Vladivostok, Russia, Asia
Adrian slammed a fresh magazine into M7S sub-machinegun as he looked around the hotel room, Amari, and himself along with a handful of her best men arrived ahead of schedule. Now they were prepping their gear waiting for the Russian operatives to arrive save Amari who was already decked out in her battle armor. For the sake of the operation she wouldn't be taking part in the direct assault per se, her armor stood out far too much and was the exact opposite of subtle. So unless things got dicey, she'd be providing support from the rooftops; as great a fighter as she was they needed the element of surprise, and as Adrian had been told Amari was one hell of a strategist. Adrian pulled the SOCOM from its holster slightly pulling the slide back to check it worked smoothly. With time to spare he figured he might as well get to know the soldiers he'd be working with, despite his time with Overwatch he wasn't the most sociable with others, however when you go into the field you need to know that the man watching your back is someone you can trust.
Walking up to the nearest Overwatch soldier Adrian stuck out his hand, "Lance Corporal Kasporov, doubt we've been introduced."
The man turned a faint look of surprise upon his face, "Heh we all know who you are, though you get results so I guess I can't hold much of a grudge, Gunnery Sergeant Vickers." The man known as Vickers gave a shake back.
"You got any clue what we're walking into Gunny?"
"Know about as much as you do, supposedly these Russians are holding all the intel to make sure we don't clear the outpost ourselves." Vickers snorted.
"Eh what can you do." Adrian murmured, "Though I'm curious if you don't mind me askin', how long you served with Overwatch?"
Vickers pondered the thought in his head before answering, "Probably going on about a year now, most of us here worked under Lieutenant Amari when she was the security chief at Helix Industries and followed her when she came to Overwatch."
"Damn that's some loyalty."
"Before Helix I spent ten years in the service, in that time I can count on one hand the number of superiors I genuinely respected. When I was offered a high-ranking position in Helix security, I figured at least the pay would be better, figured my commanding officer would just be another fresh out of the academy officer that's still wet behind the ears. Instead I was positioned under Lieutenant Amari, in the six years I spent under her command I've never once doubted her orders. It's rare to find a commander like that y'know?"
Adrian nodded, when he became an ODST it wasn't uncommon to be passed around depending on the situation, sometimes even ONI would step in but those were rare for his squad. He'd seen dozens of different officers and while he was lucky enough to say he never truly despised any of them for their incompetence, some were clearly commanders of an entirely different caliber. So willing to go above and beyond that they could inspire even the glummest, most cynical son of a bitch in the platoon. While he hadn't spent enough time with Amari to get a true understanding of her character, looking at her now he could see many admirable traits in a leader. She was going over plans with her subordinates, taking their questions in stride, admitting when one of them had a better idea and incorporating it into the plan. Ranks of course exist for a reason, you don't want some dumb-shit private drawing up the plans, but its always good to get an outside perspective to see things in a new light.
The sounds of the door unlocking caused everyone to tense, Adrian's hand instinctively went to the pistol on his side. As it was pushed open, a group of six walked through carrying large duffle bags, it was likely that these were the Russian operatives but there was no guarantee that their communications were tapped or there was a mole somewhere passing information.
Amari spoke up from her position at the table, a passphrase that was verbally passed through a number of trusted couriers as a means of identification, "O man, take care."
The leader of the group, a slim man with dark cropped hair replied, "What does the deep midnight declare?" The tension in the room noticeably dropped, four soldier behind the man walked past and began to equip their gear, mingling with the Overwatch troops as the leader walked towards the Amari flanked by what Adrian assumed was his right-hand man.
"Apologies, I hope you haven't been waiting long?" The man asked as dropped his duffel bag.
"Not at all, Lieutenant Fareeha Amari." She introduced, turning towards Vickers and Adrian, "This Gunnery Sergeant Vickers, and Lance Corporal Kasporov."
"Sergeant First Class Anton Gregori, this is my second-in-command Junior Sergeant Sasha Vadalia. Now let's get into the details of this operation."
