Date posted: 4th January 2022
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a great winter and all that. Last year was okay, I give it a 6/10. Now, onto the show.
Chapter 10: Steel Rain
The Megaran Fields was a misnomer. It was a sea of sand not unlike the other seas in Anatolia, Syria and Arabia. Such was the might of earth's superweapons, it turned even lush Greece into a barren desert. So spiteful was humanity when it committed self-immolation, the ground itself was poisoned so that not a single blade of grass had grown in a hundred years.
On a nondescript dune, a watcher overlooked the land. Some fifty kilometers away was Corinth and outside its great walls were the Republic of Mutantopia's Heavy Armour Division, great War Behemoths standing by as the first wall of defense. In the old world, it would have been a thirty minute drive. At least, it would have been had it not been for the sand.
And the things underneath the sand.
The sun was setting, bathing Magaran Fields in an orange glow. It was a surreal experience, looking out into the Wasteland in her shelter. She could feel the wind and the heat on her face. It was relaxing in a way. It made her sleepy, so she slapped herself in the face, only to remember she couldn't feel any pain. It wouldn't be a bad way to spend time in VR had playtime not cost money. Most MMOs were free to play these days, but GGO was in a way a relic of ye olden days; you not only needed to buy the game but also pay the subscription fee.
Before she could way nostalgia about the good ol' days of MMOs (impossible, because she was born in 2012), the radar went beep.
She checked the screen, nothing out of the ordinary. Though why the damn thing weighed eight kilos and was designed in the least ergonomic way possible - an ugly misshapen cube with some dials and buttons to it - she had no clue. Ruth theorised it was so that players would buy vehicles, mechamules, or just regular ol' mules, spending even more money on a game with a subscription fee. Insidious.
Still, it wasn't all bad.
Beep. Beep.
Why, it was almost melodic in a way. It was making her sleepy.
Beep.
Lootz snapped out of it when she realised her two teammates were missing. Ah shit, not again.
She exited her hidey-hole, grabbed her AK and the stupid radar with her. The Kyoto Warhawks' leadership were unimpressed with them not meeting their highway robbery quota. So they stuck them with this watchman job, knowing full well that they had lower level players that could do this job just as easily. As a requisite, they made sure that the radar was no less than a hundred meters away or they would be counted as going AWOL. Vengeful pricks, the lot of them. But the pay was good, and they got free ammo every week, so she kept at it.
The tracks were easy to follow and Lootz shook her head as her idiot teammates didn't follow protocol of hiding their tracks again. She cursed as the combined weight of both her gear and the radar made her feet sink into the sand.
She found them at the very edge of the safe zone arguing very loudly. Lootz knew for a fact that they weren't the only players here. More lurked in the nearby dunes, watching, just like them. She wished that the Kyoto Warhawks had proper camera systems for this sort of thing, but sending in a bunch of low level privates was much cheaper.
"Look, I'm telling you this is gonna work!" said a player in raider gear, baseball bat in hand.
"Nu-uh, just because they're giant worms in the sand doesn't make them the same kind of worms! They got different lore and shit!" said another player, her medic bag bouncing with each swing of her arms.
"Hikari! Ruth! what the hell are you two doing?!"
"Who put you in charge?" Ruth challenged, his bat leaning on one shoulder. "Shit's boring, yo."
"It is boring yeah, so bring out a deck of cards or something!" God, she wished Sergeant Makarov was still with them. The man had a way with getting idiots to follow his orders. "What are you two doing anyway?"
Hikari pointed to the corpse of a tank some four hundred yards away. It stuck in at an angle, its turret pointing to the heavens like a ship's mast going under. "I told Ruth that I spotted some loot in that tank over there."
"And I told Hikari there's no way in hell there's any!" He pointed angrily at the tank, then at themselves. "You really think you can make it there alive?"
Hikari smiled smugly. "Yes."
"Wanna bet?"
"Hell yes."
Lootz pinched the bridge of her nose. "God no."
"If I make it, you'll pay my subscription to GGO for the next month."
"And if you don't, you'll take my shift for the next week."
"Deal!" they said simultaneously and shook hands. Lootz threw up hers.
"Fucking fine! If you wanna die, then go for it!" She dropped the radar and used it as a stool. "I ain't getting involved. If the captain asks, I'll tell him a mutie killed ya'."
Hikari stripped off her flak and weapons, handing them to Ruth. She stretched in the manner of someone warming up for a jog. "Just you wait! I got some techniques for this."
"Yeah, yeah. Have fun losing."
Instead of a mad sprint that Lootz expected, the medic did a strange walk. She took one step forward, then three steps left; right four times, backwards once, then five steps forward. It had neither rhyme nor sense to it.
"What on earth are you doing?" asked Lootz.
"The. Secret …" Hikari continued her nonsensical pattern of traversal. "Is. That. You don't have. A pattern."
Ruth scratched his head. "And?"
