Chapter 4: The Scorpion
Krasnorussia, 2025. Captain (formerly Lieutenant) Nicolette “the Scorpion” Blanchfleur strode into the test chamber together with her men. The former French Foreign Legionnaire was excited as ever, but she did not show it. She was steely eyed as she looked up towards the control tower, where Dr. Voronov watched over them.
“All right, captain – this should only take a minute. Just jump into the worm hole generator on my –“
“Oui, oui, oui, on n’est va! “
“Right… ah… stand by. The wind will be quite unsettling.”
Voronov covered the PA mic with his hand and slapped his forehead.
“They’re all gonna die!” he groaned.
The generator turned on, and the familiar black hole appeared in the middle of the machine.
“One moment, captain. I’ll have to set the correct place coordinates.” Voronov said, glancing into the chamber. But then he realized something.
“Captain? Captain Blanchfleur? Where’d you go?” the Chinese strike team – most probably on the Scorpion’s orders – had already jumped into the wormhole.
“Monkey shit.” swore Voronov, “Well, at least the date’s correct – but the location’s in Hokkaido, Japan. Well – this is no fault of mine! I tried to warn them!” He put his hands on his head, “Gee – hope they brought the beacon.”
Now, this “beacon” Voronov was talking about was a locator beacon that was supposed to transmit its exact coordinates to the wormhole generator computer back in 2025. Doing this would give Voronov the ability to bring back the team the same way they brought back Gen. Sobakov about a month ago – except that Gen. Sobakov’s delivery was a stroke of dumb luck.
Hokkaido Island, 1750. Captain Blanchfleur and her team fell violently into a soft patch of Japanese ferns, causing their weapons and equipment to fall out of their hands and onto the ground. These were Russian and German weapons – durable firearms, nothing to worry about there. But that thundering beat of galloping horses in the background and the near zero visibility in the darkness of the night – that was probably something to worry about.
Nicolette quickly got to her feet and grabbed her H & K MP5N submachine gun, while shouting to her men,
“Okay, gentlemen – grab your weapons and take cover behind anything that you can find! We’ve potential hostiles coming this way!”
The men sprung up, grabbed their weapons and positioned themselves behind some rocks; then they came – easily about two hundred samurai warriors on horseback, wielding their swords with their dark horses foaming at their mouths. The samurai’s masks were terrible to behold, some with gnashing teeth on ebony and others with demon-like features. It was a frightening sight altogether.
But this did not frighten the elite squad of international mercenaries hidden behind the forest rocks – especially when their squad leader enjoyed a good challenge.
Suddenly, an arrow struck one of the rocks which an African soldier was hiding behind. The man, in response, cocked his weapon – an XM1014 shotgun – and rose behind the boulder, only to be greeted by another arrow to the heart.
“Squad! Defensive positions! Fire at will!” shouted the Scorpion.
The sound of a dozen guns rapidly firing as one could be heard throughout the dense forest, but this did not frighten the samurai even the least bit – the madmen continued to charge; even though many of their number were hit and many more dead, they continued to charge; even though their horses were falling to the ground like flies, they continued to charge.
Suddenly one leapt from the saddle of his horse and landed like a bird of prey behind the rocks where they were hiding. In the confusion, a couple of the mercenaries ended up shooting themselves as the samurai landed in between them. Nicolette put a fresh magazine into her submachine gun and faced the samurai – who raised his sword at her, ready to bring it down – but he hesitated.
“Nandesuka?” said the warrior.
“Shruiken… Nobunaga Shruiken…” said Nicolette, eyes narrowed and smiling slightly.
The samurai halted their charge, and Nicolette’s men held their fire. The two stared at each other and lowered their weapons. Nicolette let out a “tch.” before saying that Shruiken was an idiot for attacking her with a force that would be wiped out by automatic weapons. Shruiken retorted that the Scorpion was the dumb one for attacking a samurai who was just practicing his target shooting.
Neither laughed, but the Frenchwoman managed a smile. It was no occasion for humor – several samurai lay dead on the forest floor, along with a number of mercenaries.
“I will pay for your loss myself after I get what I came here for.” said the Scorpion, wiping her nose.
“As will I, after I acquire what I seek.” replied Shruiken, tapping his hands on the hilt of his sword.
The two stared at each other in a kind of uneasy silence.
Meanwhile, the Peregrine was just off the coast of Hokkaido, and Admiral Rodion was observing the remnant of his privateer fleet through a spyglass. There were five ships in total – the others had probably been sunk. There were 2 galleons, 2 schooners, and a man-of-war, all tied up at the dock; their crews were being held in bamboo cages on the beach. Rodion remembered that these were the five best ships in his fleet – the Volk, the Medved, the Orel, the St. Dmitri, and the Czarinaevitch, respectively. It was a crying shame to see their crews being humiliated like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment