Date posted: 31st January 2023

Heads up, no chapter for Sinonon or Merchant Prince next week. Gotta work on some OC stuff!

Onto the show.


Chapter 22: Power (Not) to the People - Part 2

There were many unanswered questions in a world as massive as Gun Gale Online. The game's landform was roughly equivalent to about one third of Earth's landmass in terms of scale, was bound to have secrets strewn about. There were games where the gamespace was bigger, most notably space sims, but even with hundreds of thousands of planets, none were detailed as GGO's own take of a post-apocalyptic earth.

Most of the cities were more or less ripped directly from Google Maps, expertly cut down, buildings merged and repurposed, lovingly detailed and rendered in gorgeous Full Dive technology, then strategically nuked here and there. According to the devs, they once went all out on the nukes on Paris, and apparently one of their simulation rigs spontaneously combust into flames.

After (conservatively) dropping a sun's worth of nukes onto their version of Earth, the writing team went into developing on a smaller scale. The Lead Writer for Zaskar suggested the main hub of the game to be just outside of Istanbul. It made the most sense, since that was the breadth of what the game could create.

The game was in development for half a decade, filling the world with NPCs, settlements, nation-states, monsters, vehicles, buildings, equipment, nature, animals, rivers, hills, and dungeons. To help with the massive workload, much of the world was randomly generated, using a system called PANDORA. So while certain points of interests were loving handcrafted, many a randomly generated dungeon only came to existence when a player entered its surrounding area.

In the early days of the game, PANDORA designed dungeons on the fly, filling it with threats and treasures. But it was an imperfect system, it was not unheard of for a dungeon to create a long maze-like interior cell filled with unfair traps, high level mobs, hallways blocked by debris, only to have a reward at the end of a dungeon be something like a low-level weapon that you could find in literal trash.

PANDORA would be tweaked to no longer have such things happen but fragments of it existed still, buried deep in the fifth layer of spaghetti code hell.

PANDORA's monster generation was its most touted (and troubled) subsystems pre-1.0. It would take the eight dozen or so available mobs in the game to create potentially thousands of different new mobs. Zaskar, still a game developed by people in their twenties in a crappy office, thought this would be a grand idea to implement into their game.

It was, to their complete surprise, an unmitigated disaster for one primary reason: the devs did not put a limit on what enemy mechanics could be combined with other enemy mechanics.

This led to complete abominations that could not be created by the minds of Man, but by an angry, depraved, utterly hostile AI. There were peasants armed with plasteel head pitchforks hopped on combat drugs; assault rifle wielding bandits that shot a hundred rounds per trigger pull; pick-up trucks with ten times their armour value; tanks with one tenth of their armour value; Colossi without enough hitpoints, and so on and so forth.

But most infamous of this was the «Ayi, Ursine God of Death». It was a Syrian Brown Bear, with tanks treads for legs, 20mm cannon for arms, roughly the size of a car, and its roar was, of all things, a laser beam that could melt tanks; a weapon that had at that point been deprecated when the dev team decided to go all-in on the tacticool and ditch all the sci-fi weaponry.

To say Ayi was beloved and loathed by everyone would be an understatement. There were threads upon threads asking the best way to kill Ayi, people raging or loving the new system, and even players wanting the sort of character creation to be available on release. Hundreds of memes and much fanart was created for Ayi, loved and hated in equal measure. Yet no matter how many players tried to slay her, none were able to, on account of the servers not being able to host that many players in a single world.

It only took a week of crunch to revert the system, and so most of the unique mobs were removed, Ayi included. But to this day, an ancient cult still worships the ursine god of death. Some say, if you traveled to Kazdagi Forest, southeast of Istanbul, you could still hear the roar of Ayi and the crunching of her treads. Ayi, in a way, had become GGO's of version of Mount Chiliad's Bigfoot.

"Okay, but what does that have anything to do with our mission?" asked Mason. "I'm trying to pay attention to the plan here."

The Wall smiled. "PRAY TELL, AMRIKI, DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF CAT OUR SINON IS?"

"... blue?"

"NO, NO, THE BREED."

Mason turned to look at Sinon, listening to the commissar's plan. She hung over his right shoulder, like some sort of oversized parrot. Big blue eyes staring at the corkboard, as if sizing up a rat to pounce.

"Uh, I don't know. British shorthair?"

"NO, JOURNALIST-MAN. SHE IS CLEARLY AN ANGORA."

Mason thought for a moment. "No, no. Her fur's too thick for that. She kinda looks like a munchkin, but without the stubby legs. Wait, how the hell does this relate to the PANDORA system you were telling me?"

"THE WALL BELIEVES ME THAT OUR SNIPER CAT IS A REMNANT OF SAID ALGORITHM. CONSIDER, HOW SHE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE ANY REAL CAT, AND HOW SHE IS BLUE. AND CONSIDER HOW THE FOES WE ARE FIGHTING ALSO SEEM TO HAVE A COMBINATION OF PHYSICAL MUTATIONS AND WEAPONRY. IMPRESSIVE, YES?"

Mason thought about this for a moment and considered the evidence. Indeed, though the Republic of Mutantopia did act similarly to any high level humanoid enemy, their different mutations such as enhanced animal hearing or hooves gave them an edge over the average Wasteland raider.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'll note it in my upcoming article."

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class, Mason-san?"

"No, commissar. Please continue."

"As I was saying, this is what we're going to do …"


The mission began at 0430 hours.

Sinon's earliest missions in GGO, aside from the mandatory tutorial strike breaking in the Istanbul, was mostly stealth based. The vast majority of warfare were skirmishes, small unit tactics, and daring raids into enemy lines, and for this a sniper was invaluable for solo assassinations or to provide overwatch for her squad.

