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Killstreak

The last refuges of humanity live deep in underground colonies. Unable to walk upon the once loving Earth, they now send out suits piloted remotely to wage their wars over territory, and precious resources. Clarissa, eager to prove herself outside of the simulations comes to find that humans aren't much different than the killing machines they pilot.

By Jordan FlynnPublished about a year ago Updated 11 months ago 27 min read
4
Killstreak
Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room.

She tried to imagine how the land was in its prime. Before the green grass was stripped from the Earth. Before the trees died of rain tainted by nuclear fallout. Animals may have lined her viewpoint, birds could’ve pecked at the window she now gazed from.

Clarissa hated to admit it but she had used Bryce for specifically this glimpse, among other things.

Not many dwellings had views to the outside world. A world that was supposed to be hers, now it belonged to no one.

Outside the barren ground kicked up small puffs of loose soil from errant winds. A world of a mostly gray palette left much to be desired compared to the world that was depicted in videos of the past.

“What are you looking at out there?” Bryce asked, his eyes finally left his codex screen and stared longingly at Clarissa as they always did.

Clarissa's breath fogged up the window and she turned away. “Just taking in the splendor of the outside.”

“Not much splendor, might as well be looking at the shadows on the walls of our caves.”

She raised her eyebrow. Did he really try to force that Plato reference? “Yeah, true, though it always throws me off looking at it for real compared to when we are gaming. I can't imagine walking out there for real.”

Bryce feigned a yawn, “yeah and getting cancer in like five minutes, no thanks I’ll stick to my avatar. Though I’ll admit the scenarios you’ve been doing do it no justice. Nothing beats the real thing.”

Clarissa rolled her eyes, “yeah, yeah well I will find out soon enough. I’m ready”

Bryce rolled his chair closer to her, “well simming with a colony ace will do that for you.” He said with a half smile.

Clarissa crossed her arms and glanced down to her watch. “Well look at the time we better head to ceremony. Don't want them to think I'm a low score."

Bryce shook his head with the same smirk. “You really are ready for the prestige ceremony aren't you? Come on, we are less than a 10 minute walk.”

Bryce leaned closer, Clarissa felt as though the walls were closing in. She then stepped quickly around him as if in preparation to throw a cross punch. The thought, although forbidden under the Laws of The Mother was a satisfying one. Before she left she turned back to his disappointed face, “not going to be the new ace if I'm late.” She quickly walked away and she heard Bryce billow out to her, “yeah you will!”

Clarissa entered the egg as it was called. Despite her leaving Bryce to be early, there were already dozens of gamer's inside the oval shaped lecture hall. When we have one purpose I guess that doesn't leave many other places to be. She waved at a few people she knew as she walked down the stairs to her usual spot. She felt a poke on her shoulder.

She turned to find one of her squad mates, Nicoya.

Today she wore her braids into a tight bun that the higher ups would hate for going against conformity. “Hey Clar, are you ready to run it today?”

By Etty Fidele on Unsplash

Clarissa would never let anyone else call her that but Nicoya was one of her best friends.

“You know it. Last scenario they couldn't stop us, I had so many streaks going!”

Nikoya's eyes squinted, “well you know you'd have less streaks if I wasn't watching your ass.”

“Oh, yes you are my personal ass watcher.” The two giggled as they took two seats next to each other.

The egg filled up steadily with other gamer's, Clarissa could see Bryce with a few other of the higher level players.

Nikoya whispered, “so how was your boy Bryce?”

Clarissa could hear the sarcasm in her voice.

“Oh you know, insightful and creepily horny as ever.”

Nikoya let out a hardy laugh. Her dimples stretched to the limit when she laughed that hard.

Clarissa loved that about her, something she tried to bury. Any thoughts of love, outside those that lead to procreation were not to be tolerated. She winced as she pinched herself.

Nicoya started to say something when the lights dimmed. All eyes went to the center where a projection of the top scores for that week were.

