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Chapter Two: First Engagements

Human Guild Base Zone 4

Bordraab looks around at the three tanks holding formation with him as he drives. It had taken most of the industrial resources K had to spare to get these three tanks upgraded beyond the basics that the industrial section of the guild had given him. But, then again, Bordraab knows that Kthla's loyalties are to him and not to the guild. He'd known K for years after all! Far longer than the guild had even been alive for.

Each of the M60A3 tanks had a covering of ERA and had upgraded engine power. Now all he needs to do is get the tankers to be able to operate the tanks without thinking about it consciously. This patrol was just a part of it. He blinks as his minimap shows two red icons. “All DMZ patrol tanks, halt. We have hostiles." He says, stopping his tank and focusing forward, getting the gun to match where he is looking as it normally would. The tanks stop…slowly. Too slowly. Bordraab sighs.

“I…I see them! Looks like…is that a T62?" Asks one of the noobs. “Good, you should be able to handle it no problem then." Bordraab says, then blinks, a third and fourth blip had appeared. Two smaller armored targets. “Alright, they've got APC's with them." He says. “Three, Four, you will both take a T62. Two, you and I will each kill an APC. I'll take the one on the right." He says. “Three, you take the center tank. Four, the left one. Prepare to fire when they come in range." He says. He could see them now, dark shapes in the distant tree line moving quickly. They were drawing closer….closer….

“FIRE!" Bordraab calls. With a loud CRACK, the 105mm cannon spews flame as the shell races downrange, the HEAT round slamming into the BMP to the right of a T62 and exploding it. He scans the battlefield. One T62 was still standing…as was the other BMP. He starts traversing towards one of the T62s, “I hit it!" Calls out two. Bordraab sighs. “What with? It's still moving!"

“I hit it with an AP round! Does the most damage." Two replies.

“Does the most damage to TANKS. Not APCs. Re-engage with HEAT rounds." As Bordraab speaks, the T62 returns fire, the round detonating on the armor of the number 3 tank. The ERA does as advertised, exploding out as the shaped charge round hits the armor, negating the explosion of the shaped charge. Three and four both fire at once, hitting the T62 and causing the turret to rip off as the internal ammunition cooks off from the twin impacts of AP rounds. Two finally fires a HEAT-T round and it races downrange, slamming into the remaining BMP and exploding it.

Bordraab sighs again. The BMP had offloaded its troops, and 6 men were firing RPGs at them. The shots were missing, but still! ERA was expensive to replace. “All tanks, switch to MGs and take that infantry." He says. Not more than two seconds later, 3 fires its main gun, ripping two of the infantry to shreds. “I SAID MGS!" Bordraab calls over the radio as the two other M60's unload their machine guns on the infantry, shredding them.

Five minutes later, all his tankers are standing outside their tanks and at attention in front of their tanks. They had gone to the wrecks and collected whatever loot they could from both the dead vehicles and the bags that show where the troops had died. Bordraab stomps over to 3's driver. “When I say MACHINE GUNS, private, I mean MACHINE GUNS. Not HE, not HEAT, MACHINE GUNS. Get it?!" He yells, jabbing the guy in the chest with his finger with each weapon he lists. The boy gulps and nods. “Yes sir, Leiutenant Bordraab sir!" He cries out. “Good." Bordraab says, lowering his voice a bit and stepping back. “The cost of that round you wasted on the infantry is coming out of your cut of the loot. Now everyone mount up. We're heading back."

With that, Bordraab spins and heads to his tank, sighing. He seems to be doing a lot of that recently but this platoon was still way too green. No way would they let him join in on the skirmishing against the Fantasy idiots. He gets on his radio once in the tank. “Yo, K! Warm up your repair center, we're rolling back in and some of the ERA needs replacing. My greenies don't know how to spread fire, even though I spelled it out for them, and the expected mobs got a few shots back at us."

“Will do, it'll be spooled up and waiting when you get back." Kthla responds.

Outside Alaria, Fantasy Faction Territory

Rias had not been idle these last two weeks. She and her small party had gotten a LOT stronger in the interim and had even got another melee player, a nice looking male panther who wields a battle axe. Named Elias, the big panther was huge, about six foot tall, with broad shoulders. He's a blacksmith in training and uses the axe because it reminds him of the hammer. They walk down the trail from the city, looking around. “Come on, all I've seen are these little puissant level 10 monsters. Where are the fifteens?" Elias asks no one in particular as they walk along. “Who knows…" Rias says, sighing as they walk along.

