[IC] Y Crisis (Pat 1: Decline)

[Protagonist]

As they went on deck, Siena pulled an SMG on two twins. He held out his hand.
"Easy there, there's no way they're spies. Twins would be two obvious."
He turns to them and says "how did you get here? And why?"

[Etcetera]

Protagonist said
As they went on deck, Siena pulled an SMG on two twins. He held out his hand."Easy there, there's no way they're spies. Twins would be two obvious."He turns to them and says "how did you get here? And why?"

"I'm Isis!" "I'm Artemis!" The two said at the same time. Artemis smirked and then snickered "Hehe, two obvious." "We jumped from a helicopter and landed on the deck. We're the Israeli representatives from Jerusalem." Isis responded. "Hey, wait a minute! We've done spying stuff before! It makes it easy to be two places at once!" Artemis added with mock anger.

[WittyReference]

It wasn't long before the Alexis' security showed up and unlocked Curtis' quarters; three young women of fair complexion and matching navy uniforms. Had he cared to linger over them, Curtis might have seen their freckles or auburn hair falling lightly from their helmets in places but none such concerned the man as the quartet marched to the main deck in silence. As they neared the bridge, two of the women fell behind Curtis and the third gingerly. It might have even gone unnoticed had the man not heard the familiar click of weapon safeties.

"You know you don't have to do that." Curtis called over his shoulder, never turning toward the muzzles he sensed behind him. "You think if I had meant to leave with the others, I'd have waited thirty years to end up on a ship outside a damn oil rig with skyscrapers?" No response. "Even if I did, even if I did mean to escape, where would I go? We're smack dab in enemy territory, girl scout." Curtis felt a quick jab in his back as the metal barrel of a gun struck him. Rubbing his back with exaggerated anguish, Curtis laughed. "Is that how NUA is training you kids nowadays? Picking on an old man? I swear, the French treated me better than this!"

As the four reached the door to the bridge, the two woman behind Curtis fell away with a huff and the one in front merely scanned her i.d. to open the door before walking away, back to whatever guard post they'd been assigned upon the massive Alexis. Entering into what served as the command center and war room, Curtis made his way to where Henderson stood surveying the war outside. "Admiral." With a stiff salute, the man sounded off. "First Sargent T. Anthony Curtis here on official Allied business. I trust the NUA sent word of my operations here beforehand so I'll keep this brief. My mission is to find the current acting Governor of the city of Dubai and eliminate her. While the NUA have full faith in your campaign here, they feel without localized leadership to receive the Empress' directives, the city will fall much sooner. As such, I'll be needing transport to shore." After a short pause, indeed, the only lapse in his militaristic rhetoric at all, Curtis continued. "Preferably not the beach."

[ImportantNobody]

The corner of Maria's soft plum coated lips twitched a bit at Tammy's question. Annoying little brat, wasn't she? Just go to the bunker you little-...

"I saw you hiding over here and couldn't help but rescue you," he replied smoothly, far different then what he was actually thinking. He was a good actor, remaining his same graceful, feminine tone the entire time and hardly even skipping a beat. He didn't have to adjust his voice much at all because he always had a soft voice, and having grown up with the same female accent almost all his life made it as natural as breathing. In fact he would have to put more effort in to go back to a convincing sounding male voice.

He took a couple steps closer to Tammy just in case she decided to run, the sound of his clacking heels echoing softly through the alleyway. His feet quivered ever so slightly with each step. He had a decent amount of practice with heels but perhaps wasn't at 100% yet. Sure, even if he had them mastered it was still a poor choice to have them on during a battle, but that was out of his control. What he had on now was all he had on him before getting his assignment, and by that time with such sort notice he was off on the helicopter to fly over to Dubai without getting time to head back to his apartment. They had his sniper for him but hadn't thought to bring a change of shoes, which understandably would be far from their mind. In fact, Maria himself had momentarily forgotten that he was even wearing them until they landed and one of his contacts on the ground said, "Nice nail polish, sparkle toes." Hopefully this lapse in judgment wouldn't cost him in the end, but he was still confident that he could run down this kid in such a situation. If all else failed then a couple shots to the kneecap would help him catch up easily enough. He wasn't going to miss at this distance, not with all of his advanced training.

