The Day of Christmas Eve
”I’m…..dreaming...of a white…..Christmas.” Mai sings causally while looking out from her trailer home’s window on her family’s property. “Just like the ones I used to know.” It’s anything but a white Christmas for Mai Keighley. She’s been done with her first semester and is now back home in the outskirts of her town somewhere in rural South East Texas. Snow is a rarity in these parts. Mai has probably only experienced snow once in her lifetime and she was too young to even remember. It’s going to be another lame Christmas for Mai as usual. “Where the treetops glisten and children listen...to hear sleigh bells in the snow.” She sighs after that verse.
”Be thankful that you not freezing your butt off, like the rest of the world.” Hikari nags to Mai. She’s accompanying Mai for the holiday break, staying at her place as she won’t be able to return to Japan until summer break, right after their second semester. The little window side fan is on, although nowhere near as full blast as it usually is. Hikari seems comfortable with the temperature.. “It might rain soon. That might cool things down a bit.”
”Yeah, but that’s going to make it crappy to plink with my dad’s SKS outside.” Mai answers Hikari with a bummed expression on her face. “And if the weather is ugly, then we’re going to be stuck indoors for Christmas Day.” Mai’s smartphone notification goes off, it’s a bit different this time of year as she changed it to a short rendition of jingle bells for this particular season. Mai has a habit of altering things like her wallpaper and ringtone to suit different seasons for her own amusement. “Hey. It’s a message from Emi! We haven’t talk to her in a long while!” Mai’s excitement is reignited after seeing her text message.
”What did Emi send you?”
”Hm...interesting.” Mai retorts the text to Hikari. “She said that there’s going to be a special event in Mil-Sim Story. But only for a limited time. There’s some exclusive gear we can get but only if we play during the event. Emi wants us to hop onto VR whenever we have time today. Chiara and Longhorn Squad will be there too.” Mai ponders for a bit, rubbing her messy blonde hair. “Might as well huh? It’s not like we have plans of our own, Hikari.”
”I suppose…” Hikari shrugs. “Anything to distract me from the reality that I’m spending the Christmas break in your trailer home.”
”Ha ha...oh you…” Mai chuckles and disregards Hikari’s comment on her family’s home. “I’ll text her right now that we’re going to login in a bit. Let’s see if the others will met us there.” Mai and Hikari take out their laptops and VR headsets, ready to hop into Mil-Sim Story.
"‘Twas the night before Christmas, and in the Miltons' cozy living room, the glow of a crackling fireplace danced across stacks of mismatched presents. Outside, snowflakes swirled gently, framing the scene in frosted wonder. Joanne and Rodney are barely able to sleep as they are expecting to open presents on Christmas Morning. Their father and mother waited for the children to head to bed before frantically wrapping all of the Christmas presents that they bought in the last minute. In a quiet rush, they wrapped every gift and labeled every present with a simple “From Santa Claus” but forgot to label which present belonged to whom”
”Wait! Santa Claus isn’t real?!!! THAT CAN’T BE!” Fio shrieks in distraught, embarrassing her friends from Armadillo Squad and Longhorn Squad.
”Where is that old man voice coming from?” Emi asks as she looks around the loading screen lobby.
”Well if you excuse me, I’m the narrator.” A gruff old man voice answers in the loading screen void. “Please, let me finish explaining the scenario for this holiday special event.”
”Ah...sorry.” Emi looks at her teammates who are just as intrigued as she is as to what this is going to happen in this special event.
”Ahem. Now where was I? Ah yes. So the Milton family had made a terrible mistake in wrapping the presents by getting them all mixed up and scattered all over the living room. They were suddenly distracted by neighbors, inviting them over to their home watch some football game on Christmas Eve. Do Americans really?” The narrator sighs. “But as the living room has been all but abandoned. A Christmas miracle is about to take place.”
Emi, Tomio, and their squad mates had suddenly been sucked into the CRT Television which has been showing what the narrator has been telling them so far. Within a few seconds, the team found themselves back on their feet again, but their equipment and their uniforms have been altered. They dawn shakos with plums, fancy red uniforms of the 19th century variety, black jack boots, antique rifles, sabers, and spears.
”Whoa...look at us!” Tomio explained excitedly as he holds his rifle in front of himself. What is all this?
”Well.” Mai prepares to lecture Tomio with her wisdom. “That’s a Russian Berdan II rifles. A Single shot black powder rifle with a bolt action. I bet these are one of the exclusive items we get from this event.” Mai nods in approve. “Nice...I got a saber. I always wanted a sword. Hey Hikari! Can you get me one of those curved Chinese Ninja swords for Christmas.” Hikari rolls her eyes.
