Archangel Protocols: Revival IC

OOC: For the record, Mas broke the lift az and quantas came down. ;) For all I know, we're using a VTOL airship. I learned a long time ago that GE throws curveballs (IE we could be hundreds of feet underground) for fun; thus why i have no problem throwing knuckleballs his way either. ^_^ lol

As for the briefing room, I'm assuming that you are staying in the armory, because I don't think we were told to go to a briefing room. If so, addendum as you see fit. :) I'm not going to edit for continuity.

IC:

Quantas noticed Casper eye his railgun conspicuously. For an android, it was longer than usual to compute recognition. especially the newer models. Even though androids are devoid of external emotion Quantas has learned, over his myriad of years, to read between the lines. "You like it?" he asked Casper. Bending down, he retrieved the rounds he popped out of the cartridge earlier. Unloading the cartridge, he placed the gun back on it's mantle with the other two. A few moments later, everything was as it was before the alarm.

"I'm sure you appreciate long distance warfare... Really... really... long distance warfare," Longview stated. He humphed then continued. "There are obviously other applications too, such as for use on 'things' like Masraik. Or Deus. Overkill for a tank, when even an RPG would do the job. Fast enough to hit an aerial target, though I haven't had one in... I can hardly recall..."

Quantas stepped back to look at the remaining arsenal. "A dying breed. Only three of twenty remain. One of the pinnacles of pre-collapse that is relatively unchanged to date despite minor efficiency upgrades." Taking a step to where he dropped his previously ordered weaponry he started loading everything he took off previously. Blabbing while he did so.

"Honestly, Kinetic weapons of conventional rounds don't need to be any smaller or destructive than they are now. The potential of energy weapons greatly surpasses them, but they are still useful. Total overkill, until you need it and don't have it though. It takes a machine like you or a biological sniper extraordinaire like myself to use it to any use over extreme distances. Gravity curvatures, wind changes over miles of land, a steady hand within micrometers..." Quantas wagged a finger at the android. "I was designed around this weapon much like you were designed around me... Sort of..." He waved away the similarity and continued on with the history lesson. "I was designed to love it, rather." Longview raised his arms and face to the ceiling dramatically with a crazy gleeful smile as he spoke. "A weapon that matched my own precision in blinding perfection."

The grin went away and his arms dropped, accenting the evident sardonic tone in his later expressions, "Except along with the weapon, I'm getting increasingly outdated and less useful as my age shows up as genetic faults. After this long on the battlefield, barriers in my GENMEM conditioning are started to fade just a tad. I could probably shoot you now without hardly any resistance from it if all I did was rationalize long and fast enough. Thankfully, I'm not crazy and have been proven more than a hundred percent loyal to the protocols independent of my built in patriotism. 'Fanatical', I believe it was said in my psych profile. That doesn't mean i'm not dissident of their mistakes... but hey; better than a Corponation! Eh?" He chuckled and nudged the 'doid.

"So then, 'Spot,'" Quantas addressed Casper. "Aside from the acronym, how about some details of yourself, and how you're useful aside from spotting? I saw the holotapes; you probably had the most time in your given role than anyone else. Quick response and problem solving, a frame to match, but short-lived in confrontational combat. A good solid soldier," Quantas said matter-of-factly and nodded in affirmation a moment or two later. "But what am I missing?"

OOC: I added the briefing room since loadout areas tend to have them attached. I'll just leave my post as is until GE gives a litte more envrionment. I did state that we had already been briefed, so I don't expect another one :P

IC:
Casper, as one might imagine, was not much of a conversationalist. Not that he minded Quantas' chatting, but rather he really didn't have anything to talk about. Normally, he was booted up, sent of a mission, retrieved and placed on standby. He could stand still in a single spot for days without getting ansy or complaining. It wasn't like he had any hobbies.

"You didn't mention my purpose, as defined by the Archangel Field Manual. Despite the circumstances during the sim, I am not a frontlines figher, like yourself. My strengths are in recon and information gathering. Normally, clandestine operations are left to GELFs with condidtioned training, but I am capable of those missions as well.

"Many commanders feel andriods lack a certain capacity to adapt, but in truth, organics - humans especially - are diffucult to adapt to change. There is a state of being for machines known as Singularity. The AI department in this facitlity tries very hard to prevent it. I suppose to answer your question, I'd have to say that any information missing about me is what the human programmers did not include in my systems. In fact, machines, andriods and gynoids in particular, can take on any role of which a biological life form is capable, excluding reproduction."

Casper fell silent, feeling he had sufficiently quenched Quantas' curiosity. Seeing an oppertunity to continue the conversation, Casper continued after a somewhat awkward moment of silence, "As far as Corponations go, I view them as an example of mankind's flaws. The Archangels know this, which is why thier nation prospers while the world around them withers and dies. They wrought their own destruction many centuries ago, though I have to appreciate human ability to perservere."

"Hmm..." Quantas pondered when Casper finished. "I beleive I understand what you mean. For how physically enduring my ilk and I are made to be, they have, I believe, the upper hand. As far as keeping their hope up to the bitter end, on a whole. Though, considering none of them make it to as long a service life as either of us, I doubt it would last as long as they do. Their disposition that is." Scratching the polymer cheek of the headgear on his rigid armor, he jumped back to Casper's fuctionality.

"I don't know why they wouldn't use you for purposes like my own," he concluded, bewildered. "Our functionalities are rather similar. I do information retrieval nearly as often as I'm sent to eliminate someone or something. Like you said about yourself being a front line fighter. Neither am I, in actuality. You must be new enough that they haven't tested you in situations outside of your intended role yet, heh."

Quantas patted one of the mid and short range weapons, though he had a sniper rifle he was resting his weight on. "Honestly I'm just bringing one clip for the rifle. I figure most of the job is going to be holding the front door and waiting for them, after clearing the sniper nests I would personally take up; or going in with them as support and detection. The latter I'd need closer range weaponry that won't bang into cramped walls when I spin around to cover my ass."

ooc: Alright, long promised and not yet delivered, here it comes guys, sorry for the delay.
Slight change of plans though, instead of giving each of you individual gifts, I will give you all permission to come up with special equipment for yourselves, it should be geared slightly towards self reliance, and things that will allowed prolonged field operation without Protocol support. The ideas I was gonna use but am too busy to implement in a post: weapons (specifically a light weight "assault" railgun for Quantas/Casper and possibly Kindle) with "mass gatherers" nano machines that collect dust and debri in order to form new ammunition on the fly. No good for extended rapid fire, but capable of replenishing ammo supplies over time. REactive armor for our stealth units capable of blending them perfectly with their surroundings for a short period rendering them all but invisible to even the most sensitive visual, thermal, and EM detection. A range weapon other than the blaster/blade on the shield for Mas, something heavy duty, like anti armor heavy duty. Upgrades for driods and borgs are acceptable as a lot of this tech is very "plug and play". ALright have fun with it.

IC:
Azrael walked for a silent moment with Abaddon. She never failed to surprise him. One of the supreme warriors of her age, deadly beyond any mortal beings ability to comprehend, and she was insecure as to her position on the mission? He looked at her, his eyes taking on a softness he rarely allowed to show in them. "I can answer that question with confidence. We'll be fighting in close quarters, unless we split up there will be a group of us, and even the best shot could accidentally hit a teammate in a close quarters group firefight. Melee however, while more dangerous to the individual, has a psychological edge. Bullets are feared but they are... ephemerial, they fly through the air unseen. The damage is visible but the weapon is not. You and I tearing through the ranks like a cyclone of steel and rage though? That IS visible, it instills fear in the enemies. It breaks them."

"As to your derivative, he is just that. He is not you. He is similar in some respects, but not the same. Besides." He smirked at her, "While I know you prefer melee, those reflexes of yours still make you damn deadly with a ranged weapon, if you would consent to carrying more than a pistol I think you'd find that you are almost as good as I am with it."

He squeezed her arm reassuringly. He knew that this was a momentary lapse in confident, something about Abaddon wouldn't allow her to doubt herself for too long, especially when battle loomed. They had nearly reached the armory at this point, entering it and separating to get their different load outs.

Azrael loaded up in much the same way he had for the Sim, the multi-rifle, the grenades, though he went with different types. He grabbed three antipersonenel frag grenades, three anti armor plasma grenades, and as a finishing touch, three anti-matter greandes. Azrael figured if they were going to have full armory access they might as well use it. He started to put on his body armor when a tech hurried in "Uh... uhm... gentlemen?" Clearly he was flustered addressing such a varied group of fairly important archangels. Many of the techs viewed them with a certain awe, even though they literally knew the Archangels inside and out.

"Yes?" Azrael answered.

"I was instructed to bring down some tech specifically for your group, its some of the latest weapons systems we've been working on. There is something here for each of you... umm let's see... " He took some full body armor, a pair of gloves, and a sword off the rack and looked at Azrael, "these are for you sir, the Body armor is fairly standard, its a little better at energy dispersal, that's kinetic, electromagnetic, and thermal. But, its designed to emit a light source on the inside optimized for your photosynthetic pathway. This should allow you to produce energy even in the heat of battle.The Gloves are designed to amplify and trasnmit your electrical charges." He held them up displaying the palms which had a magnetic sheen. "They've got micro fusion batteries in them, they are designed to draw off and store a continuous draw of your energy, but the batteries also have enough juice already in them to provide a large amount of juice on their own. The sword," He hefted it, "Is meant to work in conjuction with the gloves. It is, of course a miraculous blade in general, but not much different than your normal blade, super hardened mono molecular edge, nearly impossible to dull, but, no longer equally impossible to sharpen."

He tossed the blade to Azrael who caught it nimbly out of the air despite the off target lob. Put a little energy into it sir, about enough to say... fry an elevator panel." Azrael did not flush, but he eyed the tech, who squirmed uncomfortably under the eagle gaze. Azrael put the energy into the sword. A brilliant blue arc sprang up along its edge, the sudden heat and light making Azrael flinch momentarily. Then a smile spread across his face. "Plasma?"

"Plasma." The tech replied. "Not only does it provide you with an instant sharpening of the blade but the plasma arc can cut through even hardened targets. We tested it on a blast door, with a good bit of muscle, and time you can make it through with this. It also has an independent battery, gives it about 4 minutes of juice, in case one of your teamates needs to use it. The trigger is well hidden, the pommel ball has the battery engage in it."

ooc: also sorry for not responding to each person's post... just wanted to get a post up.

Mas was a little on edge at this point. Was everyone ignoring him? Mas had watched as others entered. Casper, Kindle, some flaky technician. <Casper passed right by me like I didn't exist! Quantas is probably ignoring me. Kindle seems side tracked. Azrael must have gotten distracted by the shiny blade that bastard technician brought in.>

Masraik was normally a very angry person in this sort of situation, but at this point, he was rather panicked. He even ignored the rather attractive new shield on that technicians rack. Rather shaky, he ran over to Kindle... and looked at her at eye level. "Kindle, umm, you have those weird doctors working for you right? You don't maybe kinda happen to know something about what's happening to me do you? Well, i know what's happening to me, but how do I make it stop!"

ooc: catch up post just playing like I was in there whole time to save it from being overly crappy

IC: Matthias watched on from the background for a few moments before a tech walked up to him with a bag of some sort. Placing the bag on a table in front of him, he motion Matthias closer. Pulling out a body suit almost identical in style to his own, he spoke "This is a reactive body suit that'll blend into your environment as well as having an increased protection against light machine gun fire common to the infantry that were in the sim." Matthias smiled as he geared up into the suit after undressing to shorts and an a style muscle shirt. "Feels comfortable and basically weightless."

The tech smiled "Designed to allow you your full abilities while being protected. Now next on the list." Reaching in and pulling out a katana that actually was his. "We've upgraded your katana to have the molecular edge to make it impossible to dull, well practically anyway and intensely sharp. It'll cut through almost any thing you can place in front of it." Matthias held the blade in his hand, extremely light still...a nice touch. Sheathing it in the same place his other was but noticed something different. As he went to place the blade in the sheath, it actually collapsed into itself to be nothing but the hilt attaching itself to the sheath. "Added flexibility for you." The tech grinned.

"Your guns have been slightly modified to fire larger calibur rounds without sacrificing accuracy, fire rate or ammunition per clip. Also, the silencers are completely silenced...no smoke output and no sound to the naked ear or eye." Matthias nodded "You guys do good work still." Grinning slightly joking with them as the tech pulled out Matthias's string of throwing knives.

"Just made this the same molecular edging as your katana but without the folding into themselves part." The tech smiled before grabbing the bag. "Your mask was already good, we just made it match the reactive armor stealth capabilities." He said tossing the balaclava onto the table before walking away.

Matthias slipped the final part of his armament on, the mask, and grinned. 'This feels nice.' He glanced around at everyone...almost time.

"Excuse me, Sir?" Quantas was halfway through chuckling at his last statement when a tech had interjected.

"Yes?" Quantas asked. He eyed the technician, feeling a little apprehension coming from him. Quantas didn't blame him. After all, there was an all-star cast here today. "Did you need something from me?" he continued.

"N-no sir! Quite the contrary! HA!" the tech exclaimed, proud of the achievements his group must have obviously come upon. "The Seraph pool has done well, but you especially. It's been a while since some of your tech has been updated to current tech levels, so naturally, here they are!" he said and waved Quantas over to a rack. Quantas looked to Casper and shrugged.

When he stood in front of the rack he nodded, slightly impressed with the shiny new toys, but not altogether understanding what each item did. "Well, here's the Anti-Detection Reactive Armor System, which we like to call 'ADRAS'," he said and pointed. Continuing on, he sounded a little regretful, "Unfortunately, we didn't expect you to need a low-power-armor system like you have on now. But if you wish, we could see about integrating some of those systems..."

Quantas held a hand up and lightly shook his head, "Nah. I just don't know what we're going to expect down there. How does it compare, in terms of protection?"

"Not quite better. But if they can't see you..." the tech shrugged. "Moving on," he said, then pointed out a rifle quite similar to the rail-gun he had just replaced, "a more portable version of the PRG-3. I present the PRG-7x. It is semi-automatic; instead of having a long five-second delay for capacitors to recharge. It is a point-two-five second recharge rate. The battery has a twenty round limit on charge, but due to new nano-tech will recharge automatically. It takes two hours. Feasibly, with how small they are, you could bring two and possibly finish a mission with only a side-arm for use instead of a backup high-power skirmish weapon. It's armament is different than the other one, and it's range is less by 1.65km, but that shouldn't be much of an issue." Quantas nodded slowly, considering switching out the sniper rifle with this one.

"Especially considering," the tech said, taking one step over and picking up five PRG-7x ammo cartridges, "that these rounds were made one by one over the course of seventy minutes by nano-machines just as they would be in the field." Putting the clips down, he picked up a device next to it. "Just load into the device, which we call the MunItions Nano-AsseMbler, or MINAM device, the specifications of what rounds you wish to develop using a pre-loaded list of templates and it will make it for you. Just load a clip for the desired ammunition and it will do the rest once you tell it to construct it. It holds one clip at a time."

Quantas took the device and held it in his hand. It was small, light, and compact. Not much larger than the clip currently inside of it. "It was designed for the Angel that is cut off from retrieval and must survive on his own, the long-haulers like yourself, and producing ammunition for a weapon picked up in the field for which you have no ammo source. For normal mission applications, you could bring two clips for your rifle. One full and one empty. Just load your clips when you get into position."

"Hmm... I think I might just like this newfangled stuff..." Quantas said with a smile behind his armored mask. "Heh."

"Indeed, it's really cool. It was designed for large-scale ammunition production, for our facilities here. It is based on the same technology that recharges your batteries for the new rifle. Except in that sense it does a complex series of reorganizing for electrical use, rather than reorganizing ambient atoms around it to produce plasma bolts, propellant for conventional rounds, the jacket, and bullet itself. Very handy for if you suspect you need a different round type once you arrive at your destination. Maybe something with a little more umph, or a little more accuracy? I believe soon we'll have it down to making attachments in the field. Maybe a couple years. I don't think we'll ever make a version to make weapons, though. Should that get into wrong hands, it could be disastrous."

"Quite true..." Quantas said, and attached it to his bandoleer. "Thank you very much, my friend. I think you have extended my service and efficiency to greater bounds..."

"My pleasure sir!" he said with great enthusiasm and saluted, before going to the next person on his list.


"Huh," Longview said to himself, "that rifle even integrates with my weapon systems, I see... Cool stuff..."

Quantas leaned the sniper rifle against the shelf and discarded the clip for it also, instead opting for the PRG-7x and two batteries, one of which he placed in the gun. Again inspecting the MINAM, he looked up the specs for the PRG-7x ammunition. It indeed had all the same ammunition types as the PRG-3, but they were just a tad different in configuration for the smaller size of the PRG-7x. Despite the severely reduced size in battery, gun, ammunition, and most notably length of the barrel, it still packed similar specs and only marginal disadvantage in distance and accuracy. The MINAM would be an extremely useful tool in application to this very versatile weapon.

Quantas chose to switch armors to the ADRAS, in lieu of the unknown nature of the mission. Though it had less of a rating on defense, the tech made a good point. Can't hit what you can't see. That includes use in half-lit corridors, jungle, desert, highland, lowland, and urban settings. He just had to change quickly, or miss continue arming up in the vehicle.

OOC: Sorry for the long post. Figured I should give a fairly standard designation to some of the equipment. The ADRAS could be the system that is applied to all the armors given us, and not that specific armor style itself. (notice I had in there about him possibly adding it to the power-armor possibly, though it would include fab time.) the MINAM is referring to what GE mentioned earlier. Since no one else decided to take it up. ;)

I tried to make everything balanced. If it can be more powerful, though, let me know GE. :) I mean, hey, I wouldn't mind a round a minute instead of 1 standard PRG-7x Armor Piercing round every 3 minutes maximum speed. (I'm sure it would vary depending on what round is being produced. Perhaps simple rounds like pistol and SMG would take very little time, less for the smaller Assault rifle rounds, and a little more for high caliber magnum rounds. A little less for plasma rounds. Or for plasma, if it is a pellet and an energy charge, maybe not that long, given the principle used for the battery for the PRG-7x.

"Mas, you just look horrible!" Kindle ran over to him. "Listen, I'm sure one of the engi's can fix you right up!" She punched a few buttons on her arm "Hey, Micky, umm, bring the team down here to me would ya?" "Nah, just some techish questions, if you know anyone on the Pure One Masraik's team, bring them down as well, but I'd warn them that he's likely to be awful mad". She gave Mas one of her best smiles.

She was still standing with Masraik, her hand on his arm when one of the techs approached...not recognizing him, she immediately assumed he was one of Masraik's. "Well, took you long enough, you better fix this, and fast at THAT!"

"I'm sorry miss, I think you have me mistaken...I'm with the Cyber-Organic Enhancement and Integration Division, I've worked under your parents. If you could come with me for just a couple of minutes, I can inject and link the new nanites, and get you in your new armor, and few other special items" He smiled at her.

Kindle was worried about Masraik, but the lure drew her away, she looked at him with a combination 'Do you mind, thanks Mas, I knew you wouldn't mind' look. "I'll be right back Mas!" Then to the tech "Awesome, I'm so excited!"

ooc: Kindle is getting a new rifle that can fire special rounds and multiple rounds, custom armor that's resistant to heat and includes a mask that links with her eyes allowing her to see while being protected, nanites that provide special targeting capabilities and a larger energy pool, and a pack of energy boosting injectors. I don't have time to describe them in detail till friday or saturday, so i gave the short description just in case you needed to move the story along a little.

ooc: ALrighty back, recharged, ready to roll. Let's get the main mission rolling, if you haven't claimed your special weapons yet, sry.

IC:
As Masraik pleaded with Kindle for help a tech moving by him overheard and said "Oh, that's right, well, the tranq's should wear off in a matter of an hour or so. Faster if you get some good solid nutrient pellets in you. Here." He handed Masraik a sack of nutrient pellets, the standard field ration for Angels in the field. Each pellet had an entire days worth of nutrients and calories. About the size of a normal man's palm, they were largely flavorless, and did little for the sensation of hunger, but they could keep a person going for weeks without adverse affects.

In fact there were bags of the rations on the cart behind the rest of the items. The tech addressed the group of them, his nervousness showing a little "Umm... well all of you have been issued a couple of things, we have here the downloaders," He pointed to a row of small electronic devices, each designed to interface with computing systmes of all makes and models and rip information from them at an astounding speed. "As well as two months worth of field rations, and as per Commander Azrael's request, a dart gun and two clips of tranquilizer darts for bringing Masraik out of his rampage."

The tech stopped for a moment and then shifted back and forth nervously. "This order came down from the highest levels of protocol command... they want you to bring along a 6 kg antimatter bomb. Should all else fail you are to use this bomb to destroy the base complex and any personnell on the premises. This is to be a last resort. To be used only if the base proves either impenetrable, the data unrecoverable, or other means of base destruction prove unfeasible. We do not want to reveal we have this level of destructive power yet. Do not resort to this unless absolutely necessary. Should the bomb be lost its destruction or recovery is to become your top priority."

The bomb was suprisingly small. About a foot or two in diamter. It was a mettalic orb, And weighed about 8kg, since it was essentially 6kg of antimatter, a magnetic bottle to isolate it, and a backup power supply designed to "catch" the antimatter if the magnetic bottle was disrupted. Azrael thought for a moment and grabbed the carrying backpack and loaded the bomb into it, slinging it onto his back. He finished his loadout, taking his new weapons, the rations and the traq gun. <I wonder why we're getting the rations? THey seem to be preparing us for an extended stay, but the extraction limit is twenty four hours. I don't like it.> But he didn't voice his protests. Angels often took a lot of field rations with them due to the incredibly amount of energy they could rapidly expend. This still seemed exessive.

Nodding he waited for everyone to finish loading up. Noticing that Masraik was still too small to actually wear most of his normal equipment he said "Mas, pick out your equipment and have a tech load it up, you can suite up in flight." Then, after Mas had his equipment picked out and everyone seemed settled he said "Allright, let's move out." He had several vials of the berserker serum for Masraik on him as well as enough weaponry to help take down an army. His new gloves and sword on, the warm energy of the solar radiation his armor emitted feeding him already. They entered the port, where their transport awaited.

Azrael was not suprised to see the top of the line Icharus class transport on the pad, it was a vertical take off supersonic jet capable of speeds in excess of mach four, as well as transporting up to fifteen people and equipment. It was capable of going without refueling for up to 48 hours. And was nearly completely radar invisible, as well as optically limited. It had a basic cloaking system that made it almost impossible to spot by any means. Visual, Thermal, or Radar.

"Load up, everyone." HE waited until Mas walked by when he stopped him and said "Mas, Do me a favor, open up your gill sets. I just want to make sure you didn't forget to divest yourself of any of that berserker serum before we head off. I have enough to keep you juiced if we need you to. But I would really rather you not have a vial accidentally break or something before I gave the order."

ooc: I'm getting that last vial Mas, It'd be just as well if the new docile you happened to just hand it over with an oops.

IC:
Once everyone was on the plane, the platform began to lift, raising them out of the heavily fortified bunker. There had never been a successful attmept to penetrate the shield wall, but the Protocols had always overengineered. They would not rely on any one level of defenses to protect them utterly. The plane took off. The whirring buzz of the engines lifting them straight up, and then slamming them into the acceleration harnesses. The sonic boom reverberated through the hull shortly, and then the flight smoothed out. Azrael settled back, it was going to be an hour or so before they reached their destination.

ooc: I'll get us to our destination tomorrow. That's enough for now, hope I didn't miss anything.

Masraik listened to the technician with angst, but happily accepted the ration bag and popped three tablets immediately. <This had better work quick!>

Mas proceeded to pick out his gear for the mission, his usual armor which still laid on the ground where it had fallen from his small body, the new quicksilver colored shield he hadn't had time to ask about, and his old shield just in case.

Feeling a bit rushed, and uneasy about the mass quantity of supplies they were taking for a 'covert operation,' Mas thought about questioning Azrael as he passed him going towards the jet. He was only interrupted as he began to say something by Azrael asking about his hidden vial. Handing it over with an apologetic "Sorry, I forgot!" Mas grunted inwardly to himself. <Bloody serum Nazi! Oh good, anger! Maybe I'm becoming myself again...>

On the ride, Mas not only ripped out of his new pants, but broke his safety harness as well as he accelerated to his normal size rather randomly. Changing back into his armor, his attention was again caught by the new weapon. Gathering it up as he sat back down in his seat, he rolled it over and over looking for anything new and special about it... other than its color, he was unable to see any differences. The inside and outside were the same texture as the old one, and it only reacted to his grip and biocord. Unimpressed, Mas tossed it against his old one and heard a loud clank!

Walking over to see what he broke, Mas was surprised to find that the new shield had adhered to his old one, on the interior where the flashy silver texture was hidden within the black of the original. Spinning it around in place, he noticed two things: The first was that the whip blade seemed to have spring loaded itself into the barrel of the blaster, and the handles had come together as one, and second there was a new handle next to that one, but on a verticle where he could hold onto the shield with both hands if he held it horizontally at his side. The only reason for him to need to do that would be if they added something with a bit more punch to the weapon...

