[IC] Crisis: The Empyrean Project (Sci-fi Military RP)

[vietmyke]

Onboard the UEN Subtle Glory - Shaw Class Stealth Frigate

The secure briefing room of the UEN Subtle Glory looked over the nearby planet with its large, wall windows, the glass specially polarized to prevent the light from the system's sun from frying the occupants with solar radiation.Contrasted with the bright light from the sun, in the dimly lit briefing room, the half dozen figures within looked like mere silhouettes, their outlines marked with sunlight. The more prominent figure was General Saunders O'Malley, a tall, rigid military officer with graying hair and beady eyes. In front of him stood a line of 101st soldiers. O'Malley was the commanding officer of the entire 101st Legion, and had a reputation for his strictness as well as his emphasis on loyalty and camaraderie. Despite his relatively harsh demeanor, he was well respected by the men and women of the 101st. Him and several of his closest advisors, had hand picked a small team of individuals to conduct a high risk mission. The five soldiers in front of him were among those chosen, and they along with the rest of the special task force had been on board the Subtle Glory for the better part of several months, travelling and prepping for their mission. At the current moment, O'Malley was in the middle of giving his final briefing.

"The Hub World of Liria is a gem in Coalition space," O'Malley was explaining, "The people here are highly educated, wealthy, and are of typically high social standards. The very idea of potentially losing all of their wealth to rejoin the folds of the Empire makes them an extremely separatist world, and as such, harbor many people of Coalition sentiments. This also means that this world is ripe with Coalition science, research, and development installations."

"Our leads have marked the possible location of the target, codename: Empyrean, in one of the Poseidon Industries R&D complexes in New Vienna, the capitol city of Liria. Your mission remains unchanged, land on planet, locate and secure the Empyrean, and move to the specified evac location."

O'Malley paused, and waved to a robotic trolley which slowly began to roll past the soldiers. "Relinquish all name plates, identification tags, unit patches, and badges. As of this moment, you are no longer 101st Operatives. You are now part of a private security firm, the Goliath Corporation. Snoops have been able to falsify records for the fictitious Goliath Corp and have installed you as low-level security contractors for Poseidon Industries."

"Several of our assets are already on the ground, and will make themselves known to you via either the challenge: Shock, to which the proper response is Awe."

O'Malley paused again, his face growing grave. "We also have been made aware that a Ghost has inserted itself into our operation. This should give you an idea of how serious this situation is. Provide aid to the Ghost as it is requested, and everything should go without a hitch."

"Unless you have any further questions, you may now report to the hangar, your gear is already on the transport. Do not don your armor before you arrive on planet, the bags are specially sealed to prevent any surveillance equipment to be able to identify its contents."

"Oh," O'Malley added, before the operatives left the briefing room. "We're dancing on a fine line right now. Mess this up, and you might be responsible for reigniting a 200 year old war."

---

UEN Subtle Glory Hangar Bay

As a small stealth frigate, the ship only had a single hangar bay on board. This hangar bay held only four aircraft, a pair of scout fighters, and two transport/gunships. One of the transport gunships had been retrofitted and displayed the Goliath emblem, a fist clutching a lightning bolt. The transport's personnel, including its pilots and crew wore plain, undesignated jumpsuits with the Goliath logo on them. The ship was a standard Coalition VTOL, repurposed for use by the 101st. The VTOL was a stubby ship with a dropping bay door on its rear, sealed and airtight, allowing passengers to ride without the need of a suit. The inside of the VTOL was a spacious room, with enough seating on each side of the cargo bay for up to 10 soldiers. The VTOL was armed with a 30mm single barreled chain gun, as well as two dumbfire rocketpods with 13 rockets each, and 8 AGM missiles.

Matthew Sykes stepped onto the transport, his sealed bag slung over his shoulder. He wore a plain, black business suit made from kevlar weave along with a black tie. He wore dark sunglasses, contrasting with his white-gray hair. He looked every part the professional gun-for-hire that the Goliath Corp. supposedly was. He felt naked without his weapons and armor, which were neatly packed into a black duffel bag like the rest of the team. Their mission was more covert than it was a military action, and required more finesse than a standard op. They likely would not be touching their gear until they were settled in at the Poseidon lab.

He took a seat on one of the seats nearest the door and breathed out. As the rest of the team filed in, the bay door shut behind them and bathed them in darkness, before a dim red light lit up, illuminating them.

Time to start.

[Whoami]

"Well, well, well! What'o we got 'ere?!" a slum-scum said as him and his lackeys stepped out of the shadowed alleyway.

In front of them, was an innocent woman, dressed in a professional looking blazer and matching pants. The woman wore a tie around her neck. She looked at the scum but remained quiet. The ringleader stepped forward, "What's a pretty little thing like you doin' down in 'ese parts of the city?" he ran his metal agumetic hand along her jaw.

