Tales of Roanapur

Twelve

"Wait... the same bandits hit us both?" Erich blinked.

The Mother Superior of the Church of Violence Sister Yolanda sipped her cup of tea. "Indeed," she agreed.

Erich had been asked to come to the Church, and while they were (sort of) rivals, he decided to do so. Now he was glad he had come. "I suppose it makes sense," Erich admitted after a moment, "we both use the same lightly patrolled border crossing."

"I suspect our teams have nodded to each other in passing," Sister Yolanda noted as she sipped her tea, ignoring the man's bodyguard. Sister Irene lurked behind her, serving a similar purpose,

"Ha," Erich smiled wryly a moment.

"We are sending a team to meet with the raiders," Yolanda noted. Of course, by 'meet' she meant destroy...

Erich nodded, "As are we." He studied her thoughtfully, "I don't trust you... but we have aligned interests."

"I'm hurt," Yolanda smiled wryly. The old wooman nodded, "I think we should cooperate in this, yes."

"You do have more experience in the region," Erich conceded. "The head of your team will need to meet with mine."

"Of course," Yolanda agreed. "More tea?"

"Thank you," Erich smiled. He dr\nk too as he asked, "May I ask who you'll be sending?"

"Eda. I will ask her to play nice...," Yolanda said mildly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"WE DON'T NEED YOU DAMN KRAUTS TO HELP US," Eda complained loudly.

"Eda!" Revy scolded.

"Sorry," Rico the machine gunner with the Church apologized. He jabbed Eda with a elbow, scowling at her.

"Sorry," Eda subsided a bit.

Miranda, the other nun, looked amused as she casually cleaned a wicked looking knife. Irene casually held her pump action shotgun at her side.

"So, we're being assisted by the Church and local mercs?" Tanya clarified.

"Yeah. We're a small order," Rico said wryly.

"But VERY well armed," Miranda casually flipped her knife and caught it.

"So the plan is to go out to the region where both our shipments were hit, find the gang that did it and massacre them," Eda mused.

"It could have been a legal border patrol," Tanya noted mildly.

There was a beat of silence as everyone looked at her.

"It IS possible," Tanya added.

"Assuming it is...?" Rico had to ask.

"Well, we need to find out one way or another. Which means NOT going in guns blazing," Tanya noted.

"Who are you, and what did you do with the real Tanya?" Visha teased.

"I can be reasonable. Really," Tanya pouted.

"It IS a point though," Miranda conceded thoughtfully, "did we get any official notice about our guns being seized?"

"Not that I know of," Eda scowled, "Sister Yolanda didn't say."

"Erich hasn't either," Visha pointed out.

"So it's fine, right?" Revy asked.

Tanya shook her head, "We all know how disorganized governments are out here. We need to investigate first, or this could blow up in our faces."

"Or in our boss' faces. Do any of you want to tell Sister Yolanda that we've been expelled from the country?" Miranda said.

"Fuck," Eda sighed.

"You're taking ALL the fun out of this, ma'am," Rico added.

Tanya shrugged eloquently.

"Can you ask your intelligence person to look into it?" Irene asked mildly.

"Will do," Visha agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Weiss and Koening yelped as bullets dinged against the wall nearby. "Duck!" Weiss yelped.

"Who?" Koening asked.

"No idea. But whoever they are, they're firing from behind those cars," Weiss added.

"Should we...?" Koening asked as he used the building for cover and returned fire.

"I sent someone," Weiss also fired, keeping the attackers focused on them.

Neumann and another soldier were arcing around the buildings to get behind the attackers. "Don't kill them all," he noted, "we want one for questioning."

"Spoil sport," the woman noted.

They moved up slowly, seeing four men firing. "Now," he whispered.

Neumann shot one guy, punching through his chest in a nearly instantly lethal shot.

"Shit!" one soldier yelped.

The woman took her shotgun and blew one guy's head off, then another while showering the last guy in blood and brains.

"I REALLY would suggest surrendering. You do not want to piss her off," Neumann told him, and the last soldier threw down his gun.

"Oh, poo," Mary Sue pouted, putting her shotgun against her shoulder casually.

"Nicely done," Neumann added.

"I'd rather have shot him." Mary admitted.

They took the survivor back to base, where he quickly confessed to being with the Columbian faction. "What do you think we should do?" Weiss asked.

"This is the second time they've tried?" Mary said. "Too bad they didn't get Tanya," Mary noted, the young woman having hatted the colonel for years. Long story.

Visha nodded, "I think it's time we took steps."

"Oh, good," Mary grinned dangerously.

Weiss ignored the bloodthirsty tone, "What would you suggest, ma'am?"

"They don't have many soldiers, and we know where they're based. We hit them, and wipe them out," Visha said calmly.

"All right," Mary grinned.

They went to see Tanya, who nodded thoughtfully at Visha's plan: Draw them out, hit the headquarters, mop up. "We do need to leave soon on that other thing," she noted.

"I think we can do it in a day," Visha offered.

"Go ahead," Tanya nodded, then in a much less business-like tone added, "Be careful, please."

"Will do," Visha smiled back warmly.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The Columbians were a faded power in Roanapur. Well, they had never been a major player anyway, but then the killer maid Roberta hit town. Then her junior, Fabiola. The two had blown hell out of their operations.

"WHO decided to take pot shots at the Germans?!" Carlos demanded.

"It was revenge," Manuel protested. "They rousted out our dealers."

"Ah fuck. They weren't supposed to be there," another man muttered.

"Shut up," Manuel yelled at him.

"Did our guys make it back?" Carlos demanded.

"No," Manuel admitted just as a sniper shot came through the window and splattered his brains.

"FUCK!" Diego yelled.

"Escape through the back," Carlos yelled. "Call out our soldiers!"

"What's left of them," one guy muttered as they fled out the back of the building. They raced down the alley, then...

"Hi," Visha smiled cheerfully, then the machine gunners cut the leaders down.

"I'm always glad when we scout out enemy territory," Weiss noted.

"All right," Visha ordered briskly, "mop up their soldiers. We have the names and faces, so do that efficiently."

"Are we going to seize their territory too?" Neumann asked.

"That'll be up to Tanya and Erich," Visha shrugged.

To be continued...

Notes: It occurred to me later that as the Germans and Church of Violence are smugglers, they should ask if it was legal forces that stopped their shipments.