The Short Story Collection

Storm of Lead(GGO Fandom)

{Sinon X Oc}

(N/A)

[Small/1487 Words]

SFW

"ARTILLERY INCOMING!" A voice screams as the telltale whistle of shells is heard before they begin to pummel the ground. Huge clouds of shrapnel and flame rise in their wake, evaporating the unlucky few into mere red pixels in the wind. For the survivors and injured in the open, they are cut down as soon as the smoke settles by a hail of bullets that renders them dead in moments.

This is GGO's most brutal event...the Storm of Lead

A two-sided all-out war, bearing close resemblance to the horrendous trench battles of the First World War. Death was all but guaranteed in this event, leading many to be cautious or just outright not join in fear of losing items/currency. This year, however, something unprecedented happened. Two of the largest guilds in GGO, who had long since had conflicts with one another, decided to finally settle things on the battlefield.

Suddenly, the Storm of Lead player count skyrocketed as the two guilds joined, and from there, it was a domino effect. Thousands upon thousands of solo players and small groups begin picking a side and joining the battle themselves, sending the player count on each side to some one hundred thousand strong. These outrageous numbers ushered in a new age of death and destruction never before witnessed on the battlefields of GGO.

It's there, on the first day of that hell, that Leo's story begins-

///

"RAISE RIFLES," I order to the dwindling detachment of players around me. Most follow the order without question but I grimace as I see many frozen, the brutality getting to them despite it just being a game. These players are already lost and will soon die if we are advanced upon...

Speaking of advancing-

Raising my own rifle, a modified Gewehr 98, I peer through the smokescreen and lightly finger the trigger-

"C'mon you bastards," I mumble before pausing as I see the telltale glint of a bayonet through the smoke, said glint just as quickly disappears as new rolls of smoke pour in.

"OPEN FIRE!" I scream, the words barely leaving my mouth before a battalion of soldiers breach the smoke and begin charging us at full tilt. The reaction is instant as the crack of rifles begin going off on either side of me, many bullets finding home in the head or chest of unlucky players.

Despite this not being my first Storm of Lead, I still can't help but wince as I see the dozens of players meet their end at the gunfire of my men. After this initial slaughter, however, the attackers find cover in their advance and begin returning fire in full.

Now we were on the receiving hail of lead and my already weakened detachment began to lose more and more men. I watched as the number of players in my vision dwindled until all that was left was me. With this, there is a lull in the gunfire before I hear a voice yell out from the attacker's position-

"GIVE IT UP LEO, YOU'RE OUTNUMBERED!"

*BOOOOM*

"Heh, outnumbered you say!?" I yell back over the ringing in my ears- "I'm pretty confident I could keep this fight going for a while longer despite that!"

"YOU'RE JUST ONE MAN VERSUS DOZENS OF US; SURRENDER WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"

...