The Tournament

`Annihilator · 17th January 2006, 1:27pm

It was the evening of the first match of the tournament, and to say that Adalia was nervous would have been an understatement. She had never competed before, and was here mainly to try and win money for herself and her family to be able to live in peace on her home planet of Alto-V, far away from the major shipping lanes, and the Skaarj-war torn inner rim planets.

She performed final checks of her weapons, which, even though they had been issued only that morning from the Liandri Corporation headquarters, still bore the various marks and carbon scoring of previous battles.

“Plenty of shock cores—check, full load of rockets—check, now where did I put those sniper rounds?” she muttered to herself while she went over her checklist. Everything had to be in full, or as close as possible to, working order, or else she wouldn’t stand a chance.

She had heard many stories of previous tournaments, and now, with this being the twenty-sixth year, knew that the competition was likely to be much greater, and even more deadly than it would have been at the beginning twenty-six years ago, before the Skaarj had inflicted great damage to the main systems of the galaxy, and had almost managed to destroy the Liandri Corporation.

After she was done with her weapons, she moved onto the entry list to see who she would be facing in the first round. “Hmm, an unknown—no previous matches, just like me.” She scanned over the image which had been uploaded next to the information about her opponent.

“Name: Kaden Frost. Age: 24. PBE (Previous Battle Experience): N/A” she read aloud as she scanned down further. “Not bad looking, despite the obvious farm boy look he has about him…” she thought. Shame she was going to have to see to that.

The noise of the gathering crowd was growing louder now; all here to witness what they all knew would end in the death of one of the competitors. The Liandri Corporation had long since been able to do whatever they wanted, and as a result, deathmatches were no longer required to have the neural-field that would normally keep the fighters from death. Now the tournament had gained notoriety simply because the general populace had grown tired of a competition with no real “winner” to speak of—they wanted blood, and it was clear that this was the case with the amount of money which the tournament now drew after the change of rules.

As she listened to the increasing noise brought about by the footfall above, and the chants of various supporters, she fastened her boots, made sure her extra ammunition was secure in her belt, and slung her shock rifle up and onto her shoulder. Now all she could do was wait for the match to be announced, and then the grav-lift would be released to transport her into the main arena.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Liandri Corporation’s twenty-sixth Tournament!” rang out the voice of an unseen announcer. “Tonight’s matchup will commence momentarily, but first, can we please make sure that everyone is seated and that the shields between the arena and the spectators are in full working order…”

The usual, thought Adalia – in twenty-six years, not one single spectator had come to any harm during a match, but the Liandri Corporation couldn’t take chances. If anyone got so much as a scratch from a stray piece of flak, the lawsuits that would ensue would surely bankrupt them. She listened as the announcer finished up the checks and wished everyone watching an enjoyable evening.

“Enjoyable, hah…” she thought, “I’d love to see one of these upper-class snobs be thrown in here, and then we’d see who was having a good time.”

Adalia had not grown up in a family with a lot of money, so resented the fact that she was now here to perform like a trained Nali for the rich and powerful of the universe. She would much have preferred to be taking shots at most of the crowd, rather than her opponent (who, she assumed, would be from a very similar background to herself) but that was the way it had to be if she wanted this prize money. Resigning herself to her fate, she watched as the light on the grav-lift pulsed slightly with a green glow, signalling the arrival of her transportation to her match, and her possible death. She readied her shock rifle, gritted her teeth, and awaited the inevitable…

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The noise of the lift began to be overwhelmed by the increasing sound of the crowd as the lift drew ever closer to the arena. Adalia could quite clearly hear the vid-screen adverts selling products which she knew she could never hope to be able to afford—all of the advertising catered to the rich, and as such, promoted deals such as the Axon Research Corporation’s bio-genetic upgrades, which would make competitors faster, stronger and better than most, and cyborgs which would compete in place of their owners, so that the owner could just upgrade the programming to an acceptable level of tournament standards, and never worry about having to get their hands dirty in the arenas themselves.

Trying to block out the noise, Adalia focused on the task at hand. She couldn’t be thinking about products and services she was unable to afford, not now. Her head had to be in the moment, as one false move could mean she was being shipped back to Alto-V with her head no longer attached to her shoulders, or worse, as a pile of gibs that had to be swept up from an arena floor.

The competitors were never informed as to which arena would be selected before a match, so that neither had an unfair advantage, and knew the locations of weapon caches and armour— it usually made for a more balanced match, but some of the people who had been competing for years (the ones who had survived, at least) already knew most of the arenas like the back of their hand, so it really ended up coming down to experience.

“Not a problem” thought Adalia “since my opponent is fresh off of the streets, a new recruit, and shouldn’t know any of these places…I hope…”

As the grav-lift finally came to a halt at its destination, she saw that the arena that had been selected was one called “Turbine”—Turbine had used to be an old decaying water treatment plant, until Jerl Liandri (owner of Liandri Corp.) had seen fit to purchase it for use in his tournament. Now it represented a 3-tiered death-trap for anyone who wasn’t constantly aware of their surroundings.

