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8 yrs ago
If there are RPs/PM's I need to reply to- I am working on it, I'm a little overladen in life atm. I haven't forgotten about you :)
9 yrs ago
Aaand back.
9 yrs ago
ALERT- I'm going AFK for a week, anyone that sees this on here, I won't be about to respond, this is to both 1x1s/RPs.

Bio

I've RP'd for the best part of over ten years now here on the Guild, and particularly like military settings, both contemporary, past and near future. I have even dabbled in a little more experimental RPs, as well as created a plethora of 1x1s over my time in the guild. I've like creating RPs with a distinct flavor, but love classic settings too.

I'm pretty flexible and try and get back to people on ideas and responses, but sometimes, I may become very busy and it will take some time till I am un-busy- though I always come back!

Most Recent Posts

Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz

Athena Anna Kanataario

Purna Chai Gurung


Souk Semmarine, Marrakesh, Morocco

1350 Local Time


Push and Shove


The collective push was a sight to behold. From the heavies utterly smashing up the remainder of the gallery and the garden, with Artemis throwing everything, from exo-clad soldiers, male and female, to local Moroccan Army troops that were charging in armed with G3s and G36 rifles of their own, to other local Gendarmes coming in, the place was a fucking mess of fire, bullet casings and people getting hit with hammers, swords and hooks. There's something utterly mental about it, this whole scene feels like within one little pocket of Marrakesh's many, the place was being turned upside down, shaken about, and the coins were being flung everywhere.

Purna and Sam had done well to secure the biolaboratory- the one inside which had the compound needed neutralising, and fast. Purna had noted Sam's observations, replying in turn to her and her concern.
"Noted. This is strange. I do not know much about it, Chaos, but if she has multiple bodies, it's possible this is a test. An experiment. But perhaps there is our problem." Purna replied, looking at the tank, the gunfire getting louder, and louder.
"I'll cover that corner. You have that one." Purna replied, flicking a new mag into his MP5, slapping the thing as he got set.




The heavies were turning the tide, and with their presence, Ebrima was no doubt seeing first hand why Raven didn't mess around. The sheer number of troops being thrown was insane, but there wasn't stopping three heavies in the mix. Not with that sort of attitude they were carrying, at least. Whilst they may have towered, nobody of an entirely sane disposition would charge into the fire like that, and the troops trying to counter the counter-attack were at least now getting the picture. Nobody was going through them.

But they didn't have long, anywhere close to enough time to get through without there being some disruption.

Adam carried Henry over his shoulder, moving with a certain pace to him, Ebrima leaping across from out of the garden to the buildings, using the roofs to flank, whilst the heavies punctured to the end of the garden, past the fire. Moving to the tent, Adam looks to Purna, noting the heavies securing the perimeter, and getting set inside.

"Good. Let's not all stay here. Boomer, find a way to burn that tank, then back us up. Scion, Nord, you have point, Boaro, follow on them and pick off any flanks while they push through from the rooftops. We are headed that way, into the market, marker points should guide us to the square. I'll back you up, but I need to be careful with the VIP. Viper, get back to rooftops and pick off anyone else on our way there, go long. Chaos, stay close to me." Adam called, the team reinforced, and a little more in one place.

With it, the team had places to go. Purna nodded quietly, and with it, headed back out, as the heavies continued on the ground, towards the market.

The fight out of the garden was intense, but Artemis had learned, and had pulled back, taking their loss. That said, that meant a different kind of problem. Like a rogue elephant, they weren't the main team's problem now. They were rampaging anywhere they wanted, and that meant a different kind of problem not five minutes away, as the heavies kept point, Adam followed behind through the dusty Souk alleys, with Boaro and Chaos. Viper had already returned to the rooftops, and picked off a couple of spotters already, using his grapple to pull up before breaking into a run, matching the pace of the team below, Mk14 in hand, using it to pick off any other spotters, or loose exos on the roofs now. Decloaked and visible, Boaro would pick him up if he looked, but with the pace he carried, it would be difficult.




The Pickle


There were more civilians running out, but well, gunfire had that effect. Even those stubborn to move were getting it now, and Blue Sword troops, Artemis and anyone else was in full chaos. The extraction point was a hard bubble to hold open, but they had it for now in Jemaa-el-Fnaa.

"Wilk, where the hell are you! We have you a window, you need to be here, now!" Athena yelled into the comms, the large steps clattering concrete, the Valkyrie's Warhawk getting a small smattering of rounds as she blasted back, Stream-level electricity pouring out of the coil, flashing concrete and an entrenched position of Moroccan Army that were being backed up by Artemis troops, the reply back not one she found satisfactory."

"We're running, headed en route with the VIP, we have resistance!"

"Well, you really aren't kicking enough ass, aren't you? Fine, I'll split the difference!" Athena boomed back in return. She was done with this bullshit, her patience gone and well, when you had the capability she did, well, you could make that excuse. And she wasn't gonna back down. Turning the corner as she ran into the souk herself, an RPG flew by and Athena replied with a zap of the thing out of air instead of the Trophy, before then turning the energy on the coil and skewering the guy into two, cackling from how hard this shit was going.

With a thump, Athena looked down the alley, watching on as more Artemis soldiers turned from entrenching to seeing her just come for them now. There's a presence to her, almost like a larger-than-life aura that of course exuded from what she did. There were no Blue Sword soldiers with her. This one was hers. And well, moving with pace, she caught more rounds, hardly stopping as she turned up the dial, civies now fully out of way, and brought it to bear, as one lobbed a grenade, chattering dust upwards yet not stopping the arcing, bouncing electricity that found its mark. The charred ash left a mark, as another RPG flew past, Athena skidding to a halt as an exo soldier tried to leap on her, the guy hitting hard in her head, as she flung him off and into a wall, flicking one of the swords out and with an eloquent, jump-jet fuelled turn turning his throat into kebab, flinging it like a mannequin down the alley, using her coil to then use the body as a fry point.

The noise of gunfire not at her rang out, and the sound of what was an MRAP skidding down the road was more audible. Fuck, that wasn't good. They were headed directly for Adam and team. With a leap, Athena activated the jump jets on Warhawk's chassis, and with it, flung up yet mostly forwards, clearing the 20ft of distance between her and it's incoming presence, barely fitting through the tight alley. There's a look in her eye as the MRAP turned the corner and went into the parting of the alley where they both met, and Athena intercepted them before it could even make way towards the team, a 40mm grenade launcher on top blaring out rounds in the general direction of the team. They'd be feeling the heat. But, they'd turn their heads and see someone as tall as their MRAP flying towards it like a two and a half meter projectile with a motherfucking sword in left hand, gigantic tesla coil in right.

With a crash, Athena bonked the MRAP and basically smashed in the front right glass and right door, turning the coil inwards and with a brap, blasting the doors wide off, pretty much eviscerating everyone inside with a bloody spray. With almost a tempered look, the Blue Sword operations commander stared at the team, down the alley, the gold-visored, dark navy coloured heavy letting shattered glass fall about, shaking her head.
"Don't stare, I get enough." Athena tsk'd, and with it, Athena looked down and stepped off the deformed bonnet of the MRAP, dusting herself off as the comms flared back into life before Adam could reply.

"Boss, we've got way more resistance coming in. Wait, is that a....fuck, Valkyrie, we have IFVs and a mech here, we're under a lot of shit!" The comms from Blue Sword was panicked, and certainly now not equipped for what was a condensed firefight that was now not just consuming the garden, but what felt like a good chunk of the market. The Blue Sword troops were exposed out in the larger square- Jemaa el-Fnaa was a teeming mess of stalls, rather than the tight, labyrinth-like alleys of the Souk, a very short walk away from where the team were right now.

"Valkyrie, if your team cannot hold, pull them back, we will find another way out." Adam said to her in response, Athena shaking her head, turning and covering the alley where she'd come from, and the pile of fried bodies still smelling like a wet, horrid static-y vapour.

"That's a negative. I'm off to go fucking scorch their point. We aren't running. We're fighting them." Athena said, blunt, Adam angry, and yet now realising shit, of course. Priorities, Adam walking directly in front of her, Athena looking directly, committedly down at him.

"Valkyrie, the VIP is priority. Kurwa, no way." Adam replied, Athena walking direct up to him even closer now, staring him straight now, the heat of the moment for the younger giantess of the three siblings not really backing down at all.

"Sounds like a you problem, you're with me and you're getting a ride....or you can go back the way you came! You still got ammo? If not, plenty of dead goons where I came from with guns!" Athena barked back, the chirp not one that she would back down from. Athena wasn't taking no for an answer. In fact, she was going to lead them through.

There's an uncertainty to it. No doubt JamJam was not gonna be happy, but then again, he'd understand Athena cared for her teams, even if she was a little vapid. They were the people she paid, kept in line, and well, were right now taking a lot more than just a little bit of fire their end. A little logic to it existed, but Adam didn't like this. They were going towards the gunfire, not away. And with a VIP to get to transport, even if it was armoured, there was always the fact that this was going to go longer than it should have.

With that, he replied in mind of what was going on, knowing he wasn't going to say no to a ride. Not that she made it easy, but fuck, he wished she could see the picture here. Henry was quite seriously one of the only leads they had, and any way out now if that one was getting hotter than expected would be critical. He was still soundly asleep, that knockout gas certainly hitting like one hell of a drug right now. Once he woke up, he was going to be very, very dazed. As for Athena, he'd have words later. She certainly wouldn't agree, but there was no telling her not to go do this.

"Fine. Have it your way, but on your head. Tell them to get an armoured truck to the gate and pull back to our souk's gate, minimise how exposed they are because they'll get fucking shredded in the square. And we need to secure Henry at least. Team, push through the market and we need to get to Jemaa-el-Fnaa and neutralise hostiles. Boomer, Scion, you are up front, but stay the fuck out of the IFVs and mechs, not without having something to unload into them. Boaro, pick off enemies on rooftops, stay mobile and keep RPGs off our point. Chaos, I need you to find a way to take out that mech, priority target. Viper, you're with Boaro. Fuck, how did they sneak that thing in in?"

"Glad you see it that way Captain. I don't leave my men behind. Looks like you can hide anything in a market this big. We have some supplies at the trucks. And we have some tricks up our sleeves." Athena replied, back on the front again as another set of troops set up, 40mils blasting down the alley, as Athena just ran into it, then bringing the coil to bear. With a blast, the coil smashed the aluminium shacks they were hiding behind to bits, laying down cover and giving an opportunity for the others to make hay through it and press through the maze-like alleys.
"Covering, move!" She yelled, knowing JamJam was here again, and she wanted to say hi, something to him, but she knew the tag team was back. Heading back to the market, there was pockets of resistance, but between them, they were sweeping it up well. That said, as soon as they would get to the market, it would turn from just the condensed chaos of the alleys, to the wide open fire that was going to rage beyond.
Collab with @BigPapaBelial and @Starlance

Skye Rosalind Lyons

Ban Kingo

Outflaw


Hisaya-odori Park, Nagoya, Japan

1800 Local Time


A Scots and Japanese Whiskey Blend


The two seemed almost a dynamic duo, a pairing that certainly the Scot wasn’t expecting to be back into. But it was what it was. And this was the riskiest thing she’d ever imagined they would do. The skyscraper opposite the park was a quick drop off after the car had dumped them around the corner, and Skye had stashed her gear on a rucksack, carrying it over her leather jacketed shoulder, concealing a kevlar vest and tactical equipment. The sort that would be anticipated from someone on the hunt. Skye had understood Rose had the same training- so therefore, they didn’t just have the same blood and genetics, they very much acted similarly.
“Follow my lead, Ban. Act like we belong here, and let’s stay undercover as long as possible.” Skye said, the shaven-head Scot resolute, the adrenaline pumping through her knowing they were going straight into a den full of tigers.

Armed with a G36 instead of her MCX that she pulled out of the bag before heading for the entry, the slightly more archaic weapon was a stalwart of the SAS, and a few other organizations in Britain back in the day, and perhaps was why Rose loved it so much. An iconic tool, and Skye no less had to look the part. It fit among, and Ban was in front, almost like a hostage.

With a walk inside of the building’s reception room, eyes turned, a few guards immediately coming out, guns raised upon seeing Skye, no, Rose, and Ban armed and tooled.
“Hands up!” One yelled, rifle raised, the unsuspecting Ban in front of her likely wanting to pull his rifle up and deck the two. Skye put a hand on the back of his shoulder, pulling front.

“Don’t you recognise your boss! Rifles down, lads. Get the verification.” She spoke with a convincing English accent, and toned back her mannerisms, pushing it all down. The Scot felt a little unsure, but fuck, this was something to do. Not so much impersonating someone else as the other half of her. The guards were still querying, as Skye, as Rose, sighed, walking in front, rifle lowered.
“This is Ban Kingo. He’s ex-Raven, and was harboring Skye Rosalind Lyons, but saw sense to join us instead. He is the one you fuckers couldn’t catch. Neither was she, despite my instructions! So I did some work of my own and and she’s now swimming pretty lifelessly in the Tokyo sewers. He’ll verify. While you bastards sat here, I had to get my hands dirty. Again.” Skye said, as one of them looked confused, but instead, came out with a device.

“I need a voice print and a code. I apologize….they are the security measures, Rose, as requested.” Skye shrugged in response to the guard, as she looked to Ban, reassured, the patch on her neck holding for now as she saw him pull the phone, holding it in front of Skye.

The voiceprint was easy, as she called out her name, Rosalind Lyons, easy enough. The code though, that was harder. She had to think. Actually, fuck. This was a problem. She kept thinking, thinking…..what was that date that they went to Porton Down? What was it? Rose was stuck on history. Skye wasn’t…..and she got it. Bam. And put that in. And to almost her entire relief, and shock, the six digit code worked, a bright green tick following. That shouldn’t have been so easy, but then again, maybe remembering a past was a good thing- something Rose didn’t gamble Skye would do so easily considering how far she’d run away, but since what had happened, Skye had made a mental note to remember it. Shit, this was the most awful cybersecurity she’d seen and no doubt Enri would find this the best joke of the year, but then again, Rose never looked over her shoulder. Never since now, at least. The guard nodded, and looked up.

“I apologize gravely, Miss Lyons. Welcome. Andros-san is not around, but you have full access. We have rooms upstairs for debriefing him.” His response was a Japanese level of affectionate apology, as Skye shrugged, looking to Ban, then back, the look of disappointment on her mug, almost you could call it a resting bitch face.


It was such a close thing, almost looked like they could get into the building just fine and through into other areas too. But of course no plan survives contact with the enemy. The guards approaching slows things. Ban hand slips under his long coat, hidden within his light short rifle, a HK derivative that had been shaved down to almost bare bones, barely 20 inches long all told, but could still hit like a brick shit house. But also in there, nestled just down the inside, his katana. The guards are so close, the rifle would be easy to make three pops each, the integrated suppressor would be helpful, but no his hand was just an inch away from the handle of his blade. Yes it was a close thing, and just as he felt the shark skin leather wrap…

Such a close thing.

Skye’s hand on his shoulder stops him.

Discipline, loyalty and Yakuza pride is the only thing that stays his hand and relaxes his body. Not yet.

He held still, trying to play the newly turned operative? That Rose/Skye had found him and come to fill him in? He huffed. He could work with that.

With a slow swallow he listened carefully. And that casual Japanese style familiarity, how often had Rose been here?

Ban quirked an eyebrow at Skye then made a little motion with his chin towards one of the lifts, and then a nearly imperceptible nod. It’s the best thing they could roll with right?

Skye nodded back to the guard, and stays assertive, like she owns the place, and leaves him behind, looking over her shoulder to break the silence.
“You did your job. And I did yours too, who knew. I suppose if I was Skye, she’d have had you killed a lot faster. I want more guards down here, tell Andros he’s going to get another visit from me if he doesn’t. Because I seem to be the only one hurting Raven and I am sick you don’t take it so seriously.” Skye ruthlessly responded, sighing as the guards barely replied, as Ban headed towards the elevator, Skye following towards, before they stepped in. Hitting the button, the doors shut, and the Scot looked over.

“Holy fuck. That actually worked. Shit, I was about a few seconds from giving you the double shoulder tap and we would have to ice everyone there.” Skye looked exasperated, yet giggling now, knowing Ban was no doubt freaked out by this version of Rose.
“So, let’s try and keep going. They think I’m here to debrief you. We need to keep playing this. We need to find a computer, get our friend on the network, then find the vault. And whatever is inside. Then, we really need to get out, fast.” Skye replied, the lift accelerating fast up as it went, Skye leaving the rifle slung on its strap, the alter ego she played holding true.


Ban walked to the lift and held the door as Skye finished her little tirade. He had to keep his face straight as best he could the whole time. Once the door closes he looks to make sure there are no cameras, finding none he lets out an explosive breath and sags against the lift wall, “Izanagi’s balls…how the hell did that work!” He caught his breathe carefully, “You are a born actor Kitsune-chan. I don’t think I could have pulled that off nearly as well as you did.”

