GGO: Tale of a Band of Bandits (Sword Art/Gun Gale Online OC Fanfic)

[Htamret]

This takes place a few months after the events of SAO II: Death Gun, BoB, etc. in the North American server. Also original characters only. It probably won't have anything to do with Kirito and Sinon aside from what might have been heard down the grapevine. It's also my first fanfiction and larger pieces of writing outside of school, so any constructive CnC is welcome! Honestly flame me as well if you want, I don't care xD

With that out of the way, here it is! (Sorry about the lack of paragraph indentation, YCM doesn't really do that -_-)

 

[spoiler=Chapter 1]

 "Target is three clicks away and closing. Are you ready? Over."

 

"Copy that. Bravo is moving to position. Over." A sharp and precise reply came quickly over the comms.

 

Good, he's ready. He may be a joker, but when the time comes he gets down to it he gets the job done. If only he was a little quicker, but that's more his stat choice than anything.

 

" I-er Delta... is... in position." A second albeit less confident reply came. After a short pause, the communications crackled again. "Uh, over! Sorry!" came a slightly embarrassed apology.

 

It hasn't even been two weeks, don't worry about all the lingo. We just do it for fun really. I chucked, still wondering how we managed to rope her into all this.

 

The APC (armoured personnel carrier) was coming closer. If I remember correctly, the model's top speed is around seventy kilometers per hour. That means it should take less than three minutes to get to our position. More than enough time to be ready. If my information broker was right, and he better be, the group we were staking out would be carrying valuable loot. The plan is to sell most of it and keep some for me to see what I can make, also to sell.

 

All right, we can do this. Stick to the plan and we'll be okay. I took some breaths to calm my nerves.

 

In case you hadn't picked up on it yet, our little group of three are bandits of sorts, attacking players and stealing their hard-earned drops. But only the big guys. We leave the small fish for someone else to fry. Heck, sometimes we even guarded some of those small guys from some of the... less savory groups of our kind. Doing that has established us quite the reputation as the 'Robin Hoods of Gun Gale Online' but in all honesty, it's moreso long-term planning than anything: if we rob them now when they're small our return isn't as good, but if we let them grow a bit out profit tends to be better. Sure, it's scumbaggery of the highest calibre, but nobody really judges you for that kind of thing here.

 

I suppose I should clear up where 'here' is. Let's start from the beginning. The first virtual reality massively multiplayer online role playing game (or VRMMORPG) Sword Art Online went live and resulted in the deaths of thousands of players. After the PR nightmare that followed, the VRMMO genre eventually fell into the good graces of the public, and using a program package released by a survivor of SAO all kinds of VRMMOs hit the market. A good portion of them were you run-of-the-mill fantasy MMORPGs. One that broke the mold was made by a mysterious American company called Zaskar, featuring an emphasis on gunplay. That game is called Gun Gale Online.

 

GGO features a unique 'game coin to real money conversion system' which lets users convert in-game credits for real money, as the name suggests. While the rate is pretty low at one hundred credits for around one cent USD, it does allow people to play the game professionally, using it as their main source of income. This feature is in a pretty grey zone legally which is why Zaskar keeps their company information under wraps. Most people just play it to shoot at stuff. That's my main reason for playing, even though I do use the conversion system sometimes. You need to be crazy dedicated to make enough to support yourself though, and since I'm a student school takes up most of my time. I also think that when the system inevitably gets axed it would be a problem to try and find a job if my only 'work experience' was GGO. I thought of how far I'd come since I first logged in, wide-eyed at the realism of this virtual world. My daydream was interrupted by a voice in my ear from one of my squad members.

 

"Bravo is in position, over!"

 

"Copy that Bravo, hold and wait for my signal."

 

I focused on the vehicle were lying in wait for, and the distance came up in the middle of my view.

 

"Click point five and closing!" I said from my clifftop position. It probably wasn't correct military terminology, but we used "point five" instead of "and a half" because I feel like it rolls off the tongue better.

 

"Copy that!"

 

"Got it! I mean, 'copy'!"

 

"Don't worry about getting it right sis, just stay focused."

 

"Okay..."

 

Our squad consisted of two siblings and I. The brother, Lucas, or 'LukasTheSlayer' as his avatar was named, was the oldest and my best friend. His sister Erikah is a year and a half younger, putting me in the middle as a year older than her. She was the newbie of the group, with barely two weeks of experience not only in GGO, but also with VRMMOs in general. My real name is Celine, but here I'm known by my nickname Valkyrie which comes from my username, C3L1N3_V4LKYR13. I have no explanation for the numbers to be honest, I thought it looked cool at the time.

