We were preparing to go to war. By the time I got back, the briefing was well underway. Arjun, Juana, and Grandpa stood on the steps outside the old church building, addressing the assembled team in the square. They had pulled a pair of whiteboards from who knows where and had doodled all over them with black and red markers. I slipped into the crowd and took up a position in the back as Juana addressed the assembled group.

"I'm sending out the team assignments now," she said. "Go ahead and pull them up."

I received a message notification. When I pulled it up, it informed me I had been assigned to the Long-Ranged Damage Dealers Team and also to Subgroup 1, whatever that meant. I decided to wait for an explanation before asking any questions.

I glanced around the crowd assembled around the decorative bit in the middle of our outpost. There were at least 15 people here whom I had never seen before, but also plenty of reassuringly familiar faces.

All of Team Mongoose were here, and so were the members of Ragtag that I had gotten used to working with during Phase 2. There were a bunch of other acquaintances I had run missions or achieved objectives with, too, stretching all the way back to the beginning.

Frank stood near the front of the crowd, his hat pushed back on his shiny, sweaty face, listening intently. Grandpa pointed to one of the two whiteboards. It had four red symbols on it and a diagram that I thought was supposed to represent the area outside Podaga's hut.

"Once the Bannik are down," he said, "our first real challenge is going to be taking on the four knights inside the bathhouse. If it goes the way it did for the dwarves, they'll come out and engage with us themselves. Our goal is to control the encounter. Each of the knights, we are giving a code name. There's Axe, Shield, Spear, and Sword."

Someone in the crowd shouted, "It was a polearm, not a spear!"

"Yeah," Grandpa said, "but 'spear' is faster to say. I am aware that two of them were using swords. The one with a shield is called Shield. The other one is Sword. Got it?"

He didn't bother to wait for an answer."We've got four different people here with the ability to get in the face of one of those four. They've all been assigned." He listed off three names that I didn't recognize, each of the three raising their hands as he introduced them. There were two men, Javier and Dante, and a woman, Marilla. I committed their names to memory.

"And Frank Young will be on Spear," Grandpa concluded.

Frank scowled but said nothing.

"Their jobs are to drag one of the knights to each corner of the clearing. Here, here, here, and here," he said, pointing at positions on the crude map. "Then they'll keep the attention of their chosen knight. The heal team will be here and here."

He made more marks toward the center of the area but about ten yards apart.

"We're splitting into two just in case these knights have any area-of-effect abilities we didn't see from the dwarves. Heal team, you'll be listening to Allison and taking her orders. It's absolutely critical you do."

"That's right," Juana said calmly. "Because she's going to be the one who is monitoring the whole situation. She might make a call that you have doubts about. You've got to do what she says. Sometimes she might even call for you to let someone die that you could have helped. Keep in mind, deaths aren't permanent. They'll respawn right back here, safe and sound. But a wrong move at a critical time could take out our whole team, and then we'd have to wait 24 hours before trying again."

Dwight and two of his helpers were passing through the crowd, handing out gear. Crafter Sue gave me a bag. I transferred it into my inventory, then checked the contents. A stack of our new improved healing potions. A flask of “Resist Lightning” and another that was a “double the effect of all resists for ten seconds” buff. I stored both in my potions belt, filling the sixth and seventh slots there.

“You have to equip the belt yourself,” Sue said, and moved along to the next miner before I could ask what it was for.

I pulled out the “Belt of Grounding” and examined it.

[Item crafted by Sue Daniels of Misfits Guild

This is an Ablative Item. Upon the death of the wearer, item is destroyed.

When struck by lightning, direct 80% of the damage back on the caster]

It was a two-inch-wide shiny snakeskin belt with a tacky gold buckle. I was already wearing a potions belt, my gun belt, and the actual belt holding up my BDUs. Another would make me look ridiculous.

I got a message from Juana. Shad, you’ve got that distracted, clueless look again. Put it on, we’ve got a specific job for you, I’ll send you the details once we’re done with the briefing.