"That's. How." She jumped a fair bit forward. "You don't. Attract. Them." Her comrades could feel how the last word was italicised, as if the very mention could summon them.
"What, that doesn't make any sense!"
"Yes it does." Sure enough, Hikari's weird sand dance wasn't making the radar go crazy. It continued its calming beeps. "See?"
"That's gonna take forever! I can run there faster!" he complained. She was only fifty yards away despite a minute of walking. Ruth put a foot in the sand.
"Wait, no!" The medic stopped in her tracks. "You can't."
"Watch me!" With that, Ruth tossed Hikari's gear and his own to Lootz (what was she, a goddamn personal container?) and started a light jog towards the tank.
"First one who reaches the tank wins the bet!" he shouted.
"Hey! That's not what we agreed on! Come back here, assshole!" The medic abandoned her sand dance and chased after.
Lootz facepalmed. "I can't believe this shit."
The radar under her went beepbeepbeep.
Kirito knelt down by the corpse at his feet. Its long hair was spread out like a puddle of black. Its skin, already pale, was even whiter with the dust from the now ruined hotel. The face was almost serene in death.
"God. I really do look like a girl."
"You should grow out your hair."
"Not a day in this relationship and you're already dictating my life choices."
"But imagine how cute you'd look!"
The ruins of Atikyra was covered in soldiers, probably a good hundred in total. Lt. Makarov was in charge of security and had set up a perimeter with the FurinKazan and Black Dog, sniper teams set up in the few remaining standing buildings of the town. A trail of trucks were being escorted by APCs and Outriders into the small town. Such traffic would have drawn attention from the enemy or other guilds, which was why it was done during nighttime.
"That's why I wear a mask," said Kirito, though his warmask was currently atop his head. "Do you know how many male players have hit on me?"
"You're complaining, but you did wink at that one quartermaster while we were doing that raid back outside of Ankara."
Kirito flushed at the memory. "I was running low on creds! And they had plenty of ammo."
"How on earth are you running out of creds? You barely use your gun, you're saving a lot by not buying ammo!"
"I need to patch my armour a lot," he said, tapping the sword on his hip.
Klein walked up to him and surveyed the ruins of the hotel. "Man, what a mess! I saw my body over there, still surreal looking back at your dead self."
"I should tell you the time I fought my own undead self."
Klein squinted. "You telling me there's zombies in this game?"
"In a way." Kirito gestured his head towards the docks where Vladimir was talking to Nikita and CHAD. "What are they planning?"
"I dunno, but knowing what I hear about CHAD, it's probably something outrageous." Without warning, the samurai scooped up Sinon and started petting her. In return, Sinon bit his finger and started meowing angrily. "If I had to guess, we'll probably have to infiltrate Corinth, shoot our way to the objective, paving the way for the rest of the players to assault the city."
"You'll have to infiltrate Corinth, shoot your way to the objective, paving the way for the rest of the players to assault the city," CHAD told all the players.
They had gathered inside the town's church. The fishermen had retired to their huts, glaring at the Vatborn who dared to sully their temple with their presence. The NPCs called the players all sort of things: gunkscum, slave soldiers, class traitors, and worse of all, keyboard warriors.
All true of course, except the last one. Deep Dive consoles didn't have keyboards.
CHAD's men and the Zakon i Dolg soldiers had hauled the most important equipment and turned the building of worship to Hesukristos to the worship of war. Pews made way for massive servers. The cross atop the roof had been mounted with an antenna. The altar was covered with computers, papers and other boring war stuff. The church's basement had been turned into an armoury /Vladimir's laboratory. All of this had to be hauled from the mountain base to here.
In any other game, this sort of thing would be automated. Furniture spawned in, maps plastered, a minimap in every HUD. But GGO was a sweaty tryhard game for sweaty tryhard nerds who spent their disposable income on fake guns, real guns, and military surplus. Kirito could get it, being a soldier sounds like an exercise in mind shattering boredom. It wasn't that different from people who spend their money pretending to be knights. Sinon poked fun at him buying swords as much as he did on her spending money on airsoft gear.
The current group of players really had to squeeze into the church, even with some of CHAD's own men out guarding the perimeter. That was another thing about GGO - guard duty was the most boring thing in the world but if you went on the forums, hardcore fans would defend the very concept to the death.
The captain gestured to the whiteboard behind him, a high quality map of the gulf and the city pinned to it. "We will be sending a forward advance party to gauge the defenses. For this, we will require the right group. Any volunteers?"
Klein stepped forward. "Yup, that's us. The FurinKazan are the pro-est of pros!"
CHAD nodded. "Good. The lower level the players, the more we can save on clone vat materials."
"Hey!"
Dyne raised his hand. "Shouldn't you send your best players first? I mean, your buddies look pretty elite."
The rest of CHAD's men stood out in their own way. They stood in parade rest next to the wall, with flak vests over grey Wasteland robes, and keffiyehs covering their gas masks. Each of the men had some configuration of an XM8, in rifle, sniper, or LMG form. They said nothing and stood motionlessly, automatons meant to be activated for war.
