by Rae Nantes
Rumbling flashes, streams of shrapnel that blossomed out of the smoke - grapeshot. Each cannon blasted thousands of metal balls that shredded the players as they challenged the infantry squares. Now Frederick's own cavalry, led by the infamously shirtless Huge Guy and the now-shirtless Yun, crashed into the player line and cut off those who had taken the bait, firing magic-rifles and cutting them to ribbons.
The sky thundered - the enemy airships. They flashed, and smoke poured from them. Broadsides careened into our ranks, exploding against shields and metal walls, but some slipping through and slicing through my soldiers. It seemed Smith wanted to play fair at first, but now he doesn't have a reason to.
"Say, magi," Alexander said. "Do you mayhaps have something to deal with these flying ships?"
"I daresay we lack the proper countermeasures for this sort of thing," Frederick said.
"For you, my friends, anything." I grinned. "F-35, Lightning II!"
A distant rumble pulsed at us, louder, faster, then roaring overhead as they zipped past close enough for us to caress the wings. Rings of white air broke around them, then world-shaking booms. A wind of hot air followed, catching my hair and cape.
Tae laughed as he covered his ears. "You've gotta be fuckin' kidding me."
A squadron of jets blossomed outward over the enemy forces, each bursting away in different directions to reach high above. The leader spoke with the same 'cool' pilot tone as one would expect him to have. "This is Huskey Nine, I'm at the target."
"The airships," I said. "Remove them."
"Can do," he replied.
The planes dived on the fleet, trails of smoke shooting from their wings to erupt against the sides of passing airships. Lines of Gatling-cannon fire to saw chunks from them. The enemy limped their airships to return fire, but by then the jets would be gone again. Fires caught, gunpowder magazines erupted, airships fell as fiery debris and flaming wrecks.
"Holy shit," Relce uttered. "We destroyed them."
He was right. The surviving players had now been shattered, and those left alive were either being cut down or fleeing. Now the rest of Smith's army marched in - the other two hundred thousand. Though we had the first victory, we were at 80% strength against a force more than twice our size.
Though my commanders didn't mention it, I knew the situation was less than ideal. The soldiers were tired, mages were running low on mana, ammunition was being spent too much and too fast. The jets dominated the skies, killing most of the air fleet, but now flak started to burst around them. Spells perhaps, or maybe even cannon ammunition.
One of them caught a close hit, and bits of metal ripped off his wing. "Thank you Huskey Nine," I said. "Go ahead and withdraw."
"Already?" he asked. "You sure you don't wanna ride me again?"
Simone shot me a suspicious glance. I blushed and waved away the accusation. "We'll take it from here."
"Roger," he said. The jets flew back into the clouds and back into their own world.
Tae swung open his screen and opened a browser. His eyes lit up at what he found. "We're at 700,000 hits," he said. "Even with the time delay, we're getting some viewers from Earth."
"What's the population of Stella Vallis?" I asked.
Relce answered for him. "A few mil."
It might've been enough, but we were far from finished. If the view count kept rising, if even more people tuned in to witness the final battle, then it would be a victory. For everything to work, I would need a majority.
I looked for Smith, using a spell to zoom in across the faces that marched toward us. Faces of anger, excitement, fear, happiness, but none of his. Then I found him. A lone airship hovered just above the grass, easing along with his army. Standing at the bow with arms crossed, heavily armored with samurai gear and katanas at his waist, black hair swept against the wind, and an arrogant, punchable face staring back - Smith. Of course the fucking weeaboo would be in samurai gear.
Simone whispered in my ear. She smelled like strawberries. "Now's a good time for phase two."
I shot her a smile, then stood up from my throne. I yelled out, my voice echoing across the plains. "Take heart, comrades! For we have already won."
I couldn't mask my smile, a terrible laugh rumbled within me, and if I didn't stop soon, I'd look like a villain. I lifted the claws of my hand as if to grasp the sky. I growled the words as if even they brought me madness. "Pride of the Space Corps, galactic dreadnaught-class capital vessel, Amun-Ra!"
