Date posted: 23rd January 2022
Thanks to PanzerHippo for help on the tanks! Thanks to Gun Jesus for the important bit at the end!
Chapter 11: Wyrm, Thunder, Neko
"You know what you're eating, Shino?"
"A cheeseburger?"
"Well yes. I mean, what does it taste like?"
"Like beef with cheese on it."
"No, no! This …" Kazuto gestured his hand to his own meal. "Is victory."
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, wiseass. At least the way I died is really freaking cool!"
"It was cool. I know, I was there."
They were back at the American diner at Shiba Park. The King of Rock was now singing about the prison system on the jukebox. Kirito tapped his foot while munching on Victory.
It was the next day and Klein had invited them to breakfast, Daisuke included. As per the last bet, Ryoutarou was paying the bill. Shino and Kazuto had ordered the same couple of cheeseburgers from yesterday. Shino complained at the profiligacy of the meals and made the resolution to go double the amount of time of exercising the next time they went to the gym . There was something, Kazuto decided, incredibly attractive about discipline.
After the session last night, the two of them were mentally exhausted. Playing VR games was much more demanding on the mind than standard games, the few cons of Deep Dive gaming.
And as much as he wouldn't mind sharing a bed with Shino, not in the sexual sense though that was certainly a factor, the two were far too tired to even entertain such thoughts. Kazuto would have overslept had Ryutarou not called him at seven in the morning and reminded him of the bet; he had honestly forgotten. It was also a coincidence that Ryutarou happened to choose the same place that they ate the day before.
The IT worker was regalling the tale of the attack on the Akrata supply depot. His storytelling style was exciting, indepth, and very well done. The man could have a career in Rakugo if he worked at it.
"And then, and then, I shit you not - the game pulls out a bullshit move! Tell him, Dyne!"
"Listen Ryoutarou-san, I appreciate you inviting me but can a man not enjoy his breakfast?"
"We are brothers-in-arms now, you must. It is said so in the Bro Bible."
"Fine, fine!" He munched on a french fry before he continued. "So we went into the compound, all sneaky like. Kinda weird infiltrating a compound, because you know, at our company we're the one doing the guarding. We coulda used you there Asada, I'm sure we can figure out how to train a cat to shoot a gun somehow."
Shino rolled her eyes. "Nya."
Ryoutarou slapped the man on his shoulder, almost making him choke. "C'mon, old man, don't be modest! Tell em' about the rest."
Impatient, he told them instead. "We split up in two groups, Black Dog and FurinKazan, and we just went around slaying fools. Sneak up on people, boom! Pow! Give a taste of some karate! Slash! Used my katana to slit a man's belly in two! Gory stuff, this! I know the game is rated M but I'd never seen entrails drop like that before …"
The rest of the restaurant was giving them weird looks and Kazuto pleaded with his senpai telepathically to lower his voice. The telepathic link didn't work, but he did at least switch to less gruesome topics.
Daisuke cut him off. "So here we were, at the edge of the enemy compound, ready for extraction. When I pulled out my detonator and it didn't work. Because of the signal jammer! All that work, planting explosives, and the enemy outsmarts us. I hated it, but I also kinda like it. We should get one of those things for the company, do they actually exist?"
"I don't know, I wasn't in the military," said Shino.
"You're a huge nerd, so I thought you knew. Anyway, a certain someone tripped a silent alarm, and by the time we were leaving the warehouse we were infiltrating, they had us surrounded."
"Ah, but that's the best part about a mission, Daisuke-san. The plan going perfectly smooth, no issues at all, and at the climatic point, all hell breaks loose. That's what makes a good movie, and it gives us a chance to kill lots of people and get a lot of XP."
"The game actually rewards you more for being stealthy, actually," said Shino, though she knew the redhead wasn't paying attention.
"It was wild! Ginrou had his drones battling Corvo-Bats, we were popping smoke, fighting with gun and blade! Hadn't had this much fun in years! It's great!"
Kazuto finished the rest of his burger. "Then, how did you get back in?"
"We left the rest of our teams as distractions while Klein and I snuck it to destroy the jammer," said Daisuke matter of factly.
"That's very brief, Daisuke-san."
"It's true."
Ryoutarou was having none of it. "He, and I can't believe it goddamn worked, he …"
Shino's eyes widened. "No way, you did!"
"Did what?" asked a confused Kazuto.
The man in the cowboy hat said nothing and gestured to Shino. She continued, "One time, during an exercise, Daisuke-san had to infiltrate a house the company was renting - a mock mission for our VIP guarding assignment. I was on guard duty with the others, and he was the lone attacker. We checked pretty much everything - the doors, the basement, the backyard, cameras everywhere. Yet, somehow …"
Klein slammed a fist on the table. "He snuck in … with a cardboard box!"
The older man tapped his head. "Never doubt genius, kiddo."
Kazuto was confused. "Oh, like he was part of a delivery or something?"
"Nope! He was using it as cover! If you saw the two of us, you'd see two upside down cardboard boxes with legs walking about. We were like …. sneaky turtles or something! Except instead of shells, it's cardboard."
"Ah, that's pretty smart. So, how did you die?"
Daisuke noisily slurped his milkshake. "There was a hundred meters between us and the jammer. We were out of grenades, we didn't bring our rifles, just our sidearms. And well, we blasted it with holes then the guards returned the favour. So much for XP."
"No, no, Daisuke-san. You're getting all wrong! Don't think of it as a defeat! Think of it as an epic heroic sacrifice - the noble captains (that's you and me) taking everyone with us, letting our comrades escape and complete the mission."
"Shit, I didn't realise how expensive it was to respawn with your gear back. I mean, I knew that, but gear retrieval shouldn't cost that much," Daisuke complained. "Anyway, we still doing the run today, right?"
