Simbiotic

The President and the Minister confer with two mercenary generals about an imminent attack on their unarmed planet. Someone must defend the planet, but they can only afford the services of one of the generals. One must be chosen, and the way they are chosen is to use simulated soldiers to fight against each other to determine which has the stronger army. Enter the SIMs, and as they fight each other, they wonder between themselves why they are always fighting each other. Wouldnt it make more sense for them to cooperate with each other against their human masters, who run the simulation? The SIMs conspire to cooperate in order to stay alive. But the pressures of competition are as strong as the pressures for cooperation, and one of the SIMs betrays the other. The contract is awarded to one of the generals, and as the curtain closes, we discover that the generals, themselves, only pretend to compete with each other. They are the best players at their own game.