First Match

Gray and the others were not necessarily new to team fighting, but they were new to using mechs in the game. They kept a tight formation as they trodded their mechs towards the center of the map.

Matchmaking will pick a map randomly based on the type of game selected. This match took place in a hilly and lightly forested arena. Overall, the map was shaped similar to a diamond so that if players tried to huddle at the spawn point, they would have a tiny area they could fight in. In contrast, if you moved to the middle, you would have more space to fight. The generated arena was about 10 kilometers wide in the middle and only half a kilometer towards the spawn point. This would be considered a small arena, perfect for a small team fight.

As they were proceeding quietly as possible, given that they were in multi-ton mechs, Stacia suddenly stopped her mech. "Everyone, I see them on my sensors!"

"It is indeed an advantage to have a scout specialist mech," remarked Caleb.

"The 5 of them are two kilometers in front of us and hiding behind the large hill towards our right side."

"While I do not like making assumptions, it is probable that the enemy team doesn't have a scout mech so they are only waiting for us to get in range by taking advantage of the higher ground," said Caleb calmly after considering this is probably the other teams first match too. "Also, since they are all together, they probably all chose the laser rifle."

"Well, do you know how to snipe with that gun Caleb?" asked Gray.

"Of course, I read up on it in the manual. I do admit that I have never actually tried it, though."

"First time for everything." said Gray. "Ok, we'll use a standard draw and lead them in to a single envelopment on their left flank."

Gray received no response until Geoff finally spoke up, "What's that in English?"

"Sorry, in simple terms, Caleb, get in position a bit outside of their expected maximum range for sniping, Yurika and Stacia, take cover in the trees near the base of the hill but stay just outside of their sensor range. Geoff and I will swing wide and take cover near their left side. When I give the signal, I want Yurika and Stacia to creep in to their sensor range and proceed slowly until they move to attack. Draw them out and fall back once they open fire. When they start coming down the hill, Caleb can have free shots on them while Geoff and I will run in and open fire from their flank and hopefully cause them to panic."

A collective "Ooohhhh" could be heard from everyone through the communicators.

"Shut up! Everyone should try to learn at least simple military formations so as not to get caught off guard!" admonished Gray. "Let's move out!"

"Who made a noob like you the leader?" said Geoff listlessly. "I guess I'll give you a chance, though."

Yurika shrugged. Caleb and Stacia said they didn't care who the leader was as long as it wasn't themselves. Only Geoff and Gray wanted to lead, but they could figure out who would be better on the battlefield.

__________

On the other side of the arena, the "Avenging Aardvarks" were awaiting just behind the top of the hill, in position to rush over and rain fire down upon anyone that came up the slope.

"We're against 'Enter team name here'? Must be a bunch of idiots that hit register before changing it," said one of the enemy pilots.

"We're all new to this game so I'm not surprised, still, everyone keep alert. We need to wait for them to reach this hill and then rain death on them once they start to climb up it." said another enemy pilot that seemed to be the leader.

"Uh, what makes you think they will come to us? If I were them I'd be doing the exact same thing as us."

"Normally, yes, but this is the only large open hill, and we got here first." said the enemy leader pilot.

"Makes sense then for us to fight defensively. Still, shouldn't we have seen them by now?"

"Cut the chatter! I can see two of them on my sensors at the edge of the forest. One of them appears smaller than ours."

"What idiot bought a new mech already?"

__________

Stacia suddenly sneezed. "Someone must be talking about me somewhere."

Caleb knelt his mech beside a tree a short distance from the forest's edge. He then deployed the sniper rifle's tripod to stabilize his aim. He had a clear view of most of the hill in front of him, checking his sights. Yurika and Stacia crept to the edge of the forest and took cover behind some trees while waiting for Geoff and Gray to get into position.

"Ready up guys!" said Gray

Everyone else was unsure how to reply, so Gray was met with silence on the comms. "Just say ready if you're in position and ready to attack!" said Gray exasperatedly.

"READY!" was blurted out simultaneously by Yurika, Geoff, Caleb, and Stacia.

Gray felt his eardrums ache, then said, "Ok, we need a better system... Everyone change your status to green when you are in position."

The symbols representing Caleb, Stacia, and Yurika gained a green tint and lit up in Gray's HUD.

