[center][h1][color=RosyBrown]Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz[/color][/h1][/center]
[center][h1][color=Goldenrod]Athena Anna Kanataario[/color][/h1][/center]
[center][h1][color=Chocolate]Purna Chai Gurung[/color][/h1][/center]

[center][h1]Raven's Rock, Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland[/h1][/center]
[center][h2]1700 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Currying Favour[/h1][/center]

With the majority dished out, Tahlia and Purna finished up their batch, making sure there was something leftover for Duke, whilst also grabbing their own bits.
"Antti getting used to you, then?" Purna asked, the infiltrator quiet yet breaking the ice, looking to Tahlia, the Kiwi nodding with response to the Gurkha, who was happy to get down to the gritty part of this work.
"Yeah, you could say something like that. No idea what I'm in for." Tahlia replied, Purna shrugging, much the same, wiping the table down.
"Yes, he seems difficult. Still. Most Finnish man I have met. Not sure he can compute feelings yet. But we need that. More than Adam mentions, keeps us going. Good Chuck helped you out too." Purna replied, Tahlia giving a chuckle as she finished on her bit, taking a plate, and back to table.
"Yeah. I guess he wanted to do something too. Can't blame him. It's been a lot." She replied, as he came in closer, then looking to the giants on one end, then back to Tahlia.
"How is it two giants are into you then?" Purna was observing, he could say that. He wouldn't normally break the ice, but he'd gotten to know the team, and well, noted their feelings. An important thing to do in the detail of information, perhaps.
"I have no idea. But maybe they see a tattooed girl with a lot of upper body strength and no legs and think that's charming." Tahlia chuckled, as Purna nodded in similar confusion, taking his plate and leaving her to grab hers.

Heading to the table, and it was quite something. A bona-fide arrangement, and well, lots of chats and conversations.
"Agreed, Ebrima. We'll sneak her something out." Athena smiled, looking to the white-skinned Cameroonian, before starting to devour what looked like an entire quarter of reindeer. She did not need curry. She needed food. Her heart would jump out of her otherwise, as Adam and Purna ate a little more slowly, Tahlia and likely anyone that wasn't over seven foot and jacked like Schwarzenegger. A variety of types, and team members.

And right as the team melded, Adam's phone rang. 
"Hello?" He said, taking a moment away. Somethings never changed, as he stood up, walking away. The news was as expected. But, on tone.
"Ah, fuck." Adam responded, looking to the team. So much for team building. 

[hr]

[center][h1]Briefing Room, Raven's Rock[/h1][/center]
[center][h2]1800 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Ping![/h1][/center]

The briefing room was not a place even Adam was sure they would end up in so fast. But this late at night, well, work went on. It never stopped, and there was sleeping to be done on the plane. Tahlia wasn't on this mission- given she had things to attend to on base, and the fact it didn't require a sniper meant she was holding back. Sensical, in a way, but still, she knew there was a method to the madness in this sort of situation. 

Adam in the meantime, made sure that method was clear, standing at the AR-enabled whiteboard, the briefing room filled with a variety of characters.

"So, we have our update. Turns out, Henry Simmonds is in the hands of Artemis already. And we have a solid confirm on his location. Thanks to our intel team, primarily the efforts of Sam and Raphael, we have a fix. Marrakesh." Adam said, bringing up the map, and with it, focussing in on Marrakesh, Morocco. Africa. 

It was a chaotic part of the world as it was, but well, it was also a place that in recent times, had been a bit more stable. No doubt the market had modernised in places, but come on, this is the Medina of Marrakesh. The things sold may change, earthquakes may hit, but for a 1000 years before, and a 1000 years more, it would remain the bazaar of bazaars. The place you could get lost in and buy anything, everything, and indulge. It's a place of true Indiana Jones level anarchy, but somehow, ordered commerce. 

"We believe him to be in the heart of the Souk Semmarine, a hive of markets, stalls, courtyards and alleyways. What we do know is that whilst Artemis's on the ground presence is low from most perception, we think they have something in reserve. Bribed guards, military, and worse, a significant security presence rolled deep into there. The souk is a maze. It's nearly impossible to look inside of, and worse still, incredibly easy to hide in so it is easy for them to entrench and hide further assets. But we've found him. No Rose, but he's there." Adam pulled in the Augmented Reality-enabled map on the table, projecting it out, visible to the team.

