I could have cut the tension in the room with a sword. Distrust and aggression was palpable. Small groups of warriors mingled around the common room, all armed and casting looks just as dangerous across the room. We couldn’t trust each other. One of the people in this room had sawn a mans head off in his sleep and drops of dried blood still formed a line across the floor. “I always hated Cluedo,” Keg sighed, “guess we should just assume it could be any of them” he whispered, leaning against the kitchen counter and picking small chocolate chips out of a bag.

“We should just kill all of them to be sure,” I said, sliding one of Havars swords halfway out of its sheath. Keg jumped and grabbed my hand, pushing the blade back into place.

“Let’s not.” He chuckled, looking around at the many angry eyes watching us.

“Jack, control your little brother.” He implored. Keg had been wary around me ever since we got off the shuttle, or it may have been after he has seen me cut a mans handoff with no provocation, then throw a woman through the air into a pack of fighting soldiers. I liked the idea that someone like him could be frightened of me.

“He was joking,” Jack said, tossing a chocolate chip into the sink, disinterested.

“He didn’t look like he was joking.” Keg said, looking at my suspiciously. I kept a straight face. Looking out over the common room.

“He was joking man, trust me,” Jack said, “We’re never going to know who did it. Best we can do is not let ourselves be next.”

“Any ideas?” I asked still watching the groups. The stocky man with the shaved head was seated on the floor, his back to the corner. He was reloading empty rifle magazines while directing suspicious looks to those around him. His disposition was mirrored around the room.

Jack didn’t get to tell me his ideas for not being murdered, as Alaria stepped through the main door. Not surprised or phased as the walked to the centre of the hostile room.

“I was hoping you would have taken this time to better yourselves. Obviously, I am disappointed. As I also am with the loss of one of your rank. You would all have noticed that Andrew Pitchins is no longer with you. Let me make myself clear. Any unauthorised death will result in removal from the trials.” Her voice was stern as she strolled in a circle, looking each of us in the eye. “And now. If you could all collect your immediate weaponry, leave any non-essential equipment in your lockers and congregate in the hall. Be ready for a long fight, but I want you all travelling light.” She spun on the spot and strode from the room, leaving the doorway open behind her.

Jack straightened up and hustled to the bunk room, returning with two tight backpacks he handed one to Keg. I knew from experience that each held a bladder of water, a small amount of food, extra ammunition and basic medical supplies.

“You going to grab your stuff?” He asked as he tightened the straps around his chest.

“I didn’t bring anything except a sack of bars and a bottle of water. Don’t worry, if I get hungry or thirsty ill just kill Keg and take his” I zipped up my jacket and walked towards the door. “Was he still joking?” Keg asked. Jack just patted him of the shoulder.

Jack had a point with his well-provisioned backpack. I was woefully unprepared for any prolonged fight. After giving Jack my last spray-on bandage I didn’t even have any medical supplies. I was the only person without anything extra. The others all carried light packs on their backs, rifles hanging from their chests. I looked like a cartoon character surrounded by modern-day soldiers. I only had two swords and pistol while everyone else carried long rifles with camouflage body armour. Maybe I really could just steal someone else’s.

We were marched back the way we had arrived, stopping momentarily at the wide corridor to allow a convoy of Hover vans pass. We weren’t alone. Jack nudged my arm and motioned to two other groups walking in front and behind us. “Two of the guys up ahead are American, and Europeans are behind. I saw the patches” He said, “Do you think we will have a group battle? See which continent is the best?”

“I don’t know man. We’ll have to wait and see” I said, trepidation mounting in the pit of my stomach. I hoped it wouldn’t be a conventional battle. I would be next to useless in a long-range fight, especially considering that everyone around me could likely hit an eyeball at five hundred yards.

The shuttle hummed and rocked as it lifted off the deck of the loading bay, still caught in the ship's gravity. I looked across at the empty seat. A blatant empty spot among the nineteen of us. Jacks keen eye and had been quick to spot that all other groups were a full twenty people. If we had to fight as a group we would be at a disadvantage.

