Somnium Online

Last Assault

"All units, assemble." Dianne shouted to the idle soldiers. "The time for our mission to commence has arrived."

Anne walked down the steps of the command center and surveyed her soldiers.

Each unit was a veteran of combat by now, they could fight in any situation, their teamwork was impeccable, and most importantly, they trusted each other.

"Right," Anne shouted, "as you all probably know we're about to head into our largest battle yet." She paused, letting that sink in.

"But we will be victorious." She continued. "The enemy isn't stupid, they're expecting some sort of assault, they'll be ready and waiting." Her voice rose to a climax, she was shouting now.

"But we're going in anyway, because if left to their own devices, our enemy can and will threaten this city.

So let's go to them, meet them on the field of battle, and give them hell."

The crowd cheered, responding raised into the air, and with that, they jogged to a waiting caravan of wagons, Anne mounting a warhorse, and together they raced off towards the city gates.

Simon surveyed his men. He had roughly a huh indeed soldiers between levels twenty and fifty. Individually, his men were outmatched, but of course, that's where being a human came in handy.

These robots might have been smart enough to run their own kingdom, but there was no way in hell they could hope to prevail against human military tactics.

"Alright guys, new orders." Simon shouted, drawing his sword and planting it in the ground."

The players around him paused their tasks, sheathing freshly sharpened swords, cancelling spells, and releasing bow strings.

Simon smirked, this was going to be too easy. "Right, new Intel says that a company of AIs is being sent to hunt us down. Apparently the developers don't like the idea of a rogue military operation in their pretty little fantasy world."

This elicited patches of laughter from the assembled players.

"These guys are expecting us to be off guard, and unprepared. They think it'll be a slaughter." He paused for dramatic effect. "Well, they're half right, it will be a slaughter, but we won't be off guard. Now, how many of you are familiar with guerilla tactics?"

"Sounds like they're leaving." Eric remarked to the empty room.

Reagan had long since left to rejoin her squad, leaving Eric behind with strict orders not to move. He grinned smugly, like that was going to happen.

"You're going to join them, aren't you." N sighed, clearly exasperated. "I understand that this is directly related to our mission of keeping this place running smoothly, but even you have to acknowledge that you're injured. You can't possibly fight at full capacity right now."

"If I couldn't fight while injured, I'd be a pretty pathetic bodyguard, come on, we have a mission to complete."

"Why are you so dead set on fighting? You aren'teven at half power right now!" N demanded, he was becoming frustrated.

"It's simple really." Eric replied, perfectly calm. "If I don't do something soon, every single person on that mission is going to die."

"You can't possibly know that." N argued.

Eric rolled his eyes, "you've seen it yourself N. The tactics employed by modern militaries far surpasses the ideas and strategies of this world.

At the Knight academy, they didn't even teach tactics to foot soldiers. The mage academy didn't have a class on strategy either. I'd doubt any of those people could comprehend the idea of guerilla tactics if you handed them a dictionary.