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[IC] Exigency: Embassy Incident. Aftermath
Edcrab
Actually a hackRegistered User regular
Actually a hackRegistered User regular
Embassy Incident
OOC thread here
The team so far:
Ringo as E. D. Ohnein (Nacasein heavy support specialist)
HeavyVillain as Atera Osterman (Disgraced Vigil empath)
MaxFrost as E. Norton the IV (Corporate technical expert)
Iriah as Sarajevo Lemarche (Disavowed wetwork agent)
Egos as Damon Howe (Former military tactical officer)
Infidel as Tori "Pocket" Velas-Herrero y Garcia (Telekinetic law enforcer)
Tommy2Hands as Nathan Brazill (Tribal berserker)
It begins
The authorities of Risrecht had a problem. Their neighbours, such as Orduin, had promised assistance, as had the Federation army itself.
As generous as the offers were, they were hours away and the embassy couldn't wait that long. An anonymous tip-off had alerted the Risrecht Police Department to a plot to kidnap the Montakon ambassador, and that sort of thing was never good for a world's reputation.
The idea of storming the embassy first and setting up an ambush for the raiders was utterly preposterous, and the Federal government wouldn't dream of passing down such an order.
But they had. Were it not for the fact that it had appeared via a heavily encrypted channel, Chief Brodie would've dismissed is at a sick and thoroughly unfunny hoax.
"We don't have the manpower," said an underling, pointlessly. "All the special tactical squads are... indisposed..."
"Could it all be a test?" said another, "A kind of covert training exercise to determine our response capabilities?"
A third snorted. "I don't care what the Feds say, we can't set foot in that embassy without kicking off the mother of all international incidents."
Brodie sighed. She'd expected them to be useless, and just for once it would've been nice to have been wrong.
"We have our orders," she said stiffly, "and we're going to carry them out. Mesley, tell me you've found someone."
The muse nodded, and then began to recite data from his heads-up display. "I have already taken the liberty of... ah... inviting a few choice operatives, all with a tried and tested background in such sensitive areas." He blinked, and the files leapt across to Brodie's terminal.
She frowned. "Osterman? I've heard that name. Didn't she snort up half a million in chaos and drink ice like it was mineral water?"
"She's dry now. She recently tracked down and apprehended Trigaski, I might add. That serial killer who's been in the news, after shanking every cop who stumbled across him."
Brodie nodded noncommittally. "Then she'll do. But this Ohnein… his record specifically states that he’s only loaned to us to keep him out of the way of his superiors. Another crazy foreigner to disrupt matters.”
"A 'crazy foreigner' who took out an entire squadron of marines during, uh, a friendly training exercise last time he was here."
Brodie folded the console's screen away and glowered at Mesley meaningfully. He didn't flinch. In a staring contest between the sun and a muse, the sun would probably blink first.
"I'm sure," she began testily, "that you have a glib and detailed retort for any issue I'd find with the rest of these people."
"Yes ma'am," he said levelly. "Namely- they're all good at their jobs and we do not have the luxury of choice. They're waiting in the next room for you to brief them. In the meantime, I'll continue to recruit others."
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She considered using her psi to spy on them but then decided against it. if any of the people in the office were psionors too, thatd blow her cover and cost her this contract. Not worth it.
She brushed the scraggly hair out of her eyes and then looked at the other people in the room. "Any of you people know what the hell is going on here?"
Ohnein sets the dataslim aside and picks up the TacHelm. "Bid to bring Encounter Armaments. Whole kit. No details. Possibilites include local Urban Renewal Project? Brushing up on planetary Building and Development Codes, just in case."
"I'm not too sure, but it involves a tight situation, one that requires subtlety and speed. I'd say smash and grab, but it's law enforcement that we're talking about."
Ed had fair skin from too many days indoors, but was still fit and trim considering his frame. His arsenal was composed of a pistol, a strange submachine gun from his belt, and a bandoleer with several special issue smartbombs along the front, and a special forces issue crowbar in a scabbard in the back. You could tell that this man was skilled at forced entry, but you wondered how he worked around electronic countermeasures that were so popular nowadays.
