4:09
Thornday
5th Day Of Ilsvan
2027 AE
Fortitude City
Warehouse District
The ability to generate huge surges of electrical energy. Conversion of it to kinetic energy. A hi-tech suit that allowed the directed application of the former and ranged projection of the latter. Yet here he was frog hopping from building to building suspending himself temporarily with limited kinetic blasts. ‘Just make the damned thing fly!’ he had told Collin who had been less than impressed. Will had no idea where he was. Rather, he would have had no idea were it not for the convenient augmented GPS overlay currently being displayed by his visor, the informed location visible in a bright orange in the distance. Initially disorienting the augmented reality was the most efficacious method of him interpreting data in a natural way as quickly as possible.
456 m.321 m204 m84 mAt this distance Will could see that some of the more diffuse orange he had seen is his visor was not part of his location system. Another few hundred metres past the warehouse he was bound for a similar building was wreathed in a torrent of flames. Either a planned arson or an unfortunate amount of nearby flammables must be at the root of such an intense fire he concluded.
“Will.” Chirped Collin.
“Yeah, the fire I see.” He was a bit stunned by the sight.
“No no. Well yes, but no. The clouds. There’s a storm front moving in that isn’t, well it isn’t natural.”
“What do you mean?” Snapping out of his mild daze.
“it’s moving in from the sea, should be visible. It wasn’t predicted nor does it appear to be moving like any atmospheric front. You told me there were going to others like you. Well I mean I’m not one to jump to conclusions but it’s looking like two plus two from here.”
Throwing his gaze skyward Will did certainly see the unusual clouds rolling in, the rain lapping his suit all night had come from the fronts fringes, now though, the centre drew closer. It was only foreign looking as it had been pointed out to him. The dark hue and the way the vapour slithered around itself seemed unnatural. He could do more than most but bilocation, like flight, was out of his reach. Turning to his immediate concerns he leapt to street level. The warehouse in which the suspects were holed up, according to this Fitzroy fellow, was dead ahead of him. Jogging lightly Will’s telemetry switched to a heat detection mode.
Three at the entrance, two signatures emerging from the door.
Three more in a central area beyond.
Four on an elevated walkway. Two at the back, two to the right.
Finally. Action. Was that a bit sadistic? Meh, means to an end what did it matter.
The two emerging from the warehouse had spotted him, and he had a visual ID on their firearms. IA-33 Mantises. Iris-built high rate of fire low recoil. Time and tested assault rifle designs. Still these weren’t any cheap knock offs, or exactly easy to get. They were high-end military grade rifles; these guys weren’t messing around. Relaxing the tension in his wrists, Will spread the joints in his fingers. Surges of electrons accompanied by stray ions pulsed from his chest along his piles located in the sub-epidermal layers. The energy reached capacity along his arms.
“Hey! Fuck off!” came the barely intelligible screech.
“You got….” The shout was cut off as an electric current entered the gunman somewhere near his right shoulder, circulated through his body momentarily and dissipated through his feet into the ground. His accomplice underwent a similar fate. The current was carried in a brief flashing plasma extending from Tempest’s fingertips, conducted by an artificial induced potential difference between him and the targets. Picking up his walk pace, Will reached the door. Perfect he thought; the two men were breathing lightly, seemingly only unconscious. The element of surprise would be lost soon, he needed to act quick.
Getting inside the warehouse he was greeted by another grunt, right in his face. No time for either of them to fire any ranged options. Left and down, a quick dodge avoiding the butt of a rifle. Followed up by a small jab to the offender’s shin which unfurled a small kinetic impulse shattering the bones underneath. Stepping over the downed man and kicking away the rife, it became apparent that his presence had been acutely detected. The three in the centre standing around a small crate peered up. Will thrust his right arm forward, the plasma shooting forth from it and flowing into the chest of the man in the middle. Like a violent wave, it arced up out of his body and entered that of the other two rendering the three of them unconscious. Diving to the right, Tempest avoided incoming fire from the four staged up on the walkway. Flinging both arms up over his head electricity gushed into the metal of the walkway and up through the final four targets.