The woman, with her amber-yellow eyes, stared back at the man with the poor quality augmetic metal eyes. "Just picking up something for my husband." she replied, it seemed by the tone of her voice that she was used to scummers harassing her.

The leader put on an exaggerated frown, his lips pouting out, "Aww, so sweet for a man's woman t'come to Thresher territory t'get the groceries. What? Was he one of our victims? Ohh it doesn't matter, if he isn't 'ere then you'll just have t'do." he grabbed her arm, the woman didn't flinch.

He noticed her calm demeanor, it was new to him, "What's your game, lady?" he asked, showing off a knife.

"No game, sir." the woman replied.

The ringleader yanked the woman into the alley, under the concealment of the shadows. "Let's bring out the emotion in this bitch!"

The woman was still quiet, she could feel the knife run down her neck and to buttons to her blazer. They were cut. She was only a silhouette to them, they were all red to her. When she felt the knife go back to her neck, then to the tie around her neck, she sighed. The ringleader stopped for a moment, "Is the bitch bored?" he asked, another one just shrugged.

He grabbed the woman by the neck, "Hey! I want to enjoy this and you're really killing my mood right now!"

"I'll be killing more than that." the woman said before grabbing the augmetic hand around her neck. The woman's knuckles glowed a low teal color, as well as the other joints in her hand. Suddenly, the man's hand began to spark and go on the fritz like it hand a mind of its own. Before the man could react, he felt a punch to his gut and the air leaving out his mouth. Then another hand grabbed him by the face, with that same teal glow. His eyes sparked and shut down, the sparks behind his eyes fried both cybernetic and original tissue, causing him to scream out in pain. The woman blinded him.

He heard a brief shuffle on the ground, some dropping, and then silence. When his eyes managed to reboot their primary systems, things came into view for him. His lackeys were all on the ground, bleeding profusely out the mouths. It was obvious they were dead. He looked up at the woman as he lay there, seeing her pull the slide back on a silenced pistol. He raised a hand at her, pleading, "Please. Don't kill me."

The woman responded, "You were about to kill me. Survival instinct said otherwise."

"I wasn't going to kill you! I just wanted your money... An maybe a little bit mor-"

"Too late. You are a threat that I deem doesn't need to exist."

"Where's your humanity?" he asked.

"Nowhere." she pulled the trigger, the bullet going straight between the eyes. The woman studied the man's vital signs, watching as they flat lined near instantly. Her eyes changed color from amber yellow to a flat gray before she concealed the pistol and removed her wrecked blazer, throwing it in a nearby garbage dump. She fixed her shirt and faded back into the crowd of people going about their day in the lower markets of Liria's capital.

As the woman passed by a store, the holovid in the window showed a news report. "Tensions are high near Cerol as the UEE fleet protecting the fortress world was reinforced by yet another battlegroup. The Coalition has stepped up its security in nearby systems in case of an act of aggression from the UEE. There have been reports of several cold engagements between UEE and Coalition fighter groups. From Earth, the leader of the UEE states that these fighter sorties are being investigated, and were not sanctioned by UEE high command. Nevertheless, our military isn't taking any chances and are standing at the ready in case the UEE dishonor the agreement made two centuries ago."

The woman looked at the holovid, her eyes studying the broadcasting man. A label showed itself over him, 'Tertiary Target - Coalition Reporter: Schezar, Allen -- Wanted eliminated to stem the spread of propaganda through Coalition space.'

The woman knew that it was exactly the opposite situation at Cerol. The Coalition had been the ones bolstering their forces, and the UEE was reinforcing at Cerol in case of an attack. But it didn't matter to her, she was on Liria for another reason. She continued on down the road until she saw a man sitting at a table, looking around. She approached and sat down across him. "Kana." the man said to her.

"Jacob. I don't have long, I need to be elsewhere shortly." she replied.

"We'll be quick. High Command has ordered me off world, I'm headed to Crowhaven."

"The Coalition prison world?"

Jacob nodded, "There's a VIP there that I need to extract. So this mission is yours now."

"That would explain the 101st..." she whispered.

"Say again?"

"An insertion team is on its way planetside. I was told to rendezvous with them, I guess they're your replacement." she sat back and crossed her arms, "Seems like they don't have faith in two ghosts to do the job. That's a first."

"Well the 101st is good, Kana. Enough of them put together could run a ghost for its money."

Jacob stood up, Kana did the same. "No boundaries." he said to her.

"No boundaries." Kana repeated. No boundaries was the Ghost's motto, meaning they could go anywhere and achieve anything.

