Virtual Steel

Marcus stretched after climbing out of the cockpit of his Granzilire before turning to look it over. The mech had a rather slender build, emphasising it's focus on speed, and was painted pitch-black from head to toe, with blood-red highlights on it's limbs, torso and shoulders. It's head was solid black, apart from a pair of blood-red eyes that gazed out. He knew it wasn't the most imaginative of paint schemes and only went with it on his first mech because it was cheap and it had grown on him by the time he could afford a new scheme.

The shield on it's left arm bore the emblem of a snarling dragon's head. Or it would if it wasn't covered in dents and laser burns from his last arena fight. The Granzilire itself wasn't faring much better; it's right arm hanging by a thread, the hand locked tight around the rifle he'd been using, it's chest (and the armour plate over the cockpit) was scored and pitted and the head was sitting at an odd angle.

"I am not looking forward to seeing the repair bill this time." he said to no-one in particular as he fully realised the extent of the damage (which looked a lot worse than the cockpit's diagnostic had shown). He'd known he'd come close to loosing that match, only winning with an impromptu attack with the edge of the shield that had managed to take the enemy mech's head off. As he kept looking at the damage, he noticed that a laser shot had hit the mech's crotch and reflexively winced slightly.

He turned and looked around the rest of the hangar, repair crews bustling back and forth, pilots entering or exiting their machines and one mech being raised by its dock's lift to compete in the next arena match. Even after three years, he was amazed at the quality of the game.

Galactic Enterprise was the world's first, and most successful, neural interface Massively-Multiplayer-Online-Game and also had the distinction of being the first without any noticeable lag (a combination of the average internet speed of the players and the extremely minuscule size of the files being transferred). Reviewers had first described the gameplay as a cross between Eve Online, Anarchy Online and Exteel. There was no limit to what a player could be in the game; a trader, a cargo hauler, a soldier, some players had managed to set up their own player-staffed corporations who controlled large areas of space. Marcus was one such player; being the owner and CEO of Panther Industries, a relatively new weapons and mech manufacturing company.

The company was rather small; only about twelve players on staff (counting Marcus himself) and only holding a single (rather small) sector of space, they were nonetheless the main supplier of quality weapons and mech parts to the other major corporations, due to PI's single sector being a nexus of trade routes and the first thing Marcus had done after obtaining it was to place powerful defence weapons around each of the jumpgates leading in as well as arming the main station with the same. If someone wanted him gone, they would have to launch a full-scale attack and risk a war with one of PI's other customer companies. Marcus and his employees were making plenty of money from the company, but couldn't expand because the neighbouring sectors were all already owned and buying one would be far too much trouble.

Since there wasn't much to running the company, Marcus spent most of his time in the game at one of several mech combat arenas scattered around the game-world, either competing in matches or simply watching and placing bets (not extravagant ones, though).

After getting changed out of his flight suit, back into his normal clothes (a loose white polo shirt, a pair of loose, dark trousers and a black leather duster, with his long hair sandwiched between the coat and the shirt) and getting a repair order sorted out with the hangar, he headed up to the arena's VIP Lounge to watch the next match.

"Nice work out there, Dragon." the bartender NPC said as he walked up to her. "Shame about the beating your Granzilire took. Just the usual?"

"Yeah, thanks." Marcus replied. The NPCs in the game had amazingly advanced AI; practically fully sentient, but restricted to the game world and only being able to interact with it in the same way as the players. They were also fully aware they were AI and accepted it.

"So who's the newcomer in this fight?" Marcus asked as he was handed his Coke (it might not've been real, but it did taste real). "Don't think I've seen anyone piloting that model mech here before."

"I dunno." the bartender, Milly, replied, leaning forward on the bar and giving Marcus (and anyone else nearby) a eyeful of her ample cleavage. "She started coming about a week ago. I'd put my money on her if I were you; she's been doing pretty well so far."

"Might do that. By the way, did the developers program modesty into you NPCs? You're giving about half the room three-quarters of a strip-tease."

She gave the CEO-slash-mech pilot a sidelong glance. "I'm a hot, sexy bartender and a majority of the people playing this are guys; what do you think?"

"Point taken." he replied before turning to watch the match on the monitors. He'd been looking to hire a skilled mech pilot to help with the company's defence. With any luck, this new girl might just be what he was looking for.


Real Name: Marcus Thompson
Screen Name: ShadowDragon
Real-life age: 20
Country: Australia
Avatar age: 20
Avatar height: 5'8"
Avatar Description: Long, black hair, slim, but well-muscled build, bright green eyes.


