Failure!
The word haunted Adam for an entire day. Coupled with the mental toll of dying in Cyberspace with orbital bombardment. It was, by no understatement, a horrible experience.
He retreated to his residence at night, checked on the operations of the base, made sure that everything was going as well as it could, and that he wasn't fumbling this operation too, before collapsing on his bed.
The next day, he met with his inner circle, reporting to them his failure on the Captain Trials.
"That is rather rough," commented Creed, who was surprisingly sympathetic to Adam. "I was once on a world called Hasoor-II; my squad was presumed killed in action right before the Inquisitorium issued the Apocalypsis Decree. It was…"
But right before Creed could continue his story, the depressed Adam cut him short:
"You jumped on a Gorgon bike, rode through a swarm of hivers and a horde of demons fighting everywhere while splashing them with scatter slugs, then you barely made it to the last evacuation Harbinger ship."
Captain Creed frowned while Adam was retelling his tale, then turned toward Kave with questioning looks.
"Wartopia: Paladin 2. Really good game, you should try…" Kave explained before looking at Creed funny. "Guess you did."
"But the mission is a bit too extreme; two hours on a Doomsday Clock is kinda fucked. And you have to learn Sacred Geometry while fighting the Freeze at the same time? How were you supposed to do all that at the same time?" Megan asked, clearly upset that her boyfriend was depressed.
"The sister was a bit extreme, but it is known that NCO Trials are too demanding. No one simply gets the qualifications on the first try." Elena added, giving him some comfort.
"I know, but…" Adam tried to reply, but he couldn't help but skip back and forth in his command room. "What's upsetting me is that the bar was set too high, and I don't know how to play it better than I already did. As far as I know, I did it all by the book. Fast Bastion, always train workers, made sure the base never runs out of power, disrupt the enemy's economy. I did it all!"
"Maybe that's the problem." Yuki Nakamura intruded into the conversation while working at her terminal station as a propaganda officer. "You did it all by the book, but you overlooked the most important thing."
The entire group turned to her, waiting for the epiphany that never came. She wasn't even facing them, as her fingers worked lazily over the terminal, but as their looks intensified, she rolled her eyes and turned in her chair.
"I don't know the details, but you keep chirping about learning some lesson. You don't seem to have learned shit, seeing you don't know where you messed up. It means your fundamentals were wrong." Yuki said with obvious frustration, then turned back to her work, but she only ended up frustrating the group even more.
"So we should just ask Solana?" Megan asked.
"She's giving me the oath of silence treatment." Adam shook his head.
With the lack of good ideas to pitch, Yuki rolled her eyes and turned her chair to Adam once again.
"Calm your mind, close your eyes, and retrace your steps. Compare every step you made with the point of failure and see what contributed the most; play the scenario in your mind over and over until you find the breakpoint." She pointed to Adam while saying so.
"Like meditation or something?" Adam asked.
"Zen, motherfucker." Yuki lashed back, then turned away, back to her work.
Adam pointed at her, speechless, but it seemed she garnered the same reaction from everyone else. Megan, however, had an explanation.
"She told me the other night that she learned a trick to rest her mind by letting the Sage skill switch her personality with other Sages."
"Like split personality?" Kave asked.
"No, it is still her, just a different human mode, if you believe it," Megan replied.
"My Sages don't have modes, though," Adam said, feeling some sort of FOMO regarding one of his best skills.
Only then did Megan and Elena look at each other, then grin.
"Men are so shallow; they think they have modes," Elena exclaimed with a ridiculing grin.
"And their color spectrum is too narrow. Adam, for example, could never tell the difference between olive and khaki." Megan nodded to her.
"Trickery! They are the same color." Adam said, catching on to the scheme right away and prompting a high-five from Kave.
"The only color that matters is that of the golden sun." Creed joined in.
"Hell yeah!" Kave said, but watching Creed's expressions change, he fixed his statement, "I mean, Sol yeah!"
Adam's mood was lifted a bit with all the back and forth going on in his post-apocalyptic friend group. He took a seat at the side, remained silent, and took Yuki's advice by retracing his steps.
He did it all as perfectly as he could; he was sure of it. Even when the opponent fought back fiercely, he was able to cripple its economy very early on. Was him doing so the thing that led to his failure?
Logically, no. Practically, maybe. The first sage said, sipping on a coffee while leaning on a lounge.
How so? the third Sage, posing as Adam, asked.
Let me explain this one. The second sage stepped in, wearing a lab coat and standing over a whiteboard. Looking at the result of that trial, it could have been solved in many other ways, some of which would save more time by initiating a direct assault against the central area of the map without the need to go and destroy their base.