As she stepped off of the lift, the announcer began the countdown from 10, signalling that both Adalia and her opponent had arrived at their respective start points, and that both were ready…

It had hardly begun, when Adalia caught sight of her opponent running down one of the corridors ahead of her, apparently unaware that Adalia was watching him. She took aim with a well-placed shot from her shock rifle, which knocked her opponent backwards and down a lift shaft which he had been passing at the time.
“Only stunned” she thought “The match hasn’t ended yet, so I can’t have finished him…”

As she moved closer to the inspect the shaft, the whirring sound of a minigun spinning up to release a shower of death began to ring out. Adalia quickly ducked behind one of the walls closest to the lift to prevent being riddled full of holes.
“Great start, idiot. That could have been the shortest match in history.” She thought bitterly to herself as she waited for the incessant minigun fire to cease. After what seemed like an eternity, finally the noise died away, and she heard the sound of footsteps running, getting quieter with every step.

“He’s moving, maybe going to try and cut me off from a different direction. We’ll see about that…”

She was back on her feet in a flash, and running along one of the corridors in the opposite direction from the lift shaft, when she caught sight of Kaden on a level below, quite some distance away. She quickly changed weapon, and brought out the rocket launcher. Holding down the trigger on these particular models loaded anywhere up to six rockets into the chamber (depending on how long the user held for) which could then be released in a line which would be unavoidable in a tight corridor, or could be fired in a tight cluster, which would mean all six rockets would hit the same area, and if the target was unlucky enough to be standing in that area at the time, there wouldn’t be much left of them.

She held for a few seconds, noting that the count of currently loaded rockets was up to three, and let go of the trigger. The three rockets firing at the same time had quite a kickback, and Adalia barely had time to steady herself to stop from falling off of the ledge behind her. She watched as the rockets homed in on Kaden, willing them to strike home, but to her dismay they struck a pillar he had been passing at the time and exploded harmlessly.

“Damn it, I can’t get a decent shot at this guy in here, I need to find more room” she said to herself. The reply came over her comlink so fast that it startled her.
“Yeah, just try it…that’s twice you’ve let me get away, bitch…”

She was unsure of what had just happened, but realised that even though they were competing, they could still communicate with each other, as that way they would be able to taunt each other, and the crowd loved when the competitors were arrogant and cocky about their abilities.

“We’ll see, Kaden, just you wait until I’m able to get a good shot off with my sniper rifle, then you won’t have a chance to be protected by anything but your own reflexes.”

“Hahaha, ok, now you’re starting to bore me…try some of this!” shouted Kaden.
Adalia had been so preoccupied with the conversation that she hadn’t thought about moving from where she had been standing for the last few minutes. She spun around to see Kaden advancing on her with a flak cannon, a weapon reminiscent of the shotguns of old, which would easily rip a person to shreds if it was discharged close enough to them. She quickly switched to her sniper rifle, dodged to her left, and fired off a few rounds without even aiming. She felt a sharp pain in her side, and, as she looked down, noticed that some of the flak shards had been lodged in under her armour, and were still white-hot from the power of the cannon which had fired them at her. Her dodge had caused her to roll down to the lower level, and ignoring the pain in her side, she took aim at where she had only moments before been standing.

As Kaden rounded the corner, everyone in the crowd and watching on the Live Feeds held their breath. Kaden had obviously overestimated his aim and ability, and had expected Adalia to be unable to fight any more. The last thing he saw was a well placed bullet flying towards his head.

The announcer’s cry of “HEADSHOT!” punctuated what Adalia already knew. She had won, and would be able to advance to the next round.

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The next few rounds in which Adalia competed were much the same, as none of her opponents caused much trouble to her, and usually wound up as just another kill in her ranking. She had been offered various lucrative deals from companies who all wanted her to endorse their products, and although it sounded good, she knew there would be a catch, and would be stuck competing in endless matches in which she had no interest, so had decided to decline, and keep her mind on winning the prize money and returning home. She had made it all the way to the final, and, contrary to the previous rounds, the champion from the previous year had the selection of the arena. Going into the match, she had already been informed that an arena called “Deck 16” was going to be the arena of choice for the champion. Deck 16 was an old bio-waste refinery which had, once again, been purchased for use in the tournament when the original owners were unable to keep the facility up to code for its intended use. Although the arena was no longer a bio-waste refinery, the lower level still contained a pool of green waste, which, if a competitor were to fall into it, could cause almost instant death, and those who managed to claw their way out were usually left with injuries so severe that they would barely be able to walk under their own power, much less continue a match.

With this information in hand, Adalia had decided to research the arena, and find the locations of everything that she thought might give her an advantage, be it weapons, armour, or locations of good cover. Even though she had been informed of the arena, she was still unsure as to whom the previous year's champion was.

