Recap: Right before Doktor and I went back into the building. I hear the sliding of a sword going back into its sheath and then being placed on the ground. I also hear the crunching of grass under feet and assume she is now practicing her acrobatic moves. I see Doktor is waiting for me at the door and continue to walk to the building with the sounds of Marie practicing in the background.
*************Back the present*************
Callista's POV:
'It is raining outside and I am so way happy, I am inside this aircraft.' I think to myself.
Dad is in the seat beside mine. We both are heading to our next location as we speak.
Raiden's POV:
We have to lie down on our stomachs in this aircraft, 'I just hope Marie doesn't get airsick on her side of the aircraft.' I thought to myself.
"How is it, Raiden, Nightmare?" Boris asks us.
"So far so good", "Same here", "We've got a clear visual," I say then Callista adds her input too. I just smile and she does too.
"A direct feed to your optic nerve for you Raiden, and it is through your goggles for you Callista. Yes, I'd should hope so, eh? I mean...How does it feel? To fly like a bird!" Boris asks us.
"Like a bird strapped to a remote-control rocket." We both say at the same time and he just laughs at our response.
"We will give you both in safely, tovariches. Just relax and enjoy the ride." Boris tells us.
"Right." I say back and Marie just nods in agreement.
"Can you hear me Raiden, Kind?" Doktor's image comes up on the screen.
"Doktor." Marie calls out.
"Remember the two procedures to maintain your new bodies: one, seizing nano-repair units from your foes. And two—." He starts to remind us but I interrupt him by saying, "Absorbing their electrolytes." I'm then interrupted by Marie, "We got it, Doktor." She says.
"Yes, enemy cyborgs should provide plenty of MCFC electrolytes once you slice them open and... extract their fluids." Dok tells us and I see Marie's disgust face. I just smile at her again.
"They're terrorists. We were planning on that anyway." I tell him.
"Oh, and their left hands, if you please." Dok continues to tell us and we both give each other a confused face at each other.
"Excuse me?" Marie and I say at the same time again.
"Their combat data, stored on holographic memory, typically located on the left hand. That data is very valuable. Ehem...I am authorized to offer you both upgrades and services in exchange for it." Dok offers to us.
"How generous." Marie says back.
"Ich liebe Kapitalismus! Had the wall come down a few years earlier, I would have a Nobel Prize on my shelf." Doktor starts to tell us, but I notice something off in the distance.
"—There. I see land." I quickly say.
"Three miles out and closing. No activity at the air base. Looks like we don't need to worry about interceptors." Courtney tells us, while Kevin moves her coffee mug away from the edge of her desk.
"Great, then we have time for a quick briefing." Kevin says with his signature hand salute.
"I know you miss us, Uncle Kev. But we've both been all over the materials." Marie tells Kevin.
Callista's POV:
"That's what you both said before Montenegro. Look, just humor me, niece and buddy. Objectives, of course, are enter Abkhazia, neutralizes the terrorists, and restore the rightful government... or what is left of it, anyway", I roll my eyes, "The president and most of the cabinet have been killed, and a military junta's been established", many pictures come up while he is talking, "The terrorists brain-jacked all the high-ranking officers, and their cyborgs scattered the rank-and-file." He tells us, while Courtney takes a sip then places her mug back on the edge of the desk. "The few leaders who survived have no way of openly opposing the new regime. That's why they called us" quick glimpses shows on everyone's face but split screen on both my face and Dads.
"Andrey Dolzaev, leader of the occupation forces. An extremist, linked to both the St. Petersburg massacre of 2015, and last year's terror spree in Georgia. And his arm supplier? None other than Desperado Enforcement, LLC." Boris says while shaking the backs of both Uncle Kevin's and Courtney's chairs.
"N'mani's killers." Dad asks.
"If we don't stop them here, they could destabilize the entire region. But our more immediate problem... is Jetstream Sam. I believe you've both met." Uncle tells/asks us.
As when Sam's name comes up and my eye widen. But I do not say anything because the memories are coming back in flashes.
Dad sighs as he looks in his peripheral vision and gets a little worried for me because my face becomes pale a little.
"The only problem Marie and I see is that nickname. We've got our enhancements this time. He won't be an issue." Dad says for the both of us.
"He may not even be in-country, but keep an eye out just in-." Uncle starts to say but stops himself. Both my eye and Dads widen at his mistake. "Oh...uh...sorry." Uncle quickly apologizes and puts up his index and middle fingers, points to his eyes, then to ours.