They gave one another a quick nod and parted. It was a short meeting that ended abruptly. It was how ghost's operated, they passed over the information that needed to be passed, and that was the end of it. There wasn't much small talk and there wasn't anything fun about it either. Kana and Jacob didn't look back at each other, they didn't speak another word, they just walked away like they never even knew each other.
__________

Kana stepped into the small apartment she had been using as her base. It was filled with a military issue cot, a gun rack, her armor stacked in a neat pile and a dozen or so black crates holding equipment. On a desk, was a device that was playing back Coalition military chatter, so she could listen in on their operations nearby. She closed the door and locked it, then she locked the ones she added herself. She sat down on the cot and looked at a flat olive green wall. She then took out her dataslate and pointed it at the wall. It projected its holographic screens onto the wall. "One-Oh-One, One-Oh-One this is Isis. This is Isis. Please designate the rendezvous point. Over."

[Hexaflexagon]

Drifting through space aboard a ship that was not listed in any official UEN naval registers, running on experimental tech that dampened and dispersed scanning signals effectively making it invisible on radar though looking out a window was still a viable option it seemed. All of it reeked of wetwork black ops and undercover espionage, the saboteurs sabotaging the enemy military from the inside out, the charismatic spies charming their way through checkpoints and filtering dangerously close with the enemy intelligence. Or maybe she had been reading too much Captain Accel before her reassignment and all the action novel nonsense had somehow seeped into her brain. That was probably it the mission was not going to be some action drama it was war like everything else, just like Kryes and so she had to be prepared for anything to happen. Her father had tried to force that idea of unpredictably and moving on the fly into her brain from a young age especially when they used to play those wargame simulations together replaying mock battles of the first war with the Coalition. She never had a mind for it though controlling whole armies and thinking three steps ahead of your opponent, she preferred the combat simulations where it was gritty and personal were the enemy was not some abstracted figure but a human.

Not much had changed it seemed from when she was a young girl playing with her father. When she was first approached for the mission she had actually turned down the offer believing that a deep undercover operation was not suited for someone like her who had passed through the 101st infiltration examination by the skin of her teeth and after two previous failed attempts. She was a soldier not a black ops operative she fought on the front lines against insurrectionists in the fringe worlds and coalition aligned terrorists the visible and immediate threat to the people of the UE she left he backroom political subterfuge to Ghosts and the infiltration teams. Though in the end it was evidently her father that ended up pushing her to finally accepting the offer with a stern reminder that if they had asked her it meant that they needed her and that a Campbell does not turn down an important mission offered by upper brass that could lead to a promotion and a nice officer position just because she does not feel like it. That was her father always looking out for her "best interests". But he did make some valid points if they had come to ask for her it meant they needed her set of skills. She was in the top tier of heavy assault specialists in the 101st and her track record spoke for itself and if other 101st operatives died because she was apprehensive she could of never forgiven herself and so she took up the offer and once again put away the needs of the one for the needs of the many.

The distinctive whoosh of an automatic door sliding open was added to the myriad of industrial noises being produced in the hanger as Ashe stepped out. The hangar crew was rushing about the VTOL that was to be their transport planetside prepping it for take off: loading the missile pods, replacing the ammunition canister for the chain gun, loading their equipment upon it and making it sure it had that nice new drop ship smell to it. By UEE terms the VTOL was a flying dinosaur the line of transports having served eleven years in the coalition forces and still based upon the old schematics used during the conflict between the two empires with minor modifications to increase performance and update the technology running the ship. Coalition engineers always were big fans of the if it was not broken than don't fix it approach recycling where they could as they did not have the luxury and resources the UEE had.

Ashe had little time to ponder how such an antiqued piece of technology was still even considered flight worthy in a period where the UEE seemed to replacing their equipment and vehicles with updated models within months of one another and so she pushed on. Though she stopped as the glint of her reflection across the polished metal floor of the hanger caught her eye. For one thing the time that had designed their Goliath uniforms were good. She looked the part of a private security contractor with subtle flare and sleek design that the military was just not into.Wearing a tailored black trench coat that clung to her frame with an emblazoned bright yellow Goliath logo upon the right pocket and a matching pair of black business pants all made from Kevlar microfibers with a black compression shirt and bulletproof vest on beneath the coat, all standard high class civilian contractor gear found being worn by most Coalition and UEE security firms.And even without the fancy outfit one would be hard pressed to place Ashe as anything else than a soldier just by her build. Inside her PA-2 she was just another titan among giants lumbering about in heavy plate but outside of it among regular people she looked immense with a body made up of all hard and large muscle built from constantly lifting heavy mortars, rocket launches and the BS-MKV for so many years now that did not just come from working a desk job. But that was okay even though she was undercover and no longer 101st Heavy Assault Operative Ashe Campbell she was still supposed to be a professional and her build in that line of work was not uncommon.

