Landen scoffed at Dmitry.
"Hey, like I said. I need you guys to trust that I know what I'm doing. Alright, lets head on in!" His mood went from serious to go-lucky in merely a moment, as he led the way down the trail.
Minimal security was on the outside.
Said security that the team took care of quite easily, before reaching the entrance of the base.
Landen turned to Hemlock.
"Get the door."
Hemlock nodded.
"Roger that."
Hemlock pulled a breaching charge out of his arsenal and placed it on the front entrance of the outpost.
He stepped back and hit the remote control, detonating it, surprising the ZLF inside.
"These agents… they will be the death of me."
Dmitry pushed in after the agents, though he did do something interesting. He held Creed back momentarily as some gunfire poured into the doorway, then letting him go as he pushed forward, rolling into cover behind some various crates that were laying around, peeking over to down 2 ZLF shooters and crouching back down for a reload.
"Appreciate the assist, old man." Creed was in sync with Dmitry, following behind and taking cover next to him, just as the agents began to clean up their respective ZLF shooters.
Once the room was clear, Creed led the way to the next room, kicking it down, clearing two hostiles.
Hemlock followed behind Creed, analyzing the room.
"No HVI here, over."
Landen appeared behind Hemlock.
"Then we try the next. Come on!" Landen paved the way into the next room over, finding a dead ZLF from the gunfire but no hostage. "All clear here, too."
"Glad you have the resources we don't." Dmitry rushed through with Landen, stacking up on the door toward the next room, this time he was behind Creed.
Trafford got across from Creed, nodding for the man to kick open the door.
Creed kicked open the door before quickly moving behind cover.
He prepped a flash and chucked it in. Once it popped, screams and general sounds of discomfort were heard. Trafford then walked in and shot both ZLF shooters in the neck.
He then noticed a gagged hostage on the floor.
"Petrov…" Dmitry knelt down, wielding his knife and slicing through the binds on Aleksander's hands, standing him up and ripping off the gag, he immediately hugged the man, like a father meeting his lost child.
"Speak to me my boy... what did these animals do?"
"They got me...and Kurogane...tortued us, beat us, barely fed us, only enough to keep us alive...I didn't think you'd come for us, figured generals would just write us off...lost cause..." Petrov then came to a sudden realization. He nearly gripped Berkhoff with a titanium grip.
"Kurogane...he's still here. They might be leaving with him!"
"I'll handle it. You all stay here!" Landen soon left the room and out to the hallway, where infact two ZLF soldiers were dragging the other hostage out. He shot them both in the back as they ran away, laughing as he did so.
"Holy! They're running away! That means we are on a victory course! Men, I got the other hostage!"
He walked over and stared at the corpses.
"I'll explain everything later.." Dmitry turned as Petrov yelled, immediately drawing his pistol, but it was far too late.
Landen had already marched over and gunned down the ZLF rebels, a loud haze of gunfire and screaming ensued before they saw the agent again.
Dmitry assumed the worst when he heard the laughing before lowering his gun when he saw the agent.
Except… Landen didn't even seem to touch Takeshi Kurogane, laughing in his glee and letting him sit there on the ground.
Dmitry let go of Petrov and found his other man, untying him and propping him up.
"Hey… settle… it's me. You hit your head pretty hard, you recognise me?"
"Ngh… that idiot killed them as they were hoisting me up." Kurogane immediately glanced to the agent, with a disgruntled look, then back to Dmitry.
"I got ya. We're going home." Dmitry didn't say anything about it, preferring to leave Landen's mess for later, holding up Kurogane on his shoulder.
Creed walked over and patted Dmitry on the back.
"I'm happy for you, mate."
Creed eyed the bodies of the ZLF insurgents. Both shot in the back three times.
Landen didn't hold back when it came to combat or just enjoying the battle greatly. It was significantly easier to clear outposts like these with a trained CIA agent on their side, but Creed didn't get a great vibe whenever around Landen.
The man enjoyed killing.
"Hey, better them than us." Dmitry returned the backpat soon after, obviously after he loaded his team up and waited for Landen to be ready to drive off.
He observed the bodies left behind by the agent too, being notably disgusted by how much glee he took from the killing. At some point, he could have sworn Landen was worse than the threat they were fighting, but at least he was on their side.
"You uh, you ever think he could end up--" Creed was interrupted by Landen, who peeked from the doorway outside.
He turned to the man, who was enthusiastic as ever.
"We're off to the next location! Berkhoff, your men will be taken back to the FOB for whatever medical help they need. For now, lets go!"
