Scene 11
Gorn crouched on the shield belt's high walkway above the large room in the arena Tempest, waiting for the shield belt. He checked the clock on his holographic HUD to note how much time remained for it to appear. He'd been controlling the belt for almost the entire practice match, but last cycle he'd lost track of the time the damage amplifier would appear next, and if it was grabbed by the opposition before the shield belt spawned, they might be able to force him to retreat and give up the belt as well. 15 seconds left…. 10….
Just then, the grating alarm bell that indicated someone had taken the damage amplifier sounded. ¨Enemy amp!¨ warned Farham's voice in his earpiece.
Gorn dashed down the ledge to a position where he could spam combos into the doorway that came from the amp room. He was so busy doing this that he didn't hear the hiss of the jump boots from the ¨back door¨ entrance, a window behind him only reachable by boot jumping. He did manage to hear someone fire a shock ball, and turned his head just in time to see the flash of the combo that obliterated him. He spawned on the lowest level of the arena, somewhat nearby, and started towards the nearest weapon - the biorifle. Before he even got to it, Anna descended on him from the right, coming down the stairway to the amp room like death on wheels with her pulse rifle glowing purple, temporarily granted a 3x boost in power by the damage amplifier. He barely even felt the searing bolt of plasma cut through him before respawning again, cursing, this time on the other side of the arena near the body armor. He figured Anna and Ivana, the opponents of himself and Farham in this training match, would sweep the map together in the direction they were heading, away from the damage amp, so he turned and ran towards the amp room - and was roasted again by Anna at the top of the stairs that headed down to the biorifle, who had anticipated his idea and retraced her steps.
As he spawned yet again, at the minigun now, shaking his head in disbelief, he eyed the score. It was now tied at 25-25, with 10 seconds left to play. ¨Farham, hide!¨ he yelled into his mouthpiece.
¨Roger that.¨
To no avail. A couple seconds later, he saw another point added to Anna and Ivana's score, and knew that they had lost. How'd they found Farham so quickly?
The endgame buzzer sounded and they were immediately teleported out of the arena to a gladiator's lobby. Tempest was designed exclusively for Tournament play, and the time slots for using it were pretty strict.
Anna poked his huge chest with a wicked grin. ¨Now don't be too upset, Mr. Tournament veteran. You win some, you lose some.¨
He laughed. ¨Upset? I can't believe the progress you two have made. We are going to pulverize Thunder Crash, even if Malcom plays at 100.¨
¨What if he doesn't?¨ Anna asked, winking at him.
¨Well, one can never to too sure of that,¨ Gorn replied, not wanting to discuss this in front of the others without first knowing the specifics of Anna's sleuthery. ¨Ivana, you want to talk about our game plan for Wednesday this evening?¨ Since she was their captain and he co-captain, they usually met before every match to go over the specifics of their strategy.
¨Sure thing, Gorn. Where you thinking?¨
¨My place, in a couple hours?¨ The proposal might seem somewhat indecent, but they usually used some kind of private location. Gorn had been impressed from his days in the military with the importance of guarding your plans, and Anna, who knew a thing or two about what one could do with surveillance, supported the philosophy.
¨Sure thing,¨ agreed Ivana, ¨see you there.¨
¨I'm outta here,¨ announced Farham, a quiet but dependable veteran of both war and the Tournament. ¨See you guys Wednesday.¨
¨All right,¨ replied Gorn, ¨and I'm gonna hit the road too. See you, Anna.¨ He raised an eyebrow at her (since his mechanical eye didn't wink) to let her know that she was invited to the strategy session. They shook hands and parted.