Date posted: 14th March 2023

Ya miss me?


Chapter 23: Major Macabre

Before humanity ended itself with nuclear fire, Corinth was a prosperous city of tourism and industry. The great crop failures of the 2030s decimated the traditional export of fruits and tobacco made the city double down on its burgeoning industry. A massive earthquake that struck the capital, Athens, and destroyed a tenth of the city, its citizens migrating down south to fix their lives.

Just before the Greek government called for its citizens to retreat underground, the city peaked at about 250,000 citizens. Not as impressive as the millions in Corinth, but it was nothing to sneeze at.

It was this reason that the outskirts of Corinth was packed with suburbs. However, much like the mistakes of American suburbia, they lacked the public transportation infrastructure for its citizens, requiring large parking garages to be created in commercial areas, leading to the Clearers' current predicament.

South of the city of Corinth, in the ruins of suburbia of some long abandoned parking lot was a horde of mutants. Not the sane citizens of Archois Hellen who served in the ranks of the Republic of Mutantopia, but broken men and women, former slave-miners of the Overlords.

Once in life, they were normal people: farmers, laborers, craftsmen - the unfortunate descendants of folk who didn't have the money or influence to hide in the underground. But everything changed when the Dragon from Mars came.

Their farms burned, their homes destroyed, they were forced into mining whatever metals left in the countryside or in the wreckage of the old world. When the Good Doctor and his ship landed and freed them, they were too far gone. They had become insane and feral in the darkness of the mines, invasive bionics turning their hands into drills, and hopped up on cocktails of drugs. Too unstable, too dangerous to return to civilian life. Even their sight was considered unnecessary by the Overlords, their eyes harvested and replaced with a metal plate if they're lucky.

Now the «Drillers» were kept in place in compounds of electrified chain link fences, more cattle than human, kept safe and fed by a small corp of caretakers and the mental soothing of rotating «Mind Bogglers». There were too many of them to be properly rehabilitated and in act of pragmatism, were used as shock troopers. Once in a while, their caretakers would take fifty of them or so away, to be put on trucks into the city and thrown at the heavy armour of the Overlord's janissaries.

The Driller encampment was a no-go zone, ignored by player and rebels alike. Which made it the perfect hiding spot for an army on the run.


Major Chie Nikita woke up to see a grey cracked ceiling. There were cobwebs in the corner and the plaster on the walls was peeling.

She sat back up on her cot to see the familiar sleeping form of Sergeant Gregory; the big man had declined to remove his boots and he still had blood in his beard thanks to that one instance of biting a poor militia man's ear off. He cradled his AA-12 the same way Nikita's son cradled his body pillow of some big tiddy anime girl.

Or was it a Vtuber? She could never understand the phenomenon of giving these already wealthy performers money they didn't need. And for what? A mention of their name on stream? More money than sense in her opinion. But he helped with the house and helped pay for groceries so she tolerated his weird hobbies.

Cracking her neck more out of habit than actual practical reasons, she started making her bed. She had been playing for almost fifteen hours with periodical breaks to go to the bathroom. She had forgotten to start the rice cooker, much to her family's chagrin. She had not made that mistake since she and her husband got married.

The sheets were in dire need of washing and it took her an unreasonable amount of willpower to not start barking orders to have them cleaned up. GGO had base building since the very launch of the game, but it always irked her that the default bed was a sheetless mattress on a rusty iron frame. These beds however were cheap to make on the spot, and it was far safer than stealing random furniture from old houses.

She washed her face in the basin, smoothed her wrinkled uniform, put on her flak vest, holstered her sidearm and put on her beret. Finding herself presentable, she exited her bedroom.

Said 'bedroom' was a slightly oversized break room for janitors. Being the highest ranking officer of the Zakon meant she shared the room with Gregory. The rest of her men were less lucky. The hallway was filled with sleeping Zakon, Warhawks and Mobile Guardsmen, packed tighter than a can of sardines, with barely enough space for her to walk. Yet it was nowhere near as bad as the other rooms. That's what happens when you try to fit a few hundred soldiers and their kit in an underground parking garage.

Nikita had hunkered down in many a ruin. Early on in her gaming career, it was the open sky, the perimeter littered with traps. Then she became brave and hunkered down in homes, stores, and offices. It was a gamble hunkering down in a building as GGO's very in-depth and realistic building generation had a bad tendency to collapse.

She had once settled down in an old convenience store, only to log back in and find a brick had loosened from a wall and split her skull open. In another session, she logged out in the freezing cold and found she had died of hypothermia. That's why any guild worth their salt had a strong core of engineers, carpenters, electricians to liven up a base, why you should always carry a good bedroll and thick blanket wherever you were.

"You can even die when you're not playing!" was the meme. The sweatiest of games, GGO was.

Exiting from the maintenance tunnels, she found herself in the main room: a host of a hundred plus players sleeping in four storey wire-frame bunk beds, relaxing, chatting, drinking, gambling and trading with one another. She could see Corporal Dave playing a friendly card game of Kalashnikov with a captain of the Warhawks. Doc VicVek of the Warhawks was installing an arm on one of her soldiers with the help of Stone. Lt. Khawla was arguing about something with her Mubarizun. It was like entering a bazaar.

There were even a handful of surviving merchants who had escaped with them, peddling their wares. Even in warzones, the progress of capital did not stop. The walls of the parking garage were made up of old cars, with groups taking their spots and with old sheets used for makeshift doors. It reminded her of the Zakon's Mall Base in Syria.

