A Visitor to the Future - 96 - Geared Up, Good to Go
We were soon busy taking advantage of the brief moment of peace before the tournament began. Sarkona, Alexandra, and Antonia were stood by the door - they'd need to be quickly gone to find out as much as they could about the other teams when the game began, and lay the groundwork for whatever deals they could strike with the other teams in the future. The remaining six of us went through the rounded door into the engineering room, which was really something else.
It was a tall, triangular space partitioned into three sections, one for each Proxy. Crates of materials and spare parts were stacked up around each one, very tidily at this point but I assumed that wouldn't last long. Those materials would have to last us until the end of the tournament - unless we could secure some from trades with other teams.
And then there were the Proxies themselves, mounted against the walls in Vitruvian Man style pose for easy access to the limbs. I quickly spotted mine, which had now been painted to match my own jumpsuit colouring - the majority of the humanoid figure was a dark green, but the joints and joins between the armour plates were lined with blue. I'd opted for a fairly human-looking head shape - though with the exception of the round, pale blue lenses of the eyes, there was no need for other facial features. I'd had a jaw etched in for looks though, and seeing the final finished product I was reminded a little of shark teeth painted on the nose of a plane, which made sense, because Blaise was my primary engineer. Otherwise I'd kept things fairly simple - standard armour plating, five fingers, toes - sticking very much to my strengths in what I'd been learning all this time.
Blaise kicked the foot of the taller Proxy and leaned against it's side, picking up a physical display to look at, "Final product looks good, paint job looks well! Gimmick's installed nicely too, exactly to specifications. Anode, how are you doing over there?"
Anode gave a thumbs up from where she stood next to Tungsten's Proxy. Tungsten had followed Gatecrash's advice and stuck with a humanoid joint configuration too, though his was a lighter configuration than my own, with less armour plating. Green and silver highlights covered the body, and I could see a tiny bow-tie that had been painted on just below the neck. Otherwise the angles of his Proxy were much sharper, parts reminiscent of some of Anode's body design. The head was a largely triangular shape which made me think of a dinosaur, with a large, singular green orb which glowed brilliantly bright in the centre of the head. The hands and feet matched Tungsten's own - two thumbs on each hand, and the claw-like feet which made a distinctive tapping sound on hard surfaces as he walked.
"Ready to go as we'll ever be!" said Anode, "Though I wish we had time for last minute adjustments. Probably pushing our luck if we were to try, right?"
Tungsten patted her on the upper shoulder, "It looks fine as is. Brilliant, in fact. Gatecrash and Sasha?"
In contrast to Tungsten's, Gatecrash's Proxy leaned more in the direction of heavier armour, though if I hadn't been learning what to look for in practice, I'd have completely missed the signs. The lithe-looking, slightly taller form of the Proxy was using layered armour around the joints, and heavier plating lined the knuckles (six digits there), forearms, and feet (normal with toes, similar to my own Proxy). The armour looked almost medieval-like in areas. There was a red-and-white tie-dyed patterned patch on each of the Proxy's upper arms, almost perfectly matching Gatecrash's bandana. There was less green visible on Gatecrash's Proxy, as large segmented plates were left their default dark grey. The Proxy had a large partially transparent dark red visor which stretched around the entire head. I could see machinery moving around on the inside, and small lights that occasionally blinked on the inside of the rounded skull.
"We are good. Many moving parts. Was worried about replication error, but is good work," came Sasha's reply.
Next to each Proxy was a large, wall-mounted telescoping arm, which would allow the Engineers to quickly access and move parts during their maintenance. But in comparison to the machinery I'd seen in the Peeping Tom's fabrication room, this was a lot more rudimentary. The restrictions placed on the Engineers really limited what they would be able to fix.
I looked around once again, "Obvious question time," I said, "How do they get the Proxies out of here? The door isn't large enough to let them through, well, not standing up anyway."
Blaise didn't take his eyes off the display in his hands, but pointed with one arm at my Proxy's toes. "The floor retracts here - then I think there's tunnels where they'll be moved to the arenas. At least I hope so! Wouldn't want you to have to avoid the other teams in the corridors on your way to a round!"
I nodded, "I'm going to go check if the others are alright - I'd like to join them as we discussed for the first while. I'll be back before we leave for the first round?"
"Sounds good mate, enjoy!" said Blaise.
The first round of the tournament was a bit unique in that on subsequent rounds, we'd usually be discussing strategy or helping the Engineers (in my case, I'd probably be handing things to Blaise, and that was the extend of my knowledge). But with no information to go on and the Proxies in perfect condition, I could actually accompany the Ambassadors for once - which I'd been looking forward to, as it would be a good way to get familiar with how they gathered information in practice. The three of them were still stood by the door, Antonia bouncing on her feet slightly in excitement.
"Still tagging along?" said Sarkona, "Remember what we discussed - play the strong and silent type, aura of mysteriousness, let us do the talking. Might help us deal with some of the more serious groups."
I'd been practicing my serious face for a while in preparation for this, and relaxed my features and folded my arms.
"Perfect!" said Sarkona, "Now we just need to sell the myth that before a thousand years under the ice, you were a warrior-lecturer who spent their life mastering the martial arts."
"Oooh," said Antonia, joining in, "And some of the techniques you mastered have long-since been lost to time... or hidden away by the Multispheres." As she moved to punch me gently on the arm, I mocked a fancy interception, and she laughed.
Alexandra scoffed and shook her head a little, "If that technique ever worked on anyone, I think I'd quit out of protest at the sheer stupidity."
"As you should," said Sarkona, giving me a wink, "Can we go over the plan one more time before we start?"
"Yes, it is fairly simple," explained Alexandra, straightening her suit jacket with one hand, "Sarkona splits off to begin with, see if they can see what's going on with the arenas, and meets as many people as possible. The rest of us stick together - with our silent pilot to draw some attention. In negotiations we should be fairly truthful - though we should bend the truth slightly if we think the situation calls for it. Remember that lying outright might get us a momentary advantage but will sour relationships in the future, so we should only do it in later rounds. Clear?"
"Yes," said Sarkona and Antonia simultaneously. I nodded and mimed zipping my lips shut. This was Alexandra's domain, and I had no intention of intruding.
A few moments later, a chime rang out over our team's space. Whoever owned it had clearly been practicing their commentating voice.
"Gooood day contestants! It's a beautiful sunny morning here in the southern hemisphere, and may I give you all a very warm welcome to this Resiliency Tournament! Given that you're all newcomers today, we really hope that you're going to have a great time and learn what a thrill Resiliency can be to play! We're about to get started with our first break period - Ambassadors, you will have thirty-five minutes to get out there and speak with the other teams! We ask that all teams be back in their team areas at that time, which is when the first matches will be played. Your first opponent will be displayed upon the wall of your team area. Have fun!"
The chime rang out again, and I looked over my shoulder to where text was fading into view on the wall.
MATCH 1: OVERGROWN WITH MOSS VS NIMBLE POINDEXTERS
Sarkona sprinted out of the door, with the rest of us not far behind.