15: wargames

sanc·ti·mo·ny
1. pretended, affected, or hypocritical religious devotion, righteousness, etc.
2. (obsolete) sanctity; sacredness.

Marty tried not to frown, but one attacked him anyway. The Hellcats had taken northern Macedonia early in the evening. The Vipers' positions east of Kosovo had all but been obliterated by aerial shelling, leaving them with 35% casualties, over a hundred civilians dead (in other words, a dramatic loss in points standing), massive equipment destruction, and depleted morale. Meanwhile the White Army, from the reports, was gearing up to come from the South. Overnight, the odds in favor of the Vipers keeping former Serbia for the month had shifted from 3:1 for to 18:1 against. Marty was going to lose a lot of money.

The Vipers' Del Amio had been a good friend of his in a forgotten time, before he'd headed east and joined the Games. Marty wouldn't enjoy seeing his head blown in by an artillery round, but it was projected to be a big media attraction by the end of the month. Commodore, on the other hand, had a sickly lemon-slice smile slapped to his big face, rows of sticky yellow teeth protruding from his jaw like gravestones. "Too bad, blippo," he gloated at Marty. Commodore had put forty thousand credits on Jimmy Tuledo and the underdog Hellcats, and it looked like he was about to become a rich man. What a bad day, Marty thought.