CHAPTER.02: The Pakistan Job
(A/N: Yes, Shinji's callsign and Asuka's callsign are Crysis references. I'm just saying this so people don't make Epileptic Trees about it.)
9:30AM
Shinji went to the armory at the PMC headquarters, iPod in one hand. Almost as soon as he walked in, Toji felt the need to speak with him.
"I bet you a beer that the only time Ayanami feels any emotion is when she shoots someone." Toji was surprisingly jovial considering the situation.
"You're on, Suzuhara." Shinji was in an uncharacteristically good mood; ordinarily, he would have kicked Toji in the nuts for that. He set his iPod down and put on his Dragon Skin armor vest, which would protect his chest from anything short of an anti-tank rifle; he still risked broken ribs, but those would heal a lot quicker than a bullet to the left lung. He put on his shoulder holster, and holstered his revolver. He picked up his sheathed KA-BAR, and clipped it to his belt. He picked up a grenade, and clipped that to his belt too; gunfire wouldn't make the grenade explode, as the grenades his PMC bought were modified to generate an AT field that would block any projectiles until the pin was pulled. He picked up his AKS-74u and slung it over his shoulder. He picked up his radio, and tested it.
"Psycho, this is Nomad, do you read me?"
Asuka's reply came quickly. "Nomad, this is Psycho. Quit 'testing' the radios, dummkopf."
Shinji replied, then clipped the radio to his belt next to the grenade. "You certainly live up to your callsign." He then picked the iPod back up and put it in his other pocket, and grabbed his helmet.
Toji chimed in. "You're lucky. My callsign is 'Stark', Aida has the callsign 'Brain', and Ayanami has the callsign 'Doll'."
Wow, Asuka's still bitter about Rei? I'll be damned, I guess some things never change, Shinji thought to himself. "Yours isn't so bad. Stark is the German word for strong, and strong is a good word to describe you." He thought of how Toji's leg was severed back when they were teens.
After everyone had geared up, they piled into the transport helicopter. Asuka was already there waiting for them. Shinji sat between Rei and Toji.
Asuka explained their mission, which was to take control of an old building in what used to be Islamabad. A French PMC had taken control of the building for their own means; this would be a dangerous job, but a very high-paying one.
When Asuka finished giving exposition, Shinji turned to Rei.
"What's the first thing you feel when you shoot someone?" Shinji asked.
"Recoil." Rei's reply was only one word, but it gave Shinji all the information he needed to win the bet. He turned towards Toji.
"You owe me a beer when we get back to Tokyo-2," Shinji said triumphantly. He took out his iPod, put the earbuds in his ears, and synced up his "action" playlist; it contained mostly pre-Impact industrial and metal music. The bands that dominated it were KMFDM, Napalm Death, Rammstein, Iron Maiden, and Sepultura. He then put his helmet on.
They landed on the roof of the building at 9:30PM, as Stray Bullet repeated on Shinji's iPod for the 30th time. He turned the volume down a fair bit so he could hear who was on point.
"Nomad, you're on point. Doll, stay up here and take down any reinforcements they call in." Asuka kept her professional demeanor; she expected this to be, in essence, a "blue milk" run.
Shinji brandished his rifle, jammed a clip in it, and turned the safety off as his answer. He crept over to a skylight, smashed the pane of glass covering it, and waited for gunfire. He heard none, and dropped into the top floor of the complex.
He was in a mostly empty room except for a couple of civilian corpses and a door that he was directly facing. He pulled out his radio, and spoke.
"Psycho, this is Nomad. Looks clear to me."
"Roger that, Nomad."
The rest of the squad aside from Rei followed him.
"Anyone got a flashbang?" Shinji asked.
"No, you were supposed to get that," Asuka replied.
"FUCK!" Shinji swore loudly. "You know what, fuck it, I'll use a HE gre-" Shinji was interrupted by Asuka in the middle of his sentence.
"No, you fucking moron. You will not use a goddamn HE grenade. Property damage means less money for us," Asuka said.
"Alright, alright," Shinji muttered as he walked towards the door. "I'd suggest everyone get out of the way quickly if there's any action behind this door." They did so. Shinji broke into a run, slammed the door open, and immediately took cover on the wall parallel to the door.
They heard nothing. Shinji stepped out of cover, crouched down, and aimed his rifle through the doorway. He saw a French soldier slumped against the wall; he was asleep, judging by his loud snoring, and a very heavy sleeper, judging by how he managed to stay asleep with the insane racket Shinji caused.
Shinji affixed a silencer to the barrel of his AKS-74u, and crept towards the sleeping man. He shook the man awake and aimed at the man's head.
"How many of you are there?" Shinji asked.
"Fuck you," the man spat. Shinji set down his rifle and punched the man in the face, causing him to cough up blood.
"Answer me," Shinji said. The man was beginning to piss him off.
"No." Shinji grabbed the man's right wrist and snapped it with almost no trouble.
"Answer me," Shinji repeated.
"No." Shinji grabbed the man's left wrist and snapped that, too.
"I said answer me, you dumb shit!" Shinji yelled.
"Fuck. I'd say about fifteen, including me, since three squads got sent in." Shinji picked up his rifle and shot the man in the head.
"Fourteen now," Shinji quipped.
Wow, Asuka thought. Shinji's certainly changed, that's for sure. She was hardly the only one confused; in fact, everyone with the exception of Rei (who was still on the rooftop) and Shinji (who was obviously not confused by his sudden badassery) had the same basic reaction.
