It'd been a little over a week since the metro.
Her journey out of the tunnels was short and uneventful, the metro went above ground only a half mile down the line.
She'd not been far from the hotel either, but when she returned once, she'd found a shady bunch camped out there. The number of rifles present dissuaded her from further investigation.
Since then it'd been nothing but sneaking through shadows, hearing firefights in the distance, and avoiding contact at all costs.
Power was out in much of the city. Emercom and the RUAF were holding up in checkpoints and strongpoints, and she found both groups rather wary of strangers.
There were also rumors of a UN peacekeeping mission as well, though 16 herself didn't see anything. Perhaps they didn't dare enter the city, perhaps they were organizing a proper mission, or maybe the rumors were just rumors.
Nothing mattered. All outside authorities were useless, and it was becoming clear that those left in the city would have to fend for themselves.
Amongst the remaining civilians, many had formed little groups or gangs, pooling resources and such. Most were based around original gangs from before the fighting, so were not exactly run by welcoming or kind people, but if you could offer some kind of value, they would protect you.
16 avoided them. In fact she was avoiding everyone.
She'd watched as civilians were gunned down in the streets by one party or another, and knew that they would do the same to her.
She moved mainly at night, when her night vision and thermals gave her the greatest advantage. More and more of the city was also without power, which made the nights darker and thus safer for her to move.
Daytime was spent eating whatever she could find and fighting was more intense during the day, but so far nothing had been too close to her.
That was bound to change though, she knew. She was headed across town, towards the rough area that M4 had last been seen by the army. That area seemed to be a hotbed of fighting however, day and night there was consistently at least one firefight going on in that direction.
Something to look forward to, she supposed.
16 cracked her eye as her internal clock ticked over. To the west, the sun was nearly gone from the sky, the window of her chosen hiding spot giving her a decent glimpse at the orange and red rays shining out from the horizon.
Her hand snaked into the small sling backpack set beside her on the ground, fishing out a can of preserved fish and a water bottle and absentmindedly opening both.
The food was… fine. Fish was never really her thing and canning the stuff somehow amplified every quality about them that she hated. But, it was high in calories for something so small, and she'd found half a dozen of the cans in an abandoned store.
"Hey Yuri, look at this!"
16 perked up from her meal, and quietly snuck over towards her window from which the voice had come.
"Opa!"
Two men were down below, both digging through a dumpster. Unconsciously her hand moved to her mosin, however she was pretty sure they were no real threat. They didn't have any weapons, at least none she could see, and neither seemed like they were soldiers.
16 sat back down, returning to her meal and taking a few sips of water between salty, briny bites.
"Si-teen! C- me?"
16 spit out her latest bite as the distorted voice called across the airwaves. It was on an unusual frequency, but she knew the encryption protocols used.
"S—-teen!"
"M4! Are you there!?" she quickly replied.
"I…. you, ca….. Me?"
"M4! Where are you!? I can barely hear you!"
Sixteen quickly threw her stuff back in her bag and slung it over her shoulder, then bursting out of the room she was in. She raced through the building and quickly got down to the street below.
"I…. long, they're taki…me… ground."
"Hold on M4."
16 quickly took off down the street. She got about a block before Yuri and his buddy appeared out of the nearby alley. The two men were carefully peeking out, wary of anything but somehow entirely missed her.
"MOVE!" she roared, blowing right through the unwitting pair, knocking both over.
As 16 sprinted down the street, she was carefully monitoring how her sister's intermittent, choppy transmissions changed as she moved.
"Can…. any longer. They're plan… MP, ple…safety"
16 kept running. She kept going for several blocks after the last transmission before survival instincts took over.
It wasn't much, the signal had been very, very poor quality. However, she'd covered a fair bit of ground, enough that she had a reasonable idea of where the transmissions had been sent from through triangulation.
"M4, If you can hear me, I'm coming to you."
She didn't know why her sister had waited so long to contact her, and why now was the time, but it was probably nothing good.
Still, she had to try.
After carefully surveying the area, making sure no one had seen or heard her sprint before she set off towards M4.
