Man of Stone: Wanda/North
Sep. 20th, 2009 08:34 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsX-Force goes after the General's compound.
The landscape of Symkaria was mostly flat, save for the otherwise incongruous peak of Mt. Schron and the sharp foothills and treacherous canyons of the mountain range that marked the border shared with the Czech Republic. The Symkarian prime minister had put forth a major initiative to entertain tourism as a viable source of revenue for the small European nation, and in the past months had seen thousands of backpackers, cyclists, and hikers coming through the postcard-perfect countryside.
Thusly, the sight of two hang gliders dipping through the twists of the Otakar Gorge would not have been considered out-of-place, save that most sport hang gliders tended to not have the dark grey-black camouflage pattern that made them almost impossible to see in the hazy twilight against the canyon backdrop. After a series of banking turns between thermals, the two gliders rose above the lip of the canyon, coming in low and fast, the scrub brush masking any sounds of landing. Minutes later, the two gliders were buried under ground cover and their pilots were proceeding on foot towards a fenced-in compound nestled in one of the many rock-walled draws.
A discreetly-transmitted radio signal relayed the message to the rest of the team, waiting just five minutes down the road that was the sole point of ground access to the compound.
We're in place.
Silently drawing a pistol, Maverick surveyed the surroundings while Wanda knelt by a card reader, swiping the access card that their team had acquired, waiting for the request for the code to pop up.
As she worked, Wanda glanced at her watch - they had a few minutes before the next round of guards were scheduled to pass by. They'd purposely picked this entrance as it took the longest to reach when the hired men started their rounds. It was also out of the way and not as brightly lit as some of the other choices, giving them the time and cover they would need to get inside without, hopefully, being seen.
When the card reader requested the code, Wanda slipped the card into a side pocket that could button and entered it with quick, sure fingers. She grinned briefly when the little red light blinked to green and gestured to North to indicate it was open as she stood up, sliding to the side of the door so that he could lead the way.
Easing the section of chain-link fence open, North slipped inside and took a knee by a small electrical junction box. He lowered a duffle bag from his shoulder and unzipped it, producing a photocopied aerial picture of the compound. He tapped an area marked by three circles -obviously cooling towers for whatever power plant that Zakharov's systems were running off of. Pointing to Wanda, he tapped the map, then drew one hand silently across his throat, then pointed with two fingers to an area where a number of vehicles were parked.
Take those out, then rendezvous at the motor pool, was the obvious silent meaning.
Handing the tall Gypsy two canvas-wrapped explosive charges, Maverick reached into the bag and withdrew a curved piece of kevlar, tiger-striped, with protective eye lenses. Strapping the faceshield on over his head, all that was visible of the German agent's face was his smile beneath the mask. He picked up two long tubes and a pair of shotguns from the duffle, kicking the empty canvas to the side as he stood up.
Time to cause some mayhem, the smile said.
Keeping to the shadows that the buildings around them cast, Wanda eased her way towards the cooling towers. She'd gotten a good look at the map but beyond that, they were fairly easy to see as they stood over the relatively flat buildings that they were connected to. As she slid along one of the outer walls of the main building, she cast an eye at the spacing between the three, thinking of the explosives she was carefully carrying and what damage she could potentially add in the end to knock all three out of commission.
She paused as the sounds of footsteps came from around the corner and slipped between a parked jeep and the wall, hunching down even further in the darkness. The not quite black of her clothes helped blend her in even more than black on black would have and Wanda breathed shallowly as she waited for them to pass her by.
Maverick walked out into the center of the open courtyard, scanning the rooftops and buildings with a practiced eye. He knelt down, setting the shotguns on the ground by his feet and unslung one of the tubes, pulling at both ends until it expanded, small sights and a trigger popping out. Shouldering the rocket, he took aim at a cargo truck and pressed the trigger with a satisfying click.
The explosion sent a wave of hot air past him, and he had already picked up and extended the second rocket. Holding it under one arm like a bread loaf, Maverick simply pivoted and fired towards a door that his precognition had shown him about to open - now.
