A/N: Before we go any further, I'd like to give a shout-out to mm-chan! Without her undying support, the world might never have known just how wonderful a story this is! Anyways, read on!
While the other guard was gone, the lieutenant gave a little speech to me:
"Listen, tanker, I understand that you don't want to cooperate. However, if you do give us what we want, then I assure you that the consequences will be less painful to you. Believe me, you do not want to continue with your current course of action. You see, we have ways of getting people to talk, and – as you have just sampled – we can be VERY brutal when people don't cooperate."
During his little spiel, I discovered that the ropes binding me were not as secure as I had originally perceived, so I worked to loosen the ties that bound me, being careful not to arouse the lieutenant's attention.
I felt quite groggy from all the blows I had received, but I still had enough strength to muster through.
Meanwhile, he continued talking:
"Oh, and I wouldn't get my hopes up for your fellow prisoners. See, we knew that they would attempt, and we have prepared accordingly. I'm afraid that our operations will persist for a long time."
"You really think so?" I said.
"Oh, no no no, you're sadly mistaken. See, we don't think, we know! You have no hope of stopping us, you pathetic vermin!"
"How would you know that? Do you actually have a device that measures hope?"
"That is enough out of you! Now, you listen!"
By now though, the alert was stopped and my ropes were suitably undone, so without further talking, I summoned the strength to give the lieutenant a surprise kick and cast off my ropes.
When I was freed, I grabbed my chair and started beating him over the head with it.
I don't know why, but I kept beating him with the chair until it broke.
Naturally, he fell unconscious and was probably dead, but all that mattered to me was that he was unconscious.
With one of my captors out for the count, I grabbed his sidearm – a Nagant revolver.
The Nagant was an antique compared to the Tokarev, but it would do its job for now.
As soon as I grabbed the revolver, the other guy returned.
As he entered the room, he said, "OK lieutenant, the uprising's been suppressed…"
"Suppress this!" I retorted as I took aim with the Nagant.
I shot the guard in the head, killing him instantly.
Afterwards, I checked his body to see if he had anything better than the Nagant revolver.
Fortunately, he had a Tokarev like I did, but it looked like it may have been an older model.
Even so, I was convinced that it would perform similarly to mine.
Having armed myself, I closed the door to the room and locked it so that it would take more time for the bodies to be discovered.
Now that I was free, I needed to escape.
However, before I escaped, I had some business to take care of.
My first order of business was to recover all my equipment.
According to my knowledge, they would either store confiscated equipment in the armory or in its own separate "evidence room".
When in doubt, I just followed any signs that pointed to the armory.
Compared to the room I was being held in, the corridors of the base were better lit.
The corridors were of an austere concrete construction typical of military complexes.
I pressed through this concrete cavern, being careful to check each corner before proceeding.
The base was well-guarded, but I managed to evade most of the security personnel.
At one point, a guard turned around a corner that I was checking and turned in my direction.
I pushed him to the ground and stomped on his neck a couple of times, breaking it.
I didn't have much time to hide the body, so I dragged it away from the intersection a bit.
A little while later, I came to an evidence room.
When I opened the door, I discovered that there was a guard in charge of the evidence room.
I promptly shot him in the head and searched for my equipment.
Luckily, it wasn't too hard to find amongst all the other evidence.
Even better, everything was there: My armor, my sidearm and my supply of anti-tank grenades.
The armor looked beat-up, but I was convinced that it would hold up if things got nasty.
Speaking of arms, I decided that I would need something with more firepower than a Tokarev, so I looked for the armory.
Coincidentally, the armory wasn't too far from the evidence room.
After a little searching though the armory, I found something that would not only do the job, but was also easily portable:
A PPSh-41 submachine gun.
I grabbed one plus some extra drum magazines.
Even better, it used the same ammo as the Tokarev, so it was a nice logistical bonus!
Speaking of bonuses, I also discovered that they had an ample stock of a new anti-tank grenade: the RPG-6.
Over my tank career, I'd been using some different types of anti-tank grenades.
Early on, I carried RPG-40 anti-tank grenades.
After the Ensk incident, I switched to the RPG-43.
As with tank ammunition, I had learned to manufacture these myself when necessary, which was dangerous, but rewarding when it succeeded.
