As Eclipse sat in his nook, hearing the sounds of combat outside, he tried to remember if anything he had learned up until now would help him. His first championship match came to mind...
Nothing like this of coarse. In an effort to prevent one sided match-ups, and therefor poor ratings, Liandri had instituted a tier system into the Deathmatch arena. He was on A now, but had been on D at the time. There were 2 ways to advance. Earn enough points to fight the champion, and beat him, or simply spend a long enough time in one arena. Eclipse, rising quickly through the ranks, went for the first option. If he won, he could be in Tier "C", as well as being the D Tier champion. That meant he was paid more, had more benefits, respect, and could participate in special matches.
One advantage to being champ was you always choose the arena to fight in. Of coarse that would make his challenge that much more difficult. In an effort to make his match a little more possible, he studied his opponent and his record.
His name was "Hellscream". He was about 7 foot tall, and his shoulders wide enough he had trouble fitting through most doors. He wore a modified Goliath Armor, but it was a hideous clash of yellow, purple, and orange, with no pattern, just random streaks of color. He had a helmet that reminded Eclipse of some sort of evil demon clown.
His weapon was huge. A large rectangular barrel attacked to his left arm, with a large cable leading to an almost comicly large backpack. It was listed as recovered from the Planet Skaarj after the war, but before the treaty was signed 1 week later. This was incredibly rare, and fortunate for whoever found it, as all items collected outside that window were contraband, and possessing one was worthy of death. The only reason there was a window at all was because of an oversight that made it impossible for the NEG to cover the time-frame. Chaotic Dreams, a weapons manufacturer, had made an absolute killing, as they had a delivery ship there to resupply the NEG troops, and had to stay behind for repairs. Information leaked to them about the situation, and they landed, and grabbed every piece of technology their ship could hold.
This weapon, The Sonic Destructor, was very simply, a very large speaker, capable of ungodly destructive power. It was a variable weapon, meaning it could punch a half meter hole straight through a Goliath MBT, then with a twist of the barrel, could send the tank flying almost 5 meters.
Eclipse had upgraded his armor since the qualifying rounds, and now wore a newer suit of power armor, much like Xan's, but with a different helmet mated to it. Painted black with red highlights, it gave him tremendous protection, as well as increased his strength, speed, and senses as well. It could stop an Assault Rifle dead without too much trouble. It diden't matter though. One round of theSonic Destructor's primary fire would kill him no problem, and one shot from secondary fire would more than likely turn his insides into a paste. Still, with his speed and agility, he woulden't have too much trouble dodging in the open arena.
There was one small detail that threw a wild-card into the equation. The arena was no longer open... sometimes. To "spice up an old favorite", they changed the arena, so what it would raise parts, and lower others, forming a laberynth of trenches, that he would have to maneuver through. As strong as that gun was, it shoulden't be able to hit him through all that stone. There would be no way to target him.
Foot steps snapped him back into reality. He saw an opponent rush into the room, looking for something that Eclipse wasen't about to let him find. How the hell did he make it so far making rookie mistakes like THAT? His first shot from the Enforcers entered through the man's throat, spraying blood and gore in a cloud in front of him. The second shot entered his skull, and exited through the forehead, leaving a huge gaping hole, expelling the contents of the cranial cavity. Back to the match...
He remembered the start of the match. "Welcome to the D-Tier Championships! Today, we have the first challenger in the last 5 years! Eclipse has been in the arena for only a matter of weeks, and is already planning his move to the C-Tier! But to stop him Liandri has sent a truly formidable, truly monstrous opponent! HellScream! The crowd went crazy with the announcement of the names, and Eclipse could only guess the number was in the thousands. They were no where near, of coarse, for safety.
As the time counted down to the start, the floor started to shift. He noted with amusement that Hellscream was in the middle, a large open area about 10 Meters around. With his bulk, he would be trapped there until the floor leveled out again. "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...FIGHT!" Eclipse started moving, turning corner after corner, picking up a Shock Rifle, a Minigun, and a Flak Cannon, as well as a shield. I'm off to a pretty good start... Just then, he heard something coming, turned to the center, and saw a long wall of smoke and debris reaching to him. He jumped the the side, while a circular blast missed him by scant centimeters.
How in the hell did he target me! Running in a random set of turns and back-pedals, he was rewarded with several more blasts to dodge, sometimes close enough they took the paint off his armour. Until he came to a long hallway, leading away from the center. It was about 50 meters long, with only one entrance, and one exit. A previous blast had made the way he came impassable, so he only had one choice. Oh yeah, this is AWESOME!
Running as fast as he could he could hear another blast coming towards him. Thinking fast, he moved to run along the right wall, then, jumped to the left, and back-flipped over the blast, onto the right wall. Turning around, and arming his Flak Cannon, he ran towards to the center. He jumped off the edge, just as HellScream turned to look at him. Firing his Flak Cannon from a distance of 1.5 meters, he was rewarded by most of the flak glancing off, while a very few pieces managed to find penetration, he could see it was only superficial. Then HellScream twisted the barrel, and fired. For a moment, all Eclipse could see was a thousand exploding stars in his eyes. He could feel himself flying through the air. Wall... he thought briefly, just before the slammed into the wall, and fell to the ground with a loud thud.
