The Package: Second Barrage
Ten
Moscow was a weirdly quiet city in the evening. It looked like a curfew was in place, and troops walked the streets to order anyone out to go home. They also looked unhappy to see the mercenaries, but didn't actually say anything as they went back to the caravan.
"Ah, that was fun," Revy noted, smiling as they walked together. "Eda didn't make it back, though," she added.
"Kaji and Asuka too. Though their probably being put up in a high class hotel," Benny noted.
"I don't like Asuka-san being out of our sight," Yukio noted flatly.
"You expect trouble?" Ginji asked, looking around warily.
"Always," Yukio smiled at her partner.
Rock looked away, shyly. Dutch looked amused as he noted, "Kaji and Eda both have portable radios, along with their phones. They can reach us if needed."
Lotten nodded, "Well, I guess so..."
Before any of them could continue, an explosion suddenly lit up the night sky. Worse, all of them instantly saw it was in the direction of Moscow NERV headquarters. Alarm sirens began to wail, nearly deafening them.
"Well shit," Shen hua cursed as everyone ran towards NERV.
Troops were running around in confusion, and they could hear gunfire too. Another explosion went off, and as they ran along Eda came charging up a side street to join them. She was also scowling, for whatever that was worth.
(While everyone else had been drinking, Eda had been trying to contact two CIA moles in Moscow. Disturbingly, they were nowhere to be found. In fact, she could find no trace they had even been IN town for months, yet her bosses had been getting regular reports up until a few days ago. Clearly the CIA's operations in Moscow were completely compromised. And worse, it could even be Russia wide...)
"What's going on?" Eda demanded.
"Looks like NERV Moscow's been hit. No idea how bad," Dutch said crisply.
"Fuck," Eda swore bleakly. She fished out the radio, "Kaji! Where are you?"
There was just static. Lotton swore softly, then the group headed for the gates. The outer guards were gone, and more gunfire rang out.
"Did Kaji or Asuka say where they were going after the meeting?" Rock asked reasonably.
"No," Eda admitted, frowning, then she swore flatly.
As they got nearer to Moscow NERV, it was clear a pitched battle was going on. Soldiers in uniform were facing off against attackers in civilian clothes, but while the soldiers had rifles the civilians had machine guns and various heavy weapons.
"What do we do...?" Adam wondered.
"HIT 'EM," Shen Hua scowled then smoothly tossed one of her deadly knives into the back of one of the attackers.
The men launching an attack on NERV were not expecting to be attacked from both sides. While the mercenary teams from Roanapur weren't as heavily armed, they were very experienced and used their few shots very, VERY well.
The guards with NERV looked confused as the new group jumped their enemies, but thankfully they didn't start shooting at them. Possibly they had seen the group arrive earlier that day. Dutch reached one of the staffers as he barked, "Report!"
The man stiffened and nearly saluted. "Insurgents, sir! They apparently slipped into town, then launched a attack on the facility."
"There were two high priority guests here. Where are they?" Dutch asked flatly.
The man looked nervous, "Uhm, I don't know..."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Meanwhile, in a 'residence' across the base, Asuka calmly shot an attacker with a stolen gun, wincing as the recoil hurt her wounded arm.
"You..." Kaji started.
"Shut up and come ON. We've got to get out of here before more of these guys come," Asuka cut him off forcefully.
She and Kaji had been escorted to 'deluxe' rooms in the residence and went to bed. About two hours later something woke Asuka, a sound from the hall maybe. Her door slammed open and a stranger rushed in, carrying a gun.
He said in a Russian dialect, "Up! Up! We're taking you."
Meekly, Asuka got out of bed and walked up to him. Then she stopped faking and grabbed his arm, doing a judo throw and sending him crashing to the floor. Calling on her self defense training she swiftly disarmed him then grabbed his gun. She went out, got Kaji, and now they were trying to get out of the building...
"Radio is still not working," Kaji noted as he tried it again.
"Some kind of interference or scrambling?" Asuka guessed, the two hurrying down the hallway.
"Elevator or stairs?" Kaji asked, a bit out of breath.
"Stairs. They could cut the cables...," Asuka noted.
Kaji groaned softly.
As they hurried on they saw several doors had been busted in, and the people within shot. It was a very sobering sight as they reached the stairwell.
"Me first," Asuka said.
"But..." Kaji started.
"I'm ARMED. And I don't really trust you with carrying the gun," Asuka noted as they hurried down stairs.
"I'm hurt..." Kaji sighed.
The building was four stories, while they were on the third. As they hurried downstairs they could hear shouts and gunfire in the halls. There were guards on each landing, and Kaji was faintly shocked at how cold bloodedly Asuka gunned them down.
Not to mention her casually looting the bodies for ammo. "What?" Asuka angrily asked as he looked at her.
"Nothing," he said as they reached the ground floor. He occasionally forgot she had been training as a pilot for years... including weapons and self defence.
At the base of the stairs was a door leading outside. It had been busted in, presumably when the attack started. Outside, they could hear ongoing gunfire and the assorted sounds of battle.
"We're on the other side of the base from the vehicles. Head there, then try to hook up with the others?" Kaji suggested.
"Sounds like a plan. Keep low, move slowly," Asuka ordered as they set out between the buildings and looking out for shooters. Soldiers were fighting guys in street clothes (and some women) guns were going off, and the fires burning lit up the night.
"I'm getting impact war flashbacks," Kaji muttered as they scurried between pieces of cover.
"Try the radio again," Asuka suggested.
Kaji nodded, "Right... hey! I've got a signal."
"Kaji?!" Eda's voice demanded, "Where the HELL are you?"
"Across the compound near the housing units. Insurgents broke in and started killing people," Kaji reported.
Eda cursed softly. "Is Asuka safe? Did you protect her?" she demanded.
Kaji looked at Asuka, who had saved his ass. Repeatedly. "She's fine," he said.
Eda paused, but decided not to ask. "We're heading to the vehicles. Do you think you can get there, or should we come get you?" she ask.
Kaji relayed that to Asuka. She was warily watching the fighting as she noted, "I think the troops are getting a handle on things. We should be able to get to the car park."
"We'll try to meet up with you," Kaji confirmed.
"Radio if something comes up," Eda ordered before signing off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"We should be going to GET them," Yukio scowled ten minutes later.
The group had made it to the vehicles, we well as weaponed up a bit. Not they were warily watching the nervous Russian troops, and occassionally shooting at a remaining raider.
"If we stomp around as a group, nervous Russians might shoot us," Rock pointed out reasonably. "Two people have less chance of being noticed."
"But if Asuka gets wacked coming here, WE DON'T GET PAID," Lotten noted.
"And Kaji?" Rock had to ask.
Lotten shrugged, "He's expendable."
"I totally feel the milk of human kindness, here," Rock sighed as everyone ignored him.
Just then Kaji and Asuka staggered up to the waiting vehicles, Kaji visibly limping with blood splattered on his leg.
"Shit. What happened?" Dutch demanded.
"Was a bit slow getting to cover," Kaji confessed, wincing.
"Looks like the bullet went straight through. Messy, and we need to close it up, but not life threatening," Sawyer noted calmly.
"We should get out of here. There could be another attack on the base," Eda pointed out grimly. "Kaji, back in the truck with Sawyer. She'll patch you up as best we can manage."
"Oh joy," Kaji sighed as Asuka helped him up.
"Everybody else, on board. We're rolling," Dutch said crisply.
To be continued...
Notes: Asuka is kind of squeamish in the first few chapters because, while she's combat trained, she hadn't had much real world experience. After a few weeks with these guys, that's kinda been fixed.