They'd been searching for about a half hour now. They want to go up to level 15 monsters because the level 10 ones are too easy to destroy now. They need the bigger monsters so they can level up, and Elias needs them so he can start up blacksmithing, the level 15s drop some loot that can be used to forge things. “Well, hopefully it won't be too much longer. I mean, come on, I need…wait!" He says, catching a glimpse of an icon on his minimap, which looks like a crumpled up old style hand drawn map, that he had been hoping for! “Woo! I see an iron deposit on my minimap!" He says, looking around. “Thata way!" He says. The group, smiling at actually having a bit of progress for a change, starts off in that direction.

It takes another five minutes, but they find the iron deposit. “Well…this isn't good." Miya says, looking at the field. A pair of level 17 salamanders were there, walking around, puffing smoke and looking ready to belch fire at the slightest provocation. Rias rubs her chin. “Yeah…hmmm. We can cast fire shield, but if we do this, it has to be fast and hard." She says. Elias snorts and Rias gives him a stern look, causing him to look away innocently. Rias and Akeno both focus, bringing up their magic and casting a buff against fire damage. “Alright, if you and Miya could keep them back, we can focus our magic on them one at a time. Akeno, let's try ice spells. They are glowing orange so maybe if we cool them down some, one of them can get a critical hit." Rias says.

Miya and Elias nod, then head out into the open, catching the attention of both of those enemies. They charge, guards up, and sure enough, the salamanders breathe fire at them. They block the fire, and from behind them, twin bolts of ice race out at the salamander facing Miya, pelting it, cooling it down. The ice shards just keep coming, rapid firing at the foe until it seems to harden up some. Elias, seeing the opportunity, yells out “Switch with me!" Miya switches places with him, parrying a blow from the salamander. Elias yells as he closes on the hardened up salamander, taking his axe in both hands, the weapon glowing as his own magic infuses it. “Hammer blow!" He calls out, then slams his axe down on the salamander. Sure enough, he called it straight. The salamander splits as if it were solid rock. The two parts shatter into shards and disappear, leaving a bag on the ground.

“Akeno! The next one. Let's freeze it!" Rias yells out. Akeno nods to her and the two spellcasters focus on the beast, blue magic swirling in their hands. They both throw them, dragonball z style. Miya, who had been listening, jumps out of the way as she feels the spells cast, the twin balls of ice element magic slamming into the salamander, enveloping it, freezing solid over it. The ice cracks and falls away, the salamander turning more black than red. Elias strikes this one too, splitting it like he did the last one. It breaks and shatters just like the last one, leaving behind a loot bag.

“I told you, you can lead when it counts." Akeno says to Rias, who had taken charge without even realizing it. Rias smiles and nods. “Let's see what loot we have." She says, walking forward as Elias pulls out his pick, happy and whistling as he starts to harvest the iron ore. Again, Rias is overjoyed that the experience is given out in a 'by hit' fashion. You hit a target, you get experience for it. She heard that for the human faction, experience is rewarded differently, but she can't worry about that right now.

“By the way, Elias?" Akeno says, smiling innocently, “Why did you call out the name of the skill when you attacked?" Elias stops whistling for a half second, his tail twitching this way and that, then he just starts whistling louder and harvests more furiously. Rias looks at Akeno for a moment before both of them start to laugh.

Guild Base Zone 4

Bordraab sighs, this time in pleasure, as he lays back on his comfortable chair and kicks his feet up. It's been a long, hard day of training. All things considered, his new tankers didn't perform that badly. He remembers how he was on his first few games of World of Tanks, when he first started learning the basics of driving a tank and fighting one. Just his luck to get a bunch of tankers who did NOT play World of Tanks or Armored Warfare before deciding to play tanks here. They had driven tanks in Battlefield and thought it was enough. Still, they were coming along nicely, even if he did have to bust Three's balls over disobeying orders.

He notices a blinking red light on his desk where his console is and goes over, clicking it on. The message screen pops up showing there is guild news. He taps the 'News' tab and it expands out to several new tabs, with general headlines underneath. He ignores those and clicks on the 'MEU News' tab and looks over the stories. “How to Care for Your Weapon" and “Shooting 101" are something that bring a smile to his face. “Keep pounding in those basics guys." He says to the air. These new guys need all the advice they can get. He hmms and clicks on 'First Skirmishes, First Impressions'.

