Operation Black Dawn
Mission 17 - Law Enforcement
October 2 - 1995/December 1096
First Black Hand Operation in Terra
"We must do our part to end poverty and starvation across the globe so that the next generation doesn't experience what we're going through now."
- United Nations Secretary-General Park Chung-hee, 1968
Major Sofija Jovanović [Yugoslav Socialist Republic - Crna Ruka] - Lungmen Slums - Dated December, 1096.
"HQ to Alpha Team, what the hell happened there?" The radio blared as I hid behind a garbage bin away from another police car passing by.
There I was, Major Sofija. Yugoslav Armed Forces. Special Operations. Normally, I wouldn't be hiding in a slum alleyway, ducking at the sound of a police car. Normally, I wouldn't be telling my team to duck and avoid any police or militia forces since we always operated in Nod territories, which often meant we were VIPs. But the fact that we were clad in all-black - with balaclavas and helmets and all that - Did nothing to help our position in the slightest. And we were in foreign territory, mapped only by a U2 Spyplane.
Honestly, the fact they were able to enter through the sewers into the slums was a telltale sign of how shit this place would be. But God, I did not predict that this would go wrong in so many ways.
How the hell were we even sicced on?
"I have no idea, sir." I responded bluntly. "We were moving when we got faced by two policemen, and were forced to open fire on them." I leaned out of the dumpster to take a look at the police patrols and news teams - at least, that's how we saw them - and grimaced. "They're cordoning off the area. Command, I don't think this area's safe."
The sight of yellow tape and increased police patrols backing civilians away didn't leave the best impressions on me.
"Fucking Goddamnit," The radio responded, with a grumble easily heard from the other end. "Alright. Change of plans. Keep moving and try to identify Reunion strongholds. We'll get you guys right after, and maybe get the infantry. You guys painted a goddamn large target on your backs. Don't do that again. Over." I grimaced, but complied. After all, there wasn't enough room for me to complain after, oh, I dunno - killing two police officers.
"Copy, HQ," I responded. "When we do find Reunion, what's our directive?" I added just before we could continue our advance.
"Your objectives are to mark it on positioning system for the infantry to get in and eviscerate," HQ responded. "As for you, you're going to need to evacuate from the area now. Otherwise..." A sigh was heard. "This is going to be a pain for all of us. Out."
"Copy, HQ. Out."
I nodded and took one last look leaning from the dumpster to find that there had been more police movement.
"Major, I think it's time we haul ass." Mirsad noted. "The police are going to sweep through this area. It's about time we get the fuck out of here before everything goes to shit."
"Got it." I nodded, before pointing my finger towards another alleyway. "Team, move." I ordered, getting the rest of the team to get out of the to-be-sweeped alleyway.
I kept my careful watch as the team moved through the alley.
"Jesus Christ, man. You think this place would get any market value?" I heard Ilić note as we passed by a garbage bin that stank to high hell, even penetrating the filters of the gas mask. I didn't know how that was possible, but I'd get it checked if I was anywhere close to base. That's hoping we didn't get, uh, 'Oripathy' after we saw some of the corpses.
"I don't think this place has any sentiment of market value, Ilić." Nikola noted. "If anything, it looks like this shit was designed to devalue the housing market. Typical of capitalists, sadly."
"Oi, we're not the USSR. Don't go around blaming Capitalism." I chided. "This is just corruption and segregation at its finest. Remember, we're a united front. Not any USSR wannabes."
"Got it, boss." Nikola conceded.
When the team finally got past the alleyway, we stumbled upon a yard... with something pretty surprising for us.
"Hold it," I noted, holding my hand up. "Something's not right."
"What the hell...?" Mirsad noted.
I turned to Mirsad and silenced him with a hand. "Be quiet. We've got a problem here."
I grabbed my IR pointer and pointed it towards the problem. It took a bit to find it, but when the low lighting finally cleared itself with a flash of red and blue from a nearby police car, I heard Siniša gasp.
A body of a local police officer with a sword embedded in the stomach. The lighting didn't make it clear, but when I noticed the legs sticking out in the darkness - illuminated by poor night-vision - I realized what we were in for.
