“Commander…“ the voice of her assistant came out of the desk speaker and let Eris wake up from her daydream. She decided to ignore him for a moment longer. Sipping a steaming mug of earl grey and milk (it’s great, try it) with her eyes still closed she slowly spun around with her throne. *slurp* Ahh… 

Being recently promoted into command over the Himmel’s Faust II, a EUA-space station, her life got annoyingly busy. She was one of the few people on the planet with natural red hair. According to the archives in Berlin, there once were millions like her but after Word War 3 they got prosecuted and killed in something known as ’The Great Witch Hunt of the 21st Century’, apparently because people believed that redheads were able to suck out another person’s soul. Not the first time in history that humans were slaughtering themselves for completely retarded reasons. Eris's rare appearance probably was what caused her stepmom to persuade her dad to put her into command, just for publicity reasons. Or, knowing her, fucked his brains out until he signed anything she wanted him to. “People love rare stuff, that’s why they will love you.” Eris mimicked her stepmom badly. Dad, you have changed.

“Commander Icehorn?” Gregor’s voice asked for her again through the speaker. Not now she thought and deactivated the line to her desk. One might think being a commander came with fighting glorious battles and gaining fame, so far her daily routine was digging through absurdly big piles of paperwork, giving interviews, and taking selfies with so-called ‘stars’. That was probably the reason most people didn’t believe in her leadership and were talking bullshit behind her back. Fine, let them think what they want, after today’s maneuver everyone will acknowledge me!

“Eris!” she felt a hand on her shoulder and was startled “Waaah!” from surprise she accidentally tossed away her mug, splashing the rest of the earl grey over Gregor’s uniform and her pants. With his 191cm, he was about a head taller than most of her staff but he still managed to sneak up on people like nobody else, she didn’t even hear the automatic door open. “Ah, shit, fuck, hot! Hot!” he danced around like a circus clown and she grabbed a couple of random documents from the desk and tried to soak up the beverage off his uniform. “I’m sorry, I told you not to sneak up on me like that.” she scolded him. Luckily for them both of their clothes were black, so the wet spots weren’t that visible. As higher-ups in the command chain, their uniforms were quite stylish. The sturdy black embroidery shirt was held together by golden buttons, the detailed but almost translucent ornaments only visible when they reflected the light. A black leather belt with a pistol holster, held together by an also golden belt buckle. Black cotton pants tucked away into heavy combat boots. In addition to that Eris was wearing a black leather coat, but only loose around the shoulders, and a black hat bearing the lion head shield insignia with the crossed swords, also of course in gold. You can say a lot about the tax-wasters back in Berlin but they surely know how to dress their staff in style.

“It’s okay.” tried Gregor to play it down “I’m here to inform you that we are now in position, right over 48°31'54"N 101°44'21"E. She sat back down “Alright, then let’s get this party started.” and announced over the main link “All personal attached to ‘Operation: Fake Cake’ come back to the command center.” And here they are gone again, my five minutes of peace and quiet.

After the rest of the crew was back the main screen flickered into life and showed the top view of a grassy area with relatively flat hills and occasionally rocks and boulders sticking out. Gregor, standing right next to her, began to breakdown the most important information “Gravity train’s arrival at target area in approximately 2 minutes commander. We already got the movement of two opposing forces on the scanner, here“ he pointed in the middle of the valley “we got at least two dozen of what looks like an updated version of mole tanks, hiding underground, belonging to Red Dragon.” The screen moved with the movement of Gregor’s laser pointer “And over here we have the Neon Rats squad from the mercenary guild.” he pointed at two different hills, a little bit further from the valley. ”They are still unaware of each other.” Eris scratched her chin “Hmm, Neon Rats. That’s a big fish if Schwarz is present.”

“He is” confirmed Gregor. “and we think that the Red Dragons have sent someone important too. We just need to confirm visuals once they reach the surface.” She looked pleased. “Just what kind of rumors did you spread about this train?” He smiled back at her “Not much, I only sold its route for a ridiculously high price anonymously at the black market. Information that expensive must mean a good catch, right?” Eris laughed and gave him a slap on the arm. “Good work!”

