Date posted: 29th June 2023
Happy Cow Sacrifice Day, everyone.
Chapter 25: ... Was Yesterday
Sinon remembered the first time picking up a sniper rifle in a game. She was at Kyouji's house, and his father had brought out a vintage console from ages past. It was perhaps, on reflection, unwise to let a couple nine year olds play a gritty shooter meant for adults, but hey, they weren't complaining.
Though the actual title of the game itself was lost to the haze of memories, she distinctly remembered it was a WW2 shooter, and the rifle she picked up was a Mosin-Nagant.
There she was in a destroyed town fountain, laying amongst the dead, until a grizzled Soviet sergeant came and told her to pick up her rifle, and snipe Wehrmacht commanders. They did so under the cover of artillery and bombers in the destroyed city of Stalingrad.
The stalking, the fear of being caught, and the kill. It was an almost religious experience. She remembered telling Kyouji this at the time, to which he replied, "Wow, Shino-chan, you sure sound like a psychopath."
Well, it was true, but he shouldn't say it!
Ever since that day, she had a tendency to go to sniper rifles, haters and naysayers be damned.
The GM6 Lynx exploded followed by a hearty ka-chunk! as the .50 caliber let fly. Years of playing GGO and Sinon could never get over the beauty of the game's realistic ballistics. She could see the shockwave of the explosion, followed by the second shockwave of the bullet breaking the sound barrier; she could see the bullet arc downwards ever so slightly thanks to the True Gravity system of the game; she could not see the pretty pink mist, no, she saw the huge splatter of blood, flesh and bone as the bullet met her target - the sides of a poor militia woman - and how it took off her arm and threw her aim off completely, as the grenade launcher she was holding instead shot upwards only to fall on her and her squad seconds later.
Kirito, who had just finished bisecting some poor bastard, flinched from the sudden explosion. He turned around and waved his sword, his face drenched with blood as the FuurinKazan pushed their advantage at their sudden turn of fortune. He looked beautiful in battle, like a god of war. Oh, if he were close by, she would manhandle him with her immense strength, throw to the nearest bed, tear off his clothes and -
She blinked. Shit, maybe Kyouji was right. Maybe she was a psychopath.
Sniper rifles, not even once.
He felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Satoh, looking to the opposite block. "We gotta move."
"Sure thing." She folded the bipod of her AMR, still not used to how much lighter it had become.
This was the second commie block that she was on. CHAD and Black Dog were on the third block, fighting to gain control of the roof. For each building, there was one set of stairs within the building itself, and three sets of firestairs on each side but the front. They had to cover the main staircase with whatever they could find on the roof, usually a chair or rubble, and the firestairs they boobytrapped with explosives. The fighting was fiercer across the street but it was nothing compared to the hell below.
It was a strange sight, watching the chaos unfold beneath them. The Warhawks had taken the brunt of the attack, going through the apartment blocks below them while the Black Dog and FuurinKazan cleared the rooftops. There had to be a platoon's worth of soldiers in every building, and they had to be meticulously cleared before advancing lest an Nlaw take out their heavy armour; more players had died to IEDs than actual enemy fire.
The zipline tools were sturdy things: a pole two meters tall, with a diamond tipped spike drill so it can be planted in any surface placed days before the came with three hundred meters of wire, and they had two in total for each squad. The handle wheel where one hung off was battery powered, which allowed them to bring the wheel back and forth across the gaps. They had been in the game since the beta but there were very few levels and dungeons where they could be used effectively, as most battlefields were either out in the open or in close quarters.
Sinon had bought one herself early on in her career from a player merchant who insisted every adventurer carried one, and how it was the modern version of the ten foot pole (whatever that was). It was in the depths of her apartment stash where it stayed forever. That's the problem with these sorta tools, you never know which one would be useful until you were actually in the field
But this was no time for armchair game design, she had a twenty foot gap to cross.
Satoh cracked his knuckles as he prepared himself for this. "You know Asada, I took my beloved Emiko -"
"Bungee diving, yeah, you've told me that before." He had told her a dozen times at this point actually. No matter how many times she (and the rest of her co-workers) had given Satoh the Yes-We-Know-Shut-Up-About-It stare, the man has never stopped bringing it up.
He had a wistful look in his eyes. "Oh, please, Asada. When you're older and have kids, you'll do the same."
"I am not going to tell my children how I met my husband in a bakery and he invited me to a dark alley to do stupid stuff."
Satoh gave her at least three different kinds of looks, ranging from surprise, disgust, curiosity, in the span of three seconds, before finally stating, in his most diplomatic tone, "Uh, sure. Might not be best to tell your kids that."
It took a moment for the gears in her to grind and understood what he meant. "Wait, no, I don't mean -"
He shrugged as he put his rifle away. "Listen Asada, I'm a religious man … well my wife tries to make me go to church anyway, and Jesus said to look at the other cheek or something -"
"It's turn the other cheek, and seconldy, it wasn't that! He had his sword out and -"
He gave her a dead eye stare. "I do not want to hear about Kirito-san's sword."
"NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Oh my God, this is like with Suguha all over again!
Before Sinon could argue that she was not, in fact, a weird pervert that pleasured strangers in alleys, Satoh was already halfway to the next building, the motor powered ziiiip audible over the chaos of battle. She sighed.
It took the zipline tool a minute to return to her position. Her radio went off: "Rooftop Parties, this is HQ. Be advised, enemy reinforcements have just exited the Ark, over," came Nikita's calm voice.
"Copy that, HQ. All parties cease crossing the gaps. We hunker down before we move, let the armour take care of it," came CHAD's afterwards.
"Hear that? Best you stay put, wherever you are," came Kirito's thoughts, and she was almost sure there was the sound of maniacal laughter that accompanied it.
Bah, so they're sending in more militia to the slaughter? She could handle a few more. Besides, they were all preparing to go to the next building. "Nah, I got this."
"No - I don't think you do," came his worried tone. It was very sweet of Kazuto but she was a grown woman, she got this. The zipline tool returned and she prepared for the crossing, hanging her AMR at the front, and she was off, the wind in her hair.
"Focus on your battles, handsome. I can handle a few militia."
"Sinon, they're not sending militia."