Tammy probably had noticed his feet by now anyways, so he might as well bring up this weakness as a joke to try and lighten the mood, perhaps turning this downside into a plus. An evil assassin wouldn't have made this mistake, right? He was just your average girl, right? At least that's what he'd try to get across. "Silly me. I know girls love their shoes and all, but I probably could have invested in a pair of combat boots instead, huh?" He took a few steps closer, running his left hand through his blonde hair. "Know any good shoe stores around here?" He gave a playful wink at the end. Come on, Tammy, he was putting a lot into this performance. She better buy it!

____________________

Sienna took a step back as Artemis approached her. She was about to issue another warning to stay back, but the woman simply lowered her barrel down calmly rather then anything what would seem like an attack. She didn't have a trigger finger when it came to people she didn't know if friend or foe, so she refrained from attacking despite this move the woman pulled possibly very dangerous for her if it was a sneak attack. Perhaps Sienna was just too soft for her own good and that could bite her in the end. Well, better then gun down random strangers and have a whole lot of paperwork to fill out later on, even if it probably would count as self defense.

"Israeli?" Sienna questioned, looking the two women over carefully. Well, they couldn't be too dangerous right now because they were surrounded by armed soldiers. They'd be dead before they had the chance to pull anything. With the attitude these two women had, they didn't seem to be on a suicide mission. "Ah, I see. Pardon my mistake," she said, dropping her weapon completely at ease. She now had enough faith in them and her comrades to do so. "So I take it you two are here to help in the battle?"

____________________

The Dubai governor was a woman from Saudi Arabia, as most in power were through ought the Arabian Empire. Few from their original countries had managed to remain in any sort of position of power that wasn't a puppet government, although some who had not put up any resistance or perhaps even joined her army willingly did have a better chance in this matter. The United Arab Emirates was not one of them, and their government was one of the first to be crushed, being a neighbor. This woman...was not liked around these parts, to say the least. She had a rich, entitled aura about her, a large lock of black hair dangling in front of her slim face that was pampered with makeup and perfumes. She wore two large golden hoop earrings and many medals on her green and black military uniform. She didn't gain her position of governor through diplomatic elections, as it was painfully obvious. Dozens of heavily armed women surrounded her as she sat at her desk, viewing a monitor of the situation while chatting nonchalantly in Arabic on the phone. She was safe inside a bunker deep below one of the skyscrapers, which was filled with her most elite troops. Not that she expected they'd even get that far into the city. There was the sound of a distance explosion and a slight rumble, but none of them even bothered to react to this.

"Yes, yes, the invaders will soon be repelled from our lands. I will not fail you, milady," she said, hanging up the phone.

[Card Captor]

"Not really" Tommy replied "I did just get here after all. I still don't know where anything" he added. After answering her question, something started nagging him. She never did say why she left her bunker, only that she saw him. While it was probably nothing, Tommy's life had made him a paranoid person. He was now suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of going to this bunker. But he couldn't just say that he changed his mind, that would seem suspicious. He needed an excuse to...Aha! "My brother!" he suddenly cried out in surprise "I...I can't believe I forgot about Tommy. What...what if some nasty woman captured him and is violating him as we speak!?" he faked panicked as he breathed rapidly to also fake hyperventilation

[Etcetera]

Artemis giggled and snickered at once. "Human nature is so predictable, isn't it?" Isis sighed at her sister's tough act, knowing it would get her killed eventually get her killed, although her views and predictions on human nature were generally spot on. Artemis never hesitated to explain that you can observe someone's entire personality just by the way they carry themselves. Their subconscious signals, such at the rate of their breathing, the twitch of their muscles always indicated their actions and intents. Artemis knew she wouldn't shoot her... hopefully. Isis was always terrified that one day... her sister would be wrong. "We're here to collect data and to provide support if necessary," Isis said. Artemis' proud and up front nature didn't help their cause, but it certainly made it more believable that they were actually detached-from-reality scientists who were arrogant enough to expect others to just allow them access to wherever they wanted. Well, they kind of were... but not quite as arrogant.

[Protagonist]

Adam says "Collect Data?"
Now he feels these two are suspicious. He says "What kind of data?"
Part of him feels he shouldn't be held up, what with lives at stake, but his primary duty as a provost was security.

[Etcetera]

"Data that you're not allowed to look at." Artemis replied with a sneer. Isis sighed; "Our father is the head of Israel's Trophy program, and the data we collect about a war zone will aid in their technology advancement." Artemis looked at Isis and rolled her eyes. There was no need to explain themselves to this guy, or anyone, for that matter. Isis was just sick of the lack of trust anymore.