Atera travels very light. Her jacket has plate inserts and beyond an ageing sidearm and some sort of metal protrusons on her knuckles thats the limit of her weaponry.
"And your a Nacasein with a big gun," she says to Ohnein, "so you'll forgive me for assuming youre a heavy weapons expert"
"Name's Atera. Former vigil op, combat empath." her eyes are drawn to all the explosives. "They probably want me to stun people while you blows things up."
Ohnein smiles and reaches behind him to detatch the cannon. "Not heavy. Sub-standard gravity. But definitely weapon. Surprising casualty list. Had to install camera feed for firing. Too detestable to identify targets after."
Ed looks Atera up and down quickly, taking stock of woman before him. "I'd be afraid of running across you in the dark miss. You look like you could tear someone apart before he knew what hit him. Probably won't need my explosives, and I'd rather use them as a way to control a crowd, not trip someone up and waste the shaped charge. I have nastier toys for something like that." He grins, and rummages along his belt, pulling up a small device that is hardly recognizable.
"This little contraption is an atomizing charge. It's still in testing, and you can tell, because it's loud as hell while charging, but man, you wouldn't believe the kind of blast you can get out of this thing. One of these puppies will blow a hole through 10 centimeters of solid steel without batting an eye." He puts it back on his belt, handling it with familiarity.
Atera draws and examnes her own weapon, before putting it away.. Shes feeling a little gun envy in the face of Ed's equipment.
"Thats.. some nifty hardware. Are they expecting us to have to knock down walls now?"
Atera decides... to hell with it. She gets up and stands near the door, passively sensing beyond it. Not reading minds of course, just harmlessly seeing if they were any closer to finishing
"They told me this was real urgent. What are they up to?"
Suddenly Ed stops what he's doing, thinks for a second, and you notice his eyes drop out of focus for a little bit.
"Hrm, i think we're going to have more company shortly. I just saw someone as heavily armed as us enter the building through one of the security cameras. And I probably should let you know that I have overlay occular implants. I'm basically at a terminal all the time, and that I found my way into the camera system in this building when I was called in for an ops here. I'm still waiting for them to figure out I've intruded."
Atera shrugs.
"I can also make people feel a certain way. mostly make them feel bad. Nothing like making a burly asshole cry before you slit his throat."
"But dont worry! I'm ethical."
She continues to try and psionically spy on the people behind the door
"And what is taking everybody so long? Is this just a situation that is still developing?"
She pushes her horn-rimmed spectacles further up her nose, no doubt covered in datastreams relevant to her role as a political aide.
The woman offers a hand to the nearest person— Norton, in this instance. "Tori Velas-Herrero y Garcia, Federal Protection."
"If she's a Fed, she doesnt need to be in a specific building. This is Ascorvia remember. The Feds run the show."
"But... hello anyway. Just thought Id educate Ohnein here about how much power you guys hold. Nothing personal."
"Names Atera. Youre here to brief us?"
"Oh yay, I'm working for the government again. I'm guessing either something valuable was stolen, or there's a potential hostage situation. Either that or one of my jobs 3 years ago is catching up to me."
"Briefing? I'm reporting in myself first. When I know the situation, I'll fill you in, assuming you're somehow attached to my operation."
She proceeds to the other door, gives Atera a polite nod, and steps inside the chief's office.
He looks slightly uncomfortable with the thought of such uncontrolled bureaucratic chaos. "Jurisdiction managed ably, should be left to be ably managed," he says in the tone of a precept that is taught to children.
"They probably know what they're doing. we can hope so at least."
A man enters, flanked by two women; one of them Tori.
"I'm Neil Mesley, aide to Police Chief Brodie," he states. "This is Sarajevo Lemarche-" he politely indicates the woman on his right- "And this is Tori Velas-Herrero y Garcia," he finishes, gesturing towards the dowdy office worker from before.
Mesley wears a drab suit and stands stock still when he's not pointing things out with his hands. It's like talking to a statue. A few faint metallic lines criss-cross his forehead and betray extensive mental augmentation.
