Chapter 18: Courtyard Fight
I don't own anything. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Tomb Raider belongs to Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, and I think Square Enix. The only thing I own is the changes made to the stories of the Tomb Raider games/comics and Resident Evil games/comics/CG movies, the Government branch S.P.E.L.L., the person that has taken over Kathrine Warren's life, and Rose Warren. This story also will be bloody, violent, and have cursing. It's rated T for Teen.
Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Soviet Installation/prison, Month: November, Day: Sunday 26th, Year: 2000, Time: 13:17 KRAT…
Lara looked around them, seeing a way down to the shipping yard. "You both stay here." She said as she looked to Jacob and Kat. "I'll take care of this."
"Not alone you're not. You need someone watching your back." Kat said as she looked to Lara.
"Okay." Lara sighed.
The pair ran in a crouch to a hole in the roof and hopped down. They both landed in the snow and lucky enough, behind cover. They moved to cover quickly and peered out form the wooden crates.
"All right…hold on, I've got it." Called a man as Lara switched to her bow and her arrows. "That's it." He said as Kat took in their surroundings. "You're good to go."
There were some trucks, crates, shipping containers, computers and a few tables. There was a decent handful of men about. Enough that it would be best to have two people stealthing. Snow was everywhere on the ground and on the shelters, trucks, and containers. Not a lot of it, but enough to give an interesting atmosphere.
"Okay, let's move this thing out!"
"Kat…I need more arrows. I've only got four regular and three poison." Lara whispered.
"Konstantin wants a team up at the chopper hanger before the storm sets in."
"I've only got two regular and one poison." Kat told her, looking around. "Think you can craft more?"
"I've got plenty of stones. But not enough wood, you?" Lara asked pointing to her pack.
"Some good handfuls of feathers and regular leaves, not many thin stones. A few bits of wood." Kat looked around them then pointed. "There. A perfect sapling."
Lara looked over to it and nodded. It was right by some bushes and behind a few crates. A small sapling about four feet tall with spindly branches. She nodded. It was perfect.
"Yeah." Lara and her crouched low and moved into the bushes and got close to the tree.
Once there, they both worked to tear and snap the branches apart. The snapping of wood was covered by the sounds of the men and helicopter blades. Once that was done then moved into deeper cover and worked carefully but quickly to make more arrows. By the time they ran out of the right thickness and length of wood, they had ten arrows each, including the ones they already had. Both knew they really should start retrieving arrows after kills and distractions.
They both climbed the side of a wall and got on a snowy metal roof top. From here they could see the guard tower. Strangely none of them had spotlights shining outside the fence's perimeter, they all shined in on the yard. Kat understood this place was and is a prison, but wouldn't some of the guards have the lights pointed outside the fence? She shook her head as she pulled her spear from her back and moved along the roof. She hated the feeling of how the metal bowed down a little. It wasn't stable terrain. She'd rather be going up a steep hill. At least that was solid ground.
"Goddamn it!" Hissed the guard Kat was moving painstakingly slowly toward. "It is fucking freezing in this place." He growled as he rubbed his gloves together and blew air on them. "Shoulda brought my own god damn winter gear." He grumbled to himself as Kat balanced beamed her way to him, sending bits of snow falling.
Once on the wooden platform, Kat spun and moved up behind the man. She adjusted her grip on her spear with both hands. Then with a sharp movement, thrusted the point into the man's neck through the back. This did three things. Severed his spinal column, slashed his windpipe, and destroyed his vocal cords. He could only choke on his own blood as his arms went limp and his legs buckled. She wrapped an arm around his chest and lowered him to the ground gently to not make too much noise.
"Panels fused. Almost got it." Said a distant voice as Lara joined Kat, peering from this guard tower to search for their next target.
"Surprised any of this shit still works." Said another voice, as Lara pointed to the cable that linked their upper platform to the one across the gates.
"Looks like this was deliberately sabotaged." Said the first voice as Kat nodded in understanding.
Lara jumped onto the cable and waited a moment for it to stop bouncing. She then moved slowly on the line, legs over it as a support and her hands pulling her along.