"Ready for insertion." Both Dad and I say at the same time for the third time.
Then the conversation drops, while our aircraft drops lower to the ocean's surface. Both hatches open, and our platforms lower both of us down. Then our feet hangers boost up, we look up and it launches us at the same time to the island in front of us.
This is the fun part, both Dad and I then point our bodies up. He just does a backflip and lands on his feet. While me, since I went a little higher in the air, I do more moves I love to do. So I freestyle my flips like a backward flip, a few sideways twists, and one more backflip before landing on my feet beside him.
As I land, it causes the water to make huge ripples to form, bigger than Dad's. He just gives me a look saying 'show off!' I just smile at him, then look up to see my masterpiece I did to his hair the same day I re-dyed my hair and the same with mine too.
As we start advancing out of the water and onto the land. Dad's visor opens first and his only eye opens to show only red like he is going to go into his Ripper mode, and his other eye has a cloth type patch cover, but the new hairstyle I have given him fits his new body.
Mine is just goggles and when I take them off, I have an actual eye patch, the similar to the one Grandpa Snake wore, over my new huge scar on my face only covers about a third of it. But as I open my only eye, my pupil looks like a cat slit and then goes back to a normal human pupil.
"Nightmare of course you make it more dramatic than your Dad. But the tricks are always cool to see." Uncle says to me.
"Thanks, Uncle." I tell him back.
"Nightmare, Raiden, you both landed safely, da? First, head inland. The waypoint is marked on both of you solution radars. Contact us on codec if either of you have questions." Boris tells us, while we start running to a set of stairs to get out of the coastline, we just land at.
But when we get close to the road, we both sense an enemy heading in our direction. Somehow Dad couldn't see the enemy, but I could see the outline of the enemy's bodies with the psychic sight of my right eye.
"The b $#!%ds are using stealth camo to ambush you both. Nice try, but it won't do any good against a state-of-the-art cyborg and a half-borg like you two, eh?" Boris asks over our earcons. As two more came out of hiding.
I ran to the one on the right, Dad ran for the one on the left, it took us about only two maybe three cuts before they went down. Then we went for the last one and tag team together. Now with me have a sword as my new main weapon with a small pistol in a holder on my right side, I can now team up with him by his actual side than at a distance.
Once the enemy is beaten. We get a call from Uncle, Dad opens his caller, I place my goggles on and look over his shoulder.
"Had your fill you two?" Uncle asks us.
"With these new limbs, I feel lighter than I did with my last ones. It definitely would be an advantage on my speed to defeat the enemy." I say and then Dad says, "With this body, I could take these guys with no eyes. Intel wasn't exaggerating on the cyborg count." I nod in agreement.
"Well, you both know how fast the tech's been spreading these last few years. That CNT muscle fiber packs the power of a jackhammer into every limb. What enterprising soldier of fortune could resist? And cyborgs are still human... real thinking people. Way less risk of collateral damage than your typical UAV Strike." He states.
Then Courtney's screen comes up.
"And don't forget the PR angle. Nations start playing Frankenstein with their troops, and the public goes nuts; PMCs on the other hand, are off the ethical radar" She states while Uncle grabs her coffee mug again and moves it away from the edge of the desk.
"Yeah, they still don't even count PMCs in official death tolls. With SOP out of the picture, private militaries needed a new edge on the market. We got it." He says.
"In a way, cyborgs are just SOP troops by another name, only all muscled up and less predictable." She says and I nod in all out agreement.
"But it makes you wonder...Where'd Desperado find these guys?" Uncle questions.
"I'm not complaining and neither is my Shadow about that matter. They're like walking vending machines." Dad says and again I nod in agreement with him.
"Right vending machines full of blood...WHAH!" Uncle pretends to be a vampire and both of us move back a little, "Easy there Dracula and Jr. Like I said, they're still people."
"People, who terrorize and take innocent lives for money. They sowed their fate when they took this job. We're just the reapers." I say and Dad nods this time in agreement.
"Dam... Bit cold, Nightmare, Raiden. Even for the both of you." Uncle tells us.
Dad and I just look at each other.
"Anyway...Uh, it's cool. Let's get to work. Time to increase the peace." Uncle says to try and brighten the mood.
"Right." Dad and I say at the same time before his caller screen disappears.
Then we start heading to the building, straight from where we enter the area, and then we got a call from Boris.
