This is based on the first Unreal Tournament game on the p.c., so it has all the classic weapons (including a few gadgets of my own design) and alien races (again including a few created by myself). So I hope you enjoy this look into the manic & chaotic world of Jason Priest & the Unreal Tournament.

Chapter Zero:

Opening

Jason Priest awoke rather groggily, to unfamiliar surroundings; he was in a great hall of some Aztec temple.

He stood from the cold stone floor and surveyed the area around him, the hall was huge the ceiling seemed to stretch several hundred feet above him, within the hall were 20 foot high statues in each corner and one in the centre, also scattered about the room were heat pits; the type that could fry a man in seconds.

As far as he could tell Priest was alone in the hall, but in the distance he could hear the sound of battle and gunfire, he found strapped to his side an Enforcer complete with 30 rounds and 2 extra clips. Jason stood for a moment trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but before he could reach any type of conclusion two heavily armed men ran into the room, Priest took cover behind one of the statues & watched, now this was not because he was a coward, far from it, as a bounty hunter and ex-marine he thrived in the heat of battle, no he hid because he was no fool & would not just jump into any old fight without knowing the lay of the land, that was how you got yourself killed; so he watched..

One of the combatants was 6ft plus and was covered head to toe in metal, but it seemed more than that, he wasn't just covered in it, it was part of him. Jason guessed that he was probably part of the war machine race, anyway the metal man was equipped with a rocket launcher, his opponent was human dressed in combat trousers, heavy boots and body armor, he also had a golden aura around him & this was when Priest noticed the shield belt, he was equipped with a pulse gun.

The battle between the two raged on, plasma blasts and rockets flew everywhere, but from his vantage point nothing strayed Jason's way. The fight continued on for only a minute or two longer when the humans shield belt failed, it had taken as much damage as it could & the war machine knew it, so unleashed a nightmarish amount of rockets, 6 or 12 at least, the human tried his best to avoid the blasts, but eventually one struck close enough to send him crashing to the ground where there was an audible snap as his neck broke. Priest could see the man was burnt, bleeding and dead, but before he could see anything else the body vanished in a blinding flash of blue light, the metal man roared with victory then went silent and looked directly at where Jason was hiding, it shouted something that the hunter couldn't understand then fired a rocket at the statue which shattered, Priest stood up from his crouched position and stared at the machine.

"Hi there." The war machine once again said something in its native tongue then unleashed another 12 rockets, Priest moved, fast, faster than the other guy had managed and dodged every blast, he quickly un-holstered the Enforcer & returned fire, at least half the shots hit their intended target, but did little, he needed another weapon, then he spotted it, although the body was gone the mans pulse gun was still laying on the floor so Jason made a run for it, the machine continued his onslaught but his aim was rubbish, when the hunter reached the weapon he cart wheeled over it grabbing it at the same time, as soon as his feet touched the ground he pulled the trigger and bombarded the metal man with the entire cell of plasma.

When the cell ran dry his opponent stood for only a moment, the hit the ground hard & just as before disappeared in the blue light.

The hunter discarded the P.G. as it was spent and as far as he could tell there were no fresh cells about, he checked the launcher and discovered that there was one round left, all he now possessed was one rocket and 60 bullets, Jason got the feeling that somehow that just wouldn't be enough; he needed more weaponry

There were four exits from the hall, Jason took the one nearest him, it lead to a set of stairs which he quickly made his way up, but when he reached the top he was greeted by a hail of bullets, one which struck him in the leg.

"SHIT!"

He rolled to the nearest cover he could find then peeked round the corner to find where the heat was coming from; it was from the man who had just got blown up by the war machine, what in gods name was going on?

"Dude, don't shoot, I'm on your side." He tried to reason with the guy.

"You ain't on no-ones side but your own, just like me, now pop your head out again so I can blow it off." This guy was vicious, but even though Jason still didn't fully understand what was going on, he wasn't going to give him that chance.

Priest popped his head out for a split second then rapidly brought it back as a bullet whizzed past, but in that short time he saw that the man was standing out in plain view in the centre of the hallway & that he also had that gold glow again, he'd once again attained the shield belt; this was gonna make things difficult.

Jason quickly came up with a plan, he rolled out with the rocket launcher equipped & fired, scoring a direct hit on his target, the man went flying backwards, but soon got up when the debris settled.

