Chapter 08 - The Challenge [Part 3]

“That’s another drop of protectors. 80 on the field now. Samuel should be in position” Delia states putting her gun on her back and loading her rockets.

“I’ll lead” Matthew says as he and Lucy both take out a ball of metal “Luce you stay to my right”

Applying pressure to certain points on the fist sized ball of metal, it starts rumbling then projects a greyish coloured wall of energy. Lucy holds and equips it to her right arm, Matthew equips it with to his left.

“I’ll see you guys in 20 minutes” Delia says moving off east.

Nodding Matthew starts moving forward, staying 10meters to the left of Lucy heading towards the building that holds the data chip. It is located in a clearing, as in no trees surrounded it. There were no walls, no trenches. Just flat land with grass growing to chest height. There is one dirt road, wide enough for the standard resupply truck to reach, but that was on the opposite side to them. Once you walk 20meters away from the building though trees start to appear and at 50meters away it was very much like any other part of the rain forest.

The protectors circle the building. Rings upon rings of them. The first ring having 10 people, the next having 20, then 30, 40 and so on; the distance between each ring averaged 50 meters. Close enough for each circle to see each other, but far enough to increase cross fire potential. As there are only 80 protectors on the field at this time, there are only 4 rings of protectors, with plenty of gaps in the fourth ring as it was not yet full.

With their fingers on their triggers, but not yet firing and shields covering four-fifths of their body the two of them weren’t too worried even though the both of them stood out like a sore thumb. Next to nothing could get through the shield of energy, it stopped bullets, projectiles and explosions. It was sturdy enough to block out direct hits from grenades and null the impact of a rocket that blows up a 5 meter in front. Only a direct hit from a rocket could destroy them, a well-placed sniper shot, or a mine that they stepped on. The best way to down an opponent with a shield was to get behind them.

For its sturdiness, the shields had only one down side. When not activated they were easy to carry, but once on they became heavy. To move them, you had to kind of push them to go forward or pull them to go backwards with the arm and shoulder you were holding it with. It means shooting and moving is not possible.

*BANG*

A sniper shot goes off.

“That’s Samuel” Lucy stops and starts shooting as Matthew pushes on for another 10 metres. “Someone passed us!”

“It’s fine!” Matthew throws a grenade “Sam doesn’t miss”

“3 down!” Lucy screams over the noise of returning fire.

*BANG*

Another sniper shot goes off.

“Move up!” Matthew shouts. “We’re being surrounded!”

And that is true. The protectors were converging on them. All of them leaving their set routes to come to the source of noise. 200 meters from the targeted building the both of them are still far away.

“Throw another grenade” she yells preparing to do so with one of her own.

“Aye” Mat says preparing another

*BANG*

Another sniper shot goes off

“Move!” Mat says again, throwing his in time with hers.

Ceasing fire Lucy pushes forward as the grenades fly in the air, while Matthew keeps firing forward. The plan they were executing was easy to understand. The two of them would push up front drawing the attention and killing as many as they could. Gaining ground when they could. Samuel in the back would cover them as best he can, trying to stop any from advancing past the two of them.

*BOOOM* *BANG*

Another sniper shot goes off at the same time as the grenades.

“That got a ton!” Matthew shouts, starting to move as Lucy stops.

“Stop talking nonsense!” Lucy replies firing not in front but to the side of her shield.

*BANG*

Another sniper round goes off.

“God damn it guys” Samuel says to himself as they had no radios. “Move it!” Taking another shot and hitting he has taken down 6 protectors in 6 shots.

In his sights Samuel could see almost everything that was happening to Lucy and Matthew down below, but he was slowly losing sight of them. He had climbed up to a sturdy tree that peaked higher than all the others just over 400 meters away.

*BANG*

“There goes another” he says

*BANG* he fires another shot, but this time at the ground next to Matthew.

“You guys better not die on me while I’m on the move.” He mumbles swinging the rifle over his shoulder and jumping into another tree.

*BOOM*

“That was my last grenade!”

“Close in on me!”

At 150 metres out phase two of the plan is now in motion and so Lucy and Matthew moved in to create an L shape with their shields.

“How many did we get?” Matthew asks

“May…” she pauses and fires another clip empty. “Maybe thirty in total?”

