//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: Riot Act // Story: Metro: Retribution // by RF and AG //------------------------------// This is it, hopefully my final showdown with Korbut. His actions and decisions haunted me in the Metro, now I get to repay him for everything that he has done. It ends now, and I will finally get revenge for the deaths of my friends. Riot Act Perspective: Artyom         The entire trench was so small I could barely crouch upon entering, so I had to crawl on my stomach in order to make any progress. Shining wasn’t any better I don’t think, but I didn’t turn around and check, instead preparing myself for the obvious encounter that was going to happen. Mental readiness, in my opinion, was the most important aspect of living and fighting in the Metro and in life. If you were not ready to do whatever it takes to keep yourself from death, then what use are you in a fight? Yet at the same time you have to accept that there is the very real possibility that you might die within seconds of a firefight. The nerves it takes to balance such ideas is what makes or break a soldier … Rangers never lack the nerve. We had crawled a good fifty meters before the next grate came into view. Upon seeing it, I realised a possible error in my plan. How was I going to move the grate out of the way if there was only screws on the outside? Thankfully, I realised I had a quick solution: aka Scowly. “Grate ahead, can you undo screws?” I asked in a hushed whisper. “Should be able to, just need to be close enough,” he replied. I smirked under my mask, silently thanking god that he couldn’t see my face. I didn’t want him to know that his magic was useful; that would boost his ego too much. The moment I reached the grate, I rolled myself over so that I was looking up at it, keeping my VSV pointed upwards just for good measure. Shining nudged his way forward a little more before the purple pink glow of his horn lit up the tunnel. I forced myself to keep my breath slow and shallow so that I wouldn’t act erratically if something happened. The whole thing felt painfully slow, as though Shining was taking his time, but he and I both knew that there was no time to play games. Perhaps it was tougher than I thought? I honestly didn’t know, but nevertheless I said nothing and kept myself ready for whatever was going to happen. “I got the screws, should I move the grate?” Shining whispered in a voice that barely made it to me despite being only a meter or so away. “On my count,” I replied back before holding up my left hand, three fingers standing up. I paused for a second before systematically lowering the three fingers, in a mock countdown. The moment the last finger was down, the grate was encased in his magic before being ever so slowly lifted off and moved to the side. I didn’t even wait for it to fully clear the hole before popping my head up just enough to survey the room briefly. It was a deadly risk but one I had to take. Around me there were a bunch of machines that looked somewhat close to ones I had seen in the abandoned factories on the surface, but I wasn’t certain. It seemed like we had picked a perfect area to come up as there was only one ‘entrance’ way to our position. Three of the large machines boxed out the grating, with only one way remaining open. There wasn’t a single Red Line soldier in sight, so I slowly climbed out of the tunnel, making sure to keep low just in case there was a soldier walking on one of the catwalks above. I didn’t focus on Shining getting out of the tunnel, instead opting to scan my vision around and attempt to peer in what few cracks there were between the machinery. I couldn’t see too much, but I did manage to sneak a glance of a Red Line soldier up in what looked like a room connected to the catwalks. I wasn’t completely sure of what I saw since it was a fleeting glance and only partial, but nonetheless it confirmed that there was at least a Red Line soldier here. What I needed to find was some place to plant this charge and ensure our distraction. Shining closed the grate behind him, as I proceeded to move to the edge of our little closed off area. I peered around the edges of the machines. There wasn’t a patrol in sight, so I decided to move down the way to my right, distancing myself from the room where that guard might have been. We were only a few steps down the hallway when I caught a whiff of something. Something absolutely perfect for our operation. “What is it?” Shining whispered from directly behind me. “Gunpowder,” I replied, my mask concealing my huge grin. Shining looked confused at first but eventually he must have reasoned it out, since his eyes widened drastically. “The gryphons were making guns?!” he hissed back at me. I simply shrugged my shoulders before placing a finger over where my mouth was, telling him to keep quiet.  