Originally, triangulation on M4's signal had yielded about a square mile of area it could've come from, a consequence of the distance M16 could travel in the time M4 was traveling and the signal's quality. As it turns out, the area in question was a commercial district, not far from downtown and the military checkpoint M4 had been spotted at, and also one of the denser parts of the city.
It was gonna take a long time to search every building thoroughly, and 16's spirit was beginning to sink as she ran the numbers.
However, it wasn't long until her luck changed.
As she began searching the first few buildings, she'd noticed figures gathering in the dark. At first, just a few, but then dozens appeared. They filtered out from the night in near total silence, moving in small squads and covering each other in a very professional manner.
Life is full of coincidences, but war has few. The odds that these PMCs were here for reasons entirely unrelated to M4's situation, whatever that was, had to be near zero.
So, she followed them.
She stuck to the rooftops and upper floors, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, or on occasion porches, windowsills, and even risking dead power lines to keep up and out of sight.
The PMCs, who appeared to be BEARs, knew exactly where they were going. Each squad moved in harmony, taking up covering positions, weaving through alleyway short cuts, and all converging on one building. It all looked rehearsed.
Five stories tall, built with dozens of small windows and false exterior accents, and surrounded by fifty meters of open parking lot and a ten foot wall, was the "Terralabs Norvinsk Research and Development Campus". At least that's what the sign out front claimed.
Once they reached a certain point, each BEAR squad took up positions. Each of them clearly had a job, and were enacting them quickly. Snipers took up position, assault squads stacked up behind cover, and a rearguard formed. They even had a squad pop a manhole a block back and dive into the sewers.
"Okay, but are you expected?" 16 muttered quietly as she watched the proceedings.
The Terralabs building stood silent. Thermals showed nothing within, no lights, no internal heating, and no bodies.
If these BEARs succeeded in breaching the compound, she'd need to follow them in to try and find M4. This assault probably was her best chance of entering that building if it was guarded.
She perched herself on a rooftop a little further back, careful to stay hidden from the snipers, and found a spot to watch.
For a minute she sat, wondering what they were waiting for.
Then a dozen pops broke the still night, and a hail of mortars fell onto the compound.
All hell broke loose.
Instantly it was clear USEC was present, as tracers filled the night going both ways. Raining explosives followed by smoke rounds impacted within the perimeter wall, and several explosions went off to tear holes through the barrier.
The BEARs surged forward.
They cleared the wall with ease, disappearing into their newly formed smoke cover and emerging on the far side at a full sprint. USEC tracers were catching some, but not nearly enough of the attackers to stall their advance
For a moment, it seemed they would make it..
Then, cutting through the chaos of gunfire, an electronic scream tore the sky apart. Brilliant blue light, bluer and brighter than 16 thought was possible filled the night sky, banishing the stars.
Every radio burst into screams, the USECs and BEARs alike stopping their war to throw off their headsets and shout in pain. 16 herself bit her lip as her head was filled with the noise.
Tendrils wrapped around her. Sparks of energy ripping through parts of her and making her body want to fall apart. Her muscles twitched and spasmed, her eyes and ears flickering and filling with static.
Then it began to fade. 16 found herself on her hands and knees, gasping as she came to. She was burning up, her skin glowing an angry red and covered in sweat like perspirant as her body tried desperately to cool itself.
Diagnostics were bad. All comms were dead, anything not housed within her internal armor was on the verge of failing if it hadn't already, senses were way off and muscles either dead close to it.
But she was alive.
16 flopped onto her back, letting her chest rise and fall as it willed, her mind suddenly exhausted.
The sky was returning, the blue flame above dispersing quickly.
"What…. The hell," she muttered between breaths.
She'd no idea.
"M-M4," she grumbled. Her reason for being here coming back.
With shaky limbs, M16 clambered back up to her feet, gripping the nearby wall for support as she propped herself atop it.
The BEARs were pulling back.
They were collecting their wounded and dead as they retreated, and the USECs were letting them. Not a shot was fired as the dark shapes moved through the night in opposite directions.
16's eyes were stuck on the visible spectrum, and not high quality either, but just enough to see them. No one had flashlights, strobes, or IR illuminators on anymore. All the streetlights were dead, in fact looking up she found that all the lights across the city had gone out.
