Southside Plaza sounds good.

“Hey, look, that sign says Southside Plaza. We’re finally here.”

Astrid’s decision to check out the Plaza was threefold. Of the options she could think of, it really did seem like the best one overall- guaranteed cubes, a chance at some early wins, and relatively minimal risk if things went poorly. It was at least favorable compared to Vendor Street, a place more suited for ****, squirming losers to double down on their drink-based debts for the slim shot at a second chance. Going there was something to be avoided, if you could help it. On the other hand, the Battle Subway wasn’t a particularly great option, either- if only because it was an inevitable obstacle that would also put her on a fast-track to losing if she wasn’t properly prepared.

That said, a subway ride certainly would have been much shorter and easier. Astrid’s third reason for checking out the Plaza boiled down to curiosity- a motivation that was much more appealing before the wholly-uneventful, hour-long walk. Some of her initial excitement returned now that she was setting foot in the park proper, however- by the time she was under the tall stone archway with its large, fancy lettering reading "MAIN ENTRANCE", she'd forgotten all about the boring trek over.

“See, I told you if you spent less time complaining and more time walking, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

“Just because I owe you one for this doesn’t mean I want to hear it from a free-loading digital assistant that rides along in my phone, CURSE.”

Whatever furtive retort CURSE had to that comment fell on deaf ears, as Astrid took in the park around her. The Plaza was something of a walled garden, surrounded on all sides by a seemingly-modest brick wall. While it couldn’t fully suppress the noise of the street just outside, or prevent the tall multi-story buildings from taking over the skyline, it did just enough to work. It wasn’t like stepping into a completely different world, but it was different enough, insulated enough to feel special. Pathways split off into clearly-cultivated wilderness, through a grove of willows on one side and wrapping around a lake on the other. Gazebos and benches made it clear that this was no wilderness, but that only added to the charm.

For a moment, Astrid wondered if the pond had any ducks. There would almost certainly be ducks here.

What they’d come here for was directly ahead, however, along a wide flagstone path that took them up to a circular space away from any potential ducks. For lack of a better word, this was the Plaza- a grand fountain in the center, a half-dozen temporary Holosseums, a couple of stalls set up with bored-looking attendants, and what must have been the main office. The stalls were self-explanatory- one was for registration and handing out drink tickets, while the other was seemingly set up to hand out additional prizes and drinks. A few of the Holosseums were already in use, with a number of extra players simply hanging around them, idly conversing or relaxing between matches.

Signup was a simple process, as was the explanation of the event itself- just play one match at each holosseum, get one cube just for playing and an extra one if you win. Anyone who wins three matches gets to spin a wheel for a bonus prize, which could be of even higher rarity. Players were free to make additional wagers, match against anyone they wanted, and take them in any order they felt like- all that mattered was that they visited each arena once. Even with cubes limited to uncommon at most, it was hard to argue with the low, single-ticket price tag- and that wasn’t including the bonus wheel.

Astrid took up her ticket and made off for the first holosseum on the left, turning it over in her hand and watching the metallic orange surface catch the morning light. Every year, they were made a different color- but no matter how the accursed things were dressed up, Astrid was all too familiar with the little bastards to care how shiny they made them. They were perfectly designed to fill the role of currency as well as punishment, serving as a roadblock between players and the thing they would inevitably come to want most as the competition progressed. Obviously, each one was intended to be exchanged for a drink- but they were far more insidious than simple vouchers.

As long as you had even one, you weren’t allowed into any of the city’s restrooms, not even with a Pass. Each ticket represented a drinking debt that had to be repaid- but not just any drink would do. Every ticket had its own redemption conditions that could be as vague as “a soda or other carbonated drink”, to as specific as “a Warp Drive from the_ Nuovo Luna _Café”, and each player was only allowed to redeem one ticket every fifteen minutes. An individual ticket wasn’t so bad, but if they were allowed to accumulate in any significant number…

Astrid knew painfully well what that was like. She decided not to check the back of the ticket yet- no point in worrying herself if it was a troublesome one to redeem. Nothing to do now but press on.

-

“This deck open to challengers?”

The question was a largely superfluous courtesy, as standing in front of a holosseum was universally understood to mean “fight me, nerd”. Standing there for any other reason was likewise a great way to make nerds fight you, just without the mecha. The mousey-looking, bespectacled girl on the other side of the arena was definitely part of the former camp. She was dressed in what had to be the most voluminous pair of baggy pants Astrid had ever seen and a matching bomber jacket, both in a shade of nondescript military olive and emblazoned with insignia. Despite having so much cloth to spare, she still found a way to expose her midriff, wearing little but a camisole under the jacket and keeping her belt just barely above the flare of her hips.

In short, she was definitely a pilot. Though drinks and mecha dominated Battle City, fashion held a distant but solid third place in terms of sheer market share- and all three big businesses had ties to each other. Pilots often grouped up into teams, and it wasn’t unheard of for certain teams to unify under a specific look, or even for no reason beyond love for a specific cocktail. This particular girl appeared to be alone- though that wasn’t uncommon for Golden Week. From the very start, it was every Pilot for themselves.

