Futuristic Starpath: Shadow Contingency

[Viper Actual]

"You're right," said Nathalie nodding. "This place looks more well-defended than a military depot. If we breach like planned there's a good chance there'll be automated systems ready to gun us down."
She looked at Vance. "Whomever owns this place really don't want visitors. If I find a way to temporarily jam the electronics could you jump onto the roof or into the ventilation and scout?"

Just then the squad-channel came to life. "Stingray here, all teams report."

"Wraith here. Almost at the hangar."

"Understood. Walker? Astro?"

Flicking her wrist upwards and pulling it to her face Nathalie spoke up; "Walker and Astro in position. Currently assessing the on-site security. A synchronized breach might be difficult on our end. I recommend that the Modus perform a fly-by over the area to take a couple of snapshots for us, over."

"Stand by," replied Stingray. Nathalie glanced at Vance and rolled her eyes slightly.

 

[joshuadim]

"Back in my day, we had to fly into the stratosphere to get intelligence images out of range of anti-air defenses. Now its a lot easier..." Vance commented as he waited for a response from Stingray. "The roof doesn't look too bad. Whoever set these up probably never expected anyone to actually get up there, which probably means the vents inside are easy to get through as well. Problem is whatever else might be inside as well." He then searched for the best route to get to the roof and spotted a series of jumps on nearby rooftops and ledges he could use to his advantage to scale the height nearby before making a jump onto the roof proper.

"I have a path in mind to get up there."

 

[Viper Actual]

Vance mentioning the stratosphere made Nathalie grunt. "They still do. Supersonic reconnaissance drones can snapshot an entire region in detail without detection at that altitude. In this case though I don't think Freeport's flight control is going to notice the Modus amidst the existing traffic."
She fell silent as Vance spoke about the roof and once he was finished she nodded in agreement. "Let's make it to the roof for starters. Work our way from there."

"Striker here, fly-by complete. Ava is compiling the data as we speak."

"Roger that," replied Stingray. "Walker, status?"

"Agent Astro thinks he can make a jump onto the roof but we need to know if it's clear of additional security systems beforehand. The real problem is what might be waiting for him on the inside," replied Nathalie.

There was a grunt on the other end from Stingray but before the squad leader could respond Ava's robotic voice chimed in; "Analysis completed. I detect no further security systems on the roof. Please note that the sensors are showing minimal electrical usage and that the barbed wire appears to be very loosely mounted- one of agent Astro's physique could easily clear a path without injury or scale past the wires altogether depending on the velocity of the jump itself."

"Undersood Ava," said Stingray. "Astro. You're up."

Nathalie glanced at Vance and nodded.

 

[joshuadim]

With the signal given Vance cracked his neck in preparation. It was time to go to work. He quickly walked his way over to a nearby alleyway, using the various trash bins and dumpsters for cover he wall jumped high enough to reach a service ladder before using it to climb half the way before jumping off again to the opposite building's railing. After surmounting that, Vance was now free to traverse the rooftops as he rushed ahead jumping over gaps between buildings with relative ease. Although certain falls required him to roll on landing to keep his momentum as he changed from roof to roof and progressed towards the target building.

A few vaults over uneven surfaces as well as crossing a few extra roofs later, Vance was closing in on the building adjacent to where he needed to jump from. He picked up his pace to gather the necessary momentum as he wall jumped from another building's mechanical penthouse to where he needed to be. It was a straight shot from there as he pushed himself fully to running until, at the last moment, he jumped as hard as he could to leap over to the hangar's roof. The force from his jump left visible cracks from where he had jumped as he soared through the air, tucking his legs to his chest so that he didn't clip any of the barbed wiring and landed with a roll onto the roof.

"This is Astro, I'm on the roof. Proceeding for infiltration inside." he spoke on the comms.

 

[Viper Actual]

From her vantage point in the adjacent alleyway Nathalie watched silently as Vance slowly made his way up. Watching him jump from roof to roof was impressive, a feat which only certain SSOID special forces or automated killbots could hope to compete with as Vance's sheer momentum and force rivaled that of any ordinary man or woman.
As he made the final leap of faith Nathalie could feel herself tense up but as soon as he narrowly dodged the barbed wire and landed on the hangar roof.

Vibrations caused by his landing might have alerted any nearby patrols as the nearby barbed wire was slightly rattled though the nearest patrol was far more busy with exchanging jokes at a nearby foodstand.

