I glanced up at Hiiro as he looked out at our fellow comrades. Rare bright eyes accompanied his stern looking face. His jaw loosened as he began once again.
"Peace has not lasted as long as we had all hoped. We stopped Operation Meteor in the hopes of stopping a war." I looked around the table to see a few sad smiles form on my friends. Julie, sitting next to me, was looking at me with sad eyes. I put a hand on her shoulder before looking back to Hiiro.
"Our fighting is not over and Jane has provided us with the necessary information for our new mission..." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Even thought the scientists are gone, we have new information that a group has gotten a hold of top secret workings under the project Operation A.M. or Operation Absolute Magnitude. How they obtained these files is uncertain. This original Operation was to build a powerful beam cannon and use it to destroy the earth." He then paused and looked at me.
"The name relates to the measuring of a heavenly object's brightness when viewed from 32+ light years." I chime in as I read the paper in front of me I had pulled out of the manila folder, "Believing this beam cannon will cause a massive brightness that can be seen from anywhere in galaxy." Hiiro nodded and then continued.
"A rebel group named 'New Order Crusade' or N.O.C. who are claiming to be the secret faction of OZ`s elite private force, personally trained by Treize himself, have been identified as the main focus of power. This group did not surface when Dekim was rising into power because of the Barton foundation influence, which they were not too fond of. Intelligence has supplied us information that N.O.C. has taken previous stated Operation A.M. plans and reprised them to do its workings against the colonies." He gave a cough as some of the team members gave glancing looks at each other.
"They are directly targeting all L colonies. Yes… L1, L2, L3, and L4 specifically." Hiiro paused as several people out cried in anger. I glanced down the table at everyone's expressions. Julie, Shiris, and Mulan had the same gapping expression, followed by several versions of 'what?' and 'I can't believe it'. Duo had slammed his fist on the table and was visibly angry. Quatre had leaned forward with a disbelieving look on his face, while Steph had a bleak expression on her own. Trowa had his eyes narrowed and had his hand on his chin. Wufei sat motionless with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed.
"How could this be possible? How is anyone letting this happen?" Quatre was the first one to speak after the outcry.
"There are still many people who hate the colonies. They are rebels after all." Hiiro answered in a flat way.
I hung my head low. When Jane had told Hiiro and I this news, we had the same type of reaction. How could anyone have let this happen, after all we had been through? Who in their right mind would want to proceed with a plan such as this, after seeing Operation Meteor fall?
"But who would believe in such manipulation? Hasn't anyone learned anything from the last war?" Duo said as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"Anyone will believe manipulation if it is worded correctly and presented by a person of great character and power." Trowa said with a nod. Duo made an irritated sort of noise.
"Then clearly a reality of peace isn't possible if people are so easily manipulated." Duo said with a heavy sigh.
"We were no different…" Julie mumbled under her breath.
"How have we never heard of this group?" Shiris questioned, "They were a part of OZ correct? How are there no records of such a group existing prior to this?"
"I believe we have Treize to thank you for that…" Hiiro said wryly, "Many of the members in the OZ faction never learned of such a supreme group within their ranks. Treize was very good at what he did and surely he kept many things under wraps within his own organization. He was an intelligent man in spite of everything"
"I can't believe Treize still keeps coming back to haunt our existence." Mulan said, I'm assuming to Wufei, since it was in quite a low tone.
"How did Jane obtain this information in the first place? Usually we do the information gathering." Julie asked waving her hands as she talked.
"It has been confirmed on many levels and through many sources. Your brother, Julie, is one of the top sources for information that we currently have. Zechs is working undercover in this organization. Which, up until now, he was restricted from telling you about this if you two were to ever be in contact." Hiiro said looking straight at Julie. As I watched Julie's face I could tell she was fighting back a couple different emotions before settling on a twisted smile.
"Figures he'd be doing something like that behind my back!" Julie said raising her hands up in a defeated position. Clearly she was more upset about this than she was letting on, but her nature is to hide those feelings expertly, so no one pressed on the matter.
"What are our objectives?" Wufei called out from the end of the table, breaking his silence.
I began to open my manila folder and watched as everyone did the same, "Our mission is to retrieve data on primary weapons and retrieve more information about the N.O.C. and their plans for further actions." I bit my lip slightly, trying to keep myself from shouting an obscenity at the nature of how deadly this mission was… but I held my tongue. No need to set others into a panic.
"Location will be in a casino hotel, of the coast of South Africa, named Cadman Royale Casino which is allegedly near the N.O.C. headquarters," Hiiro said as the rest read through their mission briefing statements, "Some of their leaders are currently staying at the hotel before they plan to move to the middle east to begin construction work on the weapon, no confirmation on this has been found however. As information has provided, the members of the N.O.C. are always high rollers, they use fake money to gamble, but make a profit naturally when they win. Therefore, they are constantly in the casino to win money for the purpose of financing their plans."
"Smart Idea." Duo said as he thumbed through the statement, "Counterfeit kings and math-letes we are dealing with here?"
