Resident Evil Modern Warfare II: Operation Deadbolt
Chapter 20
"Alright Jill, you know the drill, get in, contain and get out. Zakhaev's gone but we got intel Fletcher assumed full command from here on out." said Soap.
"Back to business as usual then." she said descending from the chopper.
"Good luck Jill, MacTavish out."
"This is Jansen, we got a beat on a an odd signal not far from you. Could be nothing, but I wouldn't bet on it."
"Better safe than dead. Jill, get eyes on. We need to know what's happening in our backyard." said Ravenov.
Soap pings the location on Jill's tac-map heading just near the Tier 3 zone.
"Definitely didn't expect to start a Monday like this" she said to herself.
Jill takes the nearest ATV to ride over to the source of the signal. A monolith then forms in the shape of a portal right in front of her ready to go.
"What the hell? Deadbolt? Anyone seeing this?"
Ava then turns over to the camera on Dobbs' UAV drone confirming it.
"We got eyes on Jill. Looks to be some sort of rift portal entrance. To where? I don't know."
"It is likely the Dark Aether itself. Jill, stand down, I am sending in a Strike Team to investigate." Ravenov ordered.
"No time, I'm going in!" said Jill.
"You sure about this? I didn't like the sound of...whatever that was. You go in there, you may be on your own." cautioned Ava.
"I'm ready. I'll be back." assured Jill.
"Jill? Watch your six. If anything goes wrong, we won't be able to find you." said Soap.
"I'll be back before you know it Johnny. I'll report back if I find anything."
"Jill I highly advise you reconsider, this is new uncharted territory even for you" urged Ravenov.
"Relax Rav, she's a professional. You should trust her." said Soap.
"Fine... Use extreme caution when navigating through the Dark Aether." said Ravenov.
Jill makes her entrance through the rift into the Dark Aether.
"Aaaaaand we already lost contact." said Dobbs.
"I hope she makes it out okay." adds Barrera.
"She's survived worse. She's like some sort of Super Cop." said Soap.
The Dark Aether,
Al Bagra Fortress, Al Mazrah.
Jill exits the rift into the dimension known as The Dark Aether. She couldn't believe her very eyes. The sky was a night-time blue hued purple with random objects floating in the sky and Aetherium crystals everywhere coming from the ground.
"Is this...Al Mazrah?" she asked.
"Deadbolt respond? Deadbolt come in... Johnny? Greene? Anyone receiving? Shit. I guess I am on my own."
Jill turned around at the rift entrance crumble.
"Well great. Now I gotta find a new way outta here."
"We hid things from our self. Buried them. We can't find them anymore."
"The hell was that?" Jill asked hearing the loud whispers.
Just then, the inhabitants of the Dark Aether caught Jill trespassing.
"Right on cue."
Jill took aim with the Lockwood 680 shotgun and started mowing them down. But there was too many of them to fight. She then made a run for a nearby apartment complex as she sees a seal right inside. Curious, she activates it as a ring covers the area and zombies rush towards her.
"There...is a form in the shadows."
"There's that voice again." said Jill loading fresh buckshot shells.
She noticed with each zombie kill, essence leaves them as it fills up the seal.
"Let's see how many of these things I need to kill to fill you up."
Jill then manages to hold off the zombie horde from all directions until the seal was complete.
"Forever trapped on the outside, looking in"
"Where is that voice coming from?" asked Jill.
The seal the revealed an item as a reward for Jill.
"A pill bottle?"
She takes it and puts it in the large rucksack for later.
"Maybe these will be my ticket out of here." Jill said to herself.
Jill then heads towards the fortress entrance as she sees another seal.
"Another Seal. Alright Jill, rinse and repeat until you can go home."
She pressed it and hunkered down for another round.
A ring of fire formed around her with the undead in greater numbers this time. She fired an energy mine whenever she could to thin their numbers and fired buckshot after buckshot to keep them back and fill the seal with their essence.
"So close...Just out of reach" The entity spoke again.
The second seal was broken revealing a dog collar.
"We missed you old friend" said the entity.
"Poor pooch" said Jill taking the dog collar.
Jill then decided to explore the fortress in hopes of better firepower to increase her odds of survival in the Dark Aether.
She already comes across a Pack-A-Punch machine and gets to work on upgrading her Lockwood and her Bruen MK9 LMG to Tier 3.
"Now I should have a fighting chance. Now Maybe there's an armory in the fortress."
But before she could go further, she sees the third seal within the fortress.
"Round 3"
As another ring formed around the seal, Jill noticed she could be boxed in if not careful. She opted for the high ground and tossed decoys to lure them in at one spot to hit them with an energy mine.
"Impressions swallowed in light."
"Must be some sort of entity here." said Jill hearing the voice yet again.
"A blank page was always the best listener"
The seal revealed a diary for Jill to pick up as she cleared out the remaining zombies.