It flashed in above us as if the ship had stopped in the middle of light-speed travel. The hull glowed red, steam rose from it, then faded into an angular black surface. The world itself came to a halt to drink in the sight.
My friends stared up at it with wide eyes. "Is - is that?" Simone trailed off.
"It is," Tae said. "It's like a ghost of the real thing."
"The ancient warship," Relce said, "that challenged Stella Vallis itself."
The dreadnaught was impossibly massive, encompassing the entire battlefield in its shadow, half a kilometer long. Hundreds of circular ports dotted its black underbelly. The ship dominated the skies, floating motionlessly without even a sound. Then a screech - like feedback from a megaphone.
"Good day... Otherworldians." The tinny voice poured from the ship, echoing from the speakers and reflecting off the plains. "We have come... to liberate you."
"Captain Wallace," I shouted. "Glass them."
The circular ports underneath whirled open like camera lenses, revealing terrifying, almost-alien eyes to stare back down. They glowed, then the bombardment began.
Pulses of light, plasma cannons, kinetic artillery, all blasting down onto the enemy forces, but this time, players were fast to react. They held up mana walls under layers of magic shields, protecting the cowering troops underneath like umbrellas in the rain. The damage was minimal, but the enemy couldn't move without risking their lives. Now the players were limited to ranged attacks with rifles and cannons.
"Worldbreakers!" I yelled. "On me!" I farstepped ahead of the army and reformed the center line. "Alexander, Frederick, we're moving in."
"Good lady," Frederick said, "A woman of your caliber needs a mount."
"You're unmounted, magi?" Alexander asked. "I shall give you my horses if need be."
"Thank you, friends," I said. "But I will bring my own." I offered my friends a sly grin to challenge their curious stares. "Panzerkampfwagen Tiger 2 - Königstiger."
A portal ripped open beside me, large enough to push a house through, and from it, a mechanical, growling rumble. Metal treads squeaked and cracked the dirt beneath it. The tank eased out, and from within it, muffled voices.
"Herr Commandant! Vat do I shoot at?"
"Ze bad guys, Hans!"
"Ve are ze bad guys!"
"Zhen shoot at ze goot guys!"
An order was barked among the players, and a cannon fired at the tank. The cannonball plinked off the heavy armor. The panzer eased its turret over, at the cannon and the players manning it, at those who had committed this treason. The barrel erupted. The shockwave beat against our chests, and the shriek pierced our ears. An entire enemy party evaporated into fire and dust. The machinegun rattled as it fired into the mass, but now that too was plinking off summoned walls. The players were turtling.
I hopped aboard the tank and stood proud as the leader of a revolution should. The Worldbreakers formed a perimeter around us, Harvardr in the front with his best, the support just behind. My party walked alongside as the tank revved its guttural engines and crawled forward.
We did not approach unopposed. Muskets and arrows sent volleys at us, most flicked back but some slipping through to soak into my own shield, dropping the HP bar by some fraction of a percent. I didn't even bother to cast - I had no reason to. When we came within spell range, the Worldbreakers dashed forward and smashed into the enemy ranks, and the slaughter began.
The sheer difference in skill was incredible, surprising even me, and I was thankful that th
ey fought on our side. These elite raiders challenged enemy parties, disabling their DPS while they burst down their healers, then shredding the leftovers. Those unfortunate enough to cross blades with Worldbreaker swordsmen would soon find arms missing. The leader himself was a beast, not bothering to avoid damage but instead letting his pocket healers spam him with buffs and heals. He tanked the frontline, cutting and tearing through the enemy like butter as we moved forward.
"You're in too deep," Alexander noted. "You're getting cut off."
He was right. We carved our way through their center, into the sea of players who charged us like a magnet. Pillars of light still raining across the battlefield, gunshots, swords clashing, shouts of spellcasting and panic. "I demand to speak with their commander," I said. "And that's what I'm going to do."
Frederick laughed. "But now it's too easy. They're all too focused on you."
It was the point. The raid boss couldn't hide behind her mobs forever, and now it was time to challenge the one on the top of my aggro list - the rat who cowers behind his troops.
