Author's Foreword, Chapter intro
After multiple years of being on hiatus as a writer I FINALLY managed to find the missing powder in my shot pouch to continue this story – as in, I finally managed to deal with raging perfectionism causing raging procrastination. For now at least.
And I feel I owe those few people that actually read this and were dissappointed by lack of new material a bit of an explanation.
You see... to put no finer point on it - I've tried to pick this story back up for years on end, failing each and every time due to one single crucial factor – my insistance on re-reading what I've wrote so far in order to try and make sure stuff is consistent. Not a bad thing, one would ordinarily assume, right? Well, it is once you realize and start noticing all the slight errors and screwups concerning what I had written so far. Cue procrastination caused by raging perfectionism, factor in my real life getting in on the circus…. Yeah, I'm fairly certain you get the idea by now. My apologies for the ridicilously long hiatus, regardless – and I hope you, dear reader, enjoy this chapter!
When last we left off, Sam was infiltrating the staff dormitories of an abandoned hotel, in order to reach the hotel's roof. From there he was to rappel onto the neighbouring appartment complex. However, as no mission ever goes as they are planned Sam finds himself traversing the ventilation ducts as nearby enemies are on high alert. But hey - at least he got his trusty old SC2K and a grappling-hook-gun now ( Is that even a real word? ) , so... Onto the story!
NOTE: As before, Sam's thoughts will be denoted by being written in cursive. Like this.
Italy, Hotel La Rue - Staff Dormitories
After having checked once more whether or not it even was feasible to jump down, Sam went on with his original plan of action. Throwing the smoke grenade down the shaft, Sam waited exactly one second - just in time for the grenade to "pop" and start spitting smoke everywhere. Flicking his goggles on and switching them to thermal vision, he jumped down into the room. Upon landing, he performed a roll to break the impact his fall made as much as possible - hopefully also dampening the sound of his landing and thus making it harder for any possible enemies to pinpoint his location.
Quickly scanning his environment and noticing two thermal signatures around him in the room, Sam drew his pistol and darted towards the nearest cover - narrowly evading a bullet whizzing past his ears. Once behind his cover - an overturned desk - he took a second to check his flanks next and whether he could note any details in the room. From the scant few things he could see through the smoke, it appeared he was in an office of some kind. However, Sam's instincts were going off in full force: something was off here.
Upon inspection, it looked like the room had already been shot to hell and back before Sam dropped in and was engaged by the two enemies. Just as Sam started formulating a plan to deal with the current situation, he heard one of the enemies call out to the other one. From behind his cover he heard the telltale sounds of people reloading at the same time - and still from the same spot where they were when they started firing, to boot.
Are they trying to get themselves killed? Regardless, this works out just fine for me!
Sam rolled out of cover and made his way towards the nearest enemy, taking care to be as silent as possible. However, another complication was starting to crop up - the smoke was starting to clear and the enemies were just about done reloading. Realizing this, Sam grit his teeth and once again dove towards the nearest cover - this time behind a fallen cabinet, and laid there prone so that he would not be seen.
Reminder to self: start praying to Lady Luck in the event I end up surviving this mission.
One of the enemies called out to the other. "Did we get him?" Said partner responded with a slight undertone of panic in his voice and answered "Probably. No living being can survive a rain of bullets like that - not even those things. Can't hurt to check though." With that, he started to make his way to Sam's original hiding spot behind the desk, leaving the other guard with his back to the door and in Sam's view.
They still think I'm behind that desk? Either that guard I interrogated earlier was wrong and these guys are complete amateurs, or whatever happened in here rattled them so badly they're completely out of it and panicking.
Taking advantage of the lull in the action to get a better view of the situation from his current hiding spot, Sam saw that these were indeed two well-armed - and armoured, at that - guards belonging to the faction he had already been dealing with.
Good. I can take these guys out without any qualms then.
Sam's brain was working overtime, analyzing the best approach to this situation. Seeing as the guard would inevitably notice there was nothing to be found behind the desk - which was a couple of feet away from his current position, to boot - he would surely notify the other guard who was standing with his back to the only exit out of the room.
This meant he had only way to handle this situation - distract the guard at the door, sneak up behind him and use him as a meatshield whilst dealing with the other enemy.
Lambert owes me a damn raise at this point.
As Sam heard the guard declare there was nothing behind the desk he jumped up and made a beeline towards the guard at the door. Taking advantage of the panic and the delayed reaction brought on by his surprise attack the butt of Sam's pistol connected with the guard's face, dazing him enough to allow Sam to spin him around so that their positions were reversed. Upon hearing this racket happening behind him, the other guard - who for some reason had not yet bothered to look behind him and thus had not noticed his partner was in danger - finally turned around and started firing on reflex, leading to Sam's unwilling shield being utterly perforated. To make matters even worse for said hostile however, this was almost instantly followed by a click that signified a jammed weapon. Naturally, this was the ideal moment for Sam to throw aside the human shield he had been using and as he let loose a couple of shots of his own, most of these shots landed dead-on by virtue of now being able to use both of his hands to aim.