Early grumpiness of not being able to use her beloved Remington MSR aside (safely stashed away in the magical boxes of safe zones), she took to being a scout as easily as an old pair of shoes. Her small size, oddly coloured fur and military pyjamas aside, meant that stealth was her greatest power. Even as someone who had specced into stealth a fair bit, the sheer smallness (or smol-ness as Kirito would put it) meant she was able to break into nooks and crannies that no investment in fancy lockpicks or ghillie suits could ever match.

So when Tadao and Wall found a slight hole in the base of the tall fence, he knew she was the cat for the job.

After some quick digging and a short squeeze later, Sinon easily squeezed through, Dyne's keycard around her neck. Truly, kittehs exists in both solid and liquid form. She made sure to unlock a back door with a swipe of the card before infiltrating the main base proper.

The area was heavily defended, with Dwellers in flak armour armed with SMGs, and leashed Flesh Puppers, ones bred with multiple noses and snouts. In one guard booth, she could spy one with the snouts of a bloodhound and a German shepherd. She made sure to stay away from them.

She also made sure to stay away from the scary looking turrets. There were also Menhirs, the beloved Gun Roombas of the game, save the fact that their wheels had been replaced by treads. They were beefed up too, with thicker plating and what appeared to be new sensors. She'll have to shut them down too.

The power plant was massive, the silos so tall she needed to crane her neck to see the top, and even then, she could only see the blinking lights on the lip of the silo. The windows were barred, every door seemed to have at least two men on guard.

But no one was checking the vents. They never check the vents. Classic Immersive Sim design that.

She shimmied up a drain pipe where a ventilation fan blocked her path. By using the cat's most powerful ability (knocking things over), she sent a plastic pot into the vent, halting the fan to a screch. Some wriggling about later, she was in.

"Hacker voice: I'm in."

"Did you just say hacker voice, followed by I'm in?" asked Kirito. "You haven't even specced into any «Computers»!"

"Disturb me not, pillow. I am saving the day. Now tell me where to go." Not her fault that her kitteh form lacked pockets for her PDA. Now, how she got her PDA back when she reverted into her humanoid, that's a question that's better not asked.

Sinon waited and her mind imagined the sound of shuffling papers.

"Okay, according to the map the Wall stole from a patrol, it should be on the third floor, northwest corner. That's where the main security room is at."

"Gotcha. Kitteh out."

The inside of the plant was thankfully devoid of any Flesh Puppers, but still had cameras mounted on the walls. Unlike the Hellway, the guards were more likely to react negatively to a cat in the vicinity. She sprinted under desks, chairs and benches, following the instructions so helpfully written on signs. At one point, a janitor walked with her cleaning stroller, so Sinon took a quick jump in the empty bottom shelf and rode quite a fair distance away before dismounting.

As she so busily performed Tactical Espionage Action, Kirito's voice came in once again. "Sinon, something's up."

She halted mid-step. "Are you under attack?"

"No, no. Uh, how do I put this … are you busy?"

Sinon shot into the nearest trash can when a patrol of guards came walking down the hall. They were armed with AA-12 shotguns; security was very serious. "Kinda, is it important?"

"Very, so listen well."

"I am."

"What breed are you?"

Big blue eyes blinked. "What?"

"The Wall brought it up while we were waiting, and everyone's arguing. So what are you? Me personally, I think you may be a Maine Coon. But then again, you're too small to be one."

"I don't know!" She saw the security office right up ahead. "Uh, British Shorthair?"

"No, no. We decided that your face isn't round enough for that."

"What did you say about my face, Kazuto?"

She swore she could hear him choking, which really shouldn't be possible with how the bracelets worked. "Uh, nevermind that. Continue with your mission, soldier."

She laughed. Or tried to, at least. Can cats laugh? She'd have to look that up.

As she snuck her way through the base, she spotted a curious looking set of platforms outside. She recognised them for what they were: drop pods. Those were their tickets out of here.

The office was nondescript and seemed no different from the others she had passed, save for the sheer amount of terminals. There was a two-tier security door with a pesky guard wielding a shotgun. She'd have to deal with that.

It was time to turn on her feline charms.

She sauntered over, eyes big as saucers. The guard noticed her and raised an eyebrow. He stepped out, opening the door. "What are you doing here?"

Sinon flopped on the ground, exposing her belly. "Nyaaa." No one could resist the fluffy belly.

The guard reached for the radio on his shoulder. "Yeah, this is Security HQ. I've got a contaminant here, a stray. Can someone get rid of it? Over."

Her jaw dropped. No, that was impossible. How could he resist her adorableness?!

"What kind of cat?"

"Hell, I dunno. A blue tabby?"

"There's no such thing as blue tabbies, you idiot. They're orange."

"No way! I've seen non-orange tabbies before! What are you, a tabby expert?"

"Fine, who cares. So it's a stray, just shoot it!"

The guard's face fell. "I'm not gonna shoot an innocent cat, you absolute monster! What do you take me for, a janissary?"

"Then shoo it away or something! Why is this worth reporting?"

"I can't leave my post, that's why you've assigned me here!"

"I'm not sending another guard to deal with your stray problem. Figure that out yourself. Stupid low cost security …" grumbled the voice at the other end before the radio clicked.

The guard turned back to Sinon. "Sorry, kitty. You aren't allowed here. Go away."

Upper management, truly the worst enemy an employee can face. Plan B it was.

Sinon got back on her feet and sprinted through the door, under his legs. "Hey!"

Now loose in the office, she headed towards the main console where three techies were working. She jumped atop, spilling mugs of room temperature coffee on one of their laps. She swiped her card on the reader, just before one the techies grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.

In an instant, there was a huge thunk and the sounds of turbines dy8ing, as parts of the power plant's grid died. On the screens, she could see numerous turrets powering down and the Menhirs turning off. On the camera facing the gate, the lights turned off.

"What the hell did you just do?!" the techie growled.

"Nyehehehe," she nyeh'd deviously.

Another one of the techies slammed a button on the wall, and the familiar sounds of klaxons went off. At this point, Nuke Squad must already be in the plant, wreaking chaos.