“Commander we have a problem.” The guy on the radar said and the screen zoomed closer into the area. They could clearly see two people setting up mines. One was a skinny-looking man, the other was a woman with blue hair. Both wore tunics that didn’t fit all too well. “Scans show that they are setting up nuclear mines,” he said. Eris inhaled sharply “Do they want to wipe out the whole area? We can’t allow that, we need them all closer together before we can start our bombardment. Disrupt their trigger signal!” “Yes Commander” he saluted and started to type a couple of commands into his terminal, after a moment he had locked all the mines within a signal loop. Eris relieved, sunk back on her throne. Gregor took over the main screen with his laser pointer again. “It’s about to go down,” he said. They watched the arrival timer ticking down and how the mercenaries hid in the hills. Then everything happened so fast. The gravity train rushed by, suddenly a bright light, the vehicle got perfectly sliced in half and exploded a split second later. “Woah, what did those fanatics come up with now?” Gregor looked impressed “Looks like the Reds are on the move now too.” The mole tanks dug out of the ground, and troops began to secure the area, extinguishing the raging flames. Meanwhile, the mercenaries approached with their PTDs to investigate, and one of the drones got shot down by a laser from one of the tanks. “Sweet they are going to do the job for us.” It’s a good day for exterminating vermin, Eris thought. “Get the missiles ready.”

Gregor changed the view again “Hey, I think that’s him. That’s Schwarz.” They saw how the mercenaries took cover behind a hill close to Red Dragon's position. “Did they just fist bumped each other?” Eris laughed in disbelief.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and a violent shock that threw almost everyone out of their seats. The proximity alarm turned on, and the whole station switched to emergency power, which also caused the lights to change to a dark red. The camera connection to the planet’s surface was cut off. Gregor was the first back on his feet and helped her up, the rest of the crew was slowly recovering too but at least one person was unconscious.

The whole station was shaking, there was a loud screeching of metal being bent and warning signs kept popping up on the main screen. “What the hell was that?” Eris asked looking at the screen. “If those signs are correct we just lost a third of the station!” In the dark red illumination tiny, white lights appeared, dancing around like fireflies but everybody was too busy staring at their monitors, tipping in commands and trying to assess the situation. “Not just that, seems like at least another third is on fire,” added Gregor. “Block C down to F showing temperature readings above 1300º Celsius and its spreading, fast.” Gregor switched to the cameras on the outside of the hull, what they saw couldn’t be more irritating: A bright metal wall, colored messily as if a child had gone wild with crayons on paper, there were smileys, drawings of animals and vehicles even a unicorn. “What the fuck?” Eris asked. The dancing lights started to occasionally rotate around them. Radar guy jumped up “C Block? That’s where my wife is at!” he ran to the door. 

“No! Don’t open the…” Eris shouted after him, but before she could finish he opened it and a giant, white-yellow fireball got sucked into the room frying the poor guy and spreading within seconds in the entire command center. No! Agonizing pain enveloped her and made it almost impossible to think. Everything happened so fast, but for a moment time seemed to slow down. Radar guy fell on his back, she could see that his eyes were burned out and his face melt like wax. Some crewmembers stumbled around like living torches, others got glued into the seats with their melting skins stuck on the fabric. The last thing she saw of Gregor was how he sprinted away in direction of the fire alarm system. Eris felt how her long hair burned away, instinctively she threw herself on the ground, the impact made her gasp. She tried to inhale but it felt like drinking lava, her leather coat molt over her body in the flames that engulfed her, like cheese over pizza toast in the oven, and fused her with the ground. She could feel how her tongue started sizzling in the heat and how her lips got pulled back from her teeth due to water loss. When she looked at her hand she saw how her skin melted from her fingerbones in some spots, the last thing she recognized were the white lights swirling faster and faster around her. Huh? Then darkness.

Wheezing for air she came to her senses and sat up. The pain was gone, the skin on her hands, face, and the rest of her body were back to normal. A dream? She realized that her uniform had been changed into a pink pajama with cute animals and shapes. “I took the liberty to put it on you.” she heard Gregor’s voice and turned around, for the first time she got aware of their surroundings. It was a pinkish room entirely made from what seemed to be a fluffy carpet. “When I woke up we both were naked. Looks like we really burned alive,” he continued. “By the way we are not alone, something else is here too and I think that something is what brought us here.” As he finished another friendly voice spoke. “Welcome dear guests. Please proceed to the entrance hall.” A doorway opened up in the wall.