‘Phwah’ came an exasperated sigh. Current flowing up; hard. Shaking himself off Will rushed outside to see if the detective had showed, and to see if this fire situation was being handled. Not to mention the incoming storm. Busy night.
Undisclosed Location
Outskirts of Fortitude City
“Incoming communication from the Bureau.”
“Is it coming via the correct channels?”
“It appears so.”
“Open it.”
“Be advised that the Threat Category Ten (10) URE RefNo 9W72248SC12 is currently en-route to Fortitude City via cargo ship, agenda unknown. Cultist elements are present in the Shipping Authority and the Harbourmaster's office, and have obfuscated the exact ship being used and its ETA. It is expected that the ship will arrive between 0300 Thornday and 2200 Linday however.
This information was obtained at a great cost, and the Bureau was unable to neutralize the URE prior to its transit. We lost four predominant assets in our attempts to do so, and the URE is likely aware of our knowledge regarding its movement. Exercise C&D. We are insufficiently mobilized to provide any further assistance at this time.
Naduir preserve you.” “Why are we only receiving this now?” quizzed the suited man.
“Well sir, we were on communication black out as you requested, whilst we initialised the S Protocols.” The answer lacked the sarcasm normally accompanied by such a reply.
The suited man scrunched his face slightly, deep in contemplation about what to do. It was happening quicker than anticipated. They had known it was coming and had been preparing. That’s what tonight had been for. The final bout of reconnaissance leading up to contact with the others. Events had conspired to now unfold simultaneously in a unfortunate timeline for the Sector. This moment was what months of preparation had been for, this is why this organisation had been established; dealing with threats to national safety that went above the ordinary, outside the scope of the explainable.
“Do we have any active agents in the immediate vicinity?” Quizzed the suited man to his assistan.
Moving from his standing position the man sat behind the large mahogany desk. The operator he had been speaking directly too was the one nearest to him; operational manager. Two dozen others sat at near identical workstations in the room. Above them hung a massive high resolution screen used when necessary for tactical data. Currently it was displaying a map of Fortitude. A number of different coloured markers lit up the map.
“One. Sir. The immortal.”
Convenient he supposed, mulled the suited man. Flicking a finger across the touch interface in the centre of his desk he opened his comms and waited for the operators to patch him in.
“Agent 89? This is the Director. We need you to initiate A Protocol. I repeat, you are to attempt to make contact with any known UREs. We are sending locations of several in Fortitude. I am advising you to leave the warehouse district as soon as possible. Something terrible is coming and we are not equipped to deal with it as of now. Completion of A Protocol is your most immediate concern. Report immediately with any updates.”
After finishing speaking the channel was severed. The same frequency not to be used again. Data scrubbed from as many sources as possible.
“Get me every other agent in Fortitude. Now.”
15:27
Thornday
5th Day Of Ilsvan
2027 AE
Fortitude City
District 22
Near A Soup Kitchen
Great. Just fucking great. How could he have been shafted with another wild goose chase? I mean sure he’d only been an investigator a couple of months, and hadn’t received a partner yet, that was reserved for special investigators. Still, how did they expect him to prove himself if he was stuck investigating bogus sightings of Lasair in people’s porridge and paranoid housewives thinking their neighbours were cultists.
“Ah at least it’s sunny.” Bemoaned Andrew to himself.
Reaching into the pocket of his trousers he removed the slim silver case inside. In turn, from this, he removed a slim cigarette. Pursing it between his lips he lit it with a small lighter. Another day, another dozen cigarettes. Why did he smoke? He’d never be able to afford tumour correctional surgery, never mind a new set of lungs. He’d quit sometime.
Moseying across the road, he shuffled through the numerous homeless seeking reprise. None of them seemed too disgruntled, all happy enough to wait. Pushing past politely amidst mumbles of ‘federal agent’ and ‘excuse me’ he made his way inside. Behind the soup counter he could see what was his subject of investigation was. The ‘pretty blonde girl’ part of her profile seemed accurate, especially the first bit. Now to see if the more incredulous part of the story had any merit to it.
“Eh hi. Yeah hello?” Words fumbled a bit.
“I’m with the Bureau, is there a chance we could go somewhere to talk.” Holding his badge out briefly he continued, “I just have a few questions regarding an err, ongoing investigation.”
