by Noah Barnett
"Your message was timely. I had just finished preparing my armor. May I introduce Gadreel," he said gesturing to the woman behind him.
She stepped forward and extended a hand, which Charlie shook. Gadreel’s palm was smooth as silk, but hard as iron.
"It's a pleasure, Toby has told me of your battle with the demons. You managed so much with so little."
"Hopefully, we'll mix it up with the Roth again. I feel better about our chances."
The angel turned to Tobias and asked, "Shall we?"
Her silky hand stroked across his roughly stubbled chin. The giant knelt like a knight helping a lady onto a horse. She took the offered hand and stepped lightly onto his raised knee. The angel turned as she began to glow and sat on the extended metal arm. There was a flash, and the GAU tri-barreled cannon appeared. The frame sagged with the weapon's weight, and Tobias tightened the cannon down. He pulled a .50 caliber ammo belt from over his left shoulder and slid it into the weapon's feed slot. Then lifted the safety on the back hand-grip and tested the yellow button. The three barrels whined as they spun up to top speed. Satisfied, he let go, and the barrels slowed to a stop.
"Before we head inside I'd like to discuss our squad makeup. Yesterday we managed mostly by stumbling along." Charlie began, and Remy laughed.
"We survived three hours with a rifle, two pistols, and a sword, which was more luck than skill." Remy scoffed.
"Which is why we need to set down our roles. Our speed is going to be dictated by the slowest member. Tobias with his heavy armor will be the anchor. He is the core of the atom, and the rest of us move around him. Jennifer, you are the fastest person here, so you're going to scout. It will be your job to stay just ahead of the group."
"I can do that."
"I will be playing fast response. If we hit enemy troops pull back to Tobias, who will be in the third position. Remy will be the rotator. Mostly she'll stay in the back, but can move to put damage on the enemy whenever necessary. Tobias, I know you're eager to test out your new weapon, but we need to hold you back. Wait for the captains. They pose the largest risk to us. We need you and Jen to concentrate on taking them out."
"Demon-kind will fear my Angel's wrath."
"Let's hope so. How much ammo did you bring?" Charlie asked.
"Thanks to you, I bought the pack which holds six hundred rounds."
Charlie waved goodbye to Grace, and she lifted a hand in a small gesture. They headed inside and found the place crammed with people accessing the consoles. The screens all displayed the same message.
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Together the team signed up and followed the crowd into the elevators. Lobby One was packed with even more players than yesterday, and all the couches were already taken. An invisible barrier kept the central dais empty. Charlie waved everyone toward a less populated portion of the lobby and ended up near a couple of hanging display screens.
Charlie waited along with the rest, and shortly before eleven, the wrinkled Colonel Blake climbed the stage steps. He strode purposefully to the console at the center, pressed a few buttons, and absolute silence descended. Remy had been in the middle of an off-color joke, and he was grateful for the interruption. The Colonel turned and looked at the camera, and it zoomed in on the man as he began to pace. Another ten seconds passed as he walked back and forth in silence. Finally, he sucked in his breath as if preparing himself for the long-winded briefing.
"First, I'd like to say I was tickled pink by yesterday's display. There were some truly heroic efforts. Thank you, and I mean that from the bottom of my wrinkled old heart."
"Not everyone got to play patty cake with the aliens though, so we're going to start this briefing with a small recap. Most of you fought the Roth, so I'll make this quick." He paused until the screens flicked over to an image of the moon. A tiny red smudge was floating around the pot marked lunar surface. Dots approached the Earth as if on fast forward. Then the view shifted to a few seconds of the alien landing, followed by the fighting. The screen froze as a long-limbed extraterrestrial warrior entered the picture. It zoomed in on the creature until it dominated the shot.
"The Roth. That name first appeared in radio traffic caught by SETI when they first attacked Earth forty years ago. They are bipedal creatures that stand anywhere from six to eight feet tall."
"We think the soldiers you fought yesterday are the runts. Frantic and untested children just out of alien boot camp. They send them here to cut their teeth killing humans. The light suits they wear are equivalent to our medium armor. Most pistol rounds won't fully penetrate, but rifle calibers will. The Roth are also tougher. On average a soldier takes thirty percent more damage to kill then a human."
"The captains are slightly older and more blooded. They are far more dangerous and accounted for most of our casualties. The heavy armor they wear is better than ours, and the cameras mounted on their shoulders are capable of night vision. The captains can also detect electrical broadcasts. That will be less an issue today, but I'll explain why later." The view changed to show a red-suited alien. These usually stood a foot taller, especially in the thick armor.
Several alien weapons appeared on the screen, which settled on a laser carbine. "The Roth weaponry is very effective at penetrating armor. At close range, light armor doesn't do any good, but medium and heavy armor will grant some protection. Battlefield pickups are impossible. They set up a failsafe in their weapons to explode on death." The colonel said pausing again. Video of a familiar giant started to play. He manhandled the dropped laser cannon and turned it on the Roth. Several nearby people silently cheered as he cut an alien soldier in half. Then the weapon exploded sending Tobias's charred remains into the building.
