Role-play part 5

I looked through the crack on the almost closed door to see a group of four fully armed men. They seemed rather annoyed, and they seemed to be waiting for someone. "Stupid prisoners always running out of their cells, making our trip to Paveletskaya delayed", one of them said in an annoyed way. "Well, maybe if you cut their ties better, they wouldn't have gotten loose in the first place", another one answered him mockingly before the men chuckled. "F@ck you, man", the first guard said back to him before he crossed his arms in an impatient way.

"A quite big room through the door with four fully armed men. Two bastards, two worn shotguns. At one o' clock", I whispered. "I and Odessa walk out beside each other and take down the first two. We do not stop, but rather move to each our side to allow two others to come out and shoot the other two. I will take one with a bastard, Odessa takes one with a shotgun. Then I suggest we allow our newest member to show off his shooting skills on the second one with a bastard. Who takes down the last shotgun one?", I whispered, looking back at the group.

 

*agreeing to Benji's plan I moved into position, waiting for the Engineer to be ready. we were still waiting to see who would took the last guy when I heard a distant loud metallic sound somewhere in the depths of the station and one of the guards got up and left, leaving just three of them. At first the sound confused me a bit. where have I heard that before? it sounds so familiar, yet so out of place... I wracked my brains for an answer when suddenly it came to me as clear as daylight and I knew in that moment how we could proceed*

'damn bastards! a bell! they are calling for prayers before their 'trip!' I said nearly out loud before I checked myself.

'right guys, I want one of them alive. I know what we need to do, and we don't have much time, so let's roll' saying this I advanced with Benji by my side.

 

I had a great faith in Benjamin. He was a wise, strong man. But now, in this moment, he seemed weak. A true leader would have had clear orders and powerful words, but now he started a campfire debate on who would like to do what, and when we would get our maternity leave. I quickly volunteered for the fourth place by raising a hand. Momentum was important, and as soon as we entered the room, I wouldn't stop moving until we found Dima and Andrey.

 

As Odessa and I advanced forward side by side, I fired towards the last one with the bastard, leaving one of the two with each their shotgun for Odessa. When only one was left, whom we needed alive, I straightened up from my crouching position and pointed the revolver in direction of his head. He had not even been able to lift his shotgun before the whole team was standing outside the doorway, aiming at him with all we had. I slowly lifted my left hand up to my face and placed my index finger in front of my lips as if saying "Shh" although I was completely silent. He seemed insecure of what to do, as if he was caught in between yelling out loud or shooting us, sort of frozen, not being able to do either of the two things.

 

As we rushed inside the room, I quickly found a satanist armed with a shotgun in my scope, but decided not to fire. My weapon was unsuppresed and I knew Odessa could easily deal with him. I went up to Benjamin, not letting the satanist out of my scope. "We can't stay here for long. Just a quick interrogation, then drop him. Ok?" I said, making sure he understood why we had to move fast.

 

sorry guys, long post today

*I looked at Dark and nodded in agreement. I approched our prisoner and pointed my SigPro onto his forehead. he couldn't be more that 20 yeras old, but I could see in his eyes the fanaticism I had seen before in the Monolith squads back in the Zone. However, here it was different, Monolithians didn't take prisoners, their single aim in life was to eliminate every single person that crossed their path, and they would die doing it, no doubt about it. but this satanist were different. going on suicide missions didn't do anything for them. they wanted total domination of the Metro, and for that they needed to keep people, and themselves alive*

'you know you are gonna die' I said to the kid 'however, it is up to you how that happens. a quick painless one if you tell us what we need to know, or I tie you up, put you on my shoulder and hang you up to dry with a pack of watchers and demons circling around you on the surface, and no gasmask, your choice. tell us what we want and I'll have mercy on you and make it quick, or would you rather wait till I take you up the surface?' the kid's eyes went wide with fear and nodded to me quickly.

'good, wise choice. now, how many, and believe me, I know if you are lying to me. the don't call me the seer for nothing' I waited for a millisecond before cocking my gun.