[Protagonist]

Hale shrugs. He turns to Sienna. "I think they're fine."
He then asks "Will you be needing any help? Otherwise, I think we should be on our way."

[Etcetera]

Artemis replied "The question is: Do you need any help?"

[ImportantNobody]

Maria grew tired of this. There was a strong possibility that Tammy had somehow found out about his ill intentions. And here he thought he was doing a darn good job appearing to be a kind hearted pedestrian. Did he still need to work on his acting skills or was Tammy just really good at detecting a fake? Oh well, in this case it didn't matter too much either way. He would have liked to kidnap her in as clean of a manner as possible, but he could still get this little runt one way or another. He calmly raised his left hand upwards, clutching lightly onto his silver handgun etched by hand with multiple drawings, aiming this one of a kind weapon at the kid's chest. In reality they were probably of similar age, but he saw her as far more childlike and defenseless then he saw himself. This wasn't unusual. He was far more mature and composed then most kids his age. They always had to rely on him to get things done. Do their dirty work for them.

"Don't worry about this Tommy kid. I'm sure he'll be just fine," he called out dryly to her. "It's you that I would be worried about."

He took one more step towards him, his right heel clanking loudly through the ally way, but there was nobody around to hear it. If they were then they would be far too distracted by the intense gunfire and bombing that was still happen a further ways out behind Tammy. If not, and they stuck their nose where it didn't belong, they would soon find it blown off. He could handle the average soldier or two. Any civilians such as Tammy would be a breeze.

He took another step, and then another. "Don't try to run. Not if you like having your kneecaps intact. Hands on your head and kneel down. I just have to check something real quick and we can all be on our way," he ordered sternly. If she did turn out to be a girl then she'd be on her way in a body bag, but that piece of information wasn't needed to be disclosed. He let out a smile as he finished and added on cutely, "Pretty please?"

____________________

Sienna nodded her head at Artemis's head. "I guess the more the merrier. We could use Israel's help in this conflict."

Her already messy brown hair began to flutter around every which way as an intense air current swirled around her. She was lucky her uniform used pants rather then a skirt or else she would have likely been pulling off a Marilyn Monroe over an air vent, which wouldn't exactly be appropriate in a setting such as this. She looked up to see the cause of this, a chinook helicopter owned by Australia, circling overhead and slowly landing down behind the group up on the landing pad. An Australian woman in an officer uniform stepped out of the doorway, arm signaling for the group to get in.

Sienna gulped. Looks like this was it. They were really heading out into battle, and from a helicopter no less. Was it too late to mention that she was afraid of heights? She strapped her gun to her back and made her way inside, careful not to be separated from Adam as more and more people filed in. It wasn't hard to keep an eye on him, him being the only male, but it could still get difficult to navigate over to him as everyone was getting their seats and strapping in. She plopped down onto her seat, nervously looking around at some of the nearby girls...and Adam. But mostly the other girls for comfort. Her knuckles were turning white as she clutched onto the edged of her seat.

"Don't look out the window while we're in the air. Don't look out the window while-" she began repeating into her head, then added on, "Don't let the enemy shoot us while we're in the air..."

This wasn't going to be a pleasant ride, she could already tell. Hopefully she didn't throw up.

[Card Captor]

This was certainly a new experience; Tommy had feared many things in his life, but the fear of being shot in the kneecaps was definitely a first. It was things like this that made him regret not carrying a firearm of some sort. As he slowly got down on his knees, he saw something; a shard of glass right in front of him. It looked really sharp too. At that moment, he knew what he had to do. She wouldn't have any idea what to do. He finished getting down to the floor and, with the fear of death in him, reached out to grab it with speed he had never before possessed. With his weapon in hand he quickly put it...

...at his own throat. "You need me alive...don't you?" he pushed the shard of glass closer to his skin, drawing blood "one wrong move, and I slit my throat. I think even the shock from getting shot would make me reflexively kill myself" he said as he got back up "I doubt whoever you work for will have much use for a corpse." She could never see it coming...because no one plans for crazy

[WittyReference]

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The sewers beneath the city were black and blue. Frigid, putrid, the normally balmy waters around Dubai seemed to stagnate in the pipes. Human refuse clung to his limbs and made swimming difficult. His body ached from disuse and it was all he could do to keep from gagging into his oxygen tank. Certainly not where anyone would want to spend their afternoon but, apart from the beaches, this was the only way into the city that didn't need air support.