”Um….everyone.” Chiara murmurs nervously. “I don’t think we are our normal heights.” She looks over at the over-sized books and stockings laying on the couch of which they stand.
”Mai was never a normal height to begin with.” Hikari jokingly remarked.
”Hmph. Be glad it’s Christmas Eve.” Mai snarls under her breath.
”The Nutcracker soldiers, perched upon the family living room had suddenly come to life. These toy soldiers had overheard the commotion and witness the mistakes of these parents and by some divine sworn duty, they had made it an obligation to make things right and organize the scattered presents suitable for each child. But they were not alone on this Christmas Eve.”
”Wait...what do you mean, we’re not alone?” Kimberly scoffs, fixing her glasses which don’t really fit right under her shako.”
”We got company! Over there!” Ramirez looks through his telescope which was apart of his new gear. Across the room from the couch over the horizon emerges another group of Nutcrackers. They are wearing green uniforms and wielding similar equipment.
”Let me see! Let me see!” Mai impatiently ask Ramirez which he lends to her. As she looks through her telescope, her jaw nearly drops like a nutcracker’s mouth. “I don’t believe it...It’s Zander and his mercenaries!”
”Mai!” Zander calls from across the living room in his distinct Afrikaans accent. He is accompanied by his loyal mercenaries: Squeaker, Sung-min, and Andjela. “We meet again! Lone Star Team!”
”You’re playing against us, Zander?!” Tomio yells in a friendly manner from their position.
“Exclusive loot calls for exclusive competition! No cap!” Squeaker answers back.
”Man, this map is pretty sick. We used to have a ton of maps like this in some of the arena shooters I’d played.” Sung-min comments. Andjela waves her had at Armadillo and Longhorn Squad.
”Oh...I see your mic is still broken.” Hikari mentions to which Andjela nods in reply.
Mai looks rather unpleased that she has to go up against Zander again but a competitive spirit overtakes her before speaking. “Well, I guess we’re going to have a rematch. We’re a lot better since the last time we fought. What happened to Glam Squad, Zander?”
Zander smirks before speaking. “They had some other important matters to attend to. So I brought along some other friends instead.” Four additional mercenaries, all dressed in green nutcracker uniforms emerge from behind Zander’s crew. They all have plaid winter scarfs covering their identities. “It wouldn’t be fair to have to face two squads so I invited my other mercenaries to join the fun.”
”We can take on a bunch of nameless goons.” Mai stretches her arms and hands out to pop them as if to seem tough but it’s entirely pointless.
”You honestly think we were just sitting in our outpost messing around?” Zander scoffs back. “Listen here, Mai. You’re smug attitude won’t get you anywhere in life...”
”Huh? What was that again?” Mai crosses her arms and smirks back from across the living room battlefield.
Zander shakes his head in disapproval. “JOLLY WINTER, Mai….huh?” His eyes twitch in confusion.
”Yo, Zander? What was that cringe you just said?” Squeaker looks incredibly baffled.
”I could have sworn I said JOLLY WINTER….what the HO HO HO…..alright what the JOLLY is going on!?” Zander looks furious as the words he wants to get across aren’t coming out as he expects them too. “MERRY MISTLETOE CANDY CANE SUGAR PLUM HO HO HO! What in God’s name is going on with my MERRY vocabulary?!!!”
“Ah, ah, ah.” the narrator chimed in. “This is a family-friendly event, Zander. No naughty words allowed!”We wouldn’t want the children to wake up and hear the nutcrackers swearing.”
”So there’s a word filter in this event?” Mai eyes light up with intrigue. “Hm...let me try…...GINGERBREAD MEN, SANTA’S ELVES, CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS, and COOKIES AND MILK!”
”I seriously don’t want to know what you just meant by all that, Mai.” Hikari rolls her eyes.
”And now...the battle of the living room will soon began!” The Narrator continues to explain. “Each team of nutcrackers must find the presents scattered across the living room and bring it back to the stocking piles. The red nutcracker team must find presents that belong to Rodney while the green nutcracker team must find presents for Joanne. You have until midnight to get the presents sorted out. The more presents each team captures, the more credits will be rewarded at the end of the match. There is an extra bonus tree star at the top of the family Christmas tree the nutcrackers can capture for their team but you’ll have to climb up there and bring it down. There is no perma-death in this match. If you are eliminated, you will respawn back at your stocking pile after a brief cool-down timer. Sounds easy enough?”
