"Step away from the convoy," one of the assailants in their mech said, "Step to the side and wait, don't make this any more difficult than it has to be."
Every member of Cosmos's team had their weapons pulled now, aims switching from one enemy to the other. Of course there was almost no chance they survived this, but giving up too easily wasn't the right play.
Gotta make them work for that kill at least.
"What does that change?!" Cosmos asked, coming forward. Voice loud and sarcastic. "I mean, you outnumber us outright, why don't you just go ahead and kill us!"
"Not much, I just believe dying with dignity is a much better way to go."
"Is that so!" Cosmos said from his mech, blade in front of his face. Then more quiet, "what do we do?"
"You're asking me?" Valentina responded, coming closer. Her back now against Cosmos's.
Magenta didn't say anything, there had to be a reason why they wanted them away from the convoy. If they merely wanted to destroy it and take the points, why exactly did they want them away from it.
"We're gonna lose the exam." June said, scared. His back colliding with Magenta. "We're going to be disqualified!"
"What if they wanted what was inside the convoy?" Magenta muttered, talking more to himself than anyone. "That can't be it... The weapons, the shields, even the signal jammer... they're not game changers. So why go to all this trouble?"
He glanced toward the convoy again, eyes narrowing. A crack in the rear tarp fluttered in the wind. That's when it hit him. This convoy looked nothing like the one Paul had shown during the demonstration. Hell, none of the convoys looked completely alike.
Same color. Same wheels. But the body shapes? The structural ridges? Subtle, but different.
"Did he ever actually say those items were going to be inside each one?" Magenta said, almost laughing. "Of course he didn't..."
So much of this exam required initiative. You couldn't just follow orders blindly. If you didn't doubt, you'd be eaten alive.
"June," he said, eyes locked forward. "On my move. Give me covering fire."
"Wha—are you crazy?" June stammered. "That's suicide—!"
"Do you have a plan, Magenta?" Cosmos asked, stepping beside him.
"No," Magenta said, voice flat. "I just want to peek in the trunk."
A pause. Then Cosmos turned his mech's head toward him. The faceplate was blank and expressionless, but somehow, Magenta felt the stare.
"If we survive this," Cosmos said, "we are so talking about our lives!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself—!"
June launched first, just as the last word left Magenta's mouth. Three clean shots fired in sequence, fast enough to make the enemy duck. Eight hostiles scattered, hitting the ground hard and returning fire in short bursts.
But Cosmos was already moving, charging into the maelstrom of gunfire. Sparks flew as his weapon sheared through the arm of one mech. Then a energy bullet struck him, dead center in the chest.
Magenta moved. Boosters ignited, dirt exploded beneath his feet. He sprinted past June and Valentina, the convoy his target. One hand ripped the tarp aside, and what he saw made his heart drop.
Inside: a pair of tracking beacons. Tripwire coils. And most important of all...
A nuke.
Magenta laughed nervously. Paul never said what was inside because that wasn't the point. The convoy items were randomized. The "demonstration" had been misdirection. A setup.
The actual lesson was simple: if you trusted the information too much, you were already losing.
And now they were paying for it.
Gunfire shrieked through the air. Cosmos staggered, his mech's chestplate cracked open and venting smoke. Warning lights flashed red across his HUD. Two enemy units closed in fast, weapons already drawn.
One more hit and it was over.
"Is that all you got!" Cosmos dropped low pivoting on one knee. In a single motion, his blade whipped out in a wide arc. Sparks burst as steel sliced through both flanking mechs, their cores splitting in half with a screech.
They collapsed.
But there wasn't time to breathe. Six more were waiting. And two were aiming at him, directly at his head.
There was no dodging this—
Magenta's mech surged forward, tearing through loose sand. Dust flared in every direction, covering his sprint like a thundercloud. Bullets tore into him, one hit the shoulder, one hit the leg, but he didn't slow down.
Behind him, June and Valentina saw his hand, at what lay within. The timer already ticking down.
They didn't wait for a command. They ran, peeling back toward cover, leaving the six remaining enemies confused for half a breath.
But instead of chasing, they turned, rifles locking onto Magenta.
He blew past them.
A hailstorm of shots nipped at his heels as he reached Cosmos—just in time. Magenta slammed shoulder first into his teammates mech, knocking them both off balance and over the edge of a nearby landfill trench.
They crashed into the canyon's floor, shielded by rock and debris.
Not too deep, but just enough.
Magenta looked up.
One of the enemy mechs stood puzzled, spotting something blinking near his feet. A tiny round orb, pulsing with light. He bent down, hand out.
"When the hell did that get there—?" he muttered.
