The Raider's Stronghold
This was the last time.
Never again. I will never, ever, let Lee take point while we travelled ever again. What had been a fun quest of monster hunting had turned into a brutal ambush, with my party on the receiving end of a hail of bullets. Marcus and I were the only ones still standing. Lee, Hans, and Tendo had all been killed; the first two in the opening salvo of automatic rifle rounds, the latter to a rifle shot as we dove for cover. Marcus and I dove behind the strewn remains of a downed building, ducking low and sheltering as best we could from the bullets that flew from the north.
The party that attacked us had started their ambush from the mostly intact shell of an abandoned skyscraper. As best as I could tell, six of their members had flowed out of the building to engage Marcus and myself directly, leaving one man with a rifle on the high ground of an upper level.
Marcus still had his laser rifle equipped, and carried no backup weapon. The fast-firing laser was excellent against the creatures we had hunted, who had no defense against the weapon. Against these humans, however, it was less effective. Human players, especially those who hunted other human players, often had defenses equipped that reduced the effectiveness of the laser shots. I was the only member of our party who carried a ballistic weapon, mostly out of stubbornness. I hate lasers. They're too flashy.
A bullet ripped past my shoulder, cutting through the sleeve of my coat and grazing my skin. I snarled out a curse, ducked behind cover, and checked my arm for the damage. A line two inches long ran along my bicep, glowing red. Gun Gale Online was a brutal game in its interactions, as most Virtual Reality MMOs were, but it didn't do splashes of blood, something for which I was grateful. Having fake but oh-so-real-seeming bullets flying at you in a virtual reality game was scary enough without seeing a simulacrum of your blood gushing everywhere. I snapped my focus back onto the battle, peeking over my cover to see where the enemy was. Marcus and I were hiding behind the same ruined concrete wall, five feet away from one another. The enemy was slowly fanning out around us, boxing us in, keeping us pinned down with alternating bursts of fire.
I raised myself back into firing position, crouched down on one knee, my assault rifle's stock nestled on my right collarbone, its sights perfectly in line with my eye. I took measured shots at the enemy, letting the automatic targeting system line up the shots for me. When the concentric circle in my vision tightened briefly over the head of one of the targets, I didn't hesitate. I fired a three round burst at my target, and even the precognitive line-of-fire system couldn't save him at this range. The bullets collided with his forehead in a tight grouping, and what looked like red sparks and shards of glass exploded out from the back of his head before the rest of his body derezzed, disappearing from sight. My victory was short-lived, as his two companions opened fire on me. Time seemed to slow, and red lines sprang from the barrels of their guns, dozens of them. I dove out of the way, lying prone on the ground so my whole body would disappear behind cover. Less than a second after I had, bullets ripped through the air where my upper body had been, following the predictive lines that had appeared.
From my position on my stomach, I looked up at Marcus' position just a few feet away, just in time to see a rifle shot fly straight through his chest. He fell backwards, gun falling from his hands as his body derezzed and disappeared.
"Fuck!" I yelled, purely out of frustration. If our whole party was killed, these marauding bastards would be able to steal half of the loot we'd spent hours collecting by defeating high-level creatures. It was one of the more brutal aspects of the game. We'd all respawn at a nearby town, and have to start all over again, all because we'd allowed these assholes to get the jump on us.
I popped up from cover again, having slid over to where Marcus had formerly been firing from. The enemy had been assuming I would reappear from my former position, and I used their confusion to shoot down the nearest player, a large man with a Mohawk and a combat shotgun, and wounded one more before they all ducked behind cover.
I kept firing, keeping them pinned down and unable to fire back. My supply of ammunition was dwindling quickly, but I was going to get shot down any second anyway. Already, I could see the red prediction line from the hidden rifleman coalescing on my chest, and I didn't bother to dodge. It was a forgone conclusion anyway.
Suddenly, the line of fire targeting me disappeared. I stopped shooting, looking down at my body armor, trying to figure out what had happened. As soon as my fire slackened, the four remaining ambushers rose from cover, intent on pinning me down so they could begin flanking my position. Within seconds, the heads of two of them exploded into red sparks, and their bodies disappeared. The ground beside them exploded as the bullet that had passed through both of them continued its trajectory to the ground. The sudden loss of their teammates broke the will of the last two, who decided that discretion was the better part of valor. As they turned tail and ran, I rose, and put my last half dozen rounds into the back of one's head, and another massive sniper shot cut the last one down before he had run fifty meters.
I slumped down, my back resting against the cold marble of the debris that had been my cover, utterly spent. Judging from the angle of the shots, the sniper that had dealt so effectively with the attackers would have a perfect line on me from here, but I didn't care much at that point. If they wanted to kill me, there was nothing I could do to stop them. I was out of ammo, and I had nowhere to run to. I raised my fist into the air, orienting my knuckles to where I presumed the sniper had been, and extended my pinky finger and thumb out into what anyone who has ever visited Hawaii would recognize as the hand signal for 'hang loose'. Not very creative of me, but I don't know sign language or anything.
I waited for about thirty seconds, and no sniper bullet disintegrated my head, so I took that as I sign that I was in no danger from my mysterious savior. I stood, slinging my assault rifle over my shoulder, letting its strap hold it in place on my back. I began making my way over to the building where I had figured the shots must have come from; it was almost half a kilometer away, but it was the only decent bit of high ground within range of most snipers.