Sergeant Gregori pulled out a small translucent disc which when placed on the table pulled a fully detailed holographic map of the building. "The building itself is two stories including a sizeable basement which is likely where a majority of the weapons are being stashed. Being a former warehouse, it's comprised of wide-open spaces with only a small handful of separate rooms. As far as we could tell, there was anywhere from twenty-five to thirty radicals inside at any given time, but we should operate on the assumption that it's at least thirty." Gregori started out, highlight key points as he briefed the room.
Amari spoke up, "What about weapons? Are they all armed or are some simply enthusiastic protestors, and do we know what kind of gear they're using?"
He shook his head, "We're uncertain, though it seems only handpicked trusted individuals are allowed to deal with the weapons trade so we should expect Talon mercs and radicals looking for a fight. Despite this we should try to use our early element of surprise to bag one or two alive for further interrogation." Winston had outlined a similar train of thought when discussing the plan with Amari and himself, Adrian pushed that thought from his mind as the Sergeant First Class continued, "There's going to be twelve men on the ground, not including Lieutenant Amari on over sight, we'll split into three groups of four with each squad breaching through one of the three entrances. Once the main floor is secured, Alpha squad lead by myself will move onto the second floor, meanwhile Delta squad lead by Gunnery Sergeant Vickers will hold on the first floor to make sure no stranglers escaped. Finally, Zeta squad led by Junior Sergeant Vadalia would move onto secure the basement and check for weapons, ammunition, gear, and anything else noteworthy.
"These precautions are to ensure that Talon doesn't leave and clear out whatever they have stashed, once we get to the building itself expect to go loud. Most of this info has been on a need-to-know basis so the local authorities haven't been alerted, it's likely they already have a dozen moles within their ranks, hence our current operation as opposed to simply rolling in with an APC and cleaning house. The point I'm trying to make is I want this done quick and clean, we can hold off the authorities only if the fighting is done by the time they arrive, we're technically out of our jurisdiction so you understand where I'm coming from." Nodded heads across the room.
"Alright, Adrian you'll be going with the Junior Sergeant, out of everyone in Overwatch you have the most experience in direct action and counter-terrorism ops. If that's alright with you Sergeant First Class?"
He gave an affable nod, "I have no qualms with that, now that the plan settled are there any final questions?" At the answering silence he gave another nod, "All right let's move out, Zeta squad you take point."
They wordlessly walked to the large window located at the end of the room, trying to keep this operation as covert as possible meant a series of unusual steps had to be taken. Obviously one of the most usual was meeting in this hotel room, but as Winston mentioned they didn't want to telegraph their presence; coming in on a dropship or walking through the street in full gear would set off some alarms giving the Talon forces time to escape or destroy whatever incriminating evidence they had.
Lifting the window, they quietly removed the screen placing it inside the room, an old fire escape that lined the building would be their exit. Adrian stepped out onto the rickety fire escape first, a heavy rain had begun pouring outside, muffling the creaking of the rusted metal. Slowly making his way down the metal steps he could feel the others following suit behind him, the end of the fire escape hung a few meters from the ground. Adrian slowly lowered himself before dropping with a quiet thud, water splashing around him as he took a quick look around the back alley. From here it was practically a straight shot to the Talon hideout, a long narrow alley in the dead of night only lit but the lights from passageways leading to the street. The chatter of civilians as they walked past echoed throughout the tight corridor, reports indicated that it was rare for people to walk through here, but they had to be on their guard.
As the final member of Zeta squad landed behind him, Adrian turned to check that they were set, their void black armor blending in with the darkness of the night, not a single sliver of skin was visible under the armor. The only sign that they were actually there was the faint reflection on their NVG from the lights pouring in from the street. Turning back around as he equipped his M7S submachine gun, they began to slowly trek through the alleyway, the heavy rain covering the sound of their footsteps, turning on his VISR the entire world became tinted in a faint green the visibility slightly improving while highlight objects of interest. The atmosphere was one of a hunter stalking it's prey though there was no chase per se it held the same tension, the slow, methodical, crawl as the beast draws ever nearer to its hunt, careful as to not arouse suspicion. As they passed the first path to the main street, Adrian turned his head ever so slightly to the right to catch a glimpse before it passed by. The lights were blinding, each droplet of rain amplifying the commercial district's luminosity, dozens of people walked by every second with the sidewalks bustling with life. Had someone decided to for whatever instance look into the alleyway and focus, truly focus they would see what could only be described as living shadows, or walking nightmares perhaps depending on who you ask.
