Chapter 1 - Conflict
Tom was hardly the violent sort. Sure, he'd shoot a guy or three when he got the chance, but it was all in good fun... Hell, they were bound to get him back for it anyway. It was weird to walk through the empty map, rifle close to face, peering at the tunnels and walls literally covered with blood. Sure, two teams of 64 sounded good on the forum, but he was beginning to think that the map should have been bigger for this one. He was on point, leading his team through the familiar archways, struggling to spot any glimpse of their enemies. Nothing yet. Behind him, he heard a faint whisper, as one of his squad noted that there were only three squads left in action, for both sides. Still the ironsights remained empty. It was as if no other squads existed, that they were alone wandering around on an empty map, drowned in red lighting. Tom shuddered, it wasn't lighting. It was such a simple thing that gave them away. Shaun stubbed his toe. A near-silent wince later, and the footsteps started. It looked like both of the other squads were enemy, not good. Seconds later, a lightly equipped scout burst from one of the many corners surrounding them, darting between two crates. They had arrived.
“Cover!” Yelled Kel, even as her grenade flew. The team followed suit, diving behind some of the plentiful crates as a deafening explosion sent a boot, complete with a lightly-equipped leg, flying past their position. It had begun. Firing blindly over his flimsy cover, Tom waited. Any second now, Kel would do something stupid, and get herself killed, but not before drawing their fire. Visor would then be able to get a shot off on the enemy MG spitting hot tracers at him. Then he could do exactly the same thing right back at them. Exactly as they hadn't planned, Kel pulled the pins on her remaining grenades, and leapt onto her crate, propelling herself towards catwalks high above them. It would have been a good plan, if not for the MG, who tore her to a fine pixelated blood splatter the moment she emerged. Still, it was worth it, to allow Visor to peer out from behind the doorway he was taking cover behind and squeeze shot off. Instantly, the MG fire stopped, and Tom heard a quiet mutter of a laugh over the radio, followed by the lovely sound of crates filled with nothing exploding, as Kel's grenades finally went off. Grinning, he pulled down the bipod sitting innocently at the end of his rifle, loaded with a drum magazine, and spun around, placing ironsights between him and the other squads, rifle resting on the crates. Now it was their turn to duck for cover, as splinters exploded across the warehouse. The problem was that there was nowhere to run, as Tom laid down a steady stream of lead, straight through the fragile wood into players taking cover. Why the other MG player hadn't just shot through the crates was beyond him, but noobs would be noobs. A rushing of air, as the view blacked out told him all he needed to know, just as the last crate at their end of the room exploded into a fine red mist. Game over. Apparently, the other squads had taken losses before they had come running into explosions and fire. Too bad, their Kill-Death ratio could have done with a few more easy targets. The event wasn't over yet though... Tom stood in a huge empty room, illuminated by nothing, yet brightly lit, with stone columns stretching from the chiselled stone floor to the unknown heights that would have been the ceiling. His squad, Shaun, or “Padd”, as he called himself, stood to his left, scanning for any possible threat, cradling his shotgun that had, for some unknown reason, been respawned with him. To his right, Padd stood uneasily.
“What now...?” he groaned, obviously not happy, "Another sodding bug? Did the damn game put us in void again?
“What, you're asking me?” Tom shrugged, "Looks solid to me. We're not falling through the floor anyway.
“Ok... This isn't a Conflict Map. There's no ceiling.” said Visor, with a strange look in his eye, “Who found this event again?”
“Splint...” Tom groaned
“Huh, thought so. Where's Kelly anyway?”
Tom scratched his head, “Beats me. Maybe she respawned in the lobby, like we were supposed to?”
“Or maybe she's standing behind you?” came a voice from the shadows, a hint of laughter hidden beneath heavy waves of the tone of voice reserved for dealing with idiotic questions. Shaun nearly jumped out of his skin, “What the hell Kel? I thought we agreed you were going to stop doing that?”
Kel gave him an evil smirk, “Now where's the fun in that?”
“How about avoiding a heart attack, huh?”
“Ladies, please,” Tom broke in, “can we focus? Question at hand: Why are we standing in a map that looks straight out of a game of d20, in full combat gear?”
Kel's smirk got even smirkier, “Heh, we've won a little prize.”
Tom rolled his eyes, and Padd perked up, “What have you gotten us into this time?”
“You'll love this one, follow me.” she said, beginning to walk away. She half turned, and continued in a mocking voice, “Unless you're afraid”
The boys were having none of that, and they followed her towards what looked like a huge wall. More of a cliff than a wall really. And at the bottom of the wall was a huge door covered with intricate patterns. As was normal, Kel was dodging pretty much all the questions and accusations they were throwing at her, simply saying, “Just wait.” until Padd was practically throttling her. She turned at the door, and gave another mysterious smile, “Let's get the basics out of the way. We just won a squad-based event. There was a bonus for the best squad of each round, with a maximum of three squads being selected. We were lucky enough to get it on the second try.” She grinned, “I'm proud of you guys. Anyway, we've been chosen.”
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