While Mesley was talking, Norton's HUD suddenly updates:
"You've all been recruited as emergency support," the man continues, "and I'm sure you're all aware of how many Federal clauses that violates. But these orders come straight from the Federal Agency, and each and every one of you has been vouched for by Federal Protection, even if we ourselves don't have direct access to your records or any kind of background check.
"The situation is as follows: the Agency has received information regarding a potential kidnapping plot against Pietric Stion, a representative of the Goyermontakon Confederacy currently based at their embassy here. If this official were to be killed or abducted on our watch it would reflect badly on all of Ascorvia and no doubt cause a complicated diplomatic incident.
"You will form two teams. The first will locate and secure Stion. The second will be acting simultaneously in a bid to disable the security system and prevent the kidnappers becoming aware of anything being out of the ordinary. Both groups will have to take efforts to merely incapacitate any embassy personnel who threaten to blow your cover.
"You will then use Stion as bait. He is to be protected at all costs, but the enemy will gravitate towards his position. Both teams will unify and eliminate the raiders while attempting to avoid civilian casualties.
"The Agency has determined that Stion's safety and the failure of the raid are paramount, but if possible, capture some of the hostiles alive for questioning."
Mesley stiffly clasps his hands together, as if unsure what to do with them but vaguely aware of the fact that he hadn't moved a muscle for minutes at a time. He barely even blinked.
"Any questions?"
"Question. This is plot to Alpha Team, yes? Second season finale? Very good, very heroic, Carter rescues leggy secretary and everything, only... they get blamed for damages, yes? Very standard plot hook for Alpha Team, disavowed agents, saving people, getting the girls, getting the blame for incident."
He grins, "You did at least bring lots of girls for interest."
"oh yay we get to do all the hardwork and then if the shit hits the fan you deny responsibility and pin all the blame on us. Fun.."
"does it maybe occur to the agency that we'd be going in with (no offence) a man who looks like his parents were tanks? Subtlty and stealth when we're all packing armour and guns. And if we strip down to look more natural were totally knackered in a fight."
"and keeping the VIP as bait? What? why not just evac them immediately, its not like the raiders will know otherwise if we scew up security. How are we supposed to protect them.."
Atera folds her arms. "Whats in it for us to be disposable fodder for for something like this?"
She looks over the motley bunch assembled in the waiting room.
"Advertising your position is a great way to get killed. Try to exercise some restraint and things may go smoothly, a plan is in place. The idea is that they will be expecting the security forces, not us. Don't blow that."
Tori looks more the part of a beancounter than an agent. Or maybe a legged secretary, but her stature is ... diminutive.
"While under their supervision, you will not be independents or freelancers. You will be an official emergency response team. As unorthodox as this mission is, it has been approved by the government.
"To be exact... one hundred and twenty-five thousand credits of approval. Each."
"I take it youve got a great record at this sort of thing?"
Passively, like a glance more than a reading, she checks out Tori's mind while they talk.
When Mesley gives his price, she forgets what she was doing and just blinks. Thats a lot of cash for one mission. hell, thats a lot of cash for a whole month of missions
"Oh you're allready rich are you? Thats great i'll take your share if you only do this kind of thing for the fun"
Varieties of telekinesis are notoriously hard to classify as every psionor is unique, but what Atera picks up more than anything else is that Tori's psi really is quite powerful. Pick up an armoured Nacasei and swing them around powerful.
"So I guess the answer to my first question was... yes. I guess having a tk shielding the target makes shit a whole lot easier."
With almost a laugh appearing, she replies. "Yes, my specialty is in lowkey protection of vee eye pees. I am accustomed to using more standard appearing security as a facade for the real protection we provide."
"Right. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense." Coughs. "Right."
She looks back and defers to Mesley.
Edward is mildly surprised to find out the types he's now working with. "So we have an empath, a telekinetic, a walking tank, and two people that look like they are somewhat normal. Hell, I don't even feel I'm worthy of being here. But its good compensation, and I'm going to assume that I get to keep any research data that I record?"