alertcommando | Operation: Chrono Storm

Annabelle follows Tanya into the armored vehicle, glad to finally be going. It's the adrenaline, you see. Like a racehorse poised at the starting gate, there's a certain barely constrained energy about her.

At least, it is fast: the vehicles roll in position, and everybody straps down, closing eyes.

...

How does it feel, for a moment to be pure energy, then return to matter? Fortunately, it does not feel like anything: there is a bright light, visible even past close eyelids, a shiver along the spine and the groan and rumble of the fabric of the universe being twisted.

The light fades... and Tanya hits the release of her seatbelt. "MOVE! Out and scatter." She's talking on the radio as well, opening the rear hatch and slipping out to sweep the terrain.

It feels just a little like dying, at least to Annabelle.

She's in motion only a moment after Tanya, gun at the ready. She'll move along with her friend, sweeping the terrain and looking for trouble.

They arrived at an open space that seems to be a park, and also seem to have surprise on their side.

Each group leaving the carriers checks a wrist compass and moves off, apparently having been briefed and knowing which way to go. Tanya herself does likewise, checking their position and leading Annabelle and three other Special Forces north, as quickly and silently as possible.

Hell is about to break loose. Any minute now.

Annabelle follows Tanya, moving like a ghost over the ground.

There will be Hell, but some of it will be of their making, not the enemy's. That's what they're here for, after all.

Oh, they make it a whole block away from the park before Hell picks the lock of its cell door and makes a dash for it: the group almost runs right into a soviet patrol, only two conscripts.

Well, that's what they are here for, right? Tanya draws one of her pistols and drills with .45 bullets into a conscript's neck and eye, just to make sure.

Annabelle gets the other conscript, her bullets blowing out most of his skull, including the brain stem. He's not alive long enough for his trigger finger to do a thing, even by reflex.

The bodies fall, blood steaming in the frigid air. A whistle is heard in the distance, an alarm that quickly spreads to shouts of warning and then sirens. "And Charlie's here to dance the Foxtrot." Tanya smirks, helping the three Special Forces mine the bodies with pressure-switch charges.

"Let's make sure the Reds are the ones wearing dresses."

"Finished leaving presents?" she asks with a grin. "It's a shame we won't get to see them open them, but we're on a tight schedule."

"Very tight." Tanya starts along the street, eyes scanning every corner for threats. "There are guard posts, power lines and station, supply depots..." Lots and lots of soft targets that make big messes."

The trample of boots is heard, echoing the grinding of tracked vehicles. "Looks like the reds mobilize fast." In the last seconds while the street is empty, Tanya uses her combat knife to pry up a cobblestone and replace is with a C-4 charge.

Then she ducks into an alley for cover.

Hm. This situation calls for a good sniping spot. Annabelle casts a quick glance upward.

Huh, you'd think people would know better than to leave fire escapes on buildings that can be reached from the ground.

One jump and a heave of her muscles later, and she's up on the fire escape. Someone was even considerate enough to leave some rather substantial junk out to provide cover.

She gets into position, rifle at the ready. Once the block of C4 goes, there should be plenty of targets to choose from.

An armored combat car comes into sight quickly, followed by a dozen solders, probably from a small garrison up the street somewhere; of course it is headed to the park where the invasion started, to join the fight.

Of course it is not getting there, once the C-4 reduces the vehicle to a flaming wreck and kills half the soldiers.

Tanya and the other Special Forces come out of hiding for the dirty job of mopping up, quickly, since the explosion will attract more enemies.

Annabelle makes a considerable dent in the half of the soldiers not killed by the C-4. *CRACK* Two conscripts are ushered into the afterlife with a single bullet bullet split between them.

*CRACK* Another bullet goes whizzing past one of the Allied soldier's ears, killing the conscript who wasn't quite dead yet and had been struggling to raise his arm up for a kill.

War waits for no one: there's no time for thanks, or for anything, as a second patrol round the street corner up ahead, and the Special Forces agents duck behind cover or hit the deck.

Hello hello, war has come knocking at your door. Thank Yuri.

Who knows why the patrol decides to concentrate their fire on Annabelle? Possibly she offed their commanding officer, possibly they've realized just how dangerous she is.

In any case, her position on the fire escape is being bombarded with bullets and grenades. Most of the grenades bounce off the junk that's acting as cover, but one of the conscripts manages to time his throw correctly to get the thing to explode as it comes near the barrier.

The explosion conceals what happens next, but a few moments later Annabelle is hitting the ground and rolling to a stop.

"Quīngwā caò de liúmáng!"

And the Reds learned that you do not focus fire on the sniper and ignore the four commandos: the battle comes to an abrupt end and eerie silence, while Tanya rushes over to check on her friend.

Annabelle is starting to get to her feet by the time Tanya reaches her. "Damn, my head's ringing," she grumbles. An explosion near your head will do that.

Her kit is singed in places and there are a few bits of metal, some the size of her pinkie, sticking out of the body armor. It's probably best not to think about what would have happened if Annabelle had been wearing normal clothes.

Tanya sighs with relief, tugging Annabelle to a nearby alley, for some cover. Before the next patrol shows up.

There are sounds of gunfight coming from everywhere, as the second Battle of Moscow rages, gunfight music briefly interrupted by thee buzzing and rumble of the chronoshift field.

Reinforcements...

"Come on, we have to keep moving and drawing as many as we can away from the arrival area."

Annabelle can't really hear her right now, but the tugging gets the point across.

Slowly, her hearing comes back, bullets and footsteps appearing as if out of an auditory fog.

"I'm good at attracting people's attention," she says with a mischievous grin.

Tanya rolls eyes, poking Annabelle. "You are impossible." Down the alley, to the next street, to ambush a patrol, to be nearly ambushed, to keep the battle moving.

Annabelle snorts. "Oh, like you have room to talk where being impossible is concerned," she drawls, teasing.

Another skirmish, another batch of bodies to be stepped over on the way to yet another firefight. She reloads as they move on to the next street, wiping the inevitable gore off her face so it doesn't drip in her eyes.

Annabelle is keeping an eye on the commandos as well as the enemy. She doesn't know if Yuri is inclined to reach out and hijack enemy soldier's heads directly, but better to be safe than sorry.

Everything seems fine so far: it's likely Yuri's attention is elsewhere.

Or not.

They barely finished a skirmish with another patrol (that cost the life of one of the Commandos) when the radio chimes softly with a gentle female voice: Nuclear Launch Detected. Battlefield Control advises you evacuate the area, eastwards, with maximum celerity.

There is not enough profanity in the WORLD to properly convey what Annabelle is feeling right now.

She doesn't curse, she's going to need that breath for running. (Not that it will do much good, but she'll be damned if she's going to just stand there and die.)

There is not enough profanity in two worlds for to properly convey what any of them is feeling right now; Tanya grabs the ammo and the dog tags from the dead soldier, and runs down the street. "Look for basement entrances! We have..." She glances at the wrist-gadget she's wearing. "Three minutes."

Time enough to put almost a kilometer of extra distance between them and the explosion.

Almost a kilometer, which Annabelle is hoping like hell is enough to keep them all from dying a horrible death. She's only a pace behind Tanya as the whole gang tears down the street at a dead run.

Daredevil's are fate's favored children in many ways, which may be why Tanya manages to find a basement entrance that's actually unlocked.

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