Division Zero: Redux

Disclaimer: I didn't Create Hellsing, I don't own it.

Chapter 1: Business as Usual

To the casual on looker it seemed to be nothing more then a police raid. Black and white's blocking off all the road ways around the corrugated steel building with uniformed officers and blockades holding back the new crews and on lookers. Just outside the gap in rusted out chain link fence that separated the lot from the rest of the neighborhood members of the local SWAT team where scattered about the scene, some huddled around the hood of a curser going over the entry plan wile others kept watch over the building.

To the casual on looker it was just another drug bust.

But if one was to look at little closer at the SWAT officers they would notice something different about them. The black coveralls they wore carried no markings that would link them to the police. Their weapons where also different, the local SWAT outfitted there officers with MP5s and a Benelli tactical shotguns, these men where far better armed, M4A1 assault rifles, some equipped with shotguns mounted under the barrels.

One of them, a large powerfully built man well over six feet tall, carried a belt fed machine gun over one shoulder. His facial features were concealed behind the ski mask that he, like all the others like him, wore, though it was still possible to make out his large square jaw. Another man, no more then six feet tall, stood next to him, unlike the others his face was not fully concealed by his mask, he had pushed it up just above his nose and a cigarette smoldered between his lips as he watched the cheap garage from behind a pair of tinted ski goggles.

The large man jabbed him in the side with one padded elbow and tapped his wrist which was met with a nod before the shorter man spit his cigarette to the ground and pulled his mask the rest of the way down over his face before securing his helmet atop his head.

In total there was a dozen of them, six in position by the large rolling front doors of the building, three by the back door and another three where waiting by the east wall, which had been set with low yield breaching charges along with the front doors.

Silence gripped the street as the onlookers watched with baited breath to see what would happen. The explosion was not as loud as they had been expecting, but a few people still jumped when the charges went off. Weapons at the ready, the heavily armed men moved in.

The sight which awaited them inside was one that they had seen dozens of time in the past. Human bodies in various stages of being devoured littered the concrete floor, the drying blood sticky in some places.

There where other forms visible in the late afternoon sunlight pouring in through the openings made by the charges. Some human, still living and curled into balls sleeping on the floor and others who had snapped upright, awakened from their sleep by the blast, all where naked.

And the other things...

Wolf looking creatures easily the size of the largest man in unit hunched over the dead carcasses enjoying a late lunch. One of them, a female, tore and gnawed the guts of a headless body. The only reason one could tell it was a female was because of the male which had mounted her from behind and now thrust forcefully into her.

There was no hesitation from the commandos, weapons blazed to life, spitting forth round after round into their targets, moving to the beasts first. The male who had so rudely had his enjoyment interrupted when a three round burst had penetrated the skull of his mate charged towards one of the men, the one who had been smoking outside.

He swung around, rifle at the level as the beast lunged towards him. He ducked down, throwing all his weight to on side and spinning on the spot as the wolf sailed over him, its claws grazing the top of his helmet as it passed.

The wolf landed gracefully on all fours then pushed itself back onto its hind legs.

He didn't give it a chance to launch a second attack. He doubled tapped the trigger.

The wolf's head erupted into a mess of bone and gore.

He turned back towards the action noticing that several more wolves which hadn't been there before had joined in the action and now lay in a pool of their own blood. The only remaining human a large hairy man who could easily pass for a bear lay face down on the floor, the large man with the machine gun knelt on top of him, on knee dug deeply into his back as he wrestled the man's arms behind his back before binding them with a plastic zip tie.

A gruff male voice crackled through the ear pieces worn by the commandos, "Area is secure, a dozen hostiles down, one in custody. Ortti, Vega, I want you two ridding in the Police Transport with the prisoner."

Two commandos stepped forward and pulled the bear man to his feet then escorted him out of the building followed by the rest of the team. At the back of the group the large man and the one he had been smoking strolled casually away from the chaotic scene as another group in clean suits hurried inwards.

The smoker watched them for a moment then spoke in a voice full of gravel, "Glad we never actually have to clean up the mess after an op like this. Bunch of fucking animals."

"Fucking animals is right, that one that rushed you seemed pretty pissed that you put down his lay."

A gloved hand reached up and pulled down his goggles before undoing the chinstrap of his helmet and hanging it off the holster strapped to his leg then pulled off the black ski mask. The face of a man in his mid twenties was beneath, shaggy brown hair matted to his head by sweat.

"A werewolf devouring a human carcass wile getting fucked from behind by another werewolf, I think that ranks pretty high on the list of 'Most Disturbing Shit I've Ever Seen' right along with that sex scene in the second Matrix movie."

The larger man too had removed his helmet and mask as they walked. He looked to be in his early forties. One massive hand scratched at the well groomed sandy colored beard he sported, "What was so bad about that scene?"

An old brass Zippo sparked to life, the flame engulfing the end of the cigarette which had found its way between his lips, "Well the weird ass plugs all over their bodies make it seem like some kind of fetish movie. There was also Keanu's ass."

"Spring of '62 I saw a guy get a face full of Napalm."

"Sounds bad."

"Was, but the guy looked like Miss America compared to what I saw during that one training run when you split your pants."

"I thought you said you didn't see anything?"

"I said I wish I hadn't"

The shorter man turned his head slowly, steely grey eyes locking on his companion, "Fuck you Jack."

A large hand slapped him firmly on the shoulder, "That sounds like insubordination to me Lieutenant Archer."

"Sir, fuck you, sir."

A deep hearty laugh rumbled forth from Jack, as he pulled himself into the transport van, "Just get your ass in here and we'll talk about your courtmarsal when we get back to base Max."

"I hope that's a joke."

*******

The idea of taking part in an officer exchange and spending three weeks in the US wasn't something Seras found appealing. She had finally recovered from the memory loss she had suffered in the fall. According to Sir Integra, she hadn't quite been her usual self since then.

