NationStates Jolt Archive

In the city of Guaah, during the twilight hour, a human envoy of Guaah Armor Works navigates the labyrinth of alleys. Dark and humid, the alley's denizens begin to stir, readying themselves to go about their 'business'. These are the ones who either lacked the ambition for gainful employment, or enjoy less savory practices to make ends meet.

The envoy walks swiftly and with purpose, keeping one hand on the needle pistol in his holster, the other on the attache case in his hand. His eyes scan the alley from all possible angles, while his head keeps forward. He seeks the hidden entryway of one particular individual. An assassin with a reputation whispered lowly in the darkest, seamiest places of the Sakkran Empire.

A short time later, he comes upon a trash recepticle with odd markings on it. Walking towards it, he notes that the recepticle is on wheels, and bears signs of being moved frequently. This must be it. He takes his hand off the needle pistol and tests the dumpster.

It wheels forward a bit, and the outline of a small doorway can be seen. Yes, this is it. Now for the knock. A quick staccato rapping on the door; *pappappap* . . . *pappap* and then a step back.

On the wall 3 feet to the left of the dumpster, a section of resin slides a couple of inches silently. An eyeball scrutinizes the unaware form of the human, and then slides back into place. A few seconds later, the door opens, and a small green head pops out. "What do you want human?"

"I come to speak with your master. I have a task for her." He reaches into his jacket slowly, and pulls out a diskette, which is tossed to the being in the door.

The small Sakkran catches the diskette, and scrutinizes it a bit. "I'll relay the message. Now go back to your home. She'll be in touch if she has interest." The head receeds back into the door after replacing the dumpster.

The human envoy turns and leaves from the opposite end of the alley from where he came in, and heads back to his residence. But not without placing a call to the CEO of Guaah Armor Works from a public comm unit.

"I have delivered the proposal, and expect to hear back soon from the contact. I'm going home now to await news. Agent Roberts, out." The comm is severed, and the agent returns home.

OOC: Still building up the story. If you want to participate, TG me and we'll discuss it. Until then, tagging is ok, but no lengthy posts yet please.

Deep within the old structure that was once an opera house, the small green Sakkran holds the diskette as he bring it to his master. This small creature is an apprentice of Kkossh, known throughout the most unsavory circles in the Empire as the Shade. Traversing the length of the building, and navigating the sub-sections of the basement, he comes to Kkossh's study.

She is here, wearing her leisure gown in her favorite color; a deep navy blue. Her grey and black scaled head looks up from the book she is reading; entitled "Xeno-Anatomical Studies of the Known Systems", and at her apprentice silently, awaiting his news. The diskette is produced and placed on an endtable as the apprentice bows low.

"Master, a human has brought this. He says it is a proposal for you. I checked for explosives, gas dispersers, trace bugs, poison injectors; the works. It is clean." The apprentice remains bowing.

Kkossh puts down her book slowly, and picks up the diskette. Fingering its edges with her claw, she finds the seams unbroken. An examination on the front of the disk shows it to have the Guaah Armor Works insignia, with the raised seal of the CEO on it. [ i]Now what? How many enemies must these people have?[/i]

"Very well, apprentice. For your reward, you may clean my 'special' rifle, and perform maintanence on it. Then you may have some roasted meats from the kitchen." She stands up from her chair, and makes her way to her terminal. The apprentice stands from his bowing position, says a quick "Yes, Master", then leaves the room.

The diskette is slid into the terminal, which comes to life. The disks contents are displayed on the flat screen. The face of the Armor Works CEO is on-screen on half of the screen, while a text message reiterating the CEO comes up on the other half. The details of a target is the specific body of the message, the target being someone engaging in industrial espionage.

".....and the exchange should be happening in a few days if my internal investigators are correct. Normally, I would have my security teams take care of this. But this time I want a message sent. This is not to look like an accident, but should send a clear signal to others who may try to sell out the corporation to unknown foreign interests. Terminate the target by any means necessary. You will have payment as soon as confirmation of termination is made."

Kkossh stops the diskette, and shuts off her terminal. She ponders for a moment, and leaves her study. She stops off at her armory, and speaks to her apprentice. "I am going on a job interview. I'll be back shortly." The apprentice nods his head, and continues cleaning the rifle in his lap.

Kkossh is already familiar with the human agent, as he has been the go-between for the Armor Works corporation for a while. Kkossh shows up at the envoy's door in her navy-blue cloak, with a loose, flowing gown beneath it. A veiled hat, like one worn at a funeral, perhaps, covers her face.

The door is opened, and Kkossh steps insode. "Agent Roberts."

