Three days passed, with a boosted DUP presence around the perimeter of the hospital, presenting Moscow with a large dilemma on getting the cadets out having found that when word hit the press of the First Sons’ new weapon both a first sons propaganda coup was set into overdrive and the remnants of Delta company suddenly became very high value targets for the DUP and NATO, even going to the point where some countries along with America publically stated they were prepared for war with Russia for refusing to surrender the teens, some countries like Saudi Arabia calling for firing squads to be founded to eradicate the threat.
Three all black, unmarked GAZ armoured SUV’s pulled up to the gates of the hospital and presented permits to the UN peacekeepers on guard duty to be let in and sent to the car park nearest to the ward the cadets and their Spetsnaz bodyguards now solely occupied with the red cross choosing to quarantine the cadets from the other nations troops in case there were to be an assassination attempt, not wanting to be the cause of world war three. Two people got out of each SUV, a driver and a navigator crossed with a radio operator, and walked in to the hospital through the fire exit and climbed the stairs until they reached a door marked with a Russian flag and walked in to the room of Russians all stood around idly, a TV playing the Russian state media overwhelmed all other sounds in the room.
Elena looked towards the door and noticed the soldiers being different from the others, they wore all black uniforms with black berets, which proudly featured a panther on it as well as on their shoulders,
“Aren’t those Panteri soldiers? Who invited the Serbs to the party?” she asked the group of MP’s and paras she was playing poker with,
“You haven’t heard?” One of the MP’s asked slightly surprised, “After you lot were attacked, Serbia, China and the rest of CSAT were pulled in, this city is full of soldiers from all over now, it’s astonishing how long the First Sons put up a fight for considering the circumstances.” They continued,
“Because of us? Wow, tensions must be great right now.” Elena replied as one of the Serbian soldiers walked over to the group,
“Who’s in charge of this garrison?” She asked looking around the room for Elena to simply point over towards Stepochkin, the soldier simply nodded in appreciation before turning around and walking off towards the paratrooper who was, as always, sat with his daughter, this time with the company of medics who were trying to convince Zoey that she wouldn’t end up like the Reapers who wandered Empire City and now, on rare occasions, were sighted within Paris,
“Sir, I’m Captain Mira Darkovic with the Panteri, We’ve been sent to bring your cadets back to the airport to return to Russia.” The Serbian Captain said saluting Stepochkin,
“Panteri? What happened to our forces?” Stepochkin asked confused,
“There’s a massive raid on a warehouse being used by the First Sons to convert people, your higher ups only spared two BMP’s and put a Mi28 on stand by.” Mira replied as Zoey looked at her nervously,
“But that’s the DUP’s job, why are we getting involved in that?” Stepochkin asked now more confused than before,
“It would be if it weren’t for the fact that the facility was found after the geniuses working there decided to capture a Russian patrol and not disable the trackers, you Russians claimed jurisdiction.” Mira simply sighed as she looked over Zoey for visible injuries that made her require the crutches she used to support herself, “Are you ready to move the survivors?” she asked Stepochkin,
“Yeah, we can get some men to clear up after, he replied before turning to face the rest of the Russians, “Alright, we’re ready to move the cadets out now, we have fifteen minutes then I want us to be ready to move out!” he shouted to the soldiers placed under his command
The fifteen minutes passed, the cadets had climbed into the SUV’s and the remaining soldiers into the BMP’s before finally, after four months, leaving the hospital
The convoy followed the main roads with the attack helicopter flying overhead and took the slipway onto the motorway when a concrete structure came into sight,
“What is that?” Zoey asked nervously looking at the concrete eyesore ahead of them,
“It’s another DUP checkpoint, lets just hope no one stationed there has a death wish.” The driver sighed in response as the DUP’s signs and equipment came into view as the first vehicle in the convoy, the lead BMP, pulled up to one of the barriers serving as inspection bays. The DUP soldiers signalled for the other vehicles in the convoy to pull into the other lanes, Mira, the radio operator of the SUV shared by Zoey and Elena rolled, rolled her window down in annoyance,
“Turn your engine off!” One of the French soldiers shouted over the humming of two BMP’s and three SUV’s for Mira to hop out and walk up to the guard furiously,
“Did you not recognise the BMP’s you idiot, open the damn gate!” she shouted in rage towards the French soldier, using the French soldiers own language,
“I’m sorry ma’am, but we’ve been ordered to stop anything that’s not DUP.” The soldier responded as more French soldiers walked up to the convoy,
“We’re military, alright, now are you going to lift the barriers or not?” Mira sighed, on the brink of losing it with the checkpoint guard,
“Ma’am, we have specific orders to search Russian military vehicles, we have been since your commanders refused to turn over a group of bioterrorists to us.” The guard sighed, trying to reason with Mira,
“We’re not Russian, we’re Serbs, with the Panteri.” Mira said in the hope he hadn’t noticed Zoey and Elena’s gear and that none of the DUP guards had taken the time to check the markings on the attack chopper now looking straight on at the checkpoint,
“You may not be, that’s why your people are being treated relatively normally, but they are.” The soldier explained pointing towards one of the BMP crews who had been made to get out at gun point by the DUP, “We’ll get with you in a few seconds, it seems those Russians aren’t the happiest about this.” He sighed to see the Russian soldiers squaring up against their DUP counter parts, being less than willing to just be pushed around, Mira climbed back into the SUV and turned around to face Zoey and Elena,
“They’re looking for you lot, lose your patches and put these on.” She explained as she handed back two all black combat jackets with the constant black colour scheme only interrupted by the Serbian patches, “This checkpoint is ordered to look for the cadets, get them to swap to our patches.” She ordered over the radio as Zoey and Elena pulled their new jackets on and stuffed their Russian ones under the seat, out of sight.