Curtis thought to himself as he pushed himself through the ever narrowing pipes, a practice he'd picked up years ago as a way to keep the Echoes at bay. "Damn. Damn damn damnity damn damn. Sixty years beneath the badge and this is where we end up. Helluva vacation, guys. Hell, Dad was retired by this age and they gave him enough to buy a place in Florida! He got surf and sun. and where are we? Up to our eyes in commie shit! God bless him, I'm glad the old bastard passed before all this happened." Curtis narrowly dodged a disposed condom as he mused to himself. "Who am I to call anyone old, eh?" Curtis smiled behind his oxygen mask. "Sixty, no, seventy years! Was it seventy? We'll have to check when I get back to the ship. First things first though, gut this Bitch-Lord of the Dunes and get out alive. Seems simple enough, eh boys?"

Curtis eventually came to dead end, the pipes too narrow to continue through. "Ah, I must be near the residential center." After a bit of searching, Curtis lifted himself unto a lip of concrete no doubt used by sanitation workers and the like. Removing his tank and wetsuit, careful not to get any of the pipe's contents on his uniform beneath, Curtis stashed both behind a nearby ladder before ascending it into the city proper via a small manhole.

Quietly clattering the metal lid aside, Curtis surveyed the alleyway carefully. No soldiers, no outposts, nothing to denote a threat of the NUA even making it this far. "Sandy must be pretty sure of herself if she thin-" Curtis hushed as he turned to see two figures further down the alley. Even with his improved sight he could only make out their silhouettes, a fact he cursed himself for beneath his breath as he rose himself slowly from the manhole. "Goddamnit, I used to be able to see a gnat's pecker at two hundred yards. I'll have to talk to the Docs about that later. Damn."

Skulking through the alleyway, Curtis was careful not to the let the cane hanging at his waist knack against the concrete as he lifted it from it's loop. As he neared the two figures, they slowly came into focus at a hundred yards. "Definitely need to talk to the Docs..." Two women, both armed in their own way but the pistol-toting blonde was the obvious aggressor. Curtis sighed to himself knowing this mission was about to get a lot longer. "Sorry boys, you know I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress."

Curtis arched his back and obscured his revolver behind his hip, appearing no more than a feeble old man wandering the streets. With several strong blows, Curtis's cane echoed down the alley, the force of such causing cracks in the concrete it came in contact with and denoting his arrival. "S'cuse me miss, you wouldn't happen to know where the closest police station is, would you? There's a hag with a shiny popgun I'd like to report."

[Protagonist]

Adam Hale recites the whole "valley of the shadow of death" speech in prayer, and then gulped and prayed for the souls of his teammates who have died and will die. He's actually starting to tear up. He says "Alright, alright.", breathing heavily. He's not quite panicking, but he's visibly terrified. He says "So are we landing or parachuting in? And how close will we be to the enemy?"

[Etcetera]

Artemis looked at Adam and cocked an eyebrow. "You okay there, man? You look a bit sick. There's no need to be afraid; you just prayed, right? You're in the clear for this battle." She said with a grin. Isis smiles at her response to him. Man, she was a pain sometimes, but she sure did say some meaningful stuff. Isis looked out the window and started calculating the necessary angles and speed to achieve lift on the copter, as she placed her hand on her gun. The gun. The gift from dad. The promise of safety. She knew that everything would be okay, as long as that was with her. She had to believe that, she had to hope.

[Protagonist]

Hale says "Sorry, I'll be fine. We have a saying in the US army-if you aren't scared, you aren't paying attention."
He allows himself to calm down a little and says "Sorry, I'm just...worried, is all. Plenty of soldiers on D-day prayed as well. Many of them never made it back, either. War's won through sacrifice, not survival."

[Etcetera]

Protagonist said
Hale says "Sorry, I'll be fine. We have a saying in the US army-if you aren't scared, you aren't paying attention."He allows himself to calm down a little and says "Sorry, I'm just...worried, is all. Plenty of soldiers on D-day prayed as well. Many of them never made it back, either. War's won through sacrifice, not survival."

