"So what can you offer us?" asked the General.
There was a long pause, and the general was getting nervous.
"Sorry, we had to check up on something. We can't offer much, not even information, but if you let the 3 children here compete fairly, after the event we can send all faction plans for an anti-matter generator and a highly efficient engine. This should help with project Praetorian" answered Lisa, she had hoped by name dropping a classified project would tilt the General a little. She had confirmed with Unit2317 that they could share that technology as it was prefield technology.
"We know that your cult has access to more technology than that, surely you can share for humanity sake" The General was exasperated by their refusal to help humanity.
Null had started to sign vigorously towards the general and Chris translated for the general.
"You butchered a young teenage girl and the world wasn't even at risk, you don't deserve any more help. We are protecting humanity by not helping. You will understand one day" Chris had been translating for Infy who was communicating over their link.
Null and Infy had unconsciously let out a bit of their hybrid aura which affected everyone. They all stepped back including Chris and Jania as the aura felt like death was waiting for you.
'When did I become so wary of them, it must have been after the Bolat incident. I will have to get a grip on myself ' Chris was admonishing himself for backing away from the twins.
Jania contacted the boys' over a private link. 'Null, Infy calm down. It is ok I'm fine now. I'm better than fine' Jania had suspected that the boys were reliving the last time they were on mars and they had connected with her and felt her rage at being tortured. The two boys calmed down and withdrew their aura.
The meeting drag on for a little bit longer but nothing of consequence was decided. The children were allowed to return to their rooms. Tomorrow they would take part in the first round of the competition.
The competition was broken into 3 different events. Siege, capture the flag and survivor. After qualification normally a squad of 7 would be formed of 1 officer, 1 super-soldier and a team of 5 enlisted foot-soldiers. The best officer would be paired with the worst super-soldier and that would continue until the best super-soldier would be paired with the worst officer.
This is what would normally happen, they were making an exception in this case. The 3 of them had shown up unplanned so there weren't enough teams prepared and also having 2 super-soldier candidates had made it unbalanced. It was decided that the 3 of them would be in a squad together, but would have to face two squads at once.
This was justified to the other teams that the 3 of them had shown such overwhelming power that it wouldn't be fair to place them in normal teams. It was also explained that facing an elite squad would prepare them for fighting against more technologically advanced alien races.
Each day the teams would only compete in 1 event, they would gain points for finishing certain objectives. These objectives were hidden from the competitors so as not to influence their decisions. The 5 teams with the most points after 3 events would engage in a battle royal to decide the winner.
Today event was Seige. Each squad would take turns either attacking or defending an underground bunker. They would have 30 minutes to plan their strategy and then 90 minutes to capture or defend the base. Chris's squad would be defending first.
"So Chris, if you were on the attack how would you deal with Null and me?" Jania was talking out loud as she was sure that they were being monitored and they wanted to maximise the chance of getting points.
"Using what they know of you, I would plan to try and lure you into a trap with one of the super-soldiers as bait while the other tries to infiltrate the base and locks you out. I would use the 2 squads of foot-soldiers to excavate at two different locations. It would be a slow entry but it would work so we would need to respond to those teams leaving me, the commander vulnerable to attack." Chris outlined how he would have attacked. This was used as the basis for working out a defence.
They talked about their plan for a bit, with Null signing his answers but that was just for show.
"Honestly, they have no understanding of your power, so we are just going to brute force this one. I will give you a list of the most likely paths they would take. Use those freak sensors of yours and wipe them out" Chris stated over the mental link.
In the end, it was a very anticlimatic result, the two left the base and travelled the paths that Chris had given them and ended up wiping out both squads in under 10 minutes. The opposite officers had tried to do something similar to Chris's plan but they had used themselves as bait while the two super-soldiers would infiltrate. Unfortunately for them, they were taken out before they even knew they had been spotted.
The judges didn't know how to score the performance, it was dominating but didn't tick their boxes for setting up a good defence. In the end, they withheld judgement till after the next round had taken place.
The attacking phase was going to be harder on them. Having 3 in a team was a disadvantage and the enemy would have defensive measures in place at the door chokepoint. They couldn't just excavate their way to the base either as that would take too long with only 3 of them.
"Brute force won't work here, and I don't want to sacrifice one of you to open the door. They won't come out to fight, the correct option here is for them to turtle up." Chris confidence was not high without the advantages he had been used to this was a challenge.
"can you make anything from the excavation equipment that we can use?" asked Jania. The equipment they had was hydraulic jackhammers and shovels. Null and Infy had reviewed it and believe they could link them up for one person to use it but the strength required to use it would certainly be beyond what any human could manage.
Their plan was simple, but it was all they could do with 3 people and no extra equipment. Null would use all his strength to link 5 of the jackhammers together and try and enter the base via a weak point. Chris would keep guard and Jania will wait near the door. They were going to attempt to simultaneous enter at the same time hopefully thinning out the numbers. After this, there would be no doubt that this team wasn't exactly human and they weren't sure how the other competitors would react.
The other teams didn't let them have it all their way, they had discovered their plan early. The excavation was so slow that it gave the defenders enough time to lay down enough automatic defences at the point of entry that the front door was still fully guarded. Chris reacted to this by getting Jania to feint an attack on the front door and he also returned to join in on the attack to sell the feint.
The automatic defences would have normally worked as some of them were cleverly hidden but to Null and Infy they were an open book. It didn't take long for them to pincer both squads at the front door and wipe them out.
Sadly this was the only real challenge in the first three days. Jania and Null advantages made capture the flag and survival trivially easy. They had finished as the top team and all the other teams had started to take notice. There were even a few official complaints that Null and Jania had been cheating. Those complaints were valid, but they would have to prove it.
"I think we can expect tomorrow battle royale to be rigged against us, they can't let us win. It would be a public relations nightmare. I also suspect it might not end up being a free for all, but an all against us" Chris was strategising with his team.
"Good, this has been so boring, why are they so weak is it the lack of vision?" asked Null.
"Yes, also reflexes while the other super-soldiers have the same reflexes they can't channel all the information you and Jania are," explained Chris.
They were now ready for their final day on Mars, this holiday had taken a strange turn.