"Uh... That wasn't us... right?" Ilić hesitantly asked, approaching the body with his rifle at the ready.
"No." I turned my eyes left and right as I motioned my hand in 'Ready'. "Team. Get ready. We've got a problem." I crouched and saw the team spread out and active their laser sights. The beams were only visible in IR, which gave us the initiative in ambushes. That being said, our weapons pretty much already gave us an unfair advantage.
Nobody likes being on the receiving end of a Devastator rifle.
"HQ, come in," I reported. "We've got a problem and lead here. We've found a local cop, and it wasn't us this time. He's got a sword in his stomach. And that doesn't look like an Arabian Sword either." I approached the corpse and positioned myself next to it.
Turning to Ilić, I pointed to the sword. Ilić shrugged.
"Pretty obvious that he's been stabbed, Major."
"Yes," I grumbled. "But take a look at the sword itself. See if it's got anything on it. Hell, even an engraving or some bullshit."
Ilić nodded and pulled out the sword from the body, with the sickening sound of gore accompanying the action. Reminded me of a video game, if only made more disgusting by being in-person.
Ilić took his flashlight out, and turned it on, with the purple light glowing on the sword. Something caught Ilić's attention as soon as it caught mine.
"HQ to Alpha," The radio responded. "Say again, are you telling me you've found a dead cop?"
"Yep," I responded, grasping the sword's handle and letting my hands feel over the emblem on its blade. "And we've got something damning."
"What is it, Alpha?"
"Are you familiar with a double-helix symbol, but fucked up?"
"...Shit! Alpha, that's Reunion's symbol! You've finally found them!"
"Well, fuck me," I noted, taking the sword inspecting it further. "I believe we've found our terrorist assholes." I noted the blade itself. It was a standard Japanese Katana. I hadn't seen those since I last got deployed to the Korean DMZ and had to deal with ROKA and IJA patrols. The blade itself... well, if I'm not mistaken, the bottom part of the blade was painted red.
A Red Blade.
"Huh. Wonder if anyone had a valid reason for painting the blade Red."
A noise to my right caught my attention.
And the rest of the team's attention, as everyone pointed guns at the source. When we finally got a look at who it was, I immediately positioned my fingers on the trigger.
The assailant appeared to have a cabbie cap, and had his mouth covered by a bandana. What got my attention was the colored strap on his uniform that was visibly contrasting when viewed through night vision.
And he was staring down our team.
Nikolić took position and clanged together his baton with his shield.
"Drop your weapon!" Cried out Siniša.
The man took a step back, before putting his hands on his sword handle.
"I SAID DROP YOUR WEAPON!" Siniša yelled once again, rifle trained on the man. He stepped back again, hand getting off the blade handle. The team held their breaths as the man appeared to step back a little more, before it became a staring competition between him and the team.
To my surprise, however, the man fucking fled! He turned his head around, and started dashing the other way. We only realized our terrible mistake the moment he turned back, and had to strike back. Immediately.
I took the first shot at the man with the ADS Devastator. To my horror, the shot went wide as he swerved and ended up hitting a wall. Nikolić put his baton down to swiftly pull out a pistol and shoot at the fleeing man thrice, only to end up missing to his own horror as Nikolić swore on radio.
Ilić opened fire. And to my surprise, the shots didn't go wide. But they didn't put the man down. They just hit his arm, rather than any valuable part. Nikola tried to fire his tesla rifle, but only managed to get off a small shock shot. Nikola's mouth was dirtier than a sailor, which forced me to turn down the radio. I didn't like my ears getting bombarded.
Mirsad tried his hand at another shot, only to narrowly miss the man's arm and hit the wall in the background instead. He nearly threw his rifle down. And last but not least, Siniša shot the man. The shot seemed like it wasn't going to miss. And sure - it didn't miss - but it didn't hit anything valuable! It only hit his hand, out of all things to hit.
The man immediately took a left turn and dashed away, leaving us stumped and confused at our own fuck-up. We were trained and somewhat experienced Black Hand operatives. Hell, we were accurate when we took down those officers.