"Dear Diary..." she joked and took the diary.
Jill continued her trek through the fortress coming across gated doorways leading towards the armory barracks with hidden goodies inside. But the door was locked.
"Damn it...wait a minute.."
Jill breaks out her lockpicking equipment and got to work fiddling the lock open. She successfully does so and opens to reap her rewards.
She sees a case for some gold covered armor plates, another for some kind of wonder weapon labeled "VR-11" and sees a purple knife sticking on a table. She puts it all in her rucksack, while sheathing the knife on her pouch and heads for the next seal.
Jill headed for higher ground and parachutes off towards a dockyard which lead her to another seal.
"Hopefully this is the last one."
Yet another ring forms around the seal with more zombies inbound. Jill immediately throws the purple knife at a zombie as it chain hits them and goes right back to her.
"That's...a new one"
Jill then used the knife to thin out the initial wave until the seal was filled with essence.
"Oh I'm definitely keeping this..."
"There is a form of shadows" said the entity
The seal revealed a broken CCTV camera.
"Eyes of glass watched every move we made."
"I guess that's 4 for 4"
Jill then heads towards the beach as she sees the rift that leads back to Urzikstan.
"Finally"
But as she got closer, an Aether Worm bursts from the sand below and blocked her path.
"Oh come on! Are you kidding me?"
"Now look what you've done" said the entity.
Jill then heads back up for cover and sees a Deadbolt turret nearby. She goes to activate it as some backup with more zombies closing in. She swapped to her Bruen to put down the giant worm once and for all.
"I already killed you once, I'll do it again!"
Jill then heard the sounds of more zombies coming her way. She then quickly pulled out the VR-11 and shot a round at the zombies. She noticed it automatically turned one into a human again armed with a gun. So she shot as many as she could to make herself a little squad to fend off the zombies and the worm. She then might as well decided to put on the golden armor plates for the protection.
As she got hurt, she golden armor plates seem to regenerate itself into her three plate vest. But she was too busy to notice as she eventually killed the Aether worm and her squad was killed by zombies. She cleared the area and headed back down to the beach below.
Jill noticed the items given by the seals seen an attunement of some kind.
"That's odd"
The rift appeared once more before her.
"You've stayed long enough. Go back to the light" said the entity
"Get me the hell out of here..." said Jill.
Jill walked forward to the rift as she's taken back to Urzikstan right where the initial rift was. She walked out casually with her new bag of goodies as radio contact was restored.
"Got a reading on Jill. Holy shit, she's alive!" said Dobbs.
"Valentine? Respond!" said Soap.
"Go for Jill."
"Steamin Jesus Jill, gave all us a damn heart attack. Thought we'd lost you"
"Did you find anything?" asked Ravenov.
"Yeah. Al Mazrah was in the Dark Aether."
"Al Mazrah? You sure of this?" Ravenov asked.
"Al Bagra Fortress and that surrounding area. And there was something else. Someone else. Some kind of entity talking to me the whole time." Jill explained.
"RTB ASAP Jill, sounds like we have a lot to talk about." ordered Greene.
"I'll notify Dr. Jansen and have her prep for debrief." said Ravenov.
Later...
"Your presence means nothing here. This is not your domain. It is ours. Made of memories you will not corrupt"
Ava sits on her bed in her room having another migraine, grabs her medication while on her laptop until the lights were blood red and the alarm was sounded. She grabs a nearby M1911 pistol to investigate.
She slowly walked the halls as wounded MP officers laid about and the sounds of gunfire and shrieks were heard faintly in the distance. The lights go off and come back on to the sight of the corpses found in the basement of Urzikstan all pointing at Ava as the entity speaks through them...
"Let. Us. In."
Ava was surrounded. She fired all seven shots at as many zombies as she could even putting a gun in a zombie's mouth going for a two for one. She fights them off of while grabbed and pulls out a machete to stab a crawler in the head. She then slices more and more zombies at their heads until she gets grabbed.
"Ava!"
She sliced the zombie not knowing it was actually Ravenov as he clenched his throat with blood pouring out as she choked. Two MP officers along with Greene arrive.
"Drop your weapon! Drop it!"
Ava dropped the machete as she was about to be taken into custody. Only revealing it was just all in her head. Her eyes were once again purple as the entity used her as a vessel to speak.
"We will never be alone again. We. Will. Be. One"
"Jansen, this is Ravenov. Jill has returned from the rift."
"Ravenov?"
"Ava, Jill made contact with some kind of entity, and is coming in for debrief. Report to Ops."
"Th-They met...what?"
"An entity, inside the rift."
"I'll be right there."
Ava puts her laptop to the side as it revealed photos of the identity of the corpses along with others.
Grigori Weaver, Dr. Elizabeth Grey, Mackenzie Carver all listed as "DECEASED" along with a younger photo of Ravenov and finally, Samantha Maxis. Classified-Janus-Directive-6776d.