FourtyTwo

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Kaitiaki Homestead, Raven HQ

Rangitoto ki te Tonga / D'Urville Island
South Island, Aotearoa / New Zealand

Skye Rosalind Lyons

and Raven Squad

HEROES, PART ONE

(A Collab between @FourtyTwo@BigPapaBelial@LadyAmber@Jamesyco)

The team coming together was a happy sight, with everyone in place that was here to grab a drink or at least, come together after it all. Even Tahlia and Freya were back, and grabbing their drinks, though Skye could tell the mood was unbalanced. A lot had happened, and the team had much to relax over, but they would see the latent tension in her. Skye could spot the look Sam was giving her, and well, it was fair to say the least. She was no alcoholic, but well, maybe the whiskey had come out too quick. And she had been withdrawn, more than usual, more….contemplative. A little inside herself, thinking about Lynx. A lot more. It made no sense, the lack of fear, the happiness, the memory. The David Bowie song. Shit, that rang in her ears.

Skye felt a little memory come back. Sitting there, that long drive away, all of it. The whole memory felt hazy, but in some ways, it wasn’t a bad memory. Just that it felt taint, contaminated by all that had happened.

As she went to say something more, her phone rang. The name listed up on it that would have their updates. So it was about time. Hoping that this was it. All clear. It wouldn’t be, as she picked it up.
“Oracle, is everything ok?” Skye’s voice responded professionally, the news less than stellar.

“Nope, opposite. You need to cut everything related to your personal data access, now, down all accounts immediately. We have a serious problem. I can’t even begin to explain it. Do it now, then we need to talk properly. We may have a breach, serious one…..Lynx is not at all what we expected, she’s used you. I’m getting intel as we talk, but if it’s true, we are in seriously deep shit. We may need to trigger the worst case….” Oracle’s voice carried, as Skye left the scene and the sofa, and walking towards her office, she knew what had to be done. If this was true, then well, things were about to get real. Seriously terrifying. Skye looked back to Sam, with a look in her eyes, a fear of sorts, one that seemed to be tripping inside, as she walked off, and out of the lounge.
“Fuck, don’t say that. We’ll have time to do something….hang tight…” Skye replied, ominous as she walked away from the team, panicked and worried, and well, off onto her own. Oracle sounded like the hairs on his back were raised, and from it, Skye’s were too, hand to phone, as she stepped into the office. She hoped it wouldn’t be too long; this was secret, and the team would know as soon as it was done.

Walking inside, the baton slapped into the back of Skye's head and with it, a sharp pull into Skye's side, of what felt like a screaming needle-like pain. It was too late, as she crumpled to the floor, and the door shut.

-----

Samantha had started her day out with a run. She had needed some space to do some thinking. The last op had been very intense. She had needed peace and quiet to really comb through how she was feeling about things. She was grateful to Freya for forging ahead and engaging Lynx to save their leader and her friend. She felt guilty that Freya had come out of that fight with some pretty serious injuries. By the time she had managed to get to the battle it was over. She had come home from the op with some minor bruising. Seeing Skye in a desperate battle that had almost killed her and Freya had made her pause and reflect about losing them. Freya and Skye had become like sisters she had not known she ever wanted. Skye was like a big sister to her. She offered counseling and guidance while giving her the space to be herself. Freya was a like mind and kindred spirit that she could let her hair down with. She had found herself socializing more and spending more time with Freya. She found herself enjoying their interactions and seeking them out. Samantha had always been a very private kind of person and a loner. She had always felt different from everyone else with her intelligence and abilities. She had never really had friends. She didn’t follow normal child development rules because she could understand quantum mechanics and math by the time she was 10. Girls her age had been playing with Barbie and she had been building guidance systems for Uncle Sam. She had understood why others were not like her but it didn’t stop her from feeling lonely. She had never had anyone who really understood her or sought her company until she had come to Raven Squad.

The two women had come to be very important to Samantha. It was for this reason she had needed to really take a step back and re-evaluate what staying with the team would mean. Could she really go back into battle next to them knowing that they might not live through it? Would she care if they died and she wasn’t around to stop it? The answers had surprised her and opened up more questions and areas of growth for her. She hoped she was making her father proud. She had decided that she needed to work on building more things and creating things that will help mankind. She couldn’t continue to just cause more destruction. She wanted to put her skills to work to help solve some of the issues plaguing the human race. Humanity was on a one way trip to extinction if it didn’t turn around and change its ways. Overpopulation of the Earth was causing critical harm to the planet and its ecosystems. There was already a lot that humanity could do to stop and begin reversing the damage, however, finding the collective will to take and support those actions was nowhere in sight. She understood Artemis’ reasoning on that point but trading in superficial representatives and oligarchy for dictatorships was not the answer either. She also knew that if something happened to Freya or Skye and she wasn’t around to help prevent it, she would always wonder if she could have changed the outcome. She had chosen to stay with the team. She knew she would make a difference here. She would just take up some side projects like Freya.

Samantha had been quiet most of the day as she worked through all the emotions and thoughts that had bubbled up because of the intensity and actions from the last op. Others probably thought she was brooding or moody. She had not spread her typical cheerful mischief around today. She had carried on her work but had done so by herself without her typical sassy attitude. She was concerned about Freya. She hadn’t realized how hurt her giant friend had been in that last battle. She might need to rethink bracing inside her armor to help her prevent fractures. She already had ideas on how to improve her flight suit.

Samantha had sat through the meeting Skye had called. She had refused to drink with Skye tonight. She wanted to have a clear mind when she confronted her friend and tried to help her through the mind fuck that the last op had put her through. She understood why the powers that be had benched Skye after the last op. It had to mess with your mind to fight your doppelganger who seemed to know more about you than they should. She wondered how Skye was working through the information they had gained and processing it. She had a feeling that something was very wrong. Skye was typically confident and projected strength. Sam could tell Skye was faking cheer during the meeting. She knew that the last op was bothering her. Hell that last op had bothered her and she was still working on processing everything that had happened and it was not her face that the bad guy had mirrored. She had hoped to confront Skye with Freya and get her alone for some girl talk. She knew Freya wasn’t up to anything strenuous. She had left Freya behind sitting and enjoying the company of the rest of the team. She hoped the giant would start to feel better. She would confront Skye alone. Perhaps she would feel more like talking if it was just the two of them.

---

Bleary eyed, Skye looked up as she came back to her senses, leaned against the concrete wall.
"Evening....would you look who decided to wake up at long last." Skye fully opened her eyes, and....there she was. Skye Rosalind Lyons, doubled. She looked maybe a couple of years younger, but oddly, had the same wear, tear and scratches, cuts, marks. She was alive, completely well, like she hadn't been in any firefight at all. And was dressed identically to Skye, no less. Blue shirt, jeans, hair, everything. She had put the phone down that was in Skye’s hand, back on the desk and into place.
"No....no way. You're dead." Skye called in fear, in a desperate yelp, hurting from the pain in her side. The needle had definitely gone through and out, but it felt like she’d been stabbed, the feeling coursing through her something akin to it. Lynx didn’t really care so much.

"Very much alive. And to be honest, still not over the fact that you just didn't do as I said. I told you then, it's an easier way. Because, if you had any memory left, you know I don't really do that sort of thing. So I had to take a different approach when we met next." Lynx leaned in, smirking, aware this time, there was no running for Skye. No fighting back.

Looking at her hand, Skye saw it. Tape, and a clacker, pulled in tight. It was live, from the pulsating beep on it. This was a setup that would certainly kill if done wrong, because if she even so much as gently moved her hand a little, it would release and blow up whatever was on the other end.

"Wait, what!?"

"Dead Man's Switch, obviously. Have you never done this? See, you really aren't as clever as you think you are. You reach for a weapon, all I have to do is hit your arm really hard and a bit of amount of pressure will dislodge that. Even better yet, the walls are concrete. They'll die out there with the explosive I packed into the sofa earlier. I'll live, and then I'd just put you out of your misery for just being difficult. For someone like me, it’s rare that I'm undecided." Lynx mused, walking about and looking over Skye’s phone, the print unlocking it because of course, it was literally Skye’s prints.

"What the fuck.....and how did you find us? No, no….I saw you fucking die…..no chance!"

"Well, you saw THAT version of me die. That ranked as one of the more painful ones, I’ll admit, being ripped nearly limb from limb by the other redhead, who, may I say, is an absolute bombshell! So she is dead, but well, I’m still here. And did you really think I just put normal blood into that body? I've got nanite-covered smartblood. Recent addition, but my word, it is so good. Means I know where I am at all times. Even if I was splatted over your larger companion, the particles follow and do their job, just means I follow the satellite trace of it, because that’s what I do. I guess I had to make sure you got personal at some point or else it wouldn't have worked."

"So I'm you then? And who the fuck are you, another copy, working for Artemis? None of this is making sense…." Skye bluttered, feeling pretty helpless, as the other Skye towered over, sitting on her own desk, looking rather victorious at this point.

"Ah, Skye. See, the thing is, you must think you're the real me. Normal consciousness does that. The truth is, you're just a defect. A copy that didn’t work out." Lynx called back, Skye looking in horror, her body hurting, her mind in particular hurting from whatever she was stabbed with.
"What the fuck are you saying?" Skye’s confusion intensified, just realising her worst, most strangest fear. This wasn’t a clone. This was someone who seemed to be her more than this.
"Oh gosh. I have a lot to catch you up on, but fine, since they think you’ll be here a while on the phone, I should explain it to you. Maybe you’ll understand and come around, after all, you are reasonable, from every psych eval I have read. Do you really not remember any of our childhood?" Lynx seemed to query, the empathetic tone coming back, somewhat showing that while she seemed to not really care much, she did at least see half of herself in Skye. Which, in all honesty with how weird this was to Skye, may have made half a bit of sense.
"Does anyone?" Skye replied, confused about her line of questioning. She was psychotic, sociopathic, hell, just right now, straight up philosophical.

"I do. Have you ever heard of the programme run by the University of Edinburgh where they cloned a sheep, some years ago? Dolly the Sheep?"

"Well. The Americans had MK Ultra, the French, British, Germans, Belgians, they had to have something to counterweight it throughout the late Cold War, and then, in the new millenium. Initially, genetic manipulation, then playing with embryos, stem cells, that sort of thing. You see it all the time. But behind all of what happened to Dolly the Sheep, was a programme so incredible, it has never been even equalled.

"About thirty years ago, a brilliant scientist finally goes and does what is considered the holy grail of genetics as part of a joint project in NATO He spawned a human embryo in the egg of a donor, and put into her, the most brilliant, perfect genetic strand there was, manipulating the very fibre to create perfection. It, of course, would normally break every moral, cultural, scientific rule there is, but he did it because there was a lot of money, and a lot of possibility on the line. He saw it as a chance to fix genetic disease, but also, contribute to the betterment of humanity. And through a bit of IVF, he created us. The problem is, of course, genetic copies rarely last in animals, in humans, even worse odds. Well, they didn't have back when we were born.. So what's even more incredible...he understood the most unwritten code there was. He looked into the eyes of existence itself, and found everything. The understanding of human consciousness. And turned it into pure data, ones and zeroes, or at least, a quantum-encrypted version of it that does both. People are paradoxes, after all. And more importantly, how it works to flicker it out and in. Being alive is a neural network so complicated that it can't be made artificially, but it can be copied, duplicated, and wholesale, transferred into a host so it can parse, interface and work in another form that has the same layout. Memory, thought, feeling….your humanity. All of it. Who you are, perceive, and see, what you remember. That can't be copied between different minds from ECG scans to another host like a computer, or another brain of different capacity. But say, you had an identical host, one that you could just cut and paste into....well, that would change things."

"That is immortality. You can network into another brain, another body, of same type, same kind. The neurons are there, developed out to their logical conclusion in a carbon copy of you to work just the same to fire on. Synthetic external uteruses, or basically a giant plastic bag, and a few feedstuffs later with a networked connection, and you have as many versions of the girl that can live forever that you want, but of course, grown out in age and type for the moment being. Of course, provided that you do all of this perfectly, and have every prerequisite like we do, any slight imperfection wouldn’t work at all. So to answer your question….you aren't that! You’re not a version of me that does that." Skye's mouth completely, if not utterly dropped at her response. Lynx continued, sitting on the table, watching as Skye struggled a little, listening in hypnotically.