Everything electronic was dead, save her.
16 cast her gaze back at the tower the USEC's occupied. The layers of defenses, the hundreds of meters of steel and glass thrust upwards, and the doubtless dozens of armed mercenaries within.
And all she had was a shitty little Mosin Obrez.
M4 was beyond her reach.
And yet, she couldn't accept that.
Despite it all, the aching in her arms, the fog in her mind, M16 grabbed her weapon and worked her way back off the rooftop.
The BEARs up top weren't making it close enough, but there was another possible way in.
She made for the manhole. It wasn't too far back and thankfully, and still propped open. A good thing, as she wasn't too sure if she could have gotten it up in her state.
The faded smell hit her when she lifted it open.
"Oh… god…" she pinched her nose, looking away for relief for a moment before peering back in.
It was dark, too dark to make anything out. If there was deep water, she'd be at serious risk of shorting.
"Well, they must've had some plan to get in. Let's just… go."
Reluctantly she hopped in.
There were only puddles within, and thankfully nothing solid she could see. Also, the BEARs had left a trail of glowsticks marking the path they'd taken.
Leading with her Mosin, 16 pressed on.
The conduit took several turns, and after turning into a larger section she moved in a straight line for a while.
Then she came upon a glowstick left at a turn off from the main conduit. From her gyros, she was close to the labs building.
The turn off was notably smaller, but another glowstick lay at the far end, so she entered.
The next section after was as large as the previous she had left, with it running off into darkness to her right. But to her left was the harsh glow of fluorescent lights, and a set of steel bars that appear to have been recently cut through, their ends faintly glowing.
Cautiously, 16 snuck through the bars and into the room beyond.
No sign of the BEARs, but at the far end was a pair of doors that had been roughly opened through some means. No gunshots were audible, which either meant that all the Russians were dead, or hadn't been noticed yet.
In any case, 16 decided she had to try.
Moving forward, she quickly found herself in a long narrow hallway. It split off a little ways up, and 16 found exactly what she'd hoped for not far into one of the turn offs: a map.
Unfortunately, it was only covering the bottom three floors, which were all subterranean based on the way they were labeled.
"It's a start," she muttered, quickly saving a few copies of the map in her memory.
She then made for the nearest stairwell, heading up one floor to start her search.
Up one floor and a quick turn through a hall, and she arrived in the main atrium of the labs.
The room covered two floors, with the lower of the two hosting a myriad of labs and equipment, while the upper took the form of an overlooking walkway that lined the perimeter and a few offices and labs at the edges.
It was all very corporate, with potted plants, fancy lighting fixtures, and curved architecture. She figured that this would be a good place to start looking for M4, the basement was apparently just utilities and storage, whereas these two floors held innumerable more likely places for her to be.
"Go go! Who fucking knows when they'll be back!" A voice shouted in English.
16 glanced upwards, peering through the darkness to find the source.
About two dozen USECs were frantically rushing through a pair of wide doors up ahead. Here there were still a few lights on, enough for her to make out roughly what they were up to.
16 could see them hauling large crates in through the doors, and beyond them she could make out the sounds of idling engines. There was a loading hangar through those doors, but it seemed to be used currently as a garage for their evac vehicles.
"Come on! Come on! We gotta move people!"
Their leader waved his troops on, standing above most of them on the upper level. He was a big man, dressed in all black save the 'USEC' scrawled in white across his chest.
Aware of her disadvantage, 16 crept back towards the stairways and snuck her way up to the second floor. There she got a better view and lined up on the big man.
And then she heard it.
"Let me go!" An all too familiar voice demanded.
16 quickly snapped her gaze across the room. Through a door on the far side, M4 was being led over towards the hangar doors by no less than six USEC guards.
M4 spotted her at almost the same time, nearly froze but managed to recover before her guards noticed. 16 quickly got out of sight, hiding behind a pile of crates that had been stacked at the top of the stairs.
M4 was led right to the hangar doors, and behind her came a few men and women in suits and lab coats, all escorted by more USECs towards the wide doors.
