Girls' Frontline Fanfiction: Tsar of the Mountain

Operation: Broken Butterfly

"Sorry for the delay." Zeldri finally reached the command room. Annika was shifting around uncomfortably as the image of a man in his late thirties was displayed on the main monitor.

"It's alright, Commander. My call was unannounced, so a little delay is understandable." Despite his stoic expression, Ivan spoke in a calm, almost friendly voice. Zeldri immediately understood Annika's anxiety as having an unknown FSB agent being friendly towards you was a sign of trouble.

"Well, now that I'm here, what can I do for the FSB, agent Ivan?"

"The bureau would like to contract the services of Griffin & Kryuger, along with you specifically, for a special retrieval mission we're planning."

"Retrieval mission?" Zeldri stood next to Annika in front of the holographic display table that currently showed a map of the Mountain. "Do you need extra guards, or...?"

"No, this mission will be entirely handled by you and a team of dolls you'll be taking with you." Upon seeing Zeldri cock an eyebrow he continued, "The bureau is currently unable to do a proper retrieval as most of our teams have their hands tied in some form or another. So, we'd like you to be the ones to do it."

"...Very well." Zeldri's hand tightened its grip on his forearm crutch. He already didn't like this. There was no way the FSB was unable to do this kind of mission themselves. "What are the details?" Where's the string attached?

"Your objective is as follows..." Ivan tapped at something off-screen, and the holo-display table in front of Zeldri pinged as it received files. Opening the file caused the display to shift as it went from showing a map of the Mountain to what appeared to be a massive facility. Zeldri felt a lump form in his throat as he stared at the complex. It only took a second of him viewing the display to realize what it was as there was a massive logo inscribed onto the main building. "You are to send a team to infiltrate the old Sangvis Ferri HQ and retrieve an asset the FSB wants back. The site was abandoned after the Butterfly Incident, including by Sangvis themselves, so we don't expect you to run into any resistance. But, the site is very out of the way which is why we've waited this long to finally send someone to retrieve the asset." Ivan's face was unreadable, but his eyes were analyzing Zeldri's every move. "You'll likely only need a small group of your dolls for this, just in case."

"..." Zeldri kept himself in check and made sure not to show any outward disapproval. "Will transport be provided? We're also very out of the way from that place since we're in the Urals."

"The bureau cannot spare anything for this mission, Commander. You'll have to find your own way to the old Sangvis HQ." Ivan started to idly scratch his chin as he faked being deep in thought. "Flying would take too long, and there aren't many well-kept roads, anymore. I think your best bet would be to travel with your dolls by train. Despite the times, the Neo-Soviet Union has kept her rail lines in top shape." He stopped rubbing his chin and gave a warm smile to Zeldri. "I'm sure you can find a line willing to take you and your dolls to where you need to go."

"..." The meaning behind Ivan's words was obvious and proved Zeldri's suspicions. The FSB was keeping tabs on everything he was doing. Though, this was also a good thing as it confirmed how they were doing it. Ever since its discovery, Zeldri made sure that any mention of the train on sub-level four was kept to only word of mouth. There was not a single mention of it anywhere in his reports, or communications going outside of the Mountain; except for one. MDR had posted about the train on the Griffin forums three days ago. Originally, Zeldri was going to have the post removed when he saw it while in the city but decided to let it stay up as a test. It was the only indication that they had opened sub-level four, and just three days later he had the FSB calling him with the implication of using it. They obviously knew of the MDR line's reputation and were probably tracking her posts on the forums and filtering for his MDR specifically. "Let's hope we find a line willing to lend a hand, then." Zeldri played along with Ivan's implications while not admitting anything openly. "Does one of the files you sent have a description of the asset we'll be looking for?"