NationStates Jolt Archive

"Deep in the earth my love is lying, And I must weep alone."- Edger Alan Poe, 1847

"Lenore!, Lenore!, Lenore!" whispered a strange voice. Phoenix Nevermore sat huddled in the middle of his bed. He looks all around him trying to find the source of the voices. "Lenore!" came the whispering again. "Go away..... Please go away." Phoenix whimpered. "Why do you taunt me like this? WHY!" He cried loudly. Unhindered by his crying, the voices continued. "Lenore!" Phoenix covered his ears. He couldn’t listen to the constant taunting anymore. That name, it was like a curse. A un ending curse. "Lenore." The word seems to come from nowhere, come from darkness. "No! Stop saying it! I don't want to remember her!" he blubbered. His memories seemed to haunt his every step. Every time he closed his eyes he would see her, a young maiden with long locks of gold standing before his eyes. Because of this Phoenix hadn’t slept in days. The dreams, the whispers never ended. Beep, Beep, Beep. This small insignificant sound seemed as if it was a savior to Phoenix. He turned to his lamp stand and picked up a small pager. He looked down at the number. 555-1109. He turned and pick up a cell phone that also lay on the stand. He dialed in the number provided by the pager. It rang for a moment and someone on the other end picked it up. "Phoenix, This is Eric. We have another mission. Meet us at the usual place." Click. The man the other end hung up his phone. Phoenix wiped some tears from his eyes and stood up. A coat awaited him on a hook by the door. He donned it and opened his front door, he then walked into the darkness.

After a small walk downstairs and through another door, Phoenix found himself on the cold sidewalk in the middle of the night. Not far from here was his meeting place where he would meet his aquatints. Ally cats and dogs roamed about in the darkness of the night. Phoenix continued down the side of the street until he reached a large office building. 'Kendrick's Insurance Firm.' it read. He walk thought the revolving door into the main lobby. A secretary sitting behind a white desk greeted him. "Good evening Sir. It’s a bit late to be roaming the streets isn't it?" She said as Phoenix passed by the desk. "It’s never too late for a jaunt." He replied. With this he entered an elevator. He pressed a button that said 'Roof top'. The elevator made a chiming sound as the doors closed. Phoenix stood in the middle of the small cramped room until another chime sounded. The doors opened to revile the roof top on the building. In front of him was a group of men. They wore black spandex suits with web belts. In their hands they carried SCAR-L Assault rifles. "Ah Phoenix, bout time you got here. Get your gear on, we'll brief you on the situation when we get airborne.” The man said as he pointed towards a Eurocopter Dauphin that sat on the helipad. Phoenix did as he was told and put on his gear. He zipped up the black suit and clipped his belt. Pulling a Glock 21 he cocked the slide back. "Let’s go." He simply said. The group boarded the helicopter and the rotors wheeled around. Once they came up to speed the helicopter hovered above the ground and flew into the night’s sky.

The Dauphin flew high into the sky. The lights of the big city shined far below them, as they traveled to there objective. "Ok, Men listen up. Here’s the situation. It seems our old friends the Omegas have taken some hostages. It seems they've captured 3 teenage girls; they are daughters of members of parliament. Omega’s ultimatum is we have 24 hours to release 45 terrorists prisoners from jail or the girls die." Eric explained to the group. "Our mission is to extract the girls and kill the terrorists. Everyone got it?" Eric asked. Heads around the chopper nodded in confirmation. Phoenix sat off to the side looking out a small window. The darkness of night seemed to be disrupted by the lights of the city below. He fed 5.56 × 45 mm NATO cartages into the magazine as he waited to arrive at their objective. The Dauphin swooped lower into an industrial area of the city. It weaved in and out of smoke stacks and high buildings. The rotors flew within inches of concrete walls as the helicopter neared the objective. The pilot turned to address the team leader. "We are nearing the objective, we will drop you guys off little ways out." he said. "Roger that." Eric replied. He used a series of hand motions to alert the rest of the 5 man team that the objective was close. The side bay doors of the helicopter were opened. The Dauphin finally came to a hover. Lines were dropped to the ground and the Nevermore team jumped from the craft. Phoenix grabbed the rope and slide down to the ground. His feet hit the concrete, and the ropes were retracted, as the Dauphin flew into the night sky. The team donned hoods and slipped into the shadows.