admit that the waters around you have grown

[maskormods]

WHO: All war-allied imPorts that have signed up HERE.
WHERE: Vladivostok, Russia, Lithuania, and various coastlines.
WHEN: January 26th.
WHAT: The US military, with the help of imPorts, makes their move! The hunt and action begins for the missing imPorts, and for sensitive Soviet information that will help the US strike back effectively. Players may also use this log to play out planning and any other associated activities.
WARNINGS: None anticipated; let us know if we should change this!


Before being split-off into missions, military-assisting imPorts will be addressed and briefed as a whole by General Jamal Park on behalf of the Army, although imPorts will also be working alongside all military branches as necessary during these expeditions.

He will thank those who have volunteered to help, telling them that their aid will be a tremendous asset to locating the kidnapped imPorts and striking back against the Soviets, and that it is the willingness imPorts have shown to involve themselves even when they don't have to, even when they have no inherent ties or required loyalty to this world or this country, that makes him honored to put his life on the line working alongside them.

ImPorts will be allowed to choose which mission to participate in, since they will know their own strengths and capabilities best; again, we remind players to communicate and use their own best judgement to disperse amongst missions as evenly as possible!

After a short period allowing the groups to organize themselves and go over their strategies -- the military's plans and any ideas imPorts themselves may have to add -- it is time to head out. Godspeed!


▸ V L A D I V O S T O K, RUSSIA; 1800 HOURS

Welcome, heroes, to the bustling coastal city of Vladivostok. At 6 degrees Fahrenheit, it's blisteringly cold, but that doesn't seem to stop any of the city's civilians from going about their daily duties. ImPorts are free to roam the streets throughout the day, but are discouraged from drawing attention to themselves. Your government shipped you off to Russia from China, and has briefed you on the following: you are to scout out the docks where the Russian's undercover military base stands, and once night falls, you are to infiltrate as quietly and as subtly as you are able. Priority are the information systems contained within, both with physical, handwritten notes and electronic files. FOOT SOLDIERS are to deal with the cameras, surrounding guards and attack dogs while HACKERS are advised to break into their security systems and discover all the information that they are able to.

Their security measures are both electronic and physical. Russian guards are equipped with state of the art equipment and body armour, including both guns with armor-piercing rounds capable of shooting through the toughest of materials and seizure-inducing tasers that will incapacitate a normal human being for up to fifteen minutes. Their dogs are trained to bite to kill, but most importantly, will be tracking down any unfamiliar scents. The electronic security system is composed of multiple hidden security cameras, a preliminary silent alarm to mobilize their forces, and after that, an extremely loud siren alarm to attract the attention of everybody nearby. One set of documents is locked in a physical safe, and all computers are password locked.

Civilian deaths are highly discouraged, but not punished. ImPorts aren't overtly instructed that this is the case, but if they see that their only option to maintain secrecy is to kill a witness, they will face no adverse consequences for doing so.

Participants may decide among themselves what their prime methodology will consist of, what they discover, how many soldiers or civilians are disabled or killed or, if necessary, how many imPorts of their team are killed in action.

In order to disperse the information received ICly, remember to link the pertinent threads HERE.

▸ L I T H U A N I A; 1800 HOURS

Welcome, heroes, to the Adomas Base. It is brutally cold and new snow has begun to fall. Your government has briefed you on the following: you are to scout and destroy the technology and infrastructure on this ground force space center. Priority is the control room. HACKERS are advised to hijack the mainframe servers, where they will find out that the physical location of LACKEY is in a subterranean bunker of the Adomas Base. Confrontation with LACKEY is crucial. You will find that there are four levels to this base, and three of them are underground. LACKEY is located in the lowest, most hidden level. At every level of the Adomas Base you will find 15 armed guards along the metal hallways and steel stairways. They will have assault rifles and Infrared Radiation Laser Guns. If you are hit by an Infrared Radiation Laser Gun, you will feel your flesh around the entry wound slowly decay. Make sure to find a healer as soon as possible, this will only take a few hours to become unavoidably incapacitating!

Players may handle the combat however they like! Approval from us is not required to get injured, shot, or incapacitate -- or even kill -- the guards, although obviously, killing them is not in imPorts's best interest.

