Lenya swallowed nervously as she stared at her own reflection in the mirror. It was the first day of the tournament and today Lenya, guised as Dibilique would face her first opponent.

She carefully ran her gloved hands across the smooth leather of her costume. She made minor adjustments to the fit and tugged the mask over her face.

“So, what are you supposed to be, a pro wrestler or something?” Charlotte asked from her perch atop the vanity in front of the mirror.

Lenya looked down at the little woman and smiled. “I’m a tol-bot player. It’s a military combat simulation that is a very popular sport for the Empire. Today I go to compete in our highest tournament, the Tribute.”

“And what’s gonna happen to Molly and me?” The human asked, nodding to where her companion was seated on the other side of the dresser, refusing to talk to anybody.

“I think it’s best if you stay here, where it’s safe.” Lenya responded. “Don’t worry, I’ll make a note for the cleaning staff that they are not to enter, so you should be fine. I’ll turn the holo onto the match so you can watch Dibilique in action, if you like.”

“Dibba-what now?”

“Dibilique. It’s my tol-bot persona. A secret identity that I play under. It’s traditional.” Lenya explained, as she pulled the strap of her bag onto her shoulder.

“And what the heck is a Dibi… whatever.” Charlotte asked, rubbing the back of her neck.

Lenya smiled, rolling her eyes. “It’s kind of silly, but a Dibilique is a mythical creature. Said to be very beautiful, but very deadly and kind of mischievous. If you stayed on their good side, they could grant wishes. But if you didn’t, they would lure you to your death with their charms.”

“Like a siren.” Charlotte nodded.

Lenya shrugged. “Likely.” She glanced down at her data pad and gasped as she realized what time it was. “I need to go, the match will be starting soon, and I’ll need time to prepare.”

Charlotte shrugged and sat down. “Well, uh, good luck then, I guess.”

“Thank you.” Lenya nodded and left the room.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Dibilique’s heart hammered as she strode through the access tunnel that would eventually lead her into the challenger’s box of Usius Arena. It was just her luck that she drew iron Maiden as her first opponent of the Grand Tribute. Under normal circumstances, the champion shouldn’t even be participating in the group play rounds. By rights, Dibilique shouldn’t be facing one of the greatest players of the game in decades on the first slagging round.

Yet she was.

Dibilique shook her head and squared her shoulders. There was no time for self-pity. This match was going to be hard enough as it was, there was no sense in doing Iron Maiden’s job for her before the first round even started. Dibilique had just as much of a chance of beating Iron Maiden as any player did. Better than most, in fact. After all, she wasn’t ranked in the top twenty for nothing.

Narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth, Dibilique stepped into the bright lights of the stadium and cacophonous noise of the crowd, determined to face the colossus without flinching.

Iron Maiden was already waiting for her. The champion was positioned on the opposite side of the Arena. The blank faceplate of her mask glared across the field as Dibilique approached. Iron Maiden’s arms were crossed over her leather clad torso and her entire bearing seemed to project an arrogance that only a five time champion could muster.

A spotlight clicked on and the noise of the crowd hushed just a bit as every eye in the Arena, including those of Dibilique and the Iron Maiden, turned towards the elevated stand where the Diatiti, the match official, was waiting.

The Diatiti was relatively youthful, and Dibilique could see the girl’s hands shaking from nerves. The patch sewn onto the shoulder of the woman’s uniform indicated she was a Demi-Diatiti. Not surprising, the preliminary rounds were generally officiated by the lower ranking judges. Even the ones feating the champion.

Still, Dibilique couldn’t help but be impressed as the girl squared her shoulders, ran a hand through her bright pink hair, and then addressed the crowd in a voice that was rock-steady.

“Your attention, Tol-Bot fans!” The young woman’s voice rang out across the stadium. “Welcome to today’s match between the reigning champion, the indomitable, invincible, Iron Maiden!” The Diaititi paused as the voice of the crowd swelled in support of the top ranked player, who nodded wordlessly to acknowledge the support. “And today’s challenger, the alluring and enchanting Dibilique!”

The roar of the crowd in her support, while not quite as mighty as that for the Maiden, was loud enough to quell some of the nervousness in Dibilique’s chest. She plastered a bright and confident smile on her face and acknowledged the crowd effervescently, a stark contrast the Iron Maiden’s stoicism.

Dibilique smirked as she stepped into her Player’s box and rested her hands on the control panel in front of her. She might not win the match, but she would be damned if she didn’t at least make the Maiden sweat a bit.

