“Welcome, everyone, to the twelfth cyclical Earth Games Competition!” The announcer started off with a brief history of the games, as always. “As we all remember, I’m sure, the EGC started out as a simple Kohstr tournament between Armadians of each ship and Earthers of each continent. Now, eleven cycles later, the games have expanded to include many native Earther sports and some traditional Thorlinthian sports, including Zero G Ball, the most popular sport ever played. Of course, the most intrigue still goes to the Kohstr tournament for many, most of whom are still hoping for the return of the legendary Lieutenant.
“Now, as we all know, the Lieutenant was an Earther who managed to claim the Kohstr championship two years in a row at the very start of the games. Since then, he has neither been seen nor heard from by the public, and he certainly hasn’t returned here to New Qzcivden for the games. Nonetheless, anyone who can remember the games, which were even hypecast to the civilian fleet that had still been on its way at the time, can remember the Lieutenant, a man who somehow mastered the game with skills great enough to beat the Armada’s greatest players, many of whom had played since infancy, despite the game having been introduced to Earth a little over two cycles prior to the first games.
“And, of course, many of us remember what has since been called by many ‘the greatest game of Kohstr ever played’ between the Lieutenant and Dragon Rider, Grie Khuda’Mundi, who has championed the game every cycle since the Lieutenant disappeared. The game holds the record for longest Kohstr game ever played at over two whole days, and not a moment of it was still with cards being drawn and set constantly. Legend holds that after the game, the competitors’ hands kept moving to draw and set cards even as they slept for a week. Talk about reflex!
“This year, the games will be starting off with a game of Zero G Ball up on the TAS Dragon King itself, and Drigondii Sheii’Cronell is going to give a short address before the game. I will be your announcer, Frihd Khuda’Rahut.” The announcer stopped speaking as the slides of the Lieutenant and Grie Khuda’Mundi faded away and views of the Zero G Ball court on the Dragon King came into view.
The court was roughly the size of a football field that had been spun lengthwise around its center to form a cylinder. It was close to fifty yards in diameter, and the hemispheres at either end rounded off the court to remove any sense of up and down. The court was located in the upper levels of the bulbous aft end of the ship, and it had no gravitational modifications, giving it a good sense of “Zero Gs”, indeed, while the ship orbited the blue planet.
The players were positioned inside small spheres floating at either end of the court. When it came time for the game to begin, the spheres would open and retract into the edge of the court, which would then seal off, leaving the players to the game. Each player had medium-strength body armor on with small propulsion packs attached. The time limit of the game was enforced by disabling the propulsion packs, allowing split-second maneuvering at the end of the game to continue in the event of a final score.
The objective of the game was to retrieve the spiked ball at the center of the court and pass it through the opponent’s goal. This was made more difficult by the fact that both teams were also armed to the teeth with various near-lethal weapons. Severely injuring a player would result in the injured player being removed from the game, but killing a player would disqualify the killer or killers and result in a penalty shot to goal, discouraging players from simply killing each other.
Despite the extreme danger of the sport, it was an extremely popular game, and it even had a type of laser tag variation with a smooth ball for children and amateur players. The professionals, however, were trained well enough to take more than a few hits and not get too hurt, and they were skilled enough with their weapons not to kill their opponents, many of whom returned to the game after recovery. The cyclical mortality rate of the game was actually lower than Earther boxing, which was not one of the games at the EGC.
The first game was between the North American team and the New Valhal team. Due to the danger of the game, Armadians actually weren’t allowed to play, but Dragon Riders and civilians were, so the game had been introduced to Earth in its full form the same cycle that the first of the Thorlinthian civilian ships arrived. At the first games, it had almost seemed racial in separation between Thorlinthian natives and Earther natives, but now, many Earthers lived in New Valhal, and many Thorlinthians had moved out to more densely Earther areas, increasing the diversity of players on any team.
Now, as the players on each side stretched, that diversity was plainly apparent. In the red, blue, and green uniform of the North American team, there was a young man in his twenties with bright violet hair, distinctive of a Khuda’Vellihad, and a young woman roughly ten years his junior with the blue hair typically found among Valkyries. Lihandii Khuda’Cronell the Second was the youngest person on her team, but she was one of the crowd’s favorites to last the whole game despite this being her first year eligible to participate in the games. She was, after all, the only known child of a Sheii’Cronell in all of history, and she was a Valkyrie at that.
The first buzzer calling everyone to the attention of the anthem sounded, and each of the players found a grip against the edge of the sphere from which they could salute and sing. After the anthem, a very well-known voice was heard over
speakers across the world as Drigondii Sheii’Cronell spoke.
“I’d like to personally welcome everyone to the games this cycle, in addition to introducing the players of the first game. On the New Valhallan side, we have Krehn Khuda’Velast of Osgord,” a green-haired man in the blue and silver uniform of New Valhal waved his free hand from inside his team’s sphere, “Lehadi Crisad of Lok,” a dark-brown-haired woman raised her hand to wave, “Seliad Teros’Cronell of Thor,” a blonde man raised his hand, “Kayleb Forest of Earth,” a young man with black hair raised his hand, decorated plainly with Valhallan marital tattoos, “and the ever-popular Reginald Green of Earth.” At the final name for the New Valhallan team, the tallest of the players raised his muscled arm, and a large part of the crowd in New Qzcivden went wild, cheering on their feet for the last year’s MVP.
After the cheering subsided slightly, Drigondii continued. “On the North American side, we have Trey Weathers of Earth,” a dark-skinned man in his late thirties raised his hand from the North American sphere, “Christina Khuda’Cronell of Earth,” a young woman with dark red hair raised her hand, and a cheer was sounded again before Drigondii could continue, “Krigu’Andi Khuda’Vellihad of Tyrr,” the violet-haired man raised the remarkably darker of his two hands, a characteristic shared by many on his planet, “Gril’Die Kehstr of Valhal,” a man in his late twenties with fiery golden hair and very pale skin raised his hand, “and finally, Lihandii Khuda’Cronell of Earth.” The whole of the stadium roared with cheers and applause as the young Valkyrie raised her hand.
“With that,” Drigondii said, “I wish the players all a fair match and look forward to the results. Let the games begin!” As the spheres retreated from the players, and the countdown to the start of the game began, few were paying enough attention to notice a man placing a late entry to the Kohstr tournament, even if he was wearing a worn-out set of Peacekeeper armor. Those that did certainly didn’t notice the worn-down rank on the uniform as they looked back to the screens to watch the game. Not even the registrar was paying enough attention to see that the Lieutenant had just signed in for the first time in ten years.