“I’m taking your Land Mine” grabbing it out of her backpack.

*BANG*

A sniper shot lands next to Lucy.

“Sam’s back” she shouts.

*BANG* *BANG*

Two consecutive shots lands at the same spot

“Delia’s about to make her move” She shouts again

“Mine is armed.” He says tapping Lucy on the shoulder. “Phase 3 is about to start.”

*BANG*

Another sniper shot goes off and another protector dies.

With the Rocket launcher on her shoulder Delia takes aim at the dirt road then switches aim to a tree 90 degrees to her right. Practicing the motion she has to make from dirt road to tree, over and over.

100meters out from the targeted building she knows that she is relatively safe as Matthew and Lucy are drawing the attention of the protectors. And those that she can see have their backs turned to her.

*BOOOM*

*That’s the mine* Delia thinks to herself and stops looking back and forth from the dirt road to the tree.

Staring down the dirt road she was now aiming at the truck driving upon it. Waiting for a few seconds for it to get closer she aims 10 meters ahead of it, fires, then swerves to the tree and fires at that. Dropping the launcher on the ground once the second rocket leaves it, she brings out her assault rifle and runs towards the building.

*10* she starts to count as she pushes forward.

*9*

*8*

*7*

*6*

*5*

*4*

*3*

*2*

*1*

*BOOM* the rocket hits the truck directly, causing an explosion and making the truck do a front flip before evaporating.

Diving into the ground Delia bring out her fist size ball of metal and activates it

*BOOM* the second rocket hits the tree causing it to crack and fall.

“Shit man” Samuel says to himself. Watching the tree fall down and land on top of a large number of protectors. “That’s a bad way to go.”

*BANG*

He fires another shot. Covering Matthew as he makes his way into the building. Lucy staying in the tree line 50 meters away from the building.

The remaining protectors were now split in half. Half staying with Lucy and Matthew and the other half moving towards Delia. This causing their number to dwindle down faster and making it easier to pick off those that were halfway between the two locations.

{Simulation end}

The simulation ends and the 4 come together.

“Well that wasn’t too bad.” Samuel says.

“We could have finished faster” Delia responds

“The program is better than last time.” Lucy states

“Plenty of errors in it still” Delia says

“Fun target practice” Matthew answers “Let’s go check the results.”

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Zulu

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[Night Vision Activated]

With his world turning green Zulu could now see everything in the dark simulated night.

*Number of protectors*

[147]

*Time till next round of re-enforcements*

[01:43]

*300 meters out to the building*

Looking down at the trigger in his left hand

*Distraction will last for 40 seconds*

Pressing the trigger he drops it right after.

*BOOOOOOOOM*

The 10 pounds of explosives that he had carried blows up on the opposite side of the base. The torch lights the protectors were using all turn to face that direction and they move towards the noise.

[38]

An assault rifle starts firing from that side of the base and Zulu starts running. Just running. He runs diagonally towards the building. Heading towards the dirt road and the building.

[33]

He brings out the mine strapped to the outside of the backpack. Does a forward roll upon the dirt road and drops it upon it.

[Mine Activated]

Rolling back to his feet he continues his diagonal run from the road and to the building.

[30]

Silence falls, gun fire stops.

[27]

*BOOM*

Three grenades explode from that side of the base. Gunfire picks up again. A second assault rifle starts firing

[24]

Bringing out his knife he held it in his right hand and stabs a protector in the back of its neck as he run through it.

[19]

A third assault rifle begins to fire, and he runs around for a bit stabbing a total of 12 protectors before advancing to the tree line.

[09]

Silence arises as he stabs the window of the building, but finds that it does not break.

[07]

3 more grenades explode and he kick the door down.

[05]

He enters the building and finds that it is completely empty except for one table at the centre with a USB type device plugged into it.

*a USB plugged into a table?* he questions and raises an eyebrow and stops to inspect if there is any other unknown elements in the room.

-------------------------

The Control Room

-------------------------

“Set an alarm on it!”

“What sir?”

“Set an alarm on that Data Chip!”

“But sir. That would change the competition!”

“We’ve been here for over 3 hours and he’s done nothing the whole time except set up that explosive contraption. Then he starts moving and in less than 40 seconds he gets to the objective without firing a single bullet!”

