Pitohui
Unbeknownst to the six traitors, the six remaining teams make a run for the There Is Still Time as the ocean converges on the ship. As for them, their safer travel to the cruise ends as the six flying platforms end their flight in a cirlce around the helipad. Each person stepped off one by one, remaining in a circle. Each platform sputtered out white smoke, indicating the end of its use. The smoke trails upward, so the wind that casted aside the fog had subsided.
Feeling good about the turn of events, Pitohui greets her new teammates. "Hey, everyone! My new teammates! How are you doing? I realize I'm pretty famous, but we can do a round of introductions! List your weapon and your style of combat, too! I'm Pitohui! I use a KTR-09 and some other stuff! You all saw the SJ2 replay, right? Same thing as what you saw there! No Barrett this time, though! I can do just about anything! Nice to meet you! Let's have some fun out there today! Whoo!" Feeling like the leader of the group, Pitohui points to the helmeted person in full sci-fi armor on her left. "You're next, blockhead!"
"Oh, uh... Hello... "My name is Ervin. How do you do? This is my weapon, an XM8 with suppressor. No pistol. A few grenades."
"Okay, Ervin! Nice to meet you! Let's be relaxed, no fussiness! You were on the second-place team last time, right? Be loud and proud! Nearly winning is nearly winning, no matter how you do it!" That's not how most of GGO sees it, as T-S were called cowards and cheaters. Had not Jaymes' ability and Kureha's markmanship got the better of them, they would have won SJ2 after blasting Fukaziroh and Llenn.
"Oh, thanks... That's really nice of you to say, ma...a'am."
"Am I the next to go, then?" Raising his hand is a bandana-wearing man to the left of Erwin. "My name's Tomtom. I dig machine guns! I love machine guns! Still got lotsa bullets! You want support, you want attack—I'll shoot the hell out of whatever you want! Nice to meet you all!"
"Nice-good to hear! Next... You." Pitohui points to the last person she knows she has no idea who they are. ZEMAL and T-S's representatives are recognizable as parts of their teams, while the other two who hadn't introduced herself as renowned as much as she is. But the raven-haired, ruby-eyed femme fatale at the other end of Pitohui's finger is an anomaly to her. The woman shoots Pitohui a bloody glare, but the "leader" of the traitors holds firm. "Oooh, so scary! Come on, be nice, be friendly!"
"...The name is Anni. I possess a pistol, this assault rifle, and a photon sword. While I can take up any position required of me, I prefer to sneak on my opponents and take them down quickly, and it seems this ship will suit my abilities."
Pitohui nods and glances at the black cylinder hanging off Anni's waist. While "Anni" did not specify the details of her weapons, Pitohui knows the make and models of the all three weapons. "How good are you with the blade?"
"Let's just say your captain will be no trouble for me."
"Okay. Shall we move on to the last two?" Pitohui eyes the stocky woman in green camo first, the boss of SHINC.
"I'm Eva. As far as my weapons and fighting style go...I'll just flatter myself and assume you already know," Eva has a point: No one who entered or watched SJ1 and SJ2 could forget the large yet suprising agile Eva's performances, especially with her silenced Vintorez sniper rifle and the Strizh automatic pistol. A fearsome opponent to be facing, a relief to have as a teammate.
"That's it? Well, I don't need more info than that anyway. Hi, Eva. I'm happy we get to be on the same team,"
"Sure."
"Then let's go ahead and introduce our last member: Daveed! In fact, he's been playing GGO about as long as I have!"
"What?" yelps the last member of the team, the leader of Memento Mori. His camo-painted face is marked with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. "P-Pitohui... You...remember..."
"Yep, I remember you. We were in a squadron together a long time ago, but I never forget anyone I've met before."
"...Well...thanks... I'm the leader of Memento Mori, David. You can also call me Dave. But do not call me Daveed! I use an STM-556 with a 40 mm launcher. I've got the long barrel on it, too, so I can snipe to mid-distances. And I've got a 9 mm pistol... To be honest, this betrayers' team rule infuriates me. I'd like to drop a grenade down the collar of whoever thought of it. But for the sake of my comrades who kindly saw me off, I will promise to fight my hardest to the end."