“Calm down already, we don’t want to start a world war here now do we?!” Stepochkin shouted to the crowd of Russians closing in on the French who had tried to establish dominance a few moments before and now found themselves backing up in fear, not expecting the Russians to not like being shoved around,
“After we show them who they’re messing with.” A voice shouted back from within the angered crowd,
“Okay, so these fucks with egos as high as skyscrapers fucked up, but do we really need to be the cause of a nuclear war? Just do what these idiots say then we can go home.” Stepochkin tried to reason, making the crowd of angry Russians slowly calm down and get back in line,
“Alright, sorry about these lot, they’re trained by America, I’m Staff Sergeant Adrian Noir with the DUP, now as I’m sure your aware your country’s leaders have made the decision to hold onto a group of bioterrorists who have been uncovered within your ranks, which is being treated as an act of provocation and could be catastrophic should they get out of quarantine, so the new procedure is to put you all through extensive checks, including scanning all of you for the gene.” Adrian explained expecting back lash from the Russians he had detained for to be checked,
“Don’t do anything stupid, the cadets are safe unless we give them a reason to react.” Stepochkin responded, trying to stop the agitated group of Russians from deciding to test each others strength through a fist fight against their foreign counterparts, luckily succeeding in stopping them. The DUP soldiers began searching the BMP’s for anything tying it’s passengers to the DUP’s new targets of interest as the other guards pressed wireless variants of the device used in the hospital against the Russian’s necks, all of them returning clean,
“Alright, what are your orders?” Adrian asked Stepochkin, realising he was their best hope for a peaceful outcome,
“Our orders are to escort these Serbs back to their base after their own escorts went over an IED out in the rural areas.” Stepochkin lied, looking Adrian in the eye,
“And where are the wounded?” Adrian asked suspiciously,
“Air lifted to a neutral hospital.” He responded quickly,
“Right, and why weren’t these Serbs evacuated as well if they’re so defenceless that they need two BMP’s, a decent squadrons worth of you and an attack chopper?” Adrian glared at Stepochkin, looking for a sign that showed he was lying,
“We couldn’t spare anymore choppers.” Stepochkin replied nervously after a short delay,
“So two countries, one of which boasts on a regular basis about it’s strength, didn’t have the manpower to send a helicopter to rescue a team that clearly must have been in immediate danger, am I expected to believe that?” Adrian shouted at Stepochkin, having caught Stepochkin slipping up in his cover story,
“Now listen Staff Sergeant, we are getting through here, now either you could look the other way for your questioning and just accept that we’re a little bitch stretched at the minute for resources , or you could choose the less than sensible option and leave us to show these Serbs the way back, or you could see how messy things get when we have to call in support, because I can guarantee you our forces could over throw yours within a week if that was our task, you lot are nothing, the best you have are apaches from America against our Hinds.” Stepochkin growled at Noir,
“Fine, but this place will have a SAM battery for this.” Adrian sighed as he turned to face the other teams of DUP soldiers under his command who were now moving towards the Serbian SUV’s, “They’re good to go, no need to keep them any longer!” he shouted calling his men back to receive annoyed grunts about how he should just let them do their jobs as they walked back and the barriers raised
“Finally.” Mira sighed as she pulled the SUV past the checkpoint, closely followed by the BMP’s and the other SUV’s.
Half an hour passed uneventfully, with the convoy following the road back to the Russian base until it pulled past one of the few remaining Russian controlled checkpoints and carried onto the restricted zone of the airport used as a staging ground to find a medical team waiting to take over from the Serbs. The medics helped Elena and Zoey out of the SUV as they limped towards the make shift infirmary to await the transport to bring supplies in to the quarantine zone and to take them out.
It wasn’t until late into the night had the transport landed, unloaded and was ready to set off again, The transport was mostly filled with soldiers who had been wounded but were stable enough to be flown back to Russia.
It didn’t take long for the cadets to all pass out one by one due to the sleep deprivation that came with the rumours of planned DUP assassination attempts and plans to raid the ward where they were held up.
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inFamous: Red Star
FanficBased immediately after the events of inFamous First Light, inFamous Red Star follows a team of Russian Cadets during their time deployed in Paris following the resurfacing of the First Sons.