Letting out a small and almost unnoticeable sigh among the sounds of heavy machinery and loaders as the deck crew were finishing operations Ashe stepped up the landing platform and into the VTOL. She was the second one in with the infiltration specialist Sykes having already been inside when she entered. She gave him a small nod and a formal hello as she found her seat and sat down.The higher ups were not fooling around when they had put the team together it seemed, most of the operatives were the best at what they did with Sykes being the talk of the town in 7th Company. They say that he was one of the best they had ever seen, that he could outsmart even a Ghost. These claims were yet to be proven true but if he had been asked to join the mission they must of had truth to them or at least that was what Ashe believed. But she would have time to become well antiquated with her team latter for now it was time to be prepped to infiltrate the planet and make contact with the Ghost Operative already planetside. And so she collected her thoughts the ideas of it all mulling around in her head wondering the consequences of what they were doing and what was being held on the line if they failed to stop the construction of a Coalition super weapon or worse if they sparked another war altogether.

How did I let you talk me into this one old man? This is going to be such a pain.

[Xionist]

When Lucas had graduated from training nearly a year ago he expected to find himself shunted to the nearest base to work some desk job that nobody else wanted. He did not, however, expect to find himself aboard the UEN Subtle Glory being debriefed by the one and only General Saunders O'Malley all while staring out through a large window, which he presumed to be the result of some overcompensation issues, which was overlooking a planet that was not his own. He had to bite his lip to keep himself from smirking at just how giddy he was to be here. "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." He thought to himself while listening to the mission debrief. This whole situation reeked of Colonel Matthews who was the very same man that had recruited Lucas, albeit in a rather odd fashion, into the 101st. How else could somebody like him get into a mission like this? A mission, by the sounds of it, that could potentially cause another grand war between the UEE and the Coalition if something were to go amiss. No pressure, right?

________________________________

When Lucas had first arrived on the UEN Subtle Glory his first impression of the ship's hanger bay was noise. There was absolutely no other word to describe it. As you walk in you're first greeted by the pneumatic sounds of the automatic doors which then unleashes a torrent of sounds to immediately assault your ears. By now Lucas had become used to it, and more often than naught during the time he had to himself on the ship he found himself nested up somewhere high up in the hangar bay while he let the unrelenting sounds of heavy machinery and jumbled shouts and calls from the workers wash over him. When you're unseen and listening carefully you can learn quite a few things if you're patient. Like how one of the men working on a flight engine for one of the scout fighters had lost a bolt but managed to cut some corners to get it all back together, or how one of the apprentices accidentally sat on a repair torch and bent the nozzle quite badly. Sadly today was not going to be another day to sit on his perch and listen to the noise. Instead of making his way to his usual spot, Lucas made a straight beeline for the ship that was going to be their grand limousine down to the planet below. Although grand was a strong word for it, as the VTOL was anything but.

Climbing up the ramp protruding from the back of the VTOL, Lucas noted mentally that he was the third of the group to arrive at the ship. "Man it's a wonder how this thing can even stay in the air. Those Coalition guys need to learn to let go, eh?" Lucas joked as he took the seat on the opposite side of Matthew Sykes, looking him over with a quick glance. "Hah, and check out the matching uniforms. If this doesn't scream cliche evil corporation from just about every comic, I don't know what does." Lucas looked over at his other fellow passenger and gave her the same lookover he gave Matthew. "My, my, so we've got Mr. Hotshot himself and even a tank. Miss Boomstick, isn't it? 'Tis a pleasure. Seems the brass have really dug deep to get some top of the line people here, not that I'm counting myself of course, I've heard some neat stories 'bout the both of you during my time in training. Always good to keep an ear out, eh? Never know the stories you'll hear." Lucas finished with his signature smirk, and stretched in his seat.

[vietmyke]

Matthew looked up and nodded as Campbell entered the dropship. Also known as Boomstick by many in the 101st, Campbell was a prime example of a 101st soldier: Lean, tough as nails, and cyberteched out the wazoo. Whereas regular military had a limitation to the amount of cybernetics they could have implanted in them - for standards, safety, and regulatory reasons, the 101st, like the Ghost Corps they were modeled after, did not. 101st members were allowed to apply virtually any amount of cybertechnology to themselves as they wanted, as long as it didn't run the risk of exploding and killing everyone around them. Boomstick was a highly effective frontline combat soldier, and was easily the team's 'muscle', giving them plenty of credit as a private security firm. He had yet to see her in action, but anyone entrusted with a set of PA-2 Sentinel Armor was a welcome addition.

The third person to enter the dropship was considerably more talkative than the previous two combined. The man was almost a youth: Short, somewhat lanky, and more eager than Matthew would have liked. He didn't recognize the man, but his neural interface quickly identified the soldier as Lucas Clint. Clint was supposedly fairly new to the 101st, causing Sykes to raise an eyebrow to exactly why the young soldier was brought along. His dossier provided no insight to the soldier's specialties, though a single note written by Sergeant Culp mentioned that the man had a good eye for tracking people and things down. The dossier made no mention to how talkative the soldier was.

