Re: The $300,000 Fight-A-Thon! [Round One: Storage Park!]
08-26-2012, 02:39 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by SeventeenthSquid.
The strange stupor that had subdued her moments earlier slowly dissipating from her mind, Eriz took in her surroundings. Where was she? She had the vaguest memory of someone, something taking her huge gauntleted hand and leading her through a place of warping and twisting color. Another brief flash of memory, standing in a circle of strange figures and... human children? Unarmored, plain-clothed human children, their fleshy, pale faces staring at her as one introduced her to its fellows... what was her name? Tiny? Tella? Eriz couldn't remember. What really mattered was what the man had said:
"You eight have been specially chosen for this fight, so... you’re gonna want to start killing each other. Last person alive gets to go home, and might also get some money if we exceed our fundraising goal. Does that seem fair?"
She remembered that part with unnatural clarity. And she did not like what she remembered. She did not like it at all. She could feel a crushing hopelessness settling heavy on her shoulders, crawling up her spine. Sweat beaded up on her forehead under the dark exterior of her face-dome. What was she fighting? She could barely remember what they looked like, or their names. A lion? What even is a lion? Sharks? She'd heard of those. They used to live on Old Earth, before the Exodus. Or something. Her mind was running faster and faster as she tried to recall details of the creatures she had seen when suddenly a horrifying shout pierced the air.
“DAMMIT!”
What was that? She suddenly moved, for the first time since she had been freed from the Coach's grip. She noticed, for the first time since her capture, that her hammer was still firmly clasped in one mechanical hand. She shifted it into a two-handed grip and slowly turned, taking in the whole room. It was large and had a very high ceiling, but stack upon stack of crates, boxes and various debris kept her from getting a clear view of whatever made the sound. She took a few steps back, bumping into a stack of crates. They shifted ominously but didn't fall. Pieces of broken machinery littered the floor around her, their purposes unknown.
She had no idea what to do. Panic was worming its way through her skull. Distant yowling, its sound totally unfamiliar to her but sounding like an animal in pain, floated through the building. She gripped her hammer tighter, mechanical fingers clamping down on its grip-textured haft.
Whatever was out there, she was sure it was coming for her. They had to fight, right? The Coach had said so. That means they'll be coming to fight her! Her Sauthai heritage reared in the back of her mind. If they seek to fight, she could almost hear her father saying, you must fight back. Harder.
She didn't want to fight anyone. She wanted to go home, and see her father, and tell her about her horrible nightmare. He would understand.
"My lady," came a sudden, cool voice. Eriz jumped two feet off the ground, her massive hydraulic legs propelling her into the air, before she realized it was only Telt who had spoken. "My lady," it repeated, "your adrenaline levels are exceedingly high. Your heart rate is far past a healthy norm. I'm sensing a great deal of fear."
"Telt," she replied, "can you tell me where we are?" She continued to back into the corner, eyes still sweeping around the room. There was very little to see, only endless boxes and crates. Nothing to see, that is, until a huge creature leapt through the air and collided with the ceiling. Telt's reply was lost in the resounding clang. Eriz scrambled with an aux-arm to retrieve the small laser weapon she carried from its slot on her shoulder racks, disconnecting the original hand. It took her a few moments to realize that Telt was still trying to talk to her.
"My lady," it said, "our sensors can discern little about our surroundings. Atmospheric composition seems to be similar to Orexies norm. Gravity is slightly heavier, approximately equal to one Earth gravity." The archaic measurement was still in service, even on a planet so far from Earth as Orexies. "Wherever we are, it is not on Orexies."
Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! Eriz wanted to scream just as the strange flying beast had screamed, but she knew enough about combat to know that you shouldn't give your position away in such a stupid manner. She needed to think. Seven entities were trapped in here with her, and they all wanted her dead. Or did they? Maybe they were just pulled into this place like she was, and maybe they wanted out just as badly as she had! Maybe they could escape if they worked together. Maybe she could make it out of this place alive!
Telt interrupted her reverie with a single word, mostly meaningless on the surface but coded so deeply in her Sauthai upbringing that it brought an immediate response.
"Contact!"
Bright colors flashed on the interior of her face-dome, indicating movement off to the side. She spun, hammer held in both hands ready to swing, laser tracking over her shoulder. A blur of golden fur, a flash of light on metal. One of the things she had seen in the children's horrible menagerie. And it was coming straight for her, leaping over boxes and stacks of debris as it rapidly closed the distance. She backed up. She didn't want to fight this thing, she had no idea what it could do to her! She needed a way out! But stacks of crates, ten, twenty feet tall, loomed all around her. There was no way she could climb on them; she was far too heavy. As she glanced frantically around, a desperate plan occurred to her.
Holding her hammer in both hands, she swung it as hard as she could at a tottering mound of boxes in between her and the onrushing creature. The massive power of the swing demolished several, throwing a cloud of what appeared to be socks into the air. With the lower crate gone, the massive stack, already precariously balanced, came crashing down in a swirling cloud of dust, footwear and... children's art? She couldn't tell. Whatever it was, it more than adequately blocked the creature's path. For now. She turned in the opposite direction and started crashing through the debris that blocked her path, hammer swinging.
