Authors' note and disclaimer: This is a collab fic with SirStonewall. SAO and its characters don't belong to us but to Reki Kawahara. We are merely playing in the world he created. Stonewall and his crew belong to SirStonewall while the crew of "La Montréalaise" belong to me.
Thanks everyone for your reviews! We take them into account and try to use your suggestions as best as we can. Kirito and co. get some love in this action-filled chapter. Enjoy your reading. -Goodalwayswins98
I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and as always drop a review if there's some piece of equipment you want to see used! We appreciate all your reviews, and if everything goes according to plan there'll be more of the ALO gang, especially more Kirito, as y'all requested. K2-Black-Panther, your M2 Carbine idea has been taken into consideration. - SirStonewall
Chapter 5: Surprise Visit!
"RECON!?"
"Wait a minute, Leafa, you know this moron?" Stonewall asks, looking between the prisoner and Leafa.
"Yeah. We used to play ALO together, and we're in the same grade."
Nguyen raises an eye as he looks at Recon before looking again at Leafa
"This kid's in the same grade as you?!" he exclaims, "Sheesh… you're fucking more mature than him."
"HEY!" Recon nervously shouts before Nguyen stares at him and shuts him up. The boy appears to be on the verge of tears as he looks frightfully at the older player.
The American gives Recon's M1903 to Leafa and starts towards the door, sticking a cigarette in his mouth as he walks out, muttering. "Hurry up and eat y'all. We're on a timeline."
After the door closes Aria wolfs down the last of her food and gets up, offering her plate to Leafa.
"Eat. I'll take your spot."
"Thanks Aria."
Leafa nods while glaring at Recon, and takes the plate before passing the M1903 to Aria.
"You, come here." Aria snaps, pointing at Recon, then at her feet. He reluctantly walks forward, stopping in front of her with a nervous look in his eyes. She holds out his Springfield, and when he grabs it she towers over him, glaring into his eyes. "Just so we're perfectly clear, if you shoot any one of us, or you fuck up our mission, I will not hesitate to leg you and leave you. Understand?"
A cross look spreads across Kirito's face at her hostile words, but he remains silent as Recon stammers. "Y-y-yes ma'am."
Aria's threatening demeanor flips on a dime to a cheerful smile as she releases his rifle. "Good! You can use my trench coat, since you look like you're missin' your own. You got ammo?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Thank god," Nguyen mutters as his tankers nod in approval.
Aria opens up her inventory and materializes a US trenchcoat in her arms, holding it out to the short kid with a smile, just as her radio starts transmitting sound through the handset. She throws the coat at Recon and grabs the handset, pressing it to her ear. "This is Aria, send traffic." Listening intently for a moment while Recon puts on the warm coat, she finally acknowledges the person on the other end and puts the radio on her back. "Pick it up people. We gotta get a move on."
Those that are eating either leave the half-eaten plates of food on the table or frantically shovel the last few bites into their mouths before getting up, filing out the door one by one, with Aria prodding Recon along. Taking a brief moment after everyone is outside, Aria goes back inside the house, then quickly re-emerges, carefully shutting the door.
"Leave a present for them when they come back?" Stonewall asks, flicking his cigarette into the snow and pulling his rifle off his shoulder.
"Yeah. A Model 39 rigged on the bedroom door, and another on the front door."
"Perfect. Let's go, we're ten minutes behind schedule."
As they get moving towards the meeting point Leafa scowls at Recon from beside him, holding her rifle in both hands. "What are you doing here?"
"Well… I heard you talking about this game during lunch a couple days ago, and I... wanted to try it."
"... Okay, but what are you doing here?" She asks, motioning to the area around them. "How did you manage to get captured?"
"I tried sneaking through the enemy lines and they caught me by surprise when I took shelter in there. Turns out it was some player's home or guard station," Recon explains nervously.
Sighing in resignation, Leafa shakes her head softly and picks up the pace to walk in front of him, watching her surroundings carefully like everyone else. Ahead of her, Kirito, Nguyen, and Stonewall converse quietly while walking.
"Alright, so when we reach the gun, the area will probably be crawling with patrols. Kirito, would you be comfortable with leading the assault group with Nguyen acting as your advisor?" Stonewall asks, looking over at the expert swordsman. The veteran tank commander nods in approval before shaking Kirito's hand.
