Nevada, USA
Jun Li "Hopper" Shi & Sylvia “Strato” Häyhä Vegas. Truly one of the more grand things Hopper'd seen in his time travelling around while he was on leave. Vacation was something that virtually every man needed, especially the type of men who served in MetaOps. Solving problems that not even the regular U.S. Military could handle was exhausting, dangerous, and hazardous. Not to mention the drill sergeant somehow managed to make a man with no legs run himself ragged. Literally.
But, this wasn't a trip of pleasantry or relaxation: The stop of Vegas only served as a point to pick Hopper up at descretely, to bring him to the government facility surrounded in infamy and mystery. Area 51. He wasn't entirely sure why he was going, but he lived under the orders of MetaOps, and it wasn't like they would ambush him; MetaOps has had the schematics and blueprints for Hopper's legs for years. Stepping out of the car as the government compound was reached, Hopper removed his luggage from the backseat, unzipping his sizeable duffle bag and pulling out his signature helmet, donning it in a moment's notice.
Without even asking, or questioning why, he was lead onto what he could only assume was the latest innovation in air force technology; that being a really, really huge plane. Walking aboard the cargo ramp with his bag in tow, Hopper hummed to himself, admiring the advanced nature of the plane's interior. Looking around, he called out:
"...Excuse me, who is flying this vessel?"A few seconds later, a woman wearing an impressive flight suit and helmet came jogging down the stairs just ahead. It seemed more like a space suit, rather than a flight suit.
"Ah! You must be..." She trailed off,
"Um... I got this, just wait." Behind Hopper, the cargo ramp began to close on its own and the engined roared, the plane began to move. A male robotic voice suddenly cut in,
"Operative Jun Li Shi, known as 'Hopper'."The woman made an audible 'Ah!' and walked up to Hopper and forcefully shook his hand.
"I'm your pilot today, call me Strato. Don't ask why I'm called that, come on, come on." She introduced herself quickly before letting go and walking up the staircase.
Hopper, completely caught off-guard by just about everything that happened in under a minute, just opted to roll with it and followed along, forgetting even to properly introduce himself until it hit him halfway through their flight.
The two went up to the cockpit, then turned and went up another short flight of stairs, which lead up to the second floor of the plane. By now was already in the sky. That same robotic voice announced that they had taken off, and that it would take roughly 20 minutes to reach cruising altitude and speed.
Strato sat herself down on one of the many chairs in the rather dark room and started clacking away at a keyboard.
"Cruising altitude is 30 kilometers in the sky, and cruising speed should be something like Mach 5." She explained excitedly.
"Correct." The plane replied, a whir was heard and then a loud clank,
"Eye retracted." It announced.
"This thing is a marvel of engineering." She almost yelled, every screen in the room flickered to life, filling the room with light with dozens of moniters.
"Thank you." The plane replied to the compliment.
She pointed down the hall,
"There's a kitchen down the hall to your right. Should be some juice in the fridge, and some nuts or something in the cabinets. Help yourself. I have to..." She trailed off again into mumbles.
Hopper simply nodded, figuring that it'd be best to leave any matters relating to how the plane was talking simply as it just being some sort of computer system, possibly put in place in the event of the pilot going unconscious. Or that the pilot needed a co-pilot. Regardless, Hopper opted to eat before they landed, given that wherever they were going, it'd be a while, even by plane if they needed to drop him from a plane this advanced.
Returning with a simple bowl of cashews, Hopper looked around at all the screens in the room, wondering what the point of having so many was. Not wanting to disturb the pilot, Hopper decided to go back down to the cargo bay and eat his bowl of nuts, putting his helmet on his lap as he ate. Once he was done eating his light appetizer, Hopper unloaded his duffle bag, and headed back into the kitchen, then into the bathroom to suit up. His deep green kevlar vest rested under a green forest camoflauge jacket, metal bracers covering his forearms and fists. Cracking his neck by rolling it, Hopper wrapped his scarf around his neck and walked back out, heading back to the cockpit.
"Ms. Strato, what is our ETA?"She pressed some more keys on her keyboard and in front of her, the screen switched to a sattelite view of what appeared to be a nuclear plant. She looked at her watch and wait for a couple of seconds,
"We will arrive at the AO in about 18 minutes. Which is here." She then pointed at the screen.
"Crystal River Nuclear, in Florida." The screen zoomed in and then switched to thermal vision, seeing through the walls there were 13 signatures. 12 of them had blinkers, and one of the people with the blinkers wasn't moving. Strato tapped the chin of her helmet several times.
