Status: Edited

"Taking him away from her practically destroyed him. How do you expect him to react when he finds out he has to play her!"

"Calm down. I'm not even sure if I'm going to transfer her yet."

"That look you have? It was the same look you had when you transferred Wiggin."

"Oh is that so?"

"You'll end up breaking them before we can even get them to Command School."

"They weren't meant to become friends, Anderson. She was supposed to be his competition. Shape him into the commander we need."

"So what now? You transfer her and hope for the best? Hope they just forget about each other? These kids aren't objects you can just toss around!"

"Watch me."

. . .

The very next day I received a transfer slip to Condor. I followed the flashing black and white lights along the corridors, climbing ladders, turning a dozen corners, and feeling exactly like a rat inside a maze while my insides seethed with barely concealed rage. Those bastards were running a game I was already getting tired of playing.

The older soldiers stared at me as I made my way down the halls. I was the newbie all over again. Still in my bright yellow Launchie uniform, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

At last, the black and white lights stopped their flashing dance in front of a wide entrance. I had arrived at the Condor Army barracks. Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside.

The barrack was much larger than the Launchies one had been. From where I stood, I could see all the way to the back of the room where the wall curved up along the exterior of the station.

"Hey!" came a voice to my left.

I turned to find a black haired who looked to be a few years older than me. He was built like a bull, stocky and muscular. He hopped down from the top bunk of the bed closest to the door, seemingly extremely bothered by my sudden appearance. "You lost, Launchie?" he asked, sending me a nasty glare.

"I'm the new transfer," I said, meeting his gaze evenly.

"Show me your paper then."

I didn't. "I'm to report straight to Commander Michael Sif," I said carefully. The last thing I needed was to seem disrespectful, but this guy was making it hard.

His face turned red with anger and it looked as though he might tell me off when a deep voice sounded from behind me. "Commander on deck!"

Immediatly, everyone dropped what they were doing and stood at attention near the ends of their bunks. I quickly took a place in the open space closest to the door.

"At ease," came a new voice. I relaxed and turned to face the person at the door. A tall, sandy haired boy stepped from the entrance to stand before me.

I made sure to keep my face indifferent as I met his cool gaze. His light blue eyes shined as he looked down at me and I wondered briefly how many freckles he had scattered across his nose like stardust. For just a moment, the look he gave made me painfully aware of the lack of females in the room.

"So, you're looking for Michael Sif," he said, glancing me over.

I watched his movements, eyes equally calculating. "Yes, sir."

"Transfer slip."

He glanced at the slip of paper that I handed over. "Lara Flinn." He tested out my name like a new sweet on his tongue. "Any previous experience in battle?"

"No, sir."

He looked over the paper again. "We'll get your stats later and see how good of a shot you are. For now, do you know any formations?"

I shook my head. "Only heard of them, sir."

Michael nodded, seemingly unsurprised. "You'll train with me and my toon then. I like all my soldier in perfect shape. We train in the gym directly after breakfast and then regular classes until 1500. After class we have training in the battle room and then a half hour of free time before dinner." He nodded his head to the my left. "Your bunk is at the back of the room. Work hard." He gave my shoulder a pat before turning to face the rest of his soldiers. "Dismissed!"

The room filled with noise again as Michael went to talk with some of the boys at the front of the room. I took the chance to make my way to the back where my bunk was.

I quickly found that I once again had the top bed, but I also noticed that the lockers no longer had hand pads to lock them. In an army, nothing was private.

I quickly changed into my new black and white uniform, which clung tightly to my frame. With a sigh, I went to lay on my bunk. As I stared at the curved ceiling, my mind wandered to Ender and I wondered how he was doing in Slamander Army. They supposedly had a harsh commander and were one of the more difficult armies to play.

I wanted to be there for him. To hug him and tell him that he wasn't alone. That no matter what, I would always be his friend.

Later that night, I checked my desk to see if I could message him, but a note marched its way triumphantly across the screen.

MESSAGE NOT SENT. PLEASE TRY AGAIN.

So our messages were blocked.

At that moment, I would have very much liked to beat the bastards running the place silly.

. . .

My first battle was against Salamander Army, three days after my transfer.

My insides were a mess of anger and nerves as I jogged down the corridor towards the battle room with my new army. The last thing I wanted to do was battle Ender, but it wasn't just messing around with Launchies anymore. It was a real battle with an outcome that actually mattered.

We were in perfect formation with me settled neatly at the back, marching in sync after the ribbons of black, white, black along one side of the corridor wall. The pattern green, green, brown flew besides us on the opposite wall.

