[color=lightgreen][center][h3][i][b]Day 2: 05:37:52 Somewhere near Novy Jork Krumov Province, Republic of Polavia [/b][/i][/h3][/center][/color] [quote] Rowan handed the rangefinder back to Oksana. “I don’t think I can use this. It makes me queasy to even hold it. It will break the concentration I need to cast. Best you use it.” [/quote] Roxie took the rangefinder back in hand, nodding to Rowan. "Only if you're sure. Let me know if you need it, it will make entry into buildings a lot easier." She simply replied, sitting adjacent, looking on, peeling a cigarette from her pouch, offering one to Rowan before lighting up herself, taking a strong suck before exhaling smoke. "You are strong, Rowan. A good person in a field of bad rye. You will need it to stay strong in Polavia." Oksana said with a strongly Slavic accent, holding Rowan's hand tight, watching alongside her as Felix did his thing. -- [quote] Rowan looked over at Felix with an angry glare. Rowan: “I appreciate you coming back to help me Felix. But what the fuck was that glare for? I had already told you what I knew! It is not my fault everyone seems to think I know about something that they want!” [/quote] Felix got angry back at Rowan. "Because I wanted you to get the fuck out of there!" He exasperated, sighing, sitting down. "Because, I didn't want you to die. Alright? And I didn't think I'd make it given the size of the bullet in my neck, so I wanted one last look at you. Not when the only person that could have saved me was Silas and I was hurt in both forms. I've lost enough people lately. And whatever they want, it seems serious enough you shouldn't have gone through that. Manticore could be linked. I couldn't say the words I wanted to without dropping dead." He added, shaking his head. "Whatever they want you for, they clearly want to kill a lot of people over. But I have a feeling a lot more people are gonna die if we don't." Felix added, sitting down, the train clattering at a points, while Oksana and Borys chatted, Felix and Rowan were apart. "I'm sorry, Rowan. That was.....a bit much. But I wish I could help more. Like, I want to escape this too. I want to see my daughter again. Even my ex-wife. I don't want to be here. But I think we're in over our heads. So I apologise, if I can't get you all the answers you want. But you weren't dying on my watch. Not when I thought there were more of them coming." Felix added, shaking his head, checking over his mag on his 417, looking as Oksana stood up. "Calm it, you two. Both of you got the fuck out of your situations. Nothing makes sense right now, not the least the PSA even exist. Felix, what's our sit rep, when we hit Novy Jork? We look ready for war. We're not going to get a B-Uber (yes, said in the same way as the animal named in the Bober Meme) and roll into the Grand Polavian Hotel looking like we're about to topple a democracy." Oksana asked, "Apart from maybe getting a new team leader. But, Borys is pissed, I've got a ketamine problem, Silas is our medic, Rowan's...." She thought to herself, actually contemplating it. "She is probably a decent shot at it? Yeah, I think so too. You'd benefit if I was less lion. Luckily, I don't feel like turning back. Not after breakfast." Felix joked back, as Oksana sat down next to him, looking out of the window at the countryside, as Felix looked back up. "Literally, not metaphorically." He added, as Oksana sighed at that awful pun. "Add it to my list of bad ideas. Anyway, plan?" "Ideally, we ditch, this train, find some civilian clothes. And find Pavel." -- [quote] He shuffled over to the open side door, the cold wind helping him wake up. “Your dreams are bullshit, you know that?” He uttered in Oksana’s direction between sips of cold cabbage soup from babushka’s care package without any trace of the dream’s fury, “Seriously, who has invasive nightmares?” [/quote] Oksana turned to Borys, chuckling, shaking her head, putting a bottle of water into his hand. "It's called being a seer, darling. In the same way...." She poked hard at his skin with a nail, "You seem to rely on being an alcoholic to be invulnerable, the universe decides if I'm gonna see the future, I'm never gonna stop." Oksana sighed, shaking her head, looking out of the train car, looking back. "A gift and a curse. You saw one dream. I live with it all the time." She almost said philosophically and in a sorrow, knowing that Borys might be too pissed to understand that she never stopped having these dreams. They tied others in, sure, but they always played back for her irrespective of if it did or didn't. "If I end up in