"We were born to our mother, all normal, but as an implant of that…..like IVF but more complex, as you can imagine. Anyway, we had an normal upbringing. After all, we had to. A child in a lab constantly becomes feral, a plaything. We lived, breathed, explored Portree and home, and had a happy childhood with him, and his recently married other half. A normal little girl, and it was a lovely time. Our dad, of course, being the chief researcher on the project was entrusted with his creation and enthralled. Our dad picked out our red hair, our little freckling, the blue eyes, the physicality, mind, all of it....very much so, he made choices that resulted in us being the cute little Highland girl we were. It’s needed because he realised that if he just made a cookie cutter lab rat, she would never be anyone human, that was his dream. But when we were listening to Heroes, they were taking us back to Porton Down, the laboratory where he had it all arranged. It's where I imagine it goes fuzzy for you. Because they parsed us over for the first time. Saw what they could do with another body. But instead of a cut...they copied. And had two versions, at once. Worse than twins, they had parallel minds. There is no merge function to that. That is a failure of the system, because me, and you, are BOTH alive."

"And Dad couldn't bare doing what any father ever wants to do. Adoptive or not, he couldn't kill you, the copy of the girl to the one he watched grow up because they’d kill her otherwise- and keep the other. He took you home and quit. Left the whole thing behind, and then...I guess he disappeared six years later when they realized he might not hold his end of the bargain and live a quiet life as a fisherman. To quit his life’s work for you, Skye, that is incredible. Because the UK Government and NATO realized that they couldn't replicate it without what he knew. Because he'd stolen it, destroyed it, and well, rendered it corrupted because he wanted them to never figure it out, understanding how ... .challenging it could be for humankind. The UK, US, European Union, NATO, China, Russia, everyone, have attempted dozens, if not hundreds since to do what our dad did, and they have all failed. Died before they were ten, because they were wrong in every possible way about understanding the human inside. A pair of giants that the Soviets did are the only ones I heard even came close, but they were incestual fuckwits with zero transfer capability. But not you, Skye. You're the girl that also lived, because you're remarkably, the carbon copy that doesn't shatter, and not the shell that should have been me. I know your records, you get periods, everything. You're completely normal. Your genetic structure is stable, with zero deterioration. Just....no way to work with my mind because your synapses have gone the other way due to a tiny genetic mutation caused by ... .well, I have no idea on that one. It means you have zero correlation to who I am now in my mind." She paused for breath, knowing Skye was going to be screaming internally at all of this. If there was any way to hear it, it was hearing she was a lab-tissue based freak, not even that could make any possible sense. It was a cosmic level of horror, the kind that would hurt anyone’s head, but right now, it was an answer. The answer.

"And that's why you're defective. You're the only version of me that isn't cut, and paste, and I can't fix it now we’ve deviated. You're a version of me that hasn't got any neural networking…. because dad took you home, and treated you like his daughter, cutting out the lump above your spine that contains a neural node that is basically, a plug to your consciousness, memory and brain matter. The lion on your back covers it, I believe. Dad loved you so, so much, before and after. But he left me in a boarding school as part of the deal....as a fucking orphan. Because he knew what they would do, what they would want…it was like it was he knew he would lose his only daughter and so made a deal with the devil to perhaps save you. He left me to be experimented on, tampered with, tested. I was told they both died in a car crash, that I was special, that in spite of it, I was to be able to change the world. When I found that out it was a lie, do you know how close I came to just ripping out your throat?! And your mother…you wonder why she can’t handle this? She knows you’re a bastard child, an adoration of a man addicted to his work. Well, I couldn’t stop." She called the sealed door keeping the noise out. The other Skye that wasn’t on the floor with a DMS looked on, holding back every inch right now, and blow up her friends too by just ending it with a bullet in Skye’s skull.

"They put me into private school down south and only when I was 9, was I even allowed back for more testing. They did it for the first time, the transfer worked seamlessly. One body, to the next, clean. It felt good, suddenly, seamlessly going from one to the next. At first, it was direct, then broadband, then fibre, then it was satellite based. After all, the algorithms did their job, they did exactly as they needed to with the complex, infinite biomechanical machine that is a brain wired into a specien that doesn't get ill, hurt or anything. I learned how to fight, then to kill, then, how to do the work of someone who doesn’t have to worry about death. You learn so fast when you can take every risk without consequence. Just respawn in a liquid sack and drop out of it onto a padded floor. Which….I still can’t believe. I worked for good old Britain's Secret Intelligence Services, just the same as you, and I died at least a half dozen times. I was betrayed, killed, raped, all of it. I went through all that pain and learned so much. Lived lifetimes. And then I fucking learn that they want me dead...because supposedly, my actual double that for decades I claimed I was.....you.....were leaving.” Lynx seemed emotional, even for someone without much, she seemed to be bleeding it. Skye could begin to understand why. Jesus….that must have been rough as hell. To do that? Lynx didn’t stop.

"After everything, they realize I might be a threat. I cut them off first, feigned I was dead on an op with the server out too, and transferred an entire server room's worth of gear out of one secure location to another. Which was risky....got a feel of what it's like for you to suddenly not be immortal for a few days. Artemis were the only ones that could help me, so they stepped in nicely. And in the process, I made some upgrades to make sure I kept up with the times.. No more physical interfacing. It's to the cloud via satellite, wirelessly, every thirty seconds updating all of it. I've got an AI that basically works for me to parse it, and the terabytes and terabytes of data just rushes out without even a hitch. And well, when you have no fear, you can do anything. You also realise how fucked the world is. Can't you see? Run the numbers, run it all, and dreamers like Pavel Andros and Artemis think they can hide in bunkers, tell you the world’s going to be a better place if you only give them more power. Hah. Then there is you and everyone else, who thinks we can have it as normal. The truth that people never get, is that we are facing the end of us. Heat that kills, crises after crises, the full collapse of the order as we know as humanity falls apart. I can see that now. And we're not going to perform a miracle. I served Artemis. Now it just goes for me."

"So you're some omnipotent being now? That makes you God-Emperor of everyone, with the fucking AI that biases to you?"

"Not quite. For starters, there's no living in a computer, it's black or white, you're in a physical core or not, the parsing just gets done a lot better. There's no real way to kill me, I suppose because it always redirects to one, to a point it's a failsafe. But the point is, nobody has done this. Not even dad would have believed it's possible to harness an AI to improve cognitive ability. The other part of course, was it confirmed my worst suspicions..about everything."

"Then you didn't go far enough if you're that good."

"Well, here's the thing. I don't want you dead, them in that room, I might not either. In Chile, I guess I had to make you fight or else I'd lose my lead on you, so I made sure you felt it, the way I would...given we probably have the same training and capability. As much as you're full of feelings and lacking in immortality, you have been incredibly useful. I need another shell, and yours, yours would be unbelievable. I already lived through you as a double, came so close, but now, you have given me all that Artemis couldn't. They held the strings, but you, you dismantled them from the outside in to give them over to me."

"Everything that happened, it comes to me. I made sure that the moron himself, Pavel Andros had his grubby fingers over the hack that Mercury did to you with the weapons deal you couldn't miss, then once you took him out of the equation, I knew he'd leak the rest. Chile and Colombia, and poor old Spectre just had to go see Tejedor to accelerate their program knowing Raven was closing in, which Mateo wanted to see as well, and you wanted to take down a satellite network so you could pull apart Artemis. And did. So you in one fell swoop, got me the drugs, intelligence, and fuck, even the satellite network node that I needed. You basically set me up completely, because the other assets, they'll be mine in time. And now, here we are. I've got you here, your friends next door rigged to blow if you decide that's a bad idea, and well, the next phase to go on."

"You're a fucking monster.....and maybe you played well. Doesn't make you right though, makes you just a bigger murderer."

"And what do you think, are we really so different in philosophy than you think? You killed dozens, if not almost a hundred mercenaries, just in Chile alone. What's your bodycount, Skye, I reckon a few thousand? You kill people in cold blood, and I have to admit, proves that even without the ability to do what I can, our mortal coil is so fucking good as is. Tell me where we're so different because I just did the same. Only difference is, you were willing to die for what you believed was duty. You can't imagine what it's like to actually do it like I did. And then realize death means nothing. It’s pointless. Futile. But life, life is worth having."
"I do that work for the greater good, one that stops terrorists selling nuclear material, secrets, the lot....whatever your name is."

"Hah, the greater good. Do you know how many times I've heard that? You kill for the "Greater Good". So do I. We do it so much, didn’t we? Getting told by superiors that this time, we’ll win. But what are you going to replace that evil with? The status quo? You mean, the one that is basically Artemis anyway? Come on. You know this needs transformative change. You believe that, you say it. What's holding you back? I don’t see anything. I see a girl who just served a purpose like me, more useful because she has something special yet held back."

"You want to go further? Because you think they all need to fall? I don’t want this. Nobody wants this."

"Well, I want to kill all of them, Skye. All of them. The drug you found, the satellite network you just got a key for, the resources of Artemis, and now....the cherry on top. You. Now, you've just given me everything I want, your access just means I know what to do with it. I can't be mad at you, you're just a victim of it, though I'm jealous of your normality. I want to spare you, but you need to accept facts. You need to understand, root and stem, this needs a reset. Population needs thinning far more dramatically, money needs gutting, control needs asserting, and we need to make human beings better, far, far more than what they are now. We’re a template of it. Our body can survive climate change, and with enough work, so can others too based on what we are….and well, you would be a leader in that world, a fragment that can still be whole. Enough to keep me human, because you have that about you that I can’t have fixing issues in the day to day. You keep me going another twenty, fourty, sixty years with the servers that you stopped Artemis getting at Wildspitze, and I could make a world so much better than any vision of what you can believe. A world where we can have accelerationism, a cure for resources, and everything in-between, a human race that can't die, that spreads beyond this soil and has it all. None of their bullshit. Just us.

"Utopia, Skye. You stand between me and that, and you don’t understand that was literally what we were born to do.. Our blood can survive, so humanity can too. The many die so the few thrive to see a world beyond. And I'm not going to waste a version of me that might stand a chance in that world to ensure the feelings carry on….that'd be cruel. It pains me to hurt you as much as it did you, Skye, so if you agree to submit, you can live in that world. And I’ll find a way to put you into it. Just yield. Because if you don’t, this gets worse and I’ll ruin everything you love, before I have to do this again."

"You are beyond demented. You talk about people like they're things, like they're inferior?"

"Artemis would do this so they can live in their cells to ride the storm....they'd be swallowed in before they even tried. Didn't you identify it correctly? They would hold nations ransom, kill hundreds of thousands, millions, creating a black hole of despair and poverty. The only outcome, poor Spectre didn't realize, is that the world would disintegrate pretty fast at their expense. Look at how we dealt with disease, war, famine, before. Human beings are not made to co-exist when there are limited resources. We are animals in a non-infinite system. And without getting into semantics, the richest use the most. So I'd start with them, start ripping it apart. Scale back and retreat in the face of odds we cannot win against. That won't come from politicians, activists, generals, CEOs, bankers.....no, it will have to come from someone else with power, real power, that can do something. Someone like me. Humanity needs a cut, and it starts with the people you work for, Artemis, then the reality people won't say. A lot of people will die, but look at them, and how hopeless they are. They’re greedy, selfish, fuckpigs who want it all and can’t even admit they’re boiling alive....fighting over bloody shopping during the sales. So a lot of people will one day live in a world our father wanted to make humanity live in."

"Then give me your name at least. Because if you're going to swallow me whole.....I'd like to know. You will never take me. Never. I’d rather die than live in that shithole of your existence. You’re beyond mental. And I’d fight you to the last cell if that is what it took."

"Fine, I may as well considering I've told you what's going to happen, and well, there isn't anything you can do now, and you're going to want to die with it. It's Rosalind. Your middle name, I believe. But, call me Rose. Now, you're going to pass out, shortly. Neurotoxin's going to kick in, and you'll start getting a feeling of what I felt like at the start of this process to start a transfer, it’s a drug that in time, would click off that big boom in your lounge and kill you. I would pass you the cure if you decided to be a good girl, maybe even find a place for you in all of this, but you know what ... .I can’t if you’re going to be this hateful. This opposing fury, after all of it….no, I can’t work with that. I thought you’d understand, but you clearly can’t find the capacity."

“So here’s what’ll happen. After I stop you blowing them all to bits, I'm going to walk out of this room and see what it's like to live a life in your shoes. I think I look the part. And you know what? I'm looking forward to it already. Then you? I'll tell the team all about it. And then, they'll get to see you, who tried to kill me before I got you pinned with that same vial again. Then they’ll probably lock you away too, dissect you like they did poor old….what did you call her, Lynx?"

