Chapter Text
"The day has come when we all have to prove whether we are True Yarans or not. Today Libertad showed its true face. Look what they did to our country. This is the freedom they promised you. Chaos.
I will be honest. I did not pay attention to their speeches because I considered them to be a simple consequence of youthful rebellion. But recently I understood their way of thinking. They foolishly believed that they could build a new and correct state on the ruins of our country by fair elections, freedom of speech, and equal rights. But they ignore that we have already built our country with these principles in mind. The only difference is that they have achieved only complete anarchy, which they call freedom.
True freedom does not come from lack of control, nor from freedom of choice. True freedom comes from restrictions. Complete lawlessness is like a nuclear explosion. Only under guidance of a strong leader and the firm hand of the law this force could be used for good. Otherwise, real evil will have free rein in this blast.
If you think of government only as a dictatorship, anarchy will seem like a good thing. Otherwise, the whole nation will submerge in insanity." - Anton Castillo broadcast speech during the assault on Esperanza by Libertad, late summer of 2021.
Less than a week had passed before the Yarans attacked the Privateers again. This time, the outpost was attacked in broad daylight because, unlike the yakuzas, Yaran soldiers were more comfortable fighting in the light than in the dark. A completely clear sky illuminated the entire valley. Cold north breeze herald the coming autumn, and was saving them from the sun heat. The wind made ones skin crawl and made everyone snotty. The bright sun made it difficult to leave the shade; eyes quickly became unaccustomed to the sun in the shade. The strong contrast between shadow and light was more disturbing than complete darkness, but both sides of the conflict were at a disadvantage because of it.
The battle for the southern outpost of the valley lasted longer than for the central one. Yarans, together with the Yakuza, were able to take the outpost guards by surprise and enter the outpost, occupying one of the buildings. They had a quantitative advantage despite having losses.
“Lieutenant…” the wounded Yaran private raised his hand from the wound on his stomach and looked at his bloody palm. “I need help…
“Shut up, don't nag me!” shouted Lieutenant Ria Campos. “Asian girl! Help him!”
Yuri, who was supposed to be keeping an eye on the privateers so they wouldn't come out from behind cover from aside, took a break from the battle and aided the soldier.
“Don’t take your hand off the wound or you’ll die,” said Yuri, grabbing the man by his collar and pulling him away from the window.
Taking a small metal box of medical threads and a needle - if you could even call them that - from her hanging bag, Yuri began to stitch up his wound. He cried out in pain, but did not resist.
“But the bullet?” he asked.
“It's blocking the bleeding, it’s better if it’ll stay inside you for now. Lie down and stay out of fight,” answered Yuri, then returned to her position by the window.
Lieutenant Campos fired a few shots and noticed that the privateers were gradually approaching the northern exit of their building.
“Why the hell aren't you watching the north?” she shouted and, without waiting for her answer, immediately gave the order, “Asian girl, order your people to attack them from behind!”
“They're already in position in the rear, ma'am. They will-”
“Agh! No help from you! Joaquin, throw a frag!”
“But, sir, I already-” mumbled Joaquin, but she was already ahead of him.
“Frag is on!” Lieutenant Campos threw a grenade the enemy cover.
The soldiers in the building, right when she had ordered to throw a grenade at their position, hurried into the next room to take cover from the explosion that did not follow. The diversion worked - the soldiers went into the room of the building, where one of the yakuza was waiting for them.
El Susurro turned out to be surprisingly effective. The nail was powerful enough to pierce the skull and chest plate, so with accurate shooting, privateers died immediately. And at the same time, the nail itself almost did not deform, which made it reusable. Only Hideki managed to use the weapon properly. Without taking direct aim at the enemy, he launched from three to four nails at a soldier. Even the wind did not disturb him - it was as if he had become one with the flows of nature and metal mechanism.
Hideki exited the building from the same door he entered it and gave report over the radio:
“Clear.”
The Yakuza immediately relaxed and lowered their guns, but the Yaran soldiers were still on guard.
“I didn't order you to stand down. Why be sure there were only eight of them?” asked Lieutenant Campos.
“Do you think there might be an extra privateer lurking somewhere?” asked her Yuri.
“They could have left a whole detachment nearby after your lil’ show at the central outpost.”
“Don't worry about that, Lieutenant Campos. But you’re right. Everyone, be on your guard!” Yuri said loudly to her men.
Two Yaran soldiers entered the building to make sure it was clear. There were three corpses of Privateers in the main room of the building. A dummy grenade laid among the dust and concrete debris on the floor, and two more soldiers laid dead in the next room. Private Joaquin checked the first floor, looked out of every window, but still did not understand how Hideki was able to enter the building unnoticed by the Privateers.
“Where did they learn all this?” Private Joaquin asked out loud, but no one answered.
While the soldiers and the rest of the Yakuza checked the outpost, Yuri, as the only medic in the squad, examined the wounded soldiers. Yarans lost two people in this battle, four other of their soldiers had wounds of varying severity. The Yakuza, this time, got off with just some bruises.
“Clear!” proclaimed Joaquin. “But they called for backup!”
“Got it!” The lieutenant stood in the middle of the outpost courtyard and addressed her soldiers. “Excellent work, soldiers! Yaran soldiers have once again proven that they are the best in the world!”
“Taking all the credit for yourself?” Aoi asked her as she walked past the lieutenant, dragging a privateer's body out of the building.
“Yes, because the Japanese soldiers turned out to be cowards and staid in cover.”
“Yeah, and your soldiers were busy dying like flies,” added Aoi.
The lieutenant pulled her machete out of its sheath, blocking Aoi's path with it.
“Yeah, and now you’ll die like a dog.”
The machete flinched for some reason. The lieutenant didn’t hear that Yuri came to her from behind, and her warm palm touching her shoulder caught her off guard.
“Stop acting like kids. Don't waste your time,” interrupted them Yuri. “Lieutenant, call the squad for the capture, please.”