After swapping my supply of RPG-43s with RPG-6s, I was just about to leave when another thought hit me:
I decided that it would be helpful to have some anti-tank mines as well, but I could only carry a few.
After packing the grenades and mines in a canvas pouch, I was just about to leave when a guard entered the armory.
"HEY! You're not supposed to be here…"
BATATATATATATATATATATATA!
I cut him down with my newly-acquired PPSh-41.
My next objective was to destroy any evidence of my identity.
It was very likely that they had photographed me when I was taken in, and I couldn't have anybody knowing what I looked like.
I had sort of forgotten what I looked like, but after all the battle scars I'd received, I was sure I looked like crap.
I hurried to the photo lab, knowing that the alarm could be raised at any moment.
On the way, I spotted another guard.
"Hold it right there…"
BATATATATATATATATATATATA!
One more down!
Soon, I located the photo lab, but when I got there, the alarm was sounded.
"ALERT! Prisoner escape in progress, I repeat, a prisoner has escaped! Prisoner ID is #81310! Subject is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous! All available guards, please respond!"
I was now running against a clock; it was only a matter of time before I was overwhelmed.
As I entered the photo lab, I shouted at the employees, "All right, everyone out! GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!"
I fired a couple of shots at the ceiling to drive the point home.
Everyone ran out of there in a panic.
With nobody in the way, I searched furiously for any photos or negatives of me.
My timing couldn't have been better.
They'd already developed plenty of pictures of me, and I was right: I looked like crap.
I tore up the photos & negatives, and just for kicks, I shot up the photo lab.
Afterwards, I put in a fresh magazine and continued on to my last objective:
Escape.
Easier said than done.
I wasn't even sure where the exit was, so I just went wherever there weren't any dead bodies.
Sure enough, there were a lot of guards gunning for me.
I just shredded them like tissue paper.
In contrast, the guards had poor accuracy for some reason.
I wondered: Did they attend the same marksmanship academy as the German sturmtruppen?
Whatever the case, the few shots that did hit bounced harmlessly off my armor.
As I progressed through the base, I came across an information center.
This was most likely where they kept all their technical data.
I had stumbled upon a paper goldmine!
I grabbed anything that looked remotely interesting: Tank handbooks, weapon specifications, plus a paper whose title I saw only briefly: "MEMORANDUM #41211".
I didn't have time to read all of this, so I kept running and gunning.
Soon, I entered the science labs.
In the first lab, there was only one scientist conducting an experiment.
When I ordered him to get out, he replied, "Don't shoot, I'm on your side!"
I responded, "My side!? MY SIDE!? Let me get your facts straight: I'm on nobody's side, man!"
"Look, I can explain it to you, I swear!"
"There's no time! You've got to get out of here NOW!"
"Right! See you later…I hope!"
The scientist ran out of the lab promptly.
I shot up whatever experiment he was conducting.
As I progressed through the labs, I ordered all the scientists to get out and disrupted any experiments in progress.
Eventually, I reached my ultimate objective: the motor pool.
After scanning the room for a tank that looked like it was fast, I spotted an A-20 and went for it.
However, there were lots of guards coming for me by this time, so it wasn't easy to get away.
To complicate matters, I took some extra time to sabotage some of their tanks.
Here's what I did: I removed some of the fasteners connecting the track links or I carefully placed an anti tank grenade inside the turret.
In the latter case, I removed the pin a bit on each grenade and positioned it so that if the tank moved, the grenade would topple and detonate.
As you can imagine, this was very difficult to do under fire, but perseverance paid off.
Partly because of time constraints, but also partly because I wanted to leave something for any partisans who managed to escape this tomb, I left a few of the Red Wolves' tanks alone.
During the escape, I could've sworn that a bullet grazed a part of me that was uncovered by armor, but I didn't notice much.
I simply hopped in my A-20 and floored it.
The escape was made even more problematic because the base was covered by artillery, so I had to dodge around a bit.
Luckily, I managed to escape the clutches of the Red Wolves.
However, when I'd driven a fair distance, I started feeling dizzy.
That's when I noticed that I was bleeding!
Damn, they must've grazed me with a bullet!
So, I pulled over in an out-of-the-way area, tore off part of my canvas bag and used it to stanch the bleeding.
I also did whatever I could to fix my nose.
After a slight recovery period, I pressed on.
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.