Eris looked around, still a little bit disoriented, and touched the wall. “It feels like petting a dog’s belly. Kinda fluffy.” she looked at him. “We died, right? Pretty sure I saw my fingerbones.” She remembered the sizzling feeling of her tongue and vomited. The friendly voice spoke again. “Please proceed to the entrance hall.” Gregor offered her his sleeve to wipe off the tiny rest of salvia on her lips, but she shoved away his hand and used her own. “I think we should go,” he said. “I’m sure we didn’t die but were close to it. This voice sounds friendly but I bet it’s just a setup.” Eris suddenly had to suppress a laugh, tall as he was, with his aquiline nose, cold grey eyes, bushy brows and buzz cut he looked out of place wearing the pajama. He frequently scared children by accident, back in the capital, just by walking too fast past them. “I think we should go,” she agreed. “Probably not a good idea to let the one who saved us wait.” He nodded.

Together they left the unusual room and found themselves in a tunnel made from that same fluffy material. The tunnel went in a straight line forward, with no curves nor side doors, just a faint light at the end of it. As they walked toward the light the walls started moving, hairs stretched and intertwined. The room disappeared and at the same pace they moved on the tunnel closed behind them, the closer they got to the light the brighter it shone. “Freaky,” Eris muttered, then they made it out of the tunnel and the environment made a drastic change and they found themselves in a gigantic hall. Everything was made of marble with exception of the black onyx columns that seemed to reach into an endless night sky, taking a last look back they saw how the weird hairs closed the tunnel and then changed into the same marble as all of the walls and the floor. She touched the spot. Freaky.

The view was just breathtaking, in the hall, hundreds of black onyx columns that looked like they should support a ceiling stretched into a hypnotizing night sky. Just looking at it made one want to stay forever and gaze up at it. The Milky Way was clearly visible and in-between the stars they saw scaly dragon-like creatures swirling around them, diving into the clouds of stars. “Must be artificial,” Gregor said, more to himself than to her. The columns were decorated with golden lines and unknown symbols, no not decorated, taking a closer look they saw that the golden decoration was inside the columns, slowly turning and waving around as if the columns were filled with black water.

Strolling between these columns they soon discovered a red carpet and decided to follow it. Far away in the distance, they could make out large stairs, each stair around 1 meter tall and on top of them a huge throne, behind that a solid metal gate at least ten meters high and five meters wide. People were standing in front of the stairs, everyone was also wearing the same pajamas, and the closer Eris and Gregor walked the more they could make out. A woman with blue hair, a face display and cyber arms was harshly talking to a man with slicked back hair and gesturing with her hands at another man that weirdly floated in the air. The floating guy was frozen in a pose that looked like he was about to hit somebody and slowly spinning around himself. What seemed to keep him in the air were transparent, weirdly vibrating little jelly beans attached all over his body. In addition to the trio, on the left side, was an old man only wearing the pajama halfway up like pants, sitting and leaning on one of the onyx columns with his eyes closed. Gregor leaned over to Eris's ear and whispered. “The guy with the slicked back hair and the smug face is David Manch, ex-mercenary, now runs the science department for the Red Dragons. The woman next to him should be Shady Nakagomi, a mercenary, and part of the Neon Rats. The guy floating around is Mike Crane, also Neon Rats. No clue about the old guy tough” As always Gregor had memorized most information from screen and provided it to Eris when needed, which was one of the reasons that made him such an excellent assistant. Now they were close enough to hear what was going on.

Manch raised his hand defensively. “Look toaster-face. I told you before,” he pointed at Mike. “This is not my doing. He jumped me and got stuck there all by himself.” Shady’s face display showed an annoyed (>.<) “As if!” she countered. “It’s like you did with Schwarz before.” Manch gave Mike a little poke that made the poor floating guy spin faster. “No, before I used my super cool discharger field. This is different,” he scratched his chin and mustered Mike with interest, “I wonder how much energy those beans consume. My tech only unloads short charges to block my opponent, this here continues to lock the subject in a defenseless state over a constant time. Truly fascinating.” His eyes were shining like a child’s that just had opened an awesome Christmas present, and then he saw Eris and Gregor. “Oh, welcome newcomers.”

Ever ones attention switched to Eris and Gregor. Shady crossed her arms. Mike also tried to get a look at them but it was hard because all he could move were his eyes, the spinning didn’t help too.

