Cyber Wars Ch. 13: "Fallen Knights"

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Here is the new chapter.

BIC: It has been three months since Jade's imprisonment at an
undisclosed reformation prsion and Monk's disappearance into the
unknown. Wolf has now taken command of Cyber Force, and has installed
Wraith as second-in-command. The past 3 months have not been easy. The
General, still confined to his office but acting through his wormy XO
(and co-conspirator) have numerously tried to put the kibosh on Wolf's
plans for military counterstrikes against the latest set of
Mastermind's agressions in both worlds. However, Wolf has managed to
keep the unit intact, and, despite the loss of the team's dedicated
hacking specialist, Cyber Force has managed to force Mastermind into a
stalemate of sorts; neither side wishing to attack the other.
However, one side must inevitably make the first move...

***

Colonel Jason "Wolf" MacKenzie, backed up by 4 members of Cyber Force's
Delta Team, cautiously walked through the darkened hallways of the
weapons facility. They had no NVG, and only their flashlights provided
any illumination.

"Stay sharp, that ninja is still on the loose," Wolf said just before a
throwing star embedded itself into the neck of one of the soldiers,
dropping him to the ground with a gurgling death rattle.

"Take cover!" Wolf shouted as enemy soldiers came out of the darkness,
guns blazing. The remaining Delta troopers returned fire from behind
cover, dropping the enemies with controlled 3-round bursts from their
M16s.

Wolf looked around, and almost got a throwing knife in the head. He
moved away just in time and it embedded into the wall behind him.
Ducking back behind cover, he began issuing orders to what was left of
his team.

"Okay, I'm on point, Martinez and Slater are flanking. King, you bring
up the rear."

The 4 soldiers walked down the hall, weapons at the ready and pointing
forward. Wolf suddenly heard something drop down behind his team, but

by the time he spun around to issue the warning...it was too late.
King's throat was slashed by a survival knife, Slater got that same
knife thrown into his skull, and Martinez was gunned down point blank
with King's M16. Wolf leveld his gun, and saw the assailant, a lithe
black-clad ninja, leap over his head and toss two shuriken in his
direction. Wolf rolled out of danger and tried to track his target, but
the ninja was moving too fast for him to draw a bead.

"Damn it...hold still!" he growled.

The ninja threw three more knives in mid air, then paused for a second
on a rafter before preparting to leap again. Wolf was already tracking.
Firing his M16 on full-auto, he saw some of the bullets deflect the
knives, and walked his gunfire onto the leaping ninja, who fell to the
ground, 5 bullets in its chest.

The lights suddenly came on, and a synthetic computer voice echoed
through the room.

"Objective acheived, simulation ending."

The 'dead' soldiers, still blood splattered, but with their wounds
sealing, stood up. As did the ninja, who removed its hood to reveal the
face of Commander Kaitlin Vong.

"That was a good training simulation. Both sides performed quite well
under the circumstances" Wolf said.

Kaitlin nodded. "I agree...but I would have at least like to have taken you down with me."

Wolf lowered his gun and showed everyone the ersatz knife embedded in
his chest. "But you did..." he grinned. "Only the simulation had ended
so I didn't feel it hit me." He pulled out the knife and tossed it to
the ground, watching it vanish in a flash of pixels. "In real life of
course, I would have been screwed."

He turned to the 20 or so soldiers now gathered in the simulated

hallway. Some of them wore Cyber Force military garb, these were
members of team Delta, while the others wore Mastermind uniforms. The
'enemy' soldiers had been played by Cyber Force's Gamma and Epsillon
teams.

"Now, what went wrong for both sides in this conflict?" Wolf asked

Martinez raised his hand. "the attackers had a lack of proper equipment
and intel."

"Exactly," Wolf responded. "The attackers had no NVG, and no
instruction on how to turn on the power. What about the problems faced
by the defending force?"

Sgt. Laura Coleman of CF-Gamma provided that answer. "We underestimated
you, sir."

Wolf nodded. "Damn right you did. Even though I was outnumbered, I was
able to take down most of the defenders...until their secret weapon
made sushi out of me and my team." He grinned at Kaitlin again, who
grinned back. "Of course, I underestimated too. The real lesson to be
learned from this is that you never want to underestimate your enemy's
capabilities, especially if it's Mastermind."

Suddenly a message window opened up right in front of Wolf. It was a
message from the ops room of Cyber Force's base in the Los Angeles
area.

"Sorry to interrupt, Colonel," the comm officer said, "but we have a
helicopter requesting permission to land. The person I'm communicating
with, a Captain Miles Miller, wants to speak to you personally."

Wolf paused in thought. Miller...what could he want...?

"Tell him I'll be right there. Give him landing clearance to Hangar 2."
he said as he closed the message window with a wave of his hand.
He turned back to the soldiers. "Good job today, you're all dismissed."

Everyone logged out almost simultaneously.

***

Wolf left the training room and headed for Hangar 2, Kaitlin following
him close behind.

"This is the same Captain Miller who saved us on Mt.
McHale, right?" she asked.

"Yes...but I don't know why he'd come here personally...unless FLAG
needs the help of Cyber Force."

"Well, we're certainly qualified to dispense that
help." she said with a smile.

"True...which reminds me. Where did you learn to throw knives like
that?"

"Well, it's part of my heritage...and I learned quite a
bit of knife throwing from some of my father's friends who worked for
him at SysDef. I decided I was going to give you a demonstration
instead of outright telling you. Todays training sim was a perfect opportunity"

"Well, I'm just glad it wasn't real." Wolf laughed slightly as he gave Kaitlin a quick peck on the cheek before opening the doors to Hangar 2.

As they entered the hangar and waited for Miller's copter to land, Wolf
called Wraith on his PDAP.

"Wraith, I want you to have all of CF-Alpha and CF-Beta ready to deploy
at a moment's notice."

OOC: For clarification: CF-Alpha is made up of all the PCs, while
CF-Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsillon are made up of NPCs we can use for
missions if need be.

[Squishy Cheeks]

Coyote as usual was busy being fatherly to one of his favourite humans. While he couldn't bust Jade out, he could make her stay as comfortable as possible.

"Father," A young childlike coyote said. "Uncle Wolf has been succesful again."

"Good."

[batgirl]

The long drone of the siren went off like it did everyday, work was over. The prisoners of the Rikers Maximum Reformation Prison were wordlessly herded into they solitary cells. They were the size of little 9x9 boxes with a cot, toilet, sink and mirror all crammed together. The solid steel door to the windowless cell creaked open, and a chained Jade was thrown in. After the barred inner door was closed, she put her hands through the bars and got her chains unlocked from the guard who spoke the same words he said every night: "Don't die on us girly, we want to have more fun with you tomorrow." With that, he shut and bolted the door. Jade was left alone in the cell with only the dim yellow lights from the ceilings like for the past 3 months of her life. She exhaled deeply and walked the two steps to the sink. She was the same Jade as always, but a little worse for wear. She had an orange prison jumpsuit on and her hair was a little longer than before. Her jumsuit and face were smudged with dirt and she had a nice sized shiner on her left eye from the last beating the guard had given her for resisting their "reformation." Her nano-augmentations were taking care of the heavy injuries and she knew how to take a beating, but it was getting more and more difficult to maintain them. Soon she wouldn't be able to maintain them at all and she'd be at the mercy of the guards. She absently scratched at the back of her neck and was reminded of her new addition to her body. On the back of her neck was a barcode tattoo with numbers on it. The guards used it to take roll every morning, but she hated being treated like a number. She settled into her cot for the night and hoped that the others were doing better than she was.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: That...was a training mission JADGuy...but still, I guess taking successes in training is a good thing.

BIC: Wolf got a good look at the Iriquois-class stealth transport helicopter that Miller was arriving on. In his own opinion, Wolf was surprised it was still flying. There were blast marks all over it, and the cockpit windscreen was bullet riddled. Smoke was also coming from the engine. Still, it managed to make an okay landing, even though the landing gear seemed to groan under the strain.

What the hell happened to that chopper? Wolf thought as he saw Miller and a couple other FLAG soldiers debark from it. He noticed that all of the soldiers had varying degrees of battle wounds. For that matter...what the hell happened to them?

He walked up to Miller. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked.

"It's a long story." Miller said. "The net result of which is that FLAG needs your help...and fast. I can explain better if I had access to some media..."

"Say no more. I'll get medical attention for you and your men, and then you can tell us what happened in briefing room Alpha."

Wolf radioed for medical staff to head to Hangar 2, then he called up Angel and Wraith.

"You two get over to briefing room Alpha, I think we've got a situation arising."

If FLAG needs help...then the shit has hit the fan indeed.

[Darth SS]

Angel got the call in a middle of a simulation. They'd decided to test how some of the recruits handled facing a superior force while in the Cyber World. Angel filled the role perfectly.

The scenario for said test was a darkened, yet amazingly good condition mansion. Angel smirked as he thought of how Coyote would probably be envious. Angel himself was up on one of the higher pillars, glancing down at the team.

Heavy Flak vests, assault rifles with laser scopes, night vision, the works given the situation. Angel sighed and thumbed his katana abscently. However, that was convential tactics for dealing with a convential assault styled team.

He glanced at a chandelier, and cut it off. It plummeted down and hit one of the trainees. In the Real World, he snapped out of the simulation suddenly, and swore. Laser scopes showed where their guns were.

Angel grabbed an overhanging beam, and swung around to the other side of the pillar, grabbing hold with his knees and fingers. He heard one of them starting to round the pillar. The major downside to laser scopes was that they showed where they were aiming, and thus looking.

Angel waited until the laser was almost right next to him, and starting to rise, that he let go. His wings caught the air, depositing him noiselessly before he flew as fast as he could at the trainee. With his attention diverted upward, he didn't even see the black blur that slashed his throat open in an explosion of gore.

After finding another hiding place, he gave the team extra points for how they handled the situation. Two dead, four left, no one had even seen the attacker. Almost abscently, Angel drew his two katanas, and whispered, "Now let's test their reactions..."

His wings dissapeared and he slammed down right in the middle of them. One of them was jittery and fired before fully seeing Angel, actually nailing one of his teammates in the head. The remaining three instinctively backed up, and took aim.

The second fired, but Angel had noted his tensing, and pulled to the side so the bullets only caught bits of trenchcoat. He then proceeded to underhand the gun, slicing it clean in two, then twisted behind the rookie giving a human shield. They didn't fire, but re-aimed for Angel's head.

He cut the rookie's head off, and dived at the second last trainee. To his credit, he didn't fire blindly, nor did he run. Instead, he whacked Angel in the face with the butt of his gun. Angel neatly backflipped, and threw one of his katanas in a scything blow, and without waiting to see the effect, turned to two hand the last trainee.

Who had his combat knife out. He squarely met the blow, then shot Angel full in the gut.

***

In the Real World, Angel woke up, and stood once unplugged. He glanced at the assembled team. "Kudos to you guys. You got me. Now, what were the major mistakes you made?"

One sighed, and said, "We knew the enemy was hitting from the dark, so he must've had good night-vision. Ideally, we should've tossed chemical flares into the darkest areas. Surprise him, and give us a better view overall."

Another raised a hand and said, "We should've payed attention to the line of the bloodsplatter. That would've let us have an idea of where you were."

A third muttered loudly, "And make sure there's nothing that can crush us above."

Angel let them work it out and he fled the room, barely pausing to grab a coat. Three months had changed Angel greatly. No longer was he the scrawny programmer he used to be. Instead, he had really filled out, and now had quite the layer of muscle.

Incidentally, he constantly talked in a swedish accent to try to get a date with some of the girls. His favorite was, "Have you seen my beach-ball, it's-" then he made a muscle and finished with, "THIS BIG."