He pulls out his phone on which the plans still rested, “Okay…uh fourteenth floor.” He looked over and pressed the button to set the lift going, “The network room should be up there. My mole here says that level is high enough there are fewer guards on a wider patrol. But they will all likely think you’re Rose, and we should have free reign.” He gives Skye a look, “This Rose…she seems like a iron-cold bitch. I have trouble see how you Kitsune-chan could even be remotely like her.” He gives her a good look over, “If I ever meet her i’m going to try and take her hands, Skye-chan does not deserve someone like that darkening your name.”

Skye chuckled, shaking her head, knowing this was addictive as all fuck. Holy shit, this was like Raven but way, way more toxic and worse in every single way.
“Hah, not before I get to her first, Ban. Enri’ll have a tracker on us. She’ll patch in when she needs to tell us anything, we’ll be on our own. Network room is first, then the vault after. Biometrics should get us in, which in this case, are easy. Hopefully.” The Scot replied, chuckling knowing full well Ban was probably enjoying this side, the more casual looking Skye knowing full well this operation hinged on selling that cover. Until it wouldn’t matter, they had to keep rolling that punch.

“Here we go. Good spot on the plans. Follow my lead..” Skye replied, as the doors opened, the office empty considering the evening hour, but a few guards waving to Skye, not even imagining she was the Scot but rather the elusive, secretive operative that had turned Artemis’s fortunes around. Rose was someone who didn’t want to be seen unless she had to be, and well, to be in person with an ex-Raven operative, who she seemed to be escorting, but well, rather than go direct for the rooms, they had half a detour to make. And they carried on, avoiding suspicion, and moving with an intent. A couple network engineers were in on the late shift, as Rose nodded to them, convincingly taking out a USB, as they looked on at her.
“I’ve got some intel off Raven. More for our supply. Have a peek. Courtesy of Ban Kingo. See, he likes our ideas. And this should be the final piece. I want to have him personally see what that means.” Skye said, the engineers standing at the sight, in disbelief that Rose would visit, the voice immediately identifiable from her various previous calls, slapping it onto the desk proudly. Skye knew this wasn’t going to be a simple one. They weren’t morons. They would check the USB first, and find it full of contents. But rather than hacking a laptop here, a CCTV system there, this was basically the central node. And it would be a couple more that would grant them access to a few specific controls, and they would be game, set and match.
“Oh, hello….Miss Lyons, we were not expecting you? And this is a great pleasure. Let us check.” One engineer took it off the desk that Skye placed it down on, returning to his computer, as she replied.

“Yes, well, when you have my capabilities I don’t want to be known, do I?” Skye replied, fully, totally leaning into Rose now, yet almost, to you dear reader, making it almost clear she was indulgent in the sarcasm now. There was reason for that. Walking across the room, she nodded to Ban, the other engineer peering away as she gave a pull on her throat, as incognito as she could.

And behind that other chair, she gave it a second, just a moment, before…..oh, well, his check wasn’t going to be a long one.

A hard kick to the back of the chair sent him squishing against the table as she reached forwards, pulling him down and onto the floor, pivoting him around and pulling, holding, holding, and holding, feeling the guy start to go limp as he kicked out, her stranglehold choking him out as she felt him try to kick and grab her, yet to no avail. Skye had done this a lot. Rose probably, too. And bit by bit, she felt him calm, and eventually, drop out.

“Fucking hell. Okay. Are you good?” Skye asked, looking over from her limp guard, towards Ban, who would have his person to deal with.


Ban looked at Skye and edged to the side, coming up behind the other man carefully, slowly. The pair of engineers bent over the console. He waited, watching Skye out of the corner of his eyes. And moved in near perfect sync.

The pair of engineers were looking at the contents of the USB. One of them let out a soft urp as Skye took him back and down. The second man was just beginning to turn, when the Kingo Family sword slithered up out of the coat, the scabbard still over the blade. And Ban locked the hard wood and leather scabbard over the front of the second man’s throat, and he pulled up and away, walking back slowly backwards. The engineer reaching up and trying to scratch at the scabbard then back at Ban. The former Raven soldier, renewed Yakuza using a very gangster style take down.

Ban stepped back and back and back until the engineer’s movements slowly came to a stop, his face purple from lack of air and maybe blood flow. Ban eased off and then gently laid the man on the floor, reaching down to check his pulse, “He’ll live, but will feel this pain for awhile.” He nods, “Good.” He looks around to make sure no one saw that take down, “We best hurry, I can’t imagine that this room isn’t on a pass by patrol or a physical patrol check.”

Skye nodded, in response dragging the body out, sliding him under the desk, and propping him up against the wall, having a moment’s realization. She ran quickly to the other side, finding what was one of the tech’s hoodies, and slid it under, before putting the chair underneath.
“There. Well. Sort of. Yeah, let’s make a move. First though.” Skye shrugged, knowing Enri would appreciate this. Going to the tech’s work station, she slid the USB in and saw it override all the security measures, automatically tapping past the internal security like a breeze.

“Outflaw, keys are yours, start the download if you can and tap into their network. We’re going to continue.” Skye replied, and with it, leading on Ban, knowing this would be a tense one, but still all on plan. They had a timeframe now, and that focussed things a bit better.


In a hotel on the other side of the city, a ping interrupted the bored hacker. About time, she was shit at Minesweeper anyway. Cracking her knuckles, Enri opened several windows across the three screens she had brought in, the young Yakuza buck tasked to do it occupied with a laptop near the suites door in case security was needed. Not likely. Not only did Enri set up a VPN beforehand - and as YouTube ads would tell the laymen those were bulletproof, she thought with a snicker - the entry team had taken her words about choosing targets well to heart. Almost before she had time to connect the programs she was going to need, her creation was already reporting near-total control of the target site’s communications.

“You made good time.” She quipped to announce her presence on comms, “They’ll need a crystal ball to find our transmissions, we can talk freely. I’m setting up the data mine now, give me two minutes for cameras.” if they had them. If you were doing shady stuff, you wouldn’t want records of it, she thought as she set the wheels in motion, feeding security data back to her main servers where an AI would determine areas and events of note and bring them up to a human operator to sort out. She quickly opened a communications window, a disheveled man in pajamas on the other side. “FastByte, we’re beginning.” He did not waste time answering, the man and his two brothers regular contractors Enri had met in university. In the meantime, another AI was already sniffing out every last byte of what Kitsune might be interested in. One jack-of-all-trades would’ve worked, but smaller, specialized programs were her whole schtick. It sold better and usually worked faster, too.

The guards from earlier were gone, as they got back to the lift, and tapping the button, the lift came up, the doors opening again and the two back inside. Skye knew
“Floor 24. This one might be a bit more tense. But let’s find out what the hell is going on.” Skye commented to Ban, turning to face him, knowing she had some explaining.
“I don’t know what we’re going to run into. But apparently, whatever the cure to this neurotoxin is, it’s here. I imagine you could burn it off just as easy. But, there may be some reason she’s kept it in her locker. And I don’t think we’ll understand it fully until we do. There are going to be a lot more questions than answers, Ban. You really don’t want to know what Rose is like. But you wouldn’t have signed up for what we did if you didn’t believe that. Trust me. I appreciate this more than my life is worth right now..” Skye said, knowing Ban was fully in on this ride or die shit right now, but that was the way the game would go. Checking herself over, she coughed a little, brushing off the fact she’d just choked someone out barely minutes ago, and readied up, another floor, another job.


Ban checked around the room once more, then hid his katana again in his coat. He picked his way out moving along in sync once more with Skye. Moving back to the Lift. He nodded again and hit the button for floor twenty four. The lift began again. Ban leaning on the wall lightly, he turned and smiled as the woman began to speak, “I watch and listen and see this as yet another dark thing we have to excise from the soul of this world.” He smiled brightly, “I still don’t fully understand what is happening, but I would not have joined you in this if I didn’t believe in you.” He nods, “Rose sounds like a true bitch, and if we can get something up on her without her truly knowing, then I believe in we will know eventually. And hopefully we can get you back to your family exonerated.” He looked up as the lift reached floor nineteen, “You have a life rich of experiences, and it is worth more then royal gold.” He faces her again, “And I’ll lay down my life if I have too to make sure you get it all back.” He gave her a bow, then straightened as the lift neared their next destination.

Skye nodded, hopeful, glad at least someone was on side. Oracle certainly wasn’t- whilst there was no doubt it would be painful to do something to her, precautions would need to be taken. She hoped the team was okay, at least, somewhat holding up. They would be. She wouldn’t have recruited them if she hadn’t, for now, the only thing that mattered was this. Whatever the fuck the cure was, whatever the hell they were looking at after, and what it meant. It would be an olive branch, a way back in and at least, it would put a dent in her plans. Creating dilemmas rather than nice choices, Skye perceived it as. Rose would do the same. Exactly that, like in New Zealand- perhaps forcing a choice of staying and fighting, or retreating and losing. And now they had to make this pay. Make this work.

“Glad you trust me. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, I would say the same, but, I’ve killed the hag twice and she’s kept fucking coming back. Not going to lie, it doesn’t make it any easier to kill the person who has your face.” Skye quipped back, the lift slowing, as they came to it. This was it. This was the floor that scared Skye, somewhat, but she had to push through that fear. The doors opened, and with it, the two emerged, a much higher density of guards here now. They all recognised Rose, the security check at entry passed as they knew what she was here for.
“Miss Lyons, you are a surprise to see here. You move in shadows, but it is a pleasure. I know you like to check on things, but I wasn’t expecting something so soon.” One asked, the German woman standing from her desk, not following the others in bowing, aware of Rose’s presence here, her mannerisms, her way here.
“That I do. I need to show this man something. Something rather important to our cause…and to me. Can you open the vault for me, please?” Skye asked, the girl looking up and down Ban, moving aside from the desk.

“This is Ban Kingo? We checked on him. Amagi Clan, pachinko parlor operator in Kiyose City. Rose….what does he serve us, if you don’t mind me asking? Not my place, but I am curious where he fits. You know me, I’m just curious about too much.” Skye sighed, knowing the question was an honest one, but chances were, Rose had built up a relationship with this person. It’s odd, because Skye is playing her out to that end.

“He knows how they work. And once I worked my magic on him, he gets it. He’s clever enough to figure out why Skye lied to him, lied to all of them. And I’ll say it in front of him….I think he was disillusioned with it all. Probably why he ended up out. How he didn’t get his head washed up, I don’t know. Whatever that shit they get up to get people out…..means he’s useful. Just needs a little proof though. And he’ll be hunting the rest of Raven by tomorrow morning.” Skye said, chuckling, a wry smile on her face, not unlike her usual own, but very much leaning into Rose’s.
“Well, fine. We’ll open it up. All yours, Rose.” The guard replied, and with it, instructed a group of her team to make way, headed to a panel. Mental note, that needed hacking too, but for now, Skye played her part, guiding Ban.
“Well, let’s go see what we have. Ban, you may be wondering if anything I said was true. Let me show it to you personally.” Skye felt odd to lead him, considering she was leading him to something of proof, but instead, they were going in to steal, or at the least, work out what the hell was on the other side. The metal door on the outside of the lab opened, and beyond that, an even larger door hissed open.


Ban smiled and winked at Skye then fell into place as they exited the lift. He paced just a step or two behind Skye and to her left. He slowed and stayed in the rear, crossing one arm across his chest, trying to appear casual even with the number of people around now. He was starting to get a little antsy now. Old instinct perhaps.

He turned and looked at the German woman, his eyes narrowing then doing his best not to growl. She knew quite a bit about him it seems. His Clan, his family, where he worked and the location of it no less. Everything in him screamed at him to shut her up somehow and make sure that information never got out. His hand briefly twitched and went for the katana in his jacket, it’d be so easy to, a swift cut, and she’d be silenced. But discipline again stopped him. He took a deep breath and bowed, “Many things have been revealed to. The perfidy of the woman who I thought my friend and mentor has been revealed.” One of the other people in the room saying something about it was bound to happen, even to the best.

And to anyone really familiar with Ban, Skye at the very least in the room, it’s clear the Yakuza is planning just how he could kill everyone in the room except for Skye as quickly and cleanly as he could. But before he could finish the doors open and beyond the vault doors hiss apart.

Ban takes a deep breath forcing his want for violence down, and follows in Skye’s wake.

And with it, Skye walked through, the vault doors opening up and revealing inside at first, a blinding white light, with sample after sample along the walls, various chemicals, a but all vialled, all contained. This seemed strange. Like a bloodbank, but something else altogether stranger, that nobody here was quite qualified to understand, well, aside from the techs, scientists, and maybe Rose herself. For such a secure whiteroom, the containment was clearly clear, and well, Rose had been here before. Skye couldn’t exactly say why, but it felt almost like her marks, her trace were over this. The Scot looked over the vials, looking back to Ban, curious. They were alone, the techs left at the start, and leaving them behind as the room illuminated in purple and blue light, revealing a lab, vaults of samples and what you would typically be expecting to see in a biochemistry set.
“These look similar. Odd. They’re somewhat a green compound, then the burgundy ones over there.” Skye commented, tsking, walking up to one of those claret ones in particular.
“So, she carried this with her in Patagonia, wanting to stab me with it in a syringe. Then she did. Clearly some sort of sorted neurotoxin….called “Hestia”. That’s the same thing Pavel said. That is weird.” Skye wouldn’t have known the details that Raven knew now on top of her own historic knowledge, but the other side, the green ones, that she recognised more as she walked over.
“Okay. So, that’s the opposite. Sol. That’s the sun.. I don’t get it. So if that thing there should kill instantly, why make this as a sample? Strange…and why is Pavel saying both when he’s drunk out of his ass?” Skye said almost the more obvious thoughts in her mind out loud, looking to Ban, then looking across the far end. She took one of the vials out, the reinforced polymer in hand as she carried it, then peering across to Ban, who probably looked very, very confused.
“Oh, right. Long story. There’s something to tell you at the end. Shall we have a look? Outflaw, we are pushing further into the vault. I’ll see if there’s anything we can can get you into.” Skye asked, almost a telling voice, her curiosity piquing. The temperature in the vault was cold, making her shiver, the translucent plastic blinds hiding something.


The yakuza stepped into the vault and looked around. Then had to lower his head and rub his eyes, “Ahhh so bright…” He looks up again to make sure there are not cameras, well none that Enri hasn’t already taken. He nods at the pair in the room, “Can you see this Enri-chan? This place is…I don’t know…both disgusting and far too clean to be real. I feel like this is another world entirely.” Ban paced to one of the walls and made his way slowly down, looking at the vials, and the beakers and all the glass containers, “These names mean almost nothing, but each one, feels like a disaster waiting to happen.” He reaches up almost touching a vial with some stange blue powder within. But stops himself before his fingers rest on it, “Rose, have probably used each of these, or tried too. But schemes could someone have for these powders and liquids.”

Turning he nodded and caught up with Skye, “Yes, we should, maybe we can find the thing that is likely to cause the most problems.” He edged over towards the other end of the room carefully, looking back at the vault door they came in through then back towards Skye, catching up with her finally, “Let’s hope.”

"No eyes on the inside. Let me see…" She fired up a search engine on a different screen, “Hestia, Greek goddess of hearth and home. And sacrificial fire, that's ominous. Sol was... the Roman god of sunlight. Hm, probably unrelated then?” She’d hoped whoever this ‘Rose’ person was she’d be stupid enough to assign meaningful codenames. And while the initial security would’ve been laughable were it not sad, no such luck here, or at least she couldn’t see the connection if there was one.

Skye replied to both, knowing Ban was no doubt confused by it, and so too would be Enri. It made sense, well, the fact none of it really did. But beyond the plastic? There was an allure. A pulling of the feeling, the sense as she knew that Enri would have unlikely seen beyond, and Ban neither.
“Copy. Yeah, this is weird. Maybe this connects to something.” With both their thoughts in mind, Skye peeled back the plastic, and stepped on through.

There’s a deep, horrid sinking feeling that hits her, as she saw the room, as long as the skyscraper must have been wide, and nothing really could have even given her any preparation for it all. There’s nothing she can say, as the lights flicker about, Skye walking past one, after another, after another. The horror persists on her face, as she looks back at Ban, the one moment likely he’s just seen the color drain out of her. She knew this had to exist….but seeing it was like a fucking nightmare come to life.

Calling it a gigantic plastic bag would be an understatement, but inside of it lay what looked to be the identical copies of Skye herself, one, after another, after another, mounted in what looked like hardpoints on the low ceiling and their own little bubbles, above a padded and reinforced panel below that upon activation, would rupture and dump into, also explaining the grate and the fluid that possessed the insides of the bags, making them turgid to the touch.

No umbilical cord, just a pipe in each of their throats, and probably what kept their lungs and internals sealed, with a wire protruding from the top of the sack into the neck of each body, the translucent material revealing a fully grown human being, not some child, not some toddler, but right now, age for age, like for like, Skye fucking Rosalind Lyons times about thirty, aged thirty-one, red hair, everything else. There’s this incredible feeling of every piece of Skye’s own humanity feeling like it sank, bit by bit, piece by piece, as she walked up, looking into the closed eyes of her own self. Rose was strange, this was straight up hurting her own sense of self, because every single one of them could be her. Someone with feelings, emotions....it wasn't like looking in a mirror, it was like looking in a mirror and being able to physically touch her own, plastic lined body.