"You see, our parents really instilled self-preservation into us as we were growing up." Artemis answered. "He also had a saying about it; 'Why die for something if you won't get to experience it?' He said it wasn't true in all cases, but find what you are willing to die for, and put your life directly under that. That way, you can continue to live, achieve your goal, and make everything better than it is. Although, our dad said that he was so disappointed in the world, he would only die if it were God's command to. But I find that what you expect to happen generally does, so expect to live, believe you will, have faith, and it'll happen. There's no doubt in my mind. Besides, why believe anything except that you're going to come out of it alive? If you do, you were right! If you don't, you're dead anyway, so why despair now? Believe in your own ability!"
Isis smiled and let her sister take this one. Artemis could get anyone pumped, but Isis preferred to wait until someone needed her for other, more emotional reasons. You need to get over a fear? Artemis is your girl. But if your parents died, Isis would sit and talk with you for hours just to get you to crack a smile.

[CallingField]

Lily awkwardly hurried into her seat in the chopper and strapped herself in as the officer urged everyone inside. This was it then, wasn’t it? She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She’d been preparing for battle for months at this point. It was disconcerting to think that she was now out of time to prepare. How much of her training would she be able to hold onto once it came down to it?

Around her, everyone was reacting differently. Some were praying, some were silent as the grave. Some looked like they were about to throw up, while others looked more collected, like they’d done this before.

The atmosphere in here is too damn depressing, she thought. She thought about making some stupid joke; try to lighten the mood a little bit. Hey, is it too late to go use the toilet? She chuckled softly to herself.

She decided against it. Everyone was tense enough. They didn’t need to deal with her being obnoxious on top of everything else. She sighed, sat back in her seat, and started to look around. She suddenly noticed that she was sitting next to the New Zealander from earlier.

It’ll probably be a few more minutes, might as well strike up some conversation, she thought.

“Hey. We met earlier, didn’t we?” she asked the girl. “I didn’t catch your name. I’m Leigh. Lily Leigh.”

[ImportantNobody]

Maria let out a loud tisk at this recent development, his shocked and then bitter facial expression showing that the plan had worked exactly as desired. She was right. If she was a male then he'd be no use to them dead. Well, little use, and only to a very slim number of purposes. Let's just say that she would not be expected much money at all from such a transaction; certainly not worth her time or effort. A bead of sweat formed on his brow as he kept his gun aimed at her, although for what purpose he wasn't entirely sure. What should he do? Risk her dying and fire to disarm her? He was a good shot, but the shoot he had to make to achieve this was difficult even for a computer.

The sound of tapping interrupted her thoughts. It almost sounded like his high heels, although not quite. And besides, who else would be wearing high heels and walking so calmly? A soldier certainly wouldn't fulfill the first part and a civilian wouldn't fulfill the second part unless they were crazy. So it wasn't high heels, but a tap with every step. As the sound got closer it was clearly far more powerful then just someone walking.

The source of the sound then came into view...a man? An old man, but a man. And here he was all on his lonesome. Hopefully he was still fertile. What was he doing out here in a place like this? She didn't bother with any formalities with him, as she saw no reason for trickery or stalling. She whipped her handgun around to face him and fired a shot towards his right knee, a slight smile on her face. Maybe today was her lucky day after all.

____________________

"We're landing if we're able, but if not we may need to fly ahead and drop you down from parachutes," one of the women near the front of the heli explained in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear over the sounds of some people praying or getting their stuff in order, the clicking of clips into rifles and the fastening of belts. "We're going to be under a lot of fire, so your first order of business will be to find proper cover until you can gain a sense of your surroundings. At that point you are to work together to take out the Governor of Dubai, who has herself holed up in the Burj Khalifa, otherwise known as the tallest building in the world. You won't miss it. However, you will not be going up it, but down to the recently installed bunker."

After her briefing finished, Leigh turned to Sienna and asked her name.

"Sienna Avery," she replied briskly with closed eyes. She was trying her best not to allow herself to realize that she was flying. If her body wasn't able to remain tricked then it would quickly object to this recent development and would proceed to upchuck her latest meal all over herself and others. Her nerves weren't making this any easier.

[Etcetera]

"Heck yeah, parachutes!" Artemis responded, as Isis smiled at the idea. Man, who knew jumping out of planes could be so much fun? The thrill was so exhilarating, so exciting. Death was at your door if you were a few seconds late. So much fun. She thought back to her first skydiving endeavor, at such a young age. Her parents definitely prepared her for this future.