Somehow we managed to miss four out of six shots, and two of them weren't even that damaging. Just wounds to the arm. In my moment of surprise, I lowered my gun comically slowly as I turned to look at the rest of the Black Hand operators with me. They also lowered their guns comically slowly and turned their heads at the pace of a turtle.
I was fairly certain that my eyes were twitching. Hell, I'm pretty sure I didn't feel this twitchy and angry in a long while.
Siniša seemed to twitch from his arms. Not that I couldn't blame him.
I opened up with a frustrated and grating question that all of us could get enraged at.
"Did. We. Miss... Almost. All. Our. Shots. ON ONE GUY?!" I asked. At that moment, I nearly felt like snapping my rifle in half. I exerted more strength on gripping my rifle.
"...Somehow, yes." Nikolić answered bluntly. But as far as I can tell, he was frustrated as we were.
We all turned to look at each other, then the location where the man retreated to. Repeatedly.
"After him!" I shouted, shifting my stance to straight-up 'run after that ratfucker' mode. I was fairly certain that the rest of the Black Hand agreed with me when we went to chase after him. I didn't need to turn back to answer my question though, as I straight up saw Nikola run like hell to get that guy. He was nearly outpacing me, which to be honest was an achievement.
But still, we had one thing in mind after literally missing most of our shots and not getting a chance to fire a second time because of speed.
"Get that motherfucker!"
Reunion Operative Red [Avenger Corps - Lungmen Cell] - Lungmen Slums - Dated December, 1096.
Red cringed looking at the wounds on his arm from two shots that managed to hit him. Three hits from what he presumed was a rifle, and one from a bigger rifle had completely hit his right arm and hand. He wasn't even supposed to enter a combat op. He was just supposed to keep watch on the alleyways for the LGD. Well, there they had it. The LGD were hitting them after their cordon!
"Fucking..." Red pressed on the hole on his hand. "Where'd the goddamn LGD get guns?!" He yelled out. Turning back repeatedly to ensure that they weren't there, Red swore he could see shadows chasing him down as he ran through the alleyway.
His eyes widened, and he thought only of running afterward.
"Damnit!" He shouted, hurriedly approaching where he needed. He took a turn right, hopefully heading where he actually needed to be. Lo and behold, he found the door. He took a minute to look back while trying his best to ignore the pain, and then turned back to the door. He banged his fist on it.
"Open up! The LGD's here! The fucking LGD's here!" He shouted, banging at the door repeatedly to get someone's attention. He turned back and panicked, fearing that the people who nearly gunned him down were rapidly approaching.
Normally, he would have stood up against them - but with them using Arts that only narrowly missed him, and bullets that actually managed to hit him? Well, any sane person would have gone up and ran.
Hopefully the rest of the Cell could take that advice.
When the door finally opened, Red stumbled forward, having leaned forward. His mistake, but he had no time to recuperate that as he tended to the bleeding wounds on his arm.
"What the hell happened?" A Soldier asked, hands on his machete. The rest of the cell in the area all gripped their weapons as they realized the implications of the phrase 'the LGD is here'. Most of them didn't have a very glowering opinion.
Red immediately uncovered his arm and let the rest of the Reunion rebels in the safehouse - one of many - see his wounds. Which were obviously gunshot wounds. Someone within the safehouse gasped, presumably in shock. Red turned around and closed the door, slamming it shut since the Crossbowman who opened the door didn't bother.
"The goddamn LGD's finally here, and they're not playing around!" Red commented. "Get moving! Tell every safehouse within this goddamn hellhole that the LGD's clamping down on us! Go!" He shouted, before pointing to the Safehouse's rear door. "I'll be warning the other cells too! We need to get this uprising in before the LGD nips it!"
He saw the men in the Safehouse nod, and some stood by the door, ready for the LGD.
He hurriedly opened the back door, and ran as fast as he could. Still bleeding. He wished he had time to bandage or use a tourniquet, but unfortunately, time was running short.
As he moved away from the safehouse, he could briefly hear screaming and the sounds of what he assumed were a lightning strike. That cemented it in his eyes. The LGD meant business.
