A tale of twin freelancers. (Dieter and Xia-Yu)

[Deleted]

Xia-Yu was not sure how she felt about her latest mission. On the one hand it was a simple affair of sneaking into a UNSC base, setting a bomb and then detonating it to serve as a distraction so a full on Insurrection assault force could attack the base and take control of it with reduced resistance. That was all well and good it was something Celestia had done hundreds of times in her past and as such her confidence was unaffected. What Xia-Yu was concerned with, however, was the fact she was not going to be working on this mission alone. Apparently her insurrectionist employer deemed that Xia-Yu would need assistance on this mission in the form of a fellow ex-UNSC AWOL and...well Xia-Yu felt a great amount of trepidation towards it. As an infiltrator she often preferred to work by herself as it made evading guards, security systems, cameras and other risks all the easier. The more people that were added to a infiltration mission the harder and more difficult it got even more so if they lacked the training and years worth of experience so hopefully Xia-Yu's partner would know what he was supposed to do. The infiltrator stood there with her arms, all of them, folded over each other patiently awaiting the arrival of her partner. Leaning against the side of the Pelican she had been given by the Insurrectionists Xia-Yu wondered who her partner was, when they would be arriving and what school of skills they actually had. In all honesty Xia-Yu severely questioned why she had been assigned a fellow agent for this mission. It wasn't like she didn't know how to set up explosives. The sun shined over the tropical forest in the distance and Xia-Yu turned her gaze to the concrete UNSC base in the distance standing like some sort of ugly blotch on the land.   

[fmj]

Dieter was excited to get back to work, he always was, especially when it involved the UNSC. The mission involved infiltrating a UNSC base, setting some demo, and blowing that shit sky-high so the Insurrectionist forces could assault the base. Simple enough. There was one issue, however, while Dieter was used to breaking into UNSC facilities, he was nowhere near used to working with a partner. A squad? Sure, it had been a while, but he'd manage, but a single partner? How was he expected to cooperate with someone he had never fought with before, or even met? On the bright side, it was a simple op. Who knows, maybe he'd grow to like his partner? Either way, Dieter would rather be off performing some assassination, or blowing up a city block as a show of strength, but hey, at least he got to blow something up. He sighed, he'd been walking for an hour or so now, just a couple hundred meters from where he was supposed to meet his partner, though since it was atop a hill, he couldn't see her. Dieter glanced around, always double-checking the HUD on his helmet for accuracy, sometimes Jay made mistakes, though it was infrequent.

"138% Terran humidity? Fuck." He'd say, nearing the crest of the hill with his rifle slung over his shoulder, Jay then updating him as to the distance- forty-seven meters. Dieter swung his rifle around and into his arms, chambering a around, having kept the action empty till then. As he reached the top, he found himself nearing a Pelican, assuming that was his partner's ride, but unsure, he shouldered his rifle. "Star." He'd say calmly, raising his voice a bit. If it was an ally of his, they'd know the proper response was 'Nebula'. If they didn't, he was shooting.

[Deleted]

Xia-Yu's armour came with no fancy motion trackers like Spartans, ODSTs or other members of the UNSC and as such she had to rely on mere visual acquisition of targets and individuals such as when Dieter came up over the hill. Xia-Yu turns her head, face hidden away beneath the helmet, towards Dieter. Her stare was cold, drained of any passion and devoid of any real emotion. She knew there was no reason anybody else would be out here and so Xia-Yu assumed that the man in armour was her partner for this mission but despite that Xia-Yu was still not one hundred sure Dieter was her partner. It was to ensure that Xia-Yu wouldn't be duped that her employer had arranged for a brief exchange of code words. If this new arrival on the scene said the word Star then it meant he was either her partner..or had access to a very good intelligence team. Unsurprisingly Dieter, not that Xia-Yu knew his name yet, uttered his half of the code word meaning it was time for the female AWOL to do the same. "Nebula. Let's get to work. I have already picked out an infiltration route and ex-filtration path. I have the plans inside the Pelican." Getting straight down to business Xia-Yu pressed a button on a remote control she had been clutching causing the pelican's ramp to open up. Once it had opened fully she walked inside revealing that the inside had been heavily modified. Gone were the chairs that were standard issue on most Pelicans and instead there was a large table flanked on two sides by humming computer blocks. Walking over to the table Xia-Yu rested her hands on it and stared intensely. "Activate the table Zian" The table burst to life creating a 3-D holographic map of the base marked with numerous different symbols and icons many of which had meanings only known to Xia-Yu. "I was concerned you wouldn't make it in time. Our best infiltration method has a limited window of opportunity." Hopefully Dieter was paying sufficient attention as Xia-Yu would not be bothering to repeat herself. 