The room the Americans had given her had a slightly warmer feel to it then her room back home. The dry wall and carpeting had been rather hastily leading her to believe that it had been put together just for her. Under normal circumstances she would have felt like a burden, except for the fact that her mind was currently occupied with trying to rescue the Seven Sages, defeat the evil Ganondorf and bring order back to the land of Hyrule.

"Slimy bugger..." she growled at the TV, mashing the attack button in an attempt to break through the defenses of a heavily armed skeleton knight.

She had developed a liking for videogames during her time away from home, wile she had been under the care of two men who had mysteriously disappeared before Sir Integra had come along with a squad of troops to take her home.

She had adopted the Nintendo GameCube from the flat and had been putting it to good use every free moment she had.

And for the time being she had plenty, the squad she had been assigned to had been out in the field when she arrived and had yet to return according to the unit's commander General Trautman.

The 'Game Over' screen faded into view and Seras flopped backwards onto the floor letting out a groan of frustration. For some strange reason she couldn't fully comprehend the load file screen showed the number of times she had died and the number now sat in the fifties. The file belonging to the previous owner of the system had him at the end of the game and had him at fifty two deaths.

The phone sitting on the low table next to the door began to ring. She scrambled back to her feet and made her way over to the phone before scooping it off the cradle.

"Hello?"

The voice on the other end was deep and full of authority, "Miss Victoria, it's General Trautman, I just received word that your squad has returned to base, I need to see you in my office in twenty minutes."

She nodded in spite of the fact that there was no one around to see it, "Yes sir."

And with that the other end of the line went dead.

*********

Sam Trautman was a man in his early fifties with well defined but somewhat weathered features and black buzz cut hair graying at the temples. Easily filling the chair opposite him was the most experienced of all the men under his command.

Jack Barton was well over six feet tall and built like tank. A former Green Beret, Barton had seen more action in the field then Trautman could imagine, but then again, Trautman hadn't been soldiering since World War One, unlike Jack, who in spite of his age didn't like a day over forty-five.

"So I'm being assigned someone to my team as part of this officer exchange we're doing with the Brits?"

Trautman nodded, "When I saw her file I knew the best person to assign her to was you."

Thick bushy eyebrows perked up, "And why would that be General?" Jack asked, plucking a cigar from the open box on the desk top.

Trautman reached into his desk drawer and produced a simple manila file folder which he slid across the desk. Hazel color eyes rested upon the folder before the large man flipped it open.

There was a brief glimmer of recognition that crossed Jack's usual neutral expression when he beheld the photo paper clipped to the inside of the folder of a young woman in her late teens or early twenties with golden blonde hair that ran half way down her neck.

The change in expression had come and gone so quickly Trautman wondered if his eyes had just been playing tricks on him.

Several moments of silence passed before finally being broken by the striking of a stick match which Jack then used to light the pilfered cigar. He puffed on it several times before speaking.

Though is expression remained neutral there was a hint of irritation in his voice, "So you're giving her to me because she's not a human"

"That's right. I thought it would be easier for you to keep a handle on her then it would be for a human officer."

"I can't help but notice you said human officer."

"For Christ sake Jack, this has nothing to do with your species and everything to do with skills as a commander."

"So what why the human comment?"

Trautman pressed a palm against his forehead, feeling the headache that usually came with having this conversation with Jack. For someone his age the man he was amazingly sensitive about his species.

The opening of the office door prevented the conversation from needing to go any farther.

*********

Max glanced down at his watch and rolled his eyes in annoyance; Jack was supposed to be out of his meeting with the general five minutes ago. The old bastard owed him a beer. He slipped the crumpled foil cigarette package from the breast pocket of the grey BDU shirt he wore and slipped one of the coffin nails out between his lips.

"Well it's about damned time" he muttered hearing the door open, but when he looked up it wasn't Jack standing there, at least not directly in front of him it wasn't. In fact the person standing in the door was someone whose resemblance to Jack only went as far as not being human.

The overly dressy blue uniform she had been warring when he had Jack had first fished her from a collapsed sewer tunnel London had been replaced by one that was yellowish brown, a pair of leather work gloves hung from her left breast pocket.

He had heard the Brits had sent several of their people over as part of an officer exchange and simply dismissed it, he hadn't thought for a moment they'd send her over.

His mouth fell open, the cigarette falling to the floor.

Standing behind, her Jack finally broke the silence, "Seras, I'm sure you remember Lieutenant Max Archer from our last meeting, and thank you very much for playing dumb around the general otherwise I would have had some explaining to do."

The voice which seemed to have gotten caught in the back of Max's throat finally managed to loosen itself, "Yeah, far as he knows no one ever knows we were there."

She fixed him with a stair from those clear blue eyes, "Why didn't you tell me when you where leaving?"

"Um…..excuse me?"

"Why didn't you tell me who you really were, three weeks I was staying with you and not once did you tell me anything about who you really are. Why?"

Max shook another cigarette loose and tugged it out, "Couldn't do that."

"Why not."

"It was against orders."

She took a step closer to him, narrowing her eyes at him, "If you had orders to kill me, would you do it."

"I don't deal in 'ifs.'"

One thin hand came up; striking his cheek open palmed with enough force to leave his head spinning and drop him to one knee before she stormed off.

Jack stooped down to help him up, "You ok there kid?"

Max leaned against the shoulder of the larger man as he helped him up, "My head still attached?"

"Looks like."

"Then I'm gonna count myself lucky on this one. And thanks for all your help in dealing with that situation Jack. I just hope Trautman didn't hear any of that."

"His office is sound proof. And if I had thought she was going to slap you I would have stepped in. After all you've never been as good with women as you are with a rifle."