Venom Coursing

Chapter 1 – The Mission

April 4th 2010

Michael waited at the terminal of Moscow airport, according to what Bulgarin had told him, there was supposed to be someone there to meet him. Just then, he saw a large man about 6'6 with a very muscular build sitting on one of seats with his arms crossed. The man had short hair in a military cut and brown eyes; he looked in Michael's direction and then got up and approached him.

"Are you Michael Hansen?" the man asked.

"Yes that's me." Michael replied

"I'm Major Kerenzhikov, General Bulgarin sent me to get you." The man said.

"Alright, let's get going." Michael said simply as he picked up his carry on bag and followed Kerenzhikov to a waiting car outside. Kerenzhikov opened the back seat for Michael, who nodded at him in thanks, entered, and sat down. In the front passenger seat, Kerenzhikov told the driver to go...

Throughout the ride, it had been quite silent; neither the driver nor Kerenzhikov were particularly chatty, so Michael was pretty much left alone with his thoughts. It wasn't long before they arrived at the Kremlin or more accurately the Russian ministry of defence.

"We've arrived." Kerenzhikov announced.

Michael nodded, got out of the car and followed Kerenzhikov to an office, which read "General Vladimir Borisovich Bulgarin". They went in and saw Bulgarin at his desk as Kerenzhikov stood to stiff attention.

"Mr. Michael Hansen, I've brought him as you ordered sir." Kerenzhikov reported

"Ah hello again Mr. Hansen. I trust your flight was enjoyable." Bulgarin greeted Michael in a friendly manner. "Alright! Let's get down to business. I'm afraid we don't have much time..."

Bulgarin simply nodded his head at Kerenzhikov who turned on a projector, which showed a compound with one large building and some smaller ones and then spoke. "Alright, this is the facility I mentioned to you before. As I said earlier, it's under the control of a rogue faction of the Russian Army. They have stolen top secret data for a biological weapon which is being developed without government authorization."

"The facility is an old one but as befits its status as a laboratory developing top secret weapons it has a formidable security system..." Bulgarin explained as he showed diagrams of the buildings and explained their security systems.

"Any questions, Mr. Hansen?" Bulgarin asked Michael after he was done explaining.

"What exactly is the data, I'm supposed to look for?" Michael asked.

"Like I told you, data on a biological weapon." Bulgarin replied

"Biological weapon?" Michael blinked.

"Yes. Its code named the SURTUR virus; it has over 10 strains and the data contains 2 strains of the virus." Bulgarin said.

"But I thought biological weapons were prohibited by international law?"

"Yes, but they are just declarations not actual treaties my boy." Bulgarin replied with a humourless smile. "And besides, I'm certain whoever it is that's supporting the faction has a plausible loophole along with the money to get around those declarations."

(Figures...) Michael thought cynically then he asked, "What's the insertion method?"

"We'll drop you in a location near the facility, from there you will have up to 10 hours to gain access to the facility, retrieve the data, and reach the extraction point." Bulgarin replied.

"What exactly does this rogue faction want?" asked Michael

"They want to overthrow the government and re-establish the Soviet Union." Bulgarin replied quickly. "Anymore questions?"

Michael shook his head "None at the moment."

"Good, you'll depart in two days at 0700. Kerenzhikov will escort you to your lodgings." Bulgarin concluded nodding his head at Kernenzhikov.

"If you will come with me." Kernzhikov said as Michael followed him outside.

Kerenzhikov drove Michael to an apartment building not far from Red Square. As they drove Michael looked around an ancient city untouched by the Second Impact. A city that was still synonymous with the revival of Russia after centuries of domination by the Mongols and the Tartars. It had been the capital of Muscovite Russia for centuries until Tsar Peter I moved it to St. Petersburg and the Bolsheviks eventually moved the capital back to Moscow.

Moscow was still a city recovering from the economic disasters of 1992 and 1993 and the horrendously high crime rate was very evident. There were still signs of decay in the city, which was only just beginning to heal from the scars left by the corruption and the 'gangster economy' under the Yeltsin regime.