Manch’s eyes widened for a moment when he recognized the duo but he put on a cool expression immediately. “Wow, the Euro-American Alliance is here. Commander Eris Icehorn,” he bowed theatrically. “And her assistant Gregor…Gregor……ehm sorry what was it again?”

“Irms. Gregor Irms,” Gregor answered. “You surely did your homework” he offered Manch a handshake. Manch grinned “Ah, I see you’re a man of culture as well.” He shook Gregor's hand and glanced at Mike. “Not like this sneaking swine. Trying to assault me while I’m unarmed, don’t you have any manners?”

“Who is he?” asked Gregor with a nod in the old man’s direction. “No clue,” answered Manch. “He doesn’t speak. In fact, he didn’t move at all, he’s just sitting there.” A mad growl filled the air, sounding like an enraged lion and heavy barefooted steps were hearable behind one of the columns. Then a giant of a man came slowly trudged around, cracking with his fingers. “Boss you are back!” exclaimed Shady with delight. So this is Schwarz thought Eris. Wow, in real life even more impressive than the photos. Even though Schwarz was wearing the same pajama as everyone else the atmosphere around him felt like pure malice. Cracking his neck to both sides he said. “I thought I heard your weasel voice. Never dreamed of getting my revenge in a strange place like this, but I guess you have to take what you can get.” His voice was even deeper than usual. Gregor positioned himself between Schwarz and Eris.  

“No god, please no,” Manch rubbed his eyes annoyed and raised his hand. “Bernard Bro, I really can’t recommend fighting right here, listen to me.” But Schwarz didn’t and threw himself at him. As seen on Mike before the same vibrating jelly beans appeared from nowhere and formed a net around Schwarz’s body and stopped him from moving, he started to float as well. “You just never listen to me.” Said Manch and patted Schwarz’s forehead, suddenly the beans jerked and changed their color, Schwarz's hands moved up a few centimeters onto Manch’s throat but couldn’t reach him after all. Still, it did its job and Manch jumped away in fear. “You animal!” he shouted at Schwarz, who responded with a hateful grimace.

“Seems like you have everything under control again…not.” the cold voice of a woman filled the air and Manch’s already pale face lost the rest of its color, he slowly turned around. “Great…yes. I mean no…what are you doing here?” he stuttered paralyzed by fear. A beautiful woman approached the group, hip-long black hair dark as the night framed an Ivory white face, her brown eyes seemed to pierce him, and her small but invitingly soft-looking lips formed a cruel smile. Like all others, she wore the cute pajama, but still radiated an aura of superiority. In simple words, she looked like a master’s painting coming to life. She wasn’t alone, a tall woman with blonde hair accompanied her. 

The blond one suddenly slapped Manch in the face and spoke sharply. “Dog! Is that the way you address our leader?” she raised her hand again, but the beauty held her back with a hand sign. The black-haired woman spoke again with a sweet voice. “That’s enough. I’m sure he knows what he has to do. Am I right? After all, gambling debts are honor debts.”

“Please forgive my insolence. Yes.” Manch had his senses together again but still didn’t look well, he fell on his knees and she raised her foot under his chin. Then he started to lick her toes, first lightly but soon after he had her big toe in his mouth. He did the same with the other toes as well, one by one. Eww, Eris and the rest of the crowd were stunned by what happened right in front of them but nobody dared to move a muscle. Of course two of them still couldn’t even if they wanted to, Mike and Schwarz still spinning around a few centimeters over the ground captured in the weird stasis.

For a brief moment, Eris thought she heard a muffled laugh coming from Schwarz, but it could have been just her imagination. If anyone would take a picture of this scenery right now it probably would be the most fucked up picture of the year. Just who is she?

“That’s enough,” said the black-haired woman and pulled away her foot. “With that settled.” She looked at the people around her and yawned. “I’m tired. I wonder where could I sit down?” she asked with a playful voice but her eyes stared down harshly at the still kneeling Manch. He crawled in front of her on all fours, she sat down on his back with a fast move that made him grunt and crossed her legs. The blond one stepped in front of her and announced: “Behold peasants! The savior and unifier of the people, the Great leader of the Red Dragons, Empress Xian Daiyu! 