"You bet."
"Awesome. I'll be leading the support group, so Agil, Sinon, and I will stay behind you guys, covering as you advance. We'll do what's called bounding, so you'll move up as we cover you, and when you reach a place with good cover then you'll cover us as we move up to your position. Sound good?"
"That sounds really similar to what we do in ALO, we just calling it 'switching'," Kirito explains with a hand on his chin, "One person would launch an attack, and once they're done with that attack their partner will switch with them and launch their own attack."
"That's the exact same concept, just on a broader scale, and with guns." Stonewall confirms, "We should be coming up on the rally point here pretty soon…." No sooner does his second sentence leave his mouth than more than a dozen well-camouflaged players rise up from the nearby underbrush, aiming their rifles and SMG's at the group. The seasoned player jumps slightly, clearly startled, but relaxes after a second. "Hey y'all. Sorry we're late."
"What took you so long?" One of them asks with a hiss, lowering his FG42 and motioning for the others to do the same.
"Had to take the alternate, and we had the chance to rescue some poor noob that surrendered."
The other team leader raises an eyebrow as Stonewall points the shirking Recon.
"You sure he's not an infiltrator? No one surrenders in this game."
Stonewall chuckles and motions towards Pina and Silica, then towards Aria. "Considering the dog and Aria haven't torn him to ribbons yet, I'd say he's Alliance. He's just new, and more than a little stupid."
There's a brief silence before the other leader answers.
"Alrighty then. Let's get a move on, we're burning moonlight sitting around here. We've got three hours until the next bomber raid."
A loud, deafening sound shakes the woods, causing some of the players to jump in shock.
"Wh-what was that?" squeaks Recon as he jumps in surprise.
"That, is Schwerer Gustav, an 800mm railway gun. Our target for today." Stonewall answers.
"Just how big is that thing exactly?" Liz skeptically asks as they make their way through the woods.
"Stupidly too big," Nguyen answers while looking around, "Like the thing needs two sets of railroads side-by-side to move. Can only shoot every 30-45 minutes. Real thing needed a crapton of men to run it. How many again Stonewall?"
"Two-hundred-thirty, give or take."
"Whoa wait a minute?!" Klein exclaims while the rest of the ALO gang look in disbelief at Stonewall, "We have to take out all those people first!? That's madness."
"All of the crew are AI armed with only handguns, or not armed at all." Stonewall replies nonchalantly. "If we catch them in the reload process we should be able to get the drop on them."
"If they just fired that means we have an opening," Kirito points out as he checks the time in the interface, "We'd better hurry though."
The forty players continue their way towards their objective, carefully making sure that they are unheard. As they advance, more and more craters break up the woods, a telling sign of recent bombardments.
"Damn, that gun's a real pain in the ass," Agil utters as he looks at a rather large bomb crater, "I hope we can finish the job."
"Yeah," Asuna replies with a nod.
Xx-xX
With Stonewall and Aria on point, they stop near the edge of the woods, and Aria grabs Stonewall's elbow, causing him to raise the other hand, signaling for a halt. Everyone quickly drops to a knee as they see the sight before them.
"We're supposed to take that out!?" a wide-eyed Recon hisses, "It's way too big!"
"Well look who wins a gold fucking star. Way to go Einstein, you figured it out." A nearby team leader hisses back, shaking his head and getting his team ready for the assault. A quick slap is heard as Leafa slaps Recon behind the head.
"Shut up!"
The boy winces in pain while some of the other players chuckle at his predicament.
After a brief moment, Stonewall waves Kirito and Nguyen forward, and the trio crawls through the snow to a fallen tree, peeking over the snow-covered bark.
"Alright, uh…" Stonewall mutters, pulling out his binoculars and looking at the open patch of ground between them and the massive railway gun. His friends raise their weapons in preparation. "There's a couple MG's… but other than that… most of 'em aren't armed."
"They probably don't think we're here," Kirito remarks with a predatory grin, looking at the distant enemies, "Those five guys we got in that cabin weren't doing a very good job of guarding."
Nguyen nods at this.