"Yeah, Nikita will have our butts if we don't. Looks like the Clearers are already advancing towards Corinth." Kazuto had his phone propped up, a popular streamer who was commenting on the current events of the war. He sent links to the others and Daisuke was scratching his head wondering what the hell this 'Twitch' thing was.
The footage looked to be taken from up high, likely a drone: heavy armour was rolling towards the capital of the Republic of Mutantopia. They were engaging with what's left with the Republic's War Behemoths to devastating effect. Cannon fire streaked across Megaran Fields as the air was filled with flying mutants and missiles launched from the city. Jet Dragons zoomed across the sky, winged beasts with thrusters grafted onto them, bathing the forces of players with long streams of fire from their jaws.
It was like watching the news. Well, if the news were filled with stories of fire breathing dragons anyway.
"This is the best purchase I've made in my entire life," said Klein.
The footage now switched to a view outside the city. Republic Troopers were heading towards the frontline outside the city in trucks and patched up APCs. More War Behemoths were streaming from out of the city.
There were also comments on how the great canal of Corinth was entirely absent. There was no lore reason given. Due to the shrinkage of the earth via the 1/3rd rule of thumb, the devs had no space to fit the canal in. This made the fight much, much easier than had there been one in the first place. Kazuto would not have known about the canal's existence had Shino told him.
"At least it makes getting to the city easier!"
"Thank God for video game logic," said Shino.
Ryoutarou stared intently at the screen. "Kirito. We need to kill a dragon."
"Uh, not sure we can do that Klein. Maybe if we had helicopters -"
"No. We need to slay it with spears and arrows. I haven't killed a dragon in months."
"We don't have super strength, you know. It'd be like fighting them at level 1 or something."
"Don't care, we need to kill it."
"Unlikely, seeing as they're all flying and we have no aircraft. Sorry to say Ryoutarou-san, but I doubt dragon slaying is going to be in the upcoming briefing" said Shino.
As she said this, everyone received a message in the group chat.
CHAD: So does anyone want to kill a dragon?
Admist the sands of a dead planet, steel beasts and slave-soldiers did battle against the horrors of the past.
Thirty-two thousand players, two hundred and ten tanks, and three hundred forty APCs raced to the city. Tanks dueled with War Behemoths, great mutated elephants with dozens of cannons and guns, enough heavy plating to rival even the most advanced of tanks. They fired their shells at each other, ducking and weaving out cover behind the corpses of Great Worms. They were a bizarre mix of armour: American Abrams supporting Russian Armatas in the middle of the line with French Leclercs and German Leopards on the flanks. Only in video games.
As the tanks did battle, the lines shifted once again to the early days of the expansion. When the playerbase was pushed back to Volos, they detonated their prefabricated bunkers to deny the Republic access to their forts. Lacking the factory power of Glocken, they rebuilt them, replacing synthcrete with locally made concrete and bricks. When the weekend came once again, the player numbers tripled, giving the Clearers the manpower advantage to turn back the tide. Thus the battlefield lines were reconquered by the players, and once again, the Republic military blew them up to return the favour.
Far to the north, skirting the coast, the APCs and Outriders of Zakon I Dolg bypassed the general mayhem of the battlefield. They drove through the suburbs of the old world where thousands of homes had fallen to ruin, using them as cover as they made their way to the great walls of the city. The urban landscape had been retaken to be used as farms by the Republic and the farmers that watched the horizon packed up and left when the dust clouds of the Zakon approached them.
The BTR-90s' autocannons thumped thumped at the enemy, the militia's pipe guns were no match for a storm of 30mm fire. A rider on a Harley Davidson motorcycle came over a hill, destroying a scrap pillbox with his China Lake grenade launcher. A black rider on a cybersteed chased down a mutant farmer and cut at him with his plasteel blade while another rider shot at a sergeant with a lever-action shotty.
The battle ended as quickly as it started. Kirito watched as the farmers ran towards the village hall - an ancient school gym of some kind - pipe guns and flintlock rifles poking out of windows. They fired at the Outriders but their range was so terrible that they didn't even bother to take cover.
Comissar Tadao raised his fist. "Cease fire! Cease fire!"
"Is it because we're showing mercy to the enemy?" asked Kirito. Though calling a bunch of peasants 'enemies' was stretching it.
"What? Nah. The ammo to XP ratio is horrendous! You'd get more XP for killing «Abnormally Sized Rats» in Glocken's sewers." He reloaded his Winchester at a relaxed pace.
Kirito looked around the farms. The Outriders were going about looting what little houses were on the coast and tearing them down with swift kicks and sledgehammers. The Zokon's APCs helped with another blast of their cannons. This was probably a war crime of some sort. He asked Sinon about it.
Sinon popped her head out of a saddle bag and yawned. "Nope. According to Article 53 of the 1949 Geneva Convention, destroying property for military aims is completely a-okay."
"Do you just have international treaties memorised?"
"It's a hobby of mine alongside gun collecting."
"Uhuh." To the southwest, Corinth's great walls loomed in the horizon. They reminded Kirito of the walls surrounding Aincrad, though unlike those walls, they didn't have artillery mounted atop of it. "How on earth are we going to get through that?"
Sergeant Gregory came up to him and thrusted a shovel in his hands. "Enough chatting, we need to clear the rubble!"
"Please tell me I don't need to wear the apron again."
The sergeant had that pink abomination in his fist. "Ah, but they give a +20% speed buff to labour! But if you don't want to …"
Kirito cursed under his breath and took the apron. Sinon meowed in delight.
It was a curious sight, men in tactical gear wearing pink aprons. But the job was done quickly. The two POWs they captured were chained together at the ankles and were being used as slave labour. They looked familiar to Kirito.
