Sacramental Sabotage (Open)

[Hector von Giovanni]

OOC: Interference needed from a member of the KA, please.


agent_log12.2

Having successfully rendezvoused with my informant at the Garden of Hedon club last night, I am now ready to begin my mission to disrupt the military within Iziz in the hope of one day liberating these people from an oppressing government. The first target, to be struck and disabled tonight, is the main garrison just east of the palace in Sector 01; that is the primary objective and the second, to discern the truth behind claims that a sinister cult is responsible for the military control throughout the city. I suspect it to be little more than hearsay nevertheless, I will carry out my duties completely.

_endlog


<HR>

Several hours later:

The garrison was heavily fortified; tall duracrete walls, no doubt laced with durasteel supports and several feet thick, surrounding the entire facility with even taller watch towers dotted about the entire circumference of the outer wall. Spotlights sweeped the interior, giving it the look of a maximum security prison rather than an army post, with snipers perched alongside them in their towers. It was doubtful that motion sensors were in operation given the amount of activity going on in there but as Hector looked on through electrobinoculars from the roof of a neighbouring building, he was beginning to realise that this would be no stroll in the park.

[Salem Ave]

Soldiers had a knack for silence. They could remain quiet for hours on end, communicating only through a series of high signals. The Iziz troopers of the Sector 01 garrison were not different. Stolid and statuesque, not even the click-click of approaching boots could move them. The search lights that swept back and forth across the surrounding area glanced over the form that was coming close to one soldier; a form that didn’t appear particularly happy. “You arrre highly inefficient.”

The guard stared forwards, without blinking, without moving.

“Thi-sss whole outpost is highly inefficient. How exactly do you intend to defend thisss post without moving? I could have been an enemy, and you werrre just going to let me walk past, werrren’t you.”

Salem Ave spoke his last words as a statement, not a question, already knowing the answer. He shook his head and turned away from the soldier, taking a few lurching steps towards the edge of the wall perimeter. His white eyes narrowed, as he watched the tower lights running smoothly across the night, sweeping back and forth with the regularity of a pendulum. Something didn’t feel quite right, to the vampire, but he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was…

[Hector von Giovanni]

Silently, against the matt black sky, Hector hung from the wire which would lead him over the empty street below and onto the great, fortified garrison wall. His hands and feet wrapped tightly around his sturdy support and resembling a monkey; a monkey dressed in stealthy black; he shimmied slowly across to the other side. There were footsteps up ahead yet when he tilted his head back Hector was unable to see the source of the steady, tapping feet and for a moment more he stared, the world upside down, and listened until the guard on patrol had passed and the sound of footsteps was no more.

When finally he had reached the garrison wall, Hector soundlessly and effortlessly threw himself from the wire and over the wall. No-one was around but another guard would already be on his way so not wasting a second the agent began climbing the ladder to one of the watch towers where he would find a sniper, sneak up on him from behind and snap his neck. Hector was a professional and killing a man was a simple case of three steps; sneak, kill and discard.

Moments later, Hector found himself standing in the watch tower dressed in the clothes of a dead sniper, he was staring down the scope of the sniper rifle, watching guards as they circled the facility, patrolling the walls on the perimeter. That was when someone caught his attention; a foul looking creature wrapped in thick cloth, it concealed most of his face save for those ghostly white eyes. That was when Hector lurched back and lost his grip on the rifle, it fell to the floor with a clunk and he righted himself by grabbing hold of the searchlight. A hand came to the side of his face and he closed his eyes, wincing.

“What are you trying to tell me, Sam?” He whispered.

“What does that mean? You’re going to have to help me with this one.”

“What?” Hector spat incredulously, then frowned, shaking his head.

“Dead? No, that can’t be right.” He concluded then retrieved the rifle and slung it over his back before heading down the ladder. “Just stay alert, Sam, and tell me what you see.”

[Salem Ave]

There was a disturbance in the Force. Again. A minute flicker. Salem tried to focus upon it, but was unable. Though his training had covered numerous things, the location of people through the Force was not one of them. Turning sharply, he looked up and down the line of troops on the particular segment of wall he was stood on. Looking right, he saw one of the sniper towers. Everything seemed fine there. Looking left then, he saw the other. Likewise, everything appeared fine. Of course, the Sith knew that appearances could be deceptive.

“Rrr-adio contact your comradesss… I want a ssstatusss report from each of them.”