“Of course! Best of luck.”

“You too.”

The GLINT’s sensors kicked on as Astrid felt the machine lurch as it entered combat readiness. It was a unique sensation to get used to- much like how a controller would vibrate when playing a video game, Holosseums also gave haptic feedback- though it was full-body, without any of the actual balance-throwing g-forces of real movement. She was extensively used to the sensory rush of “diving”- the wholly-virtual cockpit taking up most of her conscious mental bandwidth without completely overriding her senses or grasp on reality. It was almost like being in a particularly advanced flight simulator- Astrid knew where she was in physical space, but it was trivially easy to feel like a real mech pilot with just a little focus.

The map around her appeared to be the overgrown ruins of a city, with sporadic chunks of mech-scale cover among colorful, blossoming trees and open fields of flowers. Collapsed segments of a monorail line cut through the map, forming something of a “moat” that couldn’t easily be crossed without giving up cover or entering a potential **** point. Astrid commanded her mech to scale one of the sturdier-looking ruins, jumpjets flaring as one mechanical leg kicked upwards against the crumbling brick. As soon as she was in position, she leveled her rifle.

CURSE didn’t seem too pleased by that. “Are you trying to snipe them? We don’t even know where they are, and in this terrain, they could come from anywh-”

Astrid muted her AI operator, almost reflexively. Now wasn’t the time, she needed to focus.

With no scouting system, she was down to the oldest trick in the book- the “fast-sweep slow-sweep”. Essentially, this boiled down to using the in-built fire control system to scan visually for targets, once checking for any immediate threats or signs of an enemy, and a second, slower time across with more time for the computer to pick up on hidden or distant opponents. It wasn’t perfect- the GLINT’s fire control computer was intended for shorter-range engagements. Astrid's sensors wouldn’t reliably pick up her foe until she was already crossing the center of the map, already well into the IBIS rifle's effective range.

In short, Astrid had to rely more on her eyes than her computer system if she wanted to maintain her initial advantage.

On her fourth “fast” sweep, she noticed the tell-tale flash of blue light coming from behind one of the ruined buildings, zeroing in on her opponent as she dashed from cover to cover. Astrid’s mech had only modest cover and no concealment whatsoever from her elevated vantage point- either her opponent had already noticed her and was rushing to engage, or simply assumed Astrid wouldn’t see her this early on. Either way, Astrid's position would be found out well before the gap closed, unless her opponent had no battle sense whatsoever.

Astrid counted the flashes, holding steady and waiting for her opponent's energy to run low. The GLINT’s stock thrusters did well with quick maneuvering, but they couldn’t keep it up indefinitely. Five, six, seven… on the eighth, Astrid pulled the trigger, aiming for the brief window her enemy spent between pieces of cover.

In response, it simply dashed again, the bullet ensuring her position was revealed as it struck the ground and cracked the asphalt. Okay, so that wasn’t a stock thruster- or maybe it was a new generator? She watched as the mech thrust itself further, flare after flare pushing it into better cover too quickly for her to line up another shot at.

A more rash pilot might have pressed in, or tried to flush out their opponent with ****. Astrid simply waited, rifle trained on her opponent’s last known position. She’d gotten enough of a look at her opponent to at least know that she wasn’t facing another long-range unit, her gun too short to be good for anything beyond mid-range, if that. It didn’t look like she had much else in the way of armament, either. If nothing changed, if both of them sat there waiting for the other to make the first move, Astrid had the better position.

“Got to admit, you’re pretty good with that rifle. Let’s see how good.” Her opponent taunted over the open channel, undoubtedly trying to distract Astrid. They both knew who had the stronger position- and both knew what had to happen next.

The enemy mech bolted forward out of cover, erratically firing its thrusters as it advanced through the open space left by the collapsed monorail. Astrid fired once, and the ground behind her enemy’s olive-green mech exploded outwards. She waited, lining up a second shot as her target jerked from side to side, every pulse of her thrusters bringing her another step closer.

The crack of vehicle-sized bullets slamming home in the distance filled the air as Astrid opened fire. Though the direction of her target was unpredictable, the timing of her movement was consistent- Astrid’s opponent was dashing as rapidly as she could manage. It was a tactically sound decision, one that should have left Astrid with no time to line up a reliable shot- at least, if not for the recoil-dampening shocks built into her arms. Those kept her targeting system centered well enough for her to simply lay into the trigger for at least the first few shots, something her opponent couldn’t have been expecting.

“Good enough for accuracy by volume.” Astrid usually wasn’t much for mid-battle banter, but there was some value in catching an opponent completely off guard.