"Shoot me you piece of shit!" said Ruth.
"Yeah, shoot us both!" said Hikari.
"And deprive ourselves of free labour? I don't think so," said Tadao, lording over all of them on Lyubimiya 2.0. "Besides, you might report to your guild and inform them of our operations."
"Yeah! Well …" Ruth thought of some insult that would get him killed. "Your beret and red gloves make you look stupid!"
The player grinned as Tadao's hands went to his revolver. "Nice try, buddy. But I'm not dumb enough to do that."
"Pistols are better than revolvers!" said Hikari.
"Well, you ain't wrong but it's not about practicality, it's about style."
"Your scarf is tacky!" said Ruth.
"My scarf is just fine, thank you very much."
"Your horse is stupid!" they both said silmutenously. There was a dangerous glint in Tadao's eyes as he cocked his Vaquero.
"Okay, you two. Back to work."
"And, and …" Ruth thought of something outrageous to say. "Your spurs makes you look fat!"
Ruth was shot before he realised it, and instead of the sweet release of death, sparking arcs of electricity lanced through his body as he fell to the ground convulsing, bringing his partner down with him.
"Seeing as your partner is currently incapitated, you need to work doubly hard." The cowboy tipped his beret. "Continue, prisoners. We need landing space for the pods."
Hikari looked at her partner's knocked out form and cursed up a storm.
The flat space was readied in half an hour. Some radio chatter and math later, the signals were set. Pods were shot from across the gulf and landed almost perfectly onto the new landing pad. Klein and Dyne popped out of their pods with a pneumatic hiss, as well as the other now revived players. The pods were quickly cleared up to make space for newer pods. They came bearing ammo for not just the infantry but also the vehicles. The familiar glowing green Anti-Mutie ammo was a sight for sore eyes.
The second launch came bearing CHAD and his men. In total there were some seventy plus players. The few missing were members of Black Dog and Furinkazan out west. As always, the gas masked man was all business.
"We will be going to our next objective here," he told them all. They made a makeshift wagon fort by parking their APCs in a way that protected them from the farmers' hateful stares. A map was taped to the side of one of the APCs.
"We are too far away to march properly, here is one of the places where we can find some transportation to make the trip easier." At this, he tapped onto a point on the map, a small outpost on the edge of farmland. "Worry not, my men are capable of driving them, though we may need some help from the rest of you to serve as extra members of the tank crews."
"Last I heard from my crew and Dyne's, they're making their way here in a hurry. Knowing the guys, they probably stole a truck or something too," said the samurai.
Sinon meowed and Kirito translated, "Couldn't we use the sewer entrance from before?"
"Negative. They've sealed them up. There are only a few such entrances overall and other killteams have gone through these gaps in security to assassinate the doctor. All have failed. Such gaps will be available again, but not for a long time. A few weeks at most."
"And, what do you propose? If we attack now, we'll be annihilated, element of surprise or no," said Nikita.
Two more pods arrived on the landing pad. A familiar scientist exited out of one of them. "CHAD, it was a hassle to get paint on such short notice but I got them."
"Paint? What for - oh, I see what you're doing." Dyne smiled at the news.
"INDEED. WE WILL STRIKE THE ENEMY FROM WHERE THEY LEAST EXPECT IT!" proclaimed Titanium Wall. "WITH VERY RUDE GRAFFITI!"
"I have no idea how you got to that conclusion," said Dyne.
Klein raised both hands. "Yeah, yeah, sneaky wetwork shit. Now, what was that about a dragon?"
"You'll know that soon enough. But first, we need some heavy armour."
Grain and Wheat Collection Facility 37A was an unremarkable thing, a mostly bureaucratic office made from the remains of an ancient post office. It was under the purview of the Republic of Mutantopia Department of Agriculture. It housed numerous tractors and other farming equipment for the nascent nation state. Situated northeast of Coritnh in the suburbs of Lokratia, it had been one of the major sites in the terraforming of ruins to farmland. The farmers, worried at the incoming bloodthirsty mercs, did their best to haul the rest of the wheat and grain to the warehouses for the upcoming siege.
The outpost had been transformed into a makeshift garage pool. It was currently home to numerous Republic tanks. Though the doctrine was to use BOWs as heavy armour, because the Ark Biologis had no short supply of genetic material, they still had a small contingent of standard tanks as backup, ancient tanks from WW2.
A guard on a newly erected watch tower sounded the alarm at the coming dust storms over the hills. The guards were no militia at all, but scared out of their wits clerks and office workers who had the barest of firearms training. Their anxiety turned to relief when they saw the armour coming towards them bore the double helix of 33rd Mechanised Infantry Division. Scouts on motorbikes and two cybersteeds followed suit, packs bulging with gear. There were even a few of them riding atop the APCs, which spoke of how dire the situation must have been that there wasn't enough space to transport them all.
The head clerk came to greet them alongside a couple of armed guards. A soldier popped out of the hatch of the lead BTR, wearing the uniform of Republic Stormtroopers and flak typical of Vatborn. Considering that the enemy possessed far better gear than the Republic did, the woman before him must have great skill to kill the servants of capitalism and loot their kit. She didn't even have any warts or skin diseases, one of the perks of healthcare provided to the Republic's elite.
The soldier, a lieutenant by the badge on her breast, snapped a salute. The head clerk, a skinny twenty year old gutter rat with hooves instead of feet, given the office due to the rare of ability of being both literate and capable of arithmetics, returned the salute sloppily. Was he supposed to salute?
"Hail, comrade! We've an emergency: the brass requires the use of the armour in your garage."
The officer let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank you! They're clogging up the parking spot reserved for the trucks that's hauling the grain."
