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Showing posts with label cadre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cadre. Show all posts

20150617

Crisis In Infinite Plexes - First Wave

v.Super 

“What is it?” Seraphim asked. She was typing some calculations into her tablet. 

The Shifter looked thoughtful. “Channel is transmitting some live media feeds to me from downtown. It's starting.” 

The Tower stood up from the table. His head almost brushed the ceiling of the hidden bunker under the old factory. “Alright team. Remember, this won't be like the regular street gangs, corporate criminals or mad scientists we've tangled with before. The Alliance of Terrorists, Tyrants and Contract Killers is a threat unlike Plex City has ever seen.” 

The Silhouette nodded. “Time to counter-attack A.T.T.A.C.K.” 

“We need a cool name like that,” The Heretic chuckled. 

“The batteries on the Holo-copter are charged and ready,” Seraphim said. 

Shifter began focusing on the images of the city that Channel was sending him. “I'll port to the scene and start recon.” And with a crackle of autonic energy he was gone. 

v.Dungeons&

Maighread had followed the strange tracks to the ruins of a Spider Temple. The Order of the Spider were famous for laying clever traps, and even though they had fallen years ago to the Children of the Pyre, it was possible that their lethal snares remained. Freeman crouched and conjured a Scrying Eye to search out the way ahead for any hidden dangers. The Faded Knight stood watch while the mage was in trance. 

“Let's just charge in,” Hammer said impatiently. “We don't want to let this thing get away again.”

Maighread didn't entirely disagree with the Changeling – this was the third time they had come across the mysterious markings and each time the maker had eluded them. If some new creature was prowling the realm then they needed to learn its nature quickly; if it be foul then to stop it from causing harm, or if it be fair then to protect it. 

“There is something strange...” Freeman whispered, his eyes closed, seeing through the Scrye into the shadows of the ruins. 

The Lady Dread suddenly dropped nimbly down from the trees. “A patrol of the Ashen Tradition approach from the ravine!” 

Hammer grinned and hoisted her enchanted mallet. 

v.Space 

“Modulating the emitters... There it is! I have the signal, Captain,” Lt. Lokk said from his station on the bridge. 

Capt. Magenta stood up from her chair. “Set an intercept course, Commander Washington. Chief Angellus, we'll need full-speed-plus if we're going to beat that Legacy vessel to the prize.”

Lt. Angellus nodded and began tapping and gesturing on the haptic display at the Engineering station, trying to maximize the synchronization of the Plexdrive with the local quantum-gravity conditions to squeeze out whatever extra power that he could. 

“Course set,” Comm. Washington said, studying vector simulations on his display. “But it's going to be close.” 

Two days ago, Lokk's routine Metawave scans intercepted a Pyro-type Exo probe registering an unknown vessel appearing near the border of a nearby Ether-type Exo territory. Anomalies like this attracted attention, especially Legacy attention, and the crew of The Dragon wasn't about to let them get the first look at it. 

Lt. Cube's voice came in over the comm from the hangar bay. “Send us out, Cap. I'll buy us some time.” 

The crew awaited Captain Magenta's order. 

“You in a Hangman, plus Lt. Comm. Wraith and Ensign Bisaillon in a Reaper. Don't get killed.”

v.Reunion 

Angst sprawled on the bed. Kicked off her shoes. They landed on the floor beside the bag from the convenience store. “I made sure to get you some milk duds,” she said, yawning. “Do you still like milk duds?” 

Frank and Goner were checking out an old local supply cache, to see if it was still intact. Max was meditating in the bathtub. Suki was peering out the motel window. 

Angst stretched. “What are we up to? Fourteen? I'm losing count, I can't remember what's been happening, what changed. After seven years of nothing...” 

Suki glanced at the revolver in her hand. She kept hoping each shift would bring back the Godhammer. Maybe some things were lost forever. She thought that she had been, but... “Maybe we should go shopping tomorrow, see if we can find you a cheerleader outfit.” 

Angst looked thoughtful. “Hm. I don't know. I don't know if that's me anymore.” 

