Black Lagoon: Cleanup
By: Ominae
Rating: T
NOTE:
All characters of Black Lagoon are under the copyright of Rei Hiroe, Geneon Entertainment, Madhouse Studios and Chiba TV. All other characters are under my jurisdiction.
Summary:
After the successful elimination of the Washimine Group from the Japanese criminal underworld, Balalaika returns back to Roanapur in triumph, only to be targeted by local Thai gunmen after arriving back in the city in an assassination attempt. What is the story behind this? A Black Lagoon story.
Chapter 1: Arrival
Roanapur Port, Roanapur, Thailand
"It looks like our mission in Japan was a complete success." said Balalaika, smoking her usual cigar while waiting for her Mercedes automobile to arrive from the Bougainvillea Trading Company. "Send my congratulations to the boys, Boris."
"The Washimine Group is completely weakened and destroyed." Boris answered, standing beside his Kapitan. "Just like Rock said. It'll take a while if anyone will try to reconstruct the group itself."
"Can we put up a presence in Japan now that the girl is out of her misery?"
"I believe we can, Kapitan." Boris replied. "But now that Japanese police has confirmed the death of Vasili Laptev and his men, it would be a problem since Moscow would and will probably try to reform the Japanese-based branches starting in Tokyo. This may be an obstacle, of course, in the near future."
I hear a car coming towards us? Is that our ride? Boris asked himself, staring at the entrance of the port.
Suddenly, a gray 1995 Mercedes-Benz W124 entered the port under great speed. Minutes later, four Asian-looking men wearing various clothing fired IMI Uzis from the opened car windows and from the vehicle's sunroof. Boris took the initiative when he saw the armed men aiming for Balalaika.
Shit! "Kapitan! Get down!" Getting Balalaika down on the ground, Boris drew out his Glock 17 and fired on the E280 CDI. He was joined up by several Hotel Moscow soldiers in civilian clothes, firing Sig Sauers, Glocks, Berettas or Ruger pistols. "Fire at the car!"
The sounds of pistol fire were still heard followed by submachine gunfire and screeching wheels for a number of minutes before it died down.
"Are you all right, Kapitan?" Boris and one of the Hotel Moscow soldiers assisted Balalaika in getting up after the former pushed her down for her own safety.
"Nyet!" sneered Balalaika. "I get back to Roanapur after eliminating the Washimines and I find out that someone has hired assassins to get me!"
"Thank goodness!" Boris yelled, seeing two black 2003 Mercedes-Benz W210 screech near him. Out came more Hotel Moscow soldiers in civilian clothes, securing the area with their IZHMASH PP-19 submachine guns.
"Get her out of here, now!" Boris ordered. Balalaika was ushered on another Mercedes-Benz W210 that was parked nearby when the Maria Zeleska had been moored into port. Moments, the three Mercedes-Benz W210s had left the Roanapur Port for their homebase, the Bougainvillea Trading Company.
Briefing Room, Bougainvillea Trading Company, Roanapur, Thailand
The following day, Balalaika assembled all available Hotel Moscow soldiers after the attempt to assassinate Balalaika had failed in the conference room that had been cleared out in order to be used as a makeshift briefing room, where they had previously used to conduct their operations a few months ago against the deranged Romanian twins named Hansel and Gretel. With Boris next to her, the Hotel Moscow leader was next to furious about what had happened to her yesterday.
"Men, attention!" Boris brough the assembled Hotel Moscow soldiers to attention as Balalaika had arrived inside the makeshift briefing room.
"Comrades," Balalaika addressed the assembled men before her. "an attempt was made on my life after our mission in Japan was completed yesterday." Murmurs were heard from the men, wondering who did it. "Fortunately, I was all right and came out with no injuries at all."
Boris stepped in to fill in on the rest of the details. "Our intelligence has found out that the armed men in Roanapur Port yesterday were local gunmen hired to do a job for a Yakuza group based in the city. Apparently this group are allies with the recently eliminated Washimine Group. We don't know what their motives are, which is why all of you will be deployed today in the field."
"Get out there and show those bastards who they're messing with!" Balalaika shouted, rousing the men's morale.
"For Hotel Moscow!" One of them shouted, raising his IZHMASH AK-74 assault rifle up high.
