Trojan Horse
An hour and a half had passed. Saint's Row was safe from any invaders trying to attack to the neighborhood. After recently taking down a couple of drug labs, as well as stealing a shipment from the Carnales, there was only one other way to put the hurt on them.
Vince went back to his apartment to take a rest and to have something to eat. Earlier that same day he went to go blow up Kingdom Come Records, as well as defend the Row from the Carnales, and his day wasn't over yet. He lied in his bed, looked up at the ceiling deep in thought about what he had gotten himself into. Did the gang life just choose him like this? He wasn't in the military for too long, but he has enough combat training and experience that he was able to fire a gun and even know what to do when in battle. A gang war was different, however. Though it was a dangerous job, it had only been a few days since he was initiated and found himself in the middle of all of this.
He sat up and dug through his pants pocket. Aisha gave him a piece of paper earlier. Vince had thought about maybe connecting with Latisha, Aisha's younger sister whom he had rescued from the Vice Kings. He got out his phone and punched in the number, but looked at the center button and the little green button on the keypad. Should he call her? The thumb was on the send button, until a little symbol appeared at the top of the small screen that looked like an envelope. It seemed like more work was to be done.
So instead, he pushed the button in the center and saved the number to his phone. He still planned to make that call. First things first, he opened the new message that he received. It was from Troy.
Hey, Playa, meet me at the garage near the church. I got some work for us to do.
Vince replied with a message saying he will be there. He put the phone in his pocket and took some guns with him because it seemed that things will get bloodier in a bit. He walked out of his apartment and took a purple Compton with the top taken down. It was still day and he was on his way to the garage.
Right when we got there, he saw that one of the rolling doors was open. Troy stood outside having a smoke.
"Hey, Troy," Vince said. "What's going on?"
"I'm waiting for Dex," Troy said. "He's bringing that truck around. You know, the same one that we took from the Carnales yesterday. You know why he wanted that thing?"
Vince scoffed. "You got me. I don't know."
"Shit, Troy," a voice said from behind Troy, who turned around and saw that it was Dex. "If you wanted to know, all you had to do was ask."
"I did," Troy said.
"Well, I guess you did," Dex said. "Ain't that a bitch?"
"So what's the deal, Dex?" Vince said. "Are we blowing some more the Carnales' shit up?"
"I'm getting to that," Dex said. "Now that we have things in the Row under control, we can get back to the plan. I had that truck you jacked fixed up good as new. Load it up with a crew and drive right into the Carnales' production plant. When you get inside, hop out and take the place over."
"It's not exactly the most original plan," Troy said.
"There's something to be said about the classics," Dex said. "Remember what I said. Take the place over, don't blow it to hell. The more shit you blow up, the more shit we have to replace once we're running it."
"So in other words, we send in our people and take some of the Carnales' shit," Vince said.
"Yup, now let's fuck with them some more," Dex said.
Dex led the way for Troy and Vince. The truck was at the other end of the lot. Many people, men and women dressed in purple walked out, armed to the teeth and stood close to the back of the truck.
"Hey, guys, you ready?" Dex said.
One guy said, "The Carnales ain't gonna know what hit 'em!"
Others said "Right on!" and "yeah!" They were all ready to take part in this. Vince finally had the right idea what this plan was all about. The Greeks used a Trojan Horse to gain entrance into Troy, as in the city known as Troy, during the Trojan War.
The gates to the back had opened. Many of the Saints climbed into the cargo space. They were ready for some action. Dex had informed Vince that the production was located in Pilsen. Vince drove the truck with many of the fellow Saints in tow. He put the radio on 101.69 Sizzurp FM, with DJ Irie mentioning the tragic loss of Aisha earlier that same day and as a special dedication to her, he played her number one hit, "Bounce Like My Checks." He needed some music to unwind after all of the stuff he had been through lately.
The truck had crossed the bridge from Saint's Row into the factories district. The production plant was fronted by a factory/truck lot for the deliveries of any product that was being distributed by companies. Many Carnales were seen roaming the area. It wasn't long until Vince parked the truck. It was time to get down to business. The gate opened in the back. Several of the Saints were ready to fight.
"Surprise, motherfuckers!" one white male Saint said.
"Hello, bitches!" a black male Saint said.
A white female Saint yelled out, "Third Street!"
Vince led the other Saints to the offensive. Many of the Carnales all came out, prepared for the defensive. What he noticed was that his fellow Saints just ran out with guns blazing, while some of the Carnales stood near truck trailers and on top of scaffolds, with some flammable gas drums at the bottom. It was as if they were prepared for this fight all along but didn't think of other potential problems that may come along the way.
