In a small slum, made through the remnants of an old city, a car, much to advanced and expensive for the area rolled by, its engine not even making a sound, the soft crunch of snow under tire the only indicator that the car and its equally silent convoy was there.
The convoy winded its way past collapsing flats and dilapidated houses that used to be at the cutting edge of architectural design back in the day, now only a shell of their former glory
The streets of the slums leading up to new Moscow always put Pietro in a foul mood, he had to watch his fellow country men suffer and starve on the streets, while only a kilometre away, New Moscow Tower stood.
It pained his heart to watch his fellow country men suffer, while that icon of all that was wrong with the true motherland stood like a middle finger to all the ideals they lived here for.
"You seem troubled" Vladislav, Pietro's chief adviser, his most trusted ally, his younger brother by all of six seconds, looked at Pietro with a concerned look.
"It's just," Pietro began, before he hesitated, "never mind"
"Don't worry," Vladislav said, resting a hand on his shoulder, "we will save these good men and woman from this corruption we see around us, we will remind them why we formed the true motherland in the first place"
Pietro looked into Vladislav's eyes, he was truly blessed to have such a brother, what more could he ask for.
"Your right, we just have to be patient"
Their car slowly drove through the slums, the snow obscuring the road ahead.
"Hey" Vladislav suddenly said, with a quick smile, trying desperately to break the awkward silence, "you heard of that new game that came out?"
"I pay no mind to such capitalist notions" Pietro said with dismissal, before looking at the car he was riding in, "when we get back, have this car stripped or turned in a form of communal transport"
Vladislav let out a long, drawn out sigh.
"It's always 'the people' this or 'the people that' with you, you'll work yourself to death like that, just take a few days off to relax"
Pietro gave Vladislav a disapproving look, before his gaze softened, he couldn't fault his brother for being worried about him.
"I'll humour you" Pietro said with a smile.
Though the plans didn't get very far, as the next second, the reinforced, bullet proof glass shattered, and Pietro's head was blown straight off.
The car swerved, crashing into one of the many apartment blocks, a small fire starting under the hood.
Vladislav shook his head, trying to rid himself of his grogginess.
"You ok" He shouted at the driver, relived to hear a pained moan of response, he was hurt but alive.
Dread slowly crept over him, as he brought himself to turn his head, look at the reality he did not want to see, as there he sat, in a crumpled heap, his head blown clean off, Pietro lay there, dead.
Vladislav could feel tears welling up in his eyes, his older brother, his idol, his best friend, lay dead at his feet.
Vladislav reached out his hand, shock and disbelief etched onto his face, this couldn't be real, this was all a dream, it had to be.
Before he reached the corpse of Pietro, he was roughly yanked out of the car.
"no, NNNNOOOOO" Vladislav yelled into the night, desperately fighting against the officer currently dragging him back.
"He's delirious" The officer declared, "He's lost too much blood, we need paramedics, stat"
Vladislav continued to struggle, watching as the car was slowly consumed by fire, taking the body of Pietro with it.
...
Officer Dominik rushed towards the complex the shot was fired from, the cold air whipping against his face.
"Secure the building, don't let even a rat out" he barked to his subordinates.
Taking only his second in command, he leaped up the stairs like a man possessed.
Within only two short minutes, he had reached the rooftop, only no one was there.
What he did find, was an oversized sniper, with six large batteries hooked up to it.
Inspecting the rifle, Dominik found more oddities about it, the barrel was open, with a long, square barrel, rather than the standard circular one.
There was no system loading ammo either, and no extra ammo to actually speak of, the sniper either only brought one bullet, or made off with any excess.
Suddenly, Dominik heard the soft crunch of snow from the next building.
Quick as lightning, Dominik unholstered his pistol, and squeezed the trigger.
The gunshot rang out through the silent night, like a crack of thunder.
The sound of crunching snow stopped abruptly, but there was no thud, or howl of pain, only silence followed the gunshot.
"Sir" Dominik's second in command began, concerned over his leader, but Dominik had already began running.
Dominik took a running leap, and cleared the gap between the two buildings in a single leap, partially owing to the raised elevation of his building.
Landing into a crouching roll, Dominik stood up, scanning the area, the soft crackle of exposed electrics immediately catching his attention.
It didn't take long to locate the source, a small speaker with a single bullet hole through it.
He had been tricked.
With a sigh, he made his way down the building, taking the stairs at a more leisurely pace.
"Sir," His subordinates all said in unison, accompanied by a quick salute from all of them once he returned, "No one has left the building since you entered"
"Good" Dominik replied with a tired look, "Get that area sectioned off, wrap up the gun and have it sent to the lab, it's unlikely, but they may have left some fingerprint's, oh and tell the boss I'll be absent for a few days, I got a lead to follow"
...
Dominik finally reached his destination after almost a days worth of travel, and probably too much alcohol.
