Internationalists - Supply Warehouse - Nighttime
You place the charges onto the predetermined locations, the discrete markings placed by the advance scouts granting you confidence as you complete your objectives. By now, the rest of the team will have cleared maybe half the warehouses, priming the structures for a disastrous explosion.
It would be a lie to claim you had no doubts about the plan. Not with the chances of success, of course, but with it's effectiveness. Supposedly, destroying the raw ores and resources needed for the steel production would help 'convince' that communist bastard of a leader to rely more on foreign trade, but the same result could have been more efficiently achieved by targeting the mines themselves.
Unfortunately, your groups weakening power and resources would only have been enough for a few sites. You needed to target a central nexus of production, hence the steel processing complex.
Luckily, security wasn't exactly tight. A small opening in the wire fence was easy enough to make, and your team was inside the complex within moments. With less than a dozen guards tasked with securing the premises, and all of them already tired and within their guardhouses as the moon sank into the dark, early dawn, your team made its way to the supply storage.
The day before had marked an uptick in activity, with barrels of unidentified chemicals being carried all over the complex. The day before that day had also seen new hardware and equipment being transferred in. With fears that more staff and guards would be transferred in, as well as a lengthening of work hours and increase in work shifts, your team had to act now.
And so it was with urgency that you completed your small tasks, eager to be finally done with it. The night, or rather morning, would have other plans, however, as your radio came alive with urgent orders and the sounds of suppressed gunfire.
With muffled curses, you run towards the makeshift assembly point, wondering all the while just what exactly went wrong.
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Old Guard - Bus Factory - Same Time
As you place the small explosive on the gas tank, you can't help but smile at the thought of reading the headlines that would eventually come on the morning after the plan's explosive climax.
This'll show that worthless brat to kick out his elders. A shame his father hadn't had other, worthier, children to take up the mantle. Someone more respectful, more accepting of the Old Guard's extensive wisdom and experience. But there wasn't and the time to assassinate the whelp had long since passed, the brat's security too strong to be overcome with their dwindling resources and strength.
Hence the current plan. A few bombs placed on the gas tanks of a few buses, not enough to loudly suggest sabotage, but just enough to imply poor quality and faulty equipment, while hinting at weakness to other opportunists. Just one sign, and they'd get more volunteers, more donations to their worthy cause.
You thought about doing something similar to the strange barrels and unfamiliar equipment scattered throughout the complex in designated nooks and crannies, but you shove those thoughts aside. You have much too little information as to what the new hardware was exactly, more so what exactly was in those barrels. Besides, the plan would succeed even if you left well enough alone, of that you were sure.
But as you daydream of your future success, your radio comes alive with traffic. Muffled shouts and the sound of suppressed gunfire filter through the comms. What the hell is happening!?
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Nationalists - Ore Processing - Different Shit Same Day
Grunting as you reach deep within the cavernous space, you slap the specialized charges in place.
The heat shouldn't compromise them until they reached a certain temperature, and hopefully by then there'd be enough people to justify detonating them simultaneously. Enough people to show Guangchou just how weak that spineless wretch of a leader was, to let his fellow citizens bleed and die.
Of course, it pays to be sure. It's with such a reason that you make your way towards the steel manufacturing area along with the rest of your team. There was more equipment there being used to shape new railway segments, and therefore more workers needed to operate them.
You'd thought about doing the same to the new machines brought in the day before, but for all you know, they wouldn't be used much later, so you cast those thoughts aside.
The barrels though… you have someone check it, and what they reported back was curious, to say the least. A reddish, maybe pinkish chemical of sorts. It wasn't diesel. Or kerosene. Or gasoline. It smelled strange when you checked for yourself. Cleaning equipment maybe? But why would they need so much, especially with how they seemed to have been placed everywhere.
Maybe they thought they'd just place them there for the night? Then continue organizing them in the morning after. Whatever the case, if they were this lax with handling them, then they probably weren't too dangerous or volatile. No sense wasting their already limited supplies.
Soon enough, the massive gates leading to the steel processing area reveal themselves as you round the corner. Your destination lies beside it, however, as opening the gates themselves would sound a loud alarm that would betray your team's presence. And so you head for the smaller door beside it.