The deeper we pushed within the mass of players, the thicker the resistance. The Worldbreakers began to slow, struggling against the overwhelming numbers, a few enemy players pouring over their lines and sprinting to attack me directly. I didn't even need to change my forward gaze as Abdul ran his fists through them.
Soon, our advance had come to a complete halt, my hundred-man Worldbreaker force getting pushed back, the world itself surrounding us. My tank parked itself and idled in the center. I was first irritated at our lack of progress, but then I realized we were already there.
Smith's airship was peaking over the crowds, him still standing on the decks, throwing his hands in different directions, shouting orders that I struggled to hear over the noise. The airship was lifting. He was trying to escape!
I farstepped closer, blinking right in the middle of a party. I slammed my fist into the ground, sending ripples through the earth to explode outward. Nearby players toppled back, hurled in the air away from me.
"Galaxy Halt!"
The world stopped.
People were frozen in time, mid-strike, mid-air, mid-death. Bullets and spells unmoving, a wave of fire flowing motionlessly from the staff of a nearby player, blood levitating in a suspended mist from a man cut open by Tae's spear. The world was dead quiet. The dirt cracked beneath me as I walked, my ears were ringing, my breathing was loud. I stepped over the toppling players, using their still-conscious bodies as a short flight of stairs to stare directly at Smith. I waved the spell from him, and he stumbled and gasped.
"What the hell?" he grunted.
"What's wrong?" I said. "Don't want to talk?"
"Is that what all this is? Making a big show of yourself?" He crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. "You somehow hacked into the other games and shut them down, and all for what? To use the NPCs against us in our fight? How the hell is that fair to the other players who have nothing to do with this? Why are you ruining their fun?"
"Is that all we are to you?" I asked. "Just fun? Our struggles, our desperations, our lamentations to you is just... fun. You and these players like to think that we exist within our worlds just for you to come exploit, fight, and kill to your hearts' content. It's as if you still haven't thought that maybe, just maybe, that we were equals, that maybe we were people too."
"Fuck no," he spat. "Unlike those larpers on your side," he gestured to the Worldbreakers, "I can differentiate between fantasy and reality." He lifted his head and hardened his heart with pride. "This is a video game. You're characters in a video game. You're NPCs."
"And you reject us a human," I echoed.
"You're less than human!" His voice carried far.
The spell began to fade, physics creaked back into the world, sounds poured in as if I were pulling my head out of water. I sank with the falling players beneath me. Weapons clashed, guns fired, spells blasted. Smith's airship took off as I stared daggers into him.
"This is far from over!" I shouted.
"It is," he said as he stared down. The airship darted off, dodging the dreadnaught's plasma bombardment, and flew around and above it.
I farstepped back into the middle of our formation, then summoned a wide portal beneath us. The ground gave way, the tank slipped into it and we fell onto the top of the dreadnaught, thumping against its metal hull, sand and dirt dropping on our heads, pebbles plinking off with hallow taps. The tank sparked as its treads lost its grip, sliding toward the edge before I waved it away to send it back to its own world. The Worldbreakers slaughtered those players who slipped in along with us, the bodies sliding off and tumbling far to the battlefield below.
The sun was bright, the skies were light blue, the wind was fresh against our faces. Smith's airship had taken a hit from the dreadnaught's turret and crashed on the hull away from us. Wood planks and debris spilled out from it. Hundreds of players raced out, magic shields facing us to protect the mages who sought to cut their way into the ship.
"Regen(stamina, MP)," I said. The spell pulsed from me and into my allies. They shimmered, their tired faces now lifted with mad smiles and roaring laughs.
"They're trying to board the ship," Tae said.
"Meet them inside," I ordered.
A few mages spawned small welding flames from their staves to cut a square out of the hull. It ripped open, and they filtered inside. I turned to my friends who stood beside me and caught the stares from the dreadnaught bridge - lines of windows in the back that overlooked the skies and the top hull, and within, Captain Wallace with his face buried in his hands. His crew stood beside him with crossed arms and shaking heads. "Go with them," I said.