"I like it! I bet we all feel the same way!" Pitohui excitedly says, though no one seems to share her energy. "All right. then! Let's do it, gang! By the way, are we going to get to register as a new team? It's inconvenient if we can't see one another's hit points, and it 's not fair if we're the only ones who can't talk on the comms!"
Eva agrees. "That's true. Once I stepped onto that odd device, mine stopped working with my squadmates."
"Do you think it'll work if we apply and register for a new party?" Tomtom inquires.
"Nice one, Bandana. Hang on then, everyone." Pitohui summons her system menu, typing characters into a holopad as she creates the new party of six. Soon, five party invitations to Team Betrayers, abbreviated as BTRY, was sent out. Once everyone joined in, Pitohui started to cheer like a child. "Awright! It's set up! Whoo! Okay! It's always worth a shot! The SJ3 system is awesome!"
"Of course it was going to work," David grumbles.
Pitohui then turns away and switches on the comms device in her left ear. "Can you all hear me? Is my sexy ASMR voice coming in?" she mumbles.
"You bet."
"Loud and clear!"
"..."
"Yes."
"No problem." Eva then glances at her watch, which displays the time of 12:59 PM. In a few short moments, the sixth Satellite Scan would begin. "What do you think?"
"I bet the scan will happen. Let's watch and hold a planning meeting. But before that, how far away were each of your teams when the rule kicked in? Mine was still well over a mile away." Eva, Anni, David, and Tomtom says the same, with them avoiding the unfortunate fate of Erwin's former position with T-S. "Then we still got time.
Moments later, the sixth scan swept the small piece of land remaining. Each side of the square was no more than a mile and a half, and presented with the seven teams clockwise around the middle of the map.
LPFM is to the southwest. SHINC to the southeast. MMTM to the northeast. ZEMAL to the north, DEVA and waterlocked T-S to the northwest.
"Yup, I knew it," Pitohui claims as she pockets the terminal. "I might not need this again for the next one." After all, ten minutes from now, the There Is Still Time will be surrounded by the other teams.
"Excuse me," the polite Ervin pips up, "who among us would like to be the leader of this team?"
"Pitohui is fine enough to lead," Anni says, speaking for the first time since her introduction. "After all, you started this team, so it only makes sense you lead. That, and you have experience with a certain group that most of us cannot claim."
"That's fine."
"No problem." David and Eva. Tomtom didn't voice an opinion, which means his silence is affirmation. Pitohui accepts the charge, though it weirds her out that Anni was the one to push for it. Oh well, every girl has her idiosyncracies, Pito knows that personally.
"So what kind of strategy are you going to cook up for us, Team Leader," David asks with a chill to his voice.
"I've already got one."
Jaymes
"It's huge..."
"That's what she said, hehe."
"Good one, Captain!"
My team and I are half a mile away from the large cruise ship after quite the run. We bunkered down in a low spot of the field, in case snipers are perched on the ship. We can't remain here forever, though; the sea is still on our tail and SHINC is directly to the east. We could move faster, but that means abandoning M.
No matter, we're in no rush to get to the cruise ship. The turtle won the race, not the hare...though the hare wasn't racing an unrelenting ocean.
The There Is Still Time is enormous. I've never been on a luxury liner, but even in pictures they look like a mobile fortress. Considering who is on that ship right now, it does feel like I'm leading a team of warriors to the demon queen's lair to end my adventure in a fantasy world.
I open my mouth, amazed by the imagery in my head, but whatever visual Llenn's having causes her to sigh. "Haaah..."
"If you sigh, your happiness'll fly right outta your mouth," chides Fukaziroh.
"Yeah... Too late for that. Ugh, I can't even imagine what Pitohui's going to do now."
"Well, the entire system just guaranteed that Pito's betraying us."
"Fuka," M calls out, his eyes on the ship through the scope of his M14 EBR. "Take out all the remaining plasma grenades you have and load them into one of your launchers."
