Foreign Friends (Mission)

(OOC) Starting at Ft. Belvoir base at 15:00.

The three Green Berets readied their transport vehicle for the long trip. Several weapons were stashed in the back in case of an emergency, including grenades and rifles. It would be a long four hour drive over to the Air Force base, then another hour before the target actually arrived. They had little idea what this was all about or who these people were, but this was their mission for the day, ordered by the president himself. Who could argue with that?

Claire sat in between two of the Green Berets in the front of the transport truck that they were taking to the Air Field. She was still wondering what exactly Director Steeler could foresee happening on the mission. As they made their way down the road towards the state line into North Carolina as Director Steeler had said the roads were relatively clear for the most part. Save for the rare motorist or military vehicle going between the Air Field and Fort Belvoir. She glanced at her escorts as they paid attention to the road in front of them. One of them was seated in the back on one of the benches in the cargo section of the truck.

She straightened the patrol cap on her head as they drove mainly out of want for something to do. These guys beside her were Green Berets. Some of the best the army had to offer and she was just a field medic. She glanced at the two seated beside her and sighed, She opened up the file containing the Japanese agent's dossier and read through it. "Yuu Koutari...Age 22?" Claire stared at the photograph of the agent. When she first saw it she could of swore the girl she was looking at was no older than 15. She continued to read through the file but eventually closed it. From what she'd read this girl had been given to this program at a young age but for no real reason.

She stared at the file and sighed "What kind of parent just gives up their kid like that?" Claire muttered before setting the file aside and waiting for the vehicle to arrive at it's destination.

OOC: I'll be DMing this mission from here on out. Here is some added detail regarding your three Green Beret allies for this mission.

Sarah McFinn (highest ranking Beret present, armed with a Barrett anti-material rifle and a Beretta 92 handgun): http://fastangel.com/anime-girl-tomboy

Rico Mendez (armed with a Spas 12 shotgun and a Beretta 92 handgun): http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frank_archer_1314.jpg

Reggie Peterson (armed with an M16 rifle and a Beretta 92 handgun): http://www.z103.fm/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/RonB2.jpg

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As the truck continued to rumble down the path towards their eventual target, it was Sarah who finally decided to break the silence. Leaning over from the passenger side of the cab as Rico drove, she attempted to extend a figurative olive branch to the VWAT medic. They'd been tasked with defending her so it only made sense to try and get on relatively friendly terms. Rico was too preoccupied with navigating and Peterson was in the back on his Ipod again. She'd need to scold him for such behavior later on. Clearing her throat, she extended her hand.

"Sarah. Sarah McFinn. Sorry for holding off introductions. Intel said that there might be some trouble leaving base so we've been a bit jumpy," the blond said with a welcoming smile. From the rear of the vehicle, Peterson immediately perked up. "She's cute chief. Kiss heeeeeeeer~" the Beret called in a sing song voice. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Sarah banged on the back wall of the cab once. "I swear to god Peterson, by the end of this you're going to have a woman's boot straight up your ass by the end of this!" she replied, silencing the man in back for a time. "Never mind him, he has some issues," she continued, returning her gaze to Claire while pantomiming Peterson's apparent addiction to masturbation before winking once.

Claire was keeping herself occupied trying to guess which road sign would pop up on the road next as they drove. Her concentration was broken as one of the Green Berets cleared their throat. The Green beret in question was the blonde woman seated to her right who for the most part like the others had stayed quiet through their trip. She wracked her mind trying to remember the woman's name and finally came to her. But she really didn't need to recall it as the woman introduced herself again anyway.

She smiled and shook Sarah's hand "Nice to meet you Sarah. I'm Claire, Claire Kelly." Claire said glad that the uncomfortable silence had been broken. As Sarah talked about the possible problems that could be encountered during the mission she bit her lip. She was still curious about what information she was being left out of the loop on. She didn't really know what to expect on this mission other than being here to do a check up on the new operative. "Do you know w-" Her question was cut off as she heard a new voice speak up from the back. The man's words made her cheeks redden a bit as she shook her head. "That narrows it down a bit either your boot or mine we'll see which one it is by the end." Claire said smiling a bit.

