The Days Of Fear: A Tanki Online Novel

[Pythor 1,354]

CHAPTER 1

 

"Gold Leader, come in, come in. Do you copy."

 

Silence, then "Loud and clear Blue Leader. You've got a couple enemies coming around behind. I'll do what I can."

 

Michael glanced down at the score table which still read 7-6. He adjusted his headset and spoke into the mic. 

"Try to hold out for as long as you can. We just need to keep the lead for two more minutes." 

   

Michael, or "Blue Leader" as he went by, quickly spun around his smoky-wasp combo and careened towards the center of the map. He spotted "Jeffdawg" zig-zagging across the middle, holding onto the flag for dear life with two enemies trailing close behind. Aided by his quick reflexes, Michael managed to get off two shots on one of the enemies before he disappeared behind a nearby building. A second later the numbers on his XP bar shone bright green, indicating Jeff had probably finished him off.

 

"I got backup now," yelled Jeff through his mic. 

 

"Rodger that Gold Leader. Crisis averted." Michael took a deep breath of relief. 

 

With about 20 seconds left of the battle Jeff capped, giving them the lead by two flags.

 

"Another good game," Michael said as the final score table appeared on his screen. He jerked his chair back and grabbed a juice box that had been sitting next to his laptop. "Connor and Aaren should be over soon, Jeff. I'm gonna go get something to eat before we get into another battle."

 

"Copy that," came the reply. "I'll see ya in 10."

 

 

Down in the kitchen, Michael poured himself a quick bowl of cereal. He had barely wolfed it down before the doorbell rang. The 17 year old jogged over to the door and swung it open. Two boys, who looked like they had just stepped out of bed, stood on the porch. 

 

"What took you so long?" Michael asked as he ushered his friends in.

 

"Dude," the taller of the two replied, "it's like 7:00AM right now. "I'm not getting up any earlier." To prove his point, he gestured towards a clock on the microwave which read 7:04.

 

Michael grinned. "All good Aaren. You guys ready to kick some butt?" In reply, both boys held up their laptops. 

 

 

It was usually four of them that gathered at Michael's house to play Tanki, but Jeff was on vacation on the West Coast. He would be communicating with the other three via his headset. They all lived on the outskirts of Chicago and with school out now for the summer, they planned to spend loads of time playing Tanki Online. It was a dreary Friday morning outside with a steady drizzle of rain. Aaren and Connor were both a bit damp as they pulled up seats at the kitchen table and set up their laptops. Michael retrieved his computer from upstairs and pretty soon they were all situated and scanning through the battle list.

 

"We could do a matchmaking battle," suggested Connor, who was slouched down in his seat with his head nearly covered by his sweatshirt hood.

 

The other two boys stared at him for a moment.

 

"Don't be weird," replied Michael.

 

Connor grinned then shrugged his shoulders. The room was silent for about a minute as the boys tried to find a good battle. Suddenly Jeff's voice came through the headset, which Michael had placed in the middle of the table so all three boys could hear. 

 

"You guys see the 30-minute Madness CTF? It just started."

 

"Lets do it." replied Aaren as he joined the red team along with Jeff.

 

"I'm in," said Michael. The loading bar filled up his screen as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

 

"I might just do an MM battle," said Connor as he looked mischievously over at Michael. Silence filled the room a second time.

 

"Just kidding." He joined the other three in Madness.

 

 

"Great!" grumbled Michael, "We're already losing 1-0. How the heck does someone cap on Madness in under a minute?!" He manoeuvered his tank up a ramp and quickly finished off an enemy firebird sitting at the top. 

 

Out of the four boys, Jeff was the only one who was a Legend. Michael, Aaren, and Connor were on Commander, Generalissimo, and Marshal, respectively. All had at least one M3 combo. 

 

 

About five minutes in, they were losing 3-0.

 

"Man, this is frustrating," Jeff's voice came through. "You guys need to play better defense. I can't be the only one fending them off."

 

"Ya, I hear ya," Michael leaned over toward the headset. "The rest of our team is comprised of noobs though. There is not much we can do." As if to prove his point an M1 rico-hornet combo on their team drove right off the edge of the map. Michael rolled his eyes.

 

Then out of nowhere the flag buzzer sounded and the words "ConnerH has captured enemy flag" appeared on the top of everyone's screen.

 

"Whaa?" Jeff exclaimed through the mic. Aaren turned to give Connor a high five.

 

"3-1 boys," Connor said with a smirk.

 

 

However, the hype died down after the enemy team retaliated by capping three more times in the next 10 minutes. The desperation felt was evident on the three boys faces.

 

"This is hopeless guys," Aaren complained just as he got sniped by a rail. "I'd honestly rather go play matchmaking with Connor."

 

"Fine," replied Michael. "Me and Jeff will join you as soon as this battle is over."

 

 

After the two boys left the battle, the downward spiral of defeat intensified. With 6 minutes left on the clock, the score showed 11-1. Michael had put his headset back on and communicated with Jeff.

 

"Gold Leader, we got a guy coming on the right towards our flag."