"That one is dead."Crossing his arms, Hopper said:
"Dead? Good god...what it takes to kill a Meta...this is serioust now. I didn't get a chance to overlook the entire report, but, is there any chance you can brief me on the full situation yourself? All I was told was that a Meta is trying to overload the plant..."Strato nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck, looking at Hopper,
"I was never given a uh... Report. I was just given a destination and an order to fire up the engines. I'm actually on the 8th day, 15th hour in this team. Not quite sure what we do exactly." She looked at the screen again,
"Looks like the team, the ones with the blinkers, is on the defensive. Or they're observing a reaction. The target," She pointed to the white figure without a blinker,
"Is still moving however." She zoomed the camera out a little,
"Looks like they're inside of a building. We're going to have to drop you just outside of the building and you'll have to go in on foot." She looked at Hopper again, who was in his full combat attire and sort of just stared for a moment.
"I assume you were trained with parachutes?"Furrowing his brow under his helmet, Hopper sighed slightly.
"...Any chance your plane's AI could pull up the briefing documents? I need to know what I'm up against here..." And, softly chuckling to himself, he replied to her question with:
"I assume you think I need one."She didn't quite know what he meant by that, merely letting out a quiet 'um'. On the screen next to the one with the sattelite view of the AO, the briefing appeared.
"I'm not quite sure we had the clearance to access that file." Strato said aloud,
"Me being the rookie AEW&C.""We did not. Security at MetaOps HQ is no match for me." The plane replied, a hint of pride in his robotic voice. Strato was a little worried at this. Her cargo didn't need a parachute, and her plane just hacked into HQ's files.
Over Florida, USA. Inside the EX-4 Grey Owl.
Jun Li "Hopper" Shi & Sylvia “Strato” Häyhä Hopper read over the file on the screen, and could only assume the worst from a man literally dubbed: 'The Immortal'. Reading over the description of him again and again, Hopper began to run the situations of how to handle this in his mind. From what he was seeing, the man had more than enough force in one hand than Hopper had in both legs...not to mention that he seemed nigh invulnerable. Stopping him with force wouldn't be an option. At best they could try to push him around, but he doubted he could even wound him.
Then he mulled over the word 'depression' in his mind. He'd definitely been there before...and it got him to thinking. Thinking that maybe now was the time for him to do something dangerous, possibly even more dangerous than fighting the immortal man. Talking to him. Careful words could either settle the situation, or result in mass casualties. Violence against one of the strongest Metas he's ever read about seemed like a plan destined to fail, but words against a man who is suffering have more of a chance than enything else he could think of. Save for one thing. Abruptly, Hopper asked:
"Are any packs of alcohol stored on this ship? I think I need to calm my nerves a bit..."While Hopper looked over the file, she glanced at it a couple of times as well. Flight? Incredible strength? Immortality? It was like she stumbled into a comic book. She scratched her helmet and wondered what she had gotten into. Hopper abruptly asked for some alcohol, given the dossiar of what he was going up against, it was understandable.
"There's some Akvavit in the fridge." She replied, deciding to believe that Hopper really didn't need a chute, she told him as he was walking away to put on M33FX Backpack before he jumped.
Without a second to waste, Hopper strode out of the room, barely in time to hear Strato tell him to put on a M33FX backpack prior to jumping, which he did find after he seized the bottle of akvavit. Slipping the metallic backpack onto his shoulders, Hopper lightly bounced on his toes once, before he lifted a foot up, rotating a single foot 360 degrees around from the joint.
"...I can make that jump."Strato followed his path to the cargo bay, where the M33FX was at. Laying on a crate of supplies. She hadn't quite gotten fully unpacked yet, and she saw his foot rotate a full 360 degrees. She blinked twice.
"Right." She simply said, she switched on the intercom so that she could speak to Hopper from her command center.
"We'll be over the DZ in just over a minute. Speed is currently 312.2 kilometers per hour. When we're over the DZ it will be 270. Wind will be South South West 212 at 4.3 km/h."After that minute, the cargo bay doors began to open up.
"Height is flying low at 600 meters. Happy hunting."The teams' communications crackled to life,
"Reinforcements are here."With one final salute to Strato, Hopper literally jumped out of the cargo bay of the plane, barreling downward towards the nuclear reactor. 1...2...Falling was fast, surprisingly so, yet it seemed to take so long...5...6...He wondered if the large bottle in his hand would shatter from the impact of his landing...9...10...God, did he wish that drank some of that booze before hand...13...14...Suddenly, a sound rang out in the immediate area, just a second before impact.
"Reinforcements have arrived." he called out on the radio channels, the sound resonating around as the dust cloud settled, Hopper's back straightening as he stood up all the way. His hips shuddered before settling, his body remaining still for a moment before he examined the bottle. Still intact. This plan just might work...or get him killed.
