MassEffectRP

So.......

Sparks flew across the floor of the massive hanger as the sound of grinding metal split through the air.  The mech jockeys called this place the Pit.  It was where every team housed and maintained their mech.  Everywhere you looked there were machines in various states of repair or disrepair; teams frantically trying to replace that last shattered armor panel before their big fight, while others standing around heaps of disassembled parts trying to piece together something out of the shattered bits of their once fierce machines.  Rick stood looking up at Lilah's mech as it was hoisted into the air on a crane.  He examined the massive hole Strauss's sniper cannon bore into the side of the thing.  It looked awful.

"Bet that wasn't the first time you took a shot to the face!"  Rick said jokingly.

"Shut the **** up, you pig."  Lilah retorted as she mounted a ladder to look deeper at the damage.

"Think you can fix her in time?"

"Rick, I can fix anything."

At that moment all of the hustle and bustle of the Pit suddenly stopped, and an eerie silence came across the hanger.  Rick turned confused. It only took him but a moment to see the object of everyone's attention.  A parade of technicians in their new and pristine jumpsuits walked into the hanger, followed by trucks hauling machine parts of all varieties.  Then they came: three mechs, just as pristine and gleaming as the rest of the crew and their machinery.  And they were different, too.  All of the mechs in the dome were hand built by their pilots.  Each team had no more than a few mechanics.  There was a strange sense of respect and camaraderie among the teams, as they forged these bipedal weapons of destruction themselves.  Each mech was a labor of ingenuity and love.  But these new ones, they looked like they were made by an entire army of engineers and scientists with more money than the Shadow Broker.  And by the looks of it, the pilots of this team brought the army with them.  As they drove closer into view, it all made sense.  Rick could see the exact same logo blasted across every vehicle, mech, and jumpsuit: Xenogenics.  It was one of the largest tech corporations in the galaxy.

"What the f*ck is a bunch of corporate goons doing here?"  Rick asked confusedly towards Lilah.

"Beats the hell out of me."

That was when Rick saw the hatch to the lead mech open, and a mountain of a man climbed out, the metallic hand of his machine aiding his descent.  He had to be at least 6'6", and a heap of pure muscle.   He instantly began shouting orders to the army of corporate pit goons in jumpsuits.

"Guess that's their captain.  Maybe I should introduce myself."  Rick said with a smirk as he strolled over towards the man, leaving Lilah and her futile protests behind.

"So, you must be the new guy in town.  Better watch out, I hear Wilhelm over there likes jack off on the new guys mechs when no one is around at night."  Rick jokingly said as he looked up to the face on the mountain.  The mountain was clearly not amused.

"Rick Steiner, team captain of team Wild Card."  He said as he stuck out his hand.

The mountain looked down on his with his stone jaw and emotionless expression.

"You are the one they call 'Rocket Man,' yes?"  The mountain sounded almost mocking when he said those two words.

Rick simply smirked.  "Yeah, that'd be me."

The mountain's eyes narrowed and there was a moment of silence.  Rick began to feel a wee bit uncomfortable.

"I will break you."  Was the only thing the mountain said before he pushed past Rick and back towards his crew.

"I guess he isn't here to make friends."

"Welcome to the Friday night Murderdome folks!  I'm your host, Mickey Cantor, here with my co-host Spuds McKinley.  Say hi to the viewers at home, Spuds!

"Sup b*tches!"

"We're here to give you the play by play of the most insane adrenaline fueled competition on planet Rouger: The Murderdome!"

"Ya know Mick, I always thought it was weird they named it the Murderdome when no actual murdering takes place in the dome.

"Right you are Spuds.  At least not since that unfortunate incident last year with those Volus strippers in the back locker room!"

"I didn't even know the Volus had strippers!"

"Neither did I Spuds, neither did I....."

"Anyway, what we have here is good wholesome mech on mech violence that's fun for the whole family!  Two teams of three mech pilots go in to the dome, one team comes out!  But for the squeamish, don't worry, Murderdome regulations have each pilot encased inside their mechs in a pod that is harder to get into than a nun's pants on Easter Sunday!"

"Interesting way to put it, Spuds!  The round ends when one team has completely disabled or destroyed the mechs of their opponents.  We take you now the the match currently in progress pitting the current Murderdome champions, Team Wild Card, lead by "Rocket Man" Rick Steiner, against Team Blitzkreig, headed by Wilhelm Strauss.  And things are not looking good right now for our current champions."

