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Though lined thick with evergreens and firs, the most of the valley boasted beautiful flowers. Rolling fields of colorful flora created a truly picturesque valley. In the distance, a sculpted mass rose high. It was the famed Mount Playmore, landmark of Aslund, tribute to notorious characters past.
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'This is Pelican Five Seven Niner, we read you loud and clear. Recovery Beacons have been activated. Agent Carolina has taken her new orders. We are to take you to her. You have extra weight ? over' Came the reply
'Copy that, One passenger. We're at the extraction point watching the game as we speak. Make sure you have some air sickness bags.... What's the recovery number ?' Puma said.
'TIB class 4 Ai, T4513970RTI778. Nothing more, other then a name: Tatyana.' Came the reply
'Understood, awaiting extraction.' Puma replied, she then killed the radio when the note of how far the Pelican was out. Seven minutes away. "There, that's that. Extraction ride's almost here. Might have to back up." Puma said appearing on the armrest between the seats to look to Randin. "Are you feeling well ? you look better then you did before."
From the valley wafted the sounds of the thrives damned trumpet playing Reveille.
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"Good pay for easy job, follow these coordinates... Interested parties meet at a specific time here.."
Enclosed in the mysterious posting, that came from a proxy which was tied to a burner IP, was a set of coordinates, both stellar coordinates for Terra, and Geographic coordinates that pinpointed a small clearing among some ruins.
Nothing else indicated who or what the job was, perhaps it was a hoax, but the clock was ticking and several sets of eyes were on the clearing.
There was hoping someone would bite, someone reputable.
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A young lady wandered through the Valley, she was not quit a lady but rather a gather in stature. Her outfit spoke of one use to scraping her knee, and climbing tree's rather than applying beauty products.
Looks are often deceiving however.
The young lady stopped walking right on the exact spot the deep web had implied. She waited, staring off at a distant ridge line, and smiled. She was safe here, more so than anyone could know.
" Anyone here?" She asked the open air, before repeating the grid locations aloud.
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The whispers of the ruins, the silence of her surroundings, all of it was overbearing.
"I'll bite." The individual who posted the listing said to no one in particular, the words spoken in a native tongue, there was a few looks of protest, but the decision was made.
The crunch of gravel started to fill the silent air, a single black SUV could be seen to the east, slowly crawling through the dense undergrowth.
It came to a stop thirty feet from the strange woman.
Brakes squealed slightly, and the distinct sound of a boxer engine could be heard coming from within the SUV.
It's windows were completely blacked out, and even the windshield was tinted dark enough as to obscure the occupants inside.
The passenger door opened, and a long feminine leg touched the ground, followed by a second. It was a woman, with dark hair that bore an ever so slight violet tinge. Her build was muscular, yet lithe, and she moved with an unnatural strength. Her eyes were covered by reflective glasses, that bore a purple tint, and glinted in the sunlight.
She was clothed in all black from head to toe, tactical gear and a rather elegant looking bullpup slung across her back.
Moving to the rear passenger door, she pulled it open with a thunk, and a young man slowly stepped out. He looked to be in his mid twenties, well groomed, like someone who hadn't seen any combat, any hardship, someone sequestered in luxury.
He wore a black suit, and trendy black blazer, a single gold chain hung loosely from around his neck, and clasped to his right side was an odd sword's hilt. It was wooden, ornately carved with three red gems in the pommel.
No words were exchanged between the woman and the man, he simply nodded and the woman stood besides the open door, making no other moves.
But the unnatural appearance of her face and body was likely somewhat unsettling.
Gravel crunched under what appeared to be designer dress shoes, and the man said nothing as he walked, sizing the odd woman up.
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' likely armored, is thermal imaging picking anything up? Do we have facial recognition running?' She asked her squad mates over the closed network connection system.
' Working on it' A male voice answered.
Only the crunch of boot and noise of beast filled the air as the young girl waited.
The young girl slowly raised her hand and waved as the young man stepped from the car.She hardly paid the weapon across the woman's back mind.
" A lovely spot, what brings you folks out here?" She asked, watching the Suv with eyes the color of straw.
' Thermal's up , searching the surrounding wood lines for anything remotely human temp.' A third male voice called out over the communications network.
'Right, I want Eyes one on target site , and two and three providing over-watch. Mobile one keep on standby, and hold five from Contact one.' a female voice answered.
'roger' a fourth male voice answered.
'Whoever posted that had enough understanding of how things work i'd rather not get burned.'
'Funny, neither would I' the young lady answered the group in what was essentially her mind, prompting a chuckle from several members.
The strange woman made no moves, but was actively attempting to decrypt the communications frequencies running back and fourth. Whoever the strange woman was, as the reflective glasses were giving facial recognition hell, seemed to know what she was doing, as she was silently running decryption protocols into the messages she was intercepting.
The young man was also wearing dark glasses, their refractive coating obscuring his face, along with the sheer size of the glasses, but he had a soft jawline, clearly someone of asian descent.
"I don't have a lot of time, so I'll be brief." The man finally said, breaking the silence. "I'm going to assume you've seen the posting." He said, moving ever closer.
"Major." He said aloud, and the woman closed the door behind her.