Some of the members who joined in on this mission had some fight left in them to engage in this battle. But if there was one thing that Vince learned in his tours before getting discharged, especially if he was in there long enough to be deployed, it's that it's smarter to get in cover. To the higher-ranking members like Julius, Troy, Dex, Johnny, and Lin, Vince knew he was in the same position as the rest of his fellow Saints that participated in this invasion.
Several Saints went in with guns blazing, shooting many of the Carnales in a point-blank range, right out in the open, even running and firing at them. Vince couldn't help but look on. It turned out that Leon, Jazz, and Jen were in the truck as well.
"I want you three to follow my lead," Vince said.
"But we're here fuck to them up," Jazz said.
"Yeah, we need to set an example," Jen said.
"Please, just follow me," Vince said.
Some other members who were close by wanted to stand by their newest member, especially after seeing some fellow Saints, both male and female run off, surviving or not, as some bodies were seen left on the pavement as streams of blood were visible. Some other tissue even was seen broken off, such as limbs like legs and arms, as well as brain matter all over the pavement. It appeared that the Carnales weren't messing around either. Vince peered out from behind a detached truck trailer. Two Carnales members stood at the top of the scaffold, wielding submachine guns, firing shots at any person wearing purple. It wasn't like any of the other Carnales members didn't fall other, as some bodies of gang members in red lied near the planter that was next to a large metal crate.
Vince looked at his T3K Urban and saw that the two Carnales were still standing at the top of the scaffold, looking over and reloading their guns with new magazines. One member even stood right next to the gas drum.
"Stay right here," Vince said.
"Where are you going?" Jen said.
"To get their attention," Vince said and ran right to the corner of the shipping dock. He peered around the corner. The two LC soldiers decided to bring out the big guns, as they brought out K-6 Krukovs. The one at the bottom brought out a 12-Gauge shotgun. Either way, the Saints were screwed if they got out into the open.
Vince unloaded the magazine and saw that there were enough bullets to just pump into those guys, but he wanted to get that supply faster. He looked around saw that many of the other Saints had made it to the end, but who knows how much longer they could last if any LC reinforcements would just come out and flank them?
So he peered out, jumped and dove sideways, and fired five shots from his T3K right towards the gas drum.
BOOM! The Carnal that stood near it immolated with flames flowing right over his flesh. The blast didn't affect him much as though he may have stood near it, it wasn't enough to send him flying. But his flesh burned a lot as he dropped as much of his seared flesh became apparent.
At this moment, the rest of Vince's team ran out and started shooting at anybody who got in their way. The main focus was just to get to the lab at this place and take the drugs. So what they did was run across, firing at any Carnales that guarded the place. Vince led his team to one end of the building. A group of Saints that was ahead of them ran towards the corner to look for any more LC members to take out. However, Jazz looked up at another scaffold.
"Look out, guys!" she yelled. Vince, Leon, and Jen then turned to see what was in front of them. It turned out that a couple of other Carnales stood at the top of that scaffold and one threw something and it wasn't long until it landed close to that other group of Saints. Glass shattered, the other Saints screamed to the high heavens, and they were up in flames. It turned out that they threw a Molotov cocktail at them.
"Fuck me," Vince said.
"These fools don't fuck around," Leon said.
There was no other choice but to run for it and they could either avoid it or take them out. In their case, the latter was the much better choice. The two ladies in the team ran out, firing any shot that could land on any other ground level LC soldiers that were coming at them. Vince and Leon, however, took out the two Carnales that were above them before they lit any more bottles to throw at them. There was no more time to waste – they had to get the supply soon.
Right close by there were two opened doors and a wood panel that was likely used to dock any supplies. There was another open door. It had to be it.
"Come on, guys, let's fucking finish this shit," Vince said.
"Hey," Leon said. "Me and the ladies will hold them off. You take out those fuckers in the lab."
A couple of other Saints, one a Hispanic guy and the other a Hispanic girl came up to Vince.
"We'll back you up, Playa," the guy said. "The name's Javier."
"I'm Dora," the girl said. "We'll take out those Carnales putos."
"Right on, let's do this," Vince said.