16 quickly lined up on the apparent leader once more, silently committing herself to whatever it was gonna take to break M4 free.
And it was then, just as M4 was almost to the hangar doors, that the first shot rang out.
Not from her, nor from the USECs.
From across the room, AKs lit up the dark room. The USEC leader went down immediately, as did several lackeys and guards.
M16 swapped targets to the USEC nearest M4. Despite the Mosin's rather dubious construction, it did the job and dropped the man with little complaint.
Immediately M4 shoved the next nearest guard off of her, snatched his weapon, and opened up on the rest.
The USECs below rallied quickly, and more appeared from within the doors to fire back at the BEARs across the room.
M4 worked quickly, putting bullets in every enemy that presented themselves to her. The scientists and suits behind her scattered, trying to slip past the furious M4 or get downstairs. Several went down in the crossfire. 16 could do little more than cover her as best she could.
Once the upper floor had been cleared of USECs, 16 sprinted over to her sister, ducking away from the stray rounds that whizzed past her head.
"M4!" She shouted as she came up to her.
Her sister turned, and her face lit up.
16 rushed for her, arms opening for a hug.
Instead a sharp pain smacked her on the cheek, and she suddenly found herself on her rear.
"Owww," she complained, holding her cheek,
M4 slunk down beside her, each of them scooting into cover behind the nearby railing.
"I told you to get to safety, not come here!" M4 shouted.
"THAT'S what you said?! I couldn't make any of that out!"
"I heard you just fine!" M4 pouted, pointing an accusing finger at her, "You just HAD to come play the hero."
"I-"
Then a USEC appeared from out the doors near them, but M4 shot the man dead in a split second.
"I got about four words, and it sounded like you needed help. Hell, it looked like you needed help!"
M4 sighed, then looked back at her with a small, warm smile, "It's good to see you."
16 returned the grin, "Yeah, you too."
Another few USECs pushed up from out of the hangar, and M4 quickly engaged them , encouraging them to get back into cover. This though was enough for 16 to realize that she would need something a little more effective than an obrez Mosin if they were gonna leave.
Not far off, she spied the dead body of the big USEC boss.
16 crept over to it and unstrapped the rifle from his body. It was a long barrel M4, close to her own namesake rifle in weight and size, and had a holo sight, peq, and flip-up iron sights.
16 took the rifle and all the magazines and grenades the man had before crawling back to M4.
Once there, she unattached the scope from the weapon with a grin.
"Oh my gosh," M4 sighed, rolling her eyes, " you still do that?"
"What?" 16 shrugged," Irons are better in my opinion."
"Guess you're not always right after all."
"Hehe, we'll see."
M4 shook her head, before the smile on her lips faded and she pulled a quick glance up over her shoulder in the direction of the BEARs.
"How do we look?"
"Russians are advancing. It seems the USECs are falling back."
"Great, here I was hoping they'd be to busy with each other to care about us."
"Yes," M4 frowned," I wish I had your case right now."
"What'd you do with it?"
Normally M4 brought the armored case everywhere, but it was nowhere in sight. In fact her sister was missing quite a bit of her usual kit, even her armband was missing.
"With my rifle, hidden."
"Tch, great."
A grenade came sailing out of the hangar doors. 16 and M4 quickly hid their eyes as the flashbang went off, and were able to then light up the four USECs that pushed out right after.
In conjunction, an explosion rocked the room from behind them, and below a rapid fire barrage opened up in the same direction.
M4 peeked again.
"More USECs, from the other side of the building."
Sure enough, the BEARs, who had split up so one group could cover the rest as they crossed the room, were all pinned and trading shots with a group of USECs entering from the far side. The westerners had the Russians flanked, and were advancing with grenades and automatic fire.
"Perfect," 16 said," lets go while they're distracted."
She got up to start moving, but stopped as M4 didn't follow.
"M4?"
Without a word, her sister propped her rifle on the rail and opened fire.
Across the room, several USECs went down to laser accurate fire, while the rest dove for cover.
"What are you doing!?" 16 demanded, ducking into cover as 5.56 came flying their way.
"Helping the Russians."