”Uh….I guess so.” Emi comments. The opposing team nods their head as do Emi’s friends on her team.
”Great. Then let the battle of Milton’s Living Room commence!” A vinyl player auto starts in the living room’s sound system, just across from the fireplace and behind the family’s couch. It plays music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.
”Armadillo Squad! Let’s do this!” Emi rallies to her team,
”Longhorn Squad! Show them what we’re made of!” Tomio also shouts to his team.
”We’re nutcrackers.. we're made of wood.” Ramirez remarks.
”WHY ISN’T ANYONE SURPRISED THAT SANTA ISN’T REAL!” Fio cries out, still flabbergasted that her reality has been shattered by the narrator.
Tomio and Ramirez push some books off the couch to give their team a landing platform. It takes two of them to push a moderately sized novel off the couch. Emi and her squad follow Tomio’s squad down the couch an onto the living room where they see scattered presents all over the floor. There’s a bunch of presents, all wrapped up which must be opened and then somehow brought back to their stocking pile which is located close the couch, besides it on the floor. Their red stocking has an engraved name of the boy they are trying to find presents for. On the opposite end of the living room. Zander and his mercenaries just so happen to have a Hot Wheels track nearby which they use to slide down to the ground. Once they are off the couch, Emi can see them scatter individually. She takes note of their strategy and adopts it. “Everyone split up. We’re have to find Rodney’s gifts!” Her and Tomio’s team split up individually and head out into the vast living room as tiny soldiers, searching for individual gifts on their own. They’ll have to worry about the many obstacles in the living room and the enemy team.
Emi spots a few gift box under the couch. They aren’t very large and can easily be pushed out by a single nutcracker. Other than the warm fire of the fireplace and the yellow lights emitting from the Christmas Tree, there’s not enough lighting to see the what else might be under the couch. Emi is armed with a saber and not much else. She finds a plastic tea cup saucer, probably something the girl left behind while she was playing in the living room. It’s small enough to be used a shield. She’s not sure if it can stop a rifle round but it’ll probably deflect blows from other sabers or spears. Holding it with one hand and a saber on her right hand, she creeps into the underside of the couch and approaches one of the small presents hiding underneath. She can feel the paper wrapping with her hand as she navigates around it to see if she can push it out. Peaking out of the corner, she spots two of Zander’s masked mercenaries searching under the couch too. One is armed with a spear and the other with a rifle. Emi ponders if she should attack them and hope for the best or find another approach to taking them out. Perhaps this gift box should have something she can use. She quietly tears the wrapping slightly with her saber in order to not alert the mercenaries. They are clearly sport socks once she gets a peak. “That was underwhelming.” Emi thinks to herself. “Fine. I guess I’ll have to get this party started. “She takes the plastic tea saucer and rolls it down the couch towards the mercenaries who don’t see it coming until it’s too late.
”SEASONS GREETINGS Look out!” the mercenary with the spear shouts as he jumps out of the way. The one with the rifle gets hit with rolling tea saucer and is knocking out from under the couch. Emi dashes towards the merc who deflects her incoming blow by parrying the saber with the staff of his spear. He forces Emi to back off as he re-positions himself with the spear tip straighten outwards to prevent Emi from approaching close. Every time Emi would try to attack with her saber, the mercenary would jab his spear towards her, keeping her at a distance. “I’m not very good at this.” Emi thinks to herself as she tries to figure out a way to deal with the mercenary. “Oh right, I can just take that other merc’s rifle!” She over to the other side of the couch where the mercenary with the rifle had been knocked out. Emi attempts to make a run out from the under the couch to fetch it before the mercenary can catch up to her. Her boots dash on the hardwood floor as she makes a run towards the rifle on the ground. The mercenary with the spear catches wind of this attempt and makes chase to stop her. His spear is aimed towards her as he readies himself to pin her down. Emi slides out the couch and reaches for the rifle. She rolls over on her back and aims the rifle at the mercenary coming towards her. “Ah! It’s not chambered!” She reaches over the knocked out mercenary's ammo pouch and finds a lead rifle round. The mercenary is getting closer to her and there’s not much time to waste. She slams the round into the chamber and pushes the bolt into position. She squeezes the heavy trigger, barely giving any time to aim the rifle. “POP”. A cloud of smoke fills the air as the combatant in front of her drops to the floor. She has yet to break the trigger on her rifle. “That was close Emi.” A familiar male voice could be heard from behind.
