Loading into the game environment, Leo looked around. He had landed in the center plaza of a small city. All around him were apartments and multi-story buildings with a fountain in the center of the plaza and a couple small trees resting in plots around the edge. Wandering the plaza and the streets were NPCs. They might seem lifelike at first glance, but Leo had played enough games to notice how all the NPCs repeated basic actions and followed the same paths.
He spotted his team warming up off to the side, a chaotic mess of motion, gadgets, and trash talk. With a smile and a shake of his head, he jogged over to join them.
Minos, the team’s walking fortress, was doing push-ups. Pegasus stretched like a runner at the starting line, her armor gleaming gold. Artemis, cold and clinical as ever, was probably three tactical plans deep by now while settled on a bench. And then there was Hephaestus.
He began some light stretches to get used to the mesh avatar as he asked, “Did I miss much?”
Jess glanced over mid-stretch. “Not much, Leo, we were beginning to wonder if we needed to call a pause so you could fix Luke’s helmet – again”
“I did fix it! It just decided to break again because it doesn’t like me!” cried Luke while he powered through another set of push-ups, brown armor shifting with each move. His shield leaned nearby and a horned helmet was right next to it.
Phoenix chuckled at his friend’s bickering. “Remember, we use our tags while in the mesh, Pegasus.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Phoenix,” Pegasus said, rolling her eyes.
Echo sat cross-legged on the edge of the fountain with a look of calm focus, fingers flicking through the holographic screens floating in the air in front of her.
Kat, by contrast, sprawled out across a bench like a cat in a sunbeam, one boot tapping rhythmically against the wood.
“Artemis! How are things looking?” Phoenix called as he stepped closer.
“Pretty standard setup,” she said without looking up, her voice cool and flat. “Roughly one million civvies to get to four shelters on the fringes or one megashelter in the middle. Haven’t gotten to look at the surroundings yet, but my initial guess is to expect at least one sewer attack. I’ll know more in a bit.”
“Does that mean I can set up my toys yet? I hate waiting!” Hephaestus whined, kicking her legs like a bored teenager.
Phoenix chuckled again. “Hephaestus, you know we can’t set up defenses until the game actually starts. We’re lucky Artemis gets her drones early for recon.”
Hephaestus groaned dramatically and melted farther into the bench like she was trying to become part of it.
A few minutes later a voice boomed into the air while a countdown flashed 5:00 in the sky, “Welcome contestants to the 5th annual Samurai Rush Finals! We know the rules of the game are well known to you but, for the sake of any new fans watching, we’ll go over the basics.”
Phoenix’s team gathered together to get ready for when the game would actually start.
“First things first, the simulation is accelerated by three times, so one hour in the real world equals three hours for our Samurai.”
“The goal is simple: save as many civilians as possible while also killing as many Antithesis as you can. The game will be split into three stages, with each team acting in their own version of the city.”
“The first stage will be a rush of smaller models who are here to scope out where the largest concentration of biomass is at. The second stage will be an attempt by the plants to break whatever defenses our plucky young Samurai have gotten set up. The third and final phase, should you all make it there, will be the chance for our Samurai to go on the attack to take out the hive once and for all.”
The announcer held for a dramatic pause to let the rules sink in. “You will have five minutes to set up any defenses you think you will need before the first Antithesis appears in the city. Time compression begins once the clock hits zero; good luck.”
As the announcer signs off, a trumpet sounds and the countdown starts with an exaggerated thunk.
Phoenix got right to work, sending his team out with a flurry of orders.
“Hephaestus, work with Artemis to figure out where best to place your turrets.” Hephaestus jumped off the bench with an excited grin, and the two girls took off running down one of the streets, presumably towards the nearest sewer entrance.
“Minos, since we don’t yet know where the plants are coming from, I’ll need you on standby, ready to go.” Minos nodded, picking up his shield and LMG like they weighed nothing.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“I’ll be ready,” he stated with a grin.
“Pegasus, you’re on civvie duty for now. Get them rounded up and into the nearest shelter. We can look at escorting them to the megashelter in the center later to make defense easier.” Pegasus gave a cheeky salute before taking off with a trail of dust in her wake.
Phoenix and Minos hung around while the former worked on getting his augs to display a readout of his team's health and energy status.
“How's the helmet treating you?” Phoenix asked Luke while getting everything set up
“It works like a dream. I’m always surprised at how well maintained your helmet is despite its age.”
“Well, yours would be that good too if you didn’t throw it in the van every time we needed to pack up. Without a case I might add,” Phoenix chuckled
Luke grumbled, “I don’t throw it that hard. Besides, the cases just add more bulk, and we barely fit everything in my van the first time around.”
Phoenix just laughed at his friend before gesturing vaguely at the countdown, now reading 0:30. “We can worry about how much junk can fit in your trunk later. Best be ready.”
