Spirit Operations Unit Leviathan (L3 | Open | SF/Fantasy)

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

"Wow, what a b***h," Uso murmured in less than a whisper. Even so, the guard next to him likely heard; no one else. The boy looked up at the guard and raised an eyebrow. "Am I right or am I right?"

No response. Oh well. Still, this Dr. Miles was quickly revealing herself to be one of those folks with a stick up the rectum. Clearly unilluminated. Same must be true for the man running the show, because neither of them knew Uso was himself. "Hey, I got a question," he said to the doc as they walked down the hall, "Who the ******** thought it was a good idea to put an unilluminated like you in charge of determining who is who? Woman, you've never even seen me before, what do you know? Some numbers on a chart, some words on an examination?" He gave a derisive snort. Of course that would be all she knew, but he was in fact also reliant on Rachel being familiar with his file. It would mean she knew what he could and could not do.  

[umbraja]

Rachel heaved a sigh as she walked quickly from the briefing room to catch up to the guards escorting Uso. She gave the boy a plastic smile upon coming alongside him and her eye twitched at his insults. "That would be the Administration and their reasoning for not allowing Illuminated such as yourself to hold the higher clearances is exactly the sort of thing that happened today. You tend to have a certain unpredictability that is undesirable in leadership. And I assure you, Mr. Uso, the research teams in the labs will be able to identify you with more certainty than your own mother." She paused with a slight frown then pulled up the smile again.

"I am sorry we've not been properly introduced," she spoke lightly now, in a pleasant sort of professional tone. "Dr. Rachel Miles. One of the psychiatrists on staff here at the San Lazaro base," she gave him a nod but no hand to shake and did not slow down, kept walking alongside him.

"I also apologize for the rush and seeming lack of confidence but you see, you started saying things in a room full of low level clearances. SOUL policy is very clear on this sort of thing. Just as it is on extraction procedure when separated from a team. Since you've obviously not been versed in those I'll give you the short of it," she paused briefly to adjust her jacket.

"When separated from your team your activities become classified as a separate operation and everything you see and do becomes classified to you. If you reconnect with your team while still in the field you may divulge necessary information at your discretion to help your team fulfill their objectives. If you are unable to reconnect with your team and must return to base alone you are to call for extraction. Damien will have to give you the details of it but there is a number you are supposed to call and SOUL will send out a team to pick you up.

"At that point you are only supposed to give information about your experiences to a designated debrief officer," she paused to flash him a slight sneer, "In this case that has just become me." She stopped at the elevator between the garage and hangar that would take them down to the labs.

"Now. Do you understand the protocols?" the doctor asked coldly after pushing the lift button.  

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

"Uso," he replied casually, knowing full well his name no longer needed introduction. Etiquette was etiquette even when you're talking to professor pole-up-the-a**.

Once in the elevator, he just nodded. "Sure, sure." He sounded compliant, but his thoughts were far from it: Yeah, sure, I'll tell the psychiatrist who lives in a top secret building surrounded by psychopaths about the time I became an interdimensional warrior and killed a demon. That'll go over SO WELL.

After a few moments of silence, he posed another inquiry. "So, how invasive is this going to be? Like a check-up? Maybe military physical? Or should I go back and get my lube? I like to be prepared." He delivered these lines with a straight face and full eye contact.  

[umbraja]

The question made the doctor smile, a real one this time. It was a coy and slightly dark little grin but it warmed her face as she huffed a slight giggle. "Oh, don't worry, Mr. Uso. The labs have lube of their own for this sort of thing," she purred at the boy as she stepped into the elevator and held the door for the others.  

[Mr. Blackbird Lore]

He smirked right back at her, fully appreciating the sense of humor- hoping it was her sense of dark humor. And if it wasn't a joke, there would be a lot of broken hands in the upcoming hours. With nothing witty left to say, Uso fell into silence, crossing his arms, and closing his eyes. He had work to do, and every minute he spent on it now was one less minute he would have to spend later.  

[umbraja]

Rachel settled into silence as well. No need to continue conversation until the boy's identity was confirmed. Also the elevator was not the best of briefing rooms, nor was the hall it let out into after descending four floors. The doctor stepped out when the door opened and lead the escort down the hall to the labs where she had to swipe her ID card and allow a retinal scan to open the door for the others. She did so with all the practiced casualness of pushing the elevator's button then walked inside to bark at the lab technicians there that they had incoming for examination and to get the coroner that did Mr. Uso's autopsy down this instant along with the body.

"Now there's a thought," Uso muttered. "Seeing my own corpse." He glanced at Rachel. "Did it come back in one piece? My body, I mean." Jake found himself distracted. Seeing his other body would be a real treat. Gore didn't bother him at all, and it would literally be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Literally.

