Chapter 1 is a little slow, I promise it gets better, just give it a chance. It was a necessary setup for the rest.
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CHAPTER 1 : THE GAME
Not too long after the great Warbot fights, after the Warbot champion Alexis with her trainer Marvin decimated those deadly arenas with their five story "Shadow" bot, arena fighting took a turn for the more mortal. The public still liked a good fight between two five story Warbots, but a small underground collection of "Arena" Fighters, armed with the latest in projectile and laser weaponry, was growing in popularity. These "Arena" fighters, as they were dubbed by their fans, were mortals, flesh and blood, of every race and creed looking for something. Some looked for vengeance, some looked for answers, and some just had nowhere else to go. These fighters played "The Games", a collection of duels, military missions, team killing sprees, and other creative battles, to see who is the best, who keeps the best team, and how long they can keep the title. So it looked to the arena's fans, however the purpose of the games was much more sinister, much darker then the surface bloodshed.
The average life span of an arena fighter once in the fight can be measured in seconds. One wrong step, one wrong turn, one blind corner and game over. It was a harsh life, but once you were in, there was no out, not unless it was a body bag. Death from a team mate, death from an opponent, or even death from the Arena Keeper, just so word would never reach the authorities about the location of the next battle. The arena was forever moving, and changing, for safety and security.
The contestants started as individual fighters. Taking on duels, or contests of last man standing. The best of the "death duels" are selected by the different teams. The official teams number four. It has been this way from the beginning. The "Phyre Knights", still donning the armor of their disbanded imperial guards unit, these humans were trained in every way of painful death. They were quick, efficient, and never showed their faces. Just their full, metal helmets of death. Never smiling, never flinching, always methodical and prepared. They were the professional killers of "The Games". The Phyre Knights only recruit the best of the best, usually ex-imperial guards, or other professionally trained warriors.
The "Blood Wraiths", a group of genetically altered humanoids, with a need for blood nourishment. With one bite they can feed on the deceased, or turn the not quite so deceased into a Blood Wraith, infecting the comatose with a genetically altering chemical. Soon they become a Blood Wraith and hope to turn other people someday too. Outlawed by society, they took to the underground to prove their worth. Usually found in blood red leather, with weapons that do little damage to the flesh and blood so that after the kill they can feast. However, they would only feast on the worthy. Those who were killed out of mercy, or cowardice are left to rot, their souls trapped in the dead body. The warriors who fought to the death were sucked dry, "Blood Wraiths" believing that their feasting on a victim frees the soul of the slain warrior. This allows the soul to fight on another plane, in another time. They believe no fight is ever done either, that they will meet the freed soul on the next plane to battle again someday.
"Godlings", the bane of "Arena" games, are genetically perfect beings. Raised in labs, no family, no friends, bred to fight, and to win. These creatures resemble humans, but do not like to be confused with their flawed creators. They have organic armored skin, with the strongest steel intertwined with their flesh. Somewhat pale, their blood is a clear pink, the human blood being transformed into the lubricant needed to power their augmented bodies. They have no emotional ties with anyone to hold them back. They don't eat, rarely sleep, only wear minimal clothing because armor is not needed. They have the easiest movement of all the teams, because of the lack of armor, and therefore the best speed of the groups. Like a pit viper they can strike without warning and have been rumored to dodge incoming missiles. Their one flaw is the unpredictability of human nature. A trait the "Godlings" do not posses, and can never calculate in an opponent.
Then there is the "Iron Claw" a group of militant psychopaths. They only claim the most obedient and well trained that the Phyre Knights don't claim first. Blood enemies of the Phyre Knights, the members of the Iron Claw usually wear plain, steel armor, are well versed in the art of killing, and prefer a weapon with splash damage then something accurate. Where the Phyre Knights would snipe from a distance, the Iron Claw will insert a missile up your ass, kick you off a cliff and watch your giblets splatter in an abstract pattern on the cliff walls. They are also methodical and well planned, like the Phyre Knights, just less tactful and refined about it. Instead of the Phyre Knight steel mask, they want their victim to see their face, the killing rage in their eyes, as they die. They say the Phyre Knights hide their faces out of cowardice because they would be hunted down if it was known who they were. The Iron Claw is every bit as good as the Phyre Knights, and they know it, but the Phyre Knights always seem to keep one step ahead of the Iron Claw.