“Yeah-yeah.” Lieutenant Campos hid her tremble in her voice with her regular smug tone and took up the radio. “This is the Alpha cleanup squad. Send the defense squad to the south.”
“Roger, sending them out,” answered the radio operator on the other end.
Putting away the radio, Campos looked at Yuri with a frown.
“Are not gonna order your people to deal with the enemy reinforcements?”
“They are already on it, don't worry.”
“I didn't hear you giving them orders to do this. Are you just trust that they'll figure to do it themselves?”
“We assumed that the Privateers would call for reinforcements anyway in any case of an attack. We discussed a lot of their possible tactics. They’re in no need for my direct order. And I’m not the only one who commands them.”
“…Okay. Then order your people to take out the bodies.”
When Campos walked away. Aoi approached her and asked:
“I don't get it, are you trying to please her or discreetly tell her to fuck off?”
“Their egos are impossible to please and easy to crush,” she replied with a shrug. “You have to be one level above them, and then they won’t have anything to say back.”
Despite the low-browed animosity, the Yakuza and Yarans were going along well, more or less, though the latter were still wary of them. The Yakuza helped with checking the outpost for supplies, ammo, traps, and possible alive soldiers in an ambush. The soldiers were lining up the bodies of the dead outside, placing them on makeshift stretchers to make them easier to carry to the transport. The Yakuza were dragging the supplies outside, where they would be loaded onto a truck and taken to the base. Only the rank and file Yarans helped them with that, while the high ranks were standing guars and periodically looked over the area and the forest beyond the outpost.
Having done that, Alpha squad moved back to the base, taking some corpses with them carried by the Yakuza.
“It all went by so quickly,” said Aoi. “And so easy.”
“Don’t jinx it,” warned her Mitseru.
“Oh, you. Do you still believe in superstitions? Even death couldn't convince you otherwise.”
“And you don’t? We were given an opportunity to start over. Isn’t it God’s providence?”
“Well, why would it be God's plan? Or no, wait. Isn't all this counter-evidence that God exists? Or worse, it’s evidence that Devil exists. That we are stuck here forever and we’ll suffer and die forever-”
“Hey, you two. Stop talking,” Lieutenant Campos ordered them. “Don't open your mouths until I tell you to.”
“We don’t listen to your-”
“Aoi, Mitseru,” Yuri interrupted her calmly, quietly even. “You'll have time to chat at the base. Don't disturb the others.”
They immediately shut up. After the recent victory, they were completely convinced that Yuri was a pretty good leader.
There was a bang somewhere just north of their location. A bullet had struck Tetsuo's left arm, pierced it, and came out the other side, lodging into his torso. The bullet shattered his arm in two. He dropped the stretcher; he, the stretcher with a corpse and a piece of his arm fell to the ground. Tetsuo screamed in pain and shock.
“Everyone, in the forest!” Yuri shouted, immediately jumping back into the thicket.
A bullet flew into the place where Yuri was just standing. The Yakuza and experienced soldiers also rushed for cover. The stretchers with the bodies were thrown to the ground. Only wounded Tetsuo, Aoi, Private Joaquin and Private Juarez remained in the open area. The interval between shots was short, and the shots were very powerful. The third bullet hit a Yaran private Joaquin - the bullet passed through his throat and crashed into the tree trunk behind him. He was choking on his own blood, he did not scream in pain like Tetsuo.
“Hey! Help!” he shouted to his comrades before he began choking on his own blood, but no one came back for him.
Aoi tried to go back for her comrade, but when a bullet pierced Private Hoaquin’s chest and he spread out on the ground with a quiet groan, she changed her mind. And at that moment, she got shot in the shoulder by the unseen shooter. Falling to the ground and rolling away from the road, she took cover behind a tree and clutched her shoulder.
“Ah! Fucking hell!”
“Now you’ll know better than abandoning your comrades,” told her Lieutenant Campos.
“I- What?! Speak for yourself!”
Mitsuru dragged Aoi deeper into the forest. They had to retreat even further into the forest because the bullet’s caliber was piercing trees. They are really fucking angry, Yuri thought. Trying to approach Aoi to bandage her wound, she almost got shot in her temple.
“Mitseru, lift her up and put her against the tree. Cauterize her wound if the bleeding is severe.”
“Got it,” Mitseru got out a lighter and a knife and began to heat up the blade.
“Hey! Don't! I'll handle it!..” Aoi immediately pressed her back against the tree.
“Where’s his position?” asked Lieutenant Campos.
“I saw the bullet’s trajectory! He's shooting from the north!” answered one of the Yaran soldiers.
“Really? Where could a sniper find a good position there?”
“Better ask what kind of gun he has?” asked the private Cavallo, - former sergeant. “That caliber can penetrate buildings, let alone trees.”
“Maybe he’s close?” suggested Private Juarez, who miraculously managed to run for cover into the forest. “There’s no need in large caliber to cause that kind of damage.”
“If he's close…” Yuri fell silent and listened. The sniper fired again, there was a characteristic, muffled pop in the distance just before he fired. “He has a silencer. He's close.”
“Then you’ll deal with him,” said Campos. “He’s stealthy. You’re stealthy.”
Yuri didn't object. Taking the radio, she addressed the second squad:
“Hideki, do you see the sniper?”
“We see him. He's sitting on a platform on a tree-” Hideki suddenly fell silent. There was a crunch of branches and the sound of them hitting the ground, as if Hideki had fallen. “Motherfucker! He spotted us!”
“Can you distract him?”
“We're already distracting him! He's turned his fire on us!”
Putting the radio on her belt, Yuri approached the edge of the forest and the road. Waiting for the moment when the sniper made a shot, she rushed back to the road, running past wounded Tetsuo, who tried to grab her leg.
“Hey! Don't leave me here!” he shouted.