Not a single one of their vehicles survived, or most likely, had been captured for the second time in a row. It was embarrassing and no doubt the other officers of the Zakon would make fun of her for that.

It had taken an entire day's worth of playing to escape the Under-Corinth Base. Someone had tipped the Republic forces to their whereabouts, and the sheer power the Thunder Fighters brought was overwhelming. More than half of the players lost their lives in the defense, with many players holding the line to allow their comrades to escape, suicide bombings and collapsing tunnels on themselves. All the precious XP, lost. The names of her men were written down and remembered, and honoured, probably with subscriptions of Discord Nitro.

It was one of the most exhausting fights that Nikita had ever felt, escaping the transhuman supersoldiers' assault and fighting through the horde of Deep Dwellers. But with good officers, smart thinking, and a sea's worth of luck, they did escape to the surface and to relative safety.

CHAD, ever the fountain of knowledge, spoke of a parking garage nearby. Half a day's wandering later, they found it. He said he'd found the place when he escaped the city at the beginning of the DLC's release. Nowhere near as nice as the Under-Corinth Base, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

You know how hard it was to sneak through a horde of blind mutants with drills for arms? Easier than expected, actually.

The parking garage was three stories deep, with the top floor being barren and the ancient garage doors blocked with the husks of cars. Checkpoints were set up with a dedicated squad of spearmen at the entrance, not even any machine guns or flamers. So dire was their ammo supply, they had to resort to makeshift melee weapons.

Nikita found herself in CHAD's office, though to call it that would be generous. It was an old office, just barely enough to fit his impressive array of electronics into it. Only a few people could squeeze into it. In one corner, Lt. Makarov was speaking to someone on the radio. In another corner, was CHAD himself, cleaning his pistol at a bare table.

Nikita squinted. There was something off about the man. His hands were moving at a normal speed but the player himself was slouched over as if asleep. She could not see his eyes through the mismatched red and blue lens of his gasmask. The IDDQD on his helmet, written in a red marker, was just slightly smudged.

Gingerly, she reached out to tap him on the shoulder, and the man shot up, almost robotically. "Can I help you, major?"

"I'm sorry, captain. Did I wake you up?"

"I wasn't asleep. I was cleaning my gun."

"Sure." She had never once seen the man logged out. Hell, at times, she thought he wasn't human at all. That, or someone from the dev team.

He looked at her with those red-blue eyes of his. "You think I'm not human."

Nikita's heart skipped a beat.

Finding his FK BRNO sufficiently shiny, he holstered it. "I have a confession to make. I'm actually the world's first sentient AI, created by the Japanese government. I have an entire server farm dedicated to running me." He pointed at his helmet with a thumb. "IDDQD is my true name."

Her jaw dropped. "I knew it!"

"Sentient AI doesn't exist. This isn't science fiction, major, collect yourself," he deadpanned. At that, her amazed smile turned into an annoyed frown.

Another man entered the room, three mugs of coffee in hand. "Captain, are you teasing the poor major with your AI story again?"

"People are so quick to believe it. Not my fault people are gullible."

Wahyu smiled. "Oh, don't worry, major. He does that to everyone. In reality, he's just a very dedicated player."

"I am a true gamer," said CHAD, without the slightest sense of irony.

Nikita took a seat with the Virtues to discuss strategy.

"Good news and bad news," said the decker. "Good news, Nuke Squad has successfully completed their mission. The geothermal plant is destroyed and the guns on the walls have been silenced. Helicopter squads are landing on the walls, even as our air force is battling the Jet Dragons. The Republic's commanders are running around like headless chickens, trying to power their bases through alternate means."

"I'm sad that we didn't give the mission a name. Then again, I would have given it a bad name, like Operation Nuke the Power Plant, or something like that," said CHAD.

"What about Operation Power (Not) to the People? With a bracket around 'not'," the Virtue suggested.

"I like it. Put that in the report."

"On the bad news, some elements of the Clearers have been cut off. The eastern side of Corinth is still guarded by what few remaining Sandworms still linger, and they're moving their Thumpers around so as not to get destroyed by player airstrikes. The defenders have collapsed the gates, trapping the spear tip elements of FaDe Clan, the Mobile Guard and Black Arrow within the city. It'll take some time for the Clearers to get through the rubble."

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy," said Nikita, sipping her coffee. CHAD's own mug of coffee was declining at a steady rate. Nikita had been keeping an eye on him and had not seen him sip, yet it was clearly being drained.

"Urban warfare is always nasty," said CHAD. "But nevermind that, it'll be sufficient of a distraction for us to charge the Ark Biologis."

Wahyu nodded. "Gabriel and the other Virtues are in position. They've spotted a regiment of Thunder Fighters on the ship itself, cloaked in red with huge spears. Their armour is made of gold."

"Hmm, a gold substitute for Aeureusite? This may even be tougher to crack than normal. Unless we have cannons. Speaking of which, major."

Nikita rolled her eyes. "We don't even have enough ammo, much less the armour to do the deed."

"The armour can be acquired from the spear tip. It's the ammo we need to worry about," said Wahyu.

"I'm afraid you're right." And not even one of those ammo vending machines in the garage either.

"That can be fixed," said CHAD.

"You have a source?"

"I always have a source."

Wahyu tapped something on his deck. "I sent the deets to your PDA."

She checked the intel and frowned. It was doable, she'd need a smaller team and the sergeant was out for a date with the missus. Damn, if only Tadao was back. Guess she'd need to rely on the corporal. "It can be done."

