The Project - IC Thread

[Sherwood]

Just outside of Augusta, Georgia is the picturesque setting that we find ourselves in, at a stately manor house that was once a major plantation, but is now the public face to Genom Bioengineering and Research and home to the company's Animal Genetics Mapping Laboratory, better known as The Project.

Most of the labs of the Project are located underground in an elaborate facility that covers several acres of land with three different levels, all carefully guarded by layers of manned and automated security measures. Most of your training takes place in one of the many underground rooms, but on some occasions, you are given a field trip to practice your skills in a variety of locations.

At this particular time, it is early March, and the weather is already starting to heat up with lots of humidity. You are out in the woods, working on your field navigation skills with your current instructors, two of the many active duty Army soldiers working with the Project, Lt. Felix Cortez and SSgt Marie Cuomo. Lt. Cortez is leading you on a brisk pace through the trees, helping you learn your land navigation skills, all while wearing your heavy field packs full of gear and packing your standard weapons. It is all just another typical day of endless training.

That all changes when SSgt Cuomo's encrypted satellite radio crackles to life. "Field team, field team. Mission is now aborted. Proceed with all haste to Checkpoint Wrench for immediate extraction. I say again, training run is now aborted. What is your ETA to the checkpoint? Please acknowledge."

Lt. Cortez checks his GPS unit before responding. Taking the radio handset from SSgt Cuomo, he calls in. "Copy that, HQ. ETA to Checkpoint Wrench is twenty minutes. What's the sitch?"

"Full briefing will be provided for your team upon return home. Just get a hustle on. We need you guys back here ASAP." With that, the signal comes to an end.

Felix hands the handset back to Marie. "Well, you heard the man and you know the drill. We have a chopper to catch. Lets move."

Epiphany NemoTheSurvivor Monky Silanon Psychie

 

[Psychie]

Arachne adjusts the sit of her pack over her shoulders and hoists her shotgun with a sigh. "And here I was thinking that we would have another boring day of hiking and target practice. Perhaps this is the start of a different round of tests? Hmmm. Would they send a helicopter out to the middle of nowhere for a training exercise? Well, we won't find out by sitting around here. Burning daylight and all that. Lets get going."

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

Meniru perked her head up at the orders, and immediately drops low in preparation to move. "Certainly seems strange, I think," she says. "I don't think I left the oven on. Maybe I left the water running. Did I forget the lights?" She giggles. "Oh that's right, I forgot that I don't forget anything. Let's not keep them waiting then." Her two tentacles carrying her gear shift, holding the pack and weapons closer to her body, as she falls in line behind Cortez.

 

[Monky]

"Oh man... Mission abort? What do you think is going on?" Damien asks noone in particular as he bounces lightly on his feet. His pack was a little smaller than everyone else's due to his smaller stature but not much, the little shrimp was pretty tough for his size. The hammer mandible on his claw twitches slightly in excitement as he burns off some nervous energyat this new development.

 

[Sherwood]

Monty the Manticore also grabs his gear and grenade launcher with a low rumbling growl. "I was hoping for more life fire. I like watching stuff explode. Anyways, lets go."

Hustling through the trees gets you to the large clearing before the helicopter arrives. SSgt Cuomo calls out on the radio, "Field team is in position, ready for extraction."

"Copy that. Moving in now."

Soon enough, you hear the distinctive WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP of the Blackhawk as it comes in to land. The side door opens wide to let everyone load in, and one of the chopper's crew ushers you inside. Even before you have a chance to strap in, the pilot applies the power once more and takes to the air, nose dipping down to get to top speed. Whatever it is that's going on seems to have the pilot in a hurry to get your back home.

With the Blackhawk moving so fast, it doesn't take you long to get back to the plantation house that is the headquarters for the Project. Those with a seen sense of sight notice that there are a few extra vehicles parked out front; three Hummers and a staff car. Monty glances over his shoulder as he leans out to get a closer look, "Were we expecting visitors? Do you see the flags on the front of the staff car? They have a star on them, and that means a General is here. No wonder everyone is so worked up. We must be getting an inspection from the Army. Checking out where all their money is getting spent."

Lt. Cortez says, "Well, no matter who it is, you still need to secure your gear. Get it locked up where they belong and get cleaned up real quick. If the General wants to see you, he or she will want to have you not covered in mud. Make a good impression in there."

Sure enough, once you get your equipment properly locked away, a staffer comes up and tells you to get to the main conference room, that Army General Nathan Phillips is here with members of his staff to evaluate you for a possible assignment.