"Yeah, dumbasses…What's your plan bossman?"
"... See that patch of downed trees? That's going to be our bounding point. Secure that, and we'll move up from here. This has gotta be hard and fast, so don't let them bog you down."
Kirito nods in understanding.
"Don't worry, they won't know what hit them," he answers confidently. Nguyen smiles at this.
"Attaboy… let's do this shit!"
Looking back over his shoulder, Stonewall waves the other team leaders forward and assigns them areas to assault from, then sends them off, quickly waving forward the rest of the team.
"Alright folks, this is it. Agil, Sinon, and whatever the fuck your name is." Stonewall hisses, pointing at Recon for the latter part of his sentence. "We're going to set up here and cover everyone else's advance."
"Alrighty, let's kick ass!" Nguyen declares.
"Let's give the other teams a couple minutes to get into position. Sinon, you get to start this party." Stonewall continues, pulling boxes of MG42 ammunition out of his inventory. "Agil, set up on this log."
The dark skinned player quickly deploys his bipod and gets into position while Sinon moves to some nearby bushes. Meanwhile, Asuna, Leafa, Liz, Klein, Silica and the crew from La Montréalaise move up behind Kirito and Nguyen. Aria gives her SRC-300 to Stonewall and gives him a peck on the cheek before joining everyone else.
Prone in the snow, Sinon carefully scrutinizes the area for a target of opportunity. She suddenly spots a group of soldiers around large cloth cylinders behind the massive gun, moving them onto a trolley to be pushed to a lift at the rear of the gun.
"Hey Stonewall, I'm seeing some people pushing these big bags towards the target," she whispers.
"Really?" The American hums, looking through his binoculars. "Oh fuck yes- shoot one of those ba-!"
A gunshot cuts him off followed by a large explosion. Sinon calmly cycles the bolt as she sees the blast engulf the group of NPC's followed by shouting and blaring klaxons. A multikill experience and requisition bonus appears on her display.
"Let's go everyone!" Kirito shouts as he and his team rise to their feet and dash forwards.
"LET'S GO GET THE BASTARDS!" Nguyen roars as he follows his friend.
Agil opens fire with long bursts from his MG as everyone jumps up, and Stonewall assists in feeding the weapon while simultaneously directing his fire to discourage any enemies from firing. In the woods to their right and left, similar withering fire is directed at the NPC's near or on Gustav, cutting down any that are too slow or are too far from solid cover.
Gunshots resonate through the area as the various teams begin assaulting the Gustav. Kirito leads his friends across the open field, jumping from cover to cover. Sometimes it's crates and it's craters. He divides his team into two groups. Under his command are Asuna, Klein, Aria, Tony and Dick while Nguyen leads the other group with Liz, Silica, Lou, Roscoe and Leafa.
Kirito's squad makes to a pile of crates.
"COVERING!" he shouts back towards Nguyen's team. The other player answers with "MOVING!" as his team dashes forward. Kirito and his team begin firing at the same time, taking out NPC's with ease.
"I really like this thing," Klein exclaims with a grin as he cuts down an unfortunate NPC that was fighting back with a K98K. The FG-42 fits comfortably in the former Samurai's hands as he fights. The sounds of gunfire echoes loudly yet the leaders keep their cool. Kirito directs his section's fire.
"Asuna, on the left!" he calls out before he hears the familiar sound of engines from his front. His girlfriend shifts her fire and cuts down some unfortunate NPC. Looking at the source, Kirito spots a tank with an open turret with a single barrel. Firing its gun with a rhythmic thudding off towards the right flank.
"Ostwind! Anti-tank to the front!" Aria yells, readying her Panzerfaust from inside a bomb crater.
"We need to stop that thing!" Kirito shouts, "It's wiping out one of the other teams."
"I gotcha covered alright?!" Dick barks as he equips his Panzerschreck and aims. Meanwhile, Aria stands up and fires her Panzerfaust at the tank, but the warhead falls short by mere feet. The blast doesn't faze the crew who keep engaging them and pinning them down.
'So that's where the flak units were…' Nguyen mentally grumbles as he and his team take cover in a crater occasionally firing back.
"You guys alright!?," shouts Lou towards Kirito's team.