After taking a moment to verify that both enemies were, in fact, down for the count, Sam decided to qickly close the door and take the opportunity to look around for anything that would allow him to get his bearings. Making his way to the back of the room, he started to analyze his surroundings.
Looks like this might be the janitor's office I was trying to get to. Place is completely trashed, however.
The place showed signs of an earlier fight having taken place, even before Sam had dropped in. This left him with one important question - what the hell happened here and was it related to his current reason for being here? As Sam alternated between analyzing the current state of the room and keeping track of any signs of activity in his immediate surroundings, he noticed one fairly important detail that he had missed during the previous chaos - on the wall behind the desk that had been turned into a makeshift cover hung two chains. Both were in fairly bad condition - parts of the shackles had literally been snapped off, as if something had been restrained there and it managed to escape.
What the hell happened here? No animal or human small enough to fit in a room like this should be able to break chains like these... if whatever did this is still wandering around, I'll need to be cautious.
Having finished his analysis of the room, Sam decided there was nothing more to be gained from staying inside this room and cautiously made his way to the door. Putting his back to the wall right next to the door and reloading his pistol before holstering it, his eye fell on a map marking fire escape routes in the building. After briefly observing the map, he came to a realization: he was currently inside a hallway connecting the dormitories to the hotel.
Looks like I hit the jackpot. If I follow this hallway to the end, I should be able to exit into the hotel's lobby. From there on, I should be able to get to the rooftop and grapple onto the roof of the neighbouring appartments as I intended to do before I ended up in this rabbit hole...
Slowly advancing through the hallway with his SC2K at the ready, Sam kept scanning his environment for any potential hostiles. As he advanced, he noticed a few disturbing details in the hallway... To begin with, many doors were blown open - no, blown off their hinges, even. Most of the rooms looked as bad as the janitor's office Sam had just left - filled with bullet holes, knocked over furniture, and general debris. As for hostiles - while there were no living hostiles to be found, there were a number of mangled corpses to be found lying round. Having reached the end of the long hallway, Sam stacked up against the wall next to the door and quickly collected his thoughts before he went through.
So, a quick recap... They were keeping some kind of enraged animal of some sorts in the janitor's office. Said animal probably escaped and, judging by the trail of destruction and the state of some of the bodies here, tore straight through the guards that were stationed here. Looking at the direction the trail was heading in, I will likely encounter it if I keep heading this way... Oh joy.
As Sam finished his internal monologue he started to listen for any signs of life behind the door. After hearing nothing and yet, still expecting the worst, he slowly opened the door... only to be greeted by the deafening silence of the abandoned Hotel's lobby. After performing a quick check of his surroundings once more, Sam darted towards a spot that allowed him to stay hidden while scoping out the environment a bit more.
Chief among things that stood out to Sam was the fact there was still a measure of power being supplied to the hotel, despite it being abandoned. This meant that the elevator would likely be an option, but that would require him to make absolutely certain there would be no nasty surprises waiting for him on the rooftop. And the only way to make sure he did not run into any unwitting hostiles that might still be patrolling - as unlikely as it were - would be to find the security room and check the cameras for activity. Luckily for Sam, during the briefing for the mission he had studied the blueprints of the hotel and memorized them as well as possible given the limited amount of time. This meant he at the very least had a general idea where he could find this security room.
If I remember corrrectly... the security room is located on the second floor, and while I could of course just risk it and waltz up those stairs without a care in the world... I'd obviously rather not, what with some kind of rampaging beast possibly roaming around - not to mention the possibility of enemy patrols. Into the vents once again, I suppose...
Thus - while, of course, sticking to the shadows wherever possible - he made his way to the other side of the lobby where he knew a door was located. Said door lead to a fairly large bathroom, with multiple toilet stalls - each in an worsening state of disrepair. Obviously in most cases this would be a fairly unimportant detail, but since Sam was currently not in what one could call an average scenario he made a point of scanning for any and all possible spots to hide in.
Let's see... where was that crawlspace again?
Upon locating said crawlspace, Sam removed the cover and prepared to enter. After once again making sure nobody had followed him - or was about to walk into the room, for that matter - he entered the duct and started crawling forward. It was a bit tight, but even with his trusty rifle on his back he could just about fit in if he squeezed.
A tight fit... Good thing my weight has been fairly steady lately. Must be alll the life-or-death situations... they do tend to help with shedding the pounds.
After crawling around for a minute or two Sam could see the opening he needed. Making his way to it but stopping just short of exiting out of it so he could take a peek into whatever room he would end up in, Sam scanned the room.