Ducking and running into the forest on the other side of the road, Yuri took cover behind a tree and crouched down. A bullet flew past her, hitting the leaves on the trees along the way, and crashed into the ground. No more shots were fired. He was waiting for me. Yuri barely stuck her shoulder out from behind the tree to provoke the sniper. He didn't fall for it. Well, it would be stupid to stick out my head. I miraculously managed to run here and not get shot. She had to wait until he was distracted by Hideki's squad again. Sniper started to shoot again. The bullets were not flying in her direction, but she had to be sure it was not a bluff.
“Hideki, were you the one who distracted him?” Yuri asked Hideki through the radio.
“No. He's not shooting at us.”
Yuri changed the radio channel to talk with Lieutenant Campos.
“Campos, do you see where he's shooting from?”
“How the fuck should I know?! I just see leaves twitching suspiciously in the distance,” answered the lieutenant.
Well, thanks for the help. Yuri waited for sniper to shoot again. And this time it was not in her direction. She heard a rustling sound and the sound of a falling branch In the distance. Is he shooting into the air? Yuri changed the channel and gave the order to Hideki:
“Hideki, how far are you from him?”
“I’m not sure. I think about a fifty meters, judging by the sounds of the shots.”
“He's shooting into the air. Try to deal with him, use the rustling foliage as a guide.”
Hideki silently began to carry out the order. A minute later, the sniper no longer fired. He’s out of ammo?
“Did you kill him?” Yuri asked over the radio.
“No. We don't see him.”
Yuri carefully peered out from behind the tree. She noticed some alien movement Between the leaves flickering in the light wind.
“I'm going after him, I'll distract him. Hideki, approach his position, but don't give yourself away.”
“Got it. Good luck, sister.”
Coming closer to the sniper's position, Yuri saw where the sniper was shooting from. It was a tall tree with a wooden platform installed at the junction of the trunk. The sniper himself was not in position. He was going to attack me, right now. From where? There was a creaking sound was from above, as if something heavy had jumped off a branch. Yuri dodged to the side, grabbed her pistol from holster and pointed it at the sniper who jumped down, who was no less surprised than she was. The sniper also managed to dodge, taking cover behind a tree thereby avoiding a bullet. Yuri managed to step away a couple of meters and take cover behind an oak tree, up which the sniper took firing position. He could’ve easily shoot me. Doesn't he have a pistol? Taking out a machete from her holster, Yuri prepared to attack the sniper. But he, already armed with a knife, rushed towards her. She had to block the knife to keep it from plunging into her throat. The man was stronger than her, he was applying the same pressure on the knife with just one hand as she was applying with two hands on the machete. But when he tried to apply more pressure, Yuri took the opportunity to kick him in the stomach, pushing him away from her.
In those few moments of the duel, she managed sniper's face, covered by his keffiyeh. Like the rest of Hoyt's soldiers, the man was a white Caucasian. American, most likely. But his face was quite young, even if a little tired. He is not even thirty years old, and he is more capable than those privateers.
She didn't attack him back. Waiting for the moment when he would attack her again, she blocked his attack with the machete, turning it vertically. The knife hit the machete, the armed hand bounced from the impact.
Between the bounce and sniper’s next attack there was a pause. Opportunity to parry - slightly turning the machete in her hand, in the next strike the knife slid down under the pressure, and the sniper lost balance in his hand. At the same moment, she swung the machete down slashing the sniper's hand between the forearm and the wrist with its tip, almost cutting it off.
Her strength was not in pressuring the opponent, but in waiting for the moment to counterattack. We are killers, not warriors. Mother always said that with our profession all we can do is fight back. And she was noticeably faster than him.
Although he barked in pain and glanced sideways in shock at the dangling hand, the sniper did not lose his composure. Ignoring the pain the sniper intercepted the dagger from his nonfunctioning right hand to his left hand, and stabbed it into her chest. Yuri screamed in pain and tried to stab him back in the neck with the machete. The blade barely grazed his Adam's apple. The sniper stepped back, putting his knife behind his belt and grabbed his almost severed hand.
Both wounded warriors stared at each other. Neither of them expected to receive such wounds from their opponent in battle.
Their battle was interrupted by a array of bullets flying over them. The sniper looked in the direction where the bullets were coming from and immediately retreated to the south. On the move, he grabbed a rifle hidden behind a tree and disappeared into the forest. Just ten seconds later the second Yakuza squad ran out of the forest, just when the sniper completely disappeared from sight.
Hideki, seeing his sister alive, sighed with relief.
“You killed him?”
“No… He escaped… He’s much more dangerous than I thought…” Yuri pressed the wound on her chest. The blood was flowing at a quick pace. Hideki, noticing the blood, hurried to his sister.
“Whoa there!” He knelt down ready to help, but did not touch her, not knowing what to do. “The wound’s deep! Let me help.”
“It’s okay…” She took her first aid kit out of her bag. “Don't worry, I won't be dying this time.”
“Ha!” he grinned, but immediately became embarrassed. “Yes… You’re right…”
The rest of the squad surrounded them, waiting for orders instead of chasing the sniper. Yutaka approached them and stared at her wound.
“Whoa…” he sounded genuinely shocked. “First time seeing you being hurt.”
“No, you did see…” She squinted at Yutaka, which made him turn a little pale, and then added, “Go after the sniper! Don't stand there like a idiot.”
Yutaka nodded silently and followed the sniper. Even when she gave orders, her voice remained soft, even condescending, but the yakuzas reacted in the same way, as if they did not follow the order, she would repeat the scenario of their death again. The atmosphere of sins and impressions from the past life still hung in their collective.
After Yuri had taken care of her wound, they all headed back to the road. The Yarans, realizing that the sniper had turned his attention to Yuri, got out of the forest and took care of the wounded and the fallen. The Yaran medic, the one who was send to the field hospital, already took over Tetsuo's treatment. Aoi, in comparison to Tetsuo, was not badly hurt.
Seeing the Yakuza return, Lieutenant Campos raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Oh, you survived… How come he didn't kill you?” she asked Yuri.