The roar of the crowd seemed to mute as the two combatants faced each other across the playfield. Dibilique’s vision narrowed until all she could see was the space between the two of them, which would be soon filled with the holographic battlefield.

The holographic images scrambled for a few seconds as the computers made a show of “selecting” the terrain for the first round before finally settling on Land as their first arena.

Dibilique nodded with relief. While she was well versed with all the rounds of tol-bot, and she understood that all would need to be conquered eventually; land combat was easily her best format and gave her the greatest chance at an early advantage.

She quickly scanned through the mission objectives. It was a pretty standard scenario, which wasn’t surprising for the beginning of the Tribute. The organizers would no doubt be saving the more flashy scenarios for further along in the tournament.

They were positioned in a narrow mountain pass. Dibilique would be playing the defenders. She was heavily outnumbered by Iron Maiden’s army (the briefing listed the discrepancy as being somewhere in the neighborhood of ten-to-one) but her position was far superior. Her objective was to defend the pass for a designated period of time (at which point logistics would force the Maiden’s commander to flee) or reduce the Iron Maiden’s forces to less than forty percent; which would mean that she would not have the strength of arms to continue the hypothetical campaign.

The tech level was low. Muscle powered weapons and primitive incendiaries only. Dibilique shook her head and sighed. She’d hoped for at least early firearms, but alas she would have to make due with bows and arrows.

Dibilique took a deep breath. Time seemed to stretch as she waited for the Diatiti to issue the starting signal. Finally, after assuring that both players were ready, the Diatiti began the match.

Right away, Dibilique set her troops to begin collecting what little timber the sparse forest around her had to provide so they could begin creating barricades and fortifications in the pass. She also sent out scouting units to determine how far away Iron Maiden’s troops were so she could have a better idea of just how long she had before the siege began.

Next, she sent out foragers to collect food and water. Dibilque wouldn’t put it past the scenario designers to take that into account, and she wasn’t about to let a rookie mistake like that be her downfall.

Satisfied that her soldiers were usefully occupied, she turned her eyes to the scouting reports that were beginning to come in. Iron Maiden’s armies were still several days’ march (in game time) away from where Dibilique’s forces were digging themselves in. This was a double-edged sword for Dibilique. On the one hand, it meant all the more time for her to entrench her soldiers, but on the other it meant the longer delay would further strain her supplies.

Then again, that was also true for Iron Maiden.

Dibilique noticed a small footnote in her scout’s report saying that there were dark clouds on the horizon to the East. Unfortunately, due to the technological level of the setting, Dibilique lacked access to meteorological satellite data. However, it was likely this meant a storm was incoming. Dibilique’s thoughts whirled as she tried to think of a way to turn this to her advantage.

An alarm blared from Dibilique’s console and she turned towards it in surprise. A moment later, the tol-bot player cursed herself. She’d allowed herself to get distracted and failed to notice that the game-time clock was running faster than she’d realized. Iron Maiden’s forces were almost on top of her.

Fortunately, her own soldiers had been working diligently while Dibilique had been distracted. They’d managed to dig themselves in deep enough that rooting them out was going to be a chore for Iron Maiden.

Dibilique scanned the playfield intently. Iron Maiden was a tricky player so she was determined not to be caught off-guard by the champion.

On the playing field, the front lines of Iron Maiden’s offensive were clashing with Dibilique’s own forward guard. The Tol-bot player watched in fascination as the holographic soldiers rammed into each other. Dibilique’s own forces were throwing spears and shooting arrow from behind barricades, while Iron Maiden’s troops marched forward concealed behind their shields in a tight phalanx formation.

Dibilique frowned as she watched her soldiers’ projectiles bounce harmlessly off the front facing shields. Then, she cursed her own stupidity.

Her hands flew across the control panel as she quickly issued new orders to her armies. After executing her string of commands, Dibilique couldn’t help but smile as the warriors positioned on bluffs higher up began raining arrows down on the column of enemy fighters below them.

Dibilique chuckled, but then grew concerned. Iron Maiden wasn’t playing like herself. Ignoring a major weakness of the formation was a complete rookie mistake. Dibilique was happy to capitalize on the error, but still… it made her wary. Perhaps Iron Maiden was laying a trap that Dibilique wasn’t aware of.

Iron Maiden slammed her fist on the console in front of her and frantically repositioned her troops to deal with the new onslaught.

It was too late. Even as her phalanx raised their shields to deal with the aerial assault, a column of Dibilique’s fighters, lightly armed and armored, were mowing through their exposed flank.

The crowd around them roared at this unexpected turn of events. Iron Maiden was being routed in the very first round; it was something absolutely no one in the Empire could have predicted.