Wow. Eris was speechless and a wave of murmurs went through the group. For almost three years the real identity of the Red Dragon’s leader has been kept a secret, due to the continued assassinations of the predecessors. Only a small group within Red Dragon’s government knew it, since Manch clearly knew who she was it meant that he too was high enough up the intern hierarchy. Till today Daiyu had only shown herself to the public wearing a mask, a voice changer and wide unisex clothes, revealing nothing of her feminine body. Everybody referred to her as ‘The Great leader’, herself included. The ruthless and relentless Red Dragon leader is a woman, a surprising but welcome turn of events. Eris thought.

A bunch of fanfare sounded from the direction of the gate. After being absent for a while the friendly voice announced. “Dear guests, thank you for your cooperation and patience. It is time to meet your host.” Nobody spoke, but all of them had been abducted from various situations and even though most kept a neutral expression they all probably thought the same. Just who or what got me here?

The fanfare sounded again and in the silence that followed they could hear the sound of gears turning and giant bars moving on the other side of the gate. Eris's hands got sweaty, judging by the tall gate and the size of the throne their ‘host’ must be a giant. As the gate opened also the old man who ignored everything so far opened his eyes and stared, like the rest of them, into the darkness that the gate revealed. At first, nothing remarkable happened, only a faint, cold breeze wiped around their faces. Then small, flat, square-shaped objects came floating out of the gate, around the throne and organized themselves in front of everyone. They were trays, trays filled with food, all kinds of delicious food piled up! A roasted suckling pig with an apple in its mouth, resting on a bed of rosemary potatoes and other vegetables. Various salads in golden bowls offered a tasty side dish. Freshly cut sashimi, gold-brown tempura and small plates with wasabi were arranged around a wide flat plate with soy sauce. Marble bowls with sizzling bibimbap had a place next to a tray full of fried rice. 3 big pots came floating in position next to the pig, one was filled with a rich chicken mushroom ragout, the second contained a creamy pumpkin soup, and the last one was a clear vegetable soup. 

Everyone was speechless, this wasn’t how prisoners would have been treated, this was a banquet fit for a king. But it didn’t just stop at that, also numerous desserts joined the food presentation. Perfectly baked baklava with honey, cakes and bowls of pudding. At last cozy pillows and large dispensers filled with variations of cold and hot drinks rounded up a vast display in front of the throne, like offerings for a god.

Heavy footsteps slowly approached from within the darkness accompanied by deep breathing. The steps came slowly closer and closer and the ground started to vibrate with each step until the point that it seemed who or what was responsible for them should stand right between the throne and the food. But still, there was nobody in sight.

“Yoo,” a small light-blue jellyfish floated around the throne, one of its tentacles waving in greeting. “I got you, right? I got you pretty good didn’t I?” it said and started laughing, its voice sounding like a preschool student. From all the things they have seen so far it was one of the most bizarre, they have seen since arriving in this mysterious place. The jellyfish was partially translucent and looked like it was made from gummy candy, its head was roughly the size of a basketball, shaped like oversized onigiri with four, around 50cm long tentacles attached to it. Between those tentacles, it also had a dozen, or so, thinner once of equal length. It had a cartoonish-looking face without a nose, sharp teeth peeking out behind its lips and yellow eyes. If that wasn’t enough, in addition, it was wearing a tiny golden crown and a short, red cape.

Everyone was baffled and when it finish laughing it wiped away a tear from laughing with its tentacle and spoke again. “Ah, you humans, so adorable, you should see the look on your face.” It mimicked a surprised expression, poorly. It looked at Schwarz and Mike. “Just two got petrified? Not bad, I expected at least half of you tumbling around in the air. Well, anyway. You certainly must be tired and hungry, let’s eat first. Before I chew you off an ear, here is some information and if you have any questions raise your hand.” It clapped two times with its tentacles and the throne reshaped into a big stone tabled which stated:

Welcome dear guests, please accept the fact that your old life has ended. You are now part of an experiment to ensure the survival of the human race. During your stay 10 rules & rights come to effect as off now.

 

1. You all have equal rights and need to follow the rules.

 

2. Your daily needs of food, drinks and accommodation will be ensured.

 

3. You will have access to sanitary equipment at all times.

 

4. Your health will be ensured at all times.

 

5. Every 3 days we will hold a competition. The kind of competition will be announced randomly. Being present at the announcement is mandatory, participating is your own choice. Points will be rewarded if you participate.