As I walked, I felt the wind tug at my long duster, the simulated breeze making the black leather snap around my calves. I tugged at the rim of my black, wide-brimmed hat. Video game or not, the sun in this desert area was brutal on my eyes, and I was grateful for the shade. The coat was great for helping me blend in the background of dark environments, and the hat was serving as protection for my eyes; both very practical reasons to wear this ensemble.
Besides, the whole long-coat-and-cowboy-hat look has been around forever for a reason. It's badass, even without an assault rifle slung on your back. Not to mention the practicality that comes with using said long coat to conceal a sawn-off shotgun in a shoulder holster and .50 caliber handgun strapped to my thigh. Neither of those guns had any ammo at the moment, but still. The badass image was maintained.
I walked towards my destination for almost ten minutes before I noticed a figure heading towards me from the west, not from the building to the northwest where I had assumed the sniper shots had come from. The nearest building to the west was nearly two kilometers away, and if the mysterious person had fired from way out there, they must be a sniper the way Michelangelo was a painter.
The figure walked calmly in my direction, and since I had nothing else I could do, I changed course and began walking directly toward them, continuing at a non-threatening pace.
After a few more minutes passed, the figure came into clearer focus. It was a woman, I thought, or a smaller man. Granted, I'm a bit of a giant, so everyone looks small to me, but this person was smaller than most. Therefore, one could understand my bemusement at the size of the weapon the person had slung over their back, the same way I carried my assault rifle. The stock of the massive gun extended almost a foot above their right shoulder, and the end of the gun's barrel almost drug along the ground. Judging by its shape and the massive scope, this person was indeed my mysterious savior. I raised one hand in a benevolent wave as I approached.
The two of us finally stopped walking when we were within ten feet or so of each other. Even though we could have shot one another long ago, we were still wary of new people, as one had to be in this cutthroat game. I would like to say that I dispassionately took in the person's features in order to get a better idea of their motivations, but I would be lying. I totally checked her out.
She was indeed a woman, like I first thought. A young woman, I presumed by her size and fitness, with short-cropped turquoise hair and eyes of matching color. Her outfit was…. intriguing, revealing hints of skin here and there, covering the rest of her in whites and greens. A long, silver-colored scarf covered the lower half of her face, protecting her from the dust that blew around us. She simply stared at me, those bright blue eyes of hers revealing nothing about her intentions.
Finally, the silence became too much for me. "I assume I have you to thank for killing those guys back there."
She nodded, the gesture simultaneously saying 'that is correct' and 'you are welcome'.
"May I ask why you did save me? And also, where's the rest of your party?"
She tilted her head slightly, as if she was deciding whether or not I deserved to know the answers to my questions. Finally, she spoke. Her voice was soft, or at least softer than I had assumed it would be, with little in the way of inflection. "I'm traveling alone. I was hired to check something out nearby. I happened to see that group ambush your group, and I decided I wanted to pitch in," her eyes steeled, and I had to fight the urge to take a step back from her. "I don't like bullies."
I swallowed, somewhat nervous. I made a mental note never to piss this girl off. "Well, I'm grateful that you stepped in. I would've hated to lose all of the things my team worked to acquire. Can I offer you part of our take as thanks? We got a few decent bits of loot this last hunt."
The girl shook her head. "Thank you, but no. I already have my ideal weapon, and I got everything else I need before coming out here alone." Her hand rose to the stock of her sniper rifle, as if she was reaffirming that it was still there.
I nodded at her. Normally, at this point, players would go their separate ways. I'd offered part of our loot, as I felt was fair, and she'd turned it down. I wasn't going to offer more of my hard-earned cash, but for some reason, I didn't want to leave the company of this badass beauty just yet. I had a thought, and decided to just run with it. Worst someone can say to an offer is 'no', right?
"I'm Maximus," I said. It wasn't actually my name, but it was my character's name. It's considered bad form to share your real name online, after all. "You can call me Max, if you like. Can I ask your name?"
She considered a moment once again before answering. "Sinon," she said. She pronounced it like 'she-non'. I liked the way it sounded.
"Nice to meet you, Sinon," I said, giving her a slight bow. "If I can't offer a reward for helping me, can I offer my help in return? I don't know what you were hired to check out, but I'm hoping a second pair of eyes and another gun can help you out. I won't even ask for a cut of whatever your promised payment is. A favor for a favor, if you like."
Sinon looked me up and down, slowly. My mind toyed with idea that was checking me out, but in reality I knew that she was simply assessing me to see if I could help her or not. Finally, she asked, "How do I know if I can trust you?"
Now it was my turn to consider before I spoke. After a minute, I simply said, "In truth, you can't. However, I owe you a debt. That means something to me. Also, unless I'm sorely mistaken, your modus operandi is to stay concealed on the high ground, waiting for the right shot. Thus, it will be my job to be on the ground, in the thick of the fight, with my back to you. You'll have a far better chance of betraying me than I ever would of betraying you."
Apparently, I said the right things. Sinon nodded once, and proceeded to give me the run-down of her mission. We started heading back the way I had come from, as that was the way Sinon had been heading when she had spotted the ambush that took down my team.