"You sick...no, they'll know. You can’t…."

"Do they? I'll have the ability to take your voice on, that's not hard with a modulator. Thanks to what you did, there's a good chance they'll have to remove you from your position as the team lead. And even more so when you sit there with a dead man's trigger in hand and they think I'm you. Can you believe that?" Rose chuckled, looking on at the helpless Skye, who even in this situation, was turning her gears in her head.

"But they would come to serve me well in time too. You are a born leader, and my, you really put people in the right place too. Like Freya. Do you have any idea how much her eggs would be worth? My gosh, you could make a better version of me on her. Wouldn't take much of Vale's genetics team, after all, splice it with a body for short-haul and you'd have someone unstoppable in combat. Or perhaps Sam's? She has that ability to hack anything. Cognitive processing power like that isn't easy to find, she has so much I’d want to unpack. Thing is, they'd have to die for that....so I guess you'd just be left. And clearly you don’t want to join in."

"You are beyond ludicrous. Crazy. This is your fucked version of morality?"

"Morality is relative, Skye. I call it survival of us as a species so we can go on for millenia, not a few more decades. Ta-ta, Skye."

With it, Rose left the room, and headed back down the hallway, hearing footsteps beyond the slightly sealed door. With the patch on her throat back on, she yelled out, and well, emulated Skye’s accent perfectly. There was Sam coming over quickly, and well, Skye, sorry, Rose, whoever it was, had to act natural.

"Shit…..Sam, Lynx is in my fucking office! I managed to take her out, come quick!" Rose yelled, and, realised oh, this was all too perfect. They'd have no way of knowing, the little sticker across her throat, putting her Scots accent back in, a teletype of Skye’s given it was literally from the same vocal cords, and well, sort of the same sample range.

Maybe she didn't realize that Skye didn't, well, hold on with that neurotoxin. An error on Rose's part had done no favours for her, as she clambered up, bleary, but aware, for a few minutes longer at least. She had no idea how long she’d been out, as Skye hunked up against the door, coughing hard, the trigger in hand as she reached across for a lamp on her desk, bringing it into hand. There was no time to think. Only to do. Once she rounded the corner, hoping to see Skye on the floor, the Scot had the chance to spring a trap. And pray, just pray she could hold the trigger as tight as possible and plead, beg and beg that Sam would figure this out. Somehow, there had to be a difference between them.

“Sam, she’s fucking lying! It’s fucking Lynx!” Skye yelled from inside, and getting ready, knew that any second now, Rose would meet Sam, in that corridor, as a first responder. Out of it, Skye had to be ready. She’d be the aggressor, and everything was set up to make her look like she was….well, going to kill the rest of the team, in a heartbeat. The only way she could pray, hope, was that Sam knew what was going on. She had to even the odds somewhat, at the least, put distance between the two, so they would be a 50/50. Otherwise, Skye was truly screwed.

She gave Skye a few minutes to disappear before she quietly slipped out of the room and went in search of Skye. She decided to try her office first. Skye didn’t like to sit still any more than she did. She was willing to bet that the redhead was working in her office or moping about waiting on the next update. Skye had been the one most impacted by Lynx. She was still waiting to find out more about who Lynx was. She couldn’t imagine the doubt and worry that Skye must be experiencing. She had just rounded the staircase to the landing by Skye’s office when she heard Skye yelling that Lynx was in her office. She took off running towards Skye’s office and the voice that had called out to her.

She saw two Skye’s battling it out on the floor. What the hell?! How many damn clones of Skye does Artemis have? Her eyes trailed over them both trying to decide what to do. Nope she couldn’t tell who was who. They were dressed alike, they looked alike, they sounded alike, How was she supposed to tell who was who? She needed to put a stop to this. The first step was to get control of the situation. They had both been yelling back and forth trying to win her attention and support to their side. She needed some help. She was only one person and it had taken Skye and Freya to take down Lynx and Skye herself would be a challenge for Samantha if she needed to fight her for real. Samantha ran over to the wall and slapped the alarm button. She pressed the intercom button “The base has been penetrated. I repeat intruders on base. I need help in Skye’s office.”

Chuck looked up as alarms started blaring. Duke surged to his feet and let out a bark, his body tense. Chuck’s eyebrows rose as adrenaline kicked in. Years of training and he slid right back to a state of readiness. He was however not in armor or even had a weapon on him. Well that never stopped him before. He looked around the room. Chuck didn’t even think about chain of command. He honestly didn’t know who was next in the chain past Skye. They were all such specialists and professionals. Everyone knew their role. Chuck simply took charge because he was trained for it and until recently was the person in charge. Chuck started pointing “Tahlia get on the intercom and get base security moving. Javi, grab some guards and get to Skye’s office now.” Chuck turned to the others in the room. “Everyone, pair up and help sweep the base. Be careful.” Chuck began to pace to bleed off energy as he waited to find out more. Duke began to circle the sofa.

Javi had been enjoying some rare downtime with the team. He had been called by Skye and invited to this meeting. Evidently that was her way of filling him in on what was happening with the team. He had heard the rumors and from overhearing some of the team talking of course. He was still trying to process what she had shared. He had startled when the alarm began to blare. What? He looked around as if expecting an attack. Chuck’s strong voice snapped him into focus. It was a shock to his system to hear the base had intruders. Javi took great pains to hide his equipment and its movement to make sure they weren’t tracked. How had Artemis found them? He surged into action and ran out of the recreation room. The whole base was coming alive as the alert and alarm sounded through the base. Guards armed with rifles and in kevlar began to pour into the main building. Javi only stopped long enough to tap two guards on the chest “You and You are with me. We are responding to Skye’s office. Sam said she needed help there.” Javi hoped the spunky genius was alright. He loved the ideas that woman came up with. He began to make his way towards Skye’s office.

Tahlia did as she heard, running over to the intercom on the wall, yanking the headset and pulling it in. The groundskeep come to grab it, repeating the words of Sam, specifically hailing the small, but not insignificant security team. They’d have access to a concealed SAM site, weapons of their own and ability to at least hold back the river of soldiers coming if there was an assault about to come in, or here. Chuck was quick to note the situation, considering his history- but this was the Kiwi’s home to provide for Raven, so she made it very clear on what needed to happen next. They’d have to lock down, and get mobilised.
“Kaitiaki Security, we have a breach! Get to emergency stations, we have an intruder on site in Kaitiaki Main!”

—

As Rose came around the corner, Skye smashed the lamp against her, kicking her to the floor, and backing over, falling over and putting two hands to her hands to pin the trigger into place, ensuring it wouldn’t even try to move. Rose belted up, drawing her pistol, pointing it dead at Skye. She couldn’t shoot, because it would mean instant kaboom. The door was left wide open, and that would release any explosion in. Even though Rose had no reason to care about leaving Skye alive, the only way she was tapping into Raven was by this very moment. That and the other aspects she would get to work on. So it was do or die. She had calculated it as a risk, because if Skye was dead, then Rose was in……permanently.

“Sam, she’s fucking strapped a DMS to me! It’s Lynx, I can’t explain, but it’s…it’s her, she’s setting this up, she’s drugged me and is trying to pass off as me!” Skye slurred, the toxin slowly building in, but Skye resisted everything, her voice slurring while Rose’s did not.

“Bullshit, you look like me, ey! Strapped that thing to yourself to make yourself look like a fuckin’ victim, Sam, she barely looks anything like me, it’s a ruse! We can’t shoot her given she blows that up, she’ll kill the team in there….we need to back her down, or we’ll be toast, and the bitch is going to come back again!” Rose called back, her voice modulator back on, her accent, calls, mannerisms near identical to Skye. Tiny tells would give her apart, as she raised the pistol back up at Skye, keeping off of Sam, praying that the American would buy the bait.
“Back down, fuck, you strapped this to me! Sam, I can’t…..I can’t hold this long….she’s done this to me to look this way, listen, please….” Skye looked to be breaking, but so, on cue, was Rose.

Samantha looked at the two Skye’s.She didn’t typically walk around base with a gun. It was supposed to be secure. She used her voice to indicate she meant business. They both were trying to convince her that they were Skye, which meant they needed her help in some way. She would just need to swing things in her favor as much as she could. She needed to get them away from each other and she needed a way to control the situation. She was wary of getting too close to either one of them. “Step away from each other. We will figure this out. NOW!” Samantha walked over to Skye’s desk and pulled out a handgun that she knew was kept in the drawer. “Back away from her! We will deal with the switch.” She cocked the gun back and aimed the gun at Rose’s head. “Get moving.”

Rose looked to Sam, the fear at least palpable, even though she’d been here enough. She’d have to do this, keep going, keep the mirage going, stepping back, but responding.
“Sam, wrong girl, she’s trying to fucking detonate us. She’s a fucking clone. Told me she’s going to detonate the rec room, with all of us in it. She can do this, ‘cos she thinks she’s fucking invincible!” Rose yelled, in fear, as Skye looked on, breathing out a deep exhale, knowing she couldn’t carry on this. She had the right person, and while Skye wanted to yell deep at Sam to shoot, that would potentially lead to them both getting killed.

Samantha nodded and moved closer but stayed well out of the lunging range for both women. “I will figure it out but you need to drop that gun. Now!” She backed up till she could see them both. “And you, keep your damn hand on that switch until I can figure out how to deal with it.”

Rose did as she said, putting the gun on the table, hands up, Skye putting her hands up with the trigger, the two standing side by side, and well, it was impossible to tell.
“Okay, okay….you need to figure out which is which. Sam, listen to me. I’m the real one. Born in Portree, grew up without a dad from twelve, and I know you’re the same with the stuff that happened in your family. The talks we had….I know you better than anyone.” Skye yelled back, hoping, praying it would come out. Rose knew that already. Nobody stupid would let that go so easy.
“You read my dossier? Fuck, no wonder you hacked everything here! Sam, she’ll know that. It’s knowledge on how we hired you. She’s going to break into whatever that is, play you against me.” Rose replied, looking across, scowling in her face, Skye looking on dead into Sam’s eyes, just praying. Please, please, please. Don’t get this wrong.

Samantha looked at the two of them and pondered how she was going to resolve this. “Keep your hands up where I can see them!” She was uncomfortable as hell and confused. Samantha’s brain raced as she tried to figure out to solve this problem. How was she looking at yet another Skye. She knew the one called Lynx was very dead. Yet here there was another one. How many other operatives had helped her get onto base. Hell she looked like Skye, it might just be her but she couldn’t take that chance. Her friends were here. What if Artemis had planted explosives? The dead man switch certainly added to that possibility.

Samantha thought back to the interactions she had with Skye. She gave both women a wicked smile. “What did we talk about when we got back from the Singapore operation? Answer the question one at a time. Let’s start with you!” She pointed the gun at Rose. “What did we talk about?”

Rose struggled, realizing shit, this wasn’t it. She had to think on her feet. Think of something, while it was asked, and Rose realized she could tap into the only bit of knowledge she had on Sam. The part that Skye had kept as a note on her, the part that existed within the case files of each operative, redacted to most but to Skye, open.
“It was revenge. Revenge for your parents. Revenge for what they did to your trainer, and I made you a promise.” Rose replied, as confident as she could be, hoping Sam's memory might play up, or at the least, Skye wasn't attentive enough in a moment like that. A risk, but a risk worth taking given she knew Sam well enough from the file.

Skye shook her head, looking at Sam, her weary and weakened blue eyes coming through.

Samantha kept her face from showing anything. She listened to the woman and a deep twinge in her gut said that was not her Skye. They had talked about revenge but that is not what was most memorable about that talk. Samantha’s attention focused on the other woman as she began to speak.

“I made that promise to you too. But I made one about compassion. She won’t know it. Because she doesn’t understand how that works, she’s a a fucking psycho. She only knows wants, needs, hate. And you are more than that, Chaos. Please. Sam, I fucking know I can’t convince you looking like this, but I know you aren’t here for that. You want to have it drive you, but you know you are so much more than that. So much more good…and a family here that you found in us. That’s what we said…because revenge was what you want, but family, Freya, Mateo, me…we’re that for you. None of what she knows about.” Skye emotionally called back overriding the slurring in her voice, Rose hoping her own bluff would work, against Skye’s very real, very heartened call, the fragile state of Skye giving way, even past Rose’s complete crocodile tears. She was getting ready to do something, Rose knowing she might have to pounce.