Sighing, Nat pulled her wrist close to her face. "Vance, what do you see?"

One of the first things Vance would notice was the poor condition of every piece if topside equipment. Most of the barbed wire looked rusted and several sections had indeed gotten loose from their mounts. Most of the motion sensors were caked in dust and some had exposed wiring that had been attacked by birds or some species of airborne vermin.
A couple of ventilation units and backup generators weren't exactly in tip-top shape either with one of the former making a rather intense wheezing-noise as it processed air in and out of the hangar structure.

Moreover the railing surrounding the now covered O-shaped open-air hangar area looked like it would fall apart if someone touched it. Aside from that and a lone outdoors chair next to an access hatch the roof was empty, with the access hatch being propped open using a hollow metal brick once part of some mechanical component.

Inside there was a faint red light which was the only part of the interior Vance could see as the hangar cover was completely opaque on the outside.

 

[joshuadim]

"Most of the security stuff hasn't been touched in a while, like nobody's been here in years." Vance replied through the comms as he continued to investigate, "Most of the railings are in the same condition. Maybe our intel was off?" he suggested as the state of things indicated that there was likely nothing here. He then moved towards the access hatch and opened it with ease while removing the thing that was propping it open. "Though... someone left the hatch open. About to enter and see if anything's inside." he then said as he went inside. He took extra care to leave the hatch door wide open for an easy exit later on as he descended into the dim red light inside.

Something felt off about this place, or rather this whole operation really. Why would someone go through all the trouble to place security on this place and not maintain those systems if they were looking for intruders? Perhaps they kept this as a facade of sorts for whatever was inside? Either way, Vance moved cautiously and as quietly as he could further into the building.

 

[Viper Actual]

"Our intel is never 'off'", replied Stingray. "If Goblin said its actionable then its actionable."

"Stranger things have happened. We're in enemy territory and actionable or not it could be bogus," said Nathalie.
The rest of the team was silent and were either listening to Vance as he progressed through the hatch or they were still moving into position.

As Vance entered the dimly lit room he'd realize that the small place wasn't much more than a service room. There were a couple of electrical panels and some five or six empty storage boxes stacked on one another. Besides that the room was void of anything else.
Should he bother to look closer Vance would realize that the room was relatively clean; there was barely any dust and his shoes didn't make any overly visible footprints.

Outside of the room was a narrow corridor, starting with a T-junction of which Vance would find himself to be at the center of. Looking to his left and right he'd notice that the corridor was even more clean as if someone had scrubbed it from top to bottom.

On his left was a door marked 'EXIT' via bold high-visibility lettering both on the door itself and the nearby wall. Opposite of the exit though were another set of doors. It bore no markings though a shimmering holographic sign projected ontop of it identified it as a 'restricted area'.

Suddenly the comms came to life once again. "Slam and Wipe here. We have reached the hangar, stacking up on the secondary entry."

"Roger. Duchess. Wraith. Are you at your vantage point?"

"Affirmative," replied Wraith.

"Walker?"

"Still here. Holding at the primary entry, fifteen meters away."

"Roger. Ava, anything on the chatter?"

"Negative, I am detecting no unusual chatter."

At this point Vance had reached the door. Despite its rather colorful warning not to enter there was a welcoming, almost encouraging, big green button next to the door. Just as Vance contemplated whether or not to press it, the metal door hissed and the holographic sign dispersed as the door opened itself.

Standing just behind it was a figure in sleek top-of-the-line armor holding a datapad. Looking up, the figure uttered something short that was scrambled by a voice modulator before dropping the datapad to reach for an even sleeker compact bullpup carbine hanging by a sling.

 

[joshuadim]

It had been pretty quiet inside which led Vance to believe he was alone until he came across a door that projected a "restricted area" sign on its front. This piqued Vance's curiosity as he approached it and just as he was about to report it, an armored figure opened the door and looked to attack him. In a split second reaction Vance quickly rushed at it before they could draw their weapon and let out kick that slammed the soldier against the wall. They didn't have time to recover before Vance grappled and sent them face first to the floor as he ripped their gun off of their sling and snapped it in half on his knee. The figure got back up quickly as it rolled on its side and drew a combat knife for melee.