"Their suits will also send out an SOS signal to nearby squads, so this makes killing even lone aliens dangerous. Most often we became engaged and were swamped by the support. We died. Oh yes, so many died. Just over 1.6 million players took part in yesterday's worldwide event. Only eight survived to the end."
"Eight…" he repeated slowly. For a few seconds, he let that solemn single digit sink in.
"Today we are taking the gloves off. Everyone will receive an unlimited number of respawns, so death is no longer the end of the match."
"Your objective is to capture one or more of the alien dropships. Thankfully, for once, we do know something. The wreck we took forty years ago was severely damaged, and most of it was crushed into scrap. The eggheads managed to reconstruct what the layout should be." He said and waited for the screen to change again. The wire frame of a ship appeared which spun slowly, and revealed the hallway layout.
"Each dropship is 124 meters long and split into three decks. The lowest level is where the ramp entrance is located. After the drop pods are deployed, it is turned into a storage and assembly area. Two stairs lead up to the main deck on the left and right side. The biggest challenge will be breaching the cloning bay, and you must either secure or destroy it to advance further. From this point, you must take control of both the bridge and engineering. The reactor room is located at the rear of the main deck. Failure will result in the ship's systems being sabotaged. Moving forward will lead to the command deck. This objective must be captured as well, or the ship's commander will self-destruct the vessel."
"Take a minute to memorize the layout," he instructed. The wireframe slid to a sidelong view displaying the three individual decks. The command deck was isolated via a switch-back set of stairs. The viewpoint swung to a top-down cross section of the main floor. The central room was labeled as ‘cloning bay,’ and a hallway ran the length of the ship. Most of the rooms to either side were labeled as equipment storage.
"There are four dropships located in Los Angeles, so that means four chances."
Finally, the view shifted back to the old Colonel. His wrinkles deepened as he grimaced like a man who'd just swallowed something bitter. "The good news, the French, English, and C
hinese have each captured dropships earlier today. The bad news is the Roth know about our cloning centers. They will begin actively searching for them. If they destroy them, you will no longer be able to respawn at that location."
The screen flicked over to a map of Los Angeles. Highlighted were the known locations of the alien dropships. Six blue icons were spread around the city a safe distance from any dropship. "The first time you spawn it will be at a random respawn center. Squad leaders will decide which location the group returns too."
The colonel clapped his hands. "Onto the good stuff. Anyone who steps foot on a dropship within an hour of its capture gets a match win. If you're still alive when the ship is captured; you get four match wins. Killing a Roth soldier still earns you one thousand credits, and a captain four thousand. Slaying the ship's commander is worth twenty thousand credits."
The old man paused as if collecting his thoughts. "Most of the supply cache's have been destroyed, so don't bother looking for them. You'll respawn with a full loadout each time anyway. If you're desperately low on ammo, just scavenge the dead bodies.” He paused again, and took a deep breath before he continued, "I'm not going to bullshit you. This event is going to be a long slog, so prepare yourselves for a battle of attrition."
Blake tapped the console to unmute the crowd before asking, "Any questions before we wrap up?"
"Why don't we all just attack one ship?"
"That might work, but it comes with some risk. While you're concentrating on one dropship, the other three will be out looking for our cloning centers."
"Can we work together?"
"Of course, but our radio network is still rudimentary. You'll only be able to communicate with those within a mile or so. The aliens can still track your broadcasts. But, well… If everyone's talking, you can blanket them in traffic."
"How fast do they respawn?"
"Each ship can support about four thousand troops. Our clones take about a minute to fully form, but it has been forty years. The Roth's cloning technology might have improved. Expect them to be slightly faster."
There were a few seconds of silence, and no one else ventured to raise a hand. "Our time is about up, but you have a few minutes until the mission begins. Discuss among yourselves what you plan on doing." He said and walked off the stage. A map of Los Angeles and the dropship's layout was left flickering on the screens.
Charlie glanced at his team. Tobias was kneeling on the ground deep in a solemn prayer as he whispered to himself. Remy was drawing silly faces on her 40mm grenades in black sharpie, and Jen nervously examined her new high-powered rifle. She lifted the weapon to her shoulder, and looked through the 15x scope, then adjusted one of the round knobs.
"We going in balls deep?" Remy asked putting the finishing touches on her latest doodle. The face had a set of goofy eyes and a tongue that stuck out. She opened the breach on her launcher and slid it into the first cylinder.
"It depends on where we spawn. At the very least, we can stake out a dropship and watch it for a while." Charlie replied. The clock ran down quickly until darkness took them all.
[Event Started]
A door opened before Charlie and he was bodily shoved down a ramp. He stumbled to the bottom along with the rest of his squad. Behind him, the door snapped closed, and the machine started processing the next respawning player. He quickly checked his equipment, while Remy, Jen, and Toby did the same.
They were in an out-of-date fish canning factory, and the walls were red brick patched over with crumbling cement. The packing machines were long gone. Instead, a hundred cloning vats were disgorging a flurry of soldiers. Near the main exit was a map of Los Angeles, including their location. The squad had spawned at the marine harbor at Long Beach. The nearest Roth dropship was about four kilometers to the east.