Grabbing a shotgun in each hand, North was already up and moving by the time the first shots started. The rush of viewing the future and present simultaneously faded into one continuous blur - dodge left, roll right, stand and fire. The shotguns belched flame as the incendiary rounds tore through the metal of vehicles and the military-issue body armor that Zakharov's mercenaries wore.
Flipping the shotguns upside down under his armpits, Maverick racked the slides back and forth in a smooth motion to reload and continued his onslaught, a one-man army spreading chaos in the middle of Zakharov's ranks.
As soon as the first explosion rocked the compound, Wanda was up and moving in the opposite direction as the two guards on the other side of the jeep shouted in surprise and ran towards North. She grinned slightly in the dark as she darted between the shadows until she reached her objective.
Even with all the ruckus coming from the compound behind her, Wanda still heard the soft cursing and tell tale jangle of pants and belt as someone came running around the corner from behind the tower. A guard, one who'd probably slipped off to relieve himself, was now struggling to both pull his pants up and get the safety off of his gun.
He yelped when he spotted her and stumbled backwards, the gun wobbling in his hand as he fought to regain his balance.
But by then it was too late. She'd darted forward and ducked under the arm with the weapon, her free hand reaching up to hit against the inside of his elbow to throw it off even more, smoothly transitioning the hit to a grab and twisted it awkwardly to pin the arm against her rib cage. With her other hand still holding the explosives, she dropped the guard with a nose cracking headbutt.
Wanda danced backwards when he went completely limp, slagging the gun with a close range hex bolt.
Satisfied that he wasn't going to be moving any time soon, she turned back and muttered to herself, "Keep them busy just a bit longer, Maverick" as she bent to work.
Jubilee slipped under the gap in the chain link fence North and Wanda had left and padded across the courtyard to surprise several mercenaries heading toward her teammates from a remote section of the compound. They must have been alerted by the gunfire, but they wouldn't be going anywhere if she could help it. She smiled brightly at the surprised soldiers and then created several multi-coloured flash-bangs as they raised their weapons.
Weak spots, a surprising number of them littered the cooling towers. Wanda pressed herself against one of the bases, half to keep herself hidden but also to plan and prep as she followed North's instructions on how to use the charges. It was simple enough work as she finished the charge on the second tower but the difficult part wasn't in the explosives themselves. It was putting them just so, tweaking them, eyeing the structures around her to make sure she got the most bang for her buck.
Stepping back once she was done, Wanda gazed about at the red lines that lay quivering over her mind's eye. Oh yes, she had changed the game now, hadn't she? With that she turned and sprinted away, no longer worried about cover, as she gathered the lines to her and gave an all mighty pull as the charges went off.
She was far enough away by the time they exploded that the force of the explosion didn't shove her to the side but the knowledge it had gone only increased her speed.
What happened next was like a perverse game of dominos. The second charge, attached to the middle tower thanks to a handy ladder, exploded outward, sheering off a good chunk of the top of the lip and the resulting debris and power crumbled damaged the third tower. Large pieces rocked and swayed dangerously as the first tower exploded as well and that proved to be the tipping point. The first tower simply collapsed in on itself as a good chunk of the second one toppled over and slammed into the third and last tower, creating an unholy amount of noise and light as Wanda ran in the opposite direction for all that she was worth.
Emma sighed as she surveyed the compound from where she was tucked behind the corner of a building. She shouldn't be here, she knew that; she had places to go and people to do and attacking ex-Soviet sociopath's compounds to take down their genetic supersoldiers was not the most discreet thing she's chosen to do lately. But mopping up the remnants of Phobos' work would be satisfying.
It was also, she decided, as a soldier backed towards her hiding place, firing rapidly at someone she almost recognised in the distance, far too long since she'd been a bad girl.
