“Well we lost the Heavy…again” Yuri said taking off his glasses, while standing up to stretch out. The 4 of them had been anxiously sitting in the room for the last 3 hours, eagerly awaiting news from there friend who had volunteered to enter the realm and do what he pleases until further instruction. But like father and like son he died.

“There was another Heavy who went into Equestria?” Konstantin asked again; motioning for his friend Aleksey to check all of the systems again. Aleksey didn’t seem like the other Russians in the Mstislav; he was a short, small 24 year old with large glasses and wild brown hair. The others commonly gave him a hard time constantly calling him “Virgin Aleksey” over and over again. Frankly in Konstantin’s eyes there was nothing wrong with the man; he just didn’t fit in with this group of soldiers, mercenaries, and rogue smugglers.

“We lost the Heavy a first time?” Konstantin asked; Yuri is the only person who was there when the project began, and as it seems wasn’t very willing to tell Konstantin and the others every single detail of his past experience with his great grandfather, Boris.

“Yes” Yuri said “He was one of the first sent in after the first 7. He was shot by one of the other specimens in a freak accident.”

“Freak accident you say?” Konstantin asked

“Well the Heavy was working his way into a faction in Canterlot. 2 of the specimens came in to fight the faction and Heavy was killed in the fire fight.” Yuri said “Probably for the best though; that family wasn’t exactly the smartest family in Russia” Vladimir almost spat out his vodka at Yuri’s remark.

“I see” Konstantin said “Who will take his place?”

Vladimir and Yuri exchanged looks “We will see”

The next 2 days passed by like the last week; he and Aleksey worked hard on rebooting everything; meanwhile Vladimir and the others anxiously awaited the possibly of Neo-Nazis pressing into the Siberian wasteland. Fortunately the train line was sabotaged half way across Russia; hindering any sort of advance for at leastly a month or so.

After another day of sleeping in the humble little inn Konstantin showed up for work as usual; but before he could get to his work station one of the smugglers, Petrov stopped me

“Konstantin some of the guys need to talk to you in the meeting room” He said; wearing his Ushanka snuggly over his head. These smugglers as it seems were constantly making runs from this town and several other small villages to the cities to sell contraband and weapons to the Anti-Nazis. Some of the more “Cowardly” smugglers had switched sides and became informants as it seems during the beginning of the war. After several public executions and police cooperation smuggling became a serious job for only loyal rogues.  

“Okay thanks Petrov” Konstantin said; walking calmly to the meeting room; the room where he first learned about the project. Inside was Yuri, the head of research, Vladimir, head of security, Chernov, head of supplies and two strangers.

“Konstantin this is Police Chief Fedorov and Mr. Sytsov the head of our organization” Vladimir said; Konstantin assumed the police chief was the young and energetic police officer in front of him.

The young man spoke up “I just want to say we are all for your anti-Nazism and will support you to our full extent. This includes supplies, information and if it comes to that man power.” The man spoke with a surprisingly auspicious tone. He didn’t sound pompous or too haughty but sounded confident, yet humble at the same time; someone who actually wanted to help the cause.

“So you are Mr. Caspersky” The other one said “I am Mr. Sytsov; the head of our organization, it is an honor to meet someone of Boris’s bloodline.”

“Thank you sir” Konstantin said; at this point little had been said about Sytsov from the others. Whenever his name came up it was almost always about how he fielded his own small army and a massive smuggling network, which of course funded the entire program.

“Konstantin we need to talk to you” Yuri said, his tone a tad too fatherly for Konstantin

“What do you need Yuri?” Konstantin asked

“After the disaster with our last specimen we need people we can trust and people we can depend on to not get killed.” Yuri said “That is why I volunteered to be the next specimen, and I hope you do too”

Konstantin just sat there for a moment; unsure what to say, as usual he was divided by the situation. He wanted to see this new mysterious world;; but wasn’t about to be trapped in a world he hated.

“Will we be able to get back into Russia?” Konstantin asked

“Yes the Virgin over here worked all night to finish it; we should have no problem getting back.” Yuri said he stood up and unexpectedly turned to the 2 latent guards on either side of Konstantin “Grab him”  

Without a 2nd thought the 2 guards grabbed Konstantin hard; it was near impossible for Konstantin to get out now. He was trapped; even if he could wiggle his way out the 2 guards combined strength would easily over power him.

Vladimir then stood up; a knife in one hand and walked right up to Konstantin, the knife to his neck.

“Like I said we need people we can trust, people we can depend on” Yuri began “Can we trust you? CAN WE DEPEND ON YOU?”

Almost like a verbal command Yuri’s tone caused Vladimir to bring the knife an inch closer to Konstantin; the blade touching his throat.

“Do you want to be a part of the Mstislav? A part of a better Russia” Vladimir said taking control of the conversation

What the hell was Konstantin going to say besides yes? He could envision it now; Vladimir taking the knife and slashing at Konstantin’s throat, his body falling to the ground with a loud thump, tossed in a river, never to be heard of again.

“You can trust me” Konstantin said stuttering a little bit

“Can we?” Vladimir asked again

“Yes, yes you can!” Konstantin said

Yuri smiled “Release him” the 2 guards dropped him in his place.

“I’m proud of you Konstantin; we are going to train you as one of our own. We don’t expect you to be just brains; you are going to learn a lot of new skills to keep yourself and me alive.”

“When will we exactly going to be going?” Konstantin asked

“A month or 2 at the most” Yuri said “We need to finish up several more adjustments and of course train you “

Konstantin nodded slowly and absent mindedly. He was shook back into reality by Vladimir cutting his hand; Konstantin looked down and cursed in horror for a moment. The cut wasn’t deep, more of a paper cut then a knife wound.”

Vladimir smiled and let out a laugh “Welcome to the Mstislav”

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