"Then what are they -"
Sinon noticed the shadows of wings upon her and she looked up to see at the ugly mugs that were coming down at her like living missiles.
"Ah, shit."
"They're sending Corvo-Bats."
"I KNOW!"
She felt the flock passing her, screeching and squawking, and suddenly she heard the snapping of cable as the ground ascended to meet her. She held tight, curled her body into a ball and closed her eyes.
Sinon felt a sense of déjà vu, recalling the time where she was stuck in her cat form, Kirito carrying her like a baby, as she miraculously crashed into a window instead of splattering herself against the brick wall. She rolled more times than a Dark Souls PC as she finally halted to a stop, something soft hitting her back.
The sniper opened her eyes to see that she was upside down, legs and tail above her. The room was filled with a dozen militiamen, armed with a variety of SMGs, shotguns, and rifles. Someone was loading an RPG in the corner, and a guard had a leashed Flesh Pupper. They looked at her with a mix of confusion and surprise.
She gave them a toothy smile. "Hey guys, looks like it's raining cats and Corvo-Bats, huh?"
A dozen barrels were aimed at her, and the Flesh Pupper had already chomped into her hand.
"Sinon? What's wrong? Answer me, please! Sinon! Sinoooooon!"
"Dude, inner voice please. No need to shout," said Klein.
"My bad."
The two of them were currently huddled behind a bunch of sandbags, as a militiaman was showering the area with a hail of machine gunfire as Corvo-Bats descended upon them with rending claws and piercing beaks. The rest of the FuurinKazan were similarly suppressed, with one of his buddies even having to take cover at the fire escape, which itself had mad Drillers clambering up, which was very impressive considering their lack of hands. Now they were being assaulted from the back and the front.
As crazy as his buddy was, and as comfortable as his own guild was with a glorious bayonet charge, it was kinda hard to do that when the other side was across a massive street gap and they were being attacked by a bunch of birds.
Harry One had deployed his drone turret, which unlike Mason's floating drone, was a machine gun on legs, scattering about the roof like an animal, all the while pouring automatic fire into the flock. Dynam was applying bandages to a bleeding Mason, who despite being shot in the gut, was still using his deck and drone to scout the building's upper floors. Issin popped out of cover and missed the shot at the machine gunner, cursing. "The bats are screening the damn infantry!"
Klein heard the rumbling below, Dale's machine gun no doubt tearing apart a squad of militia, with Kunimittz backing him up with his SMG. He should be down there with them, two was too few, but he couldn't move from his spot. If only he had a grenade launcher with them …
"I gotta save Sinon …" said Kirito. "I saw her crash into the building below."
Klein grabbed his friend by the shoulder, an unwise decision with how bloodied he was. "Listen man, we need all the help we can get. You can't leave a brother behind."
He let out a sigh. "You're right. I'll stay."
"Good. Issin can't get a shot against that machine gun nest. We need explosives."
Kirito looked down at his webbing. "Sorry, I only have flashbangs."
"Guess we need to take a shopping trip," he said, grinning.
Kirito grinned back. The line was something they had shared between them since college. It was a break from the hellish situation of late night cramming and trying to finish their assignments. This was, unwisely, a quick trip to the local Nakamart, for beer and instant noodles. Klein said the beer helped, but they probably didn't and made the assignments worse. But it was completed.
Now, "shopping trip" took on a new meaning when it came to gaming. Klein tapped the floor with a finger and gestured at Kirito's chainsword with his head. "Yo, Mason! Can I borrow your drone for a bit?" Klein shouted.
"What for?" the journalist yelled back, keeping his drone-child away from the scary bat-things.
"Recon and stuff! It'll only take a minute!"
Downstairs, Dale and Kunimitz were engaging in ferocious close quarters combat. It was slow going, slipping a telescopic camera under each door to check what was behind, lest they set off a trap. When it was deemed safe, Kunimitz used his bionic legs to kick open doors so hard it flew off its hinges, followed by Dale in his exo-skeleton throwing a grenade, rushing through with his heavier plate and his shortened barrel machine gun.
A brave private was upon him, knife in hand and another came at Kunimitz with a crowbar. The blade sank three inches in the gap between Dale's helmet and pauldron as he shouted in frustration. The barrel of his machine gun was pointed at the wall, putting a trio of holes from negligent discharge.
A corporal bursted from the kitchen, trench club in hand. Dale, a big man both in-game and in-life, and with some experience in wrestling, threw his hips, and the private who stabbed him was flung across the room as he finally let go of his blade, crashing into the club wielder. Kunimitz suffered two hits from the crowbar on his arm before he pulled out his pistol, kneecapping the soldier before finishing him off with a headshot, then unloading his mag into the two other fallen soldiers.
Both men groaned and cursed. This was only the third room they've cleared, and they still haven't finished with the top floor. Kunimitz applied a cyro-pack on his bruised arm before helping plug the wound on Dale's collarbone. They were running out of medicine fast.
They went through the floor, killing a few more militia in desperate last stands, their zeal and ferocity making up for their low quality weapons. The main stairway was blocked by rubble thanks to a booby trap that they tripped, and neither of them could descend if they wanted to. Finally, they reached the last room, the biggest room of the floor, maybe the supervisor's own apartment. Time for one last breach.
Kunimitz checked through his pockets, webbing and backpack. "Uh, shit. You got any explosives?"
"No man, I'm only carrying ammo."
"I still don't get why you ain't hosing the room through the walls."
"And I told you, they might have booby trapped the entire room! We gotta be careful!"
"I'm tired of doing it! Why don't you do it!" Kunimitz said, shoving the camera into Dale.
"I can't really crouch low with all this armour on me! Besides, we don't want a repeat of the last accident, don't we?"
Kunimitz groaned. "I told you, I didn't mean to shoot the hostage! I thought I had my SMG in single-shot, not full auto!"
"That was 20,000 credits down the drain!"
"Yeah and we recouped the losts in the next mission!" Damn Dale, always the penny pincher. No wonder he was the treasurer in every guild, but damn if he wasn't good at his job; he was an accountant after all. "Look man, I told ya 'I always pay back."
He made a face. "Like that one time you didn't give your dues to the guild back in SAO …"
"IT WAS ONE TIME! OKAY!"
