User:Nextoy/Book of 100 Warriors/Bits, Fangs, and Silencers

“Reports have come out recently that an office building just outside of Korika, a large metropolis that acts as an oasis in a canyonous desert, has been used as a testing site for an energy based weapon.

“So far we’ve sent in a scouting party, who managed to come back with basic information about the facility. However, only enough to begin operations. So far, two assault teams have gone in with very little success.

“Being a stealth specialist, I was hoping that you could get a better read on the situation than anyone else. Hopefully assassinate whoever’s working on it as well.”

The commander -- an old and grizzled man -- read off a sheet of paper as he spoke. Though his tone was professional, his true thoughts were shown on his face. A grimace was half hidden behind a pair of reading glasses and dark bags under his eyes; his usually shaven jaw had uneven stubble upon it.

“Stealth specialist? Please, I’m just a grenade that learned to do the job of a scalpel.” His subordinate sighed as she zipped up her suit.

She’d long since gotten used to the cramped quarters of carrier vans like this, so getting changed from civilian attire to her uniform no longer affected her. Maybe some girls would have issues with that, or the body cam having to be placed so close to her breasts, but the agent had long since stopped caring about anything besides practicality.

“That’s hardly true. Every report I found on you said that you’re an expert for things like this.” The commander glared up at her, tired eyes staring into hers.

“I’m good at getting results. The stealth all comes from this suit.” She explained, pressing a button on the collar as her body became translucent. The moving parts of her body shimmered from the imperfect cloaking technology, while anything that remained grew to become more transparent at a fast rate.

“It’s good tech, and you know how to use it,” the commander acknowledged, “Even if you aren’t a specialist, it makes you an expert in my book Jillian.”

Subconsciously flashing a small smile before suppressing it, Jillian turned away and opened the back door of the van. As the air mixed between the warm insides to the cool desert night outside, she put on a helmet that gave her head the same cloaking that the suit did.

“It’s Lorrel while on the job, got it?” She corrected, turning to look at him again before walking out. “Once the mission is over, I’ll call in backup to clean the place.”

--

''The visor never gets comfortable, Jillian thought to herself. No matter how often I wear it, it always feels weird. '' Security was lax drone inside and out, with only basic cameras guarding the entrances and insides. Jillian almost wondered if the suit was even necessary, although it may well be a good case of being better safe than sorry.

“The lack of security worried me.” Jillian pointed out, speaking through a throat mike.

“It hasn’t been updated since we’ve started trying to raid this place, either.” The commander pointed out, looking through her body cam.

Jillian continued through the darkened facility, thankful for the night vision camera on her visor. Desks with electronics on them, a water cooler in each room, easily accessible bathrooms. Even with the odd choice in plants, far as she was concerned, his place seemed completely normal.

However, she couldn’t get over how eerie it all was, as everything was completely silent. Sure, nobody liked office buildings to begin with, but they were loud. Computers, printers, phones, and the workers all humming in activity.

Kind of like that humming above her.

She looked up, seeing an odd orb floating in the air. It seemed to be floating on some sort of magnetic power, but Jillian couldn’t figure out what or why. Thankfully, it hadn’t made a move towards her. At least, not yet.

“Commander, are you seeing this?” She asked, looking up at it. Her body was positioned in a way so the body cam could easily see it, though it didn’t cause her any discomfort. This mission didn’t require stalking anyway, as her suit made her almost invisible due to its cloaking technology.

“Yeah, and I’m not sure what it is. Could be some kind of drone, perhaps?” He asked, looking through a database on another computer. A quick scan showed no results, but perhaps a more thorough look can gleam some kind of information.

“Let me know if you find out anything.” Jillian continued through the building, finding more of these strange orbs. They littered the place, with three or four of them in each room. They were all also curiously placed, with each one hovering right under one of the countless cameras that littered the facility.

''But if these are just fancy turrets, why would they be classified as anything else? Jillian thought to herself, a newfound confusion coming to her mind. Either this commander is an idiot and has been wasting resources, or whatever was being tested here has already left. '' --

“I detect we have a little mouse aboard our ship.” The owner of the facility was in the main camera room, looking over the various rooms of this abandoned office building he called home. Though he couldn’t see anything, he felt the presence of another. “Who might you be, little mousey?”

His cameras picked up no movement, his drones picked up no heat. However, he felt the intruder just like he felt the drones. Something was there, and it was most likely related to that van outside.

Only question was, government or mercenary? The previous raids pointed towards mercenary, but perhaps the locals had noticed his activities.