“He ran out of ammo Most likely. And in close combat, he relies heavily on the element of surprise. And he is not as fast with a knife as I am with a sword. He had a gun, but for some reason he did not use it,” answered Yuri.
“I see. And where is his body?”
“He got away. We managed to wound each other-”
“You missed him?!” Lieutenant, almost burst from anger. “He could be halfway to the outpost right now!”
“I’ve sent a man after him, don't worry…” Yuri paused because of the pain that ached her wound, took a deep breath and continued. “His right hand is not working and he has no ammo for his sniper rifle. In any case, he’ll either show up at one of the outposts or run back to his people.”
“That won't be enough.” The lieutenant took out her radio and informed the command about the sniper. “We have a fugitive sniper on our territory. Send soldiers to search for him.”
The lieutenant put away the radio without waiting for a response from the base.
“Strange that they used just one sniper,” she said, wiping sweat from her forehead. “I expected them to do something more serious.”
“Most likely, they wanted to tack us out one by one from afar with help of a sniper and finish us off the rest with reinforcements. Too bad we killed them. They'll have to come up with something better.”
“I wouldn't say so.” The Yaran medic showed the bullet he had extracted from Tetsuo's wound. “I'm not a weapons expert, of course, but I've only seen ammo like that in American rifles.
Campos took the bullet from him and looked at it closely, surprise appearing on her stern, mocking face.
“I've only seen this caliber in the MBP.50. Usually, these rifles are automatic. Strange. So, the sniper was shoo ting at a lover pace?” She stuffed the bullet into her pants pocket and asked, “Do you know how to treat wounds from bullets like this?”
“…Sure? A bullet wound is a bullet wound. A routine case,” answered the medic.
Tetsuo, who by this point had weakened and had almost bleed out, raised his head.
“A routine case?.. I can barely breathe, and that’s routine for you…” Tetsuo sank to the ground. The medic knelt down to check if the stitch if the stitch had come apart.
“Okay,” Campos rubbed the sweat from her neck, think of what to do next. “Okay. Let's not bother too much. Leave the body of one the privateers at the outpost, and put the wounded yakuza on him.”
About ten minutes later a truck with reinforcements drove up to the outpost, dropped off a detachment to occupy the outpost and picked up the Yakuza and the Yarantsy squad. In almost half an hour later the outpost was put in order and guarded. The privateer's corpse, which remained at the outpost, was put in a basement of one of the buildings, after making sure he would heal up and handcuffing him to the furniture. Almost the entire center of the northern valley was under Yarans’ control.
Half a day had passed since the southern outpost had been captured, and the mercenaries were in no hurry to take it back. Yarans did not manage to take the dead reinforcements killed by the Yakuza. The sniper was not found, but he had not shown up either. Yutaka ran along the entire east of the valley, but did not find even traces of footprints or blood on the ground. He himself was almost shot by the Yarans, who also were sent to find the sniper. Whoever this sniper was, he was more professional than any experienced soldier.
“Any ideas?” asked him Yuri.
Juan tapped his fingers on the table, staring into space as he thought of a possible solution to the problem.
“He’ll be waiting for you, looking out from a high position from afar. Most likely he will be on the radio tower, there is a good position for a sniper. His entire angle of view will be facing north. You’ll need to go around from behind and snipe him back.”
“But he won't be alone,” Yuri supposed. “The entire outpost will be on guard for him and the area around him. We could go around from the west, but to do that we'd have to climb the cliff, and intelligence reported that they've placed a patrol there.”
Juan fell silent again and now tapped his fingers on one of Supremo's backpacks that was lying on the table. Yuri replied to his hint silent suggestion:
“I won't take it unless you suggest a wise use for it.”
“How this is not the solution? You'll clear out the outpost with it in no time.”
“It’ll be loud. If we launch the missiles, from the moment of launch until they land they will fill the valley with noise. It’ll be like a loud signal flare to call for reinforcements. That's firstly. Secondly, it will immediately give away our position. Well, or of the one who’ll launch your contraption.”
“Don't worry about reinforcements. They'll split their forces to try to recapture one of the other outposts. It’s their last chance to regain advantage. There simply won’t enough people for reinforcements.”
“Why are you so confident?”
“We’ve already taken a dozen of their people. Soon they won't have any people left. We basically know every single one of them.”
“But not the Rambo-sniper?”
“Yeah, he’s a problem. They haven’t found him, right? He’s probably got back to the base to lick his wounds. He won’t be able to shoot with one hand. Well, unless he's actually Rambo.”
“There was a sniper at the central outpost too, but we had had time to prepare. Last time we were on top. Not figuratively. We were just took higher positions.”
“They have .50 caliber sniper rifles. It will penetrate concrete, girl. Don't confuse advantage with superiority, you were just harder to hit.”
“Hmm… That sniper will create a lot of trouble even if he has one working hand.”
“Why’s that?”
“He and I had… a strange fight. He didn't look like a qualified soldier. It’s more like he was over qualified. He’s young, but his face looked a little older than he is. And he was very good with a knife. I almost cut off his hand, and he just grabbed the knife with the other one and wounded me in the chest, weird right?”
“He could’ve wounded you in the armpit and torn an artery. Nah, he's an amateur, all though a capable one.”
“And he shoots very well for an amateur. And he single-handedly handles a knife, literally. I’m more than he can handle more than just a sniper rifle.”
“A knifer and a gunner? He’s one of a…” Juan suddenly realized. “He’s a "one-man-army"!”
Yuri looked at Juan as if he suddenly said something in a different language.
“…A what?”
Juan stood up from his chair and took out something shaped like a flat brick from a drawer of the workbench.
“The last work of my life was a revolution. FND fought with real weapons, and we fought with whatever we could find, but the main weapon of both sides were people. And our main weapon was one unstoppable guerilla. Thanks to one girl, we almost liberated all of Yara back in the day.”
“The one who ran away to America?”
“Yes. That one.” Juan handed her the book. “And this is a list of people like her. There is a dossier on anyone who was worth to mention. Look through it, maybe you'll find the man.”