"We're going in, standby," Kirito said telepathically to her. "We'll find a way out of this yet."

"What do we do now?" asked another one of the techies. "Should we -"

"Yes," said another, the oldest of the three, no doubt the man in charge. "Guard, summon MaxSec."

"Yes, sir." The guard went to one of the radios on the console and flicked some switches.

Sinon, for one, wasn't worried. She likely was going to be stuck into a room or whatever, in which she would make her escape. The plan was proceeding as smoothly as expected. Sure, Dyne and Klein may have been somewhat underleveled, but their squad was strong enough to take on even the best of Republic Stormtroopers.

"Plant B to HQ, Plant B to HQ, we've been hacked and we are expecting intruders. Requesting assistance over."

"Acknowledged. Thunder Fighters are en-route."

She blinked. Well, that was a huge miscalculation on her part.

"Nyoooo …" she nyo'd regretfully.


Kirito gave the guard a knock on the head, as some Native American warriors in the past called it. The action was nowhere near as pleasant as the name made it to be. Probably because it involved sinking his tomahawk into someone's head, splitting helmet and skull alike.

The swordsman retracted his shortsword from the man's rib as his lifeless body slid to the floor and like the samurai of yore flicked the blood off it before sheathing them. Elsewhere, he could see the commissar cleaning his bowie knife on the clothes of a dead man. Mason had also knocked out another guard with the butt of his MCX.

From a fair distance away, Mason clicked his tongue. The Wall emerged alongside Dyne, Smith and Klein from behind a set of crates, carrying the nuke on his back. They made their way to the side entrance, ignoring the rushed panic of the guards, flashlights waving everywhere.

Mason was hacking the keypad with his cyberdeck, the rest of them waiting in the dark..

It was then Sinon spoke to him. "Good news and bad news, which one would you hear first?"

"Good news." In Kirito's opinion, learning the good news first was like a buff against damage, whereas listening to the good news later was like using a potion. Better to not take any damage in the first place.

"There's drop pods in the middle of the plant, not too far from the security room. We can use them to escape."

Kirito mentally cheered, it'd be such a shame to lose all the precious XP they've gotten; it was easily three levels up worth in total. That was one good thing for the rest of the Outriders dying, he supposed. Not that he'd say that to the commissar, he didn't want to blamed.

"What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is -"

He felt Klein tapping him on the shoulder as he looked up to the gorge above. Shadows fell from the night sky, exhausts of fire lighting their forms as they descended from the heavens. They must have fallen fifty thirty stories before finally landing onto the concrete of the parking lot, cracking the earth beneath them.

There were three of them, wielding a combination of chainswords and massive handguns. Their leader performed a series of hand signs, and the Thunder Fighters split up in numerous directions.

"Let me guess, Thunder Fighters?"

"Oh. You've seen them?"

"One of them's coming right here!" Satoh hissed. "Hurry up!"

"Hold on, just one sec … done!"

The squad quickly shuffled into the door before locking it.

"Fucking Thunder Fighters!" Klein cursed. "They fly now?!"

"THEY FLY NOW," the Wall concurred.

Kirito told them what Sinon told him.

"Right, the mission has not changed. We head to the base of the silos and plant the nuke there before detonating it. Is there enough drop pods for all seven of us?" Tadao asked.

"Sinon didn't see. She's currently locked under a trash basket in the office with a stack of books atop it," said Kirito, removing his NVGs.

"You say that as if it's completely normal for your girlfriend to be trapped by office furniture," said Klein.

"I know, this game's really weird."

Mason led the way, using Nahla to scout the hallways. The drone itself was soccer size, and was nowhere near as stealthy indoors compared to outdoors. The little bee's thrusters hummed ever so softly, nearly bumping into the ceiling as it kept numerous lenses out.

Mason held up a hand as he stared at his deck. "A squad of guards heading this way. Go loud?"

"No. Not until we reach the base of the silos. We split up: Mason, Kirito, Klein, Dyne and the Wall with you to the objective. Satoh and I will secure the drop pods."

"What about Sinon?" asked Kirito.

"Sinon isn't going anywhere. She's a cat, she'll find a way out."

The squad dispersed into side rooms, just in time before the security team swept through.

Finding the silos was an easy enough endeavour, the challenge was going to it undetected. The three of them went through numerous offices, most of which had been abandoned. Papers strewn about, computers left on, office chairs out of place, and mugs of coffee undrank. Numerous times, they had to switch off the lights or take cover behind or under desks just to miss the patrol.

Hiding was pretty hard to do in such small spaces, if you're like Kirito, lugging around a sword, a chainsword, a tomahawk, plus an assault rifle, an SMG, an anti-materiel rifle, and all its ammo. Sinon would not forgive Kirito if he'd lost her precious Lynx.

"YOU KNOW, FRIEND KIRITO," the Wall whispered, yet somehow did so in all-caps, "THE WALL IS HAPPY TO LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD."

"No, no. I need them all. Besides, your leg is broken."

"THE BRACE WILL HOLD," said the GI, though everyone was too polite to state how the mechanical bracer was wheezing like a dying vacuum cleaner.

"Wall's right, you don't need that many weapons, dude," said Klein.

"No, I need them!"

"Just like all those healing crystals you've hoarded back in SAO right?"

"Are you still angry about that? I was saving them!"

"You had 99 of them and we were facing the boss, you miser!"

"Can you three shut the hell up? Fucking gamers," Dyne said under his breath. He was reminded then why his main hobby was fishing instead.

They heard the shuffling of feet and immediately took cover; Kirito and Dyne behind a sofa, Klein behind and Mason under a desk. The decker had his drone bump into a switch, enveloping the room in darkness.

The door opened, and a guard poked the muzzle of his Uzi through, alongside a flashlight. The only other light sources were the computer screens, quickly abandoned, casting an early glow in the office.