"I'm going to see if I can get their attention," Shinji said nonchalantly.
"No, you idiot, you're not. What you did to that guy was badass, but what you're about to do is Gazebo-level stupidity," Asuka said; the term "Gazebo-level stupidity" was a reference to an old story Kensuke related to them while drunk. In the story, a bunch of people were playing a tabletop role-playing game and the players found a gazebo. One of them repeatedly asked inane questions about the gazebo, eventually attacking it and running away.
Shinji decided to take Asuka's word for it. He walked towards the door, opened it, and took cover right as a 5.56mm round grazed his right bicep from down the hallway the door led to.
"Fuck!" Shinji yelled, clutching the bleeding wound. It was minor, but it still hurt like hell. Kensuke set up his M249 on a tripod; they would have to hold the area until Shinji was back in commission, since he was their point man and (in his opinion) the second-most competent person in the current group after Asuka. He fired a few shots and Shinji's attacker fell to the ground; he fired another and the top of the man's head burst open.
Another man ran out of a doorway, saw the mangled corpse, and immediately went back into cover. He radioed for backup; his request was denied. He unholstered his handgun and blindfired a shot at Kensuke. It missed. He ran out of the doorway again and was immediately greeted with a few rounds to the upper body. He died without so much as a word.
While this was happening, Shinji took out his KA-BAR, cut a strip of nylon off of his clothing, and tied it around his bicep. He waited for the bleeding to stop, which it did fairly quickly.
"I'm back," he said triumphantly. "Let's go." He led the group down the hallway slowly, AKS-74u at the ready.
"Check your corners," Asuka reminded him.
"I know, I know," Shinji replied. He turned around at the first doorway and saw... an empty room. He turned around at the second one, the one the soldiers had used as cover, just in time to notice a soldier lift a pistol up. Shinji fired a 3-round burst and the man went down with a cry of pain. Two more soldiers came out, so he took cover on the wall.
"Toji, this one's for you," Shinji said. With that, Toji loaded a few rounds into his shotgun, went up to the doorway and shot both of the soldiers.
...MEANWHILE...
Rei lay prone on the roof of the building, She pulled out her radio.
"French APC pulling up to the building."
"Roger that, Doll," came the reply from Asuka.
She looked down the scope of her rifle. She aimed at a French soldier's head and pulled the trigger; she presumed that he was their point man.
One shot.
The man's head burst open.
One kill.
She aimed at another man and fired.
One shot.
The round exited the man's chest. It didn't immediately kill him, but he didn't have time to figure out where she was.
One ki-you know what, fuck this.
She primed a grenade and threw it at the APC. It exploded, with predictable results, namely lots of death.
"French APC no longer pulling up to the building," she said into her radio. There was no reply this time.
Back in the building, the group was going down to the second floor of the building. It appeared to be an office area, divided into cubicles. Asuka noticed a group of 4 soldiers in the area, chatting lazily.
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"Incompetent morons," she muttered. She pulled out her Mauser C96 and turned on the laser sight she had affixed to the barrel. She aimed for one soldier's head, and fired. The bullet made a nasty exit wound and splattered blood all over the wall in front of him. The other soldiers lifted up their guns; she fired a shot at another soldier's head, and got essentially the same result.
"Cover me," Asuka said as she holstered her C96 and pulled out her KA-BAR. She crept down the rows of cubicles, over to one of the soldiers. She stood up and slashed the man's throat; blood sprayed everywhere. Shinji shot the other man in the head shortly afterwards. The group, with Shinji on point, went towards the elevator and called it up. It came, and had a couple of rotting corpses in it; Kensuke was obviously getting sick, but he didn't vomit.
They went down to the first floor and were "greeted" by a group of 5 soldiers, who were dispatched with ease by the group. Aside from that, the place was clear.
"I'd say we're about done," Toji said.
"Yes, we are done," Asuka said. "Now, let's get back to the helicopter, or at least get Rei."
They went back up to the roof and got back to the helicopter, with Rei.
While they were on the helicopter going back to Tokyo-2, Asuka felt it was high time to ask Shinji something.
"Hey, Shinji..."
Urgh, I can't believe I'm on a first-name basis rather than a "Dummkopf" basis with him now... Asuka thought.
"What?" Shinji replied.
"What's with your sudden badassery? This is almost completely uncharacteristic of you. Seriously, the hell?" Asuka decided to let her utter amazement show.
"Life took a massive shit on me and I decided to face that shit head-on. My ideals were crushed, so I dropped them. My being a spineless shit is why most of NERV died... so I quit being a spineless shit." Shinji was very blunt with his answer.
Good answer, I guess, although I'm not sure I agree with him, Asuka thought to herself.
They landed at about 9:30AM the next day. Shinji got his beer from Toji. No one ever knew what Rei did after a mission, but they (perhaps rightly) assumed they didn't want to know. Kensuke played a visual novel and was caught in a very compromising position by Shinji.
While all of this happened, Asuka wondered what the fuck was getting into her; she actually quite liked the new Shinji, which was odd considering that the only thing she liked about the old Shinji was his appearance... this Shinji looked a lot better, which she attributed to him working out a bit and actually wearing normal clothing (the crew-cut helped too).
He also acted a lot better; she had no idea what the hell she should attribute this to, as generally people's response to life shitting on them is to put a gun to their head and pull the trigger, rather than taking a few levels in badass. Shinji was certainly an odd case, that was for sure, even if he was lying.