The two friends continued to argue, they did not notice the ten pairs of boots on the other side of the door, filled with hardened militia and led by a trio of Republic Stormtroopers, armed with high quality weapons captured from the Janissaries clad. They did notice the sound of a chainsword sawing through three feet of building materials, nor did they notice the sound of a flashbang going off; nor did they notice sound of saw meeting of blade cutting flak and flesh, so immersed in their petty arguing, they only stopped when the door they were supposed to breach dropped onto the floor.
Both of them turned to see two demons emerging from the gun smoke filled room, drenched in the blood of the enemy one with a cruel katana and the other with a crueler chainsword. So completely off guard they almost dropped their guns.
"What are you two doing?" said Klein. "Go clear the rest of the floors."
They composed themselves. "Floor's blocked with rubble boss," said Dale, not telling them it was Kunimitz that tripped it and both barely escaping with their lives.
"Fine then. Help haul the weapons cache to the roof. Kirito and I need to wash up."
"I love the taste of blood in the morning," said Kirito, which was a completely normal thing to say after annihilating a room full of heavily armed soldiers.
The grenade launchers made quick work of both Corvo-Bats and enemy soldiers, the annoying MG nest blown to smithereens and Klein made a mental note to get more down the line. They were beginning to set the next zipline poll when Klein noticed Kirito was being down. "What's wrong, buddy?"
"It's Sinon. I can't reach her." He shook and slapped the bracelet as if it was a phone, held it up high as if to find a signal.
"I'm sure she's just busy." Probably running around slaughtering soldiers with her bare claws.
"It's not like her to go radio silent."
He clasped his friend on the shoulder. "Look, I'm sure you are, but Sinon's one soldier. We got more rooftops to clear."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." He peered down the street, careful not to expose his head. "At least we aren't like those poor bastards down there."
It was only a ten kilometer drive.
The Ark Biologis stood in the middle of the city, less like a ship or a building, but an artificial hillside. Its white hull shone like in the late morning sun like the newest brand top of line PC, adding to its artificiality and fakeness. It was smooth and immaculate and clean, unlike the city it called its home, untouched by artillery thanks to its massive shield generators. It was something that should not exist, something that was crafted less by mortals and more by something more … alien. Yet, it was said it was the smallest of the Explorator ships and SBC Glocken was a mountain range on its own. Woe to planet earth if one of those titans were to return.
The church tower dropped on them at the halfway mark. It was an effective technique, stemming the tide of Drillers going at the enemy. The mutant horde had outpaced the heavy armor of the Clearers, and the collapsed building halted the momentum of the rush. Without the Clearers giving them cover as well as herding them with machine gun fire, the wave of Drillers were easily picked off by Republic's own soldiers. In the northeast, the bulk of the military were waging effective war against the Clearers, so much so that some player tanks were covered in cope cages scavenged from the ruins.
He supposed the church tower was like a fallen tree; a very large, old, culturally and religiously important tree. Had he been a poet, he'd probably lament the loss of such a gorgeous church tower, which in itself likely survived milenia of Roman rule, Ottoman rule, the horrors of both World Wars and the end of the world.
But Titanium Wall - the Wall to his friends, Titan to the ladies - wasn't a lame ass underwater basket weaving nerd. He was a soldier and he had a lot of soldiering to do.
"IT'S WALLING TIME," he announced triumphantly as he vibe-checked a Discipline Master right in the shoulder, ripping one of this three arms (why do they have so many arms?) with a 30-06, the best cartridge ever made, from the best battle rifle ever made. The greatcoat wearing officer spun around like a leaf in the wind before collapsing behind the cover of a car as his troopers dragged him to safety.
The Wall leaned his rifle against his shoulder, hand on his hip and posed.
He waited for the compliments. None were forthcoming. He frowned. "HEY, SCIENCE MAN. DID YA' SEE THAT?"
"See what?!" Vladimir shouted back, huddling behind cover; said cover being his now car sized pet slime. He was careful not to lean against it.
"THAT SHOT! IT WAS VERY COOL!"
"Oh? Yeah, yeah! Totally! Good on ya' for nailing that shot against that … er …"
"THE DISCIPLINE MASTER!" Which, now thinking about it, was the other side's version of the commissar. Yet, the Wall had not seen them shoot at their own troops, and neither did Tadao-san. What's the point of being a commissar if you don't execute your own troops when you feel like it?
"Yeah that!" Vladimir was clearly focused on his current experiment as he stared at his PDA. "Uh, why don't you go to Tadao-san, I heard he could use some help!"
"UGH, FINE!" he said as he stomped away. No one appreciates real marksmanship around here.
The Wall was a solo player for most of his career in GGO, thus his Jack of All Trades build. He had his Tommy Gun for close quarters, his Garand for general purpose, his 1911 for intimacy and his M79 for emergencies. He may not be the best of the best, but in a squad of marksman he was the best CQC fighter, and in a squad of SMGer, he was the best marksman.
He had joined many guilds over the years and he had simply not gelled well with most of them. Guilds were either filled with people who can't play well, leaders who were tyrants, or preferred to do lame ass things like being social and hanging out with friends instead of cool things like raiding dungeons and waging war against the enemies of Capital.
The convoy had elongated over the course of the assault with the Leopard 2s being the spearhead and the half a dozen Leonidas-2s acting as a cover. The Clearers were spread out over the streets, with some players being a kilometer behind, such was the intensity of block to block fighting. Colonel Honshu was having too much fun spraying his minigun on the enemy than he was leading and his three captains were severely overworked. Currently, they were in a cross junction, the most nefarious type of junctions.
The Warhawks were suffering the heaviest losses, being on average the least experienced players. There were more dead Warhawks than there were any other guilds, dying more to incompetence than anything. The Wall shook his head, damn rookies.
Tadao was taking cover behind one of the APCs, his funky robohorsie spotting a few bullet marks here and there. He was talking to Corporal Dave. "You know, corporal, this sort of battlefield isn't what my Outriders are trained for."
Dave shrugged. "Listen, we're being bogged down. Rooftop guys are saying they've spotted some War Behemoths in the bowels of the ship. We cannot stand against them."
"We've got tanks!"