The shuttle stabilised and twisted before moving off. The Blue haze washing over the windows as we left the loading bay and we twisted in space, showing the enormous ship before the shaded side of a moon came into view.

“This is Corsa 2-4. The Guilds and companies had to pool our resources to terraform it on such short notice. We have access to the lower island you can see” Alaria said, from her seat at the front of the shuttle.

I looked up at the moon, a landmass stretched across the lower portion of the moon, the image obscured by the haze of the atmosphere. I wanted to say that the island was in the south, but I realised that I had no idea what direction I was looking from, no idea where the poles even were.

“What do you think they have in mind for us?” I asked Jack, who was strapped in beside me.

He rubbed his eyes and gazed at the moon, “I’m honestly not sure.” He said.

“Any chance it will be like selection for the S.A.S?” I asked. Jack had described the selection process for the special forces as ‘hell’. Days on end of barely any sleep and no food. Running or hiking miles every day with a full pack and strict time limits. A process to push a soldier to their limit, then make them keep on pushing through.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I don’t think so. Most of the people here would have already gone through something similar, we’re all trained and tested. You’re probably the only one here that isn’t or wasn’t in the military.” He said, “If it was me, I would split everyone into two groups. Thin the herd with a large-scale battle.” I watched the Alaria, she didn’t even look as though she was listening. “Anything else?” I wasn’t convinced.

“Or an obstacle course? A massive one?” the tall athletic woman who had created a running track in the training room said from beside Jack. “At least I hope so” she added.

“Olivia Wilson, right?” Jack asked, reaching over to shake her hand. “I’ve heard about you, world champion triathlete that joined the navy then won a shit load of shooting awards.”

“That’s me” She grinned, “Who’s the civie? He is a civie right?” she asked, nodding over at me.

“My brother. Yeah, he works in an office in the real world. It’s hard to believe he’s here with us,” Jack said.

“I can hear you” I muttered.

“How are you here? If you’re a civilian?” Olivia asked, leaning forward and looked at me over Jack.

“Bad luck,” I said.

“Where’s your rifle?” She asked, her head tilted to the side. There was no tone of insult, she was either genuinely curious, genuinely confused, or both.

“I don’t have one,” I explained, looking up at the moon as it drew closer.

“Do you know how to use one?” The stocky red stubbled man said from across the aisle. Jack tensed next to me. While Olivia’s tone lacked any insult, this man was clearly being a dick.

“I don’t need one,” I said, reaching up and tapping on my swords.

“Oh, they’re good if you can get close enough. But that’s not easy with a bullet in the brain,” The man raised his hand in a finger gun and pointed it over at me.

“Careful James. You’ll lose that finger” Olivia chuckled, “You saw what he did the other day, sliced off the guy's hand before she” Olivia nodded to Alaria, “had even said go.”

The man scowled and dropped his hand. The buzz of light conversation and speculation was drowned out as the ship entered the moon's atmosphere and the buffeting started. The chatter stopped soon after, as people grasped their harnesses. No matter how many times someone dropped down from orbit, it was never a comfortable experience.

By the time the ship touched down on soil, there were more than one pale face and white set of knuckles. A collective sigh ran through the shuttle as the door hissed open. Alaria was already on her feet and exiting the ship, her translucent skin flashed in the sunlight. We Shuffled out after her. Five more shuttles had already landed in a neat line in the centre of a clearing. I looked at the forest-covered hills around us. A covering of tall evergreens was dotted vibrant purples and oranges. ‘Were these alien plants too?’ I wondered as I tried to focus on the distant treetops.

The hills dipped in front of us into a wide valley. “Where are they going? Is that the Russians?” Jack queried, I followed his gaze to watch a group of twenty men and woman rush from their shuttle and begin jogging across the clearing towards the edge of the valley.

“For creator's sake!” Alaria swore, watching the group. “Cirin! We were meant to wait until we landed!” She yelled across the clearing at a tall dark-skinned man, his long hair ran thick down his back and he flashed a sharp-toothed grin at Alaria. She swore again as another group took off running.