'well?' with this the kid started talking. 20 satanist and about 20 slaves. the rest had just been transfered to another station somewhere in the outer rim. he didn't know excatly where. that bell we heard, he said, where the last minute prayers before setting off. they were in a room on the far end of the main hall. the slaves were kept in a basement of sorts, to which we could get to from a door to the left in the next chamber. there we would find a set of cells and a big room where they should all be, except two new ones that had tried to escape. they were being held in the punushment cell, a level below the main slave chamber.

he also said there were 8 of them in their sacred prayer room, two guards outside the entrance, two with the escaped prisoner, and two outside the slave chamber. no-one would be coming into this station since they were about to move out to Pavelvskaya to stablish a new base.

'ok guys, that's all we need to know. thank you kindly for your help' with this I pulled the trigger sending the satanist body backwards, where Pyotr stopped his fall and lower him to the ground.

*rummageing in my ruckpack I took a roll off sticky tape out, and getting some grenades from my vest pocket I stuck them all together, forming two clusters of four grenades each*

'we dropped six already, so that means we won't find any stray ones, but be ready. right, Dark, Anatoli, on me. I'm gonna go pay a visit to their prayer room. I feel like sightseeing. Benji, Pyotr, Sergei, Engineer, get to the cells, get our friends out and see about the slaves. hopefully Wolf will be among the live ones. We'll meet you there in 30 minutes, ok. Jet, stay with Benji and find uncle Dima and uncle Andrey, go. Right guys, all clear? then let's get this show on the road' with this Jet scurried forward and we prepared to move out.

 

"A quick note: Look for any leads on the drill during the assault! If you find anything, report after that attack. Got it?" I said, just loud enough for everyone to hear, but not loud enough to awaken suspicion from the inhabitants of the station. I signalled for Odessa to take the lead, followed by a "I'll cover you." I was trying to implement what I'd learned during my time as a ranger to this group of mercenaries. Most of these weren't used to organizing attacks or working in formations, but they were more deadly than most rangers. I looked back at Anatoli, and saw a young and skillful man. Not naive like most youngsters, but intelligent and experienced, with respect for people different than himself.

 

"How many of your friends were taken prisoner?" I asked Pyotr. When he glanced back at me I could tell he was very suspicious of my reasons for joining the group. The truth was I had nowhere else to go. Before coming upon this group of people, I had failed what had been my mission for the past few years: There was no way humanity could return to the surface, the scientists had told me. Now, it was the least I could do to aid these people. Perhaps in their quest I would find new purpose. Pyotr only glared, and didn't deign to reply. "I'll take point, then," I said, resigned.

 

"Pyotr, Sergei, Mister Tsavets, come with me", I said. I made a short moment of eye contact with the cat before it started heading towards where the young Satanist had pointed out the cell to be, in the next chamber. One did not even have to be a cat to smell where the cell was. Slowly, I opened the door, attempting to make it creak as less as possible. The horrid stinch and the awful sight clouded my mind. "Alright, let us start searching for Wolf. If he even is here, he might still barely be alive". Then it suddenly struck me that neither of the men knew what Wolf looked like. "Just search for anyone that might be alive". Then I walked in and started turning over the bodies that were lying on their backs.

 

What about Steven/Von Streff? His character is still with us, isn't he..? ._.

 

The fetid cell was one of the worst things I'd ever seen. Rotting bodies lay upon each other on the floor and hung from the ceiling like sides of meat. As I kicked carefully through the pile with my boots, the room seemed devoid of life.

 

"Tsavets, stay guard for us at the doorway if you would be so kind", I half suggested and half commanded. "Wolf should have a tattoo on his right arm, blonde hair, middle of his thirties", I said before I noticed the staircase leading up to the platform that was in the roof, at height with the hanging bodies. I walked up to the top. "Disgraceful", I muttered before I slowly slid out my katana and started chopping the ropes and chains of all the hanging bodies. One by one they fell about seven meters down to the bottom of the cell like butcher's meat. After clearing the roof, not finding Wolf, I walked back downstairs with the katana still in my hand. I did not know why, but I just did not feel like putting it back at the moment.

 

As i awoke i noticed i was tied up to a chair next to Dima. I looked around and there was nobody there. The room was empty other then us. it was dimly lit by a candle and there was a container with a lock on it. the room was locked by a metalic door and was so small that 4 people couldnt stand shoulder to shoulder in it. I looked over at Dima and his face was messed up. He had a black eye. And his face was bruised and covered in cuts. I was clean but not shaved. My beard was growing out and my head was covered by a couple mm of hair. I tried to shake the rope off but it was of no use. Then i felt really dizzy and coughed a couple times until i blacked out again. For possibly the 5th time today. Or was it tomorow? But Wolf was dead. We were possibly screwed. The group was nowhere to be seen. I didnt care.

