Prologue One: Spores

Wanna get straight to the story? Chapter One will be up soon! Sorry dudes!

Introduction .



RE: Equipment for Battlegame 2009

Please find enclosed the list of equipment to be implemented in this year's Battlegame (2009) and a map locating where each should be placed.

1. Longsword
2. Geometry compass
3. Baseball bat
4. Dual swords
5. Axe
6. Drug trolley (loaded with tranquilisers, acids and poisons)
7. Shotgun
8. Pocket blade (NB. Please replace this item with ‘Kunai Knife’)
9. Stungun prototype
10. Brass knuckles
11. Pencil
12. Iron bar
13. Taser
14. Pepper spray
15. Whip
16. Length of ribbon
17. Boomerang
18. Cheerleading baton
19. Slingshot
20. Chainsaw
21. Cannon
22. Razor
23. Crossbow
24. Tonfa

[OPTIONAL]
25. Standard pistol
26. Mace
27. Rifle
28. Gas bombs
29.
30.
31.
32.

N.B. Other items we cannot account for are that which can be found in the forest area; tree bark and branches, poisonous plants, and so on. Please ensure there is half the number of provided equipment to the number of prodigies participating - fewer is fine. PLEASE BE REMINDED THAT ITEMS THAT WILL ALLOW THE CANDIDATES TO ESCAPE (eg. explosives) SHOULD NOT BE PROVIDED IN THE BATTLEGAME.

Thank you.
Co-ordinator.




“ Last year, an unidentifiable substance was found by field scientists searching for a cure to unusual spores making the local inhabitants sick. Months later, the animals roaming the territory became infected and mutated into colossal predators. Those predators ravaged the landscape, killing all the people living there.

“This year, every country in the world has been alerted to the sudden evolvement of earth’s creatures. Even domestic creatures have altered even though they don't seem to have been exposed to the spores; from the pattern on their pelt to their expected behaviours and habitat. As it was quickly realised that nature’s new predators couldn’t be tamed, a quick motion was passed by the government that they must instead be exterminated using guns, bombs and whatever else necessary to protect our own species.

“I, however, have already affirmed with the Captain, this will not work.

“From the creatures that the military have able to destroy, we have scanned the bodies from weaknesses. All we noticed was that the Predators seem to have grown an extra organ. I’ll spare you the details, but imagine it like a second heart. It makes them tireless and incredibly vicious, but you remove this organ and the body shuts down. We tested this in the field – it took no fewer than forty-seven soldiers to distract it, restrain it, then kill it. Less than half of them lived, and all of the survivors have developed some sort of sickness from the spores.

“As the Governor and Co-ordinator of SEP, I have been given approval to create a program that, after years of planning, is finally ready to launch since I have made a stunning discovery.

“Adults exposed to the same spores that created and evolved our new natural enemy soon died from the incompatibilities in their body, likewise with children, who haven’t yet reached full growth or built a stable immune system. But the bodies of 13 and 19 year olds do not reject the spores. In fact, as I noticed with young soldiers who battled the predators, (later agreed to experiments) within a year they became stronger, smarter and faster, with added abilities that made them more than able to fight the Predators. These soldiers were incredible prodigies.

Carefully selected projects will be chosen to take part in the ‘Prodigy Scheme’, which I'm sure you’ll agree, is the nation’s best chance of survival. Sadly, finding the subjects in times such as these had been difficult, but we have done it. I'm embarrassed to tell you that our methods have not exactly been orthodox, but... in most cases, the parents were dead or absent and we acted as we saw fit. It has been challenging to select the nation’s future heroes out of this meagre bunch, but as you well know, the other option is the end of the human race.

The projects will be carefully exposed to the spores and trained to the same level of physical and mental capacities as the soldiers. However this training gives the projects a false sense of security as they know it will end. The only way we are able to test whether or not the acceptance was successful is to pit them against opponent with similar threat to a Predator. They are the only subjects purposefully exposed to spores, so they will be required to fight each other in a final test that I like to call Battlegame Forfeit. As the Battlegame is a life or death, adrenaline-based game, it dramatically increases the chemical reaction of the spores. It’s a battle, it’s a game, and if their body rejects the spores we call it a ‘Forfeit’, which means that the procedure was unsuccessful and the prodigy is dead. It’s a sorrowful but necessary way to root out the weak.”

The Commander said nothing.

She smiled. “I know. It’s a lot to take in.”

The Captain stepped forward and cleared his throat. “If I could add to that, Ma’am.” She bowed her head once. The Captain said,

“Commander, the youth of our nation are currently untrained and untamed. In the face of this new crisis, all that they will produce is a disarrayed generation of adults paralysed by fear. They will aspire to nothing, achieve nothing.  The Prodigy Scheme has a much more… efficient… use for them.”

Read Prologue Two
or to skip straight to the action; Read Chapter One [ Part 1 ]