As you reach for the doorknob, it twists suddenly and the door gives way to someone… who's clearly not supposed to be here…
Dressed similarly in dark garments as you, you both stare at each other in shock for but a moment. Suddenly, instinct kicks in and you both dive for cover.
Your team, and his by the looks of it, quickly follow your examples and find their own places to stand or crouch behind. Without even a chance for words, you exchange gunfire instead, reasoning it's best to sort them out after they were down.
But seriously, who the fuck are these people!?
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Isolationists - Steel Processing - At that Moment
Who the fuck are these people!?
You and your team had just finished checking the sabotaged equipment in the steel processing area, a failed attempt they'd tried at before. The plan was to sabotage the newer, Chinese-made equipment, make them explode during operation. Instead, the faults they'd introduced had simply turned the steel more brittle.
True, it was still sabotage, but they needed something more eye-catching if they wanted to convince the people that their whore of a great leader was just a Chinese puppet to foist defective goods on. Hence, the need to return to the complex before the equipment was removed for closer inspection.
If they found out about the sabotage, security would only grow tighter, and any chance they had of fighting back in some way would disappear, just as their own supplies and manpower disappeared day by the day.
And now this, who are these people? What are they doing here? And with guns, no less. Other saboteurs?
Any other queries you were about to vocalize die out as your second calls your attention to more people rushing in from the direction of the annexed bus factory. Similarly clad in dark-hued clothing, they take cover with guns facing your left.
Fuck. How'd they flank us so quickly!?
You set aside the rest of your questions as you direct some of your men to reposition and fire on the newcomers.
As you wrestle with indecision of whether or not you should sound the retreat, more noises filter in from the direction of the ore processing area, from where the first batch of strangers had come from.
Muffled shouts and what seem to be more suppressed gunfire echo through the increasingly bullet-holed doorway, sounding as if the other side had also encountered a third group.
What the hell is going o—
That thought dies out as a stray bullet grazes your cheek and terminates its path right into one of the curious barrels you'd noticed as you entered the complex. It wasn't gasoline, of that you were sure, and the dearth of markings betrayed no hint as to what it was exactly. But as sparks fly and the thin metal expands and shrieks briefly before coming apart into an explosive display, you realize that someone really should've put in a label denoting it as volatile.
However, such lamentations are blown away as the blast reaches the other barrels and contribute to the quickly expanding explosion, and the room grows brighter as if dawn had come early.
Fuuuuuuu—
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Security - Guardhouse C - Early Dawn???
You take a sip of your freshly brewed and poured tea as you glance at the clock placed on your desk.
Won't be long now, an hour, tops. Once dawn comes, I can clock out and finally get some rest.
You make a mental note to leave a reminder for the next shift that people would be coming in early to move around the equipment and supplies that had been haphazardly left the day before.
With all the new projects the Great Leader had announced, steel and its related products had gone up in demand. The management had promised more shifts to reduce workloads for everyone, but the new staff had yet to come in when the new hardware and supplies had been shipped in. There were simply not enough people to get things organized while keeping up with the previous day's quota.
To add to the chaos, it seemed the deliveries themselves had been rushed. The barrels left no indication as to what kind of chemicals they contained, as if the supply people had simply found whatever unused barrels they had on hand. They hadn't even been labelled yet.
Still, even if they were volatile, it was only for one night. The staff would get things stowed away soon enough. And with the new people coming in, they might need to promote some of the older staff and put 'em in supervisory or managerial roles. Maybe you'd even get kicked up the ladder. Get yourself a nice raise too.
Your musings fade away as you notice a bright light shining suddenly from the direction of the window. You've barely turned your head when the sound catches up and the glass shatters as a roaring explosion blasts in. A wave of pressure knocks you off your chair and shards of glass rain around you.
As panic sets in, your assigned radio comes to life, probably from one or two of the guards farther away, asking what's going on. As you stumble up to the glassless window, your vision fills with the sight of what seems like the entire complex, on fire. Debris rains down, some of it flaming as well, and words fail you as one thought dominates your mind.
Well… there goes my raise.
NOTE:
@HeroCooky hope this is ok. Lemme know if there's something i need to change to fit with canon.