For all of Kirito complaining about super serious roleplayers, they looked very cool he had to admit.
"You always keep your best cards to yourself. Also, as you can tell, they're all currently logged out. Busy lives, you see."
It was at the mention that Kirito realised all of them had a bunch of floating ZZZs over their heads. Huh, he didn't know you could log out standing like that.
CHAD pointed to the map again. "You will be split into three groups. Zakon i Dolg will be launched at Perachora beach where there's a hole in their security. Your objective is to destroy the «Rumbler Towers» that keep the «Great Worms» in check. Destroy them, and they will wreak havoc on the Republic's heavy armour. Black Dog and FurinKazan will be launched towards Akrata where there is their main supply depot, a few miles away from Corinth proper. Blow to it hell and they'll be running out of ammo soon. As for my team, we will be back up for whichever site needs it."
It was at that moment that Vladimir emerged from the basement, carrying a crate of glowy green stuff. On closer inspection, he found it was bullets. Lots and lots of glowy green bullets.
"The «Anti-Mutie» rounds are ready. We have a finite amount. I've done my best to split them for everyone's various calibers, which I swear, was such a damn pain …"
"Good work, Vladimir. After the Rumblers are destroyed, this will make the Republic's leadership panic. Coupled with the destruction of their main supply depot, they'll pull their main force back from the Volos Frontline. Good news is that Thunder Fighters aren't operating within the area around Corinth according to intel. Use your new ammo wisely."
"5.56, 5.54, 45 ACP, 7.62, 9mm, 12 gauge, why can't you people just use one type of caliber?!"
CHAD ignored him. "When's that done, we can think of ways to bring Zakon's armour into the city and engage in urban combat. You know your objectives, any questions?"
Finally, it was Kirito who spoke up. "Okay, can someone please explain to me how we're going to cross the gulf when we don't have boats or aircraft?"
Kirito could sense the smile under the gasmask. "You ever want to be an astronaut?"
"This is not a rocket."
"I mean, it kinda is a rocket."
"That's a rocket and the payload is a player."
"Well, you aren't wrong."
"Oh, come now, Kirito-san. Where's your sense of adventure?" asked Tadao, doing last minute checks on his gear. Amazingly, he had finally packed a long arm on him, a Winchester repeater with a decorated wood grip and gorgeous engravings. The cartridge holder on the stock were of the green variety.
Dyne took a drag on his cigarette before scoffing. "It's a nice gun, I'll give you that. But the engravings gives you no tactical advantage whatsoever."
Tadao did that finger gun thing again. "Wrong, old man. It looks dope as fuck."
"Fuck, that's true," he mubled to himself.
They were at the docks of the village. Before them were large reserves of chemfuel on the back of two large semis, thanks to Tadao's Outriders making their trip to grab them a while back. Tubes were being pumped into a large metal frame, which looked like a combination of a stove oven and a rocket platform. The top of the rocket looked like …
"That's a freaking coffin!" Kirito pointed accusingly. "Is it even safe?"
"Yes, it's safe. We've done trial runs with it. That's actually how the Thunder Fighters have been getting around," said Makarov, checking numbers on his tablet. "Can you imagine how big their pods must be?"
Currently, the first batch of soldiers, including Sergeant Gregory, Commissar Tadao, Major Nikita, Kirito, and Sinon, stood at the ready. Corporal Dave was elsewhere, given command of a small crew to bring the company's APCs and motorcycles to skirt around the gulf when the Republic forces retreated. The players had their special «Anti-Mutie» rounds packed in magazines, painted green for ease of identification.
There were fifteen pods in total, more nearby in rows and light enough to be carried by two men. To Kirito, they looked flimsy.
"Pod launchers, fascinating," said Gregory, thankfully out of his pink apron and his usual getup. "We will strike fear into the hearts of the muties. There's probably a name for this tactic. Pod Rain? No, that's not it …."
Klein clapped Kirito on his shoulder. "By the way, if you die, I'm having your horse."
"It's not mine, it's Tadao's. Might wanna ask him about that." He saw Tadao patting Lyubimaya 2.0, whispering sweet nothings into her ear. "Besides, you're going too."
"Yeah, but I ain't gonna die." He winked. "By the way, we should grab some grub later. Catch up on stuff. If one of us dies in the operation, the loser pays. Deal?"
"Pfft. You'll eat your words, samurai." They shook on it.
The order was finally given and everyone lined up into the pods. Kirito breathed in and looked at his own pod: two meters tall, with a thin door that he was sure he could break down with a few swift kicks in real life. He hesitated even stepping into the pod. He had all his gear on him and he felt over-equipped with his rifle, Sinon's sniper rifle, SMG, and two swords. The open entrance of the pod reminded him of staring into a cave of a dungeon.
But a greater fear overcame his fear of tight spaces as he could feel Makarov giving him the eye. The fear of peer pressure, the worst kind of pressure.
