After walking down the hallway for a few minutes, I find myself slowing to a stop at an intersection. It takes me a moment to realize the reason; my muscle memory is convinced I'm meant to turn left, but the guide line in front of me continues straight on. "I mean, every hallway is basically identical so I might be full of shit here, but I'm pretty sure I'm not being led towards Scientia's," I think, looking back and forth. "Odd." I continue straight on through the intersection, ignoring the turn that would normally lead me to my first class of the day, and instead head on towards something new. I walk alone for a few minutes, with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, until I run into Caz-V.
"Oh, hey," he says in a subdued voice. There are slight bags underneath his eyes, and I give him a morning fist bump. "Fun night?" I ask. He grins. "Yeah, they were fun," he responds after a moment, lost in a memory. "They singular?" I question, and he gives me a shake of his head. "Nope," he says, drawing out the N sound. I snort, but don't press him any further on his nighttime escapades. We walk for a few more minutes, picking up three more stragglers along the way. "Anyone know why we're headed to Terror Wins?" asks Ko-lee, an inquisitive look on her face, and the last to the group. "I knew it," Rease mutters under his breath. Nobody has an answer for Ko-lee's question, however. We round a corner, and find our line terminating at the door to the obstacle course, at roughly the same time five other Tenno approach it from the other side. As we slow to a stop, so do they.
"Hi!" says Ella, brightly. Two of the others wave back; one with a medium build and entrancing purple eyes, and another with an easy smile. "Do you have class here today?" asks Ko-lee to the other squad. "Yes," says the latter of the pair who waved. "My name's Aster, and this is Amarast squad," he says, gesturing to the other four behind him. "Neat, a squad name," says Rease, giving the four of us an incredibly unsubtle side eye. Aster's smile brightens, and he continues. "Well, whether we're both meant to be here, or there was a mix up, I'm sure Terrowin will have an answer for us." He steps near the door, causing it to slide open, and after a quick nod to the five of us, he and his squad make their way in. We follow closely behind, and find ourselves once more in the obstacle course room.
At first blush, it appears to be the same as the day prior, but it only takes a few moments to realize that the space has been reorganized. There are no Corpus pieces, only Grineer ones, and there are no obvious paths to maneuver through. After a few seconds of observation, I'm pretty confident I know what I'm looking at. "A thousand hours in Warframe, and probably ten thousand more in a hundred other fps's. It's set up for shooting. Like an airsoft arena, or something," I think. At the corner of the field, I spot Terrowin in conversation with Ravon, but they're too far away for me to be able to piece together anything that they're saying. Ravon makes a gesture with his head towards us, and Terrowin nods, before they both begin making their way over. My squad, and... "Oh for fucks sake what did they call themselves? Azarinth? Abalast?" I think in frustration. "Whatever, they're Azarinth now."
Us and "Azarinth" stand at attention while the two ITO's approach. "Today is a joint class," says Ravon, once he's within speaking range. "Both squads are participating in a simulated fire exercise against each other. This is an asymmetric scenario, but you will have the opportunity to play both roles." Terrowin starts speaking the moment he finishes. "One squad will play the Grineer, and one side will play the Tenno. The Tenno are trying to infiltrate the stronghold to reach a console," she says, gesturing to the course behind her, "while the Grineer are, of course, attempting to protect it." She turns and begins to make her way into the course itself, and Ravon follows beside her. Wordlessly, both squads fall in line; Azarinth first, and us only a fraction of a second later.
We enter into the course proper, and take a right at the first hallway; blinking lights, noisy pipes, and tripping hazards all doing their best to grab our attention. It's a touch over stimulating, but weeks of training with De'Launda means that it's easy to keep my attention on Terrowin. "The Grineer win once they've eliminated all of the enemy. The Tenno win when they extract the data from the console onto the datamass, then bring that datamass back to the spawn," she says, gesturing from where we had just come from. "Also, I wish this didn't need to be stated every cycle, but yes, less causalities is better," says Ravon, with a tired voice. "I know that you know that this is non lethal. That is not an excuse to walk into a crowd with a live grenade in your hand. Do not sacrifice yourself, or your teammates, please."
