Viktor once more was sitting on his squad's BTR. As it turned out, there wasn't very much to do at the Oryol Military Base. Despite many of the base's construction projects being finished, stable communication with Earth and internet was still being worked on. Even if it was established, Viktor doubted they'd get any sort of access to it. The base also lacked any sort library or movie depot, adding to the predicament.
Very quickly, Viktor had exhausted his reading material. Another squad had started to capitalize on the utter lack of entertainment. They claimed to have hundreds of movies in one of their personal computers and were hosting movie showings. Unfortunately, they were charging five hundred rubles per person and wasn't desperate enough to pay.
At the moment, the greatest thing Viktor had was cards. Currently, he was playing a famous Russian game known as Durak with Alina, Sergei, and Demian. The latter unfortunately was currently getting demolished.
"You are cheating! Looking at my cards like the dirty cheat you are." Demian accused Sergei.
"I would never! Cheating is like lying and it is a sin to lie." He defended himself against the accusation. As Viktor had come to learn, Sergei was a devout Orthodox Christian. Demian just grumbled and hid his cards better.
Having been playing since he was able to hold cards, Viktor was fantastic at Durak. Then again, Alina was currently kicking his ass with Sergei and Demian piling on.
Viktor was about to place another card down when he saw his battalion commander approaching him. I wonder if we'll actually get to do something.
"Eh, Igor."
Igor raised his head from where he'd been laying against the BTR. "The fuck is it?"
"Take over for me." He set down his cards and hopped off the BTR.
"Fuck you too." Viktor grinned at Igor's response.
The battalion commander came closer and Viktor wiped the grin off his face. Lieutenant Colonel Jaromir Zolotov, a veteran of the Chechen Wars and Viktor's direct superior, was not a man to smile around. Viktor stepped towards him and straightened his back.
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel Zolotov." He accompanied his formal greeting with a stiff salute.
"The lieutenant colonel returned his salute with a nod. "Comrade Sergeant Statnik. At ease."
Viktor widened his stance and placed his hands behind his back. Lieutenant Colonel Zolotov then decided to get down to business.
"You have a mission, sergeant." He pulled out a piece of paper. "This is a map of the continent we now as Falmart. According to our aerial reconnaissance and information gathered from extensive interrogation sessions, the enemy army fled to a town north of here, Bellnahgo."
Viktor nodded his head in understanding.
"Your mission is to map a safe route to the city then contact us via radio. After that, you should expect major reinforcements in order to capture the city and crush any resistance. Any questions?"
"Sir, why we are being assigned to this task?"
"Your squad is being assigned because you are a capable leader and your squad is considered capable. Do not let that get to your head, Sergeant. There are many other capable squads in this brigade, you just happened to be picked. Any other questions?"
"None, sir." Viktor was just glad they'd finally be doing something other than sit in the base all day.
"Report to the quartermaster for supplies, you'll be getting some special things for this mission. "His tone remained stern. Viktor was glad to salute and be rid of him.
"What the hell are they preparing us for? An entire army?" Sergei groaned as he loaded the RPG rockets into the BTR.
"That ammunition will come in handy, you should know this as my assistant." Kilment snapped at him.
Sergei looked at him and said. "Yes, but I have to carry the things that you get to shoot. Its not fair."
"Shut up and do your job." There was no arguing with the grenadier.
Tomas sat nearby, looking through the book of phrases they'd all been given to help communicate with locals. The language was very different from Russian and as such, many in the squad found it hard to pronounce.
"Who the fuck invented this cursed tongue...?" He quietly muttered while flipping through the pages.
Luka agreed with him. "I hope to god we'll never have to actually learn it."
Alina carried several sacks of strange coins into the BTR. "Eh sergeant, what are these things anyways?"
"Special Region currency, we collected it from the soldiers we captured. Command says it'll be useful for negotiating with the locals." Viktor had been briefed by the quartermaster.