"We need to reinforce the city, and that means getting the armour into the city. Let us take them, and we'll be on our way."
"Of course, of course! We just need the permits and papers and we'll hand over the keys."
"Tanks don't use keys," said Daisuke within the APC.
"That's how well written the game is, of course the average peasant doesn't know how tanks work," said Kirito. Lyubimiya 1.0 was currently hauling too much ammo to be ridden. "Sinon taught me that."
"Nya."
Outside, the chatter continued. "Negative, comrade. We are in a hurry and we need access to those tanks pronto."
"I'm sorry lieutenant, but we really do need those papers. Just last week we had infiltrators trying to pass as our brave soldiers. We have doubled the security, can't be too careful, you understand."
CHAD was in the APC with them and signed everyone to prepare themselves. Weapons were loaded and safeties turned off. As slowly and as inconspicuous as possible, Corporal Dave in the driver's seat radioed the rest to turn their cannons towards the building. The Outriders slowly reached for their weapons.
"Hold on, hold on," said Klein. "Wouldn't this alert like everyone else in the area? A bunch of dead soldiers and missing tanks, that can't be good."
"They can't report to HQ if there's no one else to report it," said CHAD tapping his head.
In the middle of the APC, one of the prisoners just woke up. "Holy shit guys, did you really need to shoot me like that? They should just get rid of them entirely."
"Dude, shut the hell up! Do you want to get knocked out again?" asked his co-prisoner.
Kirito raised an eyebrow. "Oh hey, nice to meet you two again."
Ruth's eyes widened. "Hey, hey! I remember you!" He gasped. "Is little Sinonon okay?!"
Sinon poked her head out of Kirito's rucksack. "Nya."
"OMG, she is! See, Hikari? A good deed goes a long way."
"We're chained like slaves and this is what you're worried about?!" the medic almost shrieked. Dyne told them to shut up.
The arguing outside had become louder. Conflict seemed inevitable and the troops inside readied themselves to slaughter everyone at the outpost.
CHAD sighed. "We'll need to do this quickly as we're on a short time frame. First, we need to eliminate the -"
Outside, Nikita shouted at the top of her lungs. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR BUREAUCRATIC RED TAPE!" It was followed by the sound fist meeting flesh and body hitting the ground.
Everyone exited the APCs in a hurry.
The troops on horseback and motorcycles flicked off safeties but no one was aiming their guns at anyone.
She aimed her MP-443 Grach sidearm at the bureaucrat, holding his bloodied nose. "You will give me those tanks or I will pull rank and shoot you myself!"
"Okay! Okay! Take them!"
The major holstered her sidearm and turned to the troops. "Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Move!"
Ten minutes later, the convoy was back on the road.
"Remind me not to piss off the major," Klein whispered to Kirito. The APCs were now far roomier thanks to the redistribution of soldiers into the tanks.
"Damn, major. That was some top tier bullshiting right there," said Dyne. "Where'd you get the experience for that?"
"Oh that?" said Nikita, busily checking a map. "I'm a mother of three. You need quick thinking and a strong voice to get your kids to do what you want."
Silence descended in the vehicle. "What? A woman can't play video games in her free time? I had to save up my paid leave at work to play this expansion."
"What do you do for a living?" asked Kirito.
"I'm a hotel manager."
"Huh, well that explains the excessive cleaning," he said to himself.
"You … never told us you were a mother, sir," said a bewildered Gregory.
"Well, you never asked."
They were well within the walls of Corinth, the traffic to busy they were easily able to bypass the checkpoint. Though nowhere near the scope of Glocken's walls, they were still a sight to behold.
Once upon a time, humanity sent a dozen explorator ships to colonise the rest of the solar system. These were the mad dreams of the obscenely rich, decried by the rest of humanity as selfishly hoarding resources while the world around them burned and drowned to climate change. Huge space elevators made for orbital docks, damning the environment and resources needed to construct them. The last of the ships took off into space, a mere forty-eight hours before the first nukes were launched.
Of the dozen explorator ships, SBC Glocken was the first to return after a hundred years of absence, making landfall near Istanbul. Military wise, it was one of the most powerful ships to ever be created in the history of humanity. Great factories and enough space to hold a hundred thousand people, factories of all kinds.
No one knew exactly what had happened to those twelve ships. Some said the billionaires had already colonised Mars were now waging war against another. Others theorised Glocken, a leading company of the industrial military complex in ancient times, had lost and were now dragging their feet back to earth to rebuild their power base. The theory was quite likely, as they sent their legion of clone soldiers to ravage the world for even more resources.
The Ark Biologis in turn was the second ship to leave, approved by the earth's governments as a medical and scientific research vessel. It was nowhere near as large or powerful as Glocken, but what it lacked in military prowess, it made up for in pure scientific might. It was said that the Good Doctor summoned them back, thus starting the second DLC for the game.
Or at least that was how the story went from that one lore video Kirito watched online by one game's leading lore specialist. Fascinating stuff really.
The convoy - now consisting of three BTR-90s, ten Outriders, and six WW2 tanks - was slow. The ancient tanks were inferior to the APCs that they were currently using. American M3s, Soviet T-26s and British A10s. They didn't have anywhere near the same protection as modern tanks did, nor the electronics so vital in modern armoured warfare. The Republic looted these tanks from old military bases and somehow jury-rigged these centuries old war machines into something they could use. How the American tanks found themselves across the ocean, nobody knew.
The most ubiquitous tank in GGO was the Turkish Altay, and one of the most affordable vehicles in the game. They also happened to be the MBTs of Glocken, and thus were unsuited for the operation. With the addition of the DLC, the Leopard 1A4/5, the MBT of the Greek military also became available. This was a stark comparison to the Savage Sands expansion which expanded the vehicle list of more commercially available cars. According to Sinon, the introduction of more technicals (which Kirito learned were 4x4s with machine guns strapped to them) had a more mixed response amongst the playerbase. Some loved it, some hated it.