“Fucking cheats! Alright everyone, come here!” She growled. Our oceanic group heard the venom in her voice and jumped to attention, rushing to her side.

“This is how it is, The trial starts in three days, two hundred and ten kilometres away” She tapped on her scanner and a large three-dimensional holographic image of a hilly forest spread out in the centre of the group. “We are here,” she said, and a flashing orange pillar of light sprang up from a clearing identical to the one we had landed in. “The start of the trial is here” A bright blue light flashed on the other side of the map. Scanning over the topography I noticed the finished was in the centre of a massive flat crater, judging by the two hundred kilometres to the finish line, the crater had to be at least one hundred kilometres in diameter, surrounded by deep valleys and steep mountains.

I looked up as three more groups took off at a run, chasing after the others. “You have three days, the first to arrive will be looked at favourably, though the more from each section to arrive together will be beneficial. You can kill each other and the other sections but I will personally rip your heads off if there is infighting amongst you.” She growled at us. “If you die, you will be ferried back down and dropped fifty kilometres from where you died. I also recommend the ridges rather than the valley floors. That’s all, you can go.” She said, slapping her scanner and the map disappeared.

I watched the last groups run across the field. We were the last group standing at the dropships the others either hidden from view by the forest or hurtling across the open land. I watched them then looked then over at the closest patch of bush, only twenty meters away.

The runners had at least six hundred meters before the grass was swallowed by the underbrush. “You said we could kill the other sections?” I asked Alaria.

Her head snapped around “Did I stutter?” She growled. The others hadn’t started running, stopping as I asked the question. I nodded to Alaria and pulled Kegs long rifle from his arms. Pulling the straight bolt back I watched as the thick fifty calibre round slid into the chamber. In the real world firing this rifle while not lying prone would kick me onto my ass, but in The Dream, It wouldn't even leave a bruise on my shoulder.

I took a knee, raised the rifle and fired. The bullet slammed into the back of the knee of a runner. The tall man collapsed.

Though we were all high enough rank to survive, a round of this size would have cracked his patella or bruised his tendons. He wouldn’t be running any more.

Three men around the downed man turned to see what had happened when all three dropped to the ground in a mist of blood, bullets taking each other them in the eyes. I looked over to see Jack, Olivia and a James kneeling beside me, their rifles raised. “Four to the head” Jack ordered and all three of them began firing at the down man, who was crawling through the short grass. One bullet after another slammed into the man's head until it cracked and he collapsed to the ground.

The rest of the groups running across the grass began splitting up and rushing for the cover of the trees. Some returning fire, though they knew that without cover they were sitting ducks.

I tossed Keg his rifle and took off, ignoring Jacks yells of protest, cutting cross the clearing directly to the nearest trees. When I hit them I turned up the valley and began sprinting between the trees, keeping out of view of the fight that had now erupted between my section and those in the field.

I stretched my electromagnetic sense in front of me, as far as I could until I felt a hint of life. Up ahead were four people, firing from the edge of the forest back at the landing ships. I leapt from a hard-packed dirt mound, kicking off from a tree to propel myself between two thick tree trunks.

I landed behind the small group my swords already free and slicing through the back of two necks in one swipe. The other two died without even a scream as I stabbed each through the heart.

Picking up one of their rifles, I leant the barrel against a tree and began firing at the remaining section in the field. The remaining six fighters in the field died among the barrage of bullets, pinned in the exposed field.

When the shooting stopped, I dropped the rifle and checked the bodies for supplies. Pulling a nutrition bar and a bottle of water from one backpack and three spray-on bandages from another. By the time I was done, Jack, Keg and Olivia were jogging up through the tree line, section, most of the section trailing behind them. “Again Erick. A little warning before you start killing people!” Jack said, shaking his head.

“Does he do this often?” Olivia asked, looking over the four dead bodies around me.

“Too often,” Jack muttered. Pulling another bandage from a backpack and tucking it into his own. “What now?” Keg asked.

“Now we go get the rest” I smiled before flicking my helmet and mask up.