She smiled a bit at Sarah's mockery of Peterson's issues "I totally couldn't tell from first impressions he seemed like such a nice man too." Claire said sarcastically.

Nodding in response, Sarah kept her smile in place as she checked her watch. They were pulling into the pick up zone right on schedule. Once they had this other VWAT agent in tow they could proceed onward to the target location. Rico gradually applied pressure to the brakes until the truck came to a stop. "Well then, Claire was it? The idiot with the mustache in back is Peterson and our driver's name is Rico. They're awkward as all hell but they'll do their jobs well," the senior Beret said.

From the back of the truck, a loud smacking sound could be heard as Peterson began to loudly chew a stick of taffy. "Maybe if we knew what we were supposed to be doing, boss lady!" he called up towards the front. Rico remained silent, merely rolling his eyes as he waited for McFinn to snap at the other man again. Rather than scold the man again, Sarah simply gave a light shrug. "I hate to say it but he's got a point. The boys in charge didn't give us much to go on outside of target location. Our main priority is keeping you and this other VWAT agent safe. Can you fill us in at all?"

(OOC) Just going to leave this grossly inappropriate music here.

Approximately an hour had passed since the team arrived. As scheduled, a plane began to come into view from the east. It came to a landing on the runway, a ramp being pulled up to the door. From it emerged two soldiers dressed in black, one holding a similarly colored briefcase. Moving around to the back of the plane, the tail end began to open up to create a ramp. One of the men gave a few orders in what sounded to be Japanese, commanding whatever was stored inside to come out.

As it turned out, it was a girl. One with giant mechanical arms. Pressed across the tops of each was a fresh sticker displaying the English letters of "J.N.V.D.O.", entirely for show. The same could be said for the brand new clothing she wore (not to imply the organization forced her to wear old, worn out clothing all the time, but a change of clothes just for the sake of it, barring damage or other external factors, was thought to be extravagant for someone viewed more as a weapon than a person). Hood drawn and head down, she was led towards the four Americans that were there to greet them. Each man flanking her, they bowed in unison, indicating that she should do the same.

The soldier holding the case placed it on the ground between the two groups. Returning to his position flanking the operative, the two bowed once more before turning to depart, not speaking a single word to the other military personnel. Inside the case, as whomever would open it would find, were various legal documents finalizing the exchange, as well as medical records and other necessary information on the woman they had left behind.

The soldiers went about the process of ordering a refuel of the plane, paying no mind to the person they had just abandoned on the runway. They seemed not to recognize that she was even there anymore. As for her, she remained silent and stared at the ground, unsure of what to do now that she had been left there.

Claire smiled at the other two sitting in the truck with her and Sarah. As the topic of their true intentions came up however Claire rubbed the back of her head pulling a bit on her ponytail. She wasn't exactly sure if she was permitted to share the details of the mission with her escort. But form what Sarah had told her they knew just about as much as she did. As far as she knew this was a standard pick up mission. Go to the airport and pick up the JNVDO agent and then leave. "I wish I knew more but what you know is just about as much as I know..." Claire said shaking her head sighing. "Director Steeler just informed me to pick up this agent and perform a full physical on her before bringing her back to Fort Belvoir." Claire said giving Sarah and apologetic look.

She wish she had more to share but she couldn't share if she didn't know. That and she wasn't sure she was cleared to fill them in on such details if she knew them. As they arrived at the airstrip Claire hopped out. The trip had left her wanting some air as she paced around the airstrip waiting for the plane carrying their HVT to arrive. Finally in the distance the plane came into view from the east. As it landed Claire covered her ears to protect them from the loud hum of the planes engines. As the plane came to a stop she watched two men step out one of them calling out in Japanese. Though she understood the language the hum of the still spooling engines made it difficult to make out every word.