Vince, along with Javier and Dora, ran up the steps of the wooden dock. A couple of Carnales ran out of the drug lab, but without any hesitation, Javier and Dora gunned them down with their 12-Gauge shotguns. From a distance through the doorway, some Carnales stood near some machinery that was used to process the drugs. It was almost as if they made some use of this factory portion. There were aisles that had Carnales members standing. Javier ran to an end of a machine. Dora did the same to another. Finally, Vince saw one and fired five shots to the head of a Carnal, with blood and brain matter splattering over the floor, machine, and tables with packs of cocaine sitting there.
This was enough to grab the remaining Carnales' attentions. Javier and Dora took quick peaks over their corners, seeing Carnales run up to them. They quickly jumped out and fired two shots by pulling both triggers, with the shots coming out of both barrels of the shotguns and big buckshots landing on the chests of the Carnales members they shot. Blood flew out into the air as they dropped right in the aisles.
"Holy shit," Dora said. Javier ran up to her as she stood over the man's body.
"You okay?" Javier said.
"I'm fine, just the first time I used both barrels," Dora said.
"Relax, I taught you that," Javier said and put his arm around her.
"No time for this, we got to get the drugs," Vince said.
All of the gunfire had stopped. Leon led Jen and Jazz into the lab, along with any surviving Saints members.
"Hey, Leon, is someone bringing the truck around?" Vince said.
"Yeah, I got some of our boys to do it," Leon said.
"Okay, let's pack this shit up and get the fuck out of here," Vince said.
There were bags of cocaine laying on the tables, as well as cases filled with more of the drugs. Even Vince wondered what the cause was. If Julius was doing this to help the Row, why did he want the drugs so badly? None of that mattered, as all they needed to do was get out of there.
Many of the Saints grabbed the bags. The truck had pulled up. The tailgate had opened with a couple of other Saints members back there. Everyone started loading them up. Many of the Saints except Vince, Jazz, and Jen got into the truck.
"You're not coming?" Leon said as he stood in the shipping container.
"I'm going to drive us back to the church," Vince said.
"Okay, cool," Leon said and rolled the door down.
Vince led the two ladies to the cab. Vince took the wheel, Jen sat in the middle, and Jazz sat by the door. The truck had started. It was time to head back to the Row.
Jen looked over at Vince.
"What?" Vince said.
"I just want to know, where did you learn to handle yourself out there?" Jen said and took off her hat.
"Let's just say that I have a good eye when it comes to battle," Vince said.
Jazz cut in, "He was in the military before."
Jen clearly turned to Vince when she heard Jazz say that. "Really?"
"Yeah," Vince said. "So I wanted to play things a bit smarter."
"Wow, I wouldn't have thought that, but I'm not surprised," Jen said.
"You should have seen him yesterday," Jazz said.
"Let's not talk about this right now," Vince said. "I just want to get this back to the Row."
After some time, the truck pulled up to the garage where Dex and Troy were. The truck stopped. Vince went to the back to let the other Saints out of the storage container and then walked up to Dex and Troy.
"Shit, you did good, man," Dex said.
"Thanks," Vince said. "What do you want us to do with the drugs?"
"You let me and Troy decide on that," Dex said, causing Troy to shoot him a look of "Are you serious?"
"Anyway, I'll keep you posted on what to do next on the Carnales soon," Dex said. "Julius can tell you about some other operations they got going on. We just need to sit on this shit, but I will keep my eyes open what to hit next."
"Okay, cool," Vince said and slapped dap with both Dex and Troy. It wasn't long until he turned around to walk away, until his phone rang all of a sudden with Lin's name coming up on the screen.
"Hey," Vince said when he answered.
"Hey, I got something for us later," Lin said. "Come meet me at the nightclub, Stocks. Remember when I told you earlier that Samson was done working on those cars?"
"Yes, I do, keep talking," Vince said.
"Well, I want to talk to you about what we're going to do with them," Lin said. "Meet me at Stocks tonight at around 8 or 9."
"I'll be there," Vince said and the call ended. Not long after Vince walked away, Troy's phone rang and he got a call from Lin as well.
"Hey, Lin, what's up?" Troy said. "Uh-huh, I see. I'll see what I can do."
The call ended on his part.
"What was that about?" Dex said as he stood close by.
"Lin wants me to do a favor for her tonight," Troy said. "Something about cars and shit."
"Shit, Troy, I know Lin is good when it comes to cars, but with her getting into shit with the Rollerz, I just hope she doesn't fuck it up," Dex said.
"I can't argue with you on that," Troy said. "I don't like the idea of Lin working undercover, either. You roll with people long enough and you start thinking like them."
"It sounds like you know this from experience," Dex said.
"Just something that really happens, you know?" Troy said.