She scrolled through the entry list once more, but the only information listed was a username of “Zephex” who, according to the info-link, was a fairly seasoned veteran of the arenas, but no other information with which she could have gained the upper hand was forthcoming, regardless of how much she searched (even with her considerable skill at hacking the info-link from quite an early age).

After checking the readouts on current statistics for this “Zephex”, she decided that if ever there had been a worthy champion for the tournament, it would have to be this guy. At only 23, he had already held the title 6 times, and had been competing since the age of 15. He had recently taken command of a group called “The Corrupt”, who used to be under the command of a former tournament champion, Xan Kriegor. Xan Kriegor had long been regarded as invincible, but it seemed his time had come when he faced Zephex in what was, ultimately, Xan’s last battle. Now Xan was nothing more than a memory of tournaments past, and had been mostly forgotten by the fickle public.

“Ah well” she muttered to herself, “I should be able to take him, providing he doesn’t know anything about Deck 16 that I don’t, it should be fairly even.” As she thought it, though, she knew that information about this “Zephex” must have been kept back for a reason…

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On the evening of the final, she prepared herself much the same way as she had at the beginning of the tournament, and all weapon checks were now complete. The weapons were even more scarred than they had been when they first came into Adalia’s possession. Because of the nature of this arena, there wasn’t a crowd at the arena itself, due to the danger, but instead the match was being broadcast around the world on Live Feeds, and everyone (who could afford it) was able to see the match from the comfort of their own home.

Once again, the grav-lift’s light pulsed green, and Adalia stepped on, waiting to see what her final match would bring. When she arrived, however, she began to wish she hadn’t entered the tournament at all. Zephex was outfitted with all of the latest technology, including BioMech Mark III armour, which made Zephex a machine, to all extents and purposes, without feeling or remorse. Adalia also knew the armour was almost impenetrable unless a weak spot was hit, and to be able to do so, her aim would have to be perfect.

This was the first time in the tournament that she felt she was badly outmatched, and her opponent seemed to realise this.

“Hahaha, ready to die, human?” taunted Zephex in a voice which was no longer his own, due to the extent of modification done over the years. “It won’t be long before you beg me to take your life.”

Trying as hard as she could not to show the fear that was running through her, she stepped off of the lift to commence the countdown. Once again, she readied the sniper rifle which had brought her so many victories in the tournament, and began to run for cover.

The first shot from Zephex was one with the shock rifle, seemingly out of midair. Integrated into the Mark III armour were small repulsorlift jets, which had been given the title of “jump boots” by many in and around the tournaments. These boots allowed the user to jump at least 4 times higher than normal, and it was with these that Zephex had been able to rise above the large steel crates which Adalia had been hiding, and fire what was known as a “shock combo”. This involved the secondary fire function of the shock rifle, which fired a large ball of plasma in the direction of the target, and then, if the user was particularly skilled, could then trigger this ball of plasma with a direct hit from the Shock Rifle’s primary fire mode, resulting in a plasma explosion which could easily wipe out an opponent, quite literally, as their skin was torn from their bones.

Luckily for Adalia, the combo had been too far away to cause significant damage to her, and she managed to scramble around a corner to safety, cursing herself for forgetting about some of the Mark III’s more “advanced” options.

“Next time you won’t be so lucky!” growled Zephex, as she heard the heavy footsteps approaching. Slipping down a side corridor, she ran as fast as she could until she came to a wall, with no discernable means of passage.

“Shit!” she thought to herself, “Now what am I going to do? I’ve caged myself in!”
Looking around frantically, she noticed that the other end of the corridor had a ramp leading down past a set of lifts, which seemed to be her only option. She bolted towards the other end of the corridor, and was just about to pass the lifts when suddenly Zephex rose up from the lower level, assisted by the jump boots once again, and began to shoot in her direction with various rockets. Diving behind the nearest wall, she brought out her trusty sniper rifle once more, and peering round the corner, tried to see if she could hit Zephex so she would have enough time to make a break for the nearest door. But, as she looked round the corner, she couldn’t see Zephex anywhere.

Moving slowly, she edged out further into the open, into what was now an empty, but heavily damaged and battle-scarred corridor. She began to move towards the door, but suddenly a shot rang out from a fair distance away, and it was met with a searing pain in her right leg. Just as he had hoped, Adalia had given up her cover when she thought that Zephex had moved away to a different area of the arena. Now, she was truly stranded, and struggled to drag herself out of the door she had been heading for.
There, up on the highest tier of the arena, was Zephex, sniper rifle in hand, aiming straight for her skull. Adalia didn’t even have time to hear the announcer shout “HEADSHOT” once more before she had slumped over, dead, on the arena floor.

The last thing Adalia had seen before her life was ended, however, was her family back on Alto-V, and they were happy, much happier than she had seen them in a long time. They welcomed her back with open arms, and she regaled them with stories of the tournament, and how it had changed her. She would forever be remembered as one of the greatest competitors of all time…