Iron Maiden was busy trying to wrangle her soldiers back into formation. Dibilique watched as two of her fractured lines joined into one and shored up the exposed flank. Now her fighters resembled a frightened klipkaer retreated into its own shell. Dibilique’s arrows and spears were no longer able to penetrate, even from above.

A muttered curse fell from her lips as she reacted to the change of tactics. Iron Maiden’s juggernaut burst through Dibilique’s first line of defense, her constructed wall being reduced to nothing more than so much splinters and firewood. The remnants of the broken line scattered back to the second group of defenses, those that managed to escape the blades of the formation’s soldiers, anyway.

A flash of light and fire caught Dibilique’s attention. Her eyes widened as a flaming barrel was lobbed from the mouth of the canyon and straight at the next wall in Iron Maiden’s way.

Dibilique groaned in frustration, wondering how her scouts could have missed the sight of war machines.

Unless Iron Maiden had constructed them herself, of course…

Another blaze shot across the field, impacting against her wall and spraying her troops with flaming oil.

The crowd cheered as the tide turned again. Dibilique, however, was concentrating on the data in front of her, trying to find some way of dealing with this new threat.

Lightning flashed across the game field, and a deafening boom of thunder swept across the arena. In a moment, a torrential downpour started.

Dibilique smiled, the gods of fortune had smiled on her. The predicted storm had come at just the right time. The rain wasn’t heavy enough to put out the oil fires that plagued her defenses, but that wasn’t really an issue anymore.

She did, after all, control the higher ground.

Almost as if they possessed a single mind, Dibilique’s soldiers turned and fled up the canyon trails towards the bluffs, where her archers were already positioned.

The rain made for hard climbing, and not an insignificant number of her soldiers slipped and plummeted back to the canyon floor. Meanwhile, Iron Maiden’s troops were advancing forward.

Which was exactly as Dibilique intended.

As the last of defender made it to the top perch, Dibilique executed her final command. Loud, concussive bangs echoed across the arena. Her warriors detonated the casks of chemical explosives she’d stored up the side of the mountain, bringing an avalanche of rock down upon Iron Maiden’s forces.

Those that weren’t buried in the rubble found their way cut off. Dibilique pressed another button, another series of explosives collapsed the entrance to the canyon, all but sealing them in.

Dibilique grinned as she watched the torrential downpour turn into a flash flood that swept Iron Maiden’s forces away.

The buzzer sounded once the death toll on the Maiden’s army rose high enough to complete the objective.

Dibilique, meanwhile, was left speechless. She’d actually managed to beat Iron Maiden in group play. No one, but no one, had expected her to do that.

Now, it was only a matter of if she could do it again.

*.*.*.*

Emotions were running high in the Arena and the tension was almost palpable as the match between Dibilique and Iron Maiden entered the fourth and final round. After Dibilique’s shocking upset against Iron Maiden in the Land round, the champion had managed to rally in the second, seafaring, round. However, against all odds Dibilique had emerged victorious in the Air round, giving her a fighting chance at taking the victory.

The two combatants were once again squared off at opposite ends of the playing field, staring across at each other from behind their control panels. There would be no victory for the Iron Maiden today, the best she could hope for was a tie.

Dibilique was riding the high of her leading score and could sense blood in the water. Nothing less than a win would do for her now.

The holographic emitters pulsed for a moment, and the field in front of them momentarily became a blaze of colored light, before forms and shapes coalesced into a starscape for the beginning of the Space round.

Dibilique quickly read over the scenario briefing. Iron Maiden was leading a shipping convoy through territory held by Dibilique’s forces. The freighters was carrying rare minerals and other raw materials. Winner of the scenario would be the player who could account for the most cargo vessels at the end of the scenario. Either Dibilique would capture or destroy them, or Iron Maiden would be able to successfully defend them. Escort vessels and raiding vessels were irrelevant for scoring purposes.

The crowd fell silent as Dibilique and Iron Maiden both indicated to the Diatiti that they were prepared for the match to begin. The Diaiti signaled and a moment later the units spawned on the playfield.

Dibilique looked up at the sphere of spacescape that hung above them. The formation that Iron Maiden had programed her cargo and bodyguard vessels to take was the first thing she noticed. Unsurprisingly, the champion had the cargo vessels arranged in a scattered pattern, each guarded by no less than three escort ships. This presented Dibilique with no obvious target and ensured that she would have to split her forces or concentrate on each cluster one at a time, which she did not have time for.

