The Alterra Project

Kelly walked over to Alice and squeezed her cheek hard.

"Alice, it's not good to lie like that!"

"Well he's dead to me!" Alice said with an angry expression, seeing such a tiny woman angry was indeed cute.

"Uh, so what happened?" Gray asked Kelly.

"That's up to her, but as for why she is now with us, she always was. Giacobbe left the military after finding out the truth of Alterra Online and so the military had Alice keep an eye on him. She ended up convincing him to come back to the military though so she no longer needs to keep an eye on him." Kelly said.

"Right, but that doesn't explain the anger..."

Jono looked at everyone confused again, "What secret? I've been looking around online for guides and secrets for this game and sadly I have yet to really find any. Even a guide from you Diamond-tiers is hard to find!"

Kelly's eyes went wide "Oh my god! I forgot to check if all of you were Diamond-tier!"

"Rub it in why don't you Kelly! I can't even buy it!" Jono said fuming.

"Jonathon? Is that you? Oh my god it is! I didn't see you standing back there!" Kelly said happily.

"Was that a short joke?" Jono said aggrieved

"Yes, yes it was..." Gray said to Jono with a grin

"F**k off Gray! I'm only 2 inches shorter than average!"

Kelly laughed. "It's good to see you two haven't changed! Sorry, I forgot you like to be called Jono."

"You can call me whatever you want Kelly!" Jono said proudly.

"Hey Kelly, call him tiny, he loves it." Gray said with a cheesy grin.

Caleb came up and put a hand on Gray's shoulder, "Can we get on with this, we're wasting time."

"Ah, sorry, was remembering how we used to interact in high school..." Gray said while looking down nostalgically. "So let me introduce our team, the Steel Wolves. We're all corporals so I'll just leave that part off. From my right, Xyra Erita, Caleb Waldowski, Jono Randel, Yurika Winchester, Geoff Leray, Stacia Oldland, and Paul..."

Kelly nodded as did the other women on her team then tilted her head curiously, "Just Paul?"

"Uh, actually I've never heard his last name before... little help Paul?"

"McCartney" Paul said.

"Right, Paul McCartney... wait, are you serious?" Gray said surprised.

"Unfortunately yes, please don't bring it up ever, you have no idea how much I hate it when people do." Paul said seriously.

"I got it, I'll make sure to Let It Be" Gray said while containing his laughter.

Paul's eyebrow twitched. "You guys better just get it out now, I've heard all of them!"

"Now now guys, we should all Come Together, I know We Can Work It Out" Geoff said encouragingly

Everyone now started giggling.

"I agree, why just Yesterday, I saw someone yell 'Hey Jude', run up to a woman then say 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and I couldn't help but think All You Need Is Love" Stacia said proudly.

"Oh, she got 4 in one sentence, impressive!" Gray said.

At this point Paul surrendered and just let everyone have their fill.

Geoff took his two index fingers and pointed them down in front of his mouth and said, "I Am The Walrus!"

Yurika looked at him with shame, shook her head and said, "Hello Goodbye" then turned away from Geoff.

"You guys done yet?" Paul said without even caring at this point.

"Give us... FourFiveSeconds, maybe?" Gray said.

"I'm so sorry Paul, this is just probably A Day In The Life for you" Kelly said.

All 7 of Kelly's teammates looked at her in surprise.

"Tell me that wasn't intentional said one of the women."

Kelly's face became flushed in embarrassment and she started waving her hands in denial, "I really am sorry Paul, never In My Life would I make fun of someone's name!"

At this point everyone on Gray's team was almost rolling on the ground laughing.

"Stop laughing you guys! I'm serious!" Kelly said angrily

"Alright alright... we'll stop, Maybe I'm Amazed we kept it going for so long." Caleb said plainly.

At this point even the girls on Kelly's team were trying to not giggle.

"You guys, you seem like you have a lot of fun!" Kelly said admittedly.

"Well, we do what we can. Plus, I can only do it With A Little Help From My Friends." Gray said proudly.

Everyone burst out laughing again and Stacia finally said "Seriously, please stop! I'm about to pee myself!"

"Ok ok, listen, how about we just have a casual match, my team versus your team, so we can get a better feel of each other's skills first." Gray said to Kelly.