Samantha turned the gun back to Rose. “Stay where you are.” She walked around the woman carefully. Samantha used all the skill and speed she had. It was the one area where she was better than Skye. She was faster but just by a smidge. She dashed forward and hit her over the head with the gun hoping to knock her out. She went down on top of the woman to hold her down in case the blow didn’t knock her out. She knew which one was her Skye. They had talked about their fathers and Skye had shown the first bit of vulnerability as she shared stuff about her mother. They had talked about the family they had chosen for themselves. She had not hesitated to act once she was certain of who was who.

Thankfully, Rose didn’t make that move. The way that Sam hit her with was like a freight train, right to the core of her head, and well, fumbling her onto the floor. Skye looked exasperated, the one that Sam probably prayed was the real one.

---

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Skye Rosalind Lyons

Valle Natales, Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Fireteam Condor

Parallel

Skye fought back bravely, ducking into cover, yelling back across to Lynx.
"Seriously, we can talk this one out, whoever the fuck you are!"

"And come all this way to stop? No chance! I am enjoying this far too much, and your arse is mine!" Lynx yelled back in her distinctly neutral English accent, spraying rounds into the trees and rocks that Skye was covered in, Skye firing back but doing nothing in spite of the shield. She was pinned, and Lynx used the last of her exo's booster to leap over the boulder and clatter down in front of Skye. She had nearly nothing left to give. This would be it. Straight up, this is how she would die, if it wasn't for that split second moment of Freya firing that round, and then, in a sudden

And suddenly, the arrival of Frigga changed things altogether. Lynx had turned to shoot back, but well, Frigga was possessed. Driven by something animalistic, Lynx tried to dodge, using the exo, but it was no good. The shields were dead, and as she could hear the ATV coming, Freya began to finish the job. Lynx fought hard, throwing missiles, everything back, but Freya was unstoppable.
"Try it as you might, Frigga! You'd make one hell of a trophy if I could carry you out of here, come at me!" Lynx bravely yelled back, firing rounds at the ATV in the process too, knowing she could rattle them, at the least, delay. With it, Skye managed to relocate, and out of the way of what was coming.

Driven by something personal, and even Lynx couldn't understand it, Freya had gone from a cosmic horror to a real life one. She should have had the upper edge, but even through cloaking, it was like Freya didn't need to see, because well, there was only one place she could be, and one way it would end. Brutally, Lynx clocked the physical action from Freya and tried to overcome it, but to zero avail. Freya's work stepping on her caved her torso's entire bottom half in, cracking like the sound of wood being chopped in the forest, or a large branch howling off in a hurricane. Sam was closing in, as Skye peeked around the boulder, where Lynx had been sent over on the other side, and walked over with a slow hobble, looking to Freya, standing over, silent in her words, completely, totally dazed.

Laying there, blood pouring out of her mouth, Lynx was as good as dead. Skye felt rattled in her walk, and knelt by her side in the dirt, finding the last scraps of her own energy to look, looking directly at the other redhead, the one that wasn't much for the world and instead, the once with a smashed faceplate, and a wound that no doctor could cure. She didn't want to look. But she had no choice, she was compelled, utterly, utterly spellbound. And the words wouldn't come. Lynx's did.

"Remember when we were young, and......dad put on Heroes in the car? I remember it so well. It's our last collective memory. The last one, the last....innocent one. There weren't any others. None I can recall before then. And after, none that matter either." Lynx uttered, Skye totally fixed, the dying, spluttering blood version of her fading, slowly, drying.

"I wish I could even begin to start to explain it all. But you did exceed my expectations, and if you couldn't go easy, then it had to be this way. There's a greater good you just don't see, and it's us. Always is. Always has to be." Skye put her hand against Lynx's, the passion in the Scot's eyes intensifying.

"Please....please. Look, just tell me who you are, really. Whatever that is, I trust....us on that. No world ending scheme, just whatever the hell it means....please, don't leave me like that." Skye said, looking down at the poor girl, watching her coughing blood, her internal organs shredded, her body ruined, and no hope out. As mortal as it could be, and well, looking on, the other version of her knowing well, she was beaten. Lynx knew it had been worth the try. But well, it was in death that she could be honest with quite literally, herself.

"I just can't. I'm so sorry, Skye. You'll understand in time why all of this had to be this way." Lynx exhaled, before even she couldn't stop the inevitable. She rolled her head to the side, and like that, the life was out of her. Like a light, gone, and absolutely out.

With it, Skye sat by her dead doppelganger's side. She was utterly, utterly gobsmacked, broken, silent.

She sobbed a tear, the first that had left her tearduct in perhaps a lifetime, and that became a gentle trickle, as she leaned back against the tree, looking into the horizon, blank and away from Freya, or Sam, or anything at all. Her heart pounded and the tears became a flood that silently fell, Skye didn't so much as weep, as she just stared with a flood, the radio spluttering.

"Queen, it's Oracle. Do you read?" It uttered, Skye looking at Freya, a tear suddenly rolling off her cheek in a rare moment of exposure, and in return, finding the words was tricky.

"Affirmative." Skye's words were hard to make, they were tough to remove, hard even to extract out.

"What's your status?"

"Core is recovered. We just eliminated a lone contact, non Artemis I think, by the crash site. Highly armoured, highly experienced, and.....well, she looks like me. She IS me, Oracle. I'm looking at my fucking twin. Or a fucking clone. Or something, fuck, I don't know. I don't know what the hell is going on."

"Shit......Queen, are you sure?" He broke from protocol, and in that very moment, Skye nodded, breaking from her own trance, trying at least to focus again, objective word, trying.

"Positive. I don't know what's going on. I have literally no idea how this works....we need an extraction too, now."

"Shit. Artemis must have gone further than even we could have possibly imagined. Or they're trying something else on. Get out of there. Bring the body, and we'll do some forensics to figure out what went on. And her tech, too, if you say it's good. It could be a last play of theirs. Alright, I'll get Hawk back on the line."

"Roger that." Skye uttered, her words stumbling, looking to Freya, and then to Sam, utterly silent, distraught even. She looked back, as the radio hissed again.

"Queen, I have an LZ identified near your site. I've got no thermal signatures. There's nobody there, putain, you cleaned them out."

"Heh, yeah, I think we did. Well, you win some, you lose some. Freya, can you uhh....take her body. What is left of it. And uhhhh....thank you. Thank you. I'm really sorry I got a bit emotional. Just a lot to take in I'm afraid." Skye replied, and trying to hold it together and a little out of her own, with it saying nothing more. They'd understand, and well, it was mission complete. Albeit with more questions than answers. A lot more.

As the VTOL came in, the door opened, and the team rolled in, the dusty and dirty environment a shallow landing pad for them, and in this case, dead quiet. There was nobody here. Nobody at all, and it felt eerie, though perhaps it was a reminder of how much damage they'd caused in southern Chile tonight.

"Eyy, Queen, as I live and breathe! That was some crazy shit...." Vincent's tone was positive, Skye's was not.

"Vincent...not now, just fly." Skye retorted, sinking into her chair once again, and looking to the other two. Skye was valiant, resistant, hell, the one that pulled people together when shit really hit the fan. Even in Aralsk, physical wounds hadn't stopped her from running around and never, ever backing down. Right here, Skye had a certain wear to her that transcended physicality. It was like her very soul itself looked like it was utterly, paradoxically broken, looking to Lynx, and reaching across down onto the floor.

Pulling Lynx's hand, she revealed the vial, and pulled it out, examining it in curiosity as it was placed in the middle of the cargo bay.
"That is weird. Probably covering tracks. Or something. Fuck knows." Skye said quietly to herself, shaking her head, before going back to the seat, not wanting to interfere, considering a detox, report and detailing would have to be made. It was highly likely, if not certain, that Raven would not deploy until answers from this were made. Skye couldn't even think about it, she was so, so overwhelmingly flooded with emotion. A rational Skye would have hoped, dreamed even it was just as simple as mistaken identity, a girl like Freya that had a striking resemblance to Skye or a cousin perhaps. Maybe followed by a hidden sister, or cousin, then a twin, then last, a clone or a genetic copy. Which in itself, would be absurd. A non-zero chance. The worst one, which Skye was just thinking through, were those words. She knew her memory. Knew her skin. Knew everything. Fuck, it basically everything she was, in almost every single way. And she shut her eyes to it, trying to forget for a moment., sitting again.

"Sorry....I may need a moment. I'm really, really sorry. It is a lot to absorb. But I think we did it. That might be it. We have the masterkey for Artemis now. Just....she freaks me out a bit. I'm sure it will make sense. I am sure it will. Thank you both. I" She added, smiling at them both, the look in her face one of happiness to have such good friends, and yet, so unwound from it all.

The only thing that could break Skye's unbreakable spirit, rather poetically, was Skye Rosalind Lyons herself. It would last, but like all things, it had to stop somewhere, and inevitably, she would be thrown more to sort, and manage, and then, once they had some idea, what came next was on the cards.

She leaned back against the cushioned wall, humming and drying her eyes, the tears melting her blue paint and creating a horrible, sticky like mess of black and blue blended with dirt, grit and perspiration. The thing Lynx said about that David Bowie song, it stuck in her mind. That last, momentary glimpse, as she whispered it out loud.
"We can be heroes...just for one day....."

---

Skye Rosalind Lyons

Tahlia Harris

Two Hours before Chile

The phone buzzed in Skye's lap, as she picked it up, seeing Tahlia's secured and encrypted number come through.

"So, we tagged and bagged Spectre. As per sitrep, Jaguar has gone to ground. Makes sense, after all that happened."

"What is he saying? And agreed. I don't want to see him back until he's ready to go again. That would have been heavy after all the shit around Tejedor. Anyway, go, on."

"Not a lot. But we recovered something interesting. The drug, he muttered it's some sort of trial run, the intel from Jaguar backs that. It sterilizes people, but comes with some nasty side effects, mostly significant memory loss, but highly unpredictable. Which for the compound shouldn't really be a thing, Spectre thinks it should have been far purer, or altogether, something completely different. More like a sarin-like compound for Artemis's activities, so, lethal and extremely spreadable. He also said something about the fact he was betrayed. All of Artemis was, or something crazy like that, by some woman called Lynx. What does that mean for you?"

"It means whatever we do in Patagonia ends this then. All of Artemis comes into the light, because he got backstabbed probably by Pavel's leak. Or a contact there linked to Pavel who we identified after Aralsk. I assume it has to mean that, because otherwise, they're literally destroying Artemis from the inside out. Someone high up in Artemis lost their bottle and that was that. There's nobody else left. We just exploited a weakness and kept prying after they tried to kill us."

"If that isn't right though, Queen....what does it mean?"

"It means we know what loose ends are left, we'll find out about this time tomorrow. Either Spectre will succumb once he starts getting interrogated, or the data core will expose the whole network, and more likely, both, Taniwha."

"Have you got a working theory then?"

"Likely prognosis? Pavel meant by the fact they needed to do something about the problems the world faces, they meant they were going to start spreading that drug to people, globally.

Drop the population slow and quiet either by killing them or simply neutralising their ability to give birth, play the long game and promise governments that pay the cure or stop that train, keep them addicted, then suddenly, revel in the profit and chaos.

Project Mercury with the satellite network would exaggerate that, taking out key infrastructure and communications to make more chaos- a cover for rare earth and opportunity for Artemis to get monopolies too. Nothing like that to keep other eyes off the real problem, so the dragons can build their hoard bigger and steer the narrative.

It's literally their playbook since when I spoke to Oracle last, everyone wins apart from well, everyone bar them. Talking about climate change, resource depletion, inequality? They're full of shit, they want to survive the storm, and all of their boats need to float when it does."

"Jesus. That is a fucking lot. Never knew how sick the bastards were, but as a theory, it adds up. All that happened to us up to now, couldn't have been anything else. What do you want us to do, Queen?"

"Head back home, and I'll relay it through Oracle."

"Roger. Good luck riding her arse."

"I'm going to love it. Over and out."

---

Kaitiaki HQ, New Zealand

Fifteen Hours Later

The Reunion Party

The gentle patter of rain outside the evening light of the base was rhythmic, if not a little repetitive, coating the base in a typically New Zealand drench. The kind of rain that made going outside not such a great idea, it was just endless, and the trees and grass shook in the wind, the light storm coupled to just a continuous, horrid drizzle. There was another reason this place was so green, and volcanism could only go so far.

