A faint vibration could be felt throughout the ship as the engines rumbled, propelling it forward in the vast, empty space that they were currently traveling through. Years ago, they would have been able to see other ships as they passed in what used to be a bustling galactic roadway. Smugglers, adventurers, military vessels, scientific exploratory vessels, and just normal everyday civilian spacecrafts would have been conglomerated in this area, as it used to be a densely populated star system. But no more. Now the empty vastness of space that greeted the ship was eerie enough to reflect their desperate situation.

Commander Lister sighed as he looked around at the group he was with. Criminals, traitors, disgraces. That is what he’d been given to work with to save humanity. They were doomed. A few of the faces he saw looked familiar, they had probably been under his command at some point, but he paid that no attention as he thought about if he wanted to say a few words. Would it make any difference with this group? They had already agreed to this, but he wanted to give them some motivation to make sure they did a good job. However, he had no idea what could possibly touch the hearts of these people. Nevertheless, he could at least give them an outline of the plan.

“Attention on deck,” He started dryly, doubting many of them would actually snap to attention, but at least they’d be listening. “We’ll be arriving at the Waypoint the Zitari provided in about fifteen minutes, give or take a little engine failure. When we pass through the Waypoint, we will be in a different dimension with beings that have never encountered humans before. I would like to remind all of you that any wrong move could spark a war, so watch yourselves, or we’ll let the aliens experiment on you first. A Zitari representative will meet us and guide us to where the contestants for the Games are staying. Is everything understood?”

____________________________________________________________________________

“Sir, yes sir.” Dasha muttered, having mostly ignored the commander. She tried to pay attention to the important parts, but whenever talk about ‘behave yourself or else’ started, she kind of tuned out a bit. He did realize who he was talking to, right? Granted Dasha personally wasn’t keen on starting a war, but she couldn’t speak for her ‘comrades.’ After all, they were all a bunch of ex military delinquents. How well behaved did the higher ups really expect them to be?

Currently, Dasha was busying herself by tightening up her boots and getting used to wearing a uniform again. God, she had forgotten how damn scratchy the necklines on these things were. The uniform was also a bit baggy on her small frame. Despite getting the smallest size they had, she still couldn’t find one that actually fit her. Well, that much hadn’t changed since she got kicked out.

Carmen sneered as she listened to the officer talking. Not so long ago she'd have been listening intently to the briefing, making sure to take note of every deail in case it turned out to be pivoital to her mission later on, but not anymore. After being betrayed and discarded the former specialist had had to learn to survive in the cramped military prisons she'd been dumped in and her disrespcet for corrupt and self-serving officials had grown significantly.

Idly her hands dropped to her waist, and she plucked one of the pistols she had been given from her holster. Almost as second nature she released the clip, cleared the chamber and checked the barrel sights before slamming the magazine back in place. It felt good to have the weight of the weapon in her hand again, and her palm formed itself around the familiar pistol grip as if it was part of her body. Repeating the actions with her other pistol Carmen began to zone out, letting herself fall into the calm meditative state she normally adapted before a mission as her body prepared itself for action.

Callie or Kali as she preferred to be called was robbed of her humanity when some scumbag mad scientist downloaded her brain into this robot body. Her robot body was supposed to be all the best humanity had to offer removing all the weaknesses. The mad scientist made numerous miscalculations and bad assumptions. Emotions were supposed to be one of the weaknesses that was purged, but when a brain is downloaded into a computer designed to mimic the brain, emotions are transferred as well. With no soul/conscience guiding her thoughts and actions, she didn't really care if humanity survived or not. She did want out of that jail cell & if fighting in some strange dimension's version of the Roman Coliseum got her out of the cell she was going to take it. If it got her free she would sell out the entire human race to the aliens, she would love to own a few as slaves, especially the mad scientist who ruined her life.

Roger stood to attention as their commander spoke. They had served together for many years and Roger had nothing but respect for him. If Roge would follow anyone into an unknown and possibly suicidal mission it would be him. When he had finished his explanation Roger replied, "Sir yes, sir." With extra emphasis due to his fellow crewmates' lack of proper military procedure.