CHAD nodded. "Excellent. I'll have Colonel Honshu and his men try to find some more cloning vats to replenish our numbers. We'll get the men back somehow."

"I hope so. All the XP on me, it's making me nervous." It was a noted phenomenon within the playerbase. Players who are fresh out of the vats are gung-ho, ready to charge even the most entrenched of enemy positions. Players who haven't rested in a while were nervous, unwilling to take risks. It was an inversion of real life, where the veterans were more willing to perform daring feats than the rookies.

"When life gives you lemons, you make combustible lemons. Any questions, major?"

She pointed at his head. "What's the writing on your helmet mean anyway?"

"Oh this?" he said, thumbing his helmet. "It lets me drink coffee without taking off my mask."

Nikita looked at his mug, and sure enough it was empty. "H-how?"

He stared at her with his mismatched lenses. "True. Gamer."


Elsewhere, in the mountains of Greece, near the Angolic Gulf, a squad of ragged soldiers were rucking through the hills.

Everyone was on edge. The slightest silhouette in the distance was a cause of concern, whether they be human or wildlife. More than once did the squad run for cover only to realise the big hulking shape in the distance wasn't an armoured vehicle, but a particularly fat cow.

According to their map, it was only less than an hour's drive to Corinth from their current location, some old village called Pirgiotika. But it was well known that the ETA's of the in-game GPS was extremely inaccurate, using algorithms back when the world was not sent to the stone age.

There had been little in the way of vehicles this far south, where the average family sustained themselves with a combination of fishing and farming and rode carts and horses. The greatest threat to them was not the odd militiamen on horseback and bikes, nor the huge boars and bears. No, the greatest threat to them was -

"I see one," said Kirito, peering through his binocs. "Six hundred yards away."

"Can you take em'?" asked Sinon, cradling an ancient bolt-action rifle in hand. "I'd rather not use this thing at all. It'll alert the entire valley."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Can't we use your jump pack?"

"Too loud. Besides, there's not much fuel left."

"There's little to no cover at all, and I don't fancy trying to run it down with just my legs. I don't have any of «Davai» stims left."

"I told you those were gonna give you problems."

"I don't have any problems," said Kirito, as he struggled to keep his hands from shaking. "Just go up to it and distract it with your kitteh charms."

"Can't."

"What do you mean you can't? You've been switching back and forth before just fine!"

"No, I think there's a cooldown to this." She checked her watch. "Probably a couple of hours before I could do so again."

"Uhuh. I just think you want more headpats."

"Do you think me a cheap woman, who can't do anything without any sort of male affection?"

"Well, yes."

"That is true. Can I has headpats?" she chirped.

Kirito sighed. He can't say no to those big blue eyes of hers.

After a sufficient session of headpats, which Kirito was sure Tadao was giving him the stink-eye from the hill behind them, he began the slow belly crawl towards the target.

They were out of ammo, save for a couple of magazines between Mason and the Wall, plus some shells for Klein's shotty. Once again, Kirito had found himself deep in hostile territory, away from any sort of reinforcement and safe zone. Just the way he liked it.

The peasants in this region didn't have compatible ammo. Most of them were armed with nothing but spears and the odd shotgun, and even then, it was the wrong gauge for Klein. Sinon had swiped an ancient Mannlicher–Schönauer rifle from a farm, a rifle so foreign to her, she didn't even know what cartridge it was using (it was 6.5x54mm according to the stats). Even then, it was only a handful of rounds, not enough for any prolonged firefight.

It was a shame about their rides, but they had parked it far enough back underground that the nuke wouldn't have destroyed them. All they needed to do was reach a safe zone's garage to respawn them, and she doubted they had any of that around nearby.

Sinon hid in the bush, rifle aimed at the enemy. The target was small, which was off to Sinon who often hunted bigger enemies. The day was downcast, the sun's rays blocked by thick clouds. But they couldn't just hang around in the south forever, they needed to get back and save their progress. The sheer amount of XP they were carrying had been making them more nervous. There's probably three level ups worth on Sinon, more with Kirito on account of his lower level. She was currently at level 53, Kirito was reaching level 30, and Mason was in his teens reaching 20.

Sinon scanned the surrounding hill that Kirito was crawling up towards, Scorpion on his back, sword in his teeth.

Not sure what was the point of that, but according to him, it raised his Stealth skill just the slightest bit. Of all the men she had to date, she'd have to date a weirdo. She wouldn't have it any other way.

Eyes widened at the enemy's movement. "Stop! It's turning towards you!"

Kirito quickly rolled into a patch of grass as the lookout moved. It eyed the hill behind it, before turning back to its previous task.

"That was close," said Kirito. "These bracelets are more useful than radios. Maybe we should hunt down more hobo wizards in Glocken. How much value do these things have anyway?"

Sinon gave it a quick check as a window popped over the bracelet. "5000 credits? That's way too low."

"Definitely low. Okay, it looks safe. Moving now."

As Kirito moved upwards, taking care to move near tall patches of grass, Sinon looked backwards. She could just make out the silhouette of the commissar in the treeline. Save for the cowboy, everyone else was logged out.

She kept her eyes on Kirito who had taken off his flak and maille to to keep the noise down. His all black fatigues were worn, ragged, and had a few holes here and there. All of them were in bad shape, really.

Except for his ass. His ass was in fantastic shape. Sinon had no idea how the randomiser was able to sculpt the perfect twink body but it did. His cheeks jiggled ever so slightly whenever he made his move, and just as he was getting close to another bush, the sun's rays hit it at just the perfect angle to give it the perfect shadow to accentuate his booty.

