Monday - 1000 hrs Standard Vale Time
70F / Clear Skies

"Uh-hello? HELLO-HELLO? Oh hey there!"

Though high quality, the video was less than grand. All that could be seen was a young man with sinfully long violet hair and matching alcohol-glazed eyes. Even without a blazer, he certainly had the look of a corporate leader, dressed in super-slim tailored button polo and pants, balancing in hand a freshly poured glass of Black Taniels.

"Well, if you're watching this, you probably made some really poor career choices. Some of you might even have it worse, being stuck in unemployment limbo. I mean, not even the cray-crays at White Fang would hire you. No one likes an Academy drop-out, a murderer, a terrorist, especially if you're a Huntsman. Seriously, nothing's worse in this world than a disgraced Huntsman. Consider yourself a career suicidal and I'm the only hotline open. And when that hotline bling, that can only mean one thing."

The young man glanced to his side, tilting his head slightly. The visual cue was followed by a transition to a thematic map of Remnant. Pulsing red dots could be seen at 9 different locations: 3 within Vale's abandoned Mountain Glenn, 2 near Mistral's Trading Route, and 4 scattered in the outskirts of Vacuo.

"So I'm expecting...9 of you. And I'm hoping to hire all nine of you. As a prerequisite for arguably the best career choice you'll ever make, I have nine rescue missions that must be dealt with before we can continue. These individuals are valuable clients of mine, and I'd hate to lose a single one. Starting base is 8,000 Lien. Try not to disappoint. GOOD LUCK."



Violet consumed the liquor in one burning gulp, settling the glass on a large ebony work desk as he finished. He undid he few buttons on his shirt before turning his attention to the assistant nearby. He grinned at the hooded pink-haired girl, appreciating the specimen's taste in themed clothing. In this case, a school uniform was just fine.

["Now, where's Kinshi?" he asked. "I owe the girl some cuddle time before my next appointment with our new potential Chief of Operations."

The girl blinked once, as if taking a full second to register his inquiry before typing the answer on a scroll and activating a female electronic voice. "Kinshi is in the next room, meditating. Crystal Fall is expected to arrive within 15 minutes, depending on how long it takes for our crew to bring her in."

Violet chuckled as he rubbed his eyes once more, sleep deprivation symptoms kicking in. "Good. She's not going to be happy, but damn that woman's a hard find. If she's en route, then it means she didn't resist. At least not until she gets here. Strengthen the automaton security, raise the threat level to 8, evacuate 3 floors above and below us."

The girl replied from her scroll "Roger. What about your message to Dust_Old_Crow? I've also confirmed that his contact in Vale is none other than Beacon's headmaster."

Oh that's no surprise

He hesitated, rubbing his eyes out of irritation this time. He thought long and hard about his relationship with the dark-haired lady in red. She was a visionary, one whom he grew to admire without so much as touching her slender curves. He also knew how dangerous she was, what she was really after, and that frightened him. The whole world would fall if she succeeded.

"Tell our birdman that the Queen isn't acting alone. You owe me for that one, Oz."

"Just to make sure that you're all the real deal, I must ask that you do not work together. Yes, some locations may have multiple rescue targets, but they have been strategically seperated by the enemy. Think of it this way, one guy's on the top floor, another could be underground. I also forgot to mention one other thing: they know you're coming. I don't care what you do, those clients of mine must be returned to me unharmed. Pretty please."

Location: Mountain Glenn, Vale
Huntsmen/Huntresses: Thomas Adkins| Wolfram Mord | Skuld
Intel: Targets last seen in 3 different abandoned corporate buildings, all conveninetly within 3 blocks from each other. Expect resistance from dozens of hired security, all equipped with experimental anti-Huntsmen body armor and drug enhanced stamina and reflexes. Arsenal may include rocket propelled explosives and heavy assault rifles. Confirmed White Fang activity within the area--do not engage.
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Location: West of Mistral Trading Route, Mistral
Huntsmen/Huntresses: Russ Vulpes | Sol
Intel: Based on eye-witness accounts from the locals, the 2 targets are being held within a low-profile inn. The inn happens to be a hotspot for petty criminals. Resistance will include 2 post-graduate huntresses and a few personally hired brawlers that are more or less meatshields for them. Don't underestimate these two. We've received reports that they might be affiliated with Atlas Sepc Ops.
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Location: Outskirts, Vacuo
Huntsmen/Huntresses: Mavi | Jazz Grace Banks | Gwen Leventis | Hitsuji Momo |
Intel: The 4 targets are hidden in four different outposts, all under control of a rising military junta. Crafty snipers and barbaric soldiers will make it difficult to advance. Resistance may include the natural terrain; dust storms are known to be dangerous this time of year--something about static electrity and dryness. Boss also made a personal request to take pictures of any...bikini-clad women out there....especially if they're rabbit-type faunus. H-he said it, not me! Th-that's an order! OVER AND OUT!



Every IC post must have a header to help indicate the character's location and time of day. @Mention helps to bring to attention those who really need to read your post. An example would be:



Flashbacks (which I'm sure we'll see plenty of) must be clearly indicated in the header.