As we reached the site of the ambush, I took the time to find ammo drops from my downed allies and enemies. I took as much assault rifle ammo as I could, glad that I had chosen to use a rifle that used 7.62mm rounds, the most common ammo type in the game. In addition, I took a dozen shotgun rounds, slipping two into the double chambers of my sawn-off and the other ten into a bandolier that ran across my chest, opposite the strap to my assault rifle. Finally, I found two clips for my massive pistol, which was rare, though totally welcome. With a lucky shot, I could gun down someone through light cover with those massive rounds. In the ammo drop from my friend Tendo, I discovered a half-dozen charges of C4. Tendo was our demolitions man, but he had shown me his trade enough times that I felt like it was worth bringing the boom along with me. Besides, if I didn't, some other random player might take it later.
Once I was fully re-armed, we continued our trek. Sinon gave me the rest of the details of her mission. Apparently, a group of players was setting up something of a base of operations an hour or so away from a main thoroughfare for players, and were using it to raid other players with alarming frequency. Normally, this would have earned the group a swift retribution from a high-level player, but these raiders made it a point to only attack groups of lower-level players or single targets they could quickly overwhelm. After about a week of this, players had had enough. A group of twenty newer players pooled their resources, and began attempting to hire someone to take out this collective. Sinon had been the only one to agree, since their promised payment was still relatively low.
By the end of her explanation, I was silently regretting my offer to help her out. Sure, she was gorgeous and I have a bad case of White Knight Syndrome, but still; I was only one of my party still alive, and if I died, we'd still lose a large part of our take. I was sure all of my teammates, who must have respawned by now, were checking my position on the Team Map and screaming incoherently at my heading. Meh, I thought. I'm committed now. I wasn't going to renege on a deal struck with a pretty lady.
I asked Sinon what I hoped were questions that would come across as intelligent and thought-provoking, but probably just came across as nervous, which I was. I asked about the raider's stronghold, their numbers, the identity of leaders, anything I thought could give me an advantage going into the gun battle that I knew was in my near future. Unfortunately, it seemed Sinon was in the dark as much as I was. The group had attacked on three different occasions, and each time they had attacked with at least a dozen men; worse, according to the attacked players after they respawned, each attack involved different raiders, if eyewitness accounts could be believed. That meant that at the very least we two were against thirty six different, heavily armed raiders. My insides went cold as she described what we were up against.
Don't judge me. You'd be freaking out too. Well, Sinon didn't seem to be. But she was a sniper. She didn't have to worry about bullets, like I did. That's what I kept telling myself, at least.
Don't look at me like that. Seriously, I wasn't feeling scared. Even if the thought of entering into a gunfight that would likely leave me outnumbered forty to one would make such hypothetical fears wholly justified.
Still, I was far too tough to let such things rattle me; such impulses are for lesser men. The shiver that ran down my spine was just because I was…. Cold.
In the desert.
The wind blew around the two of us as Sinon and I lapsed into a reserved silence. After nearly two hours of walking, Sinon suddenly stuck her arm in my way, stopping me cold.
"What is it?" I asked.
She shook her head, and then looked at me with one finger on her lips. I nodded, and followed her lead as we ascended the sand dune in front of us, unlimbering the assault rifle from my shoulder, holding it loosely, eyes scanning. We stopped again just before we crested the top, both of going lying prone on our bellies, crawling our way to the top. Once we crested the ridge, I discovered what Sinon had silenced me about. In the distance, about a kilometer away, was the raider's stronghold. It was made from the remains of two skyscrapers; one had broken its foundation, falling into the other, which supported its broken mate at a twenty degree angle. Someone, presumably the raiders, had used the remains of other broken buildings to barricade and shore up the gap, turning the area into a fortress. They clearly occupied the space between the two buildings, using the fallen skyscraper as a massive awning.
Of more immediate concern was the outpost only two hundred feet from our own location. It was made from what looked like a broken cell tower, shored up with sheet metal with a platform that had been shoehorned on top to make a makeshift guard tower. Two sentries were posted on top, and the only reason Sinon and I hadn't been spotted was because the sentry on our side was currently sleeping, as avatars do when their player exits the game outside of a designated safe town. The player probably stepped away from the game to use the bathroom, or something similar. After five minutes or so, the avatar would simply disappear.
But we couldn't bet on that. Sinon started aiming her sniper at the two. At this distance, the bullet could pass through both sentries with enough force that she wouldn't even have to aim; but instead of letting her fire, I motioned for her to lower her gun, and drew the knife on my belt. I sprinted, as quietly as I could, to the base of the tower.
I slipped the knife between my teeth and began to climb the side of the tower nearest to where Sinon remained. The old tower was mostly made of weaving lines of metal rather than smooth surfaces, so it was easy to climb. As I ascended, I both marveled at and was disgusted by the taste of the metal knife in my mouth. It was awesome that the game interacted with a player's body to such minute details, but come on. Metal just tastes gross.
Within a minute or two, I had climbed to the base of the platform, the edge of which ended about a foot behind my head, due to the tapering structure of the tower itself. I reached out, one hand at a time, until I had a hold of the edge while my feet remained on the tower. Slowly, I let my legs fall from the tower, letting all my weight rest on my hands. I hoisted hard, straining to pull the weight of my own body onto the platform.