As you approach the conference room, you are faced with the surprising sight of three soldiers in BDUs standing guard outside the room. The surprising part of that is the fact that they are all wearing advanced body armor and two of them have M-16's in hand and the third is carrying some kind of coherent energy weapon, along with neural defense headbands, designed to protect them from mental assault. Inside the conference room you find a who's who of the Project staff, including Dr. Miriam Conway, Doug Dorsey, and Alec Guinn. On the other side of the table, you can see a older man that you recognize as the General. He has a pair of captains with him, and the three officers are flanked by six more soldiers, also armed, armored, and everyone is wearing the same neural headbands that you saw on the guards out in the hallway.

Several of the guards are openly nervous at the sight of the team, but the General and his two staffers have no readable facial expressions. The officers are much better at maintaining a poker face than their guards are.

Once you have all taken your seats, Mr. Dorsey stands. "Now that everyone is here, we can begin the briefing. This is General Phillips, the officer in charge of our efforts here at Genom Bioengineering to make the next generation of military war fighter. With our budget coming up for reevaluation, the General is interested in seeing just what the Animal Genetics Mapping Project has come up with. This will be your first actual mission in the field, and your performance on this assignment will help to determine the future viability of the Project. With that being said, I'll turn the time over to you, General."

The General doesn't say anything, but he does nod over at the officer sitting at his left, a woman with her dark hair pulled up into a tight bun on her head. She stands and says, "I am Captain Wells. Thirty hours ago, a supply truck loaded with a variety of small arms was hijacked, but the real threat that was taken are the sixteen Stinger shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles that were supposed to be delivered to Fort Gordon here in Georgia."

"These missiles are all ready to use, and in the wrong hands they can wreak havoc. Your mission here today is to recover these missing weapons before they can be handed off to their buyer. If recovery is impossible, destroy the missiles to make them unusable. All other considerations are secondary to this."

 

[Monky]

Damien scrambles into the blackhawk and belts in, but continues to fidget in excitement, peering past Monty as he strains against his harness to see what was going on. As the big guy suggests that it's all over some big shot doing an inspection he sags back into the seat, his nervous energy disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. "Aww man... Training's more fun than this." he mutters. At least they let him fire his claw in training sometimes.

He trudges inside and lethargically stows his MK 23 and grenades with an overly dramatic sigh, following the staffer as told, finally perking up again as they spy the kitted out soldiers. "Oooh, a directed energy emitter. I wonder if they'll let me take a look." he murmurs, fidgeting a little again, though he keeps quiet as they head inside and take their seats. He cradles his claw in his lap, kicking his legs idly as the meeting starts.

He finally tears his eyes away from another of the energy weapons as Dorsey hands things over to the general, his eyes widening slightly as the woman briefs them on the mission.

 

[Psychie]

Shifting her eight legs around the chair specially made for her anatomy, Arachne lets out a silent "Oh!" of surprise. This was not what she was expecting, but in a good way! Her curiosity is now raised up to the max. "We will need more details about what we are getting into: how are the missiles being transported? Where are they now? Are there any guards to deal with? Where are these missiles being transported to? Finally, who is the buyer?" She leans forward in uncontrolled interest to hear what the Captain has to say.

 

[Sherwood]

The lady captain nods. "The weapons are all onboard a panel truck that is in route to the Atlanta harbor, where the hand-off to the buyer is set to take place. Our intel tells us that the buyer is a known terrorist named Abdul Al-Kahar. He is suspected to be behind the bombing of the train station in Paris four months ago, killing 12 and wounding 43. He is also a meta-human, with a greatly heightened metabolism that grants him a remarkable healing factor, and he is quite strong, having been seen lifting and throwing a 50 ton tank over fifty feet. The true extent of his strength or if he has other powers are unknown. He has entered the country with four members of his organization, and the panel truck should only have the driver and a single passenger in it. From the intercepted communications we have heard, Al-Kahar is going to be loading the Stingers onto the cargo ship Star of India for transport to somewhere in the Mideast. This transaction cannot be allowed to take place. You are authorized to take any and all steps necessary to capture them, or, failing that, destroy them."

Monty rumbles, "What about taking prisoners?"

The captain directs a stern look at Monty. "What part of this do you not understand? Recover the missiles. If that is impossible, destroy them. That is our focus here. Everything else is secondary to that."

 

[Monky]

Damien's eyes continue to widen as the woman and general respond to the other's questions. "So uh... Collateral damage is not an issue then?" he asks softly, mouth mandibles twitching in his equivalent of licking his lips. Al-Kahar sounded a bit intimidating but... this was their first real mission!