With one last swig, he stored his hip flask, and made his way out of his car.
"You coming or what?" he called to his second in command.
A loyal man who had been through thick and thin with him, though he never actually remembered the mans name, something the second in command had grown accustomed to, Dominik was never good with names.
"Coming" he said in a slightly disgruntled tone, the car ride.
The ramshackle nature of Bezymyannyy always surprised Dominik, it should have been impossible to hold up such shoddy buildings, yet here they stood, as if giving a middle finger to the laws of physics.
They made their way through the streets, hopping over the many homeless that lay on the streets, ignoring the constant fighting that broke out between rival gangs, and moving as far away from those that where taking elicit substances as much as humanly possible.
He hated this town.
With as short a walk as possible, Dominik and second in command made it to a shop that seemed out of place for one simple reason, it was well looked after.
"It looks... wrong" second in command commented.
"Right, you've never been here before have you, just keep your head down and don't make a fuss, the owners a nut job, just don't set him off"
Second in command gave a nod, a began to raise a cigarette to his lips as Dominik opened the door, causing a small bell to tinkle.
No sooner had he walked through the door, than he found a gun pointed his direction, cocked and loaded, trained on him.
A man no older than twenty five sat behind a small counter, a comic in one hand, a pistol in the other, not sparing Dominik a glance.
"Outside" the man said dismissively.
Second in command looked at Dominik with a puzzled look, only to find Dominik snatch the cigarette from between his lips and throw it into the snow outside.
"Good" the man said, placing the pistol on the table and returning to his comic.
"Do you really have time to act so casual?" Dominik said in a threatening tone, slamming his hand on the counter, "one of your weapons was used in an assassination attempt against a government official, what do you have to say for yourself?"
"Did it work?"
"What?" Dominik said, slightly taken aback.
"The gun, did it work?"
"Yeah," Dominik said with a grunt, "and now one of our best politicians is dead"
"Good to know" The man said, turning away as if the conversation was over.
"Your records" Dominik said in a demanding tone, "Where are they"
"Soooo" the man said in a slightly sheepish tone, "a friend got me some tobacco"
"The hell does this have to do with the records"
"Well you see, I had none of that fancy paper to wrap it up in"
"Yes"
"And the records where next to me"
"Jesus Christ Dimitri this is the seventh time you have 'accidently' destroyed your records"
"What?" Dimitri said defensively, "it's bad for business in this line of work to keep records, people don't like the government knowing they purchased illegal weaponry"
"But" Dimitri said with a smirk, "since your such a good friend, I can help you out a bit, I don't have any actual recites, but I do keep a log of all guns I've sold, maybe that'll jog my memory"
Dimitri reached under the counter and pulled out a small tablet.
"So what the gun look like?"
"It was... what was it, I remember reading about it, failed American weapon" Dominik began to snap his fingers in quick succession, before giving a final decisive snap, "rail gun, that's it"
"Oh yeah" Dimitri said with a smirk, "how could I forget that, yeah, the guy just asked for something strong, didn't need to be more than one shot, cost him a small fortune though"
"Why?" second in command asked curiously.
"Finally joining the grown up conversation are we? Well, a rail gun takes a ton of energy, and trying to compress it into the size of a rifle, well that means cuts in power, and ups in cost to compensate, at its regular size, its massive, so a lot had to be done, for example-"
"So how did you deliver it?" Dominik interrupted.
Dimitri gave Dominik a reproachful look.
"He sent us an invite to an online game, told us the meeting site there, sent Ivan with the weapon, and that was that"
"Speaking of which," Dominik noted, "where is Ivan?"
"Shooting range, working up the courage to test fire a gun"
"Are you really forcing him into that again, the kid isn't into guns, just let him be"
"He's no more a kid than me, or did you forget I'm only half a minute older?"
Dominik gazed at Dimitri with contempt, ever since he had known him, Dimitri had been harsh on his twin, always trying to push him as far out of his comfort zone as he would go, it was honestly quite sad to watch.
"So did you get the guys user name?"
"Didn't expect you to know what a username was" Dimitri said in shock, Dominik never really could tell whether Dimitri was being genuine or sarcastic, "hell, didn't know you even knew what a game was"
"Just answer the question"
"No, he set his account to private, never actually saw the name, only the avatar, and that was almost entirely obscured by this big ass cloak he was wearing, though he did let it slip by accident, introduced himself as 47th night"
"Thanks for the tip" Dominik said, turning away to leave, "if any further info is needed, we will contact you"
"One last thing" Dimitri called after, "he said he was starting on that new game that just came out, maybe you can use that"
Dominik gave a nod of thanks, and the two men left the store.
"You bug the place?" Dominik asked second in command the moment they where far enough away from the shop.
"The moment we entered"
"Good" Dominik said, lighting a cigarette in between his lips, before offering one to second in command.
"I could use a smoke"