Going off-grid changed everything. Studying the games was about dedicating player moves to memory and finding weaknesses in their strategy. The Squad’s focus turned to finding glimpses of Astral or Seth through the other players feed. What were they up to? What were they hiding?

The students gossip feeds were bound to explode after the game, if they weren’t already. Everyone was going to be looking for them. Whatever it was, with so many eyes watching, scanning, their little secret was going be made public, then exploited by their competitors. All for what?

William wished he had brought his tablet, he could set a filter to send him a notice every time someone spotted them. He’d be ahead of his own team; the go-to guy for some sweet intel.

Seth and Astral were across the bridge, that much they knew for sure. After a quick scan of Squad VII’s units, Captain Clark activated the opposition’s views, replacing Squad VII’s players from the panelled display. By the time the cameras had cycled through all of Squad VIII’s players twice, the camera views stopped cycling. Only two of Squad VIII’s players remained in play and they were focused on keeping Squad VII on their side of the bridge. It was like, they didn’t realize that two players had infiltrated their territory and nearly decimated their whole team. Seth was way more awesome than anyone gave him credit for. William looked forward to reviewing the competitions feeds.

If Squad IV wanted to learn what happened to the other players, those camera feeds would have to be collected after the game. Ten minutes later, the bridge exploded, causing a feed blackout for all active players.

They stared at the black screens. What happened? A new screen replaced the quad panel display. Squad VII’s six players slid into position, striking a pose. Two of the profiles were static and greyed out with a timestamp beneath them, marking their time spent in the game.

Beneath Squad VII, Squad VIII’s twelve players lined up. Their profile pictures were dwarfed by the dominating squad’s much larger image, a side effect of having fewer players participating. Only two players remained active in the opposition.

It wasn’t like Seth to damage school property. Maybe, knowing that they were losing, Squad VIII rigged the bridge. If there was no way to cross, one of the teams would be forced to resign.

They waited for the feed to come back.

Not long after, the captain cleared the holographic projection to pull up a new map. She synced her projection with last year’s feeds from Squad III, the same squad set to be their first victims in this years tournament. Two of the three screens switched to the old cam views, leaving the remaining screen for the current game, just in case the feed went live.

William suspected that he wasn’t going to be leaving this room anytime soon.

*****

Four hours, Captain Clark filled the time with her version of expert analysis of Squad III player’s talents and weaknesses. She criticized faults in their execution, tactics, training and strategies, while adding how she would have done a far superior job. She spoke like she was some battle expert. No one called her on it, nodding like a bunch of empty headed peons fit to do one thing; follow orders.

When it came to the little things, she’d call on William to act as her punching bag as she demonstrated moves, counter moves, and summed up each round with techniques for the squad to memorize. She expected results.

When she had nothing left to criticize, she called up footage from the championship game and began tearing into finalist squads. Didn’t she realize how pathetic she looked? Didn’t she realize that the more she dug into their weakness, the louder she was screaming to the world ‘by showing you their weaknesses, I’m trying to hide my own’. William resented her arrogance in thinking she could out perform Squad VII. He hated her more for thinking she was better than Seth.

An hour later the game feed flashed: Champion Squad VII. Victory by Astral Daamon.

William’s world faded to greys. He found it unusual that no one cheered. It was his first time that he experienced the game from a player’s perspective, maybe the somber tension that pressed onto the players spirits was normal. Were they hoping that Squad VII was going to lose? He supposed it was reasonable for them to want as much, even if the odds were like a million-to-one. Not facing Squad VII might mean a chance a winning. It meant hope that they could make it into the finals.

Sounds were dull thuds, like trying to hear the world from the bottom of the bath. Even Captain Clark shouting orders to retrieve the feeds before the students had a chance to clog the network were barely audible. Luckily, her focus was on her senior members.

The squad filed out of the room, happy for their release, but William found that his legs wouldn’t support him. Squad VII had given that rich little nobody her first winning credit. She didn’t even have to work for it.

“You can go now, Greenie,” the captain insisted.

“Why…” His brain was short circuiting on him. He couldn’t imagine a world were Seth could be bought.

“You know the winner, find out what happened. She’ll be high on her first win. She’ll tell you every little detail. Put your personal feelings for her aside and focus on the mission.”

William looked to his captain. “I want what she has. She didn’t even try, and they just gave her everything.”

“Greenie, you listen to me and you listen good. I was on Seth’s squad back when he was green. When I didn’t get captain, I transferred out. They just gave Seth the role, like he was some sort of war god. I’m tenth generation military. The games, the war, combat… it’s in my blood. And they gave that prissy little prick MY title. At the time, I wanted to take him down a few pegs. Turns out, he’s good. He’s damn good. The lesson here, Greenie, is that life is not fair. Just because you think you deserve something, doesn’t mean you do.” She snorted and a smile flickered onto her lips. “I’m glad I was angry and stupid enough to quit. As his opposition, I can really test myself. What about you? What are you going to do to test yourself?”

It was a conversation William would never forget. Hands in pocket, bracing himself against the winter chill, he thought about her words. How could he challenge himself against Astral? How could he prove that he was better than her? It was a bit of a re-occurring theme in his life. First with his father, losing his attention to her. Then with the enrollment process; just drop a few hundred thousand credits and what exam? Then with the squad trials, what a farce. How was he supposed to prove he was better than her when she had the deck stacked in her favour.