"That is La Jardin Villeneuve. A little slice of greenery in the arid souk, connected to Maison Villeneuve, an abandoned art gallery. Inside of there, small signs can be seen of an Artemis outpost, and preparing what, we do not know. But this all appeared four hours ago. Intel points to the fact they kidnapped him whilst he was on holiday, and they wanted security in case the Gendarmerie came knocking. The one that isn't on the pay. The other part of his kidnapping may be they are looking to do something with his expertise, in plain sight. Somewhere nobody could think to look. This is obviously a problem, requiring an immediate fix. We lose Henry from here, we have problem." Adam added, flicking to the next, the Pole's accent sticking at times.

"The task is simple. We need to recover Henry, extract him, and figure out what Artemis want to do with him. Local SF won't do the job- if Artemis want him badly, they will have sent elite mercenaries and operatives, and likely, they will fight hard to get him back. What we don't know scares me, and there is even a chance that in that Souk, they could be hiding far more. Threat level is high enough that if you see anyone armed, shoot on sight. Our attack's a complex one. We need to keep a low profile, but once we go loud, we're not going to able to put the cork in the bottle again, as the British would say, yes? 

Purna, Sam you're going in ahead. Get some local clothes over your infiltration kit, blend in and get to the gate. Plant charges, cloak up, and head inside and give us an idea of what we're going into. Purna sneaks, Sam works on the electronic warfare side of things.

Ebrima, you're with me. We'll use the rooftops of the Souk to get close, and whilst it means we'll run more risk, given how the souk is laid out, we can likely avoid any Artemis spotting teams. If we see them, it's so noisy that we'll likely be able to pick off any early warning observers, early. We'll push on over top of the souk, and go direct, and drop straight into the garden. 

Chuck, Jamie and Oliver, you three are going to hide in a truck we'll park close to the front of Maison Villeneuve on the road and when we need you, we'll call on you to charge in and clean everything up. Which, done right, shouldn't be long, we'll pincer on the garden and house and then find our target. We can get you in close ahead of time and hide you, but expect to get moving quickly. Expect heavy resistance. No mechs in sight, but they are likely to have heavies of their own, multiple exoskeleton armed operatives, entrenched weaponry, and are ready for a fight. What they lack in number, they have in lethality.

Athena, and her support teams are on security. They'll flank the other side of the Souk and ensure nobody gets in, and out once we know what's going on. Watch for civilians, and as you go along, the Gendarmes that haven't been bribed will try and secure the area. I expect throughout the Souk Artemis will try and turn the place into a warzone.  All lethals if they're carrying weapons and don't look friendly. APCs won't fit inside the alleys so the largest natural predator is Athena, but they will on the streets around, and it doesn't mean they won't have their own protection. This man we are looking for is critical to them, clearly. We need to stop the rot and end this before escalation." Adam looked around the room, knowing there was much to come.

"If all goes well, we clean out the Artemis compound, and before any local reinforcements react from across the city or souk, we get to a truck in Jemaa-el-Fnaa, back to the airport, and figure out what next. Overheads are low, everyone, we do not know where local forces stand. This relies upon us getting what we need, and getting out. If we do not know who to trust, and think we may be up against it, we do this our way." He flicked to the last page, and with it, the updates on screen of the team composition, arrangement, placement and setup.  

"Any questions?"

[hr]

[center][h1]Armoury, Raven's Rock[/h1][/center]
[center][h2]0000 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Cue the Montage[/h1][/center]

[center][h2][url=
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMUEygq5I2E]The Black Keys - Hell of a Season[/url][/h2][/center]

Equipping up with exos, armour, infiltrator kit, the armoury was a hive. There's a lot going on. From Adam's exoskeleton, a matt black with a visor system flipping down, to Purna, who eschewed all of the older mountaineering kit in favour of a skintight, hexagonal-patterned drysuit-like infiltration kit, to Athena, who had gone to the privacy of the heavies armoury and basically, in front of everyone just stripped to her undergarments there and chained up and closed up Warhawk, it was something and a half- the helm's multi camera feed on Warhawk something like the Enclave Power Armour from Fallout, if ever there was a way to properly describe it, mounted off to the side of her head. The team had an opportunity to get equipped, and the thumping feet of Athena coming in, helmet off, looked like a different beast to the one she was. Fun, bubbly and playful turned to scary, checking and playful.

