Title: Victory or Death.
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: General for 40K and SAO
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40K or Sword Art Online.
Summary: Four Hundred Thousand players log into the much anticipated Warhammer 40K Apocalypse Online, only to find themselves trapped inside with no way out. 40K SAO crossover.
Jen held up her gauntleted fist to call a stop and then indicated the group to take cover as she scanned the surrounding terrain through her helmet's sensors. They were three days out from the capital city of Macros' Garden and they were reaching the edges of a large forested area a few kilometres away from the nearest town. Rose, Magritte, Tona, Krys and Jane took up a defensive circle, with their rifles raised and Neo in the centre.
"Rock, report." Jen called over her armour's vox.
"Approaching your position from the south east. ETA one minute." Rock replied.
"Rodger." Jen replied.
On the warp trip over from Cadmian to Macros' Garden Jen had raised the prospect of forming a guild and the others had agreed and they had named the guild 'Hand of the Emperor' and elected Jen as Guild Leader.
Rock's Sentinel approached from the south east and he folded up the legs and jumped out of the cockpit. He had given up his rifle when he had selected to go as an armour jock, so he only had his pistol.
"What's the word?" Neo asked.
"Target's to the north. A dozen rebels in a small camp. Mix arms of rifles and pistols. Not much in the way of body armour." Rock replied.
"Opinions?" Jen asked.
"Frontal Assault?" Rock asked.
"I got a better idea." Magritte said. "My Sisters and I have better armour. We make the assault and get their attention. Sergeant Tona's squad and Commissar Neoth flank round to the left and ambush them while Scout Rock takes his Sentinel and flanks to the right."
"Sounds like a plan." Tona said.
"Agreed." Jen added. "Tona, just make sure that your squad does not hit Rock, and Rock, the same with Tona's squad."
The four Players and four NPC's nodded in agreement. Jen made her way directly north with Rose and Magritte flanking her, and took cover at the edge of a clump of trees overlooking the rebels' camp. Both Tona and Rock sent a vox pulses when their teams were in position.
"Pick a target." Jen softly said to her Sisters.
Jen raised her Bolter and sighted on one young rebel in the middle of the camp who looked like a leader.
"Fire." She ordered as she squeezed the trigger.
The bolt round from her gun tunnelled into the young rebel's forehead and then exploded, followed a second later by the chests of two of the other rebel's exploding from the bolt rounds of her Sisters. Jen lined up another rebel and fired, watching as he too fell. By this time the rebels has figured out the location that the Sisters were firing from and all turned towards them, firing from the hip. Two more exploded from Bolt rounds before they took as step. Fire from Jen's left took down four of the Rebels. One blew up spectacularly from Jane's grenade launcher, with grenade fragments and bone splinters peppered his fellow rebels, one going down to a fragment sliver in his jugular. Another went down to Neo's bolt pistol while the last fourth went down to Tona and Krys' Lasrifles, one to the chest the other to the face. The two remaining rebels, located to Jen's right were taken down by the rapid fire of Rock's Milti-laser as his Sentinel as it strode out the trees.
"Clear." Jen called when she confirmed all the rebels were down. "Anyone hit?"
"Negative." Tona replied after checking her squad.
"I'm fine." Neo added.
"All fine over here." Rock said.
"Fine here." Rose reported.
"Grazing hit, but it did not penetrate." Magritte advised.
"Alright." Jen said. "I think we're done here."
"Yeah." Tona added. "Let's get back to the village before nightfall."
Jen sat on the bed in her only her underwear in the semi-abandoned house that the Guild had rented for the night while reading the official Sisters rulebook that she had gotten from Kathrine on Cadmian before she went to bed. A knock sounded at her door.
"Who is it?" Jen called.
"Sister Jenith, it is Sister Rose." Came from the other side.
"Come in." Jen replied, sitting up but not bothering to put anything on.