His HUD showed that nothing was broke, but he had several internal injuries, and his left arm was fractured, while his suit was applying pain killers and tightening around it, forming a splint, it still hurt like all hell. His HUD showed he was down to 8 health from the one blast. That was WITH 50 shields to! Ok, to re-cap, he can see me through walls, he can shoot through walls, his shots REALLY hurt, and his armour is too tough for even a close range Flak Cannon to damage. Well, screw the Flak Cannon any way, the blast smashed it to pieces. Another blast was coming to him, and he managed to hobble out of the way just in time. He walked through 2 health pickups, and they worked quick, restoring him to 58.
Better than nothing I guess. Thinking quick, he decided that while the Shock Rifle was the only gun that could maybe penetrate HellScream's armour, he would only get one shot off if he was lucky. He diden'y really like the idea of running around getting more health, then getting shot with the cannon again, several more times. But if I can change the Rifles output... "Is there anyway to increase the Shock Rifles output?" he spoke into his Mic. The voice of his new operate came back to him: "Yes, thats how Liandri makes Instagib Rifles. But we done have the parts..." She said. "I don't need anything that hi-tech, I just need a one hit wonder." He said. "Well, alright, but you'll have to do it, we can't touch your guns." "Fair enough, as long as you walk me through it." He responded.
In the end, it was a simple matter of jury rigging the attenuation circuits, and having his operator daisy chain the power cells together. That and bypassing every safety they put on the Rifle. It would fire one shot. No more. After that, it would either melt in his hand, or explode, they wern't sure which. But it would get the job done. Maybe. Better than anything else at any rate.
"Remember, its range and accuracy took a huge hit, so you'll have to be pretty close to have any effect." Spoke his operator. "You mean I get to get real close and get shot with that huge gun again? I can't friggin wait." He spat sarcasticly. "Hey, this is YOUR plan, not mine. I diden't even want you to take this match." She retorted. "Yeah, yeah, I know."
After a while, he managed to work himself near the center. He turned a corner, and was staring down the barrel of the Sonic Destructor. Jumping back around the corner, then jumping off the wall behind him, he sailed narrowly over the blast, right into the middle. He was just 2 meters away from the champ now, and his gun needed a second to recharge. One more second than he'll get from me! He aimed the Shock Rifle, and pulled the trigger.
For a brief heart beat, nothing happened, and Eclipse thought it wasn't going to work, and his death would be very quick, and very painful. Then it happened. It was a cone of pure energy. By the time, it crossed the 2 meter gap, it was already as tall as the champ. He staggered, then Eclipse could no longer see him through the bright cone of light. He saw the weapon start to glow yellow, then let go, just before it exploded. When the smoke cleared, he saw something that made him want to break down and cry. All 7 feet of the champion, ready to put an end to this miserable challenge.
Then he looked again. His armor was partially melted, and fused in some places. It had dozens of small holes, and he could see charred flesh through them. Seizing his chance, he equipped his Enforcers, ran forward, and went to work. Pressing the barrel of the gun to a hole, he fired 2-3 shots, and moved it to the next hole. HellScream tried to move, but his fused armour held him in place. His arms were stuck, and his cannon was pointing straight down, useless. Or so Eclipse though.
Eclipse heard a blast, and felt himself tumbling through the air again. He fired it straight down! Warning symbols flashed like made in his HUD, and when he hit, he felt his teeth rattle in his head, or did his head rattle around his teeth? It diden't matter, it hurt a whole lot. One warning symbol showed his armour was seriously damaged, one showed that he was seriously damaged, he couldn't make sense of it, and he diden't care. Some woman was shouting in his ear. My operator? He pressed the button on his belt, and his 2 knives appeared. He stumbled forward, ready to either hand out death, or meet his own, what was the difference? Somewhere off in the distance, he was aware that his armour was malfunctioning, and pumping him full of pain-killers, stimulants, depressants, coagulants and anti-coagulants. He felt like that was a different time, a different place. He felt like he was sitting somewhere far away, controlling himself through some kind of computer. Slowly, his armour ran out of drugs, and his mind began to clear.
HellScream regained his footing to. Eclipse rolled beside him, and stabbed into the large cable between the Sonic Destructor's barrel and backpack. Sparks flew everywhere, and with a bright flash, the once powerful weapon fell silent for good. As HellScream turned, Eclipse caught his knife under his helmet and wrenched, tearing it off. Then his backpack and gun exploded, throwing both into the air. He landed about 8 meters away. Sometime between now and when he fired his rifle, the floor returned to normal. Did I black out? Getting up, he realized his knives were nowhere to be found. He pushed a button, and grabbed his pistol. He limped over to his fallen opponent. Something was deffanitly broken now. His HUD no longer displayed any information about his armor, only the basics about his Health, which was at 5, and ammo.
Standing over his enemy, he could now see his face, and was shocked. It was... human. Of coarse he was human, but he was... normal. He diden't look Gene-boosted, mutated, or cybornetic. "Please..." He rasped. "Kill... me..." Judging from all the blood he was coughing up, he diden't need any help. "Kill... me... and..." Eclipse cocked his head. "And what?" "And... and... make... them pay... for... what they... did to me... my family..." More blood. "Who? What who did to you?" "Li... Li..." That was all he could get out before he started writhing in pain, from some internal injury. With one more bullet, Eclipse put him out of his pain.
After that battle, after all the press, during the party, he got with his operator. "I want you to find out everything you can about HellScream. His past I mean. You have a picture of his face?" She nodded. "Yes, your optical implants were still recording." "Good. I want to know everything about him, and I don't care how you find out. Go to street hackers if you have to." She nodded again. "Got it".
After the party, he went home to his appartment. He had several thousand e-mails, from fans, from family, friends, ads for things he would never need, from Liandri, but for the moment, all he wanted was sleep...