“This is fucked…….I knew we’d have to see it sometime. Doesn’t make it any easier. Jesus…..it’s like a fucking doll in a supermarket. Ban, this is me. Or Rose. And it’s how she comes back from the dead. Holy shit. This is……this is insane..” Skye said, her Scottishisms coming through now, despite her vocal patch, a deep, husky sigh coming out of her, as she took air back in.

“Outflaw, standby. This is uhhh……fuck, quite a hard one to explain.” She said, cutting herself off, the usual confidence that had emerged a few minutes ago now sapping, but still, she pushed on.
“Console at the end. This could be it, Ban. Maybe it’s all of them. Or just a sample. Let’s go find out. Though fuck me, I don’t know if I want to. Oh well. Not like we have a choice.” Skye retorted, walking slowly on the metal grate, no obvious computational power here but instead, an array of networks, all pointing to one singular node.
“Outflaw, we’ve found an extension to the facility. Likely no way in for you on the plans, but there’s a terminal. We’re going to see what it comes up with.” Skye walked slow, taking deep huffs, trying to contain herself. Holy shit. Maybe this was it. Rose’s bodies were just all here, they just needed to pull the plug, and done. It may not have been, but what was here, that would be crucial.


Ban stepped forward but choked as he saw what lay there, some kind of plastic container? Bags? No, this is something else entirely. He gets closer. Then without really thinking draws his sword from within his coat. Staring at them laying there. He looked between the bodies and then at Skye, “They look like you Kitsune-chan. Nandayo…Fauru.” He holds his sword one handed, and waves his other hand in front of his face as if to clear a foul smell, or clear his senses of something he never wanted to see.

After a bit the yakuza soldier shakes his head, “This is foul, to play with the human body, and keep this in storage. An affront to everything sacred and fair.” He slowly slides his sword away, “Everything in me says to end these things here, deprive Rose of what they can be used for. But even I am not dark hearted enough to just kill something that could become someone. Even if it is your bitch of a noppera-bo. What do we do with them then?”

Skye shook her head, knowing this was beyond bonkers. Even his question felt difficult for Skye to swallow, considering the context of what this was. They weren’t alive, but shit, they were her, many, many versions. None of this idea of was she even real, no, that felt a little bit stagnant, it just felt like were any versions here? Just shells, chassis, carcasses that just had a potential to be inhabited, yet had no soul, purpose, direction? They weren’t even drones, something you could fill, the only thing that could do it was one person and that person was a split of the person that could do such a thing. It hurt her head, with Skye staying quiet, silent even, as she walked to the end terminal. Before she mustered up the words to reply, finding it harder, but....rationalising. Trying.

“The only thing they can become is Rose. The only thing they are is her. There’s nothing in there. No soul, no person, no consciousness. Nobody’s waking up if you rip that bag open. Nobody’s in there……though fuck, it feels wrong. On a level I can’t even really understand. We need to stop all of this. But we need to know how this works.” Skye added in reply, bringing up the terminal, and tapping in. A password, but again, through Skye’s biometrics, it sort of passed by easily enough. And then it was in. This wasn’t a system connected to anything in the building, or the servers, anything at all. It seemed to be connected to some sort of cloud network, out of building of course, but this was just a host point. Skye looked over at the data, pulling up a few bits she could do from here, knowing Outflaw must have been screaming to get in. For a relatie few seconds, Skye had to know herself. Had to see this.

“Oh, shit. That makes sense. Those hoses. They’re not just cutoffs. They’re sucking blood out of her and pumping nutrition in. Fuck me. Why are they doing that?” Skye said out loud, looking to Ban, realizing…..ahhh, shit. That was why. The neurotoxin. The work Spectre was doing. Shit, this was a factory. They were harvesting her.

Her blood was the last piece for the drug’s activation, an amino acid and protein compound that enabled the last building block of a complex biochemical weapon that turned it from a tame sarin-like substance into a complicated, human-focussed poison. That became clear because every interface was suggesting it now, and it all aligned in her head. The toxin targeted strands of specifically human nodes, given Rose’s blood linking it in. Hestia. The hearth, the fire. And that meant….Sol was a pacifier. The sun, the light. A way to keep Rose’s bodies in check, and what stopped the neurotoxin from just killing her straight away like Skye's experience had given, and likely, a byproduct of separation kept aside. That bit that Sophie mentioned…..Rose’s DNA was deteriorating with every copy and so left the bodies alive with maybe a decade to live at most, so now that made sense. But this was all a fever dream. And her head was spinning, even Skye’s intelligence hurt and she could barely make sense of the ringing in her ears, the fuzzy feeling of every footstep, her own heart thumping and clattering.

She could barely even explain this to Ban, or Enri, but it would in the data coming out of this later. If Raven had the tails of how the biochemical weapon worked, then right now, Skye, Ban and Enri were now seeing how the nuts and bolts worked. She had everything ready bar the deployment mechanism. And that would kill millions, if not more done right.

With a turn of the AR-enabled console, Skye plugged in one of her last remaining USBs, bringing it into focus for Outflaw.
“All yours.” She uttered, still bewildered, in shock and trying to get her head around it all. There was no way Outflaw was going to be able to hack everything here, and well, it was an encrypted network she’d likely not be able to understand, and nodes poked it off, given this wasn’t the server, but one of the offshoots. It was the peering eye inside of the mechanism that did this all, from the simple system to the one that basically turned Rose into someone who could respawn. And there it was again. Hestia Sol. Both together now. That was it. The AI, the bit that parsed the memory, the cutoff that Rose had mentioned. She mentioned it all as if Skye would follow. Why? And fuck, how long did they have now? There was insight to see perhaps where the node went, but it would be complex, and likely, not yield much in the way. It was blocked off enough as a pathway that it’d only give an indication of the central server, where Rose’s mere fucking existence would come from and into here. So maybe it was the only one, or maybe there were more. No answers there, but well, perhaps this wasn’t it. But it was useful enough. Cutting that off would sever this whole place, but likely, there would also be a killswitch here too for the bodies, and Skye looked for it as Enri did and Ban would have the chance to take it all in.


With the entry team moving deeper into the vault, Enri busied herself with the data mine and understanding the security features of the building in case things went sour until she got pinged by FastByte, a location and two associated cameras. A pair of guards approaching the desk where Skye and ban took out the two engineers. “Fishsticks…” The hacker muttered, sifting through the security system. Security lockdown, no. PA, no. Fire alarm. Picking out an office, far enough away to distract them but close enough to make sure those two would respond, she triggered the annoying buzzer, the two turning on their heels and making for the disturbance. Whew, crisis averted, or at least delayed.

Right on time, as Skye had just plugged in the second infected drive. “I see it.” Enri confirmed, skimming what she had access to now. Not even intending to pretend she understood any of it, she just bumped it up the data mine queue, figuring they could sift through it later at their own pace. “It will take some time, but on the plus side I can pretty much make the building dance a tango if we feel like it, so there’s that.”

Skye heard the reply, the muttering of Enri back, knowing she was puzzled, but, creative as ever.
“That is good. We may need that. Though….Outflaw, get a look at this. It’s a killswitch. Drowns them basically. And….I’m not pressing that. It’s alarmed, has to be.” Skye muttered, noting the reality of this. She hurt a little, because well, this is possibly the most fucked up thing to do. Killing one person in hot blood, then in cold, now, thirty? Fuck that. This was beyond wild.
“Wait. Rose’s old body got snatched, because of the tracker. And those bags are likely alarmed too….and her bodies may be tracked. So….that means….okay. This might be insane.” Skye said, looking to Ban, with a glint in her eye.
“I may have an idea. But we’ll need to be quick. Outflaw, I got one more for you. We may have a way to kill something else in the system while we’re at it. Make this one your priority. Can you sever the tracking link to the…..uhhh, body in Bay 15? Let me know when ready.” Skye added, knowing Enri was likely one hell of a busy girl, the guards distracted below, and all of this. And she sent across the routine, that linked to something else in particular. The very blood being sucked, and recirculated out of the bodies. The tracking nanites were at availability here, and well, any tampering was going to be hard-wired to set the alarms. Skye had something up her sleeve. They needed to die, the bodies needed to, and they were taking Rose with them. One Rose.


The yakuza curled an eyebrow, looking at Skye curiously, then back at the bodies, “So your yokai bitch of a copies body was taken. And here we sit and wonder.” He hums softly, “A puzzle then. How do we fuck with her and her ponzi’s?” He looked about then back at Skye, “An idea? Well apart from that time in Hong Kong where you let me fall into a pit, your ideas haven’t led us astray yet.” He cocked his head over and turned to the vault down, narrowing his eyes, “I feel like we may be running out of time though. We may wish to begin to hurry.”

Skye nodded, knowing that no doubt, Ban would need to trust her. Even if what she was proposing was about to be wild.

“It’s really stupid. But, so far we’ve been pretty good so far. Make your way over there, Ban, and cut it open. When you do, I’ll hit the killswitch. Grab the body, and we are going to run like fuck out of here. I’ll shoot, you keep a hold. I think you could probably use her a shield, but….try not to get her TOO riddled with bullets. We have our way back in.” Skye smiled, knowing fuck it, if she’s gonna die, well, may as well be this way.


“Let’s see, bay 15… 15…” Enri muttered absent-mindedly. She took maybe twenty seconds to understand how it worked. It was stupidly simple actually, military software at its finest. However advanced, it still has to be simple, rugged and understandable by a conscript. With near total control of the communication systems and the laboratory computers, making one of the other bodies send two sets of packets, one of its own and another masquerading as body 15 and silencing the true 15, wasn’t hard. “15’s a ghost, what now?”

Skye nodded to the invisible Enri on the comms, picking up the call.
“Okay, perfect. No more tracking for her there via that bloodstream. Okay, Outflaw, check the vault door and keep it open for us as long as you can. We may need some distractions in the building, we need as much as possible on the ground floor, ideally sprinklers or something else to set it off….or something else creative. Ban, you ready to cut Rose down from her bag? Moment you do, I hit the switch, this place severs all the bodies, alarm goes off, and we steal one of me. I’ll shoot, you hold and run.” Skye chirped, taking a deep breath. Fucking hell, she thought. This isn’t an average day out, as she brought up the killswitch routine, and with it ready to go, knew the alarms would be set off the moment this triggered. There was even a risk that the vault would shut, and she half hoped that this would work.


Sprinklers… thermally triggered, builders were smart. But the high sensitivity areas ran on a halon system to avoid water damage. Team didn’t have SCBA gear, but that just meant she had to plan carefully where she’d trigger them. Figuratively paving a path for the two to take. Next, for proper confusion, lights. Once again, the team didn’t have NODs. Once again, she took a bit of time to exclude lights in the sections along the way from her scheming. Fire and security bulkheads, those would serve nicely to trap any responders in conjunction with having subjected the cameras. Vault door, failsafe of course, built to close if things went wrong. No manual release on the inside as far as she could find, but here the location worked in their favor, the heavy door needing to close slowly to avoid stressing the building. “You’ll have thirty seconds to get out of the vault, after that it should be smooth sailing.” ENri hesitated a bit before asking the next question. “What I’m about to do on your mark could kill a lot of people in here. Do we? If not, I’ll need a minute or so.”

“Do it.” Skye replied, cold in her turn, and looking with eyes over at Ban, ready and in position, and well, moving to position. Enri had their path set. They had to run. Elevator, drop down, and then, through the lobby, and back out. Fuck me, she thought. This was going to be interesting without the exo. But that meant she just had other tricks up her sleeve, and Enri right now was playing a blinder, as was Ban with his carbine weapons and a human shield MADE of Skye. She ripped her patch off her neck, the device coming close to the end of its battery, and now switched to her normal, Scots tone of an accent. No need to impersonate, a spare would be available if she really needed, but they were going to be blown.

Ban paced over to bay 15, looked inside then drew his sword once more, “Alright, so the alarms should be off yes? Then…” He stepped forward, and slide the tip of his sword into the side of the bag whispering, “Kurinkatto…” As he slides the blade carefully up from the bottom of the bag towards the head. Tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as he made the cut carefully. And when he is done and no alarms go off he gives the blade a flick, habit to clean the blade before sliding it back into the scabbard, “Alright, hello there bakemono…” He says again as he slides his arms into the bag and pulls the look-alike body out of the bag, “Hah O kinodoku ni, a pity that a silent form like this would be used by such a monster.” He heaves the body up over one shoulder, taking his sword ing the other hand, “Alright, now what?”

“Yours to carry!” With that, Skye clapped the switch and suddenly, all hell broke fucking loose. Skye watched as with a simultaneous trigger, every body of Rose’s left just dropped limp, the hose released, a few bodies breaking their sacks and splashing into the floor and grate with what was like a weird amniotic fluid everywhere, and well, Skye took the chance to run past those. Ban was in position doing what he did, and Skye ran in front, G36 now brought back into hands, the alarm suddenly blaring off, the pace of Skye bolting through like every dump of adrenaline had recharged again, running towards the lab sector at the front, rifle raised as a few men ran inside, Skye sliding behind one of the lab bulkheads. With a turn, she clattered one in the head, and slid across the desk with a leap above her whilst holding the G36 tight, even in spite of the length of the rifle clattering one more, breaking into a pace and clapping one more running in, the vault slowly closing. They had neurotoxin in here, but were paying no mind. They knew the threat. Fuck, their lives were irrelevant if what had happened just happened. Not that Skye cared too much, right now bigger priorities were at stake here.

“Shit, run!” Skye yelled to Ban, covering outside, the German guard nowhere to be seen as she flicked a new mag in as the vault began to start swinging shut, moving to a corner as she heard more come. With a look, Skye let the men run from out of the dark into the bright light of the lobby, and using it, ambushed them, pushing one rifle aside and letting his weight charge into her, using his rifle to clatter one man, before rolling across and using his knife to shank him, knowing even if physically she wasn’t on him, she was still here, still fighting. Standing up, she looked to Ban and well, Rose being carried? They needed to get down to ground level and out of here, and with that, Skye hailed the elevator up, knowing they needed to leave, now.
“Lift’s coming.”


To Skye and ban, not much will have changed. Everywhere else in the building, security doors slammed shut, lights switched off and the fire alarm started blaring. On the topmost floors, the pandemonium was made complete by the halon gas extinguishers. Enri tried not to think about the people trapped in a dark place quickly running out of oxygen, though in a past life she used to know at least one person who would’ve approved of an efficient use of time.

Quickly Ban hiked the body up once more then braced, before making a swift run out of the vault. Keeping in Skye’s shadow, as the Scotswoman started to fire, cutting guards down. The yakuza was not idle though. As some guards managed to flank the strange trio. Ban seeing them as they flicked out riot batons. But even one handed the Kingo family sword is very sharp indeed. The first baton to try and strike him is caught on the flat of the sword, then with a skilled turn the baton goes flying, and a short flick the guard drops back holding his hand where the mono-edge blade had just opened his forearm almost to the bone. Another guard trying to capitalize gets kicked in the chest, sent reeling and over the security desk, and landing with a crash behind it. A third and a fourth slowing. Even an encumbered Ban is dangerous. He grins, “Hey…catch!” And throws the body at the other two who scramble to catch it.

Ban grins taking two quick hopping steps, jumping and spinning, his right leg coming up and smashing both guards across the faces. Landing just in time to take the body back from their crumpling forms.

And off he goes again running for the lift, “I am surprised this has worked this well so far!” He shouts as he comes sliding into the lift.

“Good timing.” Skye replied, as the door dinged open, and with it, Skye kept to a side. Two men charged out, more guards. Shit, they were intercepted. But, not exactly hard as they saw Ban first, with Rose in hand, and that meant Skye at the side just pointed the barrel at one man’s head with a grizzly pop, before the other managed to turn, Skye had already dived onto his leg and with a gentle turn, pulled her legs into him and stabbed. It must have been something for Ban to see, Skye Lyons hadn’t really lost her edge at all. If Adam was good as an operative with a team, the Scot just didn’t really relent here at all, even without her exo, it felt more like she had to use ambush tactics rather than pure force and clearly struggled more, but the guards were rushing and Skye was ready. Standing to that, she got inside, sighing, hitting for Ground Floor, and looking over to Ban.
“Well. We’re not out yet.” Skye huffed, exhaling hard, yanking the mag out of the G36 and loading a new one in, shaking her head as she cocked the rifle.

“I’m gonna have fucking nightmares now. Fuck. How do you unsee that?” Skye rhetorically asked, looking down at Rose, with a couple of rounds.

“Oof. Okay. This bit is risky. Outflaw, we’re nearly at ground. When we hit, trigger whatever last tricks you have. We’re going to make a pace for the nearby parking garage, and get out of here.” The Scot commented, looking then to Ban, holding the very naked, very slippery, bullet round having copy of her own fucking self.