Red took one look back, and saw the eyeslit of the door open, revealing a Reunion crossbow soldier who stared at Red, then his back, then right again to Red. "Go! We'll try to hold them back!"
He broke contact, arm bleeding but spirit determined. He wasn't sure how the LGD found out about their revolution. But he suspected a snitch. Anyone with two brain cells and a radio would be the most likely suspect for snitching on the Revolt in order to save their own skin. Unfortunately he had seen way too much of that during the early days of Reunion.
The LGD would someday pay for this with their blood.
Red soon found another Safe House, and opened the door as soon as someone saw him through the eye-slit. He pointed at the door and spoke to the stunned Reunion rebels.
"It's happening?" One of them asked, grabbing his crossbow. The rest of them stood by the door and unsheathed whatever weapon they had.
Red nodded, taking a tourniquet and wrapping it around his arms. "Send the word to Skullshatterer." He turned to one of the soldiers. "We're going to take this city down with us." He took a moment to grab bandages and wrap them around the gunshot wounds he sustained. He concluded by injecting morphine into his arms. He wasn't an Arts user, so he had to make-do with medical equipment.
An infected Messenger nodded, and walked through another entrance to get the word back to Skullshatterer. The rest of the infected in the safehouse all stood by the door, waiting for the Signal to start the Revolution.
One of them clanged his baton against his shield. The man turned to Red, and spoke.
"For the Oppressed."
Red nodded in approval. Someone else responded, with the rallying cry being echoed by the remaining people in the safehouse.
"For the Oppressed!"
Red chuckled, and then smirked. Today was the day. He'd long waited for this. Damn Lungmen for exploiting the downtrodden, the poor, and the oppressed - all for their dollars. If they were prepared to inflict pain, they should have prepared to be on the receiving end of things. Reunion would make sure of that.
"We have nothing to lose but our chains." Red concluded, drawing his sword.
The distant sound of an explosion as soon as he finished that brought a bigger smile to Red's face. Skullshatterer did say that when the Revolution comes, it would never be silent. Guess he was right.
It was the time for liberation. And Lungmen would suffer greatly for it.
Their turn to be on the receiving end of pain.
Private Second Class Ebrahim Gholem-Hossein [Islamic Revolutionary Treaty Pact - Persian Artesh] - Lungmen Slums - Dated December, 1096.
I was watching over the front of an alleyway which was blocked off by a short wall that was nonetheless easily accessible by just elevating yourself. There were other soldiers with me, but they were down back, as that was unprotected. Up in the front it was just us. I was keeping my watch over the area, waiting for the Black Hand to give their signal then detonating a building. I was getting irritated that they took so long.
Then an explosion drew my boredom away. The shockwaves didn't hit me, but it certainly did hit a few civilians. When I went to look at the source of the explosion, a building with burning windows and glass shards everywhere met my eyes. Then what happened dawned on me.
Someone hit the building with a firebomb. There went our pretensions of stealth, as not even the most effective of pretentions could keep us stealthy. When the screaming started, rather than move out into the street... I turned my radio on. I wanted to bring this up to command, and as fast as possible. Else we get everything fucked up before we even get our job done.
"HQ, this is..." I hesitated, humiliated about the callsign that our GDI 'masters' had advised Nod's radiomen. In theory, we were equal. But in practice, the base we operated in was financed by GDI's war campaigns and the exploitation of the faithful. If it were not for the accursed Green crystal, I wouldn't be here.
The only good part about it was IDAP and the Humanitarians, really.
I let out a sigh and continued.
"HQ, this is Long Unit," I continued. The nickname, to anyone West of Persia, is mundane. It is. I just find myself uncomfortable with it. "Did the Black Hand... uh..." I stopped for a moment to take a look at the rising smoke and panicking people from behind a short wall with my head popping up. I was suspicious. Did the Black Hand act early?
"Did the Black Hand plant a bomb somewhere?" I continued, watching carefully as the local police were called in alongside firefighters to suppress the situation. "Something just detonated and it's causing a panic down the street. I was hoping that we didn't set something off too early, because we haven't gotten to our objective yet."