It was a large book, bound with rings and a hard cover covered in fabric. Each page was dedicated to a dossier on one person. General information and a brief description of the person were sometimes accompanied by a photograph or a hand-written portrait of varying quality. There was a dossier on Yuri herself, which left her in shock. They filled it out based on yakuzas’ testimonies… Is that how they all see me?
There were a lot of pages.
“Did you just put everyone here?” asked him Yuri.
“Only the most important ones. Some of them haven't even shown up to the party yet,” answered Juan.
The dossiers were mostly about Yaran soldiers and revolutionaries, some mercenaries. Several people fit the description based on the sniper’s skills: Josip Idromeno, Marty Alencar, Jason Brody and Jacob Seed. There were photos of the men, but Yuri couldn't say for sure which of them was the sniper.
“In any case, I already know what to expect from him.” Yuri closed the book and put it on the table. “And in any case, he's just one man.”
“And in any case, you'll need a new weapon.” Juan patted the self-made rocket-launcher on the table. “Come on! I know you want to try my homemade gun.”
“Is this some kind of pick-up line?”
“Only if you don't mind.” Yuri made such a sour face that Juan burst out laughing. “Just don't take this as an excuse not to take my creations. Each of them is like my child to me.”
Yuri raised an eyebrow. If he had his own children, he certainly wouldn't treat them so benignly as his weapons. Then she walked over to the table and looked at the Supremo.
“What's its range?” she finally asked.
“Ha! Now you’re talking! About a hundred meters. It can hit up to six targets.”
“What do you mean "up to six"? This isn't artillery?”
“It's not as obvious as it seems.”
Juan began to talk about each Supremo that he had already managed to recreate. So far there were four of them, but each had some unusual function. Yuri took away, in her opinion, the only useful from a satisfied Juan. Juan also gave three C-4 charges on the house, which he got from god knows where, and his special grenade, the properties of which he did not explain. He only said that it should be thrown into a closed room and before using it, one should wrap their nose and mouth with some kind of wet rag. For some reason, Juan refused to answer any questions about the grenade.
There was no time for questioning anyway. The attack on the northern outpost was planned for tonight. Only the Yakuza would be sent into battle against the northern outpost.
The Yakuza used a new tactic. If last time they stirred up the entire valley, this time they kept their composure in the night cool of the forest. The Privateers were busy too. They set up barrels with bonfires on the outpost’s territory, hung lamps and lit garlands around it the buildings. It was almost impossible to get in the outpost and not get in the light.
Taking up positions in the darkness, the Yakuzas waited for the command to strike. The outpost was like a glowing fortress, so illuminated was it. It was an impenetrable fortress to the warriors of shadow.
Yuri made sure for herself of how quickly wounds healed in this world. Although her wound from the knife battle opened up a bit, it no longer felt as deep or did not hurt as much.
If they could not enter the outpost without making some noise, then let the noise itself drive the enemy out. When the only rays of moonlight, that were barely reaching the northern part of the valley, were hidden by clouds, Yuri gave the order:
“Yutaka, fire.”
In that moment Yutaka pulled the cord of the Supremo "Exterminador" and fired a volley of combat fireworks into the air. One of the rockets slightly grazed the top of his head, but he was able to hold it back.
The fireworks were not ordinary. Juan modified the rockets with a counterweight, so that they would fall down to the ground at their target, and a homing device so that they would hit the targets. Several rockets hit the barrels, ripping them apart and knocking them to the ground, scattering burning firewood. Two of them flew through the windows of a building and hit two privateers. Yutaka immediately moved away as soon as the rockets hit their targets, to avoid counter fire and reload his backpack rocket launcher. The privateers, guided by the smoke, began firing at Yutaka’s initial positin, who was no longer there.
“They're here!” shouted one of the privateers – apparently, the captain. “Look for the bastards!”
The familiar pops of gunfire were heard from the tower. The sniper is here. He didn’t hit anybody. Most likely he was trying to deceive them like in the previous encounter.
“Everyone, stay behind the trees. Don't stick your head out.” Yuri whispered the order.
Everyone obeyed her order.
A squad of five men with turned on flashlights in their chest pockets left the outpost and entered the forest in a slender line. They are covered by a sniper. They will start shooting as soon as someone is caught in the light of the flashlight. And if we attack them, they will find us immediately. Yutaka had already managed go to the northeastern part of the outpost and hide, remaining unnoticed. Yuri gestured the others to stay in cover. The closer the soldiers came, the faster their heart beat became.
But none of the Yakuza attacked the privateers. They passed them by, never noticing them in the shadows of the trees, and went a little further into the forest.
“Where are they? The rocketeer was somewhere around here, the others should be nearby-” Suddenly the captain cried out. The others hurried to him, but he stopped them, “Everyone stay where you are! Damon, come here.”
They obeyed and remained in their places, swinging their flashlights around themselves looking for the yakuzas. Damon approached his commander and saw what was wrong. The captain’s leg stuck in an unexpectedly placed trap.
“When did they manage to place it?” Damon asked, bending down to help the captain. “No one reported hearing suspicious sounds from the forest.”
Suddenly a bullet flew past them - the sniper fired. The captain and Damon averted their attention from the trap and aimed their guns in the direction to where the sniper fired. There was no one there.
“Did he miss?” asked the privateer. “Or are we just collectively going crazy?”
“Get me out of the trap!” demanded the captain.
A cold wind blew through the trees, whistling past their ears. One of the lanterns’ light disappeared, and with it did a life of one of the privateers. There was a thud, a body hit the ground. The privateer himself did not even make a sound, he just fell down.
“What the hell?” The captain, who was just released from the trap. “Everyone stay where you are!”
The captain approached the privateer's body. There was a small knife was sticking out of the back of his head.
“They're throwing knives. Protect your heads and necks.”
