[Audio log recovered from Aegis Command Center memory banks]

[The log is marked as an interview between Lieutenant Deborah Riff, psychological officer in charge of acclimating and integrating acquisitions from the rift, and Ashten Sung, number two candidate in the program overall.]

[...]

[Begin Playback]

(The recording starts with the sound of metal chairs scraping against a cement floor)

“Thank you for meeting with me.”

(A woman’s voice echoes a bit and sounds very close to the microphone)

(A younger woman answered the first dismissively)

“Yeah, whatever.”

(There’s a moment of silence as papers are shuffled around)

“Can you state your name for the record please?”

(The younger woman grumbled before answering)

“Ashten Sung. From… What do you want me to call it? The other earth?”

(The older woman clears her throat before responding with a disapproving tone)

“We don’t need to go into that. Now, we’re here to discuss you taking command over your squad. How would-”

“Wait, wait, wait.”

(Ashten interrupted the interviewer and a building anger could be heard in her voice)

“What do you mean take over command? What about Lucas?”

(The interviewer huffs a bit after the clearly unwanted interjection)

“He’s told us that you’d be a much better choice.”

“He what? That’s ridiculous.”

(Ashten scoffed loudly)

“Well…”

(More papers are shuffled around)

“It says here that he already lost to you back in… your world. It seems to me he feels you’re the better player.”

“What did he say about the match?”

(Ashten demanded)

“Just that he lost.”

(The interviewer replied and Ashten snorted)

“Of course he did. He purposefully left out the crucial detail that it was a fluke.”

“What do you mean by a fluke?”

(Footsteps begin pacing back and forth and there is a full minute of silence)

“Promise that you’ll never say anything to him about this?”

“I promise. Please, go on.”

(Ashten sighed and began speaking)

“I never understood his in-game name until that day. I thought he went by Silence because he didn’t like to talk in real life. Or it may have just been Defcon Zero’s coach or owner pushing a persona onto him.”

“Does that happen often?”

(A pen could be heard scratching notes on paper as the interview prodded Ashten to continue speaking)

“More than you’d think. Most of them do it to generate public interest. I don’t know. Drama and all that. Like Silence was his name just to make him seem dark and brooding to the fans.”

(Ashten scoffed at her own statement)

“I know now that wasn’t the case.”

“Can you elaborate? I'm not sure I understand.”

“He’s called Silence because that’s where he strikes from in game. You learn very quickly that you’ll never see him before he sees you so you start to listen. Your ears begin to strain for footsteps. Gunshots. Equipment changing hands. Something. Anything to give you a clue as to where he is. For all your effort, you never hear a sound until his bullets are all around you. His mere presence in a match is deafening. He slowly fills the map until only he remains. Silence.”

“You make him sound almost supernatural.”

(Ashten laughed)

“There’s a reason most people think he’s a machine. My team of random strangers won the first two rounds that game and I didn’t even realize he was on the opposing side. I’m sure you’re aware that he statistically dies the most in the first two rounds?”

“Yes, we were concerned about that when we first considered him.”

“Yeah well it doesn’t give you confidence playing against him. Round three came around and my entire team was wiped single handedly. I couldn’t believe the turn around. I watched the replays after the game finished just to try and understand what had happened. The first round he wasn’t very serious. I think he had just queued into a public game to try out a new weapon or something. Round two is when he became the monster. I could see him drink in information about my random teammates like he was a shrink analyzing mentally disturbed patients. We eliminated him last. Didn’t even fire his weapon. He just watched.” 

(Ashten paused a moment but continued unprompted)

“Round three, after he killed everyone else on my team, he engaged me directly. We traded shots and I somehow ended up in a parking lot where the rest of his team ambushed me. I’ve baited people into bad positions before, but not like this. I felt like a rat in some experiment. Do you know how frightening it is to realize that you have been manipulated by someone you’re trading bullets with?”

“I can’t say that I do. What about the rest of the game?”

“His teammates were absolutely terrible players. Mine were at least semi competent. He had to do everything on his own but still took us all the way to round nine. Put him with professionals that he practices with daily? Yeah, good luck. That last round, we managed to make it two on one in our favor. He had me pinned in a building across from his own.“

(Ashten trailed off and sighed before she continued)

 “I used to make fun of people that complained about Silence having x-ray vision but... “

(Ashten chuckled darkly)

“I didn’t say anything against them after that fight. There was nowhere I could hide. His bullets followed me as I dove from cover to cover. All of this happened, mind you, while he had no visual indication of where I was. He traced me through opaque walls purely by instinct. The only reason I wasn’t killed was due to a one in a billion set of circumstances.”

(Her tone grew sour)

“In the room I was in, there was a vase set on a table. That vase was struck by a passing bullet and shattered into hundreds of pieces. One of those pieces happened to sail right into the path of a bullet aimed directly for the center of my chest. That bullet’s damage variables, having already been reduced by penetrating the outer wall of the building, were reduced again from passing through the ceramic material. That meant that the damage that bullet caused, I went through later and did the math, brought my avatar down to a half a percent away from death. Half a percentage.”

(Ashten slammed her fist down on a table)

“He had my number that game. The only reason I was still in it was due to some stupid vase. He stopped firing at me because my last teammate had just entered his building. Poor moron had stepped into the open and lobbed a grenade into Silence’s room. My teammate was immediately taken down and I hastily put a few rounds out of my window and into the one Silence had been shooting at me from moments earlier. He wasn’t there, in the window, mind you, he had taken a few steps to the left and completely out of my line of sight. My bullets, which I only fired to try and save my last poor teammate as he was slaughtered, just so happened to hit something else that flew past the window.”

“The grenade? He said you shot that intentionally.”

(Ashten laughed again)

“He probably could have if he were in my position. No it was purely coincidental. I left that game knowing that my victory came at the hands of not one, but two flukes.”

(Ashten’s voice grew louder and fiercer)

“So I don’t care what he said about me and I don’t care what you may have seen. We play that game a thousand more times and he wins every time. I haven’t proven anything yet, but I will. I will beat him fair and square with my own skill. Until then, he’s the greatest player you’ll ever find.”

JTNestman

At last the piece falls into its place. I'm pretty busy this weekend so I probably won't get a chance to update until next week.

As always, thanks for reading.