"Preparing to commence insertion."
"Copy that. Good luck, comrade."
"Spasibo. Although I will doubtlessly need more patience than luck…"
Natasha Volkova, poster child of the Red Army, ignored the cold of the water around her as she came up towards the shore of Gibraltar Rock—it was hot borscht compared to the rivers of Siberia. In the sunny blue skies above, missile contrails no doubt leftover from Allied flyovers in this vicinity that had gone awry were still visible, and the wrecks of their warships at the bottom below her. Under usual circumstances, the thought of the fascist dogs taking such losses would have pleased her, but that sort of thing was not appropriate now.
No, even though, as a true heroine of the Soviet Union, she had devoted her being to the elimination of all who would oppose the Worker's Revolution, she recognized that the Nipponese swarms that were seemingly assailing everyone at the same time with great success needed to be stopped by any means necessary before they could topple the Union. She was amazed at how far they had got, and that they were poised to take on Western Europe from here, recently seized Gibraltar—she wouldn't be surprised if the generals in the Kremlin envied them for such success. Alas, their good fortune would have to end here.
Her objective was simple: see to the destruction of Japanese air assets positioned at an Allied airbase that they had taken over on the Rock. That would allow a combined taskforce to move in on the area. Working with capitalists—the irony would have made her laugh, something she had not done in years. But what really worried her was the information that she would teamed up with the premier Allied special forces operative, someone whom she had been eager to scalp for a long while now. Had they been deliberately trying to test her reaction? Was this some bizarre test of loyalty?
Noticing the figure clambering onto the docks in front of her, evidently not.
"Move it, honey! Let's get this party started!"
Natasha tried to keep her thoughts on the task at hand as he got out onto the shore, slipping out of her skintight wetsuit and readying her 20mm Dragunov sniper rifle, outfitted with titanium-tipped caseless rounds. Enough to punch through light vehicle armor. This Allied slut in front of her, apparently bold enough to go running around in tight shorts and a top, appeared content to wield a pair of pistols and various explosives on her belt. But there surely had to be a reason why the Allied command saw fit to throw Tanya Adams into the most dangerous of situations.
"Proceed. We will not engage unless necessary. Keep radio silence." Breathed Natasha, as he looked around for enemy troops. Tanya responded by snapping something that her English skills were not quite able to process—and she was thankful for that.
Moving out of the docks, which were littered with ash-rimmed craters from the initial Japanese strikes, the two commandos headed out onto the streets, with buildings boarded up or reduced to burnt-out husks. Using her scope, Natasha could make out something large moving on the peak overlooking this urban area—one of the enemy 'Oni' mechanized walkers, it seemed. Tough enough even to take on Soviet armor. If there was one thing she could admire these Nipponese for, it was their engineering.
"Hey…wait!"
Moving out from behind the cover of a parked vehicle, she moved after Adams, who seemed more fit to run forward at impressive speed, as if she had no need of lungs. Of course, her own training in the freezing Urals had not exactly been meaningless, so she followed after her, vaulting over abandoned vehicles, some of which were peppered with bullet holes. Allied recruitment posters on the walls had been either torn down or plastered over with images of the infernal Japanese Emperor, looking down on the world as if he owned it already.
Rounding a corner, she paused as several enemy infantrymen presented themselves ahead, turning and aiming their guns. It took her less than a second to bring her rifle up to the right position and fire, sending a silenced round at thousands of feet per second straight through the bodies of two of the troops, sucking nearly all of their internal organs out of their bodies. Not exactly clean, but it was precise.
"Y'all goin' dirt-tastin'!"
Natasha turned as Adams suddenly leapt into the midst of the squad from the roof of a parked van, opening fire wildly with their twin pistols. The entire group of enemy infantry dropped to the ground a moment later, fluid leaking for her heads, as she continued to run forward, laughing like some sort of demented lunatic. Impressive, thought Natasha. Foolhardy, but most impressive.
