Day Ten

Southern Outskirts of Chernobog, Ursus

4:00 PM

"Holy shit, that's huge!" Steve cries out as they slowly meander towards the city on wheels. Lu himself is awestruck at the scale of it all...imagine putting all parts of Moscow or St. Petersburg or any large Russian city on basically a flat multi-wheeled chassis on steroids. He can't even comprehend the sheer complexity of building one of these as well as how to move it; and that's coming from a member of an organization that regularly deals with the paranormal.

The truck had taken the long route around the city towards the southern part (they had approached from the north) where the target was. The "fire team" of SWEEP (he coined it that since Scavenger, Platinum, Red and Manticore were the ones who were going in) were all staring over the schematics of the municipal offices and its surroundings where the archives were located. The "support team" that consisted of the only (?) two males (Chu-Ko-Nu and Quincy) were ordered to wait near the offices with the SCP trio and Firewatch.

Should be simple, in theory.

There are so many unknown variables. For what he could gleam from newspapers and their conservations, the situation in Chernobog is reminiscent of Fallujah: chaotic with no resemblance of law and order after Reunion took over. Surprisingly, there was no mention of Ursine troops even attempting to retake the city...wonder why. But that meant that Reunion would be all over the place.

Who am I kidding, I'm not the one who's going in there..., thought Lu. But when shit hits the fan...yeah.

5:00 PM

500 feet from Southern Municipal Office Building, about 2 km into Chernobog

It has taken almost an hour to get the truck into a secluded spot beside the rubble of a collapsed building then five minutes for Red to scout out the area and come back with a report: all clear on the streets. This area (or what's left of it judging from the burnt out husks of buildings and...oh God, giant Originium crystals) is not filled with Reunion, surprisingly.

For now.

"Well, watch our backs," orders Scavenger as the four female SWEEP members leaps out of the truck and proceed silently towards the offices with a plan. Chu gets out of the truck, unslung his repeating crossbow and walks towards the back. Lu also jumps out; his M16 at the ready. The rest are also preparing to come out to either stretch their legs or to help in securing the area.

"Damn, you're packing heat, eh?" remarks Chu as Lu and Firewatch spreads out and surveys the area around the truck...carefully, of course. Just because the area's clear doesn't mean that it will stay that way. "Don't go too far, we don't want to have to fetch you again," Chu reminds them.

"Yeah, yeah; we got that," retorts Lu back.

"By the way, where did you get that gun? In fact, I see you have another gun as well. Do you even know how to use them?"

"I do, thank you. As for how I got them...my...organization issued it to me," Lu replied carefully. He immediately takes in the quasi-Soviet style three-story concrete block that are the offices. He could make out the fire team entering the front doors. So far, so good.

"Okay...anyway, looks like this might be a quiet evening," contemplates Chu.

"Great...you just jinxed us," Lu moans. "Our Lt. would always say to never think any mission is too easy..."

5:02 PM

Outside Repository 3 of Governmental Archives

This building has seen carnage and death, Scavenger thinks as she takes in the blood splatters and scorch marks from both Cherno-cocktails and Arts on the gray concrete walls. The bodies of the poor (or not poor depending on your perspective) employees that used to roam this building are now gone, presumed to have been piled up somewhere. She hopes someone did survive but knowing how fanatic Reunion is, not likely.

Anyways, thank whoever was looking down at this whole mess without doing anything for the small allowance of locating Repository 3 on the ground floor so that they don't also have to clear out the upper floors. This means that this retrieval will be less difficult than imagined...

They now arrive at a reinforced door that was broken down by what seemed to be sledgehammer blows. Well, it may get slightly more difficult than imagined...

Scavenger takes point, blade ready to strike at any lurkers that somehow evaded Red. Manticore follows her inside while Red and Platinum stands guard outside.

The repository smells of paper piled up for too long with a hint of tobacco smoke. Beige and blocky computers lined the walls; most smashed in by rioters and the empty spaces indicating those that were looted. Five rows of rusty green cabinets aligned themselves like soldiers in formation; dents and scrapes galore. The target item was in Cabinet 24 of Row 3...found it.

She tries the drawer but it's locked. No problem, the lock looks thin and weak; thus easily opened.

Scavenger kneels down and gets to work on opening the lock. She takes out a small pouch that contains the tools of the trade: a spray can of lock lubricant, three tension wrenches of different sizes and a variety of rakes and picks.

Judging from the condition of the lock, she must first get rid of the rust to turn the lock, so she sprays the lubricant into the keyway. Then she takes one of the wrenches, inserts the longer part into the lock then turns it side to side.

Finding that the lock turns anti-clockwise, she then grabs a pick and gets to slowly and carefully finding the sweet spots and lifting the pins towards the shearline...after ten or twenty seconds...click.

The drawer slides open to reveal a... briefcase. It's made out of hard black plastic and has two metal clamps closing the lid shut. There seems to be a white logo on top of it but it's smudged and faded now. Scavenger takes out the briefcase; preparing to ope-

"Scav, we're blown! Get the hell out of there! It's a bloody trap!" her intercom blared with the sound of gunfire...which they were hearing. "I don't know how, but they were expecting us!"

Right now.

Well, this has gotten more difficult than imagined..., Scavenger thinks while grabbing the briefcase as she and her team runs out of the offices into the warming up warzone that was brewing outside...

Author's Notes: This is technically Sunday according to in-game time. Anyways, I feel this may be a bit too short as I had homework to do as well as making the deadline. But fear not, for there is about to be a lot of chaos in the next part!

UnderpaidMook