He was pulling that stunt when the briefing room door opened. The girl shook her head, said "Perv." and left.

Angel walked in. "Right right right...what have I been called for."

[Wolf99x]

Wolf, Miller, and Kaitlin, along with the seven FLAG soldiers that Miller had brought with him, were already in the briefing room when Angel walked in after being shot down.

Wolf chuckled slightly. He's matured slightly...but he still ain't quite there yet.

Clearing his throat he looked around the room. "Well, Wraith still isn't here yet, so we'll wait a while before Miller begins his briefing. All I can say is...something's going down...and judging by the state of the chopper he arrived in...it's something big." Wolf tossed Angel a picture of the shot up helicopter.

[Darth SS]

"I didn't do it." He quickly said. There was a pause, and he shrugged. "What? Somehow I always get blamed for stuff like this."

He closer examined the picture, and said, "Wow. Anti-artillery shells. What'd they get themselves into?"

[Wolf99x]

Wolf decided that he needed to know here and now just exactly what FLAG had gotten themselves into; the suspense was killing him.

"Wraith's sometimes late...we can give him the details later." he said to Miller. "Why don't you go ahead and answer Angel's question?"

Miller took out a mini DVD from his jacket pocket and slid it into the holoprojector control panel on the briefing table. The image that was displayed at the center of the table was of FLAG's Skybase 2 flying through the sky.

Miller paused the image for a second. "The data from KAMO's ejection module provided us the coordinates of the holding area in Boston you had infiltrated. I lead a team in there a few weeks ago, launching a successful assault that rescued the 29 other Mastermind slaves. Afterwards we burned the holding area to the ground. I guess Mastermind wasn't too pleased about that...because 24 hours ago, he did this."

Miller resumed the video image, and suddenly numerous Mastermind fighter jets of numerous makes came flying at the Skybase, firing their weapons at it. A massive aerial battle raged for maybe 10 minutes between Mastermind's jets and the OTAVs belonging to FLAG, then suddenly a string of explosions wracked the back of the Skybase, sending it plunging towards the ground.

"We don't know how...but somehow Mastermind's forces knocked out the Skybase's engines, and it was forced to crash-land in Northern Canada." Miller hit a button, and it showed the crashed Skybase partially hanging over a cliff. "Mastermind wasn't done with us either. He's surrounded the base with troops and tanks, and has also managed to get soldiers in through some of the hull breaches. They are overwhelming us. Why they attacked us now I have no idea."

Wolf did. "Weapons."

"What?"

"Think about it. After I destroyed AKIRA, Mastermind lost the only piece of technology he had stolen from Knight Industries. Now, with the UN and Mastermind in a stalemate, he needs advanced weaponry badly...and Knight can provide it...all he has to do is steal it."

"And to achieve that Mastermind shot down a Skybase" Kaitlin added

Miller frowned. "It's worse than that...Michael Knight was onboard when Skybase 2 went down...if Mastermind gets to him..."

"Then there will be an endless supply of weaponry." Wolf finished

"And that's why Knight sent me and a team to find you. We almost didn't make it while leaving...as seen by the state of our chopper."

"So...Knight needs my help once again."

"Well...not just you, Cyber Force. He needs you to get all advanced weaponry off the Skybase and out of Mastermind's hands, and then lock down the skybase. Not to mention, save his life."

Wolf thought for a second "That's a tall order...locking down the Skybase would be difficult, since Jade's in prison, and we don't have a hacker as skilled as she was. As for getting the weapons off though...I think that can be done, as well as getting Knight out of harm's way. In any case, we're definetly going. Mastermind can't be allowed access to any of the weaponry or vehicles on that ship."

Beauracratic BS or not...we're going.

[Darth SS]

Angel raised his arms and said, "Whoooo! Goin' back to Ca-na-da."

He then dropped into a contemplative position and said, "Sorry, sir."

Then almost absently, he muttered, "Wait..." He then glanced at Miller and said, "Nunavut, Yukon, or Northwest Territories?"

[Wolf99x]

Miller shrugged. "I guess it was a bad idea to say Northern Canada. It's not really that far north. It's more like Northern Civilized Canada. It's off the coast of Newfoundland...hanging over a cliff over extremely deep and extrememly cold water courtesy of the Labrador Sea. Fortunately, it's not in any danger of falling."

[Darth SS]

Angel snorted, and said, "Ya' mean Eastern Canada?" He pulled up a map, and showed them where Labrador was.

"Only in the winter does it break freezing temperature. Now, Newfoundland is actually much better, because it's a very solid landmass that has nice refreshing water during the summer months, and just ices really quickly during the winter. All things considered, things could be goin' a LOT worse."

OOC: Assuming we're fall/spring. Preferably spring.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: (twitch) let's not turn this into a battle of wits in terms of Canadian geography. In theory, Newfoundland & Labrador would be in the Northeast. They are on the easternmost part of Canada, and basically the furthest north that you'll find 2 people within 10 miles of each other. Furthermore, the Labrador Sea is constantly hit by the Labrador Current, A cold-air current. Ergo, that water is cold...although Miller may have been exaggerating. And for the record, we're somewhere in May or June I think.

BIC:

Wolf put a hand up. "Nobody was questioning how bad things COULD get, and we're not turning this into 8th grade geography. Let's just agree that we need to get over there and fast."

"So it's time for another round of 'piss off the general'?" Kaitlin asked expectantly.

"Exactly" Wolf said with a devilish grin.

[Zephie]

(( I hate you guys again. :p

Kidding. ^^ But... next time something like this happens, and you don't feel like waiting for me to get back from work, someone please take control of Wraith, just so that he's at least there. He's not that complex a character, just have him come in and sit down and nod. He's a pretty quiet guy, anyway. ))

Wraith was in the middle of a guitar session when he got Wolf's first message, having just gone off-duty and showered since he'd been on the graveyard shift last night. He'd put his stuff up hastily and turned it off and was just about to call the teams when Wolf's second message came through. Naturally, he sent a quick acknowledgement and hurried down to the briefing room. He'd walked in just after Miller had started the disc in the player and stood around silently, and now asks quite simply, "Why don't we just blow it after we evac, if it's that important? Unless it's just that important?"

(( See? ^_^ ))

[Wolf99x]

OOC: I'll do that in the future. Sorry about that.

BIC: Wolf looked over at Wraith. "It kind of is that important. The skybases are expensive to build, and there are only 3 of them in existence as a result. But you do have a point there."

He adressed all of the gathered soldiers.

"If worse comes to worse, I say we blow it up. It may turn out to be the only way to keep Mastermind from getting the weapons tech he so desperately wants."

Miller nodded slightly in agreement.

[Zephie]

(( S'okay, don't think too much of it. It's just that I check these forums much more often than I post 'cause, well, I only post when I have something to say or am addressed. ^_^; ))

"Makes sense," Wraith adds with a nod.

[batgirl]

The shrill morning whistle woke Jade as usual. She groggily got up and stretched. After washing her face and putting her hair up, she was chained and ushered out of her cell with the other inmates. As they passed through the corridor to the mess hall, their barcodes were scanned and they were handed a tray. After receiving her colorless breakfast, Jade sat down alone to eat silently. As she looked down at her food, a shadow loomed over her. She looked up, it was one of the inmates; a mountain of a woman flanked by two similar but smaller lackeys. She was smirking, Jade just looked down again. "Hey! How come you never say nothing? You always sit here by yourself." No response. "I was talking to you!" "Don't mind her boss, she's probably a mute or one of those 'tarded ones." "Nah, I hear she was a military captain or something and she got thrown in here for screwing with Mastermind or somethin'." "Is that so? Well I don't like military type, nor do I like silent girls who think they're better than me. Get up!" Jade didn't move. "I said get up!" The woman grabbed Jade by the collar and pulled her to a standing position. "I...don't want to fight..." "Well that makes it easier for me then." The woman dropped Jade and pushed her back. The guards helped the prisoners move the tables, sensing a fight and a good chance to make some money was nearing. One by one they began shouting out bets. "50 cigs on Viper!" "75 says scrawny girl will kick her ass!" Viper began to trash talk. "You ain't nothin'! Useless! Waste of air, I'm gonna free up another cell tonight by whipping your sorry ass all the way to the morgue." Jade just stood there, but her adrenaline was pumping. Viper came at her with a right cross which hit squarely on Jade's jaw. However, Jade didn't even flinch, her nanos kicked in at full power and she didn't feel a thing. Viper looked shocked. The old Jade might have fought her, the Jade from the prison until now would have walked away or taken the beating, but no more. Jade's blood was boiling, she was tired of the beatings and this woman who decided to challenge her was going to be the target for her rage. "No more! I won't take it!" Jade delivered a savage spin kick to Viper's face. Blood spewed out from her nose and mouth as her nose and jaw bones craked under the force of a slightly nano-augmented kick. "Shit!" Viper began punching wildly, all of which Jade easily avoided. She delivered a knee to Viper's gut and a vicious uppercut. Viper rose in the air a few feet and landed with a thud. The crowd was cheering this whole time for blood and gore. Well, they got it. Viper lay in a bloody mess on the floor. The second she hit the ground the guards jumped Jade while two of them dragged Viper away to the infirmary. Jade thrashed about and managed to get out of the dogpile and take out a few guards. She was tiring quick though, using her nanos while being deprived of sleep and food wore her out rapidly. Soon the guards were on her again in force and she couldnt break free. The captain of the guards yelled "take her to the hole and lock this place down!" as they kicked Jade in the stomach and dragged her now unconscoius body down a dark corridor and to the hole.

[Darth SS]

OOC: I live in Canada, and I have hit the east coast once or twice. However, I guess that "cold" is all relative. And I feel I should point out I thought Saskatchewatonian winters were a bitch...then I spent a week in Levis. THAT WAS COLD.

IC: "Well, while I'm normally all for the fix it with an explosion solution, have we considered that there might be technology that we can use?"

He leaned back in his chair, grinning slightly. "Nice gut-shot to Mastermind, and it'd fall under spoils of war."

[Wolf99x]

Wolf had to agree with Angel, especially since he had been thinking the same thing. He turned to Miller.

"Yeah, what exactly, technology wise, is on the Skybase?"

Miller thought for a second. "Well, there are a few OTAVs, including experimental stealth models. There are also numerous prototype firearms, most of which you helped test when you worked for FLAG last year."

Wolf nodded, "Well...can we possibly use any of that against Mastermind while we're in the Skybase?"

Miller nodded. "The guns are in an armory that hasn't yet been broken into. It's located in the middle of the ship." He pushed a few buttons and it displayed a map of the Skybase with the armory highlighted. "The OTAVs and all other fightercraft are held in an internal hangar until they get raised to the flight deck on top by a cargo elevator. We sabotaged that elevator before Mastermind could steal the OTAVs. Alternately, the OTAVs can be flown out through a side hangar, but we encrypted the hangar door locks pretty well. Still...Mastermind could break through. If at all possible, Knight wants us to get all the OTAVs out of the ship, especially if we have to destroy it...as well as as many firearms as possible."

"Well..." Wolf said. "At least I know our insertion point." he pointed to the top of the Skybase, above the armory. "That way we can keep the weapons out of Mastermind's hands."

He stood up. "Wraith, Angel, get a couple stealth helicopters ready in Hangar 1. I'll be right back after I give the general and his wormy sidekick another coronary."

He walked out of the briefing room and headed towards the administrative offices.

Arriving at the General's office, he knocked on the door. The general's voice came shouting at him

"Whatever it is you want, you ain't getting it!"

The XO added his 2 cents as well. "Yeah, what he said!"

