Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Weekly Contests! It was seven in the morning when the first rays of sunshine cut through the tiny slats of the bedroom blinds of my apartment and shined across my tightly closed eyes, waking me almost immediately from my deep slumber. The pounding in my head followed almost immediately thereafter, a cruel reminder to the hard night of partying I had done the night before. I winced in pain at the throbbing in my skull and rolled over in bed, hoping desperately that sleep would overtake me once again. I am a member of the 101st Special Forces Legion of the planet Pan and my platoon had just returned home the previous night for some much needed shore leave. We had been dispatched to the remote Utonian System on the far side of the galaxy where a mysterious alien race from the planet of Klaatara had suddenly invaded the planet Clarion, a world rich in minerals that are important for long-distance space travel. We knew little about the Klaatarans, but we quickly learned that they were vicious fighters that decimated a good chunk of the military forces sent to wipe them out. We lost three battle cruisers, the Demetrius, the Atlas, and the Endeavor, before fighters from the famed Jupiter Squadron destroyed the Klaataran mother ship in orbit above Clarion. Ground forces on the planet’s surface suffered numerous casualties as well, including the entire 102nd Special Forces Legion, also known as Jaguar Squadron, from the planet Ehrconia. Losses would have been even greater if it hadn’t been for Earth’s covert Diamond Squadron sneaking up on the makeshift Klaataran base and hitting it with a neutron bomb. The remaining Klaataran foot soldiers immediately fled back to the few flagships that hadn’t been destroyed and the aliens rushed back to their home planet. My platoon had its share of casualties, but not nearly as many as some of the others. Upon returning home, my platoon met at a local dive bar to celebrate our victory and toast the lives of our fallen comrades: Duke Hauser, Angel Martinez, Dante “Cosmo” Harrison, Erich Krieger, Lorenzo “Bullseye” Carmichael, Mike “Crush” Beaupre, and Danny “Swoop” Killian. We drank to their lives, their heroics, their undying loyalty to the people of Pan, and to the long-lasting friendships we had with them. We drank for hours until each one of us was nothing but a staggering mess of slurred words and uncontrollable laughter. After the bar closed for the night and we all said our goodbyes, I found myself staggering home, the sidewalk below me swirling as I held onto the buildings for dear life. A few blocks from my apartment, I passed by a raving bum who held a bottle of whiskey in his hand. “The end is nigh” the drunken man shouted as he took a large gulp from the bottle, whiskey running down the sides of his mouth and onto his dirty shirt. “Death will surround us all tomorrow. We cannot escape it! The destruction of our planet is inevitable! Don’t say I didn’t warn you all!” Despite my drunken state, I thought the man was full of shit and brushed past him as he continued to spout what I believed was gibberish. Suddenly, he grabbed me by the arm, spun me around, and shoved his grimy face just inches from mine. The smell of whiskey on his breath was heavy and invaded my nostrils within seconds. “Did you hear me, son” the drunken man replied in a quiet, yet haunting voice. “The end is nigh. Death will surround us tomorrow. Have you made your peace with God?” I just stared at the man with a disgusted look on my face as I yanked my arm free of his beastly grasp. Without answering him, I continued to stagger down the sidewalk to my apartment. “You best make peace with God or you will find yourself staring into the face of the Devil himself” the man shouted as I continued to walk away from him. Moments later, I returned to my apartment and dropped into bed, my head swirling from the copious amounts of alcohol consumed just hours before. As I slipped into the oblivion of sleep, the drunken man’s haunting words echoed throughout my head. “The end is nigh…Death will surround us all tomorrow…You best make peace with God or you will find yourself staring into the face of the Devil himself…”
As the morning sun climbed higher and higher in the sky and more light flooded through the slits in my blinds, I found the warm sunlight comforting despite my throbbing headache. The warmth from the sun began to make me feel very drowsy and I felt myself beginning to slip back into unconsciousness. A sudden explosion outside my apartment jolted me awake, my eyes only open halfway from sleepiness. For a moment I thought I had only dreamt it when a second explosion shook the walls of my apartment. Now fully awake, I threw back the covers and quickly jumped out of bed. As I ran for the window, a third explosion rang out even closer than before, the concussive blast making me stumble as the apartment shook violently. I threw open the blinds and had to shield myself from the bright sunlight now flooding the bedroom. As my eyes adjusted to the light, a world of horrors lay right before me. Smoke poured from buildings all across the city, screams could be heard in the streets, warning sirens were going off, and the Citadel, the city’s main government building, was on fire. The