"Hmm, maybe the natives?"
Kat drew her bow and an arrow. She drew back as Lara moved. She aimed and loosed at the head of the man in the guard tower, one that if she didn't, he'd spot Lara crossing on the cable. Her arrow hit him. Not in the forehead like she was aiming, but in his left eye. Direct shot to the brain though, so he dropped to the floor of the tower, dead.
"All the more reason to shoot 'em on sight."
Lara looked down. Her slightly loosened ponytail dangling down. There were two men below her. She pointed at them and then at Kat. Kat looked and nodded. Kat walked to the edge and jumped down. She stumbled a small bit on her landing as he feet slipped, the snow right there was in a partial spotlight and the heat from the light melted the snow and made it slushy, making her slip a bit.
She clenched her body up for a moment before loosening. She then drew her axe in one hand and raised her spear up. Kat threw her spear but apparently her slip from her landing had drawn the attention of the guy at the laptop.
"HEY!" He yelled just as Kat's spear sank into his gut and out of his back.
The man gasped and choked in pain as he fell to his knees. Kat felt it then. As she locked eyes on the guy with the laptop. Even as he reached for the radio, her mind was quick to shift. She was a Valkyrie on the battlefield. The man was an opponent. She gripped her spear and kicked the man from its point before she rushed at the laptop guy, a smile on her lips.
The man raised his gun instead of his radio. In fact, he dropped his radio to the ground. Just as Kat was in front of him, he pulled the trigger. She spun out of the rifles aim, nearly avoiding the bullets. She slashed her axe into his neck, his eyes only watching her body and the reddened spear's silver point. He coughed and choked as she twisted her axe in his neck. But the damage was done. The fact that he had pushed the talk button but then said nothing alerted the other men in the area to the two's presences.
Lara dropped down to give Kat some back up as some red lights went off. Lara grabbed a lamp and threw it at a man before pulling her pistols. The fire rolled over the man turning him into the human torch as she and Kat dove into cover.
"Are you okay?" Lara asked as Kat got out her rifle.
"I'm fine!" Kat smiled. "Feelin a bit of battle rush right now!"
Lara rolled her eyes but smiled. They jolted at the gunfire that was now raining over their heads and missing them. Kat snorted at the shots that missed.
"Some of you've got Storm Trooper aim!" She called out and Lara snorted as she remembered how jokey Kat was on Yamatai. "It's such a shame," She spun and lined her rifle up on top of their cover. "I'm blessed by the gods!" She called out then fired a few shots before ejecting two brasses.
Two men went down as the others moved to reload. Lara, hearing the lack of fire, jumped up, both pistols out and ready. She fired off three shots from each pistol. Two more men went down from it as Kat pulled her bow and nocked a poisoned arrow. She loosed it and it hit the side of a truck. On impact the poisoned cloud flared out from it. Two men were behind some crates just under the cloud, so breathed the poison in. They started coughing and hacking from it before dropping to the ground.
There was only two more left, and they have been trying to flank Kat and Lara by coming around the shipping trailer behind them. Kat stood and threw her spear into the chest of the one on the left as Lara fired two shots at the one on the right. The spear sank in, and the man dropped to the ground, a stray bullet, from his hand reflexively pulling the trigger, cut across Kat's left cheek. Not deep but a burning graze. The other dropped after Lara's bullet's hit him in the chest.
Just like that, the only sound now was Lara and Kat's breathing. Lara shook her head.
"I see you haven't stopped with the jokes." Lara stated as she slammed her axe into a red laptop destroying the hard drive.
"First, that could've had intel. Second, course not." Kat said as she walked around the bodies collecting arrows and her spear. "Unless I'm stealthing, then I keep my mouth shut."
Lara shook her head. "First, the red laptops are high grade and given the fact that last few computers we've seen were encrypted to hell and back, it's better to destroy their access. Second, that's smart you're keeping quiet."
They walked around, destroying a few more red laptops, both finding it strange they were just around. They walked into the shelter and out of the direct cold. They rubbed their arms shakily as the new sweat from their fights had cooled down. In the room they destroyed two more red laptops, after giving them a look just in case. Lara had been right. Kat couldn't make heads or tails of the information on the screen. It was encrypted. It might have been simple. But Kat wasn't trained for it and truthfully didn't understand it.