There were hoots and hollers from some, and others jeered at rivals. Most would reach prestige and be ready for active duty. Those who didn't would be sent away from the colony for re-education. A recording of the Headmarshall's raspy voice robotically listed the top 10 players.

1. ClaroQKill-Clarissa, Block 41

2.Last Light-Josef, Block 6

3.NikNak- Nikoya, Block 42

Clarissa nearly went deaf from the shrill whistle Nikoya let out as they cheered themselves.

The projection faded and up stepped Mother Kennedy and Headmarshall Montgomery.

Mother Kennedy as she was known, always wore eccentric dresses with some type of legging underneath. Her blonde hair was pulled into a long single braid that went to her mid back. When Clarissa was younger she would try to mimic that braid, her face flushed at the thought of it now.

Headmarshall Montgomery per the usual looked pissed off, his pale face wrinkled from years of holding a tight lipped expression, that and radiation burn. He would'nt be intimidating if it wasn't for that. Outside of that he was a frail man with thick glasses. He was one of the few old enough to have experienced some of the last nuclear bombings, or the "second sun" as it was called. He sported his typical crown cap and the numbered jumpsuit not much different than what the gamers wore.

Mother Kennedy spoke first, raising her hand to quell the cheers for both them, and the top ten listing.

“Good afternoon to you all!” Her voice always sounded as though it were on the verge of saying something supportive.

The room responded in kind. “Good afternoon Mother Kennedy!”

“We are soo proud of you all, Headmarshall Montgomery and I were speaking about how this maybe one of our best lobbies in recent memory.”

The two exchanged glances and Montgomery nodded his head.

“How much you want to bet the two are shacking?” Nikoya whispered the only thing Clarissa could see was her white teeth in the dimmed light.

“Ugh can you imagine his teeth that up close and personal.” She responded. Nikoya stymied a laugh.

Montgomery as if he sensed their laughter frowned in their direction. Clarissa averted her eyes down, despite their jokes she was terrified of Headmarshall Montgomery.

He then spoke, his gravelly voice echoed around the egg. “Although this group has shown much prowess it has a difficult path ahead. You now will be dealing with colony resources, which means you have limited respawn's to work with. These are real suits you are playing with, real ground you are walking on, and real enemies on the other side. You wont always get a restart when you make a mistake. Good luck and the colony is with you.”

Mother Kennedy clasped her hands together, “Now join me in congratulating this group's prestiges!”

Applause rang out as she read off the list of 25, Clarissa and Nikoya among them.

“Those who were named please remain, as well as Alpha group, and Septa groups. For those not named, please in an orderly fashion leave the egg and follow the waiting friendly guards who will lead you on your next leg of this journey. Remember if you put the colony first, the colony will put you first!”

As she asked, the remainder of the group shuffled out of the egg in an orderly fashion.

Clarissa and Nikoya both took each other's hands and smiled so hard Clarissa thought they might break their teeth.

After the room cleared out Montgomery explained what would first be an introduction to controlling a real avatar, and then followed by a routine patrol on a mineral field.

Clarissa as always took feverish notes, on the other hand Nikoya fought to keep her eyes open.

As the two walked to the gaming lobby with the others, Nikoya voiced her disappointment.

Clarissa retorted, “think about it, its our first real mission. You didn't expect us to storm the insurgents' home colony did you?”

“Ugh, yeah I guess not, I just know we are capable of so much.”

A voice suddenly spoke from behind them. “Some of the hardest missions are those that you are asked to do but don't want to.” Bryce said calmly as he caught up to them. “Just do your job, limit your resources, and you will have a chance to show who you are eventually.”

Bryce branched off to the left exit of the passageway they were in. “Good luck we will be watching.”

Clarissa watched him as he went with the other aces.

“Ooh, how ominous.” Nikoya rumbled.

The two and their group continued the walk to the lobby. After being checked in, they passed through the entrance which was a giant nuclear grade blast door. Inside the avatar bay endless cockpits lined the walls, numerous tubes and extensive wires branched from them like a spider web.

