as written by Absenthia and barney_fife
Sighing, Claire glared out at the city from the air terminal, having gotten on the next available flight in. "What do they even want?" She muttered taking one last drag on her cigarette before putting it out. The city, positioned as it was close to water and with it's temperate rainforest like climate, rose above the lush greenery of Alpheus. "Fuckin' Aschen government." She thought to herself. There was no way she was going to enjoy this assignment, and made up her mind to be as difficult as possible.
Hailing herself a cab, she gave the driver the address and leaned back into the seat as the car whisked her off to the Imperial Intelligence Agency.
The cab eventually came to a halt outside of the imposing building housing the IIA. Swiping her card through the terminal to pay for the cab, Claire then climbed out, unfolding her tall frame from the backseat of the car. "This can only end so well." She said to herself as she walked into the building.
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The lobby of the IIA Office was not much different from the old LDA Lobby, save for several renovations. Most noteably the LDA Emblem behind the main desk was replaced by that of the IIA, the circular phoenix motif replaced with something a bit more utilitarian. The armed guards remained, posted at each elevator entrance deeper into the facility.
In the center was a security checkpoint, where people were searched and bio-metrics data was taken. Agents swiped their credentials, and moved through the checkpoint fairly quickly, Claire was no exception.
Having been notified of her arrival, Special Agent Malcolm Barrett was standing adjacent to the elevator door, a thick file folder tucked under his arm as he gestured Claire over.
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Spotting Barrett over by the elevator, Claire silently cursed her luck in getting him as a facility escort. The man was intolerable, nothing except proper protocol existed in his thick skull; not that she had bothered to check, but suspected that was what was there if she did. Approaching him, it was fairly evident that the only thing that had changed was the agency name and who they "worked" for. "Tie still as tight as ever I see Barrett." She commented, addressing the man with the folder. Eying the file under his arm, she raised an eyebrow, now slightly curious about it's contents.
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"Your next assignment is absolute top secret, under penalty of summary execution should you share it with anyone." Barrett said, turning towards the large elevator doors behind him. "Grand Confessor Kesslee will brief you on the particulars of your mission." Barrett said, as the doors opened behind him, and he led Claire through, and down the elevator which seemed to traverse several levels underground.
Dozens of levels turned to two dozen, until they reached Sublevel 30-A. The doors opened to reveal a pristine white hallway, technicians going about their business, and at the end of the hallway stood an older man in blue-purple robes.
"Angelique." The Grand Confessor said as he gestured her through a set of large glass doors that lead to a room with a large metal table in the center. Sitting upon the table was a large amulet, it's bright red finish contrasting on the silver table.
"This is your assignment."
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"Typical." Claire muttered as she endured the long ride down to the sublevel with Barrett. Shifting her weight back and forth in the elevator, she still wondered what exactly they had decided to pull out of what she assumed was retirement for. Looking around, Claire felt vaguely disturbed by the pristine, almost sterile white hallway with it's technicians bustling back and forth. Looking through the glass doors, she eyed the large metal table suspiciously, these people had never exactly been truthful when it came to assignments. "So my assignment is a shiny piece of jewelry? Sorry, but I'm not exactly that type of girl.." She remarked sarcastically. If they wanted her to do the mission so badly, they would tolerate her as she was.
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Barrett said nothing, before he turned and gestured towards a large holographic screen. The screen displayed one of the many testing grounds the Empire utilized for weapons testing. This one was a small settlement of primitive humans surrounded by lush forestry. In the distance there was a brief and barely noticeable green flash of light.
Over several seconds the fauna, and the people within the village began to turn to a ashy stone like substance, the trees, the plant life, everything slowly began to fossilize as the organic matter was destroyed.
"It's a Thalaron weapon, capable of destroying all organic life within hundreds of miles." Barrett said.
"Your assignment is to deliver this weapon to our assets on Valore, how you achieve this is entirely up to you. If you're caught we'll deny the whole thing. Your absolute discretion must be maintained."
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Pressing her lips tightly together, and with her arms crossed, Claire took in the footage from the display in front of her. "Spare me the secret agent spiel Barrett," She said holding up a hand to stop him. Claire knew well enough that if she were caught, everything would be on her head, the IIA wasn't always terribly willing to divulge information to anyone; even to it's own government. "Okay, so you want me to take whatever this Thalaron weapon is to Valore and deliver it to assets which remain unnamed." She repeated trying to determine just what was the reason behind bringing her in. "You know you could plunk some rookie agent on this?" She added. "We're all expendable right? Yeah, I thought so." She said, her tone acerbic and dark. "So answer me this, why am I the ideal candidate for this particular mission? Because both you and I know that sort of device is going to kill even it's user."