The gigantic tesla coil, probably the entire size of Purna in one hand, twin Ingram MAC-10s attached to her sides with customised triggering and extended mags, and two fucking swords at her hip made up a primary weapons of choice, as did the Trophy System and mini missile system geared for High Explosives, rather than armour today- elimination on the cards rather than area denial. Warhawk's presence was one that screamed "look at me", it would if it was painted pink but alas, that was off-brand for her. She wasn't that basic, after all. Yet. 

"Haha.....now, I missed this." Athena simply announced, Adam sighing, annoyed, yet tooling himself up. 

The OsirisM2 "Sokol" unit he used was a variant of Skye's own, designed to be less of the hyperactive firing platform and provide a little more protection and power, over the sheer power of the jump jet and agility. Equipping the FR MSBS Grot, he loaded the mag and checked the tool over, shouldering the weapon and checking the holographic and magnifier combo, before unloading the weapon and equipping a USAS-12 with a range of stick magazines, including the Fire Stick, the Boom Stick, and more importantly for enemy exos and more armoured targets, the Slug Stick. The one that was like flinging a fuck you, in full auto, at someone that didn't want to die. A compliment to Ebrima's exo but with the attached generator, could create a forcefield. Still prototype of course, and particularly heavy limiting movement but well, it was a tool for use. Of course, charging enemies and smarter ones might figure out it was limited and could still be run through, but there was advantages in that. A FN FiveSeven, and a series of tactical kit finished up the combination.

"Miss being shot at? Jesus." Adam chuckled, as Purna came in, the Bedouin cloak over his drysuit-like Gryphon infiltrator kit, the grey headwrap tight against his forehead, wrapped up nice and neat in no clash with the robe's predominantly gray and light blue colour. He checked the Mk14 and hid it beneath the cloak, as did the MP5SD, stock folded in and the twin USPs hidden at his belt. The suit he wore was more than just a tight infiltrator's suit- it had optical cloaking, and whilst the robe over it covered that, it was a different kind of camo he needed in the market. He would blend in seamlessly. Even a little Arabic he knew would carry him to where he needed, and he wouldn't even be noticed.
"Yeah, I don't do that thing." Purna replied, quickdrawing his USP on his right, checking it was still accessible, even in the cover of the cloak. 

With it, the three seemed prepared. They had pairs to work with, well, all bar Athena, and a mission to complete. From dawn cold of northern Finland to burning sun of the African sun, they were headed back into the fire.

[hr]

[center][h1][color=lightblue]Skye Rosalind Lyons[/color][/h1][/center]
[center][h1][color=silver]Ban Kingo[/color][/h1][/center]
[center][h1][color=#FF7F7F]Outflaw[/color][/h1][/center]

[center][h1]Somewhere near Mount Fuji, Japan[/h1][/center]
[center][h2]1700 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Levitating[/h1][/center]

[color=lightblue]
The Chuo-Shinkansen is a revelation of a train. A cutting edge, maglev-driven marvel of technology, it had been almost decades in the making, and faster than any car, flight, anything at all over this distance to Nagoya hurtling non-stop at almost 300mph. It’s a kind of speed that turns the outside to blur, and because of the magnetic levitation technology of the train floated like it was flying through butter, hurtling in the afternoon sun of central Honshu. Korea now had a similar system, so too did China and even by some miracle, France was thinking of its own system. France. Let that sink in.