The first skirmishes in Terra Nova happened yesterday, with the 1st Armored Division from the Human faction taking on the Knights of the Blood Oath from the Fantasy faction. The battle was intense, the Knights managed to destroy three Cobra attack helicopters, five Huey helicopters, and an F4 Phantom with their own aerial force of Gryphons and Drakes. Word for our Helicopter pilots: The Fantasy side's air power has a lot more HP than your vehicle does. Use hit and run tactics. Door gunners should aim for the body and backs of incoming Gryphons to try to take out the pilot or the harness. For our fighter jockeys, the Drakes are slightly slower than your Phantoms, but they can maneuver faster and their pilots can launch a kind of homing spell that tracks as well as any missile. Practice your dogfighting!

On to the ground fighting. As we predicted, 1st Armored troops were able to knock out many of the enemy forces while they advanced on them. Swordsmen don't have much ranged defense, though their mages did shield them pretty well. When the swordsmen got up close, though, their boys faced a lot of trouble. The swordsmen were able to cut down a lot of troopers before they were forced back. The thing that forced the swordsmen back in the end was the resolution of an armored battle. M60 tanks defeated the battle creatures of the mage side after suffering several losses. For 20 enemy beasts downed, the 1st Armored lost 12 tanks. The freeing up of the armored forces, combined with the fact that the mages were under artillery fire, caused the Fantasy generals to pull their swordsmen back from the engagement. The match ended in a draw, with no side gaining the territory that was fought over.

In another skirmish, the Ironsides from the Human faction fought against the American Knights from the Fantasy faction in an infantry slug fest supported by helicopters. The American Knights charged on the backs of their mounts, infantry trailing behind them. Rocket fire from the Ironsides infantry combined with a Cobra helicopter attack on the flanks drove the American Knights back, and the counterstrike by the Ironsides quickly overwhelmed their defenses. The Ironsides gained that land that was under contest and the resources therein.

It seems that the Fantasy faction and the Human faction are well balanced against each other. There are no obvious weaknesses in either side. Generals only need to take advantage of what they see on the battlefield.

Bordraab taps the 'Real World' tab and looks at some of the story headlines. 'FOX News – Terra Nova Death Toll Rises' and 'CNN – Terra Nova Families' Spirits Rise After Broadcast of First Skirmish' catch his eye and he reads over both of them, starting with the news about the death toll rising.

As we enter into the third week of the Terra Nova incident, the death toll is still rising. With nearly 10,000 dead around the globe we are all left with questions. How could this have happened? Why did these unfortunate souls have to die? When will this be over?

In an effort to answer these questions, this reporter has gone to the source, Virtual Gaming Inc. The developers of the game are actually in the game themselves, playing as players. Obviously, questioning these people was out of the picture. VGI has confirmed, however, that those developers have been moved into government containment to await trial when the incident draws to a close. The company once again….

Bordraab scrolls down quickly until he reaches a paragraph that looks slightly more interesting.

The company's software team has said that there are two AI's in the system. One of them governs the Non Player Character, or NPC, economy as well as the actions of those non player characters. This AI has a very strict set of orders in how to perform its task and is also programmed to adapt to player behaviors in order to fulfill its purpose in supplying the players with their basic necessities in game as well as low quality gear.

The other AI is the one known as the “He Who Is" program. The name of the program, used with permission from an author who initially used the name to describe a fictional 'God of Darkness', accurately describes its function. It is programmed to run the enemy faction in the game, the Endarkened. It learns the player behavior and reacts accordingly, launching attacks on specific areas in accordance with a system generated level amount. Its goal is to win the game by annihilating the players. It does so by controlling a number of hostile NPC characters, known in game as 'Bots' by the players.

Right now, the Endarkened are held in check by the Beta Test players, known in the game as 'Betas', and cannot attack into territory cities, major cities in the various sections in the game. Many of the Beta Testers know this and hopefully this information will allow them to come up with a strategy to defeat the AI.

Red hmms, stroking his chin. There was an AI controlling the bots in the game? Huh, how about that. He thought each bot mob just had a way of engaging unique to themselves…or was that just the local bots? He would hopefully be able to find more information on that someday. He skips reading the rest of the story and goes back, clicking on the Skirmishes story from CNN.

In Terra Nova the player guilds participated in what is known in game as 'Skirmishing', in which the player guilds, mostly Beta Tester run, engage each other in mock combat over control of a specific land and its resources. While not all of the resources can be used by each faction in the game, the players view it as a badge of pride to own land and control its use, as such land can be built upon and certain resources exploited.

The guilds that engaged in battle showed great skill in battle. Since these battles were broadcast on the internet, many families watched them live and were cheered by their loved ones' performances.