[fmj]

Dieter lowered his rifle before flipping it around and once again slinging it over his shoulder with a nod as the woman before him offered the correct response to his greeting. He watched calmly as she turned, walking into the pelican. "Nice to meet you, too." He'd say sarcastically, following her up the ramp. Dieter paused about halfway up, glancing back, and towards the objective in the distance. After staring off for a brief couple of seconds, he'd turn his full attention forward once again, trudging up the last few feet into the pelican. His attention went to the holomap immediately, though he still addressed his partner. "I'm Dieter." He'd say casually, not seeming very worried about the time restraint she'd spoken of. Suddenly above the table, next to the map, appeared a flickering blue light that, after a couple seconds, appeared in a humanoid form- an AI. The AI appeared rather casual, wearing glasses and a hooded sweatshirt. Occasionally the AI flickered, as if barely maintaining his holographic form. Dieter's attention diverted briefly to the AI, "Jay, let the lady do her thing." He'd say warily before crossing his arms and looking to Xia-Yu. "Sorry about Jay. And, by the way, I know you're in a hurry, but I'm afraid I never caught your name...?"

[Deleted]

Xia-Yu was not the most sociable person, she hadn't actually had any real friends in many years and so she wasn't the best when it came to talking to people. "It's nice to meet you too I suppose." Xia-Yu continued to type away on a keyboard attached to the side of the table bringing up important information. Her additional arms merely remained folded up behind her being worn on her back but, as I said, folded up to avoid getting in the way of anything. In all honesty Xia-Yu was harboring feelings of surprise that Dieter had shown no interest in the fact she was sporting six additional mechanical arms but in the long run that really did not matter. "Xia-Yu." Merely stating your name wasn't exactly the world's greatest introduction but the female AWOL was not the most talkative person in the entire world. When Jay appeared above the table's holographic surface in the form of an man wearing a glasses and a hooded sweatshirt Xia-Yu barely batted an eyelid. Normal everyday people might find the presence of an A.I very interesting but for Xia-Yu it was just something she'd seen many times before after all she had her own A.I and recently met two Spartans both of whom had A.I. The funny thing was Xia-Yu had recently been meeting more and more people with A.I recently; it was a weird trend that seemed to have started and Dieter here was just another person who had his own A.I. "That is not the first A.I I've encountered. I have one of my own." Xia-Yu's A.I was probably no where near as advanced as Dieter's; Zian was, after all, only there to help run some of the minor functionalities of her cybernetic bodies. 

Xia-Yu tapped a button and a orange line appeared on the map snaking in from the west heading towards the map's main gate. "Now there is a supply truck of white sheets arriving rather soon. They will be driving down the road a ten minute walk from here where they will stop to investigate a tree I knocked down to slow them. We will take that opportunity to climb inside the back, hide ourselves in the laundry and wait while the truck drives us into the base. Once it stops inside the underground entrance we get out, make our way through the basement section of the base and find the power generator. We set one of the explosives there then get into the control room and take control of that locking ourselves inside. We detonate the explosives, sabotage the radios in the control room and then exfiltrate the base. Due to the alarms that will be sounded we will have a difficult time escaping. The only way I've managed to find would be to get back into the basement, cut open an abandoned pipe and follow it out to the coast line." The pipe was unused and had been disconnected from the water system for many years but still it did lead to an ocean so hopefully Dieter was able to swim. "Any questions?" Xia-Yu looked up at Dieter more than ready to get started with the mission. 

[fmj]

Dieter stood with his arms crossed, listening intently as his attention occasionally shifted between the holomap and Xia-Yu. He didn't say a word, nor did Jay, not even when Xia-Yu mentioned her lack of surprise at Jay, they didn't respond, focused on the mission at hand. As his partner went on, Dieter briefly turned his attention to his partner's six extra arms. He thought about having Jay run a quick analysis of them, but Xia-Yu already didn't seem to care for him. Hell, she didn't seem very sociable at all, but that was just a first impression. After a few seconds of staring through his helmet, Dieter once again averted his eyes to the map. This really was going to be a textbook infil job. Fuck. Dieter was hoping for something more exciting and glamorous than some cut-and-dry demo job, they weren't even going to blow up anything that great, just some fuckin' generator. Not to mention the fact that they weren't supposed to stick around for the fight. Then again, it would make sense that participating in such a basic all-out assault was below Dieter and Xia-Yu's pay grade. Even still, Dieter took a deep breath and heaved a heavy sigh as his partner began wrapping up the last bit of his briefing. After Dieter was asked if he had any questions, he simply let his arms fall to his sides, nodding a bit as he took a few steps forward, approaching the holomap.

