Director Kanex's Office

"Hmm...I see...there seems to be a paradox on the disappearance of cargo ships to Galaxy Quadrant 4-YE...I'll have to send a team to investigate this matter..." said Kanex, as he looked at the documents he had just received, and then looked at a picture on his desk. "Alma...

Cosmic Meteor Cafe

"MAAAAAN...." said Artik, groaning as he looked at his partner. "I hate waiting on people...especially when they can't make up their minds..." he said, sighing heavily as he set his notepad down and tried to relax. "I mean even data entry is better than this..." he said, as he looked at the clock, and suddenly blanked out for a bit

"I can't continue the job, Artik..." said a red-haired male, as he pointed a gun at Artik. "What do you mean? We're supposed to be...AHG!" said Artik, as the other male pulled the trigger, snapping Artik out of his flashback.

Mirra sighed lightly to herself. "Relax, Artik," she mumbled with a hint of annoyance. She never would guess why she had to be partnered with him of all people, but he was reliable when it really came down to it, she supposed. She wasn't one to complain anyway. She noticed he had spaced out a little and snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. "Another memory?" she figured with only a hint of worry in her voice.

"Perhaps...anyway...I just hope..." he stopped, as his cell rang, and he answered it. "I Understand" he said, as he looked at Mirra, and hung up. "It seems you and Ciar have an important mission to attend, for class A members only" he said, as he looked to the side, slightly annoyed. "Have fun, ok?" he said, as he wished her luck and put on a smile.

--Director Kanex's Office--

"Im glad you both have come. This mission is of uttermost importance. It requires two highly skilled operatives, so you two are the people for the job. When you are ready, a transport will transport you both to Galaxy Quadrant 4-YE, planet Gert. There you are to investigate and put a stop to the source of the cargo ship disappearances. I wish you luck on your mission. Dismissed." said Kanex, as he turned around in his chair, and looked out the glass panels to the sky.

Mirra nodded and started on her way. She hesitated for a moment before turning back to Artik. "You'll be boosted soon, I'm sure," she smiled halfheartedly before meeting up at Director Kanex's office. She waited patiently and listened carefully for her orders, then nodded in understanding and turned to her partner as she left the room. "I wonder what is so important on mere cargo ships that they've been disappearing. It must be no ordinary cargo..." she suggested. After a moment of silence, she made sure she was ready to go before looking to Ciar. "Are you ready?"

Galaxy Quadrant 4-YE

"I'm sorry, but I'm getting bored with these dull little cargo ships."

A figure stood silhouetted against the ghost-like spheres that were the two moons of Aria; their ethereal light shone through the wall-wide window of Viktor Craven's office. The window overlooked a vast metropolis that sprawled across a quarter of Aria, a sea of twinkling lights and shining beams that stood in stark contrast to the darkness of Aria. Outside the sprawling capital of Lelania, Aria's only city, Aria was a rather quiet little planet, which suited Craven perfectly. The X-Class Shadow Phoenix paced around his unlit office, hands on his hips; an earpiece comm system could barely be seen attached to his ear, concealed behind waves of dark brown hair.

"There's hardly anything worthwhile on those ships in the first place," he continued, pausing as the person on the other line spoke. "No, no one of importance either....it seems to me the Fate Runners haven't made a move yet...no, as said, if there wasn't any valuable cargo on the last freighter I doubt there will be on the next..." As the other person spoke Craven chuckled and shook his head. "Don't be so thick, I know you're not this slow. If they know cargo is being seized, or at least disappearing, on the 4-YE route, they're not about to send their nice crap on it...yeah, well, you let me know if any of them show up and I'll pay them a visit of sorts." With that Craven removed the earpiece and set it on a nearby desk, and then he turned and walked towards the window, looking out on Aria.

"Well, here's hoping those kids at the Fate Runners get their asses in gear for this one."