He gives us all a severe look, as though daring us to retort, but both squads are dead silent. "For the first match, you'll have an hour to prepare, to give you time to learn the space. For the second, you'll only have 20 minutes," Ravon says, after a moment. We reach a door - green, and half way between a semicircle and a rectangle - and it slides open, revealing a tiny room. Inside is the Grineer console, glowing text scrolling along the screen. The room is dimly lit, a single strip along the front wall casting everything in a sickly yellow. Other than the door we're all peeking our heads in, the room seems fully enclosed. "It's too simple," I think, as my eyes do their best to pierce the shadowed corners of the room.
I have no evidence that the room has other entrances and exits beyond general game sense, but my gut is insistent, and so I continue scanning the walls and floor, looking for anything out of place. Unfortunately, I'm forced to move away from the door to let someone else examine it. "We'll put a pin in that," I think. "Is there a time limit?" asks one of the members of Azarinth squad. It's one of the three who didn't initially wave when we met outside. They're stocky, and they have a scar that stretches from their left cheek down to the side of their neck. "No, no time limit," says Terrowin, shaking her head. "This exercise continues until one side wins. To facilitate this, your schedules have been emptied. You have no other classes for today."
"Damn, so waiting out the Grineer is a legit strat," I realize. "Their win state is killing us, so if we hunkered down somewhere, they'd be forced to come track us down. I mean, it's a really boring strat, but maybe something to bring up with the others during our set up time." After a few minutes, once everyone has had an opportunity to look at the console room, Terrowin leads us down a different route, back towards the direction of spawn. While the first path had a few unexplored doors, and an awkwardly shaped structure, this one has unexplored doors and a tight hallway, forcing us to move through the space single file. I keep my head on a swivel, trying to take in as visual information as possible, since our set up timer hasn't started yet, and I note nearly everyone else - on both squads - doing the same.
"Don't hurt your necks," says Terrowin, smirking at our behavior. We reach the spawn area, and off to the right is a table, stacked full of weaponry and equipment; some of it Grineer, and some of it Tenno. "Let's go over the rules," says Ravon, pulling up beside the table. "Regarding setup; each one of you is allowed three items at the start of the exercise. This is only at the start of the mission, however. If you want, you can hand your equipment or weaponry off to a squadmate once the match has started. You may choose from primaries, secondaries, grenades, and stims, and you may utilize whatever combination of these items that you think will best fit the mission."
He pauses, maybe for dramatic tension, then continues. "Yes, that means you may bring in three grenades and nothing else, if you so choose." I hear an excited intake of breath from Rease off to my right, and another from a member of Azarinth to my left. "You are required to start with your faction's weapons, but scavenging is allowed during the match. So be aware of what you're bringing on to the field, because you might end up getting shot with it." Ravon points to what looks like one of a stim, but the light on it is gray, instead of one of the familiar colors. "You will each need to equip this TMM. When you are hit with a simulated round, it will paint that limb, and lock it up, to simulate the injury."
"It'll also hurt!" Terrowin says cheerfully, on the other side of the table. Ravon nods. "Yes, the simulated rounds will hurt, as well. It's incentive to avoid getting shot." He gestures to what looks like a clotra autoinjector, but without any of the vials attached to it. "You can use the sim clotra to remove that status. A headshot will remove you from combat instantly, of course. Lastly, if you are injured, but do not recover the injury after a certain period of time, you will 'bleed out', as it were. Work together. Play smart." Terrowin speaks up, a malicious glint in her eye. "You're also allowed to engage in physical combat, if you'd like. No dampeners, just full contact. Also, if it looks like you are actually going to kill one of your fellow recruits, I'll step in. Otherwise, no holds barred." Ravon frowns slightly, but turns back to look at us. "Are there any questions? ...Recruit Aster," says Ravon, pointing at the tall, charismatic one. Aster smiles brightly. "Thank you sir. I have some questions about the Grineer weapons. First, do they..."
After nearly 20 minutes of questions from both sides, the well had finally run dry. "If there's nothing else, your prep time starts now," says Ravon. He and Terrowin step away from the group, making their way over to a raised platform that can see into the top of the field. "Sorry," says the recruit with the purple eyes, a few moments after the teachers retreat. "What? Sorry for what," asks Caz-V, his expression confused. "For the ass beating we're about to give you," purple eyes responds, a cheeky grin forming on their face. Caz-V snorts, unimpressed. "Am I supposed to believe you're gonna give me that ass beating?" he responds dismissively. "If you ask nicely," says purple eyes in a low, sultry tone. Caz-V grins, but before he has a chance to flirt back, Recruit Aster steps forward into the circle that our two squads have formed. His eyes are locked on Ko-lee's, bright gray and calm. He sticks his hand out. "May the best squad win," he states, each word crisp and enunciated.