If you choose to interrogate a Soviet guard, they will only surrender information AFTER sustaining physical pain from you. Do you have it in you? If you do, you may discover the following:

1) Moscow knew that nothing scares the American Government like a threat from space. The very fact that your leaders sent you here speaks to their national insecurity.
2) The captive imPorts are stowed away on a submarine on the opposite end of the earth.
3) The Admiral in charge of B2008 has a bone to pick with another higher up, and he will stop at nothing to use imPorts to further his career.
4) LACKEY was inspired by Lachesis.
5) Moscow does not really know where Lachesis is, but thought that drawing imPort attention would spur a legitimate reason to invoke a crisis.

Participants may decide amongst themselves which characters discover which information; if there are fewer characters participating in violent interrogation than there are numbered points, it may still be assumed all information is recovered if the interrogation requirements have been met and linked under the COMBAT CONCLUSIONS thread HERE.

▸ C O A S T L I N E S, VARIOUS ; 1800 HOURS

Welcome, heroes, to the wild chase for the imPorts. This has the capacity to be both the most dangerous mission, and the most fruitful one as they directly attack 3 Russian-occupied areas: the coasts of Vietnam, Antarctica, and New Zealand.

Because of the danger involved, the government has ensured that imPorts have access to whatever mobile weapons they require, and have access to an elite team of their own forces, including technological experts and experienced pilots to commandeer whatever vessels they see fit. Your government has briefed you on the following: while the American government does have submarines at their disposal, they have decided that it will be most productive to commandeer a submarine already at one of these three given locations. To do so, imPorts will have to directly face down Russian troops at these locations, but the government has full faith in their abilities, and will do its best to accommodate any of the imPorts' wishes, within reason. ImPorts have also been tasked with protecting their pilots; if they wish to steer a vessel satisfactorily, their help will be of the utmost importance!

On each coastline, imPorts will be confronted by a number of Russian forces. If imPorts fail to approach them with caution and subtlety, all of these forces will be on the ready, and waiting to attack. If they succeed, then they may take them off-guard before they are able to get to their stations in time to issue the first blow. The equipment that the Russians have at their disposal - and will be attacking the imPorts with - include FOUR TANKS, TWO HELICOPTERS, TWO WARSHIPS, and TWO SUBMARINES. In addition to the soldiers equipped to commandeer these vessels, there will be Spetsnaz of 40 people.

Once they have seized a submarine - which may take place either before or after the soldiers are disabled or killed - they will begin the search for the missing imPorts. Participants may decide amongst themselves in what order this will take place in, and where they will decide to go. Players are also free to NPC their American allies as taking part in whatever strategic measures they deem necessary! After characters have ICly begun the search for the missing imPorts, please comment to the Plotting Post with a link to the thread and we will be sure to let you know whether these attempts will result in success or failure!

Comments

Kaneda | OTA

[rassera]

[Fight on the Warship deck]

[It was an outnumbered fight for sure. Kaneda's team may have been small, almost laughable in Russian eyes, but what they lacked in number they made up for in firepower. Tetsuo, Mewtwo, and Inuyasha had done a decent job already clearing the way for the rest of them to board.

A bullet hits him right as he steps forward, an all too familiar feeling by now as he sponges it, skidding back a few feet and pulling it out of his abdomen. A bruise he'd have to take a look at later, for sure. But if that's how the Russians want to play it, then fine.

He'll play that game.

Taking his taser out, he marches right towards the Russian assailant who met him on the deck, another bullet firing, but...miraculously missing him. That's funny, it felt like a for sure shot...another bullet fires, and this time it goes right between his arms and sides, missing once again. The third and final time, it shoots, and his head tilts out of the way to dodge it, although it was hardly necessary.

Soon, Kaneda's up close and personal with the guard, aiming the taser to bring him down to the ground and curled up, twitching.

Hey, the rule was no killing, right?

He's clearly alive.]

OI. WE HOLD THINGS HERE, YOU GOT THAT?

