I don't own Fate. Fate is the property of Type-Moon, and no financial gain is made from this or is sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
Frozen Memories
Chapter 2
Odessa, the Ukrainian SSR, the Union of Sovereign Socialist Republics
Frost von Einzbern closed her pocket-watch and slid it back into her pocket. "It's time." She said while stepping out from behind the lamppost. She raised a SIG P2, and pointed it up at the sky while placing a hand on the lamppost. "Einsetzen…" she said, and the bounded field fell into place around the mansion grounds even as she pulled the trigger.
A flare arced high and erupted brightly over the mansion, which was now echoing with startled and panicky voices as they realized that they were under attack. This was the signal for the start of the operation, and Frost dimly heard a pair of 120mm mortars opening fire. The bunker-busters arced overhead, and slammed into the outhouse which housed most of the mercenaries her quarry had hired. The entire upper section was blown apart along with the roof, and survivors began pouring out into the open space behind the mansion.
A third 120mm mortar fired, sending a single white Phosphorus round arcing overhead and right into the middle of the milling mass of mercenaries. Screams could be heard as they burned slowly and painfully to death.
The third mortar round was a signal as much as the earlier flare was. A large multi-wheeled truck parked well away from but in a straight line down the street from the mansion roared to life, and building up speed it charged towards the mansion gates. The two guards opened fire with their AK-74s, but their bullets just bounced off of the truck's armor.
The truck kept on coming, and then banked sharply to one side as it closed. The two guards dove vainly to the sides, only to be crushed against the wall. Both the front wall and the gates alike were torn apart by the truck's armored side as it powered through, and then shaped charges exploded, and the side of the truck fell off.
A trio of homunculi opened fire with M2 Browning heavy machine guns, raking the windows of the mansion with suppressive fire. Mercs went down, while others kept their heads down. With the enemy suppressed, more homunculi jumped from the truck, dressed in camo-pattern fatigues. One of them hefted a Heckler and Koch HK69A1 grenade launcher, and systematically shot grenades into each window.
Screams and explosions followed, and another homunculus knelt while aiming a Panzerfaust 3 at the front door. As the door exploded, homunculi charged forward clutching Heckler and Koch MP5s. They briefly took cover by the ruins of the door, and lobbed DM51s in to cover the assault.
As a full-fledged firefight broke out inside the house, Frost approached the back wall of the property. She slipped on a glove on one hand, gleaming Orichalcum wires running along the fingers from an ornate Orichalcum mechanism on the back. The rune for Haglaz was engraved on the mechanism in black. "Abschalten…" she cast. "...Haglaz…!"
She made a sweeping gesture, and the wall was blown apart by a silver storm of metal. She stepped over the ruins, and raised an eyebrow. A dark-haired man with Oriental features was standing between her and the mansion, clearly unperturbed by the bloody corpses around him.
"Lao Ren I presume?" she asked. The man – who wore white robes under a blue tabard – nodded before making a sharp gesture at her. Paper birds lanced forward with blinding speed, and Frost barely had the time to bring up her Glock 17 and shoot them down. "Schattenslag…!" she said, and her body dissolved into several streaks of shadow that shot through the air and over the ground.
"I won't let you pass!" Lao Ren shouted as the shadows shot past him, making a sweeping gesture and sending talismans flying from his sleeve. They formed a wall between the house and the shadows, which broke wave-like against them before 'splashing' back and reforming into a person.
Gasping from exertion, Frost pulled Haglaz back, the silver wires lashing out in concentric spirals towards the enemy magus. Lao Ren jumped through the air, agilely spinning and pirouetting through the gaps between the wires. Landing nimbly on his feet, paper twisted together into a bow and arrow in his hands.
The man fired, but Frost was already running, her MP5 rising to open fire on full auto. Again paper formed a wall against which bullets bounced off of, and Frost emptied her entire clip before throwing a grenade at Lao Ren and taking cover inside the outhouse. As the explosion shook the ruined building, Frost reloaded her MP5 before making another run for the house.
Torn paper drifted through the air, and Frost had nearly reached the door when a singed Lao Ren jumped out of the crater, and swinging a paper Dao at her neck. She managed to avoid decapitation, but her MP5 was sliced in half. With a curse Frost discarded the weapon, and jumped back, pulling out her KM2000.