If I had prior intel of an underground space under the Freeze Manifestation, yes, I would have done so. The third Sage said with frustration.
The way I see it, this is one of your typical going-in-blind kind of missions. The first sage said, giving his take on things. The Ordinarium didn't give sufficient information on what went down to the Bellarium, probably hiding their own blunder. High Command gave the extraction order on a Doomsday Clock, trying to extract the real threat before it was too late. Then the Inquisitorium must have deemed the extraction target as HereTechia and sent out an expendable Bellarium force to pretend in front of High Command that they were doing their job.
That's classic from Solarium departments sabotaging each other. The third sage interjected. But that's just lore. We're playing a simple RTS here.
Simple? The first sage made a ridiculing face.
It's your smooth brain that is simple, the second sage said disapprovingly.
Guys! This is not cool. The third sage stomped the ground in frustration. You know I am the one who had to take Adam's role here after drawing lots; I basically know everything that you know.
Shut up, you idiot! He'll shove us back into the subconscious once again! The first sage became frantic, looking around, fearing that Adam might be listening. Alright, listen up. Let's summarize this thing quickly before ol' grumpy up there starts killing the light.
Right! To sum it all up, the misunderstanding was that we assumed it was a regular RTS session, but it was anything but. The second sage spoke quickly, tapping the whiteboard with his stick. Did we really have to waste time giving commands to every single squad? That's a Lieutenant's job. We're Captains now, the middle link between High Command and field ops.
Our mistakes are now obvious. The first sage stated in his recliner and fancy three-piece suit. We need to heavily use the requisition menu, maximize logistical support, and stop micromanaging every little thing. Let the Lieutenants do their job, and we do ours, but let's not neglect the battlefield.
Adam realized how he overlooked that important thing, and it all started to make sense. From the very beginning, he was trapped in the mindset of the simulations he created, thinking it was another RTS game, the same as his Lieutenant trial, where he went through a MOBA game. However, thinking back about it, even that MOBA game was crazy, involving him in fighting insane odds, running from a dragon, and surviving the oddest encounters he ever faced.
There's one last thing, though. The third sage added, but right after, the other two cut his words.
Oh, come on! We said everything important already, the first complained.
And what I think you're going to say is very theoretical and hardly worth the breath it takes to say it, the second shook his head.
You two are the worst. The third sage became annoyed with the discriminatory attitude from the two and took over as the strategist-in-charge. Listen up, in large battles where numbers aren't really the problem, there is something that can be seen as some sort of flow. The situations and the obstacles that require combat units to coordinate as they advance. It is basic strategy, really, but it is important not to miss it even as a high commander. Sometimes you need one specific unit to overcome an obstacle; other times, an obstacle requires two different and very specific units that hold the key to overcoming it. But then there are times when that obstacle needs the unit least suited to maintain the balance of the battle's flow. It is a very delicate thing, and your job is not to manage it, but to provide enough materials for the flow to be balanced…
As the third sage went on to ramble about his long-winded take on strategy, the first sage grew bored out of his mind and blew a raspberry, whereas the second sage started going "blah blah blah" and doing a weird duck walk.
Adam, however, got the gist of what the third sage was trying to say and opened his eyes to something he wasn't considering. As he looked ahead of him, he watched a similar scene to the one in his mind: Megan and Kave being absolute brats while Elena and Creed started to look tired from their tomfoolery.
Adam immediately stepped ahead and rejoined the group, his expression way better than before. The inner circle, as well as Yuki Nakamura, all turned to him, seeing that he had reached some sort of an idea. Adam faced Creed right away and spoke:
"My lord, while I am gone, can you take over my post for a while, since Sergeant Elena will also be indisposed?"
"Indisposed?" Elena tilted her head and crossed her arms, not sure where Adam was going with this.
"I can," Creed replied without hesitation.
"Then it is official." Adam saluted Creed, ending the formal temporary transfer of power, before turning to the others, "Magpie, Kave, Elena, and Yuki. You four will be my lieutenants in my Captain Trials."
Hearing that, the four went on alert, but without much argument; they knew they would have to join him anyway.
A few minutes later, Adam took the driver's seat of a V-Bug and visited the Script Monastery, going in until he reached the Moai Statue at the end of the hall. The four "lieutenants" following him immediately freaked out at the sight of the statue, but Adam glossed over the importance of this piece of technology just as Solana joined them.