“I was really impressed. I had thought that the tech stuff would beat down the magic stuff." Said Ilene Burke, a wife to one of the guild leaders currently stuck in the game. “They really showed their stuff! If they keep this up, hopefully they'll clear the game soon."

While it is unknown how soon the game can be cleared, the players themselves seemed confident, showing off skills learned in Major League Gaming. Many of the tactics used in Major League Gaming were used in the skirmishing, with players getting kill combos and points for combos. A total of five matches happened yesterday and appeared evenly split. There were two Fantasy faction victories, one Human faction victory, and a draw.

Bordraab strokes his chin again. This was good. Keeping up morale back home was always, ALWAYS a good thing! He smiles. Hopefully his mom watched that battle, and his sister. They'd need the boost. He looks up as a clicking on the base intercom comes up. Still, the news about the skirmishes wasn't unexpected. The Human faction infantry was REALLY vulnerable to Fantasy faction attack in melee. A win and a draw against two wins was not 'almost even' in his book. He opens up his skill tree and starts to look at it, thinking carefully.

“Attention, attention. All 1st MEU personnel. It's come to our attention that some RL hackers have gotten a way for us to send out emails to our families. A message to all guild leaders on both sides read, “We managed to make it so your personal messaging system in game can send messages to email addresses in the real world and receive messages from those same email addresses. Since the core designers are in game and VGI is working with us, we'll continue to work until you can send voice messages, then video messages, then voice and video calls." All troops, orders from General Nifka are to stop what you're doing and email your families immediately. That is all."

Bordraab smiles and does just that, all previous thoughts gone as he starts flicking his menu over to personal messages and typing in his mother's email address and sending off a message. “Hey mom. I'm alive and well. We'll finish this up soon as we can and head on home. Love you." With that done, he heads to his bed. Stopping just before it, he brings his inventory up and unequips everything. Standing there naked (no one has made any underwear or pajamas in game yet), he quickly gets into bed and curls up under the covers to escape the chill in the room, quickly falling asleep for the night.

Alaria, Fantasy Territory

Rias sighs as she comes into the room in the inn for the night. She had taken a nice, hot bath and was now getting ready for bed herself, unknowingly doing the same thing that Bordraab was doing in his guild base nearly fifty miles away, across the DeMilitarized Zone, or DMZ, that separates the two factions' major cities.

Making the walls and barbed wire that were at the Berlin Wall and the DMZ between North and South Korea look like boys playing war in a wooded area between their tree houses, the DMZ was massive, with sloped walls and gun towers holding artillery cannons, mages who could hurl bolts as powerful as artillery shells, and enough firepower to decimate any attacking force. It looked more suited to the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Still, they did their job. Civilians from both sides don't interact, the militaries don't clash, and peace is maintained.

As Rias lays down in bed and pulls up the blankets over her naked flesh, she looks out the window at the stars in the sky and smiles. The stars here were just as beautiful as the ones in real life. She can even see the Milky Way since the light pollution in real life isn't here. She sighs happily, a good meal, a hot bath, a splendid view, all after a day of leveling up that got them enough loot to be able to afford to sleep indoors. Doesn't get much better than this!

Just as Rias is about to fall asleep, however, she hears a light thumping against the wall. It's going in a steady rhythm. What is that? Was someone hammering something? This late at night? She hears a soft moan and starts blushing furiously. Someone WAS hammering something this late at night…

Guild Base Zone 4

The loud blasting of air raid sirens causes Bordraab to bolt upright in bed. The sirens were going off? That could only mean one thing! The sound of jet engines going to full power confirms that assumption of his as two F4 Phantoms streak up into the sky. Bordraab jumps out of bed and rushes to his closet, getting into his clothes and checking on his platoon while doing so. They were all now fully lit up instead of the grey that would indicate they are asleep. It was much easier to simply stay in a platoon with your team mates all the time than to disband the group after each fight.

“Sir, what's going on?!" Calls up his number 2 tank. “Get to your vehicles immediately!" Bordraab responds back. “The sirens mean the base is about to be under attack or already is. Now MOVE!" He yells, and takes off running himself. He sees his platoon in the hall way as he runs. As they burst out of the barracks, other platoons of tanks behind them, they can all hear gunfire in the distance. There are even some explosions. Bordraab looks up as a fighter comes streaking in on the far side of the runway. As it flies over, the horizon lights up bright orange as the F4's napalm blasts to life. He can't see what they're bombing from here, but it must be a large force if napalm is being used.