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Ko-lee quirks an eyebrow at him, but shakes his hand. "Why me?" she asks, as they break. "Well, you're the leader, aren't you?" We all look at Ko-lee, and she looks at us, before turning her gaze back to Aster. "We don't have a leader," she tells him, her expression steady. His smile doesn't dim, but his brows furrow. "Oh. Well. Good luck then," he says, and without another word, Azarinth squad breaks away from ours to find a place to plan. There's a moment of silence, as we all watch them walk off, before Ella breaks it. "Were we supposed to pick a squad leader?" she asks, with a concerned expression. "No," I say. "I mean, I don't literally know that, and I imagine we have to at some point. But they're probably ahead of us in training or something." I'm extrapolating off of nothing but vibes, but it mollifies Ella, and I give her a smile before turning towards the course.
"Alright. We're Grineer first, so let's go get familiar with our compound. Set a timer for 20 minutes, and when it goes off, we all meet at the terminal. Sound like a plan?" There's a round of nods, and we all split up as we enter the mock up ruined Grineer facility. I start wandering around, trying my best to memorize the different boltholes and dark corners of the space; places we could get a drop on Azarinth, or places they might get a drop on us. I check what can be moved versus what is bolted down, look for sight-lines and height differences, note trip hazards and anything that can be changed or modified or interacted with. I do my absolute best to memorize every inch of the space I can within 20 minutes, fully aware of the fact that I'm likely to forget most of it the second sim rounds start flying.
A few times, I cross paths with members of my squad, and once I run into one from Azarinth. There's a moment of tension between me and the gangly guy, as we stare at each other in silence, until I blurt out, "Ah! Tenno skum!" in my best Grineer impression. It gets a chuckle from the recruit, and we make our way past each other without any issues. The timer goes off much too quickly, and I reorient to make my way back over towards the terminal. As I walk up, Ko-lee's making her way out of the terminal room itself, and it only takes a minute for Ella, Caz-V, and Rease to show up from other corners of the course.
"So, what's the plan squad leader," says Caz-V, with a bemused grin. Ko-lee doesn't take the bait, simply rolling her eyes at his antics. "Let's put that to the side for now," I say, drawing the squad's attention. "Here's what we know. Our goal is to kill them all, but their goal is to extract the data, and only one of them needs to sneak past for them to win. We can't all fit in the terminal room... although that's a stupid idea anyways, because they could just toss in a grenade or two. On the plus side, there's only one way in and one way out."
"Actually," says Ko-lee, "there are two more entrances." She steps around to the left side of the room, and points to a part of the outer wall. "If you go up on that ledge, there's loose paneling that can probably be moved, maybe even fully pulled off. I haven't had the chance to get at it though. There's also a grate on the inside, which leads to a crawl space. It'll fit someone small for sure." She leads us back around to the inside of the terminal room, then points out the grate on the floor by lifting it. "Do you know where the other end of this goes?" I ask her. She shakes her head. "No, I only found these in the last few minutes."
"Oh, I think I saw the other end of this," says Rease, walking us out of the terminal room. He points to a group of three half walls formed in a triangle, tucked away in a corner. "I'm pretty sure it's in the center of that." I glance at Ella, catching her attention. "Mouse, do you mind checking it out?" She nods her head, and without further discussion, makes her way over to the triangle of half walls. I watch as she tugs at the grate in the center, then shimmies down into the floor, and out of sight. "Rad. We should probably have someone scale up the outside ledge as well, to check out that loose panel. I'm willing to do it, but I'm still the worst climber here," I say, looking at the 20 foot ascent. The wall beneath the ledge is filled with greebles; askew panels and offset pipes and machined patterns creating a somewhat easy climb up to the top. Ko-lee doesn't even take the time to respond. She throws herself at the wall and begins scaling it, arms and legs locking to handholds like magnets. I watch her climb for a moment, before I pull my gaze back towards the front door.