The radio on the other end was silent for a bit as I awaited for a response, if any.
"Uhh... Long Unit, standby. We're contacting the Black Hand team," I heard from the radio. "Sit tight. Don't get anyone to move. Got it?"
I nodded. "Understood, sir."
"Got it. Sit tight. Out."
I turned off the radio, peeking my head over the wall to take a look at the chaos going on. Hopefully the bomb wasn't the Black Hand's. While I wouldn't normally be acting so casual and callous with things like poking my head over a wall, it was currently a chaotic situation in a rainy dark night in this city. 'Lungmen' our intel told us. Sounded Chinese.
The fact that this was an unprecedented bombing meant two things. Either the Black Hand had been there and were staging a distraction, or there was a Gas leak. There was also the hopefully impossible option thaat there was an other group within Lungmen that was trying to conduct recon.
The Kazakh Flame Trooper embedded with our unit poked his head over the wall, gas mask fogging up any expression he could make. He turned to me and I could subconsciously feel he was confused. I shook my head. "No, sadly, I don't know what's going on. As much as we'd love to intervene, we don't have the signal from the Black Hand nor HQ. So we better leave it be for a bit.'
The flame trooper tried saying something through his muffled gas mask, but I picked up none of it. That being said, I felt somewhere in my head he was asking when we could launch the attack.
"Wait for the Black Hand or HQ to update. Until then, we watch the firebomby chaos."
I heard a sigh of disappointment from the Kazakh, but I shrugged. "What can we do about it?" I commented. "It's not the first time I've bore witness to a firebombing, sadly."
The man sighed and I think he relented. Well that's over.
That being said, I got the nagging feeling that nothing was right.
I got a chill up my spine as soon as I saw the fire. Something was very off about this. It just felt so wrong for there to be an explosion without the Black Hand calling in. I'd know it because of my instinct. I call it 'God's Gift' and it's the feeling I get in the back in my head when things are about to go wrong really badly. Saved my life multiple times while I was fighting in the Caucasus.
My first act of preparation was to release my stress and praise God before I could start combat. "Allah 'Akbar," I bowed down on the ground to pray for a minute before picking up my rifle that leaned on the wall. I rose upwards as I aimed my rifle over the wall. I had everything to thank God for, and just getting that tingle was one of the things that confirmed to me the presence of God.
While I was aiming over the wall, another Artesh soldier - a Gunner this time - approached my corner and raised his eyebrows as I aimed over the wall.
"Hey, what're you doing?" He asked, "We didn't receive the signal yet." He sighed. "Aside from the bombing, but HQ told us to stay put. What's the holdup?"
"Just have the nagging feeling that it wasn't the Black Hand but it wasn't a gas accident either..." I muttered, aiming through my rifle sights as the police cordoned off the burned building after the firefighters left. "I got a tingling up in my spine. Something ain't right..."
I kept my rifle grip close as I watched over the walls. Something was up.
But... maybe I didn't have to-
"God-" I could only let out before an explosion rocked the building next to the police and the burned building. I stumbled for a bit before I fell flat on my ass behind the wall. The Kazakh Flame Trooper could only stare at me as I fell off. Or, rather, that was his last action before an Arrow flew over the wall and hit his helmet. The Arrow hit the man's head and caused him to stumble, dropping his flamethrower in the process.
"What the hell?!" The Kazakh Flame Trooper shouted immediately after taking her mask off revealing the soldier to be a woman. She would have been gorgeous if not for the arrow sticking out of the side of her head. "That wasn't the Black-"
I rushed up to take a look at what was beyond the wall, gunning for my rifle and taking aim over the wall.
"SHIT!" I shouted as an arrow narrowly missed my head. I took aim at the perpetrators and found the white uniforms of... Reunion staring back at me. To put it in short words, I was only briefed on them. But that briefing made me want to kill them more than anything.
And now I have them in my sights.
I'd be saying 'Allah Akbar' but with a near-headshot catching me off guard and piercing the helmet - and head - of a Flame Trooper cut my will to praise God. Externally, that is.
