It was time to leave Tarkov, for too long Texas, Floridaman, and Moron had stayed in this hell but with their new gig literally having a free ticket out of tarkov if completed they were willing to do whatever it took to get out. They were taking everything out for this, the best gear saved for a rainy day in case shit really hit the fan. Earlier they had gone shopping for the best equipment from the traders using up majority of the money they had, half went to gear while the other half was spent on the keycards required to get in as Moron was a BEAR and Floridaman had lost his during a previous raid. Texas was the lucky one to still have his black key card having been a high ranking USEC during the contract wars and not sold it yet on the flea market. The other 2 members of the group were on board the moment they heard the words "ticket out of Tarkov". They knew what to look for as Texas had already told them the details of the task even though it might be unbelievable finding something that siphons off energy from a separate dimension was at first.
For this mission Texas would be putting on his usual equipment, he wore a Highcom striker standard cut RCH helmet with the add on rail system and high vision mount added on covered by a Rhodesian brush stroke camouflage cover, for his chest armour he put on a highly protective and relatively light Paraclete origin armour carrier with its add on right arm, neck and stomach add on armour. On top he wore 2 tactical rigs both in black, a ANA Tactical Alpha and a London Bridge Trading Load Bearing Chest Rig, the latter being on top of the other. Bellow all his essential gear that is meant to keep him alive was a softshell flexion jacket and Rhodesian brush stroke camouflage pants with kneepads and water proof adjustable gaiters to keep his ankles dry. On him were 4 weapons, his supressed RD-704 and Beneli M3 shotgun with flechette ammo. A FN Five-seven MK2 pistol in a holster by his waist and a Colt python strapped to his chest inside the LBT load bearing chest rig. Parallel to his holstered pistol on his waist is a seath for his Miller Bros. Blades M-2 Tactical Sword in case things got really bad.
In comparison Floridaman was less kitted out, he had a modded out M16A4 that has been illegally tuned to have its 3 round burst changed to full auto (with some help from a Canadian rifle), the zoomer 1911, and a cumbersome yet deadly AXMC .338 LM bolt action sniper rifle kitted out with a range finder and long range scope having a magnification of up to 8x zoom. For protection he wore a Crye Precision CPC plate carrier, only thing was that he found this plate carrier in raid, without any pouches...so on top of said vest was a WARTECH MK3 TV-104 chest rig. On his head sat a Ops-Core FAST SF High Cut helmet with attached side rails, RAC headset, and night vision mount. He wore the famous USEC range master jeans and tier 2 button on black checkered shirt.
Since Moron was a BEAR all his equipment was mostly of Russian origin having a AKS-74U and MP-443 Grach pistol. Interestingly unlike the others who had 2 regular rifles normally, he carried a RPG-7 with 2 frag and 2 HEAT rockets being his previous BEAR squad's dedicated anti armour and structure guy. Before becoming a member of BEAR he was in the Russian VDV hence his blue striped Telnik shirt which he still wore to this day. In comparison his pants were the standard issue BEAR lower base. An ANA M2 armoured rig made up the bulk of his protection serving as a place to store his extensive amounts of 5.45 AK magazines and to match he had a 6B47 Ratnik-BSh helmet with its digital flora camouflage cover on. To complete the look Moron has a ski mask on, the kind scavs and bank robbers alike usually wore. On his back instead of a bag like his 2 USEC comrades he had a bag which was meant for storage of RPG rockets having his kappa pouch crudely attached to a transformer bag sling close at his back bellow the RPG rocket bag for the most essential loot.
"Make your final checks before we move out." Floridaman reminds, everyone makes their last checks making sure no one forgot or did anything wrong in their kits for the simplest of mistakes in combat could lead to death. It wasn't just labs they were gonna be probably fighting in as well, they still had to get there and return which involved trekking through woods and a little bit of interchange then look for a suitable way into the labs which was handsomely located bellow the streets of tarkov. Since Texas was formerly a high ranking USEC he knew how to get into labs plus where all the secret experiments happened which happened to be inside a small little locked room called fittingly black keycard room but no one could know what of the entrances would be available to them. Their best bet would be either through the front door into the lobby or the sewer conduit room if the water level was low enough for them to enter as it involved trekking through the sewer system.