Mock all you want. I'm a big guy, and I don't have the strongest arms on the planet.
Finally, and somewhat miraculously, I got up on to the platform without the alert sentry hearing me. The raiders had never been attacked before, so he must have fallen into the trap that most sentries fall into when things seldom occur around them: boredom.
I ignored the disconnected sentry, targeting first the one who could actually hear me. I ghosted up behind him as he leaned on the side of the platform, which was walled off on two sides. Quick as I could, I reached around his head, covering his mouth with my left hand as I jammed the knife into his back with my right. He jerked, his scream of shock muffled by my gloved hand. Unfortunately, his avatar was apparently designed to be a tough one, as he didn't immediately derezz like I thought he would. He snapped his head backwards into my nose, startling and shocking me enough to knock me backwards, losing my grip on him. He turned, but I managed to keep hold of the knife as it slid out of his back. I regained my balance after a stumbling a step, and at the same time he raised his single-shot rifle, aiming for my chest from maybe a foot away.
Time slowed once again, and the predictive line of fire had just begun to appear when I countered. I slashed upwards with the knife, connecting with the barrel of his gun in a shower of sparks. The gun jerked upwards, ruining his aim and upsetting his balance. With his weight already settled awkwardly backwards, I lashed out with my foot, the blow connecting the bottom of my boot with his chest. The kick blasted him off the platform, sending him screaming to the ground, where his body burst into shards of red and blue light on impact.
Breathing heavily, I turned to his comrade, whose body was slumped boneless against the side wall of the platform. I knifed him silently, smirking at the confusion the player would be met with when he returned to his fallen avatar.
My task done, I stepped to the edge of the platform, waving to where I could just make out the scope of Sinon's weapon on the top of the dune. I waved, giving her the hang-loose signal again as an all-clear. After I saw her stand and begin her trip to my position, I pulled a pull of binoculars out of my inventory, and turned, lying on my stomach on the opposite end of the platform, where I began a more detailed inspection of our quarry. I began by attempting to count individual human profiles, which I could just make out from this distance with the magnification of my binoculars.
I had reached twenty-five when I heard and felt Sinon lay on her stomach next to me. An electric tingle ran up my spine as she accidentally brushed up against my side, and clubbed down the Paleolithic need that flared in my gut.
Once I'd beaten down my inner Neanderthal, I returned to my observations. I knew Sinon would be watching through the scope of her sniper as well, and we both made our own unbiased observations before we began planning.
"How many can you see?" I asked, after several minutes of quiet monitoring.
Sinon's reply was instantaneous. She'd been expecting my question, I presumed. "I count twenty-seven on the grounds, scattered about. They're not keeping very vigilant watch, which means they aren't expecting anyone to attack, or at least not expecting them to get past this outpost. I assume they have others posted in the first few floors of the tower that's still standing."
I grunted an affirmative. "I can see heavy weapons on some of them. That giant bastard there has a minigun on the ground next to him. I've seen at least three rocket launchers, too. These guys mean business. We won't last long against them, even with the element of surprise. Your sniping can only go so far before one blows me up and they begin a manhunt for you. Sure, we'll take out a few in the opening seconds, but we can't possibly get them all in the firefight that would follow."
"We need a way to maximize the ambush, then," Sinon said. She was worried, I could hear it in her voice.
"Regretting taking this mission?" I asked.
Sinon was silent. I looked over at her, and saw that she was staring blankly, chewing on her bottom lip. Under normal circumstances, I might've found the look on her face to be idly coquettish, especially on someone as beautiful as her. But in this context, it merely worried me. Sinon had come across as stone-cold this whole time, and seeing her nervous was not so good for my morale.
"How did you plan on taking these guys by yourself, anyway?" I asked. "You knew how many there was going to be. I've seen you shoot. You're amazing, but no one's that good."
"I was hoping I could get a…friend of mine to help out," Sinon said, idly toying with her scope as she continued to stare at the stronghold. "He's focusing on another game right now, though."
A completely natural and ridiculous surge of jealousy ran through me before I mentally berated myself again. "And you still came here anyway? Without backup? Forgive me for saying that wasn't the most strategically sound decision."
Sinon speared me with a glare that nearly made me shrink back in fear. "I took the job," she said. "I intend to finish it."
I raised my hands in surrender. Even I could tell this wasn't a conversation that would end well for me. We both turned back toward the stronghold.
As I looked through my binoculars, trying to divine some way of surviving the impending suicide mission, something caught my eye.
"Sinon!" I said, pointing to what I'd seen. "Look where the fallen building is connected to one still standing." I felt Sinon's body shift next to mine as she turned her scope to the indicated area.
"I see it. Most of the raiders are camped in the shade there. So?"
"Look at the supports. They welded some beams to the fallen building and are using them like a tripod. If we could knock those out, we could drop the whole thing right onto their camp. Wipe out the bad guys, and more importantly, destroy their hideout so they can't use this area again once they all respawn."
I heard Sinon blow a large sigh. "That would be lovely, but how? Even my Hecate rifle doesn't have slugs big enough to take out those supports. And even if it did, you'd have to destroy all the struts at once, or they building would drop slowly enough that they'd be able to escape, and then they'd come kill us both."
