"The machine of innovation and progress must be refuelled time and time again with the blood of the ignorant and cowards." - Imperial Science Department motto
66 ft above the continent of Sanus, 1:22 am local time
Lance Corporal Charles Han and his five other squad mates were in their dropship and racing across the treetops toward Overseer Liu's target at 450km/h in their Falcon dropship, purposefully choosing a time early in the morning to minimize the potential exposure and witnesses. The info that Liu could give the team was limited, all he knew was that his name was Forest Cooper, he is with three other people and they all possess various psionic powers. Five of them, including Charles, were armed with tranquilizer dart rifles and stun batons while the sixth was armed with a sniper to break the target's psionic shielding. The last transmission they got from Liu was that Aristotle Squad had touched down and already lost two members and the Wraiths touched down and already gotten to work. Outside the viewports, Charles could see the lights of various native settlements shining in the night as they raced through the night and he thought about the fact that if they moved fast enough, no one would ever know they were here.
"ETA to drop site, one minute!" The pilot said through the intercom. Charles and the others got ready and attached their harnesses while the floor dropped out from under them. He would never admit it, but Charles always found the fact that they were dangling from a great height to prepare for insertion always made him nervous.
"Drop site reached!" The pilot said again through the intercom. "Make ready to disembark!"
The dropship was hovering 15 feet above the ground, its lights illuminating the ground below and in front of the team. They landed on their feet without so much as some grunts being made by a few of the team members, and the dropship left without anyone saying another word. Charles and his team were then left in darkness, with only the lights on their gear illuminating the darkness and the occasional sounds of local fauna reaching their ears.
"Command, we have reached the surface of Antaria IV, over," Charles reported to the observation post.
"Copy that," Overseer Liu said back. "Readings indicate that the target is around five to seven kilometres away on the edge of an abandoned settlement. Make your way to the site and capture the subject. Also, think happy thoughts. Out."
With that, the squad began to move out, spreading out a little to cover as much area as possible. Even though they were probably more than prepared to handle anything this planet threw at them, Charles was doubting a little if they could handle the target's psionic powers.
"Hey Charles," a squad mate said to him, taking him out of his thoughts. "You thinking happy thoughts?"
"Yeah, my happy thought is when you shut the hell up," Charles said back, getting chuckles from every member.
They then proceeded to say nothing else for the duration of the distance to the target.
20 km south of the City of Vale, abandoned settlement outskirts, 5:22 am local time
Forest Cooper was leading his team members, Silver, Bei (Beige) and Tenne (Tenne), through the forest toward where their mission would take place. His three teammates were not happy with him, and they had every right to not be since he forced them to wake up very early in the morning, around 1:00 am specifically, he also made them trek almost 20 kilometres through the