Leaning forward, Matthew listened in silence, staring him down with steely gray eyes, as the youth finished. "You won't be able to hear anything if you don't keep your mouth shut." Sykes in a withering tone. "We're on this boat because we look like mercs, not gossiping school children."

The boy was relaxed, unprofessional, and therefore in Matthew's mind, unreliable. He said nothing more as the rest of the team filed onto the dropship. As the last of the team entered the ship, the dropship's loading ramp raised and closed shut, sealing them in utter darkness with a hiss as the ship sealed itself. Moments later, the lights flickered on, a pair of track lights on either side of the ship's interior dimly illuminating the inside of the ship. A viewscreen was present on the wall by the door to the pilot's cabin, which displayed the ship's forward facing camera, mounted underneath the chingun.

For a while, all the camera showed was the blackness of space, bordered by the horizon of the planet as the dropship began descending into the planet Liria's atmosphere. The camera soon shut off as the ship began its burn through the planet's atmosphere, the interior of the ship heating up slightly, but noticeably as it plummeted. After an uncomfortably long period of time, the dropship's interior began to cool down, the camera flickering on.

The camera focused and revealed to the occupants of the dropship the massive cityscape of New Vienna, the capitol city of Liria. New Vienna was one of the largest cities in Coalition space, even by UEE standards. Containing not one, but two orbital elevators within its limits, New Vienna stretched across a massive swath of land, with buildings commonly reaching up to hundreds of stories high. Its streets were busy as cars and pedestrians moved in large numbers, above the streets, maglev trains and shuttles flew through regulated aerial freeways. Common colors in this near-Utopian city were white and a tanned-gray, often times with splashes of dark red thrown into the mix. The building's were long and tall, but thin, and more often than not with rounded corners, and commonly with massive holo projection screen 'billboards' displaying various advertisements on their flat faces.

As the dropship began to enter the city's airspace, a pair of patrol/enforcer gunships approached them. As one pulled up along either side of the dropship, a pair of green lasers scanned the sides of the dropship, and presumably its interiors, scanning for contraband. The seals on the duffelbags must have worked, because the gunships flew off without any conflict. The team's dropship was free to fly into the interior of the city. The dropship approached one of the shorter buildings, a multi-story building that the team's neural interface identified as belonging to the 'Peacemaker Security Firm'. PSF was one of the many smaller security outfits hired by Poseidon to protect their labs. Poseidon was a very powerful Coalition research company, forging documents for the 101st to get into one of the top research facilities would have been prohibitively costly as well as risky. It was much more simple, reliable, and easier to obtain the documents and authentication they needed by taking them from another company. In this case, the smallest fish in the pond was none other than the Peacemaker Security Firm.

As the dropship began to near the PSF building, Matthew reached over and grabbed his duffel bag, tearing off the seal, and opening the bag. He grabbed his sidearm and slid it into a holster under his arm, along with several magazines of ammunition for it. He then pulled out his ACS and switched it to its carbine configuration, and fitted a suppressor onto it. He pocketed a biogel dispenser and tacked a single electron grenade to his holster and pulled his suit jacket back on. He looked at the others. Until they secured the PSF building, they were going in without their armor. 101st power armor was too valuable to allow the Coalition to obtain, and until they had a secure place to store and equip their armor, they could not risk taking it off the dropship.

"Ready?" He asked plainly, as the dropship reached the top of the building, its bay door opening to reveal the roof.

A single PSF soldier had been lazily standing at the roof as the dropship approached. He approached the ship, wondering why a dropship not belonging to the PSF had landed on their helipad. As the soldier approached the open bay door, rifle at the ready. He opened his mouth to speak. But before he could say anything he heard a muffled -Wump!- and his head jerked violently backwards, as he crumpled to the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Sykes stared at the fallen body through the sight of his carbine, its muzzle smoking. He calmly shouldered his carbine and stepped off the dropship and onto the roof of the PSF building. The roof was quite nice, like the rest of the city, clean and flat, with a large helipad for ships. At one end of the roof, where the guard had been prior was a small, single room building, with large glass windows allowing people on the roof to see into the building with little difficulty, Inside the room was the door to the stairwell and an elevator that would take them down to the rest of the building. PSF owned the top 4 flours of the building, so the 101st team would have to clear them out before they could set up their own base of operations. Other UEE operational support had already sent the vast majority of the PSF - along with their one drop/gunship on a wild goose chase into the countryside, where they were blasted to smithereens by a few artillery rounds from a small Coalition outpost, whose computers somehow marked them as hostiles.

