Codi felt like a child again, pressing her nose against the glass window of the Orbit-to-Ground shuttle. The tough little capsule was currently ferrying them to the central district of Berlin One, the city of the Gauntlet, but on their way they passed over countless other wonders she never thought she’d have seen. The oceans of her home planet were the colour of dirt, heavy with minerals and polluted by industrial dumping. By contrast Earth’s gleaming blue waterways shone in the sunlight, their immaculate surfaces impossibly beautiful.

Then came snow capped mountains in lieu of the constantly fizzling volcanic peaks of Kantha. The shuttle ferried them over a range of mountains called the Alps, and Codi couldn’t believe how untouched the snow was. When it did snow at home the white flakes vaporised before they could even hit the ground. The trip was almost worth it already just to see the planet.

After the Alps they began passing over the first of the mega-cities. This one – Vasco informed her – was named Wurzberg, sprawling out over some 2’500 square kilometres of the continent. Sunlight glanced and rebounded off of the endless expanse, the silver buildings spread throughout spacious avenues that hummed with traffic. From their altitude Codi could just make out the cars, their engines glowing blue.

It took half an hour for them to cross Wurzberg in its entirety. Then they were out over open country again, speeding over the greenery of Earth’s landscape. Criss-crossing lines of steely grey marked out the highways connecting the mega cities, all of them thrumming with daytime life.

“How do they keep it so clean?” Codi murmured. Beside her, Max craned his neck to look out the window. “Don’t they need natural resources, power plants, shipyards?”

“Earth’s different,” he said. “It’s the centre of colonised space, the centre of an interstellar support net. Means they don’t have to use their own planet’s resources. They get their raw materials from places like Kantha and utilise it themselves.”

“What do they use for power?”

“I think they call them Gravity Loopers.” He shrugged. “I dunno how they work, I’m no engineer. But they’re cleaner and more efficient than the nuclear plants back home. Safer too.”

“You’d think everyone should get that kind of deal,” she muttered.

“They’re not exactly cheap to build.”

They lapsed into silence again as the shuttle banked; changing it’s heading to the right and passing over a handful of smaller settlements over the next hour. Though not as large as Wurzberg, these were still large in their own right, some as large as five hundred square kilometres in size.

Codi wasn’t sure exactly how much longer they spent flying across the main continent – an hour, maybe two – but she spotted something glinting on the horizon well before the shuttle reached the outskirts of Berlin One. Sitting up in her seat she narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what the object was. Then as they hit the silver rim of the city proper she made the connection.

The thing rose up like an enormous glass pillar, still minute in the distance but she could see the scale compared to the surrounding structures. Her mind flashed back to the picture Vasco had shown them weeks ago. It could only be one building: the Gauntlet Arena.

As they drew closer her conclusion was confirmed. The massive structure dwarfed its surroundings, shaped like an immense rectangle. Its sides bowed outwards and down them Codi saw the flags of dozens of academies draped down them. The reflective silver of the wall gave way to a glorious miasma of colour. However, try as she might she couldn’t spot the green and gold of Brax-Delta. What she did see was a several other shuttles on the same trajectory as theirs, spiralling down around the towering bulk of the arena towards the streets.

“Here at last,” Vasco grunted from his seat across the aisle. He stretched with a groan. “When we get in there just let me do the talking. There are going to be a lot of people signing up, a lot of bustle and the arena is a big place. Stick close.”

Codi felt her stomach lurch as the shuttle’s rate of descent increased. They wound their way around the enormous building in a lazy trajectory, following the other vehicles. Before long she spotted the domed bulk of a space-port, similar to the one on Kantha but smaller, designed specifically for Gauntlet traffic. At the apex of the dome she could see the open aperture where the shuttles in front disappeared from sight.

She watched out of the window as the walls closed in around them. Blinking landing lights guided their shuttle into its assigned bay amidst the bustle of the port. People scuttled back and forth beneath them, moving around hovering trucks that ferried everything from passengers to parts around the port. The shuttle jolted as it touched down, and then the engine’s hum faded in a diminuendo of sound. With a hiss of releasing clamps the read boarding ramp lowered.

“Let’s get to it,” Vasco said, unbuckling his safety harness. “C’mon, get the gear together. We’ve got an hour till they close the check-in stations.”

Codi scrambled out of her seat and followed the others to the luggage compartment where the exoskeletons were stored. Slinging the heavy bag over one shoulder, she turned on her heel and fell into step behind Vasco. She looked around upon exiting the shuttle, eager for a glimpse of the other Gauntlet teams in transit.

