By David C. Daoust
It’s not just about work in the Trade Consortium. It’s about creating work; creating jobs. If you can hire someone to do your job, you should hire that person to do that job. If you can hire a person, to hire people, you should hire that person to hire people. If you can hire a person to run the whole business, you should hire that person to run that business. Even If you got nothing to do, but play at sports all day, long as you’re paying someone to do those jobs, you should play that sport all day. If you can afford to hire someone, to play that sport- you should hire that person, to play that sport.
‘Brute Ball’ was one of the largest professional sport leagues in the Onion. Each team was Corporate sponsored, owned by some of the richest people in the Onion. People made a lot of money playing Brute Ball. Not only the players; revenue from stadiums, profit from merchandise and ads from broadcasted games—on top of all that money, it created jobs. From Referees and Coaches, to Concessions and ticket takers, Brute Ball kept the money flowing, and the Coin spilling to the people.
Olivia Hammer made a lot of money playing for the Redhooks, never missed a wink of sleep for spending all her waking hours playing a game.
Olivia found herself once again standing over the ring, the seventy-two emblazoned on the back of her uniform. She felt the butterflies in her stomach, the hint of fear as it tried to get to her, as it did every time she was about to plunge down into the energy field that would propel her through the zero gravity ring the game was played within.
She stood on the precipice; teammates suddenly skidded in next to her, all lined up, waiting for the starting horn to blare. The fear was there. She knew how to deal with it. She always knew how to deal with it. To fear the fear itself, more than whatever her mind told her may be, was to break free of the fear. To bulk to fear, was to create a delusion; what might be or could be, without ever knowing what was. Some people preferred the delusion. Olivia preferred reality- To go to the precipice, and then plunge in. To know what was down there, to know the truth, the reality. Leave the delusions to the fearful.
The starting horn blared, and she followed her teammates over the precipice, one by one they dropped into the energy charged field, their sparking wake was like lightening as it shot around their legs and feet, it powered their skates, allowed them to soar through the energy field at incredible speeds.
The crowd cheered upon their appearance.
The whole team was in perfect formation, one slightly to the side of the next and a few feet behind, as they fully circled the ring one time, passing the opposing team, the ‘Wardogs’, as they performed the same action from the opposite direction. On the second pass, each player would peel away as they reached their starting position. All but the last three, that continued on and on, up the side of the ring, to climb the wall, until they hung upside down as they charged over the great energy dome that capped the lower ring.
Olivia was among the three charging above. No sooner had her world flipped upside down- then the opposing team’s trio came charging directly at them.
The energy field of the ring charged more than the player’s skates; it charged their boosters that allowed them to fly free from the field, into ‘zero space’, for a brief duration.
When the Ball, suddenly jettisoned up out of the center of the ring below, Olivia used her booster to intercept it. If she timed it wrong, and the booster lost power before she was able get her skates back in contact with the field, she could find herself floating uselessly in the air. She’d been playing Brute Ball a long time though, so when the ball stuck firmly in the palm of her hand, and her two teammates clashed with the opposing teams’ guards, it was a simple thing to charge her arm shield and crack the other team’s retriever clear into zero space, where she floated foolishly away as Olivia returned to the energy field.
Olivia rejoined one of her teammates as they screeched across the upper dome, she spotted the other guard- she had not been so lucky; She’d been bashed clear out into zero space, and lost power before she could get her skates charging again.
Olivia grimaced as she screeched into a U-turn, and launched the ball to her team mate. The ball itself carried an extra charge, so when the guard caught it, she was able to boost herself back into the field, thus could return to the game.
Olivia did not like giving up control of the ball so early, but leaving her teammate on top of the dome could be problematic, as the majority of the game was played below, in the ring. A ring they just dipped back down into, as the rest of the opposing team appeared charging directly at them. Olivia took her place as guard, her shield at the ready as they charged into the fray.
As the ball carrier reached the ring, a small section of the energy field turned yellow where she first entered the lower ring. This was a marker. On the first pass, after traveling all the way around the ring, it would turn green. On the second pass, it would become a wall of energy. Upon passing through the wall after the third, a goal would be made. The number of points awarded, was determined by how many players still had their skates charging through the field.
The name of the game was keeping all your players connected to the field on that third pass, which meant every time someone got launched into zero space, you needed to pass them the ball, thus allowing them enough of a charge to return to the field. The marker would not vanish, until the enemy team got control of the ball. At which point, a new marker would appear, resetting the goal line for their attempt.
It really was not hard to launch people from the field in zero gravity, as Olivia just proved when she drove her shield low under an opponent, and launched her free. The trick was to launch them far enough, that they did not have enough charge to return.
More times than not, the trick was to plow into someone already launched from the field, either double teaming them- knocking someone away that was just knocked clear, as her partner just did as she propelled herself high enough to give the opponent that extra push, Or waiting until they risked a jump of their own, like just happened to the same partner after she launched the opponent into zero space, just to find herself launched by a second opponent.
Brute Ball was brutal.
Olivia screeched high up on the ring, following the ball carrier, as she attempted to pass the ball to the now floating guard. Just to be intercepted by the opposing team. The yellow marker appeared as the Wardog returned to the field, the first marker vanished- Olivia was disheartened, though was ready as the new ball carrier, rather than circling the ring, screeched straight up the wall, to return to the dome; All in attempt to regain the lost teammates floating above.
Olivia could tell the Wardog ball carrier was about to do something reckless, instinctively, Olivia launched herself wildly, far into zero space, way further than most would attempt, just as the opponent hurled the ball.
Onlookers compared her to a hawk, and the replay, that would endlessly play over the years to come, would show all the Onion the truth of her fearlessness.
The opponent hurled it way too early, Olivia had just enough charge to propel herself in front of the pass, her charge cut out, she reached, felt her heart sink as she thought she mistimed it.
The ball just grazed her finger tips—but it was just enough contact to gain a charge!
She propelled herself into the ball, successfully intercepted it, and managed to flip the other way to make it back to the energy field before she lost power again.
The crowd was on their feet, as announcers described the risky move excitedly.
Olivia charged back into the ring, resetting the marker that would inevitably lead to goal after goal, as the Redhooks squashed the Wardogs in a game that made Olivia ‘Wild Hawk’ Hammer, a Brute Ball Legend.
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