Chapter One
The Vault was a shockingly misleading name. Given its title, one would expect it to be a massive storage facility for secret weapons or the USA's supply of money, but no, it was just a retirement home for former CIA agents. Right now, an entire SEAL team and Task Force 141's Bravo team was raiding this retirement home. Section would have thought it was overkill, but given the context of the situation, it made sense. Captain Sakamoto checked the door to the room they were after before grabbing the handle.
"On three." The surprisingly British sounding man stated. "One, two, three." Sakamoto flung open the door, the soldier and two sailors swung into the room. Inside sat a single aged man in a wheelchair. He was very old, and very angry, as evidenced by his response to the soldiers, specifically Harper.
"Safety's on dipshit." he stated, not acknowledging the fact that two assault rifles and the largest conventional shotgun possible were all aimed at him.
"Frank Woods, we have reason to believe that known terrorist Raul Menedez paid you a visit today." Section stated. "What did he say."
"Better cooperate, Raul Menendez is-" Harper began before Woods cut him off.
"I already know that dipshit." Woods spat. "I'm in a fucking retirement home, not a goddamn POW Camp, I've been in one though. Anyway, yeah, David, you're man visited today, so did this chick. Heh, been so many fucking years since I've seen Arisato."
"You knew Minako Arisato?" Sakamoto asked.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she had a crush on me in Berlin. She mentioned you by the way, Captain." Woods stated. "Said you two ain't done yet."
"Figures." Sakamoto stated. "Mason, I know you and Woods have this uncle-nephew thing going on, I'll leave the questioning to you."
"Sounds good, thanks, Captain." Section acknowledged.
"Call me Sakamoto, Ryuji, or Skull, I'm sure we'll be working together more in the future." Sakamoto stated before guiding Harper out of the room.
"Please, tell us anything you know about Menendez, anything helps." Section asked.
"Alright, David, but I'm starting from the beginning." Woods stated. "This all began in eighty six, just a few years after all that shit with Bell."
"Cmon, I need help!" Alex Mason yelled, smashing the glass of the burning truck with a shovel. The mercenary who supposedly held an interest in Woods' captor arrived, trying to smash the glass with his Type 64 before the man inside the truck died.
"He is already gone." Jonas Savimbi stated. "Let us not end up like him." Savimbi gave a machete to Mason and the mercenary, a man by the name of Junpei Iori. Supposedly, this man was a Japanese soldier representing the interests of a private organization possessing a powerful artifact that they believe should not fall into the wrong hands.
"Let's get to it." Iori stated, racking the slide to his rifle. Mason and Iori climbed onto the side of Savimbi's vehicle as the mortars stopped firing.
"Mason, I'll be providing close air support for this mission, help out Savimbi and we figure out where Woods is." Hudson stated. "I'm not sure we can trust Irori, keep an eye on him."
"His story adds up, let's give him the benefit of the doubt." Mason stated.
"You can trust us, we're after what Menendez bought from the Soviets, which were given to them by a Japanese defector." Iori stated. "Our interests line up with yours."
"Let's just make sure you can handle this." Mason stated.
"The mortars have stopped." Savimbi noted. A horde of enemy soldiers rushed to the convoy. "Here they come, here they come my brothers! Fight, my brothers!" Mason leapt off the armored vehicle, spraying his FAL at any enemies he found ahead of them. The vast majority of the MPLA forces were wielding machetes, so they were cut down easily. The real problem was the mortars, which were firing again, aiming to destroy the convoy.
"Mason, Iori, target the mortar crews!" Savimbi ordered. Iori softly chuckled.
"Don't have to tell me twice." Iori stated. Running to flank one of the crews, Mason and Iori found a supply of mortar shells, taking some, Iori ran to a mortar crew to the right, mason taking one to the left. What he did was obvious. Mason activated the blasting cap on his mortar shell and tossed it at the crew, blowing them to pieces in a single blast. Looking towards Iori's direction showed something more exciting, Iori using his rifle like a baseball bat to beat the last member of the crew to death. Woods certainly would like this kid. Then came the T-34s, Hudson handled those, but a complication arose in the form of technicals with mounted DSHK machine guns. Naturally, Mason shot the drivers, it was a bit of habit he had in dealing with trucks. Soon enough, Hudson took out the rest of the T-34s at the cost of his guns. Mason and Iori climbed back on the armored vehicle.
"OUR JOURNEY TO VICTORY HAS BEGUN, DEATH TO THE MPLA!" Savimbi yelled, firing his FAL into the crowd of fleeing MPLA militants. Mason joined in, cutting down the remnants of the MPLA, as did Iori. The pair jumped off the vehicle, approaching Hudson from just below him.
"You killed a lot of men today, Hudson." Savimbi stated.