Standing completely still and twirling his butterfly knife, folding it, unfolding it, and just swirling it around skillfully, Ciar stood ready. He felt completely ready for this mission, outfitted in his stealth armor, and ready to go. He had been standing there for a while now, just waiting for his next mission. Fortunately, Artik informed both him and Mirra that they were going on a mission, which was apparently for class A's only. Now, what in the world could be of this mission that is important enough to only send class A? Ciar wondered to himself. He activated his active camo ability and made his way to Director Kanex's office unseen, even though there was no need. Once there, he reappeared, and began twirling his butterfly knife again. He listened intently as he was briefed on the mission, He knew he wouldn't need to sneak around, seeing as he was a double-agent of Fate Runners, and could easily pass off as a Shadow Phoenix. Once dismissed, he nodded at Director Kanex, signaling that he understood. As you could easily tell, Ciar didn't talk much. Hearing Mirra asking him if he was ready to go, he answered, "Ready as I'll ever be." He carefully removed the Fate Runner emblem from his armor, and replaced it with the Shadow Phoenix emblem. This would allow him to walk amongst the Shadow Phoenixes without being of suspicion, except for a watchful few that knew to interrogate everyone. However, he had posed as a Shadow Phoenix before, and everyone was likely to recognize his armor, so he assumed not too much trouble would come up, as they would just assume he was one of their troops.

--Gert--

A cargo ship is seen going into a docking bay, near the transport area where Ciar and Mirra arrived to investigate the disappearances. They were escorted to a private room with a control panel with all the information they needed.

Gert, Soon After Arrival

"My god, this hell-forsaken port again," Craven murmured quietly to himself. He was dressed in the typical garb of a businessman--after all, being recognised as a Shadow Phoenix agent wouldn't do much good for him here. Here on Gert, though, there were of course very many businessmen--a category of people Craven held a great amount of disdain for. Caring so much for money and personal wealth--they thought it gave them power. Craven scoffed--true power could not be gained from petty, material objects to which people assigned value.

Well, there's that ship... he thought as he strode casually past the designated cargo ship.

While being escorted, Ciar kept entirely silent. When in the private room, Ciar looked at the control panel, tapped a few things, slid a few things, then turned to Mirra. "Mirra, I will inspect ports A-3 through M-27. You will be inspecting ports N-41 to W-12. All other ports are too large to search single-handedly, so we will search through those in unison. If you see any shadow phoenix agents, avoid all contact. We don't want to draw attention. Also, the cargo hold is here." Ciar pointed to a place on the map. "We will meet up here in exactly 2 hours. Do not be late, and avoid all unnessecary contact with anyone. Be sure to give me a heads up on radio frequency 23-81 if anything happens." With that, Ciar activated his active camo ability, and turned invisible. He stealthily walked to port A-3 and looked around, seeing only an empty crate here and there. No cargo ships. He moved onto the next port, and saw the same thing, which was nothing. He continued on, searching port by port, finding that there was nothing in each port he searched.

(Now I just gotta wait for Spectrum to post.)

Mirra nodded numbly as Ciar gave her her instructions. She knew what to do from there. As soon as he disappeared, she did the same, thoughts stuck on the look of the Shadow Phoenix emblem he put on. He was a good agent, she knew, but the memories that emblem brought on, the feelings... She shook her head of such thoughts. She was on a mission. Now was the time to be focused on the here and now, not reminiscing about the past. Unlike Ciar, however, she would not be able to blend as easily amongst the ranks of the Shadow Phoenix--they were all well aware of her traitor-ship to the other team.

Glancing around the areas she was told to search, Mirra waited patiently as a man came out of a room, mumbling something about 'break time.' Before he closed the door, she walked right past him and slipped her foot in the crick of the door, opening it once he was gone and slipping inside. The room seemed to be empty enough, so she risked making herself visible and looking over the controls and maps. "Hmm," she hummed, glancing at the screen. "These could be the coordinates to the locations of the missing cargo ships."

Cosmic Meteor Cafe

"Artik, table 2 is waiting for there orders...Artik?" said the head chef, as he looked at the boy, his eyes completely blue, as he was tranced in a flashback.