Looks like I was right. Judging by the monitors on the wall, this is indeed the main security room. Time to take a look and check if the camera's in this rundown hole are still working.
As Sam exited the crawlspace, he took a look around the room. The room itself - while not in pristine condition - was still in better shape than the rest of the hotel. On the wall hung multiple screens, most of them active and some even displaying what appeared to be a camera's output. Not all of the screens actually showed something however - many of the cameras appeared to be offline. In front of the many screens lay a keyboard and a mouse, presumably connected to whatever terminal these screens were getting their input from.
In fact, there were signs that the room had been used fairly recently... the keyboard and mouse looked like they had been replaced a short time ago, as they looked too new and clean in contrast with the rest of the room.
Right. I should check if there are any recordings of whatever happened in the dormitories first... I'd hate to run into whatever caused that without knowing what it is.
Making his way towards the monitors, Sam manipulated the mouse and keyboard in search of whatever footage from the last couple of hours he could scrounge up. Thankfully, he only needed a minute or so before finding - what appeared to be, at least - the footage he needed. Making sure his environment was still secure and no hostiles were about to walk in on him examing the footage, Sam set about watching the footage. For most of said footage, nothing would happen: Guards would patrol by... some guards were spooked by the creaking of the old hotel... Every now and then a guard would even walk by and make funny faces at the camera before wandering off again. Stifling a sigh at how frivolous his enemies had been acting, Sam kept watching the footage right up until something of note did happen... Said something completely caught Sam by surprise, nearly causing him to raise his voice as he vocalized his surprise and shock.
Wait... WHAT?! Am I seeing this correctly? Let's rewind, because I'm starting to doubt my sanity here...
Rewinding the footage once more, he paid close attention to what was happening on the screen. Unfortunately for Sam, what he thought he had seen the first time around was, in fact, NOT just a figment of his overactive imagination. When he confirmed what he saw, he was still left completely flabbergasted and shocked to the core. Replaying the video yielded the sight of a young pigtailed girl busting down the door to the hotel's lobby, carrying a sawn-off shotgun with her. Upon being spotted by the guards, she visited death upon them using said gun - and whatever else she had in reach as a makeshift implement of violence - as she made her way towards the janitor's office.
Why is a little girl beating up... no... KILLING these guards so efficiently? She's young enough to be of Sarah's age... Probably younger even, for Christ's sake!
Switching to the footage captured from the camera in the hallway leading towards the janitor's office, Sam noticed a man in a suit had snuck in there somehow - likely through the window, disposing of a guard on his own as well. Performing a few gestures towards the young girl as she came into view of the camera, they appeared to be working together as an unit as she moved in response to his commands.
What is going on here? How is that man involved? Are they a two-person cell and is he the leader? Is she a child soldier or something?
The nastiest surprise, however - came when the two entered the janitor's office. As the pigtailed girl entered the office, the man who appeared to be her partner - or commander? - stayed outside to keep watch for any incoming hostiles. Nothing appeared to happen for about half a minute, but then the door flew open as the girl was sent crashing straight through it, only coming to a halt when her spine contacted a knocked-over cabinet at the end of the hallway. Naturally, this prompted her partner to run towards her in order to check whether or not she was alright. Helping his - teammate? - up, they opened fire on something emerging from the office.
There is no way in hell someone - let alone a young girl like that - should be able to get knocked across a corridor, crash into something spine first, and just stand up again like nothing happened...
Still reeling from what he had just witnessed, Sam looked at the footage once more to see another - even younger - girl walk out of the office, using a corpse as a makeshift shield against the rain of bullets. A few bullets hit the girl in her arms and legs, but it did not seem to faze her - in fact, they only appeared to enrage her and as she threw the corpse aside she broke into a furious sprint towards the two-man cell. Said sprint culminated in a close quarters brawl between the two girls spanning the entirety of the hallway. As the battle appeared to be intensifying the man attempted to stab the little berserker in the neck with a syringe, but was rewarded for his efforts by being kicked out of the window. This resulted in the pigtailed girl diving out of the window after him - but not before throwing a grenade at the enraged little girl. When the smoke cleared, the hallway was in ruins, yet there was no sign of either the man, or the two girls.
As Sam took a better look and rewound the footage, he noticed several disturbing things. For one, the girl was dressed in tattered rags, and on her wrists hung the remains of shackles...
... Probably the remains of the shackles I saw in that office. You have got to be kidding me... That little girl was what they had been keeping imprisoned in that office? And how the hell is she so tough? She shrugged of hits that would incapacitate most adults, let alone children... This is messed up. I will need to check with the Agency...
As Sam deliberated on what he had just seen, his communications device sprang to life. "Fisher, are you there? Be advised, your mission parameters have changed."