The gamer would stand on a treadmill-like device that simulated the earth. As their mind moved a slightly larger than human mech in real time out in the inhospitable barrens.

“Bryce is a creeper but he's right, they are going to be seeing how we handle stress and the lack of it. We’ll be okay.” Clarissa and Nikoya did their secret handshake before they departed to their cockpits.

“See you out there,” Nikoya said with a grin.

Clarissa let out a sigh as she watched Nikoya walk away. She pinched herself.

This is it.

Thus far as Nikoya let Clarissa know at every turn, the mission had been quite uneventful. Clarissa could feel some slight differences compared to the simulations. She could feel that every step had a certain weight to it, every movement had meaning. With that came a delay, with every thought of action the avatar would have perhaps a millisecond longer of a response than in the sim. Nothing too much to overcome, it didn't take long for her to grow accustomed to it.

Nikoya was on her back as usual, along with 10 others and an ace who was the lead. Ak1llies was his tag, besides that Clarissa didn't know much about him. Just that he was brash and only referred to them as noobs.

They set up a perimeter around the sunken pit of which the miner avatars were working. These were much like what Clarissa and her team piloted, but obviously specialized in mining. Above the pit was a ridgeline that made the area look like a bowl.

Despite the monotony of the mission Clarissa loved every moment. She was dizzied by the wide horizons, she stared above at the overcast sky, she swore she could glance a sliver of sunlight. At one point she knelt down and let the dirt slide between her avatars fingers.

By Rod Long on Unsplash

“Eyes on your sector.” Barked Ak1llies.

So Clarissa kept her eyes on her sector as did the others for roughly an hour. The only threat in their view was the light radioactive snow that fell from the still present nuclear winter.

The gamers took turns to leave their pilot seats to grab a quick bite of food, use the bathroom, or to stretch, which left their avatars idle.

After the break Ak1llies ordered them to go on patrol. They walked in a grid several hundred meters away from the mines, their avatar suits made clicking noises as they went.

Clarissa noticed an IM from Nikoya. Man that guys a hard ass

Clarissa smiled as she responded Yeah a little bit, gotta assert that dominance apparently.

Suddenly another message popped up but not from Nikoya. Clarissa's heart dropped, it was from Ak1llies. You both know I have access to IM right? : )

“Shit.” Both Nikoya and Clarissa muttered much to Ak1llies’ delight.

After they meandered around the featureless hills for some time the team's party chat made Clarissa jump at the crack of static. “Alpha team return to the mines, we may have a situation.”

It was Bryce.

The group double timed it back to the mine, with their suits it only took a few minutes to cover the distance.

They came upon Bryce and several other suits setting up a perimeter. He directed the others in his black and red custom skinned suit. He was equipped with a DMR rifle optimized for medium to long range, a shotgun type weapon for up close, and two blades strung on his back for very up close.

Ak1llies leapt ahead of the group, “What's going on B? I have everything under control man.”

“You're being relieved by higher level gamers, we have reports of the other colony closing distance to here. Have your noobs help gather up the mining equipment, and valuables and get the hell out of here.”

Nikoya groaned, “didn't get much sims on manual labor.”

“Yeah, well that's the job, not every scenario is kill streaks galore. Now get to it Nik.” Bryce answered, his voice filled with annoyance.

The two joined up with the rest of the noobs and started to help the mining avatars pack up the equipment and resources. Resources that would be used likely to build more avatar suits.

The pace was feverish, although Clarissa wasn't using her actual body for the work it was mentally taxing as well as boring.

“Alright that about does it let's head back. Ak1llies round up the noobs and te-”

Bryce's suit erupted sparks and suddenly Clarissas feed was covered with hydraulic fluid. The avatar crumpled heavily to the ground as the sound of the shot echoed off the walls of the canyon around them.

“Fuck! Sniper!”Bryce cried out over the radio. “My suit is down.”