It was at that time that CHAD explained the mission.
"Your main objective is to slay a dragon," he said, with the casualness of asking someone to do paperwork.
Klein fistpumped. "Oh hell yes! There can't be a good game if there aren't any dragons! Man, remember «X'rphan the White Wyrm», Kirito? That boss was a huge pain!"
"Yeah, I do." He had to cut off Klein quick before he -
"Man! Dragons in SAO sucked. They just hovered in the air because if they flew any higher than two storeys, no one can hit em'! Because of the lack of -"
Sinon meowed. "Yes, yes, the lack of ranged weapons. I can see why you two are friends."
"Uh, I don't think they need a history lesson, Klein."
CHAD continued. "This dragon is called «Conqueror of Bread», a gun-wyrm that acts like an oversized security dog and host-mother to all the dragons on the field. It's guarding the Advanced Genetics Research Lab in the southern part of the city where intel states that was where they are breeding the Republic's dragons."
Vlad added, "This is possibly where we can procure a cure for Sinon and perhaps information to create stronger Anti-Mutie rounds."
The cat's ears perked up at a mention of a cure.
"I've synthesised a powerful poison to destroy the Conqueror and her brood. When we upload the poison, the Republic will lose the capability to create an airforce, allowing the Clearers to have dominance over the skies. Which means this mission requires a killteam not unlike …"
"Just like the assassination mission from before," Kirito finished.
CHAD nodded. "Exactly. While you do that, the rest of us must go about disabling the AA guns. Make no mistake, we are heavily outgunned and in enemy territory. Exposure means death. So the question is, who's volunteering?"
Hands were raised. Everyone turned to Vladimir, and the scientist realising that he actually had to get his hands dirty, sighed as he raised his too.
"Good. Now, here's how we're going to do it -"
"WAIT," the Wall cutted off CHAD. "CAN WE CALL IT OPERATION: DRAGONSLAYER?"
"Sure, why not."
"GROOVY."
The Ark Biologis was massive: three kilometers long and somehow the smallest of explorator ships it was said. It laid perpendicular in the city, northwest to southeast. As large as it was, it was a dwarf compared to the twenty kilometer monstrosity that was Glocken. The Battle Cruiser absorbed the surrounding countryside and ancient Istanbul in a cancerous sprawl. The sheer event that was Glocken's landfall annihilated countless villages, townships and lives. The explorator ships were designed to act as cities as well, though their creators probably didn't have it in mind they'd be settling back on earth.
The contrast between the two cities was obvious. Corith wasn't a polluted hellhole cityscape where the poor lived underground and the rich lived in massive towers; it was a town designed first and foremost for the comfort of its citizens. Communal apartments, pedestrian friendly roads, beautiful parks and stores on every corner. There seemed to be a clinic or hospital every twenty blocks.
Though there were still the skeletons of ruins in the distance and rubble here and there, it was for the most part clean and civilised. Had it not been for the slew of missiles being shot into the air once a while, it would be asif they logged out and found themselves in Japan again. There were even sakura trees, which spoke to the advanced science the city possessed.
"MY DUDES, THIS IS TRIPPING ME OUT."
"I know, this is … weird," said Dyne. "Reminds me of Shiba Park."
"Quiet! There are guards on patrol," said Vladimir. On a street corner, a few militiamen were checking the contents of a truck so they quickened their pace down the street.
"I hope my swords don't give me away," said Kirito. He had shoved both blades into a duffel bag. As long as no one looked too closely, they wouldn't notice the clearly sword shaped bulges in his pack.
"Nya," said Sinon, currently hiding in his rucksack. It was completely probable the NPCs would pay no heed to a blue cat, but you couldn't be too careful.
Their team was a small one consisting of Kirito, Klein, Dyne, Vladimir, Titanium Wall and Sinon. The rest of the group had dispersed themselves amongst the city, carefully going about to destroy the numerous AA guns. By the point that happened, this beautiful paradise untainted by the cruelties of the Wastes would be demolished. The dream of a better world dead. All thanks to the authoritarian Fist of Capital.
Man, after all this, Kirito needed a break from GGO. And it wasn't because of the intense combat.
They stopped by a bar across the street from their objective, in a corner far from any listening ears. White collar workers, humans with all sorts of diseases and mutations, ranging from extra eyes, fingers, sagging skin, were enjoying their beer as much as they could despite the war in their front yard. The uniforms the players wore was something made up called desert ochre. They even exchanged their good flak for freshly made ones that weren't as good as quality. Hopefully their perfect skin and health wouldn't draw too much attention from the regulars.
Dyne was given command of the mission and no one argued against his rank. "Alright, everyone. That there is our objective."
The building in question looked to be a renovated hospital, not unlike the one in the original assassination mission. Unlike that hospital, this one was a proper hospital complete with new paint and shiny windows. The sign on the building named it as The Advanced Genetics Research and Development Department.
"How the heck are we gonna get in there?" There were security cameras everywhere and two guards standing outside.
"Well, good for us, we've got the best infiltrator with us right now."
Klein blushed. "Ah, thank you, Dyne-san. But I'm not that much of a sneak."
"Not you, bandanna boy. Sinon."
"Nya?" came the muffled meow from Kirito's bag.
"Now, while Ginrou isn't with us, he did download some maps back when we stormed that depot. Now listen up! Here's what we're gonna do …"
"So far so good," said Vladimir.
"HOW DO YOU DO, FELLOW MUTIE?" said Titanium Wall to the fifth person in the building. Dyne sighed.