I’m going to look ridiculous, I replied as I strapped the belt on under my coat.

None of us are winning any fashion competitions here.

Says the woman in the cute sundress and knee boots, I retorted.

I didn’t think you’d noticed. She looked away and I tried to focus on the briefing again.

“We can't afford failure,” Grandpa said. "We had one other team show up and try to take on Podaga while we've been waiting. They seriously underestimated his abilities and only brought about 12 people. We've got more than twice that. But none of us are used to working with each other in quite this way. Ordinarily, I'd try to reassure you all, let you know that it's okay if we mess up, we'll try again later. The truth is, we don't have that luxury. If we don't get in there today and take Podaga down, someone else will. That'll put us behind the curve on this whole phase."

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All around the square, people were nodding.

"Now then," Grandpa said, "everybody keep comms clear. We've got designated people whose job it is to watch the fight and communicate back with the team here and with the rest of you who are fighting. Other than that, you need to keep the channels open. Do you understand? If you're asked a direct question, reply. But there's too many of us, and if we're all talking, no one's listening.

“I also want to let you know that I expect some of us will end up going down during the course of this. Those knights were a hard bunch for the dwarves to take out, and then Podaga ripped through all of them like wet tissue paper. We've got a plan for him, too, but we've got to get through the knights first with as few casualties as possible. Play it smart. If you've got the ability to save yourself from death, use it. Don't wait for us to tell you so. But if you're doing something that puts someone else at risk, don't do it. Any questions?"

To my surprise, about eight different hands went up.

Juana stepped forward and pointed. "Yes, Bob, go ahead."

"Do we think our personal debuffs will work on these guys?"

"Good thinking," Juana said. "We hope so. We know that your Lost in Translation skill is really good, so throw that as soon as the knights come out. We'll have someone watching to see what impact it has."

Sage puffed up. "Me!" she called. "She means me. I'm on overwatch. Since my Tame probably won't work on those knights anyway, the big meanies."

That broke the tension a little bit. A wave of laughter passed over the crowd. Grandpa and Juana fielded a few more questions. Then Grandpa started down the steps.

"Let's move out," he said. "We should have a couple dozen of our creep in position now. No sense wasting any more time."

Just then, the system voice broke in.

[Attention, all veterans of Phase 2 from planet Earth.]

Grandpa froze in mid-step.

[This is your 48-hour warning. The promised reward for your performance in Phase 2 is now being announced.]

For some reason, my heart was hammering. I saw the looks of confusion and a little bit of fear mirrored on every face I saw around me.

[All human miners whose performance exceeded the baseline during Phase 2, whether through direct contribution or calculated contribution points, have been notified already that they are receiving a special reward. 48 hours from now, all recipients of the special reward will receive a Day Pass.]

I could hear the capital letters in the system's announcement. "Day pass." My mind was blank. What was a day pass? What was it talking about?

I heard a low murmur of voices around me, sounding more and more worried. Grandpa had a hand against the rail of the church steps. He looked white as a ghost.

[Recipients of a Day Pass will be transported back to Earth for a single 8-hour period, 48 hours from now. At the end of that period, they will be transported back to Threshold to resume Phase 3 activities. Recipients of a day pass cannot save the pass for later or decline this honor. Recipients will be returned to the spatial location from which they were first removed from Earth.]

I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. Back to Earth? They were sending us back to Earth? Was that even possible?

I looked around. Sage was nowhere to be seen. Grandpa still looked like he'd been stunned. My eyes met Juana's, and I was surprised to see she looked terrified.

[Miners who have received an upgraded reward will be allowed a longer period of time on Earth. Miners who reached the top 3% of performers have been given a 3-day pass and will be transported anywhere on planet Earth that they desire.]

A private notification popped up for me.