I put my binoculars away, stashing them in their case on my belt. "Ah ha," I said, grinning maliciously. "But we can destroy them all at once." As I spoke, I pulled one of the C4 charges out of my inventory and bounced it in my hand.
Sinon's eyes widened when she saw what I was holding. I could practically hear her mind run through the possibilities. It was risky as hell, but it could work. Hell, it was probably our only chance.
"We don't want them to know about the bombs until the explosions start. That way, they won't get clear in time," I said. "I'll sneak in there and lay the charges. If I plant at least one charge on each of the beams, it should be enough to get the whole thing to topple."
"But the beams are welded to the second floor of the standing tower," Sinon replied, pointing to the joints where plates of steel held the beams in place. "How are you going to get out of there?"
"By dint of having grace, stealth and a shit-load of sniper support," I said. "I'll be stealthy going in, place the charges, and try to sneak back out. Once I'm free, you start sniping anyone you can see. That'll get their minds off of me and force them to take cover, right underneath the building that's about to come crashing down on their heads."
Sinon resumed chewing on her lip as she considered the plan. "You do realize that I can't give you any fire support while you're inside, right? The angles are all wrong. And if you get pinned down in there, the building will come down on your head as well as the raiders'."
"Gives me good incentive to get out of there without attracting attention, huh?"
Sinon nodded. She reached down to her own thigh holster, and pulled out a machine pistol. She pulled a silencer out of her inventory and screwed it into place, flipping the switch on the gun to single fire before handing it to me, grip first. "Here, take this. It'll be a good backup if someone's in there that you can't reach with your little pocket knife."
"Hey, don't diss a man's knife," I said, feigning indignation. "Besides, it's not the size of the blade, it's where you stick it that's important."
I realized just what I had said a moment after the words left my mouth. I wanted to slap myself. Sinon eyed me, quirking one light-blue eyebrow at me and smirking. The glint in her eye did not make my heart go pitter-patter at all. It was just jitters for the mission.
Shut up.
Deciding I had stuck my foot far enough into my mouth already, I stood, sticking the silenced pistol into the waistband of my pants. DAMN, that thing is cold, I thought, and began to climb down the tower to make my way to the raider stronghold.
Sinon stopped me before my hands left the platform. "Max," she said, covering my hand with hers. "Thank you for this. And good luck."
At this point, my mouth decided to start running without the consent of my brain. "Is the part where the dashing hero gets a good-luck kiss before facing almost certain death?" I asked. I plastered a goofy grin on my face, hoping I could come off as silly if she turned murderous.
Instead of blowing my face off with her massive sniper rifle, she looked me dead in the eye and said, "Come back alive and we'll see."
Thus incentivized, I climbed down the tower and began making my way to the stronghold. I covered the ground at a light jog, eating up the distance with my long strides. It was almost a kilometer to the base, but I didn't rush it, and I swung wide to the southwest, so I could approach the far side of the standing tower, where I hoped there would be the fewest guards.
It took me most of ten minutes to get to the building itself, as I spent the last few minutes alternating between scoping out the building for guards with my binoculars and sprinting from sand dune to sand dune to stay hidden.
The raiders, either overly confident that their guard tower would give them ample warning of an incursion or too lazy to post extra security, had left this side of their fortress completely unguarded. Works for me, I thought, dashing through a nearby door and entering the building proper.
The interior was that of a gutted office building, all empty spaces, dangling wires from broken light fixtures, and regularly spaced support columns. I walked as silently as I could, which was pretty damn silent, especially for someone my size. I held Sinon's silenced pistol in both hands, the sights lined up smoothly with my eye. Thanks to the miracle of video games, I didn't have to worry about fatigue in my arms, so I opted to move slowly, with my gun ready to fire at a moment's notice.
My caution was apparently unneeded on the first floor, as I didn't run into a single soul as I searched for a set of stairs to lead me to the second floor and the bomb sites. I stayed on alert nonetheless, as I could see signs of foot traffic in the sand and dust on the floor.
I found the stairs in the back of the building, on the right side wall relative to where I'd entered. I took the steps two at a time, still walking silently, eager to be in and out before bullets started flying. When I reached the door to the second floor, I eased it open as quietly as I could, my gun raised and ready. I opened the door to a crack, and peered through. It was far brighter on this level than on the first, as many of the windows overlooking the camp had been shot out. There were two men on this floor, facing one another at a table while they performed maintenance on a set of guns. They were both facing perpendicular to the door from which I watched them.
I eased the door open more, just enough for me to slip out and make a quick dash to the nearest support column. I pressed myself against it, praying that they hadn't seen me enter and that if they did look this way that my duster wouldn't billow out past the pillar and give me away.
Ok, so maybe dusters aren't great for sneaking. I still maintain that the badass imagery needed to be maintained.
From my new location, I could hear the men talking.
"What's the word?" the one on the right said as he worked on a Beretta. "Who are we hitting next?"
"Boss says another squad's coming this way from hunting. Our informant started leading them this way an hour ago. We'll leave here in thirty minutes to hit them. Guess it's a big group this time, hired bodyguards. Boss wants to hit them with everyone we can spare."
My gut clenched. Sinon and I had planned to take our time with our strike to maximize the damage. If the raiders were going to leave in a half hour, most of them would miss our trap. Sure, their stronghold would be dust, and there wouldn't be enough of them left here to hunt us down, but that would leave the unsuspecting group out in the open, sure to get slaughtered like my squad had.