She'd only managed to understood the words "Strength" And "Out" which wasn't much to work off of. However as the girl from the dossier stepped out of the plane the pieces fell into place in her mind as she recalled the girl's codename. She stood alongside her escort as two of the men from the plane led the girl to them. She bowed back as the men showed her the same courtesy "Kanojo o motarashi arigatōgozai kansha" Claire said however before she'd even finished speaking a case was left and both men moved to leave. Claire scowled "Not the nicest bunch are they..." Claire muttered.

She glanced at Sarah, Rico and Peterson for a brief moment before approaching the girl who seemed a bit shy from the looks of it. Claire knelt down low enough to see beneath the hood. "Kon'nichiwa Koutari-san, watashinonamaeha aru Claire Kelly watashi wa anata o mukae ni koko ni iru." Claire said fluently with a bit of an english accent in her voice as she said the words.

(1. Thank you very much for bringing her here)
(2. Hello Koutari-san, my name is Claire Kelly I'm here to pick you up)

Nodding in agreement, Sarah could sympathize with a lack of information. "It's alright. We'll just have to proceed with caution then and make sure you and this newbie make it back in one piece," she said with a light smile that was quickly mimicked by both Peterson and Mendez. Despite their eagerness to help, three Berets did something of a double take as the cargo was unloaded. This new operative was something out of science fiction. They'd been expecting a soldier, not a damn terminator. Sarah was the first to regain her composure and exit the truck with Peterson. Gesturing to the mustached man, she had him do a quick perimeter sweep while she remained near Claire and STR in case anything went south. The medic was surprisingly good with adapting to the childlike cyborg but there was little time for long introduction. Checking her watch, Sarah cleared her throat to get Claire's attention.

"We should try and keep moving to the examination site. We're too exposed out here," McFinn exclaimed, waving Peterson in from his sweeping lap around the perimeter.

Left alone in a foreign country with nothing but a group of strangers to guide her. Certainly not the worst situation she'd ever found herself in, but the extra pressure of representing the organization and her country (a mission that was thoroughly drilled into her since news of the swap first came about) added to the growing anxiety. One of the people approached her and began speaking her language; a friendly gesture, but she'd been ordered to speak English out of courtesy whenever possible.

"Hello. I can speak English." She thought that might sound a bit rude or patronizing, but also thought she might be over thinking this thought entirely. Limited social interaction had left her less than prepared for this sort of situation (a simple conversation). She continued to look at the ground, prepared to go wherever they ordered her to. Nothing unfamiliar there.

As the young girl spoke english Claire nodded, She wasn't really offended but she did feel slightly foolish, It wouldn't make much sense for them to send an agent that didn't understand a single word of english. "Alright then we'll stick with English then." Claire said smiling. She glanced back as Sarah cleared her throat to draw her attention and nodded at her suggestion "Of course." She said before turning back to the agent from Japan. "Miss if you'll follow us I need to perform a brief medical examination before we can bring you back to headquarters." Claire said.

She turned to Sarah and the rest of her escort "Would you like to lead the way?" Claire asked. She'd been briefed on the person they'd be picking up and the location but everything else was unknown to her. For instance she didn't really know where the examination area was. The location was probably in the folder given to her by the director but she hadn't taken as much time as she should have to thoroughly go through every detail within the folder. Hopefully Sarah and the others had more information than she did regarding this entire thing.

Peterson returned from his perimeter sweep just as Claire finished up the awkward introductions with their new operative. The mustached man quirked his head towards the gate before gesturing to his watch. McFinn understood the signal and sent a nod towards Claire. "Leave it to us. Mendez has the mobilization orders and he's a hell of a driver," she said, climbing into the front passenger seat while Peterson returned to the back. Once Claire and Strength had boarded the truck, Mendez would put the car into drive and pull out in a graceful sweeping arc before barreling down the dirt road towards the examination site. To maintain secrecy, they'd been instructed to proceed much deeper into the woods, well outside the reach of civilization ensuring absolute privacy.