''What they’re after is beyond me, but if they’re willing to do this just to stop me then I have no reason to care about them. Progress will not be undermined. '' Then he felt it. The invader was invisible, but not immune to his detection.

One of his bits fired off its laser, seeming to hit nothing. A blast through a computer, another one ricochet against a wall and into the ceiling, while a third dug into the ground. White hot beams of energy, condensed into a thin cylinder, shot out the fist sized drone at this invisible invader. He knew that the little mouse was there, but it was hard to get an exact location. Turning off the drones would make it easier, as he could use the spare power to find her position easier, but that would be a security risk.

It wouldn’t be worth finding one mouse.

--

“I’ve been compromised!”

She didn’t know how or why she had been spotted, but she had been. The drone was currently firing aimlessly in her general direction, but it’d only be a matter of time until she was spotted for sure.

“What? How!?” The commander asked, still completely in the dark on what these things could be. It’s definitely new technology, and something they wouldn’t begin to understand.

The three drones in the room kept firing at Jillian’s general area, and their positions made it difficult to find any decent cover.

If, of course, by “difficult” she meant “finding a cold spot in the desert sun.”

The way they fired was interesting to her, though. No charge up, little sound, and definitely enough penetration to get through armor while not having to worry about going through dense material. In fact, it reflected off of some flat surfaces.

The worst part was, when she finally left the room it followed her. Not in the sense that the drones went through the doorway, as more the drones in the next room continued their assault.

“Keep running, mouse!” A voice spoke throughout the building. It was smug, songful, yet sophisticated voice. Something that she’d expect a villain in some spy movie to have, not a real person. “I may not be able to see you, but I know where you are!”

“Perfect! With a voice we can figure out who he is!” The commander announced, furiously typing on his end.

“Don’t care, not important.” Jillian growled back, keeping on the move.

“Of course it is! With his voice, we can gain tactical information on our foe!” The commander retorted, running it through a recognition program.

“Then shut up until you do have that information.” She ordered, darting behind a piece of cover that blocked the view of all three drones in the current room. “Cause right now you aren’t helping.”

Jillian pulled out a collapsed rifle, loading in shells and flipping it to burst automatic. She didn’t know how durable they were, but it was best to conserve ammo when possible. After all, Jillian wouldn’t be calling back up unless absolutely necessary. Otherwise, she’d be admitting defeat.

Unfortunately, these rounds aren’t meant for penetration. Everyone’s been so worried about over penetration, be it collateral damage or accidentally hitting an innocent, that she could only hope they weren’t heavily armored.

Although, since it wasn’t, each bullet did their job. Penetrate, expand, and then pop. It took three shots to down any one of them, but that wouldn’t be an issue; were it not for the fact that more keep showing up.

These weren’t just fancy turrets. This was some strange, fully automated army.

But, all electronics have one issue that was very easy to exploit. One that Jillian hated to exploit, however, as it was a double edged sword.

“I’m going dark.” She informed the commander, ignoring his protests as she tossed out a stringed grenade. Implosion weapons, she found, were wonderful at bringing things to her.

The broken parts came sliding to her, as the grenade sucked them in and started eating at the string. It was lucky she was trained well enough to not hurt herself doing this, as it was very volatile in the first place. She’d seen people lose fingers, hands, all sorts of things trying this trick.

Hell, in her case, it might have even blown her cover. Well, more than it already has been.

“Don’t play games, mouse. It’s already over, you’re just delaying the inevitable.” The voice spoke, letting out a playful laugh. Not only did he come off as a spoiled child to her; but these cowardly, movie villain antics were growing stale as far as she was concerned.

That laugh wouldn’t last long, however. Some tinkering with spare parts, a forced spark from the wiring, and a hard throw should be enough of an impact for this situation to reset itself. Even if the commander would be blind and deaf in the process.

--

A high pitch squeal from the computers, fuzzed out cameras, and a splitting migraine from the interface were enough to cause the head of the facility to toss his headset away. An angered growl and his hand nursing one of his temples brought forth a realization.

He could no longer access the vast majority of his drones, and the room she was camped out in was right next to his main computer room.

Not like I really need all of my bits and fangs to deal with this one mouse. He thought to himself, quietly chuckling. His confidence had yet to fade, despite recognizing the blow he’d just recieved.

Thus he stood up and casually walked towards the secondary camera room. A collection of his drones following behind. They had manual components he could make use of, so something as silly as knocked out electronics wouldn’t be enough to stop him.

--

Her suit’s cloaking fizzled out, giving Jillian an excuse to ditch the visor. Her short hair fell down naturally, resting just below her ears on all sides, barring the front.