"Correction, we've got three tanks and there's probably ten of the big bastards ready to be brought out." Dave shook his head. "Our friends in the Mobile Guard say they have some useful weapons to stop them."
"Buuut …"
"Well, not Sergeant Khawla and her Mubarizun. The main body of the Guard. Major says to bring Bazalt with you."
"The one that's kilometers away from the Ark."
"Yep."
"Through thousands, if not tens of thousands of soldiers, militia, and angry civilians trying to defend their homes? And God knows how many snipers, gunners and traps?"
"Yep."
Tadao blew air. "Well shit. I'll get my best Outriders and maybe one more guy. A crazy motherfucker to do this job."
The Wall presented himself and saluted. "FIRST SERGEANT CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!"
Both Zakon immediately ducked as a pair of claws swiped the space where Dave's head was just a second before, Tadao pulled out his Redhawk and planted all six rounds with the accuracy he was known for. The Corvo-Bat fell from the air and crashed into the windows of a nearby storefront.
They both frowned at him. The GI shrugged sheepishly. "SORRY, FORGOT TO NOT SALUTE IN BATTLE."
The ten Outriders plus the Wall were racing around the city of Corinth. The city was hell on earth: bullets firing from every direction, collapsed buildings and crates everywhere. It spoke of the Outrider's riding skills that they were so able to traverse such rough terrain.
The Outriders zipped through alleys, on sidewalks, even through firefights, befuddling players and NPCs alike. They even rushed through what remains of a bar, squeezing through the main door, up to the second storey and back on the road. The Wall approved of the commissar's ability to do all that despite being on such a tall mount. He however did not approve of the poor abuse his precious WLA was going through.
He was the last out of the bar and the Wall realised that, not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, that maybe choosing a motorcycle created with 1940's suspension was in fact an unwise decision. The amount of damage his tailbone suffered through his playtime was only eclipsed by the amount of lead he had taken.
That's why he made an upgrade.
He stood in his stirrups and with the flick of his left thumb activated his newest gadget. There was an audible ringing noise even over the chaos of warfare, emitting from the bottom of his cruiser. The gadget activated, the laws of physics were reversed just momentarily, and he landed onto the pavement as gently as a feather falls to the ground. He flicked it off and caught up with Tadao.
"What the hell was that?" the commissar shouted over the wind.
"REVERSE-GRAV SKIDPLATE! COST THE WALL A PRETTY CREDIT, BUT IT'S 100% WORTH IT!"
"Reverse-grav tech? Pardner, one of those things costs tens of thousands of credits! You could buy four mid-tier dirtbikes for the cost of one!"
"THE WALL WILL NOT ABANDON HIS WW2 GRUNT AESTHETIC!"
"That's dumb!"
"SAYS THE COWBOY ON A METAL HORSIE USING DOUBLE-ACTION REVOLVERS SINGLE-ACTION."
Tadao laughed. "Fair, fair! Come on, we're almost there!"
'There' was like any other part of the city, filled with holes, angry citizens, and pot holes galore. Mobile Guard HQ was situated in the ruins of a police station that they themselves had destroyed, turned into a makeshift fortress, shared with soldiers from other guilds.
It was a quick chat with General Khalid, guild master of the Mobile Guard. MG members were giving out RPG-7s with armor-piercing warheads out to the Outriders like free candy. The Wall already had four warheads strapped to his back; Jamsheed Builds or no, RPGs would ruin anyone's day. The warheads were different from normal, shaped like a lava lamp of all things, with the upper half being the warhead proper and a litre Anti-Mutie juice slushing inside; Vladimir's concoction had traveled around it seems. The one called Bazalt looked positively giddy with them.
"Careful with them," said Khalid. "The Corvo-Bats, they've become smarter, able to detect messengers and scouts. They're going to pick off anyone who goes fast enough through the city. I can't spare any armour or men to accompany you."
"Don't worry, all we have to do is go faster," said Tadao.
They raced back around the ship, passing the great shadow of the Ark Biologis. As luck would have it, the Wall noticed the feathery bastards in his rearview mirror. "CONTACT, ENEMY IS ON US!"
"Outriders, split up half and half, meet us at the rendezvous point! Wall-san, with me!"
The group split, one heading east, the Wall and Tadao heading west. They narrowly avoided a Republic checkpoint, going through an alley, with Tadao's cybersteed running over an unfortunate militiawoman. The Wall's own cruiser ran over her leg, making a sickening crunching sound in the small alley. She better not leave bits of bone in his tires.
They exited the alley only to have a fearsome cheese monster meet them.
"Holy shit! Turn, turn!" yelled Tadao.
It was too late. The cheese monster fired its main cannon, missing Tadao and the Wall, and striking one of his Outriders head on. There was nothing left of the player, his bike and the RPGs he had on its back exploded, taking out the rider behind him. The final rider skillfully break her bike and turned around back into the alley as Tadao and the Wall raced on, hoof and rubber burning, their objective unchanged.
The Wall turned back, glad to not see the cheese tank abomination no longer sight. "WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"That's a Stridsvagn 103! Swedish tank! Now it's onto us!"
"HOW THE HELL DOES A TANK FROM SWEDEN MADE ITS WAY TO GREECE?!" And most importantly, why was it shaped like a cheese wedge?
"I don't know, man, I'm not a game developer!" A shadow fell upon the both of them, and it wasn't the Ark. "Shit, they're onto us!"
The Wall unholstered his M79 grenade launcher, and with a shot that would have impressed a Scythian horse archer, turned around and aimed high. The grenade exploded on contact with the biggest and ugliest bird bat on the wall. The sky lit up just a moment and the murder of Corvo-Bats flew away in terror.
The Wall brought the barrel to his lips and blew. "WE CAN'T STOP HERE, THIS IS BAT COUNTRY!"
He turned to look at Tadao who was in front of him and noticed that he didn't even see his super cool badass shot! He already had his repeater out, taking shots against an entrenched enemy position. It was enough for them to put their heads down as they rounded another corner.
"TADAO-SAN, DID YOU SEE THAT?!"
The cowboy craned his neck up, watching the skies. "See what?"
"SEE -" The Wall sighed. This wasn't worth it. "NEVERMIND. THE WALL WILL STAY UNAPPRECIATED AS HE ALWAYS IS."
