Thought of this on the way into work. I think it could work, this or the previous story about the mech fighter may be the next one I work on. This story asks the questions about the difference between games of war and wars fought like games, and when we lose the distinction.
In the future, a vast war is fought on Earth between two sides. Automated factories churn out parts and weapons, communities churn out soldier after soldier. The leadership is secreted away in a secure compound. The war drags on for years, decades, centuries. Generation after generation lives in the compound and controls the battle via a holographic table. The story of exactly what they’re doing, who they’re fighting, and why slips away. Until the family knows only they’re playing a battle game, and they have to win.
The story would center around a little girl who plays The Game and questions her father on how long it’s been going on, why they play it, etc. All along the reader doesn’t know she’s not playing a real game, though they may guess it. Finally she wins in the end, and the scene cuts to her counterpart in his bunker being invaded. The troops there in shock realize they’ve been fighting a battle to beat a family, a child, playing a game. I hope it’s not too much like Ender’s Game, I think it will have some similarities but be different in that no one running the battle is aware of what is really going on.