couple streets over. Looking at his map he still only saw the two incursion sites. “Artemis! It sounds like I have Antithesis at my location. Did we miss a site?”
A couple seconds passed while Leo rushed towards the street. “It doesn’t look like it. It seems they somehow managed to take out one of the turrets at the site near you.” Artemis was calm and collected as she relayed the information. “Hephaestus, I thought you could see the status of your turrets?” She asked over comms.
A couple seconds passed with no answer. “Why is she not answering, it’s too early for one of the higher models that can mess with comms” Artemis wondered aloud.
Leo glanced at his HUD showing his team status. The bars for Hephaestus were grayed out. “Looks like she disconnected somehow. I’m not sure how, I checked everyone's gear before diving in. Lets hope she can get back in soon, until then, this just got harder.”
Leo finally made it to the street the screams came from and saw a bunch of Model Three’s tearing into nearby civilians. “Over here! Get to the shelter! I’ll hold off the plants!” he shouted as he queued up an acid ball from his gauntlet, knowing the acid wouldn’t hurt any civilians. He chucked the ball at the nearest group of the large dog like aliens and watched as they melted into a puddle. He glanced at his point total which now showed 150. He helped the NPC that was knocked down to his feet and gave him a gentle shove towards the shelter.
As Leo walked the street, he threw acid balls at any Antithesis he saw, slowly gaining points. He also shot any civilians he saw with wounds using his Biotic Rifle, watching as their wounds healed and they took off running for the shelter. By the time he cleared the street he ended up with 400 points both from kills and from his healing efforts. Usually for healing, he ended up getting double what he spent on the magazine for his gun, each shot netting him anywhere from 2-3 points depending on the severity of the wounds.
Leo glanced at his HUD and saw the Hephaestus still hadn’t rejoined. At this point it had been about 30 minutes in the real world. “I don’t think Hephaestus is joining back anytime soon. How are we doing?”
Minos answered, “I’m holding out well enough. Got most of the civvies in the shelter.”
“My section is clear, where do you need me?” Came Pegasus’ voice.
“I could use some help, I’m not built for horde management without Hephaestus here.” Artemis said, the barest hint of stress coming through her voice.
Leo made a snap decision, “Go, Me and Minos will be fine for now.”
His team taken care of, Leo went back to clearing out the Antithesis from around his shelter. He ended up needing to buy some Hummingbirds a couple times to gear up some of the security guard NPCs that finally showed up, lowering the amount of pressure on him considerably. Leo made use of his hard light rings to funnel the Antithesis into a narrow kill corridor making clearing them out much easier.
While he was clearing out the plants, Leo glanced up at his HUD and noticed that both Artemis and Pegasus were grayed out as well. ‘What the hell is going on. Artemis’s gear was basically brand new and Pegasus treats hers like a baby.’
“Minos, any idea what happened to the others? It’s like they all disconnected?” He asked into the team comms hoping to get an answer.
“I got nothing man, but the horde has definitely increased in the last minute or so.” Luke sounded breathless and Leo heard his LMG even without using the comms.
“We may need to call this. If the tournament is having this many issues there is no way we can complete this level.” Leo said. Forfeiting was not something he wanted to do, but with the majority of his team gone and likely unable to get back there wasn’t much of another choice.
“Man, I really wanted to get this win too. I feel like we had it in the bag. Let me know when, I’ll pull out” Luke said, disappointment heavy in his voice.
Leo thought about their chance before eventually deciding on a course of action. “Call it. We need to figure out what's going on outside.”
“You got it boss. See you on the other side.” Luke said before Leo saw his name gray out as well. Mentally preparing himself for the disorientation from pulling out of the mesh, Leo followed after his friend a few moments later.