He went inside and closed the door behind him, Sinon climbing up to his chest with familiarity. The pod was made at an angle, pointing southeast.
Makarov did a countdown from sixty. Why sixty? Why not ten?
"You know, this is kinda romantic."
"Your idea of romance is being stuck in a coffin?" he asked, his echoing voice being too loud for his liking.
Even in the darkness of the pod she could see her eyes. "No, I meant cuddling. I like cuddling! Wait. Kazuto, are you … claustrophobic?"
"What? No! Of course not."
"Fifty, forty-nine, forty-eight …"
"Aww, that's cute! Wouldn't take you for someone who has any phobias with your dangerous riding habits. And your desire to get shot."
He groaned. "Okay, that's it. When we get back, we're doing it all over again. Just like back in the alley behind the bakery."
"I'm not gonna pick up all the pellets that's going to be flung all over our living room."
"That's what the vacuum is for."
Makarov droned on. "Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight …"
"What, you think pellets are cheap?"
"C'mon, they can't be that expensive. Did you pick up the pellets back behind the bakery when we first met too?"
Sinon looked at him as if he grew two heads. "Of course I did! Why waste perfectly good usable ammo?"
"Twenty, nineteen, eighteen …"
Kirito couldn't help but laugh. "I see what you're doing. You're trying to distract me from my discomfort." He ruffled her little head. "That's what a good girlfriend does."
"I demand smooches."
"Here or back on the couch?"
"Yes."
Kirito was only able to plant a single kiss between her eyes before being launched into the sky at three hundred kilometers per hour.
"Hey! Hey! Lootz! C'mon, help a gal out!" Hikari cried out.
"Yeah! Which one of us got onto the tank first?" Ruth shouted.
Hikari smacked the baseball bat wielder at the back of his head. "Is that what you care about?!"
"Well yeah, no shit. A month's subscription ain't cheap!"
Neither player could see well from this distance or in the darkness. Leaving their gear behind meant they didn't have a single piece of equipment between them save for the knives in their boots. They were pretty sure Lootz was either logged off or ignoring them entirely, as at some point she returned to their hidey hole.
Halfway across their run, the desert started to rumble. They saw the great armoured hide of the Great Worm stalking them like a shark out in the sea, and the fear of being eaten hastened their steps. She had never run so fast in her entire life and she had overslept on a test day.
They reached the tank, both of them currently sitting in complete darkness, very much regretting the entire endeavour.
"I don't think she's coming back," said Ruth. "And PMs don't work in hostile territory."
Hikari slumped against the tank's turrets. "So what now? Do we kill each other and respawn or …"
Ruth leaned back as well, and pointed to the sky. Free of the light pollution of the old world, the night stars were out in full force. "Look, a shooting star! Make a wish?"
Hikari scoffed. "I wish that you'd admit that you lost this bet."
"Heh, don't dream of it."
Explosions rocked Perachora Beach, great metal meteors descending from the heavens as the pods' thrusters belched out fire like a great dragon. Or at least that's what their inhabitants preferred to think their landings looked like. The fifteen pods from Atikyra took a mere half minute to cross. From onlookers, they looked like shooting stars. To the rest of the players, it felt like taking a trip on the world's worst roller coaster. Blindfolded.
Sergeant Gregory's black boot kicked open the door. Both door and boot landed in the cold seawater with a splash. He surveyed the area with sharp eyes before holding up a fist. "All clear!"
The Zakan i Dolg emerged from their pods, like great warriors arisen from their steel sarcophagi, weapons in their fists, bloodlust in their mind. Dangerous men with dangerous intentions.
All save for Kirito, who tripped on the frame of his pod and fell face first into the water. Sinon used her boyfriend's prone body to leapt onto the sandy beach. "Nya."
"I'm up, I'm up!" he said, as he was helpfully hauled up by the sergeant. The seawater better not ruin his chainsword. He still had no idea how to even repair the damn thing. Did he have to change the teeth of the blade? Did any store sell chainsaw teeth? He was woefully under equipped now he had given it some thought.
They went and rested up by the beach where sand turned into dirt and gravel. The Zakon troopers waited, all of them looking at the great blackness before them. The players went over their plans, made small talk, and did last minute adjustments to their gear. Kirito disliked NVGs, hated how it made everything look green and murky, and used them as little as he can get away with. Apparently newer NVGs were much better in this regard, but his current goggles were gear he got when he was level 5.
He looked at Sinon, a shadow in the dark. "What are you doing?"
"Digging."
He pointed down the beach. "If you want to take a dump, go do it behind a rock or something."
Sinon meowed angrily. "I'm not gonna poop! I'm just … I just never dug with my paws before." She sat on her hindquarters, showing off said paws. "Behold, toe beans!"
"You know, sometimes I forget you're a higher level than me. Are you sure you don't prefer to stay in your cat form?"
