It felt like the blink of an eye and Rye was in front of the dropship after being fitted with a jump pack and comm device. She looked at the screen of the device and it displayed her squad for this game: three portraits and their names. There was her portrait and the name "Oracle". There was also a picture of "Lifeline", a lively woman flashing the peace symbol with a headband and red hair done up in two buns and "Mirage", a cocky looking, albeit roguishly handsome, young man wearing a bright colored suit with glowing discs. Rye spotted these two chatting closer to the back of the dropship and approached the pair.
"You're the fresh meat, huh? Better keep up!" Mirage said, hands on his hips. Lifeline gave him a small shove with her knuckles.
"You just stay wit us now and we got cha' back," Lifeline said. "It's nice to meet cha' Oracle, the name's Ajay."
"Likewise," Rye said and shook her hand.
"You two just focus on staying with me, since I'm going to carry us to the top," Mirage interjected. He beamed with overconfidence and arrogance. From the broadcasts Rye watched, he could certainly hold his own and had a few tricks up his sleeves.
"Just ignore him," Lifeline said with a dismissive wave.
In the hangar, a buzzer went off and the Legends began boarding the dropship. Mirage ran up ahead of Rye and Lifeline and secured a set of three seats that were third in line to drop. He plopped in the middle of the three seats and Lifeline shook her head.
"If ya really wanted to be jumpmaster so badly you coulda just asked," she said and sat to his right. Rye took the seat to Mirage's left. It was only a couple more minutes before the ship was fully loaded. It rocketed vertically upwards with a jolt and then once it reached altitude, hurtled towards King's Canyon. Rye braced the sides of her seat for the entire duration until the ship slowed as it started to soar over the island. She darted her eyes around the ship. It looked like Bloodhound and Pathfinder were seated further back, each on separate teams. She watched as the first team leaped out and then the second team a few moments later.
Mirage and Lifeline stood up synchronously and Rye was just behind them. Mirage took a second to look around the vast landscape below and then dove out of the ship, activating all three jump packs simultaneously. They descended straight down in a uniform triangle formation, careening towards an enormous skull and fossilized spine that surrounded a cluster of hodgepodge metal buildings. The wind whipped past her face and her braid of hair rippled behind her. She saw the brightly colored streaks of the other teams line the skies.
The moment their feet hit the ground, Lifeline and Mirage took off sprinting into separate red metal doors. Rye followed suit, dashing into a different building. She snatched up a pistol and ammunition and kept going. She didn't find another gun, but she scooped up most of the essentials that she recognized from the broadcast and from the training grounds.
"Taking fire!" Lifeline shouted over comms.
"On my way!" said Mirage. Rye saw her teammates' markers blinking on her comm device and she bolted that direction. Lifeline and Mirage were taking cover behind large metal crates, pings of bullets rattled against them. Rye poked her head around the corner of a building and caught a glimpse of a figure holding a sniper rifle on a rooftop, just enough of a glimpse to make a prediction.
"The other two are wrapping around behind you both," Rye said. She watched as Mirage and Lifeline turned around and trained their sights the other direction. They popped off shots and she heard two thumps to the ground. Rye looked back up to the rooftop and the figure was gone. She seized the opportunity to quickly catch up to her team. Mirage and Lifeline were digging though the pockets of two bodies that Rye recognized as Wraith and Gibraltar.
