Prologue: Parusniki

Disclaimer: I own neither the Incredibles or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. The Synthoids mentioned here are from the G.I. Joe franchise.

Summary: After the Soviets invade Metroville in the events of my fanfic Relocated Syndrome fires several Omnidroids into the Soviet Union. The attack results in an escalation of the war and more Soviet forces are committed to the invasion of Metroville. This is that invasion seen through the eyes of a Russian soldier...

Author's Note: This takes place shortly after the Omnidroid attack in my story Facility Kronos.

From a letter written by Vassili Sodalyenko of the 561st OMRP:

Dearest Anna,

I'm certain you've seen the news of the sheer numbers we are committing to the assault on the facists in Metroville. Since Syndrome had taken over the government in Metroville they had become far more aggressive and problematic along the border and then they provoked our attack.

All we do is exercises and maneuvers followed by endless standowns and inspections with the occasional alert. The alerts always turn out to be exercises. For instance the alert three nights ago sent us out to the moors near the estuary in search of possible saboteurs. We boarded three Mi-17 helicopters and landed in the moors made into a fetid bog from the last three days of raining. And muddied and exhausted we were informed it was an exercise.

Most of the men have reached their three year point and are being discharged with their terms complete. In two years that will be me and we can get married.

So how are the children at your school? I trust they're behaving themselves?

Affectionately Yours,

Vassili

Parusnoye Naval Base: "Hey shut the door you lazy pig!" Fressan shouts at Baburin as he leaves our barracks room to go use the toilet as we sit cleaning our weapons.

"Ah you stupid jerk." Baburin lazily growls.

"They should use him as a doorstop, his ass end is big enough." Yuri growls as he cleans his AKM-47 and unscrews the PBS silencer on the front.

Nikolai lets out a laugh as he reassembles his own AKM-47, "It's so big that one day he'll stick it in the can and won't be able to pull it out again."

"Fuck you guys." Baburin, our medic, grumbles.

"So what have you written to Anna about this time Poet?" Fressan says to me.

"I'll bet it's about that stupid alert." Nikolai replied as he pulls the charging handle back on his AKM-47 to make sure that it is clean and the barrel is free of obstruction.

"Or about the constant inspections or exercises." Yuri replies with a caustic laugh.

I ignore them as I tuck the letter into my cargo pocket of my trousers. I've already reassembled and cleaned my Dragunov SVD sniper rifle and placed the soft rubber covers onto the lens of my PSO-1 telescopic sight.

The barracks rooms hold five of us with a single bunk and a foot locker per man. Out of the corner of my eye I see Sergeant Viktor Reznov, our squad leader walking down the hallway. "Everyone to the classroom right now! Davai!"

We all join the rush of others in our platoon carrying our weapons and kit.

"What do you think this is about?" Baburin grumbles as he heads out of the latrine while simultaneously pulling his pants back up with his AK-74 with its underslung GP-25 grenade launcher on his back.

"Shut it Baburin!" Reznov shouts from down the hall.

As we file into the large classroom for the men of the 561st OMRP each platoon takes to its sector. The deputy commander, Captain Ryabko continually asks head counts from the platoon commanders. They provide him updates as we take our seats. A television plays and I see a shape that makes my blood run cold. An Omnidroid. A large spherical robot with four legs and a disk-like head. One that can lay waste to entire cities. The news reporter states that reports are coming in from throughout the Soviet Union. That Omnidroids have been fired at the Rodina. And these are the Mark IV Omnidroids which carry a lethal cargo of Heartless and Nobodies to harvest hearts for Syndrome's armies.

Once we have all assembled Captain Ryabko bellows to call the company to attention. Major Arkady Koslov enters the room regarding us with a piercing stare. "Good afternoon comrades."

"Good afternoon comrade major!" We all declare in unison.

His eyes flicker to the television and he says, "I can see you have figured out why we've been called in. And you can no doubt guess that this alert isn't a drill."

"Fifteen Omnidroids comrades. Fifteen were fired into the Rodina. The Air Defense Forces and Frontline Aviation have managed to intercept ten of them. But reports have stated that at least one has landed in a major city. And as you no doubt have guessed one has hit Leningrad and Heartless and Nobodies are rampaging through the city. The MVD and police are being decimated out there so all military forces are being called in to deal with the threat. We will be heading for the city in the BMP armored personnel carriers outside."

We have ammunition and grenades already on our persons. Radios have been loaded with the proper encryptions and all we have to do is get the call and we can be on the move. My home city is under attack. Everyone I know is at risk. My parents. Anna. My two sisters. I am glad that we have received the call as I load a ten round magazine into my Dragunov. I can hear the mechanical clicks of rounds chambered into weapons. I take my Stetchkin machine pistol from it's holster and chamber a round into it as well. With it's compact size and twenty round magazine it will come in handy up close which is how the Heartless and Nobodies like to fight.