”That was a good shot, Tomio.” Emi smiles as Tomio helps her back up on her feet. “Thanks for saving me. There’s a bunch of presents under this couch. I would love it if you could help me out.”
”Sure thing, Emi. Anything to be by your side.” The two smile at each other and proceed to check out the presents under the couch.
A makeshift hook of left over Christmas lights fling over the coffee table. Chiara can be seen climbing up and then helping Fio who has accompanied her to search the top of the coffee table for gifts. The coffee table is a mess with various left over wrapping papers, scissors and tape, a remote for the vinyl sound system, a couple of VHS tapes, and more importantly, a couple of wrapped gifts of various sizes on the coffee table. One particular gift box catches Chiara’s and Fio’s eyes. It’s a moderately size gift box but it’s wrapped in what appears to be wrapping paper with a car pattern design. It must be a gift for Rodney! Chiara approaches the present, adjusting her feet on the uneven coffee table. She uses the point of her spear to tear the wrapping slightly to double check the contents. “It’s an RC monster truck, Fio.” Chiara notes. “But it’s too big to bring down. Let alone for both of us to carry back.”
”Why don’t we drive it instead?” Fio suggests straightforwardly. “As a matter of fact, there’s no rule against using the presents to our advantage.”
”That’s insane, Fio.” Chiara explained. “We can’t just drive this truck off the coffee table. What if we break it?”
”We don’t have much of a choice! We got company!” Fio points towards the mercenaries charging towards them with rifles.
”Come on, let’s volley these fools!” Squeaker orders his team mates as they line up and open fire on Fio and Chiara. They hide behind the present which takes most the shots fired at them.
”Chiara! Get that present open while I suppress them!” Fio peaks around the corner of the gift and fires a shot at the mercenaries, completely missing. “Ugh. I hate old rifles!” Fio attempts to extract the fired round but has to tilt the rifle on it’s side for the spent casing to drop before she can load another one. “So clunky and awkward. I miss my P90 already.”
”You sound just like Hikari right now.” Chiara comments as she continues to tear the present open with her spear point and hands.
”Hurry! They are advancing!”
”I’m trying!” Chiara rips the last of the wrapping paper and cuts the tape on the box, revealing the monster truck and RC controller inside, none of which is held by any plastic tabs or packaging. “We’re in. Someone already opened this box.” Probably the parents as Chiara thinks about it.
Fio and Chiara sprint into the box. Fio helps Chiara climb up into the driver seat of the monster truck. She kicks her boots onto the tires to lift herself up to ride shotgun. She gives the oversize RC controller to Chiara. “Think fast. Get us moving. I’ll cover fire!”
Chiara gulps before moving the throttle on the controller forward. Squeaker and his masked teammates catch up to them and block their path as they ready their rifles.
”STEP ON IT, CHIARA!” Fio shouts. The RC truck’s electric motor powers on and they accelerate full speed ahead.
”RUN FOR IT!!!” Squeaker orders his mercs as he barrels rolls to dodge the incoming truck. One of his masked teammates was not so lucky and gets hit and thrown off the coffee table upon impact. Chiara and Fio hang on as the truck zooms over the edge of the coffee table. “AAAAAAHHHH!” they scream together as they fall in mid air before landing on the living room form. The suspension of the truck softens the landing but once on the ground, Chiara is struggling not to crash the truck which is zooming all over the living room floor. A little achievement pops up on Chiara’s HUD titled “Vehicular Manslaughter.”
”I….I got an achievement.” Chiara tries to slow down the truck by reversing the throttle but ends up driving in reverse in full speed. “Not good! Not good!” Fio is holding on for dear life with Chiara’s bad driving.
Emi and Tomio are pushing their presents out from under the couch when they spot Chiara and Fio’s monster truck coming straight for them in reverse. “Chiara! Stop the truck!”
”I’m trying! I’m trying!” Chiara moves the throttle towards the middle which slows down the truck just barely enough to nearly hit Emi and Tomio who are bracing for impact. At last the monster truck comes to a stop. Chiara and Fio sigh in relief for a brief moment before Emi climbs unto the monster truck with a disappointed look on her face.
”Ahahah….sorry Emi.” Chiara and Fio chuckle nervously.
”Yeah….maybe I should drive. You two load the trunk. We have some presents to take with us.” She hands her rifle to Tomio.
