"ARGO, YOU BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" A faintly familiar voice bellowed off the walls of the tunnel like a megaphone.
'Yeah. Sure you will, asshole, you and everyone else who's yelled that at me.'
For her part, Argo was still trying to spot where they were, observing the small underground "village" through a bullet hole in the wall. She clicked her tongue at the gray window that suddenly appeared in her vision—moreso out of habit than actual annoyance.
『Mission Line ~Antagonist of the Underworld~ A dynamic sub-mission has appeared!
{Goal: Survive the assassins sent by «Black Tower».}
Objectives: Defeat the enemy until they are no longer able to attack - OR - Retreat from the area until the enemy are unable to pursue. The mission will fail if the Contractor is killed.』
'They're angry. I can use that. Lean into it.'
"Nice to hear ya still healthy, Ringleader!" Argo yelled back. Her nasally voice suddenly dropped a few dangerous notes lower. "Now then, try ta keep it that way 'til I'm gone!"
『Warning 1: Mission will begin automatically. Reputation with the faction «Black Tower» is extremely low. Negotiation is no longer possible.
Warning 2: Reputation with rival factions to the Black Tower are also low. Temporary «ally» and «neutral» statuses are disabled for the following factions: …』
Argo stepped lightly, ducking the expected angry torrent of gunfire at her last location. She wasn't sure if that was a tactically-ordered suppressive fire to pin her, or if that was them expressing how much she was able to get on their nerves.
Either way: a good indication she had their full attention now, and not on the blue-haired girl. They probably didn't know she had a partner now.
『Mission start!
{Rewards: Increased item drop rate from faction enemies defeated during the mission. Further enemy operations will also be temporarily halted. Black Tower forces will have exhausted their manpower.}
{Penalties: Your Company members are currently engaged in a related mission! Cover their backs, an enemy reinforcement timer will activate if you are defeated here! Remaining enemies will carry over under the failure condition.}』
For all her bravado, however, there was no denying it—she was in a very bad situation.
Argo popped up from her cover, snapping off a couple of shots before being forced back down. She felt the bullets split the air above her head where they just missed her, terrifying snap snap sounds as the supersonic bullets passed harmlessly by.
Argo saw, with no small satisfaction, one lead slug splatter across the chest piece of one assailant. He was thrown down by the hard impact, an angry gouge dug out of the armor material as if a coal miner had taken his big pickaxe and buried the point of it directly into the high-tech warrior's sternum.
Argo grimaced from her peephole as the man stumbled back onto his feet and behind the nearest piece of cover. Shaken, but regrettably still alive. Even with the best equipment she had on hand, fighting a direct encounter with one exosuit was a tough matchup; let alone against an entire squad.
She crouch-ran to another opening for another snap-shot. However, she only managed to get one round off before the suppressing fire shifted again.
"Ah—!" Argo winced as she felt a numb sting on her shoulder.
'Low damage on the bar. Tiny red wound. Shrapnel.'
—She assessed quickly.
Tink!
The grenade spoon sprang away. Argo's flashbang drew a steep arc in the air, prompting a desultory burst of gunfire at the object before they realized what it was.
BOOM!
A sharp flash struck through the dimly lit tunnel, briefly illuminating the surroundings as if it were daylight.
"UGH! Fuck off, cowards! One at a time, ONE at a TIME!" Argo shouted, emphasizing the strongest American movie insult she could think of.
Part of it was to aggravate them, as was her typical strategy. Part of it was genuine exasperation on her part.
From the hood of her cloakable mantle to her uncommon belt-line kit; and the enhanced rubber-soled boots. Argo was specialized for solo fights and quick skirmishes, not crowd control.
'So? Then fight single targets.'
Argo changed tact. She felt around inside her cloak to her belt, then snapped a wire on the consumable she needed.
'Close quarters. Terrain would split them up into ones and twos. Isolate them.'
Argo reared back, loosening a bit of the wire for leverage. The heavy bundle catapulted through the air; the cable whirred like a line cast from a fishing rod. At the apex of its arc the line went taut; again Argo yanked back on the line.
Freed from their cotton-strung pins, the bundled grenades scattered to earth.
BOOM! THUD! BOOM! BOOM!
—Pure carnage.
Multiple explosions ripped through the encampment. Pieces of shacks were shattered or disintegrated as if hit by mortar shells.