Igor walked by carrying a crate of supplies. He looked at Viktor. "Are we getting air power on this?"
"Yes, but its limited. The base can only field a few planes in the air for the moment."
Luka turned his head. "If we've got air power, why are we doing reconnaissance in the first place? Can't we just send a plane to do that?"
"They want us to secure a safe route through, they're weary of insurgents hiding from aerial recon." His voice didn't have the usual confidence in it. Viktor himself wasn't too happy about this.
"Viktor, did you piss anyone off at high command?" There was a bit of humor in Igor's tone.
"Not anymore than usual... Are we ready to go yet?"
Demian spoke up. "Yes, Igor just finished loading in our last crate."
Finally, we can go do something. "Alright, everyone into the BTR. Let's get out of this place already."
The BTR rolled out the gates of Oryol Base and onto the expanse of open ground. Viktor ordered the driver to head north, a path that would lead them to the city of Bellnahgo. He then settled into his seat and surveyed the surroundings through his view slits.
They sat in silence for about an hour before Viktor spotted something. It was a settlement, too small to be Bellnahgo, and maybe housing a hundred or so people judging from the structures. Perhaps we can gather some information on the local geography from them. He ordered the driver to pull into the village.
Entering the village, they found that everything was quiet. It looked as if they village was abandoned. Either that or they're hiding. The BTR rolled to a stop at the center of the village. Viktor and his squad dismounted to take a closer look.
"Spread out, don't enter any houses yet." The squad members nodded in confirmation and did as he ordered, looking around.
Viktor approached the town's well and casually peered into it. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it, so that wasn't a reason for the town's apparent emptiness. There also weren't signs of any battles here.
Tomas came up to him. "Sergeant, I don't think we should stay here long."
"Why's that?"
"Because something must have driven these people away and I don't want to be here when it comes back." His voice showed no signs of joking.
"Your concerns are noted."
Tomas walked away, leaving Viktor to his thoughts. Maybe the villagers had fled because the fleeing Imperial Army told them to. It would make sense, but Viktor didn't take the Imperials to be all that caring for their citizens. They must be hiding.
The creaking of a door brought him out of his musings. Viktor snapped his rifle towards the noise on instinct. He relaxed his grip when he saw a small child peeking out the door at him. Raising one hand, he waved at the child.
Suddenly, a yell sounded out from his right. A man dressed in armor charged out from a house, sword raised. Caught off guard, Viktor only barely turned in time to unload two bullets into the man's chest. It stopped him dead in his tracks.
Viktor blinked twice at the sudden turn in events. Then, more battle cries were yelled out. Men came charging from the houses around them with weapons.
"Ambush!"
Raising his AK-12, he started to back up to the BTR.
One man went for him, but Viktor put a two-round burst into the ambusher's face.
"Get to the BTR! Stay together!." He shouted out to his squad as they began to mimic his movements.
Another man charged at Viktor with his sword raised high. The first shot narrowly missed the man's torso and impacted the house behind him.
His second shot hit the man's shoulder, but he kept charging like an enraged bull. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Viktor switched his AK-12 to fully automatic.
The man was now in reach of Viktor. Sword raised and ready to strike, it started to come down at his neck. If it impacted Viktor, he knew he wouldn't live long. He had to do something.
Viktor abruptly jammed him rifle's barrel into the man's face, stunning him. The sword stopped its decent as Viktor's opponent stumbled backwards.
Then Viktor held down the trigger.
The Kalashnikov barked as its power was unleashed by a simple press. Blood splattered onto the ground as the man's head was obliterated by 5.45×39mm bullets. A corpse soon dropped onto the soil.
Viktor tried to gain a bearing on his surroundings. The rest of his squad had made it to the BTR and were unleashing hell onto their ambushers.
That was all the time he got. Viktor found himself being tackled by an enemy soldier. Back to the ground, Viktor had to grab the man's wrist to prevent a dagger from entering his face. Thinking quickly, he used one hand to jam his fingers into his ambusher's left eye.