"Westerners…" the Chinese magus sneered as he relentlessly pressed his enemy, Frost barely avoiding getting sliced to ribbons with narrow dodges and parries with her combat knife. "…explosions, bullets, and metal…so crude, all focus on just ending the battle instead of ending it right."
"Does it matter?" Frost retorted.
"Only a westerner would ask." Lao Ren said with a smirk. "And yet here I am, just moments from cutting you and that crude instrument of yours down."
Frost cursed, unable to deny her enemy's words. Despite being only made of paper, Lao Ren's Dao was leaving her combat knife in an increasingly-tattered state. Finally it gave way, steel breaking apart against paper, and with savage cry Lao Ren twisted and swung his sword to take her head with a backswing. Unable to properly dodge, Frost took her only option: she dove forward.
To his credit Lao Ren reacted quickly, slashing at her right arm and opening up a clean but bloody gash. Frost sprawled back, her right arm falling beside her…and her left hand came up, pressing her Glock 17 against Lao Ren's chest over his heart. The Chinese magus narrowed his eyes, the tip of his paper Dao held against her neck.
"We die together Mr. Ren." Frost quipped.
"Indeed…" he said with a smile, and doubt flickered in Frost's eyes. And then she pulled the trigger as Lao Ren flicked his wrist.
Bright arterial blood sprayed out, even as Lao Ren staggered back, grimacing in pain and blood pumping from his chest. A metallic sound came from the ground as an armed grenade dropped, Frost spitting out her aria and dissolving into shadow that sped towards the wall.
"Cao ni ma…!" Lao Ren spat as he threw paper daggers against the shadows, barely missing as Frost returned to Human form as she jumped over the wall. At the same time the grenade exploded, the blast wave throwing her forward and down hard on the ground.
She staggered to her feet and ran, Haglaz's silver wires pressing her arm injury closed and sealing her slit arteries. It wasn't a complete solution, but it would have to do until she could get to someplace and to someone who could patch her up. As she approached the intersection, a nondescript Volkswagen T4 halted hard at the corner. The back door opened and Frost jumped in, helped by a homunculus. The van was already on the move even as the door slammed shut behind her.
"Back to base camp." She ordered, as a homunculus began to tend to her injuries. The artificial Human started on her arm, but Frost redirected her to her neck. As she relaxed her wires, more blood fountained out, so much so that she began to feel faint.
The homunculus noted this and gave her a shot. As she felt her strength return and the homunculus continued patching her up, Frost felt and heard a large explosion in the distance. "Cover Protocol has been enacted." The driver – another homunculus – reported.
"Good…" Frost said. "…we're switching to Plan B. Plan A is a bust…at least when it came to our primary objective. The secondary objective of reducing the enemy's total numbers however, is a complete success."
"Should I report that to Herr Wolfram then?" a third homunculus asked, manning a satellite relay. Frost nodded an affirmative, and the homunculus carried it out.
"…we lost well over half our men, the security deposit for this place…" Hans Schultz ranted as Lao Ren silently stared out of a window at the ruins of the property outside, and where the mercenaries were burning the bodies of the dead homunculi. "…and to top it all of you let Jubstacheit's pet psychopath get away…!"
Lao Ren was on his 'client' in an instant, a vice-like hand holding the gasping alchemist up into the air by the throat. "I did not let them get away." The Chinese magus snarled. "I simply…underestimated that woman, and as a result I was unable to pursue. I certainly did not expect a westerner to use a grenade in such a way to cover her escape…the slightest mistake in timing and she'd have been killed."
Lao Ren dropped Schultz who fell to the ground gasping. "Spirited…" he continued while turning away. "…such a way of doing things is not something a European or even one of the Han would follow. Such a bold disregard for risk…it is more to be expected from Americans or Japanese than Germans."
"That psychopath…" Schultz gasped while getting to his feet. "…she's a Finn…an Edelfelt at least in part…"
"An Edelfelt eh…?" Lao Ren said with a smile. "Then she just became an even more worthy foe. Nevertheless I believe we should expedite our withdrawal. This place is wrecked, and if that woman truly is worthy then she will return with even greater force than before. We cannot hold here."
"So you intend to let her attack us on open ground…?" Schultz echoed angrily. "That's…!"
"It's certainly risky." Lao Ren agreed. "But our chances would be better than here."