On a table was another tape. Lara picked it up and popped it into her recorder and hit play. Both glared when they heard Konstantin's voice.
"Ana has let the mask fall. She and I are finally, fully reunited. It has been difficult without her these past years. When I'm weak, it's always been her voice that gave me strength. When she loses hope, I ignite that hope for her.
...that being said, I must confess that I am worried about her. Her health falters, yes, but my concern is with her resolve.
I fear that some piece of her was lost in her time with the Crofts. She must have faked her emotions for Lord Croft so powerfully they became real. And now I fear that has spilled over to Lara."
"Konstantin wonders if Ana has become too sentimental." Lara scuffed. "That's not exactly how I would characterize her behavior..."
"Sorry. I'm getting some real flashbacks to the Ashford twins Chris and Claire faced two years back…man, time's flying." Kat muttered with a shutter as Lara popped the tape and put it away.
"Yuck. I hope this isn't like that." Lara wrinkled her nose.
"Hmmm." Kat hummed as she looked at a power panel. "Ah! A button for that gate." She held her hand over the big red button. "Ready for a bit of a run and fight?"
Lara sighed as she checked her clips. "Ready."
Kat hit the button as Lara pulled their radio. The lights turned green, and the gate started to open.
"Jacob?" Lara asked into the radio. "We found a way to open the inner gate."
"Head to the courtyard." He told them quietly. "I'm already inside." He told them.
Lara put her radio to her belt as she and Kat left the tiny building.
Country: Russia, State: Siberia, City: Siberian Wilderness, Place: Near Kitezh, Area: Soviet Installation/prison, Month: November, Day: Sunday 26th, Year: 2000, Time: 13:24 KRAT…
Lara and Kat stopped their rope ascenders. Kat was happy Lara had gotten two of them, so she didn't have to hold on to her like back on Yamatai. They stopped moving by the boarded-up door at the sound of Konstantin's voice.
"I have patrols headed to all major dig sites…" He said as Lara and Kat leaned close to the door and wall. "Here, here…and here."
"What about those installations?" Ana's voice came soon after making Lara's grip on her ascender she detached, tighten to white knuckles.
"Ana!" She hissed. "I need to get in there!"
"Lara, we don't. We need to meet up with Jacob and get the hell out of here." Kat said quietly.
"I can send smaller groups—a few sharp shooters and scouts." Konstantin said as Kat detached her ascender.
"We need to know what they are talking about for information. Please, Kat, you get that, right?" Lara asked as she jumped to a window ledge, using it as a hand hold.
"Do it." Ana's voice said. "We have a lot of ground to cover, and Trinity wants the artifact found as soon as posable." She informed as Lara shimmied to the right, allowing Kat to join her.
"You're right. But don't…I'm such a hypocrite for saying this, but don't do anything rash." Kat told her hissing as her arms started to burn.
They stilled as they spotted Jacob inside the room through the only window that wasn't boarded up, it was broken in spots and allowed them to see in.
"Jacob!" Lara hissed, but he didn't hear her or blatantly ignored her. "What is he doing?"
"Learning their movements. They're talking about invading his lands and his people after all." Kat said as Lara swung then leapt to the next window's handholds. "I'm betting he let himself be captured so he could do this. We just happened to be at the right place and right time to help him out." She finished and jumped the next ledge herself.
"This is the place…" Konstantin breathed lowly. "I can feel it."
Lara jumped up to the next hand hold. It was just above them. But as she gripped it, it cracked and broke. She hissed and tightened her hold to make sure she didn't fall.
"Shit…Lara, you good?" Kat whispered to her.
"Yeah…" Lara nodded. "Careful when you climb up. This one is not stable."
Lara shimmied aside to the right and got to the corner of the building. By then she was on a different section of wood. Kat climbed up slowly to the damaged wood and could feel how unstable it was, it was making it hard to get a good grip.