There was only one way to find out, and that was to try, once everyone confirmed their kits were ready the trio began their journey to the labs. Luckily they did not encounter much at the woods by taking a detour around the sawmill since that was Shturman's territory plus not to mention being a prime spot for scav attacks. They went around the wall in interchange going from the railway to the emercom extracts avoiding the mall alltogether since they had no reason to go there. At the streets they made their way to the financial district of tarkov, or the outskirts of it at least. The place was I'm ruins, dozens of factions and gangs plus lone individuals trying to survive constantly wage war for everything under the sun just to survive against the backdrop of building which once stood grand and tall now reduced to battlegrounds.
Nothing was spared say for the tarkov central city hospital and the surrounding area of the hospital kept under safety by therapist and the American consulate under the protection of a joint UN-American peacekeeping force as a base of operations within the streets of tarkov. The labs was supposed to be hidden underneath a hotel, a Marriott hotel, the giant sign displaying the company name still present and lit up, instead of entering the trio went to a sewer manhole on the adjacent sidewalk to the hotel and hauled the heavy metallic off to check the water level. Surprisingly it was low, meaning they could use it to traverse into the labs, one by one they threw their bags down first followed by their bodies for the hole was too small for them with their bags on, it could barely fit the mercenaries with their vests and rigs on in the first place.
The sewage system wasn't functioning properly anymore so the amount of water was low meaning the smell of piss and shit that usually populated a sewer system was not really present. "Thank god the smell is bearable..." All 3 turned on the lights attached to their gun, the water maybe low but it still was very dark, only the grates along the street and sidewalk above let some semblance of illumination into the dark tunnels that was the sewer system.
After several minutes of walking Texas lead his comrades to a mysterious metal gate, there was a new modern keycard reader on the gate in stark contrast to the aged iron bar door. "Moron, give me your card." Texas holds his hand out behind him, the card is placed in the open palm of his hand and he moves to swipe the card onto the reader. The small red light goes green on the reader after the card is swiped allowing for the gate to be pulled open, since the card Moron had was a single use card Texas tosses it to the side, it being a useless rectangle white piece of plastic with some words ascribed onto it now. Walking through the now open barrier, in front of them was a opening, it was a large sudden end to the sewer connecting it to the Terragroups lab. Some sort if room for whatever the lab produced to be dumped away into the sewer system of tarkov, luckily the ledge was short enough for them to vault over using the metal railings as a pusedo ladder of sorts. There were gunshots already being exchanged in the lab up above, not the usual fighting here and there but almost a whole war almost akin to Omaha beach during the allied invasion of Normandy. Cautiously the trio raised their weapons, creeping their way out of the sewage conduit room and into the basememt level proper.
It was a bloodbath, dead scav raiders everywhere lying in pools of blood shot up to kingdom come. Something wasn't right, there were too many dead raiders plus the war above indicated there was more up above. A large gang must have moved into the labs otherwise there would be no other reason for such a large number of them. The 3 mercenaries begin to check the bodies for anything of value, junk that could be useful for it valuables that were...well valuable. "Anything worth?" Texas asked opening up one of the dead bodies day pack and rummaging through the interior.
"No but-" WACK! The dead body Moron was looting suddenly comes alive and socks him right in the face, one of the scav raiders was pretending to be dead. Moron recoils and grabs the man by his collar fighting through the pain of his now bleeding nose and smashes his head right against his hard. The raider falls limo back onto the ground against the wall up right in a daze from the force smashed against his forehead. Blood gushing from one of his nostrils like a waterfall. "Little fuck! Prepare to die bitch!" Moron draws his Grach ready to execute the man for his transgression. "Wait!" Texas pushes down the hand that was holding the pistol and walks up to the raider squatting down to his level. "What happened here?" He asks, in response the raider spits in into the lenses of his aviators. "I'm not telling you glukhar's dogs jack shit!" Everyone looks to each other in confusion at what the man had just so proudly and confidently exclaimed for them all to hear. "Glukhar's dogs?! If I was Glukhar's dog I'm the king of England! Now I won't ask again, what the hell is going on." Texas draws his colt python and presses it against the temple of the raider cocking the hammer back.
