3 Prequel 3 (2/2)

Myrmidon: all the literature and other informative media sources have a common message that physical activity will improve health, increase your lifespan and even improve our gameplay in CyberMech.

Daedalus: you're joking. How can physical exercise improve our gameplay?

Myrmidon: don't take my word for it. Read for yourself.

And with that statement Myrmidon linked hundreds of articles, medical journals and white papers stating that physical exercise improved many attributes and functions used to play CyberMech. Including motor control, focus, lower stress levels, cognitive processing and subconscious problem-solving.

Daedalus: I don't care.

Myrmidon: I suspect there is an illogical reason you do not care.

Daedalus: Correct!

The match between Neo-Angels and the number three ranked NA team Thresh started at four am Paris time which was seven pm LA time and the NA primetime for live streaming professional matches.

Daedalus was invited to play but was also being paid two bitcreds per kill with one being deducted per death. It was the best of five matches, eight versus eight, and unlike ladder matches no respawn.

This type of match suited Daedalus much more, if he could take out an enemy, they would not respawn. They would be unable to collect in the spawn area and swarm him on mass.

He lined up with his teammates watching the countdown light go from red to yellow to green, and the buzzer sounded.

The team leader gave him an order, which he followed for thirty seconds before imagining a grim outcome.

Daedalus: sorry leader, I cannot follow this pattern.

Leader: do as instructed, we are paying you.

Daedalus: actually you are paying me for kills. If I don't make any kills I don't get paid.

Leader: breaking formation will…

Daedalus cut the comms.

Daedalus: let's go wide the terrain is high on near the edge of this map it will give us their flank and height advantage.

Myrmidon: this is the most optimal course of action, thank you for ditching meatheads.

Daedalus had referred to his teammates as meatheads once and Myrmidon forever more referred to other players as meatheads. It did not go unnoticed that he was a lone wolf in what was a team game. His only deaths were when his enemy successfully boxed him in and was able to fire from multiple sides. This rarely happened, even with hundreds of matches in master and challenger

Daedalus KD ratio was still by far the best in all of CyberMech.

His play style and stats caused a massive amount of hate for him in the game forums, where they were text, audio or video, all of which he ignored.

One of his teammates followed him to the western edge of the map, this was fairly normal, players tended to follow him in ladder matches as well.

His current mech was tuned for speed, agility, manoeuvrability and firepower. Armour which was quite expensive in terms of weight and points was dumped to the bare minimum. With this extreme tactic, he had to dodge every beam, railgun round, flamethrower, grenade and worst of all missile thrown at him.

He quickly left the friendly mech behind while zigzagging between buildings. If he topped them, he would be seen for long range, which was something he avoided. The loadout on his configuration labelled cheetah was merely a sword lance and a railgun. The two highest damage weapons if used correctly.

Myrmidon: I predict the professional opponent will come through the centre with two long-range heavy railgun mechs atop the buildings, four close combat types on the ground with the remaining two hunters roaming, hiding and scouting. They have two main engagers, the long-range Hawkeye and the speedy roamer Rex the team revolves around these two.

Daedalus: What's their maximum range on this map?

Myrmidon: four hundred meters. But only three hundred with high accuracy.

Daedalus: ok, lets camp and if an opportunity arises we circle behind or take out a roamer.

Normally a mech would not have been able to reach this position without being spotted by an enemy roamer. But that was because a normal mech did not have the speed of Cheetah extreme. Plus they had used every opportunity to block LOS (line of sight) from the north.

Their senses started picking up movement noises, the minimap pinged.

Myrmidon: false ping, the enemy, is lobbing city structure parts ahead of themselves.

Daedalus: Bricks or broken off staircases?

Myrmidon: clusters of bricks

They would use this against the enemy. The enemy laid a trap for them by creating a false ping to lure them out. Daedalus doubted many other players could calculate false pings and the origin, mainly due to the fact they did not have a competent AI like Myrmidon.

Myrmidon: ninety percent probability the false ping is Rex.

Not surprising given he was one of two roamers and one of their engagers. His tactic was probably to lead back either the initial contact or better yet the second wave of revenge attack to the main group.

Myrmidon created a hologram overlay showing the optimal path to take to avoid detection and to create a flanking opportunity on Rex for their medium to long Railgun distance.

Within moments Rex was in sight, standing next to a large pile of bricks, his lance and flamethrower sheathed. The combination of lance and flame was common amongst close combat mechs. The two weapons possessed the highest burst damage in the game and were short range. In Daedalus' opinion, it was a poor loadout which only worked well against tactically weak foes.

It only took him moments to line up a shot with Myrmidon's holographic crosshair and railgun level guide. He did not hesitate to pull the trigger, players as good as Rex could instinctively sense danger and move, just from a feeling of being watched. Daedalus had learned to never pause, never delay. Fire and move.

The round was set at the maximum velocity which gave it the poorest accuracy and the highest damage.

The poor accuracy attribute did not phase them, they easily compensated for it with a perfectly calculated trajectory and motion prediction.

The round entered through the side of Rex's head, it was a critical hit to the smallest and most vulnerable target.

The HUD showed the kill to all players.

<Daedalus (image of Railgun) Rex (image of a head indicating headshot)>

<First Blood emblem.>

Daedalus had blocked his teammates, so he did not hear the congratulations followed by the yelling as the enemy engaged them.

What he did see was the scroll of his teammates dying one by one in quick succession until only him and the rogue, the player which attempted to follow him to the western edge of the map, remained.