“As human shields go, you could have picked one with bigger tits, Ban. But we can’t be picky.” Skye chirped, the dark, black humour a fucked way of coping from the Scots lass, but well, what didn’t kill you, actually…..well, best not to think on that analogy. She was as crude as ever, perhaps probably the only way to keep her spirits up considering what she saw would turn most people inside out.


“Lobby’s a no-go, everyone I couldn’t contain is flooding out that way. Go right from the elevator and then take the second right, stairwell down, looks like an exit through a maintenance room.” Enri offered, finally making sense of the situation and being able to focus on the cameras. “Do I leave the trojans active or do I kill their whole local network?”

“Kill the link, we have what we need. You have what you need, if the flow is in order for the rest of the data you’ve taken already. That’s what’ll help us put two and two together. Also, this….thing, person? I’m not sure. There’s something in there too. Cheers for the advice. We’ll go on your move.” Skye commented back to Enri, readying up, sighing deep.

Ban cackled, and reached up, “Breasts are all well and good.” Then palms the bodies ass, “But I like them round down here then up there.” He cackles and gives Skye a wiggly eyebrow moment, yes he’s being playful and maybe a little lewd as he spanks the body’s rear, “Ah if I were younger and less repressed.” She shrugged, “Now is not the time.” He lowered his hand off the bare posterior. Pressing his back to the lift wall, to be out of the way immediately. By now any guards on lower floors would likely know that who they thought was Rose is now the Real Skye deal, and he’s not here to join them. If they don’t try and get them to surrender they are just going to try and riddle the inside of the lift with whatever they had.

“Dirty bastard. I mean, she’s not exactly Barbie. I’m so fucking glad my father didn’t think so. Not unlike some people we worked with.” Skye retorted, referring to herself, or Rose somewhat for the former, and well, the others could be imagined from the diverse team of Raven in the latter.

Enri set up the commands to execute, setting the window aside. “It’s dead the moment you’re outside. Two guards twenty meters ahead, three seconds to a corner.” She guesstimated.

The doors opened, and the guards readied to fire, unsure however, but Skye had the rifle pointed direct forwards, and shot first through the crack as it opened and blindly fired, picking one, then two, bolting out and covering Ban, at a direct pace. They moved direct to the corner, immediately out as other guards started to flood out from the side of the lobby, Skye covering his six as she shot rounds back, using cover and keeping her head down as rounds flew. Moving from pace to pace, she ran down the stairwell, covering a man flanking Ban with a tap to the head, reloading with a frantic energy, charging down the stairwell. They could run through the maintenance room and out to the street, then out of there.

Carrying a naked woman and her exact twin would be the most surreal thing Nagoya was seeing tonight once they may be out, yet somehow Skye was not entirely ensure it was the weirdest thing she’d ever seen even in the last two minutes.
“Keep fucking running!”


Ban waited for the first two guards to be hit, then he blazes out of the lift, and into the corner for cover, peeking around to see how far to the stair well, “Yosh, right…” And takes off again, thighs bulging within his pants as the augments within them push him forward at high speeds. He leaps a desk, weaves around a table, and hits the stairwell slamming his shoulder into the door to it, slamming it open. He’s about to take the stairs down, when he spots something up a level, “They’re in the stairs!” He shouts back, his voice loud over the comms link, “Ahhh it’s alright.” His sword flashed, and he caught the ankle of one of the guards on the flight leading up. Then he’s down, taking the stairs two at a time. Crying out as he slides down the last few steps and comes to a stop on the wall, beside one of the doors, “Kitsune-chan?” He shoulders open the door beside him and steps out into the next area.

“Well so much for locking it behind you.” Enri let slip a rare annoyed groan in the presence of a member of the Family, “One way for you to go, two doors and a tunnel and you’re out.”

Skye followed on that, no reply coming back considering how manic it is, running as she clapped the guard on the flight coming up, as he struggled for his weapon, running over him and back down, running through the cabinet-filled maintenance store and towards where he shouldered the door, nodding back to Ban.
“Yep, all here!” Skye didn’t really stop, charging past him, a bit rude, but checking the last room, and then letting Ban in, before moving across and dragging a pallet up to the door heaping it onto the door mechanism, pulling it so that it would be a bastard to open. It wasn’t great, but 20 seconds of bullshit was enough.
“Copy that, we’ll be going.” Skye added, and with it, moved to the next. Sweep, check, and nobody there either. Shit, this may be it. Had to be.

One last door now. With a pull, Skye couldn’t hear anything, and moved through, the service tunnel heading out into the street, and well, with it, their way through, the cold concrete contrasting the warm fire inside of Skye’s head.
“Okay. This is us. We’re moving through the tunnel now, headed to the way out. Great work, Outflaw. Saved our skins there more times than I thought. And if you have questions, believe me, this one is going to hurt your brain. We’ll move to find a vehicle and get out of dodge.” She called back, looking back to Ban, still shouldering the body, looking to him.
“Holding up okay?” She asked, checking her vest and her general arms and legs over as she moved, no rounds taken yet aware that hadn’t it have been for their work, she’d have been a goner. Rose had a bullet hole in her ribs, but it didn’t seem to be pissing out anything bar remains of blue fluid, mixed in with blood.


Ban pushed up behind Skye smiling a bit, “I feel almost young again. Like old times with Raven.” He taps the comms ear piece, “Well done Enri-chan. I’ll be sure to let the Oyabun know just how much help you were. This was not an easy task.” He looked up at the hole in Rose’s ribs, “Well, I’m surprised it’s only that.” And as things slow he coughs and pulls his coat aside, staring down at a hole just under the vest he is wearing under it, having just missed the plate down there, “So that’s what’s pulling.” He moves his arm, “Ah it’s fine. I can feel it moving in muscle not bowel.” He grits his teeth, “Let’s get out of here. I think we’ve had enough for one night. There should be an Amagi car waiting to take us to a safe house, then we can head back up to Kiyose once things have calmed down, I can’t imagine that this situation hasn’t reached the local police by now.” He picked up the pace heading for the far end of the tunnel and their way out.

“And that’s the building down.” Enri reported, the building behind them going completely dark as the trojans deleted everything and then themselves, the only trace left being two blank flash drives available at any electronics store. “Arigato, Kingo-sama. I’m packing up to go.” With the team out of immediate danger, the usual chipperness was coming back to Enri’s voice full force, “I’d never done this live support, just been in the room with the guys who did, this was fun! Don’t be a stranger, Kitsune-sama, we love repeat customers.” the hacker almost beamed.

Skye nodded to Ban, knowing it really did feel like old times. A strange return to form, but well, they had a way to go. Needing to get back home would be tricky, and well, it may be that
“The fact they pulled you up is of concern though. Let’s see how it plays. Keep the smoke long enough, they’ll lose direction. And they have bigger fish to fry now they have some attention deficit here.” Skye commented, as they kept on, and would soon be hitting light.

Enri’s comments felt similar, leaving the dead network behind, taking the data they needed and covering their tracks. It may have been good to grab more data, but they had what they needed, no point getting greedy. With any luck, the encrypted, scary-looking network that connected the bodies of Rose to the central node would be viable, as would

“Arigato to you, Outflaw. I am sure we’ll be working together again soon.” Skye replied, a smile on her own face, glad that a complete stranger merely hours ago had been the reason they’d made it out. She wondered if it was going to be worth ever properly explaining. Maybe it would be already. But if it wasn’t for her, this snatch wouldn’t be possible. The twin samples, a body, and the data they had. If there was ever a way to respond, Outflaw had without knowing, turned the fortunes of a team that was chasing into one that was now back in control.

@Czelsc

No problem! See what you can do- we may suggest some edits/comments here and there but I'm sure it'll all be alright!
@Czelsc

I'm sure there's a way- let's see your char will fit in, the team has rotations and we can set something up. Excited to see what you come up with!
@Czelsc

Splendid, good to have you on board! If you're interested, prep a character in OOC and we can review it. The CS thread is for approved characters- I can go through PM / co-GMs can have a look at it and we can go from there. What sort of character would you be looking at?
roleplayerguild.com/topics/190121-rav…

Got an RP going if you're looking for a military one with a little bit of flavour
Collab between Chuck and Athena


Armory at Raven’s Rock

0000 Local Time


An Awkward





After conversing with Jamie, Athena looked across to Chuck, the other handsome heavy, well, one of three. It was odd to be outnumbered, but well, it sort of made sense. Rolling in with this much heat never made sense, literally one of them alone was enough to make a platoon’s worth of men really reconsider their life choices, but four, well, that was how severe the situation was. The dark navy clashed with the yellow outcrops and tones, a distinct look to say the least, but her own spin on the crimson of her sister. With her footsteps clattering against concrete, she looked to Chuck, looking up a little, but no less imposing. A fellow giant, and one she’d be looking forward to smashing up shit with. Oh yeah, and Duke, who was now armored up and ready to go. The pup seemed naturally tactical- like he was like his owner, made for this shit, and despite the fact that an armoured dog would look rather odd indeed, it didn't seem to impair him, if anything, it made him look even meaner.
“Not bad. Jump jets too. Taste of professionals, am I right?” Athena chuckled, the blonde haired coil carrying heavy commented, looking him up and down, giving a twirl of her own as she looked around him.
“That is a sick looking bat you have there. Impressive.” She added, the small talk continuing, even if a little awkward considering the stakes.

Chuck turned to Athena as he heard her voice and realized she was talking to him. He gave her a polite smile. “I can’t take credit for the armor. I was given a prototype to try in the field. It has since been overhauled by Raven Squad and Samantha to eliminate the glitches I was having with it.” He shrugged causing the heavy armor to go up and down. Chuck’s armor had a matte black undersuit with harder gray colored heavy armor pieces over the top. He grinned at the mention of the jump jets. “I am still getting used to the jump jets. They give me an assist with jumping to get this heavy armor off the ground.” He hadn’t tried to fly. He was more like Buzz Lightyear, he could fall with style.

Chuck stood with Duke gnawing on the reindeer rib at his feet. Duke was making slobbery noises as he gnawed on his treat. Chuck looked over as Athena continued what was a very stilted awkward conversation. He didn’t really know how to respond to her yet. He had worked with women in the field but she pushed his boundaries. Not to mention he was very attracted to her older sister. She was talking about Lucille. “Oh that is my Louisville Slugger, Lucille.” He pulled Lucille out of the sheath and spun it casually making sure to step away from Duke so he wouldn’t hit him. “It is my preferred weapon of mass destruction.” He grinned knowing it didn’t look like much but the damage it caused on the battlefield was substantial. There was nothing like a classic mass times velocity kinetic weapon to show true power.

A giggle came across Athena’s face, as she saw him swing out the slugger, the spiky baseball bat with a chain on it a creative, destructive tool and a half. The kind that used right would cause so much mayhem out there. Shit, even her swords had nothing on that, she had to admit it. She swooned by, a childish giggle on her mind.
“Typical men, swinging your huge bat around and destroying things. I love it.” Athena grinned, teasing away despite how oh so awkward this was, it was gloriously so, as she saw Duke gnaw away at the remaining bits of reindeer. She considered his advice, and made an effort, well, somewhat better than before to not approach too close this time around.

Chuck looked over Athena’s armor and weapons appraisingly. He nodded to her swords. “I appreciate the skill it takes to use swords. I have some knife fighting training but I found swords difficult. I had a hard time finding swords that could hold up to my strength. I tended to destroy the cutting edges when I hit, making the weapon useless. Lucille is based on a Japanese mace.
Blunt force damage worked better for me.” He shrugged and smiled and nodded appreciating that she had taken his lesson in how to treat Duke to heart.

“True. Nothing like smashing shit up, but….ladies do precision. Duke looks so ready to take on shit. I’ve never met an pup in armour. And not one that could gnaw on throats like reindeer bone. Aww. So cute….I swear, you two are goals.” Athena chuckled, looking past her neck brace down to him, shrugging her shoulders, the large plate following the large woman’s form. She didn't reach out to pet him, taking the lesson onboard, albeit holy shit, every part of her was forcing that aspect of her down that she wanted to pick him up and run out of the base with him. How did she never get to have a dog? Was it the moves, or was it her parents, or was it just practicality? It didn't matter. Duke was so friggin' cool.

Chuck laughed at her description of Duke. “The poor guy was hungry. I wanted to be sure he got to eat before we left. Samantha made the armor for him. I was in the marines and he had a kevlar vest but samantha felt he needed something heavier to keep up with me.” He looked down at Duke with a loving warm expression and ran a hand down his back. “I appreciate her efforts to keep him safe. He can be a great asset in the field. He can help locate explosive material and hidden enemies. He guards my back as well. He is a great partner to have.” He looked back over to Athena.

“Enjoy working with Jamie, by the way. He’s got a good hustle, good flow. He can go wild too, so you know. He might be quiet now, but he’ll fuck up a lot of shit. He’s similar to you, I think. Should be a good partnership.” Athena added off-hand, clicking her neck and taking a deep sigh, looking direct at Jamie before then back at Chuck, the blonde, golden girl having that glimmer in her eyes, that sort of….well, excitement that was nervous yet wild. Like not the discipline and order of a Marine, but that of a joyrider, someone very aware they had what they had to offer. Athena may have taken lives, but there's no doubt she is a little removed from it all, perhaps from doing it in armour a lot, rather than through what some of the other heavies would have had in doing it with nothing but violence and spite on their mind.
“Get a hunting trip between the two of you, even.” She giggled, sighing in tone as she adjusted her armoured coil pack with her paw-like hands, checking the charge, the gentle whine pitching up before it came back down.

He laughed at her description of her brother. “I guess we will get to compare styles later. I think we will be okay. Are you going to be okay by yourself?” He was surprised that they didn’t split the giants into two teams. Although he guessed it made sense to have a large team to man the distraction at the main gate. “We helped Tahlia with hunting the reindeer. We both enjoyed being outside. I like hunting.” He shrugged and smiled as he heard her giggle and saw the nervous energy of a soldier knowing that they were headed into battle. He had seen that look before and knew it well. He realized that maybe he had not understood what she meant. He tilted his head to the side as he asked her. “Oh did you mean I should turn the battle into a contest with Jamie?”
”I’m a big girl Chuck, I can handle myself. Just have to see if Marrakesh can handle me.” Athena winked and let go a giggle, listening to him chat, talking it over, the idea of hunting and spending more time with Jamie.

He laughed as she said she could handle herself. “I don’t doubt it. Marrakesh will never be the same!” He winked at her playfully.

“Well. JamJam would probably enjoy spending time with you is all I’m saying. I don’t know why. I just get this feeling, you know? Doing manly stuff like….I dunno, woodwork. And all that. Not for me. Ew.” Athena added, giggling, just you know, teasing away a little. She seemed playful for someone who, in a few hours, might be turning people into ash whilst Chuck was bashing people in, the other titaness in her heavy armor still keeping her levity while they still had it.

Chuck looked confused and tilted his head to the side. He began reviewing what precious little he knew about Jamie. Was Athena trying to subtly set him up with her brother. Was Jamie Gay? Maybe he was trying to read too much into this. Athena had been all over him earlier. He thought he would have to beat her off with a stick. Now she was trying to push her brother on him? “Well we are all still getting to know one another. Who knows what’s in our future.” He let the conversation drop gratefully and kept those thoughts to himself.




Collab between Viper and Chaos


@LadyAmber
Maison and Jardin Villeneuve, Souk Semmarine, Marrakesh, Morocco

1342 Local Time


Scouting, Finding, Stabbing


Samantha had settled into her perch on the roof as she monitored Purna’s progress and did her best to aid him. She was working on infiltrating their network even as she kept the drones steady and the alerts off. She had already looped the drone feed so that if anyone was watching it, they would not see any of Raven Squad’s movements.

With Sam getting to work in the background, Purna had his work to do. And there’s something about it with him invisible. Sam may have seen bits of Jaguar in the past doing work cloaked up, but never this close perhaps to someone like Viper, as he slid down the tree and dropped onto the floor with a roll, USP and Kukuri in a tactical position, moving through the tiled floor of the garden, exo-wearing guards on sweep, the mood from loud noise and chaos to clean, beautiful greenery from just being inside. He looked around, and with it, spotted the automated turrets, the first order of business. Finding the VIP was critical, but none of it would matter if he didn’t sabotage that first. Making a hustle, the invisible man kept an ear out for Sam.

“Eyes on automated turrets. Three fifty cals, and a grenade launcher. They are seriously geared. Those are under heavy encryption….and I don’t like the idea of leaving them online. I’ll just set charges and it should give Wilk and Boaro a distraction. Give me a second.” Purna called back, knowing Sam might not agree- hacking them may seem better, but it seemed like before she could reply, he was already on it. There were risks after all following the drone hack that seemed to suggest that with weapons systems, perhaps there was something to pick up. Remotely and from afar, perhaps, but in such a hot civilian area, accidentally spitting lead in any direction that wasn’t the inside of the garden could be chaotic beyond belief. Of course, maybe not something she would agree with, but the infiltrator that turned to a mirage in the courtyard, seemed to just be getting on with regardless.

