“Yes!” Perri whooped. The other verbal members of Team Scarlet reacted in kind.

“Time to do what we do best, ladies and gentlemen,” Nic said in the team chat. “Keep the comms lively and remember what we talked about just now. Let’s get out there and earn our stripes!”

They spawned into the Arena, a sprawling, open-ended playground for them to do battle. Didumos was fairly flat and featureless, or at least this region of it was; Nic could see astrosteel walls and octagonal lookout towers dotting the landscape, all opaque black against the reddish backdrop of the lifeless planet, and he scanned for the other proxybot modules that would serve as respawn points for fallen players.

The astrosteel wall directly in front of them retracted into the ground, standard protocol for the start of Arena. Team Malachite fired their SMGs from a short distance away once their own wall descended.

“Engaging the middle proxy!” Nic called out. He emptied his first SMG clip, cutting the green bot’s health nearly in half.

ARMAND [53%]

“Sending Frags!” Jarek announced. He lobbed both of his Grenades at the cluster of green combatants.

“Frags out!” said Nic, following suit and tossing his as well. All the while, bullets pinged through the metal exoskeleton of his proxybot, stabbing his connected nerve endings repeatedly.

JAREK >FRAG> KHRIS JAREK >FRAG> MATSUNO KHRIS [DEAD] MATSUNO [DEAD] >SCARLET: 2 | MALACHITE: 0 NIC >FRAG> ARMAND ARMAND [DEAD] >SCARLET: 3 | MALACHITE: 0

When the thin dust finally settled following the explosions, the surviving two members of Team Malachite had scattered. Team Scarlet remained, scathed but alive, and they indulged in high-fives to celebrate.

“What a way to start the game!” Nic declared. “Good work, squad! Let’s do that...” He did mental math, pressing his thumb against his fingertips in quick succession. “...about 15-some-odd more times and we win! Team Scarlet, move out!”

“[I’m going stealth mode now,]” said Shanti’s thought-to-speech software. She broke off from the group and in a matter of moments, Nic couldn’t locate her at all. She didn’t even need an Incognito Upgrade Pak with her level of skill.

“Okay, the rest of us are stickin’ together, right Team Scarlet?” Jarek asked. “Where are we all headin’ next? Perri, you need a ride?”

“It’s worth tracking down a Cyclops or a Medusa, if they’re out there,” Perri replied. “Would you gentlemen be so kind as to walk me to my car?”

“Right this way, madame,” Maqsud played along, giving an ostentatious hand gesture, like the kind one would see on Earth, and leading the way across the battlefield.

Outside the restrictive perimeter of the last game mode, Nic was able to take in a richer view of the surface of Didumos, its dusty red soil strewn with smooth rocks of varying colors and pockmarked with tiny craters. He marveled at the fact that this planet remained undisturbed for billions of years before humans discovered it. First it was seen through a telescope, then an unmanned probe, then through the eyes of surveyors’ proxies, and now ten contracted soldiers were fighting their hardest to decide who would prepare it for human settlement, another stepping stone on the long road of galactic conquest. Time could only tell what lay in store for humanity after that. There was an oceanic wonder to it all.

said RTIFIS. Nic snapped out of his brief daydream. A temporary waypoint appeared on his HUD.

“That’s about a klick and a half away,” said Jarek. “She must have spotted it from a tower. Perri, what do you think?”

“A Harpy would be sweet,” said Perri, “but that’s quite a hike on foot. If what I’m remembering about Wargame vehicle placement is correct, there might be something even better in this direction—hopefully a Medusa or a Cyclops! If it’s a Centaur, I’ll at least be able to drive us around the map and run over whatever you boys can’t shoot. We can grab the Harpy after.” “Should be in that general area.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Nic agreed. “Let’s pick up the pace a little.” Trotting along at a jogging pace, still keeping their weapons at the ready, they closed the distance between them and the mystery vehicle with relative ease. Team Malachite was apparently exploring completely different areas of the map. We’ll find them soon enough once we get some wheels, Nic thought.

“I see it!” Perri squealed with glee. “Gentlemen, this game is about to get a whole lot easier.”

“[They have it,]” said Shanti’s AI voice calmly.

“Eyes up, Scarlet!” Nic barked. His heart skipped a beat. It’ll be here in seconds!

“What do we do?” Jarek asked, panicking. The aerial vehicle hovered almost silently into position in the sky nearby, bearing down on them. Jarek opened fire with his SMG without warning.

Nic managed to yell, “Scatter! Get to cov—!” before the missile touched down.