There was no time for her foe to react, even as the first two shots missed- the third landed just as those thrusters flared again, her attempt to dodge coming just a split second too late. The powerful round tore into the olive-drab GLINT’s leg, deforming and shearing the armor plating. The IBIS lacked the power to deal truly catastrophic damage with a single round, but it had plenty of bullets to expend. The fourth round barely missed, but the fifth struck the same leg- further breaking the external armor and provoking disorientation that allowed a further three shots to strike home in other places. The ninth and final shot went wide, both due to accumulating inaccuracy from firing so quickly, and her enemy regaining enough control to dash behind cover.

Right before she lost the benefits of visual lock, Astrid commanded one of her precious vertical-launch MULE missiles to fire. She only had so many of them, and her FCS needed initial line of sight to lock on- but once the missile was in the air it could seek on its own and push her enemy out of cover. The MULE could guide itself, at least in a rudimentary sense- it knew where it was, and roughly where it needed to go. It wasn’t too difficult to shake off or avoid… unless, of course, you couldn't move freely to do so.

“Missile lock too? Oh, you HAVE to be kidding me!”

In this way, Astrid could **** her enemy to reposition over and over- and as soon as that happened, she’d get at least a couple more shots down-range. Attempting to feint or juke just gave Astrid another opportunity to fire a missile, and that would inevitably open yet another chance to rain shots down from on high. Her opponent was no slouch, making her work to confirm every hit- but even as Astrid lost ground, she took chunks of HP off her opponent for every inch she took. At the rate she was going, it would be close- but not close enough. The GLINT simply couldn’t tank that many rounds.

By the time her enemy closed the gap and began to spray the tower down with SMG fire, the game was already a foregone conclusion. Astrid’s machine was still in near-perfect condition, while her enemy had taken considerable damage- on top of a high percentage of leg damage crippling her mobility. The most she could do was **** Astrid back, off of her tower and out of her “perfect” game, before another few well-placed rifle shots chipped away the last of the army-green machine’s health.

With the game complete, CURSE was automatically unmuted by the system. “That was… it? Operation concluded, I guess.” she huffed. “Though you did let her scratch the paint.” If the surly AI had anything to say about being silenced, the spectacle of the match seemed to make her forget about it, at least for now. Astrid’s opponent made a very similar sound of disappointment as the holosseum spun down, the machine emitting a soft series of “ka-chunk” noises as it dispensed its cubes.

“Man, I thought I had it made when I pulled that SMG, but that’s the third time I could barely get in before dying. I miss my Jupiter frame…”

Astrid collected her duo of bronze-colored cubes- both commons- while her opponent reached down and retrieved a silver one. An uncommon prize seemed to ease the sting of defeat just a bit, but that wasn’t what Astrid was most interested in.

“A Jupiter? For someone who mains something that heavy, you did pretty good. Never would have guessed your preference with moves like that.”

Idle banter soon turned to introductions- Astrid’s opponent Julia was part of the Laevateinn, a small group of pilots that exclusively used heavy and superheavy craft in official battles. Julia knew her way around lightweights partially due to fighting against them so frequently, and partially due to previous experience she’d kept from getting too rusty by helping the other members of her team train. Her teammates probably weren’t doing as well as she was with the GLINT- and even she only had a single win under her belt. Astrid had just handed her a third loss, putting her on the edge of losing out on the special prize and leaving a significant dent in her pride.

It could have been a lot worse than that, had anything actually been at stake. Most of the time, losing came with a far greater consequence than simply missing out on a cube or two. Astrid could guess where Julia was headed if she kept going at the rate she was, and given Julia’s expression, she saw it too.

“You’re missing something.”

“What?” Julia was confused, if only due to how suddenly Astrid shifted the topic.

“I mean, your mech. You’ve got a decent close-range flanker, and the speed to execute hit-and-runs, but that’s not enough. You need disruption. The GLINT has enough weight tolerance for you to load some additional gear, and you don’t need the extra top speed from unused weight. You aren’t scouting ahead for a team- nor are they there to help you get in on the action.”

Julia hummed, mulling it over in her mind. What started as a puzzled expression slowly turned into one of recognition- it did make sense. It didn’t matter how fast she was- if the opponent found a way to hit her before she could hit back, she was as good as helpless.

“What I’m saying is, if you have any flash rockets, or holocasters, or anything like my MULE launcher- anything that can threaten or **** your opponent to move or divide their attention and give you a chance to move up or break their focus on your position, equip it. This early on, it doesn’t need to be a fancy or perfect solution, as long as you’ve got something.”

“Thanks. Astrid, was it? I’ll take another look at my parts- I owe you one if this works out.”

“You should be careful saying stuff like that, I just might take you up on it once we’ve all had more to drink. But, seriously, don’t sweat it. First one’s free.”

With that, Astrid excused herself, walking up to the next holosseum. The sooner she got her battles out of the way, the sooner she could check out her spoils and revise her mech. There was nothing stopping her from doing it now, technically speaking- though Astrid preferred to make changes in lump sums, either when she collected enough parts, or started losing. Constant updates made it hard to get used to how a machine handled… and, she had to admit, it was just more fun opening a bunch of cubes all at once.