Dibilique programmed her formation into the game’s controls and watched with satisfaction as her vessels deployed.

The area between where Iron Maiden’s convoy started and her eventual goal was bisected by a swath of asteroids and small planetoids. Dibilique divided her armada into several smaller strike forces and hid them among the asteroids at various points in Iron Maiden’s path.

Of course, space is three-dimensional. Iron Maiden spread her ships in such a way that while each group of escorts remained close to their designated charges, they could easily peel away and reinforce whichever target Dibilique chose.

The Arena was quiet as Iron Maiden’s shops plowed through the asteroid field. No one dared to breathe as the first squadron of ships entered the area where all save Iron Maiden knew Dibilique’s ships to be hidden.

Minutes ticked by without incident and some in the crowd were beginning to wonder if inaction was Dibilique’s way of forfeiting the round.

Then, just as the middle of the convoy entered the area, an alarm on Iron Maiden’s control panel blared loud enough for the entire stadium to hear. Though she had let the first few groups through unmolested, Dibilique had directed two of her strike forces to strafe two of the cargo vessels on the outside edge of Iron Maiden’s groups.

As soon as the defenders from the adjacent groups turned to confront the attackers, Dibilique’s forces slipped back into the asteroid field. One of the cargo vessel was damaged and slowed considerably. The rest of the convoy moved further and further away from it.

On the opposite side of the convoy, Dibilique struck again. And, again as the defenders rose to the challenge, her ships slipped back into cover.

Iron Maiden’s ships shifted their deployment pattern, bunching closer together, with the cargo vessels in the center. This allowed for better coverage, but made for a more obvious target.

It also slowed her convoy down as they were forced to adjust to the speed of the damaged freighter.

Minutes passed by without incident. Dibilique smiled as she sensed the tension mounting in the stadium. When would she strike? And where?

Dibilique tapped her controls and two of her squads swooped down from the northern quadrant. One went for the front edge, one for the back. Both were too far away from each other for Iron Maiden to effectively defend both, so she was forced to choose.

Unsurprisingly, she chose to defend her forward progress, leaving her tail end inadequately covered.

In the ensuing chaos, Dibilique managed to destroy a dozen of Iron Maiden’s guardian vessels. Three of the Maiden’s cargo vessels were unguarded and before protectors could be deployed to their defense, Dibilique’s ships slaved the freighters’ guidance systems and hijacked their controls before disappearing with them back into cover.

Iron Maiden pounded her fist against her controls in frustration. It had been an obvious tactic, and she’d fallen for it anyway.

Light flashed as her escort vehicles let loose with their weapons. Asteroids vaporized as they took the onslaught of Iron Maiden’s vented rage. Occasionally, Iron Maiden’s ships guessed correctly and several of Dibilique’s ships were flushed out and destroyed. The Maiden was going on the offensive. Dibilique was being hunted.

So be it.

Out of the rubble and debris, a dozen of Dibilique’s fighters flew in tight formation towards Iron Maiden’s cluster of ships. Light and fire flashed as missiles and weapons exploded against the hulls. Several ships from both sides exploded, including one of Iron Maiden’s freighters.

Several of Iron Maiden’s ships were flying slowly, their hulls leaking gasses and smoke. Within moments of their disappearance, Dibilique’s fighters returned. They harried the defenders, but didn’t fire upon them except for a few cursory exchanges that most in the Arena assumed were just for show. As before, they disappeared within moments.

Iron Maiden was fuming because she assumed she was being taunted. Which, in all fairness, was true. The champion changed course again, and dove further into the asteroid field, hoping to use it for cover in the same way as Dibilique had done. There was no time limit on this round, so it was obvious she was hoping to stall Dibilique. To make the other player frustrated and, hopefully, sloppy.

A loud concussive explosion rocked the stadium as Dibilique detonated the remote mines her fighters had placed on Iron Maiden’s ships during her las strafing run. Molten slag filled the space scape as Iron Maiden’s armada was ripped apart by the explosives.

Not all of her ships were destroyed, but most were crippled in some way. Seconds later, Dibilique’s entire force screamed out from among the asteroids like a pack of predators onto a wounded herd. The massacre was short lived, in minutes Iron Maiden’s entire fleet was decimated, and whatever cargo freighters remained were functionally without defense.

The buzzer sounded Dibilique’s victory. The crowd screamed out surprise and excitement at witnessing the Champion stumbling this early in the tournament.

The Maiden, however, watched the holographic playfield stoically. Across the Arena, she caught Dibilique’s eye and nodded.

Then, she turned and slowly walked from the Arena.