Everyone stayed completely still, playing the world's most dangerous game of hide and seek. Kirito could only hear the footsteps of the guard, the beating of his heart, and the slow whirring of Wall's bracer. A new fear came to, of what would happen if the guard opened fire on the Wall and destroyed the nuke, rendering it useless.

But worst of all, the hilt of his sword was digging into his side. But he needed all of them! The Lynx for long-range, the AR-15 for medium range, SMG's for close quarters, axe and shortsword for closer quarters, and chainsword for closest quarters. Hmm, Maybe the Wall was right, maybe he was carrying too many weapons.

After a long two seconds of reflections, Kirito concluded: No. It was the Wall who was wrong.

What felt like an eternity passed before Kirito could hear the door closing. It was Mason who broke the silence. "He's gone."

Everyone came out of their hiding spots and the first thing they saw was the Wall, holding up a potted plant in front of his face right beside the vending machine. He wasn't even pressed up against the wall.

Mason's jaw dropped. "H-how?"

"SNEAK 100," said the GI, as if that explained everything.

"That doesn't explain anything!"

The Wall replaced the potted plant on the floor. "SNEAK. ONE. HUNDRED," he repeated, and that was the end of that.


Back in the office, Sinon was trying her best to kill the enemy with a combination of scowls, grunts and very loud meowing. Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective.

"NYAAAA! NYAAA! HISS!" Damn her prison! Plastic, truly her greatest enemy.

The techies dutifully ignored her, trying to get their security systems back online. "Sir, our security machines are still dead and so is surveillance."

The lead techie, an older man with a grey beard and spectacles for his mismatched sized eyes was tapping on his tablet. "Wifi's out too. Damnit, I told the Council that relying on a single OS for this sorta thing is bad!"

The door-guard returned to the office. "Sir, the Thunder Fighters have arrived and are currently hunting the intruders with the rest of security. We've also ensured lab and technician personnel have retreated into the suburbs."

"Good. We don't want the enemy to kill our best minds. Anything else?"

He pointed to Sinon with his shotgun. "What do we do with it?"

"Leave the cat, it's of no danger to us."

"Foolish humans! You will rue the day you imprisoned Sinonon! You hear?! You will rue the day!" threatened Sinon, only to then remember everything she said only came out in a series of meows and hissing. Hmm, maybe Kirito was right, she was taking this cat roleplaying too seriously.

Knowing full well that her team wasn't going to save her anytime soon, Sinon resorted to transforming into her humanoid form. From what had happened before, she surmised two things that triggered the transformation: intense stress or intense calmness.

The first was something video games very much excelled at and GGO especially. Sinon was sitting on three and a half level ups waiting to be spent the next time she 'saved' her game, which only happened when she took a dip in a cloning vat. Unfortunately, years of playing the sweatiest games known to man and trying her hand with Iron Man challenges (i.e: not saving) meant that very few games actually triggered such intense stress in her. Even horror games barely fazed her.

The second was calmness, which was Sinon's default mode 90% of the time. Years of annoying police work and having to talk to the Karens and Elons of Japan on a daily basis had developed nerves of pure steel. However, GGO was a hard enough game to throw her off her groove. Pure serenity in a world where people died to huge ants that breathed fire was sufficient enough of a threat to keep Sinon on the tip of her paws. After the end of the DLC, she was gonna go to Mason and have him (read: force) to write about her experience with this transforming mechanic.

Sadly, Kirito's lap was nowhere nearby to lay her head on, so she did the second best thing she could do; something that took her far too long to figure out.

Sinon logged out.

Five minutes later, she was back. Ah, nothing more soothing than a cup of coffee to get you back to work. She should have figured this out ages ago!

Sinon opened her eyes and found herself in the familiar confines of her plastic prison. There were more guards in the room now, and she could hear gunfire.

"Report! Enemy spotted! Engaging hostiles!" buzzed one of the radios.

She connected to Kirito. "Hey, so … what's up?"

"What's up? WHAT'S UP?! We're under fire, that's what's up! Where were you?!"

"Yeah, yeah, I can hear gunfire from here. Have you planted the bomb?" Sinon rolled her eyes; you left for a coffee break for five minutes and this happened.

"Yes! We hid it pretty well! Tadao and Smith are holding the drop pods bay but they're not discovered yet! We need backup now!"

Gunfire rang out throughout the building: a burst of SMG fire followed by the familiar pop pop of .45 Long Colt. "I think the commissar and Smith are discovered."

"I need catgirl Sinon, ASAP!"

Sinon brought a paw to her face. "Say please."

More gunshots, and the very ominous stomping of a Thunder Fighting menacingly walking down the hallway. Sinon could see the powerful transhuman through the windows of the office walking by, massive Magnum and chainsword in hand. So tall was he, the part of his head wasn't visible to her at this angle.

Once upon a time, Sinon would probably be very alarmed at the sight of one. The sheer amount of ammo and lives needed to kill one of the bastards was high, but she felt nothing but a calmness. The kind of calmness of doing a difficult task ahead, and knowing she could accomplish it.

"Huh? I'm not doing that!"

"Saw a Thunderhead passing the office just now."

"Fine! Please!"

"Pretty please."

"Pretty please! What's gotten into you, Shino?!

"I want headpats when we logout," said Sinon, as she stood up and carefully removed the stack of books and trash basket from her head.

One of the techies noticed her first. "Huh?"

Sometimes Sinon felt bad using her 85 STR to manhandle everything in her way, but there's something oh-so satisfying smashing a nerd's face into a computer screen with the ease of opening a door.

The average human had a reaction time of about 273 milliseconds. The technology of the SEED engine meant that most players were actually able to go even faster than that, with some sort of techno-wizardry that only big brain nerds could program. Sinon had tried (and failed) multiple times to try to comprehend what the value of one point in Agility or Strength would work in a real situation. Does it shave of three milliseconds? Maybe even five? How does that even work, realistically?

