Infiltration (Aleina/Darklighter/Closed)

[Ribitta]

The air surrounding a large wooden door shimmered slightly as the blazing sun shifted from behind the clouds thousands of feet up, but the space soon returned to normal. Months she had gathered information, taken a keen eye to the rounds, listened and learned about this place, and now she would make her entrance. Word had it on the streets that she wasn’t the only one who wanted things from Traicen, but then again, what kind of serious criminal would not? It was her best chance, her one chance, to find out what she needed to know about the deathly complex that found itself in the planet’s core: the Administrator Tower.

Aleina bated her breath, pressing her ear to the door in silent monitoring as she glanced at the sun. It had to be nearly six and a half hours past noon by now, and any moment her entrance would make its own approach. Lazy bastard couldn’t help himself but smoke like a chimney, and he had worked himself into such a habit as to take his break in the same place at the same time of day, every day. Aleina’s gaze shifted from the door to the sun, beads of sweat forming on her invisible face. The anticipation was beginning to gnaw at her. Schooled patience kept her still for another moment, until the door creaked and opened.

It wasn’t just a job, it wasn’t just a game, it was an art and a science for her. A thing of beauty and perfection to surpass, defeat, and destroy anything and everything that blocked her from her goal. Her footsteps were quieter than the night; swifter than death as she passed right passed the man, her body clearing the gap between him and the doorway with skilled ease. As the door swung to a close, the huge metal bolts which automatically sealed every entrance sliding in immediately, the sound of a match could be heard from outside. So predictable.

One hundred paces down and left, seventy-eight more and right. Everything was fit perfectly in her mind. Every map she had memorized, every key-code she had bought, all were filed perfectly in her mind. The cold stone held the sounds of her padded footsteps neatly, the only trace of her presence being the occasional shimmer as she moved too quickly, or any mites of dust that were troubled by her steps. To her immediate right was a wooden ladder, exactly where it should have been. This storage was checked on maintenance once a day six sharp, the perfect place for her to remain for a brief period of time.

Avoiding the ladder, Aleina crawled up the wall carefully, her suit allowing her to stick to it as if she were crawling on the floor with perfect ease. Thirty feet up and through the opening in the ceiling. Moving quickly, Aleina looped a small band around one of the wires in the camera in this circular room she found herself in. Thirty seconds later the young woman materialized, the timed loop on the camera kicking in as planned. The hatch to the ladder was closed by a gentle hand immediately afterword, locking herself from the rest of the fortress. Glancing out one of the arrow-slit shaped windows, Aleina waited for sunset, the true unfolding of the heist.

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

The squad of Angels loaded the bloody, handcuffed man in to the back of the armored personal carrier. The captured man squirmed, as if he thought he could escape the crowd of Angels. One of the captors adjusted his suit, and then brushed off a large piece of dirt from the battle that had taken place earlier. Another procured another pair of handcuffs, attaching one end to the now detained Darklighter. The Angels forced Darklighter into a hard, plastic seat. One last Angel carried a large green duffel bag into the vehicle, and sat down on the end. He placed the bag in the seat next to him, and waited for the APC to start up. The armored vehicle roared to life, and the group sat uncomfortably, looking at on another. Everything had to go perfectly. One misstep, and everybody would end up in the room.

The Order drone felt the blood trickle down his face and into his eyes, blurring his vision. For the next few hours, he was Darklighter, the most powerful assassin in the Order, and one of the most influential people in the game. He knew that he had to make the next couple of hours count.

The Angel with the bag shifted in his seat. He disliked how the shoulder holster cut into his side, cutting off some circulation. He shrugged his shoulder and frowned as the APC bounced along the trail. One of the disguised bots procured a radio, and spoke into it.

“This is Fox Delta, coming in on route fourteen, we need an opening. We have a very dangerous person here, and we need a place to hold him for the time being.”

The radio buzzed, and the voice of an Angel filled the back of the APC. “We are not a prison, Fox Delta. Please proceed to a designated Core entrance, and Room officials will be there shortly.”

“Listen, these orders came straight from Solid Snake, authorization ‘Philanthropy Rex eight.’ We have a dangerous person, and the Core is too large of an area, and it doesn’t provide as much security as you do. You see, we have Darklighter in custody, and Snake wanted to escort Darklighter himself. His orders, not mine. Now open up.”

The radio buzzed again. “Fine. We’ll provide you a cell. Just don’t let the bastard out. Over.”

“Thank you. Over.”

