“Nic, play hard in PE today and win one for me, okay?”

said RTIFIS. In a daze, Nic led Team Scarlet down the corridor outside the Simnasium to the rear section of their Corvette. The door slid open automatically, almost without a sound save for a faint click, and they entered the dimly lit room. As always, it was full of ration crates, boxes of supplies, and narrow passages of corrugated metal floorspace between them. Nic saw five red proxybots waiting near the entrance.

It felt like a dream. Not quite a nightmare yet, but it threatened to turn that corner at any moment.

“Nic, are we genuinely about to go through with this?” Maqsud asked. His hushed tone implied that he was trying to avoid someone’s earshot—whether the other squadmates or the omnipresent AI, Nic wasn’t sure.

“It’s either this or forfeit,” Nic replied pragmatically. “We’re not about to forfeit. Not after the hours and hours we spent on that recovery mission. Not after Team Obsidian tried to pull a fast one on us. And definitely not after that Wargame match, which we should have won.”

“Nic, I’m sorry...” Perri began meekly.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. We just need to...” Blood on his white gym shirt. Blood on the Hill. A memory, like a dream. “We just need to win this now. Decisively. Once and for all. Then it’s all done. Then we won’t have to fight ever again.”

“That’s right,” Jarek agreed. “We’re doin’ this. Together! One last hurrah! Then we can just enjoy life from here on out. I don’t know about y’all, but first chance I get, I’m gonna find my family. Be nice if they’re livin’ somewhere terraformed. Just hope I can find ‘em!”

“This is going to be the most talked-about planet capture since the Treaty of 2401,” Perri mused. “With all the media attention, they’ll probably try to reach out to you. Wouldn’t that be great?”

“And maybe read about Nic in the news someday, doing something great. And you’ll know he made it. Because of the choice you made today.”

“Nicolas,” said Maqsud, “I’m being deadly serious right now. Are you willing to put the lives of your squadmates in jeopardy?”

“No,” Nic answered. “That’s what the vac-armor is for.”

“RTIFIS, is it truly safe to venture out onto a strange planet like this in person?” Max went on, running hands through his disheveled black hair. “Shouldn’t there be planetologists sent here first—scientists who can weigh the risks of leaving the secure environment of a starship? Is a game really worth all this, even a Wargame?”

“For 10 million credits?” Jarek cut in. “I’d say it’s worth it and then some.”

“It’ll be okay, Max,” Nic assured him. “It’s not like any of us are going to die out there. It’s King of the Hill. No weapons, no Upgrade Paks, no vehicles... just ten players in vac-armor pushing and shoving each other.”

RTIFIS agreed. Nic remembered those suits, how flimsy they were by comparison. They felt thin enough for him to tear open with his bare hands if he’d had the mind to do it.

“Do we just get in?” Jarek asked, eyeing one of the proxybots. “Or...”

The ‘bots didn’t look quite like their usual configurations seen in Wargame. The chest chassis was splayed open like the dead frogs Nic remembered seeing in educational biology sims, the kind he was made to dissect virtually. The limbs, too, were split open along unseen seams, creating a person-shaped opening for one to climb into through the torso. Meanwhile, the head was bent backward at a nearly 90-degree angle at the neck. It would serve as a helmet once the vac-armor assembled itself.

“It looks simple enough to me,” said Maqsud with a furrowed brow, “even if my concerns seem to be falling on deaf ears...”

Nic entered the open armor, sliding his legs down through the torso first until they rested comfortably in their sockets. He slipped his arms into the padded metallic sleeves next. Leaning back, he felt his shoulders press against the interior of the chassis and, without warning, darkness engulfed him completely. He gasped.

“I love you as big as the whole galaxy, Nicolas.”

His HUD then materialized. He saw vac-armor readings similar to that of an airsuit with some added metrics.

ARMOR INTEGRITY/BATTERY: 100%/100% O2 CAPACITY: 99% WEAPONS: (NONE) UPGRADE PAKS: (NONE) ARMOR TEMP./PRESSURE: 16C/1ATM OCCUPANT: 76BPM, 37C, 98O2 AMBIENT TEMP./PRESSURE: 20C/1ATM

“Everyone, ready up,” said Nic. “Clock’s ticking.” He felt the tyrannical, irritable Planet Gwher Nic resurfacing—felt the pressure of the moment rising to untenable levels. It was more than he’d ever had to bear in the past, even when he thought they would be disqualified as a squad forever.

He knew that losing Planet Nereus would mean the loss of a big paycheck and nothing more. And yet... it was so much more than that. It was what that money could buy. It was the promise of a better life—something greater. Just like his mother had wanted for him.

“Ready,” said Jarek.

“Ready,” said Perri.

“[I’m ready,]” Shanti chimed in.

Maqsud shrugged. “What choice do I have?”

Nic nodded once. “Let’s go.” He led them to their Corvette’s airlock, waited for the cabin-facing door to seal shut, then for the planet-facing door to slide open. Nic stepped out onto the surface of Planet Nereus—not a proxybot, not an avatar, not a simulation... he set his metal boots down onto the alien mud, felt the pebbles rattling beneath his feet, his real feet. He beheld the planet with his own eyes through his visor.

Looking back, he saw the silver word PIONEER embossed on the side of their starship. It gave him chills to know that this time, he was not still inside the Corvette. He was truly out in the open. He was reminded of the dizzying sensation he’d felt when first riding to the spaceport on Ayrus—that feeling of walking untethered beneath the infinity of the universe above him.

There was considerable weight to the vac-armor; it felt different from piloting a proxybot, but at the same time, the armor’s powered interior assisted all of his movements, giving him substantially enhanced speed and strength that he wouldn’t have without it. It made him feel powerful. He relished the feeling.

And he was eager to use it against Team Tyrian.

Nic led Team Scarlet to the waypoint in his HUD, a hastily-erected astrosteel platform a short hike from their Corvette. He guessed that it must have been set up in the midpoint equidistant from both of their respective ships. The five members of Team Tyrian were already waiting on the platform. Nic hazarded a skyward glance, saw that the clouds of the day had cleared again almost completely this time, bunching up along the horizon but revealing the clear night sky of Nereus, the stars that had come out to watch the match’s conclusion.

He saw another shooting star—this one without a tail. He thought about making another wish but decided against it.

“Mom, I-I played King of the Hill today in PE.”

“I heard! I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“I’m okay.”

“When I give the signal,” he told his squadmates in the private Team Scarlet chat, “lock arms. We’re going to form a blockade they can’t break. Keep your arms locked and kick them off the platform when they charge us.”

“Got it,” said Jarek.

“Roger that,” Perri confirmed. All five members of Team Scarlet climbed up onto the platform and stood shoulder-to-shoulder, facing their obstinate, determined opponents one final time.

“What will the signal be?” asked Max. “A gesture, a word?”

If he closed his eyes, Nic could still taste the iron. “Winner.”