The two of them arrived alongside the other half of the squad, which was missing two members. There was no time to mourn and get upset, they had a job to do - the Behemoths were already on the warpath.
Much like the Explorator ships, the genehanced elephants were also a wonder to behold. They had more in common with their ancestor, the Palaeoloxodon antiquus, then they did modern elephants. Their armour plating rivalled tanks, as did the turrets and cannons they carried on them, their trunks were powerful weapons on their own, and once upon a time they were used by the Overlords to put down worker strikes, and had been given a nobler purpose infighting their Martian oppressors.
The only downside was their slow speed. But that too was relative, a War Behemoth could with some effort catch up to a tank and crush it underneath its massive hooves.
The Outriders were some five hundred meters away from the herd, hiding on a roof of some store. They had dismounted and hidden their rides under a tarp of trash and refuse.
The six War Behemoths were in parade stance outside of the walls of the Ark, their mahouts encased in bulletproof cabs. A platoon of elite Stormtroopers accompanying them, encased in red flak. The head of General Edward 'Havoc' Grizzly was put on a pike for all to see, that old quest giver from ages ago. The Wall had heard that there was a reward in retrieving it but there were no promises.
There were only half a dozen players left, with fifteen warheads and three launchers to share between all of them. It would have to suffice.
Bazalt the Boomer was the best «Explosives» expert in 2nd company and would have been plucked for 1st Company had Nikita not promised him certain privileges, such as above the standard limit of grenades and extra pay in the form of Discord Nitro, something only officers had. He wasn't even an Outrider but kept up with the squad as well as he could. He had that mad look in his eyes and a face perpetually covered in soot. The Wall found that he liked him.
"The weakest part in a Behemoth is the gap in the neck," he said, pointing to a picture on his PDA. "Often these big bastards would be covered in chain armor."
"You mean chainmail?" asked Tadao.
"No, as in, literal chains. The things ships use to tie to their anchors. Made of titanium."
"THEY MAY BE TITANIUM, BUT I AM TITANIUM-ER," proclaimed the Wall. Everyone ignored him.
"The warheads the Guard gave us ain't sufficient to break through that. I mean, IRL, it would but well, this ain't IRL. So we need to double-tap the bastards, first with HEAT warheads, then the Anti-Mutie ones."
"It'd be best if we could relocate after each shot but …" Tadao looked around the environment, all rubble and no vantage points. Any closer and they would be spotted. The Behemoths were on the move now, walking in a straight line, their steps shaking the earth.
"Right, here's what we're gonna do. Load a few with HEAT warheads, then the Anti-Mutie in the rest."
Tadao spoke into the radio. "HQ, this is Outrider-1. We have made contact with enemy Behemoths, preparing to engage."
The radio squawked, "Negative, Outrider. We're three klicks from the Ark. Rooftop Party says they're lagging behind. They will not be making it to cover for you. I repeat, you will have no cover."
"Copy that, HQ. Standing by." Tadao clicked the radio off.
"Permission to fire, sir?" asked an Outrider.
"No, wait for HQ." Tadao sat in a corner and pulled out his harmonica. "Just wait, relax a bit. If you need to go to the bathroom, now's the best time."
"Whatever you say, sir."
Suddenly, the mental strain from all hours of gaming crashed into the Wall. FullDive tech was advanced enough to replicate soreness, but tiredness was completely all mental. He didn't fully understand the science behind it, but it could be surmised as so: the longer you play, the more tired you are. An avid gamer who can play a dozen hours a day can only play less than half of that in FullDive. There were freaks of nature, those who play the game for a full day, but that's with game consoles that had been hacked to bypass the legal limit.
The Wall was not one of those freaks. He should have joined Kirito and Sinon on the rooftops.
He sank against a wall, tipped his helmet down to his nose but in the corner of his eye, he saw something strange: his duffel bag of RPG warheads was opened. It was closed before.
Ah, he may just have forgotten. Then he closed his eyes and logged off for a spell.
"I need to do this stealthily," Kirito whispered to himself before lobbing a grenade through the window.
There was the sound of the grenade hitting the floor, the second of silence as everyone in the room took a moment to process before light engulfed them. Kirito jumped through the window and revved his chainsword. The entire fight ended in ten seconds.
The door kicked open to reveal Dyne with his FAMAS. "You know Kazuto-san, we have to do this as a team, you know that, right?"
Kirito didn't pay attention to him as he rummaged through the dead, patting chests and pants. He found two extra flashbangs on the corpse of a sergeant, nice. "You're too slow. Sinon would have been faster."
Dyne rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, Sinon ain't here."
He stood up. "Then where is she?!"
"Calm down, son. Asada's a tough girl, she's probably out there, somewhere. Now let's go search the rest of the block."
After her zipline had snapped, Dyne went to find the wayward cat as Black Dog continued on fighting on the roofs. He fought through the floors, Kirito joining later, to where they thought she crashed into, and found a room filled with corpses, torn apart by rending claws. There was neither hide nor hair of where she went afterwards, save for the spent shell casings of .50 BMG.
There were two possibilities, she was killed and was probably trying to return to her squad, unlikely considering that it did not explain her silence; or more likely she was captured, probably by one of those Mimic bastards.
There was a high chance if they met again, he would have to put her down.
"If we see Sinon again, it might not be her… " said Kirito.
"I know," said Dyne, lighting a cigarette. He took a drag before continuing. "They have the same skill sets as the players they mimic, so if she comes at us with her claws …"
He tapped his chainsword by the hilt, the heat of the engine hot enough that he dared not to touch it. "Shame about having to stab her, but you know how it is."
"No actually, I don't," said Dyne. "Why would I know how it is?"
"Yeah, Kaz, how would you know how it is?"
Kirito thought about it for a moment. "You know what, you're right, I don't know how it is. Besides, how can I stab such a cutie like my precious Sinonon?"
"Yeah, I am pretty darn cute."
"Darn right you are."