"Do you only jog?"

A quick silence as Kirito received the answer. "Uh, yeah? Why?"

"I think you should do squats."

A snort. "Last time I followed your exercise routine, I almost died. No thanks."

"Just a few squats! You know, for your legs!"

"What's wrong with my legs?"

"Nothing!" It was true, his legs were good. Thick calves from all the running, but his thighs weren't exactly in the greatest shape. "It'll give you just the more … oomph."

"Oomph?"

"Oomph!"

More silence. "Are you looking at my butt?"

"... noooo …"

"You are, you pervert!"

Sinon scoffed. "Says the guy who said I had a fat ass."

"You know what, I'm not doing this again. Why are you bringing this up?"

"I'm a woman of needs, I need to look at some cake once in a while."

"Is this just your desire to eat more cheesecake or are you just this lewd?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Both."

"Just keep your eye on the lookout. Get your shit together, Asada."

"So are you gonna do squats?"

"Let's discuss this when we're done with the DLC, okay?"

Kirito was a stone's throw away from the enemy. It did not resemble any of the mutant abominations he had faced in the DLC. There were no extra limbs, no third eye, no gangly movement, it was neither too big for its size nor too small. Its head was not swollen with psychic might nor was it clad in power armour. By all means, this was no monster at all, save for perhaps the impressive horns but that was normal for a goat.

The «Kri Kri Ibex» was a rare wild goat, found only on three small islands around Crete and before the end of the world, there were only about 2,000 of them left. This particular specimen had a brown coat with a long black beard. It was munching on some rough grass. How they crossed the sea all the way here in the mountains, he didn't know.

Now, Kirito wasn't a goat expert by any means, but for whatever reason, Tadao was deathly terrified of them. He had tales of the creature from the merchants back in Under-Corinth and he had told his squad to stay away. They had made numerous detours to avoid what small herds they encountered.

But this particular Kri-Kri was blocking the only way out of the hills. The cliff walls of the valley they found themselves in were too steep, and going back through the way they escaped would take too long. Tadao feared the peasants would notice their presence if they did, as Mason had almost accidentally exposed himself to a bunch of shepherds while they were traveling.

"Do not, and I mean, do not, under any circumstances engage them," Tadao had told them. "No shooting, only melee. We fire a single shot and we're dead."

"IS THERE A REASON WHY?" the Wall had asked. "WHAT IS SO SCARY ABOUT THE GOAT. I HAVE EATEN GOAT. THEY ARE DELICIOUS BUT NOT SCARY."

"Well, the reason is …"

Kirito froze as the Kri-Kri turned its head ever so slightly. The monocular vision of most prey animals meant that there had just the tiniest blind spot, a 20 degree cone just behind their head. His head was poking out of the tall grass which under any circumstances would look funny had it not been a matter of life and death.

His virtual heart beat like a drum. A bead of sweat dropped from his forehead as the clouds parted and the Wasteland sun shone mercilessly on him. Sometimes he really regretted wearing all black, but if other players did, then so would he dammit. It's called fashion, honey, look it up.

The goat turned around, its black soulless eye looking at him. Kirito felt his heart in his throat. The creature was only fifty yards away.

In any other situation, Kirito would manfully spring from his hiding place, raise his manly sword above his head and decapitate the beast, also manfully. But his AGI had taken a massive hit from the Davai debuff, he felt more sluggish in-game than he did in the real world after a buffet, and he was seeing spots in his vision. Out of all the things that the game had a realism fetish on, GGO has to replicate withdrawal symptoms. Sinon was right, he did have a problem.

As he internally cursed the DAB on his left forearm, Kirito chose to stay still and pray. It was all he could do. Not even staring down Thunder Fighters scared him this much.

After what felt like an eternity, the Kri-Kri turned back to munching on the grass. Either it saw him and didn't care, or it didn't see him at all. Either way, he wasn't going to wait for it to do the deed.

Rising from his position, he grabbed his sword from his mouth, knees wobbling like an old man, and rushed at the goat. He thrusted blade into its neck as instructed. The goat's eyes widened as Kirito planted two feet of plasteel in its throat.

Kirito pried the blade, washing the earth red. The goat stumbled drunkenly before finally falling dead.

The swordsman let out a sigh. He turned to the hill where Sinon was on and gave her a thumbs up only to be surprised to see her running at him at full speed.

"Wha-"

"Kirito, behind you!"

He turned with painful slowness and behind him was another Kri-Kri, looking at him with evil eyes.

It opened its mouth and the air suddenly dropped a dozen Celcius.

"Uh oh."

The valley shook with psionic screeching, rousing every farmer and shepherd in the vicinity.


"Is this all we have?"

"This is all we have," concurred Corporal Dave.

It was a sorry excuse for a company. More like half a company. Half were Zakon troops, with Corporal Dave pulling sergeant duties (she really oughta promote the man); another half of Warhawks, with Captain Hikari acting far below her rank; finally, Sergeant Yazidi with his 5th squad. They totalled fifty, which was far too much for Nikita's liking.

The mission was simple: an ammo run. It was one of the most basic of all missions, something you send low level players to do. Had Nikita been in charge, she'd have Gregory do it with his shotgunners, or Tadao with his Outriders. A two squad job at most, but since most of the higher level players had died, they had to contend with the lower level ones. Quantity over quality.

CHAD had put her in charge, which meant the Warhawks' captain and the Mobile Guard's sergeant obeyed her. Gregory was still out of commission, something about grocery shopping. That's the great thing about having children in Nikita's opinion, you can always relay the boring jobs to them.

