Date posted: 31st May 2023

Sorry about that, had a nasty sinus infection and fever. Would have uploaded a week earlier. Shame I don't have Vladimir's drugs, huh?


Chapter 24: The Only Easy Day …

The apartment smelled like a lot of things: musk, day old waffles, and energy drinks. Suguha was glad it didn't smell like the one thing she feared.

She had arrived at Kazuto's place about half an hour after he called, as it wasn't too far from her place of work. It wasn't as big of a mess as she expected but neither was it as clean as expected. She'd thought if her brother had a woman around, he'd keep the place tidy but that wasn't what was expected. A woman's touch was clearly a non-existent concept here.

What also wasn't expected was how … messy Shino-san was. Sure, most of the time Suguha saw her, she would be wearing gym clothes, a hoodie and some puffy track pants; but she was also neat and decently fashionable. To see her, with her hair uncombed, in loose shorts, wearing a tank top (and not even a bra!) with another young man? Why, these two were positively living in sin! Even Kazuto had the decency to wear track pants and a loose t-shirt.

She was also eating shwarmas at the same pace as a vacuum sucks up lint, consuming an entire piece in a matter of two minutes. Suguha was glad she plurged a bit on how many she had bought. As the bodyguard finished her third shwarma, she downed a can of coke like a salaryman with a drinking problem. She slammed the can on the table and let out a satisfied sigh. "Aaaaah! That's the stuff!" Then she let out an earth shaking burp.

Kazuto guffawed, slapping the table as if she had told the world's funniest joke. Shino's face went pink. "Ah, sorry about that, Sugu-chan."

"Don't worry about it," said the sensei, waving it off. She barely touched her own shwarma, having had her fill with a pack of cheap sushi before closing up shop. "So … been working hard?"

Kirito snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! Right before we got out of bed -"

Suguha's eyes narrowed and her voice dropped an octave. "I. Do not. Want to hear. What you did. In bed."

"I meant video games, dummy!" said Kazuto, though Shino's own face had gotten a bit redder. "Oh man, we were doing so much cool shit! Shino, tell her! Tell her about the nuke!"

"We nuked a power plant."

"That sounds like terrorism," said Suguha.

"And then we fought a bunch of spess mahreens!"

"Legally distinct communist space marines," said Sinon.

"I thought you guys weren't playing a space game," said Suguha.

"They're space marines but on the ground," explained Sinon. "Not all marines fight on sea, you know."

'That's fair." Suguha didn't know anything about normal marines, much less space marines. Did Japan have marines? "Then what?"

"We found tanks!" said Kazuto, probably on some sort of sugar high, if Suguha had to guess. "Abrams!"

"They're not Abrams!"

"All tanks are Abrams in my opinion."

"I hate you. It's three Leopard 2s, alongside half a dozen Leonidases. This will give us quite the advantage in the oncoming assault on the Ark Biologis, assuming if we can properly time it with the Clearers. Urban warfare is no joke, you know," Sinon explained succinctly, as if she was a high ranking general. Then again, if you told Suguha Sinon was ex-military, she'd believe it.

"I see …" She didn't. She took a bite of her meal. "What then?"

"I lost my Scorpion thanks to a psychic goat! The bastard! That weapon carried me from Syria!"

"Yeah, I hate psychic goats!" she concurred. Why was Kazuto carrying a little scorpion on him? Was it a pet of sorts, to make poison vials? Is he one of those Beastmaster in those fantasy games? Many questions arose from the scorpion bit, and she wasn't even asking about the magic goats.

"Had you been more careful, you'd have noticed it sneak up on you."

"Well if a certain someone had shot the satanic beast, I wouldn't have almost died!"

"And I told you, had I did that, it would have alerted the entire valley!"

"You know, onee-chan, I'mma side with Shino here, you did get snuck up on a goat," said Suguha, sipping her coke.

Kazuto glared at her. "Et tu, Sugu? And besides, she had a jetpack!"

"It's not a jetpack, it's a jump pack, and it barely had any fuel!"

Kazuto shook his head. "If you were in cat form, you'd have less weight to haul yourself around. Save fuel that way."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"You're like six feet plus tall and weigh almost two hundred pounds!" He pointed at her stomach. "Speaking of which, you should cut down on the food."

Leave it to Suguha's big brother to comment on a woman's weight.

Shino's eyes narrowed. "Big words for someone in pounce range."

Kazuto scooted away. He was actually sitting across from her, and Shino next to Suguha. They were eating at the living room table/kotatsu instead of the kitchen table. "Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it?"