Tae and Relce nodded, hopping into the charred entryway, Abdul and Simone right behind.
I farstepped closer to the players, then even more magic shields flashed in. Overlapping transparent umbrellas with spinning designs and shapes that rippled and sparked as I threw a wall of daggers against them. A fusillade, a barrage of ice javelins, a torrent of fire. Each cast shattering more, a few killed to fall off the side. A knight burst from the crowd and came at me.
"Provoke!" she shouted. Fear had found her, her eyes wide, her face pale, her breathing desperate and erratic. "Go on, Jay! I'll protect you!"
"Oh?" I waved up my palm, an invisible force grasping her and yanking her limbs out in a cross. "Who is this, Smith?" I said. "A new girlfriend of yours?"
The players took the opportunity to rush into the breach, only Smith remained to stare helplessly as I squeezed the armor around the girl, basking in the shrieks and cries and screams. "Fuck!" he yelled before hopping into the ship.
I looked up at this girl. Her tears, her fear, her pain spoke to me. I gazed into her eyes and found myself, the same me that washed up on the shore so long ago. "Sleep," I said. Her body dropped like a ragdoll, and I caught her in the fall, gently laying her across the deck.
I walked over to the breach, a hole torn in the metal hull like a half-opened tin can, and jumped in. Air rushed past in the fall, and I slammed against the floor. It was a white hallway, long, with bright lights that traveled on either side. Footsteps echoed through, then gunfire.
I sprinted after them, my shield over my arm, my sword in hand. I turned a corner to come face-to-face with another knight. He swung hard, but I harder. My shield slammed against his torso, throwing him through the wall, erupting with sparks and debris, and out the other side. Shouts down the hallway. Three riflemen with guns aimed at me, but before they could fire, thin beams of red light zipped through them. Their skin sizzled, the holes burning as their bodies thumped against the metal tiles. Soldiers ran past them, men in space uniforms, sleek black guns in their arms and smoking barrels.
The ship was alive with combat. Rattles, echoes of explosions, the entire dreadnaught shaking in the war. The speakers squealed to life. "This is your... captain speaking." I was fighting in a mess hall, tables flipping and splintering as the mages threw bolts at me. "Quarantine
decks three and four and... lock the delta compartments."
I charged the wizards and ripped them to shreds, letting my mana shield soak the damage. A far priest sought to revive them. I channeled a wind spell and felt its power along the edge of my blade, and with a hard slash, it flung from me. The priest was sliced diagonally, the wall behind him torn open, and the one beyond that. I smashed through and onto the observation deck.
High ceilings, windows wrapping the wall filled with cracks - some shattered - and on the other side, a portrait of the blue skies and green steppes. Sunlight poured in.
A gunshot. A spark off my mana shield. I looked over to find a full party in samurai armor, even the mages. Behind them, a warrior with a dragon helm, katana in hand and resolve in his eyes – Smith.
A wild grin flashed across my face. "It's rude to keep running away when someone is trying to speak to you."
His swordsmen inched closer, easing to surround to me. "I'm not fuckin' stupid," he said. "Arguing with you is like talking to a brick. I can't reason with an unconscious machine."
"You dare say I lack consciousness?"
A samurai charged at me, crying out as he swung his nodachi. I blinked beside him, then pulled a wave of ice to crash him through the glass and to the fields below. The air rushed in.
"You think I don’t experience the world around me?” I said. “I can taste the dryness of my mouth. I feel the cool air against my skin, the metal tiles beneath my feet."
A mage thrust out his staff and water erupted toward me. It splashed against my aura, then a lightning strike. Blue arcs buzzed out, gripping the walls and chairs and glass, riding the water as it slipped down the hall. My HP dropped by a percent. I stomped toward them. "I smell the blood, the smoke, the ash. I hear the thumping of cannons and gunfire." A whirlwind of knives came forth, shredding all around me, ripping the metal panels and glass, throwing sparks in every direction. "I see the rats that cower in the face of truth." His party turned to mulch and sprayed against the walls. Smith cut his way through the door and ran in. “You don’t even know what consciousness means!” I shouted after.