With a grin, Emma rose up and drove diamond fingers through the soldier's brain, then let him slide bonelessly off the end of her fist and onto the ground. She neatly picked an assortment of weapons from the corpse, deciding on a small machine pistol with an abundant supply of ammunition as her new toy. Kicking the corpse out of sight of the main firefight, Emma went out to find another mouse to play with.
Maverick, now carrying a purloined heavy machine gun, belt of ammunition thrown over his shoulder, was running backwards when he almost collided with Wanda in the aftermath of the explosion. "Gott im Himmel," he swore under his breath between bursts of gunfire. "I think I may have underestimated the effect of those charges. Either that or that nice Serbian who sold us these weapons was a very good liar."
Any response Wanda had was cut off by the sounds of a Russian-made HIND helicopter ascending through the smoke, the heavy rotors beating as it climbed away into the sky. Maverick swore under his breath, pushing the tiger-striped facemask up on his forehead. "Scheisse. Zakharov's rabbiting."
Wanda's eyes grew a little wide as the shadows across from them ... rippled. "Maverick? I believe we may have company."
Turning to see two large men walking seemingly-unscathed from the flames, North raised the machine gun and fired off a long burst, scything the rounds across their chests. When they kept walking, he simply shrugged and dropped the weapon.
As the men drew closer, it was evident that they were no longer what could be described as "human". Inhuman bone structure bulged their faces and chests, and the muscles of their limbs appeared to be attached... wrongly.
"So this is Krasnoe Dinamo," North breathed. "No wonder the program failed."
In one motion, he drew a serrated combat knife from his harness and flipped the shield down over his face again, hiding his expression. Drawing a second knife, he extended it hilt-first to Wanda. "Hope you know how to use this, gypsy-girl. No school like the old school."
"You give a girl the nicest presents," Wanda responded, taking the knife in hand easily, mimicking Maverick's motions so that when she started to move forward the hilt was firm in her hand with the blade resting against her forearm. The red glow from her hands cast everything in a cruel light and she gave a quick thought to Remy and his frustrated attempts to stop her from using her hands. She pushed it aside with a quick pang as she darted forward.
She had work to do.
The landscape of Symkaria was mostly flat, save for the otherwise incongruous peak of Mt. Schron and the sharp foothills and treacherous canyons of the mountain range that marked the border shared with the Czech Republic. The Symkarian prime minister had put forth a major initiative to entertain tourism as a viable source of revenue for the small European nation, and in the past months had seen thousands of backpackers, cyclists, and hikers coming through the postcard-perfect countryside.
Thusly, the sight of two hang gliders dipping through the twists of the Otakar Gorge would not have been considered out-of-place, save that most sport hang gliders tended to not have the dark grey-black camouflage pattern that made them almost impossible to see in the hazy twilight against the canyon backdrop. After a series of banking turns between thermals, the two gliders rose above the lip of the canyon, coming in low and fast, the scrub brush masking any sounds of landing. Minutes later, the two gliders were buried under ground cover and their pilots were proceeding on foot towards a fenced-in compound nestled in one of the many rock-walled draws.
A discreetly-transmitted radio signal relayed the message to the rest of the team, waiting just five minutes down the road that was the sole point of ground access to the compound.
We're in place.
Silently drawing a pistol, Maverick surveyed the surroundings while Wanda knelt by a card reader, swiping the access card that their team had acquired, waiting for the request for the code to pop up.
As she worked, Wanda glanced at her watch - they had a few minutes before the next round of guards were scheduled to pass by. They'd purposely picked this entrance as it took the longest to reach when the hired men started their rounds. It was also out of the way and not as brightly lit as some of the other choices, giving them the time and cover they would need to get inside without, hopefully, being seen.
When the card reader requested the code, Wanda slipped the card into a side pocket that could button and entered it with quick, sure fingers. She grinned briefly when the little red light blinked to green and gestured to North to indicate it was open as she stood up, sliding to the side of the door so that he could lead the way.