There was a blow behind him. Now the privateer who helped him get out of the trap fell dead to the ground. Judging by the place of impact, the knife in his neck came from a position not far from the captain.
Now there was a commotion in the forest. The privateers disobeyed their commander, they moved from their positions and tried to find the enemy among the trees. One of them even fired a full mag of bullets in front of him, hitting one of his comrade. And he didn’t hit any of the Yakuzas at all. The other one crouched down and, hunching over, took aim at the darkness of the forest, blocking his face with his rifle. He looked straight at the captain, illuminating him with the light of his flashlight so that none of the Yakuza would dare attack him. The captain trotted towards his only living comrade. Running behind him, he sat down on his knee behind the man.
“You did good, kid. Let’s call for help.”
The last privateer didn't answer, he just silently nodded. Suddenly, there was explosion at the outpost, as if a grenade exploded somewhere. A few minutes later, followed a powerful rumble. And then there was gunfire.
“Great, and then all hell broke loose. We're on our own, son.”
It's amazing how simple tricks can intimidate a person so much. Cover yourself in mud for camouflage, set up some traps in the forest, and instead of using machetes or guns, risking being found out, just throw knives from afar. In other case they would have been killed. Yakuza aren't soldiers, after all.
The sniper, oddly enough, wasn't shooting this whole time. He took a shot when the privateer got stuck in the trap. He shoot at nothing, the was nothing notable visible, Yuri thought to herself. What could he possibly saw there?
“Sir,” the last alive privateer finally spoke up, addressing his captain, “I see one.”
“I see one too,” the captain answered him, also in a whisper. “On my command. We'll take him with us to hell.”
The privateer nodded silently.
“Do-”
Yuri jumped down from the tree, plunging her machete into captain's head, right in its top. She stabbed the other privateer, who barely managed to turn around to shoot her, in the temple with a throwing knife. The sniper fired at her and hit her in the thigh. Yuri managed to contain her scream and hid behind a tree. She had to leave her machete in capitan’s head.
The sniper continued shooting, now aiming at the trees.
“Everybody, on the ground!” Yuri shouted.
The Yakuzas quickly descended from the trees to the ground and hid behind thick tree trunks. The sniper tried to shoot them, but managed to just graze someone’s leg.
Somewhere from south there were sounds of distant gunfire. Although the northern outpost was on higher ground, the trees made it difficult to see what was happening on south. Juan was right. Privateers divided their forces to attack the remaining outposts.
All five corsairs were dead, the last two were killed by Yuri herself. The dead bodies were spread out on the ground. Three of them were laying face up, their still turned on flashlights illuminated the space above them. The light illuminated a small radius around them, highlighting the surrounding plants and foliage. It also illuminated the space behind the trees, where the Yakuza were hiding.
And then the sniper finally took a shot. Mitseru screamed and fell to the ground. At that moment, another bullet hit him in the back between the shoulder blades and he stopped moving. His brain is intact, the bullet had shattered his vertebrae. He’s paralyzed, perhaps he’s not dead yet. Unfortunately, she couldn't check that for sure. He deliberately startled the squad so that we would give ourselves away.
The sniper missed the next few shots. One of the shots hit Mitser's body, his stomach, but he didn't react to the blow. And he wasn’t shooting at their cover. Why won't he shoot at the tree trunks? His caliber could pierce concrete, let alone a tree.
“He's trying to confuse us…” whispered Koheku. “Let him waste his bullets. He doesn't know where are we-”
And the next bullet pierced the tree trunk, the one Koheku was hiding behind, and hit the man. The bullet pierced his temple and came out from his right eye. Yuri barely stared at her brother's body sprawling on the ground when she herself almost got shot in the back of her head. At first, she was overcome with shock and fear, then she felt a lump came to her throat. Yuri began to breathe quickly, but her comrade's voice brought her to her senses:
“Move your ass!” Aoi shouted at her.
Aoi was hit by a bullet, nearly killing her. She clutched her shoulder, squeezing her body to cover herself completely behind the tree. Unlike the bullet she received in her shoulder this mourning, this one shattered her collarbone. Aoi bared her teeth, pressed her hand to the wound, and groaned.
The next bullet flew over somewhere behind Yuri. There was also a click in addition to the sound of the bullet flying into the ground. The privateer, the one she stuck a knife into neck, pointed a pistol at her, turning off the pistol safety. He played dead. Bastard. Yuri almost to the ground bent down when she heard the creak of the trigger mechanism. The privateer, while holding his hand on his throat, took a shot. He missed. Trying to get up, Yuri involuntarily stepped back, leaving her cover.
The surviving corsair, who laid right in front of her, had her in his sights. She was in the sniper's sights. In a second they would both Shoot.
Dodge! Her reaction was faster than her thoughts. She rotated her body and leaned back, moving out of the bullets’ paths. The bullet would have hit her in the chest, but instead it flew past her and hit the surviving privateer in the jaw, piercing his throat. He cried out in pain and grabbed his mouth. The sniper stopped shooting - apparently he himself was in shock that he was tricked and accidentally shot his comrade. Yuri managed to hide in the darkness. The corsair, wounded in the jaw, tried to shoot her with a pistol before dying, but he only grazed her shoulder.
Masaru, Yutaka, Yuri, and the still living Aoi, who was still alive, but bleeding out.
The commotion in the forest was part of the plan. The plan was to fire the "Exterminador" at the outpost and while the enemy was distracted by the squad to the east, and Hideki and Masaru would strike them from behind. They both managed to sneak into the outpost by finding a blind spot behind a south building of the outpost, but they couldn't get out of there and not be seen.
There was shooting coming somewhfere from the eastern entrance to the outpost, as if someone fired a bunch of bullets from an automatic rifle.
“They’ve found them,” whispered Masaru.
“No, I don't think so,” Hideki fell silent and listened. There were cries coming from the south, but they was no more shooting. “If they were found out, there would be more shooting.”