Time would pass with relatively little said by the Beret escorts save for a near constant humming of "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" by Peterson. The truck's headlights cut through the inky black of the night with marginal help from the stars overhead. Their were about five minutes out when the clouds finally drifted back to reveal the full moon shining overhead. Within seconds a dark brown blur flashed across the road a sort distance in front of the truck leaving a small object in the middle of the road. Without missing a beat, McFinn had her hand braced against the roof of the car, shouting to Mendez to take evasive action. However the normally world class driver was oddly late in his evasive measures and the explosive device detonated under the car's front left tire, sending the vehicle wildly flailing onto its side before sliding across the dirt into a nearby ditch.

The dust gradually began to settle as McFinn wiped the blood from her forehead and confirmed she had no severe injuries. Mendez appeared shaken up but coherent as he unbuckled himself. Before she could confirm the status of the others, light gunfire began to ping off the front cab of the truck as figures warped among the trees, some of them appearing downright inhuman. Crawling through the opening into the back of the cab to the back seating area, McFinn and Mendez took cover from the continued suppression fire. "Somebody sold us the fuck out! Screw the test, top priority just became getting you two to the nearest emergency evac point!" Sara shouted over the gunfire. "Peterson! Mendez! You two take point and try to get us enough breathing room to make a break with it. I'll cover the rear," she continued. The two Berets immediately complied, each bracing a hand on the back doors to the truck before forcefully throwing them open with a pair of smoke grenades to cover their finer movements.

She only nodded to signal confirmation of the current task. She stepped into the transport truck when ordered, the rear end noisily creaking as it pushed lower to the ground. She said nothing during the ride, only looking at her feet. From the first cries of evasive action, she was prepared to kill whatever it was that had alarmed the new handlers. The explosion, however, was not expected. Shaken as the car swerved and eventually crashed, she found herself fallen flat to the ground, arms having kept her from sliding in any direction. As the bullets began to fly, her conditioning and transforming mechanisms took over, her left arm outstretched to reach into the front area, fingers opening into gun barrels, as numerous bullets began to blast from her hand. Seeing the two soldiers leave through the back, she assumed her mission was to protect these people, following them out backwards while maintaining heavy fire through the windshield. A magazine ejected itself into the vehicle as she did, dropping among a sea of spent casings as a new one was cycled into place within seconds.

For the most part Claire remained quiet on their way to the examination area, She couldn't shake this foreboding feeling that something was about to go wrong. And sure enough it did so unlike the beret's sitting beside her her eyes weren't as sharp and she was just able to catch sight of the figure as it moved past them having already dropped it's package. Thus she was unprepared for the jolt she felt when the explosive went off beneath the vehicle. She could feel her seat belt crush against her chest uncomfortably and her crown exploded in a mass feeling of pain as it knocked against the top of the cab.

As the vehicle slid to a stop in the ditch her vision was blurry. She could feel a warm liquid slowly dripping down the side of her head up into her hair from where she hung still secured in her seat. Everything seemed was unclear to her her hearing was muffled and she could only vaguely make out shapes running about in the distance. She could hear what sounded like Sara's voice yelling out orders. Finally she managed to clear the haze in her mind just long enough to realize that they were in danger. Grunting in effort she reached up towards the release on her seat belt and pressed it only to find that something inside it had likely come out of place as the belt remained firmly locked in place. "Shit." Claire muttered gritting her teeth as her entire body throbbed with protest.

She could hear gunfire outside the cab and once again forced herself to curl her body inward this time pulling her knife from it's sheath on her belt and cutting the belt. The sudden feeling of falling surprised Claire she narrowly avoided falling upon her own knife as she fell from her seat. She groped around searching for her rifle but quickly abandoned the search as a round cracked into the window beside her. Instead she reached to her belt pulling her Beretta from it's holster as she climbed out the same opening she'd seen Sara use. As she reached the back she pulled back the slide of her pistol and switched of the safety before getting to her feet.

