[center][i][h1]REVENANT[/h1][/i][/center]
[center][h3]Part I
[i]Project: Revenant[/i][/h3][/center]

[i][b]Location[/b][/i]:  New York City
[i][b]Date[/b][/i]:  August 19th, 2366

"If this meeting is so urgent, Why did the Chancellor invite us to New York City?  Why Strattix Tower?"

"Maybe he thought Virginia was too dangerous. Remember what happened in Washington DC? All of the world's leaders incinerated in the blink of an eye. I imagine the Chancellor would want to keep us far away from the former capital"

"Wait, I think he's coming"

The windows of the room, which offered a panoramic view of New York City, dimmed until they were completely black. The lights even dimmed, making the conference room dark. About nine representatives took their seats at the round table and prepared for the Chancellor's emergency meeting. When the doors finally opened, however, the Chancellor was nowhere to be seen; Executor Lara walked in and closed the doors behind her. She took a seat in the only empty chair in the room, sitting a small briefcase on the table.

The fair-skinned woman, with her perfectly-cut, shoulder-length brown hair smirked at the committee. "Shall we begin ladies and gentlemen?"

"Perhaps we should wait for the Chancellor, Executor Lara."

Smirking again, Lara shook her head as she pulled a file folder from the briefcase. "The Chancellor won't be coming. This is classified.  Off the books. Project: Revenant. It's risky, but after the Incident, it's the best choice we have right now" When Lara mentioned the Incident, a wave of guilt passed through the room, but Lara was unmoved by the thought. "For those few unfamiliar: imagine a task force composed of the galaxy's most dangerous criminals: assassins, mercenaries, pirates, and so many more. Now imagine they worked for the Alliance. We could send them anywhere, to do anything. It doesn't matter if they get caught. They're [i]bad guys[/i]. The Federation - the Republic - they'll never suspect a thing. To them, it'll just look like a bunch of thugs doing what thugs do. My contacts have already pushed the order through and we've been gathering and prepping a first wave of assets"

"And where are they now, Executor?"

Lara smiled. "Chronos Station"

[hr]

Sector 7
Chicago, IL
August 16th, 2366

[i]"Encryption Complete. CommsNet link established"[/i]
"SAL? Maverick. I'm in position, setting up now. Status report"
"Transport acquired. Tailing target at suggested distance of 357 meters. Tracking. Target is following route 4A. ETA 4 minutes"
"Grand. Now shut up. You better catch me when I drop"

Grayson muted his comms and turned his attention to his armor's wrist CPU. There was a satellite antenna on his left with a rather thick base, an excellent anchor point. With a quick jab to the hologram on his arm, a grapple cable shot out from his belt, and jabbed into the antenna base. After tugging at the line to ensure it was solid, he scanned the nearby architecture and found an excellent space to send the other line. With another tap on the CPU, a second cable shot out from the Spider's Web and embedded itself in the structure on the opposite building. He did a security check, then engaged the reels, lengthening the left cable and shortening the right, until he was suspended between the two buildings, nearly 50 stories up.

"Time to go invisible" He muttered to himself as he engaged his suit's Active Camo mod. The final step of preparation was pulling out the compacted rectangle from his MagSling. At his touch, the rifle unfolded into its sniper configuration, he loaded a magazine of Heavy Piercing 7.62 rounds, and sighted up, carefully watching for the convoy to round the corner.

Meanwhile, on the ground, SAL was following their target closely, minding the distance meters on his HUD as they ticked closer to 0. He engaged a subnet access to log in to their ship's CPU and initiate pre-travel procedures, knowing they would need to get off-world quickly after assassinating such a high-ranking member of Earth's government. Aware that his appalling partner in crime likely had muted or even cut off their comm link, he hailed him over a newly encrypted frequency.
"SAL to Maverick. 600 meters to kill zone"
With no response, SAL had to assume Grayson had heard him, and carried on.
For this outing, SAL had selected a newer model of hovercar, cleared for in-city travel of up to 35 stories, and also miraculously easy to hack, he would likely have to push the upper-thrusters to their limits to successfully overtake the convoy and catch Grayson when he dropped from the Spider's Web, but he knew the raw speed of it would be more than enough for them to clear any pursuing vehicles and get back to the Vulture, hopefully before any authorities could lock down the docks.

The timer hit 0 and SAL put the pedals to the floor.

Up above, Grayson engaged his cybernetic implant and locked on to the target.
"Hello there, Executor Lara, I'd like you to meet a little friend of mine" He sneered as his finger tightened around the trigger.