"Artik...you know this kind of thing can get us de-commissioned!" said a female, with pink hair, as she stood behind him, watching as he picked the lock of a door. "I need to find out...the disappearances are too odd to not be linked with someone from this branch" he said, as he opened the door, his hair color being blond instead of blue. "What..." he said, as he read a top-secret folder, exposing one of the highest government organizations as a fraudulent one that had a long, extensive list of corrupt contributors. "Artik...I feel a prescence...I'll go ahead..." said the female, as she left the room, almost turning invisible. "You should have followed her" said a voice, as Artik looked up, and heard a gunshot. He laid there on the floor, shaking a bit, as he began to die.

"Artik?...Artik!...ARTIK!" said a fellow waitress, as Artik passed out, collapsing to the floor.

Stealthily sneaking into the last port he was supposed to search, Ciar noticed something was very different about this one. Unlike every other port he'd searched, this one was full of cargo ships. He noticed many Shadow Phoenix agents, who were unloading crates from these cargo ships. Ciar turned on his comm and spoke quietly, "Mirra, I have a confirmation on a location of a large group of Shadow Phoenix agents, and they're all unloading a yet undetermined cargo from some cargo ships. Report to port M-27 as soon as possible." He then turned off his comm, as to avoid anyone sending him a message at a wrong time. Uncloaking himself, Ciar walked up to the group where, who seemed to be their commanding officer angrily yelled, "Where have you been!? We started unloading a half hour ago! Ugh... whatever, you're here now, so take some crates and move 'em down to the cargo bay, pronto!!" The commanding officer pointed to a hovercart that was being loaded with crates, so Ciar helped the Shadow Phoenix agent to load up the cart, and then he grabbed the tether and pulled it along towards the cargo bay. He attempted to sneakily open one up, but it was sealed shut, and he knew someone would get suspicious if one of the seals was broken. Turning his comm back on, Ciar whispered, "Mirra, scratch the last location. Meet in the cargo bay. Now. I've blended amongst the Shadow Phoenix troops and I am headed there with the undetermined cargo. All crates are sealed. Don't try anything stupid until I get there." Ciar turned his comm off again, and proceeded to the cargo bay with cart he was pulling. He didn't want to deter from his path, because he would most likely be questioned by some of the other troops who were transporting the crates.

Mirra's attention was taken away from the odd markings on the monitors as her communicator sparked to life, Ciar's voice on the other end. "I'll be there," she said once he finished telling her to meet at the cargo bay. She looked around, feeling a little offended he wouldn't trust an equally high ranking agent as herself to not mess things up. She chose to brush it off and started towards the door, when it was flung uncharacteristically opened. She stopped mid-step, but wasn't able to turn invisible quick enough before the man entering from his break saw her. "Hey, what do you think you're doing in here!?" he called, running to press an emergency alarm button.

Mirra got to him just quick enough to knock him in the back of the neck with a quick swipe of her hand. He was out in an instant, on a slump on the floor. She sighed in relief before starting back out of the room. Making her way to the cargo bay, once she reached it, she waited patiently near a load of boxes, looking around to study her surroundings. Ciar had been right--this place was crawling with Shadow Phoenix agents. That definitely couldn't mean anything good was up. She held back a gasp as she saw none other than Viktor Craven striding past the cargo ship and narrowed her eyes, turning her head to look for Ciar and finding him. Quietly coming up to his side, still invisible, she said in a low voice. "Look over there,"

(edited, I was tired when I wrote this.)

Recognizing that Mirra was next to him, Ciar continued doing what he was doing, pretending that he had no idea an invisible person was at his side. He looked where Mirra said to, and saw the one and only Viktor Craven. Ciar himself had a good reputation with Viktor, so if he was seen, there was not an issue. As silently as he could speak, while still looking forward and having Mirra hear him, Ciar whispered, "Send a status report back to base. Report code 12-87-09. Extension 55. Sub-order K. Director Kanex will respond. Tell me what code he says as soon as you know it. Go now. I will do my best to see what's in these crates." Ciar walked on and eventually deposited the hovercart with the crates on, and was about to try to open one, when he saw that a couple of agents were staring at him. "What? Just making sure the cargo's not damaged." They both nodded and moved on. One agent walked past him and was headed back to get more crates, and he waved for Ciar to follow, so Ciar did, trying his best not to be conspicuous.