Easing the section of chain-link fence open, North slipped inside and took a knee by a small electrical junction box. He lowered a duffle bag from his shoulder and unzipped it, producing a photocopied aerial picture of the compound. He tapped an area marked by three circles -obviously cooling towers for whatever power plant that Zakharov's systems were running off of. Pointing to Wanda, he tapped the map, then drew one hand silently across his throat, then pointed with two fingers to an area where a number of vehicles were parked.
Take those out, then rendezvous at the motor pool, was the obvious silent meaning.
Handing the tall Gypsy two canvas-wrapped explosive charges, Maverick reached into the bag and withdrew a curved piece of kevlar, tiger-striped, with protective eye lenses. Strapping the faceshield on over his head, all that was visible of the German agent's face was his smile beneath the mask. He picked up two long tubes and a pair of shotguns from the duffle, kicking the empty canvas to the side as he stood up.
Time to cause some mayhem, the smile said.
Keeping to the shadows that the buildings around them cast, Wanda eased her way towards the cooling towers. She'd gotten a good look at the map but beyond that, they were fairly easy to see as they stood over the relatively flat buildings that they were connected to. As she slid along one of the outer walls of the main building, she cast an eye at the spacing between the three, thinking of the explosives she was carefully carrying and what damage she could potentially add in the end to knock all three out of commission.
She paused as the sounds of footsteps came from around the corner and slipped between a parked jeep and the wall, hunching down even further in the darkness. The not quite black of her clothes helped blend her in even more than black on black would have and Wanda breathed shallowly as she waited for them to pass her by.
Maverick walked out into the center of the open courtyard, scanning the rooftops and buildings with a practiced eye. He knelt down, setting the shotguns on the ground by his feet and unslung one of the tubes, pulling at both ends until it expanded, small sights and a trigger popping out. Shouldering the rocket, he took aim at a cargo truck and pressed the trigger with a satisfying click.
The explosion sent a wave of hot air past him, and he had already picked up and extended the second rocket. Holding it under one arm like a bread loaf, Maverick simply pivoted and fired towards a door that his precognition had shown him about to open - now.
Grabbing a shotgun in each hand, North was already up and moving by the time the first shots started. The rush of viewing the future and present simultaneously faded into one continuous blur - dodge left, roll right, stand and fire. The shotguns belched flame as the incendiary rounds tore through the metal of vehicles and the military-issue body armor that Zakharov's mercenaries wore.
Flipping the shotguns upside down under his armpits, Maverick racked the slides back and forth in a smooth motion to reload and continued his onslaught, a one-man army spreading chaos in the middle of Zakharov's ranks.
As soon as the first explosion rocked the compound, Wanda was up and moving in the opposite direction as the two guards on the other side of the jeep shouted in surprise and ran towards North. She grinned slightly in the dark as she darted between the shadows until she reached her objective.
Even with all the ruckus coming from the compound behind her, Wanda still heard the soft cursing and tell tale jangle of pants and belt as someone came running around the corner from behind the tower. A guard, one who'd probably slipped off to relieve himself, was now struggling to both pull his pants up and get the safety off of his gun.
He yelped when he spotted her and stumbled backwards, the gun wobbling in his hand as he fought to regain his balance.
But by then it was too late. She'd darted forward and ducked under the arm with the weapon, her free hand reaching up to hit against the inside of his elbow to throw it off even more, smoothly transitioning the hit to a grab and twisted it awkwardly to pin the arm against her rib cage. With her other hand still holding the explosives, she dropped the guard with a nose cracking headbutt.
Wanda danced backwards when he went completely limp, slagging the gun with a close range hex bolt.
Satisfied that he wasn't going to be moving any time soon, she turned back and muttered to herself, "Keep them busy just a bit longer, Maverick" as she bent to work.
Jubilee slipped under the gap in the chain link fence North and Wanda had left and padded across the courtyard to surprise several mercenaries heading toward her teammates from a remote section of the compound. They must have been alerted by the gunfire, but they wouldn't be going anywhere if she could help it. She smiled brightly at the surprised soldiers and then created several multi-coloured flash-bangs as they raised their weapons.
