War-Torn

by Goodalwayswins98

War-Torn: An American VRMMORPG taking place in a Fantasy World War II has just been released in Japan! Kirito and his friends hop into this new world where victory is earned through guns and guts rather than sword and shield. Join them in their new adventures alongside new friends and allies as they fight their way forward in War-Torn!

6. The Fly and The Hammer

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. Kudos to Mandalore the Freedom for his character suggestions.

Well… this turned out bigger than we thought. Guess that's what happens when you have this much fun writing. Enjoy your reading and please review. It's always a blast reading reviews - Goodalwayswins98

Woah where did all this inspiration come from!? This chapter was WAY longer than I thought it'd be! As always, leave a review please. I love enthusiastic and/or helpful reviews. - SirStonewall

Chapter 6: The Fly and The Hammer

"Here they come. Looks like Casper came through for us, again." Stonewall hums quietly, watching a pair of gliders silently approach the large clearing in the night sky.

"He always does. Except for that time in Saint-Nazaire." Aria hums back from where she's kneeling a few yards away.

"That wasn't his fault. Dude had stuff to do offline." Stonewall mutters as the two gliders drop below the treetops and quickly skid to a halt inside the clearing.

After a couple minutes the glider pilots open up the front of the glider before waving the commandos over.

"Let's go people!" Stonewall hisses, standing up and starting to jog towards the glider.

Everyone else gets up and follows after him, nodding respectfully to the glider pilots as they climb up into the glider following the redheaded American.

"Three Jeeps and two motorcycles." Stonewall informs, no longer whispering as he starts pushing a motorcycle out of the glider. "I need someone to ride ahead with me on a motorcycle to disable any tanks."

Hearing his request, Sinon nearly instantly nominates Kirito, much to the swordsman's amusement.

"Sure. I'll do it."

As they set about getting the jeeps unloaded from the gliders, the Fallschirmjager platoon commander approaches Stonewall as his men are carrying crates of ammunition from the gliders.

"We'll be staying behind as planned. Good luck on your way out."

Stonewall nods and shakes his hand, giving him a grin in the moonlight. "Alrighty. Give 'em hell. You guys are welcome to fight with me any time."

"That's good to hear. Let us know if you ever need some extra supporting infantry. All the guys like how you roll."

Stonewall chuckles and nods once more, exchanging a fist bump before putting on a pair of goggles as the Lieutenant walks away.

"Aria, let's get everyone mounted up!"

"Working on it! Making a quick modification!" She calls back, having removed a small piece of the windscreen on her jeep. "There. Try that."

Agil climbs into the passenger seat and puts the barrel of his MG42 through the hole, checking the freedom of motion for a brief moment before nodding. "That's perfect."

"Where do you want us?" Nguyen asks, standing nearby with the rest of the crew of "La Montréalaise".

"Fill in the extra places in the jeeps. Have anti-tank ready in case Stonewall and Kirito miss a tank."

The Canadians nod in agreement while Dick materializes his Panzerschreck. The burly player raises his thumb before getting in the back of one.

"You sure you guys don't want me to drive?" he asks.

"NO!" shouts Roscoe, Tony and Lou hurriedly while glaring at Dick. Klein looks at Nguyen with a questioning look.

"Is he that bad a driver? He does drive your tank around." He says while checking his gun.

The Vietnamese shakes his head.

"Nah... he's not a bad driver, "Nguyen explains as he embarks in the driver's seat of a jeep, "Just that he likes to show off his skills."

"Yeah… and dumbass almost crashed us into a tank," Lou snaps with a furious look on his face, "I still remember that time in Versailles!"

Sitting in the back of a jeep, Dick grunts and rolls his eyes.

"I got us out of there at least… not like some screaming wussy." He shoots back while glaring at Lou. Dick than switches to a falsetto voice and moves his hands in a rather flamboyant manner, "Oh no! De Yourmans have a big tank. What do we do?! Oh no! We gonna die~!"

"Guys, just shut up and find a seat." Aria snaps, climbing into the driver's seat of Agil's Jeep. Klein mans the .50cal behind them. Roscoe and Tony, meanwhile, man the machine guns on two different jeeps. Roscoe gets behind a .50 caliber on the lead jeep while Tony arms his .30 cal.

"We're good to go!" Tony exclaims while standing behind his jeep's machine gun.

"Time to rock and roll!" Stonewall yells, kick-starting his motorcycle with a maniacal laugh as he revs the engine. "God I've missed that sound!"

"BE SAFE!" Aria yells as she points at him, carefully driving out her player-laden jeep from the glider's gaping maw with Sinon and Liz hanging on for dear life in the back seat.

"You guys ready to go?" Nguyen shouts as he looks at his passengers. Sitting with him is Leafa, Asuna and Roscoe. Manning his jeep's machine gun is Dick who can't help but comment.

"You sure you want this motherfucker to drive? It took him 8 years to get his license IRL."

"Fuck you. My driving at least doesn't get people sick IRL while playing VR!"

"Cause it makes things exciting!"

Nguyen shakes his head as he revs the Jeep's engine.

Xx-xX

Roaring up the snow covered road, Stonewall and Kirito keep very little distance between them, whilst avoiding potholes and leading the way for the jeeps behind them. Stonewall motions with his hand for Kirito to give him some space as the shape of a tank rolling up the road can be seen ahead. Pulling a Hafthohlladung 'Panzerknacker' from his backpack he roars up alongside it and scrutinizes the tank briefly before placing the magnetic mine on the side and pulling the arming cord. Once done, he motions for Kirito to follow him, quickly accelerating past the doomed vehicle. The both of them quickly gain distance from it before there's an explosion, followed by the orange glow of a jet of flame spewing out the commander's hatch.

"Good one there! Think you can let me handle the next one?" Kirito asks as they speed along the highway.

"It's all yours!" Stonewall yells back over the wind and the rumbling of the engines, giving Kirito a snappy salute.

As they dash down the forest road, all seems quiet. However, a ray of light alerts them to the presence of enemies. Kirito and Stonewall quickly stop their bikes and lay them in nearby bushes. Quickly diving behind the bushes, they crawl for a couple of meters before stopping. Peering his head, Stonewall notices a snow-covered Panzer IIIM with its lights on. What surprises him is the five crew members in black uniforms that are shivering atop the engine deck. Kirito listens in.

"Man… what the fuck do we do?!" one of them says worriedly, "The engine stopped working."

"Beats me! I didn't know this thing could break down so easily!" exclaims another who's looking into the engine compartment, "Dammit I have no idea how to fix this thing!"

"We can try and get help with the radio," suggests another player as he shivers, "It's fucking freezing out here."

"Told you guys we shouldn't have volunteered for patrol duty by ourselves!" argues another one.

"Are you sure it wasn't your idea tough guy? You're the one that said that we didn't need to inspect the Panzer before heading out!"

Looking between them, Stonewall grins and nudges Kirito, pulling his rifle off his shoulder. "Hey, play along, I've got an idea."

"I think I have an idea what you got planned." he says with an evil smile.

Standing up, Stonewall takes on a relaxed posture and walks out of the bushes onto the road, followed close behind by Kirito. "Heya! Y'all look like you've got some problems!" He cheers, casually walking towards them.

"Eh yeah… Something's wrong with our tank." One sheepishly admits, taking off his commander's cap and rubbing the back of his shaved head. "You guys got your vehicle repair skills up?"

"I don't but Stonewall here does," Kirito answers in a friendly fashion.

"Boy are we happy to see you guys!" the commander exclaims, "We heard that that the Schwerer Gustav was under attack and they needed help. Think you can fix us up quickly so we can get there?"

"Well… I can definitely try." Stonewall grunts, slinging his rifle and getting ready to climb up on the tank.

"What are you guys doing out here?" One asks, rubbing his arms in an attempt to stay warm.

"Mining the woods and doing patrols." The American responds, pulling himself up onto the engine deck and peering in. "Oh shit, yeah I know what's wrong. Your fuel pump got disconnected."

"Really man?" Kirito asks with fake curiosity. He has a feeling that Stonewall is bluffing, "You're lucky you didn't catch on fire or blow up!" He adds seriously while the other players all share worried looks.

"Yeah. Damn thing's in a tight space, so this may take a little bit. How about y'all climb inside and huddle up? Better than freezing out here."

"Stonewall, don't you have you a trick to make the heater run even if the engine's not working?" Kirito comments innocently as he climbs on the back of the tank. Upon hearing this, the crewmen's eyes light up while Stonewall puts on a scolding face.

"Shush about that! If the Devs find out they'll patch it!"

"Oh sorry!"

"Wait this thing has a heater?!" exclaims one of the players, "Yo, let's get inside. Thanks again dudes!"

"Yeah I'll do the glitch for y'all, enjoy the warmth."

The five crewmen begin to enter the tank with Kirito helping them.

"Get in there before your hypothermia bar gets too high," he winks as he helps the commander get in, "We'll take care of things out here ok?"

"Thanks man! We'll give you a lift to the Schwerer Gustav!" The commander replies before shutting the hatch. Kirito leans on the turret after the hatch closes, moving slightly to cover what appears to be a viewport.

Stonewall quietly snickers to himself as he pulls his bayonet off his belt and reaches into the engine compartment, pulling it out a few seconds later as the smell of gasoline registers to Kirito.

