Chapter 11 - Running and Gunning (1/2)

"BEGIN!" a female voice said to both Gray and Geoff. Immediately both Gray and Geoff aimed their laser rifles at each other and opened fire.

"Suck laser butthead!" said Gray menacingly.

"What are you? Twelve?" said Geoff expressionlessly.

"Heck yeah! Twelve inches!" said Gray with a huge grin on his face. He was truly enjoying this!

"The 'mm' on the ruler is millimeters, not inches."

Both Gray and Geoff exchanged shots, the heat could be seen radiating off of their laser rifles. Initially they were expecting to be running around, dodging, and taking pot shots at each other, but this was their first time and they could barely walk and shoot at the same time. Instead, they both opted to stand in place and fire at each other. Their aim was so bad that Major Valen would probably cry if he saw this.

Finally, both rifles stopped firing after the same time as both of them looked at their own guns curiously.

"What gives? I was getting ready to make my move!" said Gray. He noticed a little indicator blinking on his HUD that was blinking and saying 'OVERHEAT' in red glowing letters. The same was seen on Geoff's HUD as well.

"All part of my plan" said Geoff plainly.

"Plan my ass! You were just firing like I was!"

Finally both mech's rifles finished cooling at the same time and could be fired again, they noticed that the HUD would display a temperature gauge for their weapons so one could consider it a learning process for them.

Gray and Geoff eventually started to get the hang of the rifles and were able to hit each other's mechs. The laser rifle is extremely accurate so once they were able to coordinate the mech better with their thoughts and imagined actions, it became much easier to use the mech.

For twenty minutes or so both Gray and Geoff continued to dance around and take shots at each other, neither of them were accurate enough to score any critical damage as a laser rifle required you to hit the same area multiple times before punching through the mech's armor.

"Can't I adjust the power on this thing?" said Gray as he started fiddling with the weapon settings on his HUD. He discovered that he could adjust it and immediately cranked up the power as far as the slider would go. A bright yellow warning symbol flashed with a message: "WARNING: Exceeding maximum power can lead to a critical damage to weapon"

"Eh, no guts no glory!" Gray confirmed the override and saw the temperature gauge rise on the laser rifle before even firing it. "This might've been a bad idea, better make the most of it!"

Gray had stopped firing for a moment while adjusting his laser rifle and had made his way to some cover while pretending that his rifle overheated again. Geoff thought that Gray probably overheated his laser rifle again so he chased after Gray.

Gray was hoping for this as he knelt next to the wall hiding himself waiting for Geoff to come charging over, Gray wasn't disappointed as Geoff did indeed chase him. Realizing his mistake Geoff's first instinct was to use his own rifle to block and brace himself. Gray smiled victoriously as he held steady and pulled the trigger. A bright almost-golden light shot out of the rifle, it burst through Geoff's rifle and into his simulated cockpit in the torso of his mech.

Red emergency lights flashed on Gray's HUD as his laser rifle turned to slag in his Mech's hand after holding the trigger too long. His mech's hand became damage from the heat as some of the joints in the hand melted and seized up.

"Simulation over, winner Gray" said the same female voice from the start of the match.

"Yeah! How'd you like 'dem apples!" said Gray victoriously

Geoff glumly replied "Yeah yeah, I admit you tricked me."

Gray and Geoff both exited the simulator pods at the same time and Major Valen walked up to both of them.

"Private Gray! Private Geoff! That was the most sorry duel I've ever witnessed, you two were strutting around like peacocks while being unable to shoot the broadside of a barn and wasting your energy goofing off like grade schoolers!"