| "Initsiirovanie (Initiation)" | ||
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SVR Headquarters April 30, 2008, 0720 hours They left the lift and proceeded toward the black van that was parked outside. Nikolai slid open the door and allowed his team to embark, then shut the door. He walked around to the passengers' side and opened that door, climbed in, then shut it. He fastened his seatbelt and set his Berretta down in between his legs. Turning to the blonde haired man sitting in the driving seat he said, "Lets go." The man nodded, and put the van into gear before accelerating down the road. Nikolai remembered the looks on the faces of the other team after they returned from their first mission, the jubilant mood they were in for days afterwards. He knew that his team would perform, that the hostages would be freed and the terrorists dead within twenty-four hours. He was supremely confident of his abilities; nothing could stop him from succeeding. Those who had tried had failed, and those who would try later would also fail. The drive was conducted in silence, though it was not imposed, merely an unspoken agreement by the team. On the flight they would talk, but for now they were quiet. This suited Nikolai as it allowed his mind to wander as it often did, reminding him of things which had happened in the past, things that had hurt him, and it was these things that he used to prepare himself with for the mission. It was always the way, and there was nothing he could do to change it; all he could do was utilize it. In due course the van reached the small airport just outside of St Petersburg which housed the RGZS' own planes. For this mission they would be traveling on one of the two NXX's, built by Sukhoi exclusively for the RGZS. An exotic blend of private plane and stealth fighter, the NXX is capable of getting up to fifteen people into places unseen, and these facts made it the ideal plane for this mission. Team Myech boarded the plane quickly, each taking one of the plush seats and buckling up. Nikolai took his place at the front of the plane, near to the cockpit, and waited for the ground crew to complete the loading of their gear. He heard the cargo bay door shut, and after a few spoken words from the pilot to the tower he heard the aircraft's engines change from a whine to a scream, and he felt the sensation of the craft moving. The NXX taxied to the end of the runway, requested and got final permission for takeoff; the pilot powered up the engines to maximum and within seconds the aircraft had gone from standstill to takeoff speed and the huge metal bird lifted off the ground and forced its way up through the early morning sky. "Its beautiful," Nelli was saying to Olesya. "The clouds?" "Yeah. The patterns they make are amazing." She pressed her face up against the plexiglass window and sighed. Nikolai unfastened his seatbelt and walked down the narrow galley to his team, taking an empty seat next to Kirill Bogdanov. He took a sealed envelope from his pocket and tore it open. The contents spilled out onto the small table in front of him: a piece of paper, five photo ID's on chains, and five small pieces of card. He handed out the ID's and the cards, and then proceeded to read the instructions in the letter. All terrorists must be eliminated. No survivors. Hostages must not identify any member of the team. Collateral damage is not acceptable on this mission. All weapons should be disposed of in the location indicated on the map below. Good luck. So, they were not to capture any of the terrorists. That was interesting. Nikolai would have thought that capturing and interrogating them would be useful, seeing as they could find out information such as their goals, supporters, financers. With such information future hijackings could be prevented, but Polyakov didn't want any survivors. Well, he wasn't going to disobey the orders, and he made sure that his team knew the ROE, or Rules Of Engagement. "No survivors?" Maksim asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, no survivors. All terrorists are to be eliminated. I expect that command to be carried out fully. After the takedown I want us to conduct a thorough search of the aircraft. Is that clear?" They all nodded, and he left it at that, moving towards the front of the aircraft. He sat down in the auxiliary seat in the cockpit, behind the co-pilot, and began checking the various readouts in front of him. The pilot didn't say anything; he'd heard that this individual had natural flight ability, and so his presence wasn't bothersome. He seemed to know enough about flight procedures, and besides, he wasn't distracting them. Nikolai was too deep in thought to be a distraction. He was thinking through various assault plans, trying to find one suitable enough for their time constraints and equipment packages. He turned round to see his team through the cockpit door. They were all excited in a controlled way. It had become apparent that his team was the youthful one, with Maksim Tarasov as the voice of experience. Smirnov's team were all experienced, with Lukin as the source of youthful exuberance. His team were the future, but he was determined for them to be on par with the `oldies', that was why this mission was so important. Even though it was tactically rather easy, there were still pitfalls to avoid. An aircraft was not the ideal place for a firefight, and seeing as they were not allowed to lose any hostages they had to move cautiously. Yemelyanovo Airport April 30, 2008, 0841 hours The plane landed twelve minutes later, and taxied to a far corner of the airport. There the team disembarked and quickly made their way into a small maintenance hut where they waited for the transport to arrive, and when a bus pulled alongside the hut they all got on. The aircraft crew loaded the packages, and soon they were on their way towards another building that had been reserved specifically for them. All of the curtains were closed because no one was meant to identify them, seeing as they were all `dead'. Over the course of the next two hours the team gathered as much information on the target as they could. Maksim and Kirill reconnoitered the plane from close range, while Nelli scoped it out using her sniper rifle. Once the two hours was up they had enough