What they didn't account for was how quick Vance was as he easily dodged an attempted jab at his face and received a strong punch on its chest plate which sent them staggering back a few steps. Vance didn't let them recover as he delivered several extra punches to their midsection before dodging another attempting stab. This time, he grabbed the soldier's arm and pinned him to the ground before snapping it in half which made them scream through their voice modulator before being knocked out with a punch to their helmet strong enough to break its visor.

Vance breathed for a bit, looking over what the soldier was wearing and didn't recognize anything about its outfit or uniform at all. "This is Astro... made contact with a hostile and incapacitated them. Don't recognize the outfit, but there's something here." he spoke into the comms before drawing his ray gun and initializing its batteries as it hissed to life. "Proceeding further inside." he then said as he raised his ray gun up and slowly advanced through the door that had let out that soldier.

 

[Viper Actual]

The odds had clearly not been in the favor of this unknown assailant and as they collapsed a part of visor cracked open, revealing a presumably Human face covered by some high-tech balaclava donning circuitry on its textile surface- most likely to interface with the helmet and its onboard tactical systems.
For now however the soldier- a man- looked like he would be out cold for a while.

"Roger that," replied Stingray. "All teams! Prepare for a synchronized breach on my mark. Astro- watch your six."

Vance would have something diffent to focus on however as he stepped into the main hangar space. Dimly lit like the service room the room contained stacks upon stacks of military containers, boxes and crates. In fact there didn't appear to be any ship or low-altitude aircraft present inside, just storage equipment mixed in with some forklifts and a heavy-duty bipedal powerloader sitting in one of the corners.

There was something else as well. Another set of artificial green eyes locked onto Vance. And then another one. And another. Looking around, Vance would soon realize that there were more figures in black armor lurking about, suddenly visible among the shadows of the hangar contents.

One of them stood out. A red stripe had been painted on their helmet and chestplate. They also wore a waist-lont black synthweave cloak.
Uttering something that was scrambled by their modulator the figure nodded towards Vance. Meanwhile the rest of the soldiers raised their weapons with their long silencers and futuristic attachments clearly visible in the red light of the hangar.

At the same time the figure made a sound. A laugh. Raising their wrist, the figure pressed down a button which in turn made dozens of red lights appear throughout the hangar.

That's when Vance would notice it;
Every inch of the hangar had been rigged to blow.

 

[joshuadim]

The situation was made evidently clear as Vance's eyes widened at the sight of bombs strapped to every part of the hangar. Enough explosives were here to level not only this hangar but everything in its near vicinity as well. That meant not only was it his life in peril but everyone else's nearby, including the team's. "Damn..." he muttered in his comms, "Whole place is rigged to blow to kingdom come. Hostiles all over me." He kept his weapon up but it didn't do much considering he was surrounded and completely outgunned. The mysterious figures kept themselves trained on Vance with their weapons as a show of force as they quietly took a synchronized step forward which forced Vance to take a step back.

His eyes quickly darted from figure to figure as he tried to figure out what to do exactly in a situation like this. Run? Or fight? Either option shot through Vance's head as he quickly articulated the likely outcomes for either. Running could very well mean less of a risk of the team dying, but they would lose whatever intel was in this place. Fighting would mean they could find out what exactly this place is... at the risk of the entire place going up and taking everyone with it. In a split second, Vance decided what his next course of action would be as he holstered his ray gun and raised his hands up in the air. The element of surprise was still his, should the rest of the team follow through on their breach. He left his comms open for any dialogue between him and whoever these people were to be heard by the rest of the team so that they knew the current predicament. For now, he would buy time and distract.

"So you're the big boss around here?" Vance asked aloud to the figure with the painted stripe.

 

[Viper Actual]

The soldiers watched closely as Vance holstered his weapon and raised his arms. All of their weapons were trained on him, no doubt able to riddle him with holes should he try something.
Outside the hangar Nathalie had regrouped with Duchess and Wraith while Slam and Wipe were already standing by to breach. After Vance's message Stingray openly cursed over the team comms.

"Shit, whatever you do Astro, don't set it off," said Stingray. "New plan: Silent breach. Enter the hangar and prepare to pacify any and all hostiles. Ava, start bringing up EOD-guides once Ast-" Stingray's message was cut short as a sudden explosion rocked the entire building. The deafening explosion was followed by an overly loud fire alarm and from Vance's point of view it was clear that something had set of one of the charges that appeared to be incendiary rather than explosive.