“Is shooting things still you?” Suki asked. 

Angst sat up. “Why?” 

“Because more of those weird-eyed motherfuckers just showed up in the parking lot.”

v.Cadre 

Gauntlet leaned the shotgun beside the door, within easy reach. Peered through the peephole. Opened the door and let in Viking. 

“How do you know where my apartment is?” she asked. Then she noticed the blood dripping from his nose, staining his beard red. “What the - ?” 

“I saw it, saw everything, is what it felt like...” Viking muttered as he stumbled to her couch. “I ran an invocation of all three of the Trimurti, dosed on Type 1 Mana...” 

Gauntlet helped him sit. “You asshole! We had decided to wait!” 

“You know we couldn't, Peyton...” 

“How do you know that name?” 

“Mirk is getting too close, Cube isn't coming back... I had to try something.” 

“You tipped our hand, V. He'll know.” She moved to the window, glanced out. “I hope you got some useful intel at least.” Three black SUVs, an MK-Omega cleaner squad. She headed back to the door for the shotgun. 

Viking pushed himself back to his feet. Took a deep breath. Held out a flash-drive. “There's an audio file, I tried recording everything that came through the divination. I'll buy you some time. You need to get to the nearest subway station.” 

*

Aqua woke up. The rattle and hum of the subway must have lulled her to sleep. Her headphones were still on, but instead of music playing it was the sound of Akimoto's voice. He was rambling about all sorts of things, the kinds of things that he and Max would sometimes talk about. 

She looked down the car to where the barbarian-poet used to sit and meditate. Then she glanced back to where Max used to sit and read. The car was empty. It felt like she had been alone here for a long time. The door to Bishop's booth was closed. It felt like there hadn't been a stop in a long time.

20140409

Eigenvector

"I haven't seen Cube in days," Gauntlet says.

"He's on assignment," Brogan replies without looking up from the datapad.

"Is the file available?"

"It's deep cover. Classified."

"Understood." She turns to leave. "Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Nevermind."

*

Three days later, Gauntlet and Viking are in the field, sniper training for an upcoming op. Gauntlet in the grass on the trigger of the .50 Cal, a mashup of Futhark runes and Bagua trigrams painted in nail polish along the barrel. Viking laying beside her, spotting, running through the Artemis mantras he will use when the time comes. If there is any surveillance on them it will be visual only, from Hermit.

"He left a note hidden in my bunk," Viking whispers. "I'll show it to you when we get a chance."

"What did it say?"

"That he wouldn't be coming back from the mission, that hopefully it was because he went rogue and not because Brogan's ambush worked. He apologized for not getting a chance to move on Brogan, and for leaving us in a difficult situation. He said that he hoped we would meet again, and that hopefully we'd remember each other if we did..."

"Hm." She adjusts her scope.

"So what's our play? You have to know he's right about Brogan."

"I think Brogan's only a puppet. I think it goes even farther. Maybe the whole MK-Omega project is dirty. So we watch and we listen, maybe look into Cube's first tour with the Cadre, try not to tip our hand, and maybe we can get a glimpse behind the curtain... And then 'To Be Continued'."

"Ha. That's what he wrote on the bottom of the note."

20140408

Archives

Section: Hostile Organizations
Sub-section: Cults
Entry 081118: The Revelation

A small cell of terrorists who operate globally. Their agenda seems to be destabilizing existing government and economic systems and disseminating anarchy. The nature of their communication network and funding sources remain unknown.

They tend to operate individually and only occasionally meet in person. Each agent is highly-trained in multiple combat styles and social engineering techniques. Agents are also expert-level psychics, employing clairvoyance, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and in some cases even transvection.

The Revelation uses Christian symbolism in their activities. Field codes often involve linguistic or numerical references to passages in the Bible, from a variety of translations. Operatives adopt callsigns based on characters from Christian mythology. Despite these references, the cult does not appear to have an overtly religious motivation; there is no evangelical component to their actions. On the contrary, they have repeatedly attacked multiple power centres of organized religion, as well as government and corporate targets.

