Balaklava Bay, Secret Underground Base

The guards were not a joke around these parts.

I ran into an armed GRU soldier. He was handling one of the new AK 47s, out on the markeet and published by the soviets themselves. The assult rifle looked heavy in his hands, ready to let loose if I pulled the wrong move.

If I looked a little closer from the stack of wooden boxes I was hidden behind, I noticed that the soldier wasn't' wearing standard fatigues. It was more of a dress uniform, all in black with padded shoulders and boots high up to their shins.

As I was trying to make out any other further details about the man, he turned to look in my general direction. I ducked down, quickly, telling myself to be more careful.

These crate boxes were obviously shipments that were just laying around. It made it difficult to walk the narrow path beside the wide river but it made decent cover for myself for situations like these.

So here I was, with nothing but a knife to defend me against that walking hole puncher for a guard. I would know, considering that I left plenty of my enemies riddled with holes during Normandy with my old MP 40.

I expected this place to be heavily armed, it was a secret base after all, brand new on the map reconnaissance missions for all the spies in the world. USA was just lucky to be the first to visit the Russian’s new lovely establishment. Technically I was here for a rescue, no funny biz, just an old fashioned in and out with all the captured boy's I could grab with me.

Kraken was lucky to still be a part of the OSS, since they cared enough to send in someone to rescue you if you fucked up your mission. Kraken didn’t seem like the type to risk leaving a sweet deal like that, or he probably rejected the promotion of becoming a black ops specialist, if he was given one ... I didn’t blame him, Kraken didn’t seem like a man who liked to work alone. And all HIVE’s worked alone.

I could imagine him in my mind’s eye trying to strike up conversation with the very many that was patrolling his prison cell. Hell, they’d probably be friends. Kraken was too friendly of a guy hate, even when he was telling you off or whopping your ass during a training session.

But back to the GRU soldier, he had a torch in his hand now and his gun was resting in the other. He was searching around for something, perhaps he had heard me … but his flash light wasn’t faced in my direction.

I figured I was still in the clear.

Taking a risk, I peeked over the boxes I was hidden behind, the further I went down the tunnel I encountered more and more of these crates in piles. I hoped that meant I was near the facility.

The soldier was looking at another pile of crates with Russian letters stamped over it. From the distance I could tell the numbers ’7,62m’ was written on it.

It was an ammo crate. That meant that the soviets were storing weapons here.

I mentally noted that to report to Maria later. It just seemed like one of those things I shouldn’t wait for after to tell her.

With the guard grossly occupied by the crate, I saw an opening for me to strike. Better I did it now than waited any longer, the tunnel wasn’t getting any warmer and I needed to steal a uniform soon.

Generally, I tended to predict my next move before I actually did them. To explain: I let my eyes dance around my own and the guard’s surroundings for a moment. There was another pile up of boxes closer to the guard I could sneak towards to give myself a closer advantage. When I saw nothing conflicting my plan, I went in and did just that.

With the noise of the running river beside the path, it was easy to mask my footsteps as I closed on to the man.

Now I was closer to him, and he still did not suspect a thing. I raised my knife into a defence position, close to my chest. With my back against the crate I planned to take another look at him. Just before I peeked over he flashed his torch my way.

Instinctively I held my breath and turned my head back behind my cover with my eyes closed, in silent prayer. The light shone past me, good, he was focusing on something else now.

Thank the lord, amen. With this chance I took my final look at the soldier. His back was facing me. It was time to strike.

My feet quickly took me closer to the unsuspecting fellow, I had to reach him before he registered my footsteps. I imagined myself lunging the man, grabbing his back to take him down. Then thought against it and decided to put him in a choke hold with my knife touching his neck instead.

That way he couldn't turn his neck to see what I looked like.

He struggled, and I mean struggled. He was a difficult captor, who didn’t mind a few licks from my knife on his neck because of his moving around. With enough pressure, just like Kraken personally showed me himself, I managed to squeeze the soldiers neck hard enough to really make him understand what it was I was threatening him with here.

His life.

“тихо, тихо,” I cooed in his language, telling him to be quiet. I could feel his pulse racing, he was scared. The ones that were easily frightened were never best to put on patrol by their lonesome. What was the head of security around these parts thinking?

“американский?” He wheezed, trying to turn his neck to get a good look at me. I knocked the flash light out of his hands, the loud sound of it colliding with the floor stilled him. I had him now.

“Мне нужно, чтобы вы очень внимательно выслушали меня, ?” I was asking him about Kraken and his men, and where they were keeping them. To really make my point I dug my knife into his skin at an angle, in a way so that it didn’t break his skin yet, but he could fell the pressure of the sharp end sinking in.

“Y-your people is scum,” that was the new saying around these parts I hear. And to think that USA and the USSR were friends once.

“Do you want to die?” I whispered under my breath, I didn't have time for nonsense remarks.

“You are the one that dies once the commander discovers you,” I slit his throat, just for that. He fought me violently through it, thrashing like a caged animal. I put him down gently, guiding his neck further down my knife as he crouched down onto the floor.

I couldn’t keep him alive, he could have alerted the others of my presence. Besides, I needed his clothes. I looked down on the dying soldier, barely seeing his features through the dark. He was a blonde, with average looks. Normally I wouldn’t think past that for a lowly soldier like him, but, I wondered if he had anyone waiting for him back home …

Ring … Ring … Maria was calling. I picked up, holding a hand to my ear piece.

“Have you managed to locate any equipment for yourself yet?” I stared blankly at the dead GRU footman.

“I just took down a man,” that was one way of saying I had more blood on my hands.

“Good. He should have a radio on him, you can use it to tap into enemy frequencies, in case they share any vital information that you may need,” I liked her thinking, but I don’t think Maria realised that the Russians spoke in a complicated code I wouldn’t be able to break down on the spot.

“I’ll see about it. I think I’m close now, there are a lot of ammunition shipments laying around what I think is going to be the entrance. But I expect to run into a few more guards,”

“Ok, I’ll be here,” I formed a tight-lipped smile, conidering at her words before she cut out. Would she be anywhere else?

With two hands I reached for the soldier’s uniform and started stripping him. The clothes weren’t my size, but it’ll have to do. Luckily, he had a balaclava mask I could put on, it was hidden in his pant pocket. I usually associated the soviets with balaclavas, they probably had them on hand because of how cold their countries got.

Looking at the man's lifeless body, I couldn't help but think about what he said to me. 'Your people is scum', English wasn't' his first language but he got the message across. I then scoffed, shaking my head. Propaganda did wonders to people's mind ...

I started to roll the dead soldier over, far enough until he tipped into the steam. Couldn’t just leave him laying around to be found. Now that I’d gotten rid of him, I picked up the AK 47 he dropped and made my way deeper into this hidden secret base.

It was a long walk down this path, allowing me to be left alone with my thoughts a little longer before the next thing came up.

…

Kraken told me that he was in the same training class as Sigma himself. He rarely spoke to others and the other classmates thought he was an odd ball. Sigma was the type to train in the activity grounds during his free time, and clean guns so he could get a good handle of how the weapons worked.

That was when a major by the name of Sanders took note of him, and too Sigma under his wing to mould him into the legend he became. Major Sanders had a notorious reputation for putting his best students under a top-secret programme to push the abilities of soldier’s, which was later determined as unsuitable in 1920.

Sigma was one of the last people to under go the programme, and survive.

Russian Translation:

тихо, тихо: Quiet, Quiet

Американский: American?

Мне нужно, чтобы вы очень внимательно выслушали меня, Где ты держишь американцев, захваченных здесь?:

I need you to listen to me very carefully, where are you keeping the Americans captured?