Luke groaned while double-checking his LMG and shield. “What we should worry about is your awful sense of humor.”
Phoenix called out over the team comms, “Check in. How we doing?”
“Artemis and Hephaestus are both good. We got turrets set up on four out of five objectives. Ten seconds out for the last,” came Artemis’ voice.
“Pegasus, standing by in the Northeast mall. I’ve already identified the shelter as being in the Southern corner of the first floor.” Pegasus’ voice came over with a distinct sound of chewing.
Phoenix pinched the bridge of his nose. “Pegasus, did you seriously buy food at the mall?”
“Mmm-maybe?” Phoenix could imagine the wide-eyed innocent look she would give him as he just sighed.
“Whatever, it’s your points. We have 10 seconds left. Artemis, what’s the status of the last turret?”
Hephaestus’ voice came over. “Turrets set. Moving back to the plaza. Artemis is busy with her drones.”
At this point, the countdown slowly went down to zero. As soon as it did, the NPCs in the plaza froze as a message scrawled across everyone's augs:
“INCURSION DETECTED! PLEASE EVACUATE TO THE NEAREST SHELTER!”
Leo shuddered, something about the incursion alert always got him, despite knowing it was coming. For some reason, this one seemed different, almost real, but he just chalked it up to the game masters changing stuff up.
Artemis spoke into the team comms. “Looks like we were right. Two separate incursion sites coming from the sewer entrances. Sending pings to the map. Turrets have it handled for now, so we have time to work on civvies.”
Phoenix noticed two red dots appear on his HUD map. “Sounds good. Looks like you’re closest to the Southeast shelter. Minos, you’re on Southwest. I’ll take Northwest.”
Phoenix got confirmation from his team before he watched Minos start loping toward his shelter. Phoenix set off at a jog towards the shelter he was in charge of while also telling civilians to get moving. On the way, he noticed an NPC who seemed to have tripped and twisted their ankle, making them unable to walk. Phoenix stopped next to him and pulled a syringe out of his gun.
“Here, this will fix your ankle,” He said, before poking the man's leg with the syringe. The entire thing seemed to melt into the man's leg before they watched the swelling go down. The man got up, thanked him, and took off running towards the shelter.
Phoenix finally reached the shelter and started ushering civilians inside. He was keeping an eye out for any stray antithesis but didn’t expect any to escape the turrets they had set up. After a handful of minutes, he didn’t see any more civilians nearby.
“Looks like I got everyone nearby,” he said over comms while looking at his team’s health status in his HUD. “How are we doing so far?”
“You guys are only just now getting done? You’re so slow!” Pegasus said while giggling. “No issues on my end.”
“Turrets are still handling the initial wave from the sewers, but it looks like a new wave is coming from outside the city,” came the calm voice of Artemis. New icons populated the mini-map, showing a large group of red dots converging on the city from the West.
Phoenix began moving towards the Western edge of the city and saw the icon for Minos doing the same from the map. “Perfect, me and Minos are already on this side of the city and moving to intercept. Pegasus and Artemis, as soon as you are able, start heading this way; usher any civvies you encounter towards the megashelter. Hephaestus, think you can handle the sewer entrances on your own for now?”
“No problem. I got some extra turrets set up in case of overflow, but they aren’t getting much work just yet. Nice of y’all to let me get all the points,” she replied with a grin evident in her voice.
“Just let us know if you need help.” Phoenix commented as he passed the last building before the large wall ringing the city, a large thing that dwarfed anything shorter than three stories. He clambered up the ladder to the top, he looked to the side and saw Minos’ form just arriving at the bottom a short distance away.
Turning his gaze out towards the open plains outside the city, Phoenix saw the incoming horde of Antithesis. Easily over three hundred low-tier models bounded across the ground, raising a cloud of dust in their wake. Seeing the distinct lack of flying models, a plan rapidly formed in his mind.
“Hey Minos, how do you feel about Death Alley?” Phoenix asked, turning to the side to see that the large, armored figure had finally hauled himself to the top of the wall.
Minos bent over, hands on his knees, as he breathed heavily. “Don’t tell me…you need me…down on the ground.”
“I need you down on the ground, big guy,” Phoenix said with a shit-eating grin cracking his face.
“Gods, I hate you. You better heal me then, ‘cuz there is no way I’m climbing back down this fucking wall.” As soon as he finished talking, Minos jumped off the wall and slammed into the ground, leaving a small crater. The second he stood up, his head rocked to the side as a syringe slammed into his temple before dissolving, shooting his health bar back up to full.
Spinning around, he gave a cheeky thumbs up to Phoenix, who just shook his head as he lowered his rifle.
Slinging his rifle across his back, Phoenix shook his arms out and turned to look at the field in front of Minos. “Get your head in the game, Minos, and show them what death alley feels like.”
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