"For Hotel Moscow!" The others shouted in unison.
Somewhere in Roanapur, Thailand
"What do we do now?"
The five Thais, inside a small apartment unit near the outskirts of Ronapur, were lounging around with small arms nearby. They had failed in their mission to assassinate Balalaika in the Roanapur Port, making their situation against them.
"I don't know." replied one of them before he said, "Why did we have to take this mission anyway? It's not a good idea to tangle with the head of Hotel Moscow!"
"I don't care!" yelled someone who emerged from the bathroom. "As long as we're given money, we can use it so's we can live a life without doing this kind of job!"
"I heard how good Hotel Moscow is." remarked another, standing near the windows. "They're not some criminal-type group. They act like they're still in the army."
"No wonder they didn't have any casualties during an operation." A third Thai gunmen said, lying down on the couch. "Rumors say that those guys are mostly ex-Soviet special forces, mostly those who've seen action in Afghanistan."
"Then that means..."
"Yeah." One of them now armed himself with a Beretta 92F. "Better get ready." He then chambered a single 9mm parabellum round into the weapon's chamber after retracting its slide.
CRASH!
"What the heck is that?"
"Look out!"
Outside the apartment were three rappelling Hotel Moscow Visotoniki soldiers, wearing black balaclavas and Grad-2 tactical vests. Armed with IZHMASH AKS-74U compact assault rifles and mounted PBS-5 silencers, they began to gun down the armed men inside before they either grabbed their small arms or turned its barrels against them.
At the same time, a loud bang on the front door was heard when a masked Visotoniki soldier kicked it. Six more Visotoniki soldiers flooded inside and began to search the apartment, killing anyone inside the rooms of the apartment unit. Thanks to their silenced weapons, they were able to sweep the entire unit without rousing too much noise aside from the sounds of broken glass.
Moments later, the apartment unit was found to be cleared of all known armed hostiles. A masked Visotoniki soldier used a Yaroslavl Radiowork R-168-5KN-1 HF manpack radio mounted on another Visotoniki soldier's Grad-1 tactical vest, specifically mounted at his back, to make contact with their base.
"This is Starshina Kasyanov reporting." reported the Visotoniki soldier onto the R-168-5KN-1's transceiver. "Sukholdolsky and Zenin squads were able to seize control of the nest and assets. I repeat, we were able to seize control of the nest and assets without much interference. Over."
"This is Base, good work." Boris' voice came over the R-168-5KN-1's handset. "Is there any useful intelligence from the assassins?"
"I think so, Base." A Visotoniki soldier kneeled near to a wounded assassin and questioned him in English. The wounded gunman replied back in English, but was not heard by the soldier near the manpack radio clearly since the gunman's injuries prevented him from speaking clearly. "Hold it, I think we may have something."
"Good work, Starshina."
"We've got confirmation that these guys were hired thugs only." said the Visotoniki soldier who had finished interrogating the wounded man.
"Ask him if he knows who hired them."
"Already did." came the reply. "Said that he and his gang were hired by the Kururugi Group."
"Base, this is Leytenant Sukhodolsky. Apparently, we have some news." Another Visotoniki soldier took the transceiver from the Starshina. "According to the wounded assassin, his gang was hired by the Kururugi Group."
"Any other details you can get?"
"I'm afraid not, sir."
"Good work anyway. Eliminate all of them."
"Yes sir!" The squad leader gave out his orders after replacing the transceiver onto the manpack radio, "We've got our orders! Get rid of everyone and return back to base."
"Understood." Moments later, all surviving gunmen were shot multiple times in the chest. With that done, a small burst was fired on their corpses to ensure that they were dead. When it was finished, all of the Visotoniki soldiers rappelled down using the rope touching the smashed windows as a means of escape before Roanapur Police squad cars were able to arrive at the scene.
Afterwards, five 2004 Toyota Hiace vans were later seen departing towards the building that housed the Bougainvillea Trading Company.
Lounge, Lagoon Company, Roanapur, Thailand
"What's happening back there?" Benny looked outside from the safety of the Lagoon Company, examining the flashing lights outside a few minutes ago. "I don't seem to hear anything, expect to hear the sound of crashing objects outside, Dutch." I wonder if Miss Balalaika's involved in all of this?