With a little finangling (i.e, Sinon running around stealing papers and documents), some glue, a quick photoshoot, and Researcher Richard Richardson, genetics specialists working directly under Doctor Asclepius, was born. Though the chemist complained of needing to wash the grime he worked so hard to get on his «Wasteland Sage Garb», it was good enough to fool the security of the facility.
Thus Doctor Richard Richardson and his curious looking bodyguards walked down the spotless halls of science to their objective. In his fist was a large metal box, labeled DANGER and DO NOT OPEN, containing the ever fearsome predator.
"You okay in that box, dear?" asked a concerned Kirito.
"I'm used to it."
They took the elevator down to the deepest basement, fake IDs and Dyne's authoritative voice their keys to the objective. The older man was very good at it.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but I need those papers," asked a security guard who looked to be fresh out of high school had there existed any. They were at their first checkpoint.
Dyne went into full drill sergeant mode. "What in the goddamn hell do you think you're doing, private?!"
That shocked the young man. "Uh …"
"Do you know who this man is?!" He gestured towards Vladimir, who stood with a face of stone with the slight crack of annoyance. "This is Doctor Richardson, he's the guy that's carrying the weapon that will destroy the capitalists! And who the hell are you to stand in his way?"
The sweating private was tapping nervously into his terminal. "Well, sir … I mean .."
An older man stepped in from another room, who looked to be Dyne's age in real life. "Hey, what's going on here? Can I help you, sir?"
They went for their sidearms but Dyne was quicker. "Private. Piss-for-Brains here is in the way of the good doctor's work! You gonna be a problem too, sergeant?"
The NPC was not so easily dissuaded. "I'm sorry, but we didn't receive a message of your arrival."
"Of course those eggheads didn't! Must have been those gunkscums raising hell around this place, huh?"
"Yeah, yeah. Not a few minutes ago some guys in Republic colours just blew up one of the AA guns. Reports said that they sent two people in suicide-bomber vests to just run through security before blowing up."
"I'm sorry to hear that, but doc here really needs to get through."
"Hmm, I mean … we could just call HQ and -"
Suddenly, the box that Vlad was holding started shaking violently. Kirito received Sinon's message and whispered, "Vlad, play along."
The scientist looked at him and acted accordingly. "Oh, uh! My God, man! This beast is becoming unstable! Do you want a full lockdown of the place?!"
The sergeant paled at the shaking box. "W-what is it?"
"Something that needs to be contained very, very quickly! And we need access to the labs now!"
The private was shoved away as the sergeant punched in the code. "Go! Go! Before it kills us all!"
The double doors opened with a satisfying sci-fi swoosh as they hurried down the corridor.
Dyne shook his head. "Messy, messy security. Disgraceful. If I ran this place, I'd have everyone in the department flogged. Good work, Asada. You deserve a pay raise for that."
The box let out a muffled "Nya."
Kirito wasn't sure if the company that Sinon worked with actually flogged people with how serious Dyne said so.
Klein let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Damn, old man! Nice work! I didn't know you had it in you! Not you Vlad, very unconvincing acting. It's like you didn't even give it your all."
"IT WOULD WORK BETTER IF YOU SPOKE IN ALL CAPS, LIKE ME!" the Wall said.
"Everyone's a critic," said the chemist.
"So where is this dragon?" asked Kirito.
Klein pointed forward. "There it is.""
The players experienced a feeling of déjà vu as they entered the hall. It was like they were back under the mountain base, except instead of natural rock and cave ceilings, everything was white and sterile. The floor held a small army of scientists, an armoury worth lab equipment, and numerous tents set up for all kinds of experiments.
But the most noticeable feature was the dragon herself: «The Conqueror of Bread» sat perched in its nest, the pillar it rested on the foundation which held up the entire lab. Numerous tubes stuck out on her sides and extender into the pillar she was perched on. A single red lens the size of a plate was put into her forehead, the focal point of a powerful laser. Alongside the walls were numerous vat tubes, not unlike the cloning vats the players were so familiar with, where lizards, bats, and all sort of mutant abominations lay floating, dreaming. At the base of the pillar were a clutch of eggs within an incubation chamber.
To Klein and Kirito, it was if they were looking into the cave of «X'rphan the White Wyrm» all over again.
"Whoa," was the only comment that came to the samurai.
"Whoa indeed. The console must be in the office at the furthest point from here," said Vlad. There was a large set of vault doors at the end of the hall, which itself was roughly the size of a soccer field.
Dyne gestured to a nearby vent. "Too many cameras. Asada, you're up. Into the vents you go."
Sinon poked her fuzzy face outside the box and gave her CO a serious look. "Nya."
Klein knelt down and took off the grates of a strangely conveniently large air vent passage. She was in and gone. The group made their way, acting as if they belonged. It was amazing how no one batted an eye at them.
The cameras stopped working the further they walked towards their objective, Sinon making a massacre of the wires. They would be noticed soon. The party acted as naturally as a heavily armed group in a field of scientists could.
The room they entered was roomy, a single main console in the middle and a massive vat behind it, currently empty. A single scientist was typing on the console, taking notes. He needed to be gotten rid off.
"WORRY NOT FRIENDS, I HAVE THIS!" the Wall proclaimed.
Before anyone could object, he tapped the scientist on the shoulder and said: "DOCTOR, SOMEONE SHOVED A QUANTUM HARMONIZER IN YOUR PHOTONIC RESONATION CHAMBER!"
The man in question dropped his clipboard in shock. "The idiots! Don't they know they'd be causing parabolic destabilization of the fission singularity?!" With that, he marched out of the room leaving the party alone.
"Huh, that was easy," said Dyne.