"Looks like they really don't want us destroying that gun!" Liz shouts back as she huddles behind some rocks, "We can't move!"
Beside the Ostwind, infantry dismount from a pair of trucks and start to move past it, only for a burst from Agil's MG42 to send them all scrambling for cover as a couple of their less fortunate comrades get cut down.
"Good shit! Shift fire right more, get those guys trying to get behind the Ostwind!" Stonewall yells over the noise of the battle, peeking up over the log with binoculars.
Agil shifts his fire as instructed, cutting down three more soldiers before the turret of the Ostwind quickly slews over to face them.
"Dammit!" the machine gunner swears as he rolls into cover behind the log.
"Down!" Stonewall yells, laying prone behind the log as 37mm rounds zip overhead, utterly destroying the forest behind them. Recon however, doesn't lay down, and instead yells out Leafa's name before standing up and firing at the tank with his rifle.
"I said DOWN you-" Stonewall starts to yell, only to be interrupted as the autocannon shells find their mark in the rookie's chest, dropping his HP to zero instantly while tearing him to shreds before he can fire again, sending pixelated pieces flying everywhere. Recon barely has the time to scream in pain that he disappears in a trail of pixels. "Dumbass…"
"Idiot," Agil mutters as he covers his head from the shrapnel from the trees being hit by the 37mm shells.
Meanwhile, in a nearby bush, Sinon looks at the Ostwind through her scope. Noticing that it's an open top vehicle, she spots a player standing up on the back of the turret and looking where Agil, Stonewall and the long gone Recon were hiding. The player scans the horizon around him and barks a few words to his crew. Sensing an opportunity, she holds her breath before squeezing the trigger of her Springfield rifle. Her single shot flies true and hits the player in the head. His helmet flies off as he falls out of the back of the turret before disappearing. Before the crew can figure out what happens, Sinon spots a brief trail of smoke followed by the Ostwind being engulfed in an explosion.
Xx-xX
"Told you I get it done!" boasts Dick as he unequips his Panzerschreck and pulls out his trench gun. The elimination of the Ostwind also disorients their enemy which lessens their fire.
Aria quickly stows her rifle in her inventory, capitalizing on the disorientation and chaos of the exploding tank as she runs forward. "Let's get 'em! CHARGE!" Seconds after her yell, she's surrounded by a large cloud of darkness that seems the broil around her for a second before dispersing, revealing a seven foot tall werewolf that charges straight at the enemy with little regard for its own safety.
"COVER HER!" Nguyen shouts to his squad before opening fire. The hail of gunfire and the sudden appearance of the monstrous creature causes some of their enemy to drop their weapons and run or seize in fear.
Seeing this, Kirito senses an opportunity as he sees a gap in the enemy's defenses.
"LET'S GO EVERYONE!" he orders before letting out a battlecry and drawing his sword. Another yell from the back can be heard as Nguyen stands up and motions his team forward.
Invigorated, everyone who was previously laying in cover jumps up, those who can mount bayonets lock them into place on their weapons and join Kirito in the charge as Aria tears into a squad of infantry. Her roars soon mix with cries of pain and horror as the players and NPCs are rendered limb from limb. Behind her, Dick stabs a player that she missed with the bayonet on his shotgun, then pulls it out and shoots two more in rapid succession, swearing and roaring in gleeful bloodlust.
"This is how it's meant to be played!" he roars as he blasts a fleeing player before laughing again.
Meanwhile Liz and Leafa both run together, with the shorter Silica behind them. The trio fire as they advance, taking out NPC's and players. Pina jumps on a player and knocks him to the ground, where she brutally rips his throat out. At the same time, Klein fires as he advances, taking out other enemies. As he advances, the former samurai almost runs into an enemy player. Before his opponent can do anything, Klein slams his stock of his FG42 into the player's face, knocking him to the ground before Klein shoots him in the face with a short burst. On their front, four players tries to set up an MG42 and its heavy tripod. Spotting them, Kirito shouts before leaping forward with his sword proudly raised and gleaming in the moonlight. Distracted by the incoming swordsman, some the crew drop what they're carrying. Kirito's first blow strikes one of the players in the neck, dropping his HP instantly. Another tries to draw his Luger but a strike from Kirito separates his hand from his wrist followed by a deadly slash that eliminates him. The third player tries to run before the swordsman's assault. A sword juts out from his chest as Kirito runs him through the heart before the player falls forward in a trail of pixels.
