Team Reforged; Power and Overpower
Copyright© 2026 by FozzieBare
Chapter 6: Breaking the Quantum Core
Reforged had the entire night off. Amy had almost forgotten tournaments could work that way. No match at midnight. No alarm six hours later.
No stumbling through a casino looking for breakfast while Kevin threatened bodily harm against anybody who said the words energy drink within twenty feet of him.
They had finished TeamTotallyTomorrow in the evening. Their second-round match would not begin until the following evening. If they won that, they would have two full days before the Round of Sixteen. Amy had stared at the schedule for nearly thirty seconds before looking at Adrian.
“Is this legal?”
“What?”
“Rest.”
Adrian laughed.
“Apparently.”
“I don’t trust it.”
“You don’t have to trust it. You just have to sleep.”
That part, at least, Amy could manage.
Quantum Core worried Adrian. That bothered Amy almost as much as Quantum Core did. She came into the video room the next morning and found Adrian already there with Elias. One of Quantum Core’s first-round rounds was playing on the main screen. Nothing particularly spectacular was happening.
One WarMAC advanced. Another covered. A third shifted to protect a flank. Their opponent tried to create an isolated fight. Quantum Core refused to give it to them. Thirty seconds later, they had turned the attempted isolation into a local two-on-one and damaged the attacker badly enough that he had to retreat.
Adrian rewound it. Played it again. Amy dropped into the chair beside him.
“How long have you been watching them?”
“Long enough.”
“That’s not a time.”
“It is when I don’t want to admit the real number.”
Elias smiled. Amy watched the sequence again. Then another. And another. Finally she shrugged.
“They’re good.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
Adrian froze the picture.
“That’s it.”
Amy looked at him.
“That’s what?”
“They’re good.”
“Okay.”
“All of them.”
Amy looked back at the screen. That was true. Quantum Core had no one who immediately jumped out as a monster. Nobody moved like Amy. Nobody seemed to have Adrian’s sense for when a fight was about to change.
There wasn’t a pilot who made her lean forward and say, I want that one.
But there wasn’t anybody bad, either. No obvious passenger. No pilot who consistently reacted half a second late. No one whose positioning made the rest of the formation compensate. Nothing. Elias switched to another VOD.
“Watch their left side.”
Amy did. Quantum Core took pressure. The left side adjusted. Perfectly normally. One pilot stepped forward. Another covered the movement. Their center shifted just enough to close the space. No panic. No overreaction. No heroics.
“They’re boring,” Reuben said from the doorway.
Adrian did not look away from the screen.
“No.”
Reuben came farther inside.
“They’re not?”
“They’re consistent.”
Adrian finally turned.
“That’s worse.”
Reuben considered that.
“Okay. Somehow that made them sound more boring.”
Tex followed him in carrying coffee.
“What’re we looking at?”
“Our problem,” Amy said.
Tex watched for a few seconds.
“Which one?”
“All of them.”
“Oh.”
More people filtered into the room. Kevin. Cass. Natalia. Becky. Martin, who had been specifically instructed that this was a tactical meeting and therefore he was not allowed to improve anybody’s computer while they were talking. Adrian let the VOD play. Quantum Core won another exchange.
Not spectacularly. They simply made fewer mistakes. When it ended, Adrian stood.
“TTT had two pilots we had to worry about.”
Cass nodded.
“The loaners.”
“Right. Keep them occupied, and the rest of the team got easier.”
He pointed toward the screen.
“Quantum Core doesn’t have that.”
Amy leaned back.
“No fracture point.”
“Exactly.”
Reuben looked around.
“So what’s the plan?”
Adrian was quiet for a moment. Then he smiled.
“We make one.”
That got their attention. Adrian switched the screen to a tactical map.
“Counter-counter dive.”
Reuben immediately frowned.
“Okay. My head hurts. Try that again.”
Adrian sighed.
“We make a play.”
“Okay.”
“They react to the play.”
“Still with you.”
“We don’t attack the original target. We attack the reaction.”
Reuben stared at the map.
“So we counter their counter.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say that?”
“I did. I said counter-counter dive.”
“That sounded stupid.”
Tex nodded.
“Way stupider.”
Adrian pointed at both of them.
“Thank you for the tactical input.”
Amy grinned.
“I think I understand it.”
“Good.”
“We attack where they’re going to be after they react.”
“Exactly.”
Elias nodded slowly.
“That only really works in the bigger rounds.”
“Right. We need enough pieces moving that their response creates another opening.”
Cass studied the map.
“And if they don’t react?”
“Then we finish the first play.”
That made her smile.
“So either way, they have to make a decision.”
“Constantly.”
Adrian switched to another clip.
“That’s what I want. They are very good at making the correct response. So we’re going to give them too many correct responses.”
Reuben stared at him. Adrian continued. “We need to pile up so many reactions and counter-reactions that their theoretical buffers overflow.”
Reuben raised both hands.
“Stop.”
Everyone laughed.
“No, seriously. You somehow made it worse.”
Tex nodded.
“Much worse.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Fine. We make them think too much.”
Amy pointed at him.
“There. Normal-person language.”
Martin spoke from the back.
“The buffer analogy was technically sound.”
Reuben turned.
“Martin, you are banned from helping.”
“I was not aware you had authority to ban me.”
“I am claiming emergency authority.”
“Denied.”
Adrian clapped his hands once.
“Focus.”
The tactical map changed again.
“They’ve scouted us. We know that. Everybody scouts everybody at this level.”
He looked at Cass.
“They know you love minelayers.”
Cass smiled.
“I do love minelayers.”