Sinon harumphed. "Listen, I haven't shot a thing in weeks, and the only thing that has sated my bloodlust is me biting you."
"Cats truly are the world's most violent creatures."
"Nya," she agreed.
A short while later, fifteen more pods came crashing down into the beach, with all of the pods landing in a tighter group. A familiar grunt came out of a pod. "HOO-AH, JUST LIKE STORMING NORMANDY! NOW WITH FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS. TIME TO KICK SOME MUTIE ASS!"
Everyone on the beach turned to shush him. Titanium Wall had the decency to looked abashed. He repeated his "Hoo-ah!" without all caps.
The thirty something players gathered together at the base of the hill, their boots squelching as they dragged themselves on the sand. The beach was filled with footprints, until a high tide came, washing away their tracks and taking the pods with them into the gloomy foaming sea. "Not very environmental friendly that," Gregory said.
One final pod landed, furthest from the beach. A couple of Zakon troopers rushed to it. No one came out of it. "What's that?"
"An equaliser," said the sergeant. When the pod opened, Kirito could understand why.
As the Zakon troops gathered in fireteams of ten, Nikita raised her own rifle and pointed up to the hill.
In the dead of night, shadows haunted the hills of Greece.
A sword flashed out of a scabbard, a body dropped quietly into the brush. A Bowie knife dug into the neck of another. On the other side of the hill, someone's skull crumpled like a soda can thanks to a well executed suplex.
A tiny shadow came out behind a dead tree. It meowed.
Kirito experienced a sense of deja vu from this. Just like back on the first mission to assassinate the Good Doctor, or sneaking up at the fire station in Volos. Not that he was complaining, he liked the odd stealth game. He slowly slid his arming sword back into his scabbard, thankful that he had the foresight to not sell it off.
As an avid RPG player, he tended to unload every single thing at vendors to have a light pack. Lots of players, especially those playing games of the non-multiplayer variety, opened up console commands and gave themselves an infinite inventory. To Kirito, players who do that don't practice the healthy habit of inventory management. Klein was one of those players: forever hoarding Frostbite Venom, knowing full well he'd never put poison on his weapon.
As the rest of the Zakon players made their way to the objective, his thoughts drifted back to his old friend. Knowing Klein, who was really really into samurai stuff, he'd probably be even more melee oriented than he was. (Can you be called a weaboo if you were Japanese?). He wondered how he was doing.
Skirmisher-chan appeared out of the dark, and gave her report. She was confident that the scouts had eliminated any patrolling enemies.
Nikita said into her radio. "Snipers, are you in position?"
"ETA three minutes, sir."
"Good. Hold fire until I give the order. Take out those «Corvo-Bats», then we'll assault the enemy base."
The enemy base was guarding the objective: a pre-war radio tower where some sort of thumper machine, a great slab of iron repeatedly striking the earth, was set up underneath. Wires were connected to the rumbler's engine, broadcasting the rhythms through the brand new satellite dishes. Even a kilometre away, the players could feel the vibrations beneath their feet like small earthquakes. Such an installment was a dead giveaway, had it not been in a secluded area in the hills, far from any civilisation. The outer perimeter was made of hastily made fab-blocks, a raised platform with railings, sandbags, and thin scrap metal for concealment rather than for cover.
Then Sinon emerged from the darkness, returning from her own scouting mission. When she passed the row of Zakon soldiers, they all put their hands through her fur. At some point, she had somehow become a lucky charm for the players. One Zakon trooper, who Kirito was sure was the one that Sinon scratched his eyes out back in Syria, gave her the most head scratches.
In normal circumstances, strangers putting their hands on his girlfriend was a cause for a fist fight. But as she had become some sort of mascot to the guild, he was fine with it. He couldn't blame them, she was very adorable.
She walked up to Kirito, and gave her report, which Kirito translated to Nikita: a substantial militia with pistols, shotguns and SMGS, paired with a few «Living Turrets» and a single «Flesh Pupper». Of the enemies, the living bioweapons were a far bigger threat than the handlers themselves. Kirito made a face at the Flesh Pupper. "At least we aren't fighting in a sewer."
"Major, we're in position," came the snipers.
"Not yet. Everyone, get into position. Skirmisher-chan, you're up."
Skirmisher-chan led the small team, her Vityaz raised. They followed her, bodies low, the barrels of their gun suppressed; even the Wall, who somehow, found a big blocky suppressor to fit his Thompson. Or the long and thin one for Tadao's Winchester, an even bigger mystery.
As realistic as GGO was, gunshots weren't as loud as they were in real life. The sound was just barely under the legal limitations of what was allowed, as research showed that while loud sounds couldn't exactly damage one's hearing - it was physically impossible to translate virtual pain to real pain - it could be damaging to one's mental health in the long term. Lore-wise, each Vatborn had their ear sensors buffed up through bionics. Despite this, the first time Kirito shot a gun in GGO, it very much surprised and frightened him. It was one of the few breaks from realism the entire playerbase was okay with.