Samantha acknowledged Purna’s actions. “Acknowledged Viper. I agree.” Samantha understood it was better to disable them so that they couldn’t be taken back over and used against them later. She knew better than anyone that hacking could only get you so far. She also knew that there was always a chance she would brush up against someone just as good if not better than her. Samantha noted that Viper was almost invisible on the camera. She wondered if the drones had infrared and if his suit would show up on that. Something to find out from him for future missions.

Getting on was what he did. Avoiding a couple of patrols, he stuck charges beneath the ammunition of the sentry posts that their optical detection couldn’t see, moving from point to point, between the large white geodesic tent that had been erected in the garden. This wasn’t good. What the fuck were they cooking here, meth? He didn’t want to think of it, but nothing suggested a biohazard, or a chemical hazard, just like it was some temporary covering of some kind for weaponry and other kit, not yet, at least. After moving from the next beam and being careful to not show his figure to the light too much lest it disrupt his cloak, he could see the sight of the building proper where Sam had clambered into a corner, with a number of soldiers coming through. He was in the open, and so with it, darted out after leaving the charge in place, sliding out and under cover.

“A few more my way. We have a bunch of them coming over. I’ll leave them be.” Purna replied, pistol readied as well as the knife, knowing he could just kill all of them…..but, it was probably going to be wasteful. And if the bodies were found, problem. As they passed on by, Purna thought about it. People to get out of the way later, but they would be still a factor. As close as he was, they were likely getting cleaned up when the rest of the team swept through here, and then, no clean up was required. The job was the priority, and he had his part to play, the Gurkha ghosting in the compound as barely a shimmer.

“How’s your hacking going? Need anything from me, want anything else from the bazaar?” Purna gave a light chuckle, knowing Sam was already in the network for drones, but well, now anything else would be handy. He had the VIP to find, likely inside the house proper, and more sabotage to undertake.

Samantha was gleeful as she took control of the internal camera feeds. “Viper be advised internal cameras are showing large numbers of guards sweeping the outer perimeter inside the residence. Working on locating our VIP.” Samantha began to scan internal cameras looking for anyone of interest. There was a man drinking something from a decanter and smoking a cigar in an office. He was wearing the uniform of the local military and appeared to be an officer or general. He had a gold star on his shoulder. ”Potential HVT in an office on the first floor. If I read this correctly, it is the local man in charge.” She giggled a little at such a mundane description for someone who probably acted like an evil dictator and pushed his weight around in this area with the locals. Samantha spotted what she thought they were looking for. “Viper potential location found on the second floor. Guarded room in the back east corner. Two guards outside the door. One guard at each intersection on the second floor.”

Purna nodded, moving around from cover and using the foliage lined alleyway by a pond to make his move, pistol raised, sweeping for soldiers, or anyone on patrol. The intel was useful, a local officer, and someone to have a talk to. Well, that would be just perfect. He moved up a little further and found a shipping container, with a large oil tank next to it. Oh, these fuckers had zero consideration for security. And there’s the thing. Purna doesn’t really need much to think about, as he looks around, watching a couple of guards go out of sight, and him to do his thing. Clip. The tank has a teeny rupture, and spills out black goopy kerosene out onto the floor, the marble slowly getting coated, as he slaps a small charge around the back of the tank, hidden out of sight, on another clacker. He’s not an explosives expert, but it’s a daisy chain. One, to the next, to the next. And the oil is gently pouring out, seeping across and into a nearby fountain, mostly dried but mixing in with the water in the sealed basin that had been left neglected. Little things like that would buy the team time, and before anyone had even come back to investigate the tank area again, Purna had vanished, moving back on towards the building.

Samantha realized she might be closer to the target from her position on the top floor terrace. She needed to support Viper though not run off on tangents or change the mission. The potential target was a floor beneath her. Samantha took a moment to check the camera feeds on the drones. Everything appeared normal. She checked the cameras she had set up and noticed some movement at one of the critical junctures nearby. “Suspicious movement on the south side of the complex. Men dressed as locals but carry themselves as fighters moving in a fast but casual stride coming towards the garden and Valkyrie’s location. Looks like a criminal organization’s hired muscle to me.”

Letting another patrol by, Purna clambered onto the side of the Maison Villeneuve’s aperture, using the first window frame and the grapple to pull him upward, up onto the second floor. He peeked inside, and with it, no VIP. No Henry. Fuck. He had to be downstairs, but well, there he was. The officer like man that Sam described, through the window. Two guards, exactly as described, they looked like Moroccan Army. He threw a couple of cameras down, giving Sam exterior shots of the house and good views in of the garden, back towards the souk-side gate.

“Dry country. They don’t drink here. They aren’t local.” Purna wisely noted, holding onto the window frame and bolting inside, decloaking as he flanked between the two in the corridor, and well, even their exo-clad frames and armour did nothing.

The kukri got buried in the throat of man one as Purna turned the other way and clattered three rounds direct to the face of the other man, dragging the body of the one he had stabbed messily into the storeroom he’d entered, dumping him into the corner, before moving back around, the HVT standing up, moving outside, rifle raised from off his desk. Purna was faster. Purna basically went for the balls from his invisible position, and the weapon suddenly got yanked out of his hand, as he uncloaked. The man tried to yell but Purna was faster. He made it seem easy, hand to throat and pushing, pushing hard as he turned and almost with a ballet dancer’s finesse, yanked him to the floor and used the fat man's weight against him. Bloodied kukri to throat, he eyed him up, gloved hand on mouth, the weight of Purna fully on top of his arm and ribs, and a knife so tight against his throat that any slight movement would ripple blood.

“Yell, and I’ll give you a fate worse than your friends. Understood? Grunt if if you do.” Viper stared dead into his eyes in his clean Arabic, the General nodding carefully, as brave as he may have been, respected, anything he had, it was wiped clean here. This structure, site was secure, plastered in cameras and turrets and guards and well, he had been exposed, all alone. Purna did not have time, he needed answers.

“Where is Henry Simmonds? Talk.” Purna let go of his mouth, but not the knife poised to throat.
“Shit, shit, shit…..no, you don’t understand. I can’t, they’ll kill us all, you…”

“I will make it slow if you don't. Then I start with your friends, and their widows will have no answer because they will never see it coming. So, please answer me.” Purna was courteous, he could say that much, as the General had no choice.

“Downstairs, he’s in a makeshift cell, lots of guards around him but he is co-operating with us. Please, I was just told to capture him and hold him safe until they took him away….listen, the men Artemis paid have families, you can’t let them die!” The General tried to call out, as Purna shrugged, muffling his voice.

“The people you didn’t pay have them as well.” Purna coldly slit his throat on that, and there’s this unknowing sort of cosmic terror that comes from that. He may not have been pleasant, or nice, but holy shit, there’s this feeling of it being good Purna isn’t on someone else’s side. He stood and dragged the body under the desk, badly hidden but at least, out of view for now, as he pulled up the General’s laptop, checking the cabling over, and the dying man. Pulling his arm, he used his finger to open it up with a bloody palm, before sliding a USB inside. He threw a camera down, looking over at the dataset, as the hacking tool did its thing.

“Okay. Chaos. You have access inside to his network. Download what you can, and let’s find out what is going on. I’ll ID the target and figure out what next. Good you’re above me. You hustle well….not bad.” He added, reloading the USP, hearing a few more men heading upstairs, the sound of a radio inside quietly pumping out Bedouin tunes, with Purna reactivating his cloak and going quiet again. No time for IDing. Just action.

Samantha had been following Purna’s progress. She had already taken a good picture of the nonnative general to review and investigate for later. She trusted Bob to keep monitoring cameras for activity. She focused on her hacking and was surprised when Purna advised her he had gotten her access to the network. She did love working with true professionals. “Thanks Uncle.” She grinned, unable to resist teasing the man as she began to connect to the laptop via the program in the modded USB drive. She set the program running to download all the data and mirror the drive. She began using her analyst skills to quickly see if they had anything of value.

Bob’s robotic voice startled her as he reported suspicious activity. She could feel that things were going to kick off soon. There was that sense of impending action in the air. She could see forces shifting nervously and some headed towards the garden. She was not sure how anyone knew they were there but she could see a variety of forces starting to move covertly towards their location. She agreed with Bob’s assessment. She was pretty sure they had been tagged by a local scumbug for hire. The shitstorm they were anticipating was headed their way. “We have forces moving towards the garden. Mostly appears to be local hired muscle. Local army forces seem to already be in the garden. Shit is going to hit the fan soon.”

Samantha went back to the laptop and began to search faster. She began to put puzzle pieces together and swore out loud. She thought back to what Purna had encountered in the courtyard. Fuck. “Be advised, location identified as drug manufacturing and weaponization center. There is a tank of that neurotoxin in the tent. It is ready to be loaded into canisters for shipment. That is now a priority target. It needs to be destroyed before we leave. Intense heat should do the trick. We don’t want to blow it up. That might disperse it. We also want to prevent it from getting into the water supply. Sustained high heat is our best option.” Samantha knew they could blow it up but that might disperse it. It needed to be completely destroyed. She began to search harder for their target. “Viper target confirmed on basement level. Basement entrance guarded by auto turrets and a squad of guards.” Samantha felt her heart begin to race as adrenaline slid into her bloodstream. Things had gotten complicated and dangerous fast.

Purna heard the comms call, seeing the soldiers coming through, reinforcements. Fuck. Not good timing, and they’d pierced inside, joining the existing Artemis contingent. More men meant a problem. They were running on very limited time, and so far, Purna had no chance of doing anything more than fixing the threat.

“Fuck, understood. We have an issue then.” Purna knew things were getting bad. So, a makeshift cell to hold Henry, and his knowledge had been co-opted. Why? Was he somehow able to unlock something out of the makeshift process that had been employed in Colombia? The drug made of proteins and amino acids bonded in Rose’s blood turned into a chemical weapon, now that was a serious threat- so far it was low-level, but activated with the right method, perhaps what the drug lab had discovered to unlock the potential of it could become a terrifying chemical weapon with barely any concentration required to kill thousands. Purna knew that timed wrong, this could all go so much worse- there was nothing he carried that could get rid of that amount, and the base wouldn’t have anything either to do so that burnt hot enough- perhaps only the kerosene from earlier, but that was rigged up in the daisy chain and already spent. Chuck, Jamie or Oliver had a tool for that, most likely- some thermite or something to sort it out. He looked out the window again, seeing more men gather, and in particular, footsteps on the stairwell. Fuck. No easy way out. He couldn’t leap outside, even his optical cloaking wouldn’t hide his profile on the bare wall. The men downstairs needed dealing with. He thought, and thought, and thought. Gears turning. His mind racing. His resolve though, came to something.

“Hold on. I might need to attend to something.” Purna replied, as the men came up, obviously to see the General and inform him of reinforcements. As they rounded the door, Purna kicked one, knife into throat as he swung on him, the other man yelling out as Purna used man one as a guard, firing pistol rounds into his skull, before he could even get a round off. But he’d yelled. Fuck. Brilliant. If Chaos was watching through his visual, then there’s this sort of hard to explain lethality that Purna had in what he did, but now he was going loud.

Suspicions would be up, as Purna bolted from the room and checked the corner, cloaking active once more, thinking, thinking, thinking….and something came to mind.
“Wilk, you read?”

“Affirm, just caught your talk. We are two minutes out, hold tight. How many hostiles are in the house? Can you secure the house, and then go for the neurotoxin?” Adam’s voice came back across comms, as Purna heard more footsteps on the stairs, sighing.

“Fifteen to twenty or so from Chaos’s footage. I’ll warm them up for you. And sure, I suppose I could. Why not add more workload to my jobs. But hey, it’s what we do.” Purna replied, as he put the USP away, and instead, pulled the MP5 into hand.

“Okay, Chaos. I am afraid we just got more work. Mind disabling the automated turret for a moment? I’ll kick it out of shape and confirm our man is there. Keep monitoring the outside, ping any traces to me. Time we secure the target for our friends.” Purna pulled the stock back, and with it, peeked the corner. He then went to draw his gas grenade, and shifting his balaclava, deactivated his cloak, and pulled a respirator mask over his face. With a subtle clink, he lobbed it down the stairwell, and, with two more following, the gas spluttered, the Nepali running downstairs, throwing more bugeye cameras of Sam's type. With the intel Sam was feeding him, Purna wasn’t guessing. He knew where they were. It was like having a third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh eye, and well, when information was king for an infiltrator, he was going to show why he did what he did.

Samantha had swung into high gear as things began to escalate quickly on this mission. Her focus narrowed. She set as much as she could into automation and handed it over to Bob. She began putting away her gear. She pulled out her two pistols. She loaded one with knockout darts and the other had taser darts. She stood and made sure everything was put away. She donned the tactical backpack. She began to move towards Purna, down into the building. “Turret disabled.” She set up an auto feed on the cameras to Purna so that he could see where the targets where.

She moved fast and began to take out guards on the way by. She didn’t go for stealth but speed. The faster she joined her partner the better in this situation. There were not that many left upstairs. She ran down the stairs. She halted at the base of the stairs before stepping out into the main hallway on the first floor. She lobbed knockout grenades one in each direction and waited about a minute as the fast acting gas did its work. She ran down the corridor towards the main entrance. She heard a footstep behind her and whirled, launching one of her throwing knives in reflex at the target. She watched as the guard hit the floor gurgling on blood. ”I am moving towards the entrance now.” She retrieved her dagger and wiped it on the man’s leg before resheathing it.

She slid along the wall at the main entrance with her back to the outer wall. She checked the camera feeds before quickly darting out the entrance and ducked behind a flowy gauze curtain.

Purna moved down the stairs as men choked out, moving through the extravagant hallway of the old art gallery, a group of guards yelling as they swept out, Purna no longer cloaked due to his gas mask, well, at least it would be practically useless considering his head would be visible. But he didn’t really need to be. He just used the smoke to advantage and anyone that came close received a bullet between the eyes, two Artemis operators getting that fate as he moved swiftly through that hadn’t been knocked out in the room over. The VIP’s cell could be seen as Purna lobbed another gas grenade down into the basement and the makeshift site, shrouding the place deep in a haze as he ran through and with it, passed by all the sleepy guards. There was no time to snap necks. The cell mattered, and well, there was Henry…..passed out, inside. Purna kicked over the LMG turret, making sure it was pointing towards a wall at least, and no longer able to function.

“Well, at least he isn’t fucking dead. Or at work.” Purna wryly called to Sam over the comms, as he left that behind, and heading out of one of the doors, made an effort to go not direct into any guards. From the cold concrete inside with thick walls and white paint to sandy effects, he made his way outside. He had a ping on Sam, making her way across to him. Pulling the gas mask off, he pulled his ballie down and gave his cloaking system a minute to reinitialise, making fucking sure to stay out of the way. There’s one thing about an infiltrator that is critical- direct combat was basically a death sentence without finding an edge. Sam could take a few rounds, Purna had virtually no armour and even with speed, would get torn to bits by any machine gun or rifle fire in this configuration. He had to stay out of the way, and well, make his way through the courtyard.

“Wilk, Chaos, VIP is in cell, location pinged. The art gallery basement and ground floor has been gassed, gas should be clear in a minute, and the smoke will last about three minutes to get here and remove the VIP. We are going to secure the toxin now.” Purna called to the two, the device on his wrist buzzing as he punched it and then once again, went blank again, letting the guard patrol past him go by before he rolled out and picked his marks.

"Affirmative, we copy. We're moving close." The reply from the Pole came, and Purna only kept it as background noise for now. The guards were in position, sweeping.

Barely flinching, he put a series of rounds into the Moroccan troops, significantly less well equipped compared to the Artemis guards, and a few shots to the head and thoraxes picked them out, as he knew he had moves to make. He made a move, a few more yelling, moving around, but Purna had to relocate or he was toast. They saw the shots, even from a silenced SMG, they could pick that out.

“Chaos, we may want to make a run on that central tent, quickly, but I have eyes on a few hostiles. Just mark them, and I’ll eliminate them, we’re baiting a few of them out now. Come meet me by the front, watch for hostiles.” Purna added, reloading the MP5 with a beautiful HK slap, hugging the shrubbery in the garden. As a squad ran through, Purna picked off a couple headed towards the entry, one turning but receiving another round as he held in position, clearing Sam’s route down off the residence. With a turn, he pulled the Mk14 off his side and put the MP5 back, stock opened up and two more men running around the side getting shots, the 7.62mm needed for the heavier Artemis troops, who were now responding to the clusterfuck inside the house, using it to cover Sam's movement. The gas was putting them off, considering at best it was like a tear gas, and worst, a knockout the deeper they would get in. It was a little cheap, but well, the best tactics were. Sam would see his silhouette in her visor's HUD, as being invisible of course, he was holding for a moment- the cloaking system good for another few minutes of charge and able to at least hide his signature aside from the rifle rounds he spat out at them.

