The Lie of Recoil

Late at night.

Ruff Research Center.

Viewed from above, its area spanned a full quarter of the Mozhaysk urban district, making it the largest facility established near Moscow.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the private military company Gogoski-Ruff Military Industry had taken over the research into Soldier Boy, attempting to reverse-engineer the formula for Compound V for the Russian government.

Investigators planted in Eastern Europe by Atlas had been infiltrating Gogoski-Ruff Military Industry since the 1980s. Although they could never reach the true core, they had enough opportunity and time to map out the vast majority of the grounds and the deployment of security personnel.

At this moment.

Two fully armed guards were making their usual rounds, following a fixed route around the research facility and passing through the parking lot on the southeast side of the complex.

Due to the monotony of their day-to-day work and sheer boredom, the two guards kept yawning, chatting to keep themselves alert.

Before long, the guards turned left around the corner of a building, disappearing from sight, their idle chatter fading into the distance.

Yet, in the forest park also located to the southeast, over a dozen black silhouettes flickered.

As these figures stepped quickly out of the park and reached the wire fence on the perimeter of the parking lot, the faint light from nearby streetlamps and the moon revealed them to be twelve armed personnel wearing black or olive-drab masks and vintage combat uniforms.

Their body armor, tactical belts, ammunition pouches, AKMs, RPKs, and RNO third-generation night-vision goggles were enough to remind one of the SPETSNAZ of the pre-collapse Soviet Union.

Two of them took heavy-duty bolt cutters from their companions' backs and quickly snipped a hole in the wire fence large enough to pass through.

Arriving at the parking lot.

These men dispersed rapidly in pairs, covering one another as they sprinted toward the corners of the research facility.

They pressed themselves against the walls, reaching a side door that led inside, though they were now about to be exposed to surveillance.

Boom...

But the entire complex plunged into darkness in an instant.

It seemed someone on the inside was cooperating, helping them cut the power.

As they activated their night-vision goggles, one operative wielding a Saiga-12 semi-automatic shotgun stepped forward and pulled the trigger on the side door's electronic lock.

"Bang! Bang!"

The sound of the 12-gauge shotgun shells firing was exceptionally loud in the silence of the night, no different from an explosion.

"Вперёд! Вперёд! (Move! Move!)"

Following the standard Russian command, the shotgunner kicked the door open, allowing four two-man teams to charge straight into the facility, while the remaining personnel stayed behind to guard their extraction route.

Inside the facility.

Although emergency lights provided illumination in the corridors and various areas, they could not dispel the dim, gloomy atmosphere.

"Что происходит (What's happening)?!"

"Я тоже не знаю (I don't know either)!"

The security personnel had no idea what was happening or where the enemy was; conversely, the armed men equipped with night-vision goggles were advancing methodically and steadily.

"Da! Da-da!"

The muzzle flashes from the AK-series rifles provided an extra source of light.

"Ah...!"

"Спасите меня (Help me)!"

"Не надо, не надо (Don't... don't)!"

At the same time, the screams of the guards echoed throughout the entire building.

At the entrance to the stairwell leading to the underground laboratory, one guard, having taken a bullet to his left calf, was unable to stand. He could only claw at the floor with his hands, scrambling backward in a panic.

However, cornered with nowhere left to run, the guard flipped over only to see the group of armed men—most of whom ignored him entirely—entering the stairwell one by one.

The two operatives left to guard the entrance kicked away the pistol that had fallen to the floor. One of them crouched in front of the guard, who was sweating profusely from pain and too terrified to even breathe, and chuckled in a low voice:

"Не хочешь умирать, не двигайся (If you don't want to die, don't move)!"

"Понял... понял... (Understood... understood...)"

Hearing the words, the guard nodded repeatedly, not daring to say a single word of protest.

"Bang!"

Before long, the door to the stairwell was kicked open with brute force.

The operatives who had gone down appeared to have completed their objective, quickly withdrawing from the stairwell and covering each other as they retreated outward.

However, two of the operatives were working together to carry a "body bag" large enough to hold an adult man.

"Huff... huff!"

Seeing the highly trained operatives who had routed their team in the blink of an eye finally disappear around the corner, the guard finally relaxed, breathing heavily.

But just as the guard tremblingly pulled out his radio to report the situation...

"BOOM!!!"

A violent explosion made the entire building tremble.

"BOOM!!!"

The wave of fire and air gushing from the stairwell "kicked" the door open once more with even greater force, twisting and deforming the door frame along with it.

!!

"Боже мой (My God)!!"

The security guard, terrified by such a massive commotion, scrambled away on all fours. Ignoring the need to report the situation and disregarding the injury to his leg, he struggled to his feet and hopped toward the facility exit.

Outside the facility.

A small drone hovered in the night sky.

Through the drone's perspective, one could see that a large number of police cars had arrived one after another at the main gate on the north side of the complex.

Dozens of police officers immediately exited their vehicles, entered the grounds, and skirted around the buildings, attempting to reach the parking lot on the southeast side.

But...

"RAT-TAT-TAT!!"

Two armed men wielding RPKs, seemingly oblivious to the concept of recoil, immediately unleashed suppressive fire.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Tracer rounds, fired one in every four shots, resembled two green "lasers," gouging shallow pits into the walls and pavement they struck and forcing all the police officers to hit the deck immediately.

No one dared to risk poking their heads out, as the firepower on both sides was simply not on the same level; this had long since exceeded the scope of what ordinary police could handle.

Furthermore, as these armed men retreated toward the forest park, they fired in turns and reloaded, leaving no gaps in their suppressive fire.

It was only when their figures vanished into the forest that the barrage finally ceased.

By the time the Russian police finally reached the southeast side of the research facility and prepared to venture into the forest park to search, a black van had already accelerated away, driving along the A100 Highway in the direction away from Moscow.

Moreover, from the drone's perspective, after this van entered a tunnel alongside numerous large freight trucks, it seemed to vanish into thin air, never appearing from the other end of the tunnel.