Quite some fixtures

By the end of the third day, all squads had done their Squad Echo session.

That much was announced via emails and messages on Echo app. In E.A’s eyes, that’s all we needed to know. We’re basic level agents after all.

Advanced profile_

[Enter pin to unlock Echo app. ]

I’d borrowed Garnet’s second phone, which was now the squad phone. It was the phone with the ‘Eron Black’ profile.

[Agent Name: Eron Black

Agent Level: Advanced ]

Usually he’s the one who kept the phone, but there were a few things I needed to check.

First, I looked up Oliver’s friend from the mall. He was a member of Squad Lamed, which means they had to have been friends before coming to this island.

‘Hmm…’

Anyways, onto the main reason I was on the app…

[Squad Fay did not clear their 1st session. ]

Actually, no other squad had cleared the Squad Echo session.

[Squad Dalet did not clear their 1st session.

Squad Tsadi did not clear their 1st session.

Squad Alef did not… ]

Well, all the other squads except one.

[Squad Gimel successfully cleared their 1st session by bomb defusal. ]

The only squad in the entire cohort that had actually cleared the session. Ours didn’t count.

‘Wild.’

The results of the 1st session had been processed and compiled. Fixtures had been created for the squad intersquad battles, which marked the beginning of the first stage. My Echo profile only showed our first fixture.

But on the Eron profile, there was more. A lot more.

Every squad’s fixture, session times, as well as a few details about the session itself.

[Squad Dalet vs Squad Zayin ]

‘Jason Elrod.’

Matches would begin in two days, giving us enough time to prepare.

The gap in information between the Advanced level and Basic level profiles was crazy.

But on both profiles, one detail remained constant.

[All members of the bottom most squad in the rankings table shall lose their positions in E.A permanently. In the event of a tie in total points between squads, the squads shall play a deciding match. ]

‘Telling us there’s a performance baseline without telling us what’s being tested. Great.’

Even the advanced profile didn’t have details on what metrics were being measured.

[Squad Gimel vs Squad Fay ]

‘Now that’s just nasty.’

The only squad that had cleared the 1st session, drawn against arguably the most unstable squad in the cohort. Whatever baseline they were measuring against, Fay didn’t stand a chance.

I sat with that for a while. That’s when the question I had asked resurfaced in my mind.

Basic profile_

[To Admin: What is solitary confinement?

Ask Oliver when he’s out. ]

It hadn’t satisfied me when I read it the first time, and it didn’t satisfy me any differently now.

I sighed.

‘Lemme go shower.’

Only after the freezing cold water hit my back at full blast did I remember the shower heater wasn’t functional.

‘Dammit.’

The shower didn’t last five minutes. Third time I’d forgotten.

…

I met him as I was leaving the residentials.

“Oh, hi Jason,” he said, offering a handshake. I shook it. Ethan Calloway. This was the fourth time I was shaking his hand since we first met, and it was still soft. Like his face, his voice, his personality.

Come to think of it, everyone in Squad Dalet was soft. Three girls in the squad, and I was somehow still the only real guy in the squad.

Probably what cost us the Squad Echo match.

Next to him was Amelia.

“Now that we have you, we’re planning on getting lunch together, and discuss our upcoming fixture,” he said.

[Squad Dalet vs Squad Zayin ]

Amelia was up for it.

“Sure,” I said.

The food court was a bit louder than usual. It made sense since fixtures were out. Not every squad was present though… fifty people would have been louder.

We found Sana and Friya already seated, near the window. After setting down our trays,

“So,” Ethan said. “Zayin.”

“Never heard of them,” Sana said.

“Neither had I, until an hour ago,” he said, scrolling through his phone. “ I was told they cleared their Squad Echo session.”

“By termination, not defusal. That’s not clearing it,” I made sure to add.

“Still put them on the leaderboard,” Amelia replied.

I didn’t reply. I was thinking about our own session. We lost, but the loss would have been bigger if she hadn’t been present.

“We should talk about what went wrong in our own session, not about them,” Friya said. “Otherwise, we’ll spend time guessing about facts we can’t confirm.”

“What went wrong is obvious. We don’t fight as a team,” Amelia said.

Everyone went silent. She was justified in saying that. We’d failed her.

It was our 14th trial.

We were genuinely trying our best. Amelia was the bomb defuser. The rest of us would cover her. But it’s not easy to cover a teammate when you’re in the heat as well.

[Sana has been eliminated. ]

The bots were targeting us one by one.

[Friya has been eliminated. ]

“I need cover,” Amelia shouted via comms. No one responded.

“Fine,” I said, moving towards her. We hadn’t eliminated a single bot since the trial began.

[Ethan has been eliminated. ]

We were getting outnumbered. Two of them caught me by surprise, before I could get to Amelia. My reaction speed was excellent. The bots were faster.

I got one.

Bang!

[Bot 3 has been eliminated. ]

The other one got me.

[You have been eliminated. ]

My visor switched to Amelia’s POV.

‘Last man standing.’

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Fluent movements, making turns like inertia isn’t a thing.

Bang!

[Bot 2 has been eliminated. ]

As if she wasn’t outnumbered four to one.

[Bot 5 has been eliminated. ]

And for a second, the bots didn’t stand a chance. Well, that is until she met her match.

Bot 4. It could read her movements. And it could keep up.

She met it at a corner waiting.

Bang!

Miss. She’d jumped back on time, only to get shot from behind.

[You have received damage on your left leg. ]

She caught it as her leg was stiffening.

Bang! Bang!

[Bot 1 has been eliminated. ]

However, she’d turned her attention to the wrong opponent. Bot 4 was already in range by the time she turned around.

Bang! Headshot.

[Amelia has been eliminated.

You have all been eliminated. Go back to your starting point. ]

We forfeited the match the moment the offer came.

The discussion went on for about 15 minutes before we left. We’d meet up later for a practice session in training hall 1 against Squad Beta, a lesser version of Squad Echo. Training against Squad Echo during free hours required Advanced level access.

‘Access I would have if dad wasn’t such a jerk.’

Later, we all got pinged.

Basic profile_

[Squad Dalet vs Squad Zayin fixture postponed. ]