Let me tell you about MaxiPaine11 (pretty sure that was his name), a random person I found playing this game this morning.

He was waiting for me next to a flag post in the smoldering remains of an outpost. A timer informed us that we had about 2 minutes to hold the spot until the flag would be raised. In the background, I could hear the ominous electronic robotic chipping somewhere nearby - a patrol mission, probably.

Maxi looked busy checking something on the other side of the post next to a vending machine (somehow, these always survive) when I saw them approach. I informed him on the radio, but I wasn’t sure if he got the memo because the next thing I knew, lasers were flying by my head; I leaped to a prone position, took out my sniper rifle, and looked down the scope at the big one at the back of the pack, a meanie with chainsaws for arms. I took my aim slowly, carefully, and squeezed. Well, that got their attention.

There was a THUMP sound nearby. “Democracy needs firepower!” I heard Maxi claim. Soon, I also saw what he called for - a machine gun - as he started raining bullets at the oncoming bot army. That was good; I didn’t know the guy, but his strategy complimented my sniping cautiousness just fine - BOG! I got one right in the head.

The timer ended, and the objective was met, but we had a hell of a fight ahead of us getting out of there to the extraction point. Drop ship after drop ship, the bots kept on coming faster than we could reload our weapons. Things were about to get out of hand. I had an idea. A crazy one, but this is a crazy game. I called in a minefield, focusing right behind us, missing the advancing robots entirely. I got a “?” from him in chat. That’s all he could do before I heard him scream “My leeeeegggggg!!!” as a well-aimed laser blasted it off. My situation wasn’t much better.

I told him to follow me, as I was going back, right into the mines I planted. Then I asked again, and once more, for emphasis, switching weapons to my assault rifle and aiming to his left to show him I was right behind him. He saw me standing between the mines, and then it clicked. He was following me. We rushed through my minefield (as carefully as possible) and ran into the forest, the bots right after us.

We opened a gap between us and the bot army as their fastest killing machines rushed after us right into the mines and exploded. We kept running until we found a big cliff to hide behind. I called for supplies; he called down a torrent to cover us. Good thinking. I checked our map, and well, shit, the extraction point was where the bots came from, right back through the exploding mines, or we could go around it, through what looked like a river.

I turned to him and saluted; Maxi did the same. This time, I followed him - he chose the water. On the other side, Looking ahead, right in our way, was a bot factory surrounded by many glowing evil red eyes. Maxi looked hesitant. And then I died. It happened so quickly.

The bots were everywhere. Maxi didn’t waste time and ran for cover before calling in reinforcement, which was me, of course, as another patriotic solider: “Democracy has landed!” I claimed as I got out of my capsule, right into the depth of an intense fight. We were surrounded. bots from behind, bot-camp ahead, and water that would slow us down to a crawl to the side. It was time to call for additional help, so I shot an SOS beacon to the side. “Thanks,” he managed to voice-prompt me; “Affirmative,” I responded.

But additional reinforcement never came. After many deaths and limbs lost, we managed to get to the extraction spot and escape by the skin of our teeth. This was medium?? Apparently, it was. I saluted Maxi one more time and told him I’ll be back later. Democracy might never sleep, but it does get hungry. Hopefully, I’ll run into Maxi again. Or Someone else, who knows. Every time is a new adventure.