As the last of the armed escorts fell to the ground, the street once again fell into silence with the exception of the crackling fire heard from the destroyed trucks.
"Andrei, tell t1 and t2 to send five men each to inspect the convoy while the rest stay and watch our surroundings. Also ask them to give a casualty report if any" said Victor as he strapped his SVD turning to the exit of the room.
"Aye, Vic" replied Andrei as he shortly communicated Victors intention to the other team leaders.
Exiting the building a nauseating smell immediately assaulted Victors nose as walked towards the burning convoy.
The smell of gunpowder mixed with charred remains and bodily fluids permeated throughout the air. A terrible smell for even a seasoned veteran such as Victor.
Bringing his hand towards his nose in an attempt to block the smell, Victor saw a man similarly dressed as himself. Equipped with an urban camouflage uniform, an ISAPO plate carrier and armed with a Colt M16A4 he quickly walked over to Victors side.
Alexsandr Vorona was the man who was quickly approaching Victor, and the team leader of t1.
"What happened to your arm?" asked Victor in a nonchalant voice as he pointed to Alexsandr's bloodied arm.
To outsiders, it may seem that Victor cares about his subordinates, but in reality, Victor didn't want to have an injured team leader, as their commanding abilities could be affected, and they would be a liability until they were healed.
"Ha. This is nothing, but just a lucky hit from one of those bastards" laughed Alexsandr as he lifted up his bandaged left arm stained in blood.
"So, Cap what do w-" before Alexsandr could a moaning grunt could be heard from the amongst the corpses of armed escorts.
"Uuhhh Uuuhhh Uuuh" somewhere amongst the littered corpses on the street a person could be heard desperately gasping for air.
Maybe as an act or mercy or annoyed by the sudden interruption, Victor grabbed Alexsandr's M16A4 before heading towards the general direction of loud gasping.
Unable to accurately determine where the sound originated from, Victor did a continuous burst of shots towards the corpses, emptying the thirty - round magazine until he heard the same person gurgle in his own blood indicating, that he was now dead, or at least dying.
Walking back Victor handed back the now empty M16A4 back to Alexsandr before answering his prior question.
"Well, we'll search the trucks for the supposed serum, then report our findings. From there, we'll continue." quickly said Victor as he approached the rear end of the leading truck.
Turning back, Victor said, "Oh yeah, if any of them survived, just put one to the head" as he mimicked the barrel of a gun through his fingers, pointing towards his head before he continued to make his way to the opened rear of the truck.
Due to the sudden ambush made by Victor's platoon, the armed escorts had little time to properly organize an effective counterattack. This could be seen as the team leaders of each convoy lay dead besides the hatch door of the trucks. By eliminating their team leaders, Victor's platoon effectively disrupted the convoy 's chain of command, leaving them in a state of disarray.
Peering inside Victor found that the inside of the truck seemed similar to the interior of an IFV or Infantry Fighting Vehicle with two rows of eight seats. In addition, a magazine box can be seen spilled over with its contents nearby, clearly the escorts were rushed out in a hurry.
Making his way inside, Victor found nothing of value nor did he find the supposed serum.
It may be in the second truck pondered Victor as he quickly got off the truck.
Then he saw Alexsandr quickly approaching once again, followed by two men carrying a white metal crate marked with general warning signs around its side.
"Where'd you find the serum? In the middle of the convoy? inquired Victor as he told the two men to pry the top of the container off.
"Nah, we checked the trucks that weren't targeted by RPG fire but found nothing. So we checked the last truck, and luckily, nothing seems to be damaged" shrugged Alexsandr.
"That's good, go tell Andrei to report our results back to camp" said Victor as he leaned down to inspect the contents of the crate.
While Alexsandr went to find Andrei, Victor found that within the crate were six smaller vial storage boxes wrapped around in foam to ensure nothing would be broken in case the crate were to be dropped.
Grabbing one of the storage boxes, Victor carefully opened it and found twenty - four vials filled with a purplish liquid arranged in four rows of six. Picking one up, Victor twirled the vial around in the air, while closely examining its contents, but failing to identify its importance. However, that's was to be expected, as N.A.R. purposely left Victor and his platoon in the dark of what the serum's true purpose served.
As Victor continued to inspect the crate, Andrei appeared by his side.
"What they say back at camp? questioned Victor as he looked up to Andrei.
"They said to sit tight until day break so transport can have better visibility." replied Andrei.
"In addition, we lost a combined men of nine men from t1 and t2, not including our own. If we were to include our team's casualties, we lost a total of thirteen men with six slightly wounded." said Andrei after a slight pause.
Due to the nature of a mercenaries employment, death was a common sight. One day you could be enjoying a drink with friends after a successful mission; the next day a bullet would be lodged against your skull while you were busy taking a piss out doors.
Standing up, Victor's brows furrowed as he went into thought.
Nearly sixty - five percent of my platoon either dead or wounded. Well that's to be expected as we were outnumbered three to one, but at least we completed the mission.
Unable to change the past, Victor soon instructed Andrei to tell the remaining men to rest, while some were designated to keep watch of the surroundings lest something happened.
Walking back into the three - story building where he had ambushed the convoy, Victor plopped down on a stained couch located on the second floor.
With his back on the cushion seats, he stared at the ceiling wall. Victor reminisced about his hometown of Kursk. The long winters, when he would be cooped inside alongside his siblings, were amongst his fondest memories. The board games where he would always win, which resulted in his sisters crying, gave him a slight smile. As he continued to remember the past, he slowly drifted to a light sleep.