Alliance Blacksite
Location Unknown
August 18th, 2366

Grayson sat chained to the interrogation room table, he'd spent most of the past 48 hours in a dark hole. Ever since the Alliance surrounded them as they made their escape. The target was eliminated and the payment received, but everything was gone now. All their assets had been seized when they were tossed in here. At least they'd kept them separate so Daniel didn't have to listen to SAL prattle on about how they could have better handled the situation, and the improbability of their capture. The door shooting open cut off his train of thought.

"Daniel Grayson. We meet at last. I'm Christen Fareed, executive assistant to Executor Lara" He was a pompous-looking prick was Daniel's first impression.
"So I kill your boss and you toss me in here. Cute, but dead is dead, and I have rights, so I want my ship, my guns, my credits, and I suppose I want the rustbucket back too, won't get far without him"
"Actually, you killed a decoy... Executor Lara is alive and well. You've been had my friend. This whole thing has been a test of sorts. The Alliance hired you with a contract on her, or rather, a cleverly disguised double, to ensure you're everything they say you are. You see, we're putting a team together, you can take your time and read the basics here" He produced a mini datapad and laid it in front of Grayson.
Grayson sneered at the device "No thanks, I don't play well with others"
"Curious then, that you've spent the past 4 years working with the robot" Fareed replied.
"Yeah, it's a long story"
"Well at any rate, you have a day to decide. The terms are as follows: If you refuse, any sentence imposed on you in a court of law will be tripled, you'll spend the rest of your life in a place far worse than this. If you agree however, time will be reduced from your sentence for every mission you complete as a member of Project: Revenant, once we feel you've done enough to service civilization, your ship and assets will be returned to you, as well as quite a large sum of credits"
Grayson considered for a moment "I want half up front and my equipment returned, otherwise you can just shoot me now"
"You'll get 33% up front, more than enough to cover operation costs. You ship out to Chronos Station in the morning"

[hr]

[b][i]Location[/i][/b]:  Chronos Station
[i]Located on the fringes of Alliance territory, Chronos Station serves as a military checkpoint for Alliance vessels patrolling the Expanse, and a rest stop for traders.  The Expanse is a vast region of space, mostly unexplored, not fully colonized, and inhabited by alien races not belonging to the larger galactic community.  On the other side of the Expanse is Deadzone, a lawless region of the galaxy.[/i]

Stryker looked out of the observation window of his shuttle to see he was entering one of the landing bays on Chronos Station. Only a few other shuttles were located inside, as opposed of the other bays which were actually quite busy. The shuttles brought in each 'asset' of Project: Revenant. They were either locked up in some cell somewhere and promised freedom, or hired... or forced by the Alliance to be a part of this operation.

Captain Dawson walked up behind Stryker. "Alright, bounty hunter, time to get out"

"Yep," Stryker replied, picking up his bag of equipment.

"Don't sound so glum, Stryker.  You might actually make a few friends"

"Shut up Dawson. The only reason I'm here is to settle the debt between us. As soon as that's over, I'm out of here"

"Don't forget mate, I've got your dirty little secrets all locked up, so play nice"

The Captain led the bounty hunter over to where the other assets were being gathered. Stryker sized up a few, and felt uneasy at the sight of them. Some of these guys were pretty bad. "Damn Dawson, where'd you find these guys?"

"I didn't. Lara did". Dawson found himself in the middle of the crew members, holding his hands in an attempt to keep any insults at bay.  Nearly twenty armed guards stood sentry in the docking bay. Outside, through the force field, one could see into the vast expanse of space, as well as the ships flying in and out of the space station.

"Alright everybody, listen up" Dawson began. "I'm Captain Dawson. Last year my boss compiled a list of the worst sons-a-bitches in the galaxy. That happens to be you. Then she went about recruiting them. Those of you standing here are the ones who accepted the invitation.  I don't know if she promised you credits, or freed you from prison, or offered you information... whatever, I don't want to know why you agreed to do this job. There's no turning back, the moment you stepped on this station you are officially under Alliance command. You [i]will[/i] cooperate, or you [i]will[/i] be punished" 

Dawson motioned a hand signal to one of the guards, who left the area through an automatic door. The Captain started talking again. "The Alliance is handing over one of their former frigates, which we're dubbing [i]the Revenant[/i]. Orders for your first assignment are coming in shortly. I'm going to get them, brief you all, then hand you off to my boy Stryker here and enjoy my vacation. He'll be day-to-day command on this, like it or not, I don't care. Alliance wanted me on board, but I couldn't be bothered with the detail. Now, I'll see you in a few minutes. Don't kill each other while I'm gone"

The Captain and the armed guards left the docking bay, so only the crew of the Revenant was inside - along with the shuttles they each flew in on.

Stryker gripped one of his pistols and said "I don't have anything to say to you scumbags. Just stay out of my way and let me do my job"