Anna's No. 8 Primary School is in the south-west of the city. Our unit is tasked with retaking the 1st Petrograd State University located far from Anna's location. Reports from the MVD is that the Heartless and Nobodies as well as a new weapon have overrun the grounds. Synthoids. Instant clones of humans that are as cunning as a human and carry weapons. The MVD have cordoned the area and their attempts to retake the grounds have been repulsed. They have taken heavy casualties.

I board the BMP. All business now. We have been called in to retake the university. And we will do that. Warrant Officer Galyshev, lumbers into view and takes his seat. His own AK-74 looks like a toy in his massive hands. Four of his front teeth are steel, the result of a sambo tournament in which an advesary punched him in the mouth. Galyshev was undeterred by the strike and proceeded to rain down a storm of blows upon his opponent until he submitted. The dentist removed his front four broken teeth after the fight.

Baburin, Fressan, and Yuri also take seats in the vehicle.

The BMP rattles down the road as part of a massive convoy. The gunner swivels his turret and starts firing.

"No God damn it! Don't fire at the Omnidroid!" The commander shouts angrily, "Wait till we drop the troops."

"Comrade sergeant! The Omnidroid turned one of its turrets towards us..." The gunner shouts back as he fires the 30mm chaingun at the legged spheroid of the Omnidroid.

Will we die before we get anywhere near the university? Before we have any chance to avenge the facist's assault on the Motherland?

The BMP flips like a child's toy and all I see are brief sights in a blur of flying objects and flaiing limbs. A toolbox tears loose and brains the driver. The gunner letting out a stream of curses. Baburin's hand flies into my face and I lose consciousness.

In what feels like several seconds later I feel Fressan shaking me awake, "Vassili? Are you alright?"

I look around. The BMP commander's skull is smashed by a toolkit that also brained the driver before the heavy metal box smashed against the ceiling. The gunner is shaken but unharmed and I see Baburin dragging him from the vehicle and Galyshev is handing him his AK-74U 'Krinkov', a cut down version of the AK-74 issued to armored vehicle crews and other specialized troops whom a full size AK-74 is not practical.

"Comrade Paprochik." the gunner protests, "I'm not an infantry soldier..."

"Your track is destroyed comrade. You're an infantry trooper now." Galyshev says with a glare.

"Y-yes Comrade Paprochik."

"Move! Let's get to the University! Go!" Reznov shouts to the others.

Grimly we clutch our weapons and move through Leningrad's streets. Wrecked cars and destroyed buildings mark the Omnidroid's path through the city.

"Choryt!" Reznov shouts as gunfire from a group of Synthoids narrowly misses us. We take cover near an apartment building.

"Get inside the builing! Vassili! Get to the upper floors and take care of that gun nest!" Galyshev shouts, "Covering fire! Fressan, Yuri! Go with Vassili! We'll be right behind you."

We run to the far side of the apartment building towards a back door. Fressan gives the door two solid kicks to get us inside as I sling my Dragunov across my back and draw out my Stechkin machine-pistol and click the safety off. In the confines of a building the Dragunov's length makes it unwieldly. Fressan is first in and he turns right to look down the nearest hallway. I turn left to observe behind him and see nothing. We move in deeper with Yuri following us both.

A staircase up ahead. I go up first since I have the shortest weapon of the three. A Dusk hops down the staircase and I promptly blast him with a short burst from the Stechkin. As I round the bend in the staircase two more Dusks are coming down the staircase at me and I promptly mash the trigger down on the Stechkin. The machine-pistol bucks and jumps in my hands and I am spattered by the grayish fluid that passes for blood in Nobodies. The Nobodies were crashing down the staircase before I riddled them with bullets and even though both of them are dead they still have momentum. They crash down and collide with me. With a jarring rattling we roll down the stairs in a tangle of limbs. Immediately Fressan jumps over me as I untangle myself from the spindly limbs of the dead Dusks. There was nothing callous about his actions. We are vulnerable on the staircase and we have to push on past it. I untangle myself from the dead Dusks and slam a new magazine home into the Stetchikin and chamber a round as I shove the empty magazine into a trouser pocket.

Yuri bubbles up the stairs after us and gives each Dusk a bullet to the head to ensure death. We move up the stairs. Scanning below and above and ahead and behind and to the sides. Fressan kicks in another door and we charge inside. The occupant is a single old woman. No doubt a survivor of the Great Patriotic War and the first time the Heartless invaded alongside the German invaders.

"Don't be afraid babushka." Fressan says: "We intend you no harm. We are here to drive the invaders away."