“You’re not bringing them.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Rude.”
“Dragonfire.”
Cass stared at him for a second. Then the smile came back.
“Oh.”
Amy saw it too. Quantum Core would see Cass. They would see her machine. They would have watched Vegas. They would have watched the Spring Tournament. They would know what Cass liked to do. Mine routes. Restrict movement. Turn the battlefield into a series of places the enemy was not allowed to stand.
So naturally they would prepare for that. Cass leaned toward the tactical display.
“I can sell the minelayer setup.”
“That’s what I want.”
“Move like I’m setting lanes.”
“Exactly.”
“And then light them up.”
Adrian nodded.
“Exactly.”
He changed the display to his own machine. The Longbow WarMaster. Missile racks everywhere. Amy had once described it as what happened when somebody looked at a WarMAC and decided it had too much free surface area. Adrian brought up the ammunition list.
“Mine layers.”
Cass made an offended noise.
“Dragonfire.”
Cass forgave him.
“Dum-Dum armor-penetration rounds.”
Reuben squinted.
“You’re carrying all three?”
“Among other things.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to keep changing what the missiles mean.”
That quieted the room. Adrian pointed toward the simulated enemy formation.
“One salvo, mines. Next salvo, Dragonfire. Third salvo, armor penetration.”
Tex nodded slowly.
“So they don’t get to decide what to do when they see missiles.”
“Right.”
“They have to figure out what kind.”
“Right.”
“And by the time they figure that out...”
“We’ve done something else.”
Amy smiled. Quantum Core’s strength was that six people could look at the same battlefield and reach the same conclusion. Adrian wanted to make sure there was no single conclusion available. Cass leaned back.
“So basically, we know what we’re doing.”
“That would be preferable.”
“And they don’t.”
“That is the goal.”
Reuben looked at the tactical map again.
“I understand this plan.”
Adrian smiled.
“Good.”
“I hate that I understand this plan.”
“Also good.”
The duel round started well. It did not start easily. Quantum Core had no stars. That was the scouting report. It remained true.
Unfortunately, no stars was not remotely the same thing as no good pilots.
Amy took her first opponent apart. Not instantly. Not embarrassingly. But methodically. The Quantum Core pilot was disciplined and technically sound. Amy was better. The second was harder. He had clearly watched her. He refused two invitations Amy would normally have expected someone to accept.
Did not chase. Did not let her lure him into close terrain until he had an exit. Amy still got him. Eventually. When she came out, Adrian was already waiting.
“Two.”
Amy nodded.
“Two.”
Adrian smiled.
“Show-off.”
“Your turn.”
He did almost exactly the same thing. Different style. Same result. Two Quantum Core pilots eliminated. Not because Quantum Core had failed. Because at the absolute top end, Reforged had something Quantum Core did not. Amy. Adrian.
Two pilots capable of turning very good into not quite good enough.
The third Reforged duelist did not have that luxury. His final fight was ugly. Very ugly. Amy spent the last thirty seconds standing behind his station with both hands clenched.
“Come on.”
The Quantum Core pilot nearly got him. Then nearly got him again. Reforged’s pilot survived with armor that appeared to be held together by optimism and the manufacturer’s warranty. One final shot landed. The Quantum Core machine went down. The room erupted. Three points.
REFORGED 3
QUANTUM CORE 0
Amy looked at Adrian.
“That score is lying.”
“Completely.”
Quantum Core had been good. Reforged’s best had simply been better. For now.
Cass sold the mines beautifully. That was the frustrating part. Quantum Core reacted exactly as Adrian had predicted. Cass took a position that made perfect sense for a minelayer. Her formation opened the lane she would normally use to seed the approach. Quantum Core saw it. Adjusted.
Refused the obvious route. Cass waited. Waited. Then fired Dragonfire. The first volley hit before Quantum Core fully understood what had happened. One of their pilots scrambled out of what he had expected to be a mine-threatened zone and straight into burning terrain. Cass laughed.
“Oh, I like this.”
Her team pressed. Quantum Core recovered. Fast. That was the problem. They did not waste thirty seconds arguing with reality. They updated. New information. New plan. They stopped treating Cass like Cass. For several minutes, the four-versus-four became exactly the sort of match Adrian had feared.
No easy mistake. No weak pilot. No single decision that cracked everything open. Cass tried another feint. Quantum Core adjusted. They pressured her right side. Cass countered. Quantum Core countered that. One Reforged WarMAC went down. Then one Quantum Core machine. Another exchange.
Another kill. By the end, Cass had one badly damaged teammate left and two Quantum Core machines still moving. She nearly stole it anyway. Nearly. The final Reforged machine went down. Quantum Core took two points. Cass removed her headset.
“Dammit.”
Adrian was already beside her.
“Don’t.”
She looked at him.
“Don’t what?”
“Worry about possibly losing.”
“We did lose.”
“Our job is to make their shot-callers doubt everything they know about us.”
Cass gestured toward the screen.
“They adjusted.”
“After how long?”
Cass stopped. Adrian pointed.
“They spent the first part of that match reacting to the Cass they expected.”
“Yeah.”
“Then they spent the rest reacting to the Cass they had.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s the point.”
Cass’s irritation faded slightly.
“You don’t care that we lost.”
“I care.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I care about the two points.”
He smiled.
“I care more about what they’re writing down right now.”
Cass looked toward the Quantum Core side of the tournament interface.
Cass uses mines.
Cross it out.
Cass doesn’t use mines.
Maybe cross that out too. She smiled.
“Okay.”
Adrian nodded.
“Good job.”
“Still hate losing.”
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