"Oh? How come?"
"Pito knows where you keep them. She'll shoot at your backpack. The metal grenade launchers will provide a bit more defense against bullets, at least."
"Ah, that makes sense!" While Fuka did that, switching the standard type of grenades within the left launcher named Lefthania for the plasma types, I turn my attention to Kureha. She uses the scope of her Deneb Kaitos rocket launcher in search of SHINC to the east.
"Kureha?"
"All clear, Jaymes. For better or worse, no sight of SHINC."
I haven't decided on whether we should eliminate SHINC preemptively or make way for the cruise ship. I got some time to make a decision, but as long as we can't see the girls, they can't see us. I rather get on the cruise ship first before making any grand schemes.
"Jaymes, M, there are no stairs or ladders," Llenn says. One hand holding her monocular, she moves it slightly as she scans the ship. "How are we supposed to get on board? Do they expect us to climb the sheer sides of the ship?"
"That's not possible without a really high Climbing skiil and the right tools."
"Exactly... Jaymes, how long can the Ultra Fiber Gun shoot the tether line?"
"About twenty, twenty-five feet maximum. But the angle of the ship from bottom to top goes outwards like a V. The UFG is useless here."
"Aww... Do you think there's a way up on the other side?"
"Probably not," M replies. "But I'm not worried. Once we get closer, there should be an entrance, even if it's on the smaller side. I'm certain of it."
"Oh? How can you be so sure?"
"That ship was designed to be a refugee ship after the ultimate war. If it got grounded, then the people on board would need a way to get down. If they didn't have a ramp, then they must have opened a hole big enough for people to get through, down near ground level."
"Ah, I see."
"Ooooh!"
"But since the idea is that the ship sank deeper into the ground over many years, it could have gotten buried or shrank to a smaller size." Look at you, M. Such an impressive guy to realize all of that. His reasoning is sound logic for more than just the lore of the ship, but the fairness of the game. Zaskar wouldn't develop the final stage if something as crucial as getting on the ship was impossible to manage.
"Ah! There it is! There are holes, just like you said! On the side...about a hundred feet apart?"
"Let me see." Raising my own monocular, I set it to maximum zoom and hone in on where the shiip meets the ground. Llenn and M are right, there are holes of indetermine size on the ship's exterior. Were they blasted open from explosions or smelted from a burner? The individual holes aren't large by any means, but M should be able to fit through.
"Let's get to the ship. Any objections, M?"
"No."
"Then that's the plan."
"Gotcha, gotcha, gotta-gotta-gotcha," Fuka says. "But that raises the question..."
"Once we get closer to the ship, won't the team on top shoot at us."
Well, that goes without saying. I turn to M, wanting to hear what he'll say first as he knows Pitohui better than anyone. He turns in the direction of the water, confirming it hasn't caught up to us, then says, "But of course. This island is going to sink. That means we die if we don't get onto that ship. Team Betrayers knows that, too. And that means..."
Pitohui
"That means our first priority should be keeping the teams surrounding us from getting onto to ship! That's our first line of defense. If we hold that, we win."
Team Betrayers take a light run along the starboard deck as Pitohui discussed her plan. Having seen the ship from above, she needs a personal view of the grounded structure before they can decisively make a plan.
"How exactly will we defend this spot?" David inquires. "Even if we shoot right over the sides, only Tomtom and Annihilator can get any decent distance." David is right about that. Tomtom's FN MAG and Anni's previously unidentified SPB Rapier MK2 both use 7.62 mm caliber bullets and have an effective range of seven to eight hundred yards. But that wouldn't be enough to hold the deck.
Splitting up means they'll cover more ground, but then they become individual targets. They're outnumbered and outgunned, so a direct defense is not going to work. Worse, she has to believe every other team has an M or a Jaymes on board. Someone who can create unpredictable plans, or someone unpredictable on their own.
"It's just too big," Eva mutters in reference to the size of the ship.
