Qia's Game

Qia stands in the hall, waiting for the forcefield to open. She wears her flash suit comfortably and holds her gun loosely, having already checked to make sure it was working properly. The rest of her team is behind her, limbering up, telling jokes, or just quietly waiting, like her. When forcefield goes down, she gives the signal and she and her team launch themselves into the room.

A brief moment of disorientation, as she makes the transition from 1G to 0G as she crosses the threshold. Then she finds the opposing teams gate, and reorients herself so it is below her, with her own teams’ gate above. Quickly scanning the layout of the spherical room she sees that there are more cover blocks than usual. These motionless blocks are positioned randomly throughout the room, range in size from a cubic meter up to twenty meters across, and provide cover and landing/launching spots. There are hand holds on some of them, as well as on the outside walls of the room. She can’t see the other team, which means they have already entered and are hiding. She motions for her team to split in two groups, and head around the room, spiraling downwards as they go. She catches just a glimpse of movement to her right, from the center of the room, which gives her just enough warning to spin so her legs take the shot instead of her body. Legs now frozen in place, she continues her spin so she can take aim at her opponents. Shots are being fired all around her, and she can see that several of her team have taken hits, although fortunately none are completely frozen yet. The flurry of shots from the other team pauses, as they are assaulted from the other side by the rest of her team. This gives Qia enough time to maneuver to a wall and push off it, heading down again.

As she descends towards the gate, she surprises a small cluster of players from the other team – they had obviously been waiting in reserve. She takes out two of them before they manage to scatter, taking out one of her team as they do so. Qia and her three remaining teammates launch themselves back up to the center of the room and the main battle. The opposing team is still concentrating on the players near the wall, and never even see Qia coming from beneath. Caught in a crossfire, it doesn’t take Qia’s team long to finish them off.

Having frozen the other team, Qia’s team heads down to their opponent’s gate. With four players touching the corners, the gate opens and Qia enters, winning the game.

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As the room fades around her, Qia is left standing alone in the holodeck. Sighing happily, she heads to the showers.