Sorry this is late, please don't kill the GM.

@Kidd@FateWeaver@Sho Minazuki@Redrum@tanderbolt@IceHeart@KiltmanBagz@Noxx@Kitsune@Rekaigan

Mountain Glen felt like home to Thomas. He had never visited until now, but it had that same bombed out and Grimm infested feeling that he knew. Over half of his life had been spent at war, to him these ruined towers and empty shells were more natural than a living city bustling with activity. Thomas made his way through the city, using his old navigation techniques and avoiding unneeded fights with the Grimm. It relieved him to be in an environment like this, the tranquility of normal life only brought anxiety. To Thomas, that peace was a fragile illusion that passed itself off as natural. Mankind has had to fight to survive since the dawn of time, and the future will not be any kinder than the past.

The present situation had one key difference from Thomas’ memories of war: the presence of hostile humanoids. On a select few occasions his unit had encountered resistance from separatist forces (usually some Faunus group), but those had been brief and easily settled with the application of overwhelming force. In the ruins of the city there was a large contingent of private security and an unknown number of White Fang. He’d regret fighting the hired security, it was likely that a lot of them had been grunts just like him. Of course, they chose to go out here and risk their lives just for more money, accumulating wealth so that they could insulate themselves from harsh reality. All the crap with the White Fang had started when he was still on the battlefield, so he didn’t have much of an opinion on them. If all went well and he avoided them it would stay that way.

Exfiltration required a careful approach. Regular soldiers were given simple missions, subtlety was the domain of special forces. Nevertheless, Thomas had picked up a few tricks over the years. From his scouting with binoculars in a distant building he picked out that the soldiers had a perimeter set up around a few of the city blocks, his target was inside that radius. Thomas didn’t know much about recent gear, but he could recognize heavy weapons and the trademark twitch of someone on combat drugs. He didn’t pop his head out for long, they could be watching at any time. They probably had a heavier position at the site itself, and a few scout patrols roaming around.

Whatever was going on in Mountain Glenn was something people wanted to keep off the books. It could be a crime syndicate or a shady corporation, but whoever it was they obviously had a nasty disagreement with Thomas’ future employer, nasty enough that there were two other hired guns running similar jobs in the area. Thomas wouldn’t get involved with them, but that meant there could be some fireworks going on while he ran his mission. Before doing anything else, Thomas found a spot in the basement of ruined building near the perimeter. He hid there while he figured out a plan beyond “charge in, shoot everyone, stab anyone not dead from shooting.”

Hitsuji Momo had found herself a nice little spot a few hundred meters away from the outpost and was just waiting. The sheep faunus was sitting down on the hem of her battle skirt, not caring if it got dirty, her back to a nice large rock out there in the middle of the badlands. At the moment she was waiting for something very specific to happen, she had lived near this kind of area before and her horns were telling her a dust storm was incoming. The dust storm would hide her presence when she made her move to infiltrate the outpost.

"Ahhh, why'd it have to be a rescue operation of all things? Since I need to rescue some hapless person I won't be able to bash too many heads in without worrying about my target becoming a corpse. Doubt there will be any grimm in there either. Can't get paid if all that's left is a corpse, lame." Hitsuji tapped one of her horns against the rock as she picked a small camera out of her pocket.

"I also got some Mr. Pervert here wanting to up his prized collection for his own 'private' use." She complained some more as she dusted off the lens. "Rabbit lover eh? Probably likes big busts too." She stole a glance at the outpost then quickly hid again as she waited for the dust storm. She made sure the camera's flash was turned off and sighed, "Please stay alive my hapless target in the meantime." Hitsuji closed her eyes but kept her other senses completely open. Her time would come soon.

"Wow, they weren't kidding, this place is locked up pretty tight. Alternating guards at the front timed in a way that there is always someone watching, guards on every balcony, sensor arrays on the rooftop, search lights, watch towers... Normally this would be impossible", at least, to do it silently. The mission should have started during the afternoon, but he chose instead to spend a bit of time to wait until the sun set, and during that time, scope the area out with his crows. Considering Wolfram's own skills, it wouldn't be impossible for him to get through this silently. He had eyes on every angle of the building, his crows fed him information, and he could easily make distractions using them. First thing's first though, he had to disable one of the layers of security, to give himself a hole to slip through, and the easiest one was the security cameras.

He only needed to find one, with a lightning dust needle he can just overload their whole network and take it offline in an instant. And find one he did, left side of the facility. It was time to move in.

Upon arrival he didn't waste time to silently throw a needle at the camera, a silent spark later, the camera began to smoke. Now he had his hole into the facility, no one was going to witness it if he killed a man or two. He sent some crows to sit atop the rooftop to trigger the sensors as he moved towards the door, before the guards posted there could see him, they were dispatched with a few well-thrown needles. He seeped lightning into them, which stunned them. As much body armor as they had, and as enhanced they were, a surprise attack, plus from such small projectiles, were virtually undetectable.

"Still... I probably want to avoid a direct fight. I doubt they'll go easy on me...", he muttered to himself, as he strode right through the door. Still not a single witness before him still.