"Sounds good to me, can we use military mechs?"

"Will they be allowed in the tournament?"

"Yes, they will be allowed."

Caleb spoke up, "How superior are they to our mechs?"

Kelly thought about it for a minute, "Honestly, I can't say as I've only ever sparred with other military mechs, from the spec sheet they offer noticeable improvements in mostly stamina and only marginal improvements in strength. Their armor is slightly thicker, which makes their speed improvements negligible from the extra weight. The weapons themselves are identical thankfully, but we don't have to pay merits for anything. Instead, we are granted the use of different mechs and weapons based upon rank."

"No merits? Must be nice..." Gray said sheepishly.

"It is, but we also have a schedule and mandatory training classes and sessions we have to attend." Kelly admitted.

"Let's get going then, random map and conditions?"

"Of course! This is also how the tournament will be conducted."

Gray whispered to Yurika, "I'm surprised you didn't say something, usually you would declare me as your wife or something like that."

Yurika smiled at Gray and whispered back, "I trust you, as hard as it was when she hugged you, but I can see you didn't let it linger."

Gray couldn't resist and gave her a squeeze and kissed her cheek.

Alice whispered to Kelly "I think you missed your chance."

"Chance at what?" Kelly said slightly confused as she hadn't seen Gray kiss Yurika.

"Nevermind..." Alice didn't want to cause drama after all.

Gray's and Kelly's teams split apart from each other and went into their private pregame lobbies to select their mechs and loadouts.

"Use what you're most comfortable or best with, we can worry about roles after!" Gray said to his teammates.

Gray normally would give his people orders and mech assignments, but he was a little curious as to what his team thought they were best at.

Jono suddenly declared "Since I'm godly at everything, I can just pick anything then, right?"

"Jono, you must take the Juniper SE with nothing but combat knives..." Yurika suddenly said.

"I mean... since I have the same skill with all mechs, just pick anything?" Jono quickly adjusted his previous statement.

"Yes, if you're equally skilled with all, pick whichever you feel most comfortable in."

The mode and map choice suddenly appeared in his HUD:

Mode: Team Battle (8 vs 8)

Map: Amazon Basin

Weather: Extreme Rain.

"Crap, this is going to suck for most mechs..."

Thinking about the map and conditions, Gray was torn between the Ranger Mk 01 and the Blitz Mk 01. The Blitz Mk 01 was superior in terms of firepower and agility, but the Ranger was easier to use and was as easy to control as the Phalanx Mk 01 since it was basically a lighter and stronger version of it.

Gray ended up going with the Blitz as he felt that more firepower would make him feel more comfortable against a team of military mechs.

The countdown timer reached 0 and everyone spawned inside the map, seeing the downpour of rain was slightly depressing as it limited mobility and vision.

Gray wasn't surprised at anyone's choice of mech except for Yurika, she had actually picked the Ranger Mk 01.

Geoff, Gray, and even Jono had picked the Blitz Mk 01.

"Jono, when did you get enough to afford the Blitz Mk 01?"

"I stayed up late playing solo matches and just got it recently." Jono said proudly.

"Have you used it yet?"

"No, but it should be Ok, I am a master of every mech I touch after all."

Gray rolled his eyes even though he knew Jono couldn't see him.

Caleb and Xyra both picked the Whisper Mk 01, which they both seemed to favor over any other mech anyways for now.

Paul of course picked the Hoplite Mk 01 with the compressed armor shield and Stacia picked the Cupid Mk 01 since she was usually the scout.

What surprised Gray was that Yurika picked the Ranger Mk 01 and seemed to opt for a high caliber, close range automatic rifle and an ax.

"I thought you would've picked the Firehawk Mk 01." Gray said to Yurika.

"You nuts? Their is going to be heavy rain and heavier mud, I'd have a hard time moving in a mech of that weight in this weather and the flamethrowers are not very effective in the rain. Gatling Cannon would be fun, but without proper sight I'd miss at any range past 200m."

"That... is surprisingly thoughtful of you, I wish everyone else considered things that deeply, myself included!" Gray said genuinely impressed.

"Well, I have a certain opponent that I need to show her her place on the food chain... violently."

Gray laughed nervously and thought to himself, "I thought she said she trusts me... I hope this is going to be alright."