Both men were snapped from their navel gazing and jumped back as they finally noticed the catgirl standing in the room with them. Sinon was somehow even bloodier than Kirito was. Her blue eyes were disturbingly visible under all that blood. They both thought she had acquired a new set of gloves but instead realised that her arms were completely covered in blood, one hand wielding her tomahawk and the other Kirito's shaved down arming sword. Only her Lynx seemed to be in good shape. Mysteriously, her scarf was still pure white.
She cocked her head to the side, ears twitching. "Why are you looking at me like that - oof!"
Kirito had embraced her in a hug, his head snuggled in a shoulder. "Dammit woman, I thought you had died! Black Dog had to go ahead and leave Dyne-san here."
"That's right. Satoh and the rest are a couple of buildings over. Had to fight through two floors to get here. Even Kirito had to jumped his ass back here after helping with the FuuriKazan."
She pushed Kirito away and pecked him on the forehead. "Sorry, had to fix my barrel." She unslung her rifle and both saw that it was shinier than the rest. "Flesh Pupper bit into it, had to swap it out someplace safe. I even had to go on the Internet to find the manual. "
"But why didn't you answer my hails?!" he said, and he was very aware he looked like the clingy overprotective boyfriend. She cocked her head to the side, ears twitching.
Sinon rolled her eyes. "I had to take off my bracelet because it was bitten by a Flesh Pupper. Bent it so badly it was unbearable."
"Couldn't you uh, I dunno, leave voicemail for each other or something?"
They turned at Dyne. "What's voicemail?" they asked.
Dyne closed his eyes, took a deep breath and threw his barely used cigarette away into a trash can. "Why does the youth conspire to make feel so old?"
"Well, have you fixed it?"
She produced the bracelet from a pouch. It was almost snapped in half, hanging by a couple millimeters of metal. Kirito winced looking at it. "Aww, your bracelet …"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Satoh could probably fix it," said Dyne.
"No, Dyne-san, you don't get it. We don't even know what the metal is made of!" said Kirito.
"Well, that sucks. But you still got radios."
"No, it's not the same!" he argued. "It's matching bracelets, it's almost like weddi -" Kirito shut his mouth.
Sinon caught it, and it was very impressive how her red her blue tipped ears were. "Kazuto …"
"It's true, if you think about it!"
The two adults awkwardly stood in silence blushing while the old man shook his head. "Yeah, no. Ain't got time for badly written shoujo romance. Now come on, we're behind schedule."
And behind schedule they were. Klein and co were already two buildings ahead of Black Dog, much to CHAD's annoyance. Yet fought on they did, each block being easier and easier, enemy morale was collapsing.
Only the Corvo-Bats were proving to be a problem. The technique of "Kirito launches himself into a flock of bats while spinning around like a psychopath" proved to be very effective, even if it had the unfortunate tendency of raining more blood and guts on everyone. Well, more than usual.
"The KFotoSvsF never fails!" he stated, flicking the blood off with a forceful whip of his sword and immediately regretting the decision. Unfortunately, it only served to clog the already meaty sawteeth with more flesh and blood. The samurai of yore did not anticipate chiburi to be applied to such blades.
"You have a rifle, use that," said Satoh.
"But I don't have a bayonet to fix to the barrel!"
"No, I mean - to shoot it!" Satoh gestured to the swordsman. "Your boyfriend is a real something, you know."
"I know! Isn't he so cute?" Sinon said while nailing an enemy across the street.
They had finally reached the final building. This one was the tallest so far, an office building ten storeys tall. Far enough that FuurinKazan would not be able to reach it with their ziplines so they were ordered to stand by. They descended from the edge of the building to the fifth floor, CHAD leading the way.
It was completely empty of any soldiers, much to their wariness. The hallways were completely clean and well lit. The lift doors were open and the cables snapped, an UNDER CONSTRUCTION sign boldly plastered next to the doors. They ascended the stairs to the ninth floor.
A familiar face greeted them, revealing Wahyu, the decker from the mission at the slime facility. "You're late," he said.
"I see you and the rest have been comfortable," said CHAD, gesturing to the mug of coffee in hand. Kirito just noticed the Virtue was wearing a pair of fluffy pink bunny slippers.
"Not that long, do you know how hard it is to get a rental in this city? So much paperwork!"
Kirito was wondering if the decker was joking, but considering how in-depth the game was, there probably was a mechanic where they fooled Corinth civil authorities to get them the building. "Wait a minute, how the hell were you able to keep the army away from here?" asked Dyne.
"There's a termite infestation notice at the front door."
Dyne nodded approvingly. "Smart."
"Everyone gets fifteen minutes to clean up and load up, meet me in the office when you're able," said CHAD.
The floor was packed with amenities: extra ammo, ammo supplies, ballistic plate replacements, and medicine. To Kirito's delight, there were also extra saw teeth for his sword and a functioning bathroom to wash himself with, only to have Sinon shove her stuff into his arms and immediately rush pass him, locking the door. "Hey!"
"Be a dear and fix my gear would you, the axehead is getting a little blunt," she said through the door which was followed by the sound of a shower being turned on. "Ooh, there's even hot water and a washing machine"
Satoh clapped him on the shoulder. "Let's go. You know how women are with getting ready."
"I heard that!" the sniper shouted.
The cleaning went quickly with Satoh's help, as was the rest of Black Dog fixing theirs. Ginrou was wiping his drone with wet tissue and Dyne was replacing his rifle grenades. A moment later, Klein, Mason and the rest of the FuurinKazan came downstairs; a zipline had been erected on a higher floor, allowing the rest of the squad to ascend and enter the building proper.
"You gotta let me borrow that chainsword and jump pack of yours. Actually, my whole guild needs em'" said Klein, as he too did tune ups on his SPAS. "I can imagine it now, FuurinKazan - Jet Samurai Yojimbo for hire!"
"Well you're in luck, CHAD-san says the Ark is filled with em'. Assuming we don't all die a horrible death."
"Hey, don't jinx us! The rest of the guys still have PTSD from fighting em'! Bullshit OP armour is what they got" He looked at his shotty and the shell he held in hand. "Damn, you think they got some extra EMP shells and slugs for me?"
The saferoom had a smithy, which Satoh used to weld the bracelet back. He tested it with Kirito and the reception was not great.
"-ello? Can y - ear me? Do you c-?"
"-gative. It's not gr-"
Satoh frowned. "Sorry, Kirito-san. It's the best I can do."