"So you brought additional operatives?" She asked, feeling that this would turn rather interesting. "Be advised, Brother-Commander: their presence will compel the Sacred Code to escalate the trial parameters; the rite shall become correspondingly more… demanding."
"Well, you know what they say: the more the merrier." Adam pointed with two finger guns and a wink, but Solana's lackluster response left him frozen for a bit.
There was not much of a conversation afterwards, as IRL Solana was a royal buzzkill compared to Cyberspace Solana. Still, she was an efficient Warrior Nun who had five people strapped and booted to Cyberspace in no time.
As the simulation began, Solana retreated into Admin Mode, choosing this time to remain an observer rather than shadowing Adam like last time. The five started right at the edge of the base, but unlike last time, when Adam started with only a Command Center, some Men-at-Arms, and a Crawler, there was a change in the simulation that even Solana didn't anticipate.
The same base Adam built from his failed attempt was there, but in much worse condition. The buildings were hit pretty hard, some completely damaged; while there were Men-at-Arms, a melting tank, some damaged troop carriers, and a functioning H-Bug.
Solana watched Adam himself in total surprise to see some of the troops from last time still there, as if the Sacred Code was giving him yet another chance, allowing him to right the error of his ways.
Just like before, Adam went to work, whereas his four lieutenants were attached to the Men-at-Arms squads. But just as they were receiving orders from Adam to fix up the base and get their situation in order, the Machines were already at their doorstep, and in great numbers.
The situation was reversed: Adam, who had managed to rush the enemy's economy and cripple it from the start, was now the one under a rush attack, and his soldiers were being shot at left and right. Worst of all, the five Deathbots that walked into the base were led by the enemy champion: a four-legged, towering metal hunk with proportions equal to a Battlemaster tank, named the Hulkroid.
This unit alone was enough to level everything to the ground, and almost everyone knew this was a failed attempt before the Doomsday Clock would even turn zero.
But not Adam; he was already on the move.
As the squads dispersed to garrison the surrounding buildings and gain their firepower and armor bonus, Adam jumped off the balcony of his Command Center, armed with a grenade launcher, and aiming straight at the Hulkroid.
Thumb!BOOM!
The first grenade landed right against the giant bot, but it did little damage to it, let alone make it flinch. The mechanical goliath turned to Adam with its many red eyes, and its four-wheeled legs started to roll toward Adam.
Thumb!BOOM!
The second grenade hit with no apparent damage, but it clearly prompted the Hulkroid to activate its main weapon system on one of its larger arms, the Gatling Laser.
Thumb!BOOM!
Adam foolishly shot another grenade, as if mindlessly provoking the Hulkroid. But rather than hitting it, Adam aimed for the ground right beneath one of its large legs. The ground certainly caved in, with a geyser of dirt exploding upward. But to the Hulkroid, the pothole that formed in its way threw off its aim for a second, and Adam certainly moved out of the way. However, the Hulkroid tried to adjust its aim, but as Adam rolled and sat upright, he had his middle finger raised to the deadly machine.
Solana watched that and thought how endearing it was for this Brother-Commander to think he could go head-to-head with a death machine that could actually slay a paladin. But right before the red barrage of red bolts sliced Adam right in half, something fell from the sky and crashed right on top of the Hulkroid.
An unholy cloud of dust covered the scene, but as Solana reviewed the scene in her record, she found that a large drop-pod had been sent crashing right on top of the Hulkroid.
To control both the position and to set a trap, Solana was impressed for the first time how a human could simply calculate all that without the assistance of a kernel sub-brain. She opened the log and realized that Adam had used his first free 1-star requisition attempt from the Requisition Menu to land on top of that spot, and what he chose was an Instant Building—a drop pod that can unpack into a building right as it lands.
Now, this was one of the least useful things from the requisition menu, and players would mostly save those limited points to summon paladins. But Adam assessed the risk, decided not to be a cheapo, and then set the trap and became the bait.
But as the dust settled, it became obvious that the mighty Hulkroid was able to withstand the drop pod's impact, continuously trying to lift the heavy thing that was attempting to unpack into a Firebase Bombard.
Adam didn't sit back and watch. He ran his fastest toward the Hulkroid, climbed the metal machine while it ground against another, and with nimble movements, reached the top. He then reached for the elevation wheel mechanism, rolling the cannon down with one big motion until the barrel hole stared right at the Hulkroid.
"Do you know what the most amazing thing about these howitzers, Mr. Tinhead?" Adam asked the Hulkroid right as he pulled the trigger, then answered his own question: "They come pre-loaded."
And what followed was a BOOM!
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