As such, the 101st only had to deal with a skeleton crew's worth of guards. Still, they were without their armor on, so they had to be cautious.

[Whoami]

Kana loaded up and moved out the moment she was briefed on the 101st's landing point. She had her armor in a duffelbag, her arms through each loop to wear it like a backpack. She wore the form fitting under armor, masked by a pair of loose fitting jeans and a black hoodie. Kana had the hood pulled over her head. Hidden under the hoodie was all of her weapons, her bullhammer in an underarm holster and her ACS on her back, positioned comfortably so the armor in the duffelbag didn't dig into her. She wore a pair of shades and had a pitch black neoprene mask over her mouth.

She strode out of the apartment complex and opened up the personal garage in an alleyway. Inside was an equally black hoverbike. There was a discreet decal on the side saying 'No Boundaries'. She got onto the bike and pressed her thumb on the recog-pad. It roared to life and lifted a half meter off the ground. Kana's HUD highlighted the quickest route to PSF's headquarters. She didn't waste time, speeding out onto the street, weaving between traffic. While the 101st took the back door, she'd waltz on in through the front.

It wasn't long before she arrived. Kana stood next to her bike in an alley, watching as she saw the gunship approach with her insertion team. She dropped the duffelbag and removed her hoodie. Kana only took out the backplate of her armor, the piece that held her shield generator and core power supply. She lined up the plate with the interfaces on her under armor, it latched on and secured itself to her body. Her HUD immediately recognized the armor and powered up her shield. There was a ripple of energy surrounding her as the shields powered up, it wasn't long before they faded away. Then she pulled out the gauntlets, slipping her hands into them. They did the same as the backplate and interfaced with her. Her HUD showed the shield mitigation. She tested the blade strength. The energy rippled into two blade like forms from her hands, she pushed them into a nearby dumpster, like a hot knife through butter.

Kana put the hoodie back on and stuffed her bullhammer into the pocket of her hoodie. She put her ACS in the duffelbag with the rest of her armor. The hoodie hid her armor well, save for the gauntlets, but it wouldn't matter, she'd be past security before anybody would have the time to react. She slung the duffelbag bag around her shoulders and made her approach on the building. She kept her shades and neoprene mask on, she obviously wasn't a customer. She kept a casual pace as she neared the building, seeing two guards approach her, weapons held tight as they investigated. "I might need a bit of back up in the lobby."

The other raised his weapon and pointed it at Kana, "Stop where you are. Show yourself."

Kana didn't break her stride. The guard fired a warning shot at her feet, It was his only shot, Kana already had her bullhammer out and the man already had a hole blown in his chest. The other man wasn't even finished his radio call when one of Kana's shield blades was in his stomach. He looked at the masked individual, she was an angel of death. He fell on the floor and died shortly after. Kana was already moving forward at a casual pace. Her HUD highlighted two biosignatures behind a door on her right. She kept walking straight. When the door opened, the first man through was suddenly without a head as the bullhammer shot rang through the lobby. The second guard followed through and tripped over the headless merc. When he looked at the all black assailant, he saw the glare of the red laser sight from her bullhammer. The man raised his hands, at the mercy of Kana. She pulled the trigger anyways.

The secretary at the desk in the middle of the lobby was frozen in terror. In just a matter of seconds, one person had dispatched four guards without even breaking stride. Kana's HUD highlighted her as yellow. She pointed her bullhammer at her, and her highlights became red, labelled with 'No witnesses'. For the fourth time, her bullhamer fired and took another life. To ghosts, there was no such thing as an innocence, there was only the mission. The secretary was a young lady who was just doing her job, but that girl could have alerted any off duty mercs. police. city militia. Coalition military. None of them were threats to her, but to her reinforcements, they'd be problematic.

Her HUD notified her that the 101st had landed and at least one operative had opened fire. Kana planned that her noisy entrance would bring the attention to her, so that the insertion team wouldn't need to be bothered. She spoke to the 101st using her sub-vocals, "One-oh-one, this is Isis. Don't worry about doing your jobs, I'll clear the building."

It was a taunt, she wanted to see what these operatives could do first hand. Suddenly, another shot rang through the lobby. Her shield flared brightly, a wave of energy emanating from the point of impact. She turned and saw an armored merc with a shotgun. The merc knew he had made a mistake the moment that shield took the hit. "Well." Kana spoke out loud, "I imagine you alerted the rest of security to this?"

She dropped her duffelbag on the floor, not caring about the man with the shotgun. He fired another shot, once again deflected by the shield. "I need a squad down here now! The assailant is armed with a shield!"

Kana opened her bag and listened as the man lured the cattle. She removed her hoodie, revealing the armor. Then she drew out her ACS and aimed it at the man, "Not a -squad-. Give me all hands on deck. Give me a challenge."

