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It is a warm spring day at the temperate Mountain of Truth. Normally, the inhabitants of the monastery atop the mountain would be simply enjoying their lives, showing a few visitors around their ancient homestead, and tending to their magnificent gardens and orchards. However, this is no normal spring. The small village halfway up the mountain was evacuated earlier in the month due to a "chemical spill," but the inhabitants of the monastery were never told anything about this. Government harrassment of those atop the mountain was far more than the usual, the very existance of magic made the Government uneasy, so the users atop the mountain made sure to keep their abilities a secret to outsiders, but the cat was out of the bag. A battalion of mechanized infantry was deployed to the base of the mountain, supposedly for a training exercise, but from the start the troops knew something was wrong. No OPFOR unit was assigned, and no training gig ever had so much live ammuntion on hand, especially for the larger pieces. Something shady is going on, and it has brought two powerful combatants right next to each other without telling the other. The precarious peace in the area could be easily tipped by the slightest incident...

A large man in heavy armor started to approach the base of the mountain look for the small town at the top of the mountain he looks for the officer in charge to give him directions to the town.

A shadowy figure approaches the small town on the mountain slowly, almost as if injured. He looks up towards the sun and quickly looks back down. "I wonder if I will be followed." he says to himself.

The sun is blotted out for a brief moment as a white, feathered figure drops down out of the sky, landing in front of the man in armor. The creature, a korvan, folds his wings stares down at the man.
"Crark! State your name and buisness!" The korvan sweeps hiswing forward, pointing with a single talon to the town above. "My apolagies for all the suspicion, but this is all merly a formality...every since they came, yeeerakk."

Corin sits slouched under a tree. His hat is pushed forward to cover his eyes and the shade feels nice as a warm spring breeze pushes past him and ruffles his clothes pleasingly. Meditation was something he had learned on this mountain and he valued the skill greatly. Peace in his storm. Not to say he wasn't aware, just his thoughts flowed freely, like the breeze that past him by or the river beside him. It wasn't long that his thoughts lingered over the man staggering towards the village and it wasn't much of his concern, someone else would pick him up. The villagers here were warm and welcoming, willing to go the extra mile for people they didn't know. They had for him and they would for this new man. The village watcher on duty would pick him up.
Corin figured he didn't have too much to offer the man anyways. He lived in a very small shack and his prowess wasn't in the medical field. He'd only stick his fingers in it if he had to.

"My name is Arron, I have come looking for work." Arron stared through the Armor, and had is hand on the hilt of his sword, in case of an attack.

Corporal Waffenburg quietly resents his job. He stands stiffly by the checkpoint on one of the few roads to the mountain, a full load of ammuntion and his heavy SAW hung from his body over his Interceptor armor. He thanks God it wasn't too hot, or it wouldn't have been bearable. Nevertheless, he has to stand at the hilariously impotent gate and interrogate any passers-by on their business near the mountain. Of course, the fact that nobody had passed along the road since he had been assigned the job didn't help the dullness any. All he could do was stand there and wait, for abandoning his post would be tantamount to treason.

"Work? Kaaaa... Won't find much work for a swordsman here. This is a place of peace."
The korvan couldn't keep the strain out of his raucus voice at the word peace. He had, like most residence of the small monastery atop the mountain, noticed the battalion of armed soldiers near the mountains base. Of course, the peacefull monks had ordered the residence to go about their lives as usual, something the hot-blooded korvan had a hard time doing.
"We may not have much work for you hear, but this mountain is....kraaa....welcome to all." Without another word, the white korvan spread his wings and took off for the mountaintop.

As some of the villagers approach the staggering man he topples over and his hood falls off his head. He had passed out from fatigue and inspection of his leg revealed an arrow wound, bleeding profusely.

Thinking to him self, that was odd, he continued walking toward the monastery atop the hill.

Five thousand feet above the crest of the mountain, an RQ-9 Reaper drone painted a dull gray lazily circles. Hellfire missiles and 500 lb bombs hang from the wing racks, and a distinctive crossed sword and telescope insignia is painted on the drone's wing. The powerful observations suite swivels back and forth, watching all of those in the monastery intently.

