Yuri Kasakov - Outland Marauders

“What the fuck is going on, Yuri?” The six-foot-five tall man walked towards Yuri with anxiety in his voice. His face was stoic as always though, likely because he could no longer display any facial expression due to all the augments he had.

“It seems someone attacked the other warehouse, everyone there is dead. We spotted a person running from the scene and a team is chasing them right now.”

“Everyone is dead?! How many of them are there? We better get ready to evacuate from this shithole.”

“Yes…Most of them were killed in their sleep and we only spotted one of them so far. Our cars are all on standby, but we don’t even have 20 men left now…”

“Idiots! The lot of them! Go recall everyone. We’re packing up and leaving.”

“...We’re just going to let them go?”

“Do I have to repeat myself?”

“No sir, I’ll go call the team back myself,” Yuri said and immediately speed-walked out of the boss’s room.

“That fucker was probably happy now that there were fewer of us to share our latest score with.” A beautiful red-haired woman said from behind him.

“Now is not the time for this, Kat,” At his words, Kat pouted, which he could only ruefully shake his head to.

He used his SAID to place a call to Jarvin, the team leader of the pursuit team, and was answered on the second ring.

“Jarvin, it’s time to leave. Get your men back here double time.”

After a few seconds of waiting, he still got no response, but he knew he was on the line as he could hear heaving and breathing on the other end.

“Hey Jarvin, answer me!”

“...Can’t talk, we’re pinned down, send reinforcements,” The man whispered before the call disconnected.

Damn it, did they get led into a trap?

“Kat darling, I’m going to pick up Jarvin and his team. I need you to stay here to coordinate.”

“What!? I’m coming with you!”

“No, we don’t have any men to spare. I need you here. Don’t worry, I’ll have Roman with me.”

She sighed, “...Fine.”

He walked out of the building and found his brother leaning against his car.

“Roman, let’s go, Jarvin and his boys are calling for help,” Roman nodded back at him before grabbing his shotgun from the trunk and then started following him.

They started heading out of the compound in the direction he had previously sent the team toward.

They headed into the thicket fast, without needing to use any lighting equipment as both of them could see perfectly fine in the dark with their optics.

Occasionally, the two heard shots ring out from the distance, so they had no confusion about the direction they needed to go. Once the gunshot grew louder, the duo readied their weapons, kept low, and moved from cover to cover.

In fifteen minutes, they were close enough to start worrying about friendly fire as the brothers neared the position they were informed of. He called Jarvin again as they inched closer to receive updates on their position.

The two made their way to a small space surrounded by thick trees and a steep hill. They spotted their man peeking out and rushed toward their position.

“What’s the sitch Jarvin? Where’s the rest of your team?” He said as he looked him over along with the only other person with him, a woman who he recalled was called Sandra, someone he had spoken little to.

“We’re the only two left. Someone’s out there hunting us. They keep shooting us from every direction and we can’t find them, so we took cover here.”

He took out a mirror and used it to look around from the safety of cover in response to his warning.

“How long has it been since you were last under fire?” He said as he threw the mirror over to his brother to see if he could find anything that he hadn’t.

“I don’t know… Maybe like 5 minutes ago.”

His brother finished scanning the area and shook his head.

“That means they could’ve been gone by now. We didn’t see anything or get shot at on our way here,” He said as he rose to his full height while he made sure his gun covered the gaps in his armor. Before he could step out, a hand landed on his shoulder.

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“...Or maybe they are waiting for us to get out of cover to start picking us off again,” Jarvin warned.

“Boss wants us out of here ASAP. We don’t have time for this.” He brushed Jarvin’s hand off his shoulder and started jogging back in a zig-zag pattern, just in case there really was someone out there.

Several minutes of jogging later, the group encountered no issues and arrived at the edge of the compound, where he gestured for them to come to a stop.

“Something’s wrong…I don’t see any movement up ahead and they are supposed to be packing up right now.”

He made a call to his boss, but it just kept ringing, with no one answering. He then tried Kat, but got the same result…

“Hey you guys, see if you can reach anyone. The boss ain’t answering.”

A few minutes later, after everyone had tried every number they had, they still couldn’t get hold of anyone.

“This ain’t right man…I knew it! It’s probably some corpos hit squad. They found out after all… I don’t want none of this shit, man,” Jarvin said nervously as he started backing away.

“Come on Jarvin, boss won’t enjoy hearing about you going off with that shit again. Let’s carefully check things out. We still have a huge fortune sitting back in there,” He pleaded, as he wanted as much help as he could get to go save Kat.