"So here's what I say! First, we need to limit the number of approaches the enemy can take, to limit the amount of space we need to defend. Did you see the holes right near ground level?"
"Yeah," says the bosses of SHINC and MMTM, also noticing the holes when the six flew over to the There Is Still Time. If the other three knew of the holes, they said nothing; Tomtom and Ervin hang back behind them, happy to let Eva, David and Pitohui do the thinking; Anni takes the distant rear.
"There were many holes. We don't have time to trap them all."
"That'd be impossible. And you won't see any traps until you're close on them, right? I want to eliminate the ways in, but specifically, I want to control the approach, to lock down the area around the ship. And to do that, we need good visibility."
"I understand your point, but what method is going to be that convenient for us?"
"Let me show you. We use this!" Pitohui comes to a stop at a small rescue boat with a yellow cover on top and smacks it with a grin.
"It's probably better if as many teams as possible rush the ship at once from different directions, right, M?"
"That's right. So if you hear gunshots from some other team getting to the ship, we'll go with that timing."
"What if everyone's thinking the same thing, so nobody goes in?"
"No, as much as that would be nice, the sea gives us no choice but to rush the ship one way or another."
"Good point. Is it possible that as we get closer, other approaching teams will start a battle?"
"It's not impossible, but it seems like a bad idea."
"So we should assume the battle between the teams is getting to the ship first... What you say, Jaymes?"
"Hmm... M, I'm going to steal from your playbook. Llenn, I'm sorry to ask this, but I';; need you to play decoy and draw gunshots."
"Sure, just give the order. I'll be your decoy."
"With that said..." Jaymes turns to Fukaziroh, who held her two MGL-140s in anticipation for a sprint.
"Now? Once we're within four hundred yards, i'm gonna blast the hell out of 'em. It's just too bad I don't have any smoke grenades this time!" She could cover out route if she had those grenades, but she had no time to acquire them and neither Kureha or I thought to do so. But the plasma grenades in her possession will unleash unparallel destruction.
I take a deep breath and look at my longtime partner, still watching out for SHINC. "Kureha, M, we'll stick with Fukaziroh. In case Llenn can't completely draw their fire, I will use Hyper Awareness and get us there."
"C-Can you do that?" Llenn questions. "I mean, yes, you transported Kureha last time and in BoB IV, but can you take more that two people?"
I nod then return my gaze to the ship. "As long as I'm in contact with a moveable object, it moves with me. Kureha and Zeliska helped test this theory before BoB IV."
Fukaziroh giggles and glances at Kureha. "Oh, I'm sure the Uncrowned Queen was more than happy to help out her partner. Better watch out, Princess. That lady is walking sex appeal."
Kureha takes her sights off the eastern horizon and turns on Fukaziroh with an angry face as pink as her uniform. "Wh-what is that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just saying - if I was Jaymes and I had to choose between the mature, kindhearted, sweet-voiced, volumptous Zeliska or a not as mature teenage girl like you, I know where I'd be right now. Have you not seen those thighs? They'd make an excellent lap pillow."
"Grrr... Why are you always antagonizing me? Our relationship is none of your business! How about you talk when you can speak to a man!"
"H...huh? Something fell from the ship. Something yellow." Used to Kureha and Fukaziroh's arguments, Llenn, M, and I tuned them out...okay, I partially tuned them out. But which parts I heard aren't important, but when I heard Llenn, I ceased watching the side of the ship and faced forward with M and Llenn.
Something yellow did drop. It's one of the large rescue boats, about seventy-five feet long and with a capacity to hold 300 people in case the Titanic happens again. One after the other, the rescue boats held on the side of the ship plummet down to the ground and cracking apart due to old age. And by doing that, the debris blocks access to the holes on the ship's sides. If its happening here on the starboard side, port side is getting the same treatment.
M even emotes with a gasp, which is more rare than pulling an SSR in a gacha game. "Oh! They got us."
"Huh? What are they doing?"
"No... This is her doing."
"Aaaah! Pito's blocking the holes we need to get inside!"
"...Well played, Pito. Well played."