Everything froze for a moment and then shots pinged all around. “Return fire!” Ak1llies yelled out. “Where's the sniper Bryce?”

“He was, I think, bearing 146 east, at least 1000 meters.”

Clarissa wiped the fluid from her feed best she could, and could see the insurgent avatars movement around the edges of the canyon, as well as several muzzle flashes. The friendly avatars were quickly overrun by the insurgents.

“We have to get out of this bowl.”

“Yeah no shit noob." Ak1llies grumbled.

Clarissa fired at the distant muzzle flashes, as did the rest of the team. She could hear the drum of her heartbeat in her ears.

Nikoya rested next to her, firing her rifle. An explosion rang out and down went another one of the team. “Damn!”

Bryce cracked in between the fighting, “I got one minute I'm respawning into a new suit.”

Clarissa looked at one of the large mining skiffs, and made a decision. She ran toward it and leapt 10 feet into the air and landed heavily next to it.

“What the hell are you doing?” Ak1llies shouted.

Clarissa used the strength of her suit to toss the skiff back toward the rest of the team.

“Now we have some actual cover, use it!”

Before she knew it Nikoya was on her back.

“I got you, what's the move?”

“You remember the rules if you should find yourself in an ambush?”

“Yeah, well we got one of them, cover.”

“And?”

“Assault through the killzone?”

“Yup!”

“But Clar we have like 400 meters between us and them.”

“So let's close the distance.”

Clarissa reached down and pulled out a smoke grenade and tossed it about half the distance.

Ak1llies now landed next to them while he fired. “I will give cover, you three do the same and then we will pop smoke behind you.”

“Nik when we get to my smoke you throw yours then.”

“Got it, let's go.”

The two ran as the shots thudded and impacted at their feet. Tracer rounds passed back and forth between the enemy and their squad.

Clarissa stood in the smoke, she noticed she was alone. She turned back and saw that Nikoya was just outside of it firing.

She joined Clarissa in the smoke now as she reloaded. “I got one! First kill baby!”

The two didn't have long to celebrate for the enemy knew what they were trying to do, their smoke offered them concealment but not much in terms of cover.

Now it was Nikoyas turn. She stepped backward and cocked the grenade backward then hurled it forward. "Go, go,go!"

The two bound in the air as if they were rabbits and covered large swathes of ground with each leap.

Behind them the rest of the team maneuvered and fired.

On one of her jumps Clarissa fired at a muzzle flash and in response saw a plume of sparks.

“Get jumpshot idiot!”

“You got one too? Hell yeah, let's go!”

They landed in Nikoyas smoke, then reloaded and prepared for their final push.

“You ready to push these kids?” Clarissa asked.

“Yup I'm gonna’ get a few pop shots off and we can go.”

Nikoya as before stepped from the smoke and fired in anger. Another of her shots hit their mark, though this time the enemy expected this. She took a round through her left arm. It shattered into pieces that clanked to the ground.“Shit I'm hit!” Her suit fell to the ground as she crawled into the smoke with Clarissa.

“Do you need to respawn?”

“No, No, not yet. I can still fight.”

Just then Headmarshall Montgomery's harsh voice joined their party chat. “You are running low on respawn's team, this sector lacks the resources for it. This apparently is part of a much larger push by the insurgents. They hit us at our solar array too. You have only two more suits available.”

“What?”

“Shit.”

Unbeknownst to the two, behind them the other members of the team had taken a few more casualties that soaked precious resources.

“Where's Bryce he should’ve respawned by now?” Clarissa asked.

Montgomery responded, “His system lagged he had to restart, you have three up not including you two. He will be there though soon, likely with the last respawn.”

“Fuck this, we have to go.” Nikoya grunted.

The two then leapt and fired mid air. A round skimmed Clarissa's abdomen, inside her head alarms sounded and flashed.

“You good?” Nikoya hollered.

“Yeah, just skimmed me.”

The two landed on the top lip of the ridgeline; Clarissa turned behind to see the rest of the team still under fire and on their way.