Hemlock got into the first jeep of their convoy. Outside of this specific team of Hemlock, Brandon, Landen, Marcus and Dmitry, were a small element of agents that would set up just outside of each outpost and provide covering and sniping fire, as well as general logistics.
The next outpost was 2 klicks away.
Dmitry chuckled silently to Creed.
"Maybe we'll continue that later, cmon boy." He marched outside to the vehicle Landen provided, Dmitry taking his seat in the back left, rifle standing on its stock in between his knees, one hand rest on the barrel.
Landen's jeep stopped just outside the gates of the second outpost, at a wooded area.
Creed stepped out of the jeep cautiously as numerous agents began to setup a temporary position.
He walked over to a tree, examining it closer.
Upon seeing the branch, he nearly recoiled back in shock and disgust.
There was a charred corpse tied to the tree, with "JUDAS" on a sign right above it.
"What the hell..."
He took a second to look away and catch his breath, having never seen anything like that 'on display' before.
Through the cover of night, Dmitry blended in like a phantom wandering the dark skies.
His footsteps were so light, they almost scared Creed once more when they came into his hearing range.
Once Creed turned, Dmitry raised his hands, chuckling a bit as he then saw the corpse on the tree.
Stepping closer and examining it.
"Good… not one of my men."
He then turned to Creed.
"Don't worry, we didn't make them savages, that was the work of the Americans before us. We're here to undo it."
"Yeah, thats what we came here to do...Jesus, who could do something like that to their own men? Judas...means one of their own betrayed them, so what? They grabbed 'em, tied 'em up, burnt them alive? Fucking hell man."
Creed then turned to Landen, who was scouting out the outpost.
"This outpost won't be as easy as the other."
Landen turned around with a smile on his face, nodding towards Creed, as he handed the binoculars off to Trafford who also scouted.
"Listen, if things go wrong in there with the five of us, your JSOC buds and my men are just a chirp away. Watch this."
Landen activated his radio transceiver, talking into it calmly.
"Sergeant O'Brien, do you copy, over?"
One of the agents, O'Brien, who was right behind Landen at this moment, nonchalantly picked his transciver and replied into it, "Copy sir. Over."
"See? We'll be fine in there." He turned to Dmitry, who was standing next to Creed. "Don't tell me you're willin' to back out. This is YOUR mission we're going on!"
"Listen special agent. I did not ask you to help me get them back. Your boss did."
Dmitry did sound a little frustrated, but he was trying his best to keep his cool and at the same time keep the agent in check, even though he knew there was very little hope in doing so.
"Now. What's the plan?"
Landen replied, "We do what we did the other time. They fight back, we make 'em fall in line. We get your men back by any means necessary."
Landen looked at Dmitry seriously before reverting back into his energetic mood.
"Okay, boys! Lets go!"
He paved the way, leading their small group as JSOC and CIA agents took positions on the hill.
"Affirmative." Berkhoff followed behind the agent, despite his best wishes, despite his intuition telling him not to as well… knowing he was reckless didn't help this one bit, which is also perhaps why he stood behind Creed, following closely with him and trying to stray him away from the agents way of thinking at every turn. The lack of security outside of the outpost transitioned into the outpost, as the team silently moved through halls and cleared rooms.
Finding nothing.
Soon, they reached a cellblock. Creed stayed behind Dmitry in the middle. Landen led the group as Grant and Trafford covered the back.
Trafford noted the absence of ZLF, "No combatants in this sector." Trafford checked his corners, moving cautiously in the group.
Dmitry had a different take on the situation.
"This cell block seems to be recently active, stay cautious." Dmitry wasn't presenting this statement with zero evidence. He pointed toward the upcoming cellblock door, which had scuff marks. He pressed his finger into it. It still had a groove, and a fresh black colour, he then stacked up with the group again after.
Landen reached for the door knob, and as he did so, there was a sound of something being thrown, before pattering against the floor and rolling in the direction of the group.
A moment of silence, then, "GET DOWN! FLASH!"
Creed was affected by the flashbang and fell to the ground, losing his rifle in the process. As he tried to get up and crawl to cover, he was the first to be knocked out by the stock of a gun.
After a few moments, all 5 men were knocked out. The warlord heading this outpost, donning a beret and tactical gear, came out of the darkness, pleased at the sight.
He turned to his men.
"Take them to my office. They will kneel before me."
He then walked away.
Creed awoke first.
Not tied up, not in a cage, but on the floor, sort of sprawled out but missing all his weapons and gear aside from his vest.
He looked above him, and saw the warlord sitting in his spinny-office chair, that he used as a makeshift "throne" for his personal quarters.