 

*with Anatoli covering our six and Dark behind me, we started to move forward to the next set of chambers. evrything seemed quiet, but I didn't let my guard down for a second. At last we came out to the main hall, also empty. a bonfire could be seen in the middle of the hall. banners with latin writing and pentagrams hung on the walls, red paint covering most of the blank spaces. my latin was very rusty and couldn't read what they said, but had no interest in reading it either.

after what felt like an eternity, but was not more than ten minutes by my watch, we arrived at our objective. two guards stood at either side of a rusty old door. chanting could be heard coming from the inside. suddenly a third guard appear*

'Dark, the one on the left, Anatoli, on the right. I'll take the third down' I said looking at them. as they got ready I went 'now' in a whisper.

*all three guards fell down at the same time without making any sound, and we approached the door. taking out the packed grenades I'd prepared earlier I opened the door slightly ajar and had a look inside. Just as I thought it would be, they were standing in a circle, saying their prayers, totally oblivious to what was happening outside their little room. I took the pin out of the first lot, and quickly after the second lot and threw them in*

'fire in the hole!' I said as I dove for cover behind some crates.

 

The guards had not even made it to draw their weapons before being taken down. I only fired once, but it was enough. A cracking sound was heard as the skull was crushed undet the force of the 7,62mm projectile. The forced even pushed his head backwars and forced him to the ground. Pleased with the power in my hands, I went up to some crates, covering myself from the blast. The explosion was deafening, but I was used to it and quickly got up, jumped over the crates and turned my flashlight to flicker, to blind any survivors. Of course they were all deads, and I found myself jumping around like a gymnast to avoid slipping in torn bodyparts or blood. "Room clear!" I yelled to the others.

 

After a good while of turning several bodies over onto their backs, I turned a body around. Wolf's body. His hair was longer, but his face was grey and lifeless. Apart from that, the most obvious sign would be the red open mark on his forehead. He was dead. The feel of a sting in my heart was unbearable. I just stood there in a half-crouched position, not moving a muscle. "Wolf is d-", I said as I stood there. I was interrupted by the clear sound of an explosion in the distance, which made me straighten up quickly and look over to the rest of the group.

My sorrow was replaced by anger for the soulless creatures who had done this. Because of that, I was able to take action instead of falling onto my knees. At that very moment, it felt more right to avenge Wolf rather than to mourn over him. "Wolf is dead. The rest of the group have blown their temple. There will be more Satanists on their way, probably the whole station. We must get there and cover them, but do not forget to watch your backs", I said quickly and aggressively as I slided the katana back into its holster. I unhooked the HK on the side of my backpack and flicked the safety off and the attached flashlight on. "Soundless weapons are not required anymore. You may fire at will, but remember to at least make sure that you are not shooting at your own team", I continued as I hurried down the hallway, expecting them to follow me.

 

*Dark went into the room where only body parts remained. If there were any more satanists in the station they would sure come out now. I left the crates and joined Anatoli and Dark outside the now destroyed temple*

'and that's the way to do it gentelmen. now let's go find our friends' I said to my companions. we moved back to where the cells were but before entering the last corridor I moved one of the crates, took another grenade, took the pin out and still holding it I put it underneath the crate, making sure that if any bastard wanted to come through, they would have to move the crate out of their way*

'Antoli, take point, Dark watch our six, let's get the heck out of here. I don't think we need to be stealthy anymore, so let's fire at will if we find any more of them bastards' with this we made our way back to the room were we knew the entrance to the cells would be.

*as we were approaching the door to the lower levels I heard noise coming from the stairs. I lifted my AKS and told Anatoli and Dark to get ready when Benji, Jet and the rest of the group came bargining through the door*

'you ok guys? Wolf? Andrey and Dima? you found them?' I asked Benji while keeping an eye out for any satanist that might come running.

 

As I walked backwards covering Anatoli and Odessa from behind, I leaned my upper body forward, to minimize my vertical silhouette. I was told to be ready by Odessa and turned around and aimed at the staircase. But through the door came not a satanist, but my comrade Benjamin, followed by the rest of the group. I waited with anticipation for their answer to Odessa's question.