The Ark

I now look at this as total crap. "Eito" is actually Android Seventeen and "Ivan" is supposed to be his clone, but the whole damned thing turned into a wild tangent, so I did away with it. I have retained the Russian Army element, though, and have made it more narratively viable. "Kharkov" has become "Vladimir Andropov", and he will be a good guy.

Battlefield 1542

Chapter ?: Lensk

Eito had a dream, or rather, a nightmare.

He looked down onto the Earth as a detached spirit, and a restless one at that, as he was awaiting something. That something was reincarnation. Yamma decided to cut him some slack and let him try the whole life business again, as his early adulthood had been hijacked by Dr. Gero and his life ended completely by Hell's Seventeen. All of that was behind him, though, because Hakari Briefs' recreation of his body was his ticket to a newer, better life, or so he believed until the Russians got involved.

The spirit of Android Seventeen floated above the Russian military base in Lensk for a specific reason: his new body was guarded there, and General Ivan, in the spirit of sibling camaraderie, was coming to collect it. Unfortunately, this would be much to the chagrin of the Russian Army, as parting with their weapons, their, new, highly expensive ones in particular, came across to them as the ultimate display of weakness.

Ivan still had the edge of surprise, though. Few were witness to Kharkov's death, and word of it would not reach Lensk for a few days, giving General Ivan the ability to melt into the Russian ranks as a common soldier before he let slip the dogs of war.

A single army staff car made its way up a desolate Russian highway in the dead of night. The moon-illuminated grass did not sway, for there was no breeze to move it. The wind was holding its breath for fear of what was about to happen. Ivan's beat-up vehicle made a slow right turn and drove up another road, the one leading to the front gate of the base. He soon encountered a guard post. A soldier, clad in earth-brown combat fatigues and an assault rifle slung behind his back, stepped out of the gatehouse. Ivan stopped the car and rolled down the driver-side window. The watchman was cheerful.

"Good evening! May I see your ID card, please?"

Ivan nodded and turned in his seat, shoving a hand into a pocket and fumbling for the little plastic card that would allow him to begin his assault. He then withdrew it and handed it to the soldier beside the car, who replaced his smoldering cigarette into his mouth as he read the card's information. For Ivan, an eternity passed, for he was unsure if the Lensk base was alerted or not to his actions in Kirov. The Russian guard raised an eyebrow as his eyes scanned the print before him, then sniffed and returned it to its owner.

"Everything's in order, sir, but might I ask what is in the backseat?" the guard ask.

"Well, I've got about a thousand rounds of Kalashnikov ammunition and a few empty bandoliers. That's way too much ammo for me to lug around, so I'm going to dump some of it here" Ivan replied, with a chuckle.

"Allright, but keep your ID ready, because there's another checkpoint at the ammo dump."

The guard waved Ivan on and returned to his gatehouse, hitting the switch to open the chain-link gate. The android drove through and into the parking lot, parking in a remote, deserted corner of it. He switched the engine off and turned in his seat to rifle through a bag in the back. Indeed, there was a large amount of assault rifle ammunition inside, and truthfully, Ivan really did plan to dump it, though not into an ammo dump. With roughly two hundred men on station, he would have more than enough firepower to drop them all. Facing forward again, Ivan opened up the glove compartment and pulled out a map. It was the complete technical schematic of the entire facility. The ammo dump was located five levels above the nuclear storage area, which was buried deep underground. That was the likely place to store an android warrior. He stuffed the map into his coat and popped open the trunk, exiting the car and slamming the door shut. Inside the trunk lay a battered AK-47, which had been obsolete for ninety years. Still, it fought on and on, simply because it worked in places other weapons would not.