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 stared down at the holotable in horror. It was a nightmare. The breaching raid was not going well and Players were about to die. Worse, members of the Hand were about to die.
When Jen and the Hand had returned to the Sectors, Sector Six was over half cleared. The breaching raid for Sector Seven went without a hitch. With more Guilds flowing in the rate of clearing Sectors started to accelerate. The breaching raid for Sector Eight was a bit different. Sector Seven had been the final Sector on the upper most level of the Underhive, and much like the breach of Sector One, the breaching raid for Sector Eight had the Imperials streaming out of a pair of stairwell doors in single file. Still the Sector Eight raid had been brutal but had been successful and that Sector was quickly cleared. In fact in the first eight raids, not a single Player had died, and only three NPCs had been killed. It was the Sector Nine breaching raid that had begun to fall apart.
There were now twenty-five Guilds participating in the breaching raid, ranging in size from the small Guilds with as few as four Players, to some of the largest Guilds with fifteen Players, totalling somewhere in the vicinity of one hundred and eighty to two hundred Players. And frankly they were starting to need that many Players, because on this raid, they were facing a force several times bigger than any they had faced before, and the Chaos Cultists were getting both better armed and better trained as they pushed deeper into the Underhive. As usual, Jen had deployed most of the Guilds to the battle line in a semi-circle around the breach point, and with several more of the Armour Commanders having reached the point where they upgraded from Sentinels to Hellhounds or Devil Dogs, she was deploying the tracked vehicles in close support of the infantry. She had reorganised her reserves into four sections. First section was designated as anti-infantry reserves. Most of the reserve squads fell into this category. The second section was Anti-armour reserves, for squads that had Melta weapons or other anti-armour weapons. The third section was the Close Combat specialist, consisting of twelve squads, and a few Commissars, who were armed and relished getting up close to the enemy with pistols and blades. The final reserve section was the 'Fast Response Unit' made up of the Armour Commanders who had yet to progress from Sentinels to Hellhounds or Devil Dogs. While the reserves were generally grouped into these four sections often when reinforcing, or responding to an emergency, Jen would send a mixed force with squads from two or more sections, depending on the situation.
The problem had arisen while Jen was dealing with a massive assault in the centre. Tona and a few squads of anti-infantry and close combat reserves had been sent to the left. Knowing Tona could handle it, she had turned her attention to the centre's defence, sending in the majority of her reserves, including The Sisterhood of Silence and the Solo Commissar Iro and the Solo Infantry Commander Mandrake. It was only a few minutes later when Tona requested locations of surrounding units to coordinate a crossfire that Jen noticed the problem. An entire Guild, The Legio Invictus, made up of a dozen Players that Tona's detachment had been sent in to support, had fallen back leaving Tona's group dangerously exposed. And the Left Flank Commander, Kenor, was busy countering another attack on another part of the line.
"Legio Invictus, return to your previous position immediately." Jen ordered.
"Negative, Command. This position provides better cover." Sepius, the Guild Leader replied.
"Bugger the cover. You're jeopardising the entire flank. Now move back to your prior position. Now!" Jen shouted into the Voxcaster's receiver.
Tona looked around at her small command. She had six squads, including her own, and Neo. There was two squads that were close combat specialists, and the other four were anti-infantry. The two close combat squads were lead by Greyson and Top. Greyson's squad were Storm Troopers, in their trademark dappled red, green and tan Carapace Armour, armed with Chainswords and Hot-Shot Laspistols, except one who was equipped with a flamer, two of the Troopers for some reason had a bright red handprint on their armour over their hearts. Greyson himself was armed with a Power Sword and a Hot-Shot Laspisol, but he could only use one at a time as his entire left arm was missing, and he had chosen not to get a replacement, the injury was covered by a long cloak that her wore at all times. Top, on the other hand, was an Infantry Commander, who had equipped his squad with Laspistols, Combat knives and Combat Shotguns as their 'secondary weapon', even though they usually lead with the Combat Shotguns.
Of the three other anti-infantry squads, two were Command Officers, with their larger squads of Guardsmen but no special weapons and the third was another Infantry Commander with one trooper carrying a Flamer.
Tona had set up her squads with Greyson and Top's squads on the flanks to sweep in while the other squads hold any attack. She knew Jen would be busy running the entire battle, so she left her request hanging for a minute, until she saw movement in the distance.