He told the news to Sinon, now cleaned up. "Ah, don't worry Kaz. We can always redo the quest later."
"It's just not the same. How am I supposed to flirt with you?"
"We have radios."
"Nowhere near as good!"
They gathered in the command room. It was Wahyu who spoke, his drone projecting a holographic map of the surrounding area.
"Lieutenant Makarov has informed us that the spearhead is within range of the walls. Their defences have melted and the Ark is throwing one last hurrah against us."
The map showed half a dozen War Behemoths and a hundred some elite Stormroopers. They were in good gear, a combination of modern AKs, LMGs and AMRs, clad heavy-duty silver flak. A trio of Discipline Masters were about, less to instill discipline in the men, but acting more like zealous priests, encouraging men to die for the cause of Socialism.
"Zakon Outriders are nearby, ready to strike the Behemoths and cut off the head. Afterwards, we will safely split our forces between this safehouse and other buildings. We will safely rain down sniper and machine gun fire and - uh oh."
An explosion rocked the building where the Outriders were supposed to launch their ambush from. The herd of Behemoths were nonplussed as were their Stormtroopers guard and the lead elephant marched forward, turrets aimed down the street.
The first Leopard in view was annihilated by the elephant, and thus spearhead met shield.
The gas-masked commander snatched the radio from the table. "HQ, this is CHAD. Outriders have been attacked! We've got no flank! Retreat! Retreat!"
"Negative, we can take them! All units, advance! We are getting on that ship!"
In a rare display of panic from CHAD, Kirito heard him curse under his breath. "Rooftop parties, we are going all in now!"
"The rest of them are too far! We'll be behind enemy lines without support!" said Dyne.
"Come on, Dyne-san, where's your sense of adventure? We did that before when we blew up that supply depot!" said Klein.
"Yeah, and both of us died if you don't remember."
"Bah! Learning experience."
"Upstairs now," said CHAD and everyone was moving.
The angle for the zipline was steep, even if they were dropping from the 7th floor. But the walls were high and there was no place to drop safely from, safe for the one guard tower. A zipline disguised as an electrical wire was attached to a radio antenna atop said tower days ago.
Black Dog were tasked to man mortars and provide fire support with the FuurinKazan and the Virtues being the assault squads. The chaos was unfurling beneath them as the forces of the Republic's elite fought against the combined might of the Mobile Guard, Warhawks and Zakon i Dolg.
Kirito being the one with the jump pack had different duties. "Tell me who to kill and I'll bring you their head."
"Why would you do that? That seems unhygienic," said CHAD.
"I was being hyperbolic!" He wasn't, he absolutely wanted to cut someone's head off and present it to someone else.
"I just need you to kill this man," he said, sending an image to Kirito's PDA; a grizzled greybeard of a war veteran, with a scar across his face and an eyepatch over his left eye. He was missing two of his three arms and held a xiphos in his remaining hand, medals upon medals were pin onned his breast. "This is General Kolokotronis, the commander for the protection of the city. He's the brains of the operations, slay his bodyguard and staff and the Ark is ours for the taking. You and Sinon will be on the mission, FuurinKazan and the Virtues will be clearing the walls."
Kirito frowned. "Well that can't be done, I'm not strong enough to carry her and all her gear."
"So? Let her carry you instead."
"But that means I'm not wearing the jump pack!"
"... and?"
Sinon draped one muscular arm over his shoulders. "Don't worry about it, CHAD, he's just very insecure about his masculinity. He'll get around to it."
He pouted, in a completely masculine way. "But I don't wanna …"
"Pancakes."
"You drive a hard bargain, catgirl. We have an agreement."
CHAD opened a map. "Good. We think he's around here …"
General Kolokotronis of the Republic Mutantopia Armed Forces, Commander in Chief of the city of Corinth, was beloved by his men and respected by his peers. Lorewise, according to an old and outdated interview by FullDive News, he was at first the mysterious liberator of Corinth, the man who lead the slave uprising of the city.
Corinth itself used to be a manufacturing center for Glocken, using slave labour made up entirely of natives. The Warlords of Syria DLC hinted of the Ark and more Explorator ships in the deep recesses of the lore, and many a fan assumed the next expansion would have taken place further in the Middle East, possibly Iraq or Iran. Players were very surprised to find that the expansion took so close to home.
They refused to reuse the same concept of Badass Old General as a main antagonist like they did with Warlords of Syria's Steel Sultan. After some brainstorming, the lead writer of the dev team decided to reuse an older concept, Grim Selim of Mount Ararat.
The highest level dungeon in the base game was supposed to have mutant abominations and cool monsters as enemies, but dev time and costs didn't allow it. Grim Selim only had relatively standard high ranking troops defend his base; a common complaint being that while the dungeon and combat design was great, it lacked enemy variety.
So General Kolokotronis became a different NPC while the Good Doctor became the main antagonist and Mutantopia became communist flavoured. Statwise, he wasn't very impressive, with points into melee and handguns, and a unique Aeureusite musculata breastplate. Instead, what he had was advanced machine learning, able to smartly act and react against enemy forces. It led to rumours that Zaskar was creating advance AI for some military, primarily China or the United States, which was only believed by only the most conspiracy poisoned players of the fanbase.
He also had a kilometer radius long buff called «A Father to His Men», allowing any unit in said range to have 50% more morale and take 50% more damage. It was a most powerful buff, lasting even after his death, assuming no one knew of said death.
He was protected by a detail of Argyraspides, elite Stormtroopers, the best of the best, the same unit that was guarding the War Behemoths outside. He commanded in a reinforced bunker, refusing to take refuge in the safety of the Ark, which made him even more beloved. It would take a platoon to lodge him from his base, or perhaps, two crafty players.
Two players dropped onto the roof of the bunker and cut through the rooftop with a chainsword, followed by a grenade being rolled inside. The Argyraspides were strong, tough, some even having scales or animalistic strength, but the melee experience of both assassins far outweighed such mutations. It was perhaps the single toughest melee fight both of them had experienced that day.
Sinon got on the radio and declared through Mutantopia channels, "General Kolokotronis has fallen! Glory to Capital!"