"Damnit!" I took a single shot at the Reunion Crossbowman who tried to shoot me. He's dead. Unfortunately, the shot draws the Reunion who originally spread out to face our position.
"After the oppressors!"
"Death to Lungmen!"
"They cannot keep us down!"
Battle cries rang out throughout the street as they all focused on gunning toward our wall position. One of them managed to get fast enough to vault over the wall, brandishing a sword as he shouted about the destruction of the old order.
I didn't have time for hearing a filibuster, and thus, I shot him as soon as I saw center-of-mass. The man suddenly went limp and dropped his sword, before plummeting to the floor with a 'thud' as his corpse fell flat.
The Flame Trooper saw the rest of the people trying to get over the wall and retaliated in kind by unleashing Hellfire on the mass of climbing bodies and hands that gripped the wall. The screams that came as a result felt more like a nuisance to me as I delivered single shots to the people who climbed over the wall but got burned.
The Gunner who checked up on me had his hands on the bipod as he rushed forwards, and sprayed the climbers and the hands who came up.
"Come on, suckers! I dare you! Fucking come here!" The gunner shouted as he let out long bursts that strained the machinegun barrel, accompanied by the Flame Trooper burning who were left.
I would have moved to a more advantageous position, and I was actually planning to do so. However...
An arrow to the back of my head caused me to fall forward disoriented. It took me about ten seconds before I turned back and regained my orientation. Behind me - where the other members of the Artesh Squad were - a chokepoint was established where the Reunion forces tried to enter through the alleyway, but were bottlenecked by Artesh soldiers opening fire.
An arrow narrowly missed me again, leading me to open fire in retaliation.
"Shit! What the hell happened?!" The Gunner behind me asked as I shot another Reunion soldier in the head.
"It's an assault!" The Flame Trooper shouted, turning around. "We're surrounded on both ends!"
"We're bottlenecking them though!" One of the Artesh soldiers defending the alley entrance without a wall shouted.
"Yeah, but they have the goddamn manpower!" The Flame Trooper retaliated.
Of all times for Command to call in and get back to us, doing it in the midst of active was one of the biggest annoyances. Back in Iran I had the same thing happen to me when I was already assaulting a Pakistani town. But with it being a sudden attack rather than a planned conventional assault...
"All units in Lungmen, we have a situation! I repeat, we have a very concerning situation!" The radio announced, with the background static being replaced by chitchat from within the Command Center. "It's a goddamn Uprising! Reunion's speeding up their operations!" They finally concluded. The news hit me only slightly, as I suspected that something was off the moment the bomb detonated.
Now my feelings were confirmed.
"All available units in the area, divert and suppress the Reunion uprising. We cannot negotiate a ceasefire with the local police, so be sure to stay out of their sight! If they find you, you are permitted to engage. We'll be sending reinforcements to nip the uprising. ETA 10 minutes. HQ, out."
I didn't get a chance to respond as an arrow hit the radio on my chest BDU. Of all the things for it to hit, the radio was not the first thing I expected. I found the fucker trying to reload in the midst of suppressive fire almost immediately.
And just as immediately, I swiftly shot him once, causing him to collapse on the floor. 7.62x51mm is no joke, and I felt a slight tinge of catharsis as I taught that lesson to Reunion.
The sound of multiple nearby explosions killed that catharsis however.
As we just wandered in at the wrong place, in the wrong time.
And we paid for it.
Author's Notes:
Sorry it took me so long. Life flew fast and my internet shat itself. I don't have enough words to say as I have to prepare for my mid-semester finals here in the United States, and I'm preparing with all of my heart. Just know that this is the beginning of the United Front finally getting involved with the world rather than sitting by the sidelines. They have a mandate to fulfill, and they're going to carry it out.
Also, yes, I actually did try my hand at writing an Islamic Iranian. I'm not too sure if I did good, but I tried to make him as human as a C&C infantryman can be. But hey, he's just another cog in the machine. Do know that Nod's going to open fire on the LGD first. Oh, and this takes place just immediately before RI arrives. But with a sped-up uprising, well... They're going to have to deal with a lot of shit.
As usual, this was a little rushed, but I'm trying my best.
See y'all next chapter.
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