The Plan

"We're going to fight them?" I asked, bewildered. "Aren't we outnumbered, like, three to one?"

"Hehe," Teddy snickered. I had a feeling he was waiting for me to ask this question. "TerraCon has a very unique game mechanic that most of the players refer to as 'The Great Equalizer.'"

"That sounds a bit ostentatious, doesn't it?" I commented.

"Eh, I didn't come up with it." He continued, "Simply put, it's a one-shot headshot mechanic."

"You're going to have to go simpler," I said.

"Yeah, I figured. In other words, every player in the game, regardless of level, skill, or equipment, will die if they receive a single point of damage in the cranial region of their character model."

I took a second to process his words. "So, for example, even as a level 1player, I could kill a level 100 player using the weakest weapon in the game so long as I shot him in the head."

"Well, the current level cap is level 60, but yeah. That's basically it."

"I'm not a game developer, but doesn't that seem a bit counterproductive in terms of building a lasting player base?" I opined. "If there's no difference in, I don't know if there's a word for it, but 'capacity' or 'ability potential' between a level 1 player and a level 65 player, then what incentive is there to level up?"

"Wow. Look at you and your Ivy League brain," said Teddy. "You pick up on some things pretty quick."

"Hey!" I snipped back indignantly.

"That was meant to be a compliment, silly. But actually, I had the same conversation with a friend studying game design. Long story short, you're right in theory, but the fact that TerraCon is thriving is proof that they have compensated for that. This is actually a really cool topic in game design theory, but let's not go into it during an impending firefight, alright?"

"Yeah, good point," I glanced around the hallway before asking, "So what's the plan? Hide and shoot them in the head when they come in looking for us?"

"Flawless strategy, General Eisenhower," Teddy said with a touch of sarcasm. "While getting headshots is the most efficient way of killing an enemy, it is quite difficult to land said headshots. Especially if the target is moving and shooting back at you. No, I've got a better plan. First, press M. That opens up your map."

I did as I was told and soon found myself looking at a map of the area. The map was oriented northward. The area seen stretched from slightly beyond the campus on the hill on the right to what looked like a highway across the river on the left. The map was colored, but very minimalistic. The grid pattern of the downtown area was much more pronounced in the map. I could only see the layout of the streets and large landmarks like the river. At the very center of the map were two isosceles triangles. One was yellow. The other was blue.

"The scroll wheel lets you zoom. Click and drag with the left mouse button to move the map. Click and drag with the middle mouse button to rotate. The more you zoom, the more detailed the map becomes. At max zoom, you'll be able to see buildings and such. If you're inside a building or some structure, you can press L to switch to the floor plan of the building. If there are multiple floors or levels, you can cycle through them with C and V."

"Furthermore, the triangles you see are you and me. When you join a party, you are automatically assigned a color that lets you differentiate between members. Normally, your triangle would just be white. You can find out who's who by either mousing over the arrow, or looking at the color of the tab in front of their name in the HUD. I'm yellow, you're blue."

"This...," Teddy started. The inverted teardrop marker appeared on my map. This time, however, it had the number one on it. "is a map marker. You can place it on your map by right-clicking. Right click again to remove it. You can place up to nine markers simultaneously. These markers can still be seen when you're looking through the HUD. You get all that?"

"Yes sir," I obediently uttered as I played around with the map, zooming in and out and randomly dropping map markers.

"Stop dropping the markers. I can see them the same way you can see mine," Teddy scolded. Chastised, I removed them.

"The snipers and one of the cleanup squad are here and here." Yellow markers 1 and 2 appeared on the map as Teddy spoke. "The first order of business is to find out how many more we're up against. So pay attention. The plan is..."

******

A sniper rested prone on the eleventh floor of a highrise building. He was thoroughly focused on the building about two hundred meters away. With one hand, he moved the mouse, checking the building window by window, floor by floor. With the other, he reached into a bag of potato chips on his desk and stuffed a handful into his mouth.

"Crunch, crunch, crunch." The chips were met with a loud and brutal fate between the sniper's mandibles. The sniper's forceful chewing reverberated through his skull, directly into his eardrums, rendering his custom HyperT Cloud gaming headset's noise-canceling feature useless. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he wiped his hand on his sweatpants as to not dirty his mechanical keyboard. Then he pressed the ` key.

"Kkshh," he pursed his lips and blew through his teeth to imitating the sound of radio static. "This is Archer, initiating party radio check. Copy? Over."

"Kkshh, this is Saber. Lima Charlie. Over."

"Kkshh, this is Rider. Lima Charlie. Over."

"Kkshh, this is Assassin. Lima Charlie. Over."

"Kkshh, this is actually retarded. Can we please just talk like normal people?"

"Kkshh, this is Berserker. Lima Charlie. Archer, permission to redesignate Caster's callsign to Major Killjoy for the duration of the op. Over."

"Kkshh, Archer, amendment to Berserker's suggestion. Redesignate Caster's callsign to Shinji. Over."

The ones not using push-to-talk let laughter trickle through their mics. Archer himself snickered before answering. "Kkshh, permission granted, Saber. Caster has been redesignated to Shinji."

"Ughh. Why do I play with you gay weeaboos?"

"Kkshh, says the man who's gamertag is 'Todoroki_no_Kokoroki.' Pot calling the kettle black much? Over."

"Kkshh, oohhh, she's got you there, Shinji. Over."

"Oh shut your trap, Silver. No matter how much you side with and flatter Kanna, she's never going to fu-"

"Cough, cough," Archer cleared his throat into the mic, interrupting Todoroki_no_Kokoroki a.k.a. Shinji. "Kkshh, sitrep. Tango, designation Bravo and Charlie are currently inside the dormitory. Last seen third floor, west face, fifth window from the north wall. Any changes? Over." He pressed Z, pinging the aforementioned window.

"Kkshh, watching the east side entrance. No changes. Over."

"Kkshh, Saber here, watching south side entrance. No changes. Over."

"I'm right next to you so if you didn't see anything, then I didn't see anything. Over." Heavy sarcasm stressed the "over."

"Kkshh, I'm in the building across the north road. I see the window. No changes. Still haven't located Tango Alpha. Over."

"Kkshh, Berserker at the west entrance. Nothing to report. Over."

"Kkshh, Rider, continuing to keep a lookout for Tango Alpha. The second-floor windows on the bank are intact. She's definitely still in the bank somewhere. Copy? Over."

"Kkshh, understood, Archer. Charlie Mike. Over."

"Kkshh, Saber, Berserker, Assassin. You three will breach the dorm. Assassin, go from the top. Saber, Berserker, sweep and clear from the bottom floor by floor. Cas- Shinji and I will keep overwatch. Copy? Over."

"Kkshh, affirmative copy. Assassin, out."

"Kkshh, roger that. Berserker, out."

"Kkshh, Sabre, Oscar Mike, out."

"Yeah, yeah. I got it. Sit here and keep on sniping."

"Kkshh, keep your gun loaded and aim true. Archer, out."