Last year, I posted a chapter from my OG draft of Armored Piercing 1. This time, I’ve got two-ish chapters from my OG draft of Armored Piercing 2. The tone between the OG draft and the published version is wildly different. OG AP2 was a lot more cringey than OG AP1. I was still in my teens when I first wrote AP2, so my creative mind was more adolescent back then. There are some very cringe scenes that I’m kinda shocked I wrote. Those of you who read current AP2 will probably be shocked as well with this sample.
The sample is practically the beginning of the book. This was the OG version of the Fort Sokovia prison segments. Sipho Morgess is placed undercover in a Russian federal prison to scope out Berlov, who seems to be somehow connected to Shadow Company. Armored Piercing isn’t a task force in this version, instead, they are just another branch in the Canadian military. Sipho was written to be more like a superhero, than a seasoned but flawed soldier like in current AP2. Also, Merlov Krachenko is more of an active and public adversary here and not the corrupt politician as in the current version. The prison scene here was more of an homage to the Vorkuta prison escape level in Call of Duty Black Ops 1, but not nearly as deep.
Now, I hope you enjoy this wacky blast from my writing past!
***
UAV station, Space
Day 217
8:55 am
“Good morning all forces, this is Grey Wolf,” radioed Price.
“Grey Wolf, this is the General, report. What are the objectives?”
“2nd platoon, your objective is to secure the intel in Kabul, Afghanistan. Be warned, Merlov’s men are there and they’re not your average moppets. They’ve had elite training. Whiskey, Wanker, you got 3 tactical nukes to disarm 20 miles from the South West coast of Iran. This should be easy, your everyday dropouts from the Russian Spetsnaz are protecting them. Bravo and Charlie-”
“They know their objectives, Price. What’s the major’s objective?”
The satellite imagery zoomed into Russia. “He’s in a federal prison in Russia.”
“Explain more.”
“Berlov Volkovsky is a drug/weapons dealer. He got caught in 2010 and was sentenced to 25 to 100 years. Berlov has made desperate attempts to escape, which would fail and increase his time. In 2019, his boys ended up in the slammer with him. Petrenko thinks Berlov will try to escape, and for the last time. The major is undercover in the same prison as him. Now he has to stop him from escaping.”
“When you say ‘stop’, do you mean kill?”
“The Russian government doesn’t care, so it’s up to the major.”
Federal Prison, Russia
Day 217
9:07 am
Sipho was sitting in a cell. He was wearing a grey prison jumpsuit with the number 3217 on it.
His cell opened up and a guard came.
“You got a phone call,” said the guard.
“Da.” The guard brought Sipho to a telephone booth. He picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey, Sipho, how’s it like to be in a jail in Russia?!”
“Petrenko, I can’t believe I let you talk me into this. It’s horrible in here! The guards are strict as hell. Do one thing wrong and you get whacked. If prisoners get in a fight, they let it go on for minutes, then they tase the hell out of them. And the food is crap! They feed you pet food for breakfast, dinner, and lunch. You wanna know what I had for breakfast? Dog cookies in milk!”
“Damn that’s rough. Anyway, I’ve got suspicions that Berlov will make his play at lunch.”
“Yeah? Well, it would be about damn time! I’ve been in here for 46 hours!”
“Don’t worry, you won’t be in there for too long. Remember, if you succeed, you’ll get a big fat check and a nice house in St. Petersburg.”
“I better. I deserve that for all the pain I’ve been through here.”
“You will, now oh rivwah.”
“It’s au revoir, you drunk ass.” Sipho hung up. “Guard, take me to my cell.”
12:00 pm
Sipho’s cell opened up. “It’s lunchtime,” said the guard.
“Da,” replied Sipho.
The guard took Sipho to the lunch area. “Behave now.”
“Like I don’t.”
The guard hit Sipho with his baton. “I did not ask for your reply.”
“Sorry.” The guard turned around. “Goddamn nitwit.” The guard faced him again. Sipho quickly walked away. He grabbed a tray and waited in line. “So what’s on the menu today?”
“Cat meat with poodle soup,” said a prisoner.
“Not bad. Better than dog biscuits.”
“Sure, except with the poodle soup they cremated an actual poodle and added cream to it.”
“Never mind. Very bad.”
Sipho got a dish of cat meat and a dish of poodle soup. He sat down at a table. “This looks… eck.” He began to eat. A prisoner spat in a guard’s face. That guard smacked him 8 times with the baton, and another guard helped push the prisoner away. Then 3 prisoners walked up to Sipho’s table. One prisoner was skinny and light-skinned. The other 2 were buff and dark-skinned. The skinny prisoner sat across from Sipho. The 2 buff ones stood behind Sipho.
“Well, well, well, isn’t it Mr. Cool? How has it been going lately?” The skinny guy threw Sipho’s food to the ground. “You dropped something.” The 3 prisoners laughed. “Well, aren’t you gonna pick that up?” Sipho stared at the table. “You know, how the hell does a Canadian end up in a Russian prison? Hacking, killing, raping, all that stuff. Let me tell you something, Berlov is going to free us all very soon, and we’ll rule the streets again.”
“We have plans for you, Canadian,” said the 2nd buff guy.
“Oh yeah, we do. We’re going to kill you on live TV, then we’ll burn you, on live TV.”
Sipho looked at the skinny guy. “You dicks better pick up my food before I kick all of your asses.”
“Ho, ho, ho, you got threats now, Mr.Cool. But you don’t have the balls.”
