Author Topic: Returning Home (Read 3426 times)

K2 · « **on:** March 14, 2012, 03:56:23 PM »

Silently, a single corvette spaceship, Zarethian in design -- the kind the Zarethian Hand had used eight years ago -- appeared in low orbit of Tefillin, broadcasting the Hand's RSO. A transmission was sent to the nearby docking bay. The transmission was audio, and it was from the voice of none other than Eric Mann, one of five passengers aboard.

"Greetings, Zarethian Space Control. This is Eric Mann, former director of the Zarethian Hand, wanted on Zarethian soil and by INTERPOL for Conspiring to Corrupt the Peace, Treason, Sedition, Murder, Political Fraud, evading authorities, Destruction of Property, and theft. I've come to answer for my crimes. Over."

K2 · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2012, 08:44:39 PM »

OOC: Bump.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #2 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:45:03 PM »

There was silence on his comm for a minute, then the traffic control operator cut on.
"Mr. Mann, please proceed into the portal. You will meet your lawyer there." She said, as a pocket dimension opened up in front of the ship.

K2 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:55:36 PM »

Eric Mann's ship moved forward towards the portal. What was on the other side? Eric had no idea, and quite frankly, he didn't care -- he knew what was about to happen. Rather he was really about to meet with a lawyer or not, it wouldn't matter. He knew that he was going to be charged. He shrugged as his ship crossed the portal. Here went nothing.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2012, 07:04:34 PM »

As the ship entered the portal to the pocket dimension, the pure white emptiness shown brilliantly. There was nothing there. Then appeared a man, dressed in black and white robes. He was a grim set man, with a long, pointed face. He nodded at the ship as it came in.
Then, abruptly, the portal ceased to be. Eric Mann, the ship, all its crew, everything that was in the nigh infinite nothingness that was the pocket dimension simply ceased to exist. It was gone, as if it was never there.
Eric Mann was too dangerous to stand trial, according to the council.

K2 · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2012, 07:13:56 PM »

The moment that Eric entered the whiteness, he could feel something was wrong. Glancing at the man, and then at the closing portal, he quickly teleported away before the portal could close. He had to get out... He couldn't let everything he had worked for be put down because of... No... NO, he REFUSED to die!

Appearing violently in a flash on Tefillin in the middle of a street in the capital, he began to scream.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2012, 07:17:21 PM »

Alerts were sent all over the capitol, an AT, AP, AM field appeared around Eric as snipers moved into positions, in buildings above him.
In the Zafia Estate building, a government sniper took aim with his pulse rifle. Two hundred yards away, no wind, a perfect shot. He aimed for the chest and gently pulled the trigger.
At the same time did five other snipers, each aiming at a different vital organ.

K2 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 17, 2012, 08:05:55 PM »

Of course, the first thing Mann did when he teleported in was take cover. He had been the director of the Zarethian Hand, the Agency Supervisor of INTERPOL, and more recently the President of Security at Galactic, Inc. (though nobody knew of the latter). He quickly blended in with a group of pedestrians, making it impossible for a sniper to get a shot on him, before ducking into a retail building and pulling out a pistol, pointing it straight at the clerk.

"HANDS UP, LET'S GO!" he shouted.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #8 on:** March 17, 2012, 08:55:48 PM »

However, there were no civilians around. Most fled in panic once the alarms went off. Those few that stayed, had fled into the houses as well. Clerks had locked their doors, people were frightened and Tefillin was under lockdown.
Precision sniper fire from all directions would kill Mann, no matter what.
If that wasn't enough, ZPAA troops arrived from orbit, falling through the atmosphere and plummenting down into the streets. They searched for the traitor.

K2 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 20, 2012, 06:38:56 PM »

Continuing to take cover under various structures that happened to be present, Eric was sure to keep himself well guarded as he made dashes around various corners to eliminate the range snipers could have at him at any given time. He wasn't going to make it for long, especially not with the ZPAA sending troopers down. And then, he reached a man tunnel down into the ground, an old Hand passageway that lined the capital.