Her head was still aching but she could see more clearer now and the snap and hiss of gunfire around them was now sounding clear as day. She nodded at Sara as she told her that their main objective was now to get them to an evacuation zone as the two Green beret's rushed out to take point she turned to the young girl who she'd been placed in responsibility for only to see the girl had somehow transformed her arm into a large firearm. She gripped Sara by the arm and pulled her behind Strength as the young girl began to pour ammunition through the front of the vehicle laying down suppressing fire.

Mendez and Peterson were highly trained, competent officers with proper equipment and a sound briefing on the potentially supernatural threats faced on VWAT missions.  Coupled with that, they had enough experience working together to make a perfectly synchronized movement, throwing open the back doors and slipping into the rapidly spreading smoke screen they had unleashed.  They brought their weapons up with the intention of laying down suppression fire, fingers tightening around their triggers...and then two rows of jagged fangs crashed down on Peterson's left forearm from above and the mustached man was dragged out of sight before he even had a chance to scream.  Standing alongside him, Mendez was quick to recover from the shocking revelation that a hostile wolf had positioned itself atop the truck awaiting their exit.  Classic threat detection psychology at work, nobody ever thought to look straight up.  Rounding on the beast, Mendez took aim to bring down the thrashing beast only to take the full brunt of a tackle from a second beast that erupted from the smoke, its heightened sense of smell and hearing allowing it to zero in on Mendez and tackle him out of the viewpoints of the three women despite the obscured vision.  

It happened in a moment's notice, a brutal response to the Beret's first move against this hostile force.  Sara, taking up the rear of the group felt Claire's hand begin to close around her arm to pull her forward just as Mendez and Peterson were attacked.  Not allowing herself to fall to hesitation, Sara acted decisively and whipper her arm up and around Claire's neck to try and pull her into a tight one armed choke hold.  With her human shield in place, McFinn would raise her rifle with her free hand, leveling it at STR's center mass from her hip.  Making every attempt to capitalize on the element of surprise, Sara fired three anti-material rounds at the Japanese cyborg, a predatory smirk twisting her formerly kind features.

This mission was a failure, as two of the people had just been taken. From her education, her first thoughts went to Lycanthropy, meaning that even if those two were saved, they would be monsters now. Targets.

One of them was pulled above. Though it was probably gone by now, she turned her body and aimed up, firing with one arm into the roof of the vehicle, easily blasting through it. Whether or not this accomplished anything, it would certainly deter anyone else from camping out above them.

Apparently, one of the women had been a target from the very beginning, since they were preparing to shoot her. Using her free arm (the other still in the process of firing small bursts through the side of the car), she reached forward as the bullets began flying, attempting to grab the woman's hand and weapon to crush them both. At the same time, all three rounds impacted her palm, denting the connecting joint of her ring finger and cracking the surface. Anti-material bullets were no laughing matter, even for her body.

A warped barrel would mean that entire hand would be relatively useless as a gun, Even so, she'd found that hitting something hard enough will usually make it stop moving. If she could help it, she would prefer to save the doctor, but if it came down to it, she was of no concern. This mission was a failure already. One more casualty was nothing special. She only remembered the last orders issued by her handlers before leaving Japan - return home and inform them of what the Americans were equipped with. She couldn't afford to fail that mission.

Even with the element of surprise, things were quickly turning against Sara's favor. The cybernetic monstrosity was far more durable than her masters had informed her and despite three anti-material rounds at close range that damned arm was still functional, closing around McFinn's rifle an instant after she had released it. The expensive weapon was utterly ruined in the super powered strength of the small girl's grip and Sara found herself weaponless as she circled the cyborg clockwise. Her back against the wall, McFinn kept the human medic between herself and STR as a desperate shield as she drew ever closer to the open doorway. The moment that she moved beyond the cyborg, Sara would violently shove Claire in STR's direction to buy precious time while she bolted for the forest to rejoin the rest of the pack. However, she had no intention of simply fleeing before the enemy, not while there were other werewolves nearby to serve as potential witnesses to such cowardice. And so, as she made for the door Sara made it a point to pull the pin from one of the grenades that VWAT had supplied in the back of the transport for this mission. Having been scattered across the vehicle in the crash, the now primed explosive dropped among its fellows would start a chain of explosions to hopefully send both of the VWAT agents straight to hell.