At this point the soldiers tensed up and glanced nervously at their leader whom had barely moved. Even though their modulator was still active the unmistakable sound of laughter once again echoed throughout the hangar.

"Slam? Wipe? Come in," said Stingray with a distressed tone.

"I am not detecting their vital signs. In fact, the entire secondary entry point is nothing but smoldering ruins. It would appear that the ground-level doors might have been rigged with charges of their own." Replied Ava, calm as ever.

Stingray fell silent, as were the rest of the team. The leader nodded towards Vance and muttered something. Several of the soldiers tightened the grip around their rifles and were ready to execute the super-soldier on the spot...

But then another set of charges detonated, engulfing half the hangar with flames and at least two of the enemy soldiers. If Vance was to act it would be now, during the chaos.

 

[joshuadim]

"Goddamnit, alright then." Vance said with a scowl as he took advantage of the explosion's chaos and distraction to lunge at the closest enemy, grappling him and swinging him to throw onto their nearby compatriot. The force of the throw knocked both of them onto the ground as Vance quickly unholstered his ray gun and fired at another, dropping another soldier with a headshot that went straight through their helmet and left it a smoldering, burnt mess from the heat as Vance quickly rolled into cover of a nearby as several shots were fired directly at him. He quickly surmised he needed to take out the leader before he set off any more bombs in the building.

Vance fired several suppressive shots at another two nearby goons which forced them into cover before Vance fired additional shots at the ones recovering from his throw, taking them out with precise shots before leaping over the crate he had been using as cover and aiming straight at the leader before letting off a shot. However, his shot would only wound the leader as Vance received a shot to the shoulder that threw his aim off balance of a kill shot. As the leader scrambled to cover of his own, Vance rolled from the impact of where he had been shot to maintain his momentum as he swept his legs under another goon, forcing them to fall under their own weight before Vance went atop them and shoved his ray gun to their helmet before point blank executing them.

Pain shot through his shoulder and spread through the rest of his body from the gunshot wound he had received as he quickly darted into nearby cover as more shots were fired, peppering the nearby crates and walls with holes. Whatever they were using, it could pierce his own suit which meant they were very well equipped and posed additional risk. Nonetheless, Vance gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain as he forced himself out of cover and strafe-shot at the remaining goons, dropping another as they returned fire again as he ran before diving to another crate for cover. Although this time another shot landed on Vance on his waist, ripping through his suit just as easily as the other shot did and another large wave of pain tore through his body. He was still able to fight, but he gripped his midsection in pain and stayed behind cover as more bullets peppered the walls and crates around him before going silent.

Soft footsteps indicated to Vance that they began closing in on his position to encircle and kill him, which meant he couldn't stay in cover for long. He took a few deep breaths and peeked outside the side of the crate he was using for cover, seeing that two were approaching from the left and two from the right as their leader barked incomprehensible orders through their voice modulator. The ones on the left were the closest, so they should be the first to go. But he'd rather have the upper hand before going after them and reduce the likelihood of taking another hit and pulled out a stun grenade from a belt pouch. The heat from the flames as they spread continued to assail Vance as sweat dropped from his brow and gave a silent count before throwing the grenade up into the air. As it detonated, Vance rushed out of cover to his left as the disoriented soldiers shook their heads and waved their arms in front of their faces.

First, he grabbed the one closest to him and used him as a shield before dropping the two that were coming from the right with shots to their torsos that melted through their armor and punched through their bodies before Vance snapped the neck of his human shield with an audible crack and let their limp body fall to the floor. The last remaining goon was beginning to recover from the stun grenade and had started raising their weapon until Vance delivered a frontal kick hard enough to send them flying into the nearby loader mech with a sickening thud that either knocked them out or outright killed them from the force. Vance couldn't tell at the moment as additional gunfire sprayed out from the leader as they peeked out of cover again which peppered the area around the super soldier as he changed his focus onto the last remaining enemy in the hangar.

They must have realized that the battle was lost as they moved their hand to the detonator on their wrist in a vain attempt to set off the remaining explosives in the building to burn it all down, but Vance got to him first as he lunged with a knee strike to the leaders chest which knocked them down to the ground. As they tried to get back up Vance shoved his left foot onto the leader's arm to pin it before setting his right knee onto the man's chest followed by Vance ripping off the commander's helmet and shoving his ray gun directly into their face as a threat. "WHO ARE YOU!?" Vance yelled aloud through the sounds of flames continuing to engulf the main hangar area.