Craven placed a gloved hand to his forehead in exaggerated fatigue, as if this job really were any sweat. Watch another cargo ship seized. Search its contents. The usual crap. Craven bemoaned being wasted on something as boring and uneventful as this. He far preferred his previous assignments--assassinations of high ranking Fate Runners, attacking known Fate Runner strongholds and members. Things that gave him an opportunity to shake his bones and do a bit of fighting--which invariably ended, of course, in the destruction of his opponent after Craven became bored of playing with them. There were also the torture assignments--which were always a lot of fun. Craven loved to make little games of it--playing with the minds of the poor bastard he'd been given before Craven eventually got bored and killed them after getting whatever was needed by the Shadow Phoenix. Ah well--didn't seem anything like that was going to happen here. Maybe some oaf of an agent would accidentally drop a crate on his foot and then Craven could kill him for 'endangering the mission', but that was likely to be all the action he got.

Turning around and pushing the gloved hands into the pockets of his overcoat, Craven gave a melodramatic sigh--and then paused as he noticed something. He strode forward a bit, his eyes on one particular figure. "You," he calmly observed as he recognised the face of the person--what was his name? "Ciar." If he had a last name, Craven would have used that. The Shadow Phoenix officer looked at Ciar with a curling sneer and a suspicious glare in his eyes. "I certainly did not have you sent here, and I got no report that you would be sent here. Who ordered you here?" Craven had worked with Ciar previously, but anyone knew that working with Craven did not make him trust them any more. "Or are you here of your own will?" Craven spoke as if the word was quite irritating. "As I understand it the Shadow Phoenix is allowing their big agents more freedom..."

Even as he spoke Craven scanned the port once more. He did not like this--Ciar's appearance, sudden and unexpected. Not to mention the fact that the Shadow Phoenix was having him unload the cargo in crates. Apparently the Shadow Phoenix organisation's leader was one of those old-fashioned nostalgic sort of person who would rather do everything by hand than to use a nice little thing Craven liked to call technology.

Ciar stopped as soon as his name was called. He recognized that voice. He turned immediately and said, "Craven, Sir!" Ciar attempted to be as subtle as possible, not wanting to attract unnessecary attention to himself. "No, sir, I wasn't sent here, but I was between missions, so I figured I would give you guys a hand with unloading. I am going on a mission soon, which is..." In Ciar's helmet, he quickly brought up a list of Shadow Phoenix missions on his HUD. He quickly selected a mission, and its serial number came up. "Mission #55-012." He had selected a mission at random, so he didn't know exactly what that would be. He would put research into it later. "Now if you will kindly excuse me, I need to get back to moving crates." Ciar walked off and went to get another crate.

Mirra nodded at her orders as they were given to her, even though she knew Ciar was unable to see it. She began walking away to go through with them when her eyes were drawn back to Craven. Viktor Craven. Her expression dropped to a subtle one as she watched him interact with Ciar. She was no good at reading lips, so their conversation was deaf to her. She found herself pausing in her tracks to keep a lingering gaze on him. So many memories, so many thoughts, so many feelings, so many things in general came with this man--this man of the Shadow Phoenixes. An alliance she was no longer apart of, a group she now rebelled against.

Mirra shook her head clear of such thoughts. They weren't official and she needed to focus on missions such as these. After all, she knew Ciar could handle himself and she had her orders from him to send a status report, so she needed to do that as soon as possible. Ducking behind a secluded area of crates that weren't being moved yet, Mirra made herself visible and called in to base with the code directing her straight to Director Kanex. "Director, you were correct about the suspicious activity. Crates and currently undefined cargo are being moved through the ships and members of the Shadow Phoenix are everywhere. Their reasons are currently unknown. Ciar and I are still working to uncover the situation. Once we do, we will report back into you immediately. Do you have any further orders?" When Mirra was done, she looked around to make sure no one was watching before turning her attention back to checking in.

