It was dark out and the warehouse didn't have any lights on. I couldn't detect any active sensors at work, and both the black body suit and my chilled body temperature would help me avoid detection on any passive systems.
I hopped over the ten foot high fence. At the apex of my jump, I saw two men in front of the warehouse - the lit end of there smoke sticks bright thermally. I landed silently and made my way through the stacked containers to the warehouse wall. Pressing myself against it, I carefully moved towards the front of the building where I could hear the two men whispering. The acrid smell of Enja smoke wafted past my nose as I reached the corner.
I pulled the stunner out of its holster on my left hip, leaned around the corner, and fired it at the closest man. He collapsed in a heap, his smoke stick rolling across the cold pavement. The other man startled and then he too slumped to the ground.
I holstered the stunner and quickly went up to the two unconscious men. I removed a pair of syringes from my breast pocket and injected one into each of the men's necks, ensuring that they'd be out for far longer than the couple of minutes that the stunner had put them out for. I frisked them and found a keycard.
I swiped the keycard through the lock of the warehouses side door. I heard the door unlock and I opened it slowly, hoping the hinges didn't squeak. The hinges didn't but as soon as I opened it far enough to squeeze through, a loud buzzer sounded through the warehouse.
I forced the door opened and dove behind one of the many stacks of crates that filled the warehouse. I pulled the pistol from the hostler on my right hip.
"Dege? Kire?" A man called from the rear of the warehouse.
I could have mimicked the voices of the men outside if I had heard them at more at a whisper. I made sure the safety on my pistol was off, and I radioed the rest of Eagle Team that I had entered the building. I heard someone move towards the front of the warehouse, and I made sure I was out of sight. I heard the man go outside.
"Kire! Dege!" The man exclaimed, and I heard the metal snick of a gun's safety coming off. "Come out, wherever you are!" He called loudly.
I pulled out one of the empty syringes from my pocket and threw it in a corner. It clacked on the cement floor. The man was obviously startled and let loose with a long burst of his gun. I used the noise to sneak up behind him.
"Ahem," I tapped him on the shoulder.
The light green haired man whipped around and froze as he caught sight of my gun mere inches from his face. "Drop it." I said sternly.
The submachine gun clattered to the floor.
I radioed Eagle Team to come in and clear the rest of the warehouse. After the three men had been carried away, Carl came up to me. "Good work, Miun."
I pulled off my mask and goggles. "Thanks."
"Those three probably owe you there life."
I nodded. "Yeah, they probably do."
April 21st, AW1276, General Pyre's office, King Arramiz II Military Base, Camineet, Palma
Pyre called me to his office early the next day. "Good morning, Miun," Pyre took a sip of his steaming hot coffee. "Good work last night."
"Thank you." I said.
"Unfortunately, the Techna Police Department's information was incorrect. There was no weapons the warehouse save what the guards were carrying."
"Figures," I rolled my eyes. "What was in that warehouse."
"Drugs... a lot of them. The largest bust in Techna for a long time." Pyre took another sip of his coffee. "There's no possible connection between them and the weapon sales."
"At least it wasn't a waste," I said. A little part of me thought except for my time.
"We had another raid in Camineet led by your sister Nia. We found weapons, but..." He sighed deeply and handed me a folder. "Here, read this."
[i]Author's note - Nia is Miuu's new name. Miuu and Mieu very just to darn confusing.</i>
Nia's mission was a lot like mine - raid a warehouse with a special ops team as backup. When she entered the warehouse, she found two dozen people there. Apparently, there was some sort of move going on. According to Nia, what she did was "the only way she could think of to complete the mission."
I turned the page, and a man who had been disemboweled by 4 deep cuts greeted me. Had I been human, there would have been a good chance that I would have vomited Mieu's tasty breakfast. The other pictures in the folder were no less gruesome. The last photograph was on Nia herself, her arms, front, and claws covered in blood, standing with a contented look on her face.
Nia, the report said, had been shot multiple times during the fight. I had learned yesterday that her armor (and the rest of my younger sisters) wasn't as good as mine, but it still turned the small arms fire easily. Her repair systems had sealed the holes in her skin by the time the picture were taken.
I closed the folder and handed it back to Pyre. "How could she do this!" My voice quivered with anger. "Two dozen people?"
Pyre looked down at his desk. "I'm partially to blame, I fear,"
"No, Ewin," I said, "Nia's choices are her own." I knew why he felt that way. Pyre told me yesterday that my younger sisters didn't go through the same virtual reality childhood that Maya, Mieu, and I did, and didn't have the same appreciation for humanity that I did. Because they didn't go through virtual reality, they needed some sort of personality, so when my younger sisters were built, they were given a "Basic Personality Imprint". All of them were different, but they all had things in common: All my younger sisters very confident, determined, and independent.
This didn't excuse Nia's actions. The Basic Personality Imprint was only the starting point of my sister's personality, and over the past four years I had seen them change. Some of my sisters had begun to understand humanity. Nia, though... that confidence quickly turned into "I'm Right" stubbornness, and after she got the idea that since there were eight billion humans in the Algo system, they were expendable... not to mention inferior.
If I were put in Nia's situation, I would first radio for instructions. If I did have to kill them, I would have done it with a single shot to the head.
Pyre took a deep pull off his coffee. "You're right, Miun. The only time Nia will get a mission is when she's working with you." He stuffed the folder back into his desk. "Now, I have a mission for you, if you want it."
"Of course, sir."
"This'll be the last mission for awhile. I promise." Pyre said. "We found out that there will be a black market weapon sale happening today. Our contacts in the black market have confirmed this and given us, as some risk, its location. I'd like you to go and see what's going on."
"Understood." I said. "May I ask - why me?"
"Because you won't miss or forget anything. Even the best trained operative may miss or forget a minor detail that could make all the difference. Also, you can take... decisive action, if need be."
I nodded.
"Wait in the lobby for Eagle Team. They'll have a case of meseta for you. Buy something if you have to. Good luck, Miun."