NIC [DEAD] SHANTI [DEAD] PERRI [DEAD] SCARLET: 47 | >MALACHITE: 21

Darkness again. The void between death and respawning. “Unreal,” Nic muttered to himself, knowing that no one else on Team Scarlet could hear him. “We just took the biggest lead we’ve ever had in Wargame... and we’re about to lose it all. All because of me. Again.”

It’s not you or them, said a voice in his head. It was the old man, Joe, the repairman from Ducenti. The one who had once been a misguided Squad Leader just like him... until he turned his squad’s failure into success. It’s not you or them. It’s how you lead them.

It’s how I lead them, Nic thought. I’ve been doing a better job. I just can’t let it slip now. It can’t be too late to fix this.

A leader has to take a double portion of blame when his team loses, Joe had told him, and a half portion of credit when they win.

“I’m back in,” said Nic when he respawned. “I got too jumpy and I made a bad call. I’m sorry. We can still win this.”

“Famous last words before we inevitably lose?” Maqsud sighed. Nic’s heart sank a moment before Max spoke up again. “I’m sorry. That was too cynical of me. We can still win this. How many are in the Medusa?”

“Back,” said Perri.

“[I’m back,]” said Shanti.

“I don’t know how many are in the tank,” Nic contextualized his answer to keep the others in the loop. “At least one—somebody dropped a Frag on us. Whoever is closest, we need to move on that Medusa ASAP and take it back before it’s operational. The hatch won’t lock as long as it’s still affected by the EMP, so that means we can still pull it open even if the enemies are inside. The squad that controls that tank is going to win this round!”

“Looks like it’s still up for grabs,” Maqsud observed. “Either that, or they haven’t gotten it running again. Either way, that’s good news for us, yes?”

“Everybody drop waypoints,” said Nic. “Let’s see who’s closest!” Team Scarlet did as they were ordered and Jarek’s coordinates won.

“I’ll get there,” he told the group. “Just wish me luck so I can smoke ‘em out.”

The comms were quiet as everyone sprinted from disparate points on the map toward the objective. It felt anticlimactic and yet terribly tense at the same time; Nic could feel a knot forming between his shoulder blades from the stress. Nearly a minute later, Jarek piped up again.

“Uh, the gun is swingin’,” he muttered nervously. “That’s not normal, right?”

“Please tell me I misheard you,” Perri replied. “That means they have it running again!”

Nic stifled a curse. “It’s okay. Don’t spiral. We just have to stop them from picking up the rest of their squadmates somehow.”

Perri exhaled shakily in the comms. “How many are in there, Jarek? Can you tell?”

“I just saw two drop in,” said Jarek. “Didn’t catch their names. I count at least three in there, including the one sweepin’ the cannon around. They are mobile. Repeat, Medusa’s mobile!”

“Damn it,” Nic replied, and he didn’t think fast enough to mute himself. A pause. “Jarek, get out of there immediately!”

JAREK [DEAD] SCARLET: 47 | >MALACHITE: 22

“Nic, what do we do?” Perri asked fearfully. “They have the tank now! What can we possibly do?”

“I...” Nic’s pulse was pounding now; he could feel it in his head, under his ribcage, and his mouth was dry. “There could be other Malachite players not in the tank yet. I’ll think of something. Just hold on.”

Physically, he was in the Simnasium with the rest of his squad, running in place in his SimSuit. Virtually, he climbed an astrosteel tower to get a better view of the battlefield on this alien planet at the edge of human galactic territory. Mentally, he was somewhere else.

He was in PPI’s gym playing King of the Hill in Year 0 PE. It was a Friday. His mouth was full of blood and his chin hurt. A lot. But not as much as what would come next.

“So is that why you’re leaving, because I didn’t win?”

“I know you’ll do great wherever you go. You’re a born winner.”

I don’t think so, Mom. I don’t think I am.

“Khris is getting in the Medusa now,” said Maqsud in the team chat. “I’ll do what I can, but I think the tank sees me! Engaging Khris now!” Quiet gunfire tap-tap-tapping in the scarce atmosphere.

MAQSUD [DEAD] SCARLET: 47 | >MALACHITE: 23

This is really how it ends. Trounced 2-0 in what was supposed to be our comeback. And we were so close! I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I don’t know what any of us will do.

The gym, the blood, the scar, the goodbye, they all came rushing back to him—but even more than the memories, the feeling found him again, too. It was a childlike helplessness, like falling into space without a suit on. He had the instinct to break down completely.

His whole life flashed before his eyes, not just his past but his future, too. A future of hard labor without real pay. It wasn’t the work that scared him. He was young, fit—he could handle that for decades without a real problem. And Wargame wasn’t exactly easy on the body, either.

It was the hopelessness of it all. The lack of any vertical or even horizontal mobility. Trapped in the same dead-end job on the same dead-end colony, one small cog in the machine that turned sterile rocks of ice and dust into cozy worlds for people to populate. Such was the fate for anyone raised in a place like Paradigm Preparatory Institute; growing up, Nic was always told to study hard, train his mind, and never neglect his physical education either.

He didn’t know it at the time, but it was all in preparation for the Final Exam—and he’d passed that, he’d won, and now here he was about to see it all slip through his fingers for the final time. I’m sorry, Team Scarlet. I’ll carry a triple portion of blame with me for the rest of my life.

“Nic,” said Jarek. “Scarlet 1, I think we need to make our next mission locating some more EMP Grenades. There’s gotta be some out here. Something we can use to take down that Medusa. Right? This can’t be over.”