She gave up trying to understand the math and the logic behind it, falling to the good ol' process of Big Number = Big Damage.

Fun fact: Cats have a reaction speed of 70 milliseconds. Now, she wasn't sure if it meant that she herself had a reaction speed of 70 milliseconds, but it was definitely faster than the reaction speed of a human.

Or in this case, a mutant. The guard stood no chance.

Sinon dodged out of the way of the barrel, and before the guard could squeeze the trigger, she delivered a devastating haymaker in his face, launching him off his feet into a shelf of paperwork.

She snatched the shotgun midair and aimed it at one of the techies, who flinched in horror of his imminent death.

But Sinon stopped herself. Wait, was she really going to do this? Was she really going to gun down a bunch of people trying to throw off the shackles of their oppressors?

She slapped herself in the forehead. "Idiot Asada! Gotta conserve ammo."

She then flipped the gun, held it by the barrel, and proceeded to pummel everyone in the room to death with the butt stock.

One broken and bloody stock later, Sinon removed the corpse of the first techie she killed and checked the terminal. The three Thunder Fighters were on their way to the power plant, all of them hailing from a different direction. She had to think fast.

Checking the commands on the console, she found just the thing. A quick type in and the doors to the silo were closed, five inch thick walls sliding from the walls and covering the corridors where two of the Thunder Fighters were going through. Another command and she activated another sliding behind them.

Both of them looked up at the cameras, before sheathing their weapons and crashing through the concrete walls instead. Uh oh.

Sinon pressed every button, shutting hallways and with the swipe of the keycard, reactivated and redirected some of the Menhirs to the Thunder Fighters. It was unlikely the security could kill them, but it'd be just enough to slow down.

She saw that Kirito and the rest were engaging in a firefight with security in a hallway, outnumbered three to one. "Kirito, get the hell out of there. The Thunder Fighters are nearby."

Kirito said nothing, before saying something she couldn't hear to Dyne. Her senior pulled out a grenade from his duster, plugged it at the end of his rifle's barrel, and shot it at the team of security. They ran for cover and the camera feed died.

"You out of Neko-Sinon form?"

"Yep."

"Thanks for the heads up. What next?"

"I think -"

Before she could finish her thoughts, Sinon looked up and saw one of the Thuder Fighters across from her, standing in the hallway, staring at her through the office window. He had a massive gun in his meaty fist, aiming straight at her.

"Sinon?"

"I've got a Thunderhead aiming a gun right at me."

"Ah, okie dokie," he said, as if the most dangerous mini-boss the DLC had to offer was but a mere annoyance. "You got this?"

She narrowed her blue eyes against the transhuman's red eyes. They were both aberrations of nature, bred for war. Yet for all the armour and weapons on him, Sinon was willing to take on a monster thrice her weight and twice her size. Taking on insurmountable odds was simply the nature of kitteh.

"Janissary …" he growled the word as if it was poisoned. "I will enjoy killing you."

"Yeah, I got this."

"That's my girl. See ya' at the launch pad."

Sinon dropped to the floor performing a perfect split just before the .45-70 round could take her in the sternum. The bullet had missed by a hands-width.

Sinon was surprised at her own speed and flexibility. Cats really were liquid.

Sinon rolled to the side as the bronze warrior crashed through the wall, demolishing concrete, glass and electronics alike in an attempt to kill her. She got up only to immediately perform the limbo as the chainsword came at her, teeth ripping through the air like a rabid animal, the whirring of the chains almost deafening in the office.

She crooked the shotgun upwards and aimed it at the helmet but misjudged the angle, the buckshot harmlessly glancing off the breastplate. But it was just enough of a distraction and there was no time for a pump as Sinon threw herself through the hole the enemy made, back into the hallway.

She landed on her back, pumped and aimed again, just in time to see the massive Magnum BFR aiming down at her. They were merely meters away from each other and no amount of buckshot could penetrate that plate, so she changed targets.

The thin aeureusite covering the gauntlet could defend against the power of 12 gauge at such a close range. The pellets obliterated the Thunder Fighter's hand and the revolver uselessly fell to the floor, fingers still wrapped around the gun.

The Thunder Fighter, a creature of no fear and no pain did not react, did not mourn the loss of his hand, but charged at the enemy, chainsword raised to sunder the Warrior of Capital.

The Warrior of Capital did not fire back; she dropped her shotgun and lunged forward to grab the fallen revolver. Sinon stuck her finger on the trigger, ignoring the unpleasant sensation of unjamming another finger from the finger guard and aimed it right at his head. The sound of the whirring chainsword and the .45-70 Govt round going off in the the tight hallway was to Sinon akin to a grenade exploding nearby.

She had struck him right in the dome, cracking the helmet right where the forehead was. It stunned the Thunder Fighter, but the second round knocked him over, and some four hundred pounds of meat and metal crashed onto the ground, leaving an imprint of his form in the floor.

Sinon wasted no time; she pounced on the Thunder Fighter, stuck the barrel right by his temple and emptied the chamber right in his head.

Sinon let out a breath that she didn't realise she was holding and slumped her shoulders, ignoring her victory. Hmm, maybe she could use another cup of coffee?

"Kirito, the Thunder Fighter's dead."

"Cool! Cool! Anyway, we're all at the launch pad, and Satoh's missing an arm, so if you could …"

Sinon cracked her neck and began collecting her loot. She cursed under her breath, the chainsword landed at an angle and was completely warped to the point of uselessness. Why was the game determined to not let her have her own chainsword? When she got back to civilisation, she was absolutely going to respec.

"I'm on my way. What would you do without me?"

"Hurry up and I'll give you headpats."

Well she did love her headpats.


Dyne launched a rifle grenade from behind cover, collapsing the doorway and burying at least two security guards beneath the rubble. He patted his belt for another and cursed. "I'm out of grenades!"