Claire wasn't refusing, or even really agreeing to anything, all she wanted were no nasty surprises later down the road.
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Barrett made a face, but Kesslee continued.
"You will travel to the Valoran continent of Therrier-Paix, to the city of Van Leugen, the district is called the Nashtons, there you'll meet with a deep cover IIA Agent working as a jeweler." Kesslee explained, picking up the device by it's ornate chain.
"You'll deliver the device to him, he will comment that it's a unique piece, you'll tell him that it belongs to your mother. This is the passphrase to let him know you're his contact." Kesslee explained. "At that point he will arm the device and set the timer for twelve hours, at which point the device will emit it's casading biogenic pulse." Kesslee added, dropping the device while Barrett stood silently.
"Take the device to a central point within Van Leugen and dispose of it in a concealed location, a dumpster, or a pile of trash.. somewhere where it's unlikely to be found by a passerby. You will need to flee the city to a minimum safe distance if two hundred kilometers, the further the better. This device has an effective range of one hundred fifty kilometers radii." Kesslee explained, picking the device up and handing it to Claire.
"Thalaron radiation is unstable, and while potent, it deteriorates quickly." Kesslee said. "Synchronize your watch to the detonation time, following detonation, you will need to return to the city to ascertain effectiveness, and recover the device. Return to orbit and rendezvous with the Rapid Conversion in the Hassara system, you'll be debriefed and returned to the Empire. It is absolutely critical this device does not fall into enemy hands post detonation." Kesslee emphasized.
"Do you have any questions."
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It sounded like a suicide mission to Claire, but she had cheated death in the past, though granted she was worse for the wear afterwards.
Taking the piece from Kesslee, she hefted it slightly in her hand, feeling the coldness of the metal gradually warm as it came in contact with her skin. Thinking for a moment, she considered asking the same question yet again, but decided against it seeing that it would only go unanswered and ignored.
Shaking her head, Claire replied, "No, I think I have it. Let's just hope I have what you need for me to complete this little errand."
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Kesslee nodded, while Barrett spoke up. "We could have put a rookie on this mission, but the stakes are too high for a rookie to screw up. We need someone who can navigate the warp storms in Sol, and you're the only one with a ship that has an Alcubierre drive." Barrett explained.
"You're also not instantly identifiable as an Aschen. Your ship is a merchant ship if I'm not mistaken. They'll be looking for military ships, not merchant ones."
Kesslee then spoke up.
"Do this, and you can go back to whatever retirement you came from. The hard part is returning for the device and getting off the planet before the TNG are aware there's been an attack."
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Claire glared at Kesslee as soon as he mentioned her ship. "You realize I haven't piloted a ship in decades right? Not since..." She trailed off shaking her head. Not since she'd made the decision to return home to Yellowstone, giving up on a number of things. Since then, she'd become elusive, occasionally appearing here or there, but never really bothering to go out much if at all. "Of course I'm not 'easily identifiable' as Aschen, I'm your only Amerikano in the whole damn organization." Claire grumbled, she hated being lumped in with the Aschen, and being identified as such.
Muttering obscenities under her breath, she just shook her head again. "Yes, the Ghost Dance is a merchant ship, yes it has warp drives and a alpha level sim to run it, but that's only going to get you so far." The ship hadn't left the system in decades, especially after the incident that left her grounded in so many ways. "But look, I'll do the assignment, it can't be that hard. Especially if you were willing to put a rookie on it."
Claire didn't bank on this being the only time she got pulled from retirement.
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Kesslee frowned.
"You're not the Only one, just the only one who isn't completely insane and has their face plastered on every intelligence dossier from here to the Taiyou Empire." He said.
"Take the necessary time to prepare yourself for this mission. Emperor Prince has informed me it's not time sensitive, the contrary actually. The longer you take, the more complacent TNG Authorities will become, and the easier it will be to carry out this mission. Just don't take too long, we don't want the whole thing to blow over."
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Claire made a face at the mention of her sister, Marlene. "I think half the galaxy has a warrant out for her." She muttered. Claire had her moments, but generally she was good at keeping a lid on her own mental instabilities. "No real time limit huh? Good." She added thinking things over. That would at least give her time to get back to retrieve the ship out of docking, and set a few things up before things really got underway.
"Let's just hope this goes off without a hitch, and I don't hit any snags."
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"Indeed, for all our sakes." Kesslee said, turning to lead Claire out of the room.
"There's nothing further, we'll contact you when everything's set up. You're dismissed."