Shouts were coming from nearby streets as the two moved forward quickly. Breathing techniques that had been burnt into her since basic Spetsnaz training made her able to catch up with the Allied commando in moments. With that, they turned into another road, with more enemy soldiers running towards them, clearly agitated. Calculating trajectories in less than a second, Natasha fired off a round at a nearby parked car. Ricocheting cleanly, the bullet bounced off another vehicle and straight through the first line of troops, piercing their body armor as if it wasn't there.
"Set 'em up and I'll knock 'em down!" Adams laughed as she opened fire, letting off rapid burst with her pistols that finished off the next line, before reloading them so fast that her hands became blurs. Natasha span around as another enemy soldier came screaming from an alleyway brandishing a red-hot blade, only for Adams to deliver a kick to his body in a blur. Blood spurted from his mouth as his ribcage audibly cracked, moments before he was sent slamming against a wall.
Moving over the bodies of the Japanese soldiers, Natasha proceeded forward as Adams bounded across the rooftops of parked cars. She could make out the faint rumbling of enemy armored vehicles not far from here—although she had dispatched of enough Allied vehicles in the past not to fret too much. No, it was the enemy troops moving into a building ahead that worried her. As the first rounds of suppressive fire began to spit out from the windows, she dived behind a parked car and decided that she might as well break radio silence.
"Requesting aerial strike on marked target…"
"Copy, comrade, although it may be difficult for…"
She watched in bemusement as Adams charged forward, zig-zagging quickly across the street like a blur before producing an explosive from her belt.
"SANTA'S COMIN' TO TOWN!"
Lobbing the batch straight through the open door, she flipped backwards as it detonated violently, causing most of the structure to crumble inwards. An enemy soldier leapt out of a window, hitting the ground at the cost of breaking his ankles—Natasha was already running through the cloud of dust, finishing him off with a quick slice of her combat knife. Adams appeared to be enjoying this a bit too much for her own comfort.
"The objective is not far." She snapped, catching with Tanya as they continued running through the streets. Satellite reconnaissance provided by the Allies had highlighted the best routes to take; she never thought she'd see the day that she'd be grateful for the CIA.
"Hold on…"
Turning into another lane, with the control tower of the airbase just about visible, she stopped as they found an enemy light tank moving forward, supported by infantry. Rolling to the side as the tank fired, pulverizing a parked car, she aimed for the front of the sleek white vehicle and fired. The round shot forward, piercing through the viewport and through the face of the driver, causing the vehicle to ground to a halt. As suppressive fire came towards her, she produced a knife and threw it, sending it flying straight through the face of an enemy soldier. He stumbled back into the man behind him, confusing the squad for a moment.
"SIT DOWN!"
Launching herself off another car, Tanya opened fire in multiple directions in quick succession, sending bullets straight through the throats of the remaining troops. Bounding onto the roof of the tank, she kicked open the hatch and dropped a grenade inside, leaping off as it detonated within before running forwards, with Natasha following. The airbase entrance was just about visible—she was able to pause and pick off several infantrymen there rapidly within the space of a few seconds, taking a moment to reload and follow.
Reaching the entrance, she noted rows of enemy fighters parked along the various runways, as alarms began to blare. She noted highly volatile fuel tanks nearby some of the jets, and as such swapped her current magazine for high-explosive rounds. She didn't even have to look through her scope for such targets—she pulled the trigger and watched as the tanks detonated, starting a chain reaction that detonated those fighters one by one. Such came from trying to use a base not designed for your craft, she thought.
High-velocity rounds came towards her moments later, forcing her to duck—where was Adams? Trying to throw herself towards the enemy rifles, no doubt. Looking around, she could see that blonde-haired American running towards the next fuel tanks, firing at the advancing enemy guards and readying another C4 charge with her other hand.
"Yo, Nippy! I got a present for ya!"
She threw the charge and jumped back as it detonated, with similar results. Tanya watched as conflagration and fire began to spread throughout the rest of the base, sending the Japanese there into a scurrying panic. Now, the taskforce that lay off the Pillars of Hercules could advance without fear. With that in mind, she turned as Adams threw off one more parting word to the enemy.
"AND THAT WAS LEFT-HANDED!"