"You done with the 'repairs' Stonewall?" Kirito asks while winking. Stonewall closes the engine cover after putting a block of TNT on the engine block.

"One last thing…" He mutters, motioning for Kirito to get his gun ready as he pulls a grenade off his belt and readies the pull string. Kirito raises his M1 carbine and points at the hatch before knocking on it.

The commander's hatch opens a moment later and the player sticks his head out as Stonewall temporarily blocks his view of Kirito.

"Y'all are good to go. There's one thing I want you guys to be wary of in the future though."

"Okay? What would that be?"

Stonewall grins as he moves, allowing Kirito a clean shot at the player's head. "Saboteurs."

"Wha-"

A single gunshot resounds in the area and the commander slumps into the turret before disappearing in a trail of pixels, followed by Stonewall pulling the string on the grenade and dropping it into the opening, slamming the hatch cover closed. Muffled cries of panic mixed with high pitched screams can also be heard along with heads hitting metal. "Fuckin' RUN!" Stonewall shouts as both players turn away.

He and Kirito leap off the tank and dash away. They quickly dive into the ditch as the explosion rocks the surrounding area and sends the turret flying off the Panzer IIIM along with an unfortunate player being thrown upwards before disappearing.

"I can't believe we just did that," Kirito says flatly as he looks at the burning pile of metal.

"I can. There are certain kinds of stupid that just can't be helped." Stonewall chuckles, getting up and walking over to where they stashed their motorcycles.

"On second thought… you're right," Kirito replies. A few notable moments from his adventures in other VRMMORPGs' come to his mind as he mounts his motorcycle.

"Let's ride!" Stonewall cheers, starting his motorcycle and revving the engine before quickly accelerating along the route with his friend following him.

"Say… what was the real problem with their tank?" Kirito asks over the sound of his roaring engine.

"Busted alternator. Not my problem!" he answers cheekily. Behind them, the burning hulk lights up the road, leaving a column of black smoke trailing into the cloudy sky.

Xx-xX

"WOOHOO! God that was awesome! I haven't felt that feeling in years!" Stonewall cheers as they rumble into the player filled streets of Liege, followed close behind by the three jeeps. Above them, the sky is clear and the winds are quite calm.

"I'll say… It feels almost like the real thing," Kirito adds as he gets off his motorbike. Behind them, the jeeps rumble to a halt.

"It feels exactly like the real deal. They based the Harley-Davidson WLA off of the one I had in real life." Stonewall says as he props his bike up and climbs off.

"Nice job everyone!" Nguyen congratulates as he goes around shaking the hands of everyone in their team. As he reaches Stonewall and Kirito, he grins and shakes their hands vigorously.

"Nice job boys!" he says, "We saw those two knocked out tanks. Good job on that. Nothing too hard?" he asks with a smile.

"Naw, did get a good laugh out of the Panzer III though." Stonewall chuckles.

"That bad?"

Kirito stretches himself before answering. At the same time, the rest of the group gather around them in curiosity.

"That bad. They were some of the worst idiots I met in VR."

"They fell for the 'expert mechanic' trick!" Stonewall laughs as he takes his helmet off, pulling a cigarette out of his inventory and lighting it. "And I got it all recorded too."

"'Expert mechanic?' They believed that you'd fix their tank?!" Dick exclaims with a stunned look, "Bunch of morons."

Both Kirito and Stonewall nod before everyone bursts out laughing.

"Speaking of morons… where's that kid we picked up?" Tony asks, "He shoulda respawned by now."

"He's over there by the supply tent." Stonewall groans, pointing to Recon. The player looks around with uncertainty before spotting familiar faces and making his way to the group.

"Hey Leafa!" he shouts, "You made it out of there?! It was so scary and dangerous."

The aforementioned player rolls her eyes and places her hands on her hips.

"Yes we did Recon. It wasn't that difficult either to stay alive."

Tony shakes his head and looks at Agil.

"If you've got a functioning brain," he mutters, "Unlike this kid."

The dark skinned player nods in agreement.

"Yeah… but he's a very good scout in ALO. Give him some time and he'll get used to it here."

Stonewall sighs while looking at Recon, then steps forward and claps the shy player on the shoulder. "You fucked up kid. However, even the best of us make mistakes. If you want to be a scout, I know a person that can teach ya' how to do it in this game."

"Y-yes please, sir." Recon stutters, straightening up his posture.

"Alright. I'll send 'em a message. Get yourself some winter clothes and some better gear. I'll spot you the requisition points." Stonewall yawns, sending Recon a fair sized sum of requisition points.

"Thank you. I'll do some research before I do though."

The American grunts in response, and Recon jogs off towards the supply tent as Aria looks at everyone else.

"Alright people, boss drop items! Check your inventory." Aria cheers.

Everyone starts opening up their inventory as they lounge around on the jeeps, ignoring the columns of tanks rolling by.

"New slide," Dick grunts as he closes a menu, "-10% to exertion. Sure."

A short scoff is heard from Lou.

"As if you needed a faster shotgun," he says, rolling his eyes, "You're the same moron that busted his airsoft shotgun."

Dick merely shrugs as he equips his trench gun and scrolls through some menus. His gun glows briefly before he gives it a pump followed by a satisfied grunt.

"Whatever. Not my fault if shitty plastic can't take all this awesome."

"New assault webbing for me." Aria hums happily, equipping the harness of magazine pouches. Liz smiles as she closes her menu. A new satchel appears on her.

"Improved explosives satchel," she explains, "I get to carry more explosives out of inventory."

"I got a gun part." Asuna says plainly, looking in her inventory.

"Which part is that?" Nguyen asks while scrolling through his inventory, "Could be pretty useful. I once got an improved trigger. Made my Thompson shoot a bit faster."

"It's an improved grip."

"Mind showing me?"

Asuna materializes the grip in her hands and shows it to him. Looking like a pistol grip, everyone quickly recognizes it as the grip commonly seen in use by mobsters of the era.

"Keep that thing!" Nguyen barks, "That's an accuracy booster!"

The medic looks at him with a surprised look.

"Is it rare?"

"Not really, but if you're hosing down people with a drum mag, it helps keep the Thompson under control. Makes it easier to hit stuff."

The medic nods before going through some menus, equipping the different foregrip to her Thompson and testing the feel of it with a smile.

"I got a couple free bundle grenades… whoopee…" Stonewall mutters,

"Free shit is fun, I guess?" Nguyen comments while shrugging, "Got me a heavier barrel. Accuracy and reliability boost always fun."

Looking over his fellow Canadians, he notices Roscoe carrying a radio set.

"Got a new radio set for the tank," he says while looking over a menu, "+5% transmission range and +5 to reliability. What about you Tony?"

"Free smoke grenades man," Tony answers, "Won't need to buy some more."

"I got improved rifle grenade sights for my Garand." Leafa reports happily, equipping the item and replacing the simple etchings on the side of her rifle with an engraved metal plate.

"I heard those are rare," Lou comments while equipping his Thompson and racking back its bolt, "I got a better bolt system so +5% to Fire Rate."

"I got a harness for carrying my own spare barrels out of inventory." Agil says with a satisfied grin. The new harness appears on him as he closes his menu. A pair of barrels spawns on the harness, pulling it down a bit because of their weight.

"I got a ZF-4 scope for my FG42!" Klein cheers, equipping the small scope and looking through it at a tree down the road.

Nguyen looks at the scoped rifle with interest. "I almost want to get one," he says, "What about you Silica?"

The dog handler materializes a revolver that she holds in her hands.

"I got a Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver," she answers while holding up the gun, "It looks like a cowboy's gun."

"It may look like a cowboy's gun, but it's a good reliable pistol." Stonewall says while looking at the new gun. "I've got one in real life."

"Lucky bastard," Nguyen mutters at hearing this.

"Hey guys," Kirito exclaims, "I got a rare weapon drop."

A rifle materialize in his hands, similar to his Carbine though the magazine is longer.

"Bro… that's a fucking M2 Carbine!" Nguyen says as he picks up his jaw, "Those things are super rare as fuck."

Stonewall grins and extends a fist towards Kirito, earning a fist-bump in response. "Dude, fuckin' nice. They don't even sell those in the European supply depots."

"Man… some people get all the fun," Klein adds sarcastically, "Next thing you know, Kirito'll show up with a rare sword or something."

"I can't help it if I'm lucky," Kirito answers sheepishly, "Maybe next time it'll be your turn."

"Hey, I got another sniper rifle," Sinon quietly says as she cycles the bolt on a scoped Lee-Enfield SMLE No.4, "Twice the ammo capacity and a smoother bolt. I like it."

"That's a good rifle. Toss that Springfield and use that." Aria says while patting Sinon on the back.

Looking around, Roscoe sees the supply tent where Recon had gone to. Other players are bustling around the base, tending to their weapons or heading out on quests.

"I think we'd better have someone go help that kid with his new stuff," he suggests, "I don't think he's very familiar with gear."

"I'll do it." Aria volunteers. "Stonewall, how about you get the tank pulled out of storage and ready to roll."

'Yes ma'am!" Stonewall barks, giving her a salute as she walks off.

"We'll do the same eh guys?" Nguyen adds before heading to the tank depot with his crew and their friends.