Demands of confirmation and panic yelling could be heard through the channels. "So much for the buff," said Kirito.
The men on the walls, who outnumbered the capitalist dogs three to one only fought at 50% efficiency, could not stand against the sudden surprise attack, nor could they handle being mortared. It was a slaughter.
A few blocks away, the remaining Outriders had recollected themselves, scurrying to cover. It was a miracle that half of them survived. The commissar had dragged the logged out GI to safety all the while searching the buildings around them for another Mind Boggler. Mind Bogglers, being individuals of massive egos, immediately expose themselves, only to be immediately picked off by one of the marksmen. They retreated to their vehicles, riding away in bitter defeat.
The main Clearers spearhead was badly bogged down. The remaining jet-dragons had retaken the great walls of Corinth, destroying the artillery pieces on the wall and the players manning them. They had been pushed back a few kilometers, and not even the armour of the Mobile Guard, the human wave attacks of Ashigaru Corp, the bougie premium equipment of FaDe Clan was able to make a dent. It was reported that General Khalid was heavily wounded in the retreat and FaDe himself was killed.
The southwest attack fared better but not by much. They had lost two of their Leapords and half of their APCs. The Pink Slime that was the scientist's pet had somehow proved to be an effective bullet sponge. After consuming a mine's worth of lead, the enemy had resorted to launching explosives at it which did prove to be more effective.
A Eureka moment came to the scientist, and he had Pinky-chan cover the remaining Leapord in itself. The Explosive Reactive Armour of the tank plus the slime's … slimeness, had proved to be the tipping point in the fight against the War Behemoths, being the only heavy armour they possessed, eating shells that would have killed it thrice over. Four of the six elephants dead, the survivors retreated into the Ark.
Through grit and endurance, they pushed up to the outer walls of the Ark, the gates shut and barred. There was no mercy as Colonel Honshu gunned down the retreaters mere steps away from the gates with his minigun, the plates of his exosuit dented and non-functional, only surviving thanks to his absurdly high Health Pool and stims.
The gates were open, and the familiar gasmask of CHAD came into view. Behind him were the slain corpses of the War Behemoths, craters in the ground indicating explosives were planted there previously. The remains of the defenders were sprawled all over the compound and the looting had already begun.
Major Nikita, Colonel Honshu and CHAD convened in front of the gaping maw that was the Ark's entrance, where a thousand horrors lurked. The remaining armour and soldiers surrounded the massive entrance, cannons and machine guns aimed into it.
"Status report," said CHAD, as casually as one would ask when the train would arrive.
"Khawla's dead, ate a sniper's bullet. One of her underlings is currently leading the Mubarizun. StonedScientist is still around to print extra organs and limbs for people," said Nikita.
"And your Outriders?"
"Only the Commissar, my explosives expert, and that GI has survived. For his failure, he will have his Discord privileges revoked for a month."
"Your discipline is most admirable, major. And what about you, colonel?"
"I've been in worse shape," Honshu said, as he said down on Lydia, the MULE 'borrowed' from Stone and used as his own. His doctor ripped apart a broken plate to replace with another, not unlike a squire taking off his knight's armour. "A couple died yeah but it ain't much."
"Sir, we've lost thirty men, we've got forty wounded, and about thirty men in fighting condition left. Captain Hikari, Captain Lootz and Captain Ruth all died in the push," said Doc VicVek.
"Well shit, what about the other captains?"
"Those are all our captains."
"That's the problem with you Vic, always a glass half empty kinda guy." He flexed his arm, mechanical servos of his exo whirring. "When we entering that dungeon?"
"In twenty minutes," said CHAD. "Rally the rest of your men. Heal up, scrounge for ammo. The Clearers from the other side are still pinned down. This is the closest anyone has been to getting to the ship, not even the other servers have managed this."
Honshu slammed a fist into a palm. "And I will be the first man on the ship! Glorious!"
Elsewhere, Sinon did one last check on her Lynx. Kirito purged the toxins out of his body with a vial of «Detox», the glowing liquid going right into the veins of his bicep. "Aaah, that's the good stuff!"
"Don't use all of them up," she said.
"Don't worry, I got two more vials of the stuff, and ten more vials of «Davai». You want one?" he asked, producing a vial from a pouch.
It reminded Sinon of all things of being offered a cigarette and bad memories resurfaced. "No thanks."
"Suit yourself." He gazed into the gaping maw of the Ark, dark despite being big enough to fit a small house into. "You know this reminds me of something?"
"Does it?"
"Remember the first time we met, and I bought a sword and a huge riot shield that I absolutely did not have the STR to equip?"
"Yeah?"
He held up his left arm where he just patched up another bullet wound, his chainmail in tatters. "I should have kept that shield."
She chuckled. "What, what's so funny?" he asked.
"I thought you were gonna bring up something from SAO. It's been ages since you brought it up. Guess you've become a GGO native, huh? Congrats."
Kirito scrunched his face in thought and smiled. "Guess I am. But I do have one problem with it though."
"What's that?"
"There's this annoying catgirl that keeps stealing my kills. Stole my jump pack and everything, forced me to fix the gear that she broke. She isn't even specced for melee, but she's still good at it! Really unbalanced stuff. Really brings down the game for me -" he snatched his hand away in time. "Nice try, kitteh. No biting for today."
"Aww, have I become that predictable?" she pouted, ears downcast.
Kirito scratched her ears, eliciting a pur. "Oh, I'm sure there's more things that you can do to surprise me."
She gulped. "Like lingerie?"
"No! I meant sausages to go with my pancakes! Damn girl, you got it down bad." At that he laughed much to her embarrassment.
She gazed upon the looming dungeon, and she could almost see the Menacing SFX radiating from it. "We are 100% going to die in that thing are we?"
"Definitely."
"And Dyne says our boss is onto us and our 'training'. We don't have much time left"
"My clients are sending me angrier e-mails, I can't fend them off forever."
She touched his nose with hers. "Best we don't lose, eh?"
"Best we don't. Wouldn't want to start all over."
"I wouldn't mind starting this whole DLC with you again and again, Kaz."
It was his turn to become red. She laughed, finally getting one over her boyfriend.
Next up should be Merchant Prince. Spent the first half of the month working on some OC stuff. See you then!