This mission was unlike any of them had every experienced. Nothing was for certain. All the sci fi books, movies and games couldn't prepare them for what was ahead. No normal person would volunteer to go. Roger wasnt normal. He was one of the few who didn't have a recent rap sheet requiring him to go to get it cleared. He did it out of duty and necessity. The commander would need at least one person he could trust. Roger would be that guy. And hopefully everyone would become more accustomed to one another. Perhaps they could cover each other's weaknesses and magnify each other's strengths?

Jeremiah had spent the entire trip thus far off in the corner. He wasn't one to associate with people he didn't know, so he kept to himself. It was only when someone began addressing the group did he perk up. Whoever this guy was, he certainly seemed to know his stuff. Jeremiah scooted his way over closer to Lister, making a useless attempt to be discreet given his large size. He couldn't respond like the rest since he was mute, but this was definitely the guy to follow around.

Dasha couldn’t stop herself from snorting at the enthusiastic response from the only person (besides the commander) that wasn’t a criminal. Ah, it had been a good long while since she’d seen a good soldier boy. She imagined he was not very thrilled with the idea of being with the likes of this group, but hey, they were all volunteers. He knew what he was getting himself into when he signed up.

“Hey gramps, what exactly do these games involve? Is it a fight to the death sort of thing, or what?” She asked, curiosity getting the better of her. He had told them about how much this mission meant to humanity, but not a lot about what it actually involved. Dasha wanted to know what to expect. If this were a strictly combat situation, she’d be fairly screwed. Going against a human was one thing, but these were new creatures with new bodies that she didn’t know how to defeat. Hand to hand combat was never really her thing anyway.

“Newton.” The commander said.

“Yeah?”

“Hit the deck and give me 50.”

“... Excuse me?” Dasha raised an eyebrow at the man. “Listen, I’m not one of your little toy soldiers anymore. You guys kicked me out, remember? Ordering me around isn’t going to work, so just answer the damn question.”

Dasha had barely gotten the words out of her mouth before Lister had snatched her out of her seat and tossed her on the floor, having little trouble lifting her small frame. He didn’t like being violent, but he doubted anything else would catch these peoples’ attention. He needed their respect in order for them to survive this. If they didn’t respect him, they wouldn’t follow orders. If they wouldn’t follow orders, all of them were going to die.

“While we are on this mission, you are all soldiers again. You will address me as ‘sir’ or ‘commander.’You will listen to my orders. You will not question me, you will not argue with me, and you will not disobey me. Am I understood, or do I need to repeat myself?” He asked, crouching down and speaking loudly to the seething woman that was now on the ground.

“Understood…” Dasha muttered, glaring up at him. Murder had never been high on her list of things to do, but right now, it seemed like a pretty good idea.

“Say again?” The commander leaned in closer, as if he couldn’t hear her.

“Understood, sir.”

“Now give me 100. Argue and I’ll make it 120, small fry.” Lister added as Dasha opened her mouth to argue some more. Grumbling curses and insults to herself, she got into position and started counting her push-ups. He let the insults slide, this time.

“Now, while she’s doing that, I’ll answer her question.” Lister started. “We don’t know exactly what the games entail, but from what we’ve been told, we will be set loose in an arena with the other contestants. Apparently, the arena is set up like a maze, or a puzzle. You have to solve the puzzle in order to reach the finish line. As you get closer to the finish line, finding pieces to the puzzle, or clues rather, will become harder and harder. In order to find clues, we may have to battle NPCs that the hosts of the games have set up, or we may have to battle other contestants. From what I’ve heard, they try to keep people from dying, but… Well, things happen. Whoever solves the puzzle and reaches the finish line first wins. Any questions?”

Kali was quite amused by the display of dominance by the fools. "They try to keep people from dying but what if someone were to intentionally going around killing the other contestants? Do we get weapons? Are they going to provide us information about the other species or are we going have to learn about those freaks on the fly?" Kali had no intention of addressing anyone by sir except maybe with sarcastically or with mockery, respect was not on the table.

Roger listened attentively to their commander. Alien races of unknown power and size..it sounded like just the mission Roger was made to take part in. There was no way these games were set up evenly. A challenge of the greatest importance for the survival of all of humanity.

Roger smiled at the the thought of the event ahead. Hopefully they wouldn't have to wait long now. He asked, "Do we have information on the first event?" Roger spoke with a formal military tone and stance. He had never stopped being a soldier after all. Now it was all he knew. And if he couldn't trust his commander and allies, who would he look to?