Wolf sighed, and pulled out a piece of paper. Just as he was about to slide it under the door, Kaitlin walked up to him, twirling a throwing knife in her hand.

"Let me deliver it" she said grinning.

Wolf handed her the letter. She speared it on the knife, opened the door, and threw the knife into the office. There was a meaty thwock! sound, followed by the first officer screaming his head off in pain.

"ARGH!!! Sir, she's stuck my hand to your desk!"

Wolf laughed as he slammed the door shut. "Nice throw."

"Thanks, what was on that letter anyways?"

"Oh, the usual UNODIR. Except I added a line about if he stopped me from doing this, I'd have to shoot him for every innnocent life harmed by inaction."

"Think he's read it yet?"

There was another howling scream from the office.

"Yes." Wolf and Kaitlin burst out laughing as they headed towards hangar 1.

OOC: UNODIR means UNless Otherwise DIRected.

[MC43]

OOC: All right, I just want everyone to know that, yes, I am still alive (if any of you care enough about me). I've been kinda busy the past while, what with the last few weeks of school (You know, the final run to make sure one's grades are up to par with parents, you know, those couple final weeks), and as an added twist, I've been asked to sing at my cousin's wedding which happens to be today. I'll get a post up as soon as I can, but I can't say when that will be. I'll be back, I promise.

[Toshiro]

The prisoner's steely grey eyes unnerved the guard meant to question him today. He'd heard stories, most of them were probably just BS to scare the new guys, like the story that he'd been here longer than any other prisoner, but there was some stuff... he'd seen the guy go through an entire session in stone-faced silence, never answered a question, never cryed out when they hit him.

"What is your name?" The guard asked, looking at a clipboard. The prisoner looked at him for a moment, they way a cat watches a person going about their daily routine, and looked straight ahead and answered.

"Madigan, Leon. Lieutenant. 001984." The guard looked nervous.

"Do you know why you are here?" Leon paused to think for a moment before replying, "Because it was a convenient place to hide me away, they were hoping I'd get beaten to death by now I'm sure." He glanced at a few of the others and winked just as the guard's baton jabbed him in the gut.

"Do you know why you are here?" the guard repeated.

"Because it's just so damn fun, playing with guys like you all the time." The guard almost looked distressed at that, his face suddenly hardened again and he brought his baton down on Leon's shoulder. Leon gave a slight grunt and fell forward, placing a hand on the guard's chest, seemingly trying to keep from falling. He righted himself and stood up slowly. The guard stared at him for a moment, and then continued.

"Do you understand why you are here?" Leon seemed only partly interested as he looked around at the other prisoners in the room, most being questioned, some being beaten. He looked back at the guard, who shifted uncomfortably at this.

"Yes. I killed someone, which led to my execution, and now I'm here, because they don't want anyone else to know. And when we are finished here." He leaned in close to the guard, "I'm probably going to kill you."

The guard suddenly blanched, and for a moment that seemed to last forever, it seemed he would do nothing. Once again however, he gathered himself and brought the baton to bear. This time, before he could strike, his face suddenly contorted in pain and he fell to his knees clutching at his arm and struggling to breathe. In the ensuing chaos, Leon looked right at Jade, catching her attention before fainting and dropping to the floor. Jade was the only one who noticed his hand brush across the guard's neck as he fell. The guard's breathing quickly returned and he kept looking from Leon, unconcious on the floor, to the other guards and back again, confused and frightened.

That was the first day anyone could remember a reformation session ending early.

[batgirl]

OOC: Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I'll be heading off to camp tomorrow to work (fun fun in the sun...aaah! why are these children chasing me?) untilt he 18th of August. My posting will be sparse at best during these times, but it doesn't make much of a difference considering that I'm in jail (I can't really go anywhere) and you guys still have a mission to go on. I'll try to be around whenever I can on my days off.

A note on Toshiro's post jsut to clear some things up. Prisoners are taken in groups to a room where they are asked a bunch of questions. If they don't answer the way the guards want them to, they get beaten. Basically the guards want you to accept what you've done and become good little zombies. Toshiro wanted his character and my character to meet, so we both made it so that we were in the same group. Here is his bio:

Name: Leon Madigan
Codename: Largo
Age: 27
Sex: Male
Specialty: Demolitions, hand-to-hand (see background)
Appearance: He stands approximately 6' tall and weighs around 170 pounds. His hair is black and trimmed very short, not quite a military cut but close. At first glance, his grey eyes seem sleepy and disinterested, however he is observant and alert. His hands are tough, yet sensitive, suited to the delicate work of handling explosives. He walks with a slight limp, though whether it is real or a ruse is unknown.
Personality:In spite of everything he is actually quite personable, and surprisingly subtle at times.

Background: Leon's background is divided into two parts: things that are known, and things that are unknown.
Known: He was a military officer at one point, trained as a combat engineer. His career was marked with numerous counts of insubordination, most of which were disregarded as his unit was extremely effective. Following a dishonorable discharge for the murder of his CO he was "executed" and placed in the military expermentation program. After which, he finds himself in the reformation prison. He posesses advanced knowledge of explosives, as well as pressure points in the human body.
Unknown: It is not known what experiments he was a part of, save for the barcode tattoo on his left forearm along with the name "LARGO" beneath that. He had this tattoo when he arrived at the prison. It is also unknown where and how he learned to manipulate pressure points.
__________________

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Well...I guess that kind of makes me the GM pro-tem. Well...anyway. Welcome aboard Toshiro.

BIC: Wolf inspected the two stealth transport choppers in the hangar. Satsisfied that they were in prisine condition, he outlined the deployment plan with all of the CF-Alpha troops (OOC: INCLUDING Angel and Wraith), and Miller's FLAG forces.

"Okay, obviously a daytime insertion is impossible...so we'll approach the Skybase at night. We'll land quietly on the flight deck and enter through an engineer's access hatch on said flight deck. From there we'll make our way to the inside of the ship, and towards the Armory. I'll outline the rest of the op en route and after we've secured the armory. We move out in 10 minutes, so I suggest you get your equipment and weapons loaded up and squared away quickly."

He ran off to the armory, Kaitlin following him a few seconds later. Miller and his team also headed there.

[Zephie]

(( lol, thanks for the mention. :D ))

Wraith twirls a knife a bit in one hand, and then clasps his hand around it suddenly to stop. "Already on it."

He then goes over to the chopper and begins loading his gear.

[Darth SS]

Angel was walking towards the chopter, his coat flapping in the wind from the rotors. He was back in his black muscle shirt, but had swapped the lab-coat for a leather jacket that cut about halfway through his thighs.

As he walked towards the chopter, he checked his modified colts, snapping the clips in. To finish he unslung the UMP he'd decided to take, and checked the breach. Ready to go.

"Insertion tiiiiime."

There was a series of grunts heard behind him. Behind him were three trainees pushing a very large case that contained extra guns.

"Come on, put your back into it!"

[Zephie]

"Good Lord, Angel, did you bring the whole armory with you?" Wraith asks, in mock surprise.

[Wolf99x]

"I give him 5 minutes before that box is emptied entirely." Wolf added with a chuckle as he reentered the hangar.

He had just returned from his own expedition to the armory. As usual he was carrying the twin Colt .45s, as well as Hanzou's old katana. The glinting steel of the blade contrasted with Wolf's entirly black outfit, trenchcoat included. He also had along with him an IMI Uzi as well as extra clips for all his guns. Strapped around his waist was about a pound of C4, already cut into small blocks in case the team came across a door they couldn't open.

Kaitlin walked in behind him, also clad entirely in black. She was carrying a Desert Eagle, the same one she had procured off of Mt. McHale from the Smithinator. She too carried an uzi, as well as an assortment of shuriken and throwing knives which she had strapped to her ankle, or slung across her chest in a sort of bandolier configuration. As if that wasn't enough sharp and/or bladed weaponry, she was carrying Wolf's old katana, which he had given to her a short while after he had recovered his sensei's blade.

Wolf looked her over. "Promise me you won't use that sword as an improvised throwing knife" he said half-jokingly.

"Oh...you never know." she replied with a devilish grin.

Wolf looked around at his team and Miller's team, and smiled. Mastermind is in for one hell of a fight.

He made one last readiness check of the two AIs that would be flying the choppers to their destination: J2 (OOC: Can't leave her out) and Beowulf. Beowulf was as always, ready to go. J2 on the other hand, seemed less enthusiastic. Wolf didn't blame her, after all, her RW counterpart had been torn away from her. Still, he knew she would get the job done.

[Darth SS]

Angel checked inside the box, and started muttering. All anyone could hear was random phrases like, "M95-check. MAC11-check. Frag grenades-check. Incindiery rounds-check." and so on and so forth.

After satisfied he could take an army on, he turned. "So, how we gonna' do this? Full on stealth? Semi-stealth? Or can I bust out the heat?"

[Wolf99x]

Wolf had to grin at Angel's tenacity. "It's semi-stealth. The semi part being our entry. Afterwards...it's all killing. Going in here is like exterminating a termite nest...violent and quick. Once we secure the onboard armory...then Mastermind is screwed."

Taking one last look, and satisfied that they were ready...

"All right! Let's MOVE OUT!"

CF-Alpha (OOC: every PC) boarded the chopper piloted by Beowulf, while Miller's team boarded the chopper piloted by J2. The two choppers took off into the sky, and began the long trek towards the Skybase's crash site.

OOC: We'll get there tomorrow or so...I'm tired...so tired (passes out on keyboard zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (etc.))

[Zephie]

(( Or wouldn't that be

n hbjgynnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnygggbnmjk hb

:p ))

While sitting on the chopper, passing time, Wraith glances over at Kaitlin, idly playing with one of his knives. After a moment he whistles long and loudly, and asks, "Like knives?"

(( Is it just me, or does Kaitlin seem like a really jacked-up version of Wraith, at least as far as knife-throwing goes? O_o ))

[Wolf99x]

OOC: 1. It actually is possible to pass out on only 1 key of a keyboard...I refer to an episode of CSI Miami as my evidence, because they determined a guy's TOD from how many times he had hit the "j" key upon his head hitting the keyboard.

2. As to Kaitlin's knife throwing specialty, that's partially batgirl's doing. We had a conversation on what Kaitlin's special talent was...and knife-throwing became it for two reasons. 1)She's of Chinese and Japanese descent, 2) every major PC sort of had to have some kind of special skill...and we didn't have someone who could do knife-throwing (to my knowledge at the time). Besides, Wraith's real talent comes from his phantasm ability, but I see what you're getting at.

BIC: Kaitlin nodded. "When you're a Chinese-Japanese-American whose father is the head of a cyber weaponry corporation...you tend to learn things like how to throw a knife or throwing star accurately."

***

In the cockpit, Wolf and Miller, communicating via the choppers' radios, went over the situation at the crash site as far as Miller knew.

"So...you're saying that the FLAG forces onboard are still fighting Mastermind's soldiers?" Wolf asked.

"Yes; Although we're outnumbered, we do have access to better weapons tech than them...so we have a slight advantage...still we are in deep shit, elsewise you wouldn't be heading there."

"Well, this is good," Wolf said, "Because any noise we're sure to make is going to be widely dismissed as just regular FLAG forces trying to push back Mastermind. The enemy won't know what hit them."

Both soldiers disconnected and Wolf went back to checking over his weaponry and going over the mission in his head.

I've gone over it dozens of times: get in, smash Mastermind's forces up, secure the armory, rescue Knight, secure OTAVs, leave. If it's this easy...why do I feel like something terrible is going to happen?

The choppers flew on, bringing their occupants towards a fight that could very well determine the fate of the free world.