Allowing the crumpled remains of the weapon to drop from her hand, the cyborg continued onward at a slow pace, raising her other arm to fire once again. Before any bullets could leave her arm, however, the other woman was thrust at her. She grabbed her easily enough around the waist, continuing forward without being deterred. As the traitor fled the vehicle, she was scene activating a grenade and tossing it back inside. Needing more immediacy, STRENGTH used her free hand to launch herself out of the vehicle, landing a few feet away. Dropping the woman, she backhanded the car as she turned towards the forest, the first grenade exploding as the transport became airborne.

She shielded herself and the other woman with her arms as other explosives began to go off. Debris would be no match for her, but the noise and flames would make it hard to see where the monsters were escaping. A wheel slammed against the backside of one hand, springing backwards immediately afterwards. Unsure of what to do next, as the targets had seemingly moved out of range, she waited for the wreckage to discontinue assaulting them and see what orders the medical officer could give.

The mechanical girl was definitely far more impressive in person than her file had led McFinn to believe. It was all meant to be so simple when the master gave her this assignment and now it had all gone up in smoke. Quite literally actually as the truck erupted into a fireball of shrapnel to briefly light up the darkened forest. Mentally cursing her failure once more, McFinn decided to avoid further confrontation with the VWAT agents tonight. If she utilized the whole pack that the master had send along to assist her she could probably win the battle of eventually but such a strategy would cost the lives of too many wolves. Those lives were not hers to sacrifice so early in the grand scheme of things. Sadly, she would be forced to play the coward and signaled for a full retreat, darting further into the forest and off to parts unknown with the grace of a phantom.

Claire couldn't believe that Sara had been an infiltrator. This entire operation had gone south from the moment they had left the airstrip. Her entire escort had been killed save for Sara who obviously had other allegiances to uphold. As she was shoved toward STRENGTH she felt one of the mechanical girl's large arms wrap around her waist. She turned in her protector's grip aiming her pistol toward her former captor only to see the woman fleeing out the back of the truck with a grenade being thrown in her wake. She screamed as STRENGTH launched herself out of the vehicle still holding Claire in her grip. The young medic surely hadn't been expecting such an action but she was most definitely thankful for it as she felt the explosion from the truck send shock waves through the ground.

She flinched as she heard something strike against STRENGTH's arm as the young girl shielded the older woman from the debris from the explosion. She remained on the ground after her protector had risen to her feet. Her mind was in complete disarray as a result of the recent events that had occurred. After a long moment of silence she looked toward the girl who she was supposed to be escorting. She got to her feet the empty road they now stood in was illuminated in a dull orange light as flames from the truck crackled nearby. Claire bit her lip thrusting her pistol into it's holster and cradling her head in her hands. She'd expected this to be a simple escort mission but it had gotten so much more complicated than that.

Claire shook her head trying to clear her mind of the constant stream of thoughts stampeding through her mind. She needed to focus herself nothing would get done she took a deep breath inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth before looking towards the Japanese girl who had defended her. "Let's get out of here, Before they decide to come back again." Claire said it was the best her mind could come up with at the moment. Claire wasn't used to leading she was a subordinate not a leader. There was a reason she'd never been promoted to anything other than specialist in the army. She was great at following orders but lacked the drive and confidence to give them.

She followed without complaint. Wherever this person took them would just be where they ended up. She had no ability or desire to lead, so following was easiest. Hopefully, she would be able to follow the woman back to civilization. She needed repairs and wanted to sleep.

Mission Complete, I guess. Teleporting to base.