"Yeah, well join the club!" said Klein as he let loose a burst of fire with the Wall's BAR, the SPAS-12 on his back was completely spent. "You guys need to hurry it up!"

"THE WALL DOES NOT SEE PINK HAIRED TOSHIRO MIFUNE HELPING," the GI grumped as he continued to pour in another jerry can of chemfuel into the launch pad's reserve. "THE WALL ALSO DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THE SMITH AND THE COMMISSAR DID NOT NOTICE THE FUEL RESERVES FOR OUR ESCAPE WERE EMPTY."

"I said I was sorry, didn't I?!" Tadao yelled as he struck down an enemy sharpshooter on the roof with his Winchester. "Still a lot left?"

"Just a bit more!" said Satoh, hurrying as fast as a man with a missing arm could be. The rushed patch job was sufficient to staunch the bleeding wound but he looked deathly pale and moved at half the speed he was capable of.

It was a ludicrous situation overall. The launch pad was tucked in the corner of the power plant where it kissed the cave wall. There were three different entrances to it, two of which were collapsed by explosives, redirecting enemy traffic to a side door originally meant to transfer personnel and materiel. On one side of the pad was a chemfuel station, the pipes transferring the precious liquid dismantled with a cheeky note on the pump saying that repairs would be resuming back on Monday.

So Smith and the Wall, the most heavily injured men on the squad, had the unfortunate duty of ferrying jerry rigs from the pipehead and pouring them directly into the launch pad's fuel tank, all under heavy fire.

But worst of all, due to the ongoing repairs, they could only launch one pod at a time. This was despite the fact there were seven pods available.

Tadao had absolutely refused to detonate the nuke, which as far as they could tell, had been well hidden and not yet discovered. Even then, progress was nowhere near as fast as any of them would like.

Kirito's AR-15 clicked empty and he dropped it, switching to Sinon's Lynx. The enemy was too well entrenched but so were they, and they spent more time missing each other than actually hitting.

But the tide was against them. It was only a matter of time before they were overrun.

"Grenade launcher on the second storey, north-west!" yelled Mason.

Kirito spotted the enemy immediately. "I got it!"

Raising the heavy AMR to his shoulder, he pulled the trigger, shattering parts of concrete but completely missing the enemy who took cover. He adjusted quickly and shot the cover pillar he was hiding behind instead, and Kirito could spot the satisfying chunk of meat painting the opposite wall. When you had a gun that was designed to shoot through concrete, all cover became concealment.

A burst of fire from the BAR from Klein slew a guard that was out of cover. One of the soldiers, a sergeant if the stripes on his sleeve were any indication, shouted orders. Slowly, the guards laid their own covering fire with their Uzis and shotguns before retreating into the side door they had been coming through.

Smith threw the jerry can aside as a green light popped on the command console. "It's done! We can launch!"

"Hah! Run away, bastards! We got you whipped!" Mason yelled.

"Don't jinx us, man. We ain't done yet," said Klein. "Where's Sinon?"

"A better question," said Dyne, "is where the hell are the damn Thunderheads?"

Smith, being the weaponsmith for Black Dog, had studied how the launch pods worked. In the absence of a technician to man the controls, each pod could be launched on a timer. Being the most injured man on the squad, Tadao had ordered him to go first.

"See ya on the surface, chief," Smith said to Dyne,

Mason manned the console and did the preliminary checks, which were thankfully written on a panel. "Alright, ready. I hope I got the coordinates right. Three, two, one …"

A great jet of flame erupted from the pod's rockets. The platform shook as the pod flew upwards into the sky. All eyes were on Smith's pod as it ascended into the orange sky, after what appeared to be an age stuck underground. They were going to make it.

But Murphy's Law had a tendency to knock you down and slap you with the face of reality.

A hulking shadow emerged from seemingly nowhere. Its great sword screamed in anger as its wielded struck the pod, some twenty meters in the air. The pod was bisected, as was its occupant, before exploding into a flaming wreck. Bits of meat and a rain of blood wetted the launch pad as the players looked in sheer horror of what happened.

The Thunder Fighter landed, leaving craters in the earth. His chainsword was also currently on fire.

"Oh man, that'd be so cool if he wasn't trying to kill us!" said Klein, awed and frightened.

"Finally!" Kirito threw his guns aside and began stripping off his armour.

"THE WALL DOES NOT THINK THE CHAMPION OF COMMUNISM WILL BE SEDUCED BY YOUR FEMBOY CHARMS, SWORD MAN."

"I'm not -" Kirito caught himself. "I'm challenging him to a duel, you idiot." He took off his mail shirt as well, gaping holes where he had been stabbed and shot evident. No use to him anymore being dead weight.

He pointed his chainsword at the Thunder Fighter. "1v1 me, you stupid sack of meat."

Damn, he was so cool. She wished Sinon was there to see him and be enraptured by his sheer manliness and complete lack of femininity.

The Thunder Fighter said nothing then proceeded to pull out his gun and shoot. Everyone flinched as the command console exploded in a spark of showers.

"Hey, that ain't fair!" he pouted. Everyone else that wasn't an idiot took the chance to take cover.

The Thunder Fighter charged with transhuman speed, covering the distance in mere seconds, sword on fire. Kirito activated his Booster, two vials of Vladimir's «Davai» surging coursing through his system and matched the enemy with equal speed.

Teeth bit into teeth, sparks flew as the swordsmen came face to face. The enemy's helmet resembled something akin to a Crusader helmet and the face shaped in the form of a scowling skull.

"You know, I never get skull masks. Bit too tryhard, ya' think?"

The Thunder Fighter made no comment on his fashion sense and disengaged only to come at him with a vertical strike. Kirito moved sideways and aimed upwards into his armpit, tearing the mail underneath and moving behind his back to plunge his sword into the power reactor of the jump pack.

He saw the flames coming to life and reacted accordingly, launching himself backwards before the jump pack's jets could engulf him.