"Why?"
M4 shot her a side eye glance, "Because they helped us."
"Grrrr, on accident!"
A pair of USECs peaked around another far corner, giving them an angle on both the BEARs and 16 and M4.
With a second thought 16 opened up on them. With the far more familiar weapon, she took the first down in short order and spooked the second back into hiding.
"It doesn't matter, they helped us, we should help them."
"They're not good people!"
M4 glared at her, "Are we?"
She hesitated. 16 knew the answer to that, she knew M4 was right. How many times had her sister been right? How many times had her heart led her in the right direction?
16 pursed her lips, "Fine."
With that, she joined the fight properly.
There seemed to be an endless number of entrances to the room, with heaps of lab equipment that all parties were using for cover.
Without a word, 16 and M4 split up their areas of coverage, M4 taking one half of the room while 16 took the other, and together they began to push the flanking USECs backwards with the kind of rapid, accurate shooting only a doll could manage.
16 was sloppy still, despite the more suitable weapon she found herself missing alot of shots. Her body still felt numb in places, she couldn't target well, and her reactions were slow. But with M4 at her side, it was enough.
Meanwhile, the BEARs had noticed the drop in pressure and begun moving their way again.
"They haven't shot at us yet, I believe the Americans are their concern."
"True. Let's hope that stays that way," 16 growled.
Soon enough, the Russian were coming up on them.
Less than half their original number made it to their position. A small group still stranded across the room also still fought on, but the BEARs had been badly bloodied.
The first few slid in behind the same cover M4 and M16 were hiding behind, and their apparent leader came up beside the two of them.
"Thank you," he said in Russian, "who are you two?"
16 was surprised by the man's tone. It was friendlier than she expected, and he didn't seem to be surprised by their appearances either.
"Griffin and Kryuger, I'm M4, this is M16." M4 quickly introduced them between shots.
Now it was M4's turn to surprise 16. For a moment she wondered whether the BEAR would question it further, as the name meant nothing in this world.
"Pmc?"
Perhaps he simply realized now was not the time for scrutiny.
16 nodded, "same for you boys?"
"Yes, Battle Encounter Assault Regiment, I'm Mule."
"Cute name, did the acronym come first?"
The man snorted, "Yes, our boss thinks he's really clever."
For a moment, the battle lulled. The USECs at the far end pulled back, and the guns on all sides fell quiet. The few isolated BEARs took the chance to dash across the room to the rest of them.
"What's your objective?" The man asked.
16 pointed at M4, "Get her out. You?"
"Flush these fuckers out, see what we can find in here afterwards. These bastards must have something to hide in here, I intend to find it.."
"Right. Well heads up, you buddies up top pulled back."
He nodded soberly," hmmm, sooner than expected. Why?"
"Something exploded in the sky, and killed everything electronic. I think they lost their night vision and comms so they didn't have much choice."
"Something exploded? What?"
"Emp." M4 stated, turning to him, "I heard the USECs talking about it, and that they were planting charges to bury this place."
Everyone's eyes went wide.
"Where?" He asked.
"I saw some on every floor above us, and their demolition team was headed to the basement as well."
"Any In here?"
M4 shrugged," most likely."
The man nodded, and began looking around the room.
The room was held up by a series of curved support pillars that jutted up through both floors. 16 quickly scanned the nearest, and her eyes narrowed
Near the top, a small rectangular device had been attached. No more than a few centimeters in size, and at its center was a small, almost unnoticeable led that glowed green. Out the side, a small cable wound out and downward along the pillar.
"Look," she pointed to it.
M4 and Mule both glanced up at it, and the man's face went pale.
"They want to bury their sins," he grumbled.
M4 nodded grimly," yes."
Behind them, the sounds of engines grew to a roar, and some began to drive away.
"We need to stop that, we can't let them hide what they are doing here."
"Well we can't he-" 16 began, but M4 raised a hand to shush her.
"16, what's our exit?" her sister asked coldly.
"Um, sewers, bottom floor."
She nodded, "these charges appear hard wired, set to go off all at once. This far underground, it would either need to be on a timer, or have a very powerful receiver. Either should be easy enough to find if we follow the wires."