I shook my head, snapping back into the moment. I glanced around the corner at the two, readying myself to strike. They were only twenty feet away, but they would be sure to see me in their peripheral vision if I tried to strike. I couldn't guarantee that I could shoot them both before they returned fire; and unlike my gun, they wouldn't be silenced shots. The rest of the raiders would hear, and my surprise attack would be ruined. I needed another plan.
I spotted my chance lying on the floor near my right boot. I crouched slowly, picking up the broken chunk of drywall at my feet. I checked the guards once more, turned around to the opposite side of the pillar, and threw the drywall beyond their table and to the side, so they wouldn't see what had flown past them.
Just as I had hoped, the two jumped in surprise, turning their attention to the sound of the noise, turning away from me and exposing their backs. As soon as their eyes were averted, I charged out from my hiding spot, pulling my knife as I went. I attacked the one on the right first, as he had pulled a gun at the sound of the drywall hitting the floor. I plunged my knife deep into his back, and his cry cut short as his avatar derezzed in a burst of light. His partner turned, stunned to see not his partner, but the barrel of my gun an inch from his forehead. Without preamble, I fired one shot at point blank, destroying him.
I paused as the avatars disappeared, listening intently for the sound of a commotion outside. If the raiders had heard anything, they would kill me for sure.
After several tense seconds, silence reigned; I relaxed, slipping the knife back into its sheath and the gun back into my belt. OW. Son of a bitch, that thing's hot, I thought. I sprinted to the northern side of the building, where the two structures connected. I slowed as I neared the edge, partially because I didn't want my frantic motions to catch the eye of some raider down below on the ground, but mostly because I really, really hate heights and most of the friggin' windows on this side of the building had long ago broken, likely from the impact of the other building colliding into this one.
As I reached the edge, I peered down at the raider's encampment, crawling prone on my belly to keep as low a profile as I could. The raiders were indeed mobilizing, and I could see them gathering supplies, weapons, and ammo before splitting into teams of six. They were pulling all of the stops on this raid; if I didn't hurry, our trap wouldn't catch them.
I backed away from the edge, and focused above me, where the structures were touching. The raiders had welded plates of steel to three points at the joint, and each plate was supported by a large I-beam that reached all the way to the ground, thirty feet below. The welds were solid, but imperfect. I was confident I'd brought enough firepower to complete my task.
I planned out my bomb placement as quickly as I could, then took one of the chairs from the table and started working on the easternmost joint. Between the chair and my height, I could just reach each point, and I used two blocks of C4 on each brace, attaching a timer to every block.
How much time do I need to get out of here? I thought. I certainly didn't want to be caught in my own explosion, but I still needed to catch the raiders below in the blast. I set the timers for ten minutes, praying I hadn't given them too much time to escape.
I'll just have to give them a good reason to stay, I suppose.
I synced up a timer on my heads-up display to the bomb timers, and the numbers 9:46 appeared in my peripheral vision and began ticking away. I grabbed the table the two raiders had been using earlier and wrangled it to the edge, tipping it on its side so the legs faced inwards, the thick wooden tabletop facing the outside. I crouched behind it, and pulled my assault rifle off my back. Here's to hoping Sinon's watching, I thought as I sighted down on the raiders below. I'm gonna need a hell of a lot of support in a moment.
I sighted down on one raider standing apart from the rest, waiting for his fellows by their makeshift gate to their compound. I took a deep breath, and fired a three-round burst at his head when the targeting system tightened as my aim settled. The gunshots were deafening in the silence, and the raider's avatar burst into light as the unanticipated rounds blasted him away. I targeted the next closest raider, a massive brute who had been in the process of loading minigun bullets into an ammo case, and blew him away as well.
As the timer in my display hit 9:12, return fire began peppering the walls and roof around me. I kept firing, relying less on precise aim and more on snap-shot reflexes, keeping as many of the raiders pinned as I could. The high ground offered me a massive advantage over the raiders, and I took out a few more with bursts of fire before I was forced to duck behind the table to reload.
As I popped back up from cover, I saw a team of raiders sprinting for the building, and I could only assume they were going to enter and rush upstairs to confront me from inside. I targeted the group of six, taking down one before red predictive lines of fire painted themselves all over my face. I ducked down, dodging the shots, but not before I saw another of the encroaching raiders blown away by a massive sniper round. Thank you, Sinon.
I sprung up once again, trading fire with those below. The incursion team was no longer in sight, and I assumed at least a few had made it inside. I plugged a raider just as he pulled a pin on a grenade, and the resulting explosion threw the raiders into chaos, dust billowing everywhere. Using that as cover, I sprinted away from my spot behind the table, slinging my assault rifle onto my back and pulling my sawn-off shotgun from its holster underneath my left arm. I secreted myself in the shadows near the door to the stairs, hiding behind the remains of a desk, out of sight of the door. I could hear footsteps charging up the stairs, and by the time the clock in my view read 7:20, the raiders burst through the door, eschewing stealth in their haste to kill me. I waited for the first three to pass, and as the fourth entered the room, all of them walking forward (and away from me), I rose from cover. I shot the last one in the back from five feet away, the buckshot tearing through him and the man behind him in a single blast. As they derezzed, I shot the other barrel toward the second man, catching him in the face as he turned. The fourth man had turned around by that point, and I barreled into him, tackling him to the floor and pulling my knife. I stabbed down at his chest, but he caught my wrists, straining to hold the blade away from his heart.