However, suppressors served an actual use in-game which was directly based on what they did in real life: not magical silencers that completely muffled any and all gunshots, but realistic attachments that lessened muzzle flash.
Kirito recalled, early on in GGO, about wanting to buy a silencer for his TMP, only to have Sinon correct him on the term. "It's called a suppressor, not a silencer."
"Yeah, but silencer sounds cooler right?" he joked, but the glare from his roommate silenced (heh) any dissent. Last time he did something similar, she tore him a new one when he insisted on calling magazines clips.
"Right, right, suppressors. I'll use the correct term just for you, Sinon-chan."
"Fine. I'll start calling arming swords longswords then."
He gasped. "How dare you use my own pedantry against me."
She smiled at her own deviousness. "I just don't understand why Hollywood movies make suppressors magic items that make all guns go pew pew. You'd need subsonic ammunition for that, and even then, it's still really loud!" She then went on a tangent about this old film where two rival assassins pulled out their pistols from their jackets, shooting at each other at a walking pace, in a crowded subway tunnel, but not a single person reacted to this deadly duel.
"Wow, you must really hate this movie."
"What? No, I love this movie. Top ten easily."
"Weird. Never seen it myself."
Another mistake. They fast-forwarded their weekly movie night to watch the entire pentalogy. At least it wasn't another war documentary again. To be fair, they were really good movies.
"Up there," Skirmisher-chan whispered, snapping Kirito out of his thoughts. The scouts were a few hundred yards away from the Rumbler Tower, close enough they could throw a rock at the militia. They made sure to circumvent around so the Flesh Pupper didn't sniff them out with its four noses. "Commissar, how do we approach this?"
"We should do this quietly," he said, as he pulled the pin of a grenade, and lobbed it at the general direction of the enemy.
The grenade went off, destroying the Living Turret and tearing an arm off a militaman.
The night exploded into chaos. The great cracks of sniper rifles brought down one of the Corvo-Bats that hung on the tower as it fell to the ground with a splat. Another crack tore the wing off one and it fell right on top of another militiaman. Titanium Wall let rip with his Tommy gun, taking down two enemies in a single spray. The initial shock wore off, the militia recalled their training and got into cover, returning fire.
Kirito advanced, shooting with his rifle and missing entirely. The enemy machine gunner was in cover, behind sandbags, and he was unwisely advancing forward for the sole purpose of getting into melee. So focussed was he on the machine gunner on the raised platform, he didn't notice another enemy rushing at him. "Kirito, watch out!"
A body slammed into him, his gun flew out of his hand. The Flesh Pupper was on him, tentacle on his neck, teeth baring at his face. Two tongues lolled out of its head, covering him with drool. Both his hands held it by its neck. Its front paw scratched him in the face and he'd have lost an eye had it not been for his warmask.
He reached for his Scorpion, and aimed up, squeezing the trigger. A burst of rounds went into its belly, its guts and intestines spilled out onto his body. Kirito cursed at GGO's realism for what must have been the twentieth time. He rolled the offending beast off him.
The battle was already over. The Zakon troops had set up a defensive perimeter and were looting the dead. Sergeant Gregory came to him and offered a hand, hauling him up. "Should have used your fancy blade there, swordsman."
"Har har." He washed the blood of him with a canteen of water. "What now?"
At the tower, someone had placed a chunk of C4 on it. Major Nikita pointed west. "We destroy the rest of the towers. Let's move, we're wasting starlight!"
The next few towers had been similarly challenging. The explosion of the first tower had alerted everyone in the hills. The enemy hunkered down even deeper. Snipers were posted and mines had been set up. The enemy had numbers, time, and position on their side. The players had experience and Sinon's paws for digging up said landmines.
"Told you it'd be useful."
The second tower was of escalating difficulty, but still doable with small arms and tactics alone. Less militia, more monsters.
It was the third tower they had faced actual problems. There were easily twice the number of the players.
"Bring up plan B!" said Nikita. Plan B was excitedly executed.
A rocket propelled against the machine gun nest, sand and body parts flying in all directions and summoned the briefest cloud of red rain. Of the thirty or so Zakon soldiers, a third had switched out their rifles for RPG-7s, grenade launchers, and other weapons that go boom. Though 2nd Company was built as a standard mechanised infantry unit, most of them had neither the points nor the skills to use them to their full effectiveness.
But a rocket was still a rocket.
The Zakon rained explosive death on them. The sheer amount of rockets they brought was staggering to Kirito. So much so the next three engagements were won with overwhelming firepower. The new Anti-Mutie rounds were a godsend for the various beasts the enemy had. What would have taken an entire magazine to slay only took a third. Which was a good thing, considering how the ammo used by the enemy didn't fit with the players' various Kalashnikovs. They couldn't rely on resupplying from their APCs, there were only so many pods to transport things in the first place.
