A Visitor to the Future - 115 - All or Nothing!
My second charge was anticipated by the centaur, and it finally turned to give me its full attention, which was precisely what I wanted. At this point I was committed - my Proxy was now a resource to be expended. I was fairly sure the engineers would be able to patch up the damage, considering that my design didn't really use any of the rarer parts in our stockpile.
With that in mind, I could now take risks. Rather than try and dodge the centaur's next swing, I instead tried to endure it, bringing my working arm up to intercept as much of the blow as possible, and planting my feet as best I could to anchor myself - a step made difficult by the floor's angle, which was now rapidly approaching fifteen degrees.
I was pushed backwards - but otherwise undamaged, and ducked forward to pass under a follow-up punch from the centaur's other arm.
The over commitment from the centaur was exactly what we needed.
Tungsten ran forward and clambered up the side of one of the asteroids, one climbing claw emerging from a forearm to briefly provide extra grip. He then launched himself forward, pushing off the surface and into the air, sailing through the air in the direction of the centaur's back. The centaur, somehow aware of Tungsten moving in despite looking at me, began to shift, its left arm moving to strike backwards at Tungsten as he flew forward.
_
Asteroid A-18-C-31 was a carbonaceous asteroid almost five kilometres across, although its entry within the Consortium's gargantuan databases was a little more exciting than most. It had first been sighted within Sol's asteroid belt nearly two hundred years ago, where prospecting drones had identified that it would be a great source of volatiles, and mining activities soon followed. However, that was not to be the end of asteroid A-18-C-31's story. Auditors, busy testing the asteroid defences for Earth and the Moon, had requested an asteroid defence test from the Consortium, and it just so happened that A-18-C-31's remaining size and mass neatly met the criteria for the test. Drones were dispatched to remove the asteroid from the belt and fling it in the direction of Earth, though the Consortium's drones shadowed it for the entire journey.
The asteroid sailed through the void for close to two years before, precisely as anticipated, the Consortium's asteroid defences detected it, tracked it, and dispatched redirection drones to move it into lunar orbit. The asteroid's surface lit up for a time as the redirection drones performed their role perfectly. With the test proceeding exactly as planed, and the asteroid now no longer a possible threat, the Consortium added what was now simply a source of carbon to lunar orbital stockpiles.
_
I did the only thing I could - I reached out for the striking arm and clamped my arm around it, using my whole body weight to prevent it moving. The action opened me up to follow-up strikes from the centaur's right arm, and my Proxy's sensors complained as an impact shattered armour on the left side of my torso.
I could just barely see over the centaur's shoulder as Tungsten landed on the centaur's rear quarters, having leapt over the reach of the kicking hindlegs. He leaned and sprung forward, swinging his right arm in an arc and around to the centaur's head, while his left impacted a spot in the middle of its back. Two audible cracks echoed off the rocks around us, and when Tungsten leapt to the side, off the centaur, both of his hands were filled with the remains of yellow optics, our opponent now completely blind. He wasted no time in kicking at the centaur's right arm as he did so, allowing me to let go of its left arm and back off. It reached out to grapple me, but with no vision its swing went wide, and both Tungsten and I disengaged.
"There was an eye in the middle of its back?" I said, shocked. I hadn't noticed it at all.
Tungsten held out the remnants of the optic he had extracted, showing me that the transparent lens was covered with a translucent bronze coating. "Camoflaged among the plating, designed to blend in. Its kicks were fairly precise, I thought it must be seeing us somehow. As this one is disabled, let's help Gatecrash."
"Please!" said Gatecrash, tone seeming harried.
We sprinted away and downhill in Gatecrash's direction. The arena's incline was now at almost twenty degrees, and I could see they'd been fighting a losing battle, harrashed from two directions. Plates had been torn from their shoulders, one of their forearms was gouged, and a foot looked like it had been wrenched apart. The wolves seemed to be fairing a lot better, Gatecrash's stance having been almost entirely defensive. Their fray had brought them ever-closer to the edge of the arena, where the large gap into the abyss was now large enough to see what lay below - a large pool of water.
_
In more recent times, having now identified asteroid A-18-C-31 as suitable for use, the Consortium calculated how much of it would be sufficient for the arena designer's needs. It was split into pieces, loaded onto a transport sent into Earth orbit, before de-orbiting to the arena's construction site. The arena designer was very happy - after all, it was truly authentic asteroid rock - and with the aid of two construction Proxies installed his asteroids throughout the arena. Only one month later, two Resiliency teams known as Overgrown with Moss and Team Catalyst would scurry all over the arena as the designer looked on, and he smiled as they seemed to enjoy what he had created.