Lao Ren paused and then glanced at the spluttering alchemist. "See to it that your men are working." He said. "Do not forget, the Red Dragon might have reached an accommodation with you, but ultimately I am in charge of security during operations. You wouldn't want to…anger the elders now, would you?"
Snarling with anger, Schultz stalked off. As he left the room, he was joined by one of his mercenaries. "Damn that yellow bastard…" the alchemist spat in accented Russian as they walked down the corridor. "…if it weren't for what the Red Dragon was offering I'd break this contract in a heartbeat."
"Should we kill him then?" the bear-like man asked.
"No…" Schultz replied. "…it's too risky, both because of his abilities and the risk of retribution from the Red Dragon. We've come too far to turn back now. Prepare SABINE for transit. However…"
Schultz paused and looked at the mercenary. "Frost has probably depleted her complement of homunculi." He said. "Find her and kill her like a dog. Oh, and feel free to make use of her 'assets' in whatever way you like beforehand. She is young and it is a shame that she has to die, but if so, then as much 'use' of her should be made."
The mercenary smiled with sadistic understanding before nodding and leaving. "She's just an Edelfelt bastard in the end." Schultz thought as he went for a drink. "Jubstacheit and Wolfram would never tell us how they got their hands on her or which of her parents was the Edelfelt, but I've no doubt that her mother was just a whore. Like mother like daughter in the end if that's the case."
Frost von Einzbern sneezed, and Wolfram looked curiously around the divider. "Hurry if you please schätzchen." He said. "You know it is cold here in the Ukraine." "Yes uncle." She replied, and the man turned away back behind the divider.
He did have a point: Ukraine was cold even in summer. It would not do for her to come down with a cold, which she was currently in risk of getting.
Both her overcoat and much of her clothes – or that set anyway – had been ruined by all of the blood spilled on it, and right now she was stripped to the waist and cleaning herself up – their 'base camp' was a warehouse outfitted with their equipment and supplies – with a cloth soaked in a water-alcohol mixture. Finishing up – but making sure she was clean – she put on a fresh set of underwear – bra and undershirt alike – followed by a long-sleeved and collared shirt of white which she tucked into her pants. A black neck tie was next, and then a button-down vest of black.
The overcoat could wait.
Emerging from behind the divider, she proceeded to where her uncle was waiting. As she approached, he looked up and walked over to her. Grabbing her collar gently, he examined her neck and nodded with satisfaction. "Please try to be more careful schätzchen." He said.
"I will do all I can uncle." She said with a smile. "But this is a most dangerous occupation I must remind you."
"True…" he conceded, but broke off as a wall-mounted intercom rang, and Wolfram walked over to pick it up.
"…what is it?"
"Jawohl Herr Wolfram…" A homunculus on the roof of the warehouse acknowledged. "…wir werden die ziele zu beseitigen." She put the phone down and gave a nod to her sisters.
One of them raised a pair of binoculars to her eyes, locking her crimson gaze onto a trio of trucks packed full of mercenaries heading down the road to the warehouse block they were hiding in. A series of coordinates slipped past her lips, and one of her sisters adjusted a 120mm mortar accordingly as another loaded it with anti-runway ammunition.
"Feuer…!"
Anti-runway ammunition was meant for use against enemy airfields, as a means of cratering their runways and rendering them useless. That was their primary purpose for which they'd been developed…but that didn't mean that it was the only way that they could be used for.
A crater appeared in the middle of the road with a shower of debris…and the first two trucks promptly wrecked themselves driving into it. The third managed to drive around it, while men began pouring out of the wrecked trucks.
"Laden sie anti-personen-runden..." the lead homunculus barked. "…abfangen mit MILAN."
"Jawohl…!"
White Phosphorus rounds were readied, and the first shots were arcing down towards the mass of men rushing for cover as a MILAN anti-tank missile lashed out and destroyed the third truck. Three rounds were launched, and then orders were given for HEAT rounds to be lobbed against the wrecked vehicles in the crater.
"Ja, ja, guten schuss…" the spotter reported. "…schalt bis infrarot...ziele eliminiert."
The lead homunculus nodded, and contacted Wolfram via the intercom. "Das is richtig Herr Wolfram." She said after hearing the reply to her initial report. "Jawohl, wir wachen…"
"Überlebende entdeckt...die erlaubnis, zu engagieren." Another homunculus, this one armed with an Accuracy International AWM, said over the secure line. Several such snipers were positioned across the warehouse block on spread-out rooftops.