As they continued further into the alley, their objective could slowly be made out through the darkness, a two-story tall brick building with a long panel of windows along the entirety of the second floor. The interior lights blasted through the windows, a sharp contrast to the night sky above it.
"For an 'abandoned' building it sure looks like its chugging along." One of the troops muttered behind him followed by a harsh shush by Vadalia. Another streak of light was drawn across the alleyway in front of them as they passed the final corridor to the street, Adrian's body froze as he heard voices coming close…closer than just the average pedestrian walking by. Signaling for the rest to fall back against the wall, Adrian pressed his shoulders against the brick of the building to his right.
"Aye man what are we doing here? This place is sketchy as fuck." One of the civilians asked as they came further into the alley, each splashing step telling Adrian how much closer they were coming. If push came to shove, they could just knock them out, but that's already assuming a lot for best case scenario, what if they ran away? They weren't about to open fire on some dumb fucking kids for walking into an alley.
"No man it's good come here, look what I got." The sound of a bag rustling caught his ears as the second voice spoke up, another man.
"Hoooolllyyy shit man," The first man dropped his voice to a whisper, "is that rapture?" Rapture? Adrian hadn't heard of it but it didn't take a genius to put two and two together.
"Yeah, my dealer's prices dropped because of all the influx. Supply and demand baby." The footsteps slowed by still came, Adrian tried to inch his way backwards as quietly as possible to no avail as his foot bumped into a bag of trash, the sounds of glass echoed through the alley. He swore quietly to himself for being so reckless, the footsteps stopped, and Adrian felt his body tense.
"Did you hear that?"
"Probably just some stray cat, look forget it man I wanna get high before we get to the party."
"…Alright, I think we're far enough in." Right at the lip of the back alley the two stopped only a few meters from Zeta squad. They held their breath, it would just take one wrong look to blow their cover, the darkness enveloping them would only last so long against an uncertain mind. The rain kept pouring, the sound echoing inside his helmet like a drum, with a cautious eye he watched as the two young fools opened a small bag. The first voice stuck a finger inside the bag, when he pulled his finger out it was covered in an oddly colored slime, without a moments hesitation the man smeared the gunk around his gums, moaning in ecstasy. The second man followed suit before tossing the now empty bag to join the trash ridden concrete.
"God damn I'll never get tired of that feeling, but fuck man it always feels weird on my teeth." One of them complained.
"Yeah yeah whatever, come on let's get out of here we're late enough for the party already."
Despite the sound of their receding footsteps Adrian didn't let his guard down until the sound of them morphed completely into the commotion of pedestrians getting on with their lives. After he felt confident that the two had moved on completely, he signaled the all clear continuing down the back alley. Stopping by where the men had been standing, he kneeled down gesturing for the others to go on ahead of him, picking up the discarded container he held it up to examine it.
A pair of footsteps stopped by him, crouching down beside him as a female voice spoke up, "Spreading by the day, first phantom spice now this." He turned his head to see Junior Sergeant Vadalia next to him.
"What is it?" He asked her his voice quiet as he tossed the small baggie aside.
They both stood up, continuing to the warehouse, "New drug that hit the streets a few months ago, started out small but reports are coming in from across the globe of it spreading. Seems to be the hot new thing."
"Hmm figured as much, think it's Talon?"
She shook her head, "Not initially, doesn't fit their manifesto of strength through conflict but maybe now they're taking in interest in it to weed out the weak or simply to make some extra cash. No one knows for sure though."