Weak spots, a surprising number of them littered the cooling towers. Wanda pressed herself against one of the bases, half to keep herself hidden but also to plan and prep as she followed North's instructions on how to use the charges. It was simple enough work as she finished the charge on the second tower but the difficult part wasn't in the explosives themselves. It was putting them just so, tweaking them, eyeing the structures around her to make sure she got the most bang for her buck.
Stepping back once she was done, Wanda gazed about at the red lines that lay quivering over her mind's eye. Oh yes, she had changed the game now, hadn't she? With that she turned and sprinted away, no longer worried about cover, as she gathered the lines to her and gave an all mighty pull as the charges went off.
She was far enough away by the time they exploded that the force of the explosion didn't shove her to the side but the knowledge it had gone only increased her speed.
What happened next was like a perverse game of dominos. The second charge, attached to the middle tower thanks to a handy ladder, exploded outward, sheering off a good chunk of the top of the lip and the resulting debris and power crumbled damaged the third tower. Large pieces rocked and swayed dangerously as the first tower exploded as well and that proved to be the tipping point. The first tower simply collapsed in on itself as a good chunk of the second one toppled over and slammed into the third and last tower, creating an unholy amount of noise and light as Wanda ran in the opposite direction for all that she was worth.
Emma sighed as she surveyed the compound from where she was tucked behind the corner of a building. She shouldn't be here, she knew that; she had places to go and people to do and attacking ex-Soviet sociopath's compounds to take down their genetic supersoldiers was not the most discreet thing she's chosen to do lately. But mopping up the remnants of Phobos' work would be satisfying.
It was also, she decided, as a soldier backed towards her hiding place, firing rapidly at someone she almost recognised in the distance, far too long since she'd been a bad girl.
With a grin, Emma rose up and drove diamond fingers through the soldier's brain, then let him slide bonelessly off the end of her fist and onto the ground. She neatly picked an assortment of weapons from the corpse, deciding on a small machine pistol with an abundant supply of ammunition as her new toy. Kicking the corpse out of sight of the main firefight, Emma went out to find another mouse to play with.
Maverick, now carrying a purloined heavy machine gun, belt of ammunition thrown over his shoulder, was running backwards when he almost collided with Wanda in the aftermath of the explosion. "Gott im Himmel," he swore under his breath between bursts of gunfire. "I think I may have underestimated the effect of those charges. Either that or that nice Serbian who sold us these weapons was a very good liar."
Any response Wanda had was cut off by the sounds of a Russian-made HIND helicopter ascending through the smoke, the heavy rotors beating as it climbed away into the sky. Maverick swore under his breath, pushing the tiger-striped facemask up on his forehead. "Scheisse. Zakharov's rabbiting."
Wanda's eyes grew a little wide as the shadows across from them ... rippled. "Maverick? I believe we may have company."
Turning to see two large men walking seemingly-unscathed from the flames, North raised the machine gun and fired off a long burst, scything the rounds across their chests. When they kept walking, he simply shrugged and dropped the weapon.
As the men drew closer, it was evident that they were no longer what could be described as "human". Inhuman bone structure bulged their faces and chests, and the muscles of their limbs appeared to be attached... wrongly.
"So this is Krasnoe Dinamo," North breathed. "No wonder the program failed."
In one motion, he drew a serrated combat knife from his harness and flipped the shield down over his face again, hiding his expression. Drawing a second knife, he extended it hilt-first to Wanda. "Hope you know how to use this, gypsy-girl. No school like the old school."
"You give a girl the nicest presents," Wanda responded, taking the knife in hand easily, mimicking Maverick's motions so that when she started to move forward the hilt was firm in her hand with the blade resting against her forearm. The red glow from her hands cast everything in a cruel light and she gave a quick thought to Remy and his frustrated attempts to stop her from using her hands. She pushed it aside with a quick pang as she darted forward.
She had work to do.
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