A particularly large Flesh Pupper came barreling up the hill the Zakon were on, its multiple legs giving it far more speed than the rest. Kirito let loose a burst of rounds at its torso, enough to stagger it, and for Nikita's next burst to end it. The thing's healthbar disappeared in an instant whereas he was damn sure he would have to engage in melee without the rounds.
At the next tower, Sinon commented, "I've never seen this meme build used to such an extent."
"Meme build?" asked Kirito. He had switched to Sinon's rifle and went to snipe the militia soldiers; Vladimir didn't make any Mutie Rounds in .338 Lapua Magnum unfortunately.
Sinon was acting as a spotter. "It's called the «Jasheem Build». Basically, you disregard any and all sense of versatile to carry as many rockets as you can for maximum boompower."
Kirito sniped a rocketeer aiming her own RPG at Gregory's fireteam advancing towards them. He racked the bolt and scanned for more high priority enemies." Weird name for a build."
"It's usually done as a joke in the Red Zones where guilds go at each other and ammo is near infinite. You'd rarely see them on actual missions like these. It's surprisingly effective."
By the sixth and last tower, they had exhausted all their rockets and were using discarded enemy weaponry. Each new Rumbler Tower was more and more heavily defended, utilising more ammo and more lives. Already, they had lost four men to the enemy, which tempered the major's previous aggressiveness to a more calculated caution. On the upside, the enemy had seemed to run out of bio-organic weapons to throw at them.
The last tower was guarded by a smaller but far more experienced force. These were not scared out of their wits militiamen with hand-me-down AKs and hunting weapons, but Republic Stormtroopers with iron discipline and an eternal hatred of the Invisible Hand. The distance between the Zakon camp and the enemy wall was eight hundred yards, the base defended by a massive prefab wall and cliffs on the other sides. They had the defensive advantage and knew it.
"Sir, they don't seem to have any mortars or the like, or any other explosives. Just small arms and the odd sniper if we had to guess. And even then, pretty sure we have a lot more snipers," said Sergeant Gregory. His right arm had been shredded by shrapnel thanks to an enemy land mine and was relegated to lead from the back." Maybe we can radio CHAD in for assistance and call in for supplies?"
"Absolutely not. We've got the company's honour to defend. Also, I don't want to share the XP with them."
While the two discussed, a man dropped from the fort's walls. He was a big man, as big as the sergeant who himself was 6'3. He had two arms on each side of his torso, his ochre greatcoat, already a large piece of fabric, seemed to stretch at his imposing physique. He held a buckler, a yataghan, a mace and a revolver simultaneously. The «Discipline Master's» bushy beard trailed down his chest. A high peaked cap with the symbol of a DNA helix stitched to it completed his look.
"Slaves of capitalism, I challenge you to a duel!"
"Really, again?" Nikita sighed. "As if the first one wasn't enough."
"Yes, but it was a glorious duel!" said Sergeant Gregory. "Such technique, such ferocity! I should get myself an axe and learn how to use it."
"You weren't even there!"
"I was with you in spirit."
Kirito appeared next to the major in an instant. "Well, well. Looks like you need someone to take him out."
The Discipline Master was going about, rallying the troops with passionate rhetoric. Subjects like 'no gender wage gap', 'free universal healthcare' and 'wealth limit.' From a gameplay perspective, the speeches were giving them buffs - more health, more accuracy, that sort of thing. It was a mechanic that originated from the game's first expansion, Savage Sands, which focussed on greatly populating the Middle Eastern region and its Bandit Lords. The Discipline Master, was in essence, a toned down Bandit Lord minus the spiky armour.
Nikita nodded. "That's right. And I know just the right man for the job."
Kirito unslung the chainsword from his back. "Ah, finally. Glorious melee combat."
"Commissar, deal with him."
The Tornado snapped a salute. "Sir, yes sir!"
"Hey! I coulda take him!"
"Look, Kirito. You need to spread out XP for the rest of the guild." The commissar went down the hill to the cheers of the rest of the troops and the jeers of the enemy. "Besides, you already did it last time."
"But I didn't even win the last duel!" he complained and realised he wasn't really making a strong case for himself.
The major turned to the cat sitting on the rock. "Your boyfriend is quite whiny, isn't he?"
Sinon nodded in agreement. "Nya."
Kirito blinked back tears. "Sinon please."
The champion of socialism and the champion of capitalism readied themselves in a stance. Silence reigned. In some sort of agreed upon code of conduct, the two men sheathed their weapons, and prepared themselves.
A cinematic tumbleweed rolled by.
The Discipline Master drew. Tadao didn't.
The enemy commissar's shot missed, a sudden jerk of the hand at the last minute. Frowning at this clear breach in the code of conduct, he holstered his handgun and charged at Tadao, mace, sword, and buckler at the ready. The onlookers roared.
The gun duel transformed into a melee one as Tadao drew his bowie knife. The cowboy nimbly evaded each blow from him. The player didn't even seem to try to attack his enemy. Kirito was impressed with his footwork and wondered idly if he practiced martial arts.