Creed didn't get a chance to look around as a nearby ZLF bodyguard quickly put him into a kneeling position. "F....wha...."
The warlord slowly loaded his Deagle 44 on his desk, awaiting the operators to wake up, chuckling to himself.
Meanwhile, the russian man, reeling from his 2nd head trauma in the same month had barely just risen, making it to one elbow. In his head, everything was spinning, nothing was visible.
It was aching, like he'd been hit by a truck.
That's when he felt a hand prop him up, a singular one lifting him to his knees, and holding him there, a loose AK barrel next to his cheek.
"Rghhhhhh….. just get it over with would you?"
Once all the operatives were on their knees, facing him, the warlord chuckled, waving his deagle around like a toy. "This pistol right here. I bring it out for special occasions. But of course Im always open to group discussion. So tell me, what is the purpose of entering my headquarters? What did you expect to find?" He pointed at all their heads individually before brandishing his pistol, smiling.
Dmitry was in 0 position to talk, at this point he probably couldn't even register the threat that was being presented in his face, yet he tried to resist the enemies grip, which got a shove and then a pull back in with a firmer grip.
He looked up to the warlord, not a hint of anything but anger behind his eyes.
"My…. My comrades…"
Landen nodded too.
He was practically whimpering.
"Yes...his comrades...we came for his comrades...!"
The warlord laughed and pointed behind them to a shelf.
"Comrades, huh? Do me a favor, fellas. Take a nice look at that shelf behind you."
The shelf behind them contained almost a dozen skulls, neatly laid out in formation.
"Those are all American influences. All sat in the same position as you right now. All were wolves dressed as sheep. They meant my people, my land, pure harm. So, let me ask you something, Americans. If you know where my base is and you want your comrades, but I dont know where YOUR base is, how dumb would I be to let you all go and claim your hostage?"
Creed was practically horrified at the sight.
Dmitry slithered out of their grip, giving the guards some attitude with his movement, shaking his shoulder out and kneeling up straight.
"You wanna know where the base is? And what if i told you it was just us a million miles away from home?"
"Why? Because you say so? You could be lying. All those skulls lied once..." He turned to Landen, who looked scared.
"...You were leading them down the hall. You're the head wolf. Tell me, whats your name?"
Landen stood up a bit to try and get through to the warlord.
"My name...is Dominic Landen....Special Agent Landen..."
The warlord studied Landen's body movement.
"Landen....GET ON YOUR GODDAMN KNEES!" He fired a shot into the air, barely missing Landen, before waving his pistol to the rest. "KNEES STAY ON THE GODDAMN GROUND! Answer the question! How dumb would I be to let you go WHEN YOU KNOW WHERE MY HOME IS?!"
Landen flinched at the gunshot.
And quickly got back into kneeling stance.
"O-Okay...Okay! It would be pretty dumb, yes it would!"
The warlord shouted with determination, "YES IT WOULD!"
He continued to wave his pistol around. "You know, Landen, you remind me of a special American...Captain Miller. He came to my land, promising me and my people great prosperity and wealth if we let him run through and annex our villages. He just wanted us to get out in the open so he could slaughter us...SO HE WOUND UP ON THE SHELF! HE THOUGHT I WAS STUPID! Do you people think I'm stupid?! BECAUSE I HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM ON THAT SKULL SHELF RIGHT NEXT TO MILLER! TELL ME WHERE THE REST OF YOUR PLATOON IS OR IM GONNA START DROPPING BODIES ON THE FLOOR! STARTING WITH HIM!"
He shot in the direction of Creed.
Not hitting Creed.
Only the floor next to him.
Landen was nearly crying and whimpering, putting his hands up defensively, closing his eyes as he spoke:
"I don't want to be on the shelf and I don't think you're stupid!"
Dmitry attempted to use his anger meaningfully.
"Calm down young blood… they were - the worst, absolutely no doubt about it. Doesn't mean you-you gotta… you gotta.. eeee…. You gotta persecute us for their crimes. All we want is our boys to come back-… then..then we'd be right out of your base - your home."
Dmitry was completely withered by this point, his mind scattered to the wind, so to speak.
But he tried and tried now that he knew Creed's life was on the line. In a perfect world, he would offer himself up, but he also knew damn well that wouldn't guarantee Creed's safety.
The warlord's unhinged behaviour continued.
"WOLVES DRESSED AS SHEEP! SPEAKING LIES!! Do you know my responsibility here?! MY LEADER EXPECTS ME TO GUARD THIS PLACE WITH MY LIFE. WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT? MY BLOOD?"
Creed also tried to reason with the warlord.
"No-No! We don't! We just need our guy, then we'll get right out of here! We promise!" Creed spoke shakily, spitting blood onto the ground.