The merc saw the faint emblem on her pitch black armor, "Gh-" he couldn't even finish the word Ghost. He had a bullet between his eyes.

Kana figured she had about sixty seconds before that squad showed up. It was enough for her to don her armor. The new ghost armor was easy to put on. The under armor did all the work. It attached simply and integrated the systems without needing to calibrate anything. She put on the leg plates first, then the chest plate and shoulder guards. The bicep and forearm plating came after. She kept her neoprene mask off but did away with the sunglasses. She then lowered the hood, letting her hair dangle. The simplicity of the armor allowed her twenty seconds of free time. She spend it reloading her bullhammer. The mercs arrived as she was loading the last bullet, they were a little better drilled than she thought.

Kana faced the squad and watched as they took hip shots at her, bouncing off her shield. They ran to cover as they fired. One merc yelled out to the rest of her squad, "Ghost! Ghost!"

"Was the emblem too obvious?" Kana replied as she flipped the cylinder into her bullhammer, she was talking about the ghost emblem taking her entire left shoulder plate.

Kana counted eight of them. She taunted the mercs, "You've all got seventeen seconds left to live. Make it count."
__________

"One-oh-one, this is Isis. Status report." Kana said as she reloaded in an elevator.

[Hexaflexagon]

"Ready?"

Ashe looked up from the ground having been lost in a meditative trance for most of the decent. She forget everything who she was, her problems, her fears, all of it. All that was left was the soldier, the ancestral spirit of the warrior embedded deep in her soul that would kill without qualm anything to get the mission done. Especially when they were dancing so close to the line. Closing her eyes she felt a slight hum somewhere near the back of her head and a flash went across her eyes lighting up her tactile display that was projected over the retinas. A small grid appeared with the schematics of the PSF building giving it a once over she blinked and it vanished from sight, she checked her squad readouts names were listed with the small status lights next to them lit green the names Apex and Ghosty both catching her eye. She knew who Apex was but Ghosty? What kind of name was Ghosty? She figured it most of been the new guy, the talkative one that Ashe wanted to drive her fist, through preferably somewhere where it would hurt. She held nothing against him for she was probably annoying as well as a new recruit but new blood on a mission like the one they were about to embark on could only end badly. The notifier in the upper right hand corner of her vision flashed 500 meters until they hit the roof the number ticking down steadily.

She reached above her and brought down a long black canvas bag around 140cm in length matching the size and weight of a small child. Tearing off the safety seal it opened silently and she pulled out the MK-V slinging it to her back she then pulled out the ACS in its short ranged configuration attaching a suppressor to the barrel she held it in her hand. 60 meters and closing that was what the indicator stated silently and automatically having done so many teams before she stood up from her seat and grabbed onto the handrail that lined the ceiling of the cargo bay. 30 meters the roof could be seen clearly now from the ships camera, one soldier atop it was almost too easy. 28 meters the walls and floor shook as the transport titled its angle of descent moving in to make a touchdown, guard still had not noticed. 10 Meters bay doors unlocked themselves, guard finally taken notice looked up in shock and awe. O Meters door flung open.

As the door came down the light shined into the dark bay and before the PSF guard could react Apex put a bullet through his head and he dropped. Clean and efficient that was what the 101st drill sergeants had taught them. A missed shot could be the difference between life and death. The rest of the squad piled out silently and without words Campbell ran down gun in one hand and quickly grabbing one of the limp arms of the disposed arms dragging him behind a cooling unit out of sight so that any Coalition gunships would not see anything suspicious. After that she doubled timed it across the open space of the roof towards the building half expecting at any moment for gunfire to erupt from either side mowing her down while she did not have any cover but none ever came and she hit the wall of the building back against. Being the front line specialist she moved into the building first pushing the door open with one hand while the other hand the ACS raised and ready. Everything was quiet and she was about to give the all clear when she heard a faint ping.

Turning quickly she faced the elevator as the doors slid upon reveling three PSF men probably the rest of the roof guard having gone down for a bathroom break or something their friend having been the unlucky one that had to stay and guard the roof where nothing ever happened. Campbell training kicked in and a voice yelled at her to fire and before the guards had the chance to do more than let out a murmur of surprise not expecting any resistance a volley of bullets came out of the ACS slamming into their bodies and making them cast blood soaked pirouettes and leaving splashes resembling a Pollock made up of entirely red along the elevator wall. One of them was still alive and groaned in pain as he writhed across the floor, silently Ashe approach him and without a second of doubt brought her foot up the mechanical augmentations in her robotic leg reeving up as she then brought it down hard against the man's head and a sound similar to an egg being crushed was heard. As she dragged the bodies out of the elevator she tapped the side of her head once and the green squad indicator next to her name flashed once in response.

