Graff promotes Ender to lead his own squad, which is made up of students who have gained Ender's trust. These are noted as unusual additions to the game, which is seemingly altered by Ender's interaction with the computer.
Later, he encounters a Formic in the game, and then simulated images involving his siblings. In one situation, Ender creates an outside the box solution to overcome a seemingly unsolvable problem. Meanwhile, Ender plays a computerized "mind game" set in a fantasy world, which presents difficult choices to the player. However, seeing the team losing and Petra in trouble, Ender comes to her aid and helps Salamander Army win. In the next match, Bonzo benches Ender while the rest of the Salamander Army fights another team. Another cadet, Petra Arkanian, takes Ender under her wing and trains him privately. Bonzo, believing that Ender is inept and a liability, prevents him from training with the rest of the squad.
Graff reassigns Ender to Salamander Army, led by Commander Bonzo Madrid. Ender quickly adapts to the games, devising new strategies older students have not yet seen. The cadets are placed in squads and perform training games in a zero-gravity "Battle Room". Graff brings Ender to Battle School and places Ender with other cadets his age, but treats him as extraordinary, thereby subjecting him to being ostracized by the others. Over the course of 50 years, gifted children are trained by the International Fleet to become commanders of a new fleet for this counterattack.Ĭadet Andrew "Ender" Wiggin draws the attention of Colonel Hyrum Graff and Major Gwen Anderson because of his aptitude in simulated space combat and is recruited into Battle School. The Formic invasion was stopped by Mazer Rackham, who crashed his fighter plane into the Formic queenship at the apparent cost of his life. In the future, humanity is preparing to launch an attack on the homeworld of an alien race, called the Formics, that had attacked Earth and killed millions.