Smoke, debris, and shrapnel flew out, obscuring vision or forcing heads down to avoid shrapnel.
Amid this chaos, Argo's figure was a blur. The only hints to her approach were the stirring of dust clouds and the occasional splash where the wooden walkway dipped into the water, muted as they were by the splash of other debris.
Vrrrrrr—! The metamaterial camouflage cloak buzzed electrically as it decloaked.
There were a few key targets Argo could've chosen. The flanks where they were weaker and harder to support, or deeper behind the lines where she could directly cut down the leadership.
But like her nickname, Argo chose the easiest and least risky option.
She chose to focus down the wounded man she shot earlier.
It wasn't just that his shack was the closest thing she could dash to. "Injured" meant "medical assistance," especially in the case of someone as valuable as an «exosuit operator».
Argo led with a plasma grenade, hoping to catch a cluster of them bunched together.
She felt the detonation shock wave through her body. What remained of the shack's walls bowed out from the concussive blast.
She peeked around the corner. Three of them had crumpled to the ground; their armor smoldered slightly from the plasma overheat. Argo took aim through the doorway threshold and started firing into the mass, fully intending to only stop until she was sure they weren't getting back up, or until she'd emptied the mag tube.
Throom throom throom throom!
"...!"
A gauntleted hand grabbed the barrel past the blind corner. The enforcer pulled on the gun but didn't wrench it from her; Argo's feet left the ground. He swung the shotgun around, fully intending to slam the lightly equipped girl on the other end, into the wall.
Thinking fast, Argo let go midway. She landed in a roll, quickly springing back to her feet for the counterattack. She reached for her knives—clicked her tongue—then gripped a length of wire from her reel with both hands.
Argo pounced. A mechanically-augmented fist lashed out at her. She kicked the ground in front of her, instantly halting her dash and back-stepping once. The gauntleted hand stirred the air in front of her nose, just out of reach—and close enough to catch in her wire.
"Hup!"
Argo kicked the ground again. She leapt once—twice, using the outstretched arm as a platform. Further entangling the arm as she went. Argo gave no chance to react as she wrenched the arm up with newfound leverage, as if she intended to pull it out of its socket.
Argo planted a boot on the back of his shoulder as he resisted, like a rider wrestling a beast. With her right hand she unholstered her pistol from her shoulder, pressed against the armor gap at his neck—
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
—And unloaded the entire 10-round magazine into his spine.
With a muted thump! the armored figure and the cloaked girl fell in a heap.
Of course none of the 9mm rounds penetrated. But, mag-dumping someone point-blank at a vital point only protected by thin, flexible, unpadded armor was more than enough to kill someone through kinetic blunt trauma alone.
Argo laid on her back for a second, staring at the ceiling.
"Haa... I want my knives back."
Footsteps.
Argo pulled the body over in a hurry.
Rounds bounced off the armor harmlessly; ricochets showered her in debris as the rounds smacked dangerously close into the ground. Lead and wood fragments drew red lines across her wrists and cheeks.
She threw her empty pistol at the shooter. Abruptly, the gunfire instantly halted as he ducked away; he must've thought it was another grenade.
Untangling herself from the mess, Argo scrambled again to her feet, scooping up her discarded shotgun on the way out. She sensed a few bullet impacts behind her, but by then it was already too late.
Two minutes. Only two stressful minutes had passed in that time, with several close calls. But she had succeeded.
Meanwhile, Sinon wasn't having a much easier time of things, either.
WHACK!
Sinon kicked the side of the stuck wheel in an attempt to turn it, but to no avail.
"I'm tempted to just blast the damn hinges off with a couple of HEIAP rounds." Sinon hissed.
Moments like these made her regret not learning any utility skills that didn't directly relate to field work. Normally she wouldn't even bother with non-destructive means, but she didn't have a choice under these circumstances.
"Hrrmmnn...!"
It wasn't like she was weak, either, giving the wheel another strained tug with her full weight behind it. A significant amount of her stat growth points were in Strength, specifically so she wouldn't feel miserable lugging the Hecate around. Along with all her other equipment and ammo.
She even tapped and checked the door's «interaction menu» to manually make sure of her options. But, nothing useful came up.
'What the hell am I looking at.'
Argo posted up again at the front of the club. She looked back to see the progress on the escape route, and wore an expression of undisguised confusion at the seemingly unchanged closed door.