This went on for a few more minutes, with both sides getting frustrated at the lack of any damage. The Discipline Master, huge as he was, was cumbersome with his four arms. It was as if someone took the Demon Ogre enemy from SAO and made it worse.
"What is he doing?"
"The thing I asked him to do," said Nikita.
The swordsman grumbled something under his breath. He looked around, noticing a distinct lack of blue. "Hey, where's Sinon?"
An explosion rocked the enemy base, a large gout of flame that turned the night into day for the briefest of heartbeats. The enemy turned inward, forgetting the murderous mercenaries outside of the base, and rushed to save the tower. In a show of chivalry, Tadao simply kicked his opponent in the back of the knee and made a quick sprint towards his side.
The sergeant barked an order and the soldiers moved at an orderly pace. Someone had popped smoke to cover their retreat.
"Wait, hold on!" He was pointing to the wreckage of the base. "How did -"
Sinon creeped out of the bush and saluted Nikita with a paw. "Nya!"
"Excellent work, Sinon. If you get your human avatar back, we might have more jobs for you in the future."
They were making their way down a goat path now. "Did-did you send Sinon on a bombing mission without telling me? And the commissar to distract the enemy?" Kirito was completely blindsided by the plan.
"I don't need your permission to ask your girlfriend to do something for me. It's 2031, keep up with the times, Kirito."
"Nya," agreed the cat.
"That's not what I meant … argh!"
Sinon purred in content for she could not laugh in her cat form but her laughter echoed in his head.
He couldn't stay mad though, he loved the sound of her laughter.
The mercs went south where the Magaran Fields lay before them, and the sun was rising from the east.
"Oh maaaan. How long are we gonna be stuck here?!"
"I told you, we could just kill each other and respawn." A sigh. "But then we'd be losing the XP we've been getting. And we'd have to pay for the cloning fee too …"
"See, this wouldn't have happened if Lootz didn't ditch us!"
"Yes, this is all Lootz's fault! She shoulda be here with us!"
"Damn straight! I'm gonna switch her shampoo with pink dye."
"Oooh, most devious, Hikari-chan."
"Thank you, Ruth-kun. Yes, Lootz will pay for this."
As the two vengeful players plotted their revenge (vengefully), the earth began to shake. The sands shifted, turning into semi-liquid, and the tank which the two made their refuge for the past few hours began to sink. They screamed as they held onto the tank's turret like a lifeline.
From the earth, a colossal creature burst forth, sending out sand in great waves and dust storms. It rose a hundred meters into the sky, shading the pathetic crying humans with its form. As quickly as it materialised, it submerged with a mighty crash, the sheer force behind the impact rolling the sixty ton tank over as easily as a branch on water.
All around them, Magaran Fields came to life as more pillars rose into the sky, harbingers of the End Times. No longer under the control of their master, they went west towards Corinth where they would wreak bloody vengeance. Outside, the Republic's brass was in full panic as they prepared their War Mammoths to fight a hopeless battle. It was a scene that could have been lifted from Revelations.
For Ruth and Hikari, it was one of the worst and best experiences in all of gaming.
Ten minutes later, they dug themselves out of the sand just barely saving themselves from suffocating to death. Hikari was the first one out. "Holly shit, holy shit … we're alive!"
Ruth vomited a glassful of sand. "Ugh, why'd they have to give sand taste? Where the hell are we?"
The two looked around them, they had found themselves at the base of some hills. It was a fair distance away from their original position, probably a good kilometre or five. How the hell that happened, they didn't know. "We … we need to report this back to base," he said.
Hikari poured out what could be a litter of sand out of her boot. She had no idea where the other boot was. "I don't think we'll survive the trip. We don't have guns, and this place will be crawling with heavy armour. It's not like rescue is going to come for us out of nowhere."
The two of them jumped out of their skins as the desert was filled with the sound of gunfire. They threw themselves back into the sand that they just dug themselves out. "Shit, shit! We're under attack!" cried the medic.
Ruth raised his head and pointed to the source of gunfire. "No, look! On the hills!"
Hikari did so and found the hills crawling with soldiers in desert camo Ratnik gear, armed to the teeth. They didn't look like they were paying attention to the Warhawks. And … was that a blue cat? That looked familiar.
Most notably of the newcomers was a man dressed in the olive fatigues of an American GI, firing his BAR into the air, whooping and hollering. He raised his rifle into the heavens, a look of pure happiness on his face, his voice rang clear in the desert air.
"WOLVERINES!"
Does anyone remember IO Interactive's Freedom Fighters? That was great, and I recall they rereleased it a while back. I should get it sometime. It was Jesper Kyd's music at its finest.
On the upside, 2021 was my single most active year in all of my career writing fanfiction. Less so writing original stuff, so fair warning, don't expect the same schedule for Sinonon, Merchant Prince and Retold going forward. Thanks to everyone who's been following. I would die for you.
Next up is Merchant Prince so look forward to that! Till next time.