She briefed them on the mission: capture the ammo cache and return to base. "Any more questions? Yes, Private Sakura?"

The pink-haired private of 5th Squad asked, "Yes, major. When are we gonna get some clone vats? I'm sitting on a lot of XP here and …"

Nikita exhaled through her nose and put on a brave face. "I know, you're all very, very worried about your XP. I am too. But Colonel Honshu is working on it." Well, he hadn't, because CHAD's Virtues had yet to find a good source and the big man had become vexed at the lack of action. "If we'll make it back, you will all be the first one to use them. Be sure to pack up on ammo, it's gonna be a long march. We leave in ten."

As the troops left the room, she could hear the complaint: "Ammo? What ammo?"

It was the unfortunate truth, there wasn't enough ammo for everyone, much less the precious Anti-Mutie rounds left for any of them. The majority of their ammo supplies were left back at their old base in the chaos of the escaping. After all the trouble of producing 5.56 barrels for the Zakon, the actual ammo was left behind save for what soldiers had on their person or their bags at the time. Each of the guilds had to beg, bribe and barter for whatever rounds they had left.

She returned to her room to pick up her Krinkov, since the company armourer was dead to do it for her,

Like most rifles in the company, it was supposed to be converted to use 5.56 mm but she hadn't the chance so it still used 5.54. Nikita had six magazines of it, four of which she had given to some of the troops that hadn't had the chance to go with the conversion. One in the gun, and one on hand. To her, it felt like going to town in her pyjamas.

Still, Nikita was an officer and rarely if ever used her rifle, preferring to use her Stechkin for the time. She had her Grach, for everyday use, which she already sold to one of the vendors for more ammo. She kept the machine pistol for special occasions or emergencies.

The Stechkin was no normal Stechkin, which were a common, if unpopular weapon; machine pistols in general weren't popular, with most of the playerbase preferring SMGs or PDWs. It was a unique variant called the «Guardaespaldas APS», found in the treasure vaults of Grim Selim at Mount Ararat. It had the rare trait of, if the first bullet of the three shot burst struck a body part, the next two would automatically follow even if the target was in cover. It's a good thing it didn't do much direct PVP because she can already see people on the forums raging over it.

She completed her set by holstering the grenade pistol from the first Thunder Fighter the Zakon had slain. As she exited her makeshift bedroom, she found herself face to face with a certain scientist, holding their hand up in a fist.

"Yes, Vladimir-san? Can I help you?"

"You can, actually," said the college student, adjusting his glasses. He looked like a hobo with his hair uncombed, his coat ragged and his flak vest covered in some sort of mystery gunk that she had no desire to learn more of. The only thing missing was a thick beard. "I need to do some field testing and you are on the way out."

"Is that safe? You're our only chemist capable of making the «Anti-Mutie Rounds». If you die, it's gonna be a pain to bring you back from Glocken."

"I left the recipe with Stone, in the event that I die, which I won't, it'll be fine."

"Says the man who had his spine severed with a sword."

"Hahah, very funny."

With the half-company assembled, they made their way out of the parking garage through the tunnels in complete silence. So close were they to the surface at this point, Nikita feared the Drillers would simply turn downwards and start digging their way to them.

Half an hour later, they found themselves a ways away from their base, Corinth far in the distance. Nikita was actually surprised how far south they were; she could even see the mountain ranges. Which ones they were, she wasn't exactly sure.

Corporal Dave and Sergeant Yazidi gave orders to their men, while Captain Hikari tried her best to mimic their attitude and orders, bless her heart.

As the troopers were reorganised into scouts, vanguard and rearguard, Nikita took the time to speak to the scientist. He was chugging down a flask as if he was dying from thirst. "Is that alcohol?"

"No, I don't drink, not even in video games. This is coffee, the acceptable cool drug."

Nikita herself drank an unhealthy amount of coffee IRL, she wasn't going to lecture a kid less than half her age about the dangers of virtual coffee. "When was the last time you logged out, Vladimir-san?"

"A couple hours ago. I took a half hour nap. Anyway, do you remember the slime on Corinth's walls?The one that covered the walls of Corinth?"

"Please don't tell me we're fighting it." She already heard reports of the damn gunk killing lots of Clearers, devouring them in their acid innards, destroying even their equipment. When you respawn your weapons, they return to you in their damaged state. If they were completely destroyed, such as being dissolved in acid, you basically have to repurchase your gun. Gory and expensive way to go.

"Oh no, we're not fighting them. Most of them are in the city, no reports of anywhere outside. I think."

"That's good to hear. So what's the issue?"

The scientist smiled, in what Nikita assumed was in a good natured way, but with how unkempt he was, Vladimir looked less like the professional and more like an NPC mad scientist players hunt down at low-to-mid levels. He reached for his satchel bag and produced a plastic tube.

"It's pink," she stated.

"It is indeed pink."

"Looks like some sort of soda? Wait, that isn't …" She examined it closer and tapped on the glass.

The pink substance crashed against where she touched, with so much force that the entire tube shook. Vladimir held it close to his chest.

"Hey, don't scare Pinky-chan like that! She's got anxiety issues."

Nikita blinked. "Pinky-chan? It's a she?"

"Pinky-chan goes by she/her pronouns, Nikita. You need to be progressive about these things."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay, fine. What's this little experiment of yours?"

