Wherein the local garrison of the village had wanted to be reactive, the Misfits chose proactivity...

Hovering over the jungle, all four of its missile pods armed, Bratishka aimed as it flew. Aboard it were Vic, Vesna, Mihai, Fedor, Sammy and the Valkyries brought aboard as per their cooperation agreement. Shot and shell pinged off the hull of the helicopter as Palagin swept in, 'Jungle Work' playing through an old tape player as he swiveled about and opened up with his missiles. The hiss of the pods echoed into the hull of the helicopter, HE rockets tearing trees out of the ground and killing a platoon of Scavs down below.

The Helicopter stopped and hovered. One of the crews dropped ropes out the rear as the onboard MGs started lighting up the targets below and the Misfits strike team deployed via fast-rope insertion into the jungle. Sam hefted her rifle off her back and sniped the first man she spotted, splattering his brains across the trunk behind him. Vesna and Mihai came next, rifles ringing as they descended as well, Vesna's coughing silent rounds as they formed a perimeter around the drop site.

Vic came next with Fedor and one of the Valks. Then the last Valk jumped out and the door closed as the Helicopter swiveled about, its 7,62 PK MGs spraying hell down on the Scav platoon around the squad. Vic took a moment to assess the situation:About two dozen Scavs were in this general campsite, a place with tents and littered with trash. Scavs that resembled your average Ruski countryside civilian were armed with the normal equipment you'd expect:Saiga carbines ranging from 9mm to Shotgun-types like the Saiga-12, to VEPR Hunter rifles, AK replicas and even real, actual AKs.

"Blyad-!" Screamed one before he got turned to swiss cheese. Yep. Definitely the same type of bastards Vic and his friends met in so many parts of Russia. Fedor and Vesna both frowned, then glared at the other scavs around. They seemed to almost take the existence of their enemies as a challenge, both of them firing single-shots toward them, sniping caps, cheap helmets, police gear and even their brains off their heads.

Vic hummed and said, "Russians..."

"Not surprised. Take Valkyrie into account and we should've known other problems would arise..." Sam shot back as she shouldered her rifle. She rallied up the Valkyrie soldiers and showed them to follow along, getting nods from both of them. She then radioed in, "Bratishka, this is Ground Team. Confirming hostiles are Russian, Scavs. They're dropping like flies."

"Tak Toychna," The man replied as the helicopter swung about. Missiles lanced out of wing-mounted pods and drew a line of explosives across the forest ahead, breaking the resolve of several Scavs. However, much to Vic's and the Gang's surprise, a good chunk of the Scavs did not break and flee. A pair of men, hidden behind a tree, opened fire with Saiga shotguns loaded with slugs.

Vic felt the impacts on his Aura and winced, thankful he also had the plate armor and helmet on. One round struck and deflected off of his Aura and he noticed something:These rounds were probably using Dust propellant. Different crack, different snap-pop, different round velocity. His Aura was still decently high, despite the heat, at a little over three quarters full.

He joined Vesna and Fedor, hefting his LMG up and firing from the hip in bursts to suppress the Scavs as the group found cover on their side of the treeline. When he ducked in cover as bursts of automatic fire struck the trunk he was hiding behind, he saw the glare his wife-to-be wore as she popped out, zeroed on a target, then shot twice. She ducked back into cover, dropping an empty magazine into the rear pouch and slamming in a fresh one, before racking the bolt of the AK-105 she carried with a vengeful glare.

She noticed Vic was looking at her with concern, then turned to him and offered him one of her naturally kind smiles. She winced as two bullets scraped the tree she'd taken cover behind, then she poked out and slammed her weapon's fire selector on full-auto, letting loose a burst that caused the silencer on her rifle to heat to a dull red. She emptied the magazine, pretty much, switching it over to another, this one with blue tape at the base.

Vic poked out next, dropped onto his stomach, shouldered his LMG and opened up, spent 7,62x54R casings dripping onto the dirt, clinking together as Sam and the others joined the group. The valkyrie soldier beside Vic, also one with a PKM, hefted the weapon, shouldered it and opened up. Hers, however, was heavily modified with a holographic sight on a dovetail-attached piccatini mount that flipped to the side, as well as a left-side slanted grip. The woman(Vic had barely just now noticed it was a woman) was wearing heavy armor and an Altyn helmet with a tinted visor.

Two heavy machine guns firing 7,62x54 seemed to be scaring the everloving shit out of their enemy. The pair of gunners watched the enemy duck into cover as high-caliber rounds tore into the dirt and cover around them, rounds chopping through the wound like hard-swung axes, shards of wood falling. One tree was felled by the concentrated fire before both troopers turned back behind cover and reloaded their LMGs.

The Russian gunner complimented, "Good shit, Romanian!" as she grinned behind her helmet's visor, "Vesna knew who she picked!"

Vic blinked, then looked over to a surprised Vesna, who also paused and balked, "Hold one minute... Tatiana?!" stunned. The Ruski woman gave a thumbs up, to which Vesna laughed and said, "Vic, this is Tatiana Pavlishcheva! Heavy rifleman in my, Ayesha and Lita's squad, heh! She's a fellow fan of the Pulemyot Kalashnikova!"

