Carly and Yurika both laughed at each other at the silliness of fighting over Gray then released Gray.
"So much for planning, just pick what we picked last time!" Gray said hurriedly.
Fortunately the system would default to whatever you chose last time so nobody had to pick and instead everyone was spawned inside the map in their respective mechs.
Gray, Yurika, and Geoff still had the Phalanx Mk 01, Xyra and Caleb each had their new Whisper Mk 01, Paul his Hoplite Mk 01, and Stacia her Cupid Mk 01. The 9 members participating from GameGo Gamers had a few different mechs, but nothing advanced as they seemed to only go for the aesthetic appeal.
Carly was the one exception, she had the Armadillo Mk 01 that Paul was originally interested in. Looking at the mech, Gray realized it fit her perfectly. The Armadillo Mk 01 was short, sturdy, had around a dozen spikes on it, and looked very intimidating despite lacking any standard ranged weaponry. The Armadillo got its name because it was actually designed to get down on its hands and feet and curl its back armor making it look like a shell with spikes coming out of it. The spike would spin about 90 degrees and expose the missile launcher being protected inside, crouching on the ground would give the Armadillo 360 degrees of coverage with the missiles, but make it an easy target for anyone not hit by the rockets. Gray had to admit it was an interesting idea, but really didn't want Paul to get it due to its limited mobility and poor endurance. (Endurance as in how long it can stay in a fight)
The rest of the GameGo Gamers had 4 Phalanx Mk 01s, and 4 Ranger Mk 01s. The Ranger Mk 01 was very similar to the Phalanx except that it had thinner armor to allow more weight for motors to carry heavier weapons. Heck, the Ranger Mk 01 even looked the same as the Phalanx Mk 01 except for a slimmer body and pointier head.
Carly took control of her team in the group's chat and said "Standard team slayer, move to higher ground then draw them towards us!"
Gray agreed with Carly's orders, but he thought it would be better to have Stacia's Cupid Mk 01 take the lead as it was faster than the Phalanx or Ranger and had advanced sensors to spot the enemy from further away. "Carly, let Stacia take point, she can spot them earlier if they have the same idea."
"Works for me!"
"Stacia! Take point! Once you spot them, tell us where and how many!" Gray ordered
"Roger!" Stacia replied and then turned on her active sensors and the little wing-shaped sensor suites on the back of her mech unfolded.
"Oh my gawd it's so cuuuute!" Carly said gleefully while checking out Stacia's Cupid Mk 01.
"I know! I feel bad when I get shot at so I hide behind things." Stacia then twirled her mech around like a little girl showing off a new outfit. Stacia figured out she could make the sensor wings 'flap' a little by turning them off and on rapidly.
"Can we not do this now?" Gray asked while trying not to sound agitated.
"Oh, sorry Gray!" Stacia apologized and then headed up the steep hill with everyone else trailing behind her.
Gray and the other Steel Wolves were seriously paying attention to their surroundings as they trekked up the hill, but the GameGo Gamers were taking it very casually. Gray figured this was perfectly natural since they still believed this was a game and thus treated it like one. Aside from Carly, only one other member of the GameGo Gamers was a girl so hearing a normal girl like Stacia caused the males of GameGo Gamers to try and chat her up a bit. This all seemed new to Stacia as she was getting easily flustered. Yurika was ignored due to her earlier declaration as Gray's wife, which Gray probably figured was to keep her from getting chatted up like this as well.
"So uhhh… Stacia, is it? That's a cute name!" said one of the random male members of GameGo Gamers.
"Do you come here often?" said another one, of which caused just about everyone's eye to twitch uncontrollably hoping that that guy was trying to make it a joke and wasn't that much of an idiot.
A third guy chimed in saying "Your mech is as cute as you are!" causing Stacia to cringe slightly.
A fourth member countered by saying "Idiot! She's way cuter than her mech!"
Amid the squabbling, Stacia finally got mad a bit and yelled "#$&*@ing idiots! Leave me the @#$%& alone you vultures!"
Seeing Stacia mad for some reason encouraged them more though and the guys from GameGo Gamers continued to bicker among themselves now saying that it was the other that made her mad.
"I am also Gray's wife!!!" Stacia finally shouted at them.
This seemed to have poured a bucket of cold water on the guys as they stopped pestering her, but instead they started directing their comments to Gray.
"Lucky bastard!"
"Dude, learn to share…"
"Seriously bro, just one is enough."
