IC: Prisoners of Peace, A Waiting Game... Options

[Shadow]

Wednesday June 15th, 0830 hours, undisclosed location, Neverland Holding Facility

400 metric tons of rubble was all that remained after the blast. The blast witch took the lives of over a hundred employees and nearly a thousand prisoners. It had been 48 hours since the last battle that waged over the entire 6 square kilometer compound.

The shift, which had started three days ago, has yet to end. After the fighting efforts turned to securing what was left of the Neverland Holding Facility, along with the surrounding research buildings and offices. After the Agency was sure there was no additional threat everyone’s attention turned to rescue.

The prison itself was 6 stories above ground and 8 below. Best forensics efforts put the blast on sublevel 4. It was somewhere in the 1 kiloton range and left a rubble filled crater where the Prison used to be. There was no hope of survivors there.

The force of the blast leveled every building for 500 meters and trapped thousands of workers in their offices. The HTRT, which the team represented, was quickly put to work freeing them.

Jack Campbell was running on pure stimulants as he landed the Company issue Osprey onto the make shift landing pad that Leslie and Christian had arranged. The ground was littered with the dead and dying. Black bisquine bags were used to cover them when they started running out of body bags. Just as the Tilt wing touched down Jason leapt from the beck yelling at the enlisted personal to load the Osprey with the wounded. The next trip would make 16 to the over worked hospital at Fort Drum.

Christian moved carefully over the rubble two hundred meters away. He could hear the high pitched whine of turbine engines and he knew Jack was working hard. It was hardly what they expected when they got called in three days ago. Jack had dropped them into the middle of a raging firefight. One of the deadliest Christian had ever seen, or hoped to ever see again.

Hell, they still didn’t even know who attacked the place, other than they were well armed and armored, and had plenty of very powerful magical support.

Astrally over watching him, Leslie guided him carefully to remaining survivors, he would do what he could for them then tag them with a pick up beacon, some would make it, others would not.

The call came into the teams radio just as Jack was lifting off.

“Code beta beta four-alpha. Romeo Tango Bravo in one hour.”

The message was simple, return to base in one hour for debriefing. The drek was just a bout to hit the fan.

[Shadow]

Wednesday June 15th, 0915 hours. Point Bravo

The squads base was situated two clicks west of the Neverland facility, snuggled nicely in the foot hills of Mt. St Hubbarts. The semi hidden facility opened into a 'Shyiane mountain' type complex with several sub levels. Able Team, as the group was designated, was the agencies first shift High-Threat-Response-Team.

With three such teams, Able, Bravo, and Charley, the Neverland facility and surrounding complex were covered 24-7-365. Until now. Bravo and Charley team had been called in within minutes of the team landing into the full scale firefight.

It took them 45 minutes to get to you from a cold start. Had they made it to the battle it might have gone differently. As it was both V-tols had been ambushed by surface to air missiles and were destroyed shortly after take off. Another eight men to add to the list. And not faceless strangers or office workers. But friends and comrades.

Jack handled the entry into the hangar with the ease of a true professional. The aircraft taxied onto a gantry elevator and was lowered into the hangar. Ground crews swarmed the plane preparing her for an immediate turn around if necessary.

Waiting for you in the hangar stood Commander Angus Rollins, UCAS NAvy (Ret.) the current OIC of Section 6.

Having been up for three days the group was worn, weary and battle stained. Armor was sweat soaked and covered in other people blood.

The dark haired man looked less than sympathetic.

"You have 30 minutes to clean up and then we have a briefing on level 12. As you guys are the only team left you are being 're-assigned' to new duties. I think your work impressed some people over the last few days."

Angus turned to leave and then stopped, "one more thing, the base is holding a memorial service for the fallen at 18 hundred. It will be at the Plaza."

30 minutes didn't leave you much time. You all had living quarters on the base that you stayed at on duty. It made life a lot easier since your shift was four, twelve hour days.

[Ol' Scratch]

June 15th, 2064 · 10:13am · Point Bravo

Christian had just made it back to his quarters on base and was throwing a little mojo around to get cleaned up. While he waited for the magic to set, he dropped down on the cheap recliner the base supplied and called up his fiancee, Alexis.