He never finished the sentence.
An explosion rang out.
Pieces of metal fell into the canyon, slamming against the reinforced glass of his cockpit. Breaking through and almost cutting at his face. A cruel touch of deja vu.
He stood, peeking out the canyon and looking for any signs of life. There were none, except for June and Valentine who stood at the far ends of the path, hidden behind crumbling buildings.
Of course, it wasn't an actual nuke. That would've been overkill. What it was, was a reaction bomb. A chemical weapon that affected metal and steel. Perfect for disabling mechs without killing the pilot.
"Did you get 'em?" Cosmos asked, pulling himself upright. His mech sparked like haywire, internal components spilling out in thick smoke. It was badly damaged and barely holding together.
"Yeah."
"You saved me back there."
"Well, it's a lot easier to win if we're all alive."
"I see..." Cosmos said. "Yeah. I guess it is."
They climbed out of the canyon. From the far side, Valentina and June approached, weapons lowered, hanging loose at their mech's sides.
Magenta glanced around. His own mech was a mess, as red icons flashed across the console, a low siren wailing on loop to indicate he had a damaged leg component. But through all that noise...
He heard something.
A mechanical chirp.
The Brandt signature click.
Then a beam.
He whipped around just as two mechs burst from the sand behind them, forcefield emitters flickering off. They lunged forward, blades drove straight into Cosmos, skewering his battered frame.
Shit.
Of course. They must've checked their own convoy before launching the ambush.
Magenta glanced further back at Valentina and June who were already down. Two more mechs rose from the dust behind them, hidden in the aftermath of the explosion.
"A reaction bomb? In an exam?" one of the assailants said, voice light. "Bit much, don't you think?"
"I'd have liked to be the one using it." The second stepped forward, then locked eyes with Magenta. "Now it's wasted."
Only two of them had lost their mechs to the explosion. But perhaps it was naive to think the bomb would take them all out.
Magenta stood surrounded. Behind him, the two who'd taken down Valentina and June moved in, guns raised. The pair who'd skewered Cosmos did the same.
"Guess we'll need another convoy now," one said. His cockpit hissed open, smoke curling out. Magenta recognized the face from the crowd—Joseph Blooms. He didn't know him, but he'd remembered seeing him be one of the first to enter the mechs.
"Ambushing our teammates before the attackers can," said another, stepping forward as his hatch lifted. Carter Roiland. The second member of Joseph's team. "You're a real villain, Blooms."
"I simply listened to what he said, not a lot of rules were proposed to be honest." Joseph laughed, then looked to Magenta. Who stood there, staring at him.
"Do you really think you can take out all of us?" He asked, stopping a ways away. The others gathered around him once again, forming a loose circle.
His Brandt 101 stood in the middle of them, leaking wires, one leg half-crippled, sirens still humming from inside.
Against their pristine mechs, he looked like a broken toy.
This fight was over.
A drone hovered nearby, its camera lens pivoting with a soft whir. On television screens across the Federation, the feed switched back in.
"That was kinda quick, don't you think?" said Kayla, brushing her coat aside as she sat. "Last batch didn't start betraying each other until an hour in."
Another vice captain, Dharc Dandelions, replied with both hands calmly folded under his jaw.
"Well, Paul was less detailed this time. The wiggle room in the rules was... deliberate."
"So this is all your fault, Pauli-boy!" Kayla snapped, jabbing an elbow into his side. "You're a very, very cruel man, pushing them out there to stab each other in the back, what a cruel thing to do."
"Cruel, yes," Paul said, unfazed. "But a lesson nonetheless. War is the greatest free-for-all of them all, entering with any other mentality is useless."
"You're too serious sometimes." Kayla pointed and he averted his gaze.
The camera panned back to Magenta. His hand clenched tight around the control stick, the metal groaning faintly. He had no where to turn to, no one to call, no one to rely on.
He was alone.
But this wasn't the first time.
Back in his first year with the army. As a green rookie crammed inside a busted Ruspa 81, barely combat ready. A stray mortar hit the backline, dividing him from the main battalion, and leaving him stranded in the waste.
Then came the Wyrms.
Dozens of them, against just him and that trembling, clunky old mech.
Now, it was the same feeling. That same iron box around him. That same silence on the comms. That same unspoken truth: no one's coming to help.
Yet, once again, this realization brought calm. It brought serenity. He felt nothing. No fear. No panic. No nerves. Just nothing.
Then, slowly, he lifted his gaze toward the mechs.
And moved.
Click. Click. Click. Click.
[Mech destroyed +5]
[Mech destroyed +5]
[Mech destroyed +5]
[Mech destroyed +5]