They soon arrived at an apartment building, and Kerenzhikov led Michael to an apartment on the 3rd floor. It was a small apartment, but Michael did not object since he was definitely not expecting any fancy accommodations.

"This is your apartment for the duration of your stay here. Your mission begins in two days; I will be there to get you." Kerenzhikov said.

"Alright." Michael replied as he put his bag down as Kerenzhikov turned and left the room.

April 8th 2010 22:00

Michael cautiously went through the tunnel he was told of during the short briefing before heading out. It was an old underground train tunnel that was lead him into the facility, and getting there was no picnic, especially as a few times he was either nearly detected or crushed by an incoming train. Fortunately he was able to avoid the security cameras as well as the trains without any incident.

It wasn't long until he reached the station that was connected to the facility. The station was littered with a bunch of old storage crates and barrels and the overhead lights were old and the overhead lights gave off only a dim amount of light. A couple of guards stood in front of the station's elevator, both armed with old, but fully functional assault rifles. They were wearing standard Russian Army uniforms, probably to avoid any suspicion from any of the passengers for the trains that passed by.

Michael hid behind crates and observed the guards. He could see that these men were taking their duties seriously and were ready for an attack at anytime. Suddenly one of the overhead lights to his left made a short crackling sound and went out.

The guards looked in the direction the light had gone out in, but after a few minutes their attention drifted back to their original position. Seeing his opportunity, Michael quietly made his way to the darkened area. When he reached it, he pressed his back against the wall, crouched down, and slowly made his way to the front using the shadows as cover.

As soon as he was facing one of the guards from the side, Michael drew his M9, carefully pointed it at the guard's head and pulled the trigger. The man immediately dropped to the ground unconscious. The other guard turned as his partner fell before getting hit in the forehead by another dart shot from Michael's gun and then dropped to the ground like a stone.

As soon as Michael was sure that the guards were asleep, he searched the guards' bodies but only found some ammo for his M9, a couple of bandages, and some half finished rations. Michael inspected the guards' rifles but saw that those had a user identification equipped to them so he just left the guns with there owners and then pressed the button for the elevator and got in once it arrived.

Michael then remembered his instructions; the data could be accessed from a terminal in a lab in the Sub Basement 1. He punched in the button for the floor and the elevator took him to the floor. Now the only problem was getting to the lab without detection. After slipping past a couple of guards he finally found one alone and near a closet as well. Sneaking carefully behind the man, Michael knocked him out and quickly stripped him of his uniform and put it on. Michael looked around the corridor to make sure the coast is clear, and then promptly dragged the unconscious man into the closet, where he promptly shut it and then picked up the mans rifle, which was fortunately not equipped with a user ID.

(It's a good thing this one was wearing a mask.) Michael thought as he put the guard's mask on. (Getting to the lab shouldn't be a problem now. I just hope I find the right terminal to use.)

April 8th 2010 23:00

Michael had to admit so far he was lucky; he had just reached the correct terminal and was currently downloading the data. But while searching, he found some things that just weren't right and didn't fit with what Bulgarin had told him, but there was no time to think about it now since the download was nearly complete.

When it had finished, Michael removed the disk, but as he did he heard an alarm and over the P.A. it could be heard "Intruder Alert, conduct security sweep of the Sub Basement 1 area. The intruder may be dressed as one of our men, proceed with caution." This was the signal to Michael that he MUST leave, but he knew he couldn't leave the way he came.

(They must have found one of the guards I knocked out.) Michael thought as he put the disk into his pocket. (That, or someone sold me out.)

Michael wasted no time in getting to the elevator, and after killing a few guards who had been unfortunate enough to be riding the elevator down to the floor he was on, Michael immediately got in and selected the supply depot floor.

As soon as Michael arrived on the chosen floor, he immediately made his way through to the garage on the floor. Luck was still on his side as he discovered a large supply truck that had just finished being inspected and was preparing to leave. Making sure that the inspectors weren't looking in his direction; Michael ran towards the truck and leaped into its trunk before hiding under a large tarp that had been carelessly thrown onto the floor. He then heard the words "Okay go!" from the outside and the vehicle drove out of the garage.