I go into the bedroom and notice the window has a good view of the street and at the machinegun nest. I stay back from the window in the shadow of the room to prevent myself from being seen by any enemy snipers. I see the gunners firing at the squad with a light machinegun. I focus the reticle of my PSO-1 telescopic sight onto the head of the first gunner and press lightly on the trigger exhaling as I go. I feel the Dragunov buck in my hands as the bullet rips into the head of the first synthoid. From below I see it melt into the organic goop that synthoids are composed of as I focus on shooting the next target, the assistant gunner. I focus my aim at the point of his jaw and squeeze the trigger. Again the Dragunov bucks in my hands as I send a second round downrange.

Below I see Reznov moving the rest of the squad down an alley in a flanking movement. Running and shooting their way into the partially destoyed storefront the enemy used as a machinegun nest I see them move inside and hear more shooting. Clearly some Heartless and Nobodies were hiding inside the store.

Fressan taps my shoulder and gestures to rejoin the squad across the street. I sling the Dragunov and again unholster the Stetchkin as we move back through the building and across the street into the store. There are two puddles of goop from the gun team in the storefront. Lying dead are the storekeeper and several customers. The open rib cages show their hearts have been taken by the Heartless and Nobodies in the store. Several dead bodies of the Heartless, Shadows - the lowest form of Heartless and often used as expendable footsoldiers by attacking Heartless, lie strewn about the store shot full of holes.

"Come on. Check ammo and let's move." Reznov says.

We check our ammunition. I have three of my four magazines for the Stetchikin and nine full and one partially full magazine for my Dragunov. We all load our weapons with new magazines and move towards our objective. Reznov is in front with me behind him, with my Dragunov unslung. Baburin is behind me with Galyshev behind him and Fressan and the BMP gunner bringing up the rear. We move rapidly through a city abuzz with the noise of the Omnidroid tearing down buildings, screaming civilians, shooting, fighter jets overhead, helicopters and explosions.

We move through a wrecked section of the city that the Omnidroid has clearly gone through. Buildings are shattered and pavement is cracked. Bodies or pieces of them lie about amidst wrecked vehicles. The twisted remains of an MVD police car smashed and burning. The officer in the front is charred and burned. His fingers are twisted like he tried to claw his way out of the vehicle as he burned to death. Several more wrecked vehicles litter the street and some of them are on fire. I look down my sector at the shattered and burning front of a cafe. One that I regularly frequent when off duty. Two Dusks creep amidst the wreckage and I take aim firing two shots. Both Dusk Nobodies die with bullets to the chest and head.

We continue our movement until we link in with the MVD cordon around the 1st Petrograd State University. We hear gunfire as the MVD trade fire with several Synthoids. The MVD spetsnaz units have already gone in but their assault has been stalled. The Synthoids were better armed than many of the MVD units.

A rocket propelled grenade (RPG) explodes one of the MVD squad cars. But the two police officers have since taken cover behind one of the armored vehicles. Two T-72 tanks are firing their heavy NSV machineguns into the university buildings in response. Another RPG explodes into the side of one of the tanks.

We hear Major Koslov arguing sharply with an MVD officer who insists his troops and his own spetsnaz troops can handle the situation. A team of three MVD spetsnazmen come from one of the nearby buildings. One of the three is severely wounded and being supported by two of his comrades. From a house nearby I hear the distinctive sounds of a machinegun above me.

"Vassili! Get topside and try to pick off the enemy gun teams!" Reznov shouts.

"This way." says Seaman Boris Krichenkov. He's one of the few members of the neighboring midget submarine battalion that hasn't forward deployed into Metroville because one of its companies was kept in reserve. However they are now being pressed into service to fight off the Omnidroid assault.

He runs with his AK-74 in his hands and a heavy radio on his back and I follow behind him to the staccato bursts of machinegun fire or the slow and steady drumbeat of sniper shots. I run inside an upstairs bedroom where one of my companymates, a hulking fellow named Oleg Kaminski, is ducked behind his PKM light machinegun.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"The MVD are getting their asses kicked inside the university but their shithead commander doesn't want to let us go in." Oleg says before letting a burst off at a group of Shadow Heartless that run across the courtyard.

"Vassili. I'll spot targets for you." Boris says as he takes a pair of binoculars from around his neck.

I take a position overlapping Oleg's field of fire. "I've got movement across the courtyard! Left side!" Boris shouts.

I aim my Dragunov and I see a running student. A terrified young woman. Pursuing her are a trio of Neoshadow Heartless. I take aim for the nearest one. Leading just a little so he'll run right into the bullet and I slowly squeeze the trigger. The first Neoshadow crumples from a bullet through the head. I swivel my aim to the left and fire a second shot and hit the second Neoshadow. The third narrowly avoids death by a hairsbreadth as a bullet smacks into the lawn nearest it. My third shot missed. The Neoshadow freezes long enough for gunshots from the cordon to knock it down. The student runs for the cordon and two of the MVD gendarmes rush over to help her. A single round from somewhere in the university smacks her down.