"Look out Kirito!" yells a feminine voice. The swordsman turns and sees the barrel of the MG42 pointing at him. The player looks at him with anger.
"I have you now motherfuck-!" shouts the machine gunner before being pierced by a dozen bullets and disintegrating with a pain filled look on his face. Looking over, Kirito sees Asuna with a smug look on her face.
"Watch out dummy," she says quickly before turning back to the battle.
"HOLY SHIT! WE'RE GETTING SHIT DONE!" Nguyen shouts as his team rushes forward. He can see Aria and Kirito's assault team have made it to the base of the gun while scattering the defenders. The werewolf is on the second gantry, only being seen in short moments as NPC's are thrown over the railing, most missing large chunks of their person.
"After her!" Kirito urges as he climbs up the ladder followed by Asuna, Liz and Dick.
"We'll make sure no one follows you guys up here!" Klein shouts as he takes a knee. With him are Silica and Leafa who stand guard at the bottom of the ladder, making sure that no enemy players can get to them. The rest of the group are taking cover behind nearby obstacles and setting a small perimeter.
Kirito and his team dash forward, occasionally shooting at the enemies standing on the other gantry. In front of them, Aria is clearing the way towards the breech of the Schwerer Gustav.
"You got your explosives ready lady?!" Dick barks at Liz. The engineer nods before answering.
"You don't need to ask twice!"
The commandos finally catch up to Aria as they reach the breech. The werewolf grabs one last NPC by the middle and worries him like a dog would a stuffed toy, shaking her head from side to side before throwing him off the gun, then looking back at everyone as she's once again surrounded by the broiling darkness. Once the ball of magic disappears, she's back to normal, dressed in her Fallschirmjager equipment. Gunshots still resonate through the area as tracer fire can be seen every now and then.
"Alright Liz, We're gonna need all the thermite you've got." She instructs, retrieving her rifle from her inventory. The brown-haired player quickly opens her inventory and starts scrolling down to find four thermite grenades. Selecting them, Liz materializes four grey cylinders in her hands.
"Got'em! What now?"
"Good." Aria hums, walking over to the breech mechanism and starting to close it, leaving it partially open. "Place three in there, and pull the pin on the fourth before putting it in there."
The engineer follows the instructions to the letter as she stuffs them in the breech before pulling the pin on the last one, tossing it in before Aria fully closes the breech.
"Alright, now let's fall back to Stonewall and Agil." She orders. "Quickly!"
Suddenly, the breech starts glowing red hot, and everyone in the raid teams suddenly sees a notification appear on their screen.
Region guard disabled!
Battle time bonus +80% EXP and RP
Raid bonus +5% EXP
"Good job everyone!" Asuna praises as her group quickly get off the disabled gun and meet up with Klein, Leafa and Silica.
"Hell, let's get our asses of here!" Nguyen shouts from his position, "Before reinforcements show up!"
The sound of multiple engines rumbling down the road quickly registers to everyone, spurring them to start moving across the open ground, back towards Stonewall. Aria and Leafa are the rearmost people in the group. Lights suddenly dazzle the group.
"What..?!" Aria mutters before turning around. "Oh shit! Leafa! Panzerfaust!"
"What's going on back there!?" Kirito shouts between breaths.
"Enemy reinforcements!"
The blonde player is swift on the draw as she quickly materializes a Panzerfaust from her inventory while running. She leaps behind some crates before shouldering the rocket launcher and firing at the source of the light. An explosion quickly replaces the yellow glare of lights with the orange haze of fire, followed by the rapid-fire popping of ammunition cooking off and two trails of pixels flying off. Taking a quick glance, Leafa sees what appears to be a large car burning before running off with the rest of the group.
As they arrive at the woods and meet with the support team, Nguyen notices something.
"Where the fuck is Dorkenstein?"
"Over there… over there… and probably up in that little fir there." Stonewall grumbles as he points to various places around them.
"Oh good lord...37mm?" Nguyen groans.