In a display of agility that Suguha would not expect from someone who had consumed four hearty shwarmas, Shino actually leapt across the table, not disturbing the food or drinks, and tackled her brother to the ground. In an instant, she had one muscular arm around Kazuto's head and wrapped her equally thick legs around his waist.

"No, bad kitteh! Bad!"

"Take it back! I'm not fat!"

"Never! OW! Did you just bite my ear?!"

"Nyergh!"

Suguha had been on outings with her girl friends before, and at times, they brought their boyfriends/husbands along. The feeling of being a third wheel was a familiar feeling. But seeing these two dorks going at it like cats (Shino was really getting into it), the sense of intimacy just made her feel awkward. She let out a long sigh. She really needed a boyfriend.

"Soooo, I take it you two had fun?"

"Lots!" the two said, as they unwrapped another shwarma, Shino on her forth, Kazuto on his third, while still the former still had the latter in a wrestling hold. With how much they were eating, you'd think they had been starving.

Kazuto snapped his fingers. "Oh man, speaking of which, I forgot we're low on dish soap."

"Mmm, you're right. And we haven't cleaned up in a couple days," said Shino, as munched into hers. It was a miracle that Kazuto hadn't choked on his food yet.

"Yeah, I can tell," said Suguha, as she noticed the numerous clothes hanging here and there. She spied something under the couch; was … was that …?

She finished her one shwarma and drank her coke. "You know for a couple of grown ass adults, you sure have a lot of time to play video games."

Kazuto waved her off with his food, spilling a french fry on the floor. "I've done my commissions and freelance stuff for a bunch of companies, I got enough money to not work for a month and a half."

"We still haven't paid this month's rent," said Shino.

"I got enough money to not work for half a month."

"And what about you, Shino-chan? How about your work?"

She shrugged, which had the undesired effect of slightly choking Kazuto's throat. "I'm using my PTOs. I'm not too worried about it, business has been pretty slow as of late and the boss has been hard at work trying to redesign the website."

"And how many days have you used?"

"Oh, about a few days."

"Um, Shino?" said Kazuto.

She had a mouthful of beef in mouth. "Yesh?"

"We've been playing GGO nonstop for ten days straight."

"So? I still got -" The gears were slowly turning in her head, and perhaps Suguha was imagining it, her irises enlarged like that of an excited cat. "Oh no."

"Shino?" asked a worried Kazuto.

"Ohnonononono …" Kazuto was promptly dropped on the floor as Shino disentangled and she went to her bedroom before slamming the door. That girl can move fast.

Her brother sat up, rubbing his head. "Ow! That hurt …"

"Is … Shino-chan okay?" asked Suguha.

Kazuto gave her his 'I dunno' look before picking up the dropped shwarma off the floor. She wrinkled her nose at it. "Ah, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Shino always deals with it fine. Why, there was that time someone tried to mug her while she was drunk off her ass."

She did what. Suguha sidestepped that new information. "You know, it's good to spend time with you."

"I'll pay you back for it."

She held up a hand. "Nah, it's alright. I'm just glad to see you happy, since, well you know …"

At that, Suguha felt a sense of melancholy from her brother. His eyes downcast, his smile shrinking ever so slightly. "Thanks, Sugu."

"Maybe she's the one?"

He snorted. "Said the same thing about Asuna too."

"Oh, come on! Trying to be nice here!"

"Right, right. Sorry." He popped his elbows on the table and cupped his face, a dreamy look on his face. "Sugu, I love her."

She leaned over and patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah, I think she likes you too."

Kazuto had a dreamy look in his eyes. "She's smart, she's pretty, she's nice, she's the whole package."

Suguha nodded. "You got lucky."

"And those abs!"

"You can grind cheese on them!"

Kazuto smirked. "I can think of something else to grind on them."

"Ewwww. TMI."

"I meant my face, you pervert! Now her legs though - OW! Did you throw your own food at me?! Is today Bully Kazuto Day?!"

"I threw one fry, you big baby. Chill out - HEY! I bought that, don't you dare - KAZUTO!"

Shino returned to the living room to see it had turned into a battlefield. Both Kirigayas were having what could only be described as a duel, numerous sticks were strewn about, just like brass casings after a gunfight. The ketchup all about the table was like blood and the yogurt was like - okay, the battlefield comparison was falling apart.

"Oh hey, what's up?" asked Kazuto, as he threw another fry at Suguha, only for the woman to catch her with her kendoka speed and throw it back at him in the eye. "Ow! Quit it!"

The bodyguard explained herself. "I had to call my company. Turns out Daisuke-san got me covered, told the boss that I was participating in a," she cleared her throat, "Off-Work Team Building Exercise."

