Griffin Station
"Hoo-fuckin'-rah meatbag!"
"It's a fucking army! Get it? With the arms? Ah, fuck you!"
"Banzai!"
"I can schmell your fear!"
A thunderous voice resounded through the moon facility, and the undead surrounding the four stopped in their tracks. It didn't stop Dempsey from dumping the rest of his Galil's magazine into them, though, dropping several more meat sacks before the gun went dry.
Nikolai, however, stopped spraying his SPAS-12 shotgun, staring into the sky with a mixture of drunken hate and fear. Why the hell did they have to stop? Nikolai was drunk and Nikolai was angry. Nikolai needed targets to shoot, so why did the stupid voice make them stop? Nikolai sneered something in Russian, glancing to the motionless, standing corpses.
Takeo's katana severed a zombie's neck, decapitating the ghoul. Takeo then retreated to his group, weapon held out directly in front of him to anticipate any more of them coming his way. This was not good, he thought to himself. Samantha had a plan to stagger their progress, and they'd only just gotten through the reaches of Griffin Station.
Richtofen held an M14 battle rifle, his finger held just over the trigger as the odd sight before him unraveled. Richtofen opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by the resounding voice in their heads-
"YOU WILL FAIL"
The voice screamed,
"BEGONE - FOREVER!"
The cackles of Samantha echoed through the multiverse as Takeo, Dempsey, Nikolai and Richtofen were annihilated by lightning strikes and transported to another dimension.
The dimension that Roanapur exists in.
Roanapur
"Jesus fuckin' christ!"
Dutch jerked the wheel left as another torrential wave crashed into the nose of the PT boat. Dutch was struggling getting the PT to obey him as the storm raged.
It had appeared out of nowhere, and lightning was torching everything it touched. Dutch could see from the view port as lightning rained into Roanapur, causing small fires - the rudimentary firefighting division within struggling to compete.
It was a storm unlike anyone in Lagoon Company has seen before.
And then, just as fast as it came, the storm disappeared.
It was like someone turned it on, then turned it off, Dutch thought as the boat now rest in calm waters. He, Rock, Revy and Benny went topside on the port side torpedo deck to look at Roanapur.
The fires were already out.
Revy groaned, rubbing a bruised section of her forehead.
"Jesus fuckin' christ is right, Dutch. What the fuck was that?"
Rock offered a meek shrug while Dutch answered.
"Like hell if I know. I've never seen a storm come and go like that."
Benny chimed in, "And that was a bad one."
The four nodded in unison.
But something else caught Revy's ear, her hands instinctively resting on her dual Beretta customs.
"You hear that, boys?"
The three stayed silent, then Dutch finally said something.
"God damn... They never take a break, do they?"
Revy cackled as gunfire erupted in the distance - within the bowls of Roanapur.
"Hell yeah, baby! Gunfight in a goddamn storm! Fuckin' Roanapur!"
The four had no clue where they'd landed.
In fact, they didn't even remember how they got there.
The only thing they knew for sure was that it was suburban... Or something of the sort. Dempsey was the first on his feet, ripping a new magazine for his Galil from the surplus of pouches he had on his second-world-war chest rig. He used the lip of the new mag to kick the mag catch, then the old magazine out, and replace it with the new one.
Tank racked the charging handle and stared at the other three sprawled on the ground.
"Get up, guys, this could be a whole new shithole."
Nikolai, wrapped in his odd mish-mash of Russian uniforms and bandages pushed himself against a wall and proceeded to vomit into the alley floor. Takeo was knelt, clutching his head as if a pounding headache had taken over, preventing him from standing.
Richtofen was passed out; face down into the dirty concrete that lined the alleyway.
Tank released a displeased sigh, pacing towards Nikolai and forcefully grabbing him by the bicep - then yanking Nikolai to his feet.
Nikolai surged forward, grabbing Tank by the collar of his uniform.
"I can't fuckin' remember anything! My head hurts! Chyort, Tank, I think we jumped again!"
Tank tanked the headache already, shoving Nikolai off with the same arm he seized him with, "Yeah, I know, it's just like that fuckin' theater again. Tak', you alright? Or do I need to babysit you, too?"
Takeo released his breath slowly, rising from the crouched stance and firmly massaging his temples as he stood.
"No... But I, too remember nothing of how we arrived here."
Takeo pat the handle of his scabbard where the katana rest, then moved his right hand over to a holster, removing his Colt Python from its leather reaches. One by one, Takeo replaced the .357 magnum cartridges.
Nikolai sloppily loaded his SPAS-12 with shells as Tank surveyed the area - head on a swivel; monitoring their surroundings. It didn't take long, but both Takeo and Nikolai were standing with Tank - fully loaded.
"Okay. Step one, figure out where the fuck we arrived. Step one and a half, wake up Dick-Tofen."
"I got it."
Nikolai promptly walked over and knelt beside Richtofen. Opening his mouth, a raw and ripe burp emanated from his guts onto Richtofen's face. Accompanying it came a bit of slobber and regurgitated vodka, splattering on Richtofen.
Doctor Edward Richtofen's eyes surged open, and his arms worked like a jackhammer - one promptly backhanding Nikolai hard enough to knock him backwards - and the other shooting himself upright.
Richtofen took a cloth from his shirt pocket once he was on his feet, wiping the disgusting material Nikolai had belched on his face.
"Nikolai. If you ever, do zhat again, I will castrate you and feed your testicles to zhe hellhounds."
Nikolai sat flatly on the ground, ignoring the threat made by the doctor and finding his way to his feet..
Tank shook his head, refusing to look at the two, "At least you're awake. Get your shit, we need to move before zombies show up."
Far down the alleyway, Takeo came running back towards the group. Tank didn't ponder too much, but he guessed Takeo must have slipped away while Nikolai played 'wake the doctor' with his breath.