"Alright, I'm uploading Dragonslayer into the console. This will kill all of the dragons here, and the remaining ones in combat will be the only one left."
Klein frowned. "Wait, wait, so you telling me that we aren't going to get into an epic duel with that dragon outside?"
"Klein-san, you know what a stealth mission is, right?" asked Vlad as he popped open a glowing vial of poison from his labcoat. It was tiny, not much longer than a pen. And this was sufficient to kill all those beasts?
"Ugh, fine. This is not as cool as I expected it to be. So much for Operation: Dragonslayer."
"I AGREE WITH BANDANNA-SAN. THIS IS MOST UPSETTING."
"Keep watch, I'll need some time for this poison to take effect." A few taps on the keyboard and a slot popped open in the console, which the vial was placed into. "Uploading …"
They examined the rest of the room. Dyne whistled as he approached a wall. "Damn, will you look at this."
Klein joined him. It was a large glass case with the label: IN CASE OF DRAGON TROUBLE, BREAK GLASS.
"What is that?" he asked. "I don't know guns very well. Looks like a sort of bull-puppy? It's got a few magazines for it too."
"The term is bullpup, but yes. Well, don't mind if I do …"
He raised the butt of his FAMAS to crack it open until Vlad barked at them. "Hey, someone needs to guard the door!"
Dyne snapped back to professional mode. "Right, my mistake. Come on, samurai. We can grab this later."
"Pfft, whatever. Sniper rifles aren't my thing anyway."
Meanwhile, Kirito approached the large vat at the back of the room, as the rest of the party spread out. It was the kind of vats you'd see in movies and games, where you could just see a figure inside, and the thing would only be visible when it suddenly springs to life in a jumpscare, complete with a violin sound effect. Thankfully, it was vacant. The swordsman reached for the console next to it and skimmed through what it said.
"Huh … a «Autonomy Morpher». Looks like it can change a player's appearance. This sounds familiar …"
"How so?"
Kirito jumped out of his skin. "Don't sneak up on me like that! I almost shot you!"
The cat shrugged. She was atop the vat itself, an open vent behind her. "I'm half a meter long, not my fault I blend into the environment. This doesn't look dissimilar to a cloning vat, actually."
"Hmm, this seems offline. It requires a new security matrix to use … hold on."
"What?"
Kirito pulled out his PDA and plugged an extension into the console. "I remember reading this at Vita Ware Pharmaceuticals. One of the documents at the CEO's terminal mentioned a morpher of some kind. This … this must be the end of the questline for you to get your old avatar back!"
He typed something into it and the indicator went green. "Entering the new matrix … aaaand done! This should be it!"
"Finally!" Sinon hopped down to the floor. "Time to return to my old self!"
She didn't move. "What's wrong, Sinon?"
"It's just …. I think I'm gonna miss being a cat."
Kirito laughed so suddenly, all heads turned to him. "Ahahahaha! Oh my God."
"What's so damn funny?"
"You were angry … for a week. Pouting, butthurt … and now you don't want to go back?"
Sinon hissed. "I didn't say that, dumbass! I just said I'll miss this body."
Kirito wiped a tear from his eye. "Okay, Sinonon. Whatever you say."
"Can I …"
"Yes?"
Her eyes didn't meet his. "Can I have a hug and a kiss before I go back to my human form?"
Instead of laughing further, Kirito spread open his arms. "Alright, c'mere little neko-Sinon."
With the grace she would no longer have, Sinon leaped up and buried her form in his chest. He smelled like the Wasteland wind. "Can we have another cuddle session when we log out?"
Kirito laughed and kissed her on her forehead. "Of course. Don't worry, I'll still call you Sinonon, and you can still bite me. I'll even scratch your chin, my adorable kitty."
"Charmer." Sinon hopped down and entered the vat. The lid closed and air puffed out as the vat tube pressurised. It began filling with Magic Sci-fi Goop. "See you in a bit, Sword Boy."
"Right back at you, Sniper Girl."
"Nya!" was her last word as the vat was completely filled.
The moment was ruined with a warning by the door. "Uh, guys. We have company …" Klein said. "It's … holy shit it's …"
Dyne's eyes widened as he readied his rifle. "C'mon, we gotta move!"
"No! It's halfway there!" said Vlad. "You'll need to hold them off!"
"I CAN'T KILL DRAGONS SO I'LL TAKE WHATEVER BASTARD THAT COMES THROUGH THAT DOOR!" Titanium said, loading AP rounds into his Thompson.
"Shit!" Kirito slung his rifle and flicked the safety off.
The doors exploded, metal screeching and crumpling like cardboard. A giant entered, clad in bronze and mail, buckler and xiphos in hand. He smiled, gold teeth glimmering, a single eye peering out from behind his helm.
"Ah, Vatborn. We meet again," said Comrade-Sergeant Cassius Lincoln, as if he bumped into them at the supermarket. They could see he was missing half his face and his sword hand was replaced with a crude bionic. "Rematch?"
"BRING IT ON, COMMIE BASTARD!"
The Wall unloaded his entire drum mag into the transhuman. The .45 rounds made the bronze spark and dent but it wasn't enough. The Thunder Fighter's blade whipped out like a swipe of a great panther, cleaving the Wall's helmet and head like a split log.
The lights dimmed and turned red, klaxons blared. "Intruder alert! Enemy spy is in the base!"
To Kirito, it was as if he was thrown into hell itself. "Double shit!" He put his rifle away and reached for his sword.
Dyne plugged a grenade round onto the barrel of his FAMAS and fired. The explosive soared harmlessly through the air as Lincoln spun around with the grace of a ballet dancer, knocking the rifle out of his hands. The grenade exploded in the hall and killed two scientists.