The man was massive, nearly twice my size, and had strength to match his bulk. I pushed down as hard as I could, weight and leverage working to counter his raw muscle, and for a time I pushed the blade closer and closer to him. Then, he kicked me right where the sun don't shine, knocking the wind from me and pushing me back. He shoved the knife away from himself, planted a boot on my sternum, and hurled me off of him.
I flew several feet through the air and landed hard on my back, dazed. I looked up after a second, and saw the man back on his feet, charging at me with a knife in hand so large I could easily deem it more of a machete.
As the man barreled down on me, I pulled my Desert Eagle from my thigh holster and fired three shots as soon as the barrel was pointing past me. My first bullet went wide, the .50 caliber round taking a large chunk out of a support beam, but the other two bullets connected, punching through his stomach and chest, straight through the heavy body armor he wore.
The raider disappeared in a flash of light, and I let my head and gun fall to the floor, trying to catch my bearings. I could hear the sound of gunfire outside as the raiders aimed panic fire at my former firing location, and the louder, systematic booms that signaled Sinon's sniper shots. The timer in my HUD read 4:34.
4:20.
4:07.
3:55.
At 3:37, my brain finally snapped into focus. I had less than four minutes to get the hell out of the building and away from the fort, which was about to be crushed under its own weight. I shot to my feet, collecting my handgun and slipping it back into its holster. I rushed to the window opposite the raider's camp, on the side of the building from which I had originally entered. Below, a group of six raiders waited, their guns trained on the door I had used not twenty minutes ago. Damn it, I thought. They figured out where I came from. As I dithered there, the clock ticking, one of the raiders happened to glance up and see me standing in the window. He pointed and yelled, and suddenly predictive lines from a half dozen weapons appeared all over my body.
"SHIT!" I yelled, throwing myself to the side. Bullets tore through the window, showering me with glass. Continuing my tirade of profanities, I scrambled away on all fours, only stopping when I quite literally bumped into a wall.
I slumped against said wall, sitting on my ass and breathing hard. "Think!" I yelled to myself, not even bothering to internalize my words anymore. "They know where you are, they know they didn't kill you, so the logical thing to do would be to hunt your ass down while leaving guys at the door so you can't get out. You can't ambush the guys outside, because they'll be expecting it and they'll plug you like a turkey if you try. And you can't get the jump on the guys coming in because you did that to the other squad, so the only option is..." I trailed off as my next logical step became evident. I glanced over to the other window, the one from which I had fired down upon the raiders in their fort - the side of the building that was going to blow up in exactly one minute and twenty seconds.
"Oh, this is such a horrible idea," I muttered.
Time seemed to slow as I made my choice. I lurched up from my sitting position, and started my sprint for the window. I didn't rush for the open one I'd used earlier, as the table was still in the way and I wasn't confident I could vault over it and still land clean once I hit the ground below.
Then again, I wasn't sure I'd land clean anyway.
As I sprinted past the stairway, the door slammed open and the first raider took a step into the room. He was hefting a combat shotgun, and from the size of it, it probably fired slugs that could stop a charging rhino wearing Kevlar. He fired from the hip, and the fact that he didn't take the time to aim properly saved me.
The buckshot narrowly missed me, ripping through the back of my coat instead of my intestines. the force of the blast spun me almost a full circle, and I ended up with my left side facing the man, the window to my back. The coat, having taken more damage than it could possibly sustain, burst into the same motes of light that destroyed avatars did and disappeared.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I bellowed, as I pulled my handgun once more from my left thigh. "I LIKED THAT COAT!"
My ire was expressed in a trio of .50 caliber bullets that tore through the offending raider, destroying him and the man behind him in a burst of light.
I completed the impromptu spin, stumbling as I did. (Big guy, not graceful. We covered this earlier.) I continued running, daring to look at the timer as I did.
42 seconds left.
When I was five feet from the window, I trained my gun on it, emptying the rest of the clip at it in a rapid sequence of one-handed shots. The glass splintered, my erratic shots failing to destroy it cleanly. I bellowed wordlessly as I hit the opaque glass, raising my hands in front of my face in an instinctive reaction. It shattered on contact, and while I would like to think that I looked badass, like in the movies, glass clinging to my body as I fell gracefully, I wouldn't actually know what I looked like.
What? You would've closed your eyes too, don't pretend you wouldn't.
I hit the ground hard, and I tried to roll with the impact to reduce the force. Thank God for video game mechanics; instead of breaking an ankle, my health simply dropped precipitously, down to nearly 25% of maximum.
I scrambled to my feet and began running, and by some miracle managed to keep the presence of mind to reload my pistol, remembering that these were the last shots I had for it.
By the time the timer hit 20 seconds, I made it to the front gate. Four raiders huddled behind cover, their backs facing to me, as one was hastily assembling a massive Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, obviously with the intent of counter-sniping Sinon. Not daring to slow at all, I yelled out a war cry that, in my current mental state, probably sounded more like the plaintive cry of a housecat at bath-time would make and charged them, firing at the men as they huddled together.