'Why isn't that goddamn door open,' Argo thought to herself, 'It can't be that hard... Something is wrong here.'
The moment Argo caught the other girl's eye she chewed her lower lip in thought, already thinking of ways to deal with this.
"It won't open! No prompts on why, either!" Sinon shouted.
Internally Argo was worried; she hadn't confirmed the usability of the door beforehand, and wasn't expecting this to be an issue.
Argo yelled: "Switch!" A second late she realized what she said, then started to withdraw to her erstwhile partner.
'I'm not happy about burning these many consumables...Ergh! It can't be helped.'
Another flashbang to keep them on their toes, and Argo quickly dashed to the rear of the club.
Sinon glanced at Argo with an apologetic look. She shook her head at the door.
"The wheel won't budge, Argo-san. No system prompts either, not even in the interaction menu."
"That's fine, blue girl. Don't mind it." Argo said with a wave. "Switch out with me fer now. I'll see if one of my utility skills brings somethin' up... Actually, do you have any utility skills?"
"None for urban environments."
"A field scout, that's good. Then I'll be checkin' a fresh skill list."
She glanced at Sinon's MP7 as the scout unholstered and flicked the selector to the topmost pictogram for «full-auto». Her pursed lips curved into a frown.
"Don't have anythin' bigger?"
"..." Sinon was silent, her look contemplative.
"...Nevermind. Don't worry 'bout it." Argo said, mistaking Sinon's conflicted look for a similarly grim expression as her own.
She gestured: "Neck, shoulders, elbows, knees. Anywhere the soft armor's showin,' aim for those gaps." She said, pointing out the weak points.
"Ya don't need ta kill anyone, ya just need ta make 'em hurt. Make 'em think twice 'bout gettin' close."
"Un. Got it." Sinon nodded. Argo seemed to narrow her eyes slightly at Sinon's surprisingly nonchalant response. But only for a moment.
She reached behind and shoved a familiar metal ball into Sinon's hands.
"Pop this—" she said, tapping the plasma grenade for more emphasis, "—when they get in a cluster. Club entrance will be a good chokepoint fer that. Fighting!"
With that, Argo gave an encouraging thumbs-up, but her expression was apologetic, like she was sending Sinon to die. The scout nodded again wordlessly, and hurried to the front.
Argo glanced at the tail-like end of the retreating scarf, then turned to her work. "Right... Let's see what we have to work with here."
She swiped her fingers down and withdrew a number of items: lockpick sets, pry bars, shims, several different bypass tools. All different types of «forced entry tools» that she considered the minimum for traversing any urbanized environment worth exploring.
She started off strong: she grabbed one of several hammer-fired, spring-loaded hinge pin removers she kept with her, pressed it under the appropriate part of the bulkhead-style door—and hoped against all odds that all she had to deal with here were "hidden" interactive options.
—
To tell the truth, Sinon was under no illusions about her chances in a direct fight. But neither was it in her nature to simply give up.
Sinon traded automatic bursts. Her one against their many.
Thwap! Th-thwap th-thwap, thwap, thwap!
Bullets and lasers smacked the side of her cover rapidly.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
Near misses made supersonic cracks as they passed in front of her face.
Sinon barely shrunk away from her corner. Just enough clearance to know she was out of their direct LOS.
'If you can hear the bullets,' Sinon thought patiently, 'then they aren't hitting you.'
She knew they were suppressing her. The near uninterrupted cascade of fire was evidence enough.
[Target. Bearing 20. Moving left to right.]
Sinon expanded her compass in her HUD, turning her head to match the target orientation Sky Eye helpfully read off for her.
"Copy."
In order that she wasn't pressed too close to the wall, Sinon took a few steps backward, and got a better field of view to the exterior while keeping cover. Conscious, still, of what direction the rounds were incoming.
[Standby.]
"Un."
Sinon brought the stock into her shoulder, her gun held tight in the low-ready position.
[Target in the open.]
She leaned out.
Papapapapapapapa!
The armored man visibly flinched. His head snapped backward; rounds sparked dangerously as a long, uninterrupted automatic burst splashed against his helmet.
What the MP7 lacked in power, it made up for in stability. The gun practically vibrated in Sinon's hands from the light recoil impulse as she trained her sights on his vulnerable eyepieces.
The bolt locked to the rear; Sinon let the empty drop free and slammed a fresh 40-rounder in. She let loose a 5-round burst to pursue his tail even as he ran back to cover.