We moved down the rows of machines, peaking into any gaps to see if there were guards, yet not a single soul in the facility. That worked perfectly for me. Eventually I took a right turn, still following the distinct smell of gunpowder. The smell itself was that of someone lighting a little bit to check its purity, or whatever reason someone would light gunpowder. A few steps down the new path showed me my objective. There, in the middle of the factory, was a silo that had black powder at its base. In front of it were two Red Line soldiers, inspecting the powder as well as a machine that was next to it. Perfect, they didn’t even know I was there. I didn’t give them a second to even look around as I popped off two quick shots, catching one in the back of the head and the other in the side of the head, instantly killing them. The bodies crumpled rather quietly, ensuring that my actions were not heard. We made our way slowly to the bodies and the silo of gunpowder. I quickly scavenged the bodies for anything of use, but aside from the ammo, there was nothing. At least I thought so, until I found a couple of grenades hooked on the belt of one of the guards. It gave me an idea of what to do but it would take either a lot of planning, or some cheating. “Can you distance detonate?” I whispered to Shining. He looked at with a confused look. Of course, he hadn’t seen me use a grenade yet, so why would he know what they were? So I lifted up the two oval objects. “Grenades. Pull pin, release lever, and they go off with boom.” He looked at them for a second before connecting the dots like a good soldier. “If I mark them with my magical signature, I should be able to ‘detonate’ them from as far as the warehouse.” “Do so,” I replied as I set both grenades down inside the little opening to the gunpowder silo. I took one last look at the storage container, shaking my head. The gryphons must be new at producing such things, because that silo was not going to stop anything if it exploded. Of course that would work to our advantage though. Once his horn powered down, I gestured for him to follow once more. It was time to exit the facility, but not before we poked around a little to see if we could either get the drop on Korbut or at least find his location. We continued to stay crouched as we snuck down the corridor of machinery. Every now and then I’d halt our progress to listen for the sounds of anything suspicious, but it always resulted in nothing more than the creaking of the resting machines. As we neared the end of the row we were in, I took a glance up at the elevated room once more. For some odd reason there was no guard any more. Perhaps I had been seeing things earlier. While I didn’t like the section we were about to enter, since it was all small machines and rather open spaces, we would need to cross it in order to investigate the lower rooms. I looked back to Scowly, before telling him to “stay close.” He nodded and I proceeded to slip out of our larger cover, hoping to make it across the open area before a guard appeared. No such luck. As we were moving between the equipment, a massive spotlight instantly lit up, nearly blinding me. I reacted quickly, diving behind the first cover I could find, with Shining doing the exact same but in the cover across from me. “Well, well. When I arrived here, I did not expect to see you ever again, Artyom. Yet here you are, skulking around and killing my soldiers, and continuing to be a thorn in my side. Though once again, I have you cornered … and you Rangers always boasted about your skills. Truly shameful, don’t you think,” a voice spoke out. Not a voice; Korbut’s voice, and he was speaking in English, though a rather heavily accented version of it. I didn’t reply, my mind was too busy trying to figure out how to get out of this mess. I looked over to Scowly to see him questioning whether to attack or not. It was the simple gesture of motioning his Kalash over his cover, but I shook my head and motioned for him to keep low. “Not going to reply, Artyom? You do not have a fail-safe to help you, now, so why don’t you say something and let me hear the cowardice in your voice,” Korbut said once more, making it obvious he was trying to antagonize me into doing something stupid. “Как и почему ты здесь?” I called back, stalling for time to think of way to figure this out. If I was correct in my profile of him, Korbut was a talker. “Ahh, that’s right. You didn’t have the luxury of an education. English is a complex language, mind you, but knowing it helps all that much more when it appears to be the universal language,” Korbut replied with a small laugh. “Let me humour you, Ranger. I will admit that I don’t know how we got here, but does that really matter? As for the why, well can’t you see? We are here because these creatures needed someone to guide them and show them what really can be done.” “И поэтому ты захватил город и держал его под дулом?” I responded. “Such a simplistic view from such a simplistic mind. You Rangers never tried to look at the bigger picture, instead opting for the easiest way out. Like trying to kill that Dark One, instead of capturing it and trying to harness its power. Well let me tell you, Artyom, that a little force and with the right tactics, you can achieve a lot more than a simple city like this. After I deal with you, my troops will march on their capital. Swords and spears are little match for a bullet, don’t you think?” “You’re insane,” I shot back. That one line causing a little click in my mind as I realised a way to get us out of this mess. “Finally, some English! Perhaps I have underestimated you again, Artyom,” Korbut said before taking a pause. “Ahh, yes. I have a little present for you, Ranger. Come, peek your head out. I promise my men won’t