"Greetings, sirrah. I take it your here about the job." This is said more as a statement than a question. "Very well. Here is the most recent comings and goings of the objective. The schematics for the TacSoft armor is in danger of falling into possibly-unfriendly hands. This can not be allowed to pass."

Kkossh looks at the data on paper before her. "So you don't know who the buyer is?"

"No. They're quite savvy at covering their tracks."

"Hmph." The Sakkran shakes her veiled head. "Your internal investigators are slipping. No matter. I will take the job. Payment in the usual fashion is expected. No tricks, nothing unusual. I see any deviation, the whole deal is off. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Agent Roberts scratches the back of his head, as if to ask a question, but finds he has no time. Kkossh is already at the door. She opens it, and scans the hallway quickly. She turns and nods her head, then leaves.

Returning to her residence, the Shade removes the cloak and gown, and slips on a suit of camo-web light armor, and a camo-web cloak. Her navy-blue veiled hat remains on her head, though. Checking in on her apprentice, she sees he has completed his cleaning and maintanence tasks, and is eating the roast meats. "Very good, Apprentice. Your real reward is that you may now watch the holo-feed. I have work. You know the drill..."

The apprentice's eyes light up. "Yes, Master!" He then trots off to the common room, to sit and watch his favorite late-night shows. Meanwhile, Kkossh picks up her rifle, and examines it. The boy is getting to be quite the expert at this. Very good. She collapses the rifle and puts it in a case. Within the case is a small box, and a pair of triple-ply thermal gloves. The box has a green blinking light on it. Good. A full case. She slings the case over her shoulder, and packs a small bag with snacks, some Paroo and a multi-optic visor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few hours later, it is midnight, and the scents of the city blow on a gentle wind. The Shade sets her camo-web clothing to ambient, which registers and mimics the light-absorbing propeties of the material behind her, and also mimics the color of the resin structure as well on the rooftop of the residential structure she has chosen. The effect being that, if a body does not move, a near-perfect chameleon effect is had. Kkossh is observing the residence of her target through her multi-optic visor. Laser distancer reads 900 meters, with a light wind from the west. Currently the target is not there, so she watches, and waits.

2 more hours pass, and a light in the residence comes on. Kkossh begins to come to attention, but sees that it is the building's cleaning service. Strange hour for them to come calling. Hmmmm...... She observes the cleaner performing a dusting motion, and then some vacuuming.

What strikes her as interesting as that the cleaner seems to also be holding a rod-like device, which is swept through and around the curtains, the comm unit, the termianl, everywhere. A bug detector! Sooo, the target is having his room checked, doubtless by an independent 'cleaning' service. Very clever. She continues observing, and begins putting her rifle together. After the all-clear, he'll make his entrance, I bet.

Sure enough, the cleaner leaves after a time. The 'target' enters the apartment, places his attache down, and removes his jacket. He makes a talking motion as he puts his hand to his ear. The Shade, meanwhile, has finished putting her rifle together, and fits a silencer onto the end of the meter-long barrel. Her one eye never leaves the 'target', and watches as he moves about the rooms, and picks up a framed picture of a young hatchling. So he is a 'sire'. How unfortunate that he has chosen his course.

She lays her rifle down, and opens her rifle-case again. The thermal gloves are put on. and then the small box is opened. Within the box is an extremely cold chamber, housing several conical forms sheathed in plastic. Each form is a 35mm round of dry ice. The plastic sheath keeps it from melting and sticking to the inner workings of the heavily customized rifle.

A single round is brought out, and the box is closed agin. The round is chambered as cold mist eminates off of it, and the rifle is shouldered. The target moves into another room, behind a translucent privacy window. The rest-room. The glass is not armored, it seems. Good. She waits for the target to stop moving, and then the round is fired with a soft thiff sound.

After a brief second, the glass seems to form several spidery cracks as the plastic housing breaks away from the dry-ice round with the impact. A spray of red hits the glass from within the room, and the silhouette of the target falls. That should do it. Tomorrow there should be confirmation.

She dismantles her rifle, places it in its case, and leaves the rooftop to return home and await the morning news.

OOC: Okay folks. At this point any number of roles can be assumed. Snooping reporter, someone looking to hire an assassin, or even the *shudder* foreign interest with who the rendezvous was supposed to take place. Actually, any character who could fit in with The Shade is welcome as long as I get a TG about it first.

<<BUMP>> for visibility.

OCC:This looks interesting.

IC: The detective entered the apartment and took a look around. His name was Morty Quazuj, a well known name in Ravea. He hadn't taken a case in a while, and was glad to streach his legs. He had never been to Sakkra before.