It wasn’t long before she spotted a group of them filing into the arena building through a connecting arched corridor with sliding glass doors. The first thing she noticed was their uniform. The ten individuals all wore matching tracksuits coloured in a deep midnight blue streaked with silver.

“Thor’s Wake Academy,” Vasco said, noticing her stare. “Top academy out of the Taurus Colonies.”

“How come we didn’t get matching uniforms?” she queried.

He shrugged. “Not much point in spending any money we didn’t have to. The uniforms look nice, but they’re not important. I’d rather you were properly geared for the fighting itself; blew the budget on the exoskeletons.”

“Can’t say I blame you.” She smiled thinly.

“What about those guys?” Max asked and indicated a large group of perhaps twenty young men and women wearing jackets of earthy brown with black stripes running over the shoulders and down the arms.

“That’s a bunch you’ll want to keep an eye on,” he returned. “That’s Orion. They pooled together the resources of the Orion Constellation to make one big, heavy duty academy. They’ve got some of the best fighters competing plus three pacer teams.”

“What’s a pacer team?” Lita put in.

“I’ll explain later. Right now we need to get ourselves signed up and ready to go. Once that’s done I’ll let you all know how to get through the Mayhems.” Their chatter ceased as they then joined the flow of Gauntlet competitors into the arena itself, passing through the glass doors and into the gleaming white crescent of the corridor beyond.

Fifty yards later and they passed through another set of doors, this one manned by two crisply clad attendants who checked the group’s credentials. After Vasco shoved the bundle of appropriate paperwork into the hands of the nearest man they were allowed into the Gauntlet arena’s lobby area. Codi’s mouth opened in amazement.

Rocking her head back she stared upwards into the impossibly tall expanse. She could barely see the overhanging roof. Behind them the bowed glass wall of the building stretched like a shell around the main structure and sunlight cascaded in, splitting into brilliant spectrums of colour as it struck the angled panes. In front the true walls of the arena loomed, similarly arched in their construction but made of a smooth silver-grey material. Rings of thin windows rose up floor after floor. A series of smaller doors – a dozen at least – were spread out across the base of the wall behind the cluster of sign-in desks.

“Alright, final hurdle, kids,” Vasco muttered. “Follow me.”

The teams spread out to the various desks, although some were already occupied with groups signing up. Vasco led them to the smallest queue he could, and the sign in process didn’t seem to take particularly long. Maybe fifteen minutes later they reached the attendants and handed over their paperwork. The woman examined the documents carefully before handing them over to her colleague. He barely glanced at the sheets before eyeing them suspiciously.

“Brax-Delta Academy, from Kantha?” he questioned.

“That’s us,” Vasco answered. “Problem?”

“You’re late.”

“We’ve still got a whole hour!”

The man rolled his eyes. “Okay, you’re not early enough.”

Codi looked at their coach sharply, a sickly feeling settling in the base of her stomach.

“Meaning what, exactly?”

“Well, we received a…shall we call it a warning call from Kantha’s administrators concerning the disappearance of some merchandise from the defunct Brax-Delta academy.”

“Oh, that.” Vasco shrugged. “What about it?”

The attendant blinked in surprise at the glib answer. He lowered his voice. “You stole a bunch of Gauntlet exoskeletons.”

“Borrowed without permission.”

“Don’t get smart with me, friend.”

“Look-,” Vasco stepped forward and placed his hands on the desk. “Everything is in order. We paid for transportation, for accommodation, got a sponsor. We’ve done everything the rules require.”

“And then some,” Codi murmured.

“As much as I’d love to, this isn’t something easy to overlook,” the man returned.

“Alright, look at it this way,” Vasco said. “The evidence is circumstantial, not enough to give an immediate arrest. By the time Kantha’s administrators have pushed through any kind of extradition order the Gauntlet will be finished.” He straightened up and folded his arms. “We’re all here and we’re ready to go.”

The female attendant looked at her companion and shrugged. “What’s the harm? He’s right. By the time those blockheads get their legal garbage together the tournament’ll be long done.”

The man drummed his fingers against the desk for a moment before eventually nodding. “Okay, how about we just pretend we never saw you.” He stamped the various papers and shoved them into the towering pile on his left. He handed another piece of paper over to Vasco. “Get out of here. And don’t make me regret this.”

Codi breathed a sigh of relief as their instructor turned from the desks, a triumphant grin on his face. She glanced at the others to find Lucas and Lazlo silently bumping fists. A smile slipped across her face.

“Let’s get going,” Vasco said. “Time to sort out our game plan.”