All Clear

[Rultaos]

Spending months in space, being told again and again that the assignment you were about to go into would shake the thin balance of peace in several galaxies, did not do much to calm the nerves. Clifford was fully aware that this mission was one he could not afford to fail, and he was willing to do everything in his power to make sure of that, even if he had to pay with his own life. "Still... I shouldn't be stupid and let myself die if I can still be useful." he said to himself, knowing there was a difference between devotion, and fanaticism. With those final thoughts, he entered the hangar of the UEN Subtle Glory to prepare for the drop to the surface.

His father once brought him aboard the Glaring Zeal when it was docked on Mareega when he was much younger. Clifford noticed the differences between a warship like the Zeal, and a stealth frigate like the Subtle Glory. For one, the hangar and other structures were much smaller, and had only the bare essentials. He saw the Coalition VTOL that was going to be used for their insertion. A holographic square formed around it, scanning the vehicle and immediately began displaying information on it in a smaller square which appeared on the right corner of his vision:

[VTOL: COALITION MODEL: OUTMODED]
[10 PASSENGERS]
[30mm CHAIN GUN]
[2 DUMB ROCKET PODS]

Adjusting the duffel bag in his hands containing all his gear, while making sure his Goliath Corp. Kevlar suit jacket looked neat in case they had to pass any inspectors, he made his way into the rear entrance of the VTOL where the rest of the strike team was already waiting. Clifford nodded at them without a word as his eyes began scanning his team. He already knew who they were, as well as their backgrounds, but a final reminder of who he was working with couldn't hurt. The first person he laid his eyes on was their team leader, Matthew Sykes.

[SYKES, MATTHEW]
[CALLSIGN: APEX]
[101st SPEC. FORCES LEGION]
[7TH COMPANY]
[ROLE: TEAM LEADER]
[SPECIALIZATION: TACTICIAN, COVERT OPS]

Clifford turned to him and gave a quick salute before he took a seat on the opposite side of the dropship. He then looked at the strongly-built woman seated nearby.

[CAMPBELL, ASHE]
[CALLSIGN: BOOMSTICK]
[101st SPEC. FORCES LEGION]
[3RD COMPANY]
[ROLE: POINT MAN]
[SPECIALIZATION: CLOSE QUARTER COMBAT]

After completely scanning her, looked at the younger fellow inside the dropship, who seemed to be almost happy.

[CLINT, LUCAS]
[CALLSIGN: GHOSTY]
[101st SPEC. FORCES LEGION]
[ROLE: SCOUT, TRACKER]
[SPECIALIZATION: STEALTH]

Clifford did not have time to scan the other member of the team before he felt the rumble of the dropship as it prepared for take-off. Clifford took a deep breath to calm himself, and held tight as the ship began penetrating Liria's atmosphere.

---

The first obstacle in their way would be the inspecting patrol ships. However, as long as thir uniforms and duffel bags did their job, the inspectors would pass them by without a hitch, and they did. Once the team was approaching the target building, everyone tore open their duffel bags and prepared their weapons. Though their armor would have to wait until they had a safehouse. Opening his own bag, Clifford pulled out his ACS and began setting it to Carbine mode with a suppressor Once the attachments clicked into place, he slid it inside the front of his suit where he could easily reach it. He then prepared his GX Tactical and ensured that the silencers and laser sights were working, before holstering them on his waist. He also took out his Biogel pack, and one Electron Grenade in case things got hairy. Once his equipment was fully prepared, he took out his ACS to be prepared for any hostiles who may be on the roof landing.

"Ready?" Matthew asked them as they were about to land. Clifford nodded in response. "Sir, yes sir" He said. In a matter of moments, the doors opened and the skyline of Liria was revealed. A lone PSF guard came to intercept them, but Matthew made quick work of the man. The team then neatly filed out of the VTOL.

Ashe immediately went to hide the body of the guard, while Clifford himself started scanning the rooftop for additional enemies, Carbine at the ready. "Roof is clear!" He announced as he regrouped with the rest of them before they breached the building. Ashe as the first person inside as the team's point man and CQC specialist. Clifford followed up the rear, keeping an eye behind the team, while also prepared to give mid-ranged support in case they got into a firefight. Immediately, the elevators door nearby opened and revealed a small squad of guards. But before any of them could even react, Ashe immediately peppered them all with bullets, leaving a bloody mess inside of the elevator.

There was one guard who was still alive, and Ashe finished him off with a powerful curb stomp that smashed his head in. "A bullet would've been quicker and less messy..." Clifford said to her quietly as the bodies were pulled out of the elevator, and the team began their descent into the building. Clifford never did like close combat, mainly because long ranged rifles gave him more confidence than his bare fists. Unfortunately, it seemed for the most part of this mission, they would be battling their way through close quarters. Wondering what may come next, Clifford stood in silence as the bloody elevator kept going.