"More like an artist with my old girl!" She shot back as she slammed the top cover down with her fist, pulled the dovetail back into place and racked the bolt of the weapon, before standing up and leaning against a tree. She shouldered the weapon and gave Vic a wink, before squeezing the trigger. The Romanian took a moment to process what the hell just happened, before turning back and engaging.

Paul radioed in, "Lead, this is Base. Looks like you guys spooked the hornets bad enough. The group attacking the village retreated just now."

"Copy that," Sam replied as she poked out and shot at the enemy. She rallied up Vesna and Mihai, then showed them to follow along as they moved to flank. Radioing in, she told Palagin, "Bratishka, enemies coming in from unit's six o'clock. Request you strafe the bastards before they get here to reinforce their boys..." and an affirmative Russian reply came over the com as the Chopper swung about on its axis and let loose another volley of missiles.

"So, this is the guy, eh, Ves?" Tatiana asked with a smile behind her helmet as she looked to Vic. Ves gave a nod and a smile, then watched the two poke out again at the same time and fire bursts. A pair of Scavs, however, long-armed grenades the group's way. Zarya flashbangs detonated in front of the pair, but both were quick enough just to cover their eyes. Vesna, meanwhile, sniped the men with precision shots from her rifle.

A squad of the bastards ran the length of the field, one of them firing his shotgun wildly at the group as his comrade hefted a grenade launcher. Mihai noticed this and put a slug through her skull, dropping her dead. He then opened fire with bursts from his automatic rifle, only to duck in cover as a round scraped his shoudler. He growled and spun out again, firing focused, accurate bursts.

5,56 AP rounds punched through the leading man's bulletproof vest, sending him collapsing to the floor like a brick. He and Fedor then rallied up with Sam, who gave Fedor one hand signal that he understood as 'use your grenades'. The man gleefully loaded a VOG frag grenade into the weapon, squeezed the trigger and sent it flying with the precision of a sniper, arching it just over the enemy's cover.

Three men were shredded by the blast, while a fourth was left stunned and partially deaf. Sam radioed in, "Push the advantage! Teams one and two, advance and eliminate! Pincer the bastards!" which got nods out of the troopers. The platoon split in two, firing suppressively as they did. One of the Valkyries primed and long-armed a fragmentation grenade toward a squad that had an RPK with wood furniture.

The blast took the gunner's legs off, tearing his jeans and raining shrapnel on the others. Another guy, armed with a modified 'Kedr' SMG, poked out of cover and fired a burst that went wide. The rest of the Scavs seemed to break, too, under the weathering assault of the two PMCs. Sam put rounds into heads as they moved under the cover of the forest, surrounding a platoon of Scavs and killing whoever tried to retreat.

Vesna was, surprisingly to Vic, the most brutal. She finished even downed enemies with headshots, execution style, stopping only to reload as she advanced beside Vic and Tatiana, both of whom utilized their LMGs as handheld assault weapons now. Fedor launched another 40mm grenade that thumped as it detonated in the bastards' rear, wounding several more of them and disorienting a couple of Shotgunners that were charging to meet them with MP-155 and SAIGA shotguns.

One of the men carried a TOZ, a bolt-action shotgun that he aimed at Vesna. Vic noticed this and pushed her out of the way, taking the brunt of 7mm Buckshot to his Aura and plate. Ves frowned, noting her Husband being staggered, before she growled and drew her MP-443 pistol and let out a snap-shot, folding the bastard with the TOZ like he was laundry.

"... Okay, don't mess with the hubby," Tatiana snorted.

Mihai quipped, "They sure as shit are made for each-other..." as he stomped onto a Scav's chest, put the barrel of his rifle to the man's face and splattered his head across the dirt. He lifted the gun and aimed at a retreating Scav who was armed with both a Mosin Nagant and a pistol in a side holster. Furrowing his brows, the German aimed for the man's legs and opened fire, removing the man's kneecaps from the equation and causing him to drop both his weapon.

Pushing forward as the man drew his pistol and turned onto his back to try and shoot at him, Mihai kicked the gun out of his hands and put his boot onto his chest again. He threatened, "Tell us where your main camp is before I decide God's got a warrant for your judgement day!" shoving the barrel of the gun into the Russian's face. The man, obviously just a civvie who thought he was hot stuff, raised his hands defensively and barked something in Russian.

Vesna knelt beside him and replied to him, holstering her pistol and glaring at the bastard with all the disgust you'd expect out of a fellow countryman who saw you go down the path of a pillaging scavenger looking just for places to subjugate. Standard Russian behavior, Vic thought about the whole Scav thing as he and Sam approached. The man seemed to tell Vesna everything she wanted to know.

With a sigh, she pushed Mihai's rifle aside and said, "One kilometer to our one o'clock. They're apparently quite busy. Their few radio operators are already squawking about us..." before standing up. She looked to Sam, who was a bit surprised by how easily they got the info out of the guy. Mihai kicked the rifle away from him and reloaded his own weapon, then looked over to the Chinese officer.

