Realistic or Modern Operation Spirit IC [OPEN!]

[Bard Bard]

Professor Alisdair Lockerbie

ICSC Designation: CASE-137
Unofficial Designation: "The Insides of an Octopus."
Threat Assessment: Moderate.
Containment Status: Contained.

Professor Alisdair Lockerbie Finished typing up his report. A recent containment breach had necessitated the review of CASE-137’s containment protocols. As it happens, Lockerbie decided to keep the old procedures, but increase the necessary clearance level to access it.

Submit.

Lockerbie reached over to his mug and took a sip out of it. He failed to do so, peering down into the mug to discover it empty. He rose out of the chair and logged out of his computer terminal, leaving his office to get a top up of coffee.

There had once been a coffee machine in the hallway of Section Three. It was a pity that 137 had broken it in the breach, requiring Lockerbie to venture into the neighbouring Section Four to get a refill.
Finally locating one, he placed the mug into the machine and topped it up. Almost as soon as he took the first sip--boiling hot, but Lockerbie liked it that way--the intercom broadcast a message.

“On-duty Admins and Supervising Researchers please report to Intelligence. Category B situation, Category B situation. Requesting mission directive.” That was his call. Sighing, he slipped a hand into the pocket of his white lounge coat before making his way to intelligence.

Lockerbie entered the PAD-13 Intelligence Office. Dark, as usual. Intelligence personnel really had a fetish for dim rooms, didn’t they? “Professor A. Lockerbie here,” He spoke with words that rolled, “You got a Category-B scenario, aye?” He took a long sip of his coffee while leaning against the wall.

 

[Mr_DC]

Konrad inhaled deeply. It was getting far too late and he had no more meetings so staying awake was only draining the energy he would need tomorrow for a series of budget meetings. With a smile and a few kind words, he would ensure those that followed his requests got their funds. Those that didn't... Well, that was where the funds were coming from.

Konrad allowed a smug smile to escape, proud of his own brilliance. He stood up and looked down at the teacup in his hands. He still had half his tea left and it was long cold. Another cup before sleep would do. Perhaps he could spare another few minutes to read one of the tomes he borrowed from the secure library. While it wasn't anomalous on its own, it was assembled by members of a cult that was obsessed with such things. While much of it was insane ramblings, Konrad managed to pick out strands of logic. What fascinated him most were the sketches. The sketches that followed him into dreams and assembled the most fascinating nightmares. He would prefer to read it in the library, surrounded by the smell of books but the nature and origin of the book made it less than ideal.

"On-duty Admins and Supervising Researchers please report to Intelligence. Category B situation, Category B situation. Requesting mission directive."
Konrad paused. That meant him. An ominous smirk spread across his face. Sleep would have to wait. There was the opportunity to add a few more weights to his side of the scale. Tapping his pocket to ensure he had some sweets with him, Konrad headed to the officers requesting his presence.

Konrad opened the door with his elbow, holding the cold teacup in his hands. "Good evening, Damen und Herren." Konrad greeted them, flipping his German accent on like a light switch. Seeing how he entered right after another supervisor they called, Korad immediately turned his attention to the man. "Professor!" He exclaimed, digging into his pocket and pulling out a red and white hard candy. "Candy?" He smiled, offering it to the professor with a free hand while turning his attention to those who summoned him. "How may I assist?" He asked with the friendliest smile he could assemble.

 

[Viper Actual]

INTELLIGENCE

Haskell looked up as both Alisdair and Konrad arrived. The intelligence chief snapped her fingers at them and pointed towards Riku, Stromberg and Kendell. "Doc. Chief. Get your asses over here." She looked at Riku. "Tell them what we have Komatsu, about Case-044."

As the supervisors got into position the Category B alarm had set other resources in motion. A typical response for a confirmed sentient anomaly was to deploy additional field assets to negate the high risk of the entity escaping. This 044 was no different and as such more resources were silently put into play. A TACT unit based in Germany were already gearing up while other, more local, resources were also contacted.

Bard Bard Mr_DC FabulousTrash

ANOMALOUS OBJECT RETRIEVAL TEAM

Not far from Chernobyl- in fact it was right outside- was a small jeep of the UAZ-brand. It was slowly making its way through the forests of western Chernobyl along a dirt road as old as the vehicle itself. All was silent and the only thing visible was the light cast by the two headlights bopping up and down due to the semi-rough terrain. Inside the jeep the mood was fairly neutral. Yakarov, a ICSC scientist, was scribbling something down on his datapad in the backseat, pausing only momentarily to adjust his glasses.

Next to Yakarov was a cubical container with nothing but barcodes on it. A curious item for sure though not as curious as its contents. The container twitched and faint skittering could be heard from the inside. Yakarov shushed it and placed a hand on top to keep it still.