As they all enter the fenced area and walk down the rows of tanks, Pina sniffs the air, then starts to growl, looking towards the T26E4 and its extra frontal armor. Stonewall looks at her, then at the empty guard stations around the wire, and runs around to the back of the line of vehicles.

"HEY! FREEZE MOTHERFUCKER!" The American yells, raising his rifle. Everyone else raises their weapons.

"SABOTEURS IN THE TANK DEPOT!" Nguyen shouts at the top of his lungs. Some of the idle players stand up abruptly before getting their weapons in hand and begin rushing towards the depot.

"Silica! What's Pina telling you?!" Kirito asks hurriedly. The girl looks at a notification that hovers over the dog.

"One enemy player in the area! She can't tell where he is though. There's too much oil and fuel smells around here."

"Crap, we'd better hurry up!"

"We're locking down this place!" Nguyen orders his crew as they take up positions to cover the entrance, "The rest of you find that guy!"

Stonewall quickly runs out of sight, followed by a pair of gunshots. Seconds later, a player in a US tanker uniform runs out into the center aisle between the two rows of tanks. A short bark is let out by Pina who dashes towards the infiltrator at full speed followed by the rest of the group running. The running player mutters "Oh crap!" as the dog pushes him down on the snowy ground. His head barely misses smacking the floor as Pina tries to bite his throat, but the player pushes the German Shepherd off his body. The infiltrator gets back on his feet just as the blue glow of a weapon materializing from his inventory is visible on his hip. He reaches for the pistol to try and shoot Pina, but doesn't get the chance as fully-automatic fire rips into him when Stonewall dumps the entire twenty round magazine into his torso.

"You got him?!" Kirito asks as he runs towards Stonewall, watching the red-haired player walk out to the suffering player and draw his pistol, swiftly finishing the job with one shot.

"Yeah, I got him."

Kirito gives his friend a thumbs up. The other ALO players arrive, alerted by the gunshots. They blow a small sigh of relief when they see that there's only Stonewall, Kirito and Pina standing there. Silica goes over to her companion to pet her.

"Thanks Pina!" she says cheerfully as the dog licks her face.

Walking over with another cigarette in his lips, Stonewall crouches down and scratches behind Pina's ear. "Good girl. I'll get you some fresh meat for that one."

The sound of more running can be heard as Nguyen arrives, almost out of breath.

"Good job getting him!" he says between gasps, "We got some guards at the entrance so it should be all good. Any idea what damage he did?"

"Well, he was trying to get the engine deck open on my tank, so I don't think he did much there. You might want to check yours though."

"Calisse…. I'll get the boys and we'll check it out." he groans before making his way to the entrance of the depot as large group of players enters the depot with varying looks of worry, annoyance, and anger. They sport various different tank uniforms, denoting their favorite class.

Grumbling and complaining can be heard as they crawl over their vehicles and begin inspecting them.

Stonewall hears a familiar set of voices swearing in a mix of French and English laced with the occasional Vietnamese word, and chuckles at the commander's raving from atop the turret of his M4A3E8 Sherman. "Looks like Nguyen and his boys got sabotaged."

"He really isn't lucky isn't he?" Asuna remarks as she looks at the crew working and cursing.

"Not at all. On the bright side, doesn't look like the saboteur managed to do anything to my tank."

Klein eyes the massive vehicle with a hand on his chin and curiosity in his eyes with Agil doing the same as Stonewall opens the commander's hatch and climbs part way in.

"Speaking of tanks," Klein says, "Think you can show us how to use one of those Stonewall?"

"Hmm? Oh, sure I guess. Three 'a y'all can climb in and ride along if you want. I'll take you to the training course in England while we wait for Nguyen and his boys to fix their tank." He replies before disappearing down the hatch. The sound of repairs can be heard in the background mixed with occasional cursing as Klein shrugs and heaves himself up onto the engine deck.

"I want to give it a try!" Liz says enthusiastically, "Firing that big gun must be fun!"

She climbs aboard the tank followed by everyone else.

"I'm curious how the tank mechanics work," Agil adds, "I remember the FPS's I played having really simple systems for their tanks."

As the ALO players climb onto the tank, Agil manages to shimmy himself down into the turret, crawling under the gun into the Loader's position while Liz practically vibrates from excitement in the gunner's seat, looking around the interior.

"Who's driving though?" Liz asks as she fiddles with some of the turret controls.

"For now, I will be." Stonewall grunts, crawling forward in the hull to the driver's seat. Klein looks downcast.

"Aww man, I wanted to drive," he mopes as he stands up from the engine deck, "Hey you girls wanna come too?" he asks Leafa, Sinon, Silica and Asuna who are standing besides the Pershing.

"You can drive one of the practice vehicles. You're not driving my tank when I haven't even driven it yet." Stonewall calls over his shoulder.

Asuna climbs aboard the tank before gesturing for the others to get on.

"What are you waiting for girls?" she asks sweetly, "It'll be fun to try something new."

Sinon briefly looks at the tank gun and smirks as she climbs on. "It'll be a fun challenge."

Leafa and Silica smile as they climb on, helped by Asuna.

"Is everyone on?!" Stonewall yells, checking his fuel levels and getting ready to start the engine.

"We're all here!" Agil confirms as he helps Kirito up onto the tank. "Let's go man!"

Stonewall gives a thumbs-up over his shoulder as the engine quickly roars to life, revving multiple times before settling to a rumbling idle. The tank lurches forward a moment later, and slowly pulls out of line with the others before turning towards the front gate. As they pass Nguyen and his crew, Stonewall opens his hatch and waves at Nguyen with a cheeky grin, revving the engine prior to speeding up.

"Later boys!"

"Yeah have fun man!" Nguyen shouts dryly before turning back to his tank.

"Enjoy fixing your tank!"

Xx-xX

"Welcome to the England training grounds. Infiltrators can't come here, so there's no chance of sabotage." Stonewall says as he climbs out of the tank, lighting the cigarette in his lips.

"So how do tank mechanics work in this game?" Kirito asks, "It's probably different from fighting on foot."

"Well, you all have player manuals in your inventory. Please select them and turn to page ninety-six." The American instructs, sitting on the turret roof. Manuals materialize in the ALO players' hands before they start turning them to page 96.

"Must be like the real thing," Agil remarks as he quickly reads over the page, "A long shot from what I had when I started."

"Very much so. When a player purchases a tank he's automatically the tank commander. After that, you can recruit NPC crew members at the vehicle depot, and level them up. This tank, the T26E4, has a crew of five. Commander, gunner, loader, driver, and assistant driver."

"Do players prefer NPC's or other players as crew?" Kirito asks as he glances at Stonewall, still quickly reading the manual.

"NPC's are always available and automatically have muscle memory for stuff like loading, however I know several people who have all-player crews that would completely demolish any NPC crew in a one-on-one tank battle."

"Not to mention that playing with all-player crews must be more fun," Asuna adds in a friendly tone, "You can have conversations while driving around like when we first met you guys."

"Yeah. NPC's also don't know how to do things like restock ready-rounds, which ultimately means loading times are slower than an all-player crew."

"Ready rounds?" Klein asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Ready rounds are ammunition that is always expended first. Some tanks don't have ready racks, but those that do have the advantage of having a faster possible reload pace for the first few shots." Stonewall responds. "An example of this is on page one-oh-six."

The ALO players nod in understanding as they pour over said page.

"How hard is it to operate the main gun?" Liz asks, "That looks like the most fun part of the tank."

"Good muscle coordination is required for aiming the gun if you're using manual traverse. With manual traverse, you're physically cranking two seperate handwheels. A good example of the difficulty would be like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time."

"Ok, Is it difficult to learn?"

"It varies from person to person to be honest. Some catch on faster, others slower. Typically, manual traverse is only a backup though. Most tanks have hydraulic or electrical traversing mechanisms."

"Hmm, turns out I'm a fast learner then." Liz comments with a proud look, "Also is the maintenance hard on tanks?"

"Well…. It varies in different nation's tanks. American tanks have a decent reliability, and are easier to fix the bigger problems. Russian tanks have… alright reliability, but some things are more difficult to fix, and they're susceptible to some mechanical shenanigans. German tanks… The late war ones anyways like the Tiger series and the Panther series, they've got some good points to them, but they're less reliable, and the big problems are a complete pain in the ass to fix. German tank crew players typically try their best to max out their engineer and mechanic skills"

Liz nods and opens up her skills menu before scrolling down.

"Looks like my skills from ALO transferred over. They changed names though."

"Oh? What's the skills now?" Stonewall asks, looking up from his player manual.

"They were called 'Metal Equipment Maintenance' and 'light metal armor forging'. Now they're 'Vehicle component maintenance' and 'Tank armor maintenance'."

"Those are useful. Component Maintenance is the biggest thing with tanks. If you don't keep things in good shape, the reliability of your tank goes down drastically. Armor maintenance is for spaced armor, like on the front of this tank."

Kirito furrows his brow and raises his hand. "What does spaced armor do?"

Stonewall adjusts how he's sitting and turns the pages in his player manual a couple times. "Page one-ten please, for an example. Spaced armor varies in how it's deployed on a tank, but in the most common form it's sandbags on US tanks and Schurzen on German tanks. Simply translated, Schurzen is 'side skirting armor'. The sandbags are intended to mitigate the effects of shaped charges, such as those from the Panzerfaust and bazooka. Side skirts however, are put in place to protect the weak side armor of German tanks from anti-tank rifles, more specifically the Soviet 14.5mm PTRS and the 20mm PTRD."

