Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 25 - Statements of Intent

Now it was time. Codi stood at the front of the queue, the first fighter who would take to the stage in Mayhem Six, and she drummed her fingers against the armoured thigh plates of her exoskeleton. She could hear the dull roar of the crowd beyond the doors and the huge red counter above the entrance boomed down. Sixty seconds until her Gauntlet journey began in earnest.

She looked back. The boy directly behind her wore an exoskeleton of deep regal purple, trimmed with gold vambraces and shoulder guards; the livery of the Holdfast Gauntlet Academy. Further down the tunnel she saw Wren Cutler, the rookie leader from Mantis. She had a shock of red hair, shaven on the right side of her head while the left hung long, like a curtain of fire. Her armour gleamed, emerald green with two symmetrical slashes of jet black running down either side of the torso.

And right at the back stood Leela in the blue and cyan, eyes downcast, taking deep breaths as she waited for the call. She caught the other girl's eye and gave her a small nod of encouragement. Her friend managed to force a smile.

There was nothing else she could do to help now. Owing to the random nature of the Mayhem arena constructs they couldn't formulate any kind of definitive plan. It would be a case of dealing with what was in front of them. That suited Codi just fine, but she suspected Leela would have more trouble adapting in the combat environment. The one thing that held the younger fighter in good stead was her speed and agility. Depending on what lay beyond those doors, those skills might be enough to see her through.

"Alright," the attendant declared, stepping back from the two slabs of metal that formed the doorway into the main arena. "Looks like they're ready for you. Good luck everyone!"

A rumble of approval passed through the assembled fighters. She bounced lightly on the balls of her feet in preparation. Time to show the galaxy the new and improved Codi. With a hiss of mechanisms the two thick plates of metal retracted and a blazing glare burst through the aperture. The noise from the crowds followed it through and she drank it in like nectar. A few seconds later the booming voice of the Gauntlet announcer made everything a reality.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to introduce your fighters in Mayhem 6. First, from your very own Battlecast Academy, please welcome ... Codi James!"

She stepped out into the light.

The noise was deafening, but Codi had grown used to the thundering spectators over the months of preparation. She raised one clenched fist towards the sky, smiling as she caught sight of the cameras swooping past her. A kaleidoscope of faces cheered down from all angles; from all corners of inhabited space. Bulbous pods jutted out in the upper reaches: VIP spectator nodes. Several of them probably contained other Battlecast academy members, those who hadn't made the team but still wanted a front seat at the Gauntlet. Fans roared their support as she let her gaze wander around the hundreds of levels of seating that formed a gigantic bowl.

At the base of that bowl lay the construct that she would be fighting through in a matter of minutes. It resembled some kind of mad scientist's industrial toy set. Shaped like a cube, the thing was made up of dozens of levels and every piece of it moved and changed.

Whole staircases swung and rotated, locking against metal platforms before swinging away with their new attachments. Thick dark plates moved up and down like automated elevators around the edges, and scattered throughout the vertical labyrinth she could see opening and closing pits, flipping floor sections, ramps, rotating platforms and even conveyer belts. Right at the bottom she saw the familiar blue crackle of gravitic netting, ready to catch any fighters who were unlucky enough to be booted off the construct completely.