"So I was able to procure this bit of pink slime before the base blew up, did some experiments. From what I understand, the slimes communicate via a form of telepathy. An overmind, if you will. By separating it with a series of chemicals, electrocution and all sort of science mambo jumbo, I'm able to weaponise Pinky-chan for our own purposes. Now stand back, and make sure no one opens fire …'

Unsealing the container, Vladimir poured the Pink Slime onto the ground. There was a lot more of the creature … beast … abomination … whatever it was, than the small Pringles sized container suggested. The scientist spent a good half a minute meticulously pouring it. It shone like pink honey in the Wasteland sun.

Finally, it was done. Pinky-chan moved about, 'looking' left and right, touching its surroundings with its misshapen shape like a dog squished up. Nikita saw some of the soldiers flick the safety off of their guns.

"Ahh fresh air, isn't that right, girl?" Vladimir cooed.

Pinky-chan vibrated in place.

Private Sakura of the Mobile Guard squatted next to her. "Aww, it's sooo cute! Wow, it feels like jello!"

"Um, you probably shouldn't poke at it with your finger …"

"Huh, why?"

The private had dipped too deep, too greedily, and when Sakura noticed her HP ticking down, it was too late - her right index was dissolving right before her eyes, the skin melting and giving way to meat and she pulled back in shock and horror before it could finish it off.

"Aaah! Kill it! Kill it!"

Sergeant Yazidi already had his sidearm out. "I don't want that damn thing nowhere near my squad, buddy."

Vladimir ignored the threats and gently patted Pinky-chan. "Don't let the mean lady insult you Pinky-chan, she's just as jealous because her hair isn't as pink as yours."

"Why I oughta-"

"Enough!" Nikita barked. This was going so swell. "Everyone get into your positions."

They did so but even then, the Warhawks' scouts didn't have the correct build for the job. They weren't even armed with sniper rifles or DMRs but normal assault rifles, most of whom only have a mag or two on them.

Captain Hikari came up to her, looking awkward. "Uh, hope you all don't mind, but do any of you have any binoculars we could borrow?"

Nikita suppressed a sigh. What she would do for Tadao's Outriders again. She hoped the commissar was having a better time than she was.


Tadao suppressed a scream. What he would do for Nikita's APCs. He hoped the major was having a better time than he was.

"This is embarrassing. Second time this happened!"

"What, getting your leg shot off?" asked Dyne.

"Yes!" It was even worse - at least the first time, he died of blood loss from a Thunder Fighter, a mighty gene-forged warrior. But to have his leg blown out from some bumfuck farmer out in the middle of nowhere …

"WORRY NOT, COMMISSAR. AT LEAST YOU'RE NOT DYING OF BLOOD LOSS!" the Wall said cheerfully. "YOU CAN EVEN BORROW MY MECHANICAL-BRACE, I HAVE NO USE OF IT!"

"I think you need a leg for that, Wall-san," said Klein, a bullet whizzing past him.

"Just drive faster, dammit!" Tadao shouted.

"Hard to do that when this thing's top is 50 km/h!" Sinon yelled from the front of the truck.

"Well maybe if your boyfriend didn't alert the entire valley, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Lay off the guy, commissar, he did his best," said Mason, not looking up from his cyberdeck.

"WHAT?! WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Kirito shouted, his ears bleeding.

"Don't worry about it,"Sinon said.

"WHAT?!"

"I said -" Sinon shut her mouth. "I said I don't worry about it."

"Are they yelling at me?"

"Just the commissar."

"Yeah, that's fair."

The stealthy approach had failed, if that wasn't clear. The Kri-Kri's psychic screech exploded on Kirito like a frag grenade minus the frag. It was like a telekinetic punch, something the sort that a psycaster could do but at an even greater scale. Not even the few psycasters she had faced could have screeched at that high of a frequency.

Thankfully the Kri-Kri, aside from its innate mastery of psychic powers, had no other secret skill set. It died to a bullet as easily as any other non-psychic goat.

As for Kirito, the poor swordsman was a wreck. His fatigues had been blown off leaving him bruised, bloodied, and deaf. He was delirious with a whole ton of debuffs and his SMG was destroyed. How he kept his sword in hand despite all that was beyond her understanding.

They had been driving away for a better part of an hour at this point, the pickup truck they stole from a village patrol. Okay, it really wasn't a patrol, more of a farmer going to the next village to pick up supplies. Carjackers can't be choosers.

A half hour of reckless and panicked driving later and the gunshots had stopped. For now. "Mason, I'm lost here. Where should we be going?"

The decker tapped on his machine. "Hold on, let me check … there's a warehouse not too far from here. We can go and rest there, maybe find some supplies. Take a left when you reach the road, then take a right."

It didn't take long for the warehouse to come into view. It was a nondescript massive red brick of a building with its windows broken or dusted, its roof fallen in and disrepair, surrounded by a rusted chain link fence. Sinon almost felt nostalgic seeing it. The only differences these warehouses had were usually its general shape, placement and the lettering outside written in the regional language, in this case, Greek.

Her HUD translated the faded lettering of the outside sign: PIETRO AUTOS INDUSTRIES

The Wall opened the ancient rusty lock easily enough and Sinon parked the truck between two old flatbeds.

Tadao yawned. "Alright, I'm gonna be honest with all of you, I've been playing this game for an unhealthy thirteen hours. I need to logout. Dyne, as you're the man with the most (real life) experience, you're in charge."

"Thirteen hours? Shit, kid. Is this normal?"

"Technically speaking, FullDive games require players to take a break every three hours so …" Mason didn't finish his sentence.

Dyne shook his head. "The youth these days, back in my day …"

Klein scratched his head. "So, uh, what now? We wait?"