[Zephie]

(( 1: Yeah, I had to try that several times 'fore I got a good random series of keys (yes, I actually did hit my head on the keyboard and leave it there for a bit ^^). "z" does seem like a rather... uncomfortable place to leave your head, though... O_o ))

2: See below... (quoth Wraith) ))

Wraith nods his head and curls his lips down somewhat, in an understanding sort of way. "Makes sense."

With a little flourish and twirl, he re-sheaths his knife and sits back in his seat, then proceeds to take out a pistol and check it just one more time.

[Darth SS]

Angel went over the weaponry he was taking. He put his colts on thigh holters, and put an ammo belt at his waist for them. Then he put on a harness that held grenades and extra ammo. After putting some combat knives safely onto himself, he tossed an assault rifle over his back and grabbed a UMP.

"So, basically, this entire thing is just a hyped up smash and grab...."

He glanced at Kaitlin and Wolf, and said, "I feel I should point out I'm a canadian geek, yet I can snap people's necks like nobody's business."

[Zephie]

"Just make sure you don't have an 'I'm Gonna Get You Sucka' moment," adds Wraith jokingly.

(( Hooray for obscure spoof references! ))

[Wolf99x]

OOC: <THUD> zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzz....ow! Man...that is an uncomfortable place to hit your head...I think the left shift key tried to kill me at one point.

Anyways, to quote MST3K while watching "Mitchell"; "Oh man I'm constantly confused". Well, time to figure out the obscure reference the only way I know how...the IMDB! Wait...damn...AOL put another dagger in my computer's motherboard...never mind.

BIC: Wolf smiled "Hyped-up smash-and-grab indeed."

If all goes well...but why shouldn't it? Wolf thought. In 3 months, we went from a disorganized, maniacal, venegeance-driven group of almost total strangers to an organized, maniacal, venegeance-driven team. Nice to see some things don't change.

"And the neck-snapping thing should come in handy just on the off-chance we have to be quiet, but Miller said pockets of fighting are breaking out all over the crash site...so silence shouldn't be an issue."

Wolf reached under one of the chopper seats, and pulled out a drawer of auxillary equipment, including grenades and NVGs.

"It's nice to see you didn't get your hands on these grenades, Angel." he said grinning slightly. "I went in and the armory walls were stripped clean." He took a couple frags and one flashbang, and added them to his belt.

"Anyone who wants a pair of NVGs for when we land on the Skybase, take one now." he said throwing one of the NVGs around his neck leaving it hanging by the lanyard.

OOC: Any preparatory work you need to take care of, do so today, because I'm going to fast forward to the crash site tomorrow at the earliest, thursday at the latest.

Speaking of Thursday: I will be heading 10 miles from my house to Rivier College for a week-long computer science course...and I will also be living on campus there. I don't know how often I'll be able to post...but there shouldn't be any major problems...seeing as how the entire course requires the use of the internet...heh heh heh. Of course, anyone who has seen my avatar as of late sort of knows that I'm going to Rivier...but you know. Just a heads up.

[Darth SS]

"I didn't take a lot! I just took enough to make sure I can kill anything I need. And I do have frags you know."

He leaned back in his seat, and went over the weapons he'd taken. Almost as an afterthought, he reached in and a pull a serrated, curved machete. It only stuck out three times before the graceful swoop of a tip, but actually curved so far back, it was almost 90 degrees.

He kissed the blade, and said, "Can't forget you!"

[Wolf99x]

Wolf didn't really mind Angel's act of what others might perceive as overprepardeness. For all anyone knew, it could be a long fight to the armory on the Skybase.

speaking of which... Wolf thought. He contacted Beowulf. "What's our ETA?"

"15 minutes" the AI responded.

Wolf turned to everyone. "We've got 15 minutes until we reach the crash site...get ready to move."

OOC: I decided at the point we all started chatting on the chopper, we had been flying for quite some time...nice time compression there. Anyways, tomorrow...the landing.

[Zephie]

(( DUN DUN DUNNN!

"I told you to stop saying that!"

Sorry, BM. ))

"I was born ready." Wraith takes a pair of goggles and drapes it over his neck, then sits back again. "Ready to rock - an' - roll, Major!"

[Darth SS]

Angel pulled the slide back on one of his colts, then holstered it. "Let's do it."

[Wolf99x]

OOC: The stealth choppers are also extremely quiet, or else the stealth part would have been redundant

BIC: The two stealth choppers flew into view of the crash site. The moonless night sky masked their approach. Looking at the crashed Skybase, Wolf could see numerous tanks and armored vehicles belonging to Mastermind surrounding the crash. There were small flashes of gunfire along almost the entire 2000 foot length of the ship, showing that at least some FLAG forces had survived so far.

Thank God we can make a covert entry. he thought.

As the two choppers approached the flight deck, Wolf noticed two snipers on the deck, scanning the area.

he radioed Miller. "We've got two snipers on the flight deck." Turning to Angel, he asked, "Hey, by any chance did you cram any sniper rifles into that massive box of yours?"

Miller's voice came back over Wolf's codec. "No need to rummage, Colonel, I've got my own snipers."

Two flat cracks echoed in the night sky, and Wolf saw the snipers pitch over, dead.

"Good work. Let's get on the ground." Wolf said grinning.

"5 to dirt." Beowulf said.

The two stealth choppers touched down lightly on the flight deck, and all the soldiers on board piled out.

"Okay," Miller said. "We want to enter through service access way 14-G. I'll lead the way."

Miller's team found the access hatch and pried it off.

"Who's going to scout ahead?" Kaitlin asked.

Wolf thought. "Wraith...you're pretty good at scouting. Get down there and let us know if the coast is clear."

[Darth SS]

Angel had been the first out, quickly scanning the immediate area with his UMP. He walked slowly forward, and pressed against the wall, doing a quick check.

Then he waved Wraith forward. As an afterthought, he loaded the chamber of the UMP, and took the safety off.
"I'll cover you."

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Umm...the 'flight deck' is basically a 1700 foot long flat strech that jets can use as a runway....any buildings would be few and far between, and we're still on said flight deck. But...never mind. Let's just pretend the access hatch was next to a control tower or something like that.

[Darth SS]

OOC: Yes. Let's. *glances around* AVE IMPERATOR! *whips out Power Armour and starts running around for no apparent reason*

[Zephie]

(( *chases SS with a Q3 style Rocket Launcher* ))

Wraith nods and removes a pistol and another little widget from one of his pockets, then hurries over to the hatch and kneels down, connecting one end of a grapple to a notch, and then attaching the other end - a box - to his belt. He readies his pistol and positions himself, then dives headfirst into the hole and descends, using his free hand to steady himself during his free fall.

Once he reaches the end, he begins to slow down using his fingertips along the wall, and then stops suddenly and silently on a rung, holding himself just centimeters away from the small access panel below. Then, using his pistol hand, he sets the box and locks himself in place, and then removes another gadget from his pocket, a little pen-like thing with a ball on the end. He lowers that to the panel and slides a switch around on it, going into infrared and ultrasound modes.

Carefully holding it in place, he scans the area past the panel through the eyepiece attached to his headset. He waits for a long time, just scanning, before he mutters a single word, guttural and whispered. "Clear."

He then swivels around acrobatically in the very tight space until he's crouching on a wide base, and begins removing the panel silently, setting it aside. He takes his pistol and crouches lower, peering through the hole while he waits for the others to arrive, providing cover. He begins giving them a report while waiting, staying silent all the while. "Nine deck drop, all clear on this level. Entry point is a maintenance store room, empty. No personnel on this deck, friend or foe. Minimal security. Standing by."

[Darth SS]

Angel grabbed the cord, and made sure it never touched his skin, only the glove, as he slid down it. He slowed himself with his legs and his hand near the bottom, but ended by dropping down into the room. Acrobatically, he crouched when he landed, muffling almost all the noise.

He levelled his UMP and nodded to Wraith. Quite slowly, making sure not to make any noise, he slowly walked out. As luck would have it, an elevator dinged, and a lone Mastermind soldier stepped out.

When he'd heard the ding, Angel had pressed aside from the doors. The guy walked past, and Angel calmly walked over and snapped his neck, then pulled the body into the shadows.

"If they're scouting this level, then we don't have much time. We should get moving. And Wraith, as I have the bigger gun, and can thus cover better, you get to search the dead guy for anything useful."

[Zephie]

Having moved out of the hatchway and into the open when Angel came down, he'd moved ahead first, attaching his scanner to his gun. He'd seen the man come down in the elevator, but saw that Angel had it well in hand and simply moved aside to let him work.

"If they're scouting this level, then we don't have much time. We should get moving. And Wraith, as I have the bigger gun, and can thus cover better, you get to search the dead guy for anything useful."

"You don't necessarily have all the big guns," Wraith tells him with a smirk, removing an Uzi and cocking it, then slinging the strap over his shoulder and letting it hang while he walks over to search the body. By now, more backup is arriving.

[Wolf99x]

Wolf dropped in through the access hatch, Kaitlin and Miller's team following him afterwards. He took a look at the dead soldier, and swore inwardly.

They'll start sending more to determine what happened to their buddy. I'll have to buy time.

Reaching behind the soldier's left ear, Wolf removed the MM transmitter that all of Mastermind's soldiers wore, to keep track of their location and vital signs. Wolf couldn't do anything about the vital signs, but he could at least cause confusion. He tossed the transmitter into the elevator and hit the button for the lowest deck possible.

"That ought to keep 'em guessing." he said. "But we're still on borrowed time. Miller, work out the fastest way to the armory."

"Got it." Miller said as he consulted his PDAP's map of the skybase. "It's two decks down from here. We'll have to take that elevator..."

The elevator suddenly started coming back up.

"Oh-" Wolf said
"Shit." Kaitlin finished.

"Guess we had less time than I thought." Wolf said. "Everyone take up defensive positions."

Everyone scrambled for cover as the elevator doors opened and 5 armored Mastermind soldiers walked out of the elevator and into the hallway.

One of them noticed their dead comrade's body and knelt down to inspect it.

Wolf nodded to Kaitlin, and she sent a shuriken into the neck of the enemy soldier, who crashed down dead.

The 4 remaining soldiers brought their guns up and started looking around for enemies when Wolf let out a yell.

"TAKE THEM DOWN!" he shouted as he emerged from cover, firing his Uzi and tossing a flashbang. He got one soldier with his sudden attack just before he had to duck back down to avoid being blinded by the flashbang going off.

[Darth SS]

Angel calmly rose right after the flash bang went off, and walked over behind one. He grabbed him, and pulled him into human-shield position.

His flak vest and armour stopped the bullets from his comrades. Angel's shots delivered from his UMP into the base of his neck weren't so easily stopped. Still using a corpse to save his hide, Angel tossed a centralized smoke grenade out into the middle of the group, then jumped away from the retaliating fire.

One of them was dumb enough to run out of the smoke. The man stumbled, then suddenly stood bolt upright as he took shots to the chest, which was, sadly enough, covered. But it brought his face into a better position for Angel to shoot.

His UMP clicked empty after he sprayed some random fire into the smoke. Then he just hurled it into the smoke, hoping to hit someone.

[Wolf99x]

Wolf watched as one of the soldiers fell out of the smoke, most likley hit by Angel's thrown UMP. Wolf put a .45 round in his skull before he could stand up. By his count, that left one soldier standing. That soldier was currently now cursing into his radio and firing his AK-47 blindly.

"I can't fucking see shit! Some guys just came from nowhere and are shooting the hell out of my team!" there was a pause "How the hell would I know if they're FLAG? I told you, I can't...URK!"

A laser from one of Miller's soldiers finally speared the soldier through the smoke, sending his corpse crashing to the floor.