"Enemy sniper!" Boris shouts.

"Svoloch!" Oleg shouts and fires a long burst from the nearest sniper position.

I wish he hadn't fired that burst. Because that sniper would very likely have moved from his hide if Oleg failed to kill him with that machinegun burst.

Another group of MVD spetsnaz are preparing to assault into the technical college building, a large four story building.

"Third attempt. They've tried retaking the building twice and been driven back." Oleg comments, "Both our sniper groups and machineguns have managed to keep them out of the windows but they're just too well dug in."

The sound of steady shooting inside the building can be heard. The other two MVD teams inside are still fighting it out but getting carved apart. Despite our efforts of keeping the synthoids away from the windows they manage to fire on the MVD section. But they manage to reach the building front unscathed. I see the section of MVD spetsnaz assaulting into the building and hear gunfire. Through my telescopic sights I see the entry teams flood into the first floor even after they had been taking fire on their approach.

I glance below and see our teams are preparing to assault in as well. The major must have won the argument with the MVD officer. I tap Oleg on the back of the head to let him know we have more friendlies ready to move.

"They're starting to move another team forward." I say.

"The MVD have been stalled on the second floor of the building." Boris says as he listens to his radio set. More shooting inside the building punctuated with the occasional grenade or breaching charge explosion: "They're going in. Reznov and Petrenko's squads are moving forward."

No targets present themselves in the windows that I can see from my position as I scan through the telescopic sights of my SVD and Boris uses his binoculars to help out. However the overwatch positions are shooting steadily at the second and third floors. Obviously enemy elements are on the move out of my sector of fire. Simultaneously a second assault element hits the business college right of the technical college. More shooting intensifies. Petrenko and Reznov's squads have to have made contact.

"They're taking the second floor and moving up to the third. They're stalled at the stairwell...no they've moved past it. First team is topside." Boris says.

More shooting sounds as the Synthoids are being pressed into increasingly smaller sectors of the building with no way out. They continue fighting us but I notice the volume of shooting is lessening in the technical and business colleges. "Move up. Hurry. Morozov and Shaikin will cover us!" Boris says.

We run outside and sprint across the grounds towards the Technical College. We catch our breath for a few seconds at the door into the front of the Technical College and I unholster my Stechkin before slinging my Dragunov. As we move inside past the corpses of civilians, soldiers, Synthoids, Heartless and Nobodies amidst debris and destroyed furniture. Inside its obvious what went on inside the building. The Heartless and Nobodies stalked hiding students and faculty and added to their numbers by taking their hearts. The Synthoids were intended to keep any attempts by us or the MVD at bay.

We run up the stairs to the third floor where a group of MVD and Parusniki are reloading weapons and preparing to move across the way to the College of the Arts which are three large buildings around an ornate fountain of marble and bronze. I see Reznov scanning out the windows, Fressan covering the far hallway with his weapon with Nikolai doing the same, and Baburin applying a bandage to a lightly wounded MVD soldier. Yuri and our radioman Sergei are also ready with their weapons as well.

"Vassili, Oleg, Boris cover our approach to the College of the Arts." Reznov says.

The sound of gunfire can be heard and Sergei says, "Captain Ryabko's team is on the move."

Reznov's combined force of Parusniki and MVD fighters move downstairs as I scan the windows of the nearby building through the Dragunov's telescopic sights. Oleg has his light machinegun set up. The flash of an RPG fires out of one of the top floors of the College of the Arts complex across a three hundred meter courtyard. Oleg lets off a burst of fire at the upper floor. I see a Synthoid raising a weapon in one of the windows and fire one round. I see him pitch backward with a bullet through his head.

I see the entry team has made it to the entrance way of the building. I see the breaching charges placed on the heavy wooden door of the university and hear the explosion and the team racing inside. More shooting.

"Enemy infantry! Far side of the fountain!" Boris shouts. I snap my SVD towards the far side of the fountain and open fire on a group of Synthoids trying to flank into the building and retake it. Oleg adds a burst of fire from his PKM and then I hear a loud curse.

"Choryt! Jammed!" Oleg curses as he begins to try and clear the malfunction.

"Enemy infantry! Staircase!" Boris shouts and opens fire with his AK-74 in short bursts before tossing an RGD-5 grenade down the stairs. It explodes with a bang. Boris moves to cover the area at the stairs and Oleg clears his PKM. He hammers at another group of Heartless running from the building Reznov's team has just assaulted into. His bursts of fire mows them down.

I am shooting steadily at Heartless and Nobodies that are flushed from the first two buildings of the College of the Arts.

"Move forward!" Boris shouts after hearing the call over his radio. We reload our weapons and race across the courtyard towards the building. We get inside and see Reznov and the rest of the team in the lobby. "They're going into the sewers of the buildings to flank us. Watch for stay behinds." Reznov says.