"Ha! Is that the best you got," Jason smiled ", what you grinning at?"

"You've lost your glow buddy." The bloke looked down to see the shield belt destroyed & then a look of panic spread across his face as he looked up to see Priest with his Enforcer aimed right at him; Jason winked.

"Say goodnight." One shot rang through the air & hit the human right in the forehead killing him instantly……again.

As the body vanished the hunter picked up a second Enforcer, but as he holstered it he thought he could hear what sounded like a rocket, upon turning around he discovered it was, but not just a rocket, it was a miniature remote controlled NUCLEUR rocket!

He tried to run, but even he couldn't out run the blast radius, he felt his body begin to tear apart each limb moving in a separate direction, his stomach exploding outwards & his own heart still beating, then he saw the blue light engulf him & then…….he was fine, he was in one piece and back where he started, there was just one problem, he couldn't move.

Just as Jason was about to turn the air blue with profanities a voice began to speak from some sort of tannoy system.

"Round one is over, the results are as follows.

Thomas Marksmen 1 kill

Jason Priest 2 kills and the winner with 4 kills is Xeno Trath, you will now be transported back to camp." The voice went silent and that's when Jason spoke up.

"What the fuck is going on, will someone please fucking answer me!!!!!!"

There, of course, was no answer, all the hunter got was a sharp pain in the back of his neck and the darkness of an unconscious slumber.

Unreal Tournament

The Holy Hunter.

Chapter One:

Base Camp

Priest awoke once again, even groggier than the last time, at first his vision was slightly blurred, but when it cleared he saw that he was in a room roughly the same size as the hall he was just in, except here the ceiling was much lower, it was a lot darker apart from the odd light dotted about the place and it was full of hundreds of bunk beds & people to match.

"Boggles the mind don't it." Someone spoke to Jason, he turned to see who it was and when he did he jumped back several feet.

"Holy shit!" The man next to him was Thomas Marksmen, the man who had recently threatened to blow his head off.

"Whoa calm down dude, I came over to apologize."

"Apologize!!!"

"Yeah for what I said in the arena, I kinda got carried away."

"You got carried away, what the fuck is going on here!?"

"You don't know?"

"NO! I keep asking but no-one answers me!!"

"Dude, you're in the Tournament." Priest froze and very quickly calmed down as what Tom had said sunk in.

"Oh shit."

"How could you not know, I mean the U.T. is purely voluntary, a place to test you skills."

"Look, Tom isn't it," the man nodded ",the first thing I knew about this was when I woke up in that arena."

"But that can't be man, what do you remember before that?"

"I was," Priest closed his eyes, in an attempt to bring back past memories, but all he got were brief flashes of a room with some huge device in it and a man standing over him saying something he couldn't quite hear, it was all very hazy ",I was on a job, I, huh, that's strange, I can't remember." Jason stood up from the bed he was sat on with his head in his hands, then he looked up and around the room.

"How the hell do you get out of here?"

"You don't"

"What!?"

"The only way out is by finishing the tournament, getting disqualified or getting dropped, but that only happens near the end of the season" Jason closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, took a deep breath then slowly exhaled, when he opened his eyes again Thomas stood in front of him.

"Are you ok?" Priest remained quiet & looked around the room once more, it was filled with all manner of fighters or warriors, but some looked like children, young men at best, but still incredibly young, he'd heard of some cultures using the tournament to test a boys passage into manhood, but he'd never really believed it.

"Dude, are you ok?"

"Stop calling me dude, my name's Priest, Jason Priest."

Now Thomas looked shocked and took a step back.

"Noooo, you're not."

"Give me some credit, I may not know why I'm here, but I know who I am."

"Shit, you're the Holy Hunter, damn I've heard all about your escapades & I must admit I'm a bit of a fan."

Jason looked at the guy with an eyebrow raised.

"A fan, Tom I'm just a bounty hunter."

"No no, one of the most renowned and feared bounty hunters in the whole galaxy, it makes more sense why you're here now, a warrior like you is perfect for the U.T."

"I think there's more to it than that."

Before Marksmen could say any more the voice on the announcement system spoke up.

"Next round in one hour, battle royale, ten combatants per arena, that is all." Priest turned his attention back to Tom.

"You say the only way out is through the tournament?"

"Yeah."

"Fine, they want a fight, they'll get a fight."