“And you won’t if you don’t pick up my food and leave in the next 5 seconds.”
The skinny guy stood up and placed his hand in front of Sipho. “Screw you, ball-less boy!”
There were a few things Sipho could do in this situation. He could a) Ignore the prisoners, b) demand they leave him alone, or c) kick their damn asses. Sipho has never exercised either a) or b) in his life, so why start now? If someone wouldn’t stop bothering him, he’d make them stop.
Sipho stabbed the skinny guy’s hand with his fork. The buff guys grabbed Sipho. He kicked the table away and kicked the buff guys. Then he jumped over them and grabbed a knife off the counter. They walked towards him. He stabbed the 1st buff guy’s balls and the 2nd buff guy’s heart.
“You idiot! You cut my balls.”
“See, you’re ball-less.” Sipho walked to the skinny guy.
“Ahh! You stabbed my hand! You stabbed my hand!” He picked up Sipho’s fork and ran towards him.
Sipho threw his knife through the skinny guy’s balls. “I warned you. Like other stupid asses, you don’t listen.” The skinny guy spat on Sipho’s leg. Sipho stomped on his face and a guard tased him. He fell to the floor.
“I told you to behave.”
“Not my fault! These amateur punks came at me.”
“Still, you misbehaved. And when you misbehave, you get a trip to shock land.”
The guard pressed his taser and aimed at Sipho. Then Berlov appeared from behind and broke his neck. “Need a hand?” Berlov helped Sipho up.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I’ve got a better trick up my sleeve.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’ll give you a preview. It’ll involve juggernauts coming to my aid.”
“Juggernauts? Aren’t they a part of Shadow Company?”
“Indeed they are.” 2 guards came. Berlov shocked them with his taser. “Now let the main event begin! Brothers! It is time we seek our freedom!” The rest of the prisoners began to fight the security. “Let’s jump in!” Berlov began to tase more guards. Sipho just stood still and watched the chaos. In 1 minute, all of the guards in the lunch area were defeated. The prisoners shouted in celebration. “Now to the armory!”
***
Sipho thought about killing Berlov when the opportunity presented itself, but Berlov knew something about Shadow Company. Before, he thought he defeated the Company five years ago. They hadn’t popped up since, but starting a few weeks ago, he started getting a weird feeling that they weren’t defeated yet. What Shepherd said before he died did worry him a little, but he put it off for a while. If Berlov is working with Shadow Company, he had to know how he was connected to them.
The prisoners loaded up with arsenal in the armory.
Berlov walked up to Sipho. “Aren’t you gonna load up, Canadian?”
“What makes you think this is a good idea? They’ll have heavy weapons when we get out there, and they’ll plow us down as soon as they spot us.”
“Well, we better try than just stay imprisoned in this hellhole. Plus, I have faith.” Berlov gave Sipho an AK-47. “Load up. We’re moving pronto.”
Sipho grabbed a couple of mags for his AK. He didn’t want to have to kill Russian prison guards, but there were some guards he would like to shoot.
“Let’s move now my brothers!” The prisoners moved into the courtyard. “Freedom is within our reach! Let’s take it!” A helicopter appeared over the courtyard and began to fire at the prisoners. “RUN FOR THE FENCE!” Berlov and Sipho ran to the fence on the other side of the courtyard and climbed over it.
***
After 3 minutes, they stopped running.
“Freedom at last,” said Berlov.
“Yeah, freedom,” agreed Sipho.
2 helicopters landed and Berlov’s men came out of them.
“Sir, we’re glad you made it. You finally escaped!” said one of Berlov’s men.
“Yes, just smelling the fresh air of freedom. You, Canadian, are worthy of joining my association, but too bad you’re a fraud.” Berlov’s men aimed their guns at Sipho. “You think we didn’t know? A fellow guard keeps me posted. Now drop the gun.”
Sipho dived behind the 2nd helicopter.
“Go kill him.”
Sipho shot Berlov’s men. Berlov grabbed a gun. Sipho shot the gun off his hand and shot his leg. Berlov dropped to the ground and Sipho walked up to him.
“You goddamned, Canadian! You think you’ll get away with this? Uh?! You stupid dog!”
“I won’t only get away with this, I’ll get rewarded. Now before that happens, tell me your connection with Shadow Company.”
“We both have shadows.”
Sipho shot Berlov in the stomach. “Wrong answer.”
“OK! I got a call from them. They said they’ll help me escape if I help ship some illegal weapons. They didn’t tell me where.”
“America sounds most likely.”
“Sure. Now that’s all I know, ok? Please don’t kill me!” A pave low came and 2 juggernauts rappelled out of it. “You’re dead, Canadian!”
Sipho ran back behind the 2nd helicopter. The juggernauts fired at Sipho’s position and walked up to Berlov.
“Hey, good timing! Now let’s get me extracted!”
The juggernauts shot Berlov. Then the pave low blew up the helicopters, pushing Sipho to the ground. Then a juggernaut walked up to Sipho. Sipho shot 30 bullets through the juggernaut’s head and stood up. The last juggernaut shot Sipho in the chest, which made him fall back down to the ground. The juggernaut shot Sipho 12 more times and walked up to him. Sipho was dead.
The juggernaut took off his helmet. “Big Bird, all hostiles eliminated.”
Sipho opened his eyes and threw a knife through the juggernaut’s skull. “Bulletproof vest for the win.” The pave low was still in the air. Sipho grabbed his AK-47 and shot the pilot. The pave low spun out of control and crashed into a minefield and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!