With the protection of darkness and aerial cover, he started running through the tunnel system. It wouldn't be easy for them to find him.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2012, 08:35:38 PM »

Each Zarethian possessed a unique magical signature, all recorded and all available to government forces for scanning. Mann's location was promptly found as soon as the government found out who they were dealing with. ZPAA followed his path behind him and stormed the other Hand tunnels. Hand agents were sent out in order to close off the other tunnels with magic.

K2 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 25, 2012, 07:56:54 PM »

The tunnel system was fairly elaborate, spanning the entire city with various turns which would allow him to slip by. It was a wide enough perimeter to hide in. But it didn't take Mann long to realize that if he didn't do something about the key three, that is, the three ways that an agent was trained to track their prey, he would be as good as dead. He didn't plan to die here today, killed by a firing squad, without any sense of court of due process. That wasn't why he'd come back to this planet.

First, his body. He had to get rid of his scent. He knew how to do this. He picked a prey, a target, one of the passing agents, and lured him out with a whistle, a hint of his presence. The agent stopped, turning towards the branch tunnel Mann was hiding in while the others of his group continued down the tunnel they were searching. When the stray agent was just close enough, Mann whacked him over the head from behind, careful to cover his mouth so he couldn't make a noise, but pressing on the right nerves before he could react. Swiftly, the man dropped to the ground.

Mann stripped him of his clothing, ripping out the micro-fabric trackers that were traditional in Hand clothing, and searching for any hidden tricks and trackers in the clothing itself. Putting on the clothing, Mann also grabbed the agent's firearm, removing it's trackers as well. He was now armed, had any number of tunnels to slip through undetected, and had removed his scent from the equation. Good luck finding him now. But he still had to get rid of the other key two.

Focusing on his magic signature, he began to rise and lower it in bursts in such a way that it would spread his signature throughout some of the tunnel system, at least the parts of it underneath the city. It would appear that he was randomly appearing at different sides of the city than he was actually in. He used this to his advantage, and knew that they would waste much of their resources before they caught onto him. Excellent.

Thirdly, displacement. He didn't have to worry about tracks considering they were in an underground tunnel system, and the darkness of the tunnels as well as their vastness gave him an advantage in this department. But he had to get rid of any chance of being spotted. He did this by scaling various walls and crossing corners at angles. His strategy combined with the advantages of the tunnels would give him the clear advantage. And there was no way they could block every single exit in the tunnel system.

With his basis taken care of, he also was sure to leave the passed out body of the Hand agent in the dark, concealed, but facing the direction that he was NOT traveling in. He cut the hand of the agent, just a shallow cut, and left a trail of blood heading in the opposite direction from where he was traveling. They wouldn't know who's blood it was, and would probably figure it was Mann's. He had a clear shot of escape now.

Everything was going as planned.

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #12 on:** March 26, 2012, 02:36:45 AM »

<<<Orders Received...>>>
<<<Initiate Protocol- Omega-32>>>
<<Sealing Bulkheads>>

As soon as the order was sent out, the tunnels began to lock up. The exits were shut down first, then the tunnel we then separated into easily navigable, self contained sections. Anyone there would be trapped until someone came to override it. A sleeping gas agent was released into the tunnels, as per protocol, and Special HIRU troopers wielding gas masks running in 4 man teams began to search their respective sections. \

<<<On Standby>>>
<<<Awaiting Override by the Hand Director>>>

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #13 on:** March 26, 2012, 08:17:18 PM »

And promptly, with the city supported and protected by other pieces of infastructure and magic, the HIRU and other agents were teleported out and the tunnels all expoded with an almost nuclear force.

K2 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 13, 2012, 03:44:34 PM »

Finally.

Eric Mann was dead. For real this time. Only, the moment he died, on an entirely different part of the planet, in an abandoned warehouse, at an old computer terminal, long forgotten, a single message was displayed on the screen, it's digital text reading simply, "COMMENCING THE OPERATION."

