Chapter CXXI: Rocket Surgery Rescue

 Dimuha was seething. His exoskeleton-powered hand was holding what seemed like a mercenary by the throat, while the other hand held his Desert Eagle, aimed at another, dazed mercenary on the floor. Dimuha himself was disoriented, the second they had entered X-9 a squad of burers had attacked them. Valik and Leva both bore the brunt of their attack, Valik cracked a few ribs at the blows from their telekinetic shock attacks and Leva lost conciousness after a bucket struck him in the head with force. Rest of the squad expended a great deal of ammunition and the rest of their explosives on the mutants.

And then the merc duo appeared, sneaking in as if they had hid in the back while the battle happened. Worry for his injured friends and confusion at the mutants soon turned into rage when Dimuha realized that the mutants were probably released by those two mercs. He and Psoglav managed to ambush the mercs, and now Dimuha was hellbent on getting an answer out of the two.

• Who are you? Working for the Syndicate? Freelancers? Are you planning to keep Redemption weak or do you have a bounty on one of us? Answer, suka, or I blow your friends head off!, Dimuha shouted at the merc in a pathfinder suit, dangling in the air fruitlessly.

• Fuc... Let me breat... We're not here... on a bounty... We're gathering intel..., the mercenary managed to cough out, and Dimuha realized that perhaps he would get better answers by not crushing the man's throat.

Dimuha dropped the mercenary to the ground and watched him struggle with the screen helmet, managing to take it off and gasping for air. He was in his 20s, with plain brown hair and recently broken nose, his face weary and dirty, with certain characteristics that reminded Dimuha of Balkans. The mercenary looked up to him with fury in his eyes.

• Duty mongrel! You won't get shit out of me, he shouted, but his voice was drowned out as Dimuha's pistol spoke and cracked the concrete next to the merc's knee.

• Shut up. If you continue that little defiance routine, I will shoot both your kneecaps and leave you for the tushkanos. And I'm not Duty, you think a Dutyer would get this far north with all the dogs in the way? No, I'm leader of Redemption. And we're saving our boss, no matter how many bounty squads Bitchman sends after us, Dimuha growled.

• But... We're not after you. We're exploring the lab, we came from X-7. I don't give a shit about your faction, I'm here to get the documents and get out.

• Commander, time is running out. We need to get out of this lab before Monolith gets inside, Psoglav spoke out, and Dimuha nodded but continued nonetheless:

• Explain the burer episode then, merc. Why did you release the fucking things on us the second we stepped into this hellhole?, Dimuha interrogated.

• We had no idea that all the things would be released, we were trying to get a key from one of the cells where a Monolith trooper had died.

Dimuha ordered Toha to check it out, and the sharpshooter climbed over the pile of burer corpses to check the cages. Minute later he came back, holding a large key in his hand. Dimuha nodded and looked back at the mercs.

• Seems like you'll keep your lives then. I suggest you accompany us out of here, we have a way out of here that does not involve going out into the Pripyat and facing more Monolith than at the CNPP during rock humping day.

• Chyort... I guess we have no choice then. I'm Dimka... uh, Pathfinder, and that guy there is Sevka, uh, Monocle, just in case we survive to the point where you need to call us more than "mercs". Where the hell are you guys going anyway?, the merc explained, but Dimuha did note the pauses between their names and callsigns with a bit of suspicion.

• Generators. Ever heard of a mean-looking place up north that creates emissions and did the whole Third Emission when overloaded? Yup, there. If I were you, I'd seriously reconsider my life choices.

• What... Why go there?, Dimnka asked, but an explosion coming from upstairs followed by gunfire and shouts prompted Dimuha to gesture him for silence.

Psoglav immediately took the lead, and Dr. Zakarov joined the men moving towards the teleporter. He gave a confused look towards Dimuha when he noticed the mercs, but the Redemption regent simply shrugged and gave a placative movement of hand that said "not now". Psoglav seemed to know the place like the back of his hand, and soon the squad found themselves facing the stairway up to the teleport complex. The others went ahead, but Dimuha waited a minute more. His wait came to an end as Valik and Leva limped into the chamber, followed by Vova keeping his weapon pointed at the door. Stepukha and Reefer followed last and took positions at the foot of the stairs. Dimuha nodded to his men and Stepukha explained that a squad of Monolith elites had broken in.

• You two hold this ground, we'll get the wormhole up and running and fetch you, Dimuha barked his order and ran upstairs to see what was going on.

Psoglav was typing into some sort of a console quickly, and Zakarov was working another computer a bit further away. Vova and Toha were quickly patching up Leva, who still had a bleeding wound in his head from the bucket. Valik was dulling his aching body with a rather primitive method, gulping up a bottle of vodka. Between the bandaging, Vova did comment to him that the painkillers he'd given to Valik would not go well with alcohol but Valik seemed to be more concerned with getting into an acceptable combat state. Knowing the liver on that man, Dimuha simply brushed Vova's comments aside as well. The two mercs were staring at the facility in bewilderment, and Dimuha had to agree that it was quite the wonder to behold.

They were actually standing in an elevated position from the teleport, in a round room. There was a windom running all the way around the upper room and the teleport room, giving full view into the machinery below. The device reminded Dimuha of the Generators area they were planning to go to, with four spherical miniature generators in a circle. Otherwise the room was rather empty, with some wires going into the machines and some small computer screens near the generator-like things. Psoglav shouted that the machine was unlocked, and told Zakarov to punch in the coordinates.

• Affirmative! Dimuha, get Stepukha and Reefer out of there, there is no time to waste!, the researcher yelled.

• Roger! You, mercs, on me, Dimuha ordered and the mercs, despite their confusion, followed.