 

[Viper Actual]

"Your next headache," replied the woman underneath the helmet right before kicking Vance with stronger-than-average force which was enough for Vance to stumble briefly. Using this brief window to her advantage the leader looked at her wrist but soon realized that the sheer force from Vance's impact had rendered the remote detonation controls completely useless. She did raise her other wrist instead, speaking into it;

"Exfil. Now."

Whether or not there came a reply to that specific order was anyone's best guess, though the woman did appear to enter a slightly hunched down combat stance. "If I am to burn here for the greater good of the galaxy then so will you." She raised her fists and tilted her head forward.

Outside of the hangar Nathalie, Wraith and Duchess were in the process of finding a way to scale the roof as risking another door was out of the question. Their efforts were slightly delayed however as panicked civilians traded places with local security forces mobilizing to investigate the fire. By now it was evident for those on the outside that the fire was quickly spreading. Vance could possibly tell that as well as the temperature inside gradually rose.

"Sir," said Stryker over the comms. "Two unidentified fast-movers just appeared on my screen. No transponders or IFF-tags, no local markings either. Either Astro is getting company or the hostiles are bugging out."

Grunting, Stingray replied; "Understood. Astro, do what you can to delay their withdrawal. We need someone alive to interrogate!"

This request however would prove more difficult than anticipated; before anyone knew it the hangar roof exploded into a million opaque pieces as four robotic assassin bots descended into the area. Grinning, the team leader stepped farther away from Vance as the assassin bots- which appeared to be slightly modified SSOID CARA-models- drew carbon fiber blades and formed a wall around her.

"I don't believe it, the bogeys are already on site. Ava is this feed delayed?" Asked Stryker just as the first of the enemy transports came into view above the hangar. A rope was quickly dropped down from the unmarked craft by another soldier clad in black armor. The team leader wasted no time wrapping the rope around one of her legs and waist before yanking it twice. She stared at Vance in silence one final time before quickly ascending, leaving him alone in the hangar with the assassin bots surrounded by fire.

 

[joshuadim]

SSOID bots? What the hell? Vance thought to himself as he raised his ray gun again, his aim blocked by the new bodyguards sent from above for the leader. As she rappelled away to safety on a transport, Vance thought about options. There was no way he was going to get to the leader now, and they needed someone alive. Not only that, but the fire continued to spread and whatever was in the storage could potentially detonate should they be explosive in nature. He couldn't stay here, but he also needed to find someone-

He quickly realized there *was* someone alive still, the first goon he had knocked out in the hallway leading to the roof. He was out cold still likely and could potentially cough up information that they needed. That was his ticket out as, instead of engaging the bots, he ran for the door he had entered from. As expected, they chased after him with full intentions of killing him but Vance had the right idea of blasting the door controls which caused the door to shut close. Banging and scraping could be heard from the other side as they attempted to break open or pry open the door which bought Vance some time but it wouldn't hold forever. The soldier he had knocked out was still lying where Vance had left him and Vance hoisted him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry and quickly headed for the roof exit.

Once up top, Vance spoke into his comms again: "This is Astro, I've got one alive. Need immediate extraction, I've got killer robots on my tail!" The smoke and flames made it difficult to stay up here long however, and the only way down right now was to jump. It was a rather long drop and he would rather not have to as Vance felt another wave of pain shoot from his wounds.

 

[Viper Actual]

As Vance called for evac there were sounds of commotion on the streets below. Local security had cordoned off the building while automated fire fighting drones were moving in to contain the inferno within the hangar. Several smaller explosions shook the building once more, most likely fire setting off some of the remaining incendiary charges below. The clawing from the assassin bots continued and by the sound of things they were tearing through the door using their blades.

"Stryker, get into position. We need immediate dust-off once we collect Astro." Said Stingray, now slightly less collected than before.

"Already on it," replied Stryker. Suddenly a floodlight blinded Vance as a LAHC marked 'Security' in bold military-style letters emerged around the corner of a nearby building. Surprisingly there were no orders barked out over the nose-mounted speakers but instead the craft lowered its floodlight and approached Vance. The left side door opened, revealing Nathalie and Wraith.

"Vance! Let's go!" Yelled Nathalie.