Everyone nods slowly in understanding, and Stonewall closes his manual with a 'thump', storing it in his inventory.

"You better not be starting without me!" A voice calls from behind them, revealing Aria walking over to them from the teleport pad.

"I figured you'd be busy getting the pipsqueak his gear." Stonewall responds.

"Scott showed up and took over. He said provided the kid's not too stupid, he'll be good to go in a couple days."

"Sweet. You want to take a group, and I'll take what's left?"

"Yeah, that'll do. C'mon girls, let's show the guys what we can do." Aria says with a smirk, silently issuing a challenge to Stonewall.

Getting up, the commander grins at her, then looks at the guys of the group. "C'mon y'all, looks like we've got a challenge on our hands."

Xx-xX

"Good practice y'all. If you remember those basics you were taught, you should do good. Just remember the interior of every tank is different, and many things can be moved around for crew preference." Stonewall explains as he hops off his tank. Just then, the sound of an approaching tank can be heard.

"Hey everyone! Finally fixed her up!" Nguyen shouts from the top of his new Sherman as he waves at his friends. His tank comes to a halt next to Stonewall's T26E4.

"What did the guy do to it?" Stonewall asks, nodding towards the tank.

"Urgh, fucked up the fuel lines, the alternator and the radiator. I'm pretty sure the guy would have pissed in the fuel tank just to piss us off" Nguyen groans, "Good thing we had the skills to fix everything. You guys had fun Kirito?"

"Yeah, we sure did, though I personally prefer fighting on foot," Kirito replies, "I like being closer to the action."

"Same goes for me," Asuna adds, "Though Sinonon and Liz had a lot of fun with the tank."

Liz lets out a small "Whoop" of joy.

"Lot a fun doesn't even begin covering it!" she exclaims, "Firing that big gun and moving that tank around was awesome. Don't you agree Sinon?"

The sniper nods in agreement as she hops off from Stonewall's tank.

"It's different from sniping with a rifle but I think with a bit of practice, I'll be bulleyesing tanks with the main gun," Sinon adds with a smile.

"You've definitely got the attention to fine-tuning." Aria says as she climbs up onto the T26E4. "I can't begin to imagine how good you'd be with a long-barreled 75mm or an 88mm."

Klein chuckles lightly as he emerges from one of the hatches.

"Pretty sure Sinon here'll be able to pull some trick shots," he says, "I like this thing."

He pats the tank, "But it's a bit cramped in here."

"Oh so you think you got it bad in here?" Agil remarks sarcastically as he pulls himself out of the loader's hatch with a few grunts, "This is fun and all but being as big as I am… it might be a bit hard fighting from inside a tank."

"You might be able to get away with an open-topped tank destroyer, or even a self-propelled gun." Stonewall muses, drumming his fingers on the turret roof. "Leafa, Silica, how'd you like it?"

Leafa shakes her head.

"I don't really like it. It's too cramped, I like the open air."

"Same for me," Silica answers, "That and I can't be with Pina inside a tank."

Nguyen nods.

"To each their own taste," he says with a smile, "Anyhow, me and the boys gotta log out but catch you later guys!"

"Later man, don't forget about Operation Flyswatter on Friday." Stonewall says, giving a wave to the Canadian crew. His friend waves back as he drives off.

Xx-Three days later-xX

"Glad y'all could join us. I was worried we'd be going in without protecting infantry." Stonewall says appreciatively, walking with the ALO crew towards the command tent tucked back in the woods.

"And miss out on all the fun?" Kirito exclaims, "No way!"

Walking next to him is Asuna.

"What's the quest today?" she asks in curiosity.

"We're going to stomp an airfield. If possible we'll hold it, but we're destroying anything hostile there."

"Where's Nguyen and his buddies though?" Klein wonders.

"They're inside. All of Baker is joining in this assault." Stonewall replies, lifting open the half-frozen tent flap and motioning them inside.

"Whaddup guys!" Nguyen shouts, standing next to a radio station with his crew who are enjoying warm beverages. The Canadians are dressed in their tanker gear, with some other experienced players standing nearby in infantry and pilot gear.

"Glad you could make it Mr. Kirito," Roscoe says with a grin, "Really cool of you guys."

"Like I told Stonewall," Kirito replies while shaking Roscoe's hands, "There's no way we'll miss out on the fun here."

The rest of the ALO gang nod in approval.

"So what how are we going to 'stomp an airfield' exactly?" Leafa asks curiously, "Airfields are important so I don't think the other team will simply let you blast the place apart."

Nguyen smiles.

"Smart thinking there," he replies seriously, "We've got scouts in the area already. I think your buddy Recon is out there with them."

"The plan is to catch the planes on the ground and destroy them there. Once all the planes are destroyed, we'll either fall back and let the artillery handle the rest, or we'll do our best to dig in and prepare for a counterattack." Stonewall says while walking over to the planning table. "The general goal is to incapacitate any enemy assets and open up a corridor for our pilots."

"Once you do that, we'll be able to come in with B-26 Marauders and help repel any counterattacks." One of the pilots confirms, putting his map in his flight jacket.

"If you can't hold the airfield, we'll crater the runway." The other pilot says with a nod.

"Knock knock." Comes a familiar voice as the tent flap is pulled open and the player steps in, wearing US RTO equipment.

"Dex! How can I help you?" Stonewall asks enthusiastically.

"Hope you don't mind if we join you. We're taking a break from development work on the modern-day version of War-Torn."

"I don't mind, how many people you got?"

"Just short of a company worth, including two 57mm M1's."

"Awesome. Glad to have you." Stonewall says with a grin.

"Also, Mikey gave your tank a name. Painted it on the barrel."

"What?! Oh God, what did he name it?"

"Warbreaker."

Stonewall stares in surprise for a moment, then nods slowly and smiles. "Sounds badass, I like it. Honestly, I expected something more derogatory."

"So was I. Your girl gave him the green light on it though. So she was right there helping. They gave it some striped snow camouflage too."

"Is it normal for people to give their tanks names?" Asuna asks, looking at Stonewall and Nguyen.

"Yeah. Some give them more feminine names, like Nguyen here. Others like to give them more badass names." Stonewall chuckles. "If you're working alongside somebody new it's easier for them to just say the name of your tank instead of trying to remember the name of the commander."

"Yeah." Dex confirms before looking back to Stonewall. "Oh by the way, ya boy Rift got himself a Centurion."

"No shit? Sweet. Now all I gotta do is get a certain scrub a tank better than the Sherman." The American tank commander says with a pointed glance towards Nguyen. "Maybe something French."

"Well, the cutoff date is '55, but those tanks are gon' be expensive as hell."

"But I like the Sherman!" Nguyen protests, "Also… I don't want a tank made out of stale baguettes."

"Might I remind you that Baker Company is switching over to heavier tanks?" Stonewall snips.

"Must I tell you that the Israelis used Shermans to kick T-55 and T-62 ass?" he replies with irritation, "Besides, the Sherman's a good balanced tank. She hasn't failed me yet!"

"Except in armor, and when you bounced off that Tiger in Brussels, not to mention the high profile. . . You know what? If you want to get the cramped-ass M51, I'll spot you the money. But if you get knocked out in the first three weeks you've gotta get something other than a Sherman, deal?"

"Eh… the bounce was just unlucky! Not my fault if I hit a centimeter off Stonewall!" Nguyen retorts, "But if you insist, I'll get one of the Patton series."

"Hey guys!" calmly cut in another voice, "Think we can focus on the mission here?"

Both players turn their attention to the source of the voice who is sitting nearby with two players.

"Yeah, sure thing. Who are you again?" Stonewall asks. The player in question is a tall man with black hair. He's dressed in Canadian army gear while his hazel eyes are fixed on the bickering tankers.

"I'm Mandalore20," replies the tall player, "You guys are Stonewall and Nguyen right?"

"Pleased to meet you man," Nguyen replies before taking a more wary tone, "How did you know our names though?"

"I overheard your conversations earlier," Mandalore replies deadpan.

"You a freelance player?" Stonewall asks.

"Nah, I got a small team with me," he says pointing to two very tall women. One is a dark skinned player with black braided hair dressed in American paratrooper gear with an M1 helmet, while the other wears Soviet styled fatigues and a steel cuirass. Red hair pokes out from under her helmet.

"Ooh nice, you went with the Soviet Shock Trooper loadout," Nguyen whistles in admiration, "Pretty fucking heavy so you must have boosted your Strength."

The redheaded shock trooper and the dark skinned paratrooper crack their knuckles.

"I'll show 'em a good time," she says with an almost flirtatious tone, "I'm Masterchief117, pleased to meet you boys."

"And I'm Redfury," says the Soviet Shock Trooper, "Can't wait to see how we fuck these guys up."

"If y'all have the skill to go with your gear… you could be alot of help." Stonewall muses for a second before sticking a cigarette in his lips and lighting it. "Anyway! Operation Flyswatter. Let's get to the briefing."

"Good idea, what's the plan then?" Mandalore asks quietly as he and the others look at the planning table. On it is a map and pencils as well as some pictures of the mission's area.