Rachel arched a brow at the boy with a slight frown but pushed it aside with a shake of her head as she gathered up a few clipboards and medical supplies. "I'm afraid I've not gotten a close look at it myself but they should have it down here soon so we shall see." She gently reached for his arm with a blood pressure cuff in the other hand. "Now, tell me. From the beginning. What precisely happened out there?"  

[Venom3001]

The coroner - also cleared Throne/6G, naturally - was up within under a minute; the guards had sent for him as soon as Rachel had absconded with Uso. He came up accompanied by four of SOUL's overwatch guards, Cherub/7H-cleared soldiers with heavily enchanted full-body armor and specialized training in disabling Illuminated. Behind them, a lab technician wheeled in Uso's body. The guards who had escorted them up left, leaving the four overwatch guards, the coroner, Jake Uso, and Doctor Rachel Miles to discuss the events among those with adequate clearance.  

[umbraja]

Uso sat and closed his eyes, feigning concentration on the memory. In reality, he was thinking about one thing: the demon. "Strings and I were getting a ride- there was another man, never got his name. Looked pretty fly, if you know what I mean. Next thing I know the armored car is cut right down the middle. Pretty sure the fairy lumped his head on the way out. Strings and I got out clean then engaged the Black Phantom." He wielded fire and acid. Running into another one of those leaves me vulnerable without Gi.

He recounted his first engagement as a SOUL operative in brief spurts, explaining a few things and then pausing to let it sift through their minds. All the while, he was meditating, searching for the answer. But if he could wield them, he must have had some degree of immunity to them as well. Like a snake. But how? Acids are one thing, fire another. Whatever correlation existed between the two, Jake could either not grasp nor find. He turned his focus onto the fire alone.

When they rolled in his body, Jake paused, moving closer to examine it. He touched his own face, traced the edge of the gaping wound with a finger. It was a downright mess. Even Uso's strong stomach roiled after staring at it for awhile. Then he surrendered himself to further examination, going through the motions, but all the while trying to solve this mystery. It's only plasma, just raw movement, energy... There's got to be a way to... Well if souls are just...

When they were done with the comparison, Uso felt like he was on the verge of a breakthrough.

The examination was distracting at best but not what most would consider violating. Dr. Miles was at least gentle with the boy but thorough. She took blood and tissue samples from both bodies and had the techs run them through fancy machines in the back then sent him in for x-rays, dental and full body. All the while she listened to Uso talk, slightly nodding at points and gently encouraging for clarifications at others. It was obvious what kind of doctor she was - the head kind - just by the questions she asked and how she let the others handle most of the actual testing while she just gave orders and talked.

The coroner was put on edge by the situation but he fell in line and did most of the medical side of the examination to compare bodies and samples under slides while Rachel talked. Dr. Miles pulled Uso away from the other techs when they were done taking samples and had hours of analyzation to do before they could let the boy go. So she talked to him. She asked him for every detail he could think of about the Terminal and Fragments, and what had happened to him and how. She seemed almost excited by this prospect, maybe something a little hopeful?

Uso told all there was. The Terminal, the Fragments, coins, his host, the demon, and everything in-between. He did not, however, mention the Demon Soul again. If she remembered and inquired, the brawler would offer insight, but it was a topic he was hoping to save for last. Call it theatrics, call it dramatic, but he was hoping to end this interview with a demonstration.  

[SirBayer]

"This isn't some kinda excuse. I failed ta give an order I should've because I didn't realize it was worth givin'. I slipped up, there was a mistake, are ye happy? Now shut up and listen for a second, you're wasting time. You just told me you wan' somebody else ta figure out what tha ******** is goin' on, and then you send a man who is undoubtedly who he claims off ta get checked up fer - fer goddamn what? A mental defect? What does it even matter? It's the same goddamn soul, same goddamn human being, brought back from tha ********' dead, an' we're still actin' like the highest priority is ta figure out if it's the same guy. This isn't a question tha' needs askin'." Eamon stopped himself.

"Alrigh'. I haven't written a full report, so ye'll get the version from my mem'ry. We set out... eh, a couple hours ago, I didn' check the clock. Drove to the scene. On th'way there, nearby pedestrians changed. Think we cleared 'em all out in the end - they grew sorta twisted, got swords from somewhere, an' their faces kinda got leathery an' such. I think someone else could give a better description, I didn't get much time in close with 'em. We got to tha scene, found the car an' the Phantom. Our presence drove it back inta the bookstore - our presence, it was afraid o' death I s'pose - and I ordered them, an' I quote, to 'not let 'em get away' or somethin' ta that effect. In the meantime I'd ordered everyone on my squad ta cover the car while Bender on the Mk19 was ta take the shot. Unfortunately, Niko broke formation from tha car, as did Nathaniel, an' the other one, no' the fine violinist or whatever here, chased inta the building an' were killed. What Nathaniel told ye I didn't see, but I saw the bodies. Afterward Dr. Miles grew rather emotional about tha whole death thin' an' we recovered the uh. The bright one. I may suggest we don' have Dr. Miles out in tha field again, but perhaps it was a once-only type o' thing." Eamon stopped again.