most unusual sight was the whirring black dots zipping all over the city, cutting between buildings and diving down low toward the streets. It wasn’t until I saw an explosion emanate from the side of one skyscraper that I realized the whirring black dots were spaceships. I watched in horror as the ships continued firing on buildings throughout the city and on the streets below. I rubbed my eyes roughly and hoped that what I was witnessing was just part of some horrible dream. On a nearby rooftop, I stared on as a spaceship touched down, a gangplank opening from the bottom as familiar looking insectoid-like creatures ran forth with laser rifles in their hands. At this point, I realized what was happening and that it was no dream: Pan was being invaded by the Klaatarans. They must have somehow followed our military forces back home and were now exacting revenge for our peace-keeping mission on Clarion. I turned from the window and ran across the room to the uniform I had thrown drunkenly on the floor from the night before. As I pulled my pants on, the drunken man’s words echoed through my mind once again: “The end is nigh…Death will surround us all tomorrow.” I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end as these words continued to race through my mind. Were these drunken ramblings coincidence or prophecy? How could he know something like this would happen or was he just talking out of his ass? But how could he have been talking out of his ass if we were being invaded by the Klaatarans? My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a woman’s loud shriek in the hallway of my apartment building. As sweat began to pour down my forehead, I grabbed my laser pistol off the top of my dresser and ran for my apartment door. I heard another painful scream from somewhere further down the hall and realized that the Klaatarans had probably made their way into the building. Taking a deep breath, I slowly turned the doorknob to my apartment and ventured cautiously out into the hall.
I glanced up and down the hallway and saw nothing but a woman lying facedown on the floor, a large black laser blast on her back and smoke slowly rising from the fatal wound. Another shriek and a laser blast snapped me to attention as I moved down the corridor toward the corner, unsure of what I would see once I entered the next hall. As I turned the corner, thick, acrid smoke hung in the air as I heard insect-like chatter around the next corner. I aimed my laser pistol down the hall and slowly crept forward, ready to blast any Klaataran I saw. Suddenly, I heard another laser blast and saw a man slam backward into the wall just ahead of me. His lifeless body slumped to the floor as smoke from a laser wound poured from his chest. I dropped back into the doorway of an open apartment, apparently abandoned by the owner, as two Klaatarans popped into view. They stared down at the man and chattered to one another for a few seconds before shooting him once again. I could feel my heart racing and my breath growing heavier as they began to make their way down the hall toward me. I wasn’t ready for a fight like this, not this early in the morning and especially with the hangover I was experiencing. Suddenly, one of them kicked open an apartment door and fired several laser blasts inside as a pained, bloodcurdling scream rolled down the hallway. As the two aliens stared at their latest kill, I decided to spring into action. I jumped from the doorway and fired my laser at the two Klaatarans. I struck one of them right in the side of the head, dropping it to the floor dead as the other one took a defensive stance and fired back at me. I ducked back into the doorway and returned fire, missing the insectoid by just a few feet as it charged toward me firing and chattering angrily in some unintelligible language. I crouched down to avoid the volley of laser fire and put the alien in my sights as I pulled the trigger on my pistol. I hit the Klaataran square in the chest and it dropped to the floor with a loud thud. I immediately moved back out into the hallway and cautiously made my way toward the Klaataran to make sure it was dead. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t dead but only wounded. The insectoid lay on the floor on its back writhing in pain as it attempted to reach for its laser rifle, which was just out of reach of its ghastly claws. As I approached the alien, I kicked the rifle away and stared down at my adversary. It continued to writhe in pain and stared up at me with a malicious and murderous look in its eyes. The Klaataran chittered and chattered quickly and angrily at me, obviously cursing me in its primitive language. I slowly leveled my pistol at its chest as it made a feeble attempt to claw at me in its weakened state. “Oh yeah” I replied in a mocking tone toward the wounded alien as if I could understand what it was saying. “Well fuck you too!” I quickly squeezed the trigger on my laser pistol and fired a bolt of energy into the beastly creature lying prone on the floor. The Klaataran chattered in pain as its chest heaved up into the air in its death throe and then dropped back down to the floor lifelessly. Taking one last look at its body, I picked up its laser rifle, holstered my pistol, and made my way for the stairwell.