Current Known Roster: Gabriel (Gabby), Magriel (Mags), Ms. Morningstar (Lucy), Lilith (Lily), St. George (Pretty), Sandalphon (Sandy).


“There you are,” Cube said softly, looking at the file.

“For most people downtime doesn't mean research, my friend,” Brogan said as he entered the room.

Cube lay the pad down on the couch beside him. He didn't bother trying to clear the screen; Brogan would have Admin access and be able to track Cube's searches. Cube suspected that he had alerts set up for when certain files were opened and that his arrival in the lounge right now wasn't an accident.

“Would you believe I've seen all the movies we have downloaded? And the doc says I'm still not allowed to play videogames until my aura is fully recovered from the Inverness mission.”

“That's unfortunate,” Brogan said. “As soon as we get another secure transmission window I'll make sure I.T. gets some new content. They have digital comics online now, don't they? Didn't you used to read a lot comics?”

“That would be great. Thanks, Brogan.”

“My pleasure, Cube.”

20140407

Operation Tomb Raider

-- File Excerpt --


0203: Hostiles eliminated.


0204: Field Team arrives at front gate. Gauntlet maintaining cloak, Viking on overwatch, Cube bypasses defenses [mission-issued super-coolant for the physical lock, corrosive visualization trancework for the astral sensors].


0206: Field Team enters Villa.


0208: Floor One cleared.


0209: Basement cleared.


0210: Field Team approaches Chamber. Gauntlet drops cloak and performs Type 7 enchantment to access the Chamber. Viking performs Heimdall invocation and resumes overwatch.


0211: Gauntlet and Cube enter the Chamber and go dark.



“Three minutes for me to copy the text,” Cube said as he began scanning the first page of the Grimoire. “No one can hear us in here, so go ahead and say what you want to say.”

“I think you're the one who's been waiting to say something,” Gauntlet fired back.

Cube kept scanning the pages. He didn't want this to be a battle. “Okay, okay... Why don't we start with... All those things you saw and felt when MK-Omega was first training you for the Cadre, all those hallucinations and visions...”

Gauntlet remembered some of them, still had nightmares.

“They were real,” he told her. “Or parts of them were. I'm pretty sure, anyway.”

Gauntlet resisted the urge to deny it, maybe because they saw things (almost) as strange on every mission, maybe for another reason... “Is that why you murdered your first handler?” It was a counter-attack of sorts.

Cube looked up at her, hands still turning the pages, moving the scanner. “I don't... Well, it's why I'm going to murder Brogan.”

There was a moment when things felt violent. She asked “Why?” instead.

“Because I've met him before, I think, or a version of him. And I'm fairly certain that he's directing the Cadre towards his own agenda. That he wants the power for himself.”


0214: Gauntlet and Cube exit the Chamber. Exfil protocol initiated.




20140406

Operation Macrocosm

Brogan tapped the screen on the table and the holo-display shifted to a new view. "Obviously timing is even more critical than usual. The coordination over such a large distance is part of what makes their ritual so genius, but so difficult to sabotage."

Viking grunted. "All three of us could hit one site and the whole thing falls apart."

Brogan smiled. "As always, your 'blunt instrument' approach is appreciated, but Objective One is to commandeer the ritual to our purposes. We want them to get as far as establishing the scaffolding, channeling the flow, and priming the delivery system -" With each point he tapped the screen and the display highlighted a different data-set. "- but then we want to divert the incoming Mana to a target of our choosing."

"So," Gauntlet interjected. "That will mean one of us at the airport, one at the resort and one at the stadium, with three separate counter-spells, simultaneous deployment, and completely covert."

Brogan nodded. "Or else they clue in and call it off themselves."

Gauntlet sighed. "You don't lack for vision, Mirk."

"And the new target will be?" Cube asked.

"That will already be encoded in the counter-spells. You just need to get there and cast."

Gauntlet said, her voice dancing the line between sincere and sarcastic, "Sounds like fun."