Jolting back in pain, the man allowed Viktor to shove him off himself. Viktor didn't let the soldier react before he shoved the dagger through its owner's jugular.
Standing, Viktor gasped from the fight. He picked up his AK-12 and looked around. There were maybe twenty men dead on the ground and a couple more wounded. His squad looked to be fine. Luka was bandaging an injury on Kilment's arm, nothing major. No casualties.
"Kilment, Alina, round up the wounded." He was tired as he spoke. They immediately began to pull wounded men off the ground and put them kneeling in front of the BTR.
Viktor climbed on top of the BTR and opened up his language book. Looking up a few phrases, he then held up his Kalashnikov. Pressing the trigger, he let a few bullets fly into the air. The noise it generated rang out through the village.
"Attention all! Out of house!" His speech was basic and had a heavy accent, but it got across the point.
Men, women, and children began to shuffle out of the houses. They looked away from the corpses and wounded men. Viktor looked around for anyone with some sort of rank.
"Who in charge?!"
Some of the villagers stepped away, revealing a man with graying hair. The man limped forward using a walking stick.
"I am the elder here."
Viktor hopped off the BTR and went up to the man. "Any other soldier?"
"You've killed all the Imperial warriors here."
"You know soldier plan attack?" Viktor glared him in the eyes.
"They had been waiting here for a few days, anticipating your arrival."
"You let soldiers stay in village?" Once again, Viktor's accusatory gaze sat upon the old man.
The old man met Viktor's glare. "We are citizens of the Saderan Empire. As citizens, it is our obligation to house the Empire's soldiers. We were doing our duties."
Viktor gave him one last mean look before turning away. He switched back to Russian and addressed the squad. "Gather up all your dropped gear, we're leaving this cursed place."
"Sergeant, what about the wounded fighters?" It was Demian who brought up the question.
Viktor looked towards the men gathered on their knees.
"We can't bring them with us..." He tried to think of another solution. "Letting them go will only mean they'll ambush another squad..."
"Sergeant, you don't mean to..." Luka trailed off from his thought.
"Get the children inside their houses, they don't need to see this."
Igor nodded grimly and began to shout at the villagers with his language book.
"Tomas, provide the prisoners with blindfolds."
The BTR once more rolled across the Special Region as they made their way north. Viktor got onto the radio to contact command.
"Command, this is Shapka-213, do you receive? Over."
"Receiving you loud and clear, Shapka-213. Do you have something to report? Over."
"Be advised, insurgents may be using local villages to hide in and conduct ambushes. We encountered an ambush just recently, no casualties. Over."
"Understood, Shapka-213. Continue with caution. Over."
Learning away from the radio, he looked around at his squad. Moral was at an all time low. He could see Sergei praying silently, Tomas in deep thought, Luka muttering something to himself over and over again, and Alina shifting uncomfortably in her sleep. The only two who weren't visibly affected were Igor and Kilment.
Viktor sat back in his seat and sighed. He was tired, very tired. Thinking over that situation again and again, Viktor took the option he thought was best. Letting them go would mean another squad ambushed. It meant a potential Russian casualty that he would be responsible all because he showed compassion to the enemy. An enemy that would not show the same compassion to him.
He'd made his choice. In the end, there were no right choices.
Reviews:
Supreme Supra: Yeah. I only have the 'Little Green Men' on my old phone but because I can't extract them manually, I was forced to screenshot the chapters, which I explained it in my A/N in Chapter 1.
kasrkinsquadtrooper: Do you realize that I'm just one person right?
EvilTheLast: What do you expect? Do you think the world and Russia's people would be quiet down once they found out that Russian government had a Gate like in Japan?
gyroxydite: No problem. I enjoyed reading this one and it inspired me to write my own Gate fanfiction, but in a crossover.