Sitting in the lounge, the team had the opportunity to regroup. At the very least, Skye was back in some shape or form, undergoing an assessment at Doctor Keller's, and revealing none of the compound was in her bloodstream, or even in her presence. The other Skye, now formally branded as Lynx given her tattoo and mark on her suit, had been taken away at a fuelling stop-off in Santiago, Chile. It was agreed to keep her away from Skye, and well, for now, to assess the situation before anything carried on. Whatever happened, lessons had to be learned, and it had to be investigated, in detail. Something as serious like this had rocked Oracle's lead, because it meant that the entire organisation could be completely compromised, top to bottom. Sitting tight was best, using other support teams in Raven for now to quell any work.

It was standard procedure for dead HVTs, but this target was neither high value, nor a target. The link to Skye was overriding- and figuring her out, background, everything, all of it had to be poured through. Her armour in particular was of especial interest rather, as was the link to Skye- it was also being poured over by the techs and anything out of it would be recovered, salvaged and used for the team in an upcoming kit update. Nothing at all had been said, and the intel core, that was with the team here, isolated and any trackers deactivated. The HVT, Spectre, was isolated out for further interrogation. Raven was not a set of torturers - they were far too important to waste on that sort of thing, and after two incredibly intense missions, the action reports for them reading like 80s action movies and having more redactions even for a redacted document than a political blackmail piece, so they needed a deep, cavernous breath before more work came.

So flying across the Pacific Ocean, returning home had come quick following that- oh, of course including Freya's large yet deflated helium balloon for repair. Then, the server core itself was being studied by Raph and Sam in Kaitiaki on an offline repository and any tracking on it had been deactivated, whilst Spectre was being tortured by Oracle's contacts for anything he knew. Same went for the drug- . Blue Sword had been asked to clean up the mess in Chile, and for the first time in potentially forever, things were going better.

Coming in, Skye grabbed a seat on the sofa adjacent to the table, quieter than usual, the team in there waiting, making food, chilling out, and off-duty. Skye was dressed in her usual- a navy t-shirt and jeans, the casual officer as per usual. The outside world had been cut off, given the criticality of the situation, more than the usual- they were sitting and waiting with an intent, not really back in operational trend and waiting for missions. She turned to face the group, aware they knew exactly what had happened, her husky Scots accent as per usual coming in.

"Hey all. Sorry for the admin. I've gotten off the phone to Oracle. We're to sit here and wait, they will have more work for us, but as you may have heard....there are some complications." Skye started, knowing her presence might have raised some eyebrows, particularly during R&R between the team's various tasks to complete.

"But, good news....we basically just took out a significant amount of Artemis's operations. About a dozen people are going to be arrested, tomorrow across five different countries- for completely unrelated charges to what we just found, but there is a hell of a lot of corruption that is being found in some higher ranking political circles that just came out, from slush funds to money laundering, and beyond."

"They're in disarray, given their leadership got taken out and what Spectre terms as the "Directors", or effectively, his entire cabal of people, are now without any idea of what the direction is. He says he was solely responsible, but I mean, it is likely they probably have some idea what to do. Meaning, they still will want to do shady shit, but have no common target. Someone will rise up in time to fill that void, but like a weed, it's a lot shorter and easier now. We did an incredibly good job. And I'm immensely proud of you." Skye said, smiling, the rare break from what had been probably one of the most fucked up days in her life.

"The other news, then. We're waiting to find out about the DNA test, but initial autopsy shows that well, she's got some differences to me. Tattoos, freckles, a few other bits basically don't add up. So it might not be me. So....that is good. If not, then it's likely Artemis managed to...make a genetic copy out of me. Someone who got angry and probably tried to destroy it from the inside, but didn't need us to find something. Which seems pretty incredible. That would be likely our next target to find out how they did it, because likely they could be trying to crack Raven by brute force for their next attempt, perhaps to buy time is my working theory. Which relates to the fact that the bad news is, I think we know how capable they are. So our work won't be done." Skye retorted, as she stood, a little more frail perhaps in the mental than before, but putting on a brave, stern face once again. Reaching into the cabinet that was of their particular fame, she pulled it out, and undoing the sealed cap, poured a dram, finally glad to be seeing this come to fruition.

"So....I say we say cheers to that. Thank you, everyone. We got through a particularly bad day of work yesterday. And believe me...other me has zero taste in whiskey and nae fucking Scots roots, because I can tell you this one comes out only for special occasions. '65 from Tobermory, one from the old country. I'd say put some tonic with it if you're....less acquired in taste. What comes next will be difficult to manage. But we'll end this. Once and for all." Skye added, chuckling as she finished pouring, the bottle complete considering everyone in the team, including Tahlia were up here. Taking her glass, she put it to the middle, and for a moment, relishing in the fact that she had a team. Her stoic self had been broken, and now, there was this to reflect on. A crew, a team, people. It was home, and everything worth doing. Even in spite of everything, and how much her head was ruined by that. The first time she ever felt a certain kind of pain, a certain kind of hurt. The image had to go on, and Skye was too stubborn, too proud, too much to say she needed help. She wasn't an alcoholic, not by a long shot, and the alcohol wasn't that- but it was clear, Skye even as good of an operator as she could be, had something deep down in her.
"Sláinte, everyone!"

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Skye Rosalind Lyons

Valle Natales, Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Fireteam Condor

The Sucker Punch

Moving through the burnt forest and in the darkness lit purely by only the remaining fires around, Skye kept her rifle high, the MCX in prime position as the trees began to thin closer and closer to the impact site, the ground suddenly having this black texture from the heat, and the kinetic energy that the core had turned this place into. Trees suddenly started vanishing, roots could be seen bare, and then, there it was. The crater itself. It was a hell of a mark on the landscape, a hole about twelve foot deep by about fifty feet across, scarring and directed rather than a vertical hit given the horizontal velocity. It had torched the forest coming in, which was still ablaze, as Skye saw the core itself down below.

With it, skidding on the dirt, she approached into the base of the crater carefully, the liquid nitrogen steaming off the core and cooling it effectively, as Skye checked the temperature with her NVG's thermal setting, before going in.

She gave hard kick to the side of the capsule at its top and knocked a small cone off, exposing the tungsten and revealing the top of the core, reinforced by another layer. Taking her multitool, she began to unwrenched the reinforced joints, yanking them off with sheer force, aware that the satellite's contents would be more than robust enough to be handled rough. Another sharp pull with the exo and the unit came out altogether, about the size of three house bricks, and was remarkably in one piece. All that destruction for one little unit, blimey, what a night this had been. Skye took her combat pack and stashing it inside, slung it back over, opening her comms again.

"Team, I have the core, secure...wait....standby..."
With almost a sixth sense, Skye raised her rifle to turn, but instead was hit in the back of the head, the knock throwing her onto the floor.

"Skye, Rosalind, Lyons....they gave you a really, really pretty name, didn't they? Don't move an inch. We have time before your two friends arrive to talk, and they may yet live." The voice called, masked, but certainly feminine, as she kept the H&K G36 pointed at Skye and stood over her, the two inside the crater and out of view of the rest of the team. Her cloaking suddenly deactivated, and revealed the 6"2, black and red exoskeleton wearing, visored operative holding a rifle at Skye's head.

"The hell are you talking about? And who the fuck are you?" The Scot's reply was curt, as she looked on dazed in confusion, the other exo-clad figure keeping her eyes locked on through her visor.

"That's no way to talk to me. See, you and me, we have a lot in common. We don't like Artemis. We don't like the world at the moment. Among other things. I was hoping we'd meet sooner, but you have served me incredibly well, so I didn't think to interfere. You really exceeded expectations, saved me so much work up there. Followed the breadcrumbs perfectly, like I knew you would, because I know you better than anyone. Now here we are." The voice was almost metallic, though it was probably the effect of the sealed visor and helmet that Lynx wore,

"Then if we have something in common, I'm here to help too. And what the hell do you mean? Come on. Who are you? Is being cryptic all you have?" Skye replied, the figure chuckling, shaking her head, Skye feigning how hard the hit had come in, built on her exhaustion. It was a heavy one, but the armour and foam in her helmet had stopped the worst. If she didn't, there was a chance she was as good as dead here. She noted the symbol on her shoulder, that of the Lynx's head, and well, putting two and two together, made that assumption as is.

"A much better version of you. But one with similar experiences, and understands. So do me a favour, sit still, and you'll get some answers and get to help. You might even get to live. For what it's worth, with the bigger picture in mind and the only people who matter to you, I'd advise it." With it, the exo-clad operative yanked out a vial that was in her hand and with it, leant in, and pulling the cover, revealed the needle underneath. She leant in and taking advantage, so she thought, got it ready.

Skye knew there was only one chance to stop this. It could be poison, or worse even. Skye couldn't have that or it was lights out. And what did she mean by that?

She brought her feet in close and kicked the operative hard in the stomach, sending them over as she stood, rifle up, and turning, sent rounds down range, full auto, full desperation, dumping the entire magazine into Lynx.

And yet nothing happened.

"Oh, you really are living up to your reputation, a hot head! Well, I didn't think you'd come easily.....but that just makes it a bit more interesting! Come on then, let's dance a little! I'm taking that core with me, with or without you!" Lynx grinned underneath her visor, the black tint making it invisible as Skye realised what had happened. That wasn't so much a Trophy System or something to snatch rounds out of the air as a portable field generator instead - the bullets held in mid air and then harmlessly deflected out, Skye in absolute shock. A portable forcefield, more or less. Something Skye had heard about in skunk works with a limited ability, but nothing like this. It was attached to Lynx's back, and coupled to the power unit of her suit.

"Shit!" Skye muttered to herself, in utter disbelief. This wasn't good. Oh, this was very, very bad. Something had to be done. And with a twist, Skye lept back, the exo clad rival following as she used her sidearm, rolling and moving out of the crater, skidding behind a stump and firing back at Lynx, in vain, yet knowing it had to overwhelm the system, somehow. With it, Lynx fired back, a couple of rounds clattering off Skye's armour, but Skye managed to roll, using her exo to dash out of the way, before laying down fire herself, forcing Lynx to do the same. She used a mini missile system on her shoulder to lock, then fire on Skye, but not before she used a treeline to duck and weave off fire, hailing more wood and chippings everywhere.

"Team, get onto me, now! We have a contact with an unknown operative, singular, highly advanced tech....they have a fucking forcefield!" Skye yelled into the open comms, knowing the shock that would hit- this operative wasn't like the other exo wearers, hell, even anyone she'd ever seen. It may as well have been an alien that had dropped out of the sky too, but Skye knew there was a person in there. With a sense of fucked up wit, no less.

Of course, Lynx wasn't going down without a fight. When you had an exoskeleton that was next generation, had cloaking, a field generator that basically doubled as a small-scale forcefield, and an exoskeleton that outperformed Skye's, you could do more damage than three members of the team put together. Plenty more power, plenty more tech too.

Skye switched tack, as Lynx fired rounds in the direction of Skye, as she got some back over, the rounds clattering her suit painfully, the armour holding just about as Lynx lept up and over the trees, crashing into Skye.
"Oh, come on, you can't run now! We barely even got started!" Lynx yelled back playfully, with her legs between Skye's body, as Skye wrangled and pulled her down and below, the Scottish redhead running on every cylinder left, yelled back.

"Argh....die, you fucking bitch!" Skye yelled back, and throwing a punch, Skye getting free and not held back, aiming straight for the faceplate and getting a hit, smashing it apart through the side of Lynx's helmet. And what she saw....well, it completely, if not totally, stopped her in her own tracks. The professional, cold, calculated and furious Scot for the only time she ever would, froze in almost dead disbelief, looking at the nose she'd detonated with the punch, and the bloody face it had left.

"Wait, what!?" Skye called, as the operative took advantage of the shock and with it, pulled Skye in close with a headbutt before kicking her away and yeeting Skye into a shattered tree, Skye's gut in agony with how hard she'd been sent. She yelped, standing up again and raising her rifle, Lynx in shock too, now angry, more than witty.

"Oh, you got me good now, Skye! Well, how does looking at you look? First time looking inside of what you are?" Lynx yelled, wiping the blood away, and well, it was all revealed. If she looked similar to Skye in height before, and the bare tone of her vocal cords in a neutral English accent, it was effectively because she WAS, Skye Rosalind Lyons. Or Skye was her. The Scot had no idea. The red hair, the face, the resistance, all of it. De facto, it was Skye's face and look, the same person, in another exo, in another setup. Lynx's nose was shattered, and her face was heavily lacerated, but there was literally no denying it.