"This is rainbow six all over again," I think, as I look for the best places to hold an angle. Directly in front of the door is an open space, one I had mentally dubbed as the "courtyard". In the center of it are three walls forming a Z shape, with the center wall being low enough to shoot or vault over. On each flat side of the structure are windows, allowing you to see out to the left or right. It's the most obvious place to put someone, since they'd be have a view of both the front door and the exit grate, and so I don't consider it an option. "Somehow, we need eyes on three different locations; that ledge, this door, and that grate. We can't put someone in this thing," I say, pointing at the Z, "because they'll get lit up immediately. Thing is, there's not really any other good angles," I explain, walking the other two through my thought process. "There's a ladder up there," says Rease, pointing towards the ledge. "You can see some parts of the course, although there's stuff in the way so you can't see everything."
I can feel the beginnings of a plan start to form from his information. "Thanks man. ...I think we'll need to split. There's three paths, and we can make three groups, sort of. Two in the high point, as overwatch, to keep tabs on the panel, and the left side path. Two somewhere else... and someone who can roam. Rease, I know you've not used the Grineer sniper before, but you're our best shot. Plus, you can be loud enough to shout, if it turns out we can't message each other. Thoughts? If not, I don't mind going up there." I can see him weighing the pros and cons for a moment, before he nods his head. "I'll do overwatch," he says.
"Great," I respond, nodding. "Below you should be someone mobile. Preferably someone who can scale that ledge quickly, if needs be. I'm feeling partial to Ko-lee, although Ella would work as well. I'll ask when they get back." I close my eyes to help visualize the three different paths towards the front door, before opening them after a second or two. "Caz-V, I think you and Mouse should tuck up in the middle room. You wouldn't hit them as they come in, but you'd wait until they've passed you to take your shots. There's a bunch of nooks in that big room that you can squeeze into." He nods his head, not saying anything. "You cool with that?" I ask, after a moment.
"Yes, obviously," he responds, scoffing dismissively. "Oh joy, jackass-V is back for some reason. Ugh, whatever, he'll get over it," I think. "Cool, cool. Well. That leaves me to be flex. So broadly, Rease calls them out once he spots them, and I'll rotate around to try to hit them with grenades. You and Ella will take the opportunity to hit them while they're distracted. Depending on how well they group up, I'll either fall back towards you, or towards Rease and Ko-lee, and hopefully not die. In a perfect world, we'd just hold an angle forever, but for one, our win condition is killing them, and two, we can't effectively cover every angle unless we spread ourselves super thin, which is a great way to get picked off. Every fight would end up being 1 v 3 or worse."
"You have a lot of experience doing this sort of thing?" asks Caz-V. I can feel my lips twitching into a silly grin, but I managed to keep it mostly subdued. I give a so-so hand wiggle. Before I'm forced to explain more, Ella walks out of the terminal room, followed immediately after by Ko-lee. "Hey girls," I say, before walking the two through everything I had just explained to Caz-V and Rease. By and large, they agree with my plan, but there ends up being a bit of push back from Ko-lee. "So your plan is to just sacrifice yourself," she says, narrowing her eyes at me. "First of all, it's just a simulation. I know Ravon said to treat it like the real thing, but if this were the real thing, with Grineer who knew we were around and were actively seeking us out to kill us, I'd vote we get our asses out of there. Secondly, I'm not intending to sacrifice myself. I was only saying that my chance of getting killed is higher than zero, which I'm only saying because if shit goes down, then one of you will need to be flex."
"But why do any of us need to roam?" she presses. "Because, if everyone is planted on their butts, they'll use our blind spots to slip in, and they'll grab the data, and they'll slip out," I explain, trying my best to keep my voice level. "And, even if you manage to spot them at that point, if we end up in a footrace back to spawn, then they've all but basically won. If Terror Wins and Ravon set this place up like I think they did, then it's literally impossible for us to cover every possible path, no matter where we set up." I take a deep breath, in an attempt to drain the prematch jitters and adrenaline from the disagreement. "If you have a different plan, I'm all ears, but we only have like 10 minutes left. We don't have time to debate; we need to pick something, get our equipment, and get to our positions." There's a few, tense moments of silence. "Fine," she relents. "Just be careful."
I nod. "That's the plan. Rease can bring two clotra, and give one to you, and one to Mouse and Caz-V. No matter who I fallback to, if I get hit, I'll be fine." I look around at the squad, and I see the stress of the situation starting to get to everyone. I beam a smile, doing my best to lighten the mood. "Guys, it's just a sim, it's not the real thing. This is the point of practicing, so on game day we're more prepared. We might as well save the stress until then." It sort of works, and I get a few chuckles from the squad. "Alright. Let's go get our stuff and get ready."
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