He searched the room carefully. This was no Two-Bit murder. The shot had been clean and pricese. It seemed like the target had been killed instintley. This was most certeinly the work of an assassian, and a good one too.

He decided to snoop around and qestion the locals to get some infromation onn assassian rings and gangs.

Ravea, TG.

The Shade returns to her lair, donning a dark-blue cloak over her camo-web suit and blending in with the shadows. Through a secret entrance, she cues in her security pass and avoids the myriad traps set up around the halls of the old opera house. Walking a short time, she checks in on her apprentice, and spies him sleeping in his heat chamber.

Good. Everything is in order. She closes his door, and heads to the kitchen. The small case in her rifle container is replaced in her freezer, and she then returns to her study to put the rifle and her camo-web suit in it's place. Now rest, and then i'll look at the morning news. I can then collect my fee, and that will be that.

Morty, with a recently bribed member of the Cities Underground, walked back into the apartment. He showed the man the body.

"There was nothing that ballistics could recover, meaning that the bullet was costumized. But take a look at this." He walked over to the window and examined the entery point. It seemed to be slightly frosted over. "I noticed that there is some freezing damage here. Do you think you know what it is?"

The man, who apparently was an "Informer" of some type, took a close look at the punctured glass. He gasped.

"The Shade! I warn you, get out of here, now!" Before Morty could stop him, he bolted out of the apartment.

"The Shade, huh? Well, at least i have a name now. The real qestion is weather or not i find The Shade or The Shade finds me." He decided to weed out more information on the city streets, and to keep his gaurd up.

Pounding the streets provides precious few clues, as the second the name of 'The Shade' is mentioned, jaws close tighter than a bear trap. Not to mention that an obvious foreigner to Sakkran soil snooping about in the grimy sections of Guaah tends to draw a bit of suspicion.

After a time, however, one reptilian obviously a bit the worse for wear, as evidenced by the archaic cybernetic prosthetics on his arm and one side of his face, comes forward from the shadows.
"Hsst...hey, human. I might have some info for a price. Step into my *hakk* office. *sp-too*

Morty hesitated. He had never liked street vermin, but he didnt have any leads and this oversized lizard might be of some help.

"All right. What do you have and What is your price? speak quickly."

"Well, for 10 Tooth's I could getcha started on the right track. For instance, ya ain't gonna get no info about assassin's guilds from every schlub on the block, and that's the kinda info you gonna .. gonna .. gonna .."

The dubious reptilian smacks the side of his head wit hthe cybernetic implants. " ..Gonna need if you wanna find out who done it, savvy?"

"Fine," grumbled Morty as he handed the money over. "What do you have for me??

(tag)

The 'snitch' counts out the conical funds, and seems satisfied with it. "Alright. First off, if you try approaching guild members without observing protocol, five gets ya ten that you'll be floating face-down in the Black Swamp. Naah, you gotta approach one of their 'feelers'."

"On the first tier is a club called Club Yot. It's a legit front for several groups, some of them Assassin Guilds. They always keep a 'feeler' staked out there for business reasons. Approach, pay respects and such, and basically follow their lead. After they decide if you're who you say you are, they'll tell you stuff. Within reason, of course."

Morty took the oversized lizard's advice. He bowed to the creature, headed out the fdoor, and started towards the 1st tier.

After a short walk, he spotted what he was looking for:Club Yot. It looked like a shady place, with shady people eating shady food and indulging in shady activites. He spotted what looked like his target. He just looked at the shadiest person he could find. A grizzled human was hanging out at the front of the club. Morty walked up to him and dropped a few coins at his feet.

"I have buisiness to conduct," He said. "Do you think you could.....Help me out?"

The human wearing a small tag saying 'Marty' picks up the coins, and puts away his flask. "Help ya out, eh? Yeah, I could do that. Now whaddaya mean by it, though? A bit of info? Looking for someone, or something? This much gets ya that, but not much more. And no more of this bit about dropping them, eh? Looks unseemly." His accent suggests a far-off location of origin.

He bounces the coins in his hand a moment, and then pockets it swiftly. Several heads in the area turn askance at the sound.

"Very well." Said Morty. "What can yu tell me about...the Shade?" He pushes an entire bag of coins into 'Martys' hands.

'Marty gets an odd look on his face at the mention of the name, and casts furtive glances about before speaking. "Can't really tell much about that one. Not exactly a very sociable figure. Doesn't run with any of the guilds, which troubles them to no end, from what I hear. More than once they've tried to 'get rid' of the Shade, only to have their assassins turn up dead."

He then points with his thumb at the corner of the club, which has several plants and lots of shading about. "You may wanna ask Ssuula in the corner there more about it."