"We encountered a few." Boris remarks.

An MVD sniper team runs downstairs to join us with information. "They've fortified the library."

"Then we'd best do everything we can to get inside." Reznov says, "Do an ammo count."

I look through my ammunition. I've fired forty rounds of the one-hundred and fifty I have on my person and I have three of four magazines for my Stetchkin fully loaded. Everyone is carrying plenty of ammunition. Every one of the men in the assault group have 450 rounds and most of them carry 600 rounds. I see men reloading empty magazines from loose rounds in their pockets and I do the same with empty magazines from my Dragunov and my empty Stetchkin magazine.

Weapons reloaded our fire support team moves to the third floor of the building with my sniper rifle. I run up to the third floor with Oleg and Boris and we set up at a particularly large window that's been shot out from the fighting earlier. It faces the library where I see several enemy fleeing towards the building. I drop to one knee and start snapping off rounds at the fleeing enemy troops. A Neoshadow falls with a bullet through the leg and continues to try to crawl towards the building. I fire a second round that splits its skull apart.

The sound of aircraft approaching can be heard. A Mil Mi-24 gunship approaches and I hear its 12.7mm guns blazing away at the crowd of Heartless and Nobodies running for the library. The gunship is roving around the area and Boris is listening to the radio and says, "Major Koslov is heading up this way with a couple other personnel for fire support."

Oleg lets fly with a short burst at an enemy RPG team that he spotted moving across the courtyard. They fire their rocket. The rocket flys high and slams into the angled roof of the building. I duck instinctively. A shower of debris falls in front of the window but harms no one in there. We hear movement behind us and I see the stocky and mustachioed Major Koslov with his radio operator and two other Parusniki. He takes up a position in our room and talks to the Mi-24.

Meanwhile one of our other snipers takes position. Anatoli Morozov takes a smaller window in the far corner of the room and scans towards another section of the library through the telescopic sights of his Dragunov rifle. He fires several rounds and I hear Oleg's gun blazing away as well at groups of Heartless that flee from buildings under attack. I scan the windows and kill any hostile I see with precision fire. We know our job is to keep any enemy forces away from the windows so they cannot fire on the entry teams. I see a trio of Heartless pouncing on a hapless student through the window. I squeeze off two shots that kill the first two but the third can't be engaged without shooting the poor student. The young man is fighting for his life against the Shadow clinging to his chest. They roll out of my vision and I cannot engage any longer. A window shatters and a terrified librarian jumps four stories into the ground and lands with a sickening crack-thud. I can't tell if she survived the jump or not. I have to engage anything in the windows that is hostile.

I see the entry teams racing across the courtyard, occasionally firing at the odd hostile that gets into their way and forming up around entrances into the library. Breaching charges are attached to doors and at least one door is being slammed into by a sledge hammer and then kicked open. I see them rush inside. The entry teams fight their way inside. We hear shooting with the occasional grenade or breaching charge explosion as teams encounter barricades.

Any enemy that shows himself in the windows is immediately engaged by me and the other snipers in our unit. We don't dare use the machine guns for fear of hitting our own comrades in the building fighting their way through. The machinegunners are concentrating on watching possible egress points to gun down any enemy trying to flee the area. I crack a round at a Dusk Nobody that has come around from behind the stacks. I strike it in the mid back and it falls twitching on the ground. I see one of the Parusniki go up to it and fire about five rounds from his AK-74 to finish it off before he goes back to searching amongst the stacks with his mates.

I hear Oleg's gun blaze a little and out of the corner of my eye see a pair of Neoshadows shake violently from the gunfire. They had to have escaped from the fighting around the library. I take aim at a Synthoid moving along a window sill to try and avoid a team that's gotten into the room he's in. I squeeze the trigger and split open his head with another bullet.

Grenade explosions and bursts of gunfire still sound from the library. But they are less and less frequent. More MVD troops are following behind the entry teams as they are carrying up mop up operations. In all likelihood killing any enemy that have survived the intial assault by the entry teams. I see wounded civilians being evacuated and see the librarian who had jumped earlier. She's being evacuated on a stretcher to a landing zone as I see an Mi-17 flaring and landing. The wounded are being loaded onboard and the helicopter takes off low and fast to dodge the Omnidroid's fire.

In the distance I can see the sphere with four legs that is the Omnidroid ravaging through the city. Smashing buildings. Shooting vehicles with missiles and laser blasts. A Mil Mi-24 gunship fires a brace of rockets into the thing only to be obliterated by a missile from the Omnidroid. I can't help but worry. My parents and my two sisters live in the city. My beloved Anna teaches at the No. 8 Public School. My hometown. Under attack by the Omnidroid. Every one of the vermin I kill is one less that can harm any of my loved ones.

