Davis walks forward from the wall where he was leaning after standing up from the table and addresses the room. "The unit that was encountered on Whirr was what the Turai call a "Quad". In new or unpacified areas, the Turai, or soldiers, take the place of the Kansatai, who are more like the border patrol or National Guard. The intelligence we've gotten from Arketta says that her Quad is skilled, but is not the best the Imperium military has to throw at us. That would be the Khiraba, or hunters. They seem to be a loosely-organized group, consisting of bounty hunters, assassins, saboteurs and the like." He turns to Angel. "You already met one, or at least a Turai who was trying for the position, Specialist Riviera. According to Arketta, the Turai you fought in the communications level servers had aspirations of joining their ranks."
He looks back at the rest of the room. "The Khiraba consist of some of the worst that the Imperium has to offer. Their ranks don't just consist of soldiers, but probably contain hardened criminals who won't hesitate to use whatever dirty tricks they can come up with to put us at a disadvantage. If we decide to capture the Imperium's black book, we will most likely be facing at least a small squad of them along with several well-trained Quads, so keep that in mind."
Semo considers a moment. "So the ones we encountered were mostly standard grunts, and these Khiraba are their special forces equivalent?" Frankly, he doesn't like the sound of that, especially the hardened criminal aspect as they have nothing to lose.
"Alien special forces or not, you ain't boots fresh out of South Carolina," Underwood says. "You are our best, and as such you will be better than their best. Dismissed."
The brass files out, making small talk with the foreign advisors. Davis approaches Hugh, who is wondering when his job title is going to get moved from "Deputy Security Officer" to something more befitting his current role. Amusingly, Agent Davis has something on his mind not too far from Hugh's old job. (Go Punkey Force)
Colomaya stops by Semo on her way out. "You going to make your lesson this afternoon?"
(Since Gatac has taken a leave of absence, I booted up my Gatac Simulator, made at great expense from a discarded prototype of the Earth Simulator supercomputer, alien biointerface technology, a cloning vat and some DNA from a coffee cup, to complete this exchange. Or I RP'd it in advance with him.)
Garrett notices Hugh standing over in the corner, trying to look like he's available for questions from the high ranking brass as ordered, without actually being easy to find. He walks over to Hugh. "Captain, I have a request for you."
"Let's hear it, then."
Garrett motions for them to stand close enough that they have to whisper and can't be heard over the noise in the room. "I need two of your men for guard duty. I'm giving Arketta a longer leash, but she still needs to be watched. She'll be wearing civilian clothes and a VIP badge so she blends in with all the other foreign dignitaries, but she'll also be wearing a tracking monitor."
"Yes, I've...heard of that plan. You have my full support, agent. In fact, I'll be one of those two men. You'll have the guard detail within the hour."
"Good," Davis says, " I'll be accompanying you for the first few days, just to get her acquainted with how the base works, but after that, she's your responsibility. You'll need to translate for her, as what extra English she's picked up during our sessions won't be enough for her to get by. Just stick to her cover and you'll be fine." Davis checks that no one is listening in, and continues. "Also, and this is very important, make sure that Hethna never knows that she's out or that she's even on the base. Do you understand?"
Hugh cracks a small smile. "Oh, I understand. Shouldn't be too difficult. Anything else, agent?"
"Just make sure she's well taken care of."
After triple-checking that no one heard what was going on, he walks out of the corner and out of the meeting room. There's a lot to prepare for, and he needs to get started right away.
The wink from Colomaya had surprised Semo, and by the end of the meeting he's half convinced himself that he imagined it.
Then she stops to speak to him as she leaves, causing Semo to nearly swallow his tongue. "Y-- Yes, ma'am. Wouldn't miss it," he replies with a salute, just for good measure.
As she walks away, anyone looking at Semo might be inclined to think he was trembling. But of course, that's ridiculous. SSgt Putupu's never been known to be afraid of anything...
Livia smirks. "You don't have to salute the CIA, Sergeant," she says as she exits with a few of her spook colleagues.
---
It's a little later in the day and Max is working on his latest weapon - building a bridge between his laptop's operating system and the Turai technology. It's not perfect, but over the past couple of weeks he's been able to crack whatever operating system the drones use as well as the handheld widgets. The system still requires a physical connection; the alien equipment is shielded to the point where Max theorizes that their typical warfare involves just as much ECM/ECCM as energy weapons. EMP burst tests haven't worked thus far, prompting this research into more insidious methods of counterprogramming.
At any rate, Max gets a page. Someone wants him down on the detention level. Varos and Quis have been there for 6 months, neither knowing the fate of the other. Perhaps Agent Davis made a breakthrough and needs some technical consultation. It's hard to read the spook, though.
---
Andy Tupolev stops by for a chat with Luis and Angel, one of the few familiar faces in Mesas Negras. He's head of the Applied Technologies lab on sublevel 3 now.