When the smoke cleared, Wolf could see the devastation that had wrecked the hallway. All 5 soldiers were dead, some of them had been shot numerous times before dying. Wolf walked up to one of the corpses and inspected it.

"Holy shit...these guys are Death Squad." he said

The Death Squad were an elite echelon of Mastermind's soldiers. Usually decked out in full body armor and helmets, they carried the best weapons available and had the best possible training. They were also given performance enhancing drugs intravenously through their modified armor suits, making them even harder to kill. Wolf had seen Death Squad troopers go up against tanks and emerge without a single casualty.

good thing there were only 5 of them. Wolf thought. And they weren't in full armor...and we got the drop on them.

Looking around at the carnage he said simply, "Salvage what you can...and let's figure out who goes in the elevator first."

[Darth SS]

"I have to flippin' clue why, but I volunteer to be the first to die."

He unslung his assault rifle, checked the underslung launcher, and the clip, and started towards the elevator.

"Unless anyone else has a lemming moment..."

[Wolf99x]

I really wish he didn't make that sound so pessimisstic.

Wolf picked up one of the dead soldier's AKs, loaded a new clip, and headed towards the elevator. "A leader leads from the front." he said as he pushed the button to open the doors.

Kaitlin walked up to the elevator as well and unslung her uzi "No sense in only two people going."

Miller was the last to approach. "I have to go along, I have the map."

[Darth SS]

"Yes, and it's usually a good idea for the leader to be alive for him to lead." Angel, who was already in the elevator, pushed Wolf and Kaitlin out.

Then he waved as the doors closed. He made sure he was in the best cover that the sides could provide, crouched, and levelled his gun at the door. He wait until it started to open, and hit the stop button, leaving just a tiny crack.

OOC: And what is behind door number two?

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Again, it's not like we tripped any alarms...the crash site is a hot zone after all.

BIC: The hallway was empty, devoid of any soldiers, FLAG or Mastermind.

2 decks up. Wolf forced the doors back open.
Stupid, tenacious, fool.

Wolf slid down the elevator cable, Kaitlin followed him.

Wolf slashed apart the maintenance grate with his Katana and leapt into the elevator car.

"Now then...where were we?" he asked Angel. "Seeing as how you weren't shot to death, I'm going to assume my guess was right in that Mastermind doesn't have a clue we're here yet, and thinks that the Death Squad's demise was due to a particularly lucky FLAG unit."

"Which is true, in part." Kaitlin added.

"Besides which," Wolf said. "Wraith has a scanner that could detect any soldiers anyway, and he didn't try to stop us form entering..." Wolf dialed up Wraith and Miller on his PDAP.

"You two get the rest of the teams down here. Angel, Kaitlin and I will hold the deck until you get here."

Wolf stepped out of the elevator, AK at the ready just in case some Mastermind soldier was lurking in the shadows.

[Darth SS]

"Well, I'm in really good cover, so that should count for SOMETHING at least."

He pushed his gun through the small crack, and checked through the infra-red scope.

"Nope. Perfectly one hundred percent clear. Now, as you're so anxious to be the first to be shot..."

He opened the door, "After you sir."

[Wolf99x]

OOC: It's called building tension

BIC: Wolf checked the hallways, constantly on alert for any Mastermind presence hmm...maybe they're busy elsewhere.

"Coast is clear," he reported. "For now anyway."

[Zephie]

"Besides which," Wolf said. "Wraith has a scanner that could detect any soldiers anyway, and he didn't try to stop us form entering..."

(( That's 'cause you didn't let me reply first. :p ))

"You two get the rest of the teams down here. Angel, Kaitlin and I will hold the deck until you get here."

A thump sounds on the elevator ceiling, followed by Wraith lowering himself into the elevator. "One step ahead of you."

He waits behind everyone as Wolf steps out, leaving his scanner to constantly rotate modes and checking for anything out of the ordinary. When Wolf gives the signal that all's clear, he nods his head forward, signaling the team to move forward and stepping out wordlessly into the hallway himself, his pistol out ahead of him and his Uzi held up and ready.

(( Note: Feel free to give Wraith one-liners like "One step ahead of you." He's somewhat autonomous like that. ^^ ))

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Okay

BIC: Wolf's PDAP beeped and he saw a map of the Skybase appear on the screen, as well as a blip showing his location, and that of all team members.

Looks like Miller finished the map program. he thought. Checking the map, he noticed that the quickest path to the armory would be through the hallway up ahead, through 2 computer labs, and finally through what seemed to be a security checkpoint.

Well, that makes sense. You don't just hand out guns to anybody. Taking one last cursory look through the hallway, Wolf decided it was clear.

"Get everyone down here." Wolf said into his codec

A few seconds later Miller and his team rappelled their way down the elevator shaft and exited the elevator, guns at the ready.

Kaitlin also had exited the elevator, keeping a throwing knife ready, and her Desert Eagle drawn.

Wolf slid open the door to the computer lab just a tiny bit and looked inside. He was not pleased by what he saw. In addition to there being 10 Mastermind soldiers in the room, there were also a large number of dead FLAG technicians...8 or so...most of them slumped dead at their desks. 1 of them it seemed had gotten his hands on a pistol, but had died soon after trying to use it.

They massacred those scientists... he thought angrily. Part of him wanted to go in guns blazing...but he knew that was foolish. Quietly closing the door and taking out his PDAP, he typed a quick text message to Angel.

"Bring either a flashbang or a smoke grenade up to my position...we've got hostiles up ahead."

He also tapped a text message to Wraith. "Get up to my position, I'm going to need back up."

Kaitlin sidled up to him. "What's in there?" she asked quietly.

"A bunch of scientist murdering thugs." Wolf said pulling back the slide on his borrowed AK, "And I'm going to make sure they don't die peacefully."

[Zephie]

Wraith comes up behind him and checks the room with ultrasound scanners. "What's the plan?"

[Wolf99x]

"The plan," Wolf said to Wraith, "Is quite simple. The doors to the computer labs all slide open, but the mechanisms must have been disabled...or something. Anyway, the idea is that we slide open the door just enough to toss a smoke grenade or flashbang, depends on what Angel brings, into the room, close the door, wait till it goes off, fling the door open, and kill every last one of those scientist shooting bastards in there. There are 10 of them, all standing guard...except one which is at a computer near the middle of the room...working on something. I say we take him down first, because he might be trying to subvert security."

[Zephie]

He tosses a knife in the air and catches it again. "I'll get him."

[Wolf99x]

Wolf nodded. "Good," then he continued. "There are also 4 gaurds along the far wall. the flashbang or smoke grenade should blind or confuse them...so Kaitlin, Angel, and I will take them down after you take down the computer guard. Then we all take down the soldiers along the sidewalls."

[Zephie]

"You copy that, Angel?" Wraith asks through the feed.

[Darth SS]

"Of course..."

Angel took a longer way around, ending up at another side door.

"Get ready to move people."

He unhitched the flashbang grenade, letting it wait for around five seconds. Then he kicked the door down, and whipped it in. Well, not knocked it down. But it had the desired effect of bending and breaking the door enough so he could throw it in. Before any retaliation fire could come, he dove out of the doorway.

It when off, practically blinding anyone who entered. In true relentless fashion, Angel stepped in and shot the first one straight in the forehead. Still advancing, he used the shoulder strap of his rifle to one-hand his assault rifle, and fire in a stream that literally ripped the head off of another.

Not waiting, he nailed a last one with and whacking hit from his rifle, then used the time to let his rifle hang, and stick him into a hold position. He then yanked himself into a corner, making an ideal human shield.

Then he jammed his colt into the base of the man's skull, his trigger finger twitching as he kept himself from firing.

OOC: I just saw the Punisher again today. I have an odd urge to pin someone's hand to himself, and then stick another knife through their mouth. It's kinda' weird.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Someone's been hitting the nano-augs...

BIC: Wolf dove through the door right after Angel did, bringing his AK up to fire in the porcess. He cut a line of bullets across a guard's chest, dropping him to the ground. He heard the sound of a few knives whistling through the air, but only saw one guard pitch over with a knife in his head before he had to roll to avoid spotty return fire from the half-blind guards still alive. Wolf cam out of his roll behind a startled guard. He grabbed the guard's head and twisted it almost a full 360 degrees, snapping all the vertabre in his neck.

Dropping the dead body to the deck, Wolf expended the last of his AK clip into another guard, 15 rounds into the chest and head. As he drew his uzi, he could see Kaitlin firing her uzi from behind a computer, blasting through a guard's carotid artery.

[Darth SS]

OOC: I phrased a lot of that wrong. I'll edit when this storm ends.

[Zephie]

Wraith grins as the computer guy slumps over, a knife sticking from his forehead. The rest of the knives, he gathers, must have come from Kaitlin, and he sees one of them embed in a man's back, who is then shot to hell by Angel when he enters. For his part Wraith steps to the side and fires at two opposite targets with his pistol and Uzi, catching one of the men with a spray of bullets just as Wolf drops him, too, and hits the other with a few shots to the head. (( Correction, that's eight of ten. )) He glances around and watches as the rest of the team basically jumps the majority of the guards in one swift motion, then glances sideways to see one last guard firing blindly into the center of the room, using what little revision he's regained.

Wraith smirks and levels his pistol, then fires one shot cleanly into his firing hand. The man drops his gun with a scream, then screams again as another bullet finds his other hand. The guy falls to his knees and holds his own hands pitifully, then looks up to see Wraith standing over him with a knife in his hand, flashing it at him. The guy tries to say something, but soon gasps in shock and screams a third time as Wraith takes his hands and impales them into the desk by his knife, stabbing him through the centers of his wrists.

The guy doubles over onto his hands, trying his best to stifle any more screaming with strained grunts, but then has his head yanked back to look up at Wraith. He snarls at him while Wraith asks, "Now can you be a good little boy and tell us where and how many of you there are?"

(( Passing control to Wolf. ))

[Darth SS]

The man Angel was holding looked suddenly terrified. Angel grinned, and spoke into his ear.

"He's the gentle one."

The man seemed incredibly nervous as he noticed the size of Angel's gun. And that it was connected to the back of his head.

Angel called out over the screams, "If you don't tell, just means I work your friend here."

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Yay! interrogation!

BIC: Wolf looked around the room as the gunsmoke cleared. He was glad Wraith had gotten the man at the computer, and he was glad his team hadn't taken any casualties. He looked at the two prisoners his team had taken. Both were being defiant, either out of fear...or pain in the case of Wraith's captive.

Wolf had mixed emotions about what Wraith and Angel had done. On the one hand, they did need intel on how many soldiers Mastermind had crawling around the crash site. However, Wraith may have stepped over the line just a slight bit.

That kind of...torture...is something along the lines of what Mastermind would do...but given the circumstances...I probably would have done the same thing. I mean, these guys are cold-blooded murderers.

Grabbing a chair, he sat facing the pinned soldier. "If you want this to go easy...I suggest you answer my comrades here."

The soldier spat at him, despite the pain. "Fuck you, infidel. You will not succeed in stopping Mastermind...what makes you think I will answer your questions and waste what little time I have left?"

Something snapped inside Wolf. Maybe it was the fact that this soldier had murdered the scientists in the same room that they were in. Maybe it was the fact that the soldier couldn't see an easy exit for what it was. Whatever the reason, Wolf decided that this bastard had to die. Before anyone oculd stop him he leapt out of the chair, drew his katana, and sliced it across the prisoner's chest. As the prisoner yelled out in pain, Wolf drew his .45 and fired 3 shots into the man's chest. He stopped yelling and twitching. Wolf didn't even need to check for a pulse, he knew he had killed him.