"Gewährt..."
Snipers began opening fire on any survivors, while more homunculus kill-teams spread out on the ground to secure the ground directly. Any surviving mercenaries probably wouldn't last until morning without medical help, given all the pounding they'd taken – which in their defense they could not have seen coming – but orders were orders: kill all enemies.
And for Einzbern homunculi, loyalty and obedience were absolute.
"What's your plan?" Wolfram said, returning to his niece where she was poring over several maps.
"Here…" she said without preamble, tapping her finger on a section of road in the middle of nowhere. "…we'll take them here. They'll probably be moving, so artillery is out of the question. However…"
She paused and took another map – a geological one this time – and used a highlighter to indicate a spot overlooking the road. "This here would be ideal as a missile site." She said. "We've taken out a lot of the target's manpower, but he should still have some left. And while I'd prefer this to be a high-speed raid, I'd also prefer to kill every last one of these idioten, and that Chinese arschloch as well of course."
"A helicopter…?" Wolfram asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow. She nodded and he chuckled.
"We're going to need a helicopter…" she said while getting a satellite photo of a certain motor-pool in Odessa, along with ground-side photos. "…both to insert the missile team, as well as to secure the package. If our information is correct, then SABINE and Schultz will be moving in an armored truck. We'll take it from the air, kill the rest of the enemy, and get out in time for dinner, yes?"
"Sounds risky…" Wolfram said. "…and so very much like you. Very well I approve."
Frost nodded and then looked hesitant. Wolfram tilted his head. "You have something to ask schätzchen?" he asked.
"Do we have any additional info on Schultz and to who he sold us out to…?" she asked.
"Hmm…" Wolfram mused aloud. "…well considering how deep you are into this, I might as well tell you. Tell me, what are the results of flaws in our coining process?"
"Easy…" Frost began with a shrug. "…usual flaws in the creation of our homunculi include either sterility as is the case with most 'adult' homunculi, stunted physical growth – as in Illyasviel's case although it also renders her infertile as physically she is what eight (?) – and universally among our homunculi albinism…wait are you saying that Schultz has perfected coining…?"
"I wouldn't call it perfect…" Wolfram said. "…perfection doesn't exist after all, but yes, he's resolved many issues in the coining process. SABINE is by all accounts not an albino, and has the physical form of an adolescent girl, and is as fertile as one. And Schultz apparently intends to sell her and the process which created her to the highest bidder in the supernatural black market."
Wolfram paused and spat in disgust at the direction of a drain, and Frost couldn't help but agree. "Given his destination, I assume that he's going to be holding the sale in the Far East…the Red Dragon?" she asked.
"Who else…?" Wolfram said darkly. "Disbanding the Tewu and the Kempeitai was a horrid decision on the part of the Chinese Union and the Japanese Empire respectively. Both state security services were brutal yes, but they were effective. Once both organizations were gone, all sorts of rats and other trash moved in. You may be an assassin, but at least you have honor. Drug dealers and pimps have none."
"SABINE belongs to our family." Frost said, already working on finalizing her plans, pulling up maps and marking them out. "We'll get her back, along with that verräter Schultz. What of retribution though? Even if Association influence in the Far East is rather…flimsy, surely we and our associates can't just let Oriental trash think that they can do whatever they want simply because they are far from our centers of power."
"Rest assured…" Wolfram told her. "…arrangements have been made with regards to that concern. Right now though, I believe we should focus on the task at hand."
"Yes of course." Frost said, and rubbing her head in embarrassment. "My apologies, it seemed that I'd gotten distracted."
Wolfram nodded his acceptance of her apology, and she returned to her work.
A/N
Cherry Kariya: well yes, Einzbern is hardly 'good' after all. But brainwashing solves a lot of issues for them: it helps make Frost more loyal (and Wolfram genuinely does care for her despite being one of Jubstacheit's top lieutenants), and removes any need to resolve lingering psychological issues remaining from her days as a Matou. It's not always best to start over with a blank slate…but here it arguably is. TLDR: German efficiency at its finest.
As for this chapter…eh, I've been watching the Expendables and its sequels, so it shows with Einzbern homunculi and Frost going all commando here.
