Post by N.P.C on Jan 18, 2007 17:05:17 GMT
(( OOC: Mostly a closed thread; here for plot-narration purposes only. Takes place during the Institute Invasion. That said, if anybody wants to try to stop them and fail, I don't object.))
Major Nick Fury listens to reports from the Strikeback Ops Center as his team moves slowly, carefully towards their primary target. Superficially, they’re positive – enemy routed, most of the Institute secured – but he’s experienced enough to look past that, compare the casualty count to the relatively few prime-target mutants neutralized. That ratio is only going to get worse as they lose the element of surprise and the mutants get an opportunity to regroup. The Strikeback squads would do some damage, but ultimately they were going to lose.
Well, that’s what happens when you send a team in before it’s been fully trained and equipped. The original Strikeback target date was months away, and even that had been a rush. Nick doesn’t know why it got moved up, but that’s the Army for you… even high-clearance operatives aren’t told everything.
On the plus side, most of the casualty reports were non-fatal. He’d expected that from the reports of Stryker’s attack – the mutants here are powerful, but most of them aren’t killers. They’re kids, mostly. Good kids, far as I can tell. Coming down on them like the fist of God doesn’t sit right with Nick’s conscience, but that’s part of the job… he’ll reconcile with his conscience after the mission is over, like he always does. The fact that no enemy fatalities have been reported (yet…) helps somewhat.
The most frustrating part is knowing that neutralizing the Institute had been a secondary objective from the start, intended mostly to distract attention from Nick’s team and their primary objective: Cerebro. Which is going much slower than planned – the Institute had installed some pretty impressive automated defenses after the Stryker incident, and a normal occupation force would have been blown straight to Hell.
Fortunately, Nick’s squad is anything but normal. He’d hoped that Portal’s talent could bring them right into their target, but he hadn’t counted on it, and he’d been right – some kind of defensive shielding blocked their teleport. So they’re coming in the hard way now, but they’re prepared for it.
It’s just slow. And tricky. They’ve lost two members already, nailed by defensive stunners, but as long as Portal is up and around when they reach their target that won’t matter. Of course, without her there’s no chance – stealing a machine the size of a football field built right into the foundation of a building isn’t the sort of mission a normal team can take on.
It would be easier to just blow the damned thing up and steal the plans for it, he growls silently… then stops for a moment, puzzled. It would be easier. Much easier. So why aren’t they doing that? And, more importantly, why is that only occurring to him now?!?
That’s… not right. Hell, even a civilian would think of that. Why…?
The more he thinks about it, the less sense it makes. The Army doesn’t have any telepaths rated to use the damned thing… so what are they going to do with it? Deliver it to someone who can use it, naturally. And there aren’t many of those. Xavier’s dead… Sheppard already has it… Frost…
He stops short then, an unpleasantly familiar chill in his chest, as hundreds of little facts come together in his mind. Oh, fuck. We’ve been had! Gotta stop this, now. He thumbs on his communicator, ready to shout an abort order to Ops Center – he may be court-martialed for this, but that beats delivering a working telepathic augmenter to a woman already capable of suborning the goddamned U.S.Army without it – but the order never comes out of his mouth. In fact, he realizes, he never turned the communicator on… his body isn’t responding to his signals at all.
Fascinating, Major. You are faster to work out the obvious every time we do this… this time took you less than an hour. I wonder: are you accumulating more data to reason from? Or does some ghost of a memory remain from previous sessions? I’d intended to leave your body behind after this mission, but on further thought I think I’ll keep you around to study, when I have time. For now, however, it is time to forget again.[/b]
Nick shakes himself and scowls. Hell, I was woolgathering like a damned recruit! If an enemy’d spotted me he’d a caught me flat-footed. He catches up to the rest of his team as they neutralize the latest set of defensive alarms and prepares to move forward. Good, good… at this rate we can secure Cerebro and get out of here before they have too much chance to regroup.
Major Nick Fury listens to reports from the Strikeback Ops Center as his team moves slowly, carefully towards their primary target. Superficially, they’re positive – enemy routed, most of the Institute secured – but he’s experienced enough to look past that, compare the casualty count to the relatively few prime-target mutants neutralized. That ratio is only going to get worse as they lose the element of surprise and the mutants get an opportunity to regroup. The Strikeback squads would do some damage, but ultimately they were going to lose.
Well, that’s what happens when you send a team in before it’s been fully trained and equipped. The original Strikeback target date was months away, and even that had been a rush. Nick doesn’t know why it got moved up, but that’s the Army for you… even high-clearance operatives aren’t told everything.
On the plus side, most of the casualty reports were non-fatal. He’d expected that from the reports of Stryker’s attack – the mutants here are powerful, but most of them aren’t killers. They’re kids, mostly. Good kids, far as I can tell. Coming down on them like the fist of God doesn’t sit right with Nick’s conscience, but that’s part of the job… he’ll reconcile with his conscience after the mission is over, like he always does. The fact that no enemy fatalities have been reported (yet…) helps somewhat.
The most frustrating part is knowing that neutralizing the Institute had been a secondary objective from the start, intended mostly to distract attention from Nick’s team and their primary objective: Cerebro. Which is going much slower than planned – the Institute had installed some pretty impressive automated defenses after the Stryker incident, and a normal occupation force would have been blown straight to Hell.
Fortunately, Nick’s squad is anything but normal. He’d hoped that Portal’s talent could bring them right into their target, but he hadn’t counted on it, and he’d been right – some kind of defensive shielding blocked their teleport. So they’re coming in the hard way now, but they’re prepared for it.
It’s just slow. And tricky. They’ve lost two members already, nailed by defensive stunners, but as long as Portal is up and around when they reach their target that won’t matter. Of course, without her there’s no chance – stealing a machine the size of a football field built right into the foundation of a building isn’t the sort of mission a normal team can take on.
It would be easier to just blow the damned thing up and steal the plans for it, he growls silently… then stops for a moment, puzzled. It would be easier. Much easier. So why aren’t they doing that? And, more importantly, why is that only occurring to him now?!?
That’s… not right. Hell, even a civilian would think of that. Why…?
The more he thinks about it, the less sense it makes. The Army doesn’t have any telepaths rated to use the damned thing… so what are they going to do with it? Deliver it to someone who can use it, naturally. And there aren’t many of those. Xavier’s dead… Sheppard already has it… Frost…
He stops short then, an unpleasantly familiar chill in his chest, as hundreds of little facts come together in his mind. Oh, fuck. We’ve been had! Gotta stop this, now. He thumbs on his communicator, ready to shout an abort order to Ops Center – he may be court-martialed for this, but that beats delivering a working telepathic augmenter to a woman already capable of suborning the goddamned U.S.Army without it – but the order never comes out of his mouth. In fact, he realizes, he never turned the communicator on… his body isn’t responding to his signals at all.
Fascinating, Major. You are faster to work out the obvious every time we do this… this time took you less than an hour. I wonder: are you accumulating more data to reason from? Or does some ghost of a memory remain from previous sessions? I’d intended to leave your body behind after this mission, but on further thought I think I’ll keep you around to study, when I have time. For now, however, it is time to forget again.[/b]
Nick shakes himself and scowls. Hell, I was woolgathering like a damned recruit! If an enemy’d spotted me he’d a caught me flat-footed. He catches up to the rest of his team as they neutralize the latest set of defensive alarms and prepares to move forward. Good, good… at this rate we can secure Cerebro and get out of here before they have too much chance to regroup.