Sinon blew hard out her nose.
'Pelting these guys with swarms of angry bees isn't great. But at least they still think I'm enough of a threat to back off.' The 4.6mm cartridges she'd loaded were the standard armor-piercing type, so that had a lot to do with the effectiveness on target compared to something like 9mm. But that didn't change the fact that she was armed with a glorified SMG.
Sinon rubbed the red marks on her right sleeve.
Much of the incoming fire were energy weapons—unusual for fighting people, but she figured either they didn't have enough live ammo guns to equip everyone, or her squadmate had killed off a lot more of them than she realized.
She knew she could get away with letting a few energy bolts splash on her optical shield when she peeked, but still, there were enough live ammo guns left to make that a risk.
She popped the snap on her rear belt pouch and retrieved a healing item. She popped the cap off the end of the gun-shaped object and pressed it against her arm. It vibrated slightly with a blue glow; the red marks lightened then faded away as the damage to her arm was healed.
Sinon wasn't pleased about burning another expensive healing item, but she didn't have the leeway to wait for the effects of a less valuable "heal over time" item, or a TQ and bandages.
[Contractor-san. Destroy more of the floor.]
"Explain. I don't have a lot of options to do that."
Sinon glanced at the ammo readout in the lower right. She frowned, ran her hand across her belt pouches, then clicked her tongue.
By the mission outline she'd been expecting to fight enemies with worse or similar gear to her—enough to handle with the backup weapons of her usual kit. That was probably still going to be the case later; but not a good match-up against exosuits right now. Even with a much heavier ammo load than she'd normally carry for the pistol carbine, she was about to run dry in just this one encounter.
'If this keeps up I'm not going to have a choice left in what I shoot them with.'
[Contractor. Those armored exosuits may be lighter than full-sized power armor, but they lack more in agility than is obvious.
None are attacking from the areas the other one damaged.] Sky Eye added.
She was right. So far they had all approached down the center line from the cluster of buildings opposite her, or through the open ground on the left and across her line of fire. She was still taking fire from the right flank, but none had advanced despite there being more cover on the approach.
'The left can be explained by confidence in their armor. But the right...'
Sinon nodded to herself. Killing armor with small arms was a tall order, but she only needed to keep them at bay. Creating hazardous terrain to check their movements would be good enough.
"Ideas. A single plasma grenade isn't going to do much."
[...Give me a moment.]
Sinon responded softly. "...Sure." She said. Then paused; she sensed something different.
She could hear herself aloud.
It was quiet... No gunfire. A world of noise had suddenly gone nearly silent. But they most certainly hadn't retreated; she could hear the thumping patter of boots, and the splash of movement through the murky ankle-deep water.
Sinon peeked through a gap in the wall. She caught fleeting glimpses of figures between the ruined buildings. Never lingering long enough for her to get a good look or to risk a parting shot.
Even as lightly equipped as the two of them were, they must've given the enemy an absolute thrashing if they needed to regroup so suddenly. But they would be back soon.
—A thunderous cracking noise split the air.
From the right hand side. Sinon heard the distinct sound of something crashing through wood, a splash of water, and a muffled shout.
Snap Snap Snap!
Sinon flinched. A burst of automatic gunfire raked the front of the building, startling her away from her peephole for a moment.
Sinon quickly got back up and peered again through the crack. Just in time to see one of the enemy helping his friend up and scramble to cover. His foot had smashed straight through one of the damaged boards on the walkway, turning itself into a pitfall.
'Covering fire,' she realized. When he fell, and if she'd just had a rifle on her at that moment...
[Old «Thureos» transitional models. Heavier and bulkier than the «Pelta» scout suits, lighter and just as lacking in agility as the heavier «Aspis» armor models.]
"Obsolete tanks on two feet are still a massive threat to me. What are my options for mobility kills?"
[Contractor-san. Did you notice how odd it is for a radio to have a connection underground?]
Sinon had noticed, but hadn't thought much of it until now. She answered in the affirmative.
[To the left. There should be a «communication relay device». It will be a black box the size of a fridge.]
Sinon crouched to look through a loophole.
"Un. Eyes on." She confirmed.
[Destroy it. Enough energy will be released to render the area impassable.]
"...Hai. Understood." Sinon confirmed again, grimly.