one of yours and found out you were beaten as a child, would that help me understand why you're so fucked up?" Oksana dryly joked with him, sitting alongside as they watched the world go by outside. [hr] [color=lightgreen][center][h3][i][b]Day 2: 06:10:21 Somewhere in Novy Jork Capital Province, Republic of Polavia [/b][/i][/h3][/center][/color] [img]https://aws-tiqets-cdn.imgix.net/images/content/911efca7a9004fdab82625f5de0f46a9.jpeg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&q=70[/img] As the train slowed to a crawl, Novy Jork's skyline could be visible beyond the crack in the cattle truck. Clothing had been secured, and carried on packs. But they weren't in the city centre. They were further, on a hillside overlooking it, the train not even in a big cargo yard. It was rolling into a railhead. A stop. And the gigantic red brick and concrete buildings that were outside, alongside the magnificent brickwork and fencing meant they were inside a very prestigious place indeed. This train was delivering something back to a factory, of some kind, rather than just stopping in a major cargo terminal. It was delivering empty vodka bottles. Well, not all. But mostly. And it was like the kitten inside Felix's brain had jumped on the wheel and ran fast enough to load a thought. "Polavian Standard" was the final giveaway, in a brutalist neon sign on the side of the building. "Oh, fuck no." Felix said, as Oksana broke into laughter, shoving Borys with a gentle nudge. "Haha, time to find out how much this man's craft can take! You literally took Polavia's number one drunk to the Polavian Standard factory! Let's fucking go!" Oksana actually broke from being usually dour and upset, to not even being able to see this outcome. This was comedy gold. This was fucking brilliant, and if they weren't all geared up to the teeth. The factory complex was sprawling, a distillery, bottling plant and all of Polavian Standard's marketing teams all under one massive roof. At 6am, there were unlikely to be civies. But still, Felix was careful, knowing they were wanted and geared to the gills. "Well, we'll have no trouble finding booze for Borys then. We need to get the hell out of here though. I think we're too early for the tour." He added, making as best of a tactical assessment as he could before they would get off here. And get out they did before it finally rolled into the far end of the massive yard full of containers likely full of vodka ready for export. Hopping off the train, Felix led the group, as the birdsong chirped, the road noise significantly louder beyond the brick walls of the factory. He was looking for exits, easy ways out. The gates were locked, and covered in barbed wire, making an escape near impossible there. But once the train rolled past, Felix realised they were even more screwed. A lot of Mercedes, BMWs and Audis were parked up in the main parking area, in a scattered, jumbled up way. This was an intercept. Of the team, or the factory? Moving from point to point, Felix ushered for Oksana to move forwards, and she did so, moving from a shipping container to behind a concrete post, peering around. "So, they found what train we were on and are meeting us here, or, we stumbled into the PSA seizing the means of vodka. That's terrifying. Rowan, if you said they were interested in Manticore, they have started beating up train people to get to you. That is impressive by Polavian standards. Don't worry. We'll get our answers." Oksana teased Rowan once more before going serious again, drawing her rangefinder and looking on at the group of them, scattering around. They were speaking to a foreman, threatening them, which made Oksana twitch a little. "What are they saying, Roxie?" Felix asked, as she looked on, watching as the PSA militants moved forwards, most of them basically thugs in Adidas at this point, but a few of them in old tattered uniforms. The car park for factory workers was empty "They're a protection racket. Gangsters and PSA. They didn't mention us. But they're here for something. Most senior guy is that warlock looking dude in the Adidas." Oksana replied, as she put her rangefinder down, slinging the SVU back into hand. "We can make a risky play to run out. But between us and those gates, there's a car park with zero cover. Even if I Copy Cat us, at least one of us is getting shot when shit starts. No cars either." Felix started, looking across from where they were, in a loading bay where the trucks full of vodka were loaded, or in some cases, containers at a railhead. The train driver had left and exited through an unknown