"Get moving please…" Kat hissed, not liking that if they fell from here, it was over, seriously injured and unable to move.
Lara didn't need telling twice as she looped around the corner as Kat followed her.
"The Soviet records are quite convincing." Ana said as Lara stopped by an open window, their way in. "But I want to get into those ruins myself."
Lara dropped to the edge of the window. Kat came around the corner to the more stable area and waited on Lara. Lara pulled herself up and through the window, crouching low as she waited on Kat to come in. Kat moved over to the right then dropped to the window ledge herself. She heaved herself up and into the room.
"And Croft?" Konstantin asked as Lara and Kat moved to next to Jacob.
Looking into the room they could see that it was set up as a meeting room or war room. Ana and Konstantin stood before a table with a few maps on it, marked up and labeled. There were a few computers around, but they focused on the pair of siblings. Konstantin was eyeing the map with a sharp gaze, waiting for his sister's answer to his question. Ana however was rubbing her arms from the cold. She looked like she didn't want to talk about Lara.
"I cannot wait to leave this frozen hell." Ana gritted, changing the subject.
Konstantin looked to her, noting the subject change but going with it. "Then I have good news for you. Reconnaissance from the scouts." He began. "The natives have a settlement on the other side of the mountain." He said pointing to a cross hair on the map and some red arrows.
Ana grabbed his wrist gently in a comforting fashion. "Soon." She assured him. "You will have your day."
"We both will." He agreed before looking at her. "Just as long as you don't lose focus again."
Ana frowned and looked up at him from the map. "What do you mean?"
"You're sentimental about her…" He pointed out. "The Croft girl. I can tell because she's still alive. We can't afford to dwell in the past." He reminded sounding grave.
Anger flashed over Ana's face. "You doubt me?" She asked him. "You know what've given to Trinity. What I've sacrificed! What I face—" She was interrupted by chest pain.
She turned away from him and coughed harshly into her shaking fist. The pain and the cough came from deep in her chest and lungs. It was dry but ended with a wet rattle. It felt as if her lungs were trying to force themselves out of her body. She gave another harsh cough as her brother rubbed her back with a concerned expression.
As she gained her breath back, she waved a hand at him, a dismissal movement. "I'm fine." She told him, making him lift his hand away.
"Life has not been kind to either of us." He said sounding saddened but looked at her with determination. "But I swore I'd always protect you."
Ana smiled at him. "Now whose being sentimental?" She asked teasingly.
"I promise you; all of this will be worth it in the end." He said firmly as he looked at the map. "With the Divine Source, you will live." He said and looked at her as if she were the Virgin Mary. "But more importantly, you will live in a world cleansed of sin."
She smiled lightly and rest a hand on his. The moment was a silent promise between siblings. It was only unsettling in the way of, despite doing horrible things, here was a moment of humanity. Kat didn't like seeing it. She understood she lived in a world of grey, but sometimes, she wished it was a world of black and white.
Then the moment was gone. Ana looked to the map and was cold and calculating once more. "Send your men to this settlement. Find out what they know."
Jacob's eyes widened at hearing that and moved to attack or something. Lara and Kat both grabbed his shoulders to stop him.
"It's too dangerous." Lara whispered.
"You need to get back to your people. Prepare them, not get caught again." Kat told him.
He gritted his teeth for a moment, but they all looked back at the two blonds and their guards. Ana lit a cigarette and took a drag before blowing the nicotine smoke out. No doubt making her lung cancer worse with each inhale of the toxic smoke. Konstantin raised a brow at this action and watched as the smoke left her lips. She looked to him as she held the death stick.
"Let me have my pleasures." She told him as if talking to a parent who'd caught her sneaking in late.
He said nothing. Just looked down at the map, but not seeing it.
Ana walked closer to him and grabbed his shoulder. "None of this will matter the day our work is accomplished."
Just then radios beeped with an incoming transmission.
"Konstantin, you're needed in the holding cells." Said a female voice with an annoyed tone.
Konstantin nodded and looked to Ana, grabbing her shoulder in turn. "We're in this together, sister. Remember."
"Always." Ana agreed.
With that the pair left the room with one of the guards.