"Jay, find the goodies." Dieter said casually, cracking his neck before sparing a glance towards Xia-Yu and elaborating a bit. "Gear, intel, people of interest, that sort of thing." He explained, then directing his attention once again to the map, Jay nodded, then flickering a few times before his holographic form disappeared. It was odd, his movements didn't seem smooth and fluid like those of most AI, yet he seemed to be in working order. The map flickered a bit, as Jay did earlier, a few rooms lighting up different colors.

"Armory, CO's quarters, and medical storage located. I should, however, add that this facility is rather outdated, and its records are..." Jay began, the locations of interest being detailed slightly more on the holomap as he named them off, his humanoid form appearing once again above the table. He paused in speech as if thinking, though he was probably just sorting through more information on the base. After a mere second or two, he continued, "...disheveled. That is to say that I cannot guarantee the accuracy of said records. If it were a facility of greater significance, I could undoubtedly guarantee all information provided, but again..." Jay's speech trailed off.

"Your best is fine, Jay." Dieter would say, hoping to put the delicate AI's artificial mind at ease, then looking to his partner once again. "So, what do you say, Xia-Yu, looking for some extra gear?" He'd ask, himself doubting they would find anything of use in the armory, but hey, it was worth a shot. Well, the possibility of free UNSC meds also sounded pretty good to him. "If we got that Officer alive, I bet the Innies would throw in a pretty fuckin' hefty bonus."

[Deleted]

Dieter had no questions that was good. It showed that he fully understood the plan and that Xia-Yu had sufficiently explained the plan of attack. As Dieter had no questions at all the female AWOL would merely shut down the holographic panel and begin walking out of the Pelican having no real need to either stay or inform Dieter where they were going next as, after all, he did already know. Xia-Yu honestly detested the notion of having to work with Dieter on this mission. She didn't need nor desire his help and in fact she was probably far more effective at it than him. Sure he had an A.I sure he was an ODST but Xia-Yu had undergone training and physical augmentation for the sole purpose of being as good as she could be at infiltration. Oddly enough as Xia-Yu walked out of the Pelican, fully expecting her forced partner to follow her, she found he was holding back conversing rather audibly with his A.I. Her curiosity peaked the female AWOL turned back to look at him cold eyes honed in upon him. She wondered why he wasn't doing what he was supposed to and while yes she did assume he had a good reason for it Xia-Yu was eager to know what that reason was. The word "goodies" offered some clue as to what exactly Dieter was planning but it was still very vague. Xia-Yu stood there showing little in the way of body language except for her head tilted sideways in confusion. 

Ah so that was what Dieter meant by goodies. He was apparently interested in raiding this UNSC base for armour, weapons, medical supplies and other useful gear even offering the same courtesy to Xia-Yu. Had Xia-Yu be a more independent freelancer than she would of actually accepted the offer but the thing was unless the UNSC base had some VERY rare and powerful gear Xia-Yu wouldn't need to. Thanks to her unique relationship with certain members of the Insurgency's command Xia-Yu often got pretty much everything she needed. "Unless they have something worthwhile..not really. I have easier ways to acquire equipment" An officer huh? Well Xia-Yu and Dieter were going to take control of the radio room then they could easily grab him, take him prisoner and use him as a hostage. "If we can capture the officer he would make a suitable hostage to delay efforts to reclaim the control room." That should be taken as Xia-Yu's agreement to go along with Dieter's plan but in the mean time she and her forced partner had a more important task to accomplish. "Now we must hurry. Our time is limited and if we miss our infiltration method we will have to rethink our plan" Xia-Yu broke out into a run effortlessly running faster than most professional athlete's bounding through the forest jumping off roots. She was displaying an impressive amount of agility and flexibility. 

[fmj]

Dieter's attention remained on Xia-Yu as she responded to him. He silently agreed with his partner's decision that the Armory wouldn't be worth the time, knowing himself that the small UNSC outpost was unlikely to have anything of significant value. Dieter had proposed the armory first to make his idea of capturing the officer sound more appealing, whether he needed to or not. Dieter knew Xia-Yu would see the benefits of capturing an officer alive, hell, any professional would. He had just hoped that he'd be able to have some fun, or at least collect some extra credits from the situation. Dieter nodded to his partner, quickly turning to his AI, "Jay, start working on a plan 'b', keep me informed as to its progress." The AI nodded silently, holographic form flickering away as Dieter turned fully to his partner, who then urged him to hurry, explaining that their short window of opportunity was running out. He noticed his partner was already running off, and began running after her.