An explosion of red dust. A boom loud enough to register in his eardrums. Shards of metal and circuitry flying in all directions. A collision that rocked his entire body in the SimSuit, throwing him several meters from the blast site, electric pain burning a path down his nerve endings and screaming through his brain.

PERRI [DEAD] JAREK [DEAD] MAQSUD [DEAD] SCARLET: 3 | >MALACHITE: 3

Somehow, miraculously, Nic survived. He had been a few paces ahead of the rest of the group and must have been just outside of the missile’s effective kill range. He was far from unscathed, though.

NIC [10%]

Goes to show just how fast a vehicle can turn things around, he thought. So much for our lead. He scanned the sky for the enemy Harpy’s next attack, but it was already banking in the opposite direction. Either they didn’t realize I’m still alive, or they’re satisfied with tenderizing me and they’re going to try to spawnkill someone. I should be safe long enough to get in the tank.

Nic gingerly stood up, brushing the debris off his proxybot. He threw any element of stealth to the wind and ran for the Medusa. The simulated pain in Wargame lasted as long as a proxybot did until its eventual death or until a round ended; for the time being, all of his injuries, the dents and fractures in his mechanical exoskeleton, the busted joints, the torn wires—they all continued to hurt. There was no way out of the agony for now.

A small price to pay for victory.

“Well, that was certainly something!” said Maqsud into the team chat. “I’ve just respawned. Are you guys back in yet? Nic?”

“I’m here,” said Jarek. “Hoo... On the opposite side of the map. Thanks, RTIFIS!”

the AI replied cheerily,

“That Malachite idiot,” Perri hissed as soon as she respawned. “Nic, where did that Harpy go? Can you see it yet? I’m going to blow it out of the sky!”

“Pause,” Nic answered. “I’m still alive. 10% health and I’m going for the Medusa now.”

Perri was less thrilled with this development than he’d hoped. “Don’t worry about that bird. It’s mine. I’ll shoot it down with my SMG—with my Pistol, if I have to! A one-shot triple kill just as we’re about to get a leg up? Seriously? Talk about a cheap shot—”

“It’s okay,” Nic interrupted. “We need to focus on the game. We all focused on our feelings last time—I was the worst offender—and we lost.”

“This man takes being hit point-blank with a missile extraordinarily well,” Maqsud muttered.

Perri failed to find the humor. “Nic, we just lost our lead and they gained a huge advantage! If we lose this round, we go home! We lose everything! This new training you put us through—it was supposed to make us unstoppable, wasn’t it?”

“We are getting tilted,” Nic said calmly. “Stop. Pause. Take a deep breath and listen to me.” There was silence in the team chat. “This is just like that card game we played on the way here.”

“Conk?” Jarek asked.

“No, the other one,” Nic replied. “The one where two people stormed off and the rest of us were left to clean up the cards off the floor.”

“Oh, that one,” said Maqsud, clicking his tongue. “I guess I had repressed that memory.”

“Tilt is when you let your negative emotions affect the way you play a game. You adopt more aggressive strategies—but they’re not winning strategies. For example, Perri, you’re about to take on a missile-equipped space helicopter using a gun that shoots bullets.” More silence. “I won’t lie. I’ve been there, too. Edith got me massively tilted when we fought Team Azure. I’ve even experienced it drilling Wargame sims. As a guy who needs to win,” Nic said, a sudden self-awareness dawning on him, “tilt is one of my biggest enemies. But I want you all to know it’s still early.” He opened the Medusa’s hatch and climbed inside. “And we’re about to get our lead back.”

“Okay, that’s pretty sweet,” Jarek said into the team chat, his smile audible. “Don’t you think?”

Another silent beat from Perri. “Sure. That’ll definitely help. So, how do we stop ourselves from getting tilted, then?”

“Remember our practice sessions,” Nic replied. “And let RTIFIS point us in the right direction. The AI tracks every move we make in Wargame, even in the sims. RTIFIS is designed to help us be the best soldiers we can be. Watch for cues from the AI and from each other. And every time we want to spiral, let’s put a positive message out into the team chat instead.”

“All right, I’ll try. Good job grabbing that vehicle, Nic,” said Perri. “You’re right. This round isn’t even close to being done. I’ll hold off on engaging the Harpy for now. Would you mind picking me up and taking me for a ride in your cool new tank?”

“Oh, I’m just keeping it warm,” Nic answered, grinning. “I’ll let you drive once I get to you. Anyone else who wants a ride in this impenetrable astrosteel death machine, drop some waypoints for pickup!” “Just stay alive as best you can, Team Scarlet. Didumos will be ours soon enough!”