***

The room afforded to Brax-Delta within the arena was small, just large enough to fit the team, Vasco, and a viewing screen. He plugged in a data stick to the computer console and the screen flickered into life.

“Alright people,” Vasco began. “Tomorrow they’ll post the brackets for the Mayhems and you’ll find out who’s in your group. There are some people that you need to watch out for.”

“Will we know the arena?” Lita asked.

“Afraid not; nobody’ll know what kind of arena they’re in till the Mayhem actually starts.”

Codi frowned. “Wait, what do you mean? I thought we just got dropped down and fought it out?”

“Used to be that simple,” Vasco sighed. “But now they do all kinds of crazy stuff to make the Mayhems more interesting. That’s a good thing for all of you though; it means you’ll have a better chance of sneaking through to the group stage. Sometimes they use mazes, sometimes moving floors, obstacle courses. Most years one of them will be a water hazard. You get knocked into the drink and you’re out.”

“And that helps us because…?”

“Because it means you won’t have to straight up fight every person in the Mayhem. Believe me, you don’t want to do that.” He picked up the tele-screen remote and pressed a button, causing the image of a young man in full Gauntlet gear flash up. Codi examined the individual closely. He almost looked too old to be a competitor, with a thin haze of stubble around his mouth, a buzz cut and a grim scowl etched across his granite features. Though it was difficult to tell without someone to scale against, he didn’t look particularly big, but the cobalt of his eyes bored out of the screen with an unnerving intensity. The exoskeleton he wore gleamed, with a cyan chest plate, grieves and vambraces and the rest coloured a deep blue.

“Take a good look,” Vasco ordered. “This is Bruno Varlin, top fighter from the best academy on Earth, Battlecast. He’s twenty-one and the defending champion. If he wins this year he’ll be the first fighter to go back to back in twenty years.” His tone hardened. “If you see this guy in your Mayhem, you run. You run your ass off.”

“What?”

“Varlin has competed since he was sixteen. There’s no trick he doesn’t know, no discipline he can’t adapt to. The kid’s a walking weapon. You are not ready to take on someone like him, not yet.”

Codi let out a derisive snort. “Then what are we doing here?”

“Events are spaced out with a day or two between them,” Vasco snapped. “Most people use the time to relax. We don’t have that luxury, so we’ll be training. And we’ll be watching. If you can make it through the Mayhems and get a good draw in the groups we might just be able to cobble together enough luck and skill to get somewhere in this thing.”

“So what is the game plan?” Max asked.

“That’s the right question.” He flicked a button and a video popped up on the tele-screen. They watched for a few minutes as a recorded Mayhem unfolded before them. Then Codi spotted an individual who could only be Bruno Varlin and her eyes widened. He moved through the other fighters like an axe through paper, brutally precise, wiping out anyone in his path.

“As you’ll probably have guessed, that’s Varlin,” Vasco said, pausing the recording. “Now he’s the most dangerous, but he is by no means the only person that can cause some havoc. First and foremost, you burn that Battlecast armour into your heads. Anybody you see wearing it, there’s a good chance they’re dangerous.”

“You mentioned pacer teams?” Lucas interjected. “What are those?”

“The big academies – Battlecast, Orion, Nebula – they have more than one team, but not all of them will be the same calibre. The pacer teams are generally made up of the newest fighters they have. They’re there to get in the way, to mix things up in the Mayhems and to test the other teams. In the Mayhem’s they’ll go in fast and hard.”

“But we can’t afford to do that,” Codi said, nodding.

“Exactly. We need to pick and choose our moments. Whatever you do you stay out of big head on engagements. Fight smart. Only get involved if you’re sure you can land a knock out. Sure we won’t be putting on too much of a show, but I’d rather you all made it through in one piece.”

Over the next hour Vasco elaborated, running through a handful of other fighters they were to steer clear of during the Mayhems. Most of them were like Varlin, strong, experienced males at the top end of the age spectrum, but she noted one who stood out: a girl named Ripple from the Battlecast academy, nineteen years of age and in her third competitive year. She looked utterly unthreatening; slight build, smooth skin and a blaze of straight white hair streaked with blue. Still, Vasco singled her out as a threat and that was good enough for Codi.

With the briefing over, Vasco led them to their accommodation within the monolithic arena itself. As they made their way through the immaculate white halls Codi finally let the realisation of where she was sink in. Barely a month and a half ago she’d been getting ready for expulsion, ready for her life to be as good as over. Now she stood on Earth, in the halls of the largest sporting event in the history of civilisation. A dream come true?

Close enough.