One soldier nodded, lifting a small communication unit, as he began to utter quiet words into it. One by one, the soldiers began to relay back their positions and current status. It was all code to Salem, but the soldier before him translated as each message came in. Soon, the entire length of the wall had been done. The various watch and sniper towers would come next…

[Hector von Giovanni]

"Dren. They're conducting status reports."

Hector had heard the voice coming from the dead sniper's radio up in the watchtower so ceasing his descent, the agent immediately darted back up the ladder and slipped the comm from the corpse, then slouching down into a corner of the lookout, he closed his eyes with a certain degree of pain etched upon his face.

"Oh, this is difficult one, Sam." He began, again whispering to himself in the dark.

"He should be nearby, bring him close."

A quick glance at the tag on a chain around the sniper's neck confirmed his identity.

"His name is Sanis, Sanis Warton. That's good, Sam. Bring him closer."

Over the comm, Hector could hear the routine check and the officer on the other end was asking the soldiers up in the watchtowers for their identification, position and status. Hactor was in Watchtower Eight and already the check had reached tower four. He closed his eyes and his hand came to his forehead.

"Come on, Sam. This is what I need; that's him; I need his identification and status code. Ask him for those."

In silence, Hector nodded and winced, his hand was up and his finger appeared to be writing in air. Over the radio he heard the sniper in tower six reporting in. A bead of sweat trickled down his brow and he continued to write in the air.

"Good, good, that's it. Just a little more, keep giving it to me."

"Tower Eight, report in."

"Dren, come on, Sam. What's that last bit?"

"Tower Eight?"

"Is that it? Yes? Okay."

"Tower Eight?"

Hector jumped up and appeared to be fixing his radio and after tapping it a few times he brought it to his mouth.

"Longshot Two-Zero-One, Tower Eight, Blue and Clear."

There was a moments silence then the officers voice continued with the routine check, moving onto the ninth tower. Hector sighed and wiped his now sticky brow.

"Bless you, Sam."

[Salem Ave]

Panic. Salem had just felt something akin to it. He turned, scanning the area as he began to walk away from the guards. Everything seemed to be normal- but of course, one should not judge a situation simply upon that which can be seen. Something was wrong, but he still didn’t know what – how frustrating. He kept on walking. Tower Eight had taken a margin longer than the others to report in, he thought to himself.

“I’m going to the towerrrs,” he called back to the patrol leader. “To sss-ee what the trouble is with the radio unit.”

That said, he picked up his pace to a brisk walk, heading for the tower which contained, unbeknownst to him, the two infiltrators.

[Hector von Giovanni]

Not wasting another second, Hector picked himself up off the floor inside the watchtower and began his descent down the ladder except this time he wouldn’t climb down each rung, instead he simply released his grip a little on either side and slid rapidly down to the bottom. Aware that the next shift change wasn’t for another hour, the young agent figured that would be enough time to infiltrate the facility and set the explosives, enough time before the corpse of the murdered sniper would be found at the summit of his lookout.

Crouching low, Hector gained some distance from Tower Eight and circled the garrison from above on its large walls until he was out of sight of the patrolling units on the grounds below. Again using his electrobinoculars to monitor the troops all around, they had gone about their work completely oblivious to the intruder, except for that gangrel looking wretch who was now nowhere to be seen. He had to wonder why such an odd individual would be walking so freely amongst units of soldiers; something he would look out for more as the night went on.

There was a walkway which snaked down the inside of the wall and where it reached the ground, there was a security checkpoint; Hector had the dead man’s keycards on his person; it would prove little trouble and once inside he would quickly find a way to vanish out of sight and plant his explosives. On the way down the walkway he nodded in greeting to a fellow sniper but didn’t stop to chat and nothing was thought of it; so far so good.

[Salem Ave]

Salem was not particularly knowledgeable on the methods and routines of the soldiers, but he had observed them enough to know that they had a vague pattern about their movements. When they did move, it was a staggered process, so that there was always a guard in place to maintain vigil. With this in mind, he was quite surprised to see one figure slinking down towards ground level. He paced to the walls edge and leant over it, looking down into the shadows where the sniper was.

Yes… something wasn’t right there.

His white eyes narrowed and, to the guards surprise, Salem vaulted over the wall. He landed on the walkway – a fair drop, but one that he could handle. His bots hit the wood with a loud thump, followed by the subsequent sounds of his footfalls as he tracked down the path towards Hector.

“You- ssstop.”