The poorly named "Murderdome" was a massive arena built into an old and used up quarry on the outskirts of New Arcadia, Tobias' section of the city.  Tobias realized the people of New Arcadia needed some sort of excitement, and rather than have wholesale human slaughter on the vid screens, he opted for something a bit more sporting.  The Murderdome started out with people pitting modified Atlases against Atlases, which soon boomed into a planet wide spectacle with pilots designing and building their own mechs from the ground up.

The vid cameras shifted to a scene inside the dome.  Three mechs were huddled behind a large protruding rock structure as it was being blown away, bit by bit, by three slowly approaching mechs.

"Suck on it you bratwurst loving f*cknut!"  Rick shouted as his mech popped up from the rock formation and fired dual volleys of rockets from his mech's shoulder mounted pods.  Without time to lock on to his target, however, the projectiles missed their mark, exploding around his opponents but otherwise causing minimal damage.

"Sit the f*ck down, Rick.  We need a plan!"  Malcolm shouted across the com channels from inside his hulking and heavily armored mech.

"Well, I think I just wasted the last of my rockets."

"Great, way to go fearless leader.  Trigger happy dumba*s"  A female voice sounded on the channel.

"What? You got a better plan Lilah?"

"Yeah, we make our way up to that ridge and knock some of those boulders on their asses."  Lilah responded.

"Alright lady and gentleman.  You break for the cliff.  I'll catch their attention!"  Malcom said as his mech jetted out from the side of the formation, leveling it's colossal gattling cannon off at the approaching team.  The barrels spun up and a sound erupted from the barrels that was akin to an angry farting god.  And Malcom began spewing a torrent of destruction at the enemy.

"Time to go!"

'Looks like team Wildcard is on the move!'

"That they are Spuds!  We'd like to take the time now to remind those in the stands that throwing high explosives on the field is strictly prohibited in the stadium's family section.

"Not cool brah, not cool."

"Do they actually think this stupid a*s plan is going to work?"  Wilhelm shouted on his team's channel. "Issac, Emile, cut down that fat bastard, I got the two on the right."  And with that two mechs began focusing fire on Malcolm.  Even with his absurd one man barrage and heavy armor, it wasn't long before the knees of his mech were blown out by enemy fire and his mech fell to the ground disabled.

Wilhelm aimed his 120mm sniper cannon at Lilah's fleeing mech.  He snapped back the trigger, and with a monumental boom, a shell tore through the arena and into the side of her mech.  It tumbled backwards as alarms and sirens blared in her ****pit.

"Oh and the "Ice Queen" Lilah Davion takes a big hit.  I don't think she's getting up from that one.

"She's laid out on the ground like a drunk sorority girl at an open bar!"

"Sh*t, Rick, I'm down.  I have to bail!"  Lilah shouted as she yanked the mech's ejection lever.  Her pilot's pod was instantly shot out of the chassis and skyward above the arena.  But her sacrifice gave Rick enough time to hide within the clifftop.

"Oh, things aren't looking good for the Rocket Man.  It's 3 on 1 now!"

"I haven't seen a situation this hopeless since that time I did red sand with an Asari prostitute and tried to rob a liquor store!"

"What?"

Back in the arena things were eerily calm.

"Keep an eye out, he's up there somewhere."  Wilhelm ordered over the com. "Come out Rick!  Best just to make this quick and easy!"  He blared out on his mech's external speakers.

"That's not what your mother said last night kraut for brains!"  At that moment Rick's mech appeared on a cliff side with it's shotgun aimed at the ground.  And with a few volleys from its barrel, a massive rock slide tore down the cliff at the unsuspecting team Blitzkreig.  Boulders the size of skycars smashed into the mechs, burying them under their tremendous weight and instantly disabling all three.

"Oh and there goes the upset!  In a fantastic move the Rocket Man has managed to take all three of team Blitzkreig's mechs out!

"Rick Steiner just made Wilhelm Strauss pull up his lederhosen and sent him crying back to his mommy!"

Rick's mech slid down the cliff side and strutted up to the now defunct mech of Wilhelm.  And he began to bounce up and down atop the mech's head.

"Looks like the Rocket Man is giving Strauss the victory teabag!"

