CHAPTER 309: CHAPTER 309 BEFORE THE FINAL EVENT

On the morning of the last day of the competition, Avery and Kasandra had to get up early and prepare to head out.

Since the final event was going to be larger in scale than any of the others before it, the location of the event was actually being held around and on an uninhabited planet four systems away.

Just to get there was going to take a little over an hour by hyper lane.

When they did finally arrive, the planet that was going to be used for this event came into view.

It was a desolate rock roughly forty-eight kilometers in diameter.

The planet was known as Ventri and was fairly unremarkable.

It was too close to the system’s sun to be within the system’s habitable zone and had only a thin atmosphere mainly composed of helium.

The make-up of the planet was also nearly entirely composed of a common type of rock that was easily found and practically worthless.

Any valuable materials that had once existed on the planet had long since been harvested, and it now remained completely ignored by anyone. Too close to the Dramid Alliance’s center to be used by pirates, but too far away and difficult to settle for anyone to bother with developing it.

All of this made it the perfect place for the event that was going to be taking place.

There was no one around to be bothered, and not a single person would care if the place ended up a bit damaged.

However, the usually completely deserted planet had been transformed over the last two days since Jack Huxley had chosen what the final event would be.

There were now dozens of hastily constructed orbital stations around the planet, and a bit more than four hundred small bases set up on the surface.

None of these installations were up to the typical standards of construction within the Dramid Alliance but seeing as they were only temporary for the day, that was of little concern.

"Looks like they really went all out." Avery whistled, examining the structures that had been created for the final event.

"Yep, and to think that we’d be having a sort of rematch here." Kasandra replied with a sharp smile.

As it so happened, they had been briefed about the type of monster that would be stimulated during the event. And it just so happened to be the first kind that Avery and Kasandra went up against right after they had gotten together.

Since the event was meant to be an approximation of a response to a signal for help against a space monster attack, all of the competitors had been informed that they would be fighting faux energy lifeforms and had been allowed to change out one of their weapon systems.

If they were just individuals that had happened to be nearby, this normally would not have been possible. But considering that each of the competitors would be once again taking on the role of Alliance Police members, it was expected that they would be receiving some level of support.

Should such a distress call actually come in, the Alliance Police would never send in their officers completely unprepared. A vessel only outfitted with laser weaponry would obviously be hopeless to do anything against energy lifeforms after all.

"I wonder what the others picked. Those that already have missile pods are going to have a bigger advantage since those weapons are already super effective against energy lifeforms." Kasandra said, a pensive look on her face.

"I don’t know about any of the others, but Liesel actually contacted me and asked for some advice because she heard that we beat a queen energy life form on our own. I think that she decided to switch out her multi-barrel laser blaster for a mine dispenser. Probably with regular explosive and electromagnetic pulse mines. She agreed with me that it would be useful for setting up a defensive area while assisting with evacuation efforts."

Kasandra turned towards Avery and blinked rapidly a few times as she looked at him in disbelief.

Not only did she not know that he had been talking to Liesel, but he had actually helped her out when she was someone that they were competing against.

"When was this? No, more importantly, how did she get ahold of your personal contact info. I know she didn’t send anything to the Dauntless since I would have seen it too." Kasandra said reproachfully.

Avery was a bit taken aback by the intensity in her voice and expression. He had not considered that she would be so upset with him having talked to Liesel.

"Now that I think about it, she contacted me first. But I don’t think I gave her my personal number for my terminal."

Feeling perplexed, Avery tried to think of how Liesel knew how to get in contact with him other than sending a transmission directly to the Dauntless.

That was the only means of communication that he had set up with her.

"Fine, we can save that matter for another time. But why did you help her out? Our scores are close enough that if we place fourth or lower and she gets first, then she could overtake us."

"I thought about that, but I didn’t feel like talking things over with her would put us at much of a disadvantage. She already had a good idea about what she planned on doing when she sent me her first message. Also, I was just a bit relieved that there weren’t any hard feelings since we we’re the ones to win the free-for-all event." Avery said, explaining his thoughts to Kasandra.

Truthfully, she was less troubled by him giving Liesel a bit of help, but with how the girl seemed to be trying to get closer to Avery.

It was impossible for her to tell at this point whether it was genuine interest, or if Liesel was plotting something. Though either way, Kasandra did not like what was going on.

Still, she did not say anything else on the matter for now.

Their concerns needed to be directed elsewhere for today. Perhaps Liesel would not even try to contact Avery again after the competition. Although, this was just wishful thinking on Kasandra’s part.

While they had been talking, the event staff keeping an eye on things had begun directing each of the competitors.

Like many of the events that had featured all of them acting at once, each of them had been given a designated starting area to wait at.

"Our secret weapon is good to go too, right?"

"Yeah, I just finished running a third diagnostic test to make sure that everything is functioning. The EMP blaster that Storren Corp. provided for us with is ready for it’s debut." Avery responded with a confident smile.

At his suggestion, the Dauntless’ auto turret had been taken out to make room for a weapon that would be more effective against energy lifeforms.

Unfortunately, he had not been able to use his normal EMP blaster, since Storren Corp. wanted to show off their own affiliated product instead.

Nevertheless, the one that was currently equipped to the Dauntless was of comparable specs to the Aida EMP MK VII that Avery owned.

However, it did have a different rate of fire, range, and spread of the blasts it shot.

Avery had only had a little bit of time to practice with the weapon beforehand, so he would still need to get accustomed to its capabilities during the event.

Once a three-minute timer started, Avery gripped the Dauntless’ controls and was ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Yet not but five seconds later, he received a message from an unexpected source.

"What could she want right now of all times?" Kasandra said with a suspicious look in her eyes.

"I don’t know, but we’ve got a bit of time, so I don’t think that there’ll be a problem with reading it."

Avery quickly opened the message that Cerise Gunvald had just sent them and began reading the contents.

It was blunt and too the point, but the content was disconcerting to say the least.

"’I’ve decided to trust you since all evidence speaks to your character and ability. Be prepared for another unexpected encounter here like at the concert."’

Avery read the message out loud the first time and then went over it again multiple times to make sure that he was not mistaken.

"Do you think that she’s trying to get into ours heads and make us worry so that we’re not at our best?" Kasandra asked, her lips turned down into a frown.

"No, Cerise wouldn’t need to resort to any petty tricks like that, nor do I believe it’s in her character."

Thinking back on all of the suspicious activities that had gone on around this competition, Avery felt that he should accept Cerise’s warning.

Her presence here was unusual to begin with, and while she did hold the first place spot, she never seemed to be particularly driven to win. As if her true objective lie elsewhere.

’There’s also Atlas and Stifur to consider. I still don’t know what is going on with them and the fact that they’ve probably been cheating.’ Avery thought, trying to make sense of the bits and pieces of information he had.

Figuring that he should be ready just in case, Avery loaded his plasma launchers and scatterguns with combat ammunition rather than the training rounds that he had been supplied with.

If nothing happened, then he would have merely been overly cautious. And it was not like he had been planning on using either weapon in the event anyways.

"Okay, just thirty seconds left. Time to get my mind focused back where it needs to be."