"Only two things comes to mind Benny-Boy," Dutch answered his computer whiz and sipped up a soda can's contents with a towel draped over his neck. "it's either new year's has come too early or Balalaika's Visotonikis are prowling the streets again."
"You can say that again." sighed Benny. "Not after I've seen a glimpse of them in action over what the crazy kids have done to Balalaika's subordinates that I don't want to come close to them."
"By the way Dutch, did the fake passports make it time for Rock and Revy?" asked Benny. "Heard they didn't make it to the Maria Zeleska in time."
"Yep." Dutch grinned. "Heard from Revy that they've managed to secure those passports."
"Where'd they get them from?" Benny asked, scratching his head. Wow! Amazing that Dutch prepares for an emergency like this in such short notice...
"Heard from Balalaika that some of her boys helped them out back in Japan, Benny." Dutch replied, now stretching his arms. "Let's hope that things would go smoothly for them tomorrow."
"Yeah." huffed Benny, heading back to his desktop computer. "I surely hope so."
Kururugi Residence, somewhere in Roanapur, Thailand
Somewhere in the residential area of Roanapur, a Japanese-style residential house was made in the same style as Japanese houses are made with sliding bamboo doors and matching bamboo floors to boot.
Inside, dozens of men were gathered nearby with a man in his early 40s seated in front of them. He was seated on the floor in a Seiza position.
"Unbelivable!" yelled the man to his subordinates. "Can someone please explain to me how the hired guns were suddenly killed without them knowing? I've been told that they don't mess up a job like this..."
"Ano, Suzuki-Wakagashira." advised one of the group's men. "You should have know before that Hotel Moscow is mainly made up of Afghan Civil War veterans. They act like a military machine."
"I guess it can't be helped." gritted Junichiro Suzuki, head of the Kururugi Group's Roanapur branch. If worst comes to worst, will Shinzo-Kumicho be okay? "So what now?"
"We have to prepare ourselves." Another one voiced his advise to Junichiro. "We have to fight fire with fire if that has to be the solution to this problem."
"I'm not sure." replied the Wakagashira. "I know that Shinzo-Kumicho's long alliance with the Washimine-gumi has been his late father's achievement ever since the Kururugi-gumi has been established in the '70s. I've seen our Kumicho's reaction when he found out that almost everyone in the Washimine-gumi was wiped out."
"Isn't that due to the fact that he was assisted by them when he got involved into a problem with some foreign gangs back then?" Junichiro sighed and nodded his head in reply.
One of Suzuki-Wakagashira's underlings, having neat black hair and wearing Oakley shades, suddenly raised his hand. "Um, I think I have an idea on how we can fight back against Hotel Moscow."
Junichiro raised an eyebrow on him. "I'm listening. And it better be good."
"If I recall correctly," The man scratched his cheek. "we did have some new guys from Tokyo who used to be with the JGSDF."
"Go on."
"Well, they did serve time with the SOG and the WAIR in Iraq back in 2003. Even though they didn't fight against Iraqi guerrillas, they did have training with the American military a few years ago before their actual deployment after the September 11 attacks in the US."
"So Ichiro," Junichiro asked. "are you suggesting that we create a group made from our ex-soldier recruits?"
"Not only that," replied Ichiro. "but all we have to do is to set them like a military unit. That way, we can at least be on equal terms with them."
"Could be an idea." Junichiro mumbled, sighing. "But the only disadvantage we have here is that most of Hotel Moscow's members are highly trained and fanatic. Last I remember, most of its first members are from the Afghan Civil War, like one of you have pointed out a while ago."
"I suggest we begin their training as soon as we can." suggested Ichiro. "We have to get them weapons and ammunition as soon as we can. The faster, the better."
"Hotel Moscow may be targeting us anytime soon." Junichiro finally agreed to his subordinate's ideas. "Okay, Ichiro. Get everything as soon as possible. We need to get them ready in case Hotel Moscow decides to unleash their dogs of war on us."
Balalaika's Office, Bougainvillea Trading Company, Roanapur, Thailand
"Good work on the operation last night, Serdzhant." Balalaika addressed Boris, seated in a chair in front of her desk. "No casualties from the Visotoniki as usual?"