"Well there you have it!  The still undefeated champions of the Murderdome, Team Wild Card!  We at the Murderdome would like to remind those of you watching at home that a recent statistical study showed that your chances of being kidnapped and sold into slavery increases by 3500% every time you exit the walls of New Arcadia.  Stay safe out there."

"Slavery?  Reminds me of the time I was chained to the bed of an Asari dominatrix and had...."

"I don't even want to know.  Well folks, its been a night to remember, but we are out of time.  I'm Mickey Cantor!"

"And I'm Spuds McKinley."

"And on behalf of all of us here at the Murderdome, good fight, goodnight!"

(This is what happens when I watch too much Titanfall footage and it reminds me of my days playing Mechwarrior.)

"You don't sound so confident there, little ninja."  Trish gave a small chuckle.

"I wonder how many of you are here.  Is the big man here himself?  Doesn't matter.  By now you know who it was that psycho b*tch Maeve was meeting.  What you may not have seen was the tiny vial in that briefcase he sold her.  I'm guessing nanotech.  And if the jellyfish is buying, nothing good can come of it. You hear that Lokyan?  That last bit of intel was free."  Trish said, her voice raising slightly at that last part.  She knew Lokyan was listening, even if he wasn't here.

Her attention then shifted to that deranged idiot from before who was now punching his way through the coliseum's walls and pillars.

"What in the name of the Goddess's f*cking t!ts is he doing?"

Trishka heard the screams from inside the pit.  She heard that kind of scream before.  She caused that kind of scream before.  Usually it was accompanied by severed limbs or broken bones.  Guess the "champion" wasn't faring so well.  Maeve and the vorcha were on the move.  She had to decide whether to continue monitoring them, or go for the mobster/CEO.  She opted to stay with the merchandise.  Sionis wasn't exactly a small fish.  He'd be easy to find again.  And Trish was itching to find out what was in that vial he sold Maeve.  And so she remained in the colosseum.  She saw the deranged man try to rush the two as they left the scene.  He looked vaguely familiar, almost as if Trish had seen him before.  But she couldn't be distracted by yet another murderer/criminal/a*shole.  She made her way back into the stands as Maeve and the vorcha locked the door to Analdrun's personal booth.  And so Trish watched.

Oh and uh, one little bit of advice.  Take it from someone who has first hand experience, nanobots have the ability to become the biggest story breaking deus ex machina in any sci fi tale.  Proceed with caution.

Trishka milled about in the stands of the colosseum, making her way through the crowds of cheering drunks and criminals.  She blended in about as much as a leather clad Asari commando could.  It wasn't like she was trying much anyway.  Her presence may have been noticed, but not opposed.  Being second to Tobias, the "great broker of peace" pretty much allowed her to move as she willed around the city.  After all, Tobias wasn't the one trying to exterminate any of the other two players, not openly at least.

"Bunch of backwater f*cking savages."  She muttered "A**hole sends me here to watch the f*cking jellyfish in his temple of barbaric f*ckery."

Trishka always did have such a way with words.  Analdrun was clearly increasing the number of his company.  The vorcha was new, undoubtedly a new attack dog.  It wasn't like anyone in the galaxy hired vorcha for their lovely smiles and pleasant demeanor.  There was Sobakov, the assassin for hire.  And, of course, there was the jellyfish and his number one sociopath, Maeve.  With this many players, Lokyan had to have had at least a few people in the crowd.  But ninjas being ninjas, Trish didn't spot any yet. 

She watched below as the mammoth Yahg charged this "Champion," some unarmed human who looked like he was about to sh*t his pants and be eaten.  The order of which being up for debate.  But Trish was more interested in the departure of Maeve.

"Wherever could you be going you psycho b*tch?"  Trish pondered before pursuing.  She followed Maeve back towards the entrance of the colosseum, making sure to stay with the crowd and at least attempt to be unseen.  And that was when she saw the deal go down between her and the businessman.  With a few stokes of her omnitool she captured some images. And immediately sent them back to the Claudia.

"Tobias, we got a new player in town.  Well dressed human, just exchanged a briefcase with Maeve.  Run a facial recognition scan on the images I sent you."

"Beautiful and capable, you are truly one in a million Trish."  The voice of Tobias responded across the channel.

"F*ck off Tobias."