"See if you can find something to stick on my stump here. A radio if possible, to contact allies. These pre-war factories were often converted for military purposes."

"WE HUNKER DOWN?"

"We hunker down. They'll be searching for the pickup, and unlikely as it is, try looking for a new ride too."

Sinon relayed the info to Kirito telepathically. "I should probably logout too. At least until my hearing's back."

"Assuming it isn't permanent."

"Nothing a dip in a clone vat can't fix. Not there's any. Anyway, pancakes?"

"Pancakes? It's only 11 PM."

Kirito blinked. "Shino, it's almost six in the morning."

Her mouth gaped like a fish. "We really need not to make this a habit."

He laughed. "True, true."

Placing both men in the cab and covering the windows with an old piece of tarp, the functioning members of Nuke Squad began their dive.

Borrowing AR15 and discarding her empty bolt-action, the sniper followed Dyne's lead as the four of them rounded the corner of the large rectangular building. Mason's Nahla floated high above, some forty feet in the air.

"Scanning … scanning … no one around the parking lot."

"Any doors?" asked Klein.

"Well I can see …"

The drone fell next to him in a shower of sparks. The gunshot followed after and everyone took cover.

"Nahla!" Ridwan cried out.

"Shit, shit. We don't need this," said Dyne, scanning the horizon. There were hills in the west and empty land to the east and north. It couldn't be south, they just came from there and the road was flat that they'd spot something.

Klein looked at his shotgun and cursed his build. "Okay, chief. What now?"

"Hold on, I'm thinking."

"BETTER THINK FAST, THEY'RE COMING AT US," said Wall, loading his last clip of his M1 Garand.

Coming from the north, a mixture of black and sand coloured soldiers were coming down the hills. A machine gun was showering the area with bullets, suppressing the smaller squad.

"Republic forces?" shouted Mason.

"No, they're too well armoured! Looks like Stormtroopers!" Klein shouted back and returned fire, hitting nothing.

"That's way too many Stormtroopers," Dyne shouted, poking his head out ever so slightly. "And they didn't come here on wheels, didn't see no dust clouds."

The Wall returned fire, nailing one of them in the shoulder through the chain link fence. "THEY'RE CLOSING IN!"

Sinon rested the bipod of her Lynx on a car hood. She spotted the machine gunner in the dunes, not firing for whatever reason. They have numbers and the guns, yet they were almost skittish. "Wait a second …"

Mason poked his head out of cover, peering into the distance. Dropping his gun, the journalist raised his hands and exited cover from behind an old busted up crate.

"Mason! Mason! Get back here, you idiot!" Dyne ordered.

Mason walked up right in the open. "Ceasefire! Ceasefire! Friendlies!"

A string of shouting of ceasefires came from the other side as the other side stopped firing. Sinon's sharp ears picked up orders from NCOs going up and down the line, smacking the back of heads and yelling something about ammo wastage.

A familiar gruff face came from the group of black clad soldiers. Mason smiled. "You almost blew my head off!"

Sergeant Yazidi clasped hands with the journalist. "Heh, be thankful these idiots can't shoot for shit. Sorry about your drone, that was one of us."

He sighed. "Well you know what they say about friendly fire: it isn't."

It didn't take long for everyone to meet with each other. The familiar silver haired Nikita led the way. "Where's the commissar?"

"Resting. Hey, anyone got a smoke?" asked Dyne.

Yazidi complied with a cigarette and lighter. The familiar whiff of tobacco initiated some primal instinct within Sinon even before being lit and she moved further.

"Ahh, that's what I needed. What are you doing here?"

"Long story."

The GI raised a hand. "YOU WOULDN'T HAVE SOME AMMO, WOULD YOU? WE'RE KINDA OUT."

Nikita stared daggers.


GGO guidelines state that after a huge campaign, players should abstain from playing the game ranging from a few days to a week. This wasn't particularly new, it was something that started back when FullDive games due to how intense and real this new form of entertainment was. It seemed almost against the grain of the video game industry, where companies insist player log on daily for their stupid, stupid GaaS model. Back in her day, devs pumped out proper expansion pack instead of –

Stop it, Chie. You're showing your age. Her non-gamer husband constantly made fun of her old woman yelling at clouds routine. No need to grump about such things on an important mission.

Nuke Squad, like her half-company, was sadly lacking in the ammo department. Not that she expected them to have any more ammo. Some sixty men in total, and not even a thousand rounds of ammo altogether. This was her lowest low in memory.

No, her men are fine and still kicking. The Zakon wasn't out of the fight yet.

She picked the highest level players amongst them, and that included Sergeant Yazidi and his Guardsmen; plus Corporal Dave and his team. Nuke Squad looked to As bad as the Warhawks were, they could do the bare minimum of securing a perimeter. They took point at the warehouse's doors; the windows were inaccessible thanks to rubble blocking them. If there was anyone in the warehouse, they would have all the time in the world to prepare. At worst, Nikita expected robotic security.

Of all of them, it was Vladimir and his pet monster who volunteered to act as pointmen - pointmonster? Pointslime? He shooed Sergeant Yazidi and his shotgun away, "Stand back everyone, Pinky-chan's got this."

Before anyone could ask, the slime stretched itself out and out and out. Visages of horror adorned the faces of the players, who had heard tales or even faced the horror themselves. The Mobile Guard players especially, when one recalled how a pink tsunami devoured not only a score of men but even their very expensive tanks. Pinky-chan stretched so much that its thickness (viscousness? She wasn't an expert on these things) was less than a nail's width.