Vic commented, "Nice work, you two..." sending a quick smile his wife's way.

"Thanks," Miha nodded, while Vesna simply smiled back. The group then moved forward, through the forest instead of down the road, while the Bratishka tracked them from up above. Indeed, approximately one klick later, the group found the main encampment, which was filled to the brim with Scavs in various pieces of gear. So various were their clothes, their armors and guns that it was hard to keep track of them all.

Their leader, though, a woman clad in a brown jacket and beige pants, ordered them around, her golden Tokarev pistol glimmering in the light of the sun. She barked at them in Russian to pack their gear and start preparing to haul ass, while her guards, men and women clad in better gear than standard(Altyns, Russian lvl. 4 Body Armors, actual proper rifles and the likes) surveyed the area.

One only stopped and called out to their leader as the Helicopter swung in. Missiles screamed from the underslung pods, striking the tents and sending the corpses of the Scavengers flying. Several men and women shifted their aim to the chopper, firing into it and pelting its bottom armor and hull with rounds. One of the seeming Boss's bodyguards hefted an RPG-29 to fire at it.

By the time he or she aimed it, though, their head was popped clean open by a 7,62 round. Vic shifted his aim and opened up, lighting a fire under the entire camp's ass. The leader of the Scavs scowled and yelled to her bodyguards, before holstering the golden Tokarev and drawing her assault weapon, an AKS-74u, seemingly heavily modified with ZENITCO and other parts.

She jumped off the podium she was on and fired at the group, before running behind said podium, where a GAZ truck painted black was. Climbing aboard it with a pair of Scavs, the woman turned on the engine and flipped the bird at the Helicopter, before radioing over broadband and speaking in broken English, "I'LL FUCK YOU UP NEXT TIME, WHOEVER YOU ARE!" before speeding off.

Vesna hummed, "Well..."

"Weird," Murmured Vic...

The team proceeded into the camp, sweeping and clearing through the tents, executing the Scavs with bullets to the skulls and chests. Their main issue seemed to be the Guards. One of them, armed with an RPD with a drum mag, shifted his aim and fired from the hip at the team, his Altyn visor already seemingly cracked by a previous enemy's bullets.

The group focused fire on him, even as he fired his RPD. Bullets dented, then pierced and broke ceramic, penetrating his body and sending him to the floor, a cushion for several dozen AP rounds. The rest of the camp was relatively easy to clean... Until the last Bodyguard appeared from behind cover, pistol pointed at the head of a young man clad in EMR.

"I kill this bitch! Back off!" The bodyguard snapped at them, pistol pointed to the head of a very glum-looking young man who seemed so done with this. Vic and Vesna both seemed to recognize him, staring at his tired face. He was no older than twenty, obviously, though the bags under his eyes and the sunken face told of someone who had witnessed too much for his good...

Vesna blinked, then looked to the others and said, "I recognize him."

"I do, too," Fedor stated, glaring at the Bodyguard. The young man's eyes seemed to light up for a moment as he saw Vesna. He looked back at the bastard holding him hostage, then gave them a nod, to which Fedor stated, "Alright, buddy, now, you can walk away from this if you let the man be. No need to pull shi-"

"Shut the fuck up, suka!" The man snarled, "You're the reason we like this! Couldn't even win a stupid war!"

"Not like we wanted to," Vesna replied as she aimed. The bastard was seemingly angered, pulling aside the man and aiming his pistol. Fedor put a bullet clean between his eyes with his AK, watching the corpse drop and running to check on the man the now-corpse had held hostage. Vesna and the others walked up to him as well, with the blonde commenting, "Didn't think I'd see you again, Corporal Kiselev."

"... Good to see you, Starshy Serzhant..." He nodded, awkward. He then turned to Fedor and paused, eyes shooting wide open as the VDV man took his balaclava off and grinned at him. Stunned, the young man spoke, "Fedor... Ivanov, you bastard," his voice low as he gave the person who seemed to be his brother from another mother a hug. Fedor laughed jovially as he hugged the man back, then helped him to his feet.

"Good to fucking see you, too, Oriel Kiselev! It's been three fucking years!" Fedor quipped, grinning. Oriel nodded, smiling awkwardly, then walked over to the tent he was being held in, retrieving his body armor, helmet, gas mask and even an AK12 with an actual optic on it. He approached and gave a quick salute to Vesna, who saluted back as Vic walked up beside her.

Vic hummed and said, "Oriel."

"Corporal Toma," He nodded, "Good to see you, too... You found her." And he offered a kind smile.

Vic took Ves's hand and said, "I did..." before turning to his confused wife and telling him, "I found him in Yekaterinburg. He pointed us out to where your unit was and... That was the last we saw each-other." He then looked to Fedor and asked, "Take it he's the friend you avenged the lynching of, eh...?" which got a nod out of him and a wince out of everyone.

Sam, with a heart eased, radioed, "Bratishka, Ground Team. Evacuation is green. Mission accomplished..."