She did not have much time to absorb the situation, they had to fight.

Nikoya gave call outs. “There's three, 140 east, I got five more my 12 o'clock they are coming our way.”

Nikoya put her rifle on what remained of her arm to fire.

“I'm going for those five.”

Clarissa used her long rifle to scope in on the insurgents. She could see their suits were almost the exact same as hers.

She fired, cutting one of them in half. “I got one down! Clarissa shouted, she fired again. “Two down!”

Well now they were much different than her suit.

“Seems like you are keeping those dicks at bay, I will go after those three before they flank us.”

“Roger.”

"Whose roger?" Nikoya quipped as she leapt away.

Clarissa saw that Ak1llies had led the remainder of the team on the ledge across from them.

She zoomed in and watched as he used a knife to dispose of two enemies, his blade went square into the center of one.

“Are you good over there?”

“Yeah we are clearing up, you should not have charged on your own now we are separated.”

“Well seems like it worked out.” Clarissa continued her fire and pinned down the other three from their flank.

Just then, she heard Ak1llies cry out. “We got a whole squad over here!”

She quickly looked over to see Ak1llies burning through magazines like a mad man. He jumped over an enemy and shot another down, Clarissa could him now surrounded. “Damn we are down over here.”

Clarissa took a few shots at the squad that killed Ak1llies but the distance was hard to gauge.

“I'm coming to you Nik.”

Clarissa jumped, and ran over to Nikoyas position to find her standing over the defeated remains of two enemies. “There's still a few others up.”

“Where was that sniper that took out Bryce though?”

As if on queue a shot just missed Clarissa and hit Nikoya, she fell to the ground, her top half severed from the bottom.

“No! Nik!”

“Shit we are gonna’ be out of spawns after this too.”

Nikoya shot from the ground as Clarissa pulled what remained of her to a small defilade. Clarissa scanned for the sniper, which proved difficult because they were pinned by the other squad at Ak1llies’ location.

“I think we’re fucked.” Nikoya muttered.

“Well you definitely are. That squad is 100 meters away now, they are going to swarm us.”

“Use me as bait, and run to cover. I will take some with me.”

“You sure? Yeah screw it. Going for it.”

Clarissa gave Nikoya a fist bump before she ran, she saw numerous rounds that hit all around her.

“Come get it mother fuckers! You're gonna' have to work for it!” Nikoya yelled as she fired from the ground, behind Clarissa.

Clarissa dropped to the ground, to a small crater she could barely fit into.

She peaked up to see Nikoyas lifeless suit swarmed by at least four insurgents, they looked at her but deemed she was down. They spread out as they now fired at Clarissa. Between them and the sniper she couldn't return fire.

“Surprise!” Nikoya sat up and fired into the back of one of them and moved on to the next. She was able to get a shot into it, not before the others turned and shot her into pieces.

This gave Clarissa the moment she needed; she popped up, and exposed herself as little as she could and fired into the remainder of the team.

She watched as they fell into pieces almost at the same time. "Got em!"

“Good shit girl!.” She could hear the other voices of her team and their congratulations.

She started to come to a knee and scan the remainder of the battleground. As she turned to her behind she took a shot. She screamed out in shock as her suit dropped to the ground. “Fuck there's four more!”

Her leg was in tatters, fluid soaked the ground beneath her. The enemies surrounded her and slowly closed the distance.

“They are about to finish me. Shoot sorry guys.”

One stepped forward, Clarissa noticed that he had a long rifle, odds are he was the sniper.

“I'm going to reboot out.”

The sniper pulled out something that looked like a codex and much to Clarissa's surprise responded. “No, you're not going anywhere.”

“What the?” Clarissa tried to return to her actual body but could not, she was trapped. She couldn't move and was suspended in her suit.

“What the hell, I'm stuck guys.”

“They can't hear you, you are being jammed.”

The soldiers grabbed her other limbs and started to carry her away.

“Screw you, you guys got lucky! Where are you taking me?”

