Free Rise of the Empire 1: Olympus by Ivan Kal Page B

coordinates, there is blood but no body, I’ll follow – shit!” Niko said followed by a short exchange of fire.
    “Niko report!” Laura said.
    “I’m okay, he just appeared in front of me, got him before he managed the get in position, he was wounded. I think his suit got damaged, I don’t think he planned on showing up in front of me, they definitely have some kind of cloaking suits.”
    “Found the last one, dead.” John said.
    “Alright, if there are more we won’t see them until they fire. We’ll move towards the evac point, John keep to the roofs, Niko get back here.” Elias said.
    They covered ground quickly using suits power, they arr ived and secured the evac point. Elias called in the evac team. Ten minutes later a transport came across the horizon and they boarded it. As they lifted off, the village and its surroundings started exploding into bright blue particles until they swallowed everything, including the transport.

Chapter Eight
    Elias opened his eyes , and the top of the chamber he was in slid open. He swung his legs over the edge and sat up. The face that greeted him was that of Maria Nunez. They have met years ago when she worked on a project involving the alien ship. Now she was head of Olympus simulation program.
    She smiled softly at him “You win again. What is it, Fifteen to six for you I believe?” she said.
    “Sixteen.” Elias said.
    “Yes that’s right I forgot the one with the assassination.” She said cheerfully. “That one was inspired.”
    “It was. So they programed a stealth suit on their own?” Elias asked.
    His eight team members were in the process of “awakening” all around the room. Maria motioned him outside of the room and towards her office.
    “They got the specs from the research department, so they just programed the scenario, the suits capabilities were real.” She said.
    Elias nodded, he and the security department have been competing with the programing team since the virtual technology became viable as a training tool. A fierce rivalry had developed between them. The programmers managed to score a few wins against his team , but mostly by programming impossible scenarios, and since a certain scuffle between one of them and one of his men they have been trying to win in a more balanced match, hence the use of stealth suits. The programmers tended to use more guile and creative tactics rather than brute force, and their score was much better against other teams. Which only made them much more motivated to win against Elias and his team with the same tactics.
    “They, used very little in terms of firepower. And only one team.” Elias commented.
    Maria nodded “Yes, they thought that their win would be much greater if they won with less rather than more. They’ll up their game next time.”
    “They almost won this time. If our suits weren’t as armored as they were , we would have all fallen in the ambush.”
    “So did you notice any bugs?” She asked.
    “None, like the past three times it was perfect, it felt real. The integration with our implants was perfect. I believe you finally made a perfect virtual reality.” Elias answered.
    “I hope so, but these sort of things need to be carefully examined each time.” She said.
    “Could you forward Niko’s sound detecting program to the development? I want them to incorporate it into the default suit design.”
    “Of course Elias. Are you staying for a while? I know that the programmers will want a rematch soon.” She said with a smile.
    “I’ll have to disappoint them for now, Tomas needs me on the Cloud station.” He said.
    “Space? I must say the weightlessness managed to became a pain really fast, I have no idea how those who live there deal with it.” She shuddered.
    “Tomas tells me that they will be putting in the artificial gravity fields, they should bring the generator online in a few days for testing.” They had managed to build a gravity field generator two years ago, and