They made their way to the outpost by squeezing through a tunnel they had dug under the fence. Coming a little closer to the edge of the building without making a sound, they stopped when they heard someone's voice coming from inside the building:
“What's going on? Should we go after them?”
“No,” another voice answered, “they can handle them with sniper’s covering them. It's better to wait until the other squad shows up.”
“They could take them prisoner, like the guys from the south outpost! We have to go after them.” There was a sound of a chair scraping on the floor, but no steps followed. Another privateer, apparently, stopped by his comrade.
“Calm down. Let them think they have the advantage. That way we'll beat those bastards. There's no point while they're there.”
“Yep, the truth is yours,” Hideki agreed with them, throwing a grenade to them through the window.
“Motherfucker!” At first the privateer-sergeant got scared by the sudden voice out of nowhere, and only then he saw the grenade on the floor. “Take cover!”
The exploding grenade, which filled the room with smoke, scattered its fragments around the room. The explosion shook the room, made plaster fall from the ceiling. But no one was hurt.
“They're here!” the coughing privateer sergeant managed to shout, taking his pistol out of his holster. He looked out from behind the couch he used as cover and pointed the pistol at the window, and noticed a strange device on the floor, made from a deodorant spray can and a light bulb full of white powder. And then it clicked and sparks began to bounce inside the bulb.
The second grenade exploded with a loud bang and a bright flash of light, simultaneously knocking down all remaining plaster from the ceiling of the room. Then the whole room was filled with thick white smoke, which made their eyes itchy and their noses tingle. Hideki and Masaru, although they managed to move away from the window and cover their ears, and they wrapped wet cloth around their mouths and noses beforehand, their ears were ringing from the bang. Hideki could at least hear both privateers inside the room screaming. Masaru pulled him behind the wall of the building, hiding him behind cover.
“They've broken into the outpost!” cried a voice in the distance.
The other privateers noticed them, so they came from the other side of the building, blocking the two yakuzas’ escape path. The gap between the building and the fence was only half a meter, so there was no room for dodging, and on the other side was overseen by the sniper and a gunner on the second floor of the opposing building. But when one of the privateers looked around the corner in the in-between gap, a series of nails flew at him. Hideki aimed El Susurro into the gap between the building and the fence and shoot every time when a privateer tried to look in the gap.
It was difficult and pointless to squeeze oneself through the gap, so the privateers and the yakuzas had to shoot without aiming. How these asians managed to squeeze themselves through this space remained a mystery to the privateers. And at the same time, the yakuza were in the blind spot of another privateer, who remained in the main building.
“How the hell is that possible? There’re just two of them!” The privateer lieutenant shouted to the remaining privateer private in the main building. “Anthony, finish them off!”
“I don't see them!” Anthony shouted back. The privateers, despite being more equipped, did not have working radios. After the radio tower at the outpost in the center of the valley burned down, the radio reception stopped working. They had not managed to restore it.
“Well then, change your fucking position, idiot!” The privateer-sergeant looked up to the sniper on the radio tower. “HEY! Help us!”
The sniper did even pay them attention. The captain of the privateers tugged him by the shoulder and pulled him back.
“No. Let him deal with the rest. We can finish them off.”
Neither the privateers nor the yakuzas left their cover not wanting to risk themselves. One of the privateers, while the others were not looking, went after the yakuzas, sneaking inside the building to flank them there. The captain realized that the man was gone rogue only when he heard the privateer coughing in the building, followed by a click, like someone firing a nail gun, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor.
“Well shit…” the lieutenant covered his face with his hand out of shame for the private and himself. “Everyone, stay in cover.”
“We're already staying! What kind of bullshit is this?” the privateer-sergeant was indignant. “We're just standing there like idiots.”
Right now the entire valley echoed with shots, explosions, and screams. Only on their side was there almost no noise, and this is despite the fact that the capture of the central and southern outpost was fraught with the complete loss of the privateers located there specifically because of the yakuza.
“This won't do.” The privateer sergeant peered around the corner and, as he expected, saw no one there. “Benjamin, you come with me. Captain, you distract them.”
The captain wanted to dissuade him, but silently agreed.
As he took up his position at the corner of the building, a piece of plastic explosive wrapped in rags with a detonator turned on fell next to them. The mine did not explode immediately, the second delay before the explosion was enough for some of the privateers to jump aside. The roar was loud. The explosion severely smashed the southern wall of the building. The privateer captain, next to whom the mine landed right at his feet, was thrown five meters. His mangled body crashed into one of the privateers, knocking him to the ground.
And a second after the explosion, Masaru rushed to the main building while the privateers were confused. But they noticed him, even though they were under the influence of the explosion.
“There he is, the bitch!” the privateer captain shouted. The others didn't hear him because their eardrums were burst. So he shouted to the privateer in the main building. “He's coming for you, Anthony!”
Masaru ran into the building and first of all fixed the explosives on the wall before the privateer on the second floor had time to go down. The C-4 was planted. During this time, a sapper named Anthony came down the stairs in two steps and took aim at Masaru. He stumbled successfully, which saved him from a bullet in the throat, and jumped out the window.
Masaru wasn't stupid. He knew that if he jumped out the window, the other privateers would shoot him. But if he stayed or tried to escape from the window on the north wall of the floor, he would definitely be killed by the privateer on the stairs. A small chance of survival was better than certain death. It wasn't the first time he had been in such a hot environment, although he had lost his grip since the Amaryllis clan's war with the Mukokusekigumi clan in 2009.
Luckily, Hideki managed to save him. He ran out from behind the building with El Susurro in his right hand and an SMG-11 in his left hand, and ran towards the privateers. He had a string in his teeth with a C-4 charge dangling from it. The air was still filled with dust from the explosion, and the privateers had already managed to raise their guns and point them at Hideki . Some of them even hit him, and he responded in kind. After killing two privateers with his pistol and missing the rest, he released the C-4 from his teeth and jumped forward. Rolling on the ground and hitting the wall of the outpost, Hideki covered his head with his hands. And the privateers didn't even notice that
There was an explosion. At the last moment, Hideki managed to group himself, so his body was not damaged as much as it could have been. But he died, instantly and almost without pain.