KNOCK OUT EVERY DAMN RUSSIAN YOU SEE.

taking this ultra seriously

[resipiscent]

[That sure was Kaneda taking a bullet just now.

Kaneda was on point, naturally, so Riku took rear, and when he actually got onto the deck, to the right and behind him, immediately a gunshot breaks the silence. Something red skids past him, moving back the way they came. His first instinct is to be alarmed but then he can see him reaching up and pinching it out of the spot it hit. It's almost laughable, the casual way he does it, even though there's no way it didn't hurt.

Riku raises the Dark Shield about two seconds after this happens, enveloping himself as much as possible, first because he can see that somehow, Kaneda's not being hit -- and if he's not being hit then the bullet is going to hit something else, and Riku doesn't intend on being that something.

He watches this for a moment, just long enough to hear Kaneda's roar, and then he's grinning despite everything, opening his hand for the Keyblade.]

Maybe don't get shot again, either. Or once, for those of us who haven't.

[rassera]

[Riku's voice was quiet, it's amazing how well Kaneda can hear it. Call it familiarity with his team--by now Riku's one of the core members of it--but he could pick it out of a crowd by now, and it doesn't go unnoticed when he hears that little comment.]

Hey, it's been awhile since that happened. I'm trying to be more careful!

[It's a humorous remark, honestly. He's got no intention of shielding another one of THOSE bullets if he can help it. Getting shot sucked, and he barely held himself from a whimper at that last one. Adrenaline can DO things.]

We're gonna need to take care of those mounted weapons...

[resipiscent]

Try harder, maybe.

[He darts a little closer, extending the shield in front of both of them. Gunshots ping off it. He nods at the idea, transferring the Keyblade into his off-hand.]

Stay still.

[Behind the barrier, that is. He doesn't hesitate, just makes a sort of horizontal sweeping motion with one hand and casts Thundaga. The electricity jumps between the closest target to further along, and then suddenly it's clear that he's knocked out three people at once.]

Trained soldiers or not, people are pretty weak against getting shocked.

[iamtetsuo]

[Once Kaneda's group has a decent hold on the deck, Tetsuo lands, moving from an obvious flying target to a harder to track one. Flying takes way too much concentration after a while, and it gets him shot at enough that he starts feeling less like a fighter and more like bait.

Yeah. Screw that.

The success and ease in which they managed to win Kaneda's team that foothold's earned him back a little confidence. Enough where he's less focused on the cold and panic of war, and more on the immediate moment. Someone appears, and with a flick of his mind is thrown into a wall. It's a familiar sort of rush, all nerves, pumping fire through his veins like gasoline through an engine, igniting some spark in his soul he thought extinguished. He always did take fighting seriously. Maybe too seriously, from the sheer enthusiasm he throws into every attack or thrown soldier. Every one an affirmation, again and again, that he still could do something.

This time, Kaneda followed him into battle. Don't think that escaped him, Kaneda, because it absolutely didn't.

So he's in easy earshot as Kaneda snaps out orders. And, true to old, insubordinate instincts, he can't help but snap back something, tilting his head back and raising his voice just enough over the chaos and report of gunfire.]

OOOII! WHAT DO YOU THINK I'VE BEEN DOING?!

[It's not that far below the surface that anxiety waits, all the same - did he do enough to prove all that? It's still not... there's still people left here to fight. A lot of them. True, it's not the goal for him to have taken out everyone already, but some part of him forgot that point, focusing on the raw numbers.

For all that's changed, it's still just like it was back in their Capsule days - how many did he get?

How many did anyone else?]

[rassera]

[Tetsuo's call was loud and clear, and all too familiar of their bouts in Neo Tokyo. The way he just had to call out exactly how many Clowns he took down, keeping invisible score with anyone that happened to be around. Kaneda didn't always keep track himself. He just knew that he would always get to the one that mattered most to him--Joker. And that was no different now.]

Haha! Causing trouble, as always!

[But with the jovial tone, it's obvious what he means Trouble for the Soviets.

Pocketing the taser, Kaneda takes a more solid stance with his fighting, his gloves coming off (metaphorically, it's fuckin' cold) as he braces himself for what appears to be a long line of Russian gunmen.