Regardless, Dempsey could hear something hot on his heels, so he readied his Galil. The sound of Richtofen and Nikolai leveling their weapons rung in his ears as Takeo passed them.
"We need to go! There are mobsters here! Hunting us!"
Damn, Tank thought, Guess there's no freaks here.
"Alright, I'll cover us with some smoke! Let's peel!"
Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen took off to the opposite side of the alleyway while Tank pulled a white smoke grenade from his belt. Once he pulled the pin, Tank chucked it.
It landed about four meters behind him as he ran with the three. Within seconds, white smoke billowed through the alley, cutting off any view these people had of Tank or the other three.
A rapport of gunfire kicked up behind him as the four ran around a corner to escape whatever - or whoever was behind them
The four had emerged into a street and quickly crossed it. The street looked like a warzone; storm had done a number to the place. Fires had kicked up, and people were scrambling from the shanty homes they had here. They paid no attention to the four as they bolted across the street.
Even if it were odd to see these four in such an attire, Roanapur had seen worse. Hot on their tail was a branch of the Manisalera cartel, Abrego's branch of Colombians in this Thai city. The rabble steered clear of them, even in this chaos.
Tank glanced behind him to see a group of brown-skinned men in denim and Hawaiian shirts hot for them, guns pointed and ready.
He returned his gaze forward. The group was hot into an alleyway, and they'd be lead bait if they didn't move somewhere other than straight. Lucky for them, the alley forked left, giving them an easy out.
"Left! Now! Dickhead; use a Gersch!"
Richtofen retorted something as the four peeled into the side alley, arming the black-hole device with ease and finesse only he could muster.
The Doctor chucked it behind him, and a second later, the Manisalera cartel had barreled into the alley on top of the waiting device.
"Fuckin' shoot em!"
One shouted.
But none could as a tear in the ground at their feet suddenly manifested and levitated to their chests. A colorless, almost black sphere that contorted the mass around it began violently absorbing mass beside it.
"What in the fucking fuck?!"
One of them shouted as he was swept off his feet, half of his body sucked into the sphere with three more of his comrades. He could see as the hole sucked his guts out of him, the only thing he was capable of mustering being a soundless scream as skin, too, was peeled from his body.
Concrete shredded from the ground, and body parts were torn from and out of the bodies of the nearby gangsters who were not these four men
Then the device detonated two seconds later, shredding the other men around it with a concussive shockwave, killing nine of the twelve men.
Nikolai, Tank, Richtofen and Takeo had ducked into a side alley as the Gersch device did its magnificent work - the Doctor grinning madly as he watched it tear apart the gangsters and detonate as planned.
"Okay. What now?"
Takeo pitched in, drawing his Python - "We should take one for questioning. We know nothing of this land!"
Nobody seemed to disagree, all nodding to each other in response.
Tank propped around the corner, switching the Galil to semi-automatic.
A roar echoed outside of Tank's right side, and he turned to see Nikolai punching a round of buckshot into one of their abdomens, flooring him.
"Fucking get that you shit!"
Takeo bolted forward as Dempsey pulled the trigger, blowing the left kneecap of one out with a 7.62x51 round and knocking the man down.
The other man was getting away.
Takeo Masaki had other plans for the man.
Takeo placed the sights of his Python on the man's back, then pulled the trigger.
The four had drug the survivor of their skirmish into a building and interrogated him. Richtofen did, really. Tank there at the beginning, and Nikolai pissed on the man, which he responded with in disgusted screams. He died eventually, but they got the information on about everything in Roanapur.
Takeo was in thought, Richtofen cleaned his tools, Nikolai drank, and Tank field stripped his rifle.
Even in a completely different world, they resorted to their base behaviors that they've been used to this whole time.
But instead of shooting maggot ridden meat bags, they were just meat bags.
"Alright, what next?" Dempsey questioned - he had just field stripped and re-assembled the Galil battle rifle he had, accepting the condition it was in.
Richtofen laughed, tilting his head to the skies.
"I think we should wait for zhis little town to go under, Ja? Or maybe we find a way home.."
Takeo glanced between Richtofen and Tank.
"As much as I feel the need to return to my Emperor, we must protect this place from whatever evil may come from our arrival."
Nikolai snorted and chugged another bottle, not pitching in to the conversation.
Dempsey clutched the Galil in his lap. It had been with him since... Since when? Where did they come from? Dempsey tried to remember where they had just come from, but the same damn sights and sounds repeated itself over and over again.
Gunshots, screaming, and blood.
No place or time, just those three things in synchronic cacophony.
He sighed, giving up on trying to remember where in this blood-soaked campaign they'd been.
"Okay... So do we wait until the meat bags come crawling, or should we tell the town?"
Nikolai belted a laugh, waving his vodka bottle in the air in some negatory response. "Ah-ha, they will ignore us, probably... No use..."
Tank eyed Nikolai, but continued calmly - "I still think it's worth a shot. Takeo? Dichkhead?"
Takeo responded before Richtofen got a chance to retort, sitting upright with a sense of purpose, "I think we shourd try - it would dishonor me as samurai to not herp the people."
The two glanced to Richtofen, still cleaning his tools, who responded promptly and full of vigor- "I think i should dissect more shwinehund before I come to zhat conclusion, Dicksey. For now, no zombies, just cleaning and killing." Richtofen's face shimmered with glee as he spoke of the possibilities, "Just like zhe old times, ja?"
Tank and Takeo eyed each other.
"Guess it's just you and me, huh?"
Takeo nodded. Not that he didn't like Dempsey, he just didn't like him, too.
That left the two to think as Nikolai drank his life away - and the Doctor cleaned his surgical tools