It was far, far too much to take in. Was it a twin, a clone, a sister, someone from a parallel dimension, fuck, was something else going on, and what the hell was happening? Also, how the fuck was she this well equipped? An exo like that had to come from a place not even Skye had access to, which was even more harrowing. And worse, oh worse, she had the same tolerance. Like she was tough in her skin and fought relentlessly, unfazed by the fact she'd been hurt pretty seriously with Skye's armoured fist. Because despite the face of blood, she looked like she was just going up another gear. Exactly the same way Skye would fight. And exactly the same resilience.

Skye had no idea. And before she had to think, Lynx laid down fire more accurately this time, spraying rounds as this time into the stump Skye was backed onto, and with the reload, Skye took the initiative to run, and not hold, using her M32 instead to flump rounds backwards, darting between trees remaining and skidding through the muddy and gravelly forest. The explosions held the way for a little while, but not for anywhere near enough, as Skye charged every breath in her lungs.

She'd pissed off Lynx, and worryingly, she was doing exactly, if not precisely what she would do herself. Whoever this was, she was as well trained as Skye was, and trained the same. It was like two equal forces sparring, Lynx with an upper hand due to her tech, but Skye having the upper hand due to sheer bloody will.

"Team, I'm headed to you, I'm being chased....fuck, fuck fuck, she's me, the operative's me! Chaos, find whatever way you can to disable her electronics, exo and that forcefield, anything at all, Frigga, just fucking coat everything in fire and brimstone, get personal and rip her to bits if you have to once that's down! There is way too much shit to say right now, just put everything down onto her! She's got moves, I'll hold her as long as I can, she has way, way better kit than us!" Skye yelled, knowing that in this instance, there was no way she was winning alone. But even when they would arrive, they'd be up against it.

And for the first time ever, the team could hear it. There was always intensity to Skye, a fierce warrior. But right there was the sound of someone who was suddenly in complete, total disarray, in utter disbelief and shock, and unquestionably, a level of fear and horror.

She was terrified, more so than even death.

Frigga was hurting, and Sam was probably at the end of her line too- but they had to keep going. Skye was scared for them both, but they were all dead meat if they didn't win this fight. Even with her armour, if Skye knew what an exo was capable of in talented hands, it would be a match for even the giantess of the team, and Sam, well, Sam couldn't stand a chance in a firefight, not against that. What was even more terrifying is that Lynx didn't even stop though she probably knew they were there to join in the fight.

Lynx saw that as just evening up the odds a little. And for someone outnumbered one to three, did not back down at all. She went even fiercer.

The burnt forest was a hell of a place for a showdown, Skye taking a moment to readjust herself, reload and use the break. Skye herself was slowing, as she skidded behind a tree, seeing Lynx cloak up, albeit visible on infrared. She was moving just as fast, the blur giving her away, but right here, every millisecond would count.

Lynx slammed into the forest floor again, as Skye moved out of cover and yelling, went in direct with her combat knife. Forcefield or not, she could kill her another way, close in, using the blur to find her. But Lynx was just as fast, deflecting, going for a kick as Skye returned the move, throwing back. She was stalling. Not winning. Praying that any second, Sam could do something about that forcefield. And on prompt, get away before Frigga could torch her. Light her on fire or rip her apart with Starbreaker, whatever it would take.

"Fuck right off!" Skye yelled, hurling her into a tree, as Lynx sprayed rounds, forcing Skye to dive, Lynx coming back across and grabbing Skye and throwing another punch, throwing the knife out of Skye's hands, throwing her down onto the floor and getting ready to stomp on her head, as Skye rolled away, Lynx licking her bloodied lips, hearing the sound of the other two coming over.

"And no introduction to your friends? I'd expect better hospitality from a Scot, because they'll be joining you!"

This wasn't a boss fight, no, this was a version of the already supercharged version of the team leader in parallel. It didn't make sense at all, in any way. And as Skye switched to her pistol, she tried to re-establish herself, knowing she couldn't give much more, but she would give everything she had left in her tank.

----------------

Tahlia Harris

Isla Langosta / Lobster Island, Colombia

Fireteam Piranha

Extraction Action

Tahlia got busy relocating, as all hell broke loose down below, Boomer blowing up more shit, destroying as many people as she could, and then blowing up even more with the explosives from earlier. It was incredible, as Tahlia silently trod through the jungle, her prosthetics hurting a little from their attachment, as it always was. She knew she wasn't Skye, she wasn't Sam, Boomer, any of them. She wasn't exactly Scimitar material, but she knew how to survive, and hide.

A couple of guards were on patrol, clearly aware of the sniper's presence. With it, Tahlia got down, and laid dead still, watching as they scanned, looking for the shooter. Tahlia was a little wiser than to have the rifle in hand. The small MP7A2 pulled out, she picked up her sight, and for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, did what she had to. Hearing it up close was different to the world away that it felt from afar, so to see the whites of their eye, know it was her on the line if she got this wrong, that tension, that feeling...it felt strange, yet back easy.

Two dead Artemis guards later, and Tahlia moved on, continuing to relocate, hobbling through the rough terrain, and clambering up, the ghillie-suited Kiwi fining her next spot, by a clattered tree, and finding a perfect cubby-hole inside of it. Sliding down her spotting device on her rifle, she adjusted the bipod once again and sheltered herself in, using the foliage to cover herself, and the end of her camouflaged rifle, bringing the site back into focus.
"Back in. Still at work, Boomer?" Tahlia remarked to knowing it would be no response, the giant inside and now destroying everything in there, the explosions and him moving inside indicative of it.
"Jaguar, you alive?" Tahlia asked, the New Zealander's accent coming with that unique twang- it was almost indescribable, but like Australian with a weirder, throatier inflection to it, lower pitch than higher squeak. Her accent made her sound like a right farmer too, a rural charm to it in a way.

"Target is eliminated. Tejedor is dead, I have the intel. There are a lot of guards. Go without me. I'll find my own way off this island." Jaguar's response was cold, even by Tahlia's standards. He sounded like he had nothing inside, given what had happened, he probably didn't want an examination of his feelnigs.
"Shit, they are going to swarm, you..."
"Negative, go. I'll do my thing. I'll catch you up later." Tahlia sighed, knowing Jaguar probably would. He'd get out under his own steam. Right now, she had Boomer to help, because Spectre was a priority target. And what a shitshow it was. She got on the rifle and checked her optic, watching Boomer go in, and with it, seeing a squad run towards, through the blown up gate, as Tahlia sniped the one at the back, the one at the front, then with two more high power rounds, blasted the other two as they ran for cover, predictably in a sniper lane as she would have liked them to be. Sounded like Chuck had Spectre- and was getting out of there. With it, Tahlia repositioned her rifle's aim, new magazine loaded, and picked up another team on the dock. Picking the first man with a clean blast through the top of his torso, she moved to the next, hearing a few sprayed rounds come from one of the other posts, exhaling and dumping the air in her lungs, before refocussing, realising it was blind fire, at least, in her vague direction to try and throw her off. She didn't care. It was easy enough to shoot, as she found that place in herself, and with an adjustment of wind, clicked away, and blasted the man's head with another .338 round.
"Scratch a few. Head for that RV, Tiny Nord should be there, soon."

===

As Spectre came to a little bleary, he uttered up to Chuck, the large armoured man carrying him making it clear.

Spectre was slowly realsing how shit-showed this had been. The entire setup. Tejador hadn't sold him out, no, there was only one person. Raven were coming for them, but for him to be here, right in this moment, attracted to a setup, it felt like serendipity for some architect. And it was only in the bleary coming to, before he passed out, he could utter it out loud.
"Who are you? And are you with.....wait, it's her, isn't it? She fucking.....she sold us out. She was never in it for us. She's in it for her." She muttered to Chuck, before going out like a baby again, dribbling now.

Raven Squad Second Storm- Recheck

RAVEN SQUAD

Raven Squad is a variant on an RP idea I've had for years, focussing on a military / spy-fi RP that takes influence from a range of sources. It's bombastic, over the top, ridiculous...and definitely an RP that lends itself to not being too serious while having a teeny bit of grounding. Trying to save the world isn't ever going to look totally realistic, right?

This is a rebooted RP, based on a few variants of the RP that have come before and is open to new applicants- the new IC and OOC is LIVE!

roleplayerguild.com/topics/190121-rav…

Taking influence from everything from an awful lot of video games and films- Titanfall to MGS, Rainbow Six to Arma and Bad Company among many others- with a sprinkle of a little insanity on top and a teeny bit of grounding to set up a near-future foe, this RP isn't exactly focussed on absolute tactical precision nor complete fantastical elements. It's hard to describe but if you're somewhere between The Expendables, MGS, Overwatch and Rainbow Six, it's roughly that with around the right amount of silly and serious and a dynamic team of elite misfits.

Interested? Read on and the setup and all the details are below.

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The Setup:

Raven Squad (RS) is a mysterious task force, working against the forces of global terrorist groups in the near future (roughly 20 or 30 years from now) who often who are armed with quite advanced technology- or nefarious political aims. Al-Qaeda it isn't, so in come our operatives. In a world where mechs are prototypes, exoskeletons, jump-packs, optical cloaking and various other technologies are around the corner, the tide of warfare is changing...and Raven is there to stop the worst happening.

Raven Squad have access to that technology, and six of the most elite operatives that made it through a gruelling process to counter the threat. With different specialists allowing the team to have everything from a scalpel-like precision to brute force with heavy firepower, they act as a counterbalance.

Where an SF team cannot penetrate, Raven Squad come in. When a politician needs to go, they come in. When you have ten foot mechs trying to breach a high-security Gulag and you need those fuckers removed, they come in. Raven Squad are the people that stop the world ending as we know it. Problem is, they're a little dysfunctional- and well, they're not all the most....professional of soldiers, or spies, or agents, or well, anyone who is capable of getting the job done.

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The Story So Far....

Quite a wild ride!

Raven are fighting against Artemis Group- a anarchic paramilitary serving a global elite's neo-Malthusian dream. Or in a nutshell, really bad guys wanting to do lots of bad.

Raven have been involved in rescuing data from a Austrian mountain site, hunted an Artemis HVT, before moving onto disrupting an arms deal containing nuclear rods- not before getting hit themselves. They have bounced back on a mission worthy of James Bond in Singapore to take down a tech CEO, and figure out how they got attacked- before then responding in turn. That has led to their current operation - hitting two of Artemis's super-weapons in the jungles of Colombia and the mountain peaks of Chilean Patagonia.

Things are never that simple though, and the team's real enemy still needs to be seen dead in the eye.

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More Setup - Character Classes

So Now What?

Interested then? Well, here's how it works. The RP functions around approximately six characters (can be more or less!)- and focusses upon the team having different skills and specialities, as well as entirely different approaches to combat. While there's three main classes, within those their playstyle may be completely different- and may bring a very unique ability that is class-defying. Each character can also have a path to upgrades- after each operation, they are able to use new technologies, experimentally given out to help them get a further edge.

While I'm not someone to put into place strict rules, I'd prefer two of each in each class and a male and female in each class to really help the flavour of the RP gel (we can't have all infiltrators!), as well as a bit more variety in origins- but will happily accept anyone who has an interesting idea and can make it work, irrespective. This isn't all prescriptive- they're put in as ideas and to start of the process of what the team might look like.

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"Light" or "Infiltrator" Characters

Stealthy types, sharpshooter types, all-round silent assassins, here ye be.

These characters are all relatively unarmored, unable to stand up to much in a firefight- often only coming to that as a necessity. But they have ludicrous amounts of mobility and are able to provide support and some assault help in different ways from different perspectives- they're snipers or infiltrators, hackers and parkour specialists- with these characters often being the masters of stealth thanks to their talent and optical cloaking. They're agile, often more than not to almost cat-like levels of speed, freedom of movement using various tech such as grappling hooks to wall-adhesive gloves- and capable in CQC thanks to Krav Maga or other fighting styles. They're potent at working on their own, but as a part of a wider team, add an enhanced intelligence and support function.

They often work as good hackers and sabotage experts given this, working in the shadows of the main team's work- and have the widest range of infiltration and exfiltration equipment, ranging from wingsuits to SCUBA gear.

Five Common Talents:
-Excellent at sneaking and stealth- with or without cloaking, they're ghosts, and incredibly efficient sneaky people
-High levels of agility (Parkour)
-Sabotage (Explosives, Mines)
-Hacking
-Sniping

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"Medium" or "Assault" Characters

The Swiss Army Knives of the team look here. For those who want a slice of everything.