"I get ya," Dex said.
LOPEZ MANSION
Hector sat at the table in the backyard with Manuel at a table close to the pool. They seemed to be having a discussion about what had been going on that week, especially after their shipment was taken, and a couple of labs being destroyed.
"Manuel, you worry too much, everything is under control," Hector said.
"I've heard some nasty rumors, Hector," Manuel said.
"Like what?" Hector said.
"That one of your drug labs was shut down," Manuel said. "You also remember what happened yesterday, don't you?"
["What's that? It's not a problem"] Hector said in Spanish before switching to English. "One of our couriers thought he could cut the shit out of his deliveries. It looked like we were missing a lot of product. It really was just this…pendejo. Angelo took care of him."
"And the drugs?" Manuel said.
"Found," Hector said.
"What about this gang from Saint's Row?" Manuel said.
"A bunch of mulas, a nuisance, nothing more," Hector said. "Angelo and Victor took care of some of them, and I'm sure that some of my men took care of those putas."
"Your father would have killed them all by now," Manuel said.
"I am not my father," Hector said so sternly.
"I've noticed," Manuel said so calmly.
From the inside, sounds of glass shattering and a woman screaming were heard. It was enough for Manuel to jump and Hector to turn his head. Luz was seen walking angrily with Angelo following her.
"Hey, don't you walk away from me, puta!" Angelo said, while Luz held up her right hand in a "talk to the hand" fashion.
["Hey, Angelo, what's wrong with you?"] Luz said. ["He's so old he could be my father!"]
"Mira! Woman, you listen to me…!" Angelo yelled, until Hector quickly stood up and yelled "Enough!" at the couple.
["I'm trying to work here,"] Hector said. ["Either you behave or you get out of my house now!"]
Without any argument or hesitation, Angelo and Luz walked into the house after hearing it from Hector, but not before Manuel got up from his chair.
"You're right, looks like everything is under control," Manuel said with some mild sarcasm in his voice. "We'll talk more about this when the others arrive, comprende, mi amigo?"
Hector just knew where Manuel stood, especially in the delivery of his statement. He just knew that Manuel was right. Hector figured it was time to set things straight before any Colombians arrived to make a deal.
After Manuel walked away, Hector quickly went inside the house and yelled Angelo's name.
"What, Hector?" Angelo said. It turned out he didn't leave or wasn't far from his brother.
"I need to ask you something," Hector said. "When you and Victor handled things at Saint's Row earlier, did you take all of them out?"
"We did as much as we could, but some of our other people were there to take any Saint or anybody else," Angelo said. "That's about it."
"Manuel told me otherwise," Hector said.
"I told you, we did everything we could," Angelo said. "Our other soldiers take care of those putas."
Out of nowhere, Victor walked up.
["Hector, I got word that the drugs from the lab in Pilsen were taken,"] Victor said.
["What? Who took them?"] Hector said.
["It was those pendejos from Saint's Row,"] Victor said.
"Looks like we may have some more problems on our hands," Hector said and turned to Angelo. "It turned out that you were wrong, hermano."
"Hey, don't blame this on me," Angelo said as he saw Hector walking away. "Listen, I have as much reason to take part in this war as well."
Hector quickly turned around. "If you really want to prove your worth, you and Victor bring some of those putas to me and we can get some fucking answers. In the meantime, don't let your dick cloud your judgment."
"Luz has nothing to do with this…," Angelo said.
"¡Cállate!" Hector said. "If we're going to take them down, then maybe we can do things how used to. Like I said, you and Victor go and take some of the Saints and we will get our answers. Keep your mind on this and not on that bitch of yours."
Angelo looked at him with a bit of a glare and nodded his head. It was clear that he called Luz a bitch. Angelo knew that Hector didn't like her, but a war was starting. They needed to get some stuff taken care of and soon.
Author's note: And that was the end of that. Went a bit longer than I thought. I will say that when it comes to action scenes, I had to keep watching videos and I had to do it some different ways. I figured that if I did it blow-by-blow, it could get kind of dull. I did it like this in my SR2 and SR3 stories. So I have to find ways to balance things, especially if a mission like this is pretty straight-forward.
Also, it just occurred to me while I was writing, I realized that Vince and Leon were names of characters from the first Fast & Furious movie. It was not my intention, by the way, even though I like those movies. Of course, I might put more into that the more I get into the Westside Rollerz storyline. I also felt like putting in Carlos's brother into this one. He might have more of a role later on.
Next up, Vince takes part in a race. Stay tuned.