"If something happens..." Dieter began, pausing occasionally in his speech to move over a root, or swerve around a tree. "...and we're compromised, try not to...open fire unless they do. Jay and I can be very persuasive." Dieter didn't appear to be getting tired, as he was a fit, well-disciplined soldier. That isn't to say, however, that he matched the speed of his partner. He did his best to keep up, but only managed to stay just within earshot of her most of the time. He was impressed, hell, he was pretty fast, but he was nowhere near her level. He did, however, assume her speed was at least partially due to cybernetics or genetic enhancements. Even still, he had FMJ, and that suited him just fine, especially given his career choices.

Jay could then be heard by both Xia-Yu and Jay. "Be advised, five heat-sigs approaching from the Northeast, bearing forty-two degrees, one-hundred and thirty meters. Likely a UNSC patrol."

Dieter swore under his breath. "Keep going, we pass them."

[Deleted]

See this was part of the reason why Xia-Yu didn't like working with other people. So often they tried to make suggestions, give advice and correct her plans when really they shouldn't. It might sound arrogant to dislike other people giving out free advice but Xia-Yu was a professional and knew perfectly well what she was doing. Unlike Dieter Xia-Yu did not get tired or exhausted as her primary locomotion muscles, her legs and arms, had long been replaced and improved with mechanical versions and as such she wasn't even able to run out of energy of course she did still feel the need to sleep in order to rest her head. She climbed effortlessly through the dense foliage easily out pacing Dieter and were it not for the fact she was his partner, not something she wanted, Xia-Yu would of long since left him behind. In fact part of the reason why she disliked working with other people as most of the time they were unable to actually keep up with her speed and other physical conditions. That was another good reason as to her dislike of actually working with others. Despite this dislike of working with others Xia-Yu did see the value in it especially as Jay altered her and Dieter that five humans were walking towards them. It was something the female AWOL would have easily been able to learn eventually but having the earlier warning was indeed something she could easily take advantage of.

"No. Watch and wait." Xia-Yu raised her hand and gestured for Dieter to stop watching the road ahead of her, which was parallel to her current hiding place, through the foliage. Hiding amid the plants Xia-Yu watched as a group of five UNSC marines walked along it and then they stopped. Xia-Yu wondered why on Earth the marines had stopped here but then she realised this was the area were the truck would be coming and stopping at temporarily. Xia-Yu had been running recon on this base for many weeks now and she learned that every week on a Monday the laundry truck always came here and always stopped at this part of the road to meet with the soldiers on patrol. Eventually the rumble of a truck's engine could be heard and down the dusty road came a four wheeled truck its back covered by a tarpaulin containing what was probably many clean sheets. Xia-Yu gestured with her right hand signalling to Dieter that was the target vehicle. She crept out of her hiding place and silently moved towards the vehicle as fortunately all of the soldiers were facing forwards. Xiayu managed to creep into the vehicle undetected burring herself amid the clean laundry. 

[fmj]

As soon as his partner had disagreed with him, saying that they would watch the patrol instead, he had stopped. He crouched down next to a tree, spinning his rifle forward, and into his arms. He pressed the stock into his shoulder, taking aim on one of the Marines as he watched the patrol begin to stop. His mind, oddly enough, was pretty evenly split between two topics, the mission at hand, and why Xia-Yu appeared so anti-social. Was it him? Was she always that way? He wasn't particularly bothered by it, it was just odd to him. Most of the people who worked for the Insurrection weren't mercenaries, they joined the fight for a reason, and were so full of fire, ambitious and talkative, that was what Dieter was used to. Well, that's what he was used to when he wasn't alone, anyway. Dieter loved his job, he loved working alone, and he loved working with others. The only thing was, when he worked with others, it was usually more indirectly. If he ever was working directly with others, it was never just one person. Hell, he was more used to being alone with Jay than having a single partner. Dieter had spent plenty of time as a sniper for the Insurrection, and had seen plenty of assassination missions, as well as extensive urban combat. Sometimes he'd spend a week or two in a single city on the edge of dead space, switching from building to building, picking off whatever UNSC troops he could. Officers, medics, special forces, all prime targets for him to lock in his sights.

Alone for weeks at a time, and now Dieter finally had a partner op. Maybe the bonding and camaraderie wasn't something to be expected, despite his hopes. Then again, maybe his partner was just in a similar position to him, not used to working with others. Either way, he couldn't dwell on it for too long, snapping back to reality as Xia-Yu signaled him with her right hand. He offered no response, simply lowering his rifle and moving forward through the brush, albeit a bit slower than Xia-Yu. He moved at a brisk pace, though making sure he didn't move too quickly, or make too much noise. As his partner hopped into the back of the truck, he watched, then following suit, laying in the sheets a foot or so from Xia-Yu.