Then, as we passed a wide door way, I was suddenly jogging alongside the very person I had been thinking of. The Salamander Army formed besides us, also making their way to the battle room, with Ender at the rear.

At the sight of him, excitement and relief washed over me. "Ender," I called quietly across to him. My heart pounded like a drum in my ears.

He didn't respond at first, instead keeping his head forward and ignoring my imploring stares. Doubt crept like a spider into my mind as I watched him, but it quickly slipped away when he finally turned to look at me.

"Sorry, Bonzo doesn't like us talking to other armies." He said, flashing me a reassuring smile. "I had to wait to make sure he wasn't looking."

I balled my fists in frustration as we ran. "What the hell! Why?" First our messages were blocked and now we couldn't even talk to each other in the halls?

Though it angered me, I knew it made sense to some extent. Bonzo was a good commander, no matter how ruthless, and didn't want his armies stats falling because one soldier accidentally let slip a plan to a different army. Ender just shrugged, so I sighed and settled my gaze on Bonzo's back.

Before we could say anything more or even whisper a good luck, the Salamander Army was gone, turning down the left corridor as we headed down the right. A heavy dread settled over me as we reached the gate.

Sif gave his first command. "Toons, form up!" He called. We did as we were told and I fell into line at the tale end of toon A, Michael in the lead.

Michael Sif definitely wasn't one for motivating speeches. Over the last couple days I had quickly found that he was harsh at times, but quiet experienced. And to top it off, his army loved him. He may have been tough, but everything he did was for the best interest of the army.

At last the gate opened, but still no one moved or spoke. The entirety of the battle room could hear us from there on out, so at Michaels signal, we filed into null gravity. Perspiration had already begun to form on my brow from nerves, but I forced myself to keep my breathing controlled and focused.

I kept in formation with my toon as we shot off towards a cluster of stars to the right of our gate. Michael caught me before I could slip past the star, swinging me around so I could grasp the handles.

Grateful, I nodded to him and gripped onto the star. He gave me a smile in return before signaling for everyone to wait at their stars. There was still no sign of Salamander.

At last, they came swarming out of their gate, smooth and slick like the reptiles they represented. We grasped our guns tightly and immediately opened fire.

Frozen soldiers from both armies filled the space as the onslaught intensified and toons advanced to any star they could overtake. I watched the battle unfold, shooting at any Salamander that came in range. As I looked around, it seemed as though every Salamander soldier had come out of the gate, yet there was still no sign of Ender.

Finally, I spotted him slip out of the gate and cling to the wall just outside it. It seemed that no one had noticed his appearance but me.

From where I was stationed, I had a perfect shot at him. I could have hit him square in the chest if I wanted, but something stopped me. Instead, I shifted my gaze and opened fire elsewhere.

The battle dragged on and I damaged a couple Salamander's, but didn't end up freezing any. By the time I'd looked back at Ender, he was gone, but I didn't have time to search for him as my toon advanced.

As the battle continued, Condor picked up on Salamander's mistake fairly quickly. There were tons of stars sprawled out across the room, but Salamander wasn't using any of them. They shot over them like they were obstacles instead of using them for cover.

We had them the second we realized their mistake. More and more frozen Salamander's were drifting through the space. We pressed harder against their lines with each enemy we disabled.

Still, we barely made it. In the end, we only had the minimum of five soldiers to get through the enemies gate. As I had been disabled earlier on in the battle, I was not one of them. But it didn't matter, as we had still finished victorious.

Because we were the winning army, we were able to leave the battle room first. We ran, laughing and cheering, all the way to lunch. No one really payed attention to their food, however, as our eyes were solely on the giant leader board on the wall above us.

As I analyzed the stats, I was surprised to find that Ender had a perfect record. I sat completely stumped on how he possibly could have had a perfect record at the end of the game. Specifically, his stats read 0 shots and 0 frozen, but that was impossible.

I thought about that anomaly for the rest of the day, but no valid reasoning came to me. I had finally gotten it out of my mind and was walking back to my barrack from the showers when I saw Ender speaking with his commander in the hall outside the Salamander barrack. I slowed my pace as I neared, hoping to catch a part of their conversation.

". . . and you won't need to draw your weapon in any future battles with Salamander either. Have I made myself clear, Wiggin?" Bonzo asked dangerously.

Ender's eyes were steely. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now get out of here."

I watched as Ender disappeared into his barrack before making my way back to Condor. I was speechless. Bonzo had really ordered Ender not to draw his gun during the battle!

By all the buggers, I thought as I crawled into bed that night. Salamander could have easily tied the game had Ender gone against orders and shot even just one of our five remaining soldiers as they made their way to the gate. So what the hell was Bonzo's deal?