The APC approached Traicen, and entered through a large, steel gate. The Angels unloaded ‘Darklighter’ and led him away. The one with the duffle bag followed closely behind. A real Angel stopped the group, arms raised, as if to cast a spell.

“HALT- What division are you in? I don’t see wings and robes, I see guns and suits. Who are-“

“We are Snake’s primary corps. Wings are too conspicuous. Now go away.” The Angel backed off.
“Well, what is in the duffle bag?”

“Classified material. All you need to know.”

The group moved past the Angel, and into the titanic building before them. Well, thought the real Darklighter, we are flying by the seat of our pants.

[Ribitta]

As the sun crested the horizon once more, this time in reverse, Aleina moved fluidly, sliding her helmet-like hood back over her head and cloaking herself once more, her body entwining itself with the shadows behind her. The easy part was done now, and the true infiltration would begin within the hour. The air seemed to stand still as she carefully opened the hatch again, careful of the hinges that bound the metal plated wood. Pausing before she left, Aleina unclipped the loop-cable and left the hatch open behind her. Perfection.

They’d told her it would be impossible. What represented the “Keep” of the giant castle fortress was fabled to be as well protected as the administrator tower in terms of technology, with the angel’s home turf putting the tower as just that much more formidable. Cloaked with the coming darkness Aleina slipped from shadow to shadow as each grew larger and larger with the passing sun. The black sun will be the one shining tonight, the thief thought to herself with an inkling of a grin as she moved to the end of another stone hallway, the slightest sound echoeing dangerously in it.

She had chosen as many paths above ground as she could, but the ones that could not be avoided underground were like dungeons in the stories of old castles. Cold and damp, one wouldn’t be hardly surprised to hear a pierceing shreak as white hot tongs tortured some fool who had irritated the king. She shook the thoughts out of her mind hastily, not wanting to think about being imprisoned in here. She felt claustrophobic enough as it was in these underground holes. Nevertheless, she’d be above again. The second check point of seven that she had planned out. The places she couldn’t get around, the ones that led even deeper into the heart of Traicen.

Crawling onto the ceiling, Aleina relaxed herself as much as she could, knowing full well that minutes down here would feel like days. Her heads up display flashed the time as she thought about it, but she pushed it to a small corner on her screen. Only five minutes she would have to wait, and luckily for her nine times out of ten NPCs were perfectly punctual, especially in a facility like this. The 300th second struck as the man rounded around the corner, a burly guard following behind him. Smiling with satisfaction, Aleina calculated her odds of slipping through this door at the same with this man while that guard was trying to get through too.

A knife slipped into her hand regardless, and Aleina waited as the man pressed a finger to a gel scanner, reading his eye into another device. The gate swung open immediately. Seven seconds it stayed open, more than enough time for Aleina. Crawling along the ceiling, the thief made certain not to make contacted with the frame of the door, as she had had unconfirmed reports of sensors being there. Silently she padded along, keeping pace with the man and his guard for a short while, their sounding masking anything she might make. These people were fools, but she knew this was the easy part, and the challenging was yet to come. The knife slid back into place, and Aleina waited for the man to dissapear around the corner before her nimble fingers began to hastily unscrew an airduct in the ceiling.

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

The group moved through the long hallway, looking for the designated area to drop the drone disguised as Darklighter. A few Angels passed, stopping and staring at the well known Angel-killer and lawbreaker. A few whispered, asking each other if anybody knew how he was captured, and who got him, and whether or not the Order was still a problem. The disguised drones looked straight ahead, walking as if they were in charge of the entire fortification. The person with the duffel bag stopped, and addressed one of the Angels.

“I need to secure several classified items. Where might I find an armory?”

The Angel blinked a few times and then, after a brief hesitation, he spoke. “Go down the hall to your left, go straight three hundred yards, and turn right, go straight one hundred and fifty feet, and then look to your left. You’ll need the pass code.”

The man with the bag frowned. “What makes you think that I don’t have the pass codes?”