"Oh my... One way or another those missiles will be stopped." he says after a few moments, they could do this.

 

[Silanon]

Scott

He enters the room with a growling sound on his lips - with as little time as they get to spend outside, even something as simple as land navigation (hell, he's a dingo, he'll find his way through the wilderness) is high up on his list of things that should not be interrupted by some random general deciding to stop by. His soldiers seem to be prepared for pretty much anything, as if this was hostile territory - is there a scent of fear in the air? Admittedly, that would be understandable - the others are certainly not a usual sight, and his own appearance doesn't help in the slightest. Sharp teeth, glowing eyes - if they're here to see a predator, they found one. An angry one, too, who has just spent several hours by running through the bushes, carrying his entire equipment without getting to use anything except the bloody compass. His fur is still sweaty, and he carries an opened bottle of water as he sits down to listen - stuff they'll have to deal with if they drop in without prior announcement.

Turns out they didn't do that without reason. Probably got the information a few hours ago, and decided it'd be time to finally throw their best squad at the problem. Of course, they can't know that yet, no missions thus far. But they'll finally get to see the m in action. That Al-Kahar? About as dead as someone can be without taking his dying breath. He releases another angry growl as the woman acts as if his squad member is slow-witted - why do all higher-ups act as if they're better than anyone else? Cortez asked to make a good impression, though, so he leaves it at that. Instead - the dingo agrees with the pistol shrimp: "Doesn't sound like it - no restrictions for once. We can do that, certainly - that's what we're here for."

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

Meniru, after the helicopter ride and stashing her gear, remained oddly silent. Between the heavy armor on the guards and Captain Wells insistence on the missiles being the primary concern, Meniru came to the conclusion that they didn't trust the team. She buries the thought as she starts to memorize the appearance of both the General and the Captain. As she does, she says, "You said the missiles were taken thirty hours ago. Why are we getting involves so late? And why haven't we left yet if time is of the essence?"

 

[Sherwood]

The captain giving you your briefing looks over at Meniru. "It took some time for us to locate the missiles after they were taken, and then there was the question of who would be recovering them; your team is just one of many options that were considered. Once this briefing is done, you'll be moving out on your run. Choose your weapons to deal with heavy resistance."

 

[Psychie]

Arachne asks, "Who will be in charge of the operation, giving us our operational orders in the field? And where will this engagement be taking place? I don't see you wanting us to have a firefight in the middle of downtown Atlanta."

 

[Sherwood]

The captain shrugs. "The field command of the mission will be totally in your hands. This is an experiment to see if this Project is viable, and that means you have to be self sufficient in the field. You will be monitored, and everything you will be doing will be recorded by your body cams for later review and assessment. If you do well, you can expect to get more actual missions instead of just training." The unspoken threat is that if you don't do well, things will not be good for you.

 

[Monky]

Damien felt giddy with excitement as his biggest hopes were confirmed. Of course when their foe was a metahuman that could throw tanks around any sort of engagement was bound to have some collateral damage, but minimizing that had been a large part of his training.

"D-don't worry General. We're the right team for the job." he says with his equivalent of a smile, his mandibles pulling back in an only slightly disconcerting manner to reveal the lower half of his mouth.

 

[Psychie]

Arachne says, "So we will be at the harbor. I would hope that we will have maps of the area that we can study?" She turns her attention to Scott, the Dingo. "Are you planning on bringing your heavy sniper rifle? I'm sure that there are plenty of places nearby for you to bring the hurt and never bee seen by the bad guys. I plan on having my auto shotgun, but will focus primarily on my psi powers. Monty, I think you should go with the rapid fire grenade launcher. Lay out as much hurt on these guys as you can. I have a feeling that this Abdul Al-Kahar will be a bit harder to take out, but we can make it happen." Turning her attention to the brass at the front of the room, she says, "We know what we need to do. There shouldn't be anything stopping us from bringing those missiles back."

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

"I guess I'll just do whatever I want then," Meniru mumbles to Arachne. "Well, I am the most adaptable member of the team, after all." To the room, she says, "I don't think we are going to get anything accomplished in this room. Shall we?" She gestured towards the door.

 

[Sherwood]

Monty nods with a toothy grin. "Lots of boom will be dealt out. We'll send those terrorists to meet Allah in person."