 

[joshuadim]

Vance wasted no time as the fire as well as the clanging of the killbots breaking through the door downstairs was enough to get him to rush as quickly as he could towards his extraction with the man he still carried over his shoulders. With a slight hop onto the LAHC's interior Vance secured himself, and the unconscious captive, before banging on the side of the craft to signal he was ready. "LETS GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" he yelled aloud as he took a seat inside. Another wave of pain surged through him as he plopped himself down and he gripped at his waist, though by now he started to feel his body's natural processes beginning to repair the damage caused. Within the day it would be good as new, but for now he would have to deal with the pain.

 

[Viper Actual]

Just as Vance boarded the craft one of the killer bots started to emerge through the roof access hatch- only to have their robotic skull pierced by a well-placed shot from Nathalie, causing its blue eyes to flicker and shut down before vanishing out of view entirely as the bot collapsed down the hatch. Once had Vance secured himself and the captive Duchess ascended from the structure with Wraith and Nat sitting across him in the open passenger compartment.
As the hangar became smaller and smaller Duchess eventually sealed up the open side door, bringing the hangar out of view just as the side Wipe and Slam had breached came into view; there was nothing left but a burning crater and charred skeleton remains of that side of the hangar, hinting to the gruesome fate that had awaited the two operatives.

"Still no vital signs, Ava?" Asked Nathalie.

"Negative, no vital signs detected." Replied the AI.

Wraith pulled out a medkit and tossed it over to Vance before looking at the captive. By this point she almost looked as if she had seen a ghost. So did Nathalie. Cocking her head towards the captive, Nat looked at Vance. "Did all of the hostiles carry this gear, Vance?"

 

[joshuadim]

As Vance applied gauze to his wounds he simply nodded to Nathalie's question. "Yeah... they were well armed too. They weren't some paramilitary or regular old terrorist group, these were well trained operatives. Their leader said something about 'the greater good of the galaxy'..." he spoke before seeing the visible looks on both Nat's and Wraith's faces. That meant they definitely knew something about these guys which got Vance even more concerned about the situation. "Who are these people?" he then asked.

 

[Viper Actual]

"Mhm," said Nathalie nodding while looking at the captive whom was seated next to Vance.

"Who are these people?"

Wraith glanced between Nathalie and Vance with the former now turning to look directly at Vance; "SSOID. Strikeforce by the look of their gear, though I hope I'm wrong." Nathalie continued after a brief pause; "Like us they don't wear any markings and I doubt this guy will explain why he and his team were here."

"Did they rig the hangar?" Asked Nat.

"He's waking up," said Wraith.

Slowly, the captive opened his eyes and stared at the trio from behind his broken visor. He took a long look at Vance, staring directly into the super-soldier's eyes.

"Pax per bellum."

Before anyone could say anything there was an audible click coming from the mouth of the soldier. He leaned back and looked up into the ceiling of the dropship while chuckling. Suddenly his arms and legs began to twitch violently while his eyes flickered rapidly. Cursing, Nathalie gestured towards Vance. "Cut him loose! We need to get him on the floor now!"

At this point it was becoming evident that any effort to save the man was long gone as foam from his mouth began to pour through the cracked visor right before the captive's violent spasms ceased, causing him to fall silent and slump forward.

Wraith looked on in silence whereas Nathalie cursed aloud. "Walker to Stingray. We just lost our captive."

 

[joshuadim]

Vance couldn't even have the time to sit back and relax as his captive suddenly used what appeared to be a poison capsule to prevent themselves from ever being questioned. Vance didn't say a word as he died frothing at the mouth and was speechless for a few moments before leaning back into his seat again: "Shit." was the only word he could utter at the moment, appropriate given the situation.

 

[Viper Actual]

The dropship shook lightly as Duchess accelerated faster and faster. Wraith stared blankly at the captive and then at Vance, sighing. Nathalie shook her head and buried her face in the palms of her hands.

"Come again, Walker? Repeat last?" Said Stingray over the comms. "Captive is KIA, sir. I repeat, KIA."

There was a moment of silence. "Fuck," sounded the reply from Stingray. Another silent pause.
"Agent Astro. Prepare for a debrief in thirty. I'm going to need as many details as possible once we're back on the Modus."

"Am I making myself clear?"

