Thanks Epic for creating the Unreal series. Thanks Kyle for being the best damn partner I've ever had. Lyrics are from Metallica, No Leaf Clover.
.:: ::.
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Is just a freight train coming your way
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Is just a freight train coming your way...
Marco was wrong. It's not called Icebound. It's Icetomb.
I appear in the middle of a vast glittering-ice hallway with a blaze of scarlet light-- sheer white walls stretch up to a vaulted crystal ceiling, and frigid waters seethe beneath their thin frosty crusts. This place is as beautiful as a wrought-silver blade... And just as deadly. There's a slowly rotating rocket-launcher at the far end of the corridor, flanked by enticing red-and-gray boxes of ammunition; throwing caution to the winds, I make a dash for it.
Almost immediately a ball of blue-violet energy the size of my head rips forth, pounding into my torso, smacking me off my feet and hard into a glistening wall. A hulking gene-boosted gladiator is just around the corner, her Shock Rifle frantically discharging. Fiery orbs crash all around me, and not a few find their marks-- I'm whipped into the air again just as I reach for the rocket launcher, and this time I'm thrown into one of the frost-laced pools.
My HUD begins to scream at me soundlessly, great chunks of my health ripped away by unforgiving waters. Down from 63 I plummet to 41- 28- 15- 3-
Duchess.:.Razi forgot to come up for air.
I respawn atop a bridge wrought of fine-spun ice, greeted by Bismark's furious message: watch it!!! no stupid mistakes!!! sudden death!!!
Shit.
Sudden Death, in our world, means one thing, and one thing only. The rules have been tweaked. Each gladiator has only three lives, and when those three are gone, she's out. Nine kills was all it would take to win this battle... Or to lose.
Red Team: 1 Blue Team: 2
Double shit.
Footsteps behind me-- I whirl around and fire a grenade from my Assault Rifle, only to find myself face-to-face with a heart-stopping blond male in red armor. TRIPLE shit!
Without pausing to think, the Bot and I hurl ourselves off the bridge as the grenade detonates behind us-- Friendly Fire is always on during these showdowns. Always. The five points or so we take upon landing are nothing compared to what my rookie mistake could have done.
And now shrapnel's shredding the air around us, whistling and shrieking and burning red-hot, interspersed with wicked blue-violet lances, because we've landed directly between the GMH I'd encountered earlier and a lean sea-green android, both of which are emptying their magazines on us, and the Bot's returning fire manically with his Minigun, spraying bullets wantonly into the pair, whirling with his finger clenched on the trigger to coat both blue gladiators with his death sentence, and I've opened my translocator as my HUD wails 76- 48- 19- because this is too good an opportunity to miss--
xxxxxCRUSH was telefragged by Duchess.:.Razi.
And I'm off again, vanishing in a crimson flare of light and reappearing behind a pair of softly glowing blue crosses, absorbing them both as my HUD stops flashing and steadies at 69, firing my translocator once more and then materializing next to my Bot teammate, who by now's taken down the Flak Cannon-wielding android. We exchange a triumphant sort of look, his eyes concealed behind thick dark glasses, and then take off as the message appears hatefully
BiSmArK!!! rode ikillza!'s rocket to oblivion.
Red Team: 3 Blue Team: 3
I killed myself once, in that water incident-- which was a negative frag-- which means we really have four-- and so one of the Immolators is pretty damn close to being knocked out. I bring up the scoreboard on my HUD as the Bot and I sprint, trying to ferret out the blue gladiators, trusting that he'll alert me to danger as I skim the stats.
Name Kills Deaths
BiSmArK!!! 2 1
ikillza! 1 1
Tulmuk 1 1
RenoirX 1 1
Duchess.:.Razi 0 1
xxxxxCrush 0 2
Crush. The big female. Time to die, bitch.
Rockets suddenly explode all around us, fired heavily from that green cyborg who's whirled a corner and come face-to-face with us-- he's smart, leaping from side to side as he fires, and I'm not good enough with my translocator to pin him if he's strafing, so I grab my Assault Rifle and discharge a grenade that clanks tinnily off a wall and bounces to the android's feet and I'm ducking for cover, dragging the blond Bot with me as I hurl another capsule over my shoulder, and now the cyborg's turning to flee but it's far too late because it sounds like the world is exploding as those babies go off--
Tulmuk tried to juggle Duchess.:.Razi's grenade.
Now Bismark's come careening around the corner that Tulmuk appeared from, sprinting through the thick smoke and scattered wires recklessly because there's a fuckin' HUGE ball of blackish-violet-silverish energy wrapped in electricity that strikes the wall behind him and flares out in a massive explosion, licking at his heels, and now that big red-clad GMH bitch is striding purposefully after him and ready to fire another Shock Combo, and Renoir's sprung out from behind the jagged ice-shelf that had shielded us and firing madly with his trusty Minigun, muzzle blazingblazingblazing and arresting the stupid Bluesie's attack--
xxxxxCrush was mowed down by RenoirX's Minigun.
And now, she's out.
It comes without warning, a sudden barrage of wicked grayish torpedoes, thick black smoke and ugly orange flame, and all I have time to register is that sea-green android standing behind us and firing suicidally because
BiSmArK!!! rode Tulmuk's rocket to oblivion.
Duchess.:.Razi rode Tulmuk's rocket to oblivion.
Tulmuk fired his rocket prematurely.
I reappear painfully close to where I'd fallen, close enough to run in and gather up our fallen weapons, close enough to receive a message over my HUD from Renoir: I got your back. The Bot had managed to avoid Tulmuk's mad rampage, but he's unsteady on his artificial feet, and I doubt he'll be much good as backup.
My rocket-launcher's locked cocked'n'loaded, and from up ahead I hear an enraged roar of pain, and Renoir and I are sprinting again and nearly run straight into Bismark who's once again coming from the opposite direction, fleeing frantically 'cause he's only got one life left, and without even thinking the Bot and I are providing coverfire, pounding rockets and spitting bullets, and Bismark's grabbed a pair of blue health-crosses and joined us with lightning tearing from the yellow rifle he holds, and with a furious roar of pain
ikillza! rode BiSmArK!!!'s lightning.
And the three of us are staying close together, at the junction of two mercilessly glittering ice hallways, rocket-launcher Minigun Lightning Rifle, Bismark and me with only one life left and Renoir with two, and only two more deaths needed to win this goddamn thing, but now the opposing team is being a lot more careful, helluva lot more careful, and there's a sudden spitfire of white light and then
RenoirX's cranium was made extra-crispy by ikillza's Lightning Rifle.
FUCK! I whirl around to kill the mother but Bismark moves first and returns the favor on Killza, and then it's him and me and the final Immolator and Renoir's off god-knows-where doing god-knows--
--and hot shrapnel's flying through the air and suddenly Bismark's down with jagged chunks of rock stuck in his brain and Tulmuk's coming after me now-- I'm dodging frantically from side to side but it's too late dammit and I'm down too--
--and then that Bot, that fake unliving wonderful Bot's Minigun chatters, and the sea-green android explodes into a spray of violet fluid, and the match is over.
Our world fades to black.