First Sergeant Gerrard Burke stood at his post near the gate to the mountain road. He couldn't help but notice that the new guy, seemed incredibly on-edge and bored. "Hey, Waffenburg, right? You need to relax a bit. This guard duty is about as exciting as it's gotten in the past few weeks. As your Sergeant I think I'm compelled to let you know that it sucks for all of us," he jokes, cracking a small smile, trying to break the ice with his new squadmate. "In case you're wondering what the Hell I'm doing here, I figured I should suffer with the rest of you guys if I'm gonna get to know you." He opens up a pouch on his tactical vest and pulls out a pack of cigarettes in one hand and a lighter in the other. "Want a smoke, buddy?" He holds out the small box, hoping that at the very least the kid would thank him for the offer. Lord knows there's enough tension around here already... Gerrard thinks to himself. "Better than most of the shit you can get back at the base. Sometimes it's good havin' friends in high places, if you catch my drift."

As Arron approached the monastery he could feel that something was off, he look around for something out of place but could find nothing, so he decided to keep walking.

Waffenburg relaxes a bit and leans over to take a cigarette, smiling. "Thanks, Sarge. It's just so different from my first deployment. I mean, I've seen the elephant and all, but we knew when and where it was then." He nods as Burke lights his smoke and inhales deeply on it. "Man, this is the good stuff, sir!"

Burke exhales and grins with relief. "Birthday gift from Captain Nichols. Best smokes you'll find on this side of the country." He stares off into the distance, wondering which direction home was. "Well, I've been from one side of the world to the other, and I've gotta tell ya, lotta strange things you'll find out there. The important thing is that we have a reason to do these things, even if it's not totally clear what that is right now. Hell, I still don't know why this damned mountain's so important, but I'd have to think there's a damn good reason we're here burnin' all this money and resources." He drops his finished cigarette onto the ground and stomps it out with his foot. "Don't you?"

Eric finishes his cigarette, thinking, and crushes it beneath his heel. "Dunno, Sarge. I was at the Impalian skirmishes, although it was a lot lounder than the phrase 'skirmish' would suggest. It was pretty obvious why I was there, but here... Well, sir, as you noted, there's nothing going on." He looks up at the clear blue sky, as if trying to find an answer there. He stops suddenly and squints, then looks back down to Burke. "Sir, doesn't it look like there's something circling over the village?" he asks, pointing.

"Wait a minute... the Hell?" Burke mutters as he scrambles for his binoculars. "What in the name of..." Seeing that the flying object was a UAV drone, the Agency of Covert Operations seal, and what it was carrying, he dropped his binocluars. "Mother of God. That's an ACO attack drone. Shit just got real, Waffenburg." Burke stared upward and wondered what the Hell the ACO was up to. "Actually, mind if I just call you Eric? Waffenburg's a bit drawn out." He deflected, trying to change the topic. I hope to God they know what they're doing. We don't need civilian casualties. Not again.

"Not at all, sir," says Corporal Waffenburg half-mindedly, staring at the attack drone, "I wonder what it's doing. It's just sorta... sitting there. Maybe there's some terrorists or enemy ops somewhere on the mountain and we're gonna go take 'em out. Still, it's weird to be dropped in without a brief, I mean we haven't even evacuated the village or the monastery yet," he continues, gesturing at the crest of the mountain.

Lennon awakes sometime later. Damn, that last group of shadowhunters really worn me down. He checks his surroundings. Hmm, i'm in some sort of monastery. A woman walks to the bed as Lennon gets up. "Stop, you were recently healed, but the muscles didn't heal up properly, you might hurt yourself." Lennon pushes her out of the way and stands. "Don't worry I'm fine now." Lennon walks out of the room and into the chapel. I sense some powerful magic here. I should be careful. Lennon walks past the people praying and heads to the village.

Without warning, the Reaper drone circles about and tips towards the mountain. A pair of Hellfire anti-tank missiles ripples from the racks beneath the wings, streaking towards a smaller building on the outskirts of the monastery and detonating in a massive fireball. The drone screams overhead, its turboprop churning the air behind it.