"Well if you think about it, that's exactly what multiplayer sessions are," said Suguha.

"So, I technically have only used five of my PTO." She collapsed next to Suguha and grabbed her coke. "Thank God. I only have so many days off."

"You should try going self-employed, like me!" said Kazuto, trying (and failing) to catch the fries with his mouth.

"Kazuto, you barely have enough money to support yourself. That's why you haven't used your bike in the past three weeks, even though we spent all that time changing the tires," said Shino.

"He roped you in too, huh? Yeah, my brother is lazy like that."

"I forgot to bring my automatic pump, okay!"

Suguha ignored him. "Did he also try to have you throw something at you, so he can swap it away with his sword?"

Shino's gasp filled the room. "THAT'S HOW WE FIRST MET!"

Eyes widened. "No way!"

"Way!"

"Can … can we please stop?" said Kazuto, shrinking.

So Shino told the tale of how they met, something that Kazuto only mentioned in passing. The fact it all happened in a dark alley behind some bakery in the heart of Akihabara amazed her. The ending with the cat stealing her cheesecake was what sealed the whole deal.

"Thankfully, Kaz bought another slice of cheesecake later. Oh, and this was the time I was mugged -"

Kazuto coughed. "Wow, would you look at the time! It's almost eleven! Best go on your way, Sugu."

As much as she was delighted to hear embarrassing stories about her brother, he was right. "Oh, fine. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone."

"Let me walk you to the door," offered Shino.

Jacket on, handbag on shoulder, the two women said their goodbyes outside the hallway, and Shino was aware enough to at least wear a bathrobe. "Visit anytime," said Shino.

"And bring more shwarmas?"

Shino found the wallpaper of great interest right then. "Yeah, sorry. Gaming is very fatiguing, you see."

Suguha laughed. "I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll try this game of yours. Can you fly?"

"I'll lend you my jump pack."

"Aww thanks!" she said, hugging her one more time. "Hey, Shino-chan."

"Yeah?"

The kendoka smiled wickedly. "The condoms are under the sofa."

She left the smoking red Shino in the hallway with a skip and a laugh.


They had spent the next two days getting their house in order. Kazuto had been doing some light work on coding, chatting with associates and clients, Shino tried to discreetly catch up on what her own company was doing. It would be awkward to return to the office, and try to explain to her coworkers outside Daisuke's team about what she had been doing for the last week and a half.

Kazuto had become more romantically bold. It started off with a hand on a hip here, a kiss on the neck there, until when she was washing dishes one morning he had really come unto her, massaging her back before his hands slid down south.

It took all of her willpower to decline his advances. "No, stop."

"A-are we not doing this?" he asked. It felt like kicking a puppy.

"No, it's just …" She exhaled, thinking about it. "We have unfinished business."

"I already vacuumed!"

"No, not that! It's … it's the game."

He gave her a look. "Really? The game?"

"The fight's not done! Here we are, on shore leave, while others are busting their butts off fighting the enemy!"

Kazuto closed his eyes and was quiet for a moment. "Fiiine. I get it. I need to finish one project first before the other. That's the right way to do commissions."

"So what you're saying is, this is completely normal and not weird?"

"What? No, Shino. You're crazy. That's the single lamest virgin gamer ass thing I've ever heard in my entire li - STOP BITING ME, YOU ARE NOT A REAL CAT, IDIOT!"

To make amends for turning down his advances, she did spend an evening with Kazuto, once again, replicating the alley duel. Though, calling it duel was something of a misnomer. She really shouldn't have mentioned it to Suguha before.

It was at least well-lit and clean instead of a dark and mangy. Kazuto had donned his kendoka gear once again, something he had not used in a while, and swapped out his shinai for something called a feder, a synthetic sword. It was a good thing her expensive MK18 airsoft rifle was at the shop for repairs and she was using her Elite Force Glock instead. Well, this was one way to burn off stress.

Kazuto slammed a fist against his armoured chest. "Alright, let's do it. After months of playing GGO, I think I got this down."

"Ready?"

"Ready - HEY, THAT'S TOO SOON."

Shino sighed. This was gonna take a while.

She must have spent fifty rounds, the BBs covering the floor of their living room, and Shino did not doubt she'd find a rogue pellet months down the line. She was unfamiliar with how good kendo armour was, but it couldn't have been that strong. "Come on, I can take it!"

"I'm out of ammo." That was untrue, she had a Tupperware box filled with thousands of rounds under her bed. "You know, how about we go back into GGO?"

"I dunno, it's kinda too early. We've got a couple hours before the mission starts." It was just two hours shy from nine in the morning."