Leaning over the table, Kirito puts a hand on his chin.

"The area looks well defended," he says looking at the pictures, "I see half a dozen airplanes on these pictures. Are there more of them?"

"There are. This field is filled past capacity, so there's planes just about everywhere," Stonewall states.

"That tower looks like a place where a sniper could have a good view of the area not to mention any spotters." Sinon adds, pointing to the airfield control tower.

"That tower can ruin our day pretty fast," Asuna remarks, "But I think that the tanks can take it out quickly. Like what happened to that church tower in Aachen."

"That might be true but that tower might be valuable," Liz adds, "It's a control tower for an airfield so we'd need it if the Alliance can make use of the airstrip."

"That means we can't destroy it right?" Kirito remarks looking to Stonewall and Nguyen.

"If it's in the way it dies." Stonewall replies with a dismissing shrug.

"Exactly," Nguyen answers, "But I'll try not to obliterate it on the first try. What's our plan Stonewall?"

"We've got the Fallschirmjager platoon from the assault on Gustav working on taking out the nearby artillery guns as we speak. There's at least half a dozen 20mm and 37mm anti-aircraft guns, not to mention four Flak 18 88mm guns, one at each corner of the airfield." Stonewall says as he takes four red squares and places one at each corner of the field. "There's an additional two 128mm Flak 40's that are central to the airfield, near the pilot barracks. The infantry garrison is roughly a company in size, with concrete bunkers and well-dug trenches watching the open approaches. That's the best we have in regards to intel."

"For now anyways," Nguyen adds as he stands up, "There's a recon team that's been scouting out the place. We'll meet up with them as we're heading in."

"Right. The plan is pretty goddamn simple. Under the cover of pre-sighted artillery fire we're going to charge up to the airfield using a series of clearings. Once we're within five hundred meters of the airfield, the 114th Field Artillery will commence a preparatory barrage of the airfield, after which we'll roll in. Infantry -that's you lot." He points at all the ALO crew and Mandalore's group before continuing. "Will move up to take out the perimeter defenses and eliminate any opposing infantry. Once you're done with that, Baker and Able of 9th Armored, 19th Tank Battalion, with roll onto the field itself and start destroying planes."

"No kill like overkill eh?" Nguyen remarks as he listens to his friend, a massive grin stretching across his face.

"Sometimes, it's perfectly appropriate to kill a fly with a sledgehammer." Stonewall chuckles. The other players laugh a bit at the image conjured by the tanker's description. Mandalore and his teammates look at the picture of the control tower.

"Might I suggest my team storm that control tower quickly?" he proposes, "It'll remove a vantage point for the other team. We also happen to have CQB gear."

Nguyen looks at Mandalore with an impressed look.

"Shame my Mandalorian is garbage otherwise I'd have congratulated you that way," Nguyen chuckles, "Smart idea but just the three of you might not be enough."

"Agreed."

"I know just the guy to help…" Stonewall mutters, looking over at Dex. "Think you and your boys can help with that?"

"Yeah. We'll help 'em."

"Alright," Kirito says, "So what's our task gonna be?"

"I need y'all to capture and hold two bunkers on the far end, so you'll be sticking with us for most of the fight. Baker will be there to support you guys while Able destroys the planes," Stonewall instructs.

"I see what you want there," Kirito replies, leaning over the table and begins pointing around, "What I suggest we do is…"

xX-Xx

"All units, eyes out. We're entering Indian country now." Stonewall warns through his handset as his tank passes a road sign.

'NOW LEAVING FRIENDLY TERRITORY'

'Courtesy of 9th Armored Div, 19th Tank Battalion'

"Keep your eyes out for friendlies," Nguyen replies with a warning tone, "We should be stumbling on that recon team that went out earlier." He and his fellow commanders are riding turned out as they look around for anything hostile.

"Rift, how're your passengers?" Stonewall asks the commander of the Centurion III, looking back at the column of vehicles over the heads of Sinon, Silica, and Pina.

{They've made themselves comfy. Thankfully the bustle rack isn't getting in the way.}

"You think this'll be a fun challenge?" Kirito asks as he stretches his arms. He's sitting on the engine deck of La Montrealaise with Asuna, Klein, Agil, Leafa and Liz.

"If the other team has a certain degree of brains," Nguyen answers as he inspects his .50 caliber machine gun, "It'll be interesting to say the least."

{Nguyen, how's your chock doing? Everyone comfy?}

Picking up his handset, Nguyen looks at his passengers with a smile. "You guys all comfy aboard the smoothest ride in Baker?"

A series of nods answers his question before he turns on the radio.

"We're pretty good. Dick isn't deliberately hitting every pothole he can." Nguyen says before a shout is heard from the front of his tank.

"Fuck you!" Dick shouts from the open driver's hatch.

{Roger that. Wolf, how's the ride on the Kong?} Stonewall asks the commander of the M12 behind Rift's Centurion.

{Oh just peachy. I've got a heavy ass 155mm shell sitting in my lap, and I already can't feel my legs.}

{Quit yer bitchin', you'll be fine. Able, what's your readiness status?}

{All good over here. The Crocodile had some engine troubles, but we're right behind you guys.}

Stonewall nods in satisfaction, scanning the road to their front with his binoculars before relaxing in his cupola. "Hey Silica, Pina got anything?"

"No, nothing yet." She responds, petting the dog.

Looking for a conversation piece, Stonewall looks at her for a moment before speaking. "So, how'd you come up with Pina's name?"

The small girl's expression lit up.

"My pet cat IRL is called Pina too," she explains with an adorable smile before turning more somber, "When I was in SAO, I was the first Beast Tamer and I found a feathered dragon. She reminded of my cat so I called her Pina."

"Huh… I had you taken for a dog person honestly. I've got a dog irl, her name's Rua."

"It's my family's cat but she's always there for me. The Pina in VR has almost always been with me," the dog handler replies before changing her tone to a more cheerful one, "I like dogs too but the rest of my family doesn't."

"Ah that's a bummer. Aria's got a cat, named him Doc."

"Doc? That's a strange name for a cat," Silica replies.

Aria calls up through the hatch before Stonewall can validate the name. "I named him that so I could say 'What's up Doc?'!"

Sinon chuckles lightly at hearing this.

"It reminds of a discussion I once had with Asuna and Liz IRL about usernames," the sniper says, "It's a long story but essentially we were talking about how usernames were chosen. It's usually because of how cool it sounds. The thing is that Asuna used her real name for her avatar. So Liz remarks that she thought that Asuna just had no imagination."

"Well, my username is just a historical reference to my name, so…." Stonewall explains, " As for Nguyen, being the lazy fuck he was, just took the most stereotypical Vietnamese name ever for his. From what I heard from his buddies, all his other usernames revolve around him being Vietnamese or something about the South Vietnamese military."

"What exactly does it reference?" Silica asks in curiosity as she pets her dog. She didn't know much about Western history so it piqued her curiosity.

"Thomas Jonathan 'Stonewall' Jackson, a Confederate general during the American Civil War."

Sinon lights up a bit.

"I remember reading a bit about him," she said, "Wasn't he one of the best generals of the Confederacy?"

"Debatably the best, between him and Lee." Stonewall replies with a nod, looking at the road through his binoculars. "Heads up, infantry on the side of the road. Looks like the scout team."

"Viper!" One yells.

"Victor!" Stonewall yells back as his tank slows to a stop beside the player. Leaves rustle as the player waves back towards the woods, and the sound of an engine rumbling to life mixes in before a six-wheeled vehicle rolls out. Stonewall recognizes the familiar M38 Wolfhound belonging to Scott, a grizzly-looking guy in a tanker uniform who always has a cigar sticking out of his black facial hair. The prototype scout car rolls to a stop on the edge of the road, and Scott lifts himself out of the M24 turret as the infantry climb onto the engine deck.

"Hey Scotty! How'd the scouting go?"

"Pretty good. That new guy somehow got lost though."

"New guy…? Ah shit, did Recon get capped again?" Stonewall groans.

"Nope, he just disappeared. Snooped around a little more, but couldn't find him anywhere."

"Well, he's gotta be around there somewhere. You don't disappear when you log out in enemy territory." Stonewall grumbles.

"My thoughts exactly. You guys want us to come along?"

"I mean… I won't say 'no' to more guns. You can if you want. What's new at the base?"

"Not much, more sandbags and a couple tanks passing through. Lead the way man, we'll slot in behind you."

Stonewall gives a quick salute before the Super Pershing starts forward, and Nguyen waits to give Scott a spot in the column.

Warbreaker's radio crackles to life a few moments later.

{Hey Stonewall! Nguyen here! Anything interesting from Scott?}

"Recon got his dumb ass lost. Aside from that the only changes are more sandbags and a couple tanks passing through."

He hears a short snort followed by a brief pause.

{Right… urgh, I'll tell everyone else about the situation and we'll keep an eye out for him.}

There's a clearly annoyed tone in Nguyen's voice as he ends the transmission. Looking towards his passengers who chatting with each other, he waves his hands to get their attention.

"Alright guys, just got news from our scout," he reports in a serious tone, "The enemy put up more sandbags. That's about it."

He pauses briefly before looking at Leafa.

"Turns out your buddy Recon went M.I.A. during the recon mission."

The blonde player sighs and raises a hand to her forehead, clearly exasperated.