gate, not that Felix wanted to tell him they'd snuck in on one of his carriages and not paid a fare. "But we could sneak through the building. That's the bottling plant there, then the distillery on the left of it. Gotta be an exit there if these goons hassle security." Felix added, as Oksana looked to him as if he was insane. Again. "You want us to go right where a group of PSA are having a factory tour of the nation's best vodka manufacturer?" Oksana couldn't believe this shit sometimes, pulling the vine into hand, showing Felix, as he shook his head. "Can you forsee any situation working out well where we run that way, towards zero cover? Even if you snipe them, there's at least a dozen more that'll react to the bullets. Without cover, we'll be fucked." Felix retorted, pointing to the field of concrete that she had to admit, by the second, was looking unappealing. Another option of heading to the exit over the wall was tempting. She didn't give Felix an answer. The Team Lead actually had made a point that proved he wasn't completely high. "What about throwing my vine on the wall? How about the other way, I throw up this vine, we clamber over the barbed wire? It grows lots when I throw it at stuff. Might hold even your fucking weight." She chirped, as even the Team Lead had to admit, that was a point. It would have been useful to know that earlier. The green hoodie wearing, brown-red haired operator adjusted his stubby hat and nodded to her. About to move on that idea instead. "It's a valid argument." Felix added, turning his head around the container, seeing a few more militants come their way. And then a bigger group. "Wait, shit, they're inspecting the train. No chance. Only way is through there unless you want to frag a lot of them and make noise. We'll need to punch out. With any luck, we can hide it out until they leave." Back to the original plan. "Shit. Okay. Point taken. Polavian Standard getting extorted by the PSA was not on my list. You don't need to put a psychoactive drug into vodka, blyat. It IS, the psychoactive drug." Oksana commented, getting a chuckle from Felix. "It must be some serious shit. Maybe they haven't got their hands on it. And they need a distributor when they do. Which means...." Felix's gears turned some more as the kitten ran inside his brain even more. Oksana had made him realise just what the hell was going on. Manticore, drugs, vodka. In Polavia. Fuck! Oksana beat him to saying it. "Well, that's why they're here. Still feels like we're missing something entirely. Why package it up, if they haven't got hold of it? It'll get found out within the first batch. Fuck knows what they want to do with it." Oksana replied, as Felix cut that line of thought out for now. If they didn't leave, they wouldn't get to think about this anymore. The PSA militants were milling about, clearly wondering if this was the train that had the team inside it. So no way back to the train, as they hid, out of view behind containers and industrial equipment, forklifts and such. Felix on that note, made a command to the team, realising they should probably not sit and wait. "Team, let's get moving. Move from cover to cover. Rowan, I need you to work on tech, start casting on any CCTV you see and zap it out. Borys, keep point. We'll push through the loading bay and their warehouses, move into the bottling plant. See if you can break inside, and we'll follow on you. Silas, back up Borys, both of you need to break in. Oksana, keep guard on rear." Felix called out through the comms, with it raising his rifle and peeking the corner, giving a move command to Borys, and with it, crossing the concrete pad past The team would move forwards, but watching them, a certain DSR ex-spook would have them in sights. The team would head inside, into the loading bay where vodka in massive crates sat ready to be loaded, and into the warehouse, where Borys, no doubt, was about to discover the greatest piss up in a distillery could still be on. The PSA militants hadn't made it in yet, so the team were moving at their own pace. The factory complex was arguably, the most industrial, grimy part of it. But there was a glass fronted visitor centre, with offices that would be on the far side of where the team were, and the complex, despite most things in Polavia being dirty, seemed to be oddly the one part that felt invested in. Gone was the backward villages and dirt and mud. This, for some strange reason, felt actually like someone had money to spend. But a monopoly on vodka to the west for decades, and their own people had made for one hell of a business....