"I'll let you use the jump pack."

Shino find herself talking to no one, with Kazuto's door already shut. "Hurry up and log in!" he shouted.


Kazuto and Shino logged back in to a place they didn't recognise. The sniper reached for a handgun that wasn't there. "What the -"

They both sat straight up, not recognising the room they were in. For one, it was a pretty big room, long gone was their sorry excuse of a bedroom, the maintenance closet they both had logged out of was replaced by a roomy barracks, with dozens of bunk beds. Many of which had sleeping players, some in full kit, some completely disarmed. The two themselves were in their fatigues. Kirito himself was on the top back, Sinon the bottom.

It took a moment for them to reorient themselves. They were, in fact, still in the underground parking garage. The old walls had apparently been torn down, now packed with dirt. New lights had been installed; the floors were poured with swiftcrete, the same magical sci-fi stuff that was used to create Glocken Corp's many pre-fabricated and zealously copyrighted copy+paste bunkers; but most notable of all were the familiar powerlines stuck the roof - thick as a python, the same kind that were used to power the clone vats.

Exiting their barracks (and it was indeed, a proper barracks), Kazuto almost tripped on a flight of stairs that were suddenly there. The bottom level of the parking garage had been completely revamped: ten feet of earth was completely gone, now turned into a proper motorpool. The tanks and APCs found from a couple days before were being worked on by various mechanics with all the fancy doohickeys that neither player recognised.

"H-how?" said Kirito.

"Guess we'll find out soon."

They descended the stairs to find a familiar cowboy working on a couple of familiar robotic horses. "Evening pardners. Well, technically it's morning in-game."

"Lyubimiya-chan!" said Kirito, hugging the cybersteed by its neck. Smoke poured from its nostrils.

"That's mine. Yours is the other one."

"Lyubimiya-chan!" said Kirito and repeated the action. "You know, I should probably rename her."

"Can't, the option isn't there. They never added them to cybersteeds, despite doing so for every other vehicle in the game, including actual flesh and blood horses."

Kirito made a face. "First they won't let me change my avatar, now this!"

"Yeah, you can? You just have to pay -"

Sinon held up a hand. "Don't even start. How the heck did these two come back here?"

The commissar had his sleeves rolled up, the flank of Lyubimiya 2.0 removed to reveal all sorts of wiring, pipes and doohickeys, completely alien to her. Tadao's arms were all in the horse's guts. The removed plate of metal was currently being hammered by one of his Outriders at a workbench. "They have self driving features. Smart enough to track their owners and return to them."

Sinon was impressed. "Wow, these are some advanced machines."

"Real horses are already self-driving vehicles," said Kirito.

"Shut up, you know what I mean."

"Hand me that screwdriver will you? No, the flathead, thanks. The AI for these cybersteeds are smart enough that they're able to follow basic instructions." Tadao gestured with his head at a familiar Harley Davidson bike, bits of rope still tied to the handlebars. "Wall-san will be happy to see that."

Kirito gestured to around the carpool. "What happened to this place? Are we still …"

"Yep. Though you might wanna ask our resident scientist for that."

The two went to the armoury/science lab, passing the rack of cloning vats on the second floor. The number of players had increased, probably reaching the pre-wipe five hundred. But that was unlikely, as it wasn't the weekend.

The two day break was barely enough for everyone else to get to the base. Some players however were able to collect the dog tags of their fallen comrades, and inserted the engraved ID into a cloning vat, to revive their comrades and saving them the trip. It however came with the downside of stunting XP growth, to discourage players from 'vat-hopping'.

"You think we'll hit the pre-wipe five hundred count?" asked Kirito

"Unlikely, it's not the weekend. I'll give it short of three hundred."

"Just like Leonidas and the Spartans!"

"They had like six thousand other allies with them from various Greek poleis."

"Don't you bring historical accuracy here, please."

For all the new stuff added to the compound, space was still a premium. On one end of the room, Satou Smith was currently doing work on Kirito and Sinon's gear. On the other end, Vladimir was working on his chemistry wizardry. "Ah, you're early. I need some help with things."

"How the heck did our Mutant friends not realise the renovations?" asked Kirito, poking at Pinky-chan, who was vibing in a cat bed. "Unlike most games, moving dirt is actually a hassle."

"Pinky-chan ate it."

Kirito did a double take. "She ate it."

"She ate it."

"Vladimir-san, that's gotta be like how two metric tonnes of earth."

"Yeaah, I think that's an oversight. She grows when she eats certain things, only, though I haven't had the time to make a list. They'll probably patch it sometime soon, just don't report it too soon, eh?"