It latched onto the door with a hearty slap. Before their eyes, Pinky-chan consumed the old rusted metal in an instant, dissolving it in a hiss like an opened can of a carbonated drink, before plopping down to its original size, but ever so slightly larger. It was mesmerising.

Sergeant Yazidi, ever the professional, was nonplussed. He threw in a flashbang as another one of his squad threw an EMP, taking cover as the explosive went off. "Move! Move!"

The men of 5th Squad strolled in, ARs raised, followed by the AKs of Zakon. The rest waited outside. "You sure you don't need some help?" Klein offered.

"It's fine. You've done enough already." She thought of at least sending the catwoman with the chainsword but she looked just as rough up as the rest of them. "Just be prepared to open fire."

Two agonising minutes passed until Corporal Dave exited the door-shaped hole with a bright grin. "Major, all's clear."

"No old reactivated security?" she asked.

"Nope."

"No mutant abomination dwelling in the darkness?" asked Dyne.

"Nada."

"No Thunder Fighters waiting in wait just in case this one specific warehouse gets attacked?" asked Sinon, thumbing the chainsword.

"Nyet."

"ARE THERE SPIDERS?" asked the Wall.

"Well, it's an old building so probably."

"SPIDERS FEAR THE WALL."

"Uhuh." He turned to the major. "No hostiles. Just a bunch of ammo. Looks like the old machines used to make cars were repurposed to make ammo. A bunch of centuries old ammo, hopefully in good condition. The others are checking it."

Nikita squinted her eyes and readied her Krink. "This was easy. Too easy. There must be a trap."

Dave's smile grew wider. "Oh, it gets better."

When Nikita entered the warehouse she expected the usual sorts of things you'd find in these sorts of dungeons: dust, debris, deactivated security. She found everything but the last thing.

And she definitely didn't expect this hidden bounty. It's like Random Number Gods finally decided to give her a break

Not only was there ammo in various calibers, especially the valued 5.56mm, but also a number of .50 BMG, 14mm, and an entire rack of 120×570mm NATO for the three Leapords in the warehouse.

Of all of the Zakon i Dolg, heavy armour was not something they could afford and Nikita herself was no tank aficionado. She only knew the big popular names and couldn't even begin to tell the difference between a Leapord 2 and a Lepoard 1. The Mobile Guard players however were positively drooling. That didn't interest her too much, what did however was the APCs, the Greek-made Leonidas-2. There were half a dozen of them, all old, all rusting, forgotten by the passage of time. It was just enough armour for her 2nd Company to mount.

Yazidi whistled. "Not bad for an ammo run, huh?"

Despite everything, Nikita smiled. "Not bad at all."

"You get the tanks, we get the APCs, deal?"

"And what do the Warhawks get?"

"They're all a bunch of crunchies, no need to tell them."

"Crunchies?"

"Infantry."

"Ah. You're infantry."

"Mounted infantry. Completely different."

"Hmm." She looked around. Some of the Leopards had missing tracks and the Leonidases weren't fully completed. If she had to guess, the workers abandoned it all when the bombs fell. "So what now?"

"I'll send some of my men to send the ammo back and get some mechanics. The Warhawks can stay here and guard the area. Tell CHAD what we found."

Yazidi sighed. "Guess we need to redistribute our loot. What are we, commies?"

"No, just fighting them."

Orders given, duties relegated, and responsibility thrusted upon Yazidi, Nikita found herself in the parking lot again, between two flatbeds. She wrenched open the truck door, threw the sleeping Kirito onto the asphalt and settled in the old leathers.

It was at that moment Tadao logged back in. "Major? What are you doing here?"

"Enjoyed your nap, commissar?"

"I don't do naps. I just drank a whole jug of coffee."

"That can't be healthy."

Tadoa gave her a face. "Fair point."

"What are you doing? And where's Kirito?"

"I'm going to logout and sleep until morning. You ask your friend Dyne what's happened. Corporal Dave's in charge."

"Morning? Sir, it's already 7am."

Nikita blinked, taking a moment to process. "Yeah, no, I'm out for a day."

Later on, CHAD would give everyone two days off to rest and recuperate. The news was received with tired enthusiasm.


Suguha was currently in the progress of locking up her gym when she received a call.

"Ah, Shino-chan, how are you? Huh, shwarmas? Why?"

A tired voice came through. "We've been in bed for fifteen hours."

Suguha almost choked and dropped her phone. "Fifteen hours?"

"Yeah, and we're completely exhausted. It's been uhh ... a rough time. Kazuto really put his all in our last session. Your brother's got quite the stamina."

All in? Wha-what was that supposed to mean?!

"And the food?"

"Well, I hope it's not too much but if you could come over and get us some food and maybe half a dozen energy drinks, we'd appreciate it. After he made breakfast, we immediately just jumped into bed. We're still too tired to get food and don't have enough money to order takeout so we were hoping if you could ..."

"Y-yeah sure! I can do that." Suguha was trying to get off the phone as quickly as possible.

"We'd pay back of course!"

"Don't worry about it!"

"Cool. You're the best, Sugu-chan. Know any good places?"

That she did. "Is goat meat okay?"

"No. No goats. Pretty sure Kazuto has trauma over last time. Anyway, see you later." The line went dead.

The kendo sensei stood in the street, a confused look on her red face. "You know what? I'm not gonna even ask."


February was fun. Did a lot of progress of my OC stuff. Back to the grind. Merchant Prince coming soon-ish!