”Guess I’m riding shotgun now.” Tomio takes Emi’s rifle and sits on the passenger side. He sets Emi’s rifle by the side while he reloads his own rifle. Chiara and Fio get down from the truck and start lifting the presents Emi and Tomio found onto the bed where they’ll be riding for the remainder of the match.
Meanwhile, by the Christmas tree, Mai and Ramirez are scouting the underside of the tree for any presents. They’ve already seen the opposing team pushing a few gift boxes back to their stocking zone but had no luck stopping them as they are both armed with sabers. Only a few gift boxes remain under the tree but have no labels indicating if they are for Rodney or Joanne.
”Why do these kids have to have so many presents? I was lucky if I even got one present for Christmas.” Mai mentions to Ramirez.
”Yeah, same here.” Ramirez agrees “I can’t imagine what sort of job these parents have to afford a fancy place like this to begin with.”
”Yo check this out, Rami. This one looks promising.” Mai stumbles across a long vertical box which has been hastily wrapped compared to some of the other presents around the tree. Using her hands, Mai rips some of the poorly wrapped paper revealing a Roboraptor box. She whistles. “Phew. That’s a fancy gift for Rodney huh?” She starts to push the box from under the tree “Wow...it’s not as heavy as I thought. Wait a sec.”
”That can’t be.” Ramirez opens the box with his saber and pries the cardboard box open. The box is stuffed with what appears to be the original wrapping. “That Roboraptor isn’t in here. Why even wrap a box like this? Their parents can’t be that sloppy with their packing.”
”Maybe their parents are that cheap...nah….not in a house like this.” Mai shakes her head. “It has to be around here somewhere.”
”You’re looking for this?!” A familiar voice calls from around the corner of the arm chair and a mechanical plastic robotic raptor starts waddling from the corner. Sung-Min can be seen riding the raptor and wielding his spear. From the top of the nightstand nearby, Zander is controlling the raptor with an IR controller.
”Zander! You DECK THE HALLS sneaky JOLLY GOOD BOY.” Mai swears with intensity despite the word filter being so strong. “I should had known your squad would had pulled off something like this.
”I told you, Mai. We weren’t messing around in the end after you beat us in the tournament. I run a mercenary squad after all. I don’t stop making contracts. But enough about the exposition.” Zander presses buttons on his IR controller. Time to get you both out of my territory. Sung-min, waste them!”
The Roboraptor emits a digital roar and starts awkwardly waddling towards Mai and Ramirez slowly. Sung-min tries to keep in place with his spear pointed downwards to strike them. He is constantly shifted left to right whenever the Roboraptor makes a step forward. “Ah man, I’m gonna be sick.” He can feel the motion sickness getting to him but it doesn’t stop him from staying on the raptor.
”Huh. It’s more lame than I thought.” Mai says with disappointment. “It’s a shame we don’t have rifles Rami.”
”Think you can figure something out while I try to hold him off?”
”I’ll figure something out. Hang on.” Mai scurries towards the underside of the Christmas tree. Ramirez holds his ground, wielding his saber at the ready.
”Ugh. Can’t this thing move any faster?” Sung-min complains, hanging on in what might seem to be the worst ride he’s ever been in. When the raptor gets close enough to Ramirez, Sung-Min thrust his spear at him which he deflects with his saber. The jaws of the Roboraptor attempt to grab Ramirez but the head movement is too janky and slow to catch him. Zander can be seen on the nightstand struggling with the controls on his end.
”Eish! Why can’t this stupid raptor do anything I command it to. Stop standing there and charge at him!” Zander repeatedly presses the forward button. “Stop sniffing! No! Keep going forward! Stop! What are you doing?!”
”Let’s wrangle this decrepitated piece of Cretaceous junk!” Mai calls running with a makeshift lasso using Christmas lights she stole from the tree. She throws the lasso over the raptors neck which Sung-min tries to leash off with his spear, giving Ramirez time to get out of the way. “Come help me pull!” Ramirez grabs the lasso with Mai and they used their combined strength to pull the raptor down by the neck, the Raptor attempts to escape as Zander keeps slamming his controller for the raptor to fall back but to no avail. Sung-Min’s motion sickness gets the best of him and he jumps off the raptor with his hands up as he struggles to keep his balance. “Sorry Zander, I need to take off my headset. I’m gonna puke.” His avatar disappears from the battlefield. The Roboraptor losses it’s balance and falls onto it’s side in an anti climatic manner. Zander gets the memo and runs off, taking the IR controller with him.
”Hah. Nice work Mai.” Ramirez congrats Mai on her idea.