The veteran pulled out his pistol only to have a bear paw of a hand reach his throat and lift him a foot into the air. He was one second from getting his neck snapped had Klein not come to his rescue.
"Get off him, bastard!" He racked shot after shot, electricity arcing through his form. The EMP slugs, courtesy of Tadao, made the generator on his back sound like a dying engine as the exoskeleton's gears grinded to a halt. Dyne was released from the Thunder FIghter's deathgrip.
"Your shotgun is semi-auto!" Dyne yelled/coughed. "Stop pumping after every round! And unfold your stock, damn you!"
"But it's cooler this way!" Klein shot back. The SPAS-12 clicked empty. "Damn!"
The samurai would have lost his head had he not pulled out his katana at the last second. The sheer force behind the xiphos nearly broke his wrist. Dyne rose to shoot but a power armoured sabaton kicked into his stomach and slammed him into the wall.
The room was filled with the sound of a roaring chainsword as Kirito leapt off the console, his blade held high. Lincoln backstepped and kneed the swordsman mid-air before plunging the hilt of his shortsword into his spine. Kirito's form cracked the tiles of the floor.
Klein met the Thunder Fighter, exchanging sword blows. The transhuman was larger, faster, had longer reach, and it was only a matter of time before he killed them all. Five against one was a ratio in favour of the enemy.
"Vlad, hurry up!" he yelled. The plasteel cracked the buckler and it was immediately discarded.
"I'm doing my best here! 10% left! C'mon … c'mon …"
Notified of the process, the comrade-sergeant flipped his sword over, thumb and forefinger on the blade and threw with marksman precision. The blade buried into Vladimir's back, through his stomach, and pinning him to the console. Sparks of electricity erupted from it.
"Warning: Serum upload has been stalled," droned an electronic voice.
"No!" Vladimir gurgled out, before dying.
Distracted, Klein didn't notice how Lincoln grabbed Kirito by his ankle, and swung his friend down on him like a hammer. Both of them collapsed in a tangled heap, katana and chainsword flung far away to the edge of the room.
"Fools, you cannot stop the revolution!" He grabbed Klein and Kirito by the neck and slammed their heads together, cracking the samurai's helmet and the swordsman's mask.
"It was insufficient for you to join the force of good! Rather, you join the force of greed! Do you not see how your slave masters are ruining our earth?!"
The sergeant could have snapped their necks right then and there, but instead, slowly pressed his thumbs into their throats. Both men's health were 50% and were dropping rapidly.
"We will grind the forces of Capital to a halt! Cut off the Invisible Hand of the Market! The meek shall inherit the earth!"
The vat indicator in the back turned from red to green and the liquid quickly drained out. A wet lithe form stepped out of it and ran to break the glass case in the room.
"And if that means you dying a thousand deaths, then so be it! I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"
The Thunder FIghter was warped and blinded in his hatred, he didn't notice the other person in the room, the shattering of glass, nor the unlocking of the barrel. In the next few moments, the room became the inside of a cloud and the gun wielded the claps of thunder. It would be the last thing he would ever witness.
"Get your filthy hands off my boyfriend, you discount space marine!"
Comrade-Sergeant Cassius Lincoln of the Thunder Fighters let go of his would-be victims to face his death.
The first .50 caliber round dented his power armour, the twenty-nine inch barrel reciprocating backward into the gun before returning to its original position. The sound of the gunshot came dangerously close to hitting the legal limit of in-game sound volume. The second penetrated the intricate and complex layers of plasteel and aereusite, thousands of hours of handcrafted work made obsolete. The third found itself penetrating the reinforced titanium-laced bones of his rib cage. The fourth found its mark and penetrated the transhuman's genecrafted heart, popping it like a balloon. The fifth round destroyed his second heart.
The transhuman died, fury on his face, anger in his heart. He fell to the tiled floor into a puddle of his own blood, felled like a great tree.
Klein and Kirito coughed, rubbing their throats. The sheer realism of VR was at times too real despite being completely safe.
"Wha - what the … who?"
The figure stood before them like a conquering hero. Long legged, broad shoulders, and toned muscles. Piercing blue eyes stared at him, sharp fanged teeth like that of a grinning demon. The only thing covering her modesty was a green leotard that magically spawned on her person. She was familiar and foreign to Kirito at the same time. The cat ears atop her head twitched from the action. A long blue tail wagged playfully from behind.
She placed her GM6 Lynx anti-materiel rifle on one shoulder, a noticeable bicep popping as she did. She walked towards the console where the dead scientist was slumped over and with a few taps on the console, finished the process. "Alert: Serum upload complete."
The sheer terror of failure subsiding and his mind cleared, he knew exactly who she was.
"... S-Shino?"
The catgirl winked at him. "Nya, Kazuto-kun. Did you miss me?"
Fun fact, the story that Klein tells Kirito and Sinon at the beginning was about 1.3k words for chapter 10, but I decided to cut it because it ruined the pacing.
Thus the return of Sniper Girl! Sniper Cat? Yes, dear reader, the whole story was just about setting up catgirl Sinon in GGO the whole time. You're welcome. You might be wondering why Sinon's not using her PGM Hecate II. Two reason: I wanted to do something reason and I can't not use a gun named after a cat for the catgirl. I'd never forgive myself I didn't take the opportunity.
And Sinonon has now reached 100 reviews! Not bad for a story with not so many follows/favs. Thanks to a certain reviewer for hitting that 100 mark!
We're reaching endgame here (I swear I've been saying that for almost a year). Unfortunately, I won't be uploading anything in February for personal reasons. If I am, it'd be by the very end. Sorry to those wanting more Sinonon or Merchant Prince. But worry not, I won't stop until this is finished.
Thanks for follows/favs/reviews. Til next time.