"If they were trained by Treize, we should expect excellent hand to hand combat and superb weapon handling, yes?" Shiris followed.
"Correct." Hiiro said before I spoke.
"Our objective for this mission is infiltration and retrieve data on war tactics at the Cadman Royale Casino hotel. The leader's hotel rooms hold their private laptops where information is supposedly stored." I say glancing at Julie before I look up at Hiiro.
"Mayumi and I will be infiltrating throughout the casino. Our job is to make sure pathways are secure and no trouble is caused." Hiiro nodded at me before continuing, "Duo and Julie, you two will be hacking the system, allowing for a secure line for communication and disabling security cameras and the like. Furthermore, once we infiltrate, you both have the job of hacking and downloading the appropriate data. You will stage as gamblers in the casino until you are needed in the parameters."
"Alright!" Duo said dragging out his last vowel as him and Julie high fived. I only shook my head but couldn't help a smile as I noticed Hiiro's expression.
"We get to have some fun!"
"Sounds like a pretty sweet deal!"
"Gambling with Jane's money? Hell yes!" Julie said with a big grin. Once they settled down and turned back to Hiiro, he was glaring daggers at them. They silently giggled to themselves, giving him a smart salute, as he cleared his throat and continued.
"Trowa and Shiris, naturally you will be in disguise, mainly working as dealers at the tables the N.O.C. usually engage themselves in and keep them occupied. Furthermore, you are to listen to their conversations carefully in case of any information leakage."
"Understood." They both said in unison with a nod. Julie turned and mouthed a silent 'awe' at me to which I proceeded to roll my eyes and lightly smack her arm with the back of my hand.
"Quatre, you will be posing as the pit boss and be the main look out for the team. We will need your strategic guidance on motions forward, given that you will be the eyes of the casino and have access to the security system. If needed, you will help disable security cameras." Hiiro said with a nod.
"Right." Quatre stated firmly as Hiiro turned to Steph.
"Steph, you will be a hostess and waitress for the high roller tables, keeping an eye on the surrounding areas on the floor. Looking out for any dangerous situations is a key point." Hiiro said and Steph nodded.
"Wufei and Mulan, you will pose as high rollers from China. Befriending the N.O.C. leaders is a plus and convincing them to stay longer in their games is crucial." Hiiro said which got him a grunt of acknowledgement from Wufei and a nod from Mulan. I saw Duo lean over to Trowa and ask something along the lines of 'Why would he give that job to Wufei?' and silently laughed as Trowa blinked a few times. Julie looked from Shiris and then to myself, probably thinking the same thing. Hiiro was staring at Duo because he was not being particularly quiet about his questioning. Duo shrugged innocently as Hiiro cleared his throat again.
"Those are the details of this mission. We leave at 1600 sharp-"
"But before that," I said cutting off Hiiro abruptly, which he awarded me with a glare, "Jane has requested every pilot take a physical, have blood work done, and questioned about his or her activities from the past year before your departure." I was expecting uproar of epic proportions but my statement was followed by silence. I look up to see everyone staring at me.
"I'm sorry…" Julie finally broke the silence after a few moments, "but what?" I glanced at Hiiro before I cleared my throat and began again.
"Jane has requested every pil-"
"No, no, no, I heard you." Julie said waving her hand, "I mean, why?" she had an odd tone in her words. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It wasn't abrasive but…
"Those are Jane's orders." I state with the same monotone Hiiro would use, "We are expected to follow them." Julie leaned back in her chair as Shiris leaned forward.
"I think what Julie means to say is why is this necessary? We never had to do anything like this before." Shiris asked in a polite manner, seeing Hiiro's expression was growing a bit agitated.
"Those are the orders and we should follow them. End of story." Wufei spoke out, "Let's get this over with." There were some wry looks around the table as Hiiro began again.
"Right, Mayumi will take the women and then I will take the men. I see everyone has their BICs on, which is handy, seeing that has taken needed blood samples, brain waves, and physical attributes already." Hiiro said pointing to his wrist. I looked down at mine. Hiiro never told me that aspect of them. From the looks of it, he didn't tell anyone else that either.
"Well…" I began as I stood up, "If all the ladies could follow me…" Julie's facial expression showed her emotions fairly openly her eyes got wide with what looked like a bit of fear. Shiris stood up as normal and Steph wryly followed. Mulan looked horrified for a moment before getting up slowly.
The girls followed me into the lab room down the left hallway. I opened the door, allowing everyone else to walk through first, and then shut it firmly. I watched for a moment as Julie rocked on her heels back and forth before turning around to face me. I stuck out my palm and looked her dead in the eyes.
"You first Julie. Your chip." I demanded. I searched her eyes for a moment as she stood in front of me in hesitation. I am assuming she had something to hide, otherwise she wouldn't be blatantly showing this type of indecision in her motions.
I do not expect them to be as perfect as I am seemingly supposed to be on the surface. I may find out information that I frankly would rather not be a part of…