The transhuman flew ten meters into the air and the rest of Nuke Squad opened fire. He floated in the air impossibly, all that meat and metal, and angled his thrusters towards the Wall. The GI, with his busted leg, couldn't move fast enough to dodge the attack and braced himself for another death.

Mason's drone came to save the day as Nahla floated upwards and slammed itself into the transhuman, veering him off course and landing him in a pile of crates.

"Mason, fix the console! We'll distract him!" ordered Tadao. The journalist quickly found himself beside the smoking wreck of a machine.

The Thunder Fighter emerged from the crates only to find himself blade to blade once again with a drugged up Kirito, the veins of his face black and his face pale. The swordsman dodged a swipe and counter-struck at the Thunder Fighter's thigh, cutting the leather of his holster and dropping the revolver.

It was as if the vandalism done to his holster had thrown the transhuman into a fury as the speed of his swings came at Kirito twice as fast. Kirito parried and parried, waiting for an opening but could see none, not with the flames blinding him. Without Vladimir's stims, he would have been dead thrice over.

Klein jogged up behind the Thunder Fighter and let loose a burst of .30-06 into the back. Bits of chemfuel spilled from the pack and pooled underneath the giant. He spun about to engage the samurai.

"Hey, asshole! I'm the bigger threat here!" Taking the chance, Kirito plunged his chainsword into the power pack, finding the metal to be aluminium rather than aeureusite.

The momentum of Kirito's attack was overpowering. He felled the Thunder Fighter, who slipped and fell into a puddle of his own chemfuel, the chainsword flying and wretched from his hand. It was there Dyne made his contribution.

He threw a jerry can onto the fallen figure, dousing the already drenched figure with more of the stuff.

"Burn in hell!" he said, and kicked the flaming sword back to its owner.

Chemfuel was a hell of an accelerant and not even the might of power armour was good enough to halt the licking of the flames. The Thunder Fight turned and turned, trying to put out the flame, but chemfuel was notoriously sticky and difficult to put out. The landing pad was filled with the smell of burnt metal and cooked meat.

Most disturbingly, the Thunder Fighter did not scream, did not yell threats. He suffered in silence, the only sound being the crackling of fire and the death coughs of the power armour and his blade.

"Hell, that's a way to go," said Klein, shaking his head.

"That's one down, there's still another two about. Mason, how's the console?" asked Tadao.

The journalist poked his head out of the guts of the machine, his face smeared with grease. "Yeah, I think I got it. Thank God I invested in some Repair."

"Wall, get your ass in the pod. You're outta here next," said Tadao.

"AND DIE LIKE POOR SMITH? NOT A CHANCE."

"Well it's not like a Thunder Fighter's gonna pop up right now to save you the worry."

It was at that moment another Thunder Fighter popped up right now to save the GI the worry. This time through a concrete wall, and from the looks of it, he had gone through quite a few of them. His chainsword was covered in the sleek oil of numerous robots, and from the hole he appeared from, and in his wake a trail of destroyed Menhirs/

"THE COMMISSAR ORDERS, THE WALL OBEYS," said the GI, before he limped his way to the pod. Kirito was already on his way to meet him blade against blade.

The melee was just as furious as before. The dust covered transhuman vs the pale black veined swordsman. The last of their ammo had been spent, and everyone gave a shout of thanks to Kirito as they hurried into their pods.

One by one, they were launched into the air. First was Mason, followed by Dyne, then Klein, leaving the commissar left.

He was a tough nut to crack, Kirito had to admit. He had used up even more of the Dawai stims to the point his HP was draining at a rate that he wasn't entirely comfortable with. His melee damage had gone up so much, Kirito was sure one good hit on the enemy would kill the enemy, even if it would come at the cost of a broken arm. That was assuming the Thunder Fighter wouldn't one shot him first.

Until finally, Tadao was left. "Get your ass here, Kirito!"

The sudden call disturbed him out of his trance and for that was almost beheaded. His dodge was sloppy and for that he ate a Taekwando world champion level kick in the stomach.

Kirito flew backwards a good five meters, his chainsword wrenched away from him, before skidding on the floor, leaving a trail of blood where skin kissed the asphalt.

"Kirito!"

Tadao fired his repeater, but the Thunder Fighter paid him mind. The bullets pinged off him, like rain against a window.

Kirito crawled away, trying his best to get away from the monster. He stood up, leaning against a container box and unsheathed his shortsword. If only he had Lyubimaya 1.0 and a broomstick to tie the sword to. The snapped sword looked like a toothpick in comparison to the Thunder Fighter's own sword.

"Pitiful swordsmanship. I expected better from one of you." The transhuman raised his blade for the kill and Kirito closed his eyes.

Kirito felt a wetness on his face. That was it. He was done for. All those miles travelled, all the XP gained, the memories he made. All was for naught, and all because he wasn't a good enough swordsman. Woe to poor Sinonon, who will feed her when he was gone? Give her headpats and snuggle her in bed?

He felt a tap on his face and he opened his eyes. "You know, you can stop screaming," said Sinon.

"AAAAAaaaa … aaa …" Sinon had her Lynx in hand. Next to her was the corpse of the Thunder Fighter, missing his head. "Aaa. Ah. I had him, you dirty killstealer."

Sinon smooshed his cheeks with one hand. "You're so cute when you try acting tough."

"Damn right I'm cute."

"Aww, my Kazuto is already accepting his lot in life as a trophy boyfriend."

"No more headpats today, young lady."

"But you promised!"

"Ahem." The couple turned to Tadao, gesturing to the drop pods. "You mind?"

Tadao was the next to go in, on account he had the detonator and gave them a five minute countdown before he did the deed. A final check and he too was flying up high.

Two pods left and with just enough fuel. "We can only do this one by one. Ladies first."

"Kirito, you look like a corpse and you're at half health with three broken ribs."

"Nu-uh, just two."