"But … what about the noise?"

Vladimir gave him a look. "Right, war."

"Urban combat. Nasty."

He gestured to the rounds on the table: 5.56, 50 BMG, the works. "«Anti-Mutie Ammo»? We're getting a new batch?"

He clasped his hand. "Better! But I'll tell you about that later. Hey, mind being my lab assistant for a moment?"

"Sure, I guess." He better not tell Vladimir-san he almost flunked Chemistry.

In the other end of the room, Sinon was chatting to Satoh. After his death during the nuke mission, he had paid a pretty penny to fly from SBC Glocken back to the frontlines, and with the help of the now resurrected members of Black Dog and FuurinKazan (they shared the fee for the chopper ride), had snuck in to the current base, refusing to vat-hope. It took him an entire day of travel to do just that.

He shook his head at the state of her gear, especially her AMR. "Damn, Asada. Are you using your gun as a club or something?"

"Well, I did beat a bunch of technicians to death with the butt of a shotgun, no idea where it went."

Satoh sighed. "I scraped some bits of brain matter off the barrel. What, you using this close range or something?"

"50 BMG at close range is the best at countering Aeureusi. If reports of bigger, tougher, Thunder Fighters on the ship are true, they needed all the help they could get. Those big bastards use M2 Brownings like SMGs."

He shook his head again. "Damn, and we're the idiots that's going to charge the Ark, huh?"

"We'll have numbers and armour."

"What makes you think they don't have those either? They got space cannons, too. With artillery rounds more fantastical than what we have IRL."

"You scared?"

"What? Hell no. I'm going to assault a space boat guarded by transhuman supermen in an urban warzone. This shit is rad." He jabbed the taller woman in the shoulder. "You were holding out on us, Asada."

"Didn't think a family man like you had time to play hours long video games, what with the baby and all."

"That's why I game at work. Well, at the training facility we use. Uh, don't tell the wife that."

"I won't tell Emiko, don't worry."

"Excellent. Anyway, here's your gun back," he said, handing the Lynx back to her. She eyed the weapon suspiciously.

"What did you do? Oh, wait. This feels." He curled the weapon like she would a curl bar. "Lighter. It feels like you shaved five kilos off."

"Six, actually. Went from 11.5 kg to 5.5kg." He tapped the frame of the Lynx, which went from matte black to a lightly bluish colour. "Receivers, stock, bipod, grip, all replaced with plasteel. Put some rubber on the grip for extra, well, grip. Stock has more adjustment options.. Everything else's the same. You're welcome."

Sinon twirled the gun about, like she would an exhibition drill. Balanced it was not, nor was it particularly easy, but the fact she could do it at all was a testament to Satoh's skill. "You've outdone yourself. Now I definitely won't tell Emiko."

Satoh bowed slightly, his bionic eyes twinkling. "There was a sale back at Glocken, low cost materiel, explosives and the like." He held up his right hand and it spun 360 degrees, making a slight whirring noise. "Even coughed up the cash for a bionic hand when I was there too. No bronze age space barbarian is gonna get the upper hand now, hah!"

"That must have cost an arm."

"It did!" he said, his fingers extending, revealing numerous screwheads, brushes, pins and doohickeys. "I am now the ultimate repairman."

"That's why you're fixing a small army's worth of small arms, huh?" The table he was at had at least two dozen rifles, AKs and ARs both, and a hill's worth of spare parts that even a gun nut like Sinon didn't recognised.

"I am broke."

"Figures. You want me to pay."

"Yes, please. I worked very hard on it and I barely have enough money to replace my ballistic plates." Well, not like there was much use of money this far in enemy territory.

After Sinon transferred credits to the armourer, Kirito appeared by her side. "Yo, Sinon! Guess what?"

Her irises dilated. "You're on drugs."

"How can you tell?" asked her boyfriend, whose skin had turned almost paper pale, his purple eyes bloodshot and black veins covering his body to the point he looked like a walking corpse. Blood was dripping from his nose and his eye was twitching. "Is it the smell?"

Sinon had to suppress her urge to lash out and plant her knife in his heart like the cowboy that slew Dracula. "Yes, Kirito. It's the smell. Vladimir-san, please stop using my boyfriend as a guinea pig."

"He consented, it's fine." Vladimir help up Kirito's left arm where the DAB was attached. The bionic, which previously looked like a raised plate with numerous vials attached to it, looked even bigger: pipes that weren't there had connected to Kirito's bicep, and the half a dozen vials that held the combat stims was replaced by three larger vials, one empty. The green Davai vials glowed ever so slightly in the white light. "Behold! The DAB 2.0!"