“I don’t know, man…” He gave a troubled look over to his partner, Sandra, who simply returned a shrug.

“We’ll be quick. I mean, if you leave and the boss is still kicking, he ain’t going to take kindly to traitors.”

“...Fine, fine. We’re in, let’s go quickly. We needed a car anyway.”

He gave Roman a quick glance, who nodded back.

Guess I don’t have to ask if he is in too.

They moved in a diamond-shaped formation as they had been trained to do, with Yuri at the front.

Seeing how everything was quiet, they opted to go in swiftly as opposed to quietly. They weren’t that good at being quiet, anyway.

The group got close enough to the parking area to make out a few bodies spread around. The cars nearby still had their engines and headlights on, so they had adequate lighting in the area.

Yuri briefly noted who the bodies were once they got close enough, ensuring Kat wasn’t one of them, and led the team toward the boss’s room, which was right next to where the gang had stashed their loot.

Inside the warehouse, it was completely dark beside the flashlight attachments Jarvin and Sandra had on their rifles. Their lights shined on the floor, which showed a few trails of blood but no bodies since they entered the building. It was so quiet he could hear Jarvin swallow nervously as he adjusted the grip on his weapon.

It didn’t take long before the four of them arrived at the shipping container that was the boss’s room. The door was already open, and they saw the figure of a large man who resembled their boss. He sat at his desk with his head planted on the table, face down. It almost seemed like he had fallen asleep at his desk, but the gaping hole at the back of his head told a different story.

They next went to check the room where the loot was stored, but found it still locked. As the second in command, Yuri had a key as well, so he started searching for it in his pack.

Just as he was about to insert the key, the noise of something dropping entered his ears, followed by a few dull thuds. He turned around and saw Sandra, Jarvin’s last remaining team member, sprawled out on the ground while his brother Roman crouched down and fired his shotgun repeatedly into the darkness.

Even with night vision, he couldn’t spot anything in the direction Roman was shooting at.

“Backs against each other now!” Yuri yelled out louder than he intended.

He ran up and brushed his shoulders against his brother’s and covered a different angle. After a moment, he didn’t feel Jarvin in the space they had left for him and looked over in his direction.

“Fuck! I told you this was a bad idea!” Jarvin yelled out before he started running toward the exit.

That goddamn coward.

“Brother, we should get out of here,” Roman whispered to him.

“But what about Kat—”

“She probably already escaped if…the worst hadn’t already happened. We need to stay alive to find her.”

“...Fine.” He gritted his teeth. He knew Roman was right, and he wasn’t thinking straight right now.

The brothers rearranged themselves with their backs against each other and started going for the back exit, but were startled by the sound of automatic gunfire followed by a few explosions coming from the parking lot.

Spying out of a window, they noted a new flaming vehicle by the main entrance of the warehouse.

Deciding it wasn’t worth it to go toward the parking lot, the duo continued toward the back door. Just as they were about halfway there, Yuri unexpectedly felt some pressure punch into his chest and the dull thud that accompanied it.

He could tell from experience that he was shot, but luckily, it didn’t penetrate his body armor. He briskly started scanning for what shot him while laying down suppressing fire to hopefully discourage his attacker from continuing their attack.

He caught a brief glimpse of a shadow just as it ducked back behind a nearby shipping container. His brother, Roman, followed closely behind, but both of them were now pinned down.

The two dashed away in the opposite direction of the enemy while keeping a close watch. Yuri felt bullets hitting body armor once more, but this time, from a completely different direction.

Roman started firing back at their assailant to no avail, as they could only catch glimpses of the enemy before they relocated.

“We can’t stay in here any longer. There’s too much cover in here. Their weapons may be silent, but they can’t penetrate our armor. Run out together now!”

They sprinted back toward the main entrance, and when they were just around the corner, a sudden explosion loudly went off right next to him. It threw him straight onto the ground and left his ears ringing.

He felt his body heat leave him, carried away by the warm liquids flowing out from his wounds.

Fuck, is this the end…?

After what felt like an eternity, the ringing in his head lightened up. He tried to get up, but only made it halfway when he saw a figure standing over him. The figure pointed something blurry in his direction… no; he realized it was his vision that was blurry, and that something pointed at him was obviously a gun.

So I guess this is the end…

He always knew it was coming. He had killed enough to know it would one day be his turn, especially with all the misdeeds he had done.

But he didn’t regret it. You had to do what you needed to survive in this world.

He mustered every bit of air he had left in his lungs and was able to mutter out his last words.

“Do it.”

Then everything faded to black.