fandomhigh | Tactics 201, Thursday Period Two, 24/04

"Today's the final. The one. The only. The-- well, you get my drift."

In the middle of the Badlands sim, Kerrigan leaned her weight onto one hip. "Three scenarios. And a question: what's the essence of tactics in action? If any of you gives me the Booth-- 'don't die'- you're outta here. I let it pass once, it's not happening again. To a point, there's no right or wrong answers, otherwise... unless you're a complete dumbass who hasn't been paying attention."

And-- yep, she was smirking. "Finally, there's a shot for extra credit. You want an A really damn badly?" Her expression was positively deadly. "You may have heard of a certain pixie. I'm pretty sure she's somehow involved in this whole caffeine scenario, so I figured a little payback is in order. You steal me a few bottles of her alcohol in retaliation before Tuesday, I'll give you your A."

Okay, so maybe, that had been the absolute first exam-related matter she'd come up with. She needed coffee to plan these things. "But just the booze. If I hear of any of you pranking her, you're out of here. That's dangerous behaviour."

Because stealing from a pixie totally wasn't.

There was a long, long pause.

"I'm, uh, joking." She really didn't sound like she was. "Good luck. And goodbye."

[ ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]

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The Mutalisks-- for that is what they were-- poured down fast, spines bounding off nearby marines and shattering their armor.

There was a barracks close by-- the command center itself was far away, cast in the shadow of a dozen going fast.

One of the shadows, smack dab in the center, was moving a little slower than the rest.

Sokka dove into the barracks for a breather, grabbed a spare gun, and yelled at anyone left inside.

Then he ran out again, chasing down the group headed for the command center and shouting. "TO ME, everyone!!! To me! Everyone, this way! And concentrate your fire on one at a time!!!"

It might've been that Kerrigan had let the sim learn from the students' efforts. It might have been that the sim had gained a life of its own.

Or maybe it might have simply been that the marines weren't programmed to be particularly philosophical about any of it. At least seven of them thundered after Sokka, while about sixteen more spread out in all directions in a pattern that just about completely failed to resemble anything strategic.

The Mutalisks fired. The lumbering giant in their midst floated slowly on.

[*headdesk* That's an Overlord, isn't it?]

Sokka dove out of the way of the spines raining down, but wasn't prepared for the ricochet and got hit in the back. Laying on the ground in pain gave him a few seconds to reassess the situation, and he hopped up again with a modified plan. "That thing! The thing in the middle! I don't know what it is, but they're protecting it! Shoot at THAT!" He fired his gun at the slow floaty thing, to demonstrate. "And SPREAD THE HELL OUT!!! Those things ricochet like crazy!!!"

When the marines following him had gotten the idea, he started running around, trying to round up everyone else.

[ mmm, floating slow targets of unit limit-increasing goodness ]

Sokka was the subject of several severely boggling looks before two marines got his drift, rushing to the sides of camp.

It all went pretty smoothly from there; the remaining marines broke out like a star going nova, shifting to fire at the Overlord over their shoulders.

The Mutalisks promptly ganged up on two of them. They didn't last long.

Sokka winced as the two marines went down and pressed on his trigger harder, as if that would somehow shoot more bullets. He waited nervously to see what happened when the floaty thing went down -- he was trusting his instincts, here, and they were only right most of the time.

Bullets, from every side-- more marines fell-- the firing kept up--

And then, suddenly, the Overlord splattered apart, sending a rain of guts down onto the base.

Charming.

Thank goodness the helmets had faceplates.

Sokka wiped his clean and looked around. "Now, the dragon-things!" he ordered. "Concentrate your fire! One at a time!"

The Mutalisks were... ... flitting around without much purpose.

One more shot was fired. It didn't go anywhere.

And then the marines unleashed their weapons on the creatures. Most went down quick.

Sokka jumped around doing a victory dance. "WOOOOO!!! Who da man?? Who da MAN?!?!?!"

At which point one stray Mutalisk fired a shot at Sokka's behind.

These things happened.

... and Sokka was face-down in the dirt. He had a feeling Kerrigan had made that happen on purpose.

Tactics 201, Thursday Period Two, 24/04

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