 

I'd say I'm fairly well known after I made it to the semi-finals of the Bullet of Bullets last year. Lucas didn't feel like entering, and Erikah hadn't even started. The Bullet of Bullets, or BoB, is a battle royale that's held every year to determine the best players in the game. Well, the best solo player. I personally think GGO is all about teamwork, but no matter what it becomes a free-for-all where you're on your own, especially in the later rounds. If only I had been better at watching my back...

 

"Alpha, what's the distance on the target?" Lucas asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

 

"Right! Um... one click! Prepare the charges, blow 'em on my signal! Over!" I responded, slightly rattled from my temporary absent mindedness.

 

"Copy that! Locked and loaded, captain!" He sang, imitating one of the more popular female characters who became famous because of her ditzy attitude. I hoped she was faking...

 

"Copy, hold and wait for my signal!"

 

Nine hundred metres. Closer... Eight... Seven.

 

"Now! Bravo, blow it! Delta, flank and flash!"

 

"Copy that. Detonating charges!"

 

"Moving to posit-" Erkiah was cut off by the explosion that shook the canyon. As my intel confirmed, the armour was too strong for the explosion to damage, but the tires weren't. That was our plan though. If the armour was too weak the cargo inside might be destroyed, which tends to reduce its value. However, the wheels were obliterated, vanishing into glowing polygons like most things in this world. Sure enough, once the vehicle skidded to a stop a few people came out, guns blazing.

 

"Five hostiles confirmed!" I informed my squad mates. I found Lucas through my scope, watching to see if he was going to do something stupid. As much as I'd hate to admit it, his reckless approach often worked. I was just worried that this would become one of the many times that it didn't.

 

"Copy, I'm going in!" Lucas yelled, grinning like a madman. Of course.

 

"Wait! Ugh, never mind, just don't get yourself killed this time." I muttered, fully prepared for this two become a two-person operation. He was our heavy gunner and explosives expert, a combination that fit surprisingly well. His high STR let him carry more than enough explosives and firepower to take down a small army (which he's done, trust me) and his equally high VIT stat meant that he could shrug off any damage he took from being too close to an explosion or being under heavy fire. Most of his skills for using and creating explosives also worked towards explosive weapons, meaning that he could bring those to unheard of levels without worrying as much about his gun skills. His glaring weakness, however, was his almost complete lack of speed. Pumping nearly all his stat points into Strength and Vitality meant that he had none left for Agility, making him as able to dodge incoming fire as a cement bunker. He didn't really care as he also was almost as durable as one.

 

I aimed at one of our targets and fired. He dropped to the ground before shattering in a flash of light. As I prepared to fire again, I was blinded by a white light. At least I knew that our targets probably were worse off than I was. Evidently Erikah had hit her mark.

 

"Warn me before you do that!" I grumbled to Erikah. She tried her best and was improving, but there were a few things she didn't quite understand. I couldn't blame her though. I was worse when I first started. Even in school she was eager to do her best and studied the hardest out of the three of us. She often forced her brother and I to study with her so that we wouldn't fall behind in our classes. As much as I complained, I knew that she did it because she cared about us. I really can't fault her for that.

 

Her brother on the other hand tended to rush headlong without worrying about the details. He was normally the one to tell us to "take it easy" or "just live a little". If I didn't already know, I would never imagine they were related, let alone siblings. His role in our group fit him perfectly, because aside from laying explosive traps (which only happens because I tell him to) he lives in the moment, up close and personal. That being said, he ends up dying the most out of the three of us.

 

Eventually the spots cleared from my eyes, and I continued shooting. There were only two left. The siblings made short work of the group with their combination of heavy fire from Lukas and Erikah's shotgun. Her weapon was my idea since she didn't need to aim as precisely and focus on using speed to overwhelm others. There was only one left. Suddenly Lukas' name on my view went dark, showing that he was killed. It didn't take long for his sister's name to follow suit. I was on my own. It didn't take long for me to find the last of the group hiding behind the wreckage of their vehicle. I would have taken him down if not for a cloud of smoke that rose from their vehicle. If it was from the vehicle itself it would have been black or a dark grey, but this was pure white. Looks like there was a sixth. Before the smoke reduced my view any more, I shot the one who was hiding. What I didn't expect was for a chunk of rock beside me to explode into dust. Great, another sniper. Worse than that they were covered by smoke. They shouldn't be able to see me, so how did they get that close? I knew there were scopes that worked by detecting body heat, but those were supposed to be impossibly rare to find...

 

I would be able to ponder that for a while, as the next shot hit me directly. Apparently there were things that even my information broker didn't know. Our next conversation would be eventful to say the least.