Removing the knife from the dead man's wrists, he walked over to the soldier Angel was holding captive. "Either you tell us what we want to know, or you'll meet the same end as he did...except it will be much slower and much more painful." Wolf said as he dragged the knife across the captive's left arm, leaving a shallow, yet bloody gash.

The soldier panicked, something Wolf acutally didn't expect. "Okay, Okay!!! I'll talk!" the soldier shouted, cringing in pain. "There are at least 2 companies here, not counting the armored company outside. Mastermind wants the weapons in the armory and the hangar...he's sent out the Death Squad...at least 50 of them. Who the hell are you guys anyway?"

"Hey...I'm asking the questions here!" Wolf said. "How many FLAG forces are still alive?"

Before the soldier could answer, he suddenly began to convulse and twitch. Wolf noticed the soldier was foaming at the mouth, and then he went limp in Angel's arms.

Wolf frowned. "Hmm...he must have had a cyanide capsule in his tooth or something...well...he's no use to anyone now."

Wolf walked over to the computer one of the dead soldiers was working on to see what exactly they were trying to do.

OOC: Ok I'm done now.

[Darth SS]

Angel sighed and dropped the body. Then he waved a finger at Wraith and Wolf.

"Okay, I get the first dibs at interrogations from now on, okay? Sheesh, what's with you two and causing so much bodily harm that could potentially become fatal before they even talk?"

He sighed, and reloaded his rifle. Then he looked around the computer room. "What a mess."

After loading the chamber, but putting the safety on, he slung it over his back. Almost abscently, he checked his jacket. Riddled with bullet holes near the back, and one in a sleeve.

That, and there was a bit of foam, and some splattered entrails and blood.

"Dammit! When people die, can't they at least consider how bloody hard these jackets are to replace!?"

He unslung his rifle, then took his jacket off, lazilly tossing it aside, leaving himself in his muscle shirt. Which also revealed the MAC-11, the grenades, and his knives.

"If anyone makes a rambo comment..."

[Wolf99x]

Wolf just smirked as he went back to the computer. He quickly found out what the soldier had been trying to do, because he left his work open on the screen.

Damn...they were trying to subvert secuirty...but it wasn't easy.. Apparently the security locks had been encypted even more than normal, probably because Knight realized that Mastermind would be able to break the normal encryption easily.

"It's a good thing we stopped them just now...they almost finished hacking the locks on the armory."

Wolf deleted the enemy's work entirely. "I suggest we move out before they try again."

Wolf contacted Miller's team, who filed into the shot up lab, some of them showing signs of discomfort at the carnage.

Wolf slid the Wraith's knife back to him. "Check the computer lab ahead, and let us know what's there."

[Zephie]

"If anyone makes a rambo comment..."

Wraith (who's moved over to Angel by now) looks him up and down with a flat expression. "Whatever you say..."

Then he smirks. "Rambo."

"Hey!" Angel says, trying to reach out and slap him, but Wraith laughs and ducks it while stepping away.

(( I thought it'd be a nice touch. :D ))

"Check the computer lab ahead, and let us know what's there," Wolf then orders him.

Getting serious again, Wraith turns his scanners over to ultrasound and scans the next room for a moment, then the hallways beyond. "Nothing. Makes sense, anyway, or they'd've charged in by now. The hallway outside the armory's another story, though; three soldiers trying to break through the mechanicals. You'd best thank your lucky stars these walls are a bit soundproofed."

[Darth SS]

"I dibs first one in. Okay? No offense to Wraith or yourself sir, but I'm signifigantly more intimidating then either of you. Even without the katana."

He stretched, the muscles in his shoulders audibly popping. "Gah that stung."

He stretched his wrists, and grabbed his rifle. "I'm hoping no one has any complaints."

[Zephie]

"I dibs first one in. Okay? No offense to Wraith or yourself sir, but I'm signifigantly more intimidating then either of you. Even without the katana."

"None taken," Wraith notes, looking him over.

"I'm hoping no one has any complaints."

To which Wraith shakes his head with an agreeing frown.

[Wolf99x]

Wolf shrugged. "Go ahead and have fun." He said as he took the time to reload his Uzi.

[Darth SS]

Angel sighed, and checked his rifle. "Oh man...guys, you might want to switch your comms off. I have neither the finesse nor the speed of you guys...so it might get a bit noisy."

Angel dropped into a crouch as he went into the next computer room. Blood was smeared everywhere.

Great. At least one of them has some sort of large blade. Angel sighed, and made sure his rifle was ready to fire. He would need to be fast, giving no respite.

Then he had a stroke of genius. The Rifle would probably slow him down...so...

He waited until he reached the door. The three guards were standing right in front of him. Quietly, he aimed for the one farthest from him.

Then he rose, and burst out the door. His bullet spray caught the man farthest full in the face, leaving a splattering trail down the hall. In a normal situation, you would kill the second, then hit the one closest to you.

But Angel knew it was anything but normal. He threw his rifle at the one closest to him, catching him full on in the face. The second was starting to level his rifle. Angel kicked it, and using the momentum to spin and sweep his legs out.

This part was crucial. Angel dropped to one knee, pulling his massive combat knife, then stuck it into the fallen man's throat and pulled it roughly to the side. Amazingly enough, the man was still in the stage of falling when Angel did this.

The blood sprayed and caught the third in the eyes, blinding him. Angel rose, and jumped back. Blinded, but undeterred, the man swung a very very VERY large machete at Angel. It cut a nice hole through his shirt and scratched him.

Angel dove to the side in a shoulder roll. The man wiped his eyes and brought the blade back around to Angel. Angel flipped his combat knife to stabbing grip and met the blow square on, blocking it. Then kicked the man in the side of the leg.

As he turned, Angel grabbed the back of his head, and slammed his face into a wall, leaving a bloody mark, but not dropping the man. As he recovered, the man tried to grab Angel. It got the cut in his shirt instead, ripping it wide open, but managed to stop Angel's backpedal.

The man almost had time to get his machete to bear...but Angel rabbit punched him. Hard. Groaning, the man tried to rise, so Angel kicked him full in the face, then slammed his elbow down in the middle of his back.

Panting, Angel started to walk away. Then heard a scraping behind him. The man came at him again. Angel side-stepped the overhead slash, then stuck his knife through the man's forearm, twisted, and pinned that arm into his stomach.

Amazingly enough, the positioning was artistic. Avoiding any major blood vessels or organs, but causing amazing pain. The man would live if given medical attention. But he had more immedeate concerns. Like Angel spinning him around, and slamming him against the wall again.

He pulled a colt and put it against the base of the man's skull.

With his tongue, he hit his comm. "Wolfy, we're clear. I even got another talker."

The man hissed and said, "I AIN'T TELLIN' YOU SPIT!"

Angel took the gun away, and shot open an electrical panel. Free electricity sparked and crackled. Angel hauled the man over, and kicked him in the back of the knees, then held him from his neck.

The man's face was mere centimeters from the charge's maximum distance.

"Talk. Who's directing this attack?"

"GO TO HELL!"

Angel pushed his face closer. "Come on now."

"NEVER!"

Angel pulled him back, and slammed his face against the wall, breaking his cheek bones.

"Just talk man."

"DIE!"

The prisoner used his still working arm to pull a knife, and try to stick Angel. Before he could however, Angel fired his colt, splattering brain matter all over the ceiling.

The corpse hit the ground about when Wolf entered. Angel looked at his shirt. It was basically ripped clean open. That, and the knife had cut some more fabric.

"Will it never end!?" He ditched his muscle shirt as well.

"Sorry 'bout the interrogation chance."

He then noticed why Miller looked so shocked. There was a pair of large bloody spots from where the man's face hit, a very large streak from an arterial spray, brain matter, stray skin, some eye material from Angel's first victim...

"What a mess."

[Wolf99x]

"That...is an understatement" Wolf said looking around. He tore these guys apart...holy shit. "And it's pointless for us to keep trying to take prisoners...Mastermind probably has some kind of failsafe way of eliminating them, like how our last prisoner met his end."

He checked the door. Mastermind's soldiers had failed to cut through the wiring on the thumbprint door locks. However, when he tried running his own thumbprint through the scanner on a whim, access was denied.

A mechanical female voice resonated through the hallway. "Sorry Commander, but you do not have a high enough rank to access the Armory. This door will open only for people with a rank of Captain or higher."

Hmm...the locks have been upgraded...but I'm not a commander anymore...I'm a Colonel goddamnit! Ah well...better think this thorugh...who in FLAG is a Captain...oh...right.

Wolf activated his codec. "Miller, I need you to unlock the doors to the armory...they've been upgraded to only open for Captains...and my last FLAG rank was Commander."

"On the way." Miller replied. Miller showed up at the door 10 seconds later and scanned his thumbprint in.

The doors slid open. "Welcome back Captain." the female voice replied.

Wolf grinned. "Okay, everybody file in!" he shouted.

All of the soldiers filed into the Armory. Wolf had Beowulf lock down the armory doors to prevent Mastermind from entering.

OOC: I'm going to go through all the shiny weapons we'll be getting our hands on tomorrow. I'll need a full post for that.

[Zephie]

(( *becomes chibi and jumps on a huge, shiny metallic one, giving it a big bear hug* My gun, mine! >< ))

[Squishy Cheeks]

"So what did you find on the guards harressing jade?"

"She's clean"

"Damn it. Oh well it's time to make somethings up. Bring out the photoshop."

"Oh come on, photoshops sleeping."

"Well I guess you'll have to wake him."

[Wolf99x]

Miller and his team unlocked the weapons lockers and tossed a few different guns onto a table.

"Now before you all start grabbing guns and going on a shooting spree, you have to know that these guns have special features added to them. Wolf knows about most of them because he field tested some of the weapons. In fact, if he remembers I'll let him describe said features."

"Oh, I remember all right." Wolf said grinning as he picked up what sort of looked like a hybrid MAC-10/Uzi SMG. "This," he said addressing the assembled soldiers, "Is the TMP-75. TMP stands for Tactical Machine Pistol. It has a 30 round clip that can be fired on single shot, 3 or 5-round bursts, or full auto. It's special feature lies in its ability to lock onto enemies. With that mode activated, it uses a small forward pointing heartbeat scanner with a detection beam pointing straight out. If you line up an enemy in your sights, the gun's grip will send tiny electical pulses to your brain to make your arm follow the target it's locked onto until the target is terminated. It's not a perfect system though, so I wouldn't get too attached to that feature."

Wolf then picked up an odd looking assault rifle with what appeared to be a small computer screen where a scope would usually be.

"This is the KI-42 Guardian Assault Rifle. It has a 30 round clip with the same firing options as an M4 or M16. The screen on top of the gun has two features. One, it's a 2x scope, and two, it's a threat detector. The front of the computer gear has an explosives scanner that can detect almost any kind of bomb, and it will map out it's location on the screen."

Wolf set down the KI-42 and picked up a sniper rifle. "The KI-550 Sniper Rifle has a 25x zoom scope and an 8 round semi-automatic clip. In addition, the scope has both night and infra-red modes. The weapon is designed so well that within its maximum range, you will almost alway hit what you aim at."

Wolf grabbed an assault rifle that looked like a larger version of the old Belgique P-90. "This is the KBP-360 Light Machine Gun. It has a 120 round clip shoved into an assault rifle body. It has a great rate of fire and can clean out rooms quickly."

Lastly, Wolf picked up a laser rifle. "This, is the laser rifle. It has two firing modes, beam and pulse. It's pretty self-explanitory."

OOC: I need to wrap this up later...but it's shaping up nicely.

[Darth SS]

Angel sniffled and wiped his eyes.

Kaitlin looked at him in confusion and amazement, and asked "Are you crying?"

Angel's voice quivered. "It's just so beautiful."

