alertcommando | Operation: Chrono Storm

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.

And have time to get in, push something heavy against the door, and run to the next room before the blast makes the area behave like an earthquake zone.

Which is a good sign, if they can feel the blast it means they are not going to be vaporized.

It is a good sign, even if there are muttered curses from Annabelle at the sudden shaking.

A few bits of plaster fall from the ceiling, dusting her hair with white powder. Thankfully, the building seems to be holding together.

Tanya keeps her head down, until the shaking stops. "V2 or artillery." A cautious glance around, turning on a lantern. "Targeted the chronoshift area..."

The other two curse, getting to their feet.

"Makes sense," Annabelle nods. "That's where the most people would be, after all."

Yuri might be evil, but he's not stupid.

"Let's see how we are after that." Because, you know, they might just be stranded in the heart of soviet Russia...

Tanya turns on her wrist-gadget and it shows nothing for a moment, then displays a small message: filtering ionizing radiation

"EMP messed with electronics... feel free to check your guns while the mess settles."

Being stranded would make life difficult.

Annabelle checks all her guns and starts yanking bits of shrapnel out of her body armor while they wait.

"How long do you think it will take to settle?"

"Just a few minutes until we have comms again." Tanya ponders. "We will have to hunt down that artillery piece. Or find a new clear area for the chronosphere."

Because you know, the battle is not over until it ends.

"Or both," Annabelle replies with a sharp grin. "No point leaving that thing around for them to hit the new area with it."

Of course they can do both by themselves! They are just that awesome.

Re-establishing Battlefield Control, stand by.

"And we are back in the fight!"

A different voice, a male voice, comes up in the radio. "Agent Tanya. Thank god you are in there, we are in a bit of a bind here."

"What you need us to do, Major?"

"Well, we left the explosion area with most of our forces intact, even the MCV. We can clear a new arrival area, but we need that artillery piece taken care of."

Annabelle doesn't smirk too much when the Major mentions that they need the artillery piece taken care of.

Maybe she's picking up some of this military thinking after all!

"Give us the coordinates and we will make sure it does not fire again."

"Already sent. You have... six minutes until it fires again."

Tanya gets up, looking for the exit, is not the original, the stairs up and out. "You heard the man, lets move." She taps the comm. "Alpha Squadron, report in and fall back on my position."

"Nothing like a leisurely time table," Annabelle drawls sarcastically. Still, she's right on Tanya's heels as they head up the stairs and out.

She's a curious mix of impressed and surprised by how well Tanya fills the role of field commander. Hell, Tanya's Voice of Command is even working on her!

"It would not be us if we were not arriving at the last minute." Tanya smirks.

Of the original forty-five, there are thirty-four survivors, all in fighting condition: she breaks the group in three squadrons of 12, 12 and 10 people, herself and Annabelle in the smaller one.

The plan is a three-pronged 'claw' attack, to overwhelm the firebase and stop more nuclear shells from being fired.

Four minutes to go, they take off for the strike positions.

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