Virtual Reality Start - Stories From The CM Universe, #1

The future is not a shiny beacon of hope and good times.  The predictions of a glorious golden age with the development of star drives and a massive exodus of humanity to the stars and a frontier atmosphere were all false. Humanity was rocked by a brutal alien invasion that left a billion dead and many traumatized.  The shock was made worse by the understanding that true intergalactic war as pictured in any sort of entertainment was not supposed to be possible.  But it had happened.
Now two generations later humanity is starting to reach for the stars again and is developing all those life changing technologies. Ron and his friends loved gaming.  The VR world was something they knew well and when the first International Virtual Reality Competition was announced they desperately wanted to enter. Through a fluke and some good luck, they are not only enrolled but they have their VR room reserved at the local gaming centre.  Now they just need to get ready for the best gaming of their lives!At least that was what they thought.
They didn't know that a high-level AI that had been programmed to find a solution on how to defend our solar system from another alien invasion was on the loose. All Ron and his friends want to do is enter the competition and do well. They don't realize that the entire system is about to be hijacked and a rogue AI has its own agenda. What can go wrong in a thirty and sixty-minute gaming session in a VR world?