"Oh Recon, in what trouble did you get yourself this time?" she groans.

"I'm still wondering why he uses that username," Nguyen asks almost absentmindedly as he turns his attention to the road ahead.

"To be fair, he wasn't such a bad player," Leafa explains, "He has a lot of experience as a scout and he has this habit of being in the right place at the right time."

"Yeah, I still remember that time with Sigurd," Kirito adds, "We were really lucky that he was around."

The other passengers begin listening in interest to the story.

"Oh? Care to explain?" Nguyen asks with a raised eyebrow. This had to be interesting.

"It was back in ALO. Me and big brother were travelling together. We stopped in a town to log out. When I got out, I looked at my cell phone and got dozens of messages and voicemail from Recon..."

"Sounds like someone really wanted to talk to you," Nguyen says teasingly.

"Don't get any ideas," Leafa retorts dryly, "He's just a friend."

"Okidoki," the other player replies neutrally.

"Turns that Recon was following Sigurd, our faction's commander in chief, because he suspected that he was up to something," Leafa continues before being interrupted.

"Lemme guess… guy was right?" Klein asks as he plays with his FG-42's scope and looks around.

"Yeah, Sigurd was planning to betray our faction by giving out the location of a secret meeting between our faction leaders and another faction's leaders." she continues, "So that they could attack them while they were vulnerable while Sigurd would get a newer, higher position in the enemy faction."

"Fuckin' traitor," Nguyen mutters as Leafa continues, "But I can start seeing how lucky that kid is. So how did you stop that?"

"I think I already I told you that story. The one where Kirito stole my sword?"

"Oh yeah, so where's Recon in all this?"

"When we arrived at our final destination, he pops up," Leafa says begrudgingly, "Turns he had been spotted by Sigurd's accomplices and gets captured but he broke free before taking them out with poison."

Nguyen stares at her in disbelief, his right eyebrow raised.

"Wait what?"

His mind flashes back to his first meeting with Recon. The player had managed to break free from his restraints and would've shot Stonewall. If not for technology he didn't fully understand.

"Kid's better than I thought... Maybe he'll pull something off."

"You shouldn't underestimate players like that," Asuna scolds, "You never know what they'll pull off."

"Eh fair enough."

{All units standby to pull off the road to the right.}

"Looks like storytime is over eh?" Nguyen sighs, "Better get ready to hop off guys."

{All Baker platoon commanders, sound off for pre-contact comms check. Baker One-actual 'Warbreaker' checking in.}

{Baker Two-actual 'Squirrel' checking in.}

{Baker Three-actual, checking in.}

{Baker Four-actual, checking in.}

Stonewall grins after the radio check is over, then motions for a right-hand turn, just as his AI driver slows down the Super Pershing and turns, pushing through a small line of bushes into an open field.

{Warbreaker, Warbreaker, be advised, possible enemy armor ahead.} Scott warns, his armored car following behind the heavy tank.

"Warbreaker copies. All units, make ready for contact. No dismounts yet." Stonewall replies before glancing back at Sinon, who's looking over the turret with her rifle in hand. "Hey! We might run into some tanks pretty soon! Keep an eye out!"

The sniper merely nods as she looks around with her binoculars. She had purchased a British infantry uniform and webbing to go with her scoped Lee-Enfield. Draped around her neck is a green scarf shielding her from the cold winter air. She also wears a white veil that covers the green colour of her fatigues.

"Hey Stonewall?" Silica asks as she switches between looking around and monitoring Pina, "How many tanks do we have with us today?"

"Two companies. A company consists of four platoons, each consisting of four tanks each. So that's…" Stonewall tapers off as he counts on his fingers. "Thirty-two tanks."

"So I guess this is a big battle we're going into?" Silica says.

"Yeah kinda. Sixteen of those are being reserved to flank security though."

"Smart idea," Sinon remarks, "If there's anything I hate, it's being flanked."

"You and me both." Stonewall chuckles, looking back at the multiple tanks, half tracks, and trucks behind him. "All vehicles halt. Able, move your boys into position."

{Baker One-actual. This is Baker One-Two! Understood!} Nguyen replies over the comms. He's quickly followed by the other tanks in the platoon.

Looking down at his watch Stonewall scowls for a moment. "We're early."

{This is Baker One-Two, early?}

"That's affirmative One-Two. We are two minutes early. All motorized infantry elements, dismount and prepare to move."

The sound of boots hitting the ground can be heard as the passengers leap off their ride and onto the snow. The mass of infantry spread out among the tanks and use them as cover while the tank commanders watch the far treeline like hawks. A couple minutes pass, and there's a distant thundering back towards friendly lines before artillery shells shriek overhead and start lighting up the area behind the trees with split-second bright flashes.

"Let's hope that'll weaken their defenses," Asuna remarks on the back of "La Montréalaise". Another series of explosions resonates. Klein briefly winces.

"I think there won't be anything left after that's done!" he chuckles, "That's gotta have to hurt."

"How many guns are firing at the airfield?" Sinon asks as she watches the barrage through her binoculars.

"Two platoons of M12's and a field artillery battery of five 105mm M3 howitzers." Stonewall grunts back, lighting a cigarette.

"Whoever's over there is having one bad day," Agil says to his fellow ALO players.

"Oh yeah…" Nguyen remarks passively, "My old man survived one of those back in '75."

Kirito and the rest of the ALO players looks at the tank commander in surprise.

"Your dad survived that kind of thing?" a wide-eyed Kirito asks.

"Yeah, was stuck in Xuan Loc during the final days of the Vietnam War. One of his brothers too."

Before anybody else can ask anymore questions the barrage stops, and the bugle of a cavalry charge sounds prior to Stonewall's voice transmitting through the radio.

{All elements, commence the attack!}

The mass of vehicles and infantry quickly advances across the field as flares are launched over the airfield. Seconds later, all hell breaks loose. Infantry hidden in the treeline start firing at the infantry in the open, forcing them to use the tanks as cover. The tanks in turn start firing their machine guns at the tree line in an effort to suppress the entrenched infantry, and before long the open area between the defenders and the advancing tanks is a maelstrom of tracers and explosions.

"Baker Two-Actual, get your boys up online and let's show these bastards what firepower is!" Stonewall yells into his handset, ducking into his cupola as a burst from a machine gun ricochets off the turret roof.

{Copy that One-Actual. Did you copy Able Three-Actual's last transmission?}

"That's a negative, I didn't hear them."

{Able Three is going to put some Willy-Peter on that treeline.}

"Copy that."

Between the tanks of Baker, four M4A3(105) Shermans roll up and halt, taking aim at the treeline before their guns bark, lobbing White Phosphorus rounds into the snow-covered trees prior to backing up.

As the machine gun fire tapers off inside the cloud of white smoke, Stonewall waves the dismounted infantry forward while his tank accelerates. "Let's go get 'em! Baker, we're breaking through!"

{Baker One-Two… ROGER THAT!}

Looking over at Nguyen's tank, Stonewall sees his friend's tank accelerate forward with machines guns blazing.

"Alright! Remember the plan guys?" Nguyen asks the players sitting on the engine deck.

"Sure do!" Kirito exclaims back while the others nod, "Once we reach the tarmac, we hop off and assault the enemy's bunkers!"

"Excellent!"

{One-Two, this is One-Four. Once your chock dismounts have them hold back, we'll take the pleasure of knocking.}

"Understood," Nguyen replies before relaying the information to Kirito and his friends. They quickly answer their understanding. His tank dashes forward alongside the rest of Baker. The players see white smoke rise from the treeline ahead of them. Suddenly, gunshots begin sounding off sporadically.

"Looks like there are some lucky guys that survived the barrage!" Klein remarks with a smile, "More exp for us!"

Explosions suddenly make their ears ring as snow and dirt is thrown into the air around them.

"Mortars! Dammit!" Nguyen swears before switching over to his intercom, "Dick, step on it!"

A quick grunt confirms that the driver received the new order.

{Baker One-Actual, turning in. Recommend everyone else buttons up.}

"Roger that!" Nguyen answers back before turning to Kirito, "Sorry to cut this short but I'm getting inside. Good luck to you and we'll watch your backs!"

"Good luck to you too man! We'll do the same!" Kirito says as he tightens his grip on his M2 Carbine. The tank commander raises his thumbs as he lowers himself into the turret before closing his hatch. The former swordsman sees the M4A3 crush a barbed wire fence. Behind it is the trenchline, filled with enemy players and NPC's. The sound of bullets shattering on the thick armour is suddenly interrupted by an explosion, and smoke rises from the 76mm barrel as trails of pixels rise from in front of the tank. Nguyen and his crew having just cleared out a section of the enemy's trench for his friends. Machine gun fire roars from the bow and turret mounted machine guns as they clean up any survivors.

"Alright… let's go everyone!" Kirito shouts as he jumps off 'La Montrealaise' followed by Asuna, Klein, Agil, Liz and Leafa who leap off the tank and dash into the shattered trench, guns blazing. The enemy players are stunned by the initial shock of the assault and many fall to the weight of fire from the former ALO players and their tank support. One dressed in a Finnish uniform recovers quicker than his friends and reaches for a Panzerfaust lying in a nearby crate. Asuna notices him as he aims for Nguyen's tank, and doesn't hesitate to shoot him, eliminating him before he can take out 'La Montréalaise'.