"Hey doll," he began, "looks like something came up at work. I can't really talk about it, but it was pretty effin' bad. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. No worries, pook. I mostly just wanted to call and let you know that I'm probably not going to be able to make it to your nephew's birthday party this weekend as it looks like we're going to be sent out to see if we can figure out what happened. Yeah, I know... I know. Tell him I'll make it up to him when I get back." There was a bit of a pause as Alexis talked endlessly on the other side of the line. "I love you, too, sweetie. But I have to go. I'll call you later when I can and let you know what I can. Love ya." A quick smooch into the phone preceeded his hanging up.

Christian sighed and caught Puck, his pet faerie dragon, perched on the bookcase making little kissy-kissy faces at him. The gentleman-mage just smirked and sighed again, willing himself to stand up and finish getting ready for the debriefing in ten minutes.

[Ecclesiastes]

Jason was back in his own quarters, getting dressed while tapped into his phoneline via transducer.

"Turn off that transducer and get on the line, you know I hate the way it makes you sound."

"Sorry babe, no can do right now, things are hot and I've got to get ready while I talk. Listen... something is going on. Not sure yet, but Angus made it sound bad."

He listened to the silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds and caught every word his wife wasn't saying.

"Crystal. I love you. But this is what I do. With Bravo and Charley gone, things are going to get very hard around here, I'm sure the team will get called in for extra duty until we can get some reinforcements."

Another pause, then a sigh, "I love you too Jason. Just... be careful, ok? Hang on a sec, Jakey wants to say hi..."

"Hi daddy!"

The sound of his son's voice always made him smile...

"Hey partner. You bein' good for mommy?"

"Yeah... Are you going to make it home for the weekend? We were gunna go play some ball, member?"

"Sorry little man, but I don't think so. I'll call when I have a better idea. And I promise I'll make it up to you, ok bud?"

Another pause, then Crystal was back on the line, "He'll be ok. I'll let him have some friends over for a sleepover this weekend. That should help."

"Don't get in over your head. I gotta go babe, I'll call you when I can. I miss you."

"I miss you too..."

Minutes pass and Jason gets geared up and ready to go. A few minutes before the team needs to assemble, Jason stops in at Christian's door, "Hey man. How's Alexis holdin' up?"

[Kagetenshi]

Jack slammed the door to his quarters shut, muttering words not fit for a family magazine. He picked up the phone, dialed the number.
"Hello?"
"Hey, bro."
"Jack? What's up?"
"Something came up, something big. I can't talk about it, don't even know the details myself, but… I don't know if I'm going to be back for Jimmy's birthday."
"But… you said…" there was a long pause. "It's not going to do any good, is it?"
"'Fraid not."
"I'll let him know."
"Tell him I'll make it up to him."
"Yeah. Sure."
"Tell Jenny I said hi. I need to run."
"Jack?"
"Yes?"
"Don't get yourself killed."
"Thanks, Bill. I'll do my best."

[Whizbang]

Astraly searching for survivors, though not as physically draining as physically looking, was more mentally and spiritually draining. Leslie wished that she had more time to relax, mabey hit the spa and do some thereputic shopping. But that wasn't to be. So she simply stettled for a call home.

"Hi, Auntie Beth."

"Leslie! Where in the world are you?"

"At my other job. Which looks like I'm going to be for awhile. Looks like Craig is going to get a bit more teaching experience." she replied, mentioning her grad student who was getting all too much time covering her classes while she was out with the Department. "Think you could look in on him for me?"

"Of course. I might be able to pick up a couple of your lower level classes as well to take some of the work off of him."

"Thanks. So anyways, how's Nana?"

"For being older than dirt, she's still getting around amazingly well. Still wish she'd try some of the treatments they have these days, but she's still stuck in the pre magic era. I guess it's enough that she accepts it's existance in the world."

"Good. As much as I'd like to chat more, I need to be getting to a briefing. I'll be in touch."

"Alright. Be careful."

[Ol' Scratch]

Patting Jason's back as he locks the door behind him, Christian offers a sigh in response to his question. "Probably about as well as Chrystal is. But I'd rather not dwell on it; would only make things worse, yanno."

[Ecclesiastes]

"I hear ya. Come on, lets get down to brief."

Doing his best to shrug off his worries, Jason heads to the briefing room with Christian.

[Shadow]

The briefing room was situated on the higher levels with a large lexan window backed by 3 feet of bullet proof glass. It looked out onto the majestic peaks of the mountain. The sun was rising to it's zenith and the mirrors built into the wall funneled the natural light into the room. The crescent shaped table looked out onto the fantastic view. A huge widescreen flat vid adorned the wall opposite of the view.