"Raiden, Nightmare, this is Boris. Give me your status." He asks.
"Looks clear. No one in sight." Dad states back, while I'm checking the area around us.
"Good. Let's recap the route you both will take. ASI said, the enemy's HQ is in the refinery along the coastline. Dolzaev has been spotted there using satellite photography... Also on-site: Mistrai, a Desperado captain." Boris tells us.
"So we go through the city, cross the bridge into the old town, then head down to the rear of the refinery." Dad summarizes what Boris just told us.
"Still, I think they anticipate us. They will probably have a grand reception awaiting you both at the old city. Do not let both of your guards down." Boris reminds us as his screen disappears.
We start moving again and jump onto a bunch of crates in order to get to the upper level. Then move to our right to get through an open doorway. I notice a Hostile in the lower flank. I don't tell Dad as to not make a sound to get either of their attentions and jump from above the enemy. I grab my rapier and side flip so my metal limb is above my rapier, then slam both down on top of the hostile. He notices me missing and looks down. Then I back flip off the enemy, to get my rapier out of the enemy, as he then jumps down and sees my kill of an enemy, nods his approval to me for what I had just done.
I swipe my rapier to rid it of blood and put it back into its sheath as we start running to the open door in front of us. I jump as I get to the ledge of the doorway and front flip to the ground. I did it again, while Dad only did it once then want to go down the stairs on the right, like the old man he is. Then we both start running to the right but we hear some voices in the background.
"What are you doing here? This area is off-limits!" A cyborg asks a civilian.
"What? No! I am not doing anything!" The civilian replies.
"Can we just kill 'em? It'll be easier. We're supposed to have driven them all away already. So... self-defense, right? Easy." The cyborg says to the other is right beside him.
Dad and I get to the edge, right before the two cyborgs could even kill the civilian. We jump with our swords under our feet and slam them down the cyborg's spinal cords, killing them with ease. Then we back flip to get our swords out of our victims' bodies. While we are doing this I notice the third one. During my backflip, I quickly grab my pistol from its holder and shoot the third one in between the eyes. Dad took care of the fourth one with ease too.
We then sneakily went around the back end of an abandoned school bus and then straight. Right after we get past a tree and some blockades. We could hear a weird sound coming close to the area we are in.
When we look up to find where the sound is coming from. I see a metal gear on top of a roof of a building, it jumps to the ground in front of Dad and I. It then roars at us and gets the cyborgs attention in the same area we are in.
I tell Dad to distract the metal gear, while I handle the cyborgs. He nods then starts trying to get it's attention. I grab my next magazine of bullets but these are my infamous armor piercing type bullets. So I quickly switch magazines in my pistol and start killing the cyborgs in a flash.
Once I finish off all the cyborgs, I switch out my pistol for my rapier and join the battle between Dad and the metal gear. But while running to get to his side, I notice the metal gear's movements are similar to movements of a Spanish bull.
I stop running, looked around for a building with a flag still on it. I find one and run to the building. I jump, grab the flag and yank it off its pole. I turn around to where it is.
"Hey, you, metal head with two chicken legs," I call out to the metal gear to get its attention.
The metal gear looks in my direction and recognizes I have a flag in my hands.
"Toro, Toro, you overgrown cow." I taunt it with the flag going up and down with my left hand.
It then changes its position and starts kicking its one leg. It roars and charges at the flag. Right before it could even hit me, I move the flag and myself out of the way. I swipe my rapier at the leg closest to me. Dad catches on what I'm doing and signals to me to come to him. I see the signal and run to him before it could even change its position again. He ducks down to hide behind the flag and grabs his sword.
I taunt it again causing it charges at me. But when I move both the flag and my body, Dad jumps on top of it, stabbing the top of its head about four or five times before it knocks him off. We continue to tango with it until the last blow is given, causing it to be cut in half. Then one last roar it blew up.
Then we notice two more of the same metal gear, we had just beaten. We decide to separately take one, we get hit about two or three times before we grab the nano-repair units from in their body to help repair the damage, we received. We defeated them along with a few cyborgs too. But for me, it only repairs my metal limbs on my body, not the flesh parts.
"I swear, it is so nice being back on the battlefield again. Rather than being cooped up in a hospital or even at home to just recover from our injuries." I tell Dad, he nods in agreement.
We head off and head to the left side. We see metal double doors and went up to them. I press the top button to open the doors. After the doors open we walk in.
TO BE CONTINUED...