It seems like everything the Leningrad garrison can throw at the Omnidroid has been weathered. I hear jet engines as two MiG-27 fighter-bombers race low and fast over the skyline and both fire their missiles. One of them strikes home on the Omnidroid's head and explodes. A second missile follows afterward and explodes deeper inside the metal beast. The Omnidroid ceases its movement as fuel and munitions begin exploding inside it.

"Burn you bastard! Burn!" Oleg bellows triumphantly.

Even Major Koslov smiles slightly. "Don't celebrate just yet gentlemen. There's still untold numbers of Heartless, Nobodies, and Synthoids on the loose in the city. Orders from higher. Rearm and regroup and prepare to carry out mop up operations."

Reports are coming over the radio that the library is secure and I see our crimson flag being hung from one of the windows by one of the MVD spetsnaz soldiers. We head back to the ammo and resupply point at the front of the university grounds. We gather as much ammo and as many grenades as we can carry and many of us make use of the time to grab a bite to eat and some water. We're all prepared to move at a moment's notice as we rest waiting for orders.

"Why the hell weren't we forward in Metroville before this happened?" Oleg grumbles.

"My sentiments exactly." I add.

"In all likelihood the professional athlete formations are forward." Fressan adds.

"They could've done something to hit the Omnidroid launching sites. Hell we could've easily done the job." Baburin says.

"Who knows how many of the anti-Omnidroid teams were successful? I certainly don't." Boris adds as he sets up his radio beside where we are all clustered. I light a cigarette and hand him one and light one of my own.

Boris has one of his ears covered by his radio headset so he can listen in on the battle as its going on.

"Alfa Group is on the move. They're fighting the terrorists at the Leningrad Theater." Boris says. In a way he is almost like a sportscaster for the battle.

Yuri checks his AK-74 to make sure it is functioning well. And we all do the same to ascertain our rifles and pistols are in working order. Cleaning and oiling our weapons as we wait for the orders to move.

"I wonder how many of those creatures are roaming through the city now while we sit on our behinds waiting for orders?" Anatoli Morozov grumbles as he takes a slug of water from his canteen.

"Too many." I agree with him.

"Stop bitching like a bunch of old women." Sergei Lermoff says. Lean and wiry with a somewhat acne pocked face and a close cropped bit of blonde hair. He's always been someone we've all nicknamed Ratface and I especially dislike him.

"Hey. This happens to be my home under attack." I reply sharply.

"Pfeh. I'm counting the days till I can go back to Moscow and leave this city behind..." Sergei replied.

His snide remarks are starting to anger me. I rise and head towards him, "That happens to be my hometown you rat faced ass!"

"One more reason I want to leave this city behind." Sergei replied.

I head over towards him and shove him backward several steps where he nearly trips over Sergeant Reznov. He heads over and shoves back and we start fighting. Reznov angrily storms over and pulls us apart, "Both of you knock it off right now!"

"This isn't over Vassili." Sergei sneers.

"It's over now." Reznov says, "Get your ass back to Petrenko's squad. Now!"

Sergei stares down Reznov for a moment but then goes back towards Petrenko's squad muttering insults.

"The Alfa Group is still clearing the theater. Sporadic gunfights but they believe it to be nearly secure." Boris remarks.

Just then Chief Galyshev lumbers into view, "All of you get ready to go. We have a mission. Enemy forces have holed up at the train station. We have to get moving."

We hear the distinct sounds of helicopters overhead and see two Mi-17s flying towards us. They land in the courtyard and we climb onboard. The helicopter takes off as we race towards the train station. The helicopter comes to a hover at a nearby park and we jump out one after the other. Myself and the other members of the fire support elements take positions to surround the train station. Oleg sets up his PKM on one of the second floor windows of a nearby storefront. I take up a position nearby and scan through the telescopic sights of my SVD. We see several dead MVD soldiers killed from a failed attempt to retake the station. More of them are forming up alongside our assault squads.

I see an RPG gunner in one of the windows and squeeze off a round and kill him with a single round. The teams start moving up with covering fire from snipers and the machineguns. I hear Oleg's gun hammering in short bursts at the windows and doors. Any Heartless or Nobodies or Synthoids that show themselves in the windows are immediately shot by either myself or other snipers from our group or the MVD. At least fifteen times I fire my Dragunov at hostiles in the windows. All but two are hits. Surgical and deadly shots that kill or wound every time I squeeze the trigger.

The teams move up to their designated entrances. Below I see Volodya, one of our urban breaching experts raise his Saiga shotgun and fire two shells into the door before kicking it open. The team rushes inside. Using grenades is out of the question. As there may be surviving civilians inside. Shooting echoes from inside the building as our entry teams engage the enemy inside. The machinegunners are shifting their fire towards any enemy trying to escape. Their suppressive fire could potentially cause casualties among our entry team. We snipers are still needed as we keep our eyes to the windows and doors for anything unfriendly to show itself.