Dmitry dropped the mediator act and antagonized the warlord in hopes that the warlord would shift focus to him, "I don't fucking care about you! You mean nothing to me, i just want my comrades, you understand that?" Dmitry spat on the floor toward the Warlord, his anger seething through his teeth as he spoke back to him.
"DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT!"
He hesitated briefly, aiming it at them for a second but stopping, starting to lower his weapon.
He was in deep thought.
But the thought didn't last long.
"Okay! Fine! I get you your man, but you NEVER--"
He lost control.
Just as the warlord lowered his weapon, Landen lunged forward—
And in an instant, every trace of fear vanished from his face.
The trembling was gone.
The panic in his eyes disappeared like a switch had been flipped.
His movement was sudden, precise, practiced.
Landen turned the warlord's pistol on him and shot him in the shoulder, dropping him to the ground wounded.
In an instant, Landen gunned down both the bodyguards in the room, who were paralyzed in shock. Not a single shot wasted. Not a single hesitation.
"Stay here!"
Dmitry hushed up immediately, he woke up from his concussed state within seconds as the agent rushed down everyone else in the room, he tried to stand, making it to both legs before collapsing to a knee.
Dmitry desperately reached out.
For a pistol he didn't have.
He turned to Landen who was making his way out of the room.
Dmitry shouted, "Agent! Don't leave us here!"
Landen turned back to Dmitry.
His tone different now.
His once styled hair was now a mess. His clean clothes dirty and crumpled.
"Im getting the men outside to help us! Just lock the door, I'll be back in a 'sec!" Landen vanished into the hallway. In the hallway, more gunshots were heard.
"Old man...you still in one piece?" Creed, lacking gear like everyone else on the team, quickly checked on his comrade Dmitry, noticing his own blood pattern on the office floor.
"Rgh…. My heads in 10 pieces… I think I got a bit of a cut…" Dmitry tries to stand again, he leaned on the cell and finally stood up, hurrying over to the weapons, sort of ignoring Creed.
Then he finally spoke to Creed.
"Take your gun…. I don't think he's got it in him."
Creed sighed, clearly conflicted but taking the moral high ground.
"No...We don't kill him. We interrogate him, capture him..." Creed hesitated briefly, but continued.
"...We're no better than the ZLF if we kill an unarmed man in cold blood. If Landen didn't start shooting, he was going to cooperate and let us go. Let's just...let's get the intel we need. Find your guy. Find our gear. Alright man?"
Creed tried to get through to Dmitry, hoping the man would understand his approach.
Dmitry nodded, and began walking over to the warlord.
Before he could take any more steps, Trafford held him back.
"You're concussed. Let Landen handle it when he comes back."
Dmitry turned to Trafford.
"That agent is a fool. He won't get us anywhere with his interrogations."
Seconds later, more rapid gunfire was heard in the hallway, indicating the JSOC and CIA had begun their assault on the outpost.
Landen then burst through the door.
He grabbed the warlord and shoved him against a pillar.
Landen began to reload the Deagle 44 methodically. The same thing the warlord did minutes ago.
But the warlord was no longer in control.
Landen was.
And he was different.
"The guns you stole from us. The gear you stripped from us. The hostage you held from us. Where are they?"
The warlord laughed, holding his wounded shoulder, "I don't have a clue what you're talking about."
Landen punched the warlord.
"You're lyin' to me."
Landen then grabbed the mans cheek, squishing his face threateningly, "We need your hostage. We need our gear. Tell us. Or this place gets burnt down to the ground. And you get a bullet in the brain."
The warlord laughed.
Landen was losing patience.
The warlord began to taunt him, "Hey...dickless. If I did have your gear, don't you think I would've--"
Landen shot the warlord in the head.
Creed and Dmitry recoiled back.
They were meant to capture him.
Landen kneeled down, inspecting the corpse of the warlord.
"You made the shelf, warlord. Top shelf...dead center. How's that sound? Right above Captain Miller."
He grabbed the corpse by the jaw, forcing its lifeless face upward as if expecting an answer.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa...Hey! Hey...where'd you gooo, huh? All that talk and you died so quick."
Landen stood up now.
He drove the heel of his boot into the warlord's skull again and again, each impact harder than the last.
"AAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!"
The scream tore out of him raw and animalistic, echoing through the outpost long after the body stopped moving.
His chest rose and fell rapidly.
He wasn't happy.
He let his mask slip.
Creed was wide-eyed, unable to move. Unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
Landen turned to him, "Don't you look at me like that. He was a damn animal."
What the hell did they get themselves into?