“It’s different b”

“Change the conditions now! Everyone wants to see him kill!”

Wavering for a second the man at the computer ultimately agrees and changes the simulation parameters.

-------------------------

Zulu

-------------------------

Raising his hand to the USB type device the room shimmers for a split second.

[Warning]

[Simulation Conditions Changed]

Pulling his hand back

*Show me*

[Objective and Condition updated]

[Kill all protectors]

[Time span – 2 day and night cycles]

[Every simulated hour will have an additional ten protectors]

[Time sped up by 4]

[Only weapons replicated or provided may be use]

[Objective changed]

[Kill all protectors]

“You have to be” he shuts his mouth just as he was about to swear “me” he whispers to himself and dives down to the ground as lights start shining through the window and doorway.

“Effing idiots” An old habit stops him from directly saying the F word. He grabs a few Vit and Calcium pills he swallows them. Then proceeds to grab 3 grenades, the three grenades he picked up from the 3 protectors that dropped in.

[Mine explosion estimated time in 3 seconds]

*Number of protectors* he pulls the pins on the 3 grenades

[140]

Throwing the grenades out, he pauses for another second

*BOOOOOM*

The mine and grenades explode at the same time.

[132]

*miniaturize numbers*

With the pistol in his right and knife in his left he jumps out and fires 8 shots in 2 seconds. Hitting 8 heads at the same time. And then rolling across the tall grass as lights shine on him and lose him.

[Numbers Miniaturize confirmed]

[124]

His heart beating was fast now. Faster than normal. He was dashing towards the open ground. He needed to get away. The area around him was too hot and he throws his knife forward. Stabbing another protector in the head.

[123]

Running past the dead body he picks the knife from the ground that dropped from the evaporated body.

[WALL]

Jumping he takes a step on what seems to be an invisible wall. Reloading on his second step. Performing a back-flip on his third

[115]

He lands back in the tall grass.

{Simulation end}

A projection pops up and stops him crouched down. The room turns grey and light returns to normal

[Night Vision De-Activated]

His heart rate was still beating fast. Faster than before. So he sighs and tries to slow it. Working on breathing in and breathing out.

-------------------------

In the Stadium

-------------------------

“That was unexpected” the announcer speaks into the microphone “Who would have expected the program couldn’t keep up with a Zulu”

He pauses letting that sink into the crowd.

“I guess they are capable of more than we are”

He pauses again.

“But here are the results” he raises his hand “I guess there are no winners today”

Which was technically true. But wasn't at the same time.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=middle width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]Statistics[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]

Unit: ****

[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]

Error

Error

Error

Error

Error

Error

[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]Units: Alpha 1 & 2

[/pc][/col][col colspan=2 valign=middle width=50% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][pc]90 Kills

300 bullets

6 grenades

1 mine

2 rockets

1 hour 40 minutes

[/pc][/col][/box]

-------------------------

Zulu

-------------------------

The ground descends and he finds himself back in the waiting room. Dropping the bag on the ground he un-equips everything. Everything except for the pills. It was all fake except for those anyway and takes back his real equipment.

[Equipment update]

[Knife]

[Pistol]

[Pistol Ammunition – 11 shots]

Leaving the room he stops for a second and sees commercial on the screen. It isn’t a very important one but the face caught his attention.

[Face identification complete]

The commercial was an indecent one. Sexualizing the woman, promoting multiple partners. Promoting the use of drugs. Promoting unlawful behaviour in a certain part of the underground town.

*Show me*

[Digitally made image of Zulu 2]

*Possibility of mistake*

[0.5%]

Clenching his fists, he doesn’t unclench them. Grinding his teeth he closes his eyes. And walks out of the room.

“That was unexpected” Matthew says upon him exiting

“Take me to the general” he replies with his eyes still shut

“He is still busy with the Op” Delia states.

Opening his eyes, now blood red Zulu says again. “You will take me to the general NOW Sergeant Delia”

Pausing for a second the four waiting outside hesitate. “Very well” Delia answers.

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A/N

If you guys see any inconsistancy with the numbers and equipment. Or any inconsistancy with in the story. Please do tell me.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and

Thanks for reading!