Downstairs was a warzone. Stepukha was laying down fire with his RPK, while Reefer fired his TOZ in support. Monolith warriors poured into the large room, but the stairway gave Redemption defenders the edge. Dimuha did note that many of the Monolith forces were elites in Nosorogs and Exoskeletons. He grabbed Stepukha and Reefer by the shoulder and ordered them to fall back while he and the mercs opened fire. Dimuha held his ground to give his men time to retreat, but the Monolith attack was relentless. There were some Sin troops among them as well, easily distinguishable from the white-and-grey suit Monoliths. Zakarov's voice came from the upstairs, calling Dimuha to make it in there on the double.

• Mercs, move! I'll buy us some time, the Redemption leader shouted and the two soldiers of fortune retreated.

Dimuha dropped a VOG grenade into the breech of his Groza and took aim, waiting for the next zealot to show his ugly face. A Nosorog-clad Preacher stepped into the room through the thick smoke cloud, holding a MG-36 machine gun. The grenade left Dimuha's rifle and spun across the air, striking the cultist in the middle of the chest, exploding and tearing the armour to shreds in seconds. Dimuha did not linger around to see this all, he was already sprinting up the stairs. The teleport room almost stopped him on his tracks, as the sight was breathtaking. A swirling cloud of energy bending air in the middle of the generator ring. A gateway, not from this physical realm. A way into the Noosphere.

• Well, what are you ogling it up there for? Get in and let's get out of this horrifying place, Zakarov commanded from the last floor.

Dimuha struck the window with his exo-clad fist and broke the glass, jumping down into the lower platform, the fall neutralized by the servos and skeletal structure of his suit. The engine on his back hissed as Dimuha rose to his full height again, prompting a very disapproving frown from the scientist.

• Stop showing off and hop into the teleport, Zakarov muttered.

• You're just jealous of my suit, Dimuha smirked but did step into the portal.

The wormhole sucked the Redemption leader and ecologist scientist into itself, and in mere seconds the teleport spat them out, face first into the cold concrete of the War Lab. Darkness encircled them from all sides, but they were alive. The War Lab had hardly changed from their latest journey here, the halls just as empty as before. But moving inside was impossible, the spatial anomaly surrounding the facility kept pushing them back if they tried to move. Dimuha turned on his flashlight and the others did the same. It was an odd feeling, as if the entire facility was frozen in time, with only air being allowed to move in between the spaces. The mercenaries that had ended on this whole trip by accident seemed the most confused. Dimka, the one in a pathfinder suit, looked at Dimuha and asked furiously:

• What did you idiots get us entangled into? What is this place?

• Welcome to the War Lab. Last time we were here, Redemption beat up Sin so bad that they pulled a dirty move and transformed all the surroundings of the facility into a space anomaly. Doctor, care to explain the science behind this?, Dimuha asked of Zakarov, and the scientist coughed before explaining.

• Indeed, we were dropped into the spatial anomaly by the teleport machine, but I do not think we are in the eye of the storm as they say. Space anomalies can appear as a space outside of the material form, as a sort of pocket dimension, or they can work as invisible barriers that bar entry into some areas or even transport you a few metres away. I believe there is a sort of pocket dimension here that keeps Boris and his squad trapped in, but that we, in turn, are trapped inside the barrier type of anomaly. Either way, the Perun device should work on this.

• So wait. You did all this just to save a squad of men? According to my PDA, we have gone beyond the power plant, into some uncharted territory. Who are those guys?, Sevka asked in bemusement.

• Ever heard of Boris Unforgiven?, Valik said with a grin.

• The guy who shut down the Scorcher?, Dimka replied with a question himself.

• The one and only. Well, outside of Strelok. He's our boss, and we need him back, Dimuha is too bossy, Toha commented too.

• Hey! Continue that and you'll learn my knuckle's formation quite well, Dimuha protested.

• Gentlemen, if you could stop your bickering for a second, I need a moment of peace to operate the device. This is quite difficult..., Zakarov interrupted and begun to press buttons on the machine that looked like a Frankenstein's monster amalgamation of the Svarog detector and Anomalous Measurement Device.

• So it's like brain surgery?, Valik asked.

• You could use that, Valik. I bet it's closer to rocket science, Stepukha joked.

• Rocket surgery?, Reefer asked in an amused tone and even the mercenaries chuckled at that.

• Hmm, seems like it is working now. Everyone, make sure you're holding on to your stuff, I have no idea what will happen when I activate the machine, Zakarov warned.

• What do you mean you don't know..., Dimuha begun but a bright, almost blinding light interrupted him.

The flash of light begun as a glow in the dark, but soon erupted into all-encompassing whiteness that spread across the entire hallway they were standing on. The Perun device that Zakarov was holding hurred and buzzed like it had been turned into overdrive, and finally let out a high-pitched wail as the glow of light became so bright the men had to close their eyes and face away. Sitting slumped, away from the source of the light, Dimuha could see his hands through his eyelids, so bright was the flash that came. It lit up the room like a nuclear explosion, and in a millisecond, it was gone. Minutes passed as the men breathed in and out, unable to comprehend what had just happened. And then, slowly, they rose to their feet.

And there, in the cone of their flashlights, five men rose up to their feet as well. Boris Unforgiven, Dima Lord, Sanyok Grad, Vityukha Flop and Captain Orlov, the survivors of War Lab and space anomaly, stumbled to standing position, tears welling up in their eyes from relief. They had survived. After a month of sitting in the void, hanging on to any shred of sanity they had left, they had made it, all thanks to the perseverance of Redemption and its allies. Dimuha broke the silence first, saying a single sentence in a casual tone:

• Well, you guys now owe me a truckload of Stolichnaya for this!