The Inner Circle

Knosis

Grumpy Badger
Moderator
Benefactor
The military and governmental district. In the center, Military Command bustles with activity. Towards the edges are the military apartments for the militants and collared alike. Several research facilities are mixed in, ranging from science, to advancing technology. The area is walled off from the rest of the city, with four gates set at four crossing points on the circle.
 
The sun was just going down past the gate, leaving long shadows from the building surrounding the command center. Darius sighed and stretched, cracking both sides of his neck before moving to crack his knuckles. When did everything get to be so stiff? His charge squatted a little ways away from him, a silent shadow even in the sun light. The damned collared was always quiet, always looked as though his mind was else where.

"The rest should be meeting up with us shortly." Darius announced unnecessarily to Zieg. "As well as the one in charge of this operation. Wonder what we're going after today. They rarely call you forward anymore."

Zieg shrugged. "I don't know.." He said, his accent thick. And that was it.

'Always a conversation go-getter..' Darius thought.
 
Since her collaring, Alaska has come to love missions. Not because she enjoyed the work (although, sometimes, she could admit that they had their draw), and not because she believed in working for those who had collared her. Alaska simply loved getting outside of the gate. If she ever found a way to escape, it would likely be on a mission. The chances were slim, she knew that, but it gave her some semblance of hope to dream of an escape, and getting outside of the gate would likely play an integral part.

Aside from her escape aspirations, just being outside of the gate made her feel a bit freer. She was forced to see the same spaces and the same faces day in and day out; it was nice to get a change of pace.

There was a bit of pep in Alaska's step as she approached the other two. She hadn't been here long enough to learn the names of everyone around, but the faces were vaguely familiar. Tugging at her collar a bit, she tested the atmosphere. It was, she believed, smart to get a feel for what everyone was feeling at the start of a con. She applied this to missions as well. Most people are fueled by their emotions; heading into dangerous territory filled with any kind of intense emotion made people more likely to do stupid things. It never hurt to prepare for that eventuality. Eyeing the other two for a moment, she came to a stop a couple feet away, making a triangle if she were to bother to connect their individual dots. "Evening."
 
There weren’t enough drugs in the world to get Orion to sleep through the night, but the military continued to look. They knew that he would be worthless if he was going out on missions while exhausted, so they searched for something to make the collared sleep. While he couldn’t sleep thanks to the nightmares, hence the military continuing to canvass the medical markets for something new, Orion wasn't allowed to stop doing what he was brought into the military to do much to his annoyance.

“Orion… come in Orion. What are you doing?” A voice came across the earpiece in his ear and he groaned, wrapping the blankets over his head to block out the voice. Yeah, it didn’t make sense, but the twenty-five year old was sleepy.

“Ugh, I was having the best sleep of my life. This better be important.” He muttered, though it was not loud enough for anyone to hear. He knew better than to disobey orders and no doubt he was late for something. Shit, was he supposed to be somewhere today? It was rare for Orion to sleep and to have it interrupted did not make him a happy camper. It also disoriented him quite a bit and made his brain immensely foggy. There was a few minutes of silence before the voice came across again.

“Orion, you were supposed meet with the others five minutes ago. I am sure they're waiting on you.” With that, the voice cut out and Orion groaned loudly before throwing his covers back and climbing out of the bed.

Tugging on his assigned outfit, he hastily ran his fingers through his hair to more or less fix it before moving out of the room. Jogging out of the building, he headed towards where others were gathered, noting his handler was there. In addition there were two collared individual, but for the life of him, he couldn't recall their names. Meekly coming to stop beside them, he glanced up at the sky before running a few fingers through his messy red hair. "Oh, it's evening..." He managed, surprised to see that he had fallen asleep sometime mid to late morning and slept through the day.
 
Darius gazed over to Alaska as she wondered up. She was Morrigan's ward. This fact brought a long sigh to the older man. "Great." He muttered under his breath before she was in earshot, but gave a small smile to the young woman. This one belonged to Morrigan, which meant he knew his commander this mission. "Good evening. You're one of the new ones, aren't you? You've been on a mission before?" He stood up and offered his hand. "Name's Darius." He seemed genuine in treating her as an actual person. "Is this your first mission?"

Orion came in quietly. And thankfully before Morrigan. He did not want to immediately get on her bad side if she discovered one of his charges late. "Better late than never." He said to Orion. "Did you get any sleep this time?"

Zieg barely acknowledged the other's existence, simply staring ahead, waiting for the orders to move.
 
It took a second for Alaska to catch on to what Darius was saying. She could see his moving, but she'd been distracted by the intense anger radiating from the quiet one in the corner. Carefully taking a step away as if he were a raging fire and distance could diminish the feeling, Alaska turned her attention back to Darius. "Hm? Oh, yes, I'm new... ish. Newish." He seemed nice enough. "Nah, this mission will make my third." The other two had been relatively straightforward, this looked -- felt -- like it might be a bit more complicated.

"I'm Alaska," the ward offered as she reached to shake his hand with her gloved one.

At the arrival of someone else, she whipped her head around, eyeing the newcomer. Though, she supposed, she really was the newcomer here. "Rather astute. That tends to happen at the end of each day, yes." It was, perhaps, a bit unfair to mock his apparent surprise at the time of day when she didn't really know his circumstance, but sometimes the sarcasm just slipped out unbidden. When her hand was free from Darius', she shoved both of them into her pockets. It appeared she wouldn't be making friends today. That was fine. Alaska wasn't here to make friends anyway.
 
Glancing over towards Darius at his comment, Orion felt his cheeks growing slightly warm. Damn it, he hated when he blushed when he felt like he was being indirectly chastised even if that wasn’t what was happening. Biting on the inside of his cheek, he rolled his shoulders, popping them just a little bit in an attempt to relax himself. He always felt tense and anxious just before a mission. Belatedly realizing his handler had asked him a question, he cleared his throat and spoke with a light nod. “Yes, I managed to fall asleep some point during the morning and well… I just woke up.” He winced a little, hating that he had overslept on such an important night. “I’m sorry I was late…” Orion added softly, glancing over towards the female at her comment.

“No shit Sherlock. I only said that because I slept for so long and didn’t realize the time when I left my room.” Bitch. Orion flexed his fingers in his left hand into a slight fist before relaxing, knowing better than to start anything with another collared. He shook his head and returned his attention towards Darius for a brief moment before he looked towards Zeig, studying him silently.

“Any idea why he's going on the mission?” He asked Darius, though he kept studying Zeig curiously.
 
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"Nice to meet you, Alaska." He said with a gentle smile. He had noticed her side step away from Zieg. "Ah, don't worry about him. He may be a vampire, but he doesn't bite. Hell, we have to damned near force feed him.." He commented. Zieg's eyes slowly shifted over to Alaska for a moment, studied her in a silent manner, then turned his attention to whatever it was he stared at in front of him. Darius rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Eh heh. He's been like that since he's come here. Doesn't talk much, does what he's told for the most part."

At Orion's question, he shrugged. "The higher ups didn't feel the need to tell me. They very rarely call for Zieg unless brute strength is needed to settle things down. But I would have heard about that. My only thought is that perhaps they want to keep him limber. He's not been on a mission for two months I think. Don't think he's fed in that time either. Maybe this will kick up an appetite."

Click. Click. Click. Click.

The sound of hard heels hitting concrete was approaching fast. Zieg slowly stood up straight and moved closer to the small group, turning to face the approaching woman who looked as though she was about to bring hell down herself. All five foot two and a half inches of her.

Not a single stitch was out of place on her uniform, her hair was tucked neatly away in a bun. Her eyes were sharp like a whip, and everything about her screamed authority. Morrigan was not one to be on the bad side of. "Alaska! I told you to wait for me in your room. You will be suitably dealt with upon returning from our mission." The woman snapped. "And you." She wheeled around to Orion. "You're lucky you're not my ward being that late, I'd have you out washing every inch of the yard with a toothbrush even if it took you a month." She sneered at Zieg as if he was the most distasteful thing in the world before turning to Darius. "And I have to deal with Mr. Shoemaker. One of the laziest handlers I've ever know. Today is going to be just absolutely delightful." Her words dripped with sarcasm.

Darius merely gave her his most bright fake smile. "Its always a pleasure working with you too, Miss Kerrigan. By the way, there's a bit of something just here.." He pointed at the tip of his nose, implying something a bit more unpleasant. This brought a delightful scowl to her face.
 
Bray was a simple man. And he liked things as simple as they could be. However, the upper chain was doing something.. Less than simple lately. He was getting too old for this. Maybe his wife was right. Maybe he should retire. He sighed as he caught sight of the man he'd been looking for.

"Militant Beck!" He barked that hard gravely voice of his. Boy was he tired, and it showed. "I have an assignment for you and need a to speak to you about it.. Come to my office, soldier."
 
"On my way."

The words snapped into place reflexively with little time to process the possibilities, the whys, the sort of things that naturally came to those questioning, those bucking under the weight of authority. If Praetor Beck carried any of those tendencies within him, they were long and deeply oppressed within the frame of the soldier. The only thing he seemed to buck now was the ravages of time, still the model of the ideal soldier as time barreled on.

From his spartan living accommodations, it didn’t take Beck long to report as directed. Dressed in basic issued fatigues, he passed through the necessary checkpoint and proceeded in.

Wonder if they’ve let one of their pets out of the yard, he mulled to himself. Still, it was odd to be call in for a personal briefing like this.

“Reporting as ordered, sir,” Beck stated from perfect posture, breaking only long enough to stretch his neck until it cracked from tension.
 
"At ease." Bray pulled his hat off and threw it down on his desk. He ran a hand smoothly over his short grey hair before sitting heavily in his seat. "I see from your records you've been trained as a sniper." He said quietly, more a statement than a question. "I'm assuming you still have the eye for it. I know its different from your current duties, but we have.." He searched for the words to put it quite delicately. Instead he gave up and made a vague gesture with his hands, his face turning a tad red in the frustration of not being able to find the words.

"I'm going to lay it on you as I see it, so feel free to speak freely. I believe they're doing something entirely wrong. But I cannot make them change their minds. The only thing I can do is put in a fail safe." His old, tired eyes turned a tad sharp and one could see the old dog's fierceness in him. This man used to be a soldier too before they'd put him in command of things. Behind a desk.

"You're going to be one of my fail safes. You understand me? There are multiple teams of handlers being assembled currently, all of which have their own brand of.. Monster with them. Not regular collared. No. They're sending out all of the heavy hitters in the next few weeks over various missions. Its some sort of test.." He trailed off, looking quite disturbed by the information he knew of but couldn't relay to someone under his rank.
 
"Likewise." She bit the inside of her cheek to avoid smiling. At least someone around here felt something a little more positive. That was nice. "Oh. Well, alright." There was no point in explaining that she wasn't terrified of the other guy. His anger was a bit scalding, but aside from that, well. It was what it was. She met Zieg's gaze head-on, though she regretted that when he looked away. "Mm, what fun is that sitting in the corner and never talking to anyone." She beamed, even though she felt less than enthusiastic. Still, getting out of the compound was something.

Shrugging, she shoved her hands in her pockets, unperturbed by Orion's cranky demeanor. "That's what happens when you fall asleep during the day." She didn't bother listening for a retort. She'd got a general read on his emotions, and anything further was interrupted by the arrival of Alaska's handler. She felt her before she saw her. That deep irritation had since become familiar to Alaska. It was almost comforting. Almost.

"I didn't want to be late," she told Morrigan, lightly blinking innocently at the woman. It was Alaska's current goal to irritate her handler just enough. Not so much that they would have her killed and finished off, but just enough to see the signs of irritation. Morrigan deserved it. "Lucky for me, I didn't wait for you, too." She was here before Morrigan, so ha!

Alaska watched the exchange between her handler and Darius, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. As far as handlers went, he was alright. Not that she was about to make friends with him or anything, but something about the enemy of my enemy... The point is that she could enjoy someone else who found Morrigan insufferable.
 
Orion didn’t necessarily feel any better with Darius’s answer, but it wasn’t his place to keep prying. As long as Zieg didn’t bother him, he really didn’t care why the male was being called for duty. Running his fingers through his hair, he was sidetracked by Alaska’s answer and he found himself nodding a bit, realizing he had been just a wee bit cranky, but her comment still hadn’t been necessary. Sighing, he started to apologize before the telltale sound of clicking caught his attention. His head shifted with dread towards Morrigan and he visibly shrank as she scolded him for being late. He hated when he did that, but it couldn’t be helped.

“S-sorry…” Orion stammered out before forcing his shoulders back and back straight. He was working on being more assertive, but it was a long road.

He immediately felt bad for thinking that Alaska was a bitch when clearly, Morrigan was the queen of the bitches in more ways than one. His face parted into a grin, which he immediately changed to a blank look at Alaska’s retort and he almost laughed, but managed to reign it in at the last second. She was quite feisty, that was for sure and he was beginning to change his assessment of her completely. When Kerrigan’s attention turned to Darius, Orion’s eyes narrowed when she rudely spoke to his Handler. While they weren't the best of buds, he was not appreciative of her comments. Clearly she had something stuck far up her butt. However, before he could say anything, Darius bit back in the best way possible and unfortunately for the Collared, a giggle slipped out from between his tightly closed lips.

Shit. Here’s hoping she didn’t hear that.
 
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Morrigan had hurt, and her cold eyes slowly turned to Orion with pure malice for a solid moment. Just to make him sweat. "We have been given assignment. We're to go out to the fourth ring and search the area for a source of news generated by the residents recently." She said bluntly. "There is one other we will need to pick up along the way. He should be receiving his orders now. Meet me by the eastern gate in twenty minutes. Alaska! To me!" Her heels clicked hard as she walked away towards the military buildings that the non-handler military used.

As soon as she was out of earshot, she spoke again to her ward. "You'll be assigned to assist our additional unit. You're to do everything he commands you to do as if he were me." She seemed to have a particular distaste with this.

--

Darius rubbed his chin, his brows furrowed in a frown. "Still doesn't explain why they wanted Zieg... Rumors were pretty firm that it was two girls who caused the disturbance a few nights back.." He murmured.

He turned to Orion. "Don't apologize to her. She's not in charge of you. If I don't say you're in trouble, then you've got nothing to be sorry for." He said gently. He started towards the eastern gate, motioning for both wards to follow. "I don't know what's in store for us three tonight. Zieg, I want you to hang back a bit. Something smells a tad funny." Darius seemed worried. "Orion, I'll need you to keep a keen eye out while we're out there. I'll keep an eye on your back, but I'm just a normal human."
 
When Morrigan had turned her back, Alaska rolled her eyes and crossed them at Darius and Orion before following after her handler. She wanted to get on her nerves, sure, but she didn't want to be in too much hot water. Raising an eyebrow at Morrigan, she nodded to show she understood the instruction. "You're upset about that," she said after a beat. "I have several theories about the why, but you're upset."
 
Every muscle ached, screaming not for relief from strain, but for movement. How long had Beck’s body lay prone and lifeless, crammed between shards of rubble amidst craters once forming sprawling urban jungle? Hours? Days? Time was a cruel mistress playing havoc on one’s mind as the intolerable wait dragged one. Still, this was the game for which snipers were born and bred.

The barrel stretched out before him, entire rifle coated with the same digital camouflage. The latest dash of improvisation was a scrap of newspaper, a bit of refuse amongst the rubble, cleverly stuck to the side of the scope with a bit of now-dried saliva to form something of a shade cover hanging over the edge of the scope. More than a few snipers met their end courtesy of an untimely glint of sunlight from the lens of a telescopic scope – Praetor Beck had no intentions of joining their cadre just yet.

And still, the wait dragged on.


Beck was back in the present, but part of him felt the return of the ache, the restless muscles twitching as memories triggered miniscule reflexes. He now stood with his feet slightly apart, hands behind his back in an at-ease manner.

“So am I to be embedded with one of these teams or track them from a distance?”

It was still surreal to him that this briefing was given in person. Most of the time, orders dropped off as packets and it was up to Beck to figure everything out, acquire requisitions, and set out.

Something was very, very wrong.
 
Orion was fairly certain he had all of the bad luck in the world because the moment Morrigan had turned slowly to look at him, he knew that she had heard his giggle. The cold silent stare was a million times worse than her scathing words and he felt himself shrinking beneath the glare. It was as if she was looking right into his soul and he did not like that. He found it hard to focus on her orders and it wasn’t until she looked away again that he felt his breathing return to normal. By the time she had walked away, Orion’s fingers were sliding through his slightly damp hair before shakily dropping back to his side. Bitch. He did manage a grin at Alaska’s face, hoping that the female wouldn’t get too much of a punishment for not waiting on Kerrigan.