It wasn't just that she would lose radio support. Though Sinon wasn't reliant on it, Sky Eye's threat detection was an undeniable boon when fighting in this terrain, and as short-lived as that was she was definitely going to miss it.
No, the main problem was the objective itself.
It was marked on her map, 25 meters away, easily within the effective range of her MP7. And there lied the issue—the light 4.6mm bullets her PDW fired lacked the destructive power to actually damage the target, let alone destroy it. And though it was technically within throwing range, Sinon had zero confidence about getting a grenade there accurately; she wasn't a baseball pitcher.
Either she'd need to close to a more manageable distance for a grenade throw. Or...
Sinon unholstered her Glock 18.
"...Sky Eye, are they still repositioning?"
[Affirmative.]
She gripped the automatic pistol tightly in her offhand.
"And their concentration?"
[Dispersed. But most have shifted a lot to the right to get a better angle on you.]
Sinon nodded. She blew a strand of hair out of her face.
This was going to suck.
She dashed—straight out the front door on the left. For a few seconds there was no reaction, as if they too were surprised she'd do something so reckless.
She depressed the trigger on both her sidearms. The Prediction Circle was gigantic, but that didn't matter. A wall of automatic gunfire raked the building as she sprinted diagonally across the street.
Like an action movie hero, she dropped into a slide; bullets sailed around her as she made it into cover.
Sinon started—then dropped back down again. The low, waist-high concrete barrier protected her from the sudden intensity of return fire. She loaded fresh mags in both; dropped the slides.
Papapa! Papapa! Papapa!
She rested her guns on the top of the barrier, frantically yet proficiently squeezing off aimed bursts wherever she could see muzzle flashes, shifting from target to target.
[Single contact, close. Direct left. In cover.]
Sinon rushed forward. She met him almost at the doorway into the shack; just like she had in the apartment, she drilled the enemy on automatic without aiming. Bullets sparked all over as they deflected off the armor, but she still succeeded in stunning him from the constant impacts.
But—
BANG!
"Ah—!"
He still managed to get a clumsy shot off. Sinon stumbled and dropped to a knee; the Glock clattered against the floor.
Sinon steadied the MP7 against her shoulder. "Always the—" She burned the rest of the magazine until she saw puffs of red "—goddamn LEGS!"
She popped her rear pouch open and jabbed another high-grade contact syringe into her side. She started to her feet; stumbled. It was fast healing, but not instantaneous. She retrieved her Glock from the floor and started to rearm her weapons.
Bullets were flying all over. She could hear the muzzle reports slowly getting louder as the enemy maneuvered in on her position.
She kept low and scooted over to where she entered from and peeked out. She could see the objective, the radio relay device mounted to the side of the tunnel amid the vein-like electronics wires...15 meters away.
She no longer had a choice. She wasn't getting closer than this, not with the enemy practically on top of her now.
Sinon brought herself up to a single knee position. Conscious of the window partially exposing her 6, but ignoring it for the moment. The plasma grenade beeped at her. She chambered back, her left arm forward to balance in this odd stance. Doing her best for a clean throw.
A burst of gunfire struck her in the back; Sinon gasped again from the impact. But the grenade was already away.
Tink!
However—
Sploosh!
Although Sinon was an expert with aimed weapons, throwing weapons was not a skill she possessed. The grenade fell short and to the side, hitting the edge of the walkway and into the water. Throwing up a harmless splash of water with the explosion.
Sinon remained in the prone, injured but alive. Thanks to the protection of her very high-tier, lightweight armor. She was damaged since it was still flexible armor, but the bullet impacts just felt like she was shoved from behind really hard. A numb stinging sensation was left behind.
Tmp! Tmp! Tmp!
She could still hear the enemy maneuvering in on her.
"..." Sinon stared ahead, not moving.
Her expression was unreadable. At best, it could perhaps be described as a look of intense annoyance.
". . ."
The side tails of Sinon's powder blue hair fluttered slightly as she looked down. She took a hard breath out her nose. And she stretched her arm out in front of her.
Tmp...Tmp...Tmp.
The Black Tower Enforcers stopped short of their last known contact. What was left of them still able to move, anyway. The air was abuzz with tension, and the muffled sounds of their radio comms emanated from their helmets.
One of them had seen the girl crumple when he'd fired a burst through the window. Yet they took the approach slow, even knowing the body of one of their own was in there. Contractors often had good quality combat gear on them, and it was a well known fact that they could take hits that would put an ordinary person down.