I was too panicked to aim properly, but surprise and adrenaline were on my side. The first bullets took the would-be sniper in the head, destroying him utterly, and the man nearest him, a scrawny guy with a pair of sub-machine guns, fell to another pair of erratic bullets through the chest. The other two men spun, one holding an assault rifle that was exactly like mine, the other toting a drum-fed machine gun, the massive ones that fire hundreds of bullets in seconds, and brought their guns to bear on me.
As they turned, big-gun guy exploded into sparks, annihilated by Sinon's precision fire. The last man targeted me before I targeted him, and a trio of bullets tore through my shoulder, ruining my aim. My shots went wide, the last bullets in my gun smacked into the sandbags behind him, missing him by inches.
Miraculously, the bullets did not kill me; I continued my charge, barreling into the man in a wild frenzy just as the timer hit 15 seconds. I bashed him in the temple with my gun, screaming incoherently. I probably looked like a madman, but I didn't give a shit at that point. I just wanted out, and this dickweed was in my way. After a baker's dozen pistol-whips, the man slumped, dazed, and I sprinted full-speed out of the gates, as other raiders throughout the compound began targeting me, drawn by the sound of my gunfire at the gate.
At ten seconds, bullets peppered the walls of the gate behind me.
At seven seconds, the sand around me burst into tiny eruptions at the force of the rounds as they struck closer to the mark.
At 4 seconds, a single shot tore through my right calf, throwing it out from under me and sending me to the ground on my back. I rolled onto my stomach, and covered my head with my hands.
3.
2.
1.
The explosion was deafening, and the sand underneath me jumped and bucked like an enraged bull, and all I could do was ride it out. The explosion wasn't a sound so much as it was a force on my ears, and it was almost enough to drown out the sound of screeching metal as the support beams were ripped apart by the blast. I began to scramble away, army crawling on my elbows and knees until I rounded the small sand dune in front of me. I spun around on the other side of the dune, staring at the fortress as laid on my belly on the sand.
The fallen building, shaken loose by the blast and now without its additional support, shook like an avalanche was tearing it apart from the inside. It began to fall, slowly at first, but like a massive redwood being harvested, it picked up speed as it fell. The scream of tearing metal resounded through the world, ending abruptly as the building came crashing down, crushing everything under it. The impact shook the ground even more than the original explosion had, and a massive cloud of dust burst out from the site like the winds of hell. I ducked behind my sand dune, and the wind tore overhead, taking the top of the dune off before it ended, whistling lightly in the silence that followed.
After several seconds, I peeked back over the dune, marveling at the sight. The building had fragmented on impact, and the second tower, the one that had been supporting the mostly-downed building, had lost nearly an entire face. The side of the building that had taken the blast had simply sloughed off, like soap running down the side of a car as it was washed. The raider fortress was utterly crushed, wiped off the map. No one would be able to operate from this place ever again.
I could just pick out the shapes of a few surviving raiders stumbling away from the wreckage, completely shell-shocked. I almost felt sorry for them as Sinon took them down with a trio of perfect shots.
Almost, but not really.
I flopped onto my back, exhausted. It was strange; I should have been giddy, having survived a suicide mission. I should have felt shaken, residually terrified, and elated all at once.
All I really felt was naked without my coat. Even though I was wearing fatigues, a bulletproof vest, boots, and enough ammo and guns to make Arnold Schwarzenegger get penis envy, I still felt naked and bereft. I guess I needed to get a new duster.
I don't know how long I sat there in the sun, feeling the sun burn down on my face. (I must have lost my hat at some point, too. Damn.) After a while, I heard footsteps approaching. I didn't bother opening my eyes, guessing who it was. I heard Sinon sit down beside me, and heard her set down her massive sniper, as it was way too big for her to have on her back while she sat. We sat in silence for a couple minutes before my mouth decided to started talking of its own accord again.
"Well, that went well," I said, throwing in an exaggerated sigh. I linked my hands behind my head, pretending to relax in a state of confident nonchalance. I thought I heard Sinon give a tiny chuckle.
I cracked one eye, glancing at her. I was shocked to see a smile on her face. Well, I say smile. It was more of a one-sided slight raising of one corner of her mouth. I got the feeling that for her, that was the same as a belly laugh. She glanced over at me, and I grinned like a maniac.
"We should do it again sometime," I said.
The insanity of that statement was enough to get an honest-to-god genuine smile out of her. "Yes," she said. "We should."
With that, she leaned over, placing one hand on my chest and kissed me. Even in a video game, her lips were soft, warm, and slightly chapped from the dry air. I didn't dare move my body, worried I'd scare her off, even as I kissed her back. It wasn't a passionate make-out session; it was heartfelt and gentle.
We parted, looking at each other's eyes. I hadn't noticed how intensely blue her eyes were; they were almost shining of their own accord, seeming to switch between blue and light green. They held my attention for a long while before I spoke again.
"You owe me a new coat."
Author's Note:
Thank you to anyone who reads this! I really hope you enjoyed it. I've been trying to write things in the first person, and my recent obsession with anime made Sword Art Online a good choice for this attempt. Let me know what you think! I enjoyed Max's character more than I thought I would, so now I'm toying with the idea of making a series of stories involving him and Sinon, and maybe adding more characters along the way. Thoughts?