Lights, cameras, and weapons were all down. Thankfully, she still carried a manual weapon from the olden days. Though often ridiculed for it, moments like these are why she still carried a pistol from the late 20th century. It didn’t need electricity, just the right kind of bullets. Plus, with a suppressor threaded onto the barrel, it’d be just as quiet as any modern weapon.

From now on she’d have to stick to conventional stealth, such as stalking through the halls and clinging to walls when possible. The lack of night vision was inconvenient, but could be worked around. The other senses, most noticeably hearing and scent, were important as well.

Besides, her equipment always did make this odd buzz. Even if Jillian was the only one who could hear it, usually.

However, the source of the voice was nowhere to be found. When she did find what looked like a security room, even the drones were gone from there. He had definitely been here before, but wasn't anymore. It was strange, but it meant she was on the right track.

“Confused, little mouse?” A voice spoke. Jillian turned, looking around the room. She was the only one there, and no signs of an intercom system having been installed.

“That’s not how this works, I’m afraid. After all, why would I speak to someone with a gun trained on me to their face?” The voice asked, clearly the same as the one from before. How he was doing it, however, was beyond her.

“Where?” She asked in a hushed whisper.

“That question is futile and you know it. However, I’m not hiding. Find me, and we’ll have that showdown you so crave.” It taunted. She didn’t want a showdown, she wanted a successful mission. Yet… part of her found the idea quite pleasant, for some reason.

Could this person have some kind of power?

“Of course it is, little mouse.” It answered, somehow able to read her thoughts. “A fairly obvious one at this point, wouldn’t you say?”

It was true. Reading minds, talking through them, there was a simple answer. However, she didn’t believe in such things. There had to be another way.

“Of course not.” This time the voice was very real, speaking from behind her. Jillian turned around, and saw a man in elaborate clothing, like a blend of an early 21st century business suit and middle ages priest robes. Around him floated more of those drones, around twenty of them from what she could tell, to make this strange spherical grid.

“Although now that I get a closer look, you really are more like a little kitten than a mouse.” The man sung out, drones floating around him in rhythm. “Sadly, I’m quite allergic to cats.”

A wave of his hand, and they flew away. Some of the drones suddenly shot out spikes during their approach, four sharp edges twisting into a spiral that almost seemed to vanish into the spherical drone when not active, clearly attempting to ram into her. Their approach was covered by more of these beams, although they were more focused on suppressive fire than actually hitting her.

Jillian managed to shoot a few of the spiked drones while running away from the laser fire, ducking toward a hallway and into a shadow made by the door leading out of the room. It would make a good ambush spot if he followed, but instead four of the drones came out and fired into the hallway. She shot one down before moving out of the way, but it was still enough to get her away.

“What, thought you can hide? I can feel your every movement, kitten.” He spoke, the drones continuing their advance. Everywhere Jillian went to hide, they’d fire waves of energy towards her. And yet, this walking embodiment of arrogance slowly followed as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

But then, Jillian had a thought.

She came out from cover, quickly trained her gun, and fired.

“Thinking if you shoot me, you’d break the drones?” He asked, one of the drones dropping to the ground after blocking a single bullet flying towards his head. “Clever, but it’s not that simple.”

That smug grin was grinding at her. His tech might be state of the art, especially with it’s inconsistent response of that EMP. Maybe it was just a smaller pulse radius than she had originally imagined, but he definitely seemed to be convinced all of this made him psychic.

“Oh, but I am, kitten. Even before I had these lovely bits and fangs of mine. And that means no matter what you do, I will always overcome it.” He informed, sending a quintet of spiked drones out to ram at her. Jillian managed to get away, shooting at him only to find he sacrificed more of those drones to keep himself safe.

“Then I’ll just have to break all your toys!” Jillian pointed out, dipping behind cover to reload her pistol.

“Go ahead, I have more.” As he spoke a laser drone came out from the room behind her, firing a shot that pierced her shoulder. Though it hurt, Jillian couldn’t help but to wonder…

“Why I didn’t just kill you? What fun would that be?” The man asked, with the laser drones flying over to aim down on her. The way they behaved, however, revealed something she had been subconsciously been noticing for a while now.

The first drone didn’t change its position, and the others were aiming the wrong way. All of them were pointed in her general direction, but she felt the murderous intent of this man betray his own words. Jillian was convinced that he wasn’t aiming wrong on purpose, nor that this was some strange form of suppressive fire, but that something was actively keeping him from making precise shots while she was out of view.