"Where's our man?" Hudson asked, getting straight to the point.
"The MPLA is not yet defeated, that is a very dangerous rescue, my friend." Savimbi stated. "He's being held on the Cubango River, by a Nicaraguan gun runner. He may already be dead." They ignored the last part, flying off to the vast unknown where they would find their man.
The smell never escaped Mason's lungs. Those bodies were weeks old, and had clear signs of torture. It was a lot for Mason and Hudson, even more so for Iori, who rushed to vomit off the side of the boat.
"Woods? You in here brother?" Mason asked, concerned about his friend. Mason found him sat on a crate, elevated over his dead and dying comrades. Mason grabbed him, snapping Woods awake, who immediately grabbed Mason's neck, letting go moments after realizing who it was.
"What'd they do him, Hudson?" Mason asked as he walked woods out of the container. A hind arrived as they left the container, attempting to fire on the soldiers with it's machineguns. Mason rushed to one of the TVMs, firing the disposable missile at the chopper, sending it crashing to the boat, capsizing it, beaching Mason, Woods, Hudson, and Iori. The group got up, rushing to the jungle for safety.
"Every MPLA foot soldier is gonna be in the area after that." Hudson groaned.
"Yeah I'm pretty sure a massive explosion would attract just a little attention." Iori sarcastically quipped. Everyone chose to ignore him as they approached a destroyed house where people were being trained. No, not regular people, children. They were employing child soldiers. As sickening as it was, they had to ignore it, choosing instead to sneak through the house and into the tall grass to escape the MPLA. The team came across a radio tower, sending Mason to it to avoid detection. Inside the radio tower was a man sitting at a radio, speaking in spanish. Mason aimed a Browning Hi-Power at him.
"Listen to me right now. You're going to tune the radio to-" Mason was cut off by the man punching the radio, rendering it unusable. The man turned to face him, cockily smiling at Mason.
"You are going to kill me, si?" he asked. A soldier entered the room, a Cuban soldier.
"Still nothing from the search parties." he stated, before raising his rifle after noticing Mason. Soldiers rushed in, all aiming at Mason. Mason grabbed the man and pressed his handgun to the back of his head.
"Noone moves or this fucker gets it." Mason spat. The soldiers continued to move.
"The American told you not to move." The man calmly stated.
"Shut up." Mason hissed.
"He thinks he is in control, but he is not." the man stated, pulling a grenade out of his pocket.
"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Mason yelled, knocking the grenade away. Mason grabbed his handgun, aiming to kill the man, but only grazing his eye instead. The grenade detonated, sending Mason flying out of the house. Mason got up and ran back to his team.
"The radio broke, didn't get a call in, we're fucked!" He yelled.
"Absolutely perfect." Junpei groaned. "Wait, was it a Spanish speaking guy? Calling someone in Russian?"
"Yeah, why?" Mason asked as he helped put Woods into cover.
"That's Menendez." Junpei confirmed. "Was he talking to a woman over the radio?"
"I think so, I couldn't hear clearly. There definitely was a Russian man though." Mason stated.
"Oh crap, I think he may be in cahoots with Perseus." Iori mused.
"Bullshit, Adler killed Perseus years ago!" Hudson responded. Iori sighed.
"Perseus isn't a person, it's an idea. Much like the legend himself, Perseus is not a man, but a meme passed down from generation to generation. You kill one Perseus, another radical will take his place." Iori sighed. "Perseus can't die, it will only be born anew."
"This isn't important right now, we need to fend off the incoming MPLA." Mason spat. The two nodded, and they did just as they were told, firing at the MPLA as they slowly made their way back to the shoreline. As they got there, a Hind arrived.
"Damnit, why'd it have to end like this?" Hudson spat. But the Hind didn't kill them, instead targeting the Cuban and MPLA soldiers attacking them, cutting them all to the ground. The chopper landed, revealing the one and only Jonas Savimbi.
"Haha, did you think I would forget about you, huh?" Savimbi stated. Hudson put Woods in the chopper.
"Well, we got him." Hudson stated, putting his sunglasses on. Just as he did, a 9mm gunshot rang out, hitting Hudson in the arm. Mason turned to the source, a soldier, who died just as quickly as he shot. Facing the chopper, Mason saw the source of the gunshot, Frank Woods.
"You can't kill me."
A/N: Here we are: the true Skullverse part four. Glad to have this one out, this is going to be a major turning point in the story. And yes, Junpei is working with the CIA in this one. Fun fact, that was actually one of my original ideas for this. I had an idea for Junpei joining the JSDF and being sent to the CIA as a sign of good faith, but it didn't go anywhere. I decided to reuse it, since it would make sense, given Minako's presence in the series. Well, I hope you're excited to see where this goes. Hope you enjoyed and have a great day!