 

"I'll deal with him," came the reply. "You go try to cap."

 

"Hold up," Michael replied. "I'm gonna switch to Hunter." He clicked on the garage bar and sat back in his chair as it loaded. Suddenly, to his dismay, the telltale gold box siren sounded. Michael banged his fist on the table.

 

"Gosh, of all the bloody luck... You hear that Jeff?"

 

"Yeah, you see the drop zone?"

 

"My garage page is loading bro. I can't see anything. Cmonnnn." Michael tried to will the page to load faster, but to no avail.

 

"I bet it's on the top platform." 

 

"Dang, get there!" Michael exclaimed.

 

Jeff drove his Viking headlong up the ramp to the platform. Sure enough the drop zone was located there. He grinned then spoke.

 

"There's quite a few guys up here Blue Leader. Not sure if I'm gonna be able to pull this off."

 

By now Aaren and Connor had paused their battle and had come over to watch.

 

"Beautiful load bar you got there," said Aaren smiling.

 

"Hehe," came Michael's uneasy laugh as the page finally finished loading.

 

"It's dropping!" Jeff exclaimed. I'm in a pretty good position! I've got a good chance!"

 

And that's when it happened. A moment none of the three boys at Michael's home ever forgot. A rumbling sound suddenly started out of nowhere, seemingly coming from inside the game.

 

Jeff was still shouting through the mic, "I've almost got it! Wait what?" His voice suddenly changed from one of excitement to one of confusion, then one of urgency. 

 

"What"s going on?!... The platform is... what the.." The mic went static as the rumbling intensified. Michael sat there stunned with his garage page still up. Then in a heartbeat the sound ceased as quickly as it had begun. 

 

"Jeff? Can you hear me?" Michael questioned. Static, then nothing.

 

"Jeff?" Michael tried again. Silence reigned.

 

 

Michael exited out of his garage page to receive an even bigger surprise. When he went to respawn, there was nowhere to respawn to. The map Madness was gone with only an empty abyss in its place. There was no sign of Jeff's tank or any other tank for that matter. Everything had just disappeared.

 

Then, breaking the awful silence a voice sprang out. An eerie, chilling voice like that of a phantom. A mixture of surprise and fear sat frozen on the three boys' faces. 

 

"I'm back...Tanki.... Did you miss me?" The ghostly voice filled the room, emanating from Michael's computer screen.

 

"Hahahaha..haha," the voice turned into an evil sounding laugh before crying, "I'm BACK!"

 

Just at that moment a clap of thunder echoed outside and the slow drizzle of rain became a downpour.

[kaisdf 3,320]

Article Approved.

 

Fantastic story! It really sets the scene for any upcoming instalments, and has a great cliff hanger to finish. Love the throwback to the old Madness by the way :P

 

Very accurate piece overall.

 

Edits:

  · A very small number of word changes.

  · You need to make sure to add a comma after an introductory clause, for example, “To prove his point,”

[Pythor 1,354]

Article Approved.

 

Fantastic story! It really sets the scene for any upcoming instalments, and has a great cliff hanger to finish. Love the throwback to the old Madness by the way :P

 

Very accurate piece overall.

 

Edits:

  · A very small number of word changes.

  · You need to make sure to add a comma after an introductory clause, for example, “To prove his point,”

Awesome, Thanks

[C.O.N.Q.U.E.R.O.R 3,845]

It's a good plot so far, but there are some things that are off, like spelling inconsistencies (Connor's username is ConnerH? I doubt I'd spell my own name wrong). Fluff some stuff up, it just seems kind of one-note. Take the Harry Potter series for an example; one of the reasons that it's so amazing is that it goes through the daily life of the three main characters, rather than just being a summary of the biggest events of the day.

[Pythor 1,354]

It's a good plot so far, but there are some things that are off, like spelling inconsistencies (Connor's username is ConnerH? I doubt I'd spell my own name wrong). Fluff some stuff up, it just seems kind of one-note. Take the Harry Potter series for an example; one of the reasons that it's so amazing is that it goes through the daily life of the three main characters, rather than just being a summary of the biggest events of the day.

Will take that into account. Thanks

[thethiefofvictory 339]

I agree with Conq. Good sory, but to me the ending was silly, rather ridiculous. Of course, I'm not the person to talk to if you want to make it better :lol:

[C.O.N.Q.U.E.R.O.R 3,845]

I agree with Conq

I swear you say that every time I comment on an AWS article  :wacko: 

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

A rather random transition to fiction towards the end, but a nice one nonetheless. Good job.

[TankiNoob2000 231]

Nice story! ^_^

[Pythor 1,354]

Lots of feedback. I appreciate it guys. :) Chapter 2 coming next week.

A rather random transition to fiction towards the end, but a nice one nonetheless. Good job.

Its supposed to be a mainly fictitious story.. 

[Pyre 3,485]

Cool and good.

[Pythor 1,354]

Chapter 2 will be submitted tomorrow. Stay tuned

[Aigaion 636]

entertaining