He grabbed the extra rations and supplies being given to him. Glancing around at everyone's faces, he could tell that they were all thinking the same thing. 'Why all this for a stealth smash grab get the hell out asap mission?' Just doesn't make sense. But who are we to judge the orders given? They always have reasons behind what they tell us to do and how to do it.

Walking along with everyone and strapping into a seat, he smiled beneath his mask. This was going to be a fun mission; he hoped so anyway. He was glad to be accompanying some old partners and new people on this. His thoughts were slightly deterred for now as he was pressed back against his seat from the plane. Once it settled down however, it was quite nice. Going over mental inventories of what he had on him over and over again helped to pass the time. In not too long, they'd be ready to hit the LZ. He wasn't entirely sure of the landing order and what exactly everyone would be doing once they hit the ground. To him, it would make sense that the snipers and himself were the first to hit and scout the area. But who knows what actual plan will come into play this time around.

Casper examined the new weaponry being brought in carefully. His own database didn't even recognize most of them, so he had to make new entries along with short descriptions and basic paramaters. After all was said and done, and the commotion quieted down, Casper had a knowledge base of all the new tech given to them. It wasn't unusual for the Archangels to put a lot fo resources into important missions, but whent he antimatter bomb and months of rations appeared, Casper started to surmise that there might be something more to the mission than previously told. Of course, it was also entirely possible that they did not need to know until such a time as was necessary.

Casper was indifferent to the situation whatever the underlying truths were. He was programmed to execute his orders and that's what he would do. If the orders changed, he would still follow them. He didn't know how to disobey his objectives.

Casper loaded onto the advanced dropship behind Azreal and took his seat near the hatch. Telemetry showed the location to be about an hour out. Not bad at all considering more conventional flight would take at least three times that.

Kindle's newest rifle not only had the ability to all her various ammo. It could blast energy should she run out of ammo, or have a desire to hit a close target quickly. Long range pulses could be emmitted as well, and the blasts could be enhanced by her own inner workings. Among the variety of new ammo included some of what had been described as "energy seeker missiles". Small missiles, instead of following heat, they would target an energy source (or being) record its signature, and only detonate on it. {Oh wow, this is all sooooooo high level, thank you thank you thank you thank you} Her custom armor was just as impressive to her, heat being her main weakness, she found that unlike the other armors, this would keep loose rounds, explosive impacts, and shrapnel from getting her. She didn't put the tight fitting mask-helm on, deciding to equip it when they arrived closer to the destination. The new release of nanitech was the most exhilarating. She felt her power triple and found that her new found ability to transmit a visual target to her hand angle ((essentially her eye sees a space, she "signals" where in her eye, and the nanitechnology uses geo-spatial programming to scale it to real size before determining distance and angle for trajectory of whatever linked weapon she has in hand)). [The cybernetic gods have smiled on me, thank you cygods, thank you]

She was in her own world as she loaded onto the ship, but was brought back when she saw her "meal". Looking around, she hoped everyone else enjoyed theirs. Each person's was specifically made to the person's taste preferences. Kindle smelled dumplings. [One last luxury, because some part of me that's still human has a feeling that this isn't gonna go down in a night as planned]

ooc: damnit lost my original post. Hopefully I don't miss naything in my recreation.

IC:
After they reached a cruising speed and altitude, Azrael released his acceleration harness and finally investigated the box under his seat which had ben emitting the most delightful odors. His keen sense of smell had already told him what was within it, but it was still a delight to behold. Several portions of his favorite food were aranged in the box. he savored them intently, and then lifted the box slightly and nodded thanks to Kindle, who was indicated as the reason for the treats by a note in the box.

Then he settled back into his chair and meditated preparing himself for what was to come. He had an odd feeling about this. He couldn't place it. Didn't even know if it was real, but he knew that something even more out of the ordinary than finding, and destroying the legendary arc was going to begin this day. He didn't mind though, Abaddon was awake and with him, and that was enough comfort to get him through whatever would come.