shoot. I’d rather they see your reaction first after all.” I knew I shouldn’t have bought Korbut’s little trick like that, but I couldn’t help but peek over the edge of the machinery, using the thing’s design to give me a decent enough view of the seven men plus Korbut standing on the catwalk above. That wasn’t all, though. One of the men was holding a struggling, yet bound gryphon. My eyes widened at the realisation that said gryphon was the other guard that had been with us. They had managed to capture him! That meant the gryphon army didn’t know about our plans. “You see, we caught this little bird as he was trying to sneak out of the city. It’s unfortunate that he wouldn’t speak, because we lost a lot of talking power just recently, you see. If he would have just opened up his mouth, he wouldn’t be dangling here, and we would still have a warehouse full of prisoners,” Korbut spoke, a little bit of anger sneaking into his voice. The soldier dangled the bound gryphon over the edge of the railing, causing my eyes to narrow in anger. “Instead,” Korbut continued as he leisurely strolled over to the soldier holding the gryphon, “we have nothing but a trapped Ranger. At least something good comes out of it. Say ‘Hi’ to Miller for me in your afterlife … if you believe in that.” Without a second of hesitation, Korbut took a knife that was held out by a Red Line soldier, then proceeded to slowly draw it across the neck of the gryphon. From the distance I hoped that he was doing it for show, but then the blood started gushing out, ruining the colouring of the feathers. Immediately, the soldier let the dying gryphon fall, plummeting towards the ground, resulting in a sickening crack. I flinched as I ducked behind cover, just quick enough to shield myself from the oncoming hail of fire from the Red Line guards. Bullets ricocheted rapidly off the machinery, drilling the echoing sounds into my ears. I looked over to Shining who was hunched down in cover, his eyes wide in minor panic. I didn’t blame him; until now, we had been the attackers and the ones who fired first. Now he was experiencing his true, as they used to say, ‘baptism by fire.’ “Now,” I screamed over to Shining, hoping he would pick that up over the constant cacophony of Kalash and Saiga fire. He nodded his head briefly before igniting his horn. For the briefest of moments I considered what could possibly happen by ordering him to ignite the grenades. I had taken a gamble in placing them there and giving Shining that order. We could be easily blown to pieces if we weren’t lucky. So in reality, this whole plan was basing itself on all the luck I’d had back in the Metro. The moment his horn died down, I turned away from the silo, covering my head briefly. Next thing I knew; the entire factory shook and shuddered as if the whole place was going down. I turned my head as quick as I could, catching sight of a growing fireball, one that was going upwards thankfully.  My next quick glance was towards the guards on the catwalk. Not a single one of them was still standing, all of them were in a state of shock. It was in that moment I decided to make my move. First holstering my VSV, I pulled out my Saiga, then looked to Shining for a brief second. “Kill them. I have Korbut!” I yelled to Shining before breaking cover, and dashing towards the rooms on the lower floor. I dodged in and out of the rows of machinery before smashing through the closed wooden door of the lower rooms, shoulder first. I proceeded to scramble to gain a look at my surroundings before moving forward in a near full sprint, my Saiga ready in case of an ambush. As I rounded a corner in the lower rooms, I saw two bewildered Red Line soldiers, apparently shaken up from the explosion. I didn’t care though, quickly firing two Saiga shells into them, putting them on the ground before they even realised I was there. There was no time to lose if I was going to get Korbut and make him pay for everything that he had done. Thankfully I hadn’t taken my mask off, because the next door I kicked down led straight to the outside. I peeked around each corner, the left side showing me nothing more than a surprisingly empty street. When I looked to my right I saw a group of soldiers, and one in specific, a one eyed bastard in their midst. He noticed me as well, yelling at them to attack. As fortune would have it, they were close enough that I could take them down with my Saiga. I quickly shot out of the doorway, nearly leaping from my feet into an almost adjacent alleyway. The soldier managed to get off a few snap shots, but after that there was no return fire. Instead of facing them head on, I decided to fire out a Saiga shot, blindly from around the corner, before hustling down the alleyway in order to flank them. I ran as fast as I could, yet at the same time, as silently as I could doing so, making sure my feet didn’t give off too much of a sound on the cobblestone. Admittedly, I don’t think they could hear it as the factory was still experiencing some minor explosions. I rounded two more corners, quickly finding myself on the same street as the soldiers who were ducking in cover, waiting for me to fire back. Crouching low, I managed to sneak up on one with my dagger drawn in one hand while I held my Saiga in the other. The bastard didn’t even hear