Rose came into the room and when she saw Jen's state of dress she blushed. Rose was dressed in a simple red kimono style robes.
"Sister Rose, what's the matter?" Jen asked, waving to the single chair in the room.
"I am troubled. They never trained us for this at the Convent." Rose said.
"What is troubling you, Sister?" Jen asked.
"It is Trooper Krys." Rose replied. "He is constantly flirting and… I just don't know. I'm sure that it is forbidden for any kind of interaction, but I can not deny that he does cause a reaction, I'm just not sure what kind of reaction."
"Sister, it is natural now that you are out of the Convent that you will be exposed to thing you have no experience with. I appreciate you coming to me with this, and I do not believe you have done anything wrong." Said to reassure the young Sister. "I will talk to Sergeant Tona about Trooper Krys' behaviour. It would be advisable if you did not associate with Trooper Krys during down time. And if you have any further issues come to me, alright?"
"Thank you, Sister." Rose said with great relief on her face. "I believe I will go pray to the Emperor for guidance."
Jen simply watched Rose leave, marvelling at the complexity of the social and emotional development of the NPCs that a player can control. None of the town NPCs were this complex. With a sigh she lay down on the bed and dropped off to sleep.
Kilith walked arrogantly through the arrival spaceport on the Death World of Menoth, the first planet out from the Chaos starting world of Karnath. With his desire to be in the thick of the fighting, Kilith had chosen the Mutant Officer specialisation, and his two Mutant troopers flanked him, one with an extra eye in the back of his head and the other had her skin as grey as stone and was dressed only in a pair of cargo pants and a tank top. Both his Mutants had a Lasrifle in their hands and a wicked looking blade at their belt. Kilith's own mutation was enhanced strength from denser muscles and he had a large two-handed spiked mace on his back and a pair of pistols at his hips.
Most of the Chaos players were smart enough avoid Kilith, especially after the incident where he had been ambushed by three players on Karnath and had killed all of them in under a minute, his reputation had grown after that incident and now only three types of players approached him. Cruel players who wanted to attach themselves to the strongest player they could find; want to be bad ass players with a death wish looking to take him on; and weak players, particularly females, who were looking for someone to protect them.
The female player who approached him on the street was defiantly one of the third type. The fact that she had chosen the War Leader specialisation was obvious by the five weak Cultist NPCs that followed her. The War Leader was chosen by player with delusions of commanding armies or who were afraid and wanted as many NPCs to protect them as possible.
"My Lord Kilith." She said, kneeling in front of him with her head lowered. "My name is Moria, and I pledge my forces to you in return for your protection."
Everyone knew Kilith, and he revelled in the fear.
"You know it will take more than your NPCs to garner my protection, don't you?" Kilith said, running a long finger along Moria's cheekbone and raised her head to look at him.
"I know my Lord." Moria replied.
"Then follow me." He said.
He led Moria through the city to an encampment just outside the safe zone. Stationed there were all the players who were under Kilith's command or protection. There was a large ring in the middle of the camp where another ragged looking female waited.
"Moria, Jarnith. You have both requested my protection." Kilith declared. "Now at the moment I am only willing to protect one of you, unless you can convince me otherwise. So you have three choices. First, withdraw your application for protection and immediately leave this encampment. Secondly, you can both cut off one of your arms and I will consider protecting both of you. The third choice is you will fight each other to the death, no NPCs. I will protect the winner."
These were serious choices because in WAO, the loss of a limb was permanent and could only be replaced with a prosthetic from Dark Mechanicum Adept, either a player or an NPC, which was very expensive and not likely to be bestowed on one being protected.
Moria and Jarnith looked across at each other, with fear in their eyes. If they cut off their arm, then they really would be dependant on Kilith, but the other choice would be to face death either in the ring or in the field. There was hesitation in both their eyes, because if one choose to cut off their arm and the other to fight then the first would surely die. Finally in resignation, Moria made her decision.
TBC…