[Deleted]

Xia-Yu buried herself amid the sheets remaining perfectly still not even daring to breath something she had little issue with due to her changed body; unlike normal humans Xia-Yu could better regulate her oxygen usage, even though it was more the work of her A.I, and as such she could hold her breath for noticeably longer when needed. When Dieter climbed inside the back of the vehicle Xia-Yu didn't even react to his presence waiting very patiently. After ten minutes of conversation the truck's engine started up again and it pulled away from the dense jungle heading directly towards the U.N.S.C base. Xia-Yu remained as still as a statue making no noise, no sound and no movement her eyes clamped shut. One could easily assume she was dead had they not seen her movements from before hand but the fact of the matter was the female AWOL was merely lost in her memories replaying one of the recordings stored away inside her head. She was fervently tearing through ever inch of the recorded memory being played back to her eager for some hint or clue as to who she used to be but alas like many things Xia-Yu had lost that. Despite how futile her hope of finding out about her past was Xia-Yu still regularly sunk into her memories escaping to some far happier time. Xia-Yu would remain in this trance like state of awake and asleep until the vehicle came to a stop inside the base at which point Zian would arouse her from her slumber. 

Beneath her helmet, not that anyone could tell, Xia-Yu's eyes would open suddenly fully aware of everything around her and more than ready to get on with the task at hand. Still hidden away in the depths of the white sheets it was at that moment the cover of the truck was pulled open revealing the driver of the vehicle. Xia-Yu had expected this and had even expected how he would be picking up the sheets. It was at that moment Dieter's hiding place was revealing by the removal of the sheets and the driver would stare before turning away to run off and sound an alarm. Unless Dieter managed to stop him first, silently if possible, Xia-Yu would burst from the sheets and throw numerous knives at the fleeing driver. They flew through the air and landed with inhuman accuracy piercing the driver's tendons and his throat. The fleeing driver collapsed to the ground blood pooling on the floor around him as Xia-Yu silently crept towards the body. She picked up the driver's corpse and would carry it back to the truck before throwing it amid the sheets hoping to hide the dead body and buy time. If Dieter managed to silently take out the Driver then Xia-Yu would have merely hidden his body away before looting his corpse searching for any access cards or ways to circumnavigate security. Luckily enough the female AWOL did indeed find a security card of some sort on the Driver's body but she had no idea if it'd be useful or not, after all it probably had very limited access to a lot of the base but there was still a possibility it may turn out to be useful at one point or another.

[fmj]

As Dieter laid in the back of the truck, underneath the sheets, he waited in silence. Well, aside from the occasional update as to the happenings of the driver and the patrol outside from Jay. Jay's speech could not, however, be heard from outside of Dieter's helmet, and was rather quiet, so not to alert any of the UNSC personnel outside. Dieter controlled his breathing quite easily, already being rather used to it from his career as a sniper in his later years of UNSC service, and more recently as a hired-gun for the Insurrection. His breathing was likely not heard at all, even by his partner, through the sheets. As he heard the engine of the truck start back up, Dieter slowly reached to his hip, still underneath the sheets, and grabbed his pistol, a silencer on the end of it. He remained still, unmoving, as the truck pressed on, suddenly slowing after a couple minutes- a good indication that they were nearing their destination. Not long after, the truck came to a complete stop, Jay didn't provide any updates as to the situation, as the specifics were rather obvious in that moment.

The footsteps of the driver could be hear coming around the side of the truck, nearing the rear. Dieter clutched his pistol, readying himself. If possible he would try to avoid killing the driver, at least for the time being. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, the sheets were then from Dieter, the driver staring back at him. There was no hesitation from the unarmed man, nor Dieter, the driver took off, attempting to run away, and Dieter quickly sat up, raising his pistol and taking aim with incredible speed. Dieter pulled the trigger a single time, a bullet landing in the back of the driver's skull as he attempted to flee, several knives landing in his flesh not a second later. As the bullet casing left Dieter's pistol, he caught it with his left hand, before it plunged to the ground. He offered a brief glance to his partner, then to her knives. She was quick, if bullets weren't faster than knives, she would have hit the driver first. Dieter sighed, grabbing one of the sheets and wiping up the majority of the blood and brain splatter, his partner grabbing the man's body at the same time. He tossed the sheet in the back of the truck, burying it beneath the cleaner ones. He kept his pistol in his hand, preparing to press on.