”Don’t mention it. We still gotta get that IR controller from the nightstand. Think you can leave the boxing to me this time?”
”Can’t complain about that. I wouldn’t want to box anything on my day off. I’ll hunt down Zander myself.”
Emi and the others drive up next to Mai and the Roboraptor which has been subdued. “Hey Emi! Good to see you all again!” Mai and Ramirez drag the Roboraptor with their makeshift Christmas Lasso. Mind dragging this back to our stocking pile?”
”Wow. That’s a nice find.” Emi remarks. We’ll have to take it now and wrap it later. Hikari and Kimberly said they found an expensive gift by the sound system. They need back up.”
”We found that tablet first!”
”Nah ah, we were here before you, on God."
Hikari and Kimberly are having a heated argument with Squeaker who is accompanied by Andjela who stands there with her rifle in silence.
”Listen here, Kiddo...”
”Nah. You listen here you old fart.” Squeaker retorts back to Kimberly.
”Why aren’t we fighting this out with our weapons!” Hikari shouts over the argument. “Seriously, that’s what we here to do in the first place.
”I don’t punch down, Hikari.” Kimberly lowers her rifle. “Especially not to some kid who shouldn't be up past his bed time.”
”I’m 13, you hipster!” Squeaker aims his rifle at her. “You seriously know what the teen in thirteen means? You know I’m old enough to play this game.”
”Just barely.” Kimberly scoffs. “You don’t scare me.”
”Oh yeah? So why don’t you fight me?”
The two of them go back and forth with insults and arguments. Hikari and Andjela are getting annoyed by them both. “Forget it. Let’s just turn on the tablet and see who it belongs to.” Andjela nods her head and helps power on the tablet with Hikari. They both wait for the Apple boot screen on the tablet before it displays the lock screen. “I should’ve guessed. It’s locked. The parents put a password on it.” Andjela shakes her head and then starts attempting to break into the password by brute forcing it the hard way. She starts tapping the screen’s numerical pad going by a 4 digit code starting from 0000 to 0001 and so forth. “This is going to take forever, Andjela. If we were parents, what would be the most lazy password we could use?” Andjela thinks about and then attempts to use the password 1234. The tablet screen unlocks and the home screen wallpaper is an aero pink design.
”Ha! See! I told you it was a gift for Joanne. Get rekt!” Squeaker laughs in a victorious manner. “Now scram before things get turnt up.”
”Turnt up?!” Kimberly scoffs. “At least try speaking English properly. Or better yet, Hikari and I could just change the wallpaper and give it to Rodney instead.”
”That’s cap!”
”No. It’s a tablet.”
Squeaker whistles with his fingers, alerting his allies to his position. Soon enough, Zander and his mercenaries show up with their sabers, rifles, and spears, outnumbering Hikari and Kimberly.
”You heard the kid. The tablet is ours!”
”Like we’d let you walk away with it. Hikari! Use the plastic trumpet we stole from the tree!”
Hikari clears her throat before blowing air into the trumpet ornament. The sound is exactly what everyone expected, a horrid and sharp shriek that might as well be a sonic weapon. Everyone covers their ear to protect their ear drums. “Alright Hikari, that’s enough.”
”God, was that a dying animal or something.” Mai can be heard approaching the girls from behind, she’s followed by Emi, Tomio, Ramirez, and Chiara. “Oh, looks like we’re going to have a proper battle this time!” Her lips curl into a grin. “Count me in!”
”We’re fighting over this tablet I suppose.” Hikari sighs and shrugs her shoulders. “Honestly, I don’t even know why the parents couldn’t had just bought both of their kids a tablet and get it over with.”
”Hikari, that’s the most financially sound thing I ever heard you said.” Mai says with a surprised tone as she readies her saber behind her teams’ pikes.
”I’m glad we agree on something tonight.” Hikari stands in front of her teams pikes and crouches down with her rifle at the ready alongside Tomio and Kimberly.
”Looks like you did your homework Lone Star Team! Looks like we’re going to have to adopt pike and shot tactics too! Form pike formation!” Zander orders his squad to copy Emi’s and Tomio’s formation with rifles in the front, pikes in the middle, and officers/sabers in the back. “Wait! We’re missing Sung-min. This isn’t not balanced.”
In a moment of faith, Sung-min respawns and runs from his spawn point to where his squad is located with his spear. “I’m done vomiting. I’m good now.”