[Congratulations, Miner Shad Williams. You are a recipient of a 72-Hour Leave Pass. This includes transport to the Earth location of your choosing and back to Threshold at the end of the pass. All your Ethereum needs will be handled for you. You will have no access to any system-based subroutines or storage abilities during your trip to Earth.]

I waded through the crowd toward Grandpa as everyone around me went absolutely insane. About half the field was crying. One woman was shaking her head. "Why not me?" She was saying, while another man near her was mumbling, "I can't go back. I can't go back," over and over again.

I reached the church steps. Juana had descended down to where Grandpa was standing.

"This is an absolute fucking disaster," Grandpa said grimly. "They couldn't have come up with a way to take the wind out of our sails better if they'd tried. This is going to play absolute havoc with all of our plans."

"It might not be so bad," Juana said. "We've got a lot of recruits who weren't very active in Phase Two. We'll probably have a team left behind —“

“Who'll be bitter and resentful that they didn't get to go. Meanwhile, all our best players are out of the game for eight to fucking 72 hours," Grandpa said bitterly, leaving everyone else to pull out ahead of us.

I was surprised at his vehemence, though I understood his worries. Still, home. I was going home. For 72 hours, but still, to see Earth again. To be around other people who weren't part of this insane life I had been living for the past year.

I looked at Juana and saw only fear and worry on her face.

"Uh, sorry," I said. "Did you not get selected?"

She shook her head. "I've got a 72-hour pass," she said quietly. "Mama just sent me a note saying she's got an eight-hour pass, and my sister, Rosa, didn't get picked."

"Ah, damn, I'm sorry."

"I'm sending a message to Veda telling her to put a stop to this," Grandpa said angrily.

"Hang on," I said. "I know this throws us off, Grandpa, but it'll be nice to see the old place again."

"I have no interest in seeing anything or anyone on that planet again," he snapped. "What am I supposed to do? Go see the place where my house used to be? No, thank you."

I was saved from trying to answer by Sage. She came pushing through the crowd, her face alight.

"You got the 72-hour pass, too, right, Shad?" she burbled. "And Grandpa?"

We nodded.

"Great," she said. "Because I know just where I want to go, and I want you two to come along with me."

"As long as it's not the goddamn Strip," Grandpa growled.

"No," Sage said, bouncing up and down. "I took a look at the timing, and it's perfect. We'll have to make contact once we get back on Earth, but it'll work out just fine. I've been getting some of the live news updates from Veda, you know, the information packets, so I checked the dates, and it's right. Orange Dream is performing in Southern California in four days! We can see them, and we can go to the beach and the amusement parks! I've been wanting to go to Wizard World ever since I was nine, and now I actually can!”

"Wait, what?" I said. "Who's Orange Crash?"

Sage rolled her eyes. "Orange Dream. They're a K-pop band, Shad."

"You say that like I should know what that is."

"Korean boy band," Juana filled in. "Very popular with, uh..." She glanced at Sage and then back at me. "Young teen girls, generally."

"Oh, hell no," I said. "If I'm getting dragged back to Earth, there's no way that I'm spending my time in Southern California listening to a boy band."

"Doesn't matter," Grandpa said. "I'm gonna tell Veda to find a way to put a stop to this."

"Louis,” Juana said, putting a hand on his arm. "That's all well and good, but I suggest you don't say anything like that to the team right before we go take on Podaga."

Grandpa snorted. "What do you mean? I'm supposed to go take down a boss with the kind of emotional turmoil everybody here is in?"

"We don't have a choice," I said. "Sage, can you cast Cowgirl Cheer on the whole crowd?"

"Absolutely!" She leapt up to the porch, and I felt her buff settle over me, calming my nerves. I put my fingers to my lips and whistled, long and loud and hard. The hubbub in the crowd began to die down. I whistled again.

"All right, everybody!" I shouted. "Nice of the system to offer us a paid vacation, but it's still two days away, and we've got work to do before then. So, everybody sober up right now. Let's get out there and show that sorcerer what we're made of."