"Make sure no one gets near that crate!" She orders as her and her friends continue fighting forward, sweeping the trench with fire. All around them, the sound of battle thunders while their allied players join in the fight.

"Everyone off!" Stonewall yells out his partially opened hatch before closing it just as Warbreaker emerges from the cloud of smoke. A Yak-3 is promptly shoved out of the way by the heavy machine, and it's crushed by Rift's Centurion III a few seconds later.

"Enemy bomber, 1 o'clock!" Nguyen says as he looks through the viewport of his commander's cupola, "HE that thing!" He spots a bomber taxiing towards the runway. "HE-111!"

"Roger that," Roscoe answers at the same time as he brings the turret to bear. "On target!"

"Fire!"

The sound of the tank gun firing resonates through the compartment as the shell is thrown back into the fighting compartment, dropping into the collection bin.

"This thing's lou…" Nguyen exclaims but is interrupted by an even louder explosion. "Holy shit that thing was fully loaded! Good shot Roscoe!"

"Thanks man! Got a multikill bonus!"

"Nice shot bro!" Nguyen says as he glances at where the HE-111 was. 10,000 pounds of explosives and aviation fuel getting lit up did a rather spectacular effect on the airfield. In its place is a burning crater filled with remaining bits of plane. Nearby fighters and bombers as well as trucks were hit by the blast and resulting shrapnel, rendering several aircraft useless, and some players are getting up off the ground after being thrown around like dolls.

{Baker One-Four is preparing to f-}

The transmission is cut off by a gigantic explosion, and Stonewall looks out his cupola viewport towards where the M12 should be, to find the self-propelled gun a twisted hulk of burning metal, with pieces of shrapnel raining down around it. His radio blares to life again.

{Baker One-Two here! DA FUCK JUST HAPPENED TABARNAK?!}

"One-Four just exploded! Find the sunnuva bitch that did it!"

Nguyen doesn't wait long to answer.

{Roger that! I'll relay that to Kirito and everyone else! Any idea what got him though?!}

Stonewall scans the airfield in front of his tank and quickly spots the culprit.

"Flak 40, twelve-thirty! Aria kill that bastard!"

The young woman doesn't hesitate as she traverses the turret and sends a shell downrange towards the offending artillery piece. She's faster on the draw as the Flak 40's crew doesn't have the time to fire back, and the gun is ruined by her shot, throwing it off its mount and killing the players crewing it.

{Good shot there Baker One-Actual!} Nguyen congratulates through the radio.

At the same time, Kirito and his squad battle their way through the trench. Bullets whiz around them as the enemy stiffly resists their advance. Not far from them is 'La Montréalaise' who's guns are blazing. Suddenly a familiar sound fills his ears.

"Everyone down!" Klein shouts as he ducks his head behind the trench's wall. As his head barely makes behind cover, a large tracer barely misses the Fallschirmjager player and explodes nearby. "That was too close," he grunts as he tries to peer over to see what's firing, "Aw crap! It's one of those quick firing AA guns!"

The rest of the group take cover as more tracers dart over the trench line followed by shouting and whistle blows.

"They're counterattacking!" Asuna shouts as she covers her head, "That weapon that they have is powerful!"

"Just hang on!" Kirito yells back as dirt flies over him, "Nguyen and his boys'll take care of it!"

"I hope so!"

There's suddenly an explosion followed by a hail of machine gun fire, and the large tracers suddenly stop.

"They just took it out!" Liz says as she peers her head out, seeing the mangled remains of a large carriage mounted weapon as well as some very determined players rushing towards them over the airfield's cratered tarmac, guttural growls mixing in with their shouting.

"They have a troll!" Leafa shouts, "I'll take care of it!"

A large troll wearing a large steel helmet and steel plate charges forward toward them with a large steel beam. Bullets bounce off its thick armoured hide as it draws nearer, and the blonde player quickly loads her Garand's rifle grenade.

"I think you better hurry up Leafa!" Kirito shouts as he puts a few rounds on the massive creature while enemy players hide behind the monstrous creature, watching it shrug off fire.

Taking a deep breath, Leafa carefully aims at the advancing troll before squeezing the trigger. A loud 'pop', and the rifle grenade flies towards the monster, exploding against its chest and leaving a temporary smoke cloud. The troll stumbles for a moment and backtracks.

"Good shot Lea-Oh crap it's still alive!" Liz yells back with shock.

"Wha-?!"

The troll roars defiantly as it rips off the ruined remains of its armor and tosses it to the ground. Its blackened face shows clear rage as it begins charging forward again followed by the other players.

"It looks angrier!" Klein remarks nervously, "What are the tanks doing!?"

The clattering and squeaking of tracks behind them is almost enough to make them turn around, and it stops as the shadow of the vehicle casts down on the ALO crew hunkered down in the trench. A short whirring of the turret turning is barely audible over the sound of gunfire, but the tank makes its presence definite when a jet of flame arcs over the trench and splatters onto the troll, completely lighting him ablaze. The monster howls in pain as it swings its weapon around, hitting any unfortunate players and sending them flying like ragdolls. Screams of terror sound off as the enemy players try and get away from the rampaging monster. One rather unlucky player is sent flying into the trench, landing head-first into the wall next to Kirito, who barely dodges the incoming player. The unfortunate Italian trooper hits the wall with a loud crunching sound before nearly instantly disintegrating into a burst of pixelated shards. Kirito blows a quick sigh of relief, then returns to fighting again.

"I want that!" Klein exclaims in awe.

"Me too!" Liz yells, staring at the Sherman Crocodile in awe and childish excitement. The troll rampages for a few moments before being hit again. This time, its head is completely gone as it falls down and crushes a pair of players.

A familiar ripping sound is heard as a streak of red tracers dart out and meet the charging infantry head-on, cutting them down like a scythe to wheat. Some of the other infantry dive onto their stomachs and start firing back at Agil, who ducks down and moves a few yards down the trench before popping up again, cutting loose with several sustained bursts while multiple US garbed players sprint past behind him. Three players run up to Agil while he changes out the red-hot barrel, and one promptly slams down a low-profile tripod before another quickly fits a M1919 and starts laying down fire, ducking his head into the trench whenever tracers zip past.

"Ow! Sunnuva bitch!" one of the M1919 crew yells as he gets hit in the arm. Ignoring the injury he stands up again and shoots at the prone infantry on the tarmac while Asuna runs over to him and pulls a bandage wrap from her medical satchel. When he crouches down again he offers the wounded arm, and she quickly wraps it after sprinkling disinfectant powder on it. Once she's done he smiles and nods at her, then stands up to fire again, only for his head to jerk to the side as a loud 'plink!' rings out. Asuna only gets a brief glimpse at the hole in the side of his helmet before he disappears in a burst of shards, and she grimaces before running further down the trench as a player yells for a medic.

"You idiot," she mutters as she dashes through the trench while bullets whiz above her head towards the injured player. At the same time, there are other players inside the trench who are firing back, making for an almost cinematic view to the chaotic battle raging around her.

"Over here! Medic!" yells a large player clad in Soviet Marine gear as he holds another man a few feet from her. Asuna recognizes the groaning man whose pained expression changes to a small grin upon seeing her.

"Klein!"

"Took you long enough," he grunts as he holds his side, "Lucky bastard got me in the ribs!"

"I'll have you fixed up in no-" Asuna replies before being interrupted by shouting. Three players clad in the same gear as Klein drop into the trench with hostile intent in their eyes and red markers above their heads. The Soviet Marine drops Klein in the mud filled trench before picking up his mud covered rifle. Trying to fire a shot, his gun jams and the three players empty a few rounds from their MP40's.

"OH CRA-" Klein yells as he closes his eyes and raises a hand, expecting to get eliminated. Gunshots ring out, followed by screams of pain and the distinct sound of players disappearing, but much to his surprise upon opening his eyes, he sees Asuna leaning over to patch him up.

"Thanks Asuna!" Klein cheers before a nearby squad leader stands up in the trench.

"Somebody get me fire on that tow-"

*Ping!*

Xx-xX

In a nearby treeline, not far from the roaring inferno of battle, a lone player in white camouflage crawls on her stomach, holding a sniper rifle. When Warbreaker crashed through the enemy lines, Sinon had leapt off the tank and quickly sought cover where she could attack stealthily. She had gotten a few kills on unfortunate players who were in the open for too long, and she relocated constantly, leaving as soon as she had a kill. She had made her way to a spot where she could easily see the control tower, and upon raising her binoculars, Sinon notices a barrel sticking out of the window followed by a single flash emerging from the muzzle. What catches her attention is how the player leans out of the window followed by him firing another shot.

'Looks like someone's being greedy.' she muses as she adjusts her aim, 'Amateur.'

Taking a deep breath, she steadies herself as she readies to pull the trigger.

'There's almost no challenge to this. Pity.'

As she starts to put pressure on the trigger, the window, and the sniper, disappear in a flash and a bunch of flying rubble. She pulls her head away from the scope and looks at the tower to see the entire wall missing, and smoke curling from the nearby gun of Warbreaker as Rift's Centurion and two M3 halftracks charge forward.

'Dammit Stonewall! That was my kill!'

