Cesya: Attempt #1

GENERATING MAP.............

Cesya took the opportunity to change her stream overlay while the game was busy setting everything up for her first run. Although she had no fancy HUD or other such always-available information to guide her, she could set all sorts of information to update in real time for her viewers. Glowing orange numbers in sealed glass tubes flickered to life along an industrial-looking panel to one side of the screen, stencil-letter labels indicating what each group was for. The largest of the bunch tracked what run she was currently on, with the other, smaller tubes tracking things like how many shots she'd fired in total, how many enemies she'd taken out, how many bullets or grenades she had at any given moment, and so on.

The element most prominently featured, at the bottom corner of the overlay, was a pressure gauge. Although it had no clear label and measured only in a vague percentage, it was still extremely obvious what this particular element was keeping track of. Starting at 80% and going all the way up to 220% deep into a "red zone" on the far end, it was purpose-built to put emphasis on the best parts of what everyone came here to see.

By the time that needle showed any sign of activity, Cesya would almost certainly be showing plenty of "activity" herself. Already, it was all too easy to imagine her dancing and squirming with increasing fervor as that needle moved closer and closer to the red zone, her straining bladder contending with many dozens of drinks, bulging obscenely with an ever-expanding oceanic volume...

MAP GENERATION COMPLETE!

ID: CARGOBAY_UNDERGROUND_HANGAR_L.40.30.30

SEED: swz7ro0iTmIbMfvZmhqW0ApRFgviKp5hA

Before those thoughts could sink too far into the realm of fantasy, a trio of screens faded in from black. The largest central one, meant to be the main viewpoint, followed just above Cesya's shoulder in third-person- though there were also smaller windows built into the overlay to allow Cesya to show off exactly what she was seeing in a smaller window, as well as an automatically-generated status screen that could inform players of key details such as random events triggering or what items Cesya was finding as loot.

Although she could still access chat with a wrist-mounted device, she couldn't actually see her stream or the extra information it provided while "in" a map, largely as a function of the game itself. All she had was her gear and her own senses to rely on- even moreso than usual, as she couldn't even afford HUD glasses, passive nav systems, or any of the useful things she'd normally have access to.

Cesya took a deep breath, drawing her pistol and taking a quick look around. She'd spawned just on the inside of a cut-open chain-link fence, serving as her "entry point". Parked vehicles, primarily large trucks, utility vans, and a handful of large forklifts offered her an immediate source of cover, from which she could scout ahead in relative safety.

She seemed to be in some sort of shipping facility, if the road looping through the fenced-in complex, vast quantity of cargo containers, and immense crane designed to move them was any indication. Although the crates nearest the crane were still stacked in an orderly, symmetric fashion, the large metal boxes nearest to Cesya's position were much more haphazard in organization, many of them open, with sheets of wood and steel cabling running up, down, and across the jumble.

It looked distinctly more like an arena or training ground than it did a storage area. Although the road encircling the area provided high ground compared to the sunken cargo hold, it provided almost nothing in terms of cover- and just above the stacked red-and-blue rectangles, across the two roads, Cesya could just barely make out what looked like an office- or maybe a guard-house. There was definitely at least one person watching over the entrance gate near it- thankfully, the exit gate nearer to her was fully automated, and had no guard.

She couldn't make out much more past the colossal crane arms or neatly-arranged cargo, but there was definitely something over there, the road suddenly dipping down to the same level as the cargo storage floor and disappearing into a massive, windowless concrete mound of a building. There was no telling what was on the inside of that area, making roughly one third of the map a complete unknown.

Cesya mulled over her options. She couldn't risk provoking engagement, but her cloak would only get her so far. She definitely couldn't make it down the coverless roadway on a single charge, and getting caught out in the open like that was a **** sentence. Even if the guards weren't yet suspicious, there's no way they wouldn't notice her doing something that brazen.

Unfortunately, that didn't leave Cesya with a lot of options. She couldn't afford to take risks early on- anything that made the enemy more alert to her presence simply wasn't worth it unless it meant getting that all-important key-card in her hands. She stepped out from behind the forklift she was using as cover, flickering out of existence a fraction of a second later.

It wouldn't last long. Cesya didn't have to cover that much distance, but the faster she moved, the faster her cloak's battery drained- and since it would drain no matter what she did, moving quickly was her only option. By the time she vaulted over the roadside safety rail and onto one of the metal cargo containers, it was already almost completely exhausted.

"What was that?"

Cesya scrambled, just barely having enough time to clamber into an open cargo container as she popped back into view. Although she could be fairly certain no one saw her, she'd failed to account for one important detail.

Cesya's ass was outrageous. Naturally, the impact of her unreasonable frame landing generated quite a bit of noise- and no cloaking tech could fully muffle that kind of sound, not even ones a hundred times as expensive as the Whisper she was currently stuck with.

"Probably just a bird or somethin' again."

The voice came from somewhere below- thankfully. It meant that no one had seen her, at least- and there was no one currently around who could see her, at least not before her cloaking device had a chance to recharge.

"You sure? That's one big fuckin' bird."

Cesya wasn't entirely sure if she should have been insulted, or smug.

"If you wanna check it out, be my guest. I ain't budging for no bird."

"Yeah, yeah, me neither. Especially not for a big one... Fuck geese."

Cesya breathed as quiet a sigh of relief as she possibly could. It may have been her literal first attempt at the challenge, but that was precisely why she was treating it so seriously. Her intuition and execution weren't exactly going to be getting any cleaner if the losses started to pile up, and while she was confident she could handle that if it happened...

Optimally, it wouldn't. Ideally, that was an "if", not a "when". Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

She could at least be certain of one thing- she needed to keep moving. No matter how careful she was, the longer she spent here, the less likely it was she would succeed. Random events could trigger. A patrolling enemy might catch her off guard. She'd have less resources to work with. The more time she wasted, the more time her enemy had to set up.

That said, wandering around aimlessly was even more dangerous. Cesya knew nothing about the area, nothing about where her objectives were, nothing about the location and concentration of guards. She had almost nothing to go on.

Almost nothing.

She still had her intuition.