Two people currently occupied the room, Angus, and the ADS6 Jade Triely. They seemed to be somewhat engaged in a heated argument when the group walks in. Not looking like he won Angus cuts off his last words short and gives a nod to the elven woman.

"Fine, there all yours." He picks up several portfolios and walks past the team out the door. Leaving only the elven woman. Her age was hard to guess, as with all elves. She looked like she could be anywhere from 15 to 30. She was dressed in small white top and a short black skirt. Her long brown hair was pulled severely behind her and wound in an intricate patter behind her head.

"I know you all know of me but lets get the introductions out of the way. I am the Assistant Director Section Six. I would like to congratulate you all on your extraordinary efforts to help minimize the damage and save lives. Your country thanks you. Now we have a new job for you."

She pauses for moment as her fingers tap controls on the table. The windows shitters slowly close and the lights dim. The vid on the wall lights up. Footage from the attack is playing. At first it shows a wide angle on the whole compound. THe terrorist were much better armed than at first thought. Two T-birds lay in the forest 100 meters from the compound. They act as mobile artillery pieces shelling certain sections.

"They weren't just out for destruction. They had an objective, a purpose. They were there to free people."

The scene shifts showing a stream of people running out of the Neverland complex. Some where cut down in the fire fight, others headed for the hills. Many got into waiting vehicles that transported the away.

"Accounting for dead, one hundred and twenty-three prisoners escaped."

[Kagetenshi]

Jack whistled softly. Son of a… He'd figured they were after someone inside, maybe a few people, maybe some research data on the side, but over a hundred people…

"Is that including the ones who stayed in the area, or are they all en route to Ghost-knows-where?"

[Ecclesiastes]

"And do we have any idea who is dead, who is still here, and who escaped?"

[Shadow]

"To answer both your questions, those are the number of tags missing. The bodies are still being acounted for, but we had each prisoner tagged with a short range beacon. Those 123 beacons are the ones that exited the area when the fighting started. "

[Ecclesiastes]

"So whats the job you said you had for us?" Please don't tell me its hunting these guys down. I signed up for local duty to stay close to my family...

[Shadow]

"Your the only Team to survive the attack. You are the ones who have to bring them in. We have the ThinkTank working on tracking them down, they assure me they should be able to get their first target in a week. You have that time to get the gear you need and get ready. This will most likely be deep cover insertions in enemy territory where collateral targets can not be destroyed. Bring them back if possible, eliminate them if need be."

[Ecclesiastes]

Drek. I knew it! Crystal is gunna be... ugh...

"Sure thing. Once you have the data, get it to us. Anything else for now? We've got a funeral to get to."

[Whizbang]

"Well, we have prisoners on the loose. Besides that, what's the status on what the residents were working on?"

[ Spoiler ]

or were we just there to help keep an eye on the prisoners? Or both? :)

[Shadow]

"There isn't a whole lot I can tell you about the men and women you will be chasing. Each and everyone of them proved beyond a doubt that they are enemies of this country, and they are all extremely dangerous. I cannot stress how important it is that they never know you are there until you are ready to strike. These people are some of the most dangerous criminals and terrorists the world has to offer. Anything more is Classified by National Security."

[Whizbang]

"And those who are going looking for these people don't need to know...great." Leslie commented.

[Ecclesiastes]

Jason frowns and nods to Leslie's comment. "Seriously. We're expected to go take out these targets without any knowledge of what they are capable of? Who they are isn't as important and if that needs to remain classified, fine, but we need to know about their abilities if we're going to be prepared for this."

[Shadow]

The directors shoulders slump a bit, "I understand where your coming from, and I will try to get you more information as we track individual targets for you to get, but were talking about a security classification the the NSC has to approve. I can assure you, any info you absolutly need will be given."

[Ecclesiastes]

Bulldrek.

"Got it. Anything else?"

[Shadow]

"Not unless you have something for me...."

[Kagetenshi]

"I assume we'll be provided the gear necessary to conduct this operation?" And a pony. Need to remember to ask for a pony this time. Always wanted one…

[Shadow]

"Anything you need that the dept. can afford ti give you is yours. You will have the ThinkTank as back up and all the coordination you can get. But this is a Black Bag operation. No one outside of our Department will know about it. Not local law enforcement nor anyone else in the Federal Government. Try to keep the civilian casualties to the barest minimum."

[Ecclesiastes]

"Alright then, keep in touch."

Jason stands and addresses the team, "You guys want to head over to the funeral from here, or did you need to make a stop anywhere?"