"I dunno when you guys are going back through, but I need the opinions of people A - I can trust, and B - know what we're up against. I've got people telling me that 'sufficient application of small arms' should be enough to stop these Turai. We're a long way away from reverse-engineering our own little phasers, and the dumb-fire beam rifles we have aren't exactly reproducible. You'll get 'em if you need 'em, but I've got to have a solution for the average grunt if these bastards come calling. No offense to your brothers-in-arms, but I doubt they'll be popping neck shots off at 100 yards like you guys can. What's something we can do now that'll penetrate the alien armor?"
At any rate, Max gets a page. Someone wants him down on the detention level. Varos and Quis have been there for 6 months, neither knowing the fate of the other. Perhaps Agent Davis made a breakthrough and needs some technical consultation. It's hard to read the spook, though.
*sighs*
Max first calls down to the detention level, mindful of what Varos and Quis are capable of doing.
Andy Tupolev stops by for a chat with Luis and Angel, one of the few familiar faces in Mesas Negras. He's head of the Applied Technologies lab on sublevel 3 now.
"I dunno when you guys are going back through, but I need the opinions of people A - I can trust, and B - know what we're up against. I've got people telling me that 'sufficient application of small arms' should be enough to stop these Turai. We're a long way away from reverse-engineering our own little phasers, and the dumb-fire beam rifles we have aren't exactly reproducible. You'll get 'em if you need 'em, but I've got to have a solution for the average grunt if these bastards come calling. No offense to your brothers-in-arms, but I doubt they'll be popping neck shots off at 100 yards like you guys can. What's something we can do now that'll penetrate the alien armor?"
Luis nods, "My guess? Ordinance; lots of it. Big caliber, lots of ammo. That's what did it the first time, and it's probably going to be our fallback this time, even if its not out primary plan." He pauses, thinks that through, and nods to himself nefore looking up again, "Anyway, what're you up to these days?"
"Ah... Yes, ma'am," Semo replies, looking up at her from his seated position. He's doing his best to ignore the fact that her breasts are roughly level with his face...
"Frags, lots and lots of frags. Claymores and grenades both did a number on them - enough metal gets through the soft parts of the armor, and the hail of metal seems to do a number on the camo systems. If you can translate that kind of firepower into something long range and man portable..."
Angel shrugs. "Or lots of high powered stuff. Semo's heavy seemed to do the trick too."
"What am I up to?" Andy repeats. "What aren't I up to... well, my team's stymied. We know how all the Imperium's weaponry works, we just can't make the parts to put together our own. I've been running tests with a host of dangerous prototypes and our tests seem to jive with what you're telling me. Honestly, there are a few guys on the team who would be fine with handing out fifty-caliber rifles and calling it done."
Hugh cracks the door open and steps in, adding one more body into the already cramped conditions. There's the guard Hugh assigned (Tommy), the Major in charge of the detention facility, Agent Davis, Arketta and a nurse. Said nurse is standing behind a screen with Arketta, going through an ssortment of sweatpants and t-shirts. Turns out that Turai soldiers don't have a concept of "clothing size" - everything's supposed to mold itself to the wearer, and the flinging motion with which Arketta dismisses another t-shirt indicates some frustration.
The bra case hasn't even been touched yet.
Davis is rattling off a list of what Arketta can and can't do...it's mostly the whole "Play nice and do what we tell you" deal.
"Ah, Captain Verrill. Your charge is almost ready," Major Boothroyd says with a smirk. There's some shuffling about when Arketta finally steps out from behind the screen - her hair's a bit of a mess, but she looks strikingly human. Her eyes focus on Hugh and send him a glare as she utters "Motherfucker"...she doesn't know a lot of English, but she learned that one really fast. Hugh gives her something like a shrug, which she ignores.
"Arketta Quis," he says in Imperial. "For the time being, Sergeant Myers and I will escort you around the base. If you have any questions or requests, talk to me."
"If I walk place, you tell me if can walk?" Quis says. "I'll walk around, and you can just tell me when to stop."
Quis takes her ID badge, slings it around her neck, and walks out of the room. Hugh, Myers, Davis, and Quis meet Max in the concrete-and-steel prison hallway leading to the elevators. Arketta's wearing a gray "ARMY" t-shirt and plain pants. She's not shackled, zip-tied, or anything. Her several escorts follow a few steps behind her like celebrity bodyguards.
Quis sees Max, recognizes him as the one who blew out her kidney, and offers a cheery "Ah, motherfucker!" as a greeting.
Quis sees Max, recognizes him as the one who blew out her kidney, and offers a cheery "Ah, motherfucker!" as a greeting.
Words could not really describe the sight of the "Turai on Casual Day" look Arketta currently is wearing, so Max turns his attention Hugh with a smirking face.
"Very nice, Captain. I'm glad to see our prisoner is starting to pick up some of our more colorful euphamisms. Does she do any other tricks?"
punkey