"'Bout half a dozen of 'em, yeah. Dumbass stood up while it was firing at us."
"Oh boy… thank god it wasn't a 75mm or an 88mm." he says before looking at Leafa who was catching her breath, "Was he this bad in ALO?"
"Not really, he had his moments though."
"He must have some really bad moments though. The dork went full retard, stood up while it was firing at us and fired his rifle at a fucking tank."
Some of the War-Torn veterans started laughing.
"I hate to break up the party, but we have about a platoon of infantry coming at us, so it would be smart if we, y'know, got the fuck out of here?" Aria points out, putting her SRC-300 on her back.
Kirito and Asuna nod in agreement.
"Let's go!" Kirito says before the group make their way out, being followed by the other teams. Making their way through the forest, they can hear the distant sound of burning mixing with the sound of crunching snow and engines behind them.
"Three tanks, two halftracks, and a scout car." Aria reports, listening to the engines.
"How far are they?" Klein asks, mist forming as he talks.
"Roughly three hundred meters. They're stopping at the treeline."
"These woods are probably too thick for them," Lou remarks as he vaults a fallen tree, "They won't be able to follow us."
"Except if they have a dozer blade cause fuck us," snorts Dick.
"Hey, cut it out with that." Agil interrupts, "We don't need that kind of bad luck."
Aria grunts in acknowledgement and grabs the handset from her radio, pressing it to her ear as she walks. "Casper this is Aria, We need those Hamilcars at the primary LZ. We'll be there in five, over." Listening for a moment, she mutters curses under her breath and rolls her eyes before talking again, sounding moderately irritated. "No, you asshole. I never knew! Just get us those damn gliders!... I don't care how, just make it happen! Aria out."
Nguyen looks at her nervously.
"What's going on with our escape plan?"
"The pilot who's supposed to be flying us our gliders is getting cold feet because there's night fighters in the area." She grumbles. "He's concerned because he's not gonna be in a swarm that they're going to pick him off."
Nguyen's jaw drops.
"Wait… does this mean we're stuck here?" Kirito asks seriously.
"Nope. he'll come through for us. He's never failed us in the past."
"... I trust you on this." Nguyen answers as he quickly glances behind them, "Everything looks clear… Hey Silica! Pina got anything?"
The dog handler quickly takes a look at her companion before shaking her head.
"No one's following us!"
Kirito and Nguyen look at each other and sigh in relief as they keep making their way forward to the evacuation point with the rest of their group.
"I've got nothing too. They've given up I think." Aria mutters.
"Smart move on their part. Still, let's pick up the pace. LZ is this way." Stonewall chuckles, starting to jog a little faster.
Aria suddenly giggles, dismissing a notification. "Booby trap got three guys."
The rest of her group look at her in surprise.
"What are you talking about?" Tony asks.
"The house I booby-trapped earlier? One of the grenades just killed three players."
Nguyen and Lou start chuckling.
"The pasta place?" Lou says between chuckles, "With the Italian dudes?"
"Probably went to try and get back their pasta," Nguyen remarks, "To be honest, it was pretty good pasta."
"Only after Asuna made her changes." Aria mutters. Asuna beams at this.
"Doesn't anyone know how to cook in VR?" Asuna adds sarcastically, "For your information Nguyen, those idiots completely messed up the recipe. I was lucky that they had the ingredients in that house to fix it."
The Vietnamese merely shrugs.
"To be honest… I don't exactly have a very well developed sense of taste," he answers flatly, "Both IRL and in VR."
Asuna glares at him in disgust and muttered something about not knowing good taste.
Stonewall, in the meantime, merely shakes his head. "Nguyen?"
"Ouaip?"
"Just shut up, before you get yourself slapped."
Author's afterword:
Well that was fun to write. Hope you all had fun reading it. I must say… Kirito's a fast learner eh? Poor Recon though… kudos to K2-Black-Panther for the character nickname too. Made me laugh. As always, please read and review… we enjoy reading them and take suggestions into account. -Goodalwayswins98
To be entirely honest, obliterating Recon made me feel good. His incompetence will likely be witnessed more in the future, with potentially more hilarious or facepalm-inducing consequences. - SirStonewall
Next chapter: The Fly and the Hammer