"As usual, Kapitan." nodded Boris. "We only found the said weapons used by the hired gunmen along with some documents. All written in Thai."
Balalaika raised an eybrow on the discovery. "Were they translated from Thai?"
"Partially, Kapitan." Boris answered, showing her a piece of paper that had Cyrillic writing on it. "Nothing much of importance is on it, but it did indicate that the orders to the hired gunmen were to have you killed. The rest hasn't been translated yet as of now. But from initial analysis, it seems to be true that the Kururugi Group did hire them..."
"I see." Balalaika removed her cigar from her mouth and exhaled smoke from her lungs. "Anything else?"
"Nothing much." Boris replied, watching his Kapitan remove the ash from her cigar via her clear glass ashtray placed nearby. "I've notified everyone to be on eventual standby just in case we need to be mobilized out to target Kururugi Group assets in Roanapur."
"Kapitan!" Someone barged into Balalaika's office, earning the Kapitan's displeasure at the man's sudden apperance.
"It better be good or else, Starshiy Praporshchik Rodionov." Balalaika glared at the man who had interrupted her conversation with Boris.
"I have some news, Kapitan!" replied Rodionov. "We've just received an incoming fax 10 minutes ago!"
"What is this about?" Boris asked Rodionov. "Does it have to do with the Kururugi Group?"
"I think so, sir." Rodionov answered, beginning to explain. "According to the fax, someone had tipped us that a warehouse owned by the Kururugi Group's Roanapur branch are preparing a major operation against us."
"Is this credible, Praporshchik?" Balalaika asked Rodionov herself.
"I personally don't know, Kapitan." Rodionov answered. "However, there are two ways to look at this."
"I believe he's right, Kapitan." Boris added in support of Rodionov's answer. "One, a trap could be placed by the Kururugi Group. Another is that it's really true. Probably they're trying to prepare for an operation against our Roanapur assets anytime soon."
"I'm not sure. The tip sounds plausible." Balalaika mused. "However, we must be cautious for this could be meant to actually diminish our fighting strength, especially the Visotonikis."
"Do we mobilize, Kapitan?" Boris asked, sending Rodionov out of Balalaika's office.
Balalaika thought about Boris' question for a few minutes. I have to be careful here. The information seems reliable; the Kururugi Group does have some warehouses in Roanapur. On the other hand, it could be a way to get us into an elaborate trap. Either way, I have to be careful since I don't know where I'm going to go from this situation.
"Mobilize at once, Serdzhant." Balalaika gave the order. "But be cautious. We must assume that the purpose of the tip given to us via fax would be a trap designed to diminish the Visotoniki's fighting strength."
"At once, Kapitan."
Warehouse District, somewhere in Roanapur, Thailand
Five 2004 Toyota Hiaces arrived inside the warehouse district of Roanapur, parking near the entrance before masked Hotel Moscow Visotoniki soldiers dismounted from the vans and began to fan out, securing the said area.
"This is Serdzhant Ivanov of Shutrov squad." reported a Vistoniki soldier on the R-168-5KN-1's transceiver connected on the manpack radio mounted on his back. "We've secured the warehouse district. Appears to be quiet so far."
"All right. Begin sweeping operation of the district. Over."
"Understood." Replacing the transceiver back onto the manpack, Ivanov directed the other soldiers to surround the warehouse that they were told to check out, which was warehouse number 4.
"All right. The warehouse is surrounded." murmured one of the Visotoniki soldiers. After getting two of his comrades to open the warehouse doors, automatic gunfire began to erupt from inside the warehouse. Moments laters, more armed gunmen appeared from various points outside of the said warehouse and began to open fire on the Visotoniki squads.
Balalaika's Office, Bougainvillea Trading Company, Roanapur, Thailand
"What?" Balalaika shouted, not believing what she had recently heard from Boris.
"I'm afraid so, Kapitan." Boris mused. "Your thoughts are exactly right; it is a trap. There was nothing there of high value that we can get from the warehouse district."
"Good grief." Balalaika huffed, leaning back on her chair.
"It seems that you were right, Kapitan. I..."
"No need, Boris." Balalaika waved her hand. "The most important thing we can do is to get our men out of there before there can be casualties."
"It's already done." Boris replied. "I've issued to all our units in the field to immediately withdraw at once. We do have some injuries, but they're not expected to be serious."