A console was located near the door, where presumably, Charlie could select one of six spawn locations. The squad collected near the map, and he pointed to a spot on the northside of Long Beach.
"Let's head here. Most of California beach is flat as a pancake, but there is a large hill just past the dropship. If we can climb it, we should get a good vantage point. Especially with Jennifer's new toy."
She smiled, enjoying her new role. Charlie borrowed Remy's marker to make a crude drawing on the back of his hand.
The wave breakers and retention wall had long ago washed away, so the ocean was flooding into the streets of Long Beach. Water surrounded them on three sides with a single rocky land bridge connecting the harbor to the mainland. Crashed upon those huge boulders was a large commercial fishing boat. Its metal hull was rusted through exposing the skeleton underneath.
Standing atop the deck was a dozen heavily armed men. Each possessed a high caliber rifle or stood behind a mounted machine gun. They were dressed in matching gray camo, with a mask over their faces, and a red band around their arms. He suspected they were NPC guards set to watch over the gap. They'd hold off any Roth forces long enough for spawning players to mobilize. The land bridge made for a formidable choke point, but it could work against them. If the Roth took the mainland side, it would completely bottle up the spawn point. Charlie and his team joined several hundred others as they walked past the ship. Remy stopped just on the other end, spread her arms out, and took in several deep breaths.
"Do you smell that?"
"I only smell the ocean and a burning city," Charlie admitted.
"Exactly, its enough to get a girl's panties wet," Remy said dragging in another lung full of burnt Los Angeles. Charlie ignored the comment and tapped Jennifer on the shoulder.
"Take point."
Tobias waddled silently along at a snail's pace. Jennifer ran forward while Charlie walked a few feet ahead of the tank. The squad fell behind as they spread out from the factory in a wave. Most of players moved east, but Charlie aimed his team north.
To the left, the avenue was flooded. A submerged bus and several cars were visible in the crystal clear water. Colorful fish darted in and out of the broken windows, and crabs crawled under the vehicles. Ten or twelve groups were well ahead and jogging up the street. The sound of a high pitched whine pierced the air. Two blocks down the glass wall of a car dealership began to glow red for an instant. In the explosion of glass, a heavy beam shot across the lot, and several hapless men vanished in less than a second. The remaining squad members scattered as more laser fire rained down on the column of players. Charlie halted in surprise. The Roth were way closer to the spawn center than expected.
Jennifer ran forward while Charlie shouldered his rifle and quickly scanned the windows around them for more Roth. Gunfire sprayed at the sports car dealership, but it was desperate and wild as the players struggled against the well-planned ambush. The squad moved forward another block and waded across a partially flooded street until they reached the side of the dealership's building. Jennifer held up a hand with four fingers, then pointed through the side window. She backed away as Charlie looked inside. Four aliens had taken up a position on the second floor. The glass front gave a commanding view of the street and the dozen player squads under fire.
"So the aliens can learn," Charlie mused to himself.
Tobias plowed through the waist-high water toward them, while Remy held her weapon above her head as she struggled to keep from drowning.
"Can you put grenades on that second floor?"
"Easy peezy," she admitted after spitting the water out of her mouth.
"Tobias, wait here with Remy and keep an eye on those stairs. Engage only if a captain shows up."
Both nodded, and Charlie smashed the window with his rifle butt. Remy poked the barrel of her grenade launcher through the gap and fired. The first grenade bounced off the ceiling and landed on the second floor in a brilliant flash. The following round struck in the same spot exploding in a spray of smoke and shrapnel. While Remy hosed down the upper floor, Charlie and Jen sloshed around the side.
He peeked through the front doors. One dead alien was visible laying
over the balcony railing. Charlie made sure Fara was on full-auto before he pushed inside. Jen followed with her rifle aimed at the second-floor balcony. The water inside was ankle deep, and he felt exposed on the show-floor. He ducked next to a blue colored Maserati and waited for Jen to find her own cover. She knelt next to a Silver Aston Martin and gestured with a finger to the far side of the second floor. With the rifle aimed at the landing he walked backward one step at a time.
Charlie was only halfway up the stairs when three aliens jumped over the balcony to the waterlogged lobby below. Two green colored soldiers roll to a stop next to Jen's cover. The third was a massive red suit that dropped straight down in a shower of broken tiles. Charlie ignored the armored captain and aimed at the first soldier as it rose. He squeezed the trigger in a long burst. Bullets stitched the creature's back, and it fell forward onto the expensive sports car.
The second alien ran around the vehicle's side directly into Jen. She held the long rifle awkwardly while laying in shallow water. There was a deafening boom, and the grunt sailed backward with it’s green chest armor pierced through front and back. Blood sprayed out as it landed a few feet away. The Captain turned aiming directly at Charlie as its heavy cannon charged. He had time to admire the massive weapon up close. The red glow inside the cannon really was like the Gates of Hell.