"Let me introduce myself first; I'm a man of wealth and taste, and I seek something very specific." The man said, slowly taking off his glasses.
"My name is Gabriel Shaw." He said, extending his hand. "I don't tend to judge someone by their looks, but humor me. Why did you come here?"
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'Seems like they're nosey.'
'Very, nothing on Thermals, but that sort of tech ins't small. Running a ping check for EMF signals.'
' Right stay on it.'
'Running a search on the name'
The young lady took the mans hand gingerly, and gave him a simple , but firm sake. One that spoke of a maturity well past her looks and of a military rearing.
" My name is Alex, Alex Kore. " She said. " It' nice to meet you Mr Shaw. What exactly as you looking for?"
She said taking a seat on a near by stone.
"As I understand it You have something I want, and I have something you need. So say it plainly if you please. Since you're pressed for time." She said a tad pointedly.
"Hurry up, we're being watched."
"I need you to retrieve something for me, the problem is, that something is in a rather secure region of space." Shimizu said as he walked around, facial recognition would likely get a hit at this point. Depending on the database and if they knew their media sources, the man could be easily identified as Crown Prince Takayama, of the Taiyou Empire.
An extraordinarily cunning and powerful individual, who had fallen out of Galactic Politics in recent years following his coup against his father.
The Synethetic nature and the obscuring glasses the woman wore did not enable any hits, but common sense likely played into her identification.
Once in front of Alex, Shimizu produced a small manila folder from his blazer, there was a picture, nothing more and nothing less.
"It's called a Zero Point Module, I have reliable intelligence on the location of one, and such a device would be vital to attaining my goals."
Nodding to the woman, she reached into the SUV And grabbed a large briefcase, hefting it with relative ease.
She extended the briefcase to Alex, and opened it to show it was not rigged with explosives. Rather the briefcase was filled with gold bullion. "This is an advance payment, you will recieve more upon completion of your task."
The gold was real, but a tracking device had been carefully embedded in the gold itself, designed to activate on a timer to avoid detection until it was too late.
"This module is somewhere on the planet Langara. I hope you're familiar with it, it's either in the provinces of Picon, or Caprica."
' Got a hit on Facial , sending info' Information started appearing in near transparent font around Mr Shaw.
Alex waved shyly in the direction her squad had guessed the other force's location before turning back to the gold.
" Hmm, old school." She said picking up a bar, the diminutions against weight and karat were slightly off , but not enough to be too concerned about. " I believe we can obtain it for you Mr Taka--- Shaw.... " She set the bar back into its place. "You can leave that there, it's a tad to heavy for me." the young lady said pointing at a spot the case to be placed.
"That's a lot of money just to be handing to me in advance, you seem to be pretty sure on the skills of a little girl." She asked the man in front of her while she went over the files, sending copies to her squad.
"Because I know you're just A little girl who likes to be coy with their capabilities." He said with a smile.
Clearing his throat, he looked up in no particular direction. "Why don't you come out so we can conduct this transaction in earnest." Shimizu called out. It seemed Kusanagi managed to decipher a little more than she let on. She may have not completely deciphered their comms, but she detected them, and it was enough to know they were there.
The 'blip' was a single HAW206 Multiped tank, thermoptic camouflage disengaging with an audible buzz. Two more appeared at both ends of the clearing, while several more positions went hot, snipers that were set up on a nearby ridge.
Several more Taiyou special forces seemed to come up from the underbrush, balaclavas and camouflage obscuring their faces.
"You're good, managed to deduce who I was, then again I guess it's not hard... good." Shimizu said.
"Can you sneak into the Aschen Empire and get me that little thing we discussed? Or should I look elsewhere for services."
A mobile tank, a exoskelton like unit, uncloaked with no sound, it almost looked as if it were pieced together from small fragments quickly, not more than a pace away from Alex, his weapon lowered
' Therm optics--- that's funny, are we that hard to find?
'We're a bit harder, could still find them on FIR if we had thought of it, but more or less ya'
'Nice, these folks have some cash'
'The gold wasn't a hint'
"No offense, but the rest of the force is gonna stay put." Alex said, " Besides, I'm the lead officer of this unit."
She said matter-o-factly. "We can get it, like I said, you have what we want. We've got what ya need. James if you would."
The mobile tank moved to take the case.
" When do you need this done by? And how quietly?"
"The sooner, the better, my science director has been prodding me about getting my hands on a ZPM for some time, so if you could be swift about it." Shimizu explained, while his own men stood down.
"If you're caught by Aschen authorities, I will deny any involvement, you will be at their mercy, you'll forfeit payment, and probably suffer a nasty interrogation followed by an even nastier public execution." Shimizu warned, gesturing for the Major to provide additional files.
"Getting through customs will probably be the hard part, so it's probably a good idea to get a visa, Illegal entries aren't generally tolerated. I've already lost several good men to public executions at the hands of the Aschen."
With everything settled, he offered a slight nod.
"Any questions?"
With that both her and the tank fell apart pixel by pixel it seemed.
Once more all that was heard was the wind running through the trees. They had simply vanished.
Unfortunately for our group, that little transmitter would be active for a moment, but SOP for gold was to be melted down asap on the off chance there were bugs.
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