It had been a few days since Vincent, Justin, Frank, and Anna faced the Frost Drake. After completing the training exercise, Frank had the team undergo a few more to get better accustomed to the new team members. After he reviewed their abilities, he had prepared special training menus for each of them, himself included. After going through another bout of intensive training, they were finally ready to work together as a team to face their next opponents, Brave Berets.

Frank looks out at the arena for the qualifiers, “Alright guys, you’ve done well up till now, but this is where things start to get dicey. From what I know of this team, they specialize in co-op play. So I want you to be ready for anything.” Vincent raises his hand and Frank points to him, “Yes, Vincent.” “When you say anything, what should we be expecting?” Anna answers, “Hard to say for that one. This team employs different tactics for every opponent. They like to study who they’ll be facing. Most likely, they’ll have quite a bit of data on us. So just stay on your feet.” “Alright.” Justin and Vincent nodded in understanding.

All six pilots had already entered their respective cockpit pods when the announcements were made, “Silver Vanguard vs. Brave Berets!” Inside the cockpits, the mechanical voice spoke, “Please set your base reader.” After setting their respective base readers on the console, holographic images of their respective frames appeared over the console. The mechanical voice spoke once again, “Field Selected: Temple Ruins!” Upon entering the battlefield, Silver Vanguard found themselves in a vast and lush green forest.

As they move through the battlefield, they found bits and pieces of destroyed buildings littered around the battlefield. Frank comments, “Looks like we won’t have to worry about finding some cover when we come under fire.” Justin retorts, “Why don’t we avoid scenarios where we come under heavy fire.” Mantaraia looks at Jakqoo V. Inside his cockpit, Vincent was grumbling, “I can’t believe we had to pull straws to play a match.” Frank comments, “It can’t be helped. There are four of us now and only three people can represent one team. How would you decide on the team members?” Vincent was silent. He could not give Frank an answer.

As the trio moved around the terrain to look for signs of their opponents, Vincent spotted several birds flapping their wings as they flew off tree branches, “As always, I’m impressed by the details the creators put in this game.” Justin smirks, “That’s to be expected. This game was designed to be as close to reality as possible. I heard the development crew actually had to research various forests around the world along with various forest life.” Frank comments, “Enough sightseeing you two. We need to keep our eyes open. We don’t know where our opponents will try to jump us.” Both Justin and Vincent nodded in agreement. Hiding within the forest, three chameleon Savage-type frames, waited and observed Silver Vanguard. The one currently in the lead position was kneeling on one knee with two circular disks extended beside its shoulders while blinking red lights. The pilot looked at his radar display and saw three red dots. He contacted his teammates, “This is CM-03. I’ve spotted the enemy frames. They’re at point TR-37.”

Upon receiving the intelligence, the captain smirked, “So that’s where they are. We’re going with plan 24. I repeat we are going with plan 24. CM-03, commence with wired connection.” CM-03 fired earphone jacks connected by thin wires to the two units behind it. The earphone jacks connected to the side of the heads of the other two units, “Connection established.” The team captain grins, “All units, we’ll continue with wired communications. CM-02, move to your designated point. CM-03, fire the scramblers.” “Roger. Firing scramblers.”

Several of the missiles that were mounted on CM-03’s back were fired into the sky. Once they reached peak height, the tips of the missiles ejected and floated above the battlefield, spreading yellow particles. At another part of the battlefield, Vincent, Justin, and Frank spotted the small objects floating above the battlefield, “What are those lights?” asked Vincent. Justin answered with another question, “Particle dispersion? Are those energy particle disruptors? Are they trying to disable our long-range beam attacks?” Vincent grins evilly, “Then we’ll just have to get up close and personal.”

As the team moved further into the center of the battlefield, they noticed that their communications had been cut off. Seeing this, Frank clicked his tongue, “Tch, they’ve got jammers. I need to take them out before the other teams get a chance to ambush us.” Frank aimed his rifle at the jammers when he was alerted to an incoming attack, “From behind me!?” Predator activated its thrusters and leaped into the air.

When the attack came, all three members of Silver Vanguard received the alert and all three leaped up into the air to avoid the attack. But with their communications jammed, they did not have proper coordination and ran into each other as they tried to avoid the attack. “Vincent, you’re in the way”, said Justin as he crashed against the Jakqoo V. Seeing how the Jakqoo V did not react, Justin, cursed, “Damnit. He must’ve not heard me.” When the trio landed back on the ground, more attacks came their way. Frank ordered, “We need to find some cover. Go to the temple ruins in the middle of the field. There should be plenty of destroyed structures we can use there.”

As the trio continued to the center of the battlefield, explosions took place everywhere they went as missiles chased after them. They took shelter behind collapsed structures before moving forwards to their destination. Once they arrived, they took cover behind a large wall while Frank scrolled through the camera, “No enemy units in sight. Just where are they firing from.” Outside the game, Anna watched the screens from the audience seat, “Come on, Frank. You can figure it out. You should know how to handle these guys.” After seeing more of the images on his screen of every part of the forest. “Still can’t find any sign of them.”

Frank came to a conclusion as his expression darkened, “Ohhhh, they’re playing dirty. How am I going to tell Vincent and Justin that our enemies are using optical camouflage?” Frank diligently observed his screens to search for any irregularities on the battlefield. It did not take him long to spot, a clear silhouette moving through the forest. The moment he caught sight of it the pilot of CM-02 sneered, “You caught on too late.” He pulled the trigger and fired the missiles mounted on its shoulders. Seeing the incoming missile, Frank took cover. “They may be able to hide from our cameras, but they can’t hide their attacks. Now, we just have to get rid of the annoying jammers.” Frank sneers, “Time to let my babies fly.” The two bits on the Predator’s shoulders detached and moved around the battlefield while flying very low. Close to the ground in fact. “Can’t let them see what I’m up to. You guys may have us pinned down, but just you wait. The tables are about to be turned.”