"Didn't know you were also a bionics expert, doc," said Satoh, whistling.

"Oh no, I had Doc VicVek help me with this. I'm just a chemist." He popped the empty vial and replaced it with another, this one a clear thick liquid. "With my level ups in «Chemistry» and VicVek's bionic expertise, Kirito here will now be able to pump more drugs into his system!"

"You know, there are cheaper ways for a player to kill themselves," said Sinon.

At that, the Russian smiled. "Kirito, please demonstrate."

"You got it!" With a mental command, the white vial was injected into his veins, making a sound that wasn't so dissimilar to the water being sucked into the kitchen sink after being unclogged. Colour returned to Kirito's skin, banishing the black veins, though his eyes were still somewhat pink. He rubbed the blood off his nose. "See, no more problems!"

"You've got a tiny debuff to your attributes for an hour," corrected Vladimir. "But you won't suffer withdrawal effects now. And best part is the debuffs don't stack."

"As long as I have this «Detox» thingy, I won't have any issues! I am functionally always high without the downsides."

"Well, we only had four of those, and you just used one."

He turned to look at the scientist. "You still got more doses of «Davai» right?"

"Oh, plenty."

"Fantastic." He clasped both hands. "Now, we just need to wait for CHAD to give the order."

Lt. Makarov came into the room. "Alright, everyone. It's time."


It was a difficult thing, gathering a hundred or so men in a small parking lot. Even more difficult was addressing the crowd, on the account of the low ceiling. CHAD's gasmasked face was barely visible to the people in the middle of the crowd, and was completely obstructed to those in the back. It was suggested to set up a DIY PA system, the commander shot it down immediately, for fear of rousing the «Drillers» above. That, and it would ruin the plan.

It could barely be called an army, it was more accurate to call it a company, and even then, at the lower ends. Made up of three platoons out of three guilds, a high command structure made up of a sergeant, a major, and a colonel, all ranging from the teens to level 50, without any time to practice together.

It would be a small miracle if they made it to the ship at all.

CHAD, whose avatar was at a very average 5'7, stood on a couple crates, his crown ever so slightly brushing the ancient light above him. He spoke loudly and clearly:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the hour is upon us.

"We have been in communication with the Clearers. The Mobile Guard, FaDe Clan and Ashigaru Corp have breached the city and are engaging in horrendous urban warfare. Block by block fighting, booby traps; a dozen men die to take a single building. Entire rooftops are filled with Rocket Troopers, denying us air support. Republic forces have triggered their Emergency Conscription Act, everyone in that city that isn't us is an enemy.

"Lieutenant Makarov has uploaded a map to everyone's PDA. Our route is simple, but simple isn't easy. Ten kilometers, heading northeast, right into the heart of the ship. Clearer forces have not yet breached the perimeter of the Ark Biologis, but that's fine. My Virtues have found a weak spot."

A tap on CHAD's on PDA highlighted a point on the map. It was the rear end of the Ark Biologis, which itself was three kilometers long, laid perpendicular northwest to southeast. The Ark had a curtain wall surrounding it, but not anywhere as impressive as the walls surrounding Corinth itself.

"Here, on the starboard of the ship - "

Someone raised a hand. "Uh, is the starboard the right of the ship or the left?"

"Starboard is on the right, port is on the left, Klein-san."

"Cool, cool. Just making sure!" the samurai said, giving a thumbs up.

"On the starboard of the ship is the main entrance of the ship, where materiel is always being transported out. The doors are always open, and as far as can be told, have never been closed. We will rush down the door, fight our way up the ship, and assassinate the good doctor. We will use our acquired tanks to breakthrough the heavy defenses, all the while the Clearers attack from the northeast. With skill, timing, and luck, we'll bring the entire Republic down, permanently.

"We move out in an hour. Good luck."

CHAD had gathered Kirito, Sinon, Klein and Dyne in his office. "I need a specialised team for this assignment and your guilds are up for it."

Klein snorted. "Of course, you want the best money a feudal lord can buy. The FuurinKazan are the finest yojimbo money can buy."

"The fact that you're also about in the level 10-20 range helps, makes it less likely for the game to send higher threats against you."

Klein folded his arms. "Wow, rude."

He pointed to a map behind him. "The streets will be busy with fighting. Two small teams of fighters, most of you bionicly enhanced, would be just right for it. You will scale these two apartment complexes, by rope or by assault, whatever you think is best, and use these tools to roof hop your way to the ship."

Lieutenant Makarov brought a box of zipline tools, big bulky things, with motors attached to them. There were three in total.