Shifting his attention towards Darius at the murmuring, Orion vaguely picked up on something about two girls, but didn’t let his mind dwell on that for too long. He had given up hope years ago that his sister would come rescue her and he just hoped that she was still safe and very much alive. Nodding at his Handler’s instructions, Orion knew that was something else he was going to have to work on.

“Sorry, she just makes me feel so damn little and makes me feel like if I don’t apologize, she’ll rip out my spine through my nose.” Following behind Darius as he headed towards the Eastern Gate, he mused a little on what could make his Handler feel like the mission smelled funny. Running his fingers through his hair again, he glanced up at the sky before dropping his gaze back down, not wanting to trip over something… again.

“Sure thing, Darius. I’ll watch your back too as much as I can.” Smiling, he ignored the dread building in his gut.
 
Morrigan gritted her teeth. Empaths. She thought angrily.

"Mind your own business. My emotions are in check." She said, clearly lying. Something had been bothering Morrigan for a while at this point. In fact, right about a week or two after Alaska had been assigned to her. "The higher ups are being a bit.. Hard to get information out of them about this situation. But we will do as we are ordered as efficiently as we can."

--

Darius nodded. "Well, with Morrigan leading the charge, we'll probably be fine. She's the favorite of becoming the commanding general eventually anyway."

"Do you have any questions?" He asked after a moment.

--

"A little of both." Bray answered. "Your official assignment is to provide back up cover from an advantage point of your choosing. However.. Your true purpose is to keep watch on the monster of the group. Today you're assigned to watch the P.O.A number 204321 Zieg." Bray had to suppress a shudder from the memory that had popped in his head several years back before Zieg was in their command.

The inside of the building was dark.. She just kept staring..

"This monster is not to be underestimated. He may not seem very harmful anymore, but I can personally guarantee that he is one of the most deadly collared units we have."

Why does she keep staring..?

"Zieg uses the shadows to his advantage and is strongest at night. Unfortunately, you'll be searching after the sun has gone down. You'll only have one opportunity to take him down completely if it is needed, so I'm telling you.. Don't you dare miss."

The walls are covered with a red substance. Arms and legs and torsos and heads all decorate the floor like poorly tossed dice. The pews are toppled over except for one. Her head was leaned back over the bench's back in an awkward angle. Her mouth was still moving when he found her, but now she'd move no more. But those eyes... Kept.. Staring..

Bray's eyes hardened as he blocked out the rest of the memory. "To be frank. We're not sure if the device in his neck is enough to stop him from causing the havoc we know he's capable of. Or any of them, for that matter. My belief is that he's just biding his time here on his own free will. And when he's had enough.. I'll leave that to your imagination."
 
"I don't have any questions, no... Well, I do, but I don't think you have the answers. I want to know what we're going up against and intel like that, but I guess it's a wait and see situation. Surprises are supposed to be fun, right?" Orion cracked a slight grin at that, knowing that nothing he had been on thus far would be considered fun, but one could wish, right? Sighing hard, he placed both of his arms behind his head and just stared up at the sky, humming beneath his breath. He was reminded of the innocent times of his youth when he and Schuyler would lay out beneath the stars and make silly wishes. He hated the ache that immediately followed any memory of his twin and clenched his jaw hard, wondering if he would ever see her again.

"The sooner we get going on this mission, the quicker I can get back to not sleeping again." He cracked yet another joke because while he knew they were trying to figure out a way to get him to sleep through the night without having to drug him, Orion knew their attempts were futile. Eventually they would grow tired of wasting resources on him and would just end up slaughtering him. Maybe on a mission just like this.

Oh, that's just great, Orion. Way to think positive you paranoid idiot.
 
Alaska shoved her hands deep into her pockets and glanced at Morrigan from the corner of her eyes. "Sure," she said, lightly. And I'm free as a bird in here. Morrigan in control of her emotions hadn't been the case for a while now. The first two weeks, sure, and Alaska had a feeling that those two weeks were the norm for Morrigan. Whatever turmoil she's dealing with now was not her usual state of affairs.

"Something like that," she agreed. She'd do enough to stay alive, and nothing more caring very little for making Morrigan look good. "Who is this person that I'll be answering to? What are they like?"
 
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