OOC: Closed for Euphoria_Lora

Alexis sat in the cockpit of her mech, the grand Phoenix, as she herself had dubbed it. It was a model mech created all her own, and she always loved surprising those who simply got there's from the games intercore, rather than making a custom one for themselves. She was currently programming her computer to be directed fully from her headset, having just come back to only moments before. She could tell her opponent was getting antsy, but hell, the guy was just gonna have to deal with it. After only a few more moments she heard the words of her opponent coming through the mech screen of her monitor. "Are you ready yet?" He groaned to her, exciting a a giggle from the back of her throat. "Not yet tiger." she said back to him, with what she was sure was even a twinkle in her avatars eye. "Just another moment or two."

Alexis set all her sensory input to full, knowing she would need full tactile, and visual output if she was going to do her best. After she finished, and tapped back into the interface, she said to her opponent. "State to the computer your ready to rock, cause I'm all set." She said into it, before directing the computer she was ready. The arena around them then darkened, and the stadium lights lit up to their full. She closed her eyes, awaiting the sound of the bell; the very sound that told her to the core that phoenix and herself were best out there. The noise that always proceeded the defeat of her opponents. She was cocky, yes, but with a record of 600 wins, and 2 losses, both in her newbie days, she felt she had quite the reason to be.

It wasn't a few more moments after that, and Alexis heard the sound of the buzzer. Her eyes immediately shot open, and right to the sight of the charging mech before her. The personalized computer sensor, picked straight up on the erratic movements her opponent was making, showing clear to her that he had left his less armored right side open to attack, to attempt a power slide with his shield attack. "Good luck with that one!" She said to the empty cockpit, as she fire the thrusters up on the mech, just before the bastard was going to reach her position. The action caused her to fly into the air, just in time to miss the shield attack, and as a bonus cause the cockpit of his mech to get scorched by the flames, possibly causing a slight block in the visual sensory navigator, a problem that would hopefully lend her the advantage needed to win the victory without taking damage to her mech.

From the erratic swings around the arena that the other player started to move in, she was guessing she had done well, and was going to risk the assumption that he couldn't see. She then pulsed her thrusters to full charge, and powered the beam blade in her mechs right arm to full charge, as the buster cannon in her right was set to full throttle. She fire at his mech six times, sending busts of energy into is mechs sides that made it slam back into the arena wall, and others into his legs pinning him in place. She kept this barrage up until she was close enough to use the beam blade, which by this point had absorbed an alarming amount of energy. She slashed out at that point, and the blade cut directly through her opponents abdomen, sending a full charge throughout that would have ruptured the mechs atomic core. The words. "End match." Then rang out through the arena, as she slowed her mech to a stop.

Alexis then piloted the phoenix back to her hanger, where she jumped from the cockpit, sending her fire red red behind her shoulder with a slight flick of her neck. That was simple. She thought to herself as she walked from the arena to the bar upstairs, a place used for victors to celebrate, and losers to mourn their purses; or wallets, considering the majority of players in this game were guys. She enjoyed that though, it allowed her to prove that women were just as good at games as men, and she knew well it was true. After all, there wasn't a man in the world she didn't think she could beat in the arena, and she held firm to that belief, even as she spotted him standing at the bar. He was the CEO of this sector of the galaxy, a true man to be reckoned with she supposed. He was said to hold a powerful business, and one that could have bought out the entire galaxy if he thought it was worth it. User Shadow dragon? she thought to herself curiously, after all no one who played in this sector was unaware of the man.
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Real name: Alexis Anderson
Screen name: CrimsonLuster
Real life age: 20
Country: USA
Avatar age: 20
Avatar height: 5'6
Avatar description: Long red hair, swell proportioned and toned build, alluring emerald eyes, preferring red jumpsuits that match her long locks. Tight and slim waist, but ample curves.

Markus leant forward on the bar and watched the monitor behind it, where the arena match was playing out. Displayed on his PDA (which replaced the menu screens of the old-style MMOs and provided a number of other functions) was the victor's arena record.

I'm surprised I haven't heard of her before. Even if this is her first time at this arena, I would've heard rumours about her at some of the others. Male pride notwithstanding; there are plenty of people who wouldn't be ashamed to lose to her, not to mention that there are a fair few other women in the arenas. Not as many, true, but plenty to get a rumour off the ground. Maybe I just haven't been paying as much attention to the rumour-mill as I thought.

Her machine's custom-build, no doubt; I don't recognise any part of it's design. Whoever built it knew what they were doing though, and she certainly knows how to use it. That thruster trick at the start would've knocked out his visual feeds, and the heat would've scrambled his thermal imaging - assuming he even had any installed.