"My Virtues have placed ziplines already, you'll find Wahyu and Gabriel at the building closest to the ship, an old bank. With it, you'll be able to go over the walls and take control, allowing our spearpoint to pierce the defenses more easily. Dispatch the gun nests, snipers and any other threats, they won't expect any trouble from above. Afterwards, we'll head into the belly of the ship, fight through it, and kill Doctor Asclepius, winning this campaign."

Dyne tipped his cigarette in an ash tray. "As long as we don't have to fight more Thunder Fighters, I'll be fine with that."

"The Good Doctor will have his elite Thunder Fighters on guard as well, when we pierce the belly. Better stock up on those rifle grenades of yours, Dyne-san."

"Me and my big mouth."

"The rooftops will be swarming with enemies: militia, stormtroopers alike. You'll head out fifteen minutes earlier, but do not strike until I give the command. Sinon, as the highest level sniper in this assignment, I have special instructions for you."

"What about you, CHAD? Where will you be?" she asked.

The commander's desk was, for once in a long while, completely bare of any paperwork. What was there was his weapons, his old reliable handguns, his MP5 now equipped with an underslung grenade launcher, and a tablet, perhaps his most powerful weapon; as well as a backpack of supplies. It occurred to Sinonn and Kirito they had not seen the man as armed as the first assassination mission a long time ago.

"With you, of course. Sitting behind a desk gets boring after a while, don't you think?"


It was early morning when the attack began.

The Mind Boggler in charge of keeping the small army of Drillers at bay was in deep meditation. The poor bastards were simple to care for, a little nudge here, a lullaby from childhood there, the smell of mother's cooking, and they were as docile as lambs. Even with a thousand of them, it would have been simple, for the Mind Boggler was the peak of human evolution, the ruling caste of homo novus.

Staying in a central watchtower in the middle of the compound, protected by thick glass and feeling the sun's rays upon him, he died a relatively peaceful death as his enlarged brain was split apart by a sniper's bullet.

All around the compound, the guards who were caring for their fellow man, many of whom were family members, panicked. Most fled immediately, as per emergency protocol, but some stubborn caretakers stayed. The mental miasma that clouded the mind of the drooling victims was lifted, a lifetime of pain and suffering in the mines reignited, anger and fury returning tenfold.

A young woman died as her brother bore a hole in her face. A father was torn apart by his own daughter, feral and foaming mad. A guard who stayed back put down as many of his old friends as he could before being torn apart from the mad mob. Even the Drillers who had their drill arms removed beat their stumps on any unfortunate soul in their path, the camaraderie of their old life the only thing restraining them from killing each other.

From outside the compound, a trio of Leopard 2s came crashing from the urban hellscape, crushing the chain link fence with ease, followed by half a dozen Leonidas-2APCs. They crushed fleeing caretakers and Drillers alike, and the machinegun fire herded the mutants like a shepherd dog does sheep, pushing them into the city. The gates of the underground parking garage opened up as soldiers poured out of the complex, with officers and their staff getting into the APCs while the rest followed from behind.

It took them all mere minutes for the combination of Warhawks, Mobile Guard and Zakon i Dolg soldiers to get ready and immediately move to their objective.

She turned at the road they had to take: ten kilometers. Ten kilometers of urban combat, with a thousand hidden snipers, rocket launchers, and machine gun nests and ten storey tall apartment complexes. Already, Sinon could see the defenders in disarray, officers doing their best to keep their mind in-line. They were in shock, not expecting attackers in their rear.

Sinon shook her head as she climbed up the side of the apartment complex with rope, putting away her Lynx. Most of the windows were barred or covered with furniture. They were halfway up with Black Dog already up on the roof, Klein's FuurinKazan in the alley keeping overwatch. Even with all her STR, climbing up a rope with all her kit was no easy task. Kirito was just above her, his chainsword dangling from the small of his back as his M4 took up space at the front.

Seven storeys up, she could spy the spearhead of the Clearers coming down the road as the defenders gave it their all. The Abrams of the Mobile Guard blew great holes in the apartment blocks, showering debris and guts all over the streets. The tanks were backed up by Mubarizun heavy infantry, as Ashigaru Corp soldiers engaged in block to block CQC fighting. FaDe Corp fighter jets dueled with the remaining jet-dragons of the Republic, far off in the distance. It was war at its cruelest, at it most majestic.

"Wow, what a view." You couldn't have gotten this level of destruction anywhere else, VR or no.

"Stop looking at my ass and get your head in the game, Asada," Kirito said telepathically.

"I'm talking about the sheer scale of war!" she spouted defensively, waving her arm at the chaos below, forgetting the telepathic link. "I can't even see your butt, the jump pack is blocking it!"