His luck would hold out, he just knew it.

With a charge, he dashes towards them, bullets slipping past his body without so much as nicking him. They were obviously point blank range, enough to fire THROUGH him let alone past him. But there's no time to retaliate after that. Kaneda's faster now, even in his winter coat. His fists raise up, one grabbing a Russian and twisting the arm, using his fist to take turns punching his stomach and face knuckles colliding with that jawline in a game of chicken to see who would break first. And with a metaphorical titanium skeleton, the answer was obvious to Kaneda.

The Russian collapses, and he LEAPS to the other one, using his feet to grip his neck and kick him down. One by one he goes through all four of them, agile and almost...graceful.

Finishing them off with a little broken sweat.]

Bastards don't know when to quit, if you ask me!

[iamtetsuo]

[It should never have surprised him to see just what Kaneda could do. It shouldn't have in the initial assault, and it shouldn't have here. He's faced him before more than once as an enemy. Tetsuo, more than anyone, should know Kaneda's limits.

Namely, that he doesn't seem to have any.

Yet every time, he ends up watching with a weird sense of jealousy. Tetsuo's been ripped to shreds before, broken down, beaten, kicked helplessly as some demon clown choked the life out of him... and Kaneda never got to feel that pain. He weathers everything as if it didn't happen. Life was never going to be fair.]

Sounds like they need a little reminder!

[As he's always done, he takes that bitter reminder and uses it to fuel his own aggression, battering one soldier with his comrade, throwing both away like the trash they were for favor of finding another target.

Guns blaze in his direction, and he wrenches the bullets to the side with a gesture, spraying them back around in a loop to their origin. He even remembers, belatedly, to direct them lower, trying to take out the legs. Kaneda manages to make battle a fucking dance, but Tetsuo was never a graceful person. He makes due with making it ruthlessly efficient.

Hey, look. Those still aren't casualties, right? They'll be fine. Probably.

More bullets follow the first, but he's learned since Kaneda's trick before, realizing consciously what he's doing only after practiced reflex kicks in to do it. He can't catch them all. So, unlike before, he doesn't even try. Instead, he practically vanishes in a blur of motion, hurling himself high into the sky again with enough speed to narrowly dodge.

Sometimes, there's a benefit to powers linked to the subconscious mind.]

ITS BEEN 83 YEARS

[rassera]

[Kaneda watches out of the corner of his eye for two reasons. One, because he was leading this stand against the deck--he had to make sure they held true to what they said. Wild Tiger had stated no casualties, and as much as he wanted to just say 'fuck it', it was an option they couldn't afford to lose. Something about diplomacy--something about proving they aren't weapons. Kaneda tuned himself out after that.

But also because he got to see the raw force Tetsuo could pack without being the target. It was a lot like watching a volcano erupt. The mountain is powerful, tough to conquer. Climbing it takes courage and determination, and you may not live through the journey. Inside breathes fire like the Basan, mystical and flowing when it erupts in a display of power unlike anything you could even comprehend.

It's pretty amazing, when you're not trying to stop it.

The bullets come, and Kaneda's concentration shifts. What was originally equal parts on the Russians and Tetsuo now focused completely to the latter. Bullets...

The August Swear In rings in his heart, sinks in his stomach.

He can't catch them all.

A part of him moves to go towards him, not really sure what he CAN do, but just that he has to do something. It's a futile attempt--Tetsuo dodges just in the nick of time to his relief.]

There better not be a scratch on you, Tetsuo!!

[The tone's playful, as he stares up at him, a little pride showing in his words.

But something else is taking advantage of this little moment of triumph. One of those tanks has been manned, and it's got crosshairs slowly lining up from a relatively safe distance.


Go for the leader.]

[iamtetsuo]

[Tetsuo lets his body arc up from momentum. From here, he can see everything. From here, the wind whips around him, trying to tear away his protective clothing and rip all heat and life from underneath it. He can't let himself simply ride it out. Thanks to this frozen headwind, he's being blown off course.

This stupid continent...

He forces his body still, holding it suspended in the sky like the perfect easy target. Some soldiers even take aim, firing at the one target out there. After a bullet almost grazes his arm, they're firing against a bright barrier.