Characters who are well armored, able to take a few rounds, but not like the "Heavy" characters- they are a comfortable in between. They form the assault element of fire- and they offer a lot of versatility through carrying a lightweight exoskeleton- using jump-packs to double jump, wall run and basically throw themselves up into positions that often none of the team could, allowing them to hammer fire from pretty much any angle using slightly heavier weapons than a typical SOF operator would use- be that LMGs, automatic shotguns, MGLs and high-capacity SMGs. They're real jack of trades, and often bring a bit more to the fight, with significant room to specialise and deliver a unique talent that no class can really pin down. Put short, an Assault character isn't a bland choice- they literally will do everything, from the quieter work to the all-guns blazing firefights, but they're not the best at either spectrum. But add speed and firepower together and you get a package that can usually make any situation work.

The closest comparison one can think of are the "Pilots" from the Titanfall universe- a perfect blend of fast and hard-hitting in a hot firefight. They're nowhere near as agile as the lights, but offer a lot more momentum- allowing them to flank and provide fire from any angle. They also have special abilities of their own that neither class has- be that the deployment of a personal protective bubble, a personal drone, or anything else that pertains to the fact that they carry a bit more into the fight than a typical operator would.

Five Common Talents:
-Balanced Operative (Jack of all Trades)
-Jump-Pack based mobility
-Versatility
-Unique Abilities
-Fast in Firefights

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"Heavy" or "Juggernaut" Characters

Lots of firepower, brute force, big explosions. No less sophisticated than the rest of the team but just a lot louder, Heavies are for those who just want to blow shit up and get blown up.

These characters are giants. Literally, they're over seven foot and immensely tall, strong, and able to basically punch through anything they want. People, walls, armour, anything. And that's without their heavy armour! In their super-heavy armor clad in head to toe with Trophy Systems to boot, are nigh on impossible to take out with most munitions- which means that more often than not, they're the centre of attention, the guy or girl turning up fire to the next level, and Raven Squad has TWO OF THEM. They're a Boss Battle for real, and you bet they enjoy that ego trip. Even up close, they're often absolute beasts in CQC without weaponry- often carrying melee weapons like an axe or a mace to club people they can't get with any of the plethora of weapons they carry. While a light might make that work through silently picking people off, a heavy will make those people shit themselves- one-on-ten, you probably can't win that fight unless you're very specially skilled. After all, a heavy isn't often stupid if they've made it into Raven Squad- they're often far smarter than you think. The Mountain from Game of Thrones? Nah, this giant can do much, much more.

They use heavy weaponry and carry even more support weaponry that puts them almost on the level with a mini-mech- from miniguns to automatic grenade launchers, flamethrowers to prototype electric or laser-based weaponry, or SMGs, heavy pistols, and all sorts of exotic secondary weapons that allows them to take on a wide variety of foes- specialising in AT on top of their usual anti-personel usage. For them, might is right- and bar much, they are incredibly difficult to counter. They're killable all right, but it takes a lot. They do suffer from the least versatility in infiltrations and their sheer size and operations weight means that they often need special methods of insertion. But do you think that they don't make a big deal about it? Not when they're the boss battles of the warzone.

Five Talents:
-An actual bullet sponge
-Close Quarter Beasts
-Versatility in Combat
-Heavy Weaponry
-Terrifying, centre of attention, frontline operatives

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Post your interest below if you're up for this!

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

@Jamesyco

Set Tiny Nord up in Colombia in a boat off the coast- basically he's their extract, but also can come in to help get them out! Probably can wreck some hell on the docks before going in and fucking up anything that moves, helicopters and beyond- feel free to go absolutely wild on that one.

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Tahlia Harris

Isla Langosta / Lobster Island, Colombia

Fireteam Piranha

Firestarter, Twisted Firestarter

The explosions below were making it clear that Boomer was taking no prisoners, and with his rifle and club, he wasn't going to leave any scalp untouched.

"Noted. Not with that implement, I'm not. Fucking hellfire, Boomer." Tahlia's voice carried a certain sternity to it, yet watching what he was doing, she was rather in shock. It was time to change magazines, on that note, and well, put her eye to the scope again, knowing that the body count he was collecting was now making her sniper fire seem almost anonymous. Mateo must have been straight up a ghost now, and well, she didn't want to know how much she was turning Thiago inside out.
"They're dropping back, but with any sense, there'll be another layer. Let me dent their confidence a little." Tahlia called to Boomer on the comms, loading a new magazine in, this time with something a bit heavier hitting.

Back on the scope, and well, the pyro was right where she needed him. Dragged out of cover, and trying to torch Chuck, well, at the least making his life inconvenient. Trying, and no doubt the flames would be sticky, it wasn't as much of a straight up threat as some of the other troops firing RPGs wildly around him, Tahlia taking out the round in the chamber with a normal round and instead, loading a much heavier, armour-piercing bullet inside from the magazine loaded, one that would certainly get more penetration on.

"Right....let's see.....windage, range....there." Tahlia whispered to herself, and picking him up, adjusted her sighting, noting the composition of the armour. No sniper round she had was getting through him, but oh, a heavy like that should really have known better. You armoured your tanks the same, even Laura knew that, or else your big arse was getting exploded. And with a gentle pull on the trigger, she watched him move and stomp closer, putting fire on Chuck, yet right as he was stationary, being right where she needed him. The round flew and with a loud plink, slapped into the bottom of the flamethrower tank, ricocheting before the true extent was revealed.

The pyro's tank ruptured, and with fuel pouring, it didn't take much for it to light due to the volatile compound mixing with his ignition substance, and suddenly, the guy didn't so much explode as well....get turned into a missile. The flamethrower basically turned into a rocket, and sent him flying into the building he had walked into, and with a loud bang, set off a huge explosion, toasting him and everyone in it alive.

"Aw fucking yeah! Eat shit, cunt! Hope you liked that, Boomer!" Tahlia called into the comms, the excitement coming through, as she adjusted her rifle again, pulling the bolt, a little high on being back in the field, and well, back to work, realising her inner voice had come out.
"Sorry about that. Right. Where were we? Okay, that might help you a bit. Watch for RPGs, they're fortified inside too from the looks from it, but you'll have a little less resistance now. Go inside and get what we need, Spectre is yours. The exos will be able to punch you harder, so make sure you clamp them. However you do that, I will leave that creative part to you. Actually, let me bring you some help on the flank. It'll make your extraction quicker, and if I'm not mistaken....shit, yeah we got more choppers inbound. " Tahlia called out.

"Tiny Nord, you on station? We might need some help on the northern side of the base, where Boomer is moving in. I know, the boat isn't fun, but we haven't exactly got clear airspace. Bring the patrol boat in close, they won't see you coming and hit the flank when you're ready. I think we might be about to make a hell of a lot more heat. I got visual on helis in the far horizon, likely carrying heavy munitions. They do not want to give up Spectre easy..." Tahlia called, knowing that Tiny Nord was on hand for extraction - and while he wouldn't have expected to be getting his hands dirty, the armoured American counterpart to Boomer would certainly be keen to blow shit up. Bringing in more high-calibre support would help, and given the versatility of Tiny Nord's platform, anti-air and anti anyone was always on the cards.

"Right, bear with, Boomer. I need to relocate to get a better shot."

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Skye Rosalind Lyons

Observatorio Cruz del Sur, Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile

Fireteam Condor

A Closer Look

With Sam supporting Freya down, Skye had the chance to secure the entry point, and well, tidy up the mess of bodies they'd been making. It was a quiet shift, but once they got inside, it would be a lot busier- after all, out here they were surrounded by snow white-topped granite mountains and it was a light dusting that was below feet here in the concrete, so nobody was out here in the pitch black, given they didn't expect trouble. Not the kind that would come in without a trace.

"Negative, Chaos, move to me. Frigga, cover our backs. It shouldn't be far up to me." Skye looked across, the dark blue paint on her face contrasting her burning red hair, professional yet well, a Pict through and through. As much as there was a human being behind those eyes, she looked like someone else, someone that had already pulled plenty of blood on her hands. And she would get plenty more. They had a job to do, and not much time to spare. Skye certainly felt like they were on the clock, and right now, they'd need to get in and out.

Looking across to Sam, Skye tilted her NVGs up for a moment, the Scot looking across intently to Sam, and her visored helmet.

"Alright. I'll stay on point. We might need your hacking skills in a moment, Chaos." Skye added, as she opened the door with a solid clack, moving inside and through the concrete walls, rifle raised, intent and sweeping, following the signage and covering the corners as best as she could within the lit-up environs inside.

Moving through the corridor, Skye moved slow on the approach to the observatory galley itself.

"Okay. Few inside. Slow and smooth, no rush." Skye retorted, hearing voices on the other end, and with it, gently pushing the door open, the telescope in a cradle above with its own cut-out with corridors below, filled with equipment and workbenches, like a library meeting a highly scientific laboratory. Moving slow, Skye readied up, keeping the rifle at a point position, as she picked out the first two on the walkway next to the telescope itself, clattering rounds into them as the others reacted, Skye letting Sam take on the other two closer to the actual optic itself, as Skye got to work on the far end of the room. They'd have a limited time to sort this before they got onto their communications, but given the work they'd done outside, they would have enough.

Moving around the corner, the man used his Glock to fire a couple rounds back, as Skye used his trace to get him out of position, and shot a couple rounds into his legs, baring his head and slapping another round in. With the room clear, Skye called it into the comms, reloading her magazine as she did so.
"Sound seems to contain well in these walls. But this is getting bloody. More of them awake than I liked. Scientists are up, but there's barely any." Skye called, giving the ping for the team to regroup at the end of the room, this time, one away from the specific one that Skye really wanted. Control Room.

Arriving on the door of that room following a short corridor, it was almost like a NASA-like arrangement, quiet for the night with a handful of technicians in the glass-adorned office. A singular guard in there visible through the glass window in the wooden doorframe. And with it, Skye nodded to Sam, as she moved inside and pushed first, and with barely a flinch, slotted the man with a headshot with the MCX tilted on her shoulder, splatting him into the floor as the techs yelled, Skye filling the void first with her booming voice.

"Freeze! Hands on your head, or you get a bullet, comprendo?" Skye yelled, rifle raised, the two technicians doing as asked, as Skye rushed in, the speed she had from the exo just adding that extra something to make her look very much not like the other man she'd just taken out.

"We're not here to hurt you. Just don't do anything stupid, answer my questions, and you might survive. Alright?" Skye called to one, switching into Spanish for the rest of the conversation, accented yet the one tech nodding, in absolute shit-filling fear at the look of Skye towering over her, rifle in hand, looking somewhat inhuman.

"Shit, ok! What do you want? Please, we're just working on the satellites, we have nothing to do with her mercenaries, please!"

"Exactly, so you can do some work. The Project Mercury satellite network. Can you take the data off it, and download it? And think about what I said earlier, no time for wrong answers. Because we can do it the hard way."

"It's not possible. Please, I beg! It's coded in a quantum-encrypted key for removals from the base station, there's no way, no way! We're just making sure it stays in orbit, and sending data....don't shoot, please!"

"Well, shit. Plan B then. I need you to drop the satellite. Right here, right now. There's a valley down there between us and the town, put it there. I know you can do it, it's reinforced. Quantum key or not, direct entry will always work." Skye simply retorted, watching as suddenly, the other technician raised his voice, concerned and realising that this wasn't going to end well for either if they did as the Scottish lady said.

"No....you don't understand, they'll....they'll kill us anyway. And if it hits...it'll....well, it'll be a big boom." The tech said to the other, as Skye lurched in closer between them, the slight whine of her exo and her mere look one of absolute, fire-starting rage, given how she was between the two.

"I can make it look convincing you had a gun to your head. Your chances are better than us just killing you both and figuring it out." Skye added, leaving silence for a few seconds, letting them soak this up, at least process that she was in their language, and well, certainly making a point of it.

"Okay, okay. I can do that. We can take it down. Please, I have kids, I don't want to die..."

"So do all the people you're hurting with this. You might yet live." With that, Skye looked across knowing he was back at work, to Sam and the others, headed over to the man on the ground. Ripping his headset off, Skye put ear to it, and heard the various chatter. They were right now finding bodies, and well, they had zero idea of what the hell was going on. They were being ripped apart by ghosts clearly, and the alarm would soon follow once that happened.