"Could it be above ground? It could be alot smaller if so."
M4 shook her head, "The emp would have destroyed it if it was. The demo teams were rigging the above ground chargers to individual timers, but below ground…"
"It could have survived," Mule said.
"I saw the demo team go into the basement, I bet it's down there."
"If they're pulling back now, they may mean to detonate in moments," Mule said with a grim scowl on his face.
M4 nodded grimly," we may have pushed up their timetable."
From the sounds of it, the hangar they were near was empty, the vehicles having run off and been replaced by a low, grinding rumble. Based on the automated warming playing on the speakers, they were a pair of heavy blast doors closing.
"Fuck!" Mule cursed.
"We need to go, M4," 16 barked, gripping at her sister's arm and trying to pull her towards the nearby stairwell.
But M4 shook her off, instead meeting Mule's eyes, "they may not detonate while their men remain within. 16 and I will find and defuse the detonator, but only if you can buy us time and keep them pinned."
The Russian's face was grim, but he nodded and even managed a grin.
"Can you manage that alone?" He asked.
"We can."
"What about the above building? Even if we stop the bombs down here, we'll still be buried!" M16 growled.
M4 shook her head, "nothing we can do. But if we stop these we may have a chance to get out before they go off. This place appears fortified, it may survive the building's collapse."
"It's better than nothing," Mule agreed," and at least the evidence of their sins will be entombed, not burned."
To that, M4 nodded.
"M4, we need to go," 16 grumbled as the pair of them crept through the poorly lit basement halls.
"No."
"Tch, come on. Why are you so invested in stopping this?"
M4 shot a glare at her, "because these people, Terragroup," she nodded at a nearby Terra Labs sign, "I know a little bit of what they're planning. It's not good."
The pair of them came upon a four way junction. Without even needing to say anything, they stacked up behind the little cover present and peeked in each direction, looking for enemies.
They found none, but the constant rattling of guns above their heads was a constant reminder that some could appear at any time.
M4 flicked two fingers down one of the halls, and they resumed their hunt in that direction.
"What are they even planning? How do you know?"
"I got onto their network briefly. This world is quite different from ours, but in some ways it is the same. It teeters on the brink of an abyss, these people would push it off."
"Why?" 16 asked.
M4 shrugged, "Who knows. But it's always been our job to stop plots like this, perhaps that's why we are here."
"Right… do you know how we wound up here?"
They came upon a set of double doors, which after quickly checking for traps, they passed through and entered into a larger hall. This one was different from the others, lined with pipes and the flooring was made from iron grates. It stretched on for quite a ways, and was filled with plenty of places a person could hide.
"I don't. The Starfish changed our destination at the last moment. I didn't even know that this was possible. I don't know if we can go home either."
16 wondered silently whether or not that was for the best. Of course M4 wanted to go back to the rest of their sisters, to Griffin. To him.
16 squeezed her ring finger a little tighter on her weapon's pistol grip.
However, if they did they would be hunted. M4 had become the key to the most powerful weapon in history. Every party would want her.
Together, the two of them swept through the hall, quickly checking each and every spot as they went.
"How'd these guys even catch you anyway, and why?"
M4 snorted a laugh, "cus I hacked their network on accident. They wanted to know how I did it so easily."
"Ah. I take it the 'android from another world' thing didn't go well?"
M4 chuckled, "nope. I think I blew their minds. Especially since I was just trying to open a door. Turns out it was hooked into their security system, and that's tied in with their wider network."
"Ooh, sloppy."
M4 shrugged, "their tech is fifty years behind us, I'm not surprised."
16 nodded, "But you didn't answer my first question, HOW did they get you?"
"Oh uh…" M4 stuttered, "I might've locked myself in behind that same door… also on accident."
"Pfft, okay," 16 chuckled, nudging her sister's shoulder as M4 flashed an embarrassed grin.
"That's it," M4 stated, her light hearted attitude quickly fading back to a professional tone.
M16 looked ahead, finding a small transmitter set about half down the hall. It was small, almost unassuming were it not for the innumerable little wires that wound around to it from all directions.