He walked away, carefully following the Angel’s directions. After a brief walk, he reached a large steel door. The man looked around, trying to find the keypad. Finally, he found the small pad under a large black stone. The man slid the stone out of the way, and typed in the access code. There went ten grand. He frowned again as the door opened. Before entering, he noted the security camera in the corner. Slowly, he walked through the room, discretely looking at the large array of weapons. He dropped the green duffle bag, and went back to the doorway. The man unbuttoned his coat, and reached for his back, procuring a sliver laptop. He opened the computer and pressed a few keys. Suddenly, the camera’s view appeared on the screen. The man pressed a few more keys, and set it to loop with nobody in the room. The man then walked back to the duffle bag and unzipped it, revealing a combat suit, a small computer like device, and a few knives. Darklighter stripped off his suit, and put on his urban camouflaged BDUs. He strapped the PEHD onto his arm, and attached his knives. He pulled his handgun out of the shoulder holster and stuck it back on the holster on his left leg. He then started looking around the room, trying to find a few weapons. He found a few magazines for his Operator pistol, and stuck one in his gun, and six more on his belt. He then looked around for a suitable rifle. He passed a large assortment of strange laser weapons, energy guns, strange machines, and a few other items that Darklighter had never seen before. Finally, he saw a rack of small rifles, based off of the XM8 assault. The small rifles were outfitted with suppressors and red dot sights, and were colored black. Darklighter formed a grin behind his mask. This’ll work. This will work just fine.

Darklighter picked up one of the rifles and a few magazines for the gun. He looked over at another table, grabbed a brick of C4 explosive, and a medical pack. He took out his knife and used it to unscrew an air duct, and then proceeded to crawl in. He heard something else crawling around inside the duct. He drew his handgun, and prepared for a fight. Well, at least it won’t be able to dodge anything.

[Ribitta]

Aleina’s leather suit slid along the metal of the air duct softly, making a small amount of noise but nothing beyond perhaps the scurrying of a rat. Louder than her though, Aleina heard noise coming from in front her, the sounds of weapons being moved, metal on metal, and a moment later the bolts guarding the air duct began to squeak as they were quickly loosened and removed. Someone was coming. Silently she stopped her movements, making her completely invisible in the near-pitch blackness.

The seconds seemed to stretch themselves into minutes as she waited for this other individual to show himself, and a moment later he crawled into the vent, armed and looking ready to fire. In a space of this size, Aleina could possible be at her worst next to boxing without moving. She didn’t doubt this man would shoot at anything and everything that made a noise in here, and so she didn’t dare to try and back track a ways and slip into the shadows.

The situation only worsened as he began making his way directly toward her. Calmly she searched her mind for alternatives. Without being able to stand, she wouldn’t dare risk a shadow step. To end up behind her opponent in this place could mean ending up in the ceiling, which was not the most pleasant alternative. Another moment passed and another thought came. The “Steps of the Hidden” would do the job perfectly if she executed it correctly.

Looking down the vent, she found the farthest shadow from her and blinked. The air seemed to condense around herself as her body phased out and shot forward, moving straight through the new man who had previously been in front of her. He would only hear it for a split second, no more than a resounding echo from the distance, and perhaps feel a slight breeze as she passed by from shadow to shadow, and immediately above the second shadow a large vertical vent stretched up toward the surface. Not waiting to have a chance to be shot at, Aleina jumped, her body clinging to the wall as she hit it.

Spinning around quickly, Aleina pulled her pistol out and aimed it down toward where the man had last been seen, squeezing off several rounds of suppressed rounds down the vent, in hopes of killing him before he had a chance to figure out what had happened. The pistol returned to her hip nearly instantly and Aleina climbed the rest of the way up the vent, opening the vent at the top she had paid someone to loosen for her, sliding into an open empty room, shaped relatively boxily and vacant except for a few crates.

Finding a shadow, Aleina waited for someone to follow her. If anyone was left.

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter scurried forward, and turned right into another shaft. He felt the duct shake as several bullets slammed through the soft metal. He called out, hoping to stop a potentially fatal firefight. Or worse, the Angels might find the two of them.

“Who in the hell are you? Angel? Demon? Whoever you may be, let me say- you are fighting with the wrong son-of-a-bitch. Now get over here before I blow a new hole in your pretty little face. I heard you move, and there’s not a man alive as small you. And don’t think for a minute that I wouldn’t hit a woman.”

Darklighter moved forward, to where the seemingly hostile target had been. He looked up, but saw nothing. He raised his Operator, just incase if something decided to shoot.

“Come out- If you think I can’t spot you, you are a damn fool. Invisibility, what useless kids these days. Back in Russia, I did these kinds of missions with nothing but .22 pistol and a knife.”

Darklighter decided to climb up the duct, hoping that the target didn’t call his bluff. He could feel the presence of something nearby. It felt familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Sly little bugger…

“Ok, I really don’t want a fight up here. If the Angels hear anything, there’ll be three hundred Shinobi tunnel rats up here, looking for us. Now come over here, perhaps we can be of use to each other. Oh, and by the way, if you shoot at me again, I'll stick my foot so far up your ass you'll cough up boot polish.”