"Well, that was fun while it lasted. Chaos, get to disabling the anti-air system here. I think we may need to get ready to loud. Frigga, there's a QRF headed our way. Find somewhere quiet, and rip them a new one, would you? I'll leave your surprise to you. Meantime, I'll make sure we get our satellite down with these two. Once we're done, we'll need to chase it and get to it before they do. Which means that ATV, and those motorcross bikes in Hawk's hold might come in handy for us." Skye added, giving instruction to the other two, knowing shit was going to hit the fan soonish.

"We may need some help, mind." Skye called, as she put hand to ear, knowing that now they may as well as the fact that they were seconds from an alarm.

"Hawk, this is Queen, we're going to need support within ten minutes. Prep the VTOL for fire support, and I'm going to fire a GPS marker for where we might need some transportation once we're outside."

---

Somewhere in Geneva, Switzerland

Two Years Ago

Lynx's Teeth

The white-haired older man sat with a set of aviator glasses on, the quiet evening cafe in Geneva as cosy as it could be- and sitting upstairs in the quiet, empty room, outside the Jet d'Eau, it was as unassuming it could be. Set out for him, and his partner to meet, and discretion even here was helpful. But then again, when you may have been public enemy number one, but looked like every other banker in this city, that just came easy. It felt strange to be sitting opposite to the person he wanted to see- the redhead herself, Lynx. Quite the figure, from what he had read. And how remarkable it was to have her on board.

"I almost didn't think I'd get this meeting." He spoke with a cold unassuming tone, it must have been Scandinavian in origin, but it felt so international, it almost dissolved anonymously.

"Neither did I, Christian. But I guess we had some mutual friends, and some mutual views." Lynx responded, the grey-shirt, jeans wearing counterpart at the table as stoic as ever, her charm back on as usual, a grin hiding a calculated, firm look behind the woman that sat there, a demeanour that almost looked steely past and through the sunglasses he wore.

"Yes, indeed. I'm glad you view things similarly. Tell me, what do you see, when it comes to our work? What is it that you're looking at the most?" He asked, raising his sunglasses for just a second, revealing his bloodshot eyes.

"World's on fire, and well, some preparation wouldn't go amiss. That is you lot seem to offer. So I thought it may as well be worth putting myself on your side. I did my homework. I know what you are, what you want, who you're made of. Some I don't agree with, but that's never the point when you need to make change."

"Agreed. I assume it's not money you want, with the way you talk?"

"Not really. You don't need someone with money to change things. Just the key and a place in what's next. Your organisation wants change and someone to do it with. So do I, and I can offer you that. I'll personally make your wildest dreams happen, and anyway, you need someone like me who can make a template. Get things done where money can't buy talent. You need an investor with capital at risk in this, someone who is willing to die to make a world they might not live in. I expect some parity for that, not like one of your mercenaries, but as someone who has done, well, what you know I'm capable of."

"And you realise that the directors will not like this, don't you?"

"I'll give them what they want within two years. They'll be safe and sound. Comfy even. I expect you don't trust me. Just give me what I need and you will in time."

"I trust you. They won't."

"Well, there is one aspect you might want to see. Maybe it will convince them a little more. You know little about me. But I'll show you who you really do want to know about." She replied, and taking it out from her jean pocket, rather than Christian being the one to do it, it was Lynx, the hand revealing the image, and then, placing it onto the table.

The picture was pushed across the table, the Polaroid displaying a red-haired operative in an exoskeleton in a blurry CCTV image, that white-haired man could see as nigh identical to Lynx in front of her.

"So how is it you are you doing two jobs at once these days? I thought you just did work for SIS? A spook, right?" The question was clear, his eyebrows raised, given the situation, and well, how impossible this had to be. Lynx's look turned to a grin, as she leaned in forwards, pushing her cup of coffee aside, very much aware this one, oh, this would get him right away.

"Well...if I told you how, I'd have to kill you. She does seem awfully similar to me."

"Heh, well, I'll be damned. Well. Lynx, whoever you are. You may be quite useful yet."

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

@BigPapaBelial

The stakes are only getting crazier from here- I look forward to throwing hell at them!

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

@Jamesyco

Nice, accepted! Throw them into characters and I'm happy for you to get stuck in.

Interestingly - I'd actually like him to be on the Colombia job if he could be based there- perhaps coming in with the patrol boat for extraction as a reinforcement? I'm gonna work out a way of introducing him in the next post as it'll be fairly entertaining to have a couple of heavies in the mix!

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

@Jamesyco

Keen to have you back on! You may need to hang on until the end of the scenarios (not too far away but feel free to tinker away and reintroduce the character perhaps in the background (like between his deployments perhaps) if you like! That said, post him up and add him to the chars- happy to fill you in or feel free to read where things have gone down.

Raven Squad: Second Storm Recheck

RAVEN SQUAD

Raven Squad is a variant on an RP idea I've had for years, focussing on a military / spy-fi RP that takes influence from a range of sources. It's bombastic, over the top, ridiculous...and definitely an RP that lends itself to not being too serious while having a teeny bit of grounding. Trying to save the world isn't ever going to look totally realistic, right?

This is a rebooted RP, based on a few variants of the RP that have come before and is open to new applicants- the new IC and OOC is LIVE!

roleplayerguild.com/topics/190121-rav…

Taking influence from everything from an awful lot of video games and films- Titanfall to MGS, Rainbow Six to Arma and Bad Company among many others- with a sprinkle of a little insanity on top and a teeny bit of grounding to set up a near-future foe, this RP isn't exactly focussed on absolute tactical precision nor complete fantastical elements. It's hard to describe but if you're somewhere between The Expendables, MGS, Overwatch and Rainbow Six, it's roughly that with around the right amount of silly and serious and a dynamic team of elite misfits.

Interested? Read on and the setup and all the details are below.

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The Setup:

Raven Squad (RS) is a mysterious task force, working against the forces of global terrorist groups in the near future (roughly 20 or 30 years from now) who often who are armed with quite advanced technology- or nefarious political aims. Al-Qaeda it isn't, so in come our operatives. In a world where mechs are prototypes, exoskeletons, jump-packs, optical cloaking and various other technologies are around the corner, the tide of warfare is changing...and Raven is there to stop the worst happening.

Raven Squad have access to that technology, and six of the most elite operatives that made it through a gruelling process to counter the threat. With different specialists allowing the team to have everything from a scalpel-like precision to brute force with heavy firepower, they act as a counterbalance.

Where an SF team cannot penetrate, Raven Squad come in. When a politician needs to go, they come in. When you have ten foot mechs trying to breach a high-security Gulag and you need those fuckers removed, they come in. Raven Squad are the people that stop the world ending as we know it. Problem is, they're a little dysfunctional- and well, they're not all the most....professional of soldiers, or spies, or agents, or well, anyone who is capable of getting the job done.

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The Story So Far....

Quite a wild ride!

Raven are fighting against Artemis Group- a anarchic paramilitary serving a global elite's neo-Malthusian dream. Or in a nutshell, really bad guys wanting to do lots of bad.

Raven have been involved in rescuing data from a Austrian mountain site, hunted an Artemis HVT, before moving onto disrupting an arms deal containing nuclear rods- not before getting hit themselves. They have bounced back on a mission worthy of James Bond in Singapore to take down a tech CEO. That has led to their current operation - hitting two of Artemis's super-weapons in the jungles of Colombia and the mountain peaks of Chilean Patagonia.

Things are never that simple though, and the team's real enemy still needs to be seen dead in the eye.

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More Setup - Character Classes

So Now What?

Interested then? Well, here's how it works. The RP functions around approximately six characters (can be more or less!)- and focusses upon the team having different skills and specialities, as well as entirely different approaches to combat. While there's three main classes, within those their playstyle may be completely different- and may bring a very unique ability that is class-defying. Each character can also have a path to upgrades- after each operation, they are able to use new technologies, experimentally given out to help them get a further edge.

While I'm not someone to put into place strict rules, I'd prefer two of each in each class and a male and female in each class to really help the flavour of the RP gel (we can't have all infiltrators!), as well as a bit more variety in origins- but will happily accept anyone who has an interesting idea and can make it work, irrespective. This isn't all prescriptive- they're put in as ideas and to start of the process of what the team might look like.

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"Light" or "Infiltrator" Characters

Stealthy types, sharpshooter types, all-round silent assassins, here ye be.

These characters are all relatively unarmored, unable to stand up to much in a firefight- often only coming to that as a necessity. But they have ludicrous amounts of mobility and are able to provide support and some assault help in different ways from different perspectives- they're snipers or infiltrators, hackers and parkour specialists- with these characters often being the masters of stealth thanks to their talent and optical cloaking. They're agile, often more than not to almost cat-like levels of speed, freedom of movement using various tech such as grappling hooks to wall-adhesive gloves- and capable in CQC thanks to Krav Maga or other fighting styles. They're potent at working on their own, but as a part of a wider team, add an enhanced intelligence and support function.

They often work as good hackers and sabotage experts given this, working in the shadows of the main team's work- and have the widest range of infiltration and exfiltration equipment, ranging from wingsuits to SCUBA gear.

Five Common Talents:
-Excellent at sneaking and stealth- with or without cloaking, they're ghosts, and incredibly efficient sneaky people
-High levels of agility (Parkour)
-Sabotage (Explosives, Mines)
-Hacking
-Sniping

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"Medium" or "Assault" Characters

The Swiss Army Knives of the team look here. For those who want a slice of everything.

Characters who are well armored, able to take a few rounds, but not like the "Heavy" characters- they are a comfortable in between. They form the assault element of fire- and they offer a lot of versatility through carrying a lightweight exoskeleton- using jump-packs to double jump, wall run and basically throw themselves up into positions that often none of the team could, allowing them to hammer fire from pretty much any angle using slightly heavier weapons than a typical SOF operator would use- be that LMGs, automatic shotguns, MGLs and high-capacity SMGs. They're real jack of trades, and often bring a bit more to the fight, with significant room to specialise and deliver a unique talent that no class can really pin down. Put short, an Assault character isn't a bland choice- they literally will do everything, from the quieter work to the all-guns blazing firefights, but they're not the best at either spectrum. But add speed and firepower together and you get a package that can usually make any situation work.

The closest comparison one can think of are the "Pilots" from the Titanfall universe- a perfect blend of fast and hard-hitting in a hot firefight. They're nowhere near as agile as the lights, but offer a lot more momentum- allowing them to flank and provide fire from any angle. They also have special abilities of their own that neither class has- be that the deployment of a personal protective bubble, a personal drone, or anything else that pertains to the fact that they carry a bit more into the fight than a typical operator would.

Five Common Talents:
-Balanced Operative (Jack of all Trades)
-Jump-Pack based mobility
-Versatility
-Unique Abilities
-Fast in Firefights

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"Heavy" or "Juggernaut" Characters

Lots of firepower, brute force, big explosions. No less sophisticated than the rest of the team but just a lot louder, Heavies are for those who just want to blow shit up and get blown up.

These characters are giants. Literally, they're over seven foot and immensely tall, strong, and able to basically punch through anything they want. People, walls, armour, anything. And that's without their heavy armour! In their super-heavy armor clad in head to toe with Trophy Systems to boot, are nigh on impossible to take out with most munitions- which means that more often than not, they're the centre of attention, the guy or girl turning up fire to the next level, and Raven Squad has TWO OF THEM. They're a Boss Battle for real, and you bet they enjoy that ego trip. Even up close, they're often absolute beasts in CQC without weaponry- often carrying melee weapons like an axe or a mace to club people they can't get with any of the plethora of weapons they carry. While a light might make that work through silently picking people off, a heavy will make those people shit themselves- one-on-ten, you probably can't win that fight unless you're very specially skilled. After all, a heavy isn't often stupid if they've made it into Raven Squad- they're often far smarter than you think. The Mountain from Game of Thrones? Nah, this giant can do much, much more.

They use heavy weaponry and carry even more support weaponry that puts them almost on the level with a mini-mech- from miniguns to automatic grenade launchers, flamethrowers to prototype electric or laser-based weaponry, or SMGs, heavy pistols, and all sorts of exotic secondary weapons that allows them to take on a wide variety of foes- specialising in AT on top of their usual anti-personel usage. For them, might is right- and bar much, they are incredibly difficult to counter. They're killable all right, but it takes a lot. They do suffer from the least versatility in infiltrations and their sheer size and operations weight means that they often need special methods of insertion. But do you think that they don't make a big deal about it? Not when they're the boss battles of the warzone.

Five Talents:
-An actual bullet sponge
-Close Quarter Beasts
-Versatility in Combat
-Heavy Weaponry
-Terrifying, centre of attention, frontline operatives

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Post your interest below if you're up for this!