"Okay okay! We live here now...or lived here, one of our guys was former USEC but that damn psychopath Glukhar and his army of retards came to steal everything that isn't bolted down! Some fuck naned Ryzhy helped him get all the cards to this place!" Texas puts his revolver back into its holster and extends a hand to the raider intending to pull him up to his feet. The other members begin to protest, why help a raider! Just kill him already! To which Texas quickly gets them to shut up. "We're here for 1 thing only, find that device peacekeeper wants, since Glukhar's up there we need all the help we can get, even if it means having a truce with the raiders." The raider accepts and grabs his hand getting up on his feet. He pulls out a large aged radio from his rig, "this is Akula, I got some mercenaries in basement with me I'm having a truce with."
"Akula?! I thought you were dead! Get the fuck up here there's too many of them!!!" The man on the other end of the radio yells desperately amidst heavy gunfire being exchanged in the background. "This yours?" While Akula was radioing his scav raider friends who were still alive, Texas had picked up a AK-74 with a grenade launcher, he tosses the rifle to him and he catches it by the wooden handguard. "Not mine but Ill pick up a rig from one of my guys." A large explosion from above suddenly shakes the ground, lights flickering from their sockets being rattled by said explosion. "Shit they're using demolitions or some big ass bombs! They might be after what we are." Floridaman exclaims, everyone gets ready their weapons and begins to move up towards the ground floor. There were even more dead bodies but both raider and Glukhar's men near the stairwell that lead to the hallway adjacent to black key card room on the first floor.
There was a firefight in the hallway between the raiders and Glukhar, both side's exchanging vast amounts if gunfire, the raiders being slowly encircled stuck in the southern most hallway. A whole army of Glukhar's men were approaching then from servers, main work area and the hallway the infirmary. Around dozen raiders lay dead or dying in the hallway while there was around 5 left still fighting on. A group of 5 men tried to rush the remaining raiders from servers not realizing that Texas and his group were in the stairwell. The moment they ran by he opened fire with his Beneli M3 shotgun, flechettes ripping armour and flesh alike until none of them were alive. "Run damn it! Run to the black card room!" He switches to his RD-704M and begins blasting the doorway making sure no one can get through. "Come on lads with me!" Floridaman yells leading the other 2 to the black room.
"guys its me!!! Come to us!!!" Akula yells at the top of his lungs to the other raiders still exchanging fire with Glukhar's men in attempt to get then to hear him.
"You heard him! Go. Now!!!" One of the raiders shouts, the 5 of them begin to make their way to the black card room hallway as well running amidst the randomly placed barrels and crates scattered about the hallway using them as cover. 1 raider unfortunately getting blasted in the back by one of Glukhar's guys wielding a MG3 and falling in the heat of battle as they moved. "God damn it Nosorog you fucking snail!!!" The same raider that shouted at everyone to move insulted his teammate one last time with Nosorog bleeding out in the ground groaning one last time. "Moron RPG those fuckers! I'm running over!!!" Unslinging his RPG, Moron takes out one of the fragmentation rockets and slides it into the tube, he cocks the hammer back and leans out of cover aiming down the scope at the general location of Glukhar's men. He fires the rocket and it sends metal fragments everywhere into the main work area causing large amounts of smoke, dust and sparks to fly giving Texas cover to run towards the black key card room dodging gunfire from the 2 other groups behind and infront of him.
He swipes his black keycard into the reader. The electronic lock releases and he kicks the door open. "Go go go!" He yells at everyone to get into the room, Glukhar's men in the work area are all disoriented, some have been severely injured or even dead and were being aided by their comrades, the other 2 groups were pushing down the hallway simultaneously seeing that there was nobody there anymore. Texas pushes each one into the room as fast as they could file into it, his fellow mercenaries first, Akula and then his raiders. "Вставать! Убейте уже этих дураков!!!" A man yells from the main work area walking through the smoke, it was Glukhar himself wielding a ASh-12, with pinpoint accuracy he lasers the last 2 raiders to get into the room narrowly missing Texas as he jumps into the room face first.
Everyone was now in the human experiment viewing room, there was a air lock which lead deeper into this highly secretive room one doorway going left and another one going straight. Once again Texas swipes his card only for the reader to reject it, in frustration he swears at the reader and mags dumps it miraculously severing power to the door and causing the electronic lock to become inert. He swings the door open and goes for the next door straight down opening it to reveal another experimentation room. One of the raiders peers into the human testing area, he spots a LEDX Skin Transilluminator, an incredibly rare device that could go for hundreds of thousands of roubles on the flea market. He had to make a choice, and he went for it, the raider swings the door to the left inside the air lock while everyone else was heading into the room straight ahead. His greed would be responded by Glukhar entering the observation room and killing him dead through the glass.
