- Next Game

After the combat lesson, Cain once again called Gus to the side.

"Just so that you're aware," he said to him. "You've got another one tonight. A game, I mean. Be outside at eight again."

The looming presence of the game played on Gus's mind throughout the day. Before the last one, they had learned about the Mydell Repeater in Jet's equipment class. Since then, they had learned about the Mydell Sidekick, as well as some things about the information of how Mydell was created, and the layout of the corporation.

Based on Earth, they had offices and headquarters across human space, as well as countless factories and space in shared factories. While he had only touched on the subject, Jet promised that they would learn more about the company itself in the History and Corporations classes.

They had also not had many tactics lessons before the last one, and since then had learned a little more about general strategy. While no overall strategies had been established, Dorrian had instilled something important in their minds. If a strategy is to be successful, it must be made with the strengths and weaknesses of those making it in mind. Of course, Gus already knew this, and tried to incorporate it into his decision making whenever he was faced with a choice that might affect his squad.

Thinking back to the last one that they had participated in, Gus began to plan strategies throughout the day. It was likely that the environment of the arena would be different since it seemed like everything in the academy was driven towards preparing them for the future of the war, so it would make no sense for them to be in familiar surroundings during the game.

Given that the squads had known each other for a little while at this point, there should not be some random rush down the centre like what happened last time, with squads hopefully choosing more specialised strategies than that. Therefore, Gus should be free to set up according to their strengths, rather than setting up with the worry of what the opponent will do.

'On that note, I don't think I really know enough about most of them,' he thought. On a surface level, he by far knew Connor and Joel the best, having spent the most time with them. On a deeper level, he probably knew Krista the best, given that he knew about her family. And even then, he did not know a whole lot about her. He also knew a fair amount about Claire, who had told him some things about her home in one of the central regions of the UNNCA.

He at least knew some things about his squad in regards to combat. Joel and Teala were like twins in a way, having the exact same fighting style of hit hard, hit once. They both liked aggression, and were comfortable up close to the enemy. Anten was extremely flexible, being able to use his cybernetic ability to control the battle, regardless of the situation. Kyle was insanely good with a rifle, being able to hit things through the smallest of gaps. As for the others, they were servicable, and although Gus did not know what niche role they could fill he felt that he would be able to learn that in time.

It was important that his choice of strategy would not be one that was forced to change by the layout, so he decided to go with a loose strategy for now, one that dealt in the overall scenario.

Kyle would be as far back as possible, in a spot that did not deny him access to vision across the arena. So, preferably, he would be in an elevated position, or something else that was similar. Next would need to be Anten. It was a mistake putting him so far forward, and losing the utility of his cybernetics. Instead, Gus wanted to try keeping him back, so that he could control the arena with his swarm.

The furthest forward would be Joel and Teala. At the front was where they thrived, and was also where they could make the most of their cybernetics. As for everyone else, their positioning would be dependent on the terrain of the arena, as well as what the opposing team looked like.

While not an entirely ideal strategy, it was one that was workable with the information available to Gus. While it would need adaptation, later on, the outline of what he had made Gus feel a little more confident.

They gathered outside the house at the same time as the previous week. Just like before, they saw the squad that was to be their opponents outside, waiting in the same spot as them.

While he recognised a couple of the faces in the group, he could not place any of their names. However, it seemed Teala knew who they were, if the sombre expression she wore was of any note. Gus raised a questioning eyebrow toward her, which she answered with a raised finger, telling him to wait a moment.

Shortly, the vehicles arrived to take them to the arena. Surprisingly to Gus, Jet was once again in charge of taking the Reapers to the arena. Once inside, Teala began to tell Gus what she knew.

"This one is going to be tricky," she said.

"You know them?" Gus asked.

"Not really," she replied, shaking her head. "Obviously, I've seen them in classes and whatnot, but I've never really spoken to them before. But, I have overheard some thing about them. They call themselves the Ironforged. As the name might have suggested, they all have at least one major cybernetic, like my arms, not something like Joel's bots or Anten's swarm."

"We should be fine though, right? It's not like they can just bombard us with attacks or anything," Claire said.

"I'm not too sure, assuming they have ranged things, they could easily use rubber bullets or something to distract us, or use smoke in launchers instead of grenades," Emmy replied. "Plus, it's not like they can't just move the terrain to fit what they want to do."

"Either way, we stick to our plan and we'll win," Gus said.

"We have a plan?" Connor asked.

"We will."