Samantha spoke quietly into her coms. “Acknowledged Viper. Chaos is moving towards you. There is another squad coming up on your six.” She moved quickly and quietly along the edge of the fancy pavilion hiding in the long curtains. She checked the drone camera feeds. She then grinned and had Bob retask their drones to intercept their men. She smiled as she saw the drones turn their own troops into red outlined targets. The autoguns on the heavier Artemis drones began to fire down at the men. That should ease up some of the pressure off Purna. She hid in the shadows till a four man squad passed her. She stepped out and quickly fired a taser round into each of them.

Purna peeked, watching the guards come along from his quadrant, much more armoured, much more protected, much more set up. Letting the rifle loose back into the position on his side, he drew the knife once again, the sharpened Gurkha Kukuri tight in hand as he cloaked and letting them run close, USP drawn as he put his leg out, tripping one over. He put a round into the other runner as he leaned forward and sliced the man on the floor over, the two others only stopping when they realized what had happened as they charged towards Sam's hacked drones. But it was too late. Purna was already there, Mk14 drawn and with it, clacked both in the head, completing the set. He had to be careful, and moving fast and firing with the cloaking system was a risk, but one lightly armed man against three was going to win. Sam had another squad headed her way, and Purna couldn't get a shot. But he knew they were headed towards him now, after his attention- and she just had to ambush them now.
“All yours.”

She began to work her way towards Purna taking out another 4 man squad. She fired taser shots into two and used a roundhouse kick to take one down as she let fly with a throwing dagger at the last guy. She quickly shot the one she had kicked to keep him down. She was moving fast and with purpose the four men barely slowed her down. She took a quick moment to reload. She saw Purna decloak and began to head towards him. Samantha’s helmet completely hid her face. Currently the visor was down and opaque hiding her features. It was sealed to prevent the knock out gas from affecting her.

Purna saw Sam coming, as he decloaked, reloading his various weapons, the blood barely fazing him. There’s no expression, the balaclava and night vision goggles covering any look of humanity, just some shadow that looks like it only chose to show itself. There was nothing but efficiency, an operator that wanted this done. Skye was cold, but Purna in work here, whilst warm outside seemed almost like he didn’t even cross his mind about what he had done.
“Tent’s that way, stick close on me, Chaos. Wilk, Boaro, are you still en route?” Purna asked, looking to Sam, knowing that there was plenty going on.
“Affirmative....hit charges when ready. We’ll avoid fire on the tent, we have thermal compounds back in the heavies' truck to work on any neurotoxins and let's just hope that it does the job. Secure anything inside before they have the chance to remove it, and we’ll see you later. Out.” Adam’s response was clinical, but not as firm as Purna’s, mostly back to Sam.

“Nice work. That got a lot bloodier than expected.” Purna was understating, holy shit, he was understating that like hell. But it was true- Sam had enabled Purna to basically go absolutely wire there, when needed, and the lethality between the two showed- Purna knowing where men were coming from and how. The plan to gas the room was a little more on the cuff, but it had done the job. The VIP was going nowhere, Adam and Ebrima would turn up and the base had no defences, and well, the troops at the front were probably shitting themselves about where the fire was coming from. Whiiiiich…..was going to be broken by the heavies.

The rest of the orchestra was about to start. Purna vaulted a wall and hoped Sam was behind, making his way across the pavilion and towards the entry of the tent. It was sealed with a large plastic door, and whilst it was clear there was nothing toxic in the fumes inside from what Purna had seen, they had to be extremely careful here.
“Okay. This one is us. Fuck knows what we do. But nobody leaves. Let’s just secure this before anyone has any ideas.” Purna replied, looking across to Sam, getting ready, his MP5 back in hand now, something sub-automatic ready. He slid out his USP.45 spare that he had, and offered it out to her, knowing the situation with her non-lethal rounds.
“Something more lethal.”

She followed Viper into the pavilion and towards the tent. Samantha chuckled softly “Gee thanks Uncle.” She checked that it was loaded and that everything was sliding and working correctly. She handed it back to him. She quickly reloaded her pistols with regular rounds. “I had lethal rounds too. I just didn’t want them to be used in the bazaar before we got here.” She had a pistol in each hand and grinned at him. “Ready?” She didn’t really want bullets to carry inside the tent. They didn’t want to accidentally hit that damn tank of toxic goo.

Purna had no expression to show, but shrugged taking it back, not offended. There was a calm to his tone, not an angry one, not even aggressive, just somehow, settled.
“Fair enough. Hold a second, let me go first, then push. Ready.”
He slid it back into place, and with it, nodded. He pulled the zip open to the door and with it, pushed on through While the enemies were anticipating, Purna cloaked up as he entered, peeling left and going ahead of Sam, giving a little interval. They saw the rustle but didn't fire, as if not sure who was there. As the men focussed on the opened door, Purna appeared as if by magic behind a couple of them in a method Sam wasn’t likely to be able to understand, putting rounds into the two Artemis operators in here with his USPs akimbo, clapping them down with precise and accurate fire, making them turn….and well, opening the door to his operator partner.

Samantha watched as Purna rolled into action. She slid in behind him after a short pause and proved what a good shot she was. She stepped in and fired bullets into the guards that Purna had distracted. She followed his lead, moving with him. Her guns were up as she scanned for more targets. There had been four guards inside the entrance to the tent. Strangely there were no cameras in the tent. The drones were probably meant to be their eyes in this area. Samantha began to go down the opposite side of the tent. She went around the perimeter of the tent and met Purna back at the opening to the tent. “Clear.” She jumped up and placed a camera inside the top of the tent to look out over the tank in the centre. She then did the same outside so they would see if anyone approached. “We just need to hold it now.” She nodded respectfully at Viper as she checked in on how the others were doing.

Purna checked, decloaking, reloading his MP5 as he switched to that instead, dwindling on mags but enough to have done the job. They had done a hell of a mess for light operatives, as Sam swept out the area, Purna mostly focussed on the machinery in the middle.
“Agreed. But I think our friends are about to make that very easy. Wilk, detonator’s been sent to you. On your call, hit it and you have your entry. Base has been rattled, they don’t know where we are, and we’ve dropped about two dozen.” Purna added, pulling his NVGs up to blink, a rare bit of humanity as he looked over to Sam, then back across at the machinery inside, the various tanks, cells and setups in this laboratory-like arrangement.
“Shit. None of this is good. We’ll figure out what it is when the op is done. Or whatever Henry decides to tell us.” Purna added, walking over to it, the tank about the size of two medium-sized propane bottles, the tent area clean as a whistle. Purna knew nothing about bioengineering, but the device off the centre of the room next to the tank was identifiable from the stickers on it, and the other tanks containing chemicals after it.
"Fuck. That's a bioreactor. It's like they're using her blood to take their supply of drugs, and turn it into what they wanted. Shit. They engineered this fast, they knew the potential....." Purna added, looking at the biochemical equipment, looking it over, then back at Sam. This wasn't a proper scale, this, this was a test.
"This isn't at scale."




@Starlance

1350 Local Time

The Snatch


The explosions rippled through the garden, a huge rush of boom detonating the turrets, the kerosene tank's flaming embrace cutting it in two. There's an artistry to it- the garden was on fire, and the fountain in the middle was burning bright too, cutting one half of the garden from another bar a gap in the far side of the garden from where they were watching it. Adam had to admit, Purna and Sam were good what they had did. The speed, aggression, it left few men bar those up top, the elite Artemis troops in place, and Boaro and Adam made quick work of them. Boaro aggressively came in on that, and Adam clipped two more across the terrace, taking them out with precision and ease. They wouldn't have known Sam was up here mere minutes ago, the guards that had come up missing her by seconds as her and Purna were in the yard. There was an impressive body count for the lights today.

But he had nothing to add. He had work to do, and on Boaro's call, Wilk prepared, the flashbang prepped and then thrown down the skylight of the terrace, creating an implant into the house. He charged first, and with it, leapt in, leading the way. Shields up, he pressed forward, Boaro getting the two behind him, as Adam fragged one man in the room, the knockout gas effects now no longer affecting anyone new entering the zone, but keeping sleepy bye times on for anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in it. He had no stopping, and the exo was whining, as he heard one more come around, Adam watching him try and respond as Adam pulled him and hurled him into the wall, blasting a round into his face, in a bloody pulp.

The shield up, Adam pulled the USAS tight and pivoted around, the slug rounds now on considering the more armoured, gas mask wearing Artemis troops were on duty to secure the VIP and well, Adam was taking none of it. As they fired rounds, even Adam twitched a little as they went straight at him, Adam firing back and clattering one bloodily with a slug, picking another with the automatic shotgun, moving down to where the gallery room was, and below that, the basement. Switching to the MSBS, Adam checked quarters, seeing men run from out front, where the Heavies, or Team 3 were assaulting. As the Artemis men ran inside, Adam picked up fire, one exo man jumping but being cut down in flight, his exo's path clattering into floor next to him and his friend following, Adam not in many words as Boaro would follow.

Moving down into the basement, Adam saw Henry there, still out cold, and made his move, shields backed down, running across and kicking the door of the cell in.
"VIP identified. We have him." He called, Henry being out cold a rather handy thing. They always recovered people out. It made it easier at least for resistance's sake, as Adam cranked up the exo to lift, and swinging the MSBS into one hand, fireman carried Henry in left.
"Okay. I'll keep this bastard close, the street is going to flood with troops so the only way out is towards that gap in the fire, and the exit to the Souk. Keep me covered, and pick off anyone else brave enough to get into the garden." Adam called to Ebrima, aware that with the shielding, it probably made sense- he could manage the squad. He wasn't like Skye in that regard- able to get hands on and as close in, he was leading this team, and that meant directing others rather than himself. A better delegator perhaps, but he did want it done his way.

"All stations, this is Wilk, VIP secure. Team, we need to leave. Nord, Boomer, Scion, you need to push on, get through the house and head through the garden. I need EOD on on Viper and Chaos's position in the garden, ASAP. We need thermal charges to deal with the chemical tanks they've found." Adam added, Henry groaning a little on his shoulder, as Adam looked across.
"I have no idea if we're saving you or snatching you. Stay still and you'll get to live at least." Adam added, with it, moving out, shields down for a moment but ready to at a moment's notice, following on Boaro's lead out into the garden, knowing the heavies just about had the front sown up now from their breach and from their initial antics. So far, this was going well- but the tide could shift, and Adam knew they had to get to Athena's extract point, soon as possible.




@BigPapaBelial@LadyAmber@Jamesyco

1356 Local Time

Kicking in the Door so hard it's ricocheting across the room

The heavy brawled with Oliver, the mechanised armour straining as he swung his minigun like a club, blocking hits, trying to pick holes in his defence. He would have his way, but he was occupying Oliver- so either he had to end it, or someone else did, the other titan of the bunch making a difficulty here.
"Get off me, you big bastard!" The other heavy yelled, a distinctly Irish accent, funnily enough.

As they headed in, more troops met the Heavies than met the internal team- they were making such a racket after all, and they were assaulting the heaviest guarded piece of the Maison Villeneuve. Chuck, Oliver and Jamie, once they had finished the front would have a portal through the lobby proper and into the garden, the direction of travel for the fight and where Adam and Ebrima were. For Chuck, likely it meant a trip through the lobby past the two and to the tent- and the team would start to move in the direction of the souk, towards the fire-break and from there, out through the souk streets to their RV. If all went well, they didn't have far to go. One thing was clear- everyone was now back on the same wavelength, and the co-ordinated chaos meant they had Henry, the intel, a lot of dead bodies and now, a fight to finish.




The situation in the square wasn't getting any better, with people screaming, people dispersing, and only now, the Moroccan Army troops being told very firm and clear- stay the fuck away from Blue Sword, friendly or foe. Not a nice situation, but one none the less. That was, lest one armoured MRAP charged through, heading straight for the souk it would never fit into.

"Shit." Athena replied, seeing a truck hurtle towards the start of the Souk, Blue Sword troops firing on it as it fired back. Athena growled, pulling the coil tight and with it, pulling up the setting. The truck wasn't stopping from fire, as her guys dived out of the way, from gunfire and getting runover. Athena's coil did not take as long as some would think, and as she hit the clacker, the bolt flew and with it, didn't so much as detonate the engine block as dismantle it. The truck skidded to a halt as Blue Sword teams recovered, swarming the truck and eliminating the hostiles, Athena not so happy about the situation. More of them were coming in, they were fucking swarming out of the rafters.
"You've stired the nest, Wilk, get the fuck out and to my position, it's the path of least resistance, we are holding tight!" Athena called back, other Blue Sword soldiers moving from cover to cover, letting civilians run through, but keeping a swivel. The large heavy's footsteps clattered on tile, the smell of cold static latent in the air as she kept an eye out.
Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz

Athena Anna Kanataario

Purna Chai Gurung


Briefing Room

1800 Local Time


Adam looked around the room, with the range of questions coming in. Chuck and Ebrima had valid points, and he could address them in turn. Ebrima answering one point first, which he agreed with.

"Chuck, Ebrima makes that point. They'll hide, do what they have to, but same time, we need to be careful. Current rule of engagement is that anyone armed is a target, unless they're surrendering Gendarmes or Army. Before we go hot with the heavies, we'll issue a warning to the local Gendarmes, via Interpol, and Oracle the same to the Moroccan Armed Forces, by which point we'll be engaging inside the garden and on the exit, they'll be aware of our presence. Blue Sword similarly will manage the local interactions. They won't be happy, but then again, Raven can pull strings where we need it. With the situation as it is, we can't afford any risk. I do not like it any more than you do, so be careful and let's just keep fire as much as we can to the gardens, rather than beyond. Any overspill and well, then they will know." Adam replied, with Ebrima's further comment being one to also move onto.

"Good point, Ebrima. That's why we have Sam. She's an electronic warfare specialist, and with Purna, she'll deal with the drone presence. I imagine they'll have a couple of UAVs on overwatch, but considering the density of the market, our presence should be fairly limited, as it's only us that need covering. By the time we're attacking, I want them to know where they're coming from. So if Sam can keep the feeds away from our direction, or at least, interfere, we'll be set. We'll need to jam them on exfil, and make sure they don't follow us to the airport." Adam added, filling in the detail, hoping the two were happy with the answers.

"Good. We're gearing up in four hours. Sort out any remaining bits you have to do, and be ready for deployment. This is a sensitive one. But if overspill happens, we're going to need to adapt. So be ready for a fight."




The Armoury

0000 Local Time


Lock and Load


The team continued to gear up, and there was no shortage of hype, feeling and ready here. The stakes were high, and they all knew they had their specialised jobs to do. But in the end, all things could go wrong. It could be their last. It could be the end of Artemis, or them. It didn't matter. Job was going to be done, and Adam checked on each, from Athena, Jamie and Oliver, to Purna and Sam, to finally, Ebrima.

He saw Ebrima in the zone, finishing up with his MDR, and the drum mags for his shotgun.
"Good to go?" Adam asked, moving across, looking to Purna, Athena, and Jamie in the far corner.
"Been a while since I've been in Africa. So don't be offended if I ask for help in French, heh?" Adam chuckled, knowing Ebrima was more the local, even if Cameroon may as well have been as far from Morocco as it was to South Africa, it was still, a Francophone city with heavy Arabic and Berber influence.

Across the room, Athena noted Jamie gearing up, chatting to himself, but then, calibrating his suit, gearing up his tools and bringing them into the fold. He seemed assured, everything set right, and well, imposing. There's a certain mechanical feel to his armour, more industrial, punk. He lives for that shit. Athena likes it plenty, even if it's not her taste, considering hers seems a little more refined.
"Not bad, JamJam." Athena said, chuckling as she smirked, putting her armoured paw on his shoulder. Athena's armour felt like a leveller, and well, she had missed it. Her face poking out of it may have seemed odd to her social followers, but then again, a body like this didn't go to waste.
"She'd be proud. Me and you fucking up things together. Just like old times." She giggled, smirking as she checked the pad on her arm, a secondary unit to her HUD arranged setup, the suit flexing and the coil gently whining, like a muted pitch ready to blast, even the jumpjets having this gentle hiss that was unlike Freya's. While her suit could go invisible, even silent with the right adaptations, Athena made no such effort, and neither did Jamie.

Across the room from there, Purna looked to Sam, chuckling as he replied in his own Arabic, rusty but coming back quickly to fruition.
"Simply a vision, darling niece." He smiled, a rare crack in his turn, but well, the Nepali was certainly happy he wasn't alone. Getting a leather pack, he filled the rest of his equipment load into that, and with it, got ready to go. The grappling hook latched into his left forearm, the pad on his right, he felt prepared, readied, feeling it. Even the dust and dirt felt worn into the robes and wrap, and it felt like he was readied for it. Like a Ghillie suit, almost as if this was blending into a landscape, this was to actually blend into the medina.