Finally! Inside his shield, he can breathe without the air feeling like it's coating his throat and lungs with ice. He can feel warm like this, surrounding himself with his own raw power. It roars in his mind like a wildfire, fraying his consciousness with energy... and he welcomes it, letting the will to fight take hold of him for a bit.

It doesn't occur to him he's putting himself on his own timer. His energy can't last forever, but who cares, it's his for now! Go on, let them try!!

After a few seconds, it's too bright, too hot. He's forced to let go of his shield or risk getting burned. The cold feels even colder, compared to that warmth, biting at his face, winding in against his clothing. His breath steams out into the frigid air. Dammit.

There's no warning that he's suddenly a 'safe' to shoot at target again. He takes that advantage, pressing the fight the second the shield's down.]

See?? Not a scratch!

[Those soldiers who decided to try shooting at him? Snagged and tossed angrily aside. He's learned how to fight midair by dueling Mewtwo; now he's learning why exactly it's a bad idea to do that in most cases. As he descends, just slow enough to not hurt, he's keeping a close eye out on pretty much anyone who could target him.

He's not watching Kaneda. Not specifically. His eyes roam the decks for new targets, and it's only by chance that they pass him.]

[rassera]

[He may not have noticed, but Kaneda had watched Tetsuo's aerial fighting out of the corner of his eye. Watching with how easy he seemed to make it look. Flight was something Kaneda couldn't achieve, no matter how much he tried, and no matter what tricks he pulled out of his sleeve. His flight was without wings, and he didn't mind it, but that didn't make it any less amazing to watch.

Because Tetsuo's wings were growing now. And when you're fighting on the same side, it's a lot more beautiful to take in.

Tetsuo's comment gets another bark of laughter as Kaneda continues his way down the deck. Soldiers, however....do nothing to stop him. Strange, even by Kaneda's standards as he slows to a stop, looking around at the...lack of enemies heading his way.

Was it because of Tetsuo? Did they see that he was the one technically holding the leash of this army? Did they learn their lesson?


--

It's too late to ask--because that tank has now set its crosshairs on Kaneda, firing that cannon for all it's worth and hitting just meters before him. Kaneda's durable, the blast doesn't do more than burn damage and some cuts. But he doesn't gain the bulk of someone with that natural durability, and it sends him flying.

The cold antarctic air was such a contrast from the absolute burning feeling from the blast, and his lungs go silent as he gives one yelp, being taken not only off to the side...


But over the edge of the ship.]

[iamtetsuo]

[If he took the time to think, it would be too late. One moment, Kaneda's fine on the deck, and the next, he's flying far out, off the ship. In the moment after that, the only family he ever really had had would be gone forever.

Tetsuo's instincts kick in halfway during that second, grabbing mental hold of the closest thing he can reach and wrenching himself forward, pulling himself into range... not fast enough. Kaneda wasn't close enough to easily catch him. He lets himself go into free fall, and it's still not fast enough. Maybe people are shooting at him. Maybe not; he's not paying enough attention to notice either way.

All this happens within seconds. By now, his mind's caught up enough to process a conscious reaction.]

KANEDA!?!

[Racing after him isn't going to do anything. Desperately, he reaches as far as he can, extending his proverbial extra limb until his fingers strain painfully against his mind, barely able to exert any force at all. He reaches out farther, ignoring the dark cracks in his vision, the white warning of pain that he's been doing too much, too fast, and Kaneda's already out of his range.

It's like time slows down, each individual heartbeat pounding harsh against his ears, loud enough to hurt his already aching head. He can't force another breath in, watching as Kaneda slips temporarily out of his vision. Panic takes root in his mind, amidst a sudden, sharp determination.

Gritting his teeth, he reaches anyway, shooting out over the side after him. It's just barely enough - almost immediately after he catches sight of Kaneda again, he can feel his mind close around him. Probably with a little more force than necessary; he's practiced this,sure, but never in this dire a circumstance.

His body pulls to a stop midair, standing still in the frozen Antarctic wind. Below him, Kaneda's decent abruptly halts a few feet from the water.]