POV: Kyuukai Tokiwa
Location: FRACTURE base, London branch
Tightening my hold on the gun, I take a deep breath and shoot at the targets in front of me.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
Reloading the gun, I grinned as I noticed that all the targets had been hit at the center.
“Ah! Kyuukai; There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you.” I heard a familiar voice exclaim.
Turning around, I noticed my friend Akira making his way towards me with a smile on his face.
“You never get tired of doing the same shit every day? You’re always practicing here.”
“Nah, its not like I have anything else to do.” I say in a bored voice. “Anyway, why were you looking for me?”
“The Commander just called for a meeting, apparently we got a job to do tomorrow.”
“Alright then, let’s go”
Putting the gun back in its place, I walked with Akira to the commander’s office. On the way to there Akira decided to start a conversation.
“You heard about that robbery the other day?”
“Yeah, some Anti-IS weaponry got stolen along with a shitload of weapon supplies”
“You think weapon smugglers did it?’
“I doubt it, nobody’s crazy enough to buy stolen FRACTURE weapons, getting caught with those pretty much equals to a life sentence.”
“I guess so…any guesses on who could’ve stolen it?”
“No clue, we managed to kill some of them but they don’t have any markings that identify them as smugglers.“
Deciding to end the conversation, we opened the door to the commander’s office.
“There you are you two! Hurry up so we can start the meeting.” The deep voice of the commander boomed at us.
Making my way to my seat. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t just the field commanders that were present; there were even some IS pilot operatives in the room.
‘Wonder what’s happening that needs this many people?’
Alright then, I assume all of you know what’s going to happen tomorrow afternoon.” The commander started.
‘Tomorrow?’
“It’s that conference that’s being held about the Male IS pilot’s isn’t it” One of the other field commanders asked.
“Exactly, all the representative candidates and cadets for the different countries will be attending tomorrow so the conference hall’s going to be one huge target.”
“What do you mean?” another voice asked.
“There have been multiple attacks against IS facilities all over Europe for the past few weeks, we believe that the next target may be the hall tomorrow where all the representatives will be.”
“Did you warn the one staging the conference? They might change the date or something if they knew about it.”
“We warned Raphael Dunoa of the possible attacks but, unfortunately, he refused to change the date and venue.”
‘Raphael Dunoa? The leader of the Dunoa Corporation?’
“What do we do then?” Akira asked
“We have no choice” The commander sighed. “We’ll just have to be on the lookout tomorrow and try to prevent anything from happening”
“This is idiotic, why won’t that man simply change the date!? Does the possibility of a terrorist attack not worry him at all?” An IS operative said angrily.
“Unfortunately” The commander said in a weary voice. “He isn’t willing to change it based on a possibility, unless we provide any solid evidence, he refuses to compromise.”
Hearing that, I decided to speak up. “So, we’re supposed to guard the conference hall? One squad should be enough for that” I told the commander.
“We can’t discount the possibility of an attack from renegade IS units.” He explained. “It’s possible an attack from renegade IS drones will happen again, IS academy itself was attacked by one of those things”
“I’m assuming we’ll be stationed around the perimeter of the hall then?” The pilot from before asked.
“Not exactly; Officer Kyuukai will be leading the squad defending the conference hall. The other squad leaders will be placed on checkpoints all over the city while the IS operatives patrol from the air. Are there any questions?”
“Is this much security really necessary? Wouldn’t it be smarter to place multiple squads on the conference hall itself?” I asked
“Our priority is to stop the attack from happening in the first place. We’re spread out to prevent anybody from reaching the conference hall, you and your squad will be there as a last defense in case they manage to break through”
‘Great! No pressure or anything’
“Is that all?” He asked. “If there are no more questions then this meeting is finished, go to you’re appointed position on or before 2 pm tomorrow afternoon and be prepared for anything”
Standing up, I joined Akira and we started talking about the operation tomorrow.