Part Five: Rock the Kasbah





Souk Semmarine, Marrakesh, Morocco

1330 Local Time


Made in Medina






Sipping down the tea from the glass, Purna looked over to Sam, his covering down from over his face. Moroccan freshmint tea hit different, Purna not having been in the Arab or Northern African world for a while, but well, it was good to be back. For that tea, especially. It's a brilliant thing, sugary, cooly-flavoured tea that was very hot, yet with the mint, joyous. Even in the searing 30C heat, which felt like it infected any piece out of the shade. It's a manic place. Continuous non-white noise, the sound of horns, drums, talking, shouting, mopeds, yet in the cafe, it almost feels like a setback form all of it, looking on at the madness whilst in a cosy, gentle little environment in an alcove. They had to stop somewhere, and it made sense to stop in a place that locals would go to hide from the mid-day beating sun, the clay and tiled walls and the gentle smell of lamb, humus and mint filling the place.

"This is incredible. Very refreshing. So much sugar, though." Purna smiled to her and spoke in a soft Arabic, already feeling like she got this whole line of work- it was good to be with a professional, even if he was a sole operative, she was not a bad partner to pick from already. Sam was a natural- in her henna and Kuhl, with her wrapping, she fit perfectly, mysterious yet beautiful beneath it, like an allure of someone that knew how to fit in, but still hid it away in spite. Women in this part of the world weren't respected perhaps like a typical Western country, and whilst in the street plenty could be seen without headdresses and tourists modestly dressed also, this was far more conservative, controlled a society that Purna full well understood had not changed for centuries. Nepal the same, but he'd seen enough. She fit the part, and therefore, no eyes would be cast on them both. The robe wearing Nepali drank down a bit more tea, the hot, very sugary, very smooth beverage clearing his throat and a perfect stop as he checked his watch one more time, and then looked back across to her.

"I think it is time we move. I'll keep you close. Let's play the part." Purna smiled, and with it, adjusted his headrobe's covering, using it to at least mask his neck keeping his lighly-clay like complexion visible, as he stood, moving back across to where his pack was, a traditional cloth sack containing of all things, bundled C4, climbing kit, knockout canisters and a couple of gas rebreathers. For target interdiction, it always helped- he knew Sam had much the same tricks. And here they were, leaving the cafe and going back out into the chaos that Chaos would either adore, or hate. Adjusting his throat comms, and the headset in his cowl covered fully by the headrobe, he could talk to Sam without it being too obvious.

"Tourists must come here thinking this is another world. This reminds me of home. Markets, people trying to make a living, kind yet having not much." Purna commented, the Nepali worldly, as they trickled through, most tourists getting stopped, military stopping even a few given the security measures in place, but leaving Purna and Sam completely, utterly alone. They were carrying packs, full of what looked like goods, and appeared to be headed to their own stall. On that thought, Purna went through their segment of the plan.

"We know what to do. I'll go and find and confirm the location of Henry, and sneak in. On your hand, you have drones to sort, and their server network to unravel. Between you and me....our boss, he overprescribes. You know what to do. And you'll find your own way. We are hunter-killers. So you hunt them...I kill." He added, going over the rough plan, the sound of hundreds of people drowning out anything if anyone were to even try eavesdropping in this place.

The two moved through the Souk, and not an eye even batted them. Purna held onto her her hand, looking back and knowing it fit the optics. Vendors did not try and sell them anything, as Purna kept a move on. Armed men were scattered throughout the souk, a mix of local Gendarmes, or military police, actual Moroccan Army soldiers, the grey-robe and headdress wearing Nepali looking so Berber he may as well have gone the extra stint and started to sell leather bags here. His companion too, and well, it was like an art that almost felt easy to keep up with. In the crowds looking for special forces teams, they simply seemed to dissolve.

With it, they made their way through the maze of structures, the dusty, choked souk where you could buy anything from beautiful pottery, leather, carpets, fake Rolexes and Argan Oils giving way to the hidden garden, La Jardin Villeneuve. Such a generic name, for such a beautiful place, but it was barriered off, Moroccan Army posted outside in number, keeping a presence, likely corrupt soldiers on Artemis's bought payroll, if not just using it as a disguise. The garden was sealed, with tall walls, but well, like that would stop the two. The roof above the souk here was tin-lined yet the garden was open to air, and Purna looked on, then back to Sam.
"This is us. Okay, my camera is active, plus I should be networked to your software." Purna added, moving with the crowd as he pulled Sam in close, hugging her, looking direct into her eyes. He may not have been the tech whizz that she was, but, there was no doubting his infiltration talent. The guy was a ghost, and even in plain sight, he made it seem so easy and casual how he interacted with her.
"All yours. As soon as I find a computer network, I'll get you in on that and you can start to disrupt them, and their drones. I'll install explosive charges on any security measures inside, and kill anyone behind that door that could be an issue. On my signal, those guards outside will turn when the door opens, and you have an opportunity....or, you find a way in yourself into the garden. We then need to move, fast, and get ready for Boaro and Wilk to free the target." Purna let go of the hug, and with it, nodded, a smile on his face as he turned, and left Sam behind.

With it, cutting through the shop to their side, Purna left Sam there in the alley, and cut in, moving at a quick walk, the shop owner confused as Purna hustled through and headed through the back door, running up a set of stairs, into an apartment complex. Ditching the robe and the headdress, he revealed his Mk14 and MP5, the pack on his back getting thrown onto a stairset as he yanked the tactical pack out of that, in turn leaving it in the corner of the room inside a clay pot and hustling the stairs. The shop owner was long behind, as he broke into a run, pacing up the stairs, and up to the top.

Coming out on the roof, Purna saw the garden proper, and took a breather. It was only a small segment, but an oasis of green and colour, filled with automated turrets, containers, tents, barracks and most importantly, somewhere in the house proper at the end, the person they were here to recover. And a large white tent, a geodesic dome in fact, right in the centre- a larger structure that stuck out like a brick on the moon. Rather than dwell, Purna's bottom half suddenly disappeared, the Nepali drawing his MP5 into hand as that disappeared too, then his chest, arms, and finally, his head and NVG covered eyes, set to an augmented visible spectrum while he was completely off it. With it, he broke into a run and as a thin blur, darted across the last few rooftops, before using his grapple to lynch straight onto a palm tree inside the garden, and with a swan dive, blur his way straight in, the active camo breaking but re-rendering at halt when he flung himself into the tree, using the line to anchor himself in. There's almost a gymnastic pride to his movement, if the mediums are fast with their exos, then Purna is straight up not even there at all, looking inside and taking a look.
"Inside, Chaos. We have a lot of hostiles here. Be careful."






1345 Local Time

Rooftop Hustle





Adam readied up at the door and looked back to Ebrima. The man might be a warrior in guerrilla warfare, and without an exo in the market a hell of an asset. But up here, he would be invaluable- and far more lethal than down in the streets. With the cut and thrust of close quarters work coming up soon when they headed into the garden, dropping in and unravelling hell from the two would be important- the usual mix of a mediums' speed and aggression. It would be just two of them going in and recovering Henry after all, whilst the Heavies soaked up the actual security at front of house, and the lights covered the door into the Souk, where no doubt there were plenty of guards, sentries and other defences. He felt confident, but of course, there was always an air of change in the air, as Adam peeked.

Pushing forwards, the rooftops were bare considering the insanely baking heat that seemed to burn hard in the light. Different levels, clay, rock, sand, all of it mixing to make the tapestry of Marrakesh's wider Medina, above the chaotic Souk down below.

"Let's get a move on. Chaos and Viper have our target confirmed, charges in place, drone isn't looking at us for a little while. We just need to get there and recover Henry." Adam called to Ebrima, moving up to the next, the noise of the souk loud even from above, drowning in noise and nobody of any sane disposition up here. Guards, and then a few others.

And with it, they got a move on. Breaking into a run, Adam used the exo to fling across from one roof to the next, over the tin and cloth below in the alley to the next, skidding in and down to a stop behind a clay wall when he spotted another group of contacts watching over in the distance. Bringing the MSBS to shoulder, he sent a ping over to Ebrima, highlighting the hostiles.
"Contacts, eleven o'clock. Man on the right is mine. All yours for the left. On your mark..." The Pole called out, seeing the man in the ramshackle cover about 100m away, up ahead. On Ebrima's mark, Adam followed.

With a plink, the rifle clipped the man's neck and spat out the other side, even his tactical getup doing nothing against 7.62mm armour-piercing rounds. Adam looked to Ebrima, nodding, and with it, looking across. Ebrima was the merc with specialism in these environments, far more so than Adam's experience of the Middle East.
"On your lead, Boaro. Post's that way, and we have rooftops to cover. Let's get to an overwatch of the garden, then run me through how many of them you want to fuck up. I always wanted to see what a real Guérillero comes up with." Adam let his usual planning, calculated side down, knowing that in this very specific instance, he'd let Ebrima do what he did.

The rooftops were layered, bits lower, bits higher, bits missing cover entirely but roughly two to three storeys above the market itself, structures interwoven, tiny alleys ranging between half a meter gap to four meters of gap, sometimes with tin, sometimes with textile and carpet, sometimes with nothing. There's this real air that with just more neon and rain, it's like Cyberpunk. But it isn't, it's ridiculously hot, and there was a job to be done, as Adam kept his exo on, ready to follow Ebrima over the gaps, even with the added weight of the force generator carried on the suit's pack.

It was an environment that did not suit fighting in the souk proper, especially with the sheer volume of civilians, but once the attack started, they'd be raising hell and there would be a lot of runners, but the garden would be where it would be concentrated into. Any drones in the sky weren't going to look at Ebrima and Adam's way in thanks to the lights efforts, and more so, the mediums would be in luck, able to take advantage of the chaos, get in close and recover Henry, any intel and anything else on site.




1355 Local Time

Kick the Doors Down






Inside the truck, the driver looked into the back, the titans idle but ready to now go. The radio call had come through from Adam's encrypted link, and he held it in lieu of the fact that the Heavies would likely have wanted it for themselves. Still, a local fixer like him, a Blue Sword driver working with Athena, made it easy to blend in while on his rounds. The truck itself was parked across the street, the street right on the fringe of the deep, mean Souk, and was barely wide enough to fit two vehicles through. Whilst not as packed as the souk proper with tin roofing and sheeting, it was still claustrophobic, and busy enough to feel like you couldn't breathe easy, well, aside from the grounds of the garden giving reprieve.

"Okay, go time. Front door is yours, boss man says raise hell." The driver said, the sound of explosions audible within the garden. The party had started. The mediums were in. The lights had long been setting off stuff. Now, just the cork in the bottle. Jamie, Chuck and Oliver had the job of charging through the front door, past the corrupt Moroccan Army presence with what looked like four MRAP vehicles with remote turrets, at least two dozen soldiers blended with Artemis operatives, and through a small annex of the house itself into the Garden. A heavy was near the front, at least six and a half foot in height, and armed with a minigun and Trophy of his own, would be a formidable threat.




On the other side of the souk in Jema El-Fnaa, Athena was of a similar mindset in her own armoured truck, the shell-like interior of the MRAP with a singular bench for her a place to get ready, alone. Her blonde hair in a bun, she took the helm and put it firm over head, locking it into the membrane within, clicking her neck and her armoured fingers, feeling like she practically occupied every square inch in here already. She's got this aura to her, like Freya, but well, in the business. Looking at the wall, she couldn't see anything but someone in replacement of her sister. And well, someone to end this. Athena had that feeling of duty all of a sudden, instead of running things in the background, to actually get it done. She had heard what Oracle had to say. This had to end, and her team would see to it. No fuck ups, not anymore.

With herself bent in two to crouch down, she put hand forward and pushed on the door, leaping out of the pack with head tall and spine straight, where a couple more Blue Sword soldiers had already embarked, dressed in light desert fatigues, plate carriers, helmets and armed up with SIG MCX rifles, a choice mirrored by the prior Skye Lyons. Athena towered over them, all seven and a half foot of her, coil in one hand, expression inside firm, ventilation at max, because she was sweating like a motherfucker in that truck.

"All Blue Sword security teams, tighten the noose. Any armed personnel aren't to leave. Brief just got sent to local police, so anyone that raises a gun at you, take them out. Anyone that isn't armed, tell them to run. We're on the look out for HVTs, and suspect Artemis operatives, so keep your eyes peeled. Let's get it done." Athena boomed into the comms, her confident extraversion now like lightening. With it, the coils on her pack whined, this deep, yet pitched whine that left nothing to any onlookers. Civilians were on the move, running away from the explosions, locals, and well, between them and the rest were Gendarmes. The large square was packed full of stalls, vendors and Royal Moroccan Army, and well, it would be a chaotic crossfire here. But it was what Artemis wanted. Sow so much chaos that no easy way out could be found. Adam, and Athena disagreed. This was about creating fewer options for runners, and with the main team inside, all Athena's crews and her had to do was hold the line and their way out. There was nowhere for Artemis to run out of the lion's den. Athena stood tall and above the civilians, and made it very, very clear, that you ran, or you got in her way.
Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz

Athena Anna Kanataario

Purna Chai Gurung


Raven's Rock, Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland

1700 Local Time


Currying Favour


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.




Briefing Room, Raven's Rock

1800 Local Time


Ping!


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?"




Armoury, Raven's Rock

0000 Local Time


Cue the Montage




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.




Skye Rosalind Lyons

Ban Kingo

Outflaw


Somewhere near Mount Fuji, Japan

1700 Local Time


Levitating


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.


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 amazing if you asked her - on the software and hardware side, but knew next to nothing about audio engineering, hence the need to delegate.


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.

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.”


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.”

“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.

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.

"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."

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.

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.”

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.





Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz

Athena Anna Kanataario

Purna Chai Gurung


Raven's Rock, Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland

1200 Local Time


Rookery


Seeing Oliver, Tiny Nord back in had been pleasant to say the least- Adam hadn't really needed to talk as after New Zealand, he'd been quiet about the whole ordeal, doing his job and keeping on it. But it fit the file. Then there was Sam, who'd apologised here. It was sincere, and he nodded to it, as did Athena and Purna. Apology accepted, she had lashed out and whilst Adam appreciated it from a professional standpoint, Athena had to give her credit, she had ovaries of titanium to pick a fight with her. Shit, if Athena was pumped like earlier, she would have taken it out on her. But alas, things calmed. Purna, well, he sort of knew the circumstances anyway and expected it was fine. It was just how it went, he went with the flow and was stoic enough to know it was just the crest of the wave coming back.
"Understandable. I guess I owe you one too, sorry if I threatened to flatten you. Just stakes are high, you know." Athena replied to Sam, knowing Jamie would likely roll his eyes, as she leaned over, looking across to her, her large size making it rather easier to crane in, over the embarrassment from earlier with Purna.
"I heard you like to jump off shit. Singapore, right? Not bad. Crazy girl you are, Sam. More so for being you know, not all souped up." Athena spoke to her, before hearing Oliver chirp up. She had to reply, instant on that.

"Poutine would fill a void right now! All yours, Tiny Nord." Athena called out, smirking to him, walking over, standing up from the couch, leaving almost a mark from where she'd leaned into it, rather comically.
"Need a hand?" She asked, genuinely warm in her approach. Chuck was a hottie, but so was he. And well, she was rather gifted right now by the amount of giants around. Another one to add to the list for hires. He was clearly wolfing as badly as she was, and lunch was very much needed.

Jamie being here was nice too. Athena was glad to seem him in one bit, and glad he was making friends. He seemed to have a lot of sympathy for Samantha, perhaps a more deeply rooted empathy for her. It made sense, Adam reasoned that as much as well, and it was pleasant to have that on hand. Athena loved her big brother a lot, even if he was a little strange, he was a good boy. She was just a little more cheeky than him.

Meanwhile, Purna heard out Ebrima's side of the story, and paid little too much mind. After clambering up after Athena had clattered into him, chest first. Awkward? But he recovered as much as he could, knowing Ebrima was trying to hold on. Get the last word in. Purna wouldn't really let it, but well, left one last anecdote. He knew Ebrima wasn't telling everything, but no need to dig. No need to keep going. In time, he'd rethink this one over. See if he deserved it, rather than the instant opinion. Purna would do the same, but well, there was a certainty behind things like that to just ponder.
"Well, life is very strange, Ebrima. Puts you in a place like this. Then I know revenge is a rather odd thing. You would know the feeling." Purna replied, and with that, left Ebrima to it, heading over to help with lunch.

And that they had. Poutine it was, and quite a serving. No leftovers, of course, why, when you've got three giants, any hope of that?




Hunter Gatherer


1300 Local Time


The reindeer herd parted as the crack whistled, the sound of a groaning, moaning beast flopping onto the floor, as Andrew revved up the quad and with it, carried her and Tahlia, the trailer in tow in the back carrying Chuck across the tundra-like snow, thinning and mostly like slush, making it not so good for a snowmobile, given there were patches of green already forming in the open plain. Pulling in, Tahlia hucked herself off, looking to Chuck, the dead reindeer not going at all to waste as he took out his trusty knife and begun getting to work. Two out of five, quartering the reindeer. The animal had died instantly, and as brutal as it was, this was the life of Sami hunters up here. Getting what they needed to live, to eat, and more importantly, leaving nothing to waste. Andrew and Tahlia fully understood that, and no doubt it would anger Antti even more if they had wasted any part of the animal. It was almost a spiritual level of respect to nature, if you were allowed to do this, you had to return it. Or else, somehow it'd fuck you over too. Take what you need, not what you like. The process however, is not one to nicely describe.