"Внесите файл!" More of Glukhar's men moved in, one carrying a ballistic shield. "Raiders cover tge door we need to secure something in this room!" Akula and his last remaining raider friend held the door, the trio moved to find what they were here for ransacking everything, they shoved dozens or intelligence folders and documents into their bags, blueprints were torn off walls, files from bookcases. In the end of this secret disheveled office room to wires which in turn were connected to power outlets was the machine from the folder Texas had found, it sat untouched on a reinforced metal table. It was somewhat large being able to fit in a large backpack, Floridaman's was big enough so he began to untangle and pull out the wires connecting it to the wall.
"Hey Akula, I'm gonna try peaking out, I should be able to get them since I have some good bullets..." The raider mentions to Akula showing him his AK-74M Zenitco which had a high capacity drum magazine, surely a weapon like this could rip through the highly concentrated and packed men.
"You kidding me?! Its a left hand peek your gonna die!!!" Akula points out there fatl flaw in his plan, by peeking out from the left he would be exposing much of his body.
"Only one way to try!" He peeks out and only gets in less than 10 bullets in his magazine before getting shot in the head and dropping dead. Akula swears and takes his AK proceeding to blind fire it exposing as little of his body as possible albeit inaccurately, still he hitsthe tightly packed men, the guy carrying the shield falls to the ground having been hit in the leg. Only when the drum magazine ran dry did Akula stop to take cover and reload. Glukhar, seemingly having had enough charges into the room. Caught off guard Akula still in the middle of reloading his weapon punches him in the face dropping the drum to the floor. In response he lunges at Akula throwing them both to the floor wrestling for control or a chance to grab their sidearms. Several men start marching into the room attempting to help their boss but the trio of mercenaries have turned their attention to the door killing anyone who tried to run through.
Akula and Glukhar roll around the room, chairs, furniture and tables all he overturned. Both of them trade blows punching, kicking, slapping, anything that could give them the upper hand. At on point Glukhar gains the upper hand and throws Akula into exactly where the device was, it falls to the ground with a loud crash, pieces falling out of place and scattering on the floor. "DAMN IT!!!" Floridaman shouts, breathing heavily Glukhar reaches for his pistol but Texas comes up behind and shoots 2 shots into his knees with his colt python in quick succession. He groans in pain being forced on his knees, Texas then shoots him in the head blowing a good chunk of it off, brain matter painting the area around his head sticking itself to Texas, the floor, ceiling and wall. The scav boss known as Glukhar is dead.
"No...no no no no!" He sees the device on the floor clearly damaged and runs to it. He picks it up and checks it staring at the broken pieces. "What do we do?!" Moron screamed turning at Texas and Floridaman while still holding the doorway. Akula gets up from the shock of being thrown against the wall picking his raider friend's rifle off the ground. More men can be heard running to the black keycard room thinking their leader was still alive, some were also preparing their extract. In one of the rooms containing an array of electrical switches to turn on a myriad of different systems or vice versa one of Glukhar's men stood. With a radio in one hand and his shotgun slung over his back he looks up and down inspecting the board of switches and buttons.
"Давай, Плутон, дай мне чертову инструкцию, хоть раз ясную!" He shouted into the radio, frustration clearly building up in the back of his mind.
"Ладно, ладно, это должен быть рычаг с надписью «Грузовой лифт»." The man on the otherside known as Pluton responds. He quickly locates the label called cargo elevator, only problem was that there was 2 of them.
"Какого хера ты говоришь, там 2 рычага!!! Ради бога, какой именно?!"
"Просто потяните оба!" In quick succession he pus both levers, the orange lights beside them come to life indicating power has been established. Texas was still trying to see if the device was still salvageable when it suddenly turns on, lights begin to activate, the machine violently shakes out of his grasp, strange crude yet futuristic noises were emitted from it. "What the hell...?" Was the last thing when a blinding bright lime green light filled the room blinding the 4 of them in the process. Something had gone horribly wrong.