The hides on the far end of our perimeter are steadily shooting and I hear the occasional chatter of the light machineguns with them. Someone must be attempting to flee out of the other entrances of the train station. I scan the windows for more enemies. I see our teams moving through the building and shooting down any enemy they encounter. Short and accurate bursts or sometimes single and rapidly fired shots can be heard from the entry teams as they engage enemy inside the complex of the train station. I pick off two Soldier Heartless trying to outflank an entry team with single shots.

I see more vehicles approaching the cordon and several soldiers from the Alfa Group heading in to reinforce our retaking the train station. From scattered radio reports Boris is occasionally trying to tell us our assaults are getting stalled. From utility tunnels and hidden maintenance hatches ambushes are sprung. At least a team or two is reporting being cut off. We're doing what we can to support them from our positions but we dare not fire indiscriminately.

I see a trio of running Neoshadows running across the courtyard and pick off one of them with a single shot before a nearby Alfa Group soldier guns down the other two with a burst from his AK-74. I see him reloading his Kalashnikov while on the run as their teams prepare to assault into the building.

I look behind me and see an Alfa Group sniper joining me in the hide. He sets his own rifle up and takes aim through his optics. Like me he is scanning for targets. I hear his rifle fire three times as I scan for targets of my own. A synthoid runs with a rifle to try and escape from a cafe being retaken by the Alfa Group men. I lead, or aim just ahead of him so he runs right into the bullet, a few meters and squeeze the trigger. The Dragunov bucks in my hand and the Synthoid flips forward and starts to melt into the puddle of organic goop that they tend to turn into once hit in the head or chest.

The arrival of the Alfa Group appears to have turned the battle because after a crescendo of shooting the fighting starts to abate to the occasional shot being fired by snipers on hides on the far end of our perimeter. "There are reports coming in that the enemy has overrun the Number 6 Secondary School." Boris shouts to us.

"We're probably headed that way then." Oleg remarks from behind his PKM.

I reload my Dragunov and nod as we both prepare to move at any second. "Damn!" Boris curses angrily.

"What?" I reply.

"They've begun mop up operations on the train station." Boris replies.

"That should be good right?" I reply as I indicate additional MVD soldiers arriving.

"No. They're pulling us off the line." Boris replies.

"What the hell?" Oleg replies angrily.

"Don't they realize there are still enemy out there? That there are still people at risk?" I reply.

Once the station is declared secure we are moved to waiting trucks and climb into the backs of them. As we bounce down the roads back towards Parusnoye, back towards our base on the Baltic Sea, I think of my family and my Anna. Are they safe? Or did the Omnidroid or those svoloch that they dispense kill them?

I just barely register the sights of wrecked buildings, destroyed vehicles - military and civilian - and aircraft, a bomb disposal team is disarming an unexploded device, firefighters are struggling to put out a massive fire consuming an apartment building.

A little over a year ago. Rain. I will always remember rain whenever I think of my home. It's a small house on the outskirts of town. One earned by the pensioned ex-soldier that is my father for nearly thirty years of service to the Rodina.

I will also remember my mother's cooking. My two sisters Katya and Lydia. They are both helping my mother in the kitchen.

I see my grandfather cleaning the Tokarev rifle. The souvenir of the Great Patriotic War when was thrown as a youth no older than eighteen into the fighting around Stalingrad. The rifle he said that saved his life on numerous occasions. It's his nightly ritual and has been since he was that terrified young man thrown into a battle that erased whole formations from existance. A battle where the fate of the Motherland was being decided.

My father is still on duty with one of the reserve formations of the Leningrad Garrison. He walks in the door carrying his own AKM-47 and carrying his magazines and ammunition. This is how I knew tensions are highest with our neighboring states as a youth. Whenever father would carry his weapons and equipment home our leaders feared the Rodina was in danger of invasion. He joins Grandfather silently and cleans his own weapon.

The feast mother is cooking is for her a sad occasion. She knows exactly what my father and I and my sisters know. That I have been called up. I have been drafted to serve and this is the last night I am to spend at home. Because of the tensions with Metroville as a precaution even second year university students are to be called into service. That is my calling now. I am twenty years old and now I am called to serve the Motherland in the Naval Infantry.

Mother holds the draft notice. Tears in her eyes. Worries. That now yet another generation of our family may be in battle.

"Be very careful my son." says my father from the table, "There are units that have very strange traditions out there. Take care should fetch up with any of them."

My sisters set up the table and I go to help them. My father puts up a hand telling me not to do so. Because of that draft notice I am considered in his eyes a man now.

I can see that am I due to leave the world I knew behind me...

The first of September in Russia is always a day of festive celebration. Known as the Day of Knowledge gifts are often presented to teachers by parents and students. A block from the school is the assembly area where all the new recruits to the Soviet Naval Infantry are to report. In the afternoon we are to board the buses to take us to the training site.