"I will not allow you to be a drug addict," she said, gesturing to the DAB on his arm.

"I don't have a problem. I can stop whenever I want."

"Uh-huh. Now get into the pod."

"Ladies first!" he repeated.

Sinon stepped up close and it occurred just then how big she was. Broad shoulders, small waist, tight sleeves struggling to contain her muscular arms. She had the eyes of a great hunting cat.

"Get in the damn pod or I'll manhandle you myself," she growled.

Kirito smiled. "You should pitch your voice a lot lower, it was super hot."

And just like that, her eyes reverted to a cat's, ears pressed to her head. "Hey hold on a sec."

Before he could make fun of her some more, he saw movement behind her. "Get down!"

He threw both of them off the platform just before the rocket struck. It went up in an inferno, the sheer amount of chemfuel beneath it easily turning into a fireball and filling the area with smoke. He could hear shouting from the other side but couldn't see anything through the thick black smoke.

"Security team's back!" said Kirito, picking himself up.

"No, it's worse. Stormtroopers. And they've got better aim."

"You've got to be shitting me. What now?"

Sinon considered her options. Exiting the way they came in would be possible but difficult. The plant must be swarming with soldiers and no amount of stims would deal with that. And even then, the Hellway would be blocked by Dweller patrols.

She scanned the environment: it was filled with bullet holesand the corpses of the dead. The Thunderhead that Kirito killed was still on fire, its charred skeleton giving a disapproving look at the two of them for being class traitors. But the other, missing head aside, still had most of his gear.

"I've got an idea."

"Well what is it?"

She told him. "You're insane. You don't know how to control that thing!"

"Live a little, Kaz. What do we got to lose?"

"Two day's worth of XP!"

"I'll carry you in my arms."

It took a mere one and a half seconds for Kirito to think that through. "Yeah okay, I can deal with losing more of my non-existent masculinity."


Tadao checked the time the third time in a row. "It's been seven minutes."

"Give em'ten," said Dyne, sitting on his drop pod and smoking a cigarette. He appeared to have an infinite number of those because no one had ever seen him buy a pack.

"No. The Dwellers will find the bomb and defuse it, and it will all be for naught," said Tadao. "But we already lost Smith …"

"THE WALL IS GLAD HE IS NOT IN CHARGE," he said, leaning against a rock. His bracer was currently being charged via Mason's Nahla, utilising her solar panels.

"I agree with Dyne, give the two a few more minutes," said Klein. He yawned. Damn, he'd been gaming for a long while now. The rest of the FuurinKazan had already logged out, not that he blamed them.

"I'll give them sixty seconds," said the commisar, sitting himself on a nearby rock.

The rest of Nuke Squad was … somewhere. In the hills south of Corinth, if they had to guess, a good few hundred meters from the gorge they exited, far enough to . The sun was rising, painting the Argolic Gulf orange. Far in the distance, the besieged city was fighting for its life as its attackers were fighting for money.

The seconds pass too slowly for everyone but they passed nonetheless. "I'm doing it."

He pulled out the detonator. Everyone watched him. "Three, two, one …"

Tadao pressed, and the earth shook. A massive gout of flame erupted from the gorge, immediately followed by smoke. The smoke washed over them like a wave of fog, some were knocked over.

After some time, Nuke Squad went back to the gorge, now grown and looked over the edge. The plant was completely destroyed, a great inferno where the facility once was. To them, it looked like they were peering down into Hell itself, one of their own making.

"Dammit. I don't think the two made it out," said Klein.

"Well, look on the bright side, we only lost three players," said Mason, only to be glared at by the two guild leaders. "Right, my bad."

"What's done is done, nothing we can do about it now," said Tadao as he threw the detonator down the hole. "Guess we'll have to report back to HQ, borrow someone's radio."

"THE WALL IS SAD THAT HE LEFT HIS HARLEY BACK UNDERGROUND."

"Well, you can always repair and respawn them in a safe zone," said Sinon.

"YEAH, THE WALL GUESSES YOU ARE RIGHT. HOLD ON A SECOND."

The squad turned to see a grinning Sinon carrying a bemused Kirito in her arms, both of whom were entirely covered in soot. The jump pack on her looked oversized, even for someone as big as her. "You said five minutes, commissar!"

Tadao laughed. "I have go you right!"

"Well sorry, someone blew up the platform," said Kirito, finally getting off his girlfriend.

The Wall pointed an accusing finger. "NO FAIR. THE KITTEH IS FLYING. FOR REAL THIS TIME!"

"Well you can borrow it if you want, though I'm pretty sure you'd break your leg landing."

"BAH! WHAT IS ANOTHER?"

"So what now?" asked Mason, Nahla floating over his shoulder. "We've got a long walk ahead."

"Screw that, I'm logging out. Muscles over there can carry my body. Wife's already gonna give me hell for playing this long," said Dyne as he sat on the ground. With that, the older man logged out and drifted into sleep.

The path off the hills faced east, and with that they made their way down, facing the rising sun and basking in its warm.

"I GOT IT!" said the Wall, surprising everyone. "I KNOW NOW!"

"What?! Are we under attack?" asked Mason, shouldering his rifle.

He pointed to Sinon. "NEKO-SINON IS ACTUALLY A SIAMESE KITTEH!"

Tadao growled. "What? Is that what you almost gave us a heart attack for?!"

"WELL …"

"Besides, she's clearly a ragdoll, but blue," he finished.

"THIS IS WHERE THE COWBOY IS WRONG. AMRIKI, BACK ME UP."

"No, no, I think Tadao has a point there …"

Sinon rolled her eyes. She held the jump pack by the straps, her Lynx in the other, Kirito walking besides her. "Those idiots are wrong, I actually what kind of cat you are."

"Oh, and what's that?"

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Mine, of course."

Sinon grew so red, you could see her blush under the soot.


Gib rebiews and Kirito will give Sinonon headpats! See you in March!