“Team Scarlet, weapons up!” Nic barked. He swerved the Centaur into a skidding stop, his heart racing at the sudden threat—to him, it felt more like a challenge.

He unstrapped the SMG from his back as his three passengers jumped out of the vehicle and did the same. They leveled their guns at the all-black proxybots, Nic eagerly so, and he heard Perri’s Harpy circling cautiously overhead.

“Black proxybots, my name is Nic, Squad Leader of Team Scarlet, contracted by Red Terraforming, Inc.” He used his bot’s proximity chat to address the strangers directly through external speakers. “We’re here to recover a Red Terraforming probe and to secure Wargame participation rights for Planet Nereus. Now, return the favor: identify yourselves and state your business on this planet.”

The black proxies said nothing. They stood stock-still, their own SMGs held frozen with an uncanny steadiness. Nic swallowed, felt his heartbeat pumping in his throat.

“I worry they won’t be quite as forthcoming as you, Nic,” Maqsud said into Team Scarlet’s private team chat.

“They’ll have to be if they want this to end well for them,” Nic replied privately. Then he continued through his speakers, “If you’re behind the damages to the Red Terraforming probe, I hope you know that you’re all as good as fired. Even if you kill our proxies here, we’ll just report you to WorldGov anyway. I wonder if destroying a rival company’s property qualifies as a galactic crime. Your fate’s already decided, so you might as well make it easy on yourselves and start talking. Maybe it’ll go down a little more smoothly for the judge on Earth who hears your case if you’re apologetic.” Still nothing.

“I’d listen to him if I were you,” Jarek told them. “Your repairbot’s on its way to our Corvette now. Might already be there. I’m thinkin’ there’s probably some incriminating evidence on its cameras, yeah? What do you say we just do this the easy way? Or do y’all still think you can shoot your way out of this somehow?”

“I’ve never seen a proxybot stand that still,” Perri observed. “Let alone five of them. What gives?”

“Just so you all know,” Nic went on trying to intimidate them, “it’s not too late to do things the easy way, like my second in command said. But the hard way’s a lot more fun for me. Your call.” The enemy proxies said and did nothing. Nic started to wonder if their comms were broken somehow, but that wouldn’t explain their posture, their lack of surrender. His blood started to boil the way it did when Edith taunted him on Planet Gwher. “You all were pretty stupid to do what you already did, so maybe you’re too stupid to understand what the hard way means!” Nic raised his SMG in one hand and fired a squeeze of bullets into the air. “I hope that clears things up for you!” Before the last words left Nic’s mouth, the black proxybots opened fire on Team Scarlet. There it is! Nic celebrated privately. “Team Scarlet, engage! Shoot to kill!”

“Here we go!” Jarek yelled.

They weren’t really killing anyone, per se. They were disabling enemy proxybots just like in any Wargame. But it scratched an itch Nic was too afraid to admit he had. Maybe I’m a born fighter after all.

NIC [52%]

said RTIFIS. The enemy proxybots were no longer shooting. The members of Team Scarlet were all in the process of reloading their SMGs when they stopped, while Perri ceased firing from her Harpy. Nic finished slapping fresh ammo into his gun and raised it to continue shooting. His finger hovered on the trigger, caressing the little metal lever without actually pulling it, until he finally relented and lowered his weapon.

“RTIFIS, what exactly is going on?” Perri asked. “Who are these people? What are they doing here—can you hail their ship?”

“So, Team Obsidian are the ones going to jail,” Jarek chuckled. “Their proxies are here. That must mean they’re still on their Corvette somewhere. I’m bettin’ they’re mad as hell right now.”

Maqsud shook his head, walking over to examine the frozen robots up close. He cocked his head in front of the barrel of one of their SMGs as if daring it to fire. “Did they really think they could make a private, non-WorldGov-sanctioned capture of Nereus before anyone else got to it?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” said Nic. “No company can just capture a planet without a Wargame. And there can’t be a Wargame without WorldGov approval. But they may be trying to make sure they’re in the running for it.”

“And they might not take so kindly to someone tryin’ to encroach on their turf,” Jarek added. “Another hand in the pot means they’re competing against someone else for Wargame rights.”

“[I don’t understand,]” Shanti interjected. “[What pot?]”

“It’s like a lottery, Shanti. If it’s just us and Black Planet Engineering, then BPE has a 50/50 shot at Nereus, basically. If it’s us and Blue Corp and BPE and Green Planet Investments, it would come down to the luck of the draw for who gets to compete. WorldGov could basically flip a coin to pick the two teams. They don’t care who fights, long as the Treaty of 2401 is bein’ followed, right? BPE was tryin’ not to lose out on Nereus. But they just did.”

“[Oh. I understand now.]”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Jarek,” said Maqsud. “Justified or not, Nic was the one who fired the first shot, was he not? Oh, my word... Wait just a moment. Are we going to be the ones held liable for this now? I can’t believe I let myself be swept up in the heat of vindictive violence!”

“Calm down, it won’t happen like that,” Nic assured him. “They had their weapons on us first, and I wasn’t firing at them. There’s no way we could get in trouble for something like that. They were the ones posturing like they wanted a shootout.”

RTIFIS interjected.

The hair on the back of Nic’s neck stood on end. “Well, that’s a twist.”

“So, that means Team Obsidian is still out there,” said Perri, “and probably controlling other proxybots instead?”

“We won’t know for sure until we find their ship. But RTIFIS just said a little while ago that there were no pings coming from other ships nearby.”

Perri scoffed disgustedly. “Team Obsidian must have gone radio silent on purpose. They were hoping no one would catch on to their plan. They saw big glowing credit signs in their eyes and they wanted that bigger bonus—that’s my guess, anyway.”

“I don’t know why Red Terraforming would trust us with such an important mission like this,” Nic wondered aloud. “Maybe we were just the closest squad they had. Whatever the case, we’re not going to let anyone take this world, or a bigger chunk of credits than they’ve earned, without a fair fight.” He grinned in his SimSuit helmet. “And if there are more proxies out there, we’ll kill them if we have to—Wargame or no Wargame.” Under other circumstances, he might have shivered at his sudden ruthless attitude, but now he was just eager for another confrontation—a real one this time. “RTIFIS, tag that next waypoint, please. Won’t be long now. Team Scarlet, as you were. Let’s get back on the road.”

Maybe I’m not a born winner. Maybe I’m a born fighter.

And maybe I don’t just need to win. Maybe I need to make someone else lose. Nic threw the Centaur in drive and sped away with his squad. Feels like I was raised for this my whole life. The weak lose and the strong prevail. That’s all we’ve been taught...

His chin itched. Right on the scar. Victory isn’t enough for me unless I take it away from someone else.