Michael waited until they were a reasonable distance from the base before he jumped out and promptly disposed of his uniform. With a sigh of relief that the mission had turned out successful, he made his way to the extraction point.

April 9th 2010 00:10

Michael knew his time was rather short, but he had just made it to the extraction point in time. There he saw Kerenzhikov and a squad of Spetznaz with him.

"We've been waiting for you, Hansen." Kerenzhikov said.

"I have the data, but tell me something first." Michael said in reply. "I overheard some conversations at the base and I've also looked at some other data. This group that you hired me to steal from wasn't a rogue faction, was it?"

Then he heard his codec beep and Bulgarin's face appeared on the codec screen

"How perceptive of you Mr. Hansen." He said with a grin.

"What the hell is going on here, Bulgarin?" demanded Michael knowing that even if Bulgarin answered him, he wasn't going to like what he heard.

"Well we required the data for a certain project that the government might object to, so, like I said before, I needed someone to get it for me who would give me plausible deniability if something wrong. Now if you would just hand over the data peacefully we might yet pay you." Bulgarin said.

"No!" Michael said coldly.

"What?"

"I refuse to give you the data!" Michael said knowing that it was obvious that they would kill him even if he did give them the data.

"How unfortunate." Bulgarin then switched the frequency to Kerenzhikov's. "Kerenzhikov, eliminate Hansen and take the data from him."

"Understood, sir." Kerenzhikov said and then turned to his men. "Kill him, but do not use automatic weaponry. We cannot afford to harm the data."

Kerenzhikov and his men fired, but Michael rolled behind a rock and fired with his AN-94 cutting down Kerenzhikov's men, but Kerenzhikov rolled towards the rock and grabbed at Michael and threw a punch at him, which Michael easily dodged. Michael then executed two punches while turning his body, and then slammed an uppercut right into Kerenzhikov's jaw. Kerenzhikov stumbled a little and then spat out a little blood before trying to attack again.

Michael saw through his enemy's attempt and leaped up and grabbed Kerenzhikov's head between his legs and then slammed him into the ground followed by an elbow drop to Kerenzhikov's head.

Kerenzhikov lay defeated on the floor but then Michael heard what sounded like clapping coming from a single person. He turned and looked at the remaining Spetznaz soldiers who were parting as someone came up to the front. Michael's eyes widened as he saw who it was.

"It's you!" Michael shouted as he recognized Shade, who now stood in front of him. "Shade!"

"Not bad, Hansen, not bad at all." Shade said with a grin. "I was a little surprised when I found out you survived my little bonfire. It seems whenever we meet each other, someone dies by my hand in your place. Too bad there's no one for that this time.

Shade wasted no further word and begins his attack with a flying kick which Michael dodged followed by then surge of dark energy which he threw at Michael with his free hand. As Michael leaped out of the way of the attack, the pocket in which he held the data disk was ripped open causing the disk to fall onto the ground. Ignoring the disk, Michael leaped into the air and then unleashed an aerial spin kick, which struck Shade back against a large rock.

"Impressive." Shade commented as he got up. "You're not a lion in battle, but at least you're no longer an insect. I find crushing insects to be terribly boring. Let's see if that luck of yours will hold out."

Suddenly Shade seemed to vanish and before Michael could blink, he felt a large impact as Shade's fist struck him hard in the stomach. Shade then lifted Michael up by the neck as if he weighed nothing at all and carried him over to a cliff.

"Farewell." He said and then without any other word Shade hurled Michael over the cliff and to the rocks below.

Shade then heard a groan behind him and saw Kerenzhikov get up from the ground. Shade then picked up the data disk and then handed it to Kerenzhikov.

"I believe this is yours." Shade said simply.

"Excellent work, Shade." Kerenzhikov replied as he took the disk. "I shall ensure that you get a bonus for this."

"As long as you remember to pay me." Shade said and then glanced back at the cliff he had thrown Michael from. (I wonder if he'll survive this one. If he does, he might prove to be much more interesting prey to kill then I anticipated.)

TBC