[Ribitta]

Aleina couldn’t help but inwardly roll her eyes at this man’s attitude and form. Without so much as flexing a muscle, she waited for him to make the first move. Just as silently she cursed her in ability to be as subtle as she needed to be. He most definitely knew she was there somewhere, but maybe if she waited long enough he would think she’d kept moving. At the thought a clock popped on her helmet’s heads up display.

More curses filled her head as she realized she was twenty seconds behind schedule. One slip-up, one window missed, one opportunity destroyed, and she could lose all she had worked for. As Darklighter crawled into the room she resisted the urge to just shoot him there, while he was holed in one spot with no room to dodge. But resist she did. As he called out to her she used whatever noise he made to silence any sound that might escape from her moving self.

The man certainly looked Russian as he seemed to have claimed to be, and Aleina decided to use this to her advantage. Her body dropped to the ground without a noise, a paper clip hitting the carpet would’ve made more attention for its noise level than her movements. In a fluid motion she pulled out and pointed her specialized handgun at the back of the intruder’s head, not stupid enough to put herself at point blank range, but close enough to making missing a very difficult feat.

Speaking in a Russian accent no game could mimic, Aleina uncloaked behind Darklighter, “Move and I will blow your head off, fool. You’ve already wasted nearly two minutes of my precious time, and if I have to lose another second because you don’t know when you’re beat the only part of you that won’t end up in hell will be the brains all over the walls, if you have any that is.”

Her voice was iron, and her grip even firmer than that. No impression could be left that she was scared to kill him, worried he might suddenly make a move she didn’t expect. Calm and clean, her voice gave no room to hint at any other actions than the ones she was speaking about. “Put your hands on your head. Slowly. Then, I want you tell me your name and what you’re doing here. What you’re good at, and why on earth I would want to help you.”

Her voice didn’t change tones as she laid out her demands, ready to pull the trigger in moments if he missed one beat. The time on her HUD ticked too quickly, each second passing giving a tinge of anxiety. If he had made it in this far then she could probably use him as some sort of time booster, something she hadn’t factored in due to only being an infiltration of one. There was always something. They were getting close to the real military in Traicen, the officer quarters, the huge courtyards, and closer to her goal.

[/color]

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

Darklighter groaned at the stupid little figure behind him. As he brought his arms up, he grabbed a block of C4, and squeezed the primer. If he let go, most of the room would be reduced to rubble.

"Well, this is fun. Want to shoot me? We can all go to hell. You and me, arm in arm. That's the problem with the back. You can never see what I do as I put my arms up. I prefer a, 'move and you die' approach. One twitch and I put you out. But you are now a bit late teeny-bopper. And by the way, I'm not a Russian. Don't throw your dribble at me. I'm American. And I kicked your Red ass five years back. Anyway, I'm the Grim Reaper. Reaper works. And yes, I left my scythe in the office. Otherwise I'd have reaped your sorry tail down to hades already. I need to head back there soon anyway. I think I left that poor kid down there after Razortooth." Darklighter turned around, waving his hands overhead. The red light on the side of the explosive package flashed.

Darklighter started to walk over to the woman. He placed each step carefully, being sure to lift his feet, just incase a laser security system was in place.

"Each second I waste your time. Put down the gun or I will have to call some friends of mine. They look like Shinobi Angels. Complete with badges. And they don't need warrants. Let me tell you, I'll have fifteen grunts here before you can say Silver. Gah I miss Black. He'd have eaten you by now. Or what ever that thing is called. But Black isn't here. And time is wasting. So put down the gun. I have an idea here, but it will require some tough work. And if you screw me on this, both of us will get the room. Now, I'm still tagged as an Angel. Entrance codes and the like. They think I'm a spy. Now, give me the handgun, and any other weapons you have. This will only work if you trust me." Darklighter pulled down his mask, and smiled. "Your gun, please." He held out his hand. "And no. I won't shoot you the second I get it. Now, I am going to take you captive. I'll say I 'caught you' breaking in, and that you had dangerous materials on you. That Solid Snake wants to speak with you. You know who he is, right? The king of the shadows? Even stronger than myself? The only man to ever get inside the Order? Oh well. None of these drones really knows what is going on with the Shinobi Angels. I could say I'm Snake and they'd salute and stutter. Now, the gun. The sooner this happens, the sooner I can disarm the C4. And by the way, I have several more of these bricks on me. Bigger boom. The last thing that would go through your mind would be a little bit of my spine. But that won't happen if you give me the gun."