me, only felt me plunge the dagger into his helmetless head, the gas mask he was wearing hardly covering the back of it. As he fell down, I drew my Saiga up and fired three quick shots, cutting down the other two soldiers in a hailstorm of buckshot. Immediately, I removed my knife from the guy’s head before dashing down the street that Korbut had taken off down. Unfortunately, and I knew it, but he was leading me into a trap. What I found at the end of the street was what looked like a lumber mill, and in said lumber mill was an open courtyard of stacked wood. I hesitated for a second, gazing into the courtyard as best as possible to try and find any sign of the fucker. Instead, all I got was the sharp crack of a bullet being fired and the whizzing sound of said round flying past me. I instinctively ducked and advanced till I was behind one of the wood piles. The shot had to have been a pistol round, because it was singular, I could hear it, and I wasn’t dead. A VSV would have been silent, a sniper rifle round would have without a doubt hit me as I was standing still, and any automatic fire would have obviously had more than one shot. I was definitely on the right trail here. Even Korbut confirmed it. “У тебя есть немного удачи, Артём. Я редко промахиваюсь!” Korbut yelled out from within the courtyard, his voice slightly muffled by the gas mask he was probably wearing but nonetheless I could hear him clearly. “Ты не победишь, Артём. Ты всего-лишь мальчик из дальней станции. Ты действительно думаешь что ты один сможешь уничтожить Красную Линию?” “Я смог раньше, Корбут! Твой план начинается и заканчивается с тебя,” I yelled back before shifting to another wood pile, glancing around the corners as I did. “Ты ничего не знаешь, Артём. Ты всегда был лишь пешкой в этой игре, ты всего-лишь следуешь приказам! Делаешь как тебе говорят, не понимая что это приказы мешают нам продвинуться. Ты остановил наш захват поверхности, ты и твои чёртовы убеждения!” His voice sounded rather close, so I advanced up to another row of lumber piles. The moment I saw him, I would pull the trigger, no waiting for last words, no giving him an opening. I kept silent this time, instead slowly advancing to another row of lumber. If I wasn’t within a few moves of him, I’d be damned. He was probably leading me into another trap, but this time I had to spring it if I was ever going to get the chance to finish this fight once and for all. If I didn’t end Korbut’s existence right here … who knows what type of havok he would wreck in the future. “Что, нечего сказать? Или может ты видишь правду в моих словах? Говори, рейнджер. Скажи мне что ты думаешь, скажи что я прав,” Korbut spoke up once more. This time I did decide to reply as I moved forward. “Я тебе много чего скажу, и первое будет-” I managed to get off before the butt end of a pistol slammed against the side of my head, sending me sprawling to the ground. If I hadn’t have had my helmet on, I would have been out cold, but instead the only effect was a little bit of blurry vision. As I turned around, I found Korbut’s pistol levelled at me, and I could see the sneer from behind that gas mask of his. “Хм, хм. Было легко тебя победить, Артём. Ты никакой не рейнджер, а лишь потерявшийся в темноте мальчик со станции. Опять я вижу тебя на земле передо мной. История повторяется. Но в этот раз у тебя нет времени ползти. В этот раз твоя смерть - дуло моего пистолета. Позволь мне прекратить твои мучения. В конце концов, я обещал выстрелить тебе в голову.” I lashed my leg upward, connecting with his arm, sending his gun flying out of his hand. I scrambled to my feet before lunging at the bastard, intent to pummel his head until it and the gas mask were but one conjoined thing. Korbut and I slammed into a stack of lumber, sending us both tumbling off each other. Korbut took the brunt but I felt the shock wave of the impact. As I rolled back onto my feet, I withdrew the knife from its sheath before lunging back at the Red Line bastard. Despite his apparent age, Korbut was quicker than I expected, for he easily side-stepped my lunge before slamming a knee into my gut, which sent me rolling once more. I would endure all the pain I needed to if it meant killing this fucker! So I quickly got back up, only to see Korbut draw a knife from behind his back. “Я не позволю своим планам умереть, не в твоих руках,” Korbut said before lunging with a stab. I leaped backwards before lashing out with a slice to try and catch him, unfortunately missing my target. “Ты заработал чуточку моего уважения в Метро, но здесь ты не больше чем муха на стене. Раздражаешь, не больше.” We danced back and forth trading off lunges and swipes of our blades, every once and awhile managing to hit the other’s blade, but that was it. Neither of us was able to do anything in this stand off. Then I did the only thing that came to mind. Without hesitation I flung my blade at Korbut, just barely catching him in the shoulder, before lunging forward and tackling him down once more, making sure I was nowhere near his knife. Once again on the ground, we wrestled back and forth, rolling over on top of each other, putting in little kicks here and there. What more could I do when my main focus was the knife in his hand? With all of my might, I fought against him pushing it towards me, often