"Civilians are dying. Very heartless of you, but not unexpected of a cat."

She could just imagine the smug look on his face. "I'm gonna kick your ass."

"After the mission, dear."

Two storeys from the top of the roof, a head popped out of a window next to Kirito: the angry face of a Republic militiaman, a pipe revolver in hand. Shocked, both hands on the rope, her sidearm foolishly packed in her backpack, Sinon could do nothing but gap like a fish.

The swordsman was prepared for it. With an almost lazy swing of his chainsword, Kirito decapitated the soldier with a single swing, not even bothering to rev the teeth. The body dropped back into the room as the head plummeted down below, smashing and spooking Klein who was chatting with Mason.

"Hey! Watch it, asshole!" he shouted before being shushed by the rest of his guildmates. Kirito laughed as he continued climbing, not even commenting on what happened.

The two finally reached the top. There, CHAD was discussing something with one of his Virtues, the one known as Gabriel. Like his commander, he too was clad in black, a keffiyeh wrapped around his gasmask carrying an XM8 in the assault rifle configuration. They waited for Klein and his team to cross the street to climb the opposite building.

"HQ, this is CHAD What's your status?" CHAD said into the radio.

"CHAD, this is HQ. The Drillers are wreaking havoc on the defenders, but the officers are rallying them. We're halfway down the road. Some of the mutants have turned back to attack us, but we're fending them off," came Nikita's voice over the radio.

And sure enough, Sinon could see her in the middle of the caravan, the tell-tale radio antennae attached to one of the APCs. A particularly happy Colonel Honshu on one of the APCs, gunning people down with a minigun. The man was tanking shots from the windows like, well, a tank, while his soldiers tried to protect him with a combination of suppression, sniping and RPG shots.

"Five kilometers? That's a light jog!" said Kirito.

"Uh, have you done those quests in Istanbul?" asked Dyne. He was referring to the union busting missions where players faced down a horde of angry workers while others went around assassinating union heads.

"Oh, the one where we break up those angry mobs? Yeah, it was easy! The water cannon was fun to use."

"Yeah well, this ain't it."

A massive explosion detonated in the middle of the city, a huge church tower that stood for untold years came crashing down in the middle of the road. The tanks in the front were halted and the radio chatter from the Mobile Guard came in a series of curses and shouts.

The voice of Sergeant Khawla came through. "This is Mubarizun squad, road's blocked off, requesting alternate route."

Gabriel checked his map. "No other route, this is the best one. Everywhere else has been blocked by rubble and checkpoints."

"Tell the caravan to stay, we will provide cover." Across the street, Klein and his crew were already engaging in a firefight against the enemy. "We will have to fight hard for this. It'll only take a lucky shot to disable the tanks with an ATGM."

"Uh, I don't think we need to worry about that," said Klein, pointing at the road again.

A great pink sludge had covered the rubble that was the church tower, and the bricks and rebar dissolved near instantaneously. Next to them, Vladimir was clapping and probably cheering his pet on, as Pinky-chan devoured the structure proper. Sergeant Gregory was already pulling the scientist away and into the safety of the APC, as the sludge returned to its container.

"Ah, very good. That eases things. Proceed as normal," he said, with the casualness of finding a 10,000 yen note in his pocket.

"Can I fly now?" Kirito asked, giving the gasmasked man his puppy eyes. Unfortunately for him, the commander was immune to such things.

"Unless you have good reason to, no."

"Uh, guys?" came Klein's worried voice. "We need support."

Across the street, a dozen Republic Stormtroopers and two squads of milita were rushing at the FuurinKazan. Mason's Nahla dropped a flashbang in their way, but even that seemed to do little to deter them. They came with overwhelming firepower, a torrent of men against the small squad of eight.

CHAD pointed at the enemy. "Kirito, smash."

Kirito grinned. "You got it, captain."

And with that, he was off, flying hundreds of yards in a blink of an eye. Gabriel already was already setting up his zipline tool with Black Dog following suit. "You stay behind and give your boyfriend, cover, eh?" said CHAD.

Sinon shrug to unslung her AMR. "I could probably kill them all from here."

"Yes, but he was giving me puppy eyes and I couldn't say no."

Dyne said to Satoh, "You stay here, cover Asada. I'll go with the rest."

"Sure thing, chief."

CHAD shook his head. "Pink sludge, mutants will drills, and flying swordsmen. I didn't see any of this back in Bakhmut."


I admit, not my best work but I'm happy to get through it regardless.

Back to MP. Hopefully, I'm not entirely sure because of real life reasons. Review and all that jazz.