- Reapers vs Ironforged, Round One

Warning alarms, signalling the release of a payload so destructive it could shatter entire worlds, rang out across the ship. Despite the impossibly long distance between the ship and its target, the missiles crashed into the opposing ship within seconds.

"Multiple confirmed hits along the hull of the enemy's ship," called a voice from the front of the bridge. "Should we advance?"

"Negative," she replied, glancing down at her wrist. "Send in the Angel's Wings, that alone should suffice."

"You know, you can go and watch it if you want to," came a voice from her direct right. "The battle's practically over. We'll clean it up."

She grappled with the decision for a moment. It would be wrong of any leader to abandon the fight and her people for something that was happening an immense amount of space away, much less one of her stature. But at the same time, it was not just anything, and he was not just anyone, at least not to her.

"Call me if anything happens. Immediately."

***

The arena was drastically different this time. The main difference was that it was a lot more open than it was last time, especially around the centre of the arena where the flag stood. On either end of the arena, near both entrance doors, as well as to the left and the right hand sides were tall watchtowers. The supporting legs of the towers consisted of thick metal, with thinner pieces of metal between them. Looking up at them, Gus figured one would have a good view of the entire area from being on top of them, save for a couple of spots behind different pieces of terrain.

Small paths led from the foot of the towers to the centre, forming a cross on the arena until the open space of the flag. There were small crates contained in a chained fence on both the immediate left and right of Gus and the others, providing some kind of cover. They were mirrored on the other side of the arena, although the boxes were different.

Moving around so that the foot of the towers were visible to Gus, he saw that there were small crates and chests dotted around by the tower. They were smaller than the boxes that cluttered the main point of the arena, and looked more like munitions boxes.

"Kyle," Gus said. "Up the tower. Be our eyes, use the comm devices to give us information."

"Got it," Kyle answered. "It'll be just like home. Except, y'know, not a tree."

'Just like home?' Gus thought. 'Whose home is like this?'

A klaxon sounded overhead, and the round began. Immediately, Kyle scurried up the ladder and into the top of the watchtower.

"We've got three lanes here. One centre, and the other two running next to the other towers," he said, speaking into his communication device. "There are a few blindspots up here for sure, might be worth sending a couple of people to secure a second tower. We might also be able to get people up onto… wait."

"What is it?" Gus asked.

"They're playing it fast," Kyle said. "I can't see anything. There's too much smoke around the middle of the arena."

Gus, who had been facing the tower, quickly spun around. Looking down the small lane that led to the flag, he could see nothing.

"Damn," he muttered. He had hoped that the first round would not go so quickly this time, but instead it felt a little bit faster. The only difference was, this was no blind rush designed to catch them off guard. This was calculated, using a lot of the utility Gus had expected after being told about the Ironforged in an instant move.

'They probably have it already,' he thought.

"Joel, Anten, with me," Gus said, moving to the left. "Connor, take the rest to the right tower. Have someone go up it."

Cautiously, they moved to the tower, their focus on the opposite side of the arena and the space in the middle. Unsurprisingly, no one appeared to challenge their movement.

"They're back on their side," Kyle said through the comm device. "I can just see them over the smoke. They have some kind of shield thing, a full body one, too. And they also have the flag."

"Connor," Gus said. "Get someone up into the tower. I was hoping to take the arena before going to retake it, but it sounds like we have no chance by this point. We know that the elimination differential plays a factor into our points, so let's just play to pick off a few of them."

Once he was finished speaking, he made his way up the ladder to the watchtower. The room in the top of the watchtower was fairly spacious, and gave him options of where to look out at the arena below. Looking towards the side belonging to the Ironforged, he could see that he had an angle onto a couple of them, but most were obscured by the fenced off boxes. Oddly enough, he noted that they had not decided to put anyone into their tower, instead relying on what seemed like a turtling strategy at the foot of the tower.

Judging from the amount he could see, he figured that both Kyle and whoever was in the tower opposite would each be able to hit a few. If all things went well, then they would be able to get a very high differential here. Who knows, maybe they'd even get a round win off the back of it.

"Anten, give us a swarm on top of them. Hopefully that will draw a couple out. Kyle, whoever is in the other tower, be ready. We need to hammer them with fire. If Kyle was right, then we can easily consider the flag lost. Just try to take out as many of them as we can until they get the capture victory. Who knows, if we're lucky, we might just eek out a win here."

"Got it," Anten replied. "Releasing swarm."

"On me."

"Fire!"