Adrian nodded absent-mindedly; occasionally when hitting an innie base with his squad they'd find a modest drug operation, most sects of the insurrections frowned upon involvement with narcotics but well some just couldn't resist the temptation of money. It was outside his jurisdiction, the UNSC had their own narcotics agency, but he knew the problem was growing as the war progressed, not to anyone's surprise really. Cartels and the like weren't hesitant to take advantage of people's anxiety, prey upon the fear of the Covenant to sell the idea of a world away from reality.
Their conversation didn't continue as they came upon the warehouse, stacking against the door Adrian would be the first one in. They waited in strained silence as the other two squads passed by them like monsters in the night.
"Delta in position."
"Alpha standing by."
Amari's voice broached the comms, "I'm seeing at least seven armed men on the second floor, there's no visibility on the bottom floors."
"Alright considering Talon isn't an amateur group going in silent likely won't work, if they're smart – and they are – then they'll have sensors detecting movement on any of the entrances. Go in loud and fast, take em' by surprise but make sure that at least one lives." Gregori commanded as the soldier opposite of him began to line the door with thin, stick-like explosives. "Is everybody set?" A round of yes-sirs passed over the radio.
"Alright…three…"
Adrian shifted his foot stance, the soldier behind him patted his shoulder letting him know the other man was in position and ready. Across my him Vadalia did the same to the soldier in front of her as the man prepped the detonator.
"Two…"
The rain seemed to fall harder, it seemed more like it was a waterfall, from the inside of his helmet it sounded like roaring rapids were engulfing him.
"One…"
Adrian's finger moved from the side of his gun to resting lightly over the trigger, the first armed combatant he saw would be getting a burst through the leg. As soon as one was down and out he wouldn't have to worry about going for non-lethal shots, its hard to try to show mercy to an enemy whose currently trying to put you in the ground.
"BREACH!" In an orchestrated cacophony the explosives went off around the building like the climax in a bombastic symphony. The door skidded back before landing with a thud, only adding to the echoing detonation. Heading into the building the first a large container laid directly ahead of him, keeping any visual of the rest of the room to a minimum. Gregori said the floors were likely open but didn't seem to account for the fact that such open floors were likely used to store massive containers meaning that anywhere could be a potential vantage point for Talon and the radicals. As he walked to the edge of the container to peek the corner, there was an odd stillness in the air despite their entrance, peeking the corner an armed combatant was lying in wait and just like that the silence was broken.
"CONTACT, SOUTH SIDE!" The merc's gun rattled with a burst of fire. Adrian's split-second movement of his head, a bullet two centimeters off target, and a healthy dose of luck ensured that Adrian wouldn't die such a pathetic death. Behind him he heard Vadalia ordering one of their squad to follow her around the other side, hopefully to flank the man keeping Adrian pinned. Not wanting to wait that long pinned like an animal, he pulled a grenade from his belt and blindly tossed it to where the man was firing. A pop followed by the screams of a man embedded with shrapnel told Adrian het hit his mark, turning the corner it'd seemed his aim was a bit far to the left as the shrapnel wasn't as bad as Adrian had expected. Though it'd work quite well for keeping the man alive, a quick burst to the man's kneecaps dropped him to the ground at which point the soldier behind Adrian promptly restrained him with cuffs.
"You think he'll live?" Adrian asked off-hand as he waited for his partner to secure the target, pops of gunfire could be heard through the building, across the way he could see Vadalia making quick work of a couple goons in her way.
"Sadly, I'll have to think so." The man chuckled with a deep, surprisingly soothing voice, to which Adrian mentally named him Baritone. Keeping watch, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye, a man about to make his way in-between a stack of crates in the center, the key word there being 'about'. A quick pull on the trigger of his M7S dropped the man before he even fully stepped out into the open, feeling a tap on his back he knew it meant Baritone was done. As they made their way through the maze of crates and containers a handful of radicals thought they'd have the upper hand on whoever they came across. But the radicals were cocky, sloppy, arrogant, assumed that no matter what they'd win because they had Talon supporting them, in the end they didn't even have the time to process their failures and Adrian and Baritone put them down like animals.