The strange stupor that had subdued her moments earlier slowly dissipating from her mind, Eriz took in her surroundings. Where was she? She had the vaguest memory of someone, something taking her huge gauntleted hand and leading her through a place of warping and twisting color. Another brief flash of memory, standing in a circle of strange figures and... human children? Unarmored, plain-clothed human children, their fleshy, pale faces staring at her as one introduced her to its fellows... what was her name? Tiny? Tella? Eriz couldn't remember. What really mattered was what the man had said:
"You eight have been specially chosen for this fight, so... you’re gonna want to start killing each other. Last person alive gets to go home, and might also get some money if we exceed our fundraising goal. Does that seem fair?"
She remembered that part with unnatural clarity. And she did not like what she remembered. She did not like it at all. She could feel a crushing hopelessness settling heavy on her shoulders, crawling up her spine. Sweat beaded up on her forehead under the dark exterior of her face-dome. What was she fighting? She could barely remember what they looked like, or their names. A lion? What even is a lion? Sharks? She'd heard of those. They used to live on Old Earth, before the Exodus. Or something. Her mind was running faster and faster as she tried to recall details of the creatures she had seen when suddenly a horrifying shout pierced the air.
“DAMMIT!”
What was that? She suddenly moved, for the first time since she had been freed from the Coach's grip. She noticed, for the first time since her capture, that her hammer was still firmly clasped in one mechanical hand. She shifted it into a two-handed grip and slowly turned, taking in the whole room. It was large and had a very high ceiling, but stack upon stack of crates, boxes and various debris kept her from getting a clear view of whatever made the sound. She took a few steps back, bumping into a stack of crates. They shifted ominously but didn't fall. Pieces of broken machinery littered the floor around her, their purposes unknown.
She had no idea what to do. Panic was worming its way through her skull. Distant yowling, its sound totally unfamiliar to her but sounding like an animal in pain, floated through the building. She gripped her hammer tighter, mechanical fingers clamping down on its grip-textured haft.
Whatever was out there, she was sure it was coming for her. They had to fight, right? The Coach had said so. That means they'll be coming to fight her! Her Sauthai heritage reared in the back of her mind. If they seek to fight, she could almost hear her father saying, you must fight back. Harder.
She didn't want to fight anyone. She wanted to go home, and see her father, and tell her about her horrible nightmare. He would understand.
"My lady," came a sudden, cool voice. Eriz jumped two feet off the ground, her massive hydraulic legs propelling her into the air, before she realized it was only Telt who had spoken. "My lady," it repeated, "your adrenaline levels are exceedingly high. Your heart rate is far past a healthy norm. I'm sensing a great deal of fear."
"Telt," she replied, "can you tell me where we are?" She continued to back into the corner, eyes still sweeping around the room. There was very little to see, only endless boxes and crates. Nothing to see, that is, until a huge creature leapt through the air and collided with the ceiling. Telt's reply was lost in the resounding clang. Eriz scrambled with an aux-arm to retrieve the small laser weapon she carried from its slot on her shoulder racks, disconnecting the original hand. It took her a few moments to realize that Telt was still trying to talk to her.
"My lady," it said, "our sensors can discern little about our surroundings. Atmospheric composition seems to be similar to Orexies norm. Gravity is slightly heavier, approximately equal to one Earth gravity." The archaic measurement was still in service, even on a planet so far from Earth as Orexies. "Wherever we are, it is not on Orexies."
Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT! Eriz wanted to scream just as the strange flying beast had screamed, but she knew enough about combat to know that you shouldn't give your position away in such a stupid manner. She needed to think. Seven entities were trapped in here with her, and they all wanted her dead. Or did they? Maybe they were just pulled into this place like she was, and maybe they wanted out just as badly as she had! Maybe they could escape if they worked together. Maybe she could make it out of this place alive!
Telt interrupted her reverie with a single word, mostly meaningless on the surface but coded so deeply in her Sauthai upbringing that it brought an immediate response.
"Contact!"
Bright colors flashed on the interior of her face-dome, indicating movement off to the side. She spun, hammer held in both hands ready to swing, laser tracking over her shoulder. A blur of golden fur, a flash of light on metal. One of the things she had seen in the children's horrible menagerie. And it was coming straight for her, leaping over boxes and stacks of debris as it rapidly closed the distance. She backed up. She didn't want to fight this thing, she had no idea what it could do to her! She needed a way out! But stacks of crates, ten, twenty feet tall, loomed all around her. There was no way she could climb on them; she was far too heavy. As she glanced frantically around, a desperate plan occurred to her.
Holding her hammer in both hands, she swung it as hard as she could at a tottering mound of boxes in between her and the onrushing creature. The massive power of the swing demolished several, throwing a cloud of what appeared to be socks into the air. With the lower crate gone, the massive stack, already precariously balanced, came crashing down in a swirling cloud of dust, footwear and... children's art? She couldn't tell. Whatever it was, it more than adequately blocked the creature's path. For now. She turned in the opposite direction and started crashing through the debris that blocked her path, hammer swinging.