 

6. One may leave if he/she accumulated 1.000.000 points.

 

7. One may leave if he/she finds the secret exit.

 

8. Ill-intended injuring and/or killing other guests is prohibited and the attempt will result in being petrified until the perpetrator calms down, or in extreme situations until the host decides otherwise. The rule might be put on hold if it’s required for the competition.

 

9. You can’t die.

 

10. You can’t get pregnant.

 

“Oh common, don’t just stand there. Come and eat.” The Jellyfish got comfortable on the biggest pillow available, overlooking everything. Its head wiggled, the eyes glowed yellow for a moment and Mike and Schwarz were released out of their weird prison, Mike bowed slightly and said. “Thank you.” Only Schwarz took the chance to roar like a maniac. “Maaaaaaaanch.” One second later he froze again. The jellyfish giggled. “Oi, big boy. You still didn’t learn your lesson? Fine with me, just don’t disturb the adults here,” its head wiggled and the eyes lit up yellow again for a moment, under Schwarz the weird pink hairs grew out of the floor and created a small stool. Schwarz got forced into a sitting position, his legs tightly together, one hand on his lap the other hand’s thumb got forced into his mouth. Sitting on the chair, forced to suck on his thumb he floated close to one of the columns, his back turned to them. “Sulk and think about your behavior, you big baby.” It said. Perplexed everybody picked a pillow to sit on, but nobody started to eat. “Guys, it’s not poisoned. Trust me, if I wanted to kill you I could do so at any given time.”

Mike shrugged and was the first to start eating, soon after everybody ate and for a while, all that could be heard was the munching and slurping of eight people. After a couple of minutes, Mike raised his hand. “Excuse me, Mr. Octopus sir? I got a question about points 4 and 8. Well, I got my nose broken right after we arrived and we all saw what happened to him,” He nodded in Manch's direction. “Those ‘rules & rights’ don’t seem to work to me. Can we count on what’s written there?” The Jellyfish looked angry and spoke. “Sir? Did you just assume my gender? You should be ashamed of yourself. Did you know that way back in 2026 some people had been crucified for doing so?“ Mike was baffled. “No, I mean. Sorry, that wasn’t my intention.” The jellyfish started laughing “I’m just messing with you bro, relax. First of all, I’m not an octopus, I’m a Jellyfish, you all can call me Qualli. As for your question,” Qualli suddenly looked a little bit embarrassed. “That’s why I added ‘come to effect as off now' to the tabled. I didn’t expect hostile behavior in the arrival zone, I’m sorry you suffered but I fixed your nose right away, didn’t I? And the thing with him,” his head also wiggled into Manchs direction. “According to my psychological scans, she didn’t have any ill intention when she hit him.”

“What? No ill intention? That was an A-grade bitch-slap he got straight to the face. No way there was no ill intent.” said Mike. The blond woman took a sip from her glass and answered instead of Qualli. “Oh common pretty boy, if you squash a mosquito or take out the trash, do you feel anything? I smacked this loser to remind him of his manners in front of the great leader, I don’t have any bad feelings toward him. Actually no feelings at all, he’s just a tool.” Qualli nodded in his wiggly fashion. “Thank you for explaining this instead of me. I just have to remind you that from now on you are all on an equal level. There are no more leaders or bosses, from now on you are just a couple of humans.“

“Fuck you, octopus! That is not for you to decide, my loyalty belongs to Xian Daiyu!” she hissed at him. Qualli raised his tentacles in a soothing gesture. “Alright, fine. Do whatever you want, just saying. Any other questions?” Manch raised his hand “Mr. Qualli sir. When my equipment dissolved also my glasses disappeared, I can’t see well without them so I was wondering if I could have them back.” 

“Just Qualli is fine, no 'Mr.' or 'sir' needed. And yes, I’m sorry, I guess the system didn’t recognize them as necessary. Like, for example, her face display and arms.” He pointed at Shady with one of his tentacles. “Of course, you can have them back.” Out of the ground in front of Manchs pillow grew a thread of pink hair forming the pair of glasses he had worn before. “Thank you very much.” Manch put them on and a muffled scream of disapproval came from Schwarz. Shady also looked like she was about to say something but Manch winked at her and put a finger in front of his lips. Usually, she wouldn’t cooperate with an enemy but for now, she decided to let it slip. Eris who had observed everything quietly decided to confront him later about it.