_
I suddenly stopped running as I realized what lay before me. A perfect opportunity.
Alexandra had once described Proxy gimmicks as mobility, utility, or defensive options. When I'd paired up with Blaise to engineer my Proxy, he had many ideas for one I could use. He'd proposed jump-jets, extra senses, advanced plating, even a magnetic grip. I'd had a great deal of difficulty choosing. In the end, he'd simply said, "Pick something fun." For some reason, that'd done it. A memory I'd not thought of in some time came to mind, one of the happiest of my childhood - time spent with my sister at our local park, swaddled in helmets, elbow pads and kneepads. I'd mentioned it to Blaise and his face had lit up, immediately sketching up a concept for how it could be installed.
In our first match, it wouldn't have been any use at all. The ground was uneven.
In our second, our need for stealth and the water made its use completely impossible.
In the third, the ground was flat, but the walls of the arena restricted movement too much.
But here? On fairly level ground, on an incline, where our opponents were directly ahead of us?
I spoke up to ask the team, "Do you think you could take one of these wolves out - if I can take out the second one alone?"
"Most likely, yes," replied Tungsten, "What do you have in mind?"
I kicked my heels together and the roller-blades we'd built into my Proxy's feet deployed. I held my damaged arm still and pushed forward, quickly building up speed and catching up to Tungsten as I travelled down the length of the slanted arena.
_
However, when the designer had been shaping the asteroid rock, he had also found he had a significant amount of debris left over. Small boulders and dust that he could not use for the large rocks spaced throughout the arena. In a flash of inspiration, he filled the arena floor with the dust, thinking that it would look interesting. The remaining smaller rocks he placed under the edges of the asteroids where they met the floor, reasoning that the shifting smaller boulders might give perceptive teams insight into the tilting area. Some of those rocks, however, were slightly larger and heavier and would not move as easily.
_
If I could only ram or grab onto one of the wolves, I could deal significant damage, or even shunt them off the edge of the area. Tungsten and Gatecrash would be able to deal with the remaining one. The fine dust that had coated the arena floor was now a plume behind me, and I leaned forward to become as aerodynamic as possible. Asteroid rocks zipped by as my speed built up, and the gap between myself and Tungsten grew.
"Gatecrash!" I said, "Get one of the wolves into the open!"
"Right!" they replied.
I was seconds away now, and with a quick glance in my direction to judge distance, Gatecrash timed a decisive kick to push one of the wolves into my path.
_
When the arena floor reached ten degrees some of the smallest rocks slid along the floor and splashed into the water below, like gravel from a tipper truck.
When the arena floor reached fifteen degrees, most of the rocks were gone, the floor not providing enough friction to resist their movement. They sailed through the growing gap at the bottom of the arena and were gone.
But there was one larger rock, nestled into the side of one of the asteroids. It was wedged slightly, and it resisted falling when the arena reached both ten and fifteen degree slopes. When the arena floor reached twenty degrees, it shifted again, but slid neatly into another nook and remained still for a moment. It was only when the arena's tilt reached thirty degrees that the rock rolled out of it's perch, and began to bounce off the arena's asteroid obstacles like some sort of pinball.
That was the story of how a head-sized chunk of an asteroid made a journey halfway across the solar system, only to neatly bounce into the worst possible place for a person trying to use roller-blades in a Resiliency tournament.
Directly into the path of my left roller-blade.
_
What had been calculated, smooth motion - a plan perfectly timed and executed, was disrupted in an instant. The wayward rock took my left roller-blade out from beneath me - and, unable to use my damaged arm to rebalance myself I fell forward, head over heels. The change in my course carried me just past the wolf that had been so neatly lined up in front of me. I tried to grab at it as I passed by, but the motion was futile, I was already too far gone.
Now in a chaotic spin, I tumbled, once, twice, three times, shoulder, back, and head alike all impacting the ground heavily. I tried to get a grip on the arena floor to stop myself, but it was useless - I was completely out of control. Suddenly the impacts stopped, the arena floor gave way to open air, and the sight of the water below.
The fall didn't last long, but there was enough time for a brief moment of regret to flicker across my mind. Resignation set in, and I smiled as I realized there was only one thing left for me to do.
I tucked my Proxy's legs beneath me in a cannonball manoeuvre. The huge splash as I hit the water with force was very satisfying. I was just able to feel the sensation of beginning to sink before something critical shorted, and my neural link cut out.