[Ribitta]

Aleina snorted audibly as he turned around with the C4 in his hands and laid out his requests. Silently she listened to all of it, her posture not changing an inch the entire time, gun still pointed at his head. “Sorry, Darklighter,” she said with no trace of sincereness in her voice, “but you are in absolutely no space to make demands right now. C4 is made to be stable, the angel stuff specifically, and you only have one primed right now. The blast radius of that will go what? Ten? Fifteen? Maybe even twenty feet? I guarantee you I can outrun it.

“I know of your precious little Silver Star, Lighter. They are well trained at what they do, and I am sure you would know this even better than me, no? So you should believe me as one who’s worked with them when I say that I can outrun that explosion, and so here is how it will work. You go ahead and do whatever it is you need to do to put that lovely little explosive of yours on the ground safely, and you don’t have to die. Make sense? If you don’t believe me, go ahead. Release that trigger of yours. All of your comrades will wonder why there are only pieces of one body in here, hm?”

The time ticked by painfully quickly in the corner of her HUD, hoping that this fool wouldn’t be a complete moron and underestimate her in every way possible. If he chose to kill himself though with that bomb, then she could work with it, she supposed. With the explosion the area would begin to swarm with angels. Real ones, and patrols would be shifting around. They were on the outer layers still, low enough security to provide no less worry than perhaps a premature detonation of an explosive someone had left unattended.

She wasn’t entirely opposed to Darklighter’s idea, in fact she found a certain level of success rate hidden within it. As she held the gun tighter in her grip, she reminded herself once more that it would be better to lose the mission now, to have to retreat and come back even if she took down this buffoon, than to be his pawn for the next several hours and watch him walk away with what she came for.

If she removed the threat now then it would not be there for the next time, she could not allow him to take what she knew would only be in one space for so long, and an inward groan filled her the thought of the Silver Star having this piece of information. They were good operatives, but she didn’t trust their motives. People liked to harass the staff, but she doubted half of them knew what the full fury of the administration team would be like.

People talked about there being almost no rules in Ymaggion, but there were some boundaries and limits that did exist. For someone who wrote the code to the game though… those boundaries may as well not be there, and it would only take a little while for them to isolate the player and remove him from the game permanently, as well as charges outside the game as well she imagined. She was not a fan of what some of the actions were that the staff took, but she wouldn’t allow information to be wasted on a private war with them.

[Sir Lighter of Elsewhere]

"Hm. That's one fancy piece of head gear. You can see all of that? Wow. Hey, tell me, what do you know of jet fighters? I know a little. I can tag you, send a message to my operatives, and have an old friend of mine hunt you down from the air. Unless of course, you can run at mach sixteen. And I really would like to see your little run out of here. The C4 blast would obliterate everything within fifteen to twenty feet, but the beauty of plastic explosive- It makes other bits of crap into projectiles. There is a kind of chain reaction. It blows me up, and bits of me go everywhere. And those chairs, those will be flying. So there will be rubble everywhere. But, for the sake of fun, I'll disarm this bad boy."

Darklighter sat down, and carefully turned the C4 over in his hands. "Do you have a screwdriver? I left mine at home. I need to crack this baby open. I would use my knife, but then again, I think that you may be a little trigger-happy. Well, too bad. Knife time." Darklighter pulled out his knife, and began to work.

"You know I'm just having fun here. I scanned you. You're a rather low rank. I have experience, and more than a few tricks. Order assassination stuff. The Assassin's Flight would have been great. But I need a living body for my plan to work. And my last one is now in lock down, being beaten by Shinobi Angels. I suppose I should ask why you are here. I don't really want what you are getting. It's not nearly as valuable as what I want. Do you know about the Black Program? Well, All I need are a few hundred gigabytes of coding, and I'll be able to find my target. And of course, everything accessible about the program is kept here. Now, come over here, and hold the red wire and blue wire. If you let go we all die. I would do it myself, but I only have two hands. And I don't feel like dying today."

Darklighter punched a few codes into the PEHD, and readied the device for teleportation. It could stick him outside the base, where an Order APC could pick him up before the Angels even knew what happened. But that would mean he would lose his chance to find the Black Program information. "Quit stalling and get over here." Darklighter hoped that the girl wouldn't screw up, and that the small yellow brick in his hands wouldn't explode.