"Tona to Command." she said into her Vox Microbead. "I have movement, probable enemy contact. I need confirmation of support units positions to set up crossfire."
After a second, Jen's voice came back over the Vox.
"Tona, no crossfire. Repeat, no crossfire. Other units fell back without authorisation. No available reinforcements at present." Jen said, Tona able to hear the despair in Jen's voice.
"Orders?" Tona asked.
If they stayed, without support they would probably die. If they fell back then the entire flank would be at risk.
"Evac what squads you can, but someone needs to hold position as long as they can." Jen replied. "I'm sorry Tona. There's no option here."
"I understand, Jen." Tona replied, her voice resigned, before she turned to face her detachment. "Alright, all of you need to pack up and retreat back to the line."
"I know that look." Neo said. "I can't even see your face, but I still know that look. You're staying."
"Jen's orders. Someone has to stay. This is my command, I stay." Tona said, turning around to face Neo.
That move saved Tona's life. The bolter round that would have ploughed through her forehead instead only grazed the side of her helmet and knocked her over.
"Return fire. Jane, check her." Neo snapped.
The shot had come from a member of the vanguard of the next attack, which the return fire manage to wipe out but the rest of the attack was close behind.
"She's fine but out cold." Jane reported.
"Ok, get her out of here. All of you go. I'll hold." Neo said.
"You can't hold alone. There's just two of you." Greyson said, indicating to Neo and Dramos, Neo's bodyguard. "I'm staying too."
Neo and Greyson stared at each other for a second, before Neo nodded.
"Fine." Neo said before turning to the others. "Get out of here."
The five squads retreated, with Tona's squad in the middle of the formation carrying their Sergeant.
"Goodbye my love." Neo said to himself as the squads moved away.
"Best way to buy them time is to go on the offensive." Greyson said.
"Yeah, let's go." Neo said.
With that they drew their weapons and charged into the onrushing enemy.
Jen stormed out of the command building as the Players were gathering after the raid. It had been tough but she had managed to keep her head in the broader battle and the overall tactical situation. The battle had gone on for another two hours and while there had been numerous injuries across the entire front, including one Player who will need a new leg and four NPCs that needed either a new shoulder or a new arm. Once it was over, Jen had ordered all Players to gather. As she walked out to the gathering Marias, Marĩ and Serrin all fell into formation beside her. Most of the Players were grouped together but there was a little space around the members of Legio Invictus.
"System, open mass message to all Imperial Players." Jen announced, and a system recording sphere appeared in front of here. "I, Sister Superior Jenith of the Hand of the Emperor Guild, with the authority invested in me as an Agent of the Ecclesiarch, and member of the Chamber Militant of the Ordos Hereticus of the Inquisition, I hereby declare that all members of the Guild Legio Invictus are guilty of disobeying a direct order that lead directly to the death of Commissar Neoth of the Hand of the Emperor Guild and Greyson of the Dreaas Collective Guild and cowardice in the face of the enemy. All members of the Guild Legio Invictus, as a Guild and individually, are now blacklisted. They are to be shunned by all Imperial Players, can not participate in any multi-guild operation or are not to be assisted if are found to be in trouble. The members of Legio Invictus are: Sepius, Krellors, Tenop…"
Jen listed all twelve members of the Legio Invictus, and as she listed the individual Player names the glowing Player icon that floated above the Player's head, which only other Players can see, changed from Green to Black. After she finished the announcement then the sphere disappeared from in front of Jen and small icons appeared in front of all of the players displaying that her announcement was now waiting for them to hear.
"That's unfair." Sepius called out.
"Be glad she did not hand you over to the Commissariat." Hawk called out. "Because a Commissariat investigation would have ended with a firing squad."
"I think you should leave now." Wilkies said from off to the side. "Before we decide to change the sentence."
The formerly revered Legio Invictus Guild quickly left before the angry Players turn into a lynch mob. The Hand of the Emepror all moved into the former command building, with the shaken but mostly recovered Tona in the middle of the group, and Ryker shut the door behind them. The second the door closed Tona broke down crying and simply asking 'Why?'.
TBC…
A/N: The Characters Greyson, Marĩ and Iro belong to greysongarr. Ryker and his squad belong to PFCDontKnow.