Blasting through tunnel after tunnel, the leather jacketed pixie, wearing her aviators, and looking across at the large suitcase that was hauled up in the rack to her side, looked back at Ban, and adjacent to that, Enri. Her look was screaming Gaijin, but less superspy, considering she looked like she was here for a metal tour, not her usual indie or rock bands she listened to. Time had passed on by, and well, instead of dragging any more viewings at Kiyose City, Skye checked if they could get a move on now. It would make sense to hit Artemis whilst they were still a little confused themselves as to what the fuck was going on- and Skye liked Enri. So much so, that after the hack, she had asked the question. An evening of her time, at a higher rate. She just needed to cover some tracks, including the one they were on now. Avoid leaving any cloud uploaded trace, at least, holding them out of line. And perhaps, maybe some light hacking work on a subsystem that would be somewhere in the distance. Not so much in the line of fire, fuck that, but a desk operator job. Skye just needed a voice in her ear opening the big doors, but she could open the rest herself with Ban.

“So, I think we have what we need. Enri, I guess the toy’s ready for me?” Skye asked, her candid Scots accent still in display, hideable soon by the thing she’d spent the morning with Enri getting to know. She felt a little more comfortable, even somewhat trusting of the hacker. It was like a cat they’d had in the family once. Sparky, his name was. This Scottish Fold that just did not care, well, cared enough but enjoyed their own peace and quiet. And was never about. And just generally, got up to shenanigans. A fun creature indeed. Then Ban. Who was the serious, hardened Yakuza that now, was back into her world. Strange, but then again, part of the deal. Goons would likely be able to help out at the site itself, but considering the setup, it was fewer the better. Skye and Ban needed an in, Enri would open the door, and the Amagi footsoldiers were there as the cork for a bottle. Shit always went wrong, so Skye reasoned, some backup was better than none. 
[/color]

[color=#FF7F7F]
Enri had been considerably more, well, normal in Ban’s presence, actually greeting him politely, with a proper bow and no chewing gum. When the conversation turned to the goods, she nodded enthusiastically and placed two black plastic cases on the table. “Impact resistant, should hold a seal up to five meters deep. Two as promised” She popped one open, revealing the skin-colored patch about the size of two post stamps inside, “I didn’t have time to test it completely, but based on the power draw I got out of it when making sure it worked, I expect you’ll get three hours of continuous use out of each. Four if you don’t talk much.”

Reaching into the bag again, she produced Skye’s burner. “No red flags here. Got the app installed, plus a PDF manual. Fully charged too. I can run you through how it works and we can do some fine tuning of the AI, but I had a guy handle the audio end of things, you’ll need the manual for that.” Enri was good - fuck that, she was [i]amazing[/i] if you asked her - on the software and hardware side, but knew next to nothing about audio engineering, hence the need to delegate.
[/color]

[color=lightblue]
Skye nodded, chuckling. Busy bee she was, given what she’d been able to do. She may not be an audio engineer either, but Skye is…..well, creative. You didn’t become a ghost without learning things, and Skye’s ability to pick up, play and do was what made her what she was. 
“Good stuff. Perfect. Lemme play with this.” Skye understated, as she picked it up and immediately slapped it onto her throat, taking the phone that Enri produced, and drawing the app open, giving a long “aaaa” like she was at the dentist, for maybe a little bit too long. But suddenly, it went strange. Skye picked it up without much ask on the app, and her pitch dropped, before she tailored in on it, finding that certain frequency. That certain bit. She then carried on playing, realising this wasn’t gonna work. She stopped, and quietly, went through the PDF. She had a few things to play with to get it exactly right. 
“Okay, you’re right. Turns out an English accent is a wee bit harder!” Skye chuckled, in the deepened tone, Skye realising oh yeah- it wouldn’t mask Scottishisms. So, she changed that up a little, clearing her throat.
“How are we looking, Ban? What’s the sitrep with the facility?” Skye enquired, still playing with the tool.
[/color]
[color=silver]
Ban had greeted Enri with a smirk and a bow of his head in greeting. It’d been good to see the man again. But soon their train had arrived and he’d entered, following in the rear of the group of three, silently taking up the position of rear guard. Better that way in the end.