The alarm dinged letting them know they were approaching the landing zone. Azrael lowered his acceleration harness once more as the pilots voice came over the com. "We have orders to do a high altitude stealth insertion. We're going to hover over the LZ which is about a mile from the actual mission objective. Each of you has a low profile parachute and a gel cannon stowed in the cabinet at the rear of the ship. Be careful out there we're picking up what could be radar sweeps and energy sources that could be anti aircraft weaponry. We're staying high and quiet, but that means they have the security system online. Ashes to ashes.

"Ashes to Ashes." Azrael echoed. When the sensation of movement in the ship ceased, the slight vibration of the engines picking up as they beat soundlessly against the air, keeping the craft in place Azrael released his harness and moved to the storage cabinet. Pulling out the equipment he gave a properly sized chute to each of the teamates, as well as the one shot gel cannons. The one for Masraik was extra large. The bore on the canon being nearly a foot across.

"Alright everyone, We don't have a clue what's on the ground, but the enemy shouldn't have a clue that we're coming either. Let's keep it that way as long as possible. I want as all to hit the ground quite and keep it that way till we're in sight of the main entrance. WE're all going in together. If we meet resistance on or before we hit the ground, you are to engage as silently as possible. Alright, let's hit those bastards hard and fast."

He hit the button that opened the rear hatch, the cold thin air biting at them immediately. He then looked each of them over and said "Ready? Keep it as tight and close as possible." With that he took a step to the edge, took a breath, and jumped.

He soared through the sky, some primal part of him revelling in the flight, he shot downward head first, piercing the air like a living arrow. His speed easily exceeded 200 mph, and the cold wind tore at his face. A hawk's sreech echoed in his mind and his eyes focused on the ground so far below. Even for his eyes it was impossible to make anythign out at this altitude. AS soon as he could though, he pulled the cord to his chute. It opened immediately, jerking him to a slower decent. It was designed to be very low profile, not much larger that a person. It however was incredibly convoluted, channelling air over a surface area much larger than its appearance would dictate. Still, it would still give him a bone breaking, probably lethal, impact if he didn't have the other piece of equipment on him.

When he was rapidly approaching the ground he fired his gel canonon, a wad of thick green gel erupting from the canon and expanding as it passed through the air, finally striking the ground with a volume millions of times its original size. mere feet above the gel he released his chute, the protocol pyrogenics within it literally burning it away in seconds to keep the corponations from recovering anything from their raids. He hit the gel hard, but it gave beneath him, cushioning his fall as he passed through it.

It closed over his head but his feet touched ground, and he forced his way through th rapidly decomposing gel. Striding for the nearby surface. FInally he broke his head free as the gel began to collapse on itself. Gasping he waited for the others to join around him. So far the coast seemed clear.

"Alright scouts and snipers to the front, take it slow and easy, be careful, if you see anything send a report back, for now we are under radio silence. We will be following behind."

ooc: Scouts you can feel free to bring us up to the main entrance, a recessed blast door in the side of the mountain. Currently open with a handful of gaurds on either side, and light foot traffick moving in and out, apparently bringing in supplies.

Casper was second out of the dropship behind Azreal. His descent was much the same, having the same training programmed into his hardware, though, his body was likey more adept to high impact than any organic counterparts. When he hit the gel, his mass made the blob much less able to absorb the shock, but Casper's built in absorbers took care of the rest. Exiting the blob, Casper readied his weapon and activated his night vision. Linking his tac helm with the rest of the squad, they now had the option to view through Casper's eyes should they feel the need to do so.

"Roger," Casper acknowledged the orders and the radio silence.

The andriod dashed into the trees making less sound than the wind would against the grass. His close-fitting recon armor, while less protective, made virtually no noise. His wepaon holsters were well adjusted and held thier loads securely. About twenty yards ahead of the group, Casper slowed to a walk, scanning the area in front of him, occasionally switching between thermal and infrared vision. So far, he detected nothing, but judging from what the pilot said, the enemy was definately looking.

Obeying every finely honed aspect of his programming, Casper moved from tree to tree, always aware of where hiw teammates were. They each likely had beacons on their armor somewhere, detectable only with the right technology and frequency, that would mark them as friendlies, but Casper was also monitoring thier heat and EM signatures. Normally, these are far too faint to pick up on larger systems, like those the corponations had, but for Casper's far mroe advanced sensors, it was not a problem.

OOC: I'll stop here to give others a chance to post. I dont want to move too far ahead.