"Much better, approaching the designated area, Stacia and Yurika begin!"

"Roger!" said Yurika. Stacia looked like she wanted to ask who was Roger but then remembered that it means order received from back in the mid-20th century and is still used today.

Yurika and Stacia crept forward. Yurika wondered what her scanner range was when she saw a blip on her sensors, then another, and then 3 more. "I see them!"

Since Yurika could pick them up on her sensors, that also meant they could pick her up. As soon as Yurika announced she saw them, the 5 enemy mechs stood up, ran to the top of the hill, and began firing shots at the maximum range at Yurika and Stacia.

Due to the maximum range shots, the damage was almost negligible due to laser light losing focus. Still, getting shot at rattled Yurika and Stacia, and they didn't have to pretend to get flustered as they backed off into the cover of the trees.

The enemy team seemed to be emboldened by Stacia and Yurika retreating, so they walked down the hill slowly with their laser rifles ready and took aimed shots at them in a row of alternating fire to keep constant suppression.

Yurika started to get pissed because she chose a short-range variant, and they were not close enough for her to cause any damage. The laser pistol Stacia was using did virtually no damage either.

Suddenly one of the enemy mech's heads went flying back as a small crater with a large caliber bullet in the center had lodged itself in its face. The sound of the shot caught up half a second later.

"Boom, headshot!" said Caleb excitedly. Caleb got depressed to see that his headshot didn't actually take down the mech.

"Aim for the legs or waist! Taking out the head only blinds them for a second, but if you take out the legs or waist they can't move!" yelled Gray.

Caleb adjusted his aim while the enemy mechs got a little spooked from his surprise snipe. He took aim again and went for the waist on the same mech again. Caleb slowly squeezed the trigger and felt the huge recoil from the gun push into him again. This time Caleb and every other male player that saw it cringed slightly as the bullet hit right between the upper thighs of the mech. This wouldn't destroy a mech directly, but if a mech lost the motor in the waist, it could no longer rotate the legs or twist, so It became a sitting duck.

"Flanking now! Stacia, Yurika, begin the assault!" commanded Gray. Gray felt his adrenaline pump as he and Geoff stomped up the hill at full speed. He felt luck must've been with them as the enemy was focused on Stacia, Yurika, and Caleb and hadn't noticed him and Geoff.

As the enemy started to fall back to take cover from Caleb's sniping, Gray and Geoff had reached the top of the hill and were now facing the backs of the enemy mechs. Gray and Geoff grinned and opened fire on the backs of the mechs. The armor on their back was thinner than the front, so a few shots could penetrate the armor and hit some internals.

Realizing they were under attack from behind, the four enemy mechs that could still move turned to face Gray and Geoff and opened fire upon them without taking much time to aim. Gray and Geoff took a few glancing shots but nothing serious, but the enemy mechs realized they were pinched from the front and back and started to panic.

Caleb managed to squeeze a shot off just as a mech was turning to catch it in the unprotected part of the knee joint. The mech he shot lost balance and fell on its side.

Yurika ran her mech as fast as possible to get in range of her weapons. She lobbed an explosive grenade, then took her two submachine guns and opened fire on the backs of the 3 mechs still fighting.

The mech that got nutshot and lost its head could only attack directly in front of it as it couldn't see anywhere but directly in front and couldn't turn to change direction, so Yurika ignored it. The grenade exploded and caused the enemy mechs to stutter step for a moment but didn't damage them much. Still, all she wanted was for them to stand still anyways!

"Suck metal meat bags!" Yurika laughed maniacally as she finally unloaded her clips upon the enemy.

"This chick scares me..." thought Gray as she continued to use up all of her ammunition without any other considerations. He found himself impressed and frightened by her ferocity once she got over her initial fear.

Four enemy mechs had been destroyed and were lying on the ground. The only one still standing was the one that had a damaged head and waist. It seemed to have given up.

Even though Stacia was in the fastest mech on the team, she didn't put forth much effort in reaching the enemies, so she lagged behind Yurika. Stacia saw the last mech and used her oversized legs to kick it down to the ground.

"Winner 'Enter team name here'" announced the system. Everyone chattered excitedly among themselves in the post-game lobby while the Avenging Aardvarks all left without saying a word.