data to plan, and this they did for the next thirty minutes, carefully checking and rechecking every little detail, until all of them ended up with an intimate knowledge of the entire takedown. All that was left to do was execute the plan. This would be done under cover of darkness. Yemelyanovo Airport April 30, 2008, 2200 hours Wearing all black with a mask on to hide his face, Nikolai crouched with Olesya in some long grass on a bank not far from the aircraft. On the opposite side of the aircraft, the side with the doors, was another high grass bank, and it was on this bank that Nelli was, sniper rifle in hand. It was her job to pick off any visible terrorists when he gave the command. Maksim and Kirill were currently making their way underneath the aircraft, and would situate themselves beneath the lowered staircase at the front of the plane. Once Nelli had cleared the way it was their job to climb the stairs and assault the plane from the front. The idea was to attack from two different directions, forcing the terrorists together and hopefully making it easier to engage them. At least that was the idea. "Lets move," he whispered to Olesya. They were communicating courtesy of a new Russian innovation. Designed by the SVR's in-house communications wizards, the radio consisted of two small circles of metal, both about the size of a sequin. One was stuck to the lip, the other in the ear; words spoken were transmitted from the device on the lip, and the one in the ear transmitted instructions. The team had tried them out a couple of weeks back, and they loved it. The miniscule size made for less weight, but it also made concealment a lot easier. Already the creators were working on a variant that would blend in with skin colour, making them virtually invisible to the naked eye. "Ok," Olesya replied, and the two moved off towards the plane, keeping low and moving swiftly. They reached the underside of the aircraft in under a minute, and quickly set about locating the hatch through which they would gain entry. Utilizing their NVGs (Night Vision Goggles) they soon found it, and within moments Nikolai had opened it, slowly, so as to minimize any noise. "Ruzhyo is entering," he said, using the call sign he used when in the field. He climbed up the short ladder and pulled his body inside, then made room for Olesya to follow behind. The passage was disagreeably narrow, and they were forced to make their way in a crouched position that caused stiffness very quickly, but despite this they did not speed up, knowing that caution was vital. After a few meters the passageway opened up a bit, allowing them to stretch out slightly. The metal walls were not smooth like the outside of the aircraft, but rather jagged and uneven. The NVGs revealed that they interior was not paneled, with wires and various other objects protruding from the walls, creating the effect of a metal jungle that they had to fight their way through. Through the earpiece he heard Nelli say, "I have a target in sight, holding a hostage." "Acknowledged." That made things interesting. After another ten meters of crawling he found what he was looking for: a junction box. Using his blade he speedily unscrewed the lid and placed it on the floor. With the wires now exposed he moved up a bit more, allowing Olesya to take her place at the box, wires in one hand and knife in the other, poised to cut. Nikolai was now underneath another hatch, this one allowing him access to the next level, the level the terrorists currently occupied. From their surveillance the team had determined that the hostages were confined to their seats, and that made things a lot easier, just as long as they did not panic when the shooting started. Ok, Nikolai thought, lets get this show on the road. "Alpha, go," he said, and Nelli placed an exquisite shot into the forehead of her target. In the same instance, Kirill sped up the stairs and clamped his hand over the quivering hostage's mouth, preventing her from screaming, and then lifted her over his shoulder, carrying her back down under the stairs. Also in the same instant Olesya cut the wires in her hand and all power on the aircraft was cut. "Bravo, go," he said. That was the cue for Bogdanov and Tarasov to race up the stairs and start the assault from the front. As he gave the command he sprung open the hatch and raised his silenced P-9 Gyurza. He felt more comfortable with a pistol, unlike the others in his team, and indeed the agency as a whole. Also, another thing he preferred was using silenced weapons a t all times. He could not see the point in letting the enemy know your position for the sake of a few more grams. He would much rather use the psychological aspect of a silenced killing to his advantage, and so far it had not let him down. As his eyes searched for a target he was determined to continue his perfect success rate, and when the first head came into view he instinctively lined up the target and, after a brief check for weapons on the targets person (a submachine gun was in his right hand), he depressed the trigger of the Gyurza twice (called a `double-tap') and watched with satisfaction as the bullets entered the head just above the left eye. The target fell onto the lap of a smart suited businesswoman, and she screamed in terror as the blood form the head wound started leaking onto her clothed legs. This alerted the other terrorists, but they were too late in reacting, and within ten seconds all of them were dead. Nikolai claimed another three kills, with Olesya getting two from her position just behind him. At the front, Maksim and Kirill took care of the other six, dispatching two and four terrorists respectively. Yemelyanovo Airport May 1, 2008, 0012 hours With the aircraft searched and no further terrorists found, Team Myech loaded their gear onto the Sukhoi for the journey home. They were in a jubilant mood, laughing and joking all the way back to St Petersburg. They arrived early in the morning, and were greeted by Sergei and Evgraf, who shook each member's hand. Then Sergei spoke. "Congratulations on successfully completing your first mission. Your reward is that debriefing will be tomorrow afternoon, so you may return to your homes now. Well done team." Return |
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