Some groups rival other groups, some groups hate everyone equally. Some fighters kill with a calculated plan, and others kill in the most unorthodox and unpredictable of ways. Life in the Arena is short if you are a fool, torturous if you are shrewd, and vindictive if you are a survivor. The bottom line is that mortality has become a game and whether you win or lose is not just how you play the game, it's how you survive to see the next day.
Deep in the underbelly of a defunct factory, sitting in wait, is the Arena master. The next Arena game moments from it's start. Minimal power is given to the starved machinery as it creeks to life. The lights are low, flickering menacingly. The sounds of the creaking conveyor belts resound through the desolate factory. The air is stale, untouched for years, and cold as it drips slowly in through broken glass windows, high on the walls, from the outside. Dark corners aplenty, a sniper's paradise, or a thief's wonderland. Fire jetted from contraptions on the conveyor belt's endless path, threatening from a far, singeing anyone who dared too close.
Strewn about the floors of the factory were select weapons, 8 different types to be exact, and 2 that were given at the start of the games, 10 total. Starting weapons are just that and usually put away after a more powerful weapon is found. The first weapons being a large bowie knife with a razor sharp edge. Later in the life of a fighter they may purchase their own and personalize it, but in the beginning it was a regulation Arena Games bowie knife. Also given is the regulation Auto-Mag, the same may later apply for the Auto-Mag, but in the beginning it is kept basic. The Auto-Mag was a fully automatic hand gun, not as quick as it's Chain Gun counterpart, but much more accurate.
Then there was the "Easter Egg" style hunt for a bigger better weapon while hunting other fighters and keeping yourself alive. First, on the findable weapon list, is the Chain Gun. Projectile with a vengeance, there were two settings. Regular and Hollow point bullet chains. The Hollow point chain was slower and did more damage, where the regular was fast, but not as effective as the Hollow point chain.
Second weapon would be the Blade Spinner. With exploding and non-exploding discs. These discs will shred armor with ease and flesh like a hot knife through butter. The exploding discs lodge themselves into the armor or flesh and then explode, all in the course of a second or two.
Weapon three, the plasma gun, which fires a stream of armor weakening plasma, or balls of explosive green energy at a rapid fire rate taken from canisters of weapons grade plasma. Then there is the fourth weapon, the Shock rifle. Like the plasma gun, it fires an energy projectile. Ammo comes from a depleted uranium canister, and it fires a laser-like beam with an almost perfect accuracy, or a ball of energy that has a small splash radius of damage.
Five is the missile launcher, it fires missiles in three ways. Time allows for the heat seeking mode to kick on, but time is a luxury not always had. There is fire "from the hip" mode, and then there is just lob the missile with a timer and let it go off, like a grenade. Six is a Shrapnel cannon, it fires canisters of sharp metal that spray the room, or launch the canister like a frag grenade and take cover.
Then there is the unstable Hazard rifle. It fires radioactive sludge that explodes on contact, or with proximity. The rifle has two settings, tiny globs, or one large glob that can drip down and explode with a large bang and an impressive splash radius. Unpredictable and dangerous, most times this is a weapon of last resort.
Last is the Sniper Rifle, an old world company of humans, calling themselves "Germans" created a high powered rifle and coupled it with a high powered scope. Nothing in the Arena is more accurate, or more versatile. This rifle can be used over the longest distances, or at point blank range. Only using a hollow point bullet, the rifle, if used correctly, can remove body parts, like the head, and severing it clear off the unsuspecting body.
However, in the Arena games there are no bombs, or land mines. The warriors fight face to face on even ground with the weapons provided to them by the Arena Master. With the rules laid out, that being there are no rules, the fighters prepared for the battle in the moments before the game. The fighter's are transported, via energy beam, into the arena, and frozen in place. An implant in each of their minds would show them the layout of the building, and sometimes weapon placement, getting there and staying alive was up to the fighter. Beings that this battle happened to be a Death Match, it was pretty cut and dry actually. It was a bloody free for all, every man for himself. If you survive the first two or three Deathmatches, you were chosen by one of the four teams to participate in the next Arena team battle.