Masaru managed to run into the southern building and take cover there. He immediately began to cough from the acrid smell that still lingered from Juan's grenade.
“Holy shit… Hideki…”
Only one yakuza and two privateers remained at the outpost.
Yuri remembered what Aoi had said just this morning. That everything was going quick and easy. With or without the Yarans, they were handling their army duty quite well using their own methods. And now they were being outmatched in their own element.
Koheku and Mitseru were killed by the sniper, and Aoi got a bullet to the shoulder. She was laying on the ground, slowly bleeding out, staring at her leader. Yuri could do nothing to help her - if she poked her head out, the sniper would shoot her immediately.
There was an explosion at the outpost a moment earlier that followed by another. Neither Hideki nor Masaru. Yutaka couldn’t find out what was happening there and not risk being found out from his position near the northern wall of the outpost. Yuri had no idea what the hell had happened there.
“Yuri-san…” whispered Aoi while trying to crawl up to her. For the first time, she addressed her in respectful tone. “We're fucked, aren't we?..”
Then a bullet flew into her throat, and Aoi was finished off. Yuri closed her eyes in frustration and bared her teeth in anger, turning away from Aoi’s dead body. They all here because of me. It’s my fault they have to suffer with death again.
Suddenly someone on the outpost territory started shooting at the tower at the sniper’s position. A dark silhouette rose from the floor on the top platform and hid behind the iron support pillar of the tower. Yuri seized the moment and ran, limping a little from the bullet wound in her leg, to the wall of the outpost. Yutaka followed her actions, entering the outpost through the northern gates. All the sniper's attention was on Yuri - he was trying to shoot her while she was running to the outpost - so Yutaka was able to reach the outpost without trouble.
Masaru, who was still alive, was the one who was shooting at the sniper, taking cover on the first floor of the southern building. The last living privateer, who took cover in the ratio-station building, was unsuccessfully trying to finish off Masaru, shooting at the man when he peaked out the cover to shoot the sniper. He screamed curses at him, mocking him about his fallen fellow, trying to irritate the yakuza, to make the man attack him. But in the end he was able to irritate Yuri instead of Masara, who ran into the building and murdered him.
Yuri, running to Masara's position while he was shooting at the tower, immediately pulled him away from the window and asked:
“Where is Hideki?”
“With the rest of the privateers,” realizing that what did he just said, he added, “Sorry.”
The second explosion. I thought I heard a familiar scream… His scream… Yuri took a deep breath and immediately started coughing. There room was filled with thick fog, witch probably came from a grenade. What did that old geezer add to his "flash" grenade?! This smell… She lost her composure, so she had two options - either to pull herself together or burst into tears.
“You're the only one left!” she cried, addressing the sniper. “You can waste bullets as much as you want! You've lost!”
The sniper didn't answer and continued shooting. His stubbornness was becoming irritating. Although, in this aspect, he was much alike Yuri herself. As if Juan’s talk about “one-man-army” actually held water.
Yuri and Masaru were hiding inside the building, Yutaka was somewhere on the outpost, right under sniper's nose. The sniper had lost sight of them, Waiting for any of them to show up was a waste of time. There were no open targets left, and shooting at random was pointless. Waiting for reinforcements was pointless too. All the privateers were currently aimed at the southern outpost, the sniper thought to himself. Unless they have another Rambo sniper somewhere around. The sniper could have returned to his position by now. But it was hard to tell if that was true because of the darkness of the night.
There was a sound of banging metal. Someone was quickly descending from the radio tower. As soon as a dark silhouette descended to the roof, Yuri took out the radio.
“Yutaka, be ready. Masaru, cover your rears.”
The sniper descended to the first floor of the building, jumping down the stairwell in one leap, ready to plunge his knife into that skinny Asian bitch's throat. He saw her coming from the other end of the outpost with what was left of her people. But he sensed something was wrong. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a red light in the corner of the first floor room.
“Fire!” Yuri shouted the order, and Yutaka, who was sitting next to the window outside the first floor of the radio-station building, launched the entire charge of the Supremo "Exterminador" into the building. A couple of fireworks flew into the sniper, causing them to explode right next to him, the rest flew into the wall and the window on the other side. At the same moment Masaru detonated the C-4. Colorful sparks from the fireworks flew out from the radio tower building.
“Fuck!” screamed Yutaka as he ran away from the building, clutching his ears. His right ear was ringing from the explosions.
When the explosions died down, the building began to burn and crumble. There was no other noise other than sound of wood breaking down and crumbling ruble. Yuri sighed heavily and wiped sweat from her nose, she was about to head to Yutaka, but out of the corner of her ear she heard some rustling coming from the burning building. Yuri stopped and stared at the rubble. There was some movement in the building. He was still alive.
“Masaru, Yutaka, stay away!” she commanded her comrades, and, drawing her machete, headed towards the noise.
The sniper tumbled out of the burning building. Yuri recognized him immediately – it was the same sniper who had been at the southern outpost. He was still alive, but in no condition to fight. Having crawled out from under the burning rubble, he rolled over onto his back and lay on his side. Yuri slowly approached him, expecting him to jump up at any moment. But even when she turned him over with her foot so she could stab him in the heart, he did not resist.
Yuri crouched down and carefully looked at him. She recognized his face – it was in the book Juan gave her earlier. It was Jason Brody. In the photo on his dossier he was but a lad. But now, he without the mask on his face looked older, as if he suffered through more than one circle of hell first hand. He was frowning, but also calm. He was ready to accept defeat.
One realized that in front of them was a human who went through the same shit as the other did in their life.
“You are … a strong warrior, I must admit…” said Yuri.
Jason answered just as succinctly as she did
“…Fuck you…”
After these words, Yuri rose to her feet and plunged machete into his heart.
The battle was over. Two thirds of the valley were under Yarans’ control.