alertcommando | Operation: Chrono Storm

Annabelle is smirking too. "So long as we're not fashionably late," she drawls.

The black humor hides the fact that she's a little afraid they won't make it in time.

Annabelle moves quickly, guns at the ready. There will undoubtedly be soldiers guarding the artillery, after all.

Annabelle is sent for high ground to give cover, and the rest of the squadron creeps towards the position, trying for surprise.

They mostly get it, emerging a reasonable distance away and storming the soviet artillery base with assault rifles and grenades. Tanya and the commandos are killing machines, covering each other, focusing on one target at a time, dispatching them with ruthless efficiency.

The people in charge of actually operating the massive artillery piece do not stand around, climbing in and adjusting aim to try and get a shot off onto the Allied position down in the city.

Well now, we can't have that.

It's terribly easy for Annabelle to pick off the men trying to operate the artillery piece.

*CRACK* One man goes down, half of his head missing. *CRACK* The fellow that was trying to adjust the barrel follows him, his body falling into one of the joints of the machine.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* One shot, one kill. The artillery piece is turning into a death trap for any Soviets still trying to hold it.

Still, they try: the thing is all loaded and almost ready to go, all they need is to check the coordinates and fire.

Well, at least that is what two more tell themselves while they climb in and are hailed with high speed lead by an uncanny markswoman. After six are down, the soviet crew seems distinctly unwilling to die heroic deaths.

Pushed on all sides, the unit guarding the artillery piece is shredded, decimated over and over, until survival instinct takes over and they throw down their weapons.

Annabelle is relieved that some of them seem to have survival instincts, but she's still on guard in case any of them decide to do anything....clever.

It's only paranoia if you're wrong.

True, that's why the soldiers who surrenders are quickly rounded up, deprived of their pants and shoes and made to sit back to back on the canvas of a tent the commandos bring down.

Tanya does a quick survey of the area, and calls up the rest of the force in the comm. "Major? We have the gun, and eleven prisoners."

Just in time, Agent Tanya: Yuri is powering up a psychic dominator, and his Black Guard is on the way, we can not move the prism tanks close enough.

"Well, we just happen to have a really big gun, all loaded and ready to go."

There is a chuckle on the radio. I'm sending the coordinates. Disable the gun afterwards and you are welcome to join us. The rebel Soviet forces are giving the perimeter a good pounding, and will break thru soon: if we want first dibs on Yuri we need to hurry up.

"Acknowledged. We will be there." She turns to Annabelle. "Hear that, hon? The Good Reds want to blow up the Madman before we do."

This is Annabelle's face of mock woe. "But I was so looking forward to turning him into paste."

Then she grins. "The Reds will have to content themselves with the rest of Yuri's troops, If I have anything to say about it."

Tanya laughs, moving up to the controls of the cannon, turning the massive engine of destruction to the new target. A punch on the fire control pad, and the area shakes with the recoil, as the nuclear shell flies to its target.

"Package on the way, ladies and gentlemen. Load the controls with some bricks of C-4 and lets go, they are chronoshifting prism tanks." The commandos cheer and talk excitedly while preparing to destroy the artillery platform.

Annabelle makes her way over to where Tanya is standing. "That's one chicken that's coming home to roost," she says with a wink.

She watches them prepare to make the gun go BOOM. It should make for a pretty explosion.

The first BOOM is the ugly sight of the nuclear shell striking its target, obliterating the psi-dominator, a few blocks of garrisoned buildings and a good chunk of Yuri's Black Guard.

After sending the prisoners running away, the second BOOM destroys the big gun's control, making the structure sag and almost fall apart completely.

By then Tanya is already leading the strike team down into the battle that rages and advances towards the Kremlin.

Annabelle is following close behind as they move toward the Kremlin. It looks different than the last time she saw it, but that was in another universe.

She's not quite laughing as they run, but she's definitely grinning gleefully. (What can we say, she's a little strange.)