This seems to signal the end of the briefing. The seated officers now stand up and begin to head for the door, with the guards following close behind as they keep a watch on the team. Now that the room is solely members of the Project, the level of tension seems to fade, and is replaced by an air of excitement. Mr. Dorsey has a large smile on his face as he comes up to each of you and offers to shake hands. "I have been looking forward to this day for the past five years, ever since you were all first born. You have been raised to be the very best, and now it is your time to shine! You can do this, I know you can. Now, get out there and kick some ass!"

 

[Monky]

"Yessss. I can't wait! How much explosive ordnance will I have Mr. Dorsey? I wanna make sure that worse case scenario the only place that ship is going is the bottom of the bay!" Damien says, jumping to his feet once the non-project staff are gone.

 

[Silanon]

"Don't think I have to tell ya that you can count on us." The dingo stands up from his chair, stretching, seemingly relaxed despite the upcoming task. Those familiar with him, which includes everyone in the room by now, can notice the tension underneath, however - and the apparent anticipation to finally jump into battle. "I'd bring my sniper rifle to a close-quarters fight and club someone to death with it - and it sounded as if the conditions will be hell of a lot better. A couple of smoke grenades, a can of dried meat if we still have one in the kitchen - think that'll do it for me." He does not list the box with pills and other medical stuff - everyone knows he'll bring it along.

 

[Sherwood]

Down in the Project's armory, everyone checks out their selected weapons, grenades, ammo and equipment. Even with the plan of having Arachne psychically link you up, everyone still gets an encrypted satellite radio to be able to call in for whatever reason. You are then hustled up to the waiting Blackhawk where you are airlifted towards the harbor.

According to the NSA signal intercepts, the exchange of the missiles into the hands of the mutant terrorist leader is due to take place at 0200 on the docks alongside the ship Star of India. You have a rough estimate of the numbers of terrorists with Al-Kahar being in the 5-8 man range, along with the 20 man crew of the ship. It is unknown at this time if the crew are going to be interested in any way of being involved, or if they are just the unlucky few that have their ship chartered to haul the bad guys. The truck that is hauling the Stingers shouldn't have more than two or three men on it total, and they are going to be very motivated not to be captured by the authorities, so expect them to be hostile and well armed, too.

You are going to be able to arrive at 1200, a full two hours before the exchange is set to take place. The ship is not due to sail until 0900 in the morning, but at that point there will be a sizable civilian presence on the docks. At the moment, things are very quiet at this part of the harbor, with only a few roaming security guards keeping watch. Their most dangerous weapon is their radios, so keep watch on where they are when you decide to make your move.

How do you want to approach the scene? Go into the ship now and wipe out the terrorists now, lay in wait for the missiles outside the ship to take them all on, or something completely different?

 

[Monky]

"Hmmm..." Damien muses as he quickly pulls up some satellite/google maps images of the dock in question. "I think we should do some prep work, and then hit em when the truck shows up." the shrimp says after some thought. "If we try to take out Al-Kahar before the truck shows up well... I'm sure he's going to cause a mess. The truck's our target, and if they think anything's gone wrong, like having a trashed up dock, they may get cold feet."

"I'd suggest splitting into two teams... one to keep Al-Kahar and his men busy, and the other smaller one to engage the truck, take out the drivers and secure the missiles. I plan to place some charges on the ship's rudder and propellers during our prep time to make sure we can stop that from leaving, and once we secure the truck we should probably place a few more charges just in case... we can't let them go again."

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

"That's a plan I can get behind," Meniru replies. "I can go with you, since breathing underwater is a problem everyone else has that we don't. And once we get the charges set on the propellers, we can circle around and focus on the truck. In fact, I may have a plan to get it to stop before reaching the Al-Kahar..."

 

[Psychie]

Arachne nods. "In my studies of my powers, I have noticed that people with a large amount of physical strength will frequently lack the same level of mental prowess, giving me a good way of hitting this Al-Kahar fellow where he will, hopefully, have less of a chance of defending himself. Using your idea of stopping the truck, I might be able to control the driver enough to make him pull over early, and then we can take control of the truck then. Well, at least we can give it a try."

 

[Silanon]

"Certainly have to hit the truck first - don't want them to disappear with the missiles. A well-aimed bullet might do the job, or your abilities if they're unprepared. As soon as we get control of the vecicle, I'd imagine the ship's crew to swarm out, trying to get their booty back. Probably could cause some havoc right then and there, delay them while you make sure noone can get their hands on the Stingers. When you prepare the propellers of the ship, I'll find myself a nice spot in the meantime - one of the cranes looked promising. Before that, though" - he grabs his med kit, handing out painkillers for the others - "take those before the real fun starts - just in case, don't want anyone whimper in pain tonight."