"Here we go. Easy does it." Tahlia said as she started to work, and looking up to Chuck, seeing his large frame wonder over.
"There." Tahlia added, dragging the reindeer with a struggle over and out of the spot.
"All yours! Aww yeah, I need a han....yeah this is a Monday for you, isn't it?" Tahlia asked in her Kiwi chirp, chuckling, knowing the big man would lug the reindeer like it was a chair over his shoulder, even though the reindeer that went down was a very big boy indeed.
"I'd say we're on track. Three more to go, right?" Andrew asked, checking his binoculars, tracking the herd that had run, bolting across the snowline.
"Yeah, three more to go. Let's get after them. How are you doing, Chuck?" Tahlia asked, checking the rifle over, breathing hard as she zipped up her puffy jacket once again and tighened the wooly hat over her blonde hair, the other blonde now a little intimidated by the other larger one on base. Shit, Chuck seemed to be having fun, rather than being around her. Girl drama, or just the fact she felt a little threatened? Tahlia didn't know. She was just happy to be of use and at work again.




Fusion Cuisine


1700 Local Time


The evening sky had come in fast, and a first full day at Hannula had passed, just like that. The team had done their various bits, throughout the day. Specifically, Sam and Ebrima had the chance to look at upgrades- Sam's including the suite from Rose's exo, with a lot more exotic tech, whilst Ebrima had similar bits to pluck for movement and software, even though his own exo was cutting edge and if anything, probably the most advanced he could have his hands on. Adam had already gotten his- the force generator tech from her exo was now on his, weighing it down and limiting movement but allowing him to protect members of the team with a short-lived forcefield-like bubble, like a more complicated Trophy System via a charged hydrogen-ion cell.

More admin had followed. Adam had worked with Raph on the details of Sam's programme, tracking anyone that looked like Skye/Rose, or Henry Simmonds (yes, confusingly a very similar surname to Chuck Simmons), and it was coming in close. He may have been a sucker for detail, but it was important- he wanted oversight, less delegation and more personally seeing to things. It was a little annoying, but it was a level of respect, honour and willingness to just ask questions, rather than leave people to it. More hands on, but in a situation like this, probably not a bad thing.

And so, the team had gotten their chances as the rest of the supplies rolled in. The chance to outfit their rooms as the last of the supplies that never made it to Kaitiaki rolled in, and fitted up. It was feeling a lot more like a base, and whilst they were wasting time, there was nothing they could do until they had a target.

The fire kept the room lit up, as Antti had joined the main team, the crew going from quite broken to a bit more familial. The Finn looked in from afar, as Tahlia tapped him on the shoulder, grinning with glee.
"It's done. Five reindeer, quartered, and now grilled. That good enough?" Tahlia asked, as Antti nodded, for the first time, cracking his own smile.
"Satana.....you are good. Ok. I ask little, yet have gained much in your trust. There will be jobs tomorrow. And I shall let you make arrangements, here. For now." Antti replied, Tahlia shrugging her shoulders and looking across at Chuck inside the room, and would like to have to Andrew, her father, who she'd tearfully said goodbye to as he went to join the rest of the Blue Sword team. For now, she had her own bits. The reindeer had been set up and was now getting cooked in the canteen-like oven of the base. It was a glorious, smoked smell of gamey meat, and it permeated, alongside the crackling fire in the background.

Even Purna was in on the action- and he'd cooked up a Gurkha curry sauce to blend in with the reindeer, a brew that contrasted the gamey smell with this incredibly flavoured, vibrant smell of the subcontinent throughout the cabin, in the weirdest crossover episode of Gordon's Kitchen Nightmares you've imagined. It was quite something, and needed cooking in industrial quantities, but that didn't let the flavour down. Purna may have been quiet, but like killing people and responding to direct questions, he had a good heart when not being squished by Athena to just know how hospitality worked. When you were at altitude, help and little things mattered much. And so did it here, and whilst odd, Purna reasoned it couldn't be much different to goat, or lamb.

The evening would be quite something. Making food was a task Adam had carried over from Skye- an important one. No booze, but it got the team together and working on bits and pieces. Everyone had a job, and it was fluid- who took what job would be clear, and Adam, even as a taskmaster, was involved. There's a certain camaraderie to it. Nobody is left out, nobody is away from it, but today, whilst it may have started badly, is not being allowed to end poorly. Athena even had to take part- Adam had insisted, and well, she wasn't backing down. She could devour an entire reindeer to herself. A metabolism like hers did not stop for anyone. Apart from Chuck, now back in the room, all looking as good as he was.

Adam prepared plates, and as the reindeer cooked, started setting them up, handing them out to the team, alongside Purna, who had joined him, doling out meat and the rich sauce all over it.
"So, we have a plan, Chief?" He asked, Adam shrugging as he set up another plate, the Gurkha sad not to have cooked something more proper of home tonight, but he knew he'd win the team over with this.

"We look like we might. We've picked up some hits on the software Sam has worked on already, now we just need to triangulate the location, and we may have work to do." Adam replied, straight to the point as ever, and like the way Purna appreciated it.

"Good stuff. I am eager to get out there." Purna added to him, heaping in more curry onto another plate, then grabbing straight up what was basically three more for Jamie.

"We all are. Can't sit here eating food and getting fat all day. Otherwise, we're back to the firing range and drills. Whilst that is important, I think work when the stakes are this high comes first." Adam replied, Purna agreeing with a nod, as Tahlia and Athena stayed about, Antti gone again and back to his own business.

The team's got one last chance to share, and wolf down food, before they would be likely set for what came next. Back to work, back to finding out what the hell was going on, and once the info had permeated properly, on the case.

Jamie, Chuck, Oliver, Athena, Sam, Ebrima, Adam, Purna, Tahlia were all here so it was quite the arrangement, and one hell of a busy dinner table. Lots to chat, discuss, and get to know. They'd do so, and while there may have been less alcohol than Skye ever allowed, the mood was a little more buoyant.




Collab with @Starlance

Skye Rosalind Lyons


Somewhere in Kiyose City, Tokyo, Japan

0900 Local Time


Losing Tail


Skye awoke, the look of her rather different now. Instead of her long hair, she had completely shaven it short, almost pixie-like in how short and gone it was. A few cuts and bruises could be seen, the darkened crimson red rather than the fox-like orange glow of her red hair visible in the roots and texture of her hairline, illuminated by the dulled glow of a bedside lamp in the motel room.

Yawning, Skye got some trousers and a black t-shirt on, the Scot covering up her top half's bruise and cut covered body with some modesty at least, and checked over her new burner phone. Of course, no calls, given she knew how ECHELON, the NSA’s tracking system worked- even her voice could give her away, so texts were limited and more kept to only contacts through an encrypted service. With her white and red fox-adorned socks on and a black leather jacket, the Kitsune seemed a different operator to the one she’d been 48 hours ago. An alien, yet somewhat holding onto the core of what she was prior, considering she’d need to become someone else.

Skye had someone to meet today, for the plan that was suggested to work ahead. Becoming Rose for a few minutes meant she needed to sound alike, and Skye wasn’t technical enough to figure out how to work out how to create a voice modulator with a more generic English sampling of her voice. The heavy Scots would likely be carrying, and no matter how much she tried to shrug it off, even in impersonation, it would never be perfect. So instead of trying to pretend another identity, she had to copy her very own, with the same method Rose had just used. Not a hard piece of work to do, but it needed an in person visit.

Ban had done well to set her up in the motel, as Skye knew the brief meeting would be coming up soon. She kept herself in shape, a few press ups and exercises keeping her boundless body in check, and got some overnight oats in, the cramped space not ideal for you know, actual habitation in the long run but enough for laying low and keeping her head out of sight.

Soon enough, Ban’s contact would know the way up inside the small motel, the room passed on and details of where Skye was. Enri Uemura, the name Boaro thought was dead was very much alive, albeit Skye only knew her through an alias on her phone. Ban’s organisation had pulled strings, and this was one of the parts of the plan Skye needed to get it done.

The contact was soon heard than seen, the screech of J-pop - some generic synthesised noise with a singer that most voice recognition AIs may or may not have classified as a man and lyrics about abandonment and being overlooked by an uncaring world edgy enough to cut headphone cables - heralding Enri’s arrival most places she went. She had at least muted it to speak to the motel clerk, more to hear the elderly woman speak than for any kind of manners. Utterly unconcerned with the woman’s scornful look, she took the directions to the appropriate room with a curt thank you, half drowned out by the sound of chewing gum and stomped up the stairs. The knocking would likely not have been necessary, but when someone was paying this much, it was best to cover all bases.

Skye headed to the door finishing a press up, opening the thing up barely half a metre from the only usable space within this absolute box of a room. Man, it was dingy, but hell, she wanted less attention and insisted upon it, rather than bringing any heat inside or to the clan. Besides, she’d talk later with Ban, and for the contact, this was the safest spot.

Skye saw the look of Enri, the taller, almost androgynous looking Scot facing the shorter Japanese hacker, chewing bubblegum, and very much, the look of a hacker.
“Morning. Here for Kitsune?” Skye asked, her Scots accent wide, as she widened the door, knowing well, this could be the Police, it could be even Artemis, but more likely than not, at the agreed time and place, could only be the contact.

Skye was met with the sight of a mess of garish colors and black leather, a twig of a woman barely 5’2” ordinarily, and though platform boots added a few inches, Enri still had to tilt her head back to look the Scot in the eye, staring at her through yellow-framed cat eye glasses. A nod at the question, white and hot pink hair combed over to the left side bobbing to the rhythm as she answered a question with a question. “Looking for Outflaw?” She asked as she pulled the headphones down and finally killed the noise for the time being.

Skye nodded, opening the door fully, the Japanese girl about a foot shorter and yet no less badass in imposition, Outlaw by name, and by nature.
“Yeah. Come in.”
With the door open, Skye headed across to the bed, the light on in the windowless room as she sat down on it, trying to get the measure of her. She was a hacker alright, in every frame of it, though Skye could notice the remains of a head injury, a very faint scar at least, that definitely indicated something else. Stil, she didn’t think too much about it, as she sat down, a little more on level.
“I heard you might be able to help with something. A voice modulator, with a little piece on my vocal chord. Would you be able to help?” Skye asked, knowing some of the brief had been passed along, and it would work. Skye would be able to help tune the voice in, given it was basically her own, but in a slightly different accent.

Enri entered when invited, taking stock of the room. In full light and with a turn of the head that moved the hair a bit aside, the remnants of a scar down the left cheek and past the ear could be seen, not quite covered by surgery and makeup. “Wow, you must’ve made a mess of things if you’re living like this at your age.” Having grown up in a similar apartment, Skye could’ve sworn that was sympathy in her voice, “Ya, that sounds like a fun afternoon.” She invited herself onto the only chair, trying to stretch her legs by habit and kicking the opposite wall by accident, “Not what I usually do, but good a time as any to branch out. Someone else is taking care of the money, so we can really fish with hand grenades. Start with the modulator, how much difference do you need? Accent? Cross-dressing?” There was no small amount of excitement in the IT nerd’s voice, almost the same kind of energy a kid showing off to their elder siblings or parents.

Skye chuckled, the hacker’s voice bubbly, knowing this was something obviously that had paid well for the hacker’s time. Skye had a good idea, a pretty decent one in fact.
“Slightly down in pitch. English accent, over Scots. And similar to mine, but with enough profile. Think you can tweak it on the fly?” Skye asked, wondering what Enri could do, knowing it would be a little bit of a prototyping to get this right.
“And yes, I suppose I did make a mess of things. 31 is not treating me well so far. But you make the decisions you make.” Skye alluded, knowing half well Enri might have an idea of what happened, but more likely than not, would play along.

Enri’s face wrinkled slightly, as if in offense. “Please, who am I, Apple? Of course I make my soft tweakable. Phone app works for you?” The indignation fading away back to the friendly , almost overly so, neighborhood malware developer. “If we’re only making small changes, even better. The AI is gonna have an easier time. Cuts down training time. Just speech, or some more features? Integrate with a phone or radio, subvocalization…?”

Skye nodded, knowing that well, it was a fairly easy job. But then again, this wasn’t any usual piece of wearable tech- it was a little bit more than that to make her fit the other doppelganger of her.
”Yeah, app works for me. Live speech, no subvocalization. Don’t need to think in her voice now, Jesus…..” Skye added, knowing there was training data needed in this part, and well, like the sticky bit that Rose had applied, of course, once it was readied.

Enri had been dutifully jotting down notes the entire time, nothing but a plain paper notebook. Unhackable, except with an axe. “Wireless PAN, direct out… Now for the hardware part. Concealability, durability, service life?”

“Skin tone, for about a couple of hours. Needs to not be noticeable.” Skye replied, professional, noting Enri putting words to paper.

“Disposable. Makes power supply easier.” She got up, pacing around the room as she thought. By room, one might say closet, and by pacing one would say ‘two steps there, two steps back’ At least she didn't have to duck under any open cupboards, she had that going for her. “Just a pickup and output, rest handled with the phone. Minimize parts, minimize profile. Will need a skin tone sample to work with. Best make two to have a spare on hand though, just in case. Measure twice. Trust common parts, or do you want clean chips?” Would take a day or so to ship from Taiwan, plus the fees for her contact in the factories.

”Common works. Just needs to pass me off and traceability isn’t a worry. It’s a….unique situation. Skye spoke, with a continued pickup of her voice, placing her arm out in front of Enri, letting her get a sample of her skin with her phone.
“There may be more work. Potentially. But, I guess Ban will ask you for help in time. With this pace, I think so.” Skye chuckled wryly, still sitting there and letting Enri think it over, playing it through in her mannerism.

Ten photos and some final notes later, Enri stopped pacing. “Think I’ve got enough. In how much of a hurry are you?” She asked to get an idea of how many to task with support work.

“And I know it’s not my business, but…” A wry smile grew on the hacker’s face, “If you need to hide your identity, other devices might give you away. I cooould have a look at them to make sure they’re clear. For a small charge.” One did not work for Avital Shalev for half a decade without picking some things up.

“Fairly. I need a quick turnaround, by the end of today, even.” Skye replied, seeing the smile form, and Enri’s other query come up.
“Hah, seems like my initial bit of my plan worked. Alright then. I might need a few bits cleared. And potentially, anything to help keep me under wraps. I know how to keep off grid, but any other suggestions are welcome. The cash can be covered.” She added, knowing there was little in the way that she had left on her now, but Enri could get to work on that. It may have been another few thousand pounds, maybe tens added to the bill but hey, when the stakes were as high as what Skye was proposing, it would pay off. Bargain of the century, really.

Enri held out her bag for Skye to deposit anything that she wanted checked. "Busy bee, aren't we? Best get to it then. Kingo-sama pays, and so it will be." She shoved her phone and notebook in the laptop bag and turned to leave, spinning around in the door to face Skye. "Customer satisfaction guaranteed, but all sales are final!" She gave Skye finger guns and a wink as she slunk behind the door frame, seemingly dialling someone on her phone. And then the noise started again.

Skye dropped the burner phone inside, even the FNX too, considering it was the only piece she’d brought with her since the fight in New Zealand.
“Pleasure doing business. See you later.” Skye’s response was dry, but her usual, a more casual tone than commanding a team of special forces and espionage-originating talents about the place, and perhaps a weight off her shoulder.

She wasn’t giving up her pistol that easy, and Enri would realise that Skye wasn’t fucking around at that point. Skye smiled, nodding back as Enri headed out and shut the door, and with it, disappeared. Sighing, she clicked her hands and stood up, staring into the mirror, at the new version of her that seemed to be there. In time, she’d be another version soon enough. Bittersweet Symphony? Nah, more like staring into the mirror too long and getting drowned in that. Nothing to do for once, apart from sit, wait, and then, when the time came, meet with Ban again and head for Nagoya, to get the job done.

She already had her shopping list. G36 Rifle, dragonskin vest, an earpiece, and aviators. She wouldn't even have to change clothes. The genius of it of course, was whilst no doubt Rose was trying to lock everything down, the real Skye Lyons was going to pretend to be her. Walk straight in. Get what she needed. And only if things went to shit, shoot her way out. If it worked, Rose was going to be backed into a corner and forced to make decisions, not work openly.

If Rose had something bad planned, her plans would have to adapt to cover more bases. Skye was a good strategist- and whilst such a situation was unprecedented, what Ebrima had said, as had Sam, Freya too had come to mind. She had to find her way to fix this and adapt to the situation, as unwieldy as it was- and she already had enough intel from Rose, who as psychotic as she was, had made the mistake every villain makes. Tells the protagonist the plan hoping they'll die before they react, or as Rose would have imagined, turned Skye into a slave more willfully. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be good enough to throw a giant socket wrench at the turning gears of Artemis, before there was no stopping it.
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