They meet with a few soviet patrols, but having still over thirty commandos means the Reds loyal to Yuri are wiped or pushed back.

As they are less than two blocks from the 'front', the sound of grinding metal and enraged screaming comes from a side street. Something big and angry is there around that corner...

"The fuck?" Tanya signals for the group to spread out and advance to engage.

"Sounds like someone's been experimenting," Annabelle growls, switching to HEAP ammunition.

She joins the advance, expecting someone or something that isn't quite a standard off the shelf human anymore.

Well, around that corner... two very tell, very muscular, very weird humanoids, tearing apart a Grizzly tank. Nearby, a group of maybe ten normal-sized humanoids in scary-looking uniforms stand guard.

And of course, the commandos are spotted. One of the weird-uniformed ones makes a sharp gesture and one Tanya's soldiers stumbles back, spitting blood.

It's the uniformed ones that she focuses on first. "Psychics!" she shouts, hoping to warn the rest.

"Let's see if you can stop bullets, you miserable bastards!!" If they can, well, there's always plan B.

No, they don't: at least, they quickly dive for cover under the hail of bullets, losing only two of their number.

The storm of lead draws the attention of the gray-skinned giants, who stop tearing apart the tank and charge the group, roaring in mindless anger.

It's a lousy telekinetic that can't at least slow down bullets, but she's not going to complain!

"YOU WANT SOME, COME AND GET IT!" she shouts, turning to deliver HEAP ammo right between the eyes of the big giants. She doesn't stop with one shot there either, thanks to her experiences in Ellen's world.

She may be a little high on adrenaline right now.

They are not bullet-proof, but they are highly bullet-resistant: center-mass shots cause bruises, then scratches, then wounds.

The one Annabelle is shooting at actually needs three perfect HEAP headshots before he falls. Using steel-tipped rounds, Tanya needs to spend half a magazine to bring the other monster down.

"Shit. Fall back for cover." She plucks a grenade and lobs it minus pin to keep the telekinetic troopers pinned. Other commandos do likewise and two pick up the wounded man.

"Damn, these are tough bastards!" she complains, falling back and covering the commandos picking up the wounded.

As they move back, a strange looking tank rounds a corner, escorted by Allied G.I's. Tanya waves them over, leading her group to meet up.

A quick discussion later, the Prism tank is putting its massive plasma cannon to work, razing buildings and cleaning up the area. It seems they arrived almost too late for the party, as Allied troops are taking position behind the rubble of buildings, surrounding the Kremlin.

"Nice ride!" Annabelle calls out to the tank crews, grinning.

Oh, there's still party to be had. They haven't found Yuri yet, you see.

Tanya sends the wounded off to the medi-barracks, and moves with Annabelle to the command post. There seems to be an argument happening there, a conversation: on the left side of the screen, Yuri, on the right side, the president of the United States.

"It is over, Yuri. Your troops are dead or scattered, and you are surrounded."

You think I will just give up, my friend? No... I can hold you off, long enough. Yuri speaks in a soft, nice voice, even thru the comm it carries an enticing, soothing and persuading note.

There are advantages to having half a lifetime of experience dealing with scum sucking bastards like Yuri. For instance, sometimes you can tell when they've got an ace in the hole that's going to bite you in the ass.

"Son of a bitch has an escape plan he thinks we don't know about," she growls, quiet enough that Yuri won't hear her over the radio.

The Commander shakes head. "He has a lot of electronics in there, and seems to be trying to power up something. The building is wrapped in a force shield of some kind, maybe something like the soviet Iron Curtain device, so whatever he's trying to charge up, is going slow."

Then he adds. "They can not hear us. We're snooping on what's supposed to be a restricted conference."

"If something's powering up, he thinks it will be enough to get him out of this mess," she insists. "It's....a hunch," she says with a shrug.

It's not like she can tell him that she has extensive experience dealing with evil psychic nutcases.

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