Fortune's Fool | Open
Aliya stumbled along the line of trees in the arena. Unfortunately, she rarely experienced smooth awakenings from cryosleep. Rubbing at a patch of dry, itchy skin on her arm, she struggled to retain her vision. “Get a grip, Aliya.” She grumbled under her breath, making a mental note to report to the med bay and request an adjustment on her pharmaceutical dosage as Arden had formerly advised. Ignoring the pestering feeling of anxiety tightening her chest, she paused in her path, senses slowly coming into affect.
Musty, earthy soil scent? Check. Brisk wind? Check. As disoriented as she was, she could vaguely make out the jungle-like terrain and white-hot sun. She continued her mental check list, regaining feeling in her arms and legs. Slight freezer burn? Check. The sound of twigs cracking caught her ears next. She fervently prayed to whatever was out there that it was a teammate who had found her, not a member of the opposing team. To her astonishment, it wasn’t an anticipated ally nor a dreaded opponent; it wasn’t even human. A terrifying creature with boils tarnishing its dark scaly skin snarled into her face, rows of fangs dripping with thick cloudy saliva.
She was well versed in the use of obstacles in Corbulo events, but she did not expect to encounter one posthaste. Aliya stumbled backwards a few steps and lost her footing. The cadet cursed herself silently. There was no way she could fight it off in her current state.
Michael had no idea where he was going – reflex and intuition was his only compass by then. He had offered to be their team’s overwatch, and he was going to do exactly that. But before that, scouting comes first. The terrain was quite convenient, as he always did appreciated the number of trees to keep them well hidden in a battlefield. Hiking briefly towards a higher interface, he switched from his assault rifle to his sniper rifle when he had found the perfect observation point.
Settling down, he zoomed towards his team mates, scope hovering over their team’s point and the surrounding area. “Lead, this is Mike. OP one is secure. No hostiles in your perimeter, point is clear to… No, wait. I’ve got movement. Stand by.” He spoke to his radio as he noticed a red dot approaching from the opposite direction in a distance – a safe distance, but still past their perimeters, nonetheless. What he found odd was the fact that it was only one dot. Was it a scout? Or an infil guy? He’s got to have some guts to breach this far into their perimeter all by himself. Michael shifted his position so he could pinpoint the source.
It wasn’t long until he finally found the figure and concluded that that it was a she. And he also noted that she seemed to be wandering and lost. That seemed to be pretty odd, considering whom their team leader was, but he just shrugged before he prepared to take a shot – that was, before he saw her stumble backwards, her expression horrified. Shifting the scope to where she was gazing at, his eyes widened slightly. “What in the world…?”
Help her, don’t help her. The mental debate bugged him although it didn’t take very long before he came to his decision, leaving his semi-portable sniper rifle behind. “Tango is moving too fast, securing the hostile directly. Dispatching now.” He half-lied as he loaded his assault rifle, muting his microphone for a while. His team mates certainly didn’t need to know that he’d be helping an enemy. Then again, this creature certainly cannot be part of the game and it was indeed, moving too fast. He brought his gun to aim at the creature, taking a quick shot with it, but then he remembered that they were only using paint-based ammunition. “Oh, great.” He muttered inaudibly as he watched the posthaste averted its attention from the girl and now towards him. Well, he’d be damned.