--

He could feel it. The little kitten was cornered, weak, and vulnerable. His drones rained down laser fire as he turned away, starting to walk towards maintenance when something felt wrong. She was alive.

And this time he was just too slow.

Had he not turned the bullet would have, more likely than not, pierced his heart. However, it still went through his back. She was aiming for his head, that’s what she was thinking! She thought about a lethal target, and the bullet went beneath his defensive drone rather than into it!

These bullets were strange, however. Metallic, and penetrated through him. They weren’t like the expanding rounds or the dissolving ones that her rifle or the other military men used.

What the hell happened? The man thought to himself, commanding one of the drones to cauterize the wound with a laser. No, no, no...

During his moment of genuine panic, she fired off another shoot. This one got blocked by a bit, but not completely. Rather than smashing through, the bullet clipped off the side and went wild. These bullets go through people. Nobody’s supposed to use bullets like that anymore. Such old fashioned weapons died out a long time ago. Now it’s all about specialty rounds meant to inflict damage with no risk of overpenetration.

Calm down, Koda. You’re fine. He thought to himself, grinning again. This was an older weapon, that much is certain. One that could actually hurt him, combined with her odd ability to obfuscate her thoughts. He wouldn’t ever be hurt again if he could help it.

After all, he had to learn from wake up calls like this.

Two spiked drones flew down, one on each side of this kitten. She predictably went to shoot one, before the other rammed into the gun and knocked it out of her hand. The pistol went to her side, although she managed to keep a good grip.

But she was wide open now.

“Cute little kitten, time to die!” Koda snapped his fingers, with drones flying above her again to fire down. Yet, she jumped out of the way and started running straight for him. She reeked of desperation, and aimed her gun only to hear a click.

A click, and the bits firing into her legs.

But then why did she lunge straight for him…!?

--

Jillian dropped her pistol and drew her knife in reverse grip, knowing full well that continuing to shoot would reveal her trick, using the moment now that she wouldn’t be able to run until backup arrived. The EMP may have taken off the plasma emitters, but it was still a knife.

The man barely backed away from the initial slash, now on the defensive. She knew that the drones could pierce through a human body, so that was her advantage. Keeping too close to him for his drones to be worthwhile. He drew a knife of his own, but was clearly less skilled with it.

His mobility, versus her skill.

She flipped the knife forward. A slash towards his neck, follow through with a thrust to his gut after the miss, carry that into an upper slash. All he could do was play defence and help her wait out the clock.

Unfortunately for her, he didn’t care much for that game. His own life be damned, he decided to use his drones anyway.

Her knife batted away his counter attack, but she had to back away as a spiked drone came after her from the side. He capitalized on the loss of momentum, two drones floating behind him to fire lasers as he charged forward.

Jillian dropped, an overextended stab going over her as she flipped the knife into reverse again and elbowed his stomach with her other arm. Followed through with an uppercut, only to be short circuited as a laser shot the knife out of her hand.

This didn’t stop her, however, as she continued to bring the hand up to grab his neck. The other arm wrapped around his, as she used her strength and her own shoulder as a point of leverage to throw him onto his back.

A pained groan came from her target as the drones fell down. She grabbed his jaw and the back of his head, ready to snap his neck as one of the drones came back up to fire at her. A shot into her upper arm made the maneuver impossible.

Jillian darted away, allowing her target to get up. He flung his arm out as the last remaining spiked drones chased her down, eventually crashing into the floor as he unsteadily got up.

She reached out for the knife, watched it get shot away with one of the lasers, and immediately darted for the gun.

“It’s empty, you stupid bitch.” He spoke, dropping all of the previous mannerisms. “The hell are you-”

A shot rang out, though suppressed, and anger was replaced with shock and horror upon the would-be villain’s face. Though he certainly wanted to talk, no part of his body was willing to move. None except his legs, which gave out as he fell to his knees.

“That click wasn’t the gun.” She explained, watching the drones drop to the ground once more. “It was my signal for backup.”

“...But..!” Was all he could get out before a bullet went through his head.

Jillian sighed and allowed herself to collapse, physically and mentally exhausted from what had happened. Now that back up was coming, and she was sure nobody else was here, a short rest shouldn’t be harmful. Besides, if anyone else was here, either they’d have intervened already or left once the fight broke out.

“Lorrel! Lorrel, come in!” Her coms came back on. Interesting timing, but she didn’t have the energy to think about it. “Lorrel, we received your signal. Respond!”

“Mission success. Awaiting evac and medical.” She managed out, before finally collapsing.