Sitting down and belting in he’d tapped his finger on the arm rest softly, listening to the pair, “On my end, the Oyabun managed to get us an in at the facility. An unmarked member of the family is working as a custodian, and has access to most of the building, he’s been checking things over and sending reports on security locations and facility interiors. It’s spotty as there are alot of black areas. Public hallways and locations will be easy enough, but there are sections of floors where we’ll have no view until we get there ourselves.”
[/color]

[color=#FF7F7F]
Enri got a smug smirk on her face. “Oh, I knew something like this would come up.” She reached into her bag of tricks and produced two flash drives, placing them on the table between Skye and Ban. “Infected flash drives. Plug them into any computer on a network you want access to, and the worm inside will infect every other computer on that network. Might take five minutes, might take 30, depends on a lot of factors. Available bandwidth, network size, how many are running. Internal security tends to be a lot more lax. The payload is a rootkit that’s gonna settle in the OS kernel and give me admin access to every infected computer. Some companies, especially tech and defense, also tend to have multiple networks. One for R&D, one for HR, so on, hence two drives. But you need to get in first.” She explained. Why bother looking for a loophole in the Firewall to abuse when one could bypass it entirely. “And because of where it sits, it actively masks itself. Only way to detect its presence is by a human, or booting from a safe drive. But if you just need in or out, it should work like a charm.”
[/color]

[color=lightblue]
“Perfect. I like the sound of that too. Just means finding some points. Enri, once in, we may have some interesting files to play with. The main bit will be their servers. If I find hardware, I’ll rip it out, software, it might include networks of an organisation named Artemis. Or at least, power brokers of said organisation.” Skye replied to Enri, nodding to Ban also.
“Sounds like a play, Ban. We can work with that. Just means high speed, low drag, drop anyone we see and get what we need. They’ll be ready for a fight, but, we’re good ourselves.” Skye replied, knowing Enri would be strongly getting the hint that this wasn’t exactly a business trip with suits and ties and a hostile takeover. More like one with guns and getting to the core of a network. The Scot carried on tweaking, as suddenly, she found it. The tones shifted a lot, bouncing through weird inflections, and then, there.
“Hello…..hello…….Hello? Ah, perfect.” Her voice shifted, as she looked across to them.
“Queen’s English. Peter Peckled Pickl….fuck. Okay, I still think in Scots, but that’ll do nicely. It’s about right.” Her voice held, and magnificently, became Rose’s. Not inch perfect, but like an AI would modulate and Skye could hear out, it would work. Ban and Enri no doubt had no idea why Skye was doing this, especially not Enri, but need to know and all that. It was RP styled English, like Rose had, clear and concise, very much southern and very much altered.
[/color]
[color=silver]
Ban reached down and palmed one of the flashdrive, “Just plug and play you say? I’m not too big on computers these days. I swear the things you tech savvy sort can do.” He sniffed, “Should be simple enough though.” He looked at his phone as it beeped, “Ah, good.” He set it down on his knee so everyone could see, “Here. The place we’re going. Nagoya Energy Works, Building 90S, about 200 yards off Hisaya Odori Park. You can see it from the observation deck of the Chubu Electric MIRAI Tower. Yes the same tower Gojira keeps breaking in the movies. Nevermind that for now.” He enlarged the picture, “87 stories, our custodian has mapped 67 of them, he’s blocked from the rest. He’s leaving a map nearby for us to pick up when we go in.”

He looked between the two, “And all our gear should be ready in a drop nearby. Weapons, gear and a few interesting odd things should things need to go loud. Which I hope it will not.” He looked at Enri, “As long as your tech works Enri-san.” Then back at Skye, “And you and I can contain our blood thirsty urges when we’re in there.” He can’t help but grin just a bit at that.
[/color]
[color=#FF7F7F]
"Plug and play." She confirmed with a nod, "They're single-use though, so pick carefully. Yes, theoretically the receptionist's computer could be enough, or it could just get you to HR files. Like I said, there could be separate internal networks." The flash drives were one of her 'commercial' products, and this way she was getting paid per use, not per customer. Maybe she should've made some reusable ones for in-house work, it would've been a matter of deleting six lines of code, which she couldn't do here. You live and learn.