-- File Excerpt --
0903: Gauntlet casts counter-spell at Location Alpha. Viking casts counter-spell at Location Beta. Cube casts counter-spell at Location Delta.

0904: MK-Omega Satellite [Designation Hermit] tracks massive spikes in Mana [Types 7, 8, 17] at Locations Alpha, Beta, Delta.

0905: Hermit registers successful re-direction of Mana-flow to Target XXXXXXX.

0906: Cube begins exfil. Viking begins exfil. Gauntlet compromised, begins tactical engagement with opposition forces.

0907: Gauntlet clear, begins exfil.
 

0910: Local ground team confirms Target eliminated.




20140405

Operation Prometheus Unbound


-- File Excerpt --

Mission Overview
Hermit Satellite has confirmed the wreckage of a military-grade naval vessel off the coast of XXXXXXXXX [political affiliation unconfirmed] carrying a substantial amount of Type 20 Mana [source/configuration of Mana unconfirmed – possible link to recent archeological activity on mainland XXXXXXXXX]. Callsigns Viking and Cube deployed to site for containment and retrieval, Callsign Gauntlet coordinating remotely from Bisaillon Station.

Objective One: Prevent the Mana from being acquired by locals or competing interests.
Objective Two: Retrieve Mana and exfil to Station [Viking].
Objective Three: Investigate possible link to archeological activity [Cube].


Small talk on the plane.

“Back in the Forsvarets Spesialkommando, my unit would play Dungeons & Dragons during R&R.”

“That's awesome,” Cube said.

“I had a 12th Level Barbarian,” Viking continued. “I know, what a surprise.” He chuckled. “The adventures we would have together, in some ways they felt just as real as the missions we were assigned.”

Cube nodded. “I get that. I've cried more watching 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' than I have at any funeral I've been to.”

Viking sighed. “And then MK-O recruited me, and there was all the conditioning, the drugs, the simulations... I became less sure than ever what was real and what wasn't.”

“But you keep searching...”

“The Quest continues – I suppose that's what my Barbarian would say.”

20140404

Operation Domus Tenebrae

-- File Excerpt --
Location: Morrison's Crossing, Rural XXXXXXXXXXX


Day Eleven: Cube registers zero fluctuation in the building's Mana-field. Occupants remain unaware of surveillance.

Day Twelve: Cube registers zero fluctuation in the building's Mana-field. Occupants remain unaware of surveillance.

Day Thirteen: Cube registers point-zero-one negative fluctuation in the building's Mana-field [within parameters]. Occupants remain unaware of surveillance.

Day Fourteen. Cube registers sudden two-point-one-three positive spike in the building's Mana-field. Occupants at risk from toxic levels of Mana [Types 4, 13 and 18]. Cube enters the building. Viking begins Galahad invocation in case exo-parameter entities manifest. Gauntlet follows Cube in.



Gauntlet nodded as she oiled the barrel of her shotgun. "Absolutely. Furniture was tossing about, shadows were growing and breaking, there were loud noises, like howling or metal grinding."

"As soon as Galahad took over I could feel the dark radiating, even from the road."

"I had the speaker hooked on my belt, hit play - I was using that Hebrew/Enochian mashup you heard last week. I start firing elemental shells in pentagram formations in each room -"

"Classic," Viking said.

"It felt classic, you know? Old school."

"And where's Cube?"

"Same place as when you finally made it in," Gauntlet said. "Crouched over the kids. He was talking to them, while everything was going bonkers all around them. Not sure what he was saying, but they were listening."










20140403

Operation Ajna Nova

-- File Excerpt --
Location: XXXXXXX City, Downtown Core

17:34 Cube confirms eyes on the target. Maintains safe distance. 

17:35 Cube activates mission-issued sub-dermal ESP sync implant. Gauntlet [Mission Lead] gains "eyes-on" from position Beta. Viking moves to shadow position on Cube.

17:37 Cube maintains safe-distance stealth pursuit. Gauntlet assesses target's Mana level to be reaching critical point with no total-solution for clearing the threatened area of collaterals within the collapsing timeframe.