Outskirts of Warehouse District, somewhere in Roanapur, Thailand
As automatic gunfire continued to echo around the warehouse district as the afternoon was about to end, most of the Visotoniki soldiers had been evacuated into most of the Toyota Hiace vans, with a squad remaining lagging behind and firing their AKS-74U rifles to suppress enemy gunfire. 2 minutes later, two Visotoniki soldiers tossed RGD-5 fragmentation grenades at the armed gunmen, forcing them to temporarily seize firing their Colt M4A1 carbine assault rifles and retreat before the RGD-5s were able to explode, creating more time for the four Toyota Hiace vans to retreat from the warehouse district after accounting for all of its personnel.
"Move it!" yelled one of the Visotoniki soldiers inside the first Hiace van. Afterwards, the vans were able to escape from the warehouse district and made their way back towards the Bougainvillea Trading Company with injured Visotoniki troopers in tow.
Balalaika's Office, Bougainvillea Trading Company, Roanapur, Thailand
"How did it go, Serdzhant?" Balalaika asked after Boris had entered her office. "No serious injuries, I hope."
"Aside from the treatment that some of our men in the Visotoniki had sustained, everything else appears to be fine, Kapitan. They should quick recoveries from their minor wounds soon." Boris sat down once again on a chair in front of her desk.
"The only thing that worries me is about those armed men that ambushed them a while ago. And that really, really bothers me a lot." mused the ex-Red Army officer.
"Da, Kapitan. I understand." Boris began to explain. "I've managed to obtain some information about them. During the debriefing of the Visotoniki squads that participated, they've noted that they've been armed with American-made Colt M4A1 carbines."
"Hmmm..." Balalaika raised an eyebrow. "Are they Americans?"
"Not particularly." Boris shook his head. "They've also pointed out to me that the armed gunmen spoke Japanese and were wearing military uniforms used by the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces. Aside from that, they were coordinating with each other with hand signals and were using military-style tactics when they engaged our forces."
"Is that it?"
"They was nothing else that they can tell me about those armed men in the warehouse district."
Balalaika lit up another cigar after cutting its forend off. "So a criminal gang is emulating our use of the Visotoniki's in crushing us eh?" She then give a wicked grin. "This should turn to be interesting after all."
"Orders, Kapitan?" Boris asked Balalaika.
"Yes." Balalaika replied after puffing out smoke from her lungs, cigar still in her mouth. "Find out more what you can about these armed men. We need to precisely know about them before we launch an attack to erase them from Roanapur. Is that clear? We need to clean this mess up right now."
"Da, Kapitan." Boris stood up and was about to leave when Balalaika asked Boris.
"And Boris?"
"Da, Kapitan?" The scarred man turned around to face Balalaika.
"Contact Lagoon Company later on and see if you can get a hold of Dutch later on."
"Right away, Kapitan."
Chapter 1 END
PS - I actually planned to do a Hotel Moscow-centric story based on some new recruits after Chin was offed by the woman herself in the 1st season of BL a few days ago when I posted it on Seeing that no one bothered to review, I thought that maybe I should do one that is set after the Visotonikis wiped out the Washimine Group in Japan. This story should be done by 2 chapters or so. If not, then at least it should be ending by 3 chapters. Updates will be a problem for a bit since I have to check on my moving to big-town universities in BC. But it should be done soon by the end of this month or be the start of next month. At least I hope it should.
As for the various Japanese and Russian phrases that you see floating around here in the first chapter, I'm really too lazy to put them not after what has happened in my personal life so far. Search the internet, it's your best friend (and enemy, if you don't get it right).
As for the SOG and WAIR, they are actual JGSDF special ops groups. SOG - Special Operations Group (Delta Force equal) and WAIR - Western Army Infantry Regiment (Anti-Guerilla Unit). Both of these units have deployed a small number of troops as personal protection for JSDF troops deployed to Iraq in 2003. They're kinda hard to locate for info in English, but Japanese information about them should be no problem at all. Just to let you know, they've been established partially because of September 11.
Oh well, enjoy the fic folks. As usual, I appreciate if you'd review the fic and tell me if I did okay or not. Flames are okay as long as they are constructive and meaningful. I don't tolerate hate flames...