As he finished watching the replay, he noticed a few of the other patrons glance towards the entrance. Seeing the expressions of those who'd bet on the match made it clear who'd just walked in. Switching his PDA off and dropping it into one of the voluminous pockets of his duster, Markus stood up and walked over to the winner to introduce himself, offering his hand to her. He couldn't help but admire her avatar; though he did acknowledge that she could look very different in reality.

"CrimsonLuster; my name's ShadowDragon. I was watching your match just now and I may have a business proposition for you. Care to discuss it over drinks?" He offered, gesturing towards a pair of plush chairs near a small table.

Alexis perked her brow curiously as the man walked to approach her. What's he got up his sleeve. She thought to herself, as she allowed her emerald eyes to flicker in admiration over his avatar's form. She didn't truly care what he looked like in real life, it's was only the game that mattered to her. After all, here she could do things no one could in life. It was here where she was truly alive. She knew well she was an addict, but that was what made her so impressive in the arena. After all, no one got that good without being one, she supposed. As he came into speaking range, and spoke to her though, a soft and devious smile crossed her luscious lips, and she let her eye lashes bat softly at him. "Well aren't you forward." She said to him playfully, as she relaxed her posture a bit, and thought for a second on how he had approached her. Rather confident, straight to the point, and without too much of a glance to her avatar, which was in truth modeled after her own physique

"Well; that depends, does it have to do with your big business." Alexis said to him coyly, as she walked over toward the table he had indicated, letting her hips sway seductively as she walked. In truth she stood eye level with him at the moment, due to the 4 inch heeled boots that were part of her avatars outfit. They allowed her to seem more imposing to some of her foes, though it didn't help her too much when most guys wanted their avatar six feet tall. As she reached the plush chair, she swung her body gracefully into it, and relaxed back as she stared him straight in the eyes. She liked the look there, and truly cared little that it wasn't real. Besides, she most of the time just decided to pretend it was, it made it far easier that way. She could act more real if she thought it was real, and with the tactile sensory the neural interface allowed, it was oh-so-easy to fall into the fantasy that the game was real.

As Alexis relaxed back in the chair though, she gave him a side long glance, and motioned him on quicker. "So, ShadowDragon; tell me more about this offer." She said to him with a smile, as she trailed her tongue seductively across her lips. In truth she was just trying to get a grasp of his attitude, to see how much he would stare. She liked to know the limits and boundaries of all she interacted with, both in the game world and outside. Hell, she had been fired from several jobs, due to the fact that her boss's thought she wanted to have an affair with them. Most of the time however, that couldn't have been further from the truth. She was just naturally flirty, and like to push peoples buttons a little. Though she supposed she may have had a tendency to take it just a little far at times.

Markus sat down opposite the table from her. He'd had trouble keeping his eyes off her hips before and was a little distracted by her behaviour, but he maintained his focus on the job at hand (if she accepted, then there'd be plenty of time to see how far that flirtatious nature went).

"I'm looking to hire skilled pilots to help protect my company's interests. Primarily our production facilities. Hopefully, such defence won't be needed, but I'd rather be safe than sorry." The only reason his business hadn't been destroyed so far was due to the politics between his 'neighbours'. "Somehow I get the feeling that you're not one for corporate politics so you probably don't realise the full extent of my situation."

He leant forward and tapped at the control panel on the table, activating it's holo-display and bringing up a map of the sector they were in as well as the neighbouring ones. Panther Industries' sector was coloured black, while the sectors to the galactic west were all coloured cobalt blue and all the ones to the east were coloured in yellow-and-black bee stripes. The edges of other sectors further out were visible at the edge of the projection, and showed that the other corporations held a lot more territory than was shown.

"As you can see; I'm caught between two of the largest conglomerates in the game. Ascension Foundries-" he indicated the blue sectors. "And Goonswarm. Seems the Something Awful forums get just about everywhere. Anyway, the only reason these two haven't attacked me and claimed my territory isn't because the Non-Aggression Treaties I have with them. If either of them attacks me, the other will see it as an act of aggression and retaliate. They'll both be dragged into a long & costly war; with the winner being easy pickings for any of their other competitors."

"Now, in the event that I am attacked by either side; I need to be sure that I can survive the attack and remain safe during the war. Their contracts with me mean that both will be clamouring for my company's services. A war between them would be very profitable for the company, but not if we're destroyed in the first act of the war. That's where you come in. I've been hiring pilots from the arenas to help with keeping my business safe and you seem to have the talent for it. Provided you can fight just as well in zero-g and with little to no preparation time."