They split into pairs—one advancing from their left side, the other on the right. The lead men advanced and carefully cleared the sharp corners that characterized much of the shanty, while the men behind them kept ready to support.
BOOM!
Yet another deafening blast and an eye-searing flash of light rocked the tunnel. They could feel the concussion wave wash over their armor. They flinched, but quickly recovered themselves after the fourth time this had happened.
Bzzzzzzzz!
But something was different this time.
Pssshhhh—PZZZZZ!
The electronic noises intensified. Steadily, and rapidly increasing in volume
PZZZZZ—BSHHHBOOOM!
A huge concussion wave washed over the shanty town. A massive, bright blue explosion, bigger than any of the ones preceding it, bloomed rapidly from the side of the tunnel.
Tall, buzzing beams of electricity flew out from the epicenter in long, crooked arcs. The buildings closest to the blast were outright destroyed. Farther away buildings that were damaged previously, finally collapsed. The water crackled briefly as deadly currents shot through them.
To say they were unprepared for the massive electrical explosion would have been an understatement.
BOOM!
—Another deafening blast.
And when one of the pairs looked down to see his battle buddy slumped over with a massive, smoldering hole in his rear armor plate—that was when they finally realized what that noise was.
"Scatter! They have AT, scatter!"
They were so panicked, Sinon could hear them shouting into their comms from here.
Sinon worked the bolt. With no sights she aimed straight down the side of the barrel as she tracked the next target. He turned around the corner; the sniper fired at the wall anyway, confident she'd hit her mark despite what the Prediction Circle said.
BOOM!
She saw a bright spark as the round struck the wall. Premature detonation on the wood...but the round would still carry enough energy to put him down, if not instantly kill him.
[Con...ctor. G...luck... ... ...see you soon.]
'To you as well.'
Sinon dropped another round into the chamber. Seizing the opportunity, she sprinted straight back to the club, virtually unimpeded in her dash to safety.
She found the other girl staring in her direction already.
"What the hell did ya do out there?!"
"Argo! Out of the way!"
The cloaked girl promptly obeyed the bedraggled, scowling, blue-haired girl as she leveled her miniature cannon in her direction.
BOOM! Ka-chak! BOOM! Ka-chak! BOOM!
The sewer door groaned heavily, all of its locking points completely destroyed. The heavy mass of metal shifted audibly in its frame. It fell forward, crashing beautifully and straight down through the fragile floor and into the water.
"Move! We're leaving!"
She wasn't going to argue with that.
They regrouped at the threshold, still trading a few rounds behind them at their pursuers. Before, finally, disappearing into the darkness of the tunnels, their bootfalls echoing in the gloom.
Even until the end, the enemy had pressed their attack. But they would go no further.
—
They'd tracked her for weeks.
Ringleader thumped noisily as he slumped against the clubroom's seat, staring blearily at the door through his red-tinted, anti-laser eyepieces.
«Ringleader»—his official moniker within the Black Tower organization. Enforcers, exosuit-equipped assassins. Elites among elites. Maybe they didn't have the best gear possible, but their hardiness, experience, and their fortitude more than made up for it.
And what of it?
Ringleader reached up and undid the locks keeping his helmet in place. The air around his neck hissed as the vacuum seal was broken.
For the first time, Ringleader smelled the scent of the environment. The scent of refuse, stagnant water, fire, dust, burnt gunpowder, ionized air.
Above all else, the smell of death.
They'd begun this mission in the best of spirits, during their ingress and up to the line of contact here. Righteous fury for their fallen comrades fueled them, and the repeated humiliations they'd faced against the WolfHounds. And especially, against her.
They'd tracked Argo for weeks...and what was there to show for it?
His scarred face stared blearily at the open door, into the darkness leading to God knows what in the dank underbelly of SBC Glocken.
"Terminate the pursuit. We're going home."
"Sir..." Someone's voice called out hesitantly.
He turned and looked at them. Five of them had gathered into a cluster near him. Five of them, when they'd started with almost double that. Almost all of them had suffered some sort of damage. One had been so seriously injured that he needed another squadmate to support him; his armor plate had been depressed so badly, it had been smashed into an almost concave shape. He could see a trickle of blood slowly running through the crack.
"We can't lose more of you boys. Not to save face."
"And the girl?"
He pressed his lips tightly into a line.