"You ARE crying!"

"These are tears of joy dammit."

[Wolf99x]

"That pretty much covers it for the weapons Mastermind is trying to get his hands on."

"Not quite," Miller said. "There is one more gun." He openedu up one last locker, which had a vault inside of it. Opening the vault, he removed a handgun that kind of looked a bit like a Desert Eagle.

Placing it on the table Miller began to describe the weapon. "This is the Omni-Falcon. It looks like a Desert Eagle in some ways, but it is much more than that. Using nanotechnology and shape memory alloys it is capable of firing any kind of small arms ammunition ever developed; From .22 to .50. Basically the nanomachines can detect what caliber round has been loaded and chambered, and adjusts the size of the barrel accordingly. It has semiautomatic fire, as well as a 3-round burst option, although you probably don't want to use that for anything larger than 9 mm. The techs working at GuildHall (OOC: Knight Industries' version of Q Branch) developed these only a month ago, and as such we have not had a chance to 'field test' them. There are 10 in the vault, plus this one. Anyone who wants one can take one."

"Way ahead of you." Wolf said grabbing one of the Omni-Falcons and putting it in his hip holster. "Okay...if that does it for guns...everybody grab what you can carry and load-em-up."

Wolf picked up a TMP-75 and a KI-42, slinging them over his shoulder and pocketing extra clips for them, in addition to two clips of .45 for the Omni-Falcon. Miller grabbed a KBP-360 and two TMP-75s in addition to his Omni-Falcon.

Kaitlin ditched her uzi, and picked up an Omni-Falcon, a KI-42, and a KI-550 Sniper Rifle.

Wolf looked at her puzzingly. "Sniper rifles are going to be near useless in CQB..."

"Im taking it so that Mastermind doesn't get this one, and also it's for when we extract off the flight deck."

"Oh, right." Wolf nodded.

[Zephie]

Wraith starts to pick up a KI-550 and examine it, but then sets it down and frowns, instead taking out his own pistol and spinning it over his finger. "Call me old-fashioned, but all I need're my knives n' my Colts."

"But this..." he adds, picking up an Omni-Falcon. "Might be useful..."

[Wolf99x]

The members of Miller's FLAG team grabbed various combinations of TMPs, KI-42s, Laser Rifles, and KBP-360s, loading them and holstering them.

Miller turned to Wolf. "Are we all ready to go?"

"Just about," Wolf said. "As soon as Angel finishes strapping on as much high-powered weaponry as he can carry, we can go."

[Darth SS]

Angel as done surprisingly fast.

Two TMP's, and KBP-360.

That was it.

When confronted with odd stares, he raised an eyebrow and said, "What?"

He checked those two pistols, and tried sighting. Lovely.

"Okay...killin' time."

[Wolf99x]

"Excellent," Wolf said arming his KI-42. "Where should we go from here?" he asked Miller.

"We should head to the hangar, that's where the OTAVs are being stored. We can get them out if we clear the area."

"Wait a minute," Kaitlin asked "Don't the OTAVs have onboard AI? Couldn't they just fly themselves out?"

"That's where the problem lies." Miller said "Our AIs aren't the most secure individuals. The prototype OTAV AI, AKIRA, was subverted during Mastermind's raid on the testing facility las year. Fortunately, Wolf managed to destroy the AI. KAMO carried the latest protocols for security, but since Beowulf managed to subue him for a few minutes, we still aren't sure how well our AIs can stand up to Mastermind's conversion virii. So as soon as we crashed, Knight deactivated all OTAV AI cores. They're currently being held on the bridge inside the Lance, the most storage server ever developed. Has never been hacked."

"So then, we should head to the bridge, get the AI cores, upload them into the OTAVs, and have them go kick ass." Wolf said. "Beowulf and J2 can provide virus guard protocols for them so that they won't be taken over. The distraciont provided by the reactivated OTAVs will make our job that much easier."

"I like that plan; it would cover our escape, and we get Michael Knight off of the ship and out of harm's way at the same time." Kaitlin added.

Miller thought. "You know, that probably does make more sense than trying to give 12 people a crash course in piloting. Okay...I'll plot out the map for heading up to the bridge. First we have to go through this back door, and then through this hallway, followed by the mall..."

"Wait a minute," Wolf interuppted "You have a goddamn mall on this ship?"

"Well...people need to buy stuff..." Miller said.

"True..." Wolf said. "All right, we go through the mall. Maybe Angel can get a new shirt and coat while we're prowling and growling through it." he said with a smirk.

[MC43]

OOC: Good Lord I have missed a lot, haven't I? Of course... it doesn't help that I'm in the middle of no-man's land. I AM still alive, (I mean it this time!), and my postings should be coming more frequent now. (I mean that too. Honest!) Like... RIGHT NOW!!



It was a little monestary, but it was one of his religion, so it made translating a bit easier. He had just crossed into the Russin border and found the little dojo, consisting of all of it's 20 members, teachers included. He recieved directions on how to find the border, and cross it, into the most barren and feared land on the planet. It has been this way for years upon years, no one has dared enter it, unless forced to go their on their own. The teachers there scolded him because of his attaire. He decided to get out of his old uniform and into his training one from years back. If he wanted to start a new life, he would have to start from square one, as the comman saying went. Therefore, he had on a white Judo training suit, with white belt, the starting point of any Martial arts fighter. One thing hadn't changed, and that was the red bandana that he wore around his head. He had recieved it his first day of training from one of his teachers, vowing to never lose it, or lose wearing it, therefore, he had to be equiped. Also, there was a lack of shoes or gloves, socks were not even considered. They said that it was true that Zen could withstand nature, but even that wasteland could kill a God. Monk went anyway. He stayed there for two days, then snuck out during the third night, crossing into the barren depression that was Siberia.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Normally I'd wait for SS to come up with a retort, but I need to get this thing moving again.

BIC: "All right," Wolf said to the assembled soldiers, "Let's go."

Miller's team took point as everyone exited the armory and locked it down. The hallway up ahead was clear, but Wolf could hear gunshots coming from the door at the end...the door leading into the onboard shopping area.

"I guess some of my buddies are still alive," Miller said.

"I guess so," Wolf responded. "Okay, I'll make the entry and proivde cover. Wraith, you go in right after I start firing. Angel, Kaitlin and Miller will follow him."

Wolf brought up his KI-42, opened the door, looked, and firied on the nearest Mastermind soldier he could see. The soldier was standing on an escalator, which he fell down as a 3 round burst caught him in the chest.

"Go, go, go!" Wolf shouted as he continued firing and sought cover behind a bench. Looking around, he could see the battle between FLAG and Mastermind raging across all 3 floors of the mall. Right now he and the others were on floor 2, and forces on both sides and on all floors were firing from floor to floor, making it a hectic battleground.

OOC: Okay Zeph, you've been given an order.

[Zephie]

It looks like Hell. It smells like Hell. Hell, it even sounds like Hell.

Wraith's kind of Hell. He scans the area quickly, looking for targets through the walls, and enters one step behind Wolf. Just as his commander fells the one guard on the escalator, Wraith unhooks a stun grenade and tosses it up, just making the lip of the escalator, and fires up the moving stairs. Two more guards fall and trip over their buddy, taking shots to the chest, arms, and a few in the legs before tumbling head over heels down the steps.

The stun grenade then goes off on the upper level, disabling two more Mastermind soldiers and blinding one FLAG man for a few seconds. Wraith watches the FLAG troop duck down and hold his eyes while shouting into his mouthpiece, "MOVE!"

He twists quickly to his right and levels his two Uzis at the Mastermind soldier running out of a shop, hitting him dozens of times before finally dropping him. The soldier's rifle fires blindly at the ceiling, knocking out a few lights, glass domed fixtures, and monitors, dropping a rain of glass on everyone below.

As if there isn't enough going on, either, one soldier down the way lobs a frag grenade out of desperation and takes out three Mastermind soldiers dug in behind a counter... and sets off the sprinkler system with the resulting fire. Wraith grins as water drops down all around them and switches over to thermal mode, moving backwards towards Wolf and firing with him to kill another Mastermind troop. "Damn fine day to be a soldier, Colonel!"

(( Edit: Silly Zeph, sky fortresses don't have skylights. ^_^ ))

[batgirl]

OOC: I'm baaaackkk! For the weekend that is. I have to say you've all been doing an awesome job, very stealthy and bloody, just the way I like it. Anywho, I'll have a post up sometime tomorrow once I think of a good one.

[Wolf99x]

Wolf provided cover fire for the others as the sprinklers went off. He saw Kaitlin fire her twin TMP-75s into a cluster of Mastermind troopers, dropping a few, and then Miller cut down the rest with his KBP-360. Kaitlin dropped down behind the same bech as Wolf, while Miller used a row of trash cans for cover, creating an improvised machine gun nest with them.

Wolf spoke into his codec. "Miller, find the commander of the FLAG forces here."

"Roger," Miller said. "Attention all FLAG troops, this is Captain Miller, whose leading this unit?"

The reply crackled back through Wolf's codec "This is Lt. J.G. Brando, I'm in charge here. I've got about 5 men pinned down by heavy fire, the rest are scattered about the mall."

"Got it...we're moving to you're position...where are you?" Miller asked.

"Um...I'm pinned down in an Abercrombie and Fitch on floor 1. Needless to say some expensive yet crappy looking shirts are being shredded here."

"On the way, just hold on." Miller said. "You get that?" he asked Wolf.

"Yes I did. Have your team provide cover for me and Kaitlin...then you follow us down." he disconnected as he watched some of Miller's FLAG forces start firing down the escalator, clearing a path.

"You first," Wolf said to Kaitlin "I'll cover you."

Kaitlin ran to the escalator and started running down it, firing her omni-falcon and throwing stars with lethal accuracy.

Wolf was about to move when somebody shouted to him. "Colonel, look out!"

Wolf turned around, and saw a Mastermind trooper weilding an M79 grenade launcher, Wolf leapt over the bench as he fired his Colts, hittting the soldier in the chest. But it was too late, the dying soldier got off a shot, firing the genade which landed 7 feet from the bench. The concussive force of the blast lifted Wolf up and threw him over the railing, sending him falling towards a fountain at the bottom of the escalator.

Isn't this where Tony Montana wound up? he thought just before hitting the water.

(OOC: I'm making this a kind of deep water fountain...like maybe 6 feet or so at it's deepest point, it's shallower around the edges of course.)

***

Kaitlin saw him fall. "Jason, NO!" she shouted as she kept firing, running to the fountain, intent on bringing him up to the surface of the water.

More Mastermind soldiers came after her, she began to drop some of them, but realized there were too many. Shit...I'm going to die with him... she thought.

Suddenly, like an venegeful spirit, Wolf rose out of the fountain, Colt .45s blazing away. The Mastermind soldiers crumpled under his assault. As the Colts clicked empty, Wolf finished them off with a TMP-75 while Kaitlin added her own assault into the mix.

Wolf activated his codec "First floor clear, Lt. Brando, your men can come out now."

Then he contacted Wraith, Angel, and Miller who was already heading down. "Okay, let's clean up the rest of these punks and get moving."

Wolf and Kaitlin sought some cover behind some internet kiosks while Brando's team fired at Mastermind troops on floors 2 and 3.. Once behind cover, Kaitlin wrapped her arms around Wolf.

"Don't ever scare me like that again...I thought you were dead." she said.

"Don't worry...I don't plan on leaving anytime soon." he said hugging her back. "Now...we still have a job to do...so let's get back to business."

Both broke their embraces, drew their guns, and set about dealing out death to Mastermind's troopers.