 

[Viper Actual]

Modus Operandi
In orbit above Freeport

16:23 PM (Local Time)

All was quiet inside the briefing room except for the faint humming of the ship's engines. Stingray was seated at one end of the table with his chair slightly rotated to the left, making him face the two empty seats reserved for W1P3 and S14M.
On the other side of the table sat Duchess, Wraith, Nathalie and Vance. Stryker on the other hand was busy piloting the ship- not that he'd have much to say either way.

While this unusual team didn't exactly follow the template for a high-speed, low-drag military unit with closely bonded members it was clear by looking at Stingray that the loss of two members was a heavy blow.
Upon returning to the MO Vance had been personally debriefed by Stingray, leaving Nat, Duchess and Wraith to hold inside the small deployment bay.

Stingray had maintained a rather tense expression throughout the entire debriefing- which had slowly but steadily derailed into a questioning akin to that of a tribunal interrogation as Stingray seemed to question every detail of Vance's story.

"There is simply no reason for another SSOID unit to engage us," was a sentence that had been uttered repeatedly.

Eventually Stingray dismissed Vance and as the american supersoldier returned to the rest of the team Stingray had spent another thirty minutes behind locked doors to debrief Goblin on the mission.

Now, as the entire team had finally been given time to sit down and talk things over there was nothing but silence. Not even Duchess had anything to offer. No witty comments or playful flirting, just silence.

Wraith seemed to stare into her sword which had been carefully laid out on the table. Her gruesome facepaint had began to lose its effect though it was unclear if it was due to the heat of the blast or because she had cried while mourning her teammates.

Finally, Stingray broke the silence. "They're pulling us back," he said with a stern tone.

Nathalie perked up, narrowing her eyebrows. "Sir?"

Looking up, Stingray rotated his chair to face the other side of the table. "We've been summoned for a debrief in person. Goblin also needs to go over rosters in search for two new operatives that can fill out our ranks."

"So we're just going to give up? What about the dead operative?" Asked Duchess.

Stingray shook his head. "We're not giving up- we're regrouping. As for the body Goblin will have forensic team ready to collect it for analysis."

Nathalie shook her head and glanced towards Vance. Judging by her expression she wasn't happy.

 

[joshuadim]

Upon returning to the Modus Operandi, Vance recounted every little detail he could recall regarding the mission and the combatants he had encountered. And yet it seemed as though the idea was unbelievable to Stingray that this had happened in the first place. Vance knew what he saw and yet to him some pieces of the puzzle didn't fit together as of now.

The silence between the remaining members of the team as Vance returned from what he felt was a literal interrogation was defeaning to say the least. What exactly could be said by him or anyone else? When Stingray returned and informed them of the situation Vance was not pleased in the slightest. "With all due respect sir, if there's a rogue SSOID unit out there who's to say they don't have help from the inside?" he asked, "For all we know, anyone outside of this ship could be involved with this. And isn't it mighty convenient that any evidence that was in that storage went up in flames? Whoever is leading them obviously doesn't want us to find a trail... and probably *knows* we are on the hunt for whatever it is they want kept under wraps."

 

[Viper Actual]

Stingray remained silent for a moment before locking his eyes onto Vance and only Vance. "Look, agent, you might have done things differently in your time but here we follow orders. If there's a rogue SSOID unit supposedly skulking around as part of some grand plot I'm sure it'll come to light- just not by us."
He paused and shook his head. "No, we have our orders and it is imperative that we follow them. That and we still need to be reinforced."

"Even if you're right about all of this there's simply nothing I can do, Astro. My hands are tied until Goblin sets us loose again," finished a now visibly resigned Stingray.
He buried his face in his hands and muttered; "Squad dismissed."

Duchess was the first one to get up on her feet with Wraith following closely behind. Nathalie got up slowly and placed a comforting hand on Vance's shoulder before walking out of the room, though once outside she stopped, turned around crossed her arms while waiting for Vance.

 

[joshuadim]

Vance remained quiet as Stingray chastised him briefly before dismissing him and the rest of the team; He wasn't happy about the situation and neither was the CO of this operation it seemed, but with the tangling of orders to return it made it impossible to follow up on any investigation regarding this. It was frustrating and Vance simply shook his head as he left to follow the others, but stopped short when he noticed Nathalie was waiting. He regained his pace as he walked out of the room and sighed: "Well, what do you think of this mess?" Vance muttered to her, "Something's up about all this. That's for sure."