"...It wouldn't have mattered anyway." He thought so, his demeanor thoroughly sobered by the experience. She would've just reappeared. Like all the others did.
He stood up. Cradling his helmet under his arm, not bothering to put it back on. "C'mon. The dog soldiers won't be bothering us regardless, not after today is over. The Boss is going to need us for what comes after.
And grab the bodies. One each."
[—]
Glossary:
•AT: Shorthand for "anti-tank (weapon)."
•HEIAP: Acronym for "High Explosive Incendiary Armor Piercing." Specifically, Sinon uses ammunition based on the technical package of the unique and expensive Raufoss Mk211, Class A, with a 671 grain bullet. This is a multipurpose .50 BMG caliber round created to replace all other special types of .50 BMG rounds before it, in order to simplify logistics into a single type.
Unlike most standard "ball" .50 BMG ammo (which are meant to be fired from machine guns and thus do not need top-tier accuracy), the MK211-spec ammo actually is accurized to about 1 MOA at a distance of 550 meters, making it uniquely suitable for long-range precision. In other words—if Sinon fired 5 aimed shots at a target 550 meters away, the grouping of all 5 bullet impacts would be, at most, 1 inch or 2.5 centimeters across at the widest. At double the distance, this grouping would approximately double in width to 2 inches or 5 centimeters.
•"Fighting!": This is a sort-of Japanese slang; "wasei eigo" or Japanese words based off of English words. It means to do your best, and is about equivalent to the Japanese word "ganbare!"
•LOS: Literally "Line-of-sight."
•TQ: Shorthand for "tourniquet," a vital medical item used to cut off the blood flow in wounded limbs to prevent bleeding out.
•"Six": Literally "6 o'clock." Another way of referring to the blindspot at someone's backside. This is in reference to the position of the number 6 on a clock face. Contrastingly, 12 o'clock would refer to the direction directly in front of a person.
A/N:
Having work, errands, and other hobbies such as reading definitely slows writing progress down by a lot. I can regret this all-nighter tomorrow morning.
Still unsure about how I closed the chapter. This was a last minute change; I was originally going to finish the sewer tunnel section in a more hectic chase, but now circumstances dictate that the next chapter will need to be a bit longer to accomplish the intended story beat in a clean manner. Might still revert later. No matter.
Some trivia—
A major goal I had with this chapter was that I wanted to show how each girls' unique background affected their gear selection and how they fought. And in order to more easily contrast the differences between them, I wanted all of that to occur within the same continuous sequence.
Argo has been in GGO for a while and has quite a bit of proficiency with firearms use and tactics by now. Unlike her other SAO transfer counterpart, Kirito, Argo is a lot more comfortable using guns as a primary means of attack.
However, like Kirito, her fighting background in SAO is still much more extensive and comfortable to her than GGO. This translates to her being far more aggressive about closing the distance where hand weapons become an option and very liberal use of consumable thrown weapons—both of which she is much more confident using—and generally having a significantly more unorthodox gear layout and usage than you'd find with any other players. For all of these reasons, Argo greatly favors fights at much closer ranges and fast attacks, especially if she's able to use gear to shape the flow of the encounter.
Sinon by contrast is entirely focused around gun fighting and is far better versed in it, and it shows. Though she's primarily a long range sniper, she's still strongly proficient with and confident about engaging enemies at closer ranges. She doesn't react to incoming fire the way Argo does because of this experience and her much greater interest in GGO's world, due to personal investment. Sinon's gear layout is much more orthodox, albeit specialized. She's willing to take risks to maneuver around the enemy for an advantage like Argo does, but moreso because she has a developed sense for firing angles and line of sight contact.
Minor note on the portrayal of canon—
Where the LN and the anime have competing details, I will try to either find a way to make them compatible or failing that give priority to the LN. Hence why I have Sinon own both an MP7 and a Glock 18; the former is her sidearm in the LN and is more capable than the Glock 18 but is bulkier, while the Glock 18 is her anime sidearm and is more appropriate as a lightweight backup but is much less versatile. They both have appropriate niches that a sniper would find valuable, so I kept both.
Sinon's character is also portrayed as slightly more reserved and introverted because of this LN priority; if I recall, she had about as many internal dialogue moments during her arc as Kirito normally does, who is himself a rather quiet character. The anime gives the impression she's more outspoken, since visual media prioritizes what it can more easily show.