A few other groups of military cadets aside from Kyam's were wandering around the conference as well, Gray thought this was strange for a game conference but considering the game it made some sense. Gray did his best to maintain a low profile around these groups in case someone else recognized him. The rest of the conference ended up being uneventful for Gray and the rest so they went home. Gray dragged his feet by the entrance hoping to run in to Felicia one last time, but sadly she was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh well, guess it wasn't meant to be." said Gray to himself before finally leaving the conference and go home for the rest of the night.
__________
The next morning Gray had his usual instant meal, good old bachelor life he thought. After breakfast Gray felt like taking a nap as Monday mornings were the best for napping. Something about climbing back into bed while the rest of the world just finished their weekend that made Gray enjoy it all the more. Still, he actually really wanted to get back into the game, but was afraid that most of the players wouldn't be online due to it not being the weekend.
As Gray logged in, he was happy to see his whole team was already online.
"Whew, I thought it would only be Geoff and myself." Gray thought since he remembered that Geoff also took time off from work to play but didn't know what the others had done.
Gray opened up the team chat window on his HUD and asked where everyone was. The chat window quickly filled with replies:
'Stacia: We are by matchmaking'
'Geoff: Waiting on you asshole!'
'Yurika: Hurry up! I want to shoot things!'
'Caleb: I thought you were more reliable than this'
Gray sighed inwardly. "Nobody told me we were waiting on each other."
Gray hurried over to the matchmaking board to find the other 4 staring anxiously at him.
"Gray! Where were you? We agreed 10am would be our meeting time!" said Geoff angrily.
"10am? I don't remember that..." said Gray honestly.
"We talked about it yesterday! Caleb, didn't you say you meet him earlier in the real world and would send him a message about our agreement?" asked Yurika to Caleb.
Caleb pretended to not pay attention and said "It doesn't matter anymore, let's just begin!" as he walked over to the simulator pods.
Gray, Geoff, Yurika and Stacia looked at each other and rolled their eyes as they all came to the conclusion that Caleb didn't send a message.
"Random again?" asked Gray to everyone else.
"You're the leader, we'll let you pick what we do when we're doing matchmaking as a team." said Stacia.
Gray really enjoyed objective games like Capture the Flag so he decided to be a little selfish and selected Team Capture the Flag once everyone was in their simulator pods. After a few minutes of waiting, a match was finally found.
A different arena than any of the Team death match spawned for them and the 5 of them were standing around a blue flag with their team name on it. Inside their HUDS a picture of the enemy flag came in to view, it was red with the name "Grizzly Lords" on it and an emblem of a roaring grizzly bear on it.
"Awww, how come they get an emblem?" asked Yurika
"Because it costs merits to add and I'm trying to be frugal" replied Gray.
"Quit being such a cheap ass!" Yurika yelled back
"It's frugal! Not cheap!" countered Gray, although he admitted it was a weak counter.
"Gray, for team unity, I do recommend an emblem as in the future it will provide us with a symbol to rally behind." said Caleb.
"FINE, I'll take care of it when we take a break!" Gray said while pretending to surrender to the masses. Truth was he really didn't know about it because he never really explored the team setup part nor did he read the manual that thoroughly. "Let's focus on the match now!"
Gray was a little surprised that when they spawned into the map, they weren't given a mech selection screen or even a loadout selection screen. It seems that everyone has the same basic mech, a Capture the Flag variant for the standard Phalanx Mk 01 as well as an assault rifle strictly for the CTF mode. Inside everyone's HUD was an indicator with a full green bar in it that said "Hit Points: 10/10".
"Hit Points?" asked Gray
"Yes Gray, Capture the Flag uses hit points to determine the life or death of your mech. The weapons we have are basically paint guns that merely mark on the mech where it has been hit. You lose hit points depending upon where you get hit. When you run out, your mech is destroyed and will respawn after a set timer back at your base." said Caleb.
"Oh, that sounds good! Respawning isn't realistic, but that is also what makes it kind of fun since we can fight without worry!" said Gray.
Gray looked at the map provided and saw that it was a long and somewhat narrow map. This didn't leave much room for guesswork as the amount of routes to the flag was very limited due to the smaller map. Gray was hoping this would be as fun as these types of games were Gray's personal favorite. Not wanting to waste any more time, Gray started to excitedly give out orders. "Let's find out what they're trying to do first, it's better to counter than to rush in blindly even if we can respawn."
__________
Felicia was wearing a military uniform similar to what the cadets of the academy wore, a dark blue skirt and matching coat with an Alterra Corporation visitor badge clipped to her breast pocket. The insignia on her upper sleeve indicated she was a 1st Lieutenant. Currently Felicia was having a meeting with Drake and a virtual presence of a man dressed in a uniform similar to Major Valen of Alterra Online.
"Lieutenant Stone, what is the results of the players you've been assigned to monitor?" asked the virtual presence.
"General, sir, I have determined that none of the current players understand the purpose of the Alterra Project. I have flagged a few names that I believe could potentially hinder our efforts, but I believe we are able to proceed with phase 2." replied Felicia.
The General, as Felicia called him, appeared to be in his late fifties with graying hair and a streak of white on each side. The dark blue slacks matched the blazer and fit perfectly on his large framed body. The insignia of a general on his shoulders with 2 stars indicated he was 2 star general and thus high ranking.
"Excellent, we'll consider closely monitoring the players you have flagged." said the General. "Mr. Teach, we would like you to reduce the amount of character customization allowed for the beginning of phase 2. Cosmetic changes weren't the problem, and thank you for being far-sighted and not allowing gender changes, but the body mass and structural changes were almost beyond our capacity with just the test batch of 800."
"Understood sir, we'll say it was a Diamond-tier exclusive then."
"Frankly, some of them were disturbing. One player tried to give himself squirrel vision by moving his eyes to the side of his head as much as possible. Should've let him keep it just for the amusement honestly." said the General while laughing to himself.
"Sir, I do have one suggestion" said Felicia.
"Yes Lieutenant Stone?" replied the General.
"I suggest we keep an active listener on one of the players instead of the standard passive. His intelligence may be beneficial to us, but we don't want him to learn what our intentions are."
"Wise decision, Mr. Teach, does Alterra have enough staff to spare to allow another active listener?" asked the General to Edward.
"Yes, I can have them start once the target is known."
"Good, now who is the target?" asked the General to Felicia
"Caleb Waldowski"