"This disciple greets his honorable master!"
Hearing that last comment caused some concern for Gray and he finally said "Pay attention guys, I can't teach what I don't know, instead focus on the match and I'll tell you what I can after!"
Fortunately this seemed to satisfy them for now as they became a little more serious about the match and stopped bugging Stacia and Gray. Off to the side, Geoff had actually started to try and chat up the only other girl on the GameGo Gamers team, her name was Beth. Geoff was surprisingly normal to her which felt refreshing to her so he was surprisingly successful, this actually surprised Geoff more than anyone else as he had never tried the normal approach and had it work. Not that any of his approaches had ever worked though.
Suddenly Stacia shouted out "Enemy! 200 meters from top of hill, coming straight towards us!"
Gray yelled back "Do they see us?"
"Negative! We're out of their sensor range, they appear to be all Ranger Mk 01s and Phalanx Mk 01s."
Gray thought for a moment and tried to figure out how to take advantage of the terrain. Seeing as the enemies were almost to the top and would beat them there, they really couldn't just charge straight into them as they would be able to spot them on their sensors once they got within a kilometer of them without any interference.
Carly then decided to chime in and yelled "Charge you maggots! Charge!"
"Hold up Carly! We need to minimize casualties on our end!" Gray stated.
"Why? This is only a game, the winner of the match gets more rewards and as long as we win it's fine."
Gray was going to have a hard time with the players that still saw this as only a game, but even in their current situation they were in a simulator so they could lose a mech and nobody would get hurt. "Carly, I heard a rumor that you get more merits when you have more teammates survive."
"Eh? Where did you hear that? We've been going for finishing as soon as possible to increase the amount of matches we get."
This is true for most games, and honestly was probably true for this game as well. Gray thought he might try to talk to Ginro and get them to change this if the amount of survivors really didn't matter since they're trying to train them as soldiers, not as gamers. In a simulation, a gamer might beat a soldier more often than not, but in a life or death battle, a soldier would win almost every time.
"Can you humor me and give it a shot this time?" Gray asked sincerely
"Since it's for you, Gray…" Carly said playfully
Yurika butted in and said "Just let Gray command us like we normally do, the wife knows the husband the best!"
Gray ignored her as he had given up on resisting a long time ago. "Let's keep it simple then, GameGo Gamers, sweep left and right around the base from this height and do not get closer to the summit, Phalanx, sweep right, Rangers, sweep left."
Various forms of acknowledgment came through as the 8 GameGo Gamers split up and encircled around the steep hill.
"Carly, Xyra, Caleb, fall back to the maximum range of your weapons to attack the top of the mountain."
Gray heard 3 sets of acknowledgements and saw the long-ranged attackers fall back to their maximum range.
"The rest of us, we wait here, Paul take point, Stacia behind Paul, Geoff and Yurika, we are going to act surprised when we see them reach the top of the hill and fire off a few shots at them and then sloppily run down the hill and find cover where possible. We want them to chase us down it!"
Gray heard a bunch of acknowledgements again and got into position with everyone else. Paul stood his mech in front of Stacia's mech and caressed the compressed alloy armor shield like it was the cheek of a woman.
"You touch that shield like it's a woman's face Paul… do you like to have a woman's face get shot at over and over and take beatings for you?" Geoff said jokingly.
"Shut up, this shield is my ally and precious partner!" Paul said proudly.
"You're still a virgin I bet…" Yurika said teasingly
"When did this become about my virginity?!? I mean, I am NOT a virgin, I have slept with many women on different occasions!"
"You sure? We're all virgins if we haven't done it here at the base remember, doing it in the virtual worl…"
Gray cut Yurika off quickly and said "Cut the chatter! They're coming!"
The GameGo Gamers seemed a little confused on their conversation and were going to ask more about what Yurika meant about the virtual world, but Yurika having realized her mistake didn't bring it up again.
Gray was about to send Yurika a private message but she had already sent one out to everyone else that just said "Sorry" so Gray didn't think it was necessary to say anymore as she was just getting caught up in the moment.
"Ok, GameGo players, advance slowly up the hill if all 16 start to come down it, stay out of direct sight, once you get closer to the top of the hill, feel free to go at full speed. We want to pinch them between you and those of us at the bottom! Carly, your job is to fire a volley of rockets at the top of the mountain to encourage the enemy mechs to follow us down!"
Gray wasn't sure if he could lead a larger team like this, but no point in complaining now… the battle begins!