“Alright,” Qualli looked satisfied. “Since we slowly get more talk-active, how about we officially introduce each other? Speaker picks the next person. Please say your name, something you like and something you don’t like. Feel free to add something if you want, I’ll go first. Hello, my name is Qualli, no surname. I’m your host and I like board games, but I don’t like to eat liver. Next is the girl with the face display.” He nodded at her. Shady stood up and spoke in her monotone voice. “My name is Shady Nakagomi, I’m into fitness and novels. I don’t like modern music.”

Before she could pick another person the blond woman cut in. “What kind of support group therapy bullshit is this? My name is blablabla, I like buhuhu but I don’t like meehh. I don’t care what kind of trash you are.”

“Is that so?” said Shady annoyed. “Then please, by all means, go next.” The blonde grinned grimly at her. “Anastasia Sokolova, right hand to the great leader, 73 confirmed kills in the last year. What I like or not is none of your fucking business, stay out of my way or get crushed.”

“Stay out of my way or get crushed.” Manch mimicked her with a squeaking voice from across the pillow circle. “Blyat, look at me I’m Anastasia, stone cold biatch, I killed almost a hundred people just in one year. I’m so cool and in my free time a lick Daiyu’s boots just for fun, the dirtier the better. Will you ever shut up cunt?” Manch took a big sip from his glass and toasted her. Anastasia and Daiyu sat there with open mouths, but Anastasia soon came back to her senses. “What did you just say?” She jumped up and sprinted in his direction, but before she could even do three steps she got petrified in the air. 

Mike made a grunting noise, he just had started drinking and now his beverage shot out of his nose while he was laughing. Manch also started to laugh, the laughter was so contagious that after a while the whole group joined in, even Qualli. Well, except for the both petrified and the old man. Because of the laughter, the atmosphere of this unusual meeting lightened up a lot. 

Qualli started to float again. “Okay, how about we go back to self-introductions? There is still something else I want to show you. How about the most silent one so far, old man it’s your turn.” But the old man just kept chewing and stared back at him. Qualli sighed “Look dude, you saw what I’m capable of, now you are eating the food provided by me. Isn’t it kind of rude for you nomads to eat a stranger’s food without at least introducing yourself? Don’t make me force you.” The old man nodded, picked some food scraps from between his teeth, and finally spoke. “I can’t tell you my real name. But outsiders like you can call me Pathfinder.” Qualli nodded “Thank you, Pathfinder,” he said and looked at the others “You know what? That takes more time than I anticipated. From now on I’ll just point at you, say your name and tell us who you are, that’s all. I still want to show you something else.” One by one he pointed at the rest of them.

 

“Eris Icehorn, Euro-American Alliance, Commander of the Himmel’s Faust II.”

 

“Gregor Irms, Commander Icehorn’s personal assistant.”

 

“Mike Crane, mercenary.”

 

“David Manch, scientist.”

 

“Daiyu Xian, you know who I am.”

 

Qualli applauded. “See? That wasn’t so hard after all. The giant guy in the back is Bernhard Schwarz by the way, but I’m sure most of you knew that already. And Eris, sweetheart, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the Himmel’s Faust II is no more. I kind of jumped right into your space station upon arrival, sorry. But the good news is I managed to get most people save back on the planet.” He clapped with his tentacles twice and the big tablet changed to a spinning wheel with question marks in all sections. “With that said, it’s time to decide the first competition, wuhuuuu!” Qualli's eyes lit up for a moment and Schwarz and Anastasia floated into a position where also they could see what was going on. Qualli started to speak with a theatrical voice. “Guests behold the wheel of challenges. The system analyzed centuries of human competition and put together the most challenging contests your planet had to offer, in past and modern days. Only the bravest, strongest and smartest amongst you may taste victory! The player with the most wins at the end of our experiment will be the next and only leader of the entire human race! With my support and technology at his or her free disposal!” he finished his little speech with a small bow.

 A murmur went through the group, with no further waiting Qualli floated to the wheel and gave it a hard spin. It spun around for almost a minute before it came to a hold and accompanied with fanfare the first competition was revealed in big golden letters:

 

CAKE-BAKE-OFF

 

An awkward silence followed the reveal and Qualli looked into speechless faces. Then Pathfinder started laughing with tears in his eyes. Qualli smiled too and said. ”I think we will have a lot of fun together.”