“A little advanced interrogation is all.”

Clarissa thought to squirm, writhe, and pull away from them. Nothing happened. She shuddered at the thought of what that would mean “advanced interrogations.”

They carried her for several minutes, all the while Clarissa tried to call for help, and to exit all to no avail. Eventually she resigned to her situation.

Clarissa saw they were near what appeared to be an entrance to a bunker complex. They are taking me to their HQ.

“Well someones quiet, you still with us?” She could hear the cocky smile in his voice.

“Don't worry we are gonna just have a chat, you me, and Father Mongomery."

Father Montgomery?

"Then we will really have a-"

They were still about 100 meters away when Clarissa felt her left side abruptly drop to the ground.

“Contact right!”

Clarissa watched from the ground as one of them took a headshot, oil exploded onto Clarissa's body.

Another took a round and collapsed on top of her midsection.

“He's pushing, he's pushing!”

She could do nothing from the ground but watch in awe as a suit leapt above her, and the captors; they struggled to get a bead on him due to the speed of which he moved.

She recognized the red and black armor, Bryce.

He landed next to the sniper, who in turn tried to riflebutt him, but as he turned, he was sliced in half. Bryce, next rolled to the final enemy who tried to shoot him as he rolled toward him, bullets peppered around Bryce filling the air like smoke. The shooter found now that he was missing a leg and fell down to the earth in a whirlwind of curses.

Bryce stood above him now and as if he were planting a flag stabbed downward into the foe.

As soon as he finished him, Clarissa now found that she had control of her suit. She sat up from the ground, unable to move much due to her leg still being all but destroyed.

She watched as the sniper crawled toward his rifle.

“Bryce”

Bryce pulled out his blade from the foe, and wiped the fluids from it.

“Ah, I remember you. You were the sniper with the lucky shot.”

“Ha, luck had nothing to do with it pussy.”

“Yeah same with this shot.” Clarissa jumped at the explosion of Bryce's shotgun, he shot the sniper twice which left him eviscerated.

“You okay to walk?” Bryce asked as he loaded two more shells into his shotgun.

Clarissa stood gingerly, her suit allowed her to limp forward on one leg.

“Here take this and try to repair it some.” Bryce handed her a mini torch and an excess limb to weld in place of the nearly destroyed leg. She shut the open wound, the suit would replenish some of the fluids she lost on its own.

“Bn1ce, ClaroQKill.” Clarissa was surprised at the sound of a female voice on the chat.

“This is Mother Kennedy, job very well done you two are the only survivors! Looks like both of you had some killstreaks there!”

“Yes Mother Kennedy.”

“Now we have used our last respawn for this sector on NikNak due to how well she works with you Clarissa, she will be with you shortly. Now we want you three to storm this colony.”

“Just the three of us, Mother Kennedy?” Bryce asked, his voice tried to hide the surprise.

“Yes my Bryce, our intelligence reports they should not have much more respawns themselves. Then if they do either way we will know what their defenses look like for this colony.”

“Yes mam.”

"Colony first."

"Colony First." The two answered in unison.

Just then Nikoya came over a nearby hill top, she seemed to glide to them.

“Well, look who's back from the dead.” Clarissa said with a smile in her voice.

“Yeah, yeah, saved your ass. Nice of you to show up, Bryce.”

“Right on time. Let's go in there before they have a chance to regroup.”

The three entered the colony, they broke through a few breach doors, and barricades. Much to the team's surprise there were only a few avatars to impede their way.

Clarissa couldn't help but notice how similar their dwelling was to her own. It was as if they had copied it exactly. Down to the sterile environment, and to the same mostly gray paint used for the rooms.

“This looks like our colony.”

Bryce responded as he scanned the next passageway. “Can only design an underground nuclear shelter in so many ways.”

The team came to the end of the passageway to a thick nuclear shielded door, much like their own used for the avatar room.

Mother Kennedy’s voice returned, “well done! Our intelligence indicates this is where their Avatar pilots should be. So if you can get in there you can sever this entire colony, or at least a great portion. Then we can claim this as our own.”