17:38 Cube proposes eliminating the target [Objective One is target capture, Objective Two is reducing collateral damage should the target discharge the rising Type 19 Mana]. Gauntlet denies request. Gauntlet gives Go-Code Aegis.

17:39 Viking initiates flash-invocation of Osiris and rushes the target. Cube begins firing his sidearm in the air in an attempt to clear the collaterals. The target discharges the Mana as Viking tackles them.

17:40 Viking absorbs 87% of the Mana, a lethal dose. The parameter modifications granted by the Osiris invocation successfully regenerate enough of the cellular damage to reduce the injuries to a survivable level. No collaterals are injured. Cube closes and secures the target.

17:41 Gauntlet confirms Objectives One and Two complete and initiates evac procedure. HQ deploys disinformation package #17 to local law enforcement and media.



"I don't trust him yet," Gauntlet says. "It's like he's got something to prove."

Viking shrugged. "Don't you think he does? Given what he did?"

"Plus he was willing to go off-book in the middle of a mission, when we already had contingencies in place." 

"There was no guarantee I was going to survive the Aegis play."

"Yeah, but the Aegis play still supported both Objectives." Gauntlet smirked and gave Viking a punch on the shoulder. "And since when did you have a problem with charging into certain death, anyway?"

Viking gave her a playful scowl.

20140402

Dossier

Name: XXXXXXXXX
Callsign: Viking
Heavy Weapons Specialist
Invocation Expert
Rage and Siege Tactics
Archetypography: High ratings in Types 5, 16, 19
Notes: During Operation Nexus Wave the targets detonated their source of Type 15 Mana rather than allow it to be captured by the Cadre field unit, resulting in mass exposure and infection of the local population. Viking completed a solo incursion into the area and successfully enacted an improvised banishing ritual that negated the outbreak. While the original mission objective was not achieved, Viking's actions prevented a disaster and saved hundreds of lives.
Recent Activities: After the shutdown, Viking has been employed as a college professor, teaching both engineering and writing courses.






Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Callsign: Gauntlet
Close Combat Specialist
Enchantment Expert
Breach and Clear Tactics
Archetypography: High ratings in Types 8, 11, 14
Notes: Gauntlet was the sole survivor of a field unit investigating a Type 7 Event. Her memories of the incident are fragmented but a forensic telepath was able to determine that she spent over five hours in continuous combat with exo-parameter entities. When local emergency responders were dispatched to the location, Gauntlet was still standing.
Recent Activity: Since the cessation of operations Gauntlet has served as the personal bodyguard of former Cadre asset, the Ritualist Kevin Amirault.













Name: XXXXXXXXXX
Callsign: Cube
Infiltration Specialist
Illumination Expert
Hunter Tactics
Archetypography: High ratings in Types 0, 1, 10
Notes: During a routine mission to eliminate a Type 1 threat, Cube murdered his handler and disappeared. MK-OMEGA conducted a full investigation of the incident and cleared Cube of any wrong-doing [Investigation Records Clearance Level 23]. He is approved for reinstatement.
Recent Activity: Cube has been dark since disappearing but a standard surveillance sweep of regional law enforcement activity registered his admission to St. Anthony's Hospital [Flagged as Type 17 Event].



20140401

Eigenvalue

"Do you want to hit a drive-thru?" Brogan asked. "You're probably dying for a coffee."

"Sure, thanks." But when they pulled up to the speaker Max said, "Make it a tea."

When Brogan tapped the cigarette pack in the dashboard tray Max shook his head. Brogan kept his eyes on the road, headlights in the night, streetlamps, exit signs. "I guess it has been a while," he said.

Max almost said "Has it?" but he wasn't sure yet what was safe.

"Perhaps unsurprisingly," Brogan said, "catching the police report on you turned into a Type 17 Event."

Max tried to remember the jargon... Seventeen. The Star. This version of Brogan might be testing him. "An Omen of what?" Max asked.

"During my flight here to pick you up we got a call from MK-Omega. They want to put the Cadre back together."