“We have 30 more deaths to burn through before they win,” said Nic, climbing down the tower’s staircase. “It’s worth taking a look.” He knew that it wasn’t. Nothing could penetrate the Medusa’s astrosteel hull now—not high-caliber Sniper Rifle fire, not Rockets, not Frags, nothing. “Either that, or we can just try to run out the clock and hide from the tank, try to keep our lead. But we all know how well that worked out for Malachite. It took us barely five minutes to get 30+ kills. The way I see it—”

SHANTI >KNIFE> CHINWENDU >SCARLET: 48 | MALACHITE: 23

“Shanti?” Maqsud said in disbelief. “Shanti, how did you do that?”

“[She was waiting right outside of a spawn,]” said Shanti. “[Maybe she was waiting to be picked up.]”

“That’s it,” Nic muttered. There’s still one Malachite player who’s not inside the tank yet. There’s still time! “That’s it! Guys, that’s it! Lock out the spawns!”

Perri had a glimmer of hope in her voice when she said, “What?”

“Each squad has three proxy modules—three possible spawn points. Chinwendu is the last one outside of the tank. The tank can’t possibly guard all three spawns at the same time—they’re too spread out and the tank is too slow! As long as we have someone stationed by all three at all times, we can kill her every time she spawns. We only need to do it two more times and then we win!”

Jarek added “But if the tank kills us at the spawns, or if she outruns us, then she gets in the tank—”

“And then it’s officially game over,” Maqsud finished. “Our only hope then would be to try to hide and run out the clock, but like Nic said, that’s practically guaranteed to fail.”

Nic shook his head. “We cannot let that happen. Team Scarlet, we still have a shot at this. Double-time to your nearest Malachite spawn—no more than two to a module! Go, go, go!” Nic had everyone tag their locations again and divided their efforts from there. “As soon as you get eyes on her, tag her immediately! Whoever is closest, it’s your job to take her out. Everyone else stay camped out at your spawn point—two more kills and we win this!”

Nic and Perri were the last to meet up at the module designated Spawn B. Still no signs of her, he thought. She’s definitely respawned by now. It took them a while to get there on foot—much longer than the cooldown between respawns. He knew they wouldn’t be able to spawnkill her right out of the gate, but he didn’t think she’d cover so much ground so soon. It was a good idea, Siegfried. “She already got away,” he muttered to Perri.

“How is that even possible? We’re guarding all three spawns. One of us would see her around here somewhere. Wait.” Perri held up her hand to stop him. “Maybe she’s not running—she’s hiding.” “Up in the tower—see her?” Sure enough, a green proxybot hid at the top of an astrosteel tower nearby. They were firing their Submachine Guns a second later. Nic lobbed a Grenade for good measure, but it was overkill.

PERRI >SMG> CHINWENDU >SCARLET: 49 | MALACHITE: 23

“Good eyes, Scarlet 3!” Nic called out. “Keep pushing, squad! Don’t give them a millimeter! One more kill. Don’t let her anywhere near that tank!” My strategy is working. We have people on every spawn point. Unless the tank guesses the next spawn correctly—33% chance of that—they have no way of stopping us!

SHANTI [DEAD] SCARLET: 49 | >MALACHITE: 24

“Shanti’s not with us,” said Jarek. “She with somebody else?”

“Negative,” said Perri. “That’s not good. Can anyone see where Chinwendu went?” Nic scanned the battlefield with his HUD, picking up no signs of movement. He couldn’t see the Medusa, either—that worried him.

“Okay, change of plans,” Nic told them, motioning for Perri to follow him. “We need to rush the Medusa. It’s our only chance to stop her from getting in—that’s where she’ll be headed. Everyone, split up! Don’t bunch up and let the tank get a multi-kill! This is a numbers game now!” He and Perri parted ways as they tore across the battlefield in search of the last Malachite holdout.

A while passed before Jarek spoke up again with bad news. “She’s getting in the tank now! Hatch is open—she’s climbin’ up now! Engaging!” Nic’s stomach twisted into a pretzel inside him.

“Shanti,” said Maqsud. “I found one of your proxybots from earlier.” The soft crack of a rifle being shot. “Thanks for holding onto this for me.”

MAQSUD >SNIPER> CHINWENDU >SCARLET: 50 | MALACHITE: 24 GAME OVER TEAM SCARLET: VICTORY!

said RTIFIS. Nic could barely hear the AI over the sounds of their cheers and shouts of joy, every one of his squadmates jumping out of their SimSuits to hug and congratulate each other.

“My man,” said Nic, shaking Max’s hand firmly and patting him on the back. “You sealed the deal! Our long-range weapons expert coming in clutch today, folks!”

“That was strictly a team effort,” Maqsud answered, smirking, “although I just happened to have the epic game-winning shot. That’s all. But I couldn’t have done it without Shanti grabbing that rifle in the first place! And thanks to you, too, Jarek, for pointing out my target for me!”

“How about Shanti taking Chinwendu out in the first place?” Jarek added. “That gave Nic the bright idea to help us win!” Shanti smiled shyly, silent without her thought-to-speech software.

“I think another player deserves a massive round of applause,” said Nic, putting a hand on Perri’s shoulder. Some of her freckles migrated as an even wider grin spread across her face. “Peregrine Markey with an incredible 32-kill streak! We owe most of our victory to her!” And applaud her they did.

“Can I just say,” Maqsud went on as they exited the Simnasium, “that I have never felt more hopeless with a 20+ point lead in my entire life?” They all shared a laugh about that one. “Seriously, if we would have lost that, I genuinely would have cried!”

Our only victories so far have been in Arena, Nic realized as they took a water break in the Corvette kitchen. That’s about to change. It’s got to change. We haven’t won this thing yet—we’ve only tied. But unlike his last Wargame match, he resolved not to put the pressure on his squad before Round 3 again this time. He let them bask in the glory of their Round 2 victory until it was time to regroup in the Simnasium half an hour later. The cramped, circular room smelled like sweat and SimGel.

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Maqsud asked.