"Well, if being detected isn't a concern, if you can get one of these into a computer that you know deals with security," She said, pointing to the flash drives, "I could turn whatever security features they have against them and get a few of my guys to manage it in real time. Safety doors to slow down or corral them, keep you a clear path, lights, internal communication, whatever they have and we get access to." It would be clear to Skye that Enri knew what was going on and cared little for the illegalities of the matter. She was getting paid to do a job, and that was what she was going to do, "And if you could get one onto a computer you know for sure has access to their data..." A grin one could describe as 'evil' grew on the small woman's face, one that wouldn't feel out of place on a menpō, "I could do some damage. I mean, they're gonna have backups, nothing we can do about those, and if their cyber security department is at least decent, they'll be backing up frequently. But losing even 12 hours worth of data sounds like a bad day."
[/color]
[color=lightblue]
And Skye loved it. She grinned, only so happy with the damage that could be done with the flash drives.
“Perfect. That’s exactly what we need. Site looks interesting too. This isn't like the Singapore office, this is a full on research site.” She said to them both, happy with the fact that well, damage could be done, and well, more than that, they had an idea of where to go. Her expression remained cool, as she took her aviators off, the afternoon sun back out again as the train was barely 10 minutes to Nagoya. They’d been on this train for barely half an hour, and it had done a distance even the lightning-fast Shinkansen it replaced would do in two hours.
“Well, the plan will be simple then. I go in through the front, with Ban, and weapons get brought with us. Pose as someone else. If we get to the right place, we can deploy the USBs, and the hacks slow down any trace to us, then find any physical, or digital pieces we need. And importantly…a biochemical lab’s vault. And if we get rumbled…..we just take the red route.” Skye added, knowing they were nearly done soon. She had a good feeling about this. It was time for some revenge. 
“Ah yeah, I should probably turn this off.” Skye realised, all of the bit before in her new English accent, rather than her classical Scots.
“Word to the wise, both of you. This character, Rose, she’s quite psychotic from what I can tell. So, if I slip into her a little, don’t be alarmed if I’m a little quiet, then loud. Needs must and all. As she shares the same features as me, going in armed, and with a vest likely isn’t an issue. Ban here is joining Artemis, after all. It means chances are, any biometrics are basically a fly-through. The bit we need to watch for are those that aren’t. Or, if they figure it out.” She added, Enri likely confused.

“Oh, yeah. Well, how do I put this…..it’s really, really complicated, basically, biological copy of me is roaming about and I’m committing reverse identity theft to deal with a secret society and her crazy arse wanting to do lots of genocide. Believe me, details will come later.” Skye added, knowing that while it was open, they had an opportunity to at least cover their tracks, and she’d already checked the perimeter for anyone that could be eavesdropping.
[/color]
[color=silver]
Ban nods, “Best play is to take it as it comes then.” He snorted, “I thought I got out of this line of work. How easy it is to fall into old habits.” He looked out the window as the train leaned into a corner, the city scape coming closer and closer by the moment, “We’re nearly there. There’s an Amagi car waiting for us in the parking lot at the station, but we’re in Obu Family territory now, we’ll only be able to rely on a little bit of Amagi support, we don’t want to step on toes too much out here. Last thing we want is for the Obu to contact the Yamaguchi and file a complaint for a family out of line.” He rubbed his nose and his hand clenched at his side as if seeking the katana he usually carries but was sent ahead, so it wouldn’t be questioned why he has a weapon on the train.

“It’s a give and take, and right now, we have taken a lot and need to be prepared for what we’re going to be given.” The old yakuza sniffed again, “Just another normal day.”
[/color]
[color=lightblue]
Skye’s explanation of the situation was the first time she would see her genuinely stunned. Even Ban, whose family she’d been working for for two months. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was being told, the less she knew that she didn’t directly need to know, the better, but the woman she only knew as ‘Kitsune’ didn’t seem like the type to do something without having a good reason to. Like parachuting into the middle of a city. “I’ll need about ten minutes to get set up when we arrive.” Having been billed for an evening’s work and asked some surface questions, she had arranged a hotel room with good enough internet connection and had some equipment delivered there in advance. “And then it’s off to the races.”

“Aye, and I’m no betting girl, but I’d say we have some return on investment to look at here.” Skye smiled to them both, aware Enri had her task to do, Outflaw having her job, whilst Ban would be by her side. It was not a conventional plan. But then again, it was time to go into the spine of the beast. And come out swinging.
[/color]

[hr]