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
M4 strode up to the device as 16 covered her.
Her sister knelt down beside it, and placed her hand atop it momentarily.
About four seconds later, she rose once more, "clear."
"Were we close?"
M4 shrugged, "who knows, it was a remote detonator. They could've hit the button at any time."
Above them, what must have been a grenade detonated. Concrete dust wafted down from the ceiling as the firefight continued on.
"Can we go now?"
M4 shook her head, and withdrew a knife. In a few quick strokes she severed all the wires that lead to the detonator, and then leveled her rifle on the device.
With a quick three shots, it threw up sparks and coughed smoke.
"Now we can go," she said, smiling.
"What about your buddies?"
M4 grinned, "I'll call them right now…" her face fell a little, "I hope their radios still work."
"They were underground before the emp went off. If yours works their's probably do too."
"Okay, you lead, I'll call them."
16 nodded, and began to bring them back the way they'd come as M4 silently messaged the BEARs upstairs.
She brought them back to the junction from before, but took the other hallway this time. She remembered this area from earlier, when she'd first come in.
The firefight above suddenly died, and M4 came back to reality in full, "I got in contact, they're leaving now."
"What's their exit? Sewers as well?"
"Mule didn't say, but he wished us well."
16 nodded, "well, I guess not all BEARs are too bad."
"Why do you say that? They seem to be the good guys."
"They've a bad habit of shooting civilians, judge jury and executioner style. Well, some of them any."
"Oh…"
"Yeah, well, everyones got blood on their hands these days. I'm certainly not innocent."
M4 sighed, "Nor I."
They arrived back at the sewer quickly, and 16 hopped down, with M4 following shortly behind. The water levels had risen a little since she'd left, but it wasn't even at her ankles and was thankfully nothing but clean, clear water.
The pair of them sloshed forward, heading for the still visible glow stick up ahead.
"Least the people you killed deserved it."
"Most didn't have a choice."
"And neither did we. Not usually at least, but they were doing bad shit and we had to stop them."
"I guess."
16 turned onto the branch in the sewer she'd first come in from. Once M4 joined her, she stopped, turned on her heel and wrapped her sister in her arms.
After a brief moment of surprise, M4 returned the hug in earnest.
"I missed you…" her sister mumbled quietly.
"Me too."
They held the hug for about a minute.
Then, a series of distinct booms shook the earth around them, and the following rumbling seemed all consuming.
"The charges upstairs…" M4 gasped.
"Lets go," 16 ushered, taking the lead despite her aching body.
The rumbling grew quickly over the next few seconds, but 16 forced herself to believe they were fine. They were dozens of feet below ground, the above ground structure wasn't terribly larger, surely-
In a terrific roar of collapsing earth and steel, the sewers above them exploded out in a storm of concrete and steel, enveloping them both before either could have possibly reacted.
NOTES:
O-kay, so that's a wrap!
JK, there's still quite a bit left of this story I think, and I'm certainly not gonna end it on a note like that. No this chapter is merely the end of the Contract Wars (and the constant 16 aboos) section of this story, now we get into EFT properly.
Originally, I was going to have M4 and M16's reunion be essentially the final plot point. However, I think that having the reunite now, at least in some capacity, is going to work better for the story. And having it take place in the Labs is another thing I think works better earlier rather than later. Honestly 16 really has little reason to care for most of what's going on in Tarkov, and would really have no reason to go to the Labs.
Now, for those of you who are curious, we will be seeing quite a few familiar EFT elements in the coming chapters, some less familiar aspects of canon, and stuff I've had to make up as BSG has left some holes in their plot that could qualify as craters. Even what I just covered may be contradicted by canon later on when we learn exactly where the different maps in Tarkov are relative to eachother. While I will try to stick to canon as best I can, if something comes up that contradicts what I've already established here, I'm sticking with my version unless the difference is really, really fundamental. So please be forgiving on this front as we go forward (though please correct smaller details as we go, I don't have time to sift through everything so if I miss a little thing like a name or place or date, that's something I can easily amend.)
Anyway, glad y'all have enjoyed this story, and I hope you all continue to do so!