"Now that I'm in... Time to find our target...", he said to himself. To him, this was just another job, and the one going to pay for his dinner tonight. It was hard finding work, some assassins disliked him and tried to edge him from some high paying jobs, considering he was a bit of a pushover at times it wasn't hard for them to do that, even if he was really good at his job. Though this might have been the jackpot, if all of the video he got was true... A stable income, how he has longed for that. He didn't even care about much of the other details, how there were others on the same job. To him, money was money.

Mavi | Vacuo Outskirts | Some Outpost somewhere | Monday Afternoon

"Hmm.." Mavi sighed audibly as he observed the outpost, crouching next to a rock on a hill above the encampment. There were a lot of guards. He wouldn't be having this dilemma if he didn't need to rescue some person from this outpost. Luckily for him there weren't any dust storms happening at the time. He unsheathed his poleaxe, the shaft extending as he brought it out. He wasn't really one for subtle entry.

Cracking his neck, he grinned devilishly. He noticed how small this outpost was. From above that is. He'd bet on his next paycheck, knowing that the hostage was most likely underground. The guards made one mistake though. A lot of their force was above ground in small observer towers or on the ground near the entrance. He assumed so anyway. "They know I'm coming, but they don't know the first thing about me." He chuckled as he launched himself off the side of the hill. The wind was blowing sand. Such timing. Will they see it coming?

They didn't see it coming, but they sure as hell felt it. Mavi slammed into the ground, near the building, causing a large shockwave by expanding his aura as he landed. His semblance kicked in, causing and extra pounding force, making a large crater in the sand. Many of the guards were thrown to the ground by the massive tremor, confusion flooded the scene and the guards attempted to recover. However, Mavi was already upon them. The giant axe head crashed into a crowd of guards, sending them flying quite a ways away from the outpost.

More guards poured into the scene, surrounding Mavi, swords drawn, guns pointed. The thrill of battle pumped through him. He liked where this was going. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten all about the hostage at this point, they weren't going anywhere anyway. "All this just for me? Oh you shouldn't have!" He laughed. They really shouldn't have. With some ridiculous speed, he launched himself forward, swinging his massive poleaxe like it was a toy. Swords were no match for it's huge reach, and the bullets just whizzed past him, the majority of them missing.

"Heeelloooo! Anybody home?" Scarlet had a big grin on her face and it showed her sharp canine teeth and it was quite obvious that she was more than excited to start the mission. Her tail was wagging back and forth very quickly. Despite her happy tone, the air around her was quite vicious, scary even. It was the aura of pure bloodlust. Her voice had caught the attention of multiple guards who stopped and turned to her before getting their weapons ready to shoot at her. Her tail stopped wagging as the air of a battle started to weigh on the surroundings.

"Okay, so I'm not getting in quietly. Oh well." She said with a shrug. She knew they were expecting her since this was more of a forceful extraction than a mere stealthy mission. She then took a deep breath before charging forward, heading towards the first guard she saw. They started to shoot and she deployed her shield. This protected her from the oncoming bullets and her constant changing of position made her a hard target to hit. She jumped high into the sky before aiming her right hand down at one of the guards and then a blade shot out, heading towards the guard.

Scarlet would land and another blade would come out and straight onto her hand which now serves as her sword. She would begin slashing and hopefully dicing the guards. One moment she would appear like she was going to strike to the left and the other, she actually struck from the right. She was constantly using her Semblance, Illusion, making it hard for the guards being attacked actually know where she is coming from. Although she kept using it at a bare minimum since she didn't want to get tired so soon after starting a battle. "You know, the Grimm are harder to kill." She pointed out, a small pout on her face as she stopped and waited for another moment to wreck havoc. Besides, she was sure that Ms. Vinca Pinkfresch would appreciate getting some action as well.

"Huh? Is that a crow...? What's a crow doing inside...?", the soldier's attention was diverted, but watching the crow make eye contact with him was the last thing he saw that night, as he felt a seeping ice dust take into his body and put it into a kind of hibernation. Falling to the floor with a thud standing behind him was Wolfram.

"With a bit of rest and a warm bed, he'll be up again in no time... Now then", he turned to the person strapped to the chair. He finally found his rescue target, he didn't want to question people, he didn't want to give the impression someone was here after all, so it took him a little longer, but he had all the tools he needed anyways.

"Now, I hope you're cooperative, any minute now and the soldiers will realize it's just crows buzzing up the roof sensors", he said as he picked the person up. They were restrained, plus blindfolded and so on. His job wasn't to identify this guy or anything, so he didn't care to undo most of the restraints, just whatever kept them to the chair.

He managed to carry them out, strategic diversions with his crows, and a few needles for neutralization... Well, wasn't actually necessary, on his way in he cleared a route for himself. Soon as he stepped out of the doors though, he could hear that the soldiers were now returning to their original posts, through a comms that he stole... Perfect timing.

By the time they returned to their posts, he was a ways into the woods, and mission accomplished.

"Hmmmm... I wonder how I report this again... Let's see...", with the rescue target just leaned up against the tree he tried to figure out the settings, then soon enough he managed to hit it.

"Oh there we go".