Anna is older than me by two years and has graduated from University already. She is starting to teach elementary schoolers. I hold in my hands flowers and some chocolates I purchased at a shop downtown with the last money I have left.

She is a little taller than me by a few centimeters. Lean bodied. A smile that comes easily. Blue eyes nicely complemented by her chestnut brown hair cut short to just above her shoulders. She smiles as I hand her my gift. I steal a kiss from her before any of her students get in. I see her smile but there's a sadness to that smile. She knows I am going to be gone and there is that rising conflict with Metroville. And even if the conflict doesn't turn into anything more than tensions there is still the long separation we are to face. There is a Naval Infantry Brigade in the Baltic Fleet near Leningrad but there is no guarantee I will wind up stationed there. For all I know I could spend the three years of my conscripted service with the Pacific Fleet at Vladivostok all the way across Russia's six time zones from my home.

"I promise I'll write every day. I'll call when I can too." I say.

"I'll miss you." Anna says.

"Who knows. I could wind up here with the Baltic Fleet. Let's hope for that." I say.

I give her my gifts and check my watch. I head out to the transportation hub where the buses that will take us to the training camp wait. My family watches as I and other conscripts board. The door slams closed with what feels like the finality of a casket lid closing.

They are dead. The casualty reports confirm it. I feel a great weight upon me. A great anger. I make a vow to myself that I will do all in my power to kill any of the Metroville vermin that find their way into my telescopic sights.

The enemy have taken all that I love from me and I will take their lives. The instruments of vengeance are carried in my hands and hang from my body. The Dragunov with its telescopic sights is my primary tool and for it I carry 200 rounds. I carry seven of the ten round magazines for the Dragunov with the remaining eighty carried loose in my pockets of my pants or in my pack. Then the Stetchkin with 100 rounds carried in three 20 round magazines with the remainder carried in my pockets as loose bullets if the fighting gets close. A pair of knives for other close encounters. One knife is a standard diver's knife and the other is a special spring loaded knife that propels the blade at 63 kilometers per hour with the touch of a pressure switch in the hilt. Five RGD-5 grenades complete my battle kit with the last of them carried in my pocket. In spetsnaz one grenade never leaves your pocket. You are not to be taken alive and that last grenade is for you.

Father was killed in the battle near the neighborhood when the enemy overran the area using the city block overlooking the harbor as a staging area. Grandfather died defending our house with his old Tokarev. Anna's school was smashed by the tentacle of the Omnidroid. Students and teachers not killed instantly were buried alive by the rubble. And those able to frantically dig themselves out were caught by maruading Heartless and their hearts taken.

For hours now Major Ryabko and almost all the officers have been shut in the communications room. Rumors from one of the off duty radiomen surface that we may well be used in a counter-offensive. We will be the spearhead for the Rodina's revenge.

For the first time I am grateful that my conscription was to the Naval Spetsnaz as I know I have a chance to destroy these Omnidroid facilities. I will show no mercy to any of the crews. They are killers. I am the avenger of their victims which include all my loved ones. I will show no mercy to those vermin. They are to be erased from existance.

To Be Continued...

Glossary:

Alfa Group - A KGB spetsnaz formation considered among Russia's best of the best.

babushka - Grandmother.

BMP - Soviet armored personnel carrier.

Choryt - Shit.

Great Patriotic War - World War II.

gendarme - Paramilitary policemen.

Krinkov - A cut down AK-74 used by tank crews and artillery and occasionally by spetsnaz.

OMRP - Literally: Otdel'nyy morskoy razvedyvatel'nyy punkt. Translation: Detached Naval Reconnaissance Point. A Naval spetsnaz unit of the Baltic Sea Fleet.

legend - cover story. For instance the OMRP has a legend that they are the Diving Rescue School Number 49 to mislead civilian and spy alike as to the true nature of the unit.

MVD - Interior Ministry.

Paprochik - Warrant Officer. Highest ranking enlisted rank in the Soviet military.

Parusniki - Slang term for personnel from the 561st OMRP.

Parusnoye - Russian Naval Base in Saint Petersburg (formerly called Leningrad) area.

PDSS - Counter-swimmer units of around 49-50 people at Russian Naval Bases.

Professional Athelte Formations - Comprised of the best sportsmen of the Soviet Union and almost invariably of Olympic or at least European Level athletes the formations are among the best soldiers of the spetsnaz.

Rodina - Motherland.

RPG - Rocket propelled grenade.

sambo - Russian hand to hand fighting style.

spetsnaz - Soviet special operations forces. The term roughly translates into 'troops of special purpose.'

svoloch - Bastard.

synthoids - In the fanfic Meet the Incredibles Syndrome collaborated with Cobra and obtained the technology to create synthoids.

Davai - Rough translation: let's go.