Xx-xX

"Alright! Get the hell off and go get 'em!" Rift yells out his open hatch as his gunner slowly traverses the turret, giving a long burst from the coaxial M1919 to pin down several enemy players.

"Thanks for the ride!" Mandalore cheers back while him and his crew jump off the engine deck, quickly being joined by Rhinodex and his group before they all charge into the control tower. Once inside, Dex kicks in the first door and steps to the side as two of his men throw grenades into the room, waiting for both detonations before storming in, guns blazing.

Mandalore shakes his head and starts up the stairs with his Sten at the ready, letting Dex's unit clear the first floor while him and his colleagues take the second floor.

"Ready to go girls?" he asks, looking at Masterchief117 and Redfury as they stand before the staircase

"I've been itching for this ever since we got here! Let's do it!" The shock trooper responds enthusiastically, pressing the stock of her PPSH-41 against her shoulder. The trio move into the stairwell which is scarred by battle. Bullet holes and shrapnel mark the walls, occasionally interrupted by black scorch marks while the stairs are littered with debris. They can hear the sound of the raging battle outside and see light from flares filtering through large holes.

"Keep an eye out," Mandalore orders, "They might be waiting for us."

Redfury grins as she turns a corner in the stairs, weapon raised.

"That's why it'll be fun dear."

She hears a grunt from Masterchief117 before a pair of gunshots ring out on the first floor.

"Don't get too confident… remember that time in Lyon?" the paratrooper remarks as they reach the entrance of the second floor, "In that mess hall?"

"We don't talk about that time," Redfury replies smoothly, "Anyways, it's showtime."

The Soviet shock trooper kicks in the door and is met with a blast of cold air. Her teammates follow her in.

"Christ it's cold up here!"

The trio hear the familiar of machine gun fire and they spot a player dressed in IJA fatigues lying on the ground behind a Type-92 machine gun. He is clearly injured, as his uniform is ripped in certain places and pixels leave his body. An audible "clack" resounds followed by the player loosing a blue streak of words and starting to fight with the mechanism, completely oblivious to the presence of the three players. "God damn motherfucking cheap piece of shit!"

"Surprise motherfucker!" Redfury shouts as she squeezes the trigger of her PPSH-41. The player barely registers what's going on before disappearing in a blur.

"Room clear!" Mandalore shouts after he and his team scan around the shattered control room, "Someone get on that MG!" he barks, "I'll take a look at anything useful."

Masterchief117 crews the machine-gun and tries to figure out what caused it to jam, running through the unjamming procedure in the manual. At the same time, Mandalore and Redfury locate an intact radio.

"Who the fuck designed this thing?!" she snarls, cursing both the real world weapon designer and the devs that implemented the weapon in game, "It's completely messed up."

"Kijiro Nambu. We implemented it so people could have a cheap heavy machine-gun if they wanted one, not to mention historical value for player movies 'n' shit." Dex laughs as he walks in. "Thing makes a better paperweight than anything else."

"Well this thing sucks," she retorts, "I think it'd be better if I threw this thing at someone than try and shoot it!"

"You're welcome to try. It's 122 pounds with the tripod." Dex chuckles while his guys file past to the third floor.

"Cut the chatter gang," Mandalore says seriously, "I managed to get something on their radio. We better get our asses off here."

"Alright then. Skip the top floor lads! Everyone out!" Dex yells as his group look at him in confusion.

"What the hell's going on?" The female paratrooper asks, getting up from behind the machine gun.

"They figured out we took the tower and are about to blast it to bits!" Mandalore replies as he's about to get out of the room.

"With what?"

"Oh fuck! That's a KV-2!" One of Dex's men yells while looking out a window opposite in the room from the missing wall.

"Get the fuck out! GO!" Dex yells, shoving one of his men through the door. "MOVE!"

Xx-xX

"MERDE!" Nguyen shouts, "That KV-2 is gonna take out the control tower! Roscoe, KV-2 1'o clock!"

The sound of the turret traversing fills his ears as he watches his field of view move. The massive KV-2's turret is a few seconds from acquiring its target.

"I don't think I'll get him in time!" Roscoe shouts, sweat dripping from his brow as he works the turret control.

Meanwhile in the assistant driver's seat, Lou pets the tank's hull.

"Come on old girl, you can do it!" he barks while firing the bow gun at the monstrous tank.

"Fuck we're too late!" Nguyen yell as he sees the turret of the KV-2 stop and the gun slightly elevate. A volley of curses fill 'La Montréalaise'.

A loud explosion resonates through the airfield, momentarily distracting everyone. Nguyen's jaw is agape.

"What the fuck?!"

Through his vision block, he sees a burning hole where the KV-2 used to exist. Around the charred crater, the ground is scorched and a few pixel trails rise into the air.

"Holy fuck, someone got that bitch in time," he says, barely believing it. Quickly switching to his radio, Nguyen contacts the other tank commanders.

"This is Baker-One-Two. Who the fuck got the KV-2? That was a good shot."

{Ehhh… One-Two, this is One-Actual… probably that scrawny little shit that went AWOL, who is currently climbing onto your tank.}

There's a brief pause.

"Wut?" Nguyen says flatly. He suddenly hears knocking on his turret roof as well as a very muffled voice.

{One-Two… There's a little shithead on your turret. Send him my way please?}

"Right!"

Nguyen reaches for his M1911, drawing from his hip holster before opening his hatch, his pistol pointing at the opening. As the hatch opens, he sees a small silhouette.

"Boy am I happy to see you guys!" Recon exclaims, "I almost got killed again!"

"Ok," Nguyen says as he pulls himself out of the turret and holsters his pistol, "What the hell just happened kid?" The tank commander can't help but notice Recon's new gear. M-1 Helmet and trenchcoat along with winter camo over it.

"Euh well, it's kind of uh a long story," the scout replies nervously, "It started when-."

"Right, listen man," the tank commanders interrupts, "Freakin' euh Stonewall's over there in that big tank," he points, "He wants to talk to you. You'd better haul your ass over there understood?"

Recon nods before jumping off, but not before hearing Nguyen yell something at him.

"Keep your fucking head down! Snipers are a thing here!"

The scout starts running hunched over as quickly as he can towards Stonewall's tank, ignoring the tracers that fly inches from his head before their source is silenced by the 90mm gun of Warbreaker. Nguyen shakes his head before turning his attention to the control tower. Raising his binoculars, he sees a few flashes before seeing an unfortunate IJA trooper being thrown out of the tower, weapon falling alongside him.

"Sucks to be you man," he mutters with a grin as he sees the trooper disappear, "Very shamefur dispray. Very dishonorabru. Disgrace on your famiry"

Nguyen chuckles when he suddenly sees a Soviet Shock Trooper picking up her weapon.

{Baker One-Two, One-Actual. Thanks for sending his bitch ass over here. I'm gonna bitch slap him and send him back to Liege unless you want a couple extra inches of soft armor on your slope.}

"Right man… well, just send him to join up the rest of the infantry. They can use a few more bodies," he answers nonchalantly before switching into a fake accent "Also, the control tower has been secured in very honorabru fashion. Very honorabru dispray."

{Rrrrroger that. Be advised, the flyboys are two minutes out, so don't freak when you hear planes.}

"Right! What's the situation around you guys?"

By now, the sound of gunshots and the light of tracer fire were dying down. Everywhere around the airstrip lay the ruined remains of planes and vehicles, some popping occasionally as the fires cause ammunition to cook off. Nguyen could see players tending to their injured comrades as the other two platoons from Baker work on crushing and destroying any of the undamaged planes. He notices Kirito and his friends moving around no far from his tank, dragging or carrying injured players to a medical half-track that sits protected by four Sherman Fireflies.

"Hey guys! If you need extra medical supplies, we got some in the tank!" he shouts towards the ALO players. Asuna's head turns and she raises her thumb before jogging towards the tank.

{Baker One-Actual, this is Charlie One-Actual. Be advised, enemy radio reports that the enemy is counter attacking. Multiple armored and mechanized units, with air support inbound from Essen-Mulheim.} Dex reports over the radio.

{Copy that. All elements, this is Baker One-Actual, mount up and withdraw immediately. We. Are. Leaving.}

Nguyen shouts from his tank.

"Can that idea Asuna," he replies, "We're getting out of here now! Hey guys, hop on!" The tank commander then orders Dick to drive towards the ALO players before quickly picking them up.

Other players quickly stream towards trucks, half-tracks and tanks from different points of the airfield. After a few moments and quick headcount, Nguyen radios Stonewall, confirming with him that all his passengers on board.

{That's affirmative. I've got my chock, plus one. All units, fall back to phase line Red. Let's get the fuck outta here.}

Authors' afterword:

Well, is this one of Michael Bay's wet dreams? I certainly didn't expect having so much stuff exploding but I guess attacking an airfield and parked warplanes with a crapton of tanks is gonna make that kind of thing happen. I hope you guys laughed as much as we did when we wrote this chapter.

On a different note, if anyone wants to draw fanart for this, feel free to do so and just contact us afterwards. Just do it if you want to though, we're too broke to commission stuff. -Goodalwayswins98

Not enough explosions, should've had the M12 shoot a Stuka. Any fanart is on you, but we could start a bit of a competition, good fanart gets honorable mention, OR possibly becomes the cover of the fic!- SirStonewall

Next up, Chapter 7: A Change Of Scenery!