Regina Farrell lay on her bed, tablet in hand, watching the Orbital Chess stream and its tactical analysis of Elaris. Though she lacked interest in player combat, the Temple Wraiths' name appeared on the forums as a supernova while she searched for a new org to join. With most org sites and recruitment posts all echoing each others' words, Regina thought gameplay vids could help her see into the workings of interesting orgs.

Chaos reigned as the Crimson Suns' second fleet fell on the Wraiths. Their lone frigate took cover in the asteroids as enemy fighters and frigates swarmed their fleet. Despite being outnumbered in close range, the Wraiths maintained their formations, utilizing the terrain to obstruct the Suns. Their only tactic of note was that the Wraiths prioritized destroying the Suns' torpedo bombers, which could quickly shatter a single frigate. From there, the combined might of the Suns' ships whittled away the Wraiths' numbers.

Regina watched with amusement as a Wu-Jian frigate crashed into an asteroid. With the ship accidentally crippled, the Wraiths claimed their final frigate kill. In the end, the Suns' only tactic was the use of brute force.

Well I won't be joining the Suns after seeing that display, she thought.

the host said,

Jazz laughed.

Jazz paused for a second before a scheming smirk appeared on his face.

Regina closed the stream and quickly checked the forums. Debates raged following the conclusion of Orbital Chess. Viewers discussed and contested the accuracy and validity of Jazz's points, giving their own counterpoints pushing their own take on the battle sequence. Most commenters agreed in principle to Jazz, but arguments regarding his attribution of factors would go in circles for hours.

Regina had a different interpretation of the results. She did not deny that the Wraiths' skill, or that their luck and the Suns' mistakes twisted the expected outcome of the battle. However, there was another factor which Kat and Jazz never considered in their program.

How could they miss something so obvious? she thought. The Wraiths' pilots would sometimes ignore their attackers to stick on their own targets, actually taking damage until a friend drove that enemy away. That's not skill, that's faith. They completely trusted their allies to cover them.

If anything, skilled players trusted their teammates less, as they could often escape trouble through their own abilities. The best PG players would dodge fire and maintain their own attack. Skilled teamwork was common for dogfights, but never involved taking hits like a guardian in a fantasy VRMMO.

Also when they reorganized after losing teammates, how do the new teams work just as well as the old ones? If each member can work perfectly with any other, doesn't that mean they know each other perfectly? That would mean their org doesn't have any internal cliques. It's like the Wraiths were moving with a single mind.

The two previous orgs she joined, a large merchant corporation and a mid-size exploration group, both had rigid command and unit structures. While the individual units all meshed well within themselves, she rarely had a chance to even talk with those outside her unit, despite being in the same org.

Even then, when do leaders trade positions with their wingmen? Everyone I played with so far had too much pride to give up their spot. So instead of skills and organization, didn't the Wraiths win because they had the stronger community? They might be the only PvP org like that in all of PG.

Regina had left those orgs since they lacked the true social appeal of an MMO game. Those large orgs treated members as parts of a machine aimed for a specific purpose rather than individuals with personal desires and common goals. She opened the browser app on her tablet, finding her way to the Temple Wraiths website. Their front page's content was sparse, with a single image and an announcement stating that the org recently reopened their membership applications.

The Temple Wraiths… I wonder if I could join them?

“Why can't we just accept her?” Alf asked. “We need more girls in the org.”

Nova gave an exaggerated sigh. “The Temple Wraiths have standards Alf, unlike you.”

Alf, Nova, Ecks, Guinea, and Aero sat in the base lounge watching the first of the membership applicant skill trials. The applicant, personality tag April Leif, engaged in a simulated dogfight against Sinn. Three separate views of a simulated dogfight played on the lounge view screens showing Sinn's perspective, a third-person, three-dimensional map view, and April's perspective.

“She might be a guy using a female personality container you know.” Aero said. “That's allowed in Parallax.” Of course, the writing style in her app makes it pretty obvious she is indeed a she.

“Alf wouldn't care,” Eckos said.

“Hey… I'm not that desperate…” Alf sighed.

The picture on the right screen displayed a large fireball. Text scrolled across the screen, reading “Round Over. Winner: Sinn Omon”.

“What do you think of her Nova?” Guinea asked. “I can't really tell since Sinn is just toying with her.”

“Myles would beat her in a dogfight,” Nova said, “and that's if you put him in a fighter. So, not good at all.”

“Wasn't she one that we thought was a possible spy?” Ecks asked. “Her forum history doesn't say much at all, and her killboard records are all on the losing side. If the character history is that bare, I would assume she's someone's alt.” April's character profile stereotypically matched the common mole planted by large orgs into other large, rival organizations to gain intelligence and operational advantages.