succeeding in pushing it back long enough to try and knock it from his hands. Yet he still kept on pushing forward with it. As he rolled back on top, he managed to get the knife to face downwards at my stomach. I knew in that instant that I needed to flip him over or get that knife from his hand, else I would have something sharp sticking in my gut. Despite pouring as much strength into pushing upwards, his leverage in the position gave him the ability to continue the slow descent downward. Then I felt it. The excruciating pain of having slicing metal puncture its way into my body. Somehow, it was worse that getting shot, and I knew how that felt, but even then it had been a grazing miss. This pain … this pain was almost strength draining but I still fought to keep the rest of it from sinking into me. “Just let go, Artyom. Let the pain stop you from struggling, and give into death. You’ve lost, and the Red Line will live to see my goals through,” Korbut spoke, his sole eye borrowing into me as I looked up. That’s when I felt something that was actually familiar. A certain tingle on the back of my collar, just large enough to reach my neck. I wasn’t certain of it at first, till I felt a small tug. My instincts kicked in, seemingly having formulated a plan in a matter of microseconds. In one swift motion I reached to Korbut’s belt with my right hand and grasped at a certain point. Immediately following it, I shoved my knee upwards with all of my strength, catching him by surprise and causing him to roll off of me, the knife staying in place, though twisting sharp, causing enormous amounts of pain. “Now!” I managed to yell out, despite the pain. Almost immediately I was yanked backwards by Shining’s magic, my hopes confirmed. And in that same moment I also heard the distinctive clink of a grenade being pulled. Korbut, in all his stupidity managed to find an old military grenade, the ones with the pins on them and keep it on his body. Or at least in Korbut’s case, without the pin. As if the entire scene was progressing in slow motion, Korbut rose to his feet as I was pulled backwards, his eyes narrowing at my escape, but then he noticed it. On my outstretched right arm, I held up my middle finger, the pin of his grenade wrapped around it. His eyes widened as his hands shot down to try and grab the grenade. Then, everything returned to regular speed as a deafening explosion rocketed me farther away, sending me tumbling out of Shining’s magic. Every roll caused the knife to lurch and a fresh batch of pain to flare up. Finally, after a few rolls, I came to sudden stop, my back slamming against the wall of another pile of wood. With a pained groan I managed to sit up, my entire body feeling like it was on fire, yet I knew it wasn’t. I needed to stop this pain before it took my consciousness, because it was getting worse by the moment. So, while wincing in pain, I reached for my little orange box. Inside was the solution to all my pain problems; a nice healthy dose of morphine. I raised a small part of my armour, exposing a portion of my stomach. Without bothering to worry about placement, I slammed the needle tip into my side before pressing down, giving myself the greatest feeling of this past day. I let the needle fall from my hand as I slumped back, feeling no more pain flaring through me. It was nice to not feel pain any more. “Well I guess you owe me for savi- Oh my Celestia! Buck, buck, buck!” Shining said as he saw the knife sticking in me. I looked down with him, finally seeing just where it was. Well, let’s just say I was going to get off lucky. Korbut had only managed to stab me through the fleshy parts of the side, more than likely missing any sort of vital organs, though the pain sure didn’t feel like it. Or maybe he did get me … I wasn’t sure as everything was a little hazy. “Just use the glowy stuff,” I mumbled through the nice almost euphoria-induced state I was in. Bless those who created morphine. There was a nice fog covering my vision, and did it ever feel nice just to slowly slip beneath it and let it just make everything feel better. “It does not work like that! Buck, stay with me, Artyom! Celestia will tan my hide if I let you die!” Shining spoke before yanking the knife out in a quick action, then pulling my armour up until the leaking knife wound was exposed to the air. Damn did that get through my groggy feeling and cause a jolt of pain. “Пошла она нахуй!” I yelled out, thankfully in Russian. Yeah, my mind was telling me that if I just turned off the lights then I wouldn’t need to deal with any more of the blasted pain from that knife. So I just slowly let my eyes slip close, my last vision and sound clip being that of Shining. “No, no, no, no, no, no, stay awake, Artyom! Just got-” and that was all I heard before I was floating in the nice black and enveloping emptiness. Such a nice black emptiness. Black and empty. Empty blac- “Are yo … this I … one, youn …” a faint voice from beyond the blackness came through. I wasn’t even sure if there was a voice, the sound seemingly melding with the blackness. Perhaps it was the blackness “Yes I … is him,” another voice replied, another blackness replied? “So … ‘en,” was the reply from the first blackness before it reached out and touched me. The blackness touched me and nothing hurt anymore.