LAG PROBLEMS

“Look, look at that monitor.” On the monitor, a space marine in green armour, was running in place. His teammates were running ahead of him. One of them turned to look.

In the Devil Center Operations room, Director Jasmine Lens was holding court. A camera man was diligent filming every word she said so it cold be streamed to people around the world.

“That’s the Reen Pencils. They have a serious lag problem.” The monitor had text on the lower edge of she screen with the words Collins, Reen Pencils. Collins was the name of the Reen Pencils trooper running in place. His team was running down the hallway in front of him. Suddenly, like a drag race car, he sprinted unbelievably fast down the hallway. The hallway ended in a T intersection. The rest of the squad went left. Collins didn’t slow down at all. He crashed headlong into the wall.

“Is this a game problem?” Colin, a handsome blonde hunk of an interviewer asked. Colin had been a journalism student here at the college. A capable journalist and easy on the eyes, perfect to be one of the field reporters for the streaming broadcast.

“We are monitoring the data stream coming and going out of the Pencil’s setup,” Lens answered. “The problem is definitely with their setup. If it was a speed lag or a connectivity problem, every team would have the same problem.” She motioned to a different monitor. “The Ducks aren’t having any issues. Same for Team Cryaons, and Team Mountain Men and Team Powder Puff Gs.” The teams on the other monitors were operating fine. Collins was in a lump on the ground. A TU’Con was approaching while twirling a pair of wicked knives.

MARK AND THE TU'CON

So far everything is going well, Angie thought. She had killed a TU’Con. So had Mike. They had to stop using the G-78s. The captain had made that announcement a while ago. The accelerator rifles packed a hell of a punch. A punch that would send a slug straight through the bulkhead. The ship was in enough trouble without being vented by who knows how many trigger happy marines. You also didn’t know if there was a fellow marine on the other side of the bulkhead. They may not be on your team, but all of the marines were on the same side.

As the team ran past a side passage, a TU’Con leapt out. It was a bulky, scaly humanoid beasts with big eyes. No bigger than Mark, but probably weighed 50, even 100 pounds more. Most of that weight was muscle mass, Mark decided as he was knocked into the wall.

Fortunately the Tu’Con had used his laser rifle like a hockey stick as he cross checked Mark into the wall. If he had been shooting, Mark would have been long dead. The Tu’Con laughed and came closer. His plan was obvious- beat Mark to death.

Mark dodged the next swing and drew his knife. The Tu’Con swung and again Mark dodged it. After the swing, Mark stepped forward and stabbed his knife into the belly of the Tu’Con. That was the plan anyway.

Angie was watching as Mark fought the Tu’Con. Mike was quickly moving up to help. Something was wrong, Mark wasn’t fighting. His arm seemed frozen. The rest of his body was apparently able to move, just not the arm. Then his arm moved inhumanly fast. It pistoned the knife in and out of the Tu’Con several times.

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The end result was a very bloody and very dead Tu’Con, a live Mark and a swearing Angie. As Mark took the fallen TU’CON’s laser rifle and ammo, Angie was sending a message. She hoped dev messages would be allowed through the game firewall. Janet, Billy, the whole team should be watching, Or fixing stuff. Just in case they weren’t she was writing them.

Message sent, she scanned the small team displays on her HUD. Mark had lost HPs but not too many. Everybody else was fine. It was time to move out again.

Over the team intercom she heard Mike. “Heather, be ready.”

“For what?” As she ran she looked left and right. Nothing but hallway. And the occasional door.

“We’ve killed 3 of them. One in front for Angie, one back here for me and one for Mark. Looks like they are trying to get everybody in the action. You’re next.”

Mike’s theory made sense. Heather still screamed when a door opened just in front of her and a Tu’Con reached out. Because she had jumped away in terror, the Tu’Con wasn’t able to grab her. Angie raised the laser rifle she had taken off a dead Tu’Con. Mark was behind the target. So was Mike. If she missed she would drill one of her own people.

Mark didn’t have the same problem and he was much closer. Tu’Con hands were the same shape as a human hand, but thicker. The grip on his newly captured laser rifle was easy enough for Mark. The pressure it took to pull the trigger was ridiculously heavy. The first shot missed as he jerked the trigger. The second shot scarred the wall on the other side of the Tu’Con. One shot behind, one shot in front, the third shot hit its target. The Tu’Con fell. Heather screamed.

INTERVIEW WITH BILLY KLINE

“That’s right,” Jasmine Lens said to Colin. “The first stage is just a warm up. We want the teams to exercise their equipment. They need to see what works and what doesn’t.” He gave a wry smile. “Many of the teams are finding problems with their setup.”

“It looks like even the legacy teams that have competed year after year are having problems?” Colin followed up.

“The game doesn’t stay static. There are always updates and….” She nodded her head to Billy Kine.

Kine, Lead Developer of the Space Opera game, answered. “We are actually in a beta test for some new protocols we are rolling out. The teams have had access to the protocols for about two weeks. If the test is successful we will slowly make them available to the public.”

Kine smiled. He knew first hand what the teams were going through. It was his regular everyday life. “After all, the system gets updates, software and clients get updates. All of the manufacturers need to be able to upgrade as well. The best teams will adapt and overcome.”