Sitting at the front of the vehicle were Agent Porter and Operative Kolt with the latter being the driver. The radio between them was quietly playing some faint Russian song that sounded like something that would be played in a nightclub. Next to the radio was a tactical datapad and a radio which were not only far more modern than the rest of the vehicle but also looked like something the civilian market wouldn't see in at least five years time.

The mission had been fairly easy. Reports of a mutated centipede that somehow made people hallucinate. It hadn't taken long for Yakarov to catch it- all they had to do was follow the wild hallucination and single source of radiation. In fact he could have carried this op out all by himself but it had been decided to deploy some more senior assets for local security seeing as there was a civil war raging not far away.

Suddenly the radio stopped. Flashing, the datapad alerted the agents that there was a Category B-situation nearby. Coordinates were popping up alongside intel on all nearby assets in the area. Judging by the look of things it was something bad.

A prompt popped up on the datapad screen: UNIT IN RANGE TO ASSIST - MARK COORDINATES AND ENTER OPERATION? YES/NO

In the back Yakarov sighed. "Oh no..."

Shannon Trevor Bronco

 

[Bronco]

Kolt briefly took his eyes off of the 'road', giving the data pad a quick glance followed by a double and triple take. His neutral expression turned to one of utter giddiness, complete with a toothy grin. The last operation hadn't quite stood up to what he was accustomed to. Overall there was far less action than he'd anticipated, which left little opportunity to bleed off any kind of adrenaline he'd built up in anticipation. In his eyes, there was nothing worse than gearing up for a fight only to find that there wasn't one to be had in the first place. The condition had some kind of technical psychological jargon, not that Kolt cared to learn it.

No, instead the operatives mind was far more concerned with slamming the 'yes' option home. With a quick press of the touchscreen, the UAZ and personnel within were now assets assigned to Operation Spirit. "Oh yes." came Kolt's contradicting and almost relieved reply to Yakarov's worries. He angled his head to the side, continuing to watch the dirt path ahead of him, as he continued to address the scientist in the rear. "You're gonna need a bigger box, doc." he chuckled.

As he waited for the inevitably irritated reply from his colleague, he turned what concentration wasn't on the road to the UAZ’s radio. The system was far more advanced than anything he’d dealt with in the Rangers, built for performance instead of compactness or mobility. Thankfully he’d been shown the basic ins and outs of the device prior to the team’s little bug hunt.

“Intel, new assets signing on. Awaiting designation.” he signed the team in to the current op. Now all that was left was to be given a designation (probably something along the lines of TACT-2 or PIT) and to receive their first set of orders. But in the meantime, Kolt’s hand went back to the volume knob of their radio. As the fierce Russian beat returned, he found himself again revving up for the unknown as he bobbed to the music.

 

[FabulousTrash]

Riku - Intelligence

Riku bit her lip as her eyes were glued to the live camera feeds. To her side, she could hear Stromberg and Kendell talking between eachother, however she paid no attention to them at the moment. It wasnt until the other two agents spoke up to her, asking for guidance, that her trance-like stare was broken and she glanced over to them. However, before she could say anything, Haskell had swung back around, cutting her off. She listened to her superiors words and could only nod and follow through with her orders. Though, Riku was worried just as much as Stromberg and Kendell were. Riku turned to face the other two agents, nodding slightly.

"Tell the field team to either hold or back off slowly and not show any hostility. Have them check if any of them are under the effects of the entity."

Riku sat down in her chair, sighing as she stared ahead at the camera feeds once more. Particularly, she was watching Kazuya's feed. She couldnt do anything else until any admins or researchers arrived and she had no idea who was in the office tonight.

She didnt have to wait long, thankfully. Riku heard the door to the office open and a man with a beard and glasses enter. He introduced himself to the room as 'Professor A. Lockerbie'. Riku had heard of him on a few occasions, his name appearing on past reports she had read over. Another man entered not long after Lockerbie, greeting everyone but didnt disclose his name. However, Riku immediately recognized the man. It was hard not to know the administration staff around here.

She watched the two newcomers exchange words before Haskell called their attention and pointed towards Riku's direction. She nodded in acknowledgement and waited for the two men to reach her station.

"Case 044 has us chasing an humanoid-based entity. There have been reports of different appearances but what we've confirmed is it appears as a two-story cabin out in the woods or a humanoid-like creature. Whether the two are separate or the same is unknown. Our TACT team on the field just made contact with the humanoid version of the entity and from the looks of it..."

Riku pointed towards the live-feed cameras, some of which that still had the entity in the frame.

"...Its showing some signs of intelligence. Observation, curiosity, whatever it is, its unknown at the moment. The field team have been instructed to refrain from engaging and remaining non-hostile towards it as well as making sure none of them are under the effects of the entity. We know that the entity lures unsuspecting people to the cabin, but from there its anybody's guess what goes on behind the door."