As I stepped out the front door of the apartment building and onto the street, I was greeted by a scene of chaos. People were running everywhere, attempting to escape the alien menace that had invaded the planet. Corpses, both human and Klaataran, littered the streets, destroyed military vehicles were everywhere, emergency sirens blared all throughout the city, buildings burned and smoldered in the early morning sun, and Klaataran spaceships zipped across the skyline. The big screen TV monitor on the Apollo Building across from my apartment building flickered to life and the prerecorded doomsday message began to echo down the street. “This is an emergency” the female voice boomed. “Everyone is urged to evacuate the planet. The military has been overthrown and is unable to defend the populace. Please head to the nearest evacuation station in an orderly manner. Again, this is an emergency.” I swallowed nervously as the message began to repeat itself. Of all the prerecorded doomsday messages, this was not the one I wanted to hear right now. If the military had been defeated, that meant my entire platoon was likely dead. As the faces of my fallen comrades began to flash through my head, a hand suddenly grabbed a hold of my ankle. I snapped to attention and quickly aimed the Klaataran rifle down at whatever had clamped down on my ankle. I was surprised to find that it was the drunken old man from the night before and slung the rifle back over my shoulder. Blood trickled from his mouth as he held a hand over a gaping laser blast in his chest. Blood oozed between his gnarled fingers as he gasped for breath, and after a few moments, he smiled weakly and gazed up at me with glassy eyes. “I told you the end was nigh” he wheezed as he coughed violently. “Did you make peace with God or did the Devil stare you in the eye?” “I stared into the eyes of the Devil” I replied as I stared down at the mortally wounded man. “And I told him it was HIS day to die.” The drunken man laughed painfully at my words before rolling his head to one side and loosening his grip on my ankle. At that moment, he breathed his last breath and closed his eyes for the last time. I pulled the laser rifle from my shoulder and began to walk down the middle of the street as I gazed at the destruction before me. A sudden determination and courageousness began to spread throughout my body as I blasted two Klaatarans that emerged from a nearby alley. With Pan’s military all but defeated, I knew I was the last hope to save the planet from utter destruction. I was only one man and all by myself, but I certainly wouldn’t go down to the Klaatarans without a fight. My name is Max Maverick and I am the Isolated Warrior. Here’s what you all need to know to help me defeat the alien threat:
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Play until Game Over
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One loop only. If you loop the game, take a picture when the game loops back to the beginning. If anyone is suspected of playing beyond the first loop, their score will be disqualified.
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To get your score, choose the continue option. Your score will be in the High Score spot. You are not allowed to play any of the game after you continue. You must stop playing and take your picture.
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Highest score wins
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Participation: 101,000
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GENRE: Shooter/Shoot ‘Em Up
The contest ends Sunday, 8/7/16 at 11 PM NA time. Your user name MUST be written or typed on a piece of paper and be in the picture for your score to be valid. The entire TV screen, or computer monitor if you are playing on an emulator, MUST be in the picture for the score to be valid. No partial screenshots will be considered or accepted. No screenshots by hitting "print screen" on a computer will be allowed. You must take a picture of your computer monitor. There may be instances where this will be acceptable, but it will be at the discretion of myself and the contest organizers. Also, the use of turbo controllers is forbidden, as well as any cheat codes, Game Genies, slow motion functions, or save states if playing on an emulator. Also, we will only be using NTSC systems for the contests. The use of PAL systems will NOT be allowed. Good luck everyone and have fun