Together with the entire company, Bordraab bursts into the vehicle depot and quickly heads to his M60A3. As he does, the General sends messages to all troops over their comm links. “This is Base Actual. Alright men, listen up. A large horde of zombies is attacking our perimeter. All infantry, man your base defense stations and prepare to engage. Tankers, as soon as you are ready, deploy in formation. Our Phantoms are bombing the zombie horde but it won't keep them back for long. It will, however, keep them back long enough for you all to get into positions. Base Actual out."

Bordraab leaps into his tank and starts it up at once, listening to the engine rev. His NPC crew members go through the process of starting the tank and run through the checklist. “Engine OK! Steering controls functioning!" Calls out the driver. “Gun sights ok. Laser range finder checks out as functioning." Calls out the gunner. “Loader, load HE." Bordraab says, the gunner responding. “Loading HE." Six seconds later he responds with “HE up!"

“Driver, move out!" Bordraab calls, the key phrase to turn the tank's controls over to the player. Now it was like playing Armored Warfare or World of Tanks. He drives the tank out and looks around without moving the turret. “Two, Three, form up on my right. Four, on my left. We'll move in arrowhead until we reach defense point B2." He says, directing them towards the defensive position that was pinged on his map by the General. “We have a zombie horde out there. No futher info at this time. This could only be the first move by the Endarkened, but that's just me." He says

“All units, stand by for SITREP." Comes the intelligence officer over the command circuit just as Bordraab's force enters into its defensive position. Bordraab quickly links it in to the platoon frequency so his troops can hear. “Zombie horde numbers in the thousands but appears vulnerable to conventional weapons fire at all points on its body. As usual, headshots do double the damage, but you can kill them by damaging the body. Phantoms are overhead and have additional napalm but they are being engaged by airborne enemies, type unknown, so don't count on them. Standard ROE is not in effect. Order of battle will be as follows. Tanks and APC's will engage enemy at maximum range with HE and HMG fire. As the enemy comes into range of small arms, infantry will open fire." Bordraab blinks at this and pops the hatch on his tank, getting his head and torso out of the commander's copula and looking up. There was an air battle going on?

Sure enough, it looks like the Phantoms are engaged with some kind of Drake in the air. It's as fast as the Phantoms, but it doesn't have any homing weapons capability. He sees one of those drakes fire off some kind of beam at a Phantom, which pulls hard up and evades the beam. A second Phantom streaks in, firing a missile that detonates on the beast. As it roars in pain, the beast bursts into flame and falls from the sky.

“Enemy spotted." Comes the call over the command net, drawing his eyes back down. The horizon is filled, absolutely filled, with zombies. Bordraab feels his mouth dry up. Oh shit… He thinks. That's a lot of zombies. Can we really stop them all? He draws up his courage and takes hold of the M2 Browning .50 cal machine gun. The company commander radios in the open fire order and he pushes down on the firing mechanism. The entire horizon starts to light up as tracer rounds, spaced out every five rounds in the belts of the big .50 cal machine guns, race out from each tank and APC, racing into the zombie horde. Body parts fly off the zombies and shatter into millions of shards as the rounds hit home, tearing the zombies apart as they advance on them. With an order, Bordraab's tank fires a HE round at the nearest zombie, a good 800 yards away, detonating in the horde and sending entire bodies flying into the air, many of them bursting and evaporating away. More explosions blossom up inside the zombie horde as it advances, but they just keep coming.

After a few more minutes, the smaller guns in the tank would be in range. Bordraab takes the time to designate fields of fire for the coaxial mounted 7.62mm machine gun. “Platoon, make sure to designate fields of fire for your coax." He calls over the platoon frequency. Bordraab groans as his platoon ceases firing, along with several other platoons, to designate out the sections of fire for directly in front of the tank.

Soon, the infantry opens fire with their small arms and the secondary weapons on the M60s and T62s start to fire as well. Most of the tanks fire directly in front of them, with only a few having their turrets rotate slightly to fire in a cone in front of the tank. Bordraab was one of the latter. His tank's turret sways back and forth as it fires, raking a cone in front of him with machine gun fire.

As they keep firing, one of the drakes from overhead swoops in low and lets out a burst of fire. An APC detonates, the fireball racing up into the sky and dropping burning wreckage on the infantry nearby. Most of them are able to get away from the burning vehicle, one or two weren't so lucky. A Phantom swoops down low after the Drake, firing its cannon. The rounds punch right into the back of the beast, the second or two of firing putting several hundred 30mm shells into the creature's back. It slams into the ground and skids to a halt, then bursts into a thousand fragments which evaporate away as the F4 sweeps overhead and climbs back into the sky.