“So… feeling nervous for tomorrow?” I asked him.
“Not really, It’s just a precaution isn’t it?”
“I’m not sure…a place where all the representative candidates and cadets are together does seem like a big target.”
“Good thing I’m not the one defending it then, good luck with that huge bullseye on your back” He started laughing.
Feeling annoyed, I punched him hard on the shoulder. “Thanks a lot dick”
“Anytime buddy”
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POV: “Irish”
Location: Unknown
“Hey Irish, wake up, Viktor’s called a meeting”
Waking up from my nap, I see Josh calling me from the door.
*Yawn* “Meeting?”
“It’s about the operation tomorrow; hurry up before Viktor loses his temper.” He said as he walked off.
‘The operation tomorrow…It’ll be the most dangerous one yet.’
Deciding not to waste any more time, I made my way to the central room of our small hideout.
“Your late Irish! We can’t always wait for you to come at your own leisure” Viktor (Our team leader) yelled at me.
‘Go fuck yourself Viktor’
Deciding it better not to insult him (I didn’t want to start a shouting match) I just stood silently and listened carefully as the meeting started.
“Is everybody ready for tomorrow?” Viktor asked. “We can’t afford any mistakes, if we fail then all of our preparation will be wasted”
Muttering our agreements, Viktor continued with the discussion. “Alright then, everybody state your role for the operation tomorrow.” He ordered.
“We will provide a distraction on the northern part of town” I heard Michael say in response to the order. “It will distract the authorities from what the others will be doing”
“Correct, everybody else?”
“We’ll set up the jamming device just before the distraction commences, that should delay anybody trying to stop us from communicating with each other.” Joshua said.
“And finally” He gestured towards me.
“Me and two others will kidnap the English representative Cecilia Alcott, once that’s done we’ll meet at the agreed location.” I answered stating my role.
“Good, as all of you know I’ll be leading a squad to divert any forces that won’t be distracted, this should make sure that the kidnapping will go without a hitch. Does anybody have any questions?”
“How exactly will Michael and the others distract the authorities? They’ll be overwhelmed sooner or later.” I ask him.
“You don’t have to worry about that, just make sure to do your job properly.” He answered casually.
‘He’s dodging the question…I wonder…’
“I hope you didn’t forget the agreement we all made” I reminded him.
“Of course not, just make sure to do your job properly. All of the distractions are so you don’t have any opposition once the kidnapping begins.” He replied.
“Alright then, I’ll just have to trust you on that” I say with a hint of doubt.
“If that's all then the meeting is over”
At his declaration, we all left the central room and scattered around the hideout.
‘He’s been acting oddly all week, does he even know what he’s doing?’
“Irish, you got a minute?”
Turning around, I saw Joshua making his way towards me.
“What is it Joshua? Is something wrong?”
“You seem to be worried about something, and I can tell it’s not about the operation tomorrow.”
‘Joshua can always tell when something’s wrong’
“It’s Viktor. Ever since Mason died a few months ago and he took command we’ve been getting closer and closer to blowing our cover, he doesn’t even seem to care that a lot of us died in some of the previous operations.”
“We really can’t do anything about it. Mason was his brother so he’s next in line to lead, all of us here know the risk of death so no one’s going to flinch no matter how high the body count gets”
“It’s his irrational decisions that are killing us off! Almost all the deaths over the past few months are because he’s being rash and doesn’t plan properly. Hell, I’m not even
sure he cares about the agreement all of us made” I nearly yell out.
We all agreed on this; No innocent life will be lost in our fight against the IS.
“Irish, if worse comes to worse we’ll have to deal with it, but right now we need to focus for tomorrow. Get some sleep, we’ll all need it come tomorrow afternoon” He patted me on the head and went off.
‘Tomorrow will be our biggest victory yet (if it succeeds). Viktor’s plan better work, there won’t be any second chances if we fail.’
Lying down on the makeshift bed, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
2011-09-18, 00:58
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