[Zephie]

Up on level two, Wraith is already going about dealing out his licks. Instead of the usual duck, cover, fire, and move, however, he's decided to do things differently... by simply walking straight down the center aisles, providing an easy target.

Mastermind soldiers poke their heads up between shots and spot Wraith, but usually when they try to fire, Wraith is just a step quicker and nails them with either a knife, a pistol shot, or both. Sometimes one of FLAG's troops even finishes the job for him, catching them while they're distracted by the apparent idiot walking down the aisles. Soldiers who think he's easy prey step out and fire away blindly, only to find that he drops them faster with a feint to the left, a roll to the right, and a shot to the head.

So calm and collected is he that he ignores the two slugs he takes to the chest, instead dropping the soldier shooting him with a knife to the throat. Beside him, one of FLAG's soldiers rises up and hurries over, trying to cover him. "Jeez, are you okay?!"

"Kevlar," he tells her with a grin. Patting his vest confidently while shooting a fleeing Mastermind soldier in the back, he adds, "Hurts like a bitch, but I've lived through worse."

She starts to crack an uneasy smile, then suddenly points behind him and looks alarmed. He, too, points behind her, and they both exclaim at once, "Behind ya!"

Both drop to one knee and lean to the right, firing a few shots into the soldiers running up behind the other and leaping over a bench each. They hit them before they can fire any intelligent shots, and rise to look behind themselves at the dead MM troops as they trip and fall over the benches. "Nice shot," he says.

"Likewise," he answers, then points behind him. "Join Java squad and help clean out this area, Sergeant, then regroup with Wolf and Miller's command group on level one."

"Aye, Major," she replies, hurrying off to an isolated shop where a small gunfight rages between three Mastermind troops and four FLAG men.

For his part, Wraith continues on his way, dropping one more soldier casually.

(( What can I say? I'm a hopeless character creator. @_@ ))

(( Not to mean this is anything permanent (though ya'll can reuse her if you like; that's just one more defined troop), I just love creating random characters out of thin air. ^^ ))

(( Oh, and I almost forgot: welcome back! ...For the weekend... :D; ))

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Creating random characters is fun! It adds more humanity to the RP. Oh, and welcome back for the weekend, Batgirl.

BIC: The sounds of gunfire gradually died down as the remaining MM troopers were either killed or routed. The various unit commanders reported an all clear across all floors. Lt. Brando had lost half of his original team, the 5 soldiers with him was all that he had left. Still, nobody from Miller's team or Wolf's team had been wounded or killed, so the impromptu rescue mission was a success.

"So, where do we go from here?" Wolf asked Miller once all the allied troops wer down on the first level.

"We go out door 1C on floor 1 and head through the hallway ahead. From there, it's a realtively straight line to the bridge."

"Got it." Wolf said as he led the way to the door in question and opened it. As he started walking through, his PDAP beeped.

"This doesn't look good..." Beowulf said.

"What?" Wolf asked.

"Beyond that door at the end of the hallway I'm reading encryption on locks no lower than Security Level 14. We can't get through...and I have been unable to hack the locks."

"What's the level on the bridge doors?" Wolf asked.

"Unknown, but at best I'd say it's at least level 20 security."

Wolf was about to ask for an alternative route when 10 Death Squad troopers suddenly rappelled down from floor 3 to attack the small army Wolf had amassed.

"Everyone into the hall!" Wolf shouted as he tossed a frag grenade into at the Death Squad, critically injuring at least one.

When everyone was in, the door slammed shut and Beowulf locked it.

"Well...we're really screwed now." Miller said.

"Not necessarily," Wolf grinned as he activated his PDAP. "I'm about to call what I hope is my hidden ace in the hole."

Dialing a number that would eventually send his message to Coyote, he hit send and started talking.

"Coyote, I hope this isn't a bad time to ask for some help...but we've got a problem. I'm currently pinned between a series of level 14+ security doors and a team of Death Squad troopers. I'm sending you a map of my current location. I need you to unlock all the doors leading to the Skybase's bridge...except for the bridge itself."

Miller shouted out "They're trying to take down the door!"

Wolf turned back to his call. "Please hurry. If Mastermind succeeds here...then both worlds will be in jeopardy."

OOC: Finally, I found something for Coyote to do.

[MC43]

OOC: No no, the last time random characters were made, I was shot at... Almost slapped... I don't want that for any of you...

Almost instantly, the cold hit him like a ton of bricks. He hugged in whatever heat he could, almost in fear in what he had done, just not regret. If anything, this was how he wanted to go. He entered the world in a cold and dark place, and if was to get his wish, he would end it in the same way. He kept walking foward, not knowing which way was north, but knowing full well it was away from any populous cities. It would be safer for him and everyone else, no one believed him when he said it, but it was a fact that he believed.

His feet were actually pretty warm considering the state he was in. With each foot print he caused, the snow wrapped around his foot, and created a sort of boot to warm his foot. That was another thing he was happy to have, feelings under his feet. Even under all that snow, he could feel the cold hard earth, dirt and rocks under his feet. He took in a breath of the cold air as it started to ice up his lungs, but soon they took over, and melted the ice away, he could feel his body start to adjust to the temperature change. He would feel cold for serveral more minutes, but then it would pass into a sense of numbness, both from the elements, and the real world, but before it did, he felt a stone push up on his foot. He didn't know why because there was several others that had done the same thing the entire trip here, but the stone in question had a sense of warmness to it. If anything, it felt like it was going to burn his foot. He didn't know if it was just a hot rock, or if his nerves were finally surrendering to the harsh climates, but he decided to investigate. Bending down into the snow and pushing it aside, he discovered something green. It had a luster shine to it, must have been cleaned several times because of the snow. Picking it up and brushing the remaining snow off, he knew right away what the stone was called. He didn't know it's background, how it got there, or how it survived the cold. Perhaps it had made a home in the snow, just as he was to do a few minutes from now. Standing up, clentching the stone in his fist he nodded and agreed with himself that this was to be home from now on. This spot was to have a new signifigance to him. This place was now very important to him. It was as if the stone was planted there to tell him to stop there.

He took one more look at the stone. "Jade..."

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Level 14, Your shitting me right? My kids coulld crack that in ten seconds, you call me with something so trifling, i'm almost insulted."

Coyote conected to the system and then bitch slapped the system. The system didn't respond as he planeed so he started smacking it again and again. Finally he got access and started unlocking the doors.

[Wolf99x]

The doors unlocked. "Thanks...although that took you 11 seconds...getting slow with age are we? Or is the fate of the world not good enough to warrant speed anymore?" Wolf half-joked before disconnecting. Tit-for-tat, wise-ass.

"He really should be more greatful that you're actually giving him stuff to do." Beowulf said.

"I know...asinine isn't it?" Wolf replied. "In any event, let's get going before..."

<CRASH>. A Death Squad trooper kicked down the door leading to the mall...and got 45 KPB bullets to the face from Miller.

"...They break through..." Wolf finished. "Everybody move!"

Bullets whined off the walls as the soldiers scrambled through the door, which closed behind them. Wolf placed a C4 charge on the door and attached a proximity sensor.

"If they open the door...blam!" Wolf said with a grin. But then Beowulf delivered news that made that grin disappear.

"A fairly large group of Death Squad troopers are amassing outside the door the the bridge, and they're trying to break it down."

"Shit...well...let's go!"

Wolf followed the map and led the team towards the bridge, stopping only to fight the random group of Mastermind stragglers.

[Zephie]

"Looks like the party just got started!" Wraith yells while gunning down a stray troop.

A thousand scenarios run through his mind in one quick flash, and none of them look pretty. Somebody's nose is getting bloodied in a few minutes... he just hopes it isn't theirs.

[batgirl]

The days seemed to drag on endlessly. Jade was getting more worn down as they wore on. As she was being pushed towards her cell, the guards shoved her in a different direction. She was placed in a small room with a bright light shining down on her. "Time for your reformation..." The bodiless voice spoke as Jade stood up in shock. She had already been to her torturous reformation for the day. A burly guard with greying hair stepped into view. "You seem to be resisting more than the others, so we've decided to up your...treatment." He smiled, revealing rotting teeth. He began pacing as he spoke. "Name!" "J...Jade." "Rank!" "Colonel." "Why are you here!" "I..." "WHY ARE YOU HERE!" "...I was forced here." A strong boot hit her in her midsection. She winced, but was otherwise unharmed. "Wrong answer! You were put here because you are useless! You commited a crime and you are being punished!" "No. I was only trying to help..." A fist connected with her face. A trickle of blood appeared out of the corner of her mouth. Her horrible fate dawned on her: Jade's nanos could not be sustained anymore and she was at this guard's mercy. "Help? You see where your help got you. Now, tell me that you are guilty." "But I'm not..." "We'll see how you feel about that in a few minutes."

Fifteen minutes later, a battered and bloody Jade clutching her side was thrown into her cell. She didn't even get onto her cot, she just lost consciousness on the hard stone floor.

[Darth SS]

Angel had run out of ammo. While this didn't seem surprising to many, it was a very big shock to those that knew him. Abscently, he pulled a colt and shot someone. Actually, he made sure his colts were still going. And they hadn't stopped in the mall long enough for him to grab a shirt.

"It's really chilly!"

Some idiot stepped out and levelled his gun right at Angel. Angel kicked it away, spun, and smashed the butt of his colt across the attacker's face. When the man tried to rise, Angel grabbed the man's jaw bone and snapped his neck, ripping skin and pulling bone while at it.

Another attacker stepped out. Angel spun kicked him, with his opposing hand producing a knife, and severing the man's jugular in a grotesque spray as he rotated. A third, and hopefully final opponent came out. Continuing his last motion, Angel slammed his fist into the man's face.

When the man teetered, Angel had finished his turn and slammed his knife into the man's throat, and pulled roughly away, resulting in a crimson shower.

"It's really chilly!"

[Wolf99x]

Wolf dismissed Angel's complaints as just him getting edgy and looking for more to kill.

Besides, the discomfort will only make him more violent he thought.

Wolf stopped at a corner and peeked around. He could see the door to the bridge, unfortunately 30 Death Squad troopers stood in front of it, all of them trying to knock it down.

He called everyone together queitly.

"Okay...30 of Mastermind's deadliest shock troops are standing between us and the objective. That door is triple reinforced Tetranium-Carbide, so they shouldn't be able to break through it..."

A loud thud and clang echoed through the hall. Followed by "That's using your head, Steve!" there were muted chuckles from the Death Squad

Wolf got back to explaining. "However they do seem very determined to knock the door down. I'm just glad that they don't have explosives or welding torches. Anyway, we have to take those shitheads down hard and fast...or we're all dead. So here's the plan. Anyone with a frag grenade, me included, is going to throw them into that mass of death. Right as the grenades go off, anyone with a KBP-360 is to start shooting at the Death Squad. Use whatever cover you can, but empty those clips FAST. Everyone else provide backup fire as the KPBs run empty. From there on in, get in close and finish them off."

Grabbing his last frag grenade he said. "Everyone ready?" He saw that they were. "Good." he primed the grenade and let it fly down the hall.

"I got a present for ya!" he said just before it exlpoded.

[Zephie]

Wraith tosses his share in... an odd combination of a frag grenade and two stun/flashbang grenades, then ducks back behind cover and waits for the first wave of gunfire to die down.

[Toshiro]

(OOC:Greetings, sorry for disappearing, I got busy with work... and other stuff... Also, it's not easy coming up with posts for this ^_^;; )

Leon sat on his cot, staring at a spot on the wall. There was no escapre, not without help, Jade could help, but only if she stayed strong.

But he would need more prisoners working together, he began focusing his mind on that, and drifted off into his own world.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: New chapter everyone. I'll have it up in a few minutes.