Sam Taylor looked worriedly out of the sensors of her Flash tank at the opposing army, two hills away. They looked as if they were pretty well armed, with large Reaper and Goliath tanks, not to mention Levellers, lethal to the lightly-armoured Flash tanks. About twenty Cans stood, squat and menacing, on the hill, and ten Sumoes acted as a defensive wall behind them. At the sides, KBots shuffled nervously, the green ground turned into mud by the impacts of thousands of feet.

Suddenly there was a boom and every long-ranged unit in the Arm forces fired at once, targetting five Sumoes in the centre of the forces. Two Sumoes disintegrated under the impact of fifty titanium capped uranium javelins, their armour giving way and the fusion reactors exploding with a rolling cloud of white-hot plasma. Two Cans toppled over, legs waving helplessly in the air, as plasma rounds from fifteen Bulldogs burst over the white armour. Seconds later, the only trace of the frontline units was a large puddle of white-hot molten metal that was burning its way into the ground.
Sunlike plasma shells arced over the battle, contrails showing behind them, as TCU darts slammed into tanks, punching holes in the armour. A Goliath's Heavy Armour disintegrated with a shriek, stripping the metal from the outside of the tank. Only a skeleton was left, and fountains of plasma soon consumed the gaunt metal corpse.
As a signal flare shot up, one hundred Flash tanks roared into life, treads churning the grass into mire as they rattled down the hillside towards the enemy. Turrets swivelled and yellow EMG fire pounded unit after unit as the tanks relentlessly advanced, skeletons left behind. Levellers rocked as their massive cannons demolished the scurrying Flashes. A massive boom as six Pillagers were hit by a stray Leveller round and exploded leaving a twenty foot deep crater, which swallowed a Sumo. Legs flailing, the hapless KBot toppled into the hole, its lasers breaking off as the white armour was stained by mud. It self-destructed, shrapnel flying past a group of Storms which were lobbing rockets at a Bulldog.

Sergeant Tom Finch leapt over a wrecked Can, signalling to the rest of his squad to follow. The Freakers pulled laser pistols out of automatic holsters and raced over to the advancing Arm forces, jetpacks flaring as powerful memcomposite muscles propelled the slim Kbots into the air with massive leaps. Finch leapt on top of a Bulldog and fired his laser into its turret, disrupting the plasma containment field. As he sprang off the tank it exploded, a white cloud briefly obscuring the Freaker squad. Beside him, a Freaker missed its jump and rolled underneath the treads of a MERL. Finch looked at the Freaker, now missing its legs, and fired three rounds into its head. He saw the MERL readying a rocket and fired at the rocket launcher's cockpit, the laser rounds bouncing off the silvered glass. He redirected his fire to the rocket, which exploded violently.
A piece of shrapnel embedded itself in his leg but he felt no pain as he swung underneath a Luger, affixing an EMP mine. As the Luger aimed its massive gun, the mine went off and the Luger stopped, its pilot fried by the radiation. An A.K. too near to the explosion froze as well, soon reduced to gases as three plasma rounds landed on it. Finch climbed the mobile artillery and dropped a small grenade into the barrel, sprinting away as the Luger's ammunition exploded, sending several Hammers flying. The antimatter containment field in another Luger failed unexpectedly, releasing almost twenty grammes of antimatter onto a group of Bulldogs. A white cloud of smoke marked the demise of the tanks as Finch picked up the laser pistol of a downed colleague and fixed it to his arm, blasting away at a Zeus which was trying to fry a Pyro. The Pyro exploded, finishing his job for him, and the lighning cannon of the Zeus flew out of a rapidly-expanding ball of gas, still firing.

Miles Cronin manipulated the twin joysticks of the remote control, sending an Invader scuttling towards a large concentration of CORE KBots. It crawled painfully slowly around a large rock before climbing up the side of a Sumo. A Pyro noticed the crawling bomb far too late and tried to remove it just as Miles pushed the large covered button marked 'Detonate'. A shockwave rolled over the battlefield as the crawling bomb released fifty grammes of antimatter into the air, the particles reacting violently and completely destroying everything for two hundred feet around. Miles ran back to his truck and activated the launcher which tossed an Invader past the Arm frontline before turning back to the controls.

David Tey ran through the wreckage of the battlefield, drawing his laser as he vaulted over a Can onto the top of a Goliath. He dropped a grenade into the barrel of the massive tank and shut off his sensors as it exploded, slightly damaging the cannon of the behemoth. He swung below the stubby barrel as a rocket screeched overhead, hitting a Freaker which was trying to kill him.
He looked behind him and saw another Freaker aiming its laser, and launched himself at the orange-painted Kbot, kicking its weapon away and picking up the frail Kbot. He climbed up onto the tank and rammed the Freaker's head into the Goliath's barrel just as it fired, the eight-inch plasma round passing straight through the slim scout bot.
The Goliath was left with a new barrel extension as David jumped off to lob a grenade towards a Crasher. Seconds later, a missile tube clanged off the Goliath's armour but David was well out of the way, sheltering underneath the Goliath's massive body. He planted two limpet mines next to the tank's left-hand treads before sprinting away. He jumped onto a Storm just as the tank collapsed onto its side and bounced down the hill, leaving one set of treads behind. The Storm turned to launch a rocket, while David was climbing onto its turret. He suddenly found himself dangling in front of the barrels of a Reaper. He swore, just as the Storm fired, the backblast throwing him away from the Reaper. He felt a sudden pressure againt his back and only had time to look around before the second Reaper rolled over his slim body.
 . . .

James looked at the tiny forces battling it out on a simulated battlefield and turned to his friend, who was intently watching a tiny figure blasting a minature Goliath. "It's amazing, isn't it? Put maybe twelve specimens together in a tank and they will always start fighting."
His friend laughed. "When are you going to get some proper pets, James? These...what did you call them?"
"Humans," said James.
The other boy grinned. "Yeah, that's it. They're pretty boring - all they do is fight."
James started to reply, just as his mother called him from downstairs.
"James? Do you want dinner?"
He shouted that he was coming. "Are you going to stay for dinner?"
"No thanks, I've got to go. Well, I'll see you, then."
Both boys went out of the room and James switched off the light.