Craven's sneer turned into a growing smirk as he continued to look into Ciar's eyes. "I don't like surprises, Ciar," he stated. "I'd really have preferred that you let me know you were coming." Ciar then informed Craven of the mission he was on: #55-012. After which Ciar turned and returned to loading. 55-012? Well hell, that's way off in the Cygnus sector. Craven's eye shined maliciously. Capture, interrogation, and execution of a Fate Runner officer...now that sounds something more like what I should be doing rather than this bullshit here. Craven sighed. Oh, the unfairness of it all. It truly disappointed him.

At that moment however, a Shadow Phoenix officer strode up to him and waited for Craven to turn, not daring to otherwise attract his attention. Craven kept the man waiting a few moments just because he was bored and he enjoyed watching the officer standing there nervously, but at last turned back. "What is it?" he demanded. The officer leaned forward and murmured something to Craven in a low voice. Craven's eyes twitched, and the smirk widened. "Ah," he spoke as if something of mild interest and nothing more had occurred. He nodded to the officer, who turned and walked back, and Craven looked back towards the men loading and unloading the crates. Though he said nothing, and the crates continued to be unloaded, he had accomplished what he was here for. As soon as they were done loading and unloading, as soon as Craven believed it was secure to do so, they would then leave this planet--with some new cargo for the Shadow Phoenix group.

"Hold them off until the Galactic Peace Federation arrives, it is imperative you hinder their efforts...they are trying to locate a very dangerous weapon that could put the odds in their favor. Those are your further orders...and when you return...we must discuss something in my office. That's all for now" said Director Kanex, as he hung up and brought up a video of Trey in a hospital bed being tended to. "I just hope they don't awaken too fast...they might damage him..." he said, as he watched over Trey closely, the younger agent struggling a bit in his sleep.

Mirra nodded. "Will do, Director," she confirmed before shutting off her communicator and turning back to invisible. She wondered what he needed to discuss. He sounded a little worried... Mirra frowned in contemplation as she searched around for Ciar. Pausing as she noticed Craven finally leaving him, she snuck near the enemy as another member of the Shadow Phoenix approached him. Leaning in closely, Mirra listened carefully to the man before he finished and walked away. She stepped away from Craven as well to not allow her presence be known and turned to search again for Ciar. "So they found it...," she murmured to himself. This was most alarming. She needed to gather Ciar and find out where that weapon was immediately.

(Sorry about not posting for so long, I keep forgetting about this.)
As Ciar unloaded the last crate, he noticed it did not have a seal. He quickly opened the lid a little and shut it, getting a good enough view of what was inside. Hybrid microfusion cells, only used in high-energy weapons. Ciar put the last crate in the Cargo bay then walked to an unoccupied hallway, and activated his active camoflage ability, rendering him invisible.

Ciar turned on his Comm and said, "Mirra, the boxes contain Hybrid Microfusion Cells. Whatever weapon they have here must require a lot of power, which can't be good. I'll investigate further. Give me a heads up if anything goes wrong." Ciar then turned his Comm to silent mode, and turned visible again. Ciar walked around and was headed back to the ship, but then a few shadow phoenix agents stopped him. "Hey, I know you're high rank and all, but when it's time to leave, it's time to leave. Let's go." One of the members said, motioning for Ciar to follow. Not wanting to attract suspicion to himself, Ciar followed the agents, who brought him back to their troop carrier ship. The ship was almost completely full, with only 5 seats left, just enough for the other agents and Ciar. Ciar boarded and strapped himself in, then sent a tracking signal to Mirra, who would hopefully pursue. He also silently sent her the troop carrier number, which was #2319. If Mirra did not respond or follow, Ciar would be headed straight for a major enemy base, and the worst part, he would be alone.