Riku looked back to the two men, her arms loosely crossed infront of her chest.

"Any thoughts on the situation?"

Bard Bard Mr_DC Viper Actual


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Kazuya - TACT


From the time that the TACT team first arrived onsite till now, Kazuya was relaxed.

Just another day in the office, another anomaly.

He held his position alongside the rest of the team, waiting for the go ahead from Griffith to start moving in. He held is ACR in a relaxed position infront of him, his finger resting on the trigger guard. The safety was off, but Kazuya has had years of training to prevent a misfire. When Griffith made the call, Kazuya began advancing with the team, remaining on his side of the pathway. It was dark, but the moonlight was a bit of help and Kazuya found it necessary to use night-vision at this time.

All he could hear were the sounds of everyone's boots on the ground, the occasional breathing and cough. But otherwise, it was dead quiet. No crickets, no nothing.

We are in a radioactive area. I doubt wildlife would want to be around this place.

It was only 20 minutes before the command to halt was given. Kazuya stopped in place, taking a moment to look around the area, see how far they've gotten into the forest. He listened over the radio as Gavrilov and Griffith exchanged words. Then came the gasp. Kazuya looked back towards the team in time to see...something infront of Barazi.

It was definitely a humanoid creature. He couldnt see many details about the creature because of his viewing angle, but the tension in the air was enough to give chills down Kazuya's spine. He heard Griffith call out to headquarters, asking for further instructions. For a few moments, it was silent on the radio. Then came the response, telling the ground team to hold position. Fallstrom retorted but Kazuya remained silent. However, he couldnt deny that he has some questions as well.

 

[Mr_DC]

Viper Actual FabulousTrash

Konrad flipped up another piece of candy from his pocket and caught it mid-air. The night was getting interesting. He was full of energy just thinking about the potential a sentient being could have. All the research they could carry out. The potential increase in funding. He could, perhaps, even convince the containment personnel to let him hold an interview. An unofficial one, of course. Wouldn't do well to have a recording of someone from the administration team doing the work of a researcher.

"Wunderbar!" Konrad smiled, watching the screen. "A seemingly sentient entity that may or may not be a part of the original anomaly. We may have two anomalies on site!" With a smile, he began pacing around the room, flipping the colorfully-wrapped piece of candy. "I will make sure the team on the ground gets praised for not escalating the situation." His mind was awash with possibilities. The cabin in the woods was dull. It wasn't something flashy that he could sell or get some use out of. A sentient humanoid entity, though... That was pure gold.

"The entity is clearly non-hostile so let's keep it that way." Konrad proposed. "Why not have the team cooperate? See what the entity wants. Allow themselves to be lured, as you put it. They are trained agents, after all. The chance of someone getting seriously hurt is insignificant. Besides, we are watching them. Imagine what we could learn." Konrad explained his thoughts as he stopped behind the young, Asian girl. Riku. That was her name. Konrad made sure to memorize the name of every single person he met. While the first impression truly was most important, remembering the name of someone he met only once was more than just a neat party trick.

"They shouldn't harm the entity no matter the cost." Konrad looked at Riku. "Candy?" He smiled.

 

[DrabberRogue]

There was still a smirk on Agent Rose's face as the entertaining Agent Kramer was replaced by a more stern Roux. Even the tense situation alluded to by the radio chatter did little to dampen his mood. He had quickly decided that he liked the both of them, Kramer and Davis. Guys like that made the stress of helicopter flying totally worth it. Although in full honesty he would much rather drop them out of a C-130 or something. Maybe come back around once the objective had been completed and do that cool CIA style extraction, pulling them up by hook and line in a low pass. Unfortunately he had to admit that kind of maneuver just wasn't suited for the mission, however. So he had to begrudgingly accept that being stuck with a helicopter really was the best option.

Correction, not begrudgingly. Roux signaled she wanted to be ready to go in five minutes. No, under five minutes. Jace could do that. He already had the chopper mostly ready, having powered it down in a state that would be easy to spin back up again. So he quickly turned to his instruments, a rising whir filling the air as he started the aircraft's engine once again. Most of his pre-flight checks were already done, courtesy of his work after landing, but he went through and double checked it all anyways.

Two minutes, going on three, according to his watch.

Looking back over at Roux, Agent Rose gave a smile and a thumbs up to indicate he was ready. Normally he might've given the engine an extra minute or two to warm up, but he figured it was still hot from the previous flight. Whenever she gave the word he would push their chopper up into the air, reservations about landing in a thick forest be damned. The pilot had played off his worries at the time, when Kramer had pointed out the problem, but he was a little bit less confident when it came to actually confronting the issue. Still if the squad leader demanded excellence, and he got the feeling that's what Agent Roux expected, then he would damn well give her excellence.

Anything less might put someone else's life in danger. Besides, the challenge would be interesting if it really came down to landing between the trees.