Bryce pointed for Nikoya to start to hack the doorway.

“Any prisoners Mother?”

“No Bryce, no prisoners.”

Clarissa was taken aback, as she thought back to when she was almost taken prisoner. She figured maybe they didn't have the same tech as the other colony to take control of enemy suits. One thing that still puzzled her was the mention of a "Father Montgomery." What are the odds?

Her thought was interrupted, both Bryce and her saw it, at least two enemy suits peaked around the passageway. “Contact rear!”

Bullets flashed around the three of them. Bryce, and Clarissa fired back, Nikoya flinched but continued her work on the door.

“How much longer Nik?” Bryce yelled.

“Ehh, could be a few more minutes. Shit, I don't know. I've only did sims of this."

“Okay, I'm gonna’ push, Clar put as much fire down as you can.”

Clarissa winced at Bryce calling her that, but on reflex sprayed an entire mag at the corner, as Bryce did the same at a dead sprint. He then switched to his shotgun and ran around the corner. The only thing Clarissa and Nikoya heard was a few final shotgun blasts. Bryce returned, as he strutted around the corner. “Clear.”

The two sighed in relief.

“Okay it's about to open.” The blast door moaned open and the team breached to find a number of people hooked up to avatar stations.

Shortly after entering the room erupted in gunfire. Clarissa expected this to be the end, but she noticed they were being fired upon by what appeared to be mini-avatars, with smaller caliber weapons.

Bryce blew them into pieces with his shotgun, red fluid splattered on the white walls. Nikoya and Clarissa did the same; their suits took minimal damage.

Clarissa leapt over a table the mini-avatars used for cover and finished them.

As she reloaded she looked over the fallen suits. Her heart stopped for a moment.

The two suits beneath appeared as though they went through a blender, red hydraulic fluid squirted at a rhythm from them. She noticed there were also what looked to be organs that hung from the half of one. She knelt down to pull the helmet off from one of them.

She couldn't hide her gasp. Bloodshot lifeless eyes stared back at her, the mouth hung open as if caught mid shout or mid breath as she was now. “Uh guys..”

She turned to see two of the mini-avatars stand with their hands up. Clarissa jumped from her skin at the burst of Nikoya's rifle; as they turned from surrendering colonists into pink mist. “Man, did you see that? No prisoners, am I right?”

Bryce answered, “Damn right.”

“You, you guys, these weren't avatars.”

Bryce walked down the aisles of avatar pilots, “what do you mean of course they were.” His voice was stern, but his mannerisms were bored as he executed the dormant people who moved about on their avatar stations.

“Yeah, Clar quit tryin’ to take away from my kill count!”

Clarissa wanted to vomit, she may have back at her real body in her avatar station. She felt the back of her throat fill with an aciditic sour taste. Her gaze lowered to her hydraulic fluid covered hands. Miles away back at her actual body she could feel herself tremble.

Its not hydraulic fluid. She realized the liquid was not from a machine that would respawn again later. It was blood that covered her hands. Human blood.

She sat frozen in horror while her two friends mercilessly murdered the asleep avatar pilots.

Her mind thought back to the colony motto. “If you put the colony first, it will put you first!”

Sci Fi
4

About the Creator

Jordan Flynn

Out of Grand Rapids MI. I write because I have to. (I am a noob however.)

Follow me @ Jayyeffe on instagram

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  1. Compelling and original writing

    Creative use of language & vocab

  2. Easy to read and follow

    Well-structured & engaging content

  3. Excellent storytelling

    Original narrative & well developed characters

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Comments (2)

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  • Abby Jacobsenabout a year ago

    Wow, this is incredible! Really interesting and compelling use of the prompt!

  • Veronica Coldironabout a year ago

    I am totally blown away by this story. I found myself attached to the characters almost immediately, so the ending kind of smacked me in the face and brought me back to attention. VERY well done!!

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