Above them the sound of shattered glasses followed by yells of surprise told them that Amari had moved on from her observatory position to helping with the direct assault. The key advantage she had was her partial flight capabilities, the ability to quickly zip to the top of a building and then when needed dash across with great speed from rooftop to second story of a building was something that none other than herself could do. The time it would take for regular soldiers to scale a building, cross half a dozen rooftops, then repel could be done in half the time by herself, especially when the warehouse alone in the commercial district.
Baritone and Adrian continued to push to the center of the building meeting no resistance, when they turned past one final crate the space opened up into a wide open space with an enclosed stairwell in the middle hastily surrounded by boxes to provide some form of cover. Looking around the open area, he could see Alpha squad coming from the left, Delta squad directly across from himself, and Vadalia flanking from the right.
Automatic gunfire surprised them as a bullet almost nicked Baritone as Adrian yanked him back by the collar. Choosing an enclosed stairwell meant the only way up or down was through the single door to said stairwell, the problem was compounded by their tightly fortified area, ramshackle as it was it. Backing up a ways; he grabbed a flash bang from his belt and tossed it over the containers blocking his view waiting for the tell-tale pop of the explosion. When he heard the bang he quickly popped out from behind cover utilizing their confusion to push forward. His eye quickly caught a trio of men stumbling out of their cover, with practiced precision he held down the trigger unleashing a torrent of bullets that ripped through them. As the other Talon mercs and radicals turned to face Adrian, surprise evident at his ferocity, Delta and Alpha squads utilized their focus on Adrian to open fire. A few managed to a couple shots in, but were harmlessly deflected off his titanium composite armor, the feeling was akin to being flicked really hard, so in other words…harmless. Surprise turned to horror as Adrian effortlessly ignored their bullets, no one else was able to open fire as most of the men hiding behind the rickety fortifications were shredded by the combined fire of the two squads, a few that managed to survive the assault popped up in an attempted surprise attack only to get shot in the back by Vadlia as she came from behind.
The area quieted save for Amari's fighting upstairs, wasting little time Gregori moved onto the second floor while commanding Vickers to check for stragglers and secure the first floor. As Alpha squad moved to support Amari, Vadalia led the squad to the basement where it was expected hold the most resistance. Use of grenades wasn't a wise idea in a room storing an untold number of weapons, so clearing out the basement would be far harder than the top two floors. Entering the basement was the definition of dingy, even under his helmet he could feel the thickness in the air like a moldy humidity. The further they continued into the basement the more uncertain Adrian became, something was off, he could feel it deep within himself. As they inched through the bottom floor he made sure to check out the surrounding area, sure itself it was littered with armor, crates packed to the brim with weapons, grenades, bombs, basically everything a radical needed to create chaos.
"Amari its Adrian, I've got visuals on weapons being unloaded, handful of other useful supplies for a start-up terrorist group as well."
"Good work, I assume that means the basement is secure?"
He hesitated as he looked around, they covered almost the entire basement but found no sign of anyone.
"Not exactly… It's odd we haven't run into a single person down here." His voice cut as he thought he saw a shadow move in front of him. It seems he wasn't alone as Vadalia held up an open hand, bringing everyone to a disturbed halt. The sound of air brushing by them turned everyone's head at once, the sound of rustling gear put everyone's nerves on edge.
"Somethings not right, Amari we'll need your brute force."
"Shit alright I'm on my way."
The lights around them began to flicker as a strange black mist began to form in front of them, it reminded him of a body trying to break free. At once he remembered where he'd seen this before, at the research facility in Berlin, the one Oxton called Reaper. Eventually the mist began to form a solid form, the flickering lights only aiding in obscuring its true form, though it's gleaming bone-white masked contrasted to the blackness of the rest of it. Long razor liked claws reached into its coat pulling out the same unusual looking shotgun it used last time.
Its voice was like a growl, practically inhuman, though he wouldn't lie that even despite its ridiculous get-up its words didn't send shivers down his spine, "Scream for me."
A/N: And we're back into the fray, that aside how many of you caught the Halo Infinite reveal yesterday? I'm cautiously optimistic but I'd like to see more natural gameplay first before I make any real conclusions. Hope you all enjoy this chapter and reviews are always appreciated. Stay safe everybody!