After twenty minutes of hectic fighting, the zombie horde is defeated. Bordraab leans back against the copula and sighs out his relief. The Phantoms had taken out the airborne threat and finally had been able to come in on bombing runs with their napalm, burning the remaining zombies to dust. With the end of the battle, a small screen pops up in front of him. “Raid cleared." It says, along with an experience and loot readout on the bottom. Bordraab grins and pushes ok, then settles back inside his tank, sealing up the hatch. The sun was just starting to come up, meaning that soon, it would be time to counterattack.

Dallas, Texas

Stella had been getting ready for work when news of the battles at the various player bases across the game came in. Most of the player casualties were light, He Who Is had sent waves of slow moving zombies at the player bases to see if it could overwhelm them with sheer waves of bodies. Most of the casualties had been on the fantasy side, players who had eagerly rushed out to fight the zombies and had died after being surrounded. The Human faction did exceptionally well, killing the zombie hordes with only twenty casualties total, and five deaths.

Stella had been overjoyed last night to receive an email from her son. She had read it five times before she was able to read it out loud to her daughter with a steady voice. Emily had been just as happy as she was, and had immediately gone to where her brother was lying to kiss him gently on the chin. “Big dummy…" she had said, “Worrying us like this. Hurry up and beat the game so you can come home."

Now there was this battle. The news was playing footage of the battles that happened during the night, showing both Fantasy and Human sides. The fantasy side looked dull until you zoomed in and saw the swordsmen cutting down their slow moving, easy to kill adversaries. The Human battles, now they had been something to see. The humans had larger hordes sent after them and it was amazing to see the streams of tracers racing out into the hordes and the lines of napalm bust to life. It would have been cool…were there not REAL lives on the line. Her son also hadn't died during the night so she knows he was not one of those killed.

“Emily!" She calls out. “Time to go to school! You'll miss the bus!" She says, looking at the news again as the reporter goes over the fighting in more detail and then starts talking about how the hacker group known as 'The Leftovers' had managed to allow the players in game to communicate with those outside the game through the same inlet that allowed players to see the real world news.

Alaria, Fantasy faction territory

Rias wakes up with a yawn and stretches out, groaning as she feels the various pops that happen when you wake up in the morning. First good sleep in a long time! She gets up out of bed and uses a flick of her fingers and a bit of her magic to fix her hair to perfection. She smiles at that, this was SO much easier than using a comb, and gets dressed. She opens the door and immediately Akeno grabs her. “Come on! There's news!" She says, running along and dragging Rias along until she can keep step. They run straight to the town center and access the billboard. The main headline immediately brightens her day. “SMASHING VICTORY! Endarkened Driven Back from Attack on Guild Bases". She immediately opens up the story and reads about how the zombies had attacked during the night, and the various Beta guilds had beaten them soundly.

“They're just bots. They act predictably. Once you figure out what they do and how they do it, they never deviate from it." Said one of the Fantasy guild leaders. He was right too. Even if an AI runs things, it does tend to fall into predictable patterns. Rias turns to Akeno, all smiles, and the two hug each other. “Alright! One step closer to going home!" They say almost as one.

Guild Base Zone 4

“Please be seated." Says General Nifka as they all come into the briefing room. Bordraab looks around and then settles down onto a seat. As soon as everyone is seated, the General starts up his briefing. “We've been in contact with the guilds in the neighboring area. Starting tomorrow, we will be doing a major offensive against the Endarkened. The goal of this operation is to bring an end to the game as quickly as possible so we can all go home to our families." He says. “I am confident, as are the other generals, that we can defeat this AI quickly. With nothing but bots and no actual players controlling the enemy's units, we should be able to sweep them aside by the hundreds, just like in any of the MMORPGs you've played in the past."

There are nods all around the table, including Bordraab. Bots have never been all that difficult to beat in comparison with actual players. Not in an MMO such as this game. He is also looking forward to getting back to the real world.

“We've gotten some indications that the Fantasy faction is planning their own attack on the Endarkened. Pretty much, it's a race. See who can wipe them out first. Winners get bragging rights. We will defeat this enemy and show the community that the Betas can get the job done." Nifka looks at all of his commanders. “Keep in mind this is the first battle in a long campaign that will probably last no longer than a month." He says. “This first battle is going to show everyone, including our families and the people sitting in town leveling up slowly, that the game can be beaten! Now…here's the battle plan."