"Now are we done wit' this? I understand yer concerns about me, but frankly yer wastin' yer own time. I'd complain about my time bein' wasted, but that'd be a joke at best. If we're done examinin' the situation, we can start actually worrying abou' what's importan' here, which is probably the fact that any number o' losses we took are entirely likely still out there. Hell, the Black Phantom can only really be understood by th'guy who evidently could choose t'be one. Tha' strikes me as a big deal. Maybe it's only me, though."  

[Venom3001]

"That is slightly the definition of an excuse, O'Byrne. I am listening and what I am hearing is an incompetent drunk who must have been too caught up in his own stubbornness and intoxication to realize that up until today only Manifested Demons were known to be able bind free spirits to human bodies, which it turns out is precisely what you just so eloquently described, so why in the bloody hell did you make such a vague and un-targeted order as 'don't let em get away' to what you no doubt are aware is a collection of perpetually-starving addicts?" Damien stopped, breathing heavily. "No offense," he added to the others. "As I was saying. O'Byrne: What did you think would happen? They would read your mind and know who the order was meant for and how it is intended? No. No that is not how orders work, nor is it how leadership works. I can find no conceivable reason you ought have thought that would be adequate besides your sorry drunken state.

"Why even suggest they pursue if you had intended for Bender to 'take the shot' in the first place? Does pursuit seem like the proper course of action when faced with something demonstrating demonic power while you're using the Mk 19? Because effectively your orders were to 'run into the line of <********> fire'. If you think something is capable of taking out a demon it bloody well sure can take a couple Illuminated. Never mind that it was a possible MANIFESTED DEMON. Perhaps, then, you ought not order pursuit into the location you intended to unleash the Mk 19 against?

"Next issue! Protocol is very clear on demon engagement, O'Byrne. No less than a team of twelve, and that only when a full deployment of sixteen isn't possible on account of time or logistics. Were there twelve of you O'Byrne? Did you have three fire teams? No. There were not. The only reason your team was sent in the first place was to extract Strings and Uso - one of whom, I ought remind, you, died following your orders - and to confirm the sighting and keep ******** tabs on it till back-up could arrive if and only if you could do so safely. That is why your team was sent, O'Byrne. Because you had one of the best trackers in all of SOUL, who was a Demoncrafter to boot, who could keep eyes on the demon if you all had to bugger off with injured personnel, and whom you killed with your order to pursue. Unlike Uso, I'm sure you've noticed, he has not returned. Also unlike Uso, we've put half a <********> decade and hundreds of person-hours into making him the best tracker we could possibly have, a fusion of human skill and Demoncraft casting to be something we may go years without replacing. And YOU GOT HIM BLOODY CHOPPED IN HALF IN FIFTEEN MINUTES OF COMMAND!

"Did you even read the profiles you were sent? You received them, I am told, around a week ago. You know, before you were transferred. So you could read them. Before you were transferred."

"As for wasting time, O'Byrne. You seem to forget how SOUL works entirely and have somehow managed to completely tune out every word the good Doctor Miles has said since setting foot in this room. Let me reiterate. IT IS NOT YOUR JOB TO ASK QUESTIONS! This is a global organization with thousands of employees throughout a number of cells worldwide that even I don't know; our network alone has several dozen bases. Just because a job is not being performed within your line of sight does not mean it is not being performed. That particular job is not one for the likes of you, and heavens forbid you be there for it, because we just saw what happens when we let you oversee things. The Throne/6G RESEARCH personnel and their RESEARCH labs exist for RESEARCHING precisely this manner of phenomenon, O'Byrne, and you... well quite frankly I'm not sure what you're for anymore. A field officer ought to know these things! Having self-control doesn't mean a damn thing if you can't bloody well give ******** orders anyway!

"You know what? We're going to keep Doctor Miles on. As long as Nathaniel is there to protect her-" Damien was quite sure he was the only one in the room who had read Nathaniel's file and to know how to stroke the loose cannon's ego. "-She's like to be the safest person on Team Seven. And possibly the only one with any basic reasoning ability! You know what else?" He grabbed the electronic tablet and punched something in. "There. I ordered a goddamn breathalyzer, and each mission Doctor Miles is going to make sure you're in a state to tell people what to do. As a higher-cleared, non-Illuminated personnel, she'll have authority to override any order you give. And if you still c**k things up, we'll ******** demote you and put someone who can handle responsibility in your place before you order any more members of your squad to stand in front of other members' weapons."  

[NativeForeigner]

Richard remained standing but turned to face Damien as he and O'byrne debriefed.

"Sir, if I may speak." Richard chimed in, keeping his voice low and hoping Damien would do the same in response. There was a lot of yelling in the room, and Richard didn't like yelling. He got enough of that in his own head.

Richard cleared his throat and began speaking slowly and clearly, "The Black Phantom had already engaged the others at the scene, the boy was nearly in melee with the thing. If we hadn't intervened, he would have just died sooner. Giving the order to chase after it may have been questionable, but I feel you're placing too much blame on O'byrne.

From what I gathered, Niko was a professional, he probably intended to track, not engage it. It is, after all, a stupid idea to let anything that can kill that many people that quickly get lost. He died doing his job, that's not uncommon around here. Nathaniel actually asked for clarification on the order. Before O'byrne could reply, he apparently lost control and rushed in despite having previous orders to guard the car. I don't see how O'byrne could have effectively prevented that. It happened because Nathaniel lost control, because he wanted the kill, not because of O'byrne's order. The zombie, on the other hand, was never part of our squad. I don't think he could even hear O'byrne giving any of the orders. He rushed in chasing the fight. That, wasn't O'byrne's fault at all, he had no control over the zombie, the kid's bloodlust did him in.

Additionally, reports only tell so much about a person. We had almost no time to get acquainted and to learn how to work best with each other. Sending a team of strangers out is just a bad idea, there's no synergy. I didn't even know Niko was a tracker until just now. Working on a team of strangers might work against mundane targets, but a team of illuminated working against a demon is a different matter entirely, a team like that needs to know how to best work with each other.

All I ask is that you take into consideration all of the factors instead of just the deaths. To conclude, the amount of blame you're placing on O'byrne seems undue."

Richard maintained eye contact with Damien and kept his hands folded behind his back. There was no malice in his expression, he was simply stating fact. That would likely change, however, if Damien chose to yell in response. Richard didn't take people yelling at him very well.

Suck up. It was all his fault and you know it. Because of him, there's a zombie roaming around.

Go away.

When has that ever worked?  

[SirBayer]

"On top o' tha', I'm wondering how short-sighted you have ta be to not realize that this major asset ye've lost is totally reclaimable. And as Bender said, ye seem mighty willin' to dump blame on me, rather than on, say, the people who had already ignored a direct order. I wouldn' be arguin' with ye about Niko if he'd stayed close in th'first place. And you said it yerself - it was my job not to let it disappear. Or get away. Which is what I told m'people to do. So what's the issue here?" Eamon paused. Something had hit him, and a slow grin spread across his face.

"Alrigh'. Dr. Rachel Miles is in charge o' the team. I'll cede my authority to her." The grin grew into a smirk. "If ye want me lower on th'chain, I'm happy to let her give it a shot. In the meantime, if ye have any actual questions or relevant things t'say ta me, I'm listening. Otherwise I'm gone."  

[Venom3001]

"As an officer, you were responsible for the actions and well-being of your men. That is the bloody point of an officer. You're obviously not fit to handle that, so we'll transfer in someone who is. Your clearance is being reduced to Power/3D.

"Now, regarding Niko... yes. He is reclaimable. If that's actually Uso, if everyone experiences what Uso did, if it actually is what Uso reported, if he's able to return, if he chooses to return, if there aren't additional risks to it, if there aren't conditions we don't know, if hell only knows how many things all work? What insanity makes you think that a thing happening once means it happening every time?"  

[SirBayer]

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but he described some kinda Terminal b'fore he went. He described both the possibility of Blue and Black Phantoming. Now, recall our report on th'situation. The Black Phantom, upon makin' its kills, was described as losin' its black-ness, fer lack of a better term. How it departed is less clear, but then Uso presumably could not ha'e gained his body here. Which means he left whatever he described and came back ta here. Assuming his account is 100% truthful and accurate, mind ye."

"And if it is, tha means we have two examples, no' one. We need another one or many, I'll grant ye, but Jesus Christ, it's righ' here. Tha's at least two examples that confirm the theory. I'm tellin' ye now, Dr. Miles ain't gonna find anythin' weird, an' we're gonna see more o' this. Call it crazy. It prob'bly is. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, this is all over, an' I'll probably get killed next time we go out. Y'know, like most of our goddamn operatives. Las' time I complained about someone ********' up an' gettin' people killed, y'did ******** all t'deal with it. If I'm righ', I'm hoping ye'll be willing t'actually <******** listen to me next time." With that, Eamon, already near the door, departed, regardless of orders otherwise.