It was at that very moment that the first tremor began in the capital.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #15 on:** April 13, 2012, 03:53:38 PM »

The tremors were normal, the capital resided near a tectonic plate and the infastructure was built to match. No one suspected anything unusual.

K2 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 13, 2012, 05:33:16 PM »

It seemed that all had finally gone back to normal. Eric Mann was dead, and the excitement was over. Nothing else unusual seemed to be going on at all, and this was how it was meant to be. Of course, the truth was, it was only a matter of time... Until... Something happened. Eric Mann had come here for a reason, right? Was it really just to answer for his crimes? If so, why did he run?

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #17 on:** April 13, 2012, 05:36:04 PM »

Some people, many of them in the intelligence community, disputed these facts. However, most individuals didnt care and felt that everything was fine.

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #18 on:** April 13, 2012, 06:24:38 PM »

At the entrance to the now destroyed tunnels, the Directory stood there looking over the damage. Several Hand Agents, as well as HIRU bodyguards, were with him. His friend, his mentor, was finally dead. "Well you sure went out with a bang old man..." He said to himself as if talking to Mann.

An agent runs up to him. "Did you atleast find his body?" Regis asks. The Agent shakes his head. "Well, keep trying. The least we can do is give him a proper funeral."

K2 · « **Reply #19 on:** April 13, 2012, 07:27:14 PM »

Amy Jacob was quiet behind Hermitage, and rather anyone had heard her approach or not, who knew, but she had been there, in the shadows, watching for some time now, unable to bring herself to action. He was... Dead. This was supposed to be her kill. Her big case. She had been the one looking into it, trying to find out who Eric was, where he was. She had known he was still alive. She wanted to be the one to prove it.

As emergency vehicles established perimeters in the background, and scientists walked back and forth from the crime scenes, Amy took a few steps forward, joining Hermitage at the charred entrance, glaring at the debris, which had been set aside a bit to allow a crawl space for forensics and recovery teams. Glaring at the rocks which formed a messy pile before her, she spoke to her mentor and boss now, her words solemn.

"So... He's finally dead. What happens now?"

Meanwhile, at the perimeter of the crime scene, just outside the blocked off zone, a few citizens would notice themselves possibly catching a cold, coughing rather frequently, though this would not likely be thought of as suspicious even with the enhanced security.

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #20 on:** April 14, 2012, 07:31:48 AM »

"Well..." he started, without looking away from the wreckage. "...I want to find his body and give him a proper funeral as per my race's customs, thats the least I could do for him. As for Mann himself, from what i can ascertain, he came here offering some sort of retribution, and someone, probably the individual mentioned by Commander Tarkov in his report about that mayday'd crew, wanted him dead despite the fact that he wanted some sort of atonement of his sins."

Hermitage looked over to Amy. "Look, i know you were after Mr. Mann for quite some time, and i can see that you're a bit disappointed that you didnt finish him off yourself." he looked back into space. "But whats done is done. The greatest fugitive that the empire has seen in the past 1000 years is finally dead." he chuckles.

"So the only thing i can really think to say is, what are YOU going to do now, Miss Jacobs? Seeing as this was your obsession for quite a while." He displays his cheerful smirk, which was most of what anybody could really get out of him.

K2 · « **Reply #21 on:** May 17, 2012, 01:50:51 PM »

OOC: I was waiting for Zak to post... But that was a month ago XD. Um... Guess we should just close this topic?

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #22 on:** May 17, 2012, 02:36:18 PM »

OOC- only if you don't intend on replying to Herm.

Beware Ye Who Enter Here · « **Reply #23 on:** May 24, 2012, 07:59:38 AM »

OOC: O.o I was waiting for you to post in response to Lyoko, I didn't realize it was my post.

K2 · « **Reply #24 on:** May 26, 2012, 04:32:38 PM »

OOC: Zak, pay close attention to this:

Quote

Meanwhile, at the perimeter of the crime scene, just outside the blocked off zone, a few citizens would notice themselves possibly catching a cold, coughing rather frequently, though this would not likely be thought of as suspicious even with the enhanced security.