“Mayto did say that was possible,” Guinea said. “Also said something along the lines of being suspiciously enthusiastic in answering the application's follow-up questions.”

Another round started. April, in a Hai-Dao fighter, boosted straight towards Sinn's Rattler. In response, Sinn charged forwards as well, setting up something only seen in combat between the most inexperienced pilots – the air joust.

“She's really new to this,” Nova said. “Like, everything she does is straight out of the tutorial, and that only covers pitch, yaw, and rolls.”

“Could she be hiding her skills?” Guinea asked.

Nova shook her head. “If she's acting, then she's acting like her skills are even worse than her character history says. So she stands out in a bad way already.”

“I doubt it's an act,” Aero said. “Sinn will tell everyone that they need to do well if they are to get in and discourage people from not doing their best. With possible spies or newer players, he'll emphasize that new players are probably not experienced enough. By leaving the actual requirement vague, we can find most of the people whose skills don't match their experience fairly easily.”

The two fighters entered weapon range. Predictably, April began firing her plasma cannons at Sinn's approaching Rattler. As the first shots were deflected off his shields, Sinn launched a single missile and rolled right, dodging the remaining shots before advancing onward. April pulled up, aiming for the asteroid field. Chaff sprayed from below the Hai-Dao's underside, countering Sinn's radar guided missile. Pitching upwards, Sinn moved to April's tail, shooting bursts of plasma fire into her fighter's belly. She strafed her craft left, then right, then barrel rolled, but each motion left her taking another burst of fire.

“This is hard to watch,” Guinea said. “Reminds me of the time my cat was playing with an injured mouse.”

“Sinn's testing her, trying to keep pressure on without splashing her right away,” Nova said.

Shields fading, April made a sudden inside loop to wrap around an asteroid, covering her craft from Sinn's line of sight. With his target lost, Sinn pivoted his aim to the opposite side of the asteroid and resumed fire. To the observers' dismay, April appeared perfectly centered for the oncoming assault.

The right display exploded into flame again. “Round Over. Winner: Sinn Omon” appeared again on the screen.

“Damn it,” Alf said. “Why didn't she change direction behind the rock? Her shields could have recovered some if she did that.”

“Well,” Aero said, “it was the best move she's shown so far. Dueling with Sinn like this might be better than anyone directly teaching her.”

The third round began. This time, April took an indirect approach, electing to fly below Sinn's path. Obliging, Sinn maintained his heading, only rolling his fighter to keep April's ship visible. As they approached their effective weapons range, April pitched upwards and aligned Sinn in her sights. In turn, Sinn rolled his ship once more and performed a descending loop, exposing his tail to April's sights.

“Wait, did Sinn just use a Split S to disadvantage himself?” Alf asked. The maneuver's intended use was to break away from a tailing enemy, not to position oneself in harm's way.

“I guess Sinn's letting her chase him?” Guinea asked.

“Yup, he's obviously testing her in different combat situations,” Ecks said. “He's being really thorough for someone that's this bad.”

With the Hai-Dao in tow, Sinn began a series of evasive rolls, dodging stream after stream of plasma fire. From April's perspective, Sinn's Rattler danced around her crosshair, never meeting it long enough for her to hit. She did, however, manage to stay on his tail despite his various rolls and turns.

Without warning, Sinn spun his fighter around and pushed his throttle to full, a maneuver only possible in astronautic combat. A split second later, April overshot her target. Another roll later, Sinn found the Hai-Dao's topside exposed and unleashed a rain of plasma into April's fighter.

“Okay guys, never do that in real combat,” Nova said. “It looks cool, but a good opponent would splash you in seconds.”

“Round Over. Winner: Sinn Omon” the screen displayed.

“Hey Aero, that's three losses. Is she getting rejected now?” Alf asked.

“Actually, probably accepted,” Aero said. “Sinn's first priority is compatibility with our community rather than player skill. It takes time to train someone's skills, but you won't be able to fix someone's personality.”

“I think so too,” Nova said. “She's really predictable, but not because of any bad habits. I think she read a bunch of guides but never had a chance to practice, so it's like reading a textbook to Sinn. Her application looked much nicer than all the others I saw.”

The lounge doors opened with a hiss. Standing outside was Myles, smile glowing on his face. “Hi guys, how'd the applicant do?” he asked.

“Well she sucks too much to be a spy,” Ecks said. “In fact, she just sucks at dogfighting.”

“So a rejection?” Myles asked.

“Two to one odds that she's in,” Aero said. “On paper, she looks like she'd fit in, and she looks like a quick learner.” Though actually, Sinn accepted her already and is just making sure her skills trial matched with her experience...

“You look happy,” Nova said. “Does that mean you have good news?”

“The best news possible,” Myles said, “we've been hired for a dominion assault, two days from now. Oh, and the pay is performance based.”