The two teams face off one another, ready to attack. “Let this be the final battle between our teams Lone Star Team!” With a swift hand motion, Emi and Zander give their orders: “Fire and Charge!” The two teams open fire with their rifles at each other, taking out Kimberly, Squeaker, one of the masked mercenaries, and Chiara. Despite their loses, the two teams charge towards each other with their spears and sabers and duke it out in farce melee combat. Both sides are equal in strength and numbers. Rifles are swung like clubs, sabers clash with sabers, and spears thrusting against spear. But this all comes to a halt when they hear footsteps slowly approaching them.
”Huh? Someone’s coming!” Emi and Zander stop their saber duel. Everyone else stops fighting to turn around and to their horror, the family so happens to have a pet cat they were not aware of. The cat is large, heavy, and hungry. He sees the nutcrackers fighting and puts an abrupt end to this battle by attacking everyone in sight.
”Run away!” Tomio screams as everyone drops their weapons from both his team and Zander’s team in a scattered mess. The cat chases after Sung-min and swipes him with his paw, making him fly across the living room towards the fireplace.
”Why do I always get the most gruesome death!” He yells when his body is thrown at the fireplace. Hikari gets nibbled and tossed up by the cat before hitting the ground . The cat chases after Emi and Tomio and takes them both out with a swipe of his paws. Mai and the remaining survivors have to find another escape route..
Quick! To the Christmas Three!” She orders the survivors. They all run to the tree and start climbing on the branches. The cat hears the nutcrackers moving towards the Christmas tree. He makes his way to the tree and starts to climb on the branches, much to the horror of the survivors climbing it. “Zander! Look out!” Mai yells as the cat swipes Zander off the branch, making him fall to his demise. The cat makes his way slowly up the tree, landing on branches and taking out the survivors one by one. Soon enough, it’s just Mai and Andjela at the top. Andjela grabs hold of the star on the tree as the cat starts to approach their position. But just then, the cat hears a car pulling up on the driveway outside and the sound of a car horn causes the cat to freak out and causes the tree’s stance to tilt over when the cat’s weight drops down on the branches. The tree is now bent at an angle and is on the verge of falling over. “Come on kitty, don’t you dare jump down...don’t...you…” The cat doesn’t care and jumps off the tree, a Christmas lights cable gets caught on the leg of the cat causing the cat to freak out and pull the tree down with him.
”Oh God! We’re going down!” This time, it wasn’t Mai that spoke much to her surprise. She turns to see Andjela who is baffled by what came out of from her mouth. “My microphone….it’s working!”
”Hey! You’re microphone is working! Your accent is pretty cool, Andjela!”
”Aw..thanks!” But their casual conversation is interrupted when the tree starts to fall down onto the living. “Oh...we’re about to die.” She comes back to her senses when she feels the tree starting to fall over.
”AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” The two of them scream together and hang onto the star. The Christmas tree comes crashing down into the living room, smashing all of the furniture and starting a small flame from the torn Christmas lights. The cat pounces away to safety when the parents finally return from the neighbors. They are both horrified by the aftermath left behind. The father growls before screaming in anger:
”Son of a SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT, ALL IS CALM, ALL IS BRIGHT!” whatever he was screaming was incredibly vulgar enough for his words to be filtered with a soft and peaceful choir vocal rendition of Silent Night. The CRT screen television shows a bird’s eye view of the living room, with the father and mother cursing while putting out the small fire with a fire extinguisher in the living room. Everyone in the lobby watches the scene completely speechless.
”So...uh...did we save Christmas?” Zander asks with a nervous laugh.
”Your teams both destroyed the Milton’s living room, but you did your tasks and the presents seem fine.” The narrator doesn’t sound to enthusiastic.
”Every victory has some collateral damage.” Mai shrugs her shoulders and smirks. “So...who won?”
”Both teams are entitled to their points earned from this event...but Kraken Squad captured more presents than you.
”Ah..bummer.” Mai slopes her shoulders. Zander and his team all high five each other.
”But Team Lone Star or to be more specific Longhorn and Armadillo Squad had the most kills.”
”Yeah! Alright!”
”That only proves that your team are a bunch of cold blooded killers.” Zander remarks at Mai.
”This is a Mil-Sim, isn’t that how we’re supposed to be?” Emi added.
”There’s more to war than just killing you know.” Zander corrects her. “I would had assumed your team would had known that already.”
”Now...now...no need for hostilities.” The narrator interjects. It’s Christmas after all. It’s now time to set your differences aside and feel the holiday cheer. You both done….well in this event.” He hesitates to say that last bit of his line. “Kraken Squad. Lone Star Team. It’s time to the join the others in the post match party.”
”The post match party?” Tomio questions before they are teleported out of the CRT TV lobby.
Ypres, Christmas Eve 1914
Both teams are spawned at a snowy battlefield, Trenches and barbed wires are widespread but there are no artillery bombardments, no sounds of soldiers being shot at, not even the sounds of the dying. There’s laughter, singing, the crackle of bond fires. Emi, Tomio, and Zander look over at the horizon and see other squads, some of whom they faced off with earlier this year. They are singing around camp fires, having snowball fights, and wishing each other a Merry Christmas and hanging out. Nobody is armed or fighting.
”Hm...I never expected the after party to be like this.” Zander notes, looking over at the horizon in front of them. “Bass Squad, Vampire Squad, Bayou Patrol, they are all here.”
”I never thought we’d have a Christmas Truce special like this?” Mai states with her arm on Hikari’s shoulder. “Finally, we can have a real snowball fight at last! Come on Hikari!” She runs towards the other squads having a snowball fight in the distance.
”Wait up, Mai!” Hikari runs after her through the snowy ground.
”We have unfinished business, Mai! After her!” Zander orders his squad to join them in the snowball fight. Andjela stops to look at Tomio and Emi. “It might not be Christmas for me just yet but I’m glad to celebrate the holiday with you Americans. Thanks for the good memories, Lone Star Team.” She gives a thumbs up and follows Zander’s squad into the snowball battle going on up ahead.
”Not really in a mood for a snowball fight.” Ramirez yawns.
”Me neither. Let’s go chill by the campfire.” Kimberly suggests. The both of them walk away towards one of the campfires being held by the various squads hanging out.
A red headed girl comes running towards Chiara, Emi, and Tomio. “Cousin! Emi! Tomio! Thank God you came to join us!”
”Kayla! You’re here too?!” Chiara shyly smiles as her cousin comes to hug her.
”Why wouldn’t I, Chiara!” She let’s go of Chiara and pats her on the back in a friendly manner. “I arranged this event all by myself.”
”The devs allowed you to do all this?”
”You bet your candy cane they did!” Kayla smiles with a sense of pride. “I’m Mil-Sim’s story’s darling historical advisor now. So they gave me some perks to arrange special events now.” She grabs Chiara’s hand. “Come on, Cousin! We’re going to sing Silent Night in German and English. You know how to sing in German?”
”Kayla! I...I don’t even know if I can sing. I don’t even know German.” Chiara mutters shyly.
”Neither did the English in 1914. Come on, Chiara! Don’t be such a party pooper! You’re gonna sing with me wether you like it or not.” She continues to pull Chiara with her. “We still gotta break you out of that shell! You two want to join us?” She ask Tomio and Emi.
”Well...we’ve done our fair share of Christmas carols before. Right Emi?”
”That was long ago, but we wouldn’t mind joining you Kayla. Just give us both a moment. We’ll be right there.”
”Ha. Of course! Take your time you two. But not too much okay?” She takes Chiara with her to a nearby bond fire where there are some other squad mates from different teams hanging out. Tomio and Emi are now alone together.
”I never expected we’d celebrate Christmas together again after all those years.” Emi tells Tomio as she grips his hand with hers. “I missed having you for Christmas, Tomio.”
”I missed having you too, Emi.” He smiles warmly at Emi. “It’s been quite a year. We’ve both gone through a lot. We got another good year for the both of us.”
”And for our squads.” Emi adds. “Not to mention, the girls and I have another semester ahead of us.”
The two of them hold hands and get ready to join Kayla and Chiara’s group by the bond fire. Tomio looks at Emi and tells her in a loving manner: “Hey, Emi….Merry Christmas.”
”Merry Christmas….Tomio. Let’s show them how to sing carols.”
”Ha. I like the sound of that. Let’s do this.” The two of them walk together to the bond fire, hand in hand.
”And so, the players of Mil-Sim Story end the year on a jolly note. Professionals, amateurs, casuals and hardcore players a like. Former adversaries and team alliances, all together for this one peaceful night. There are no rivalries, no combat, no virtual violence in this after party. It’s the sprit of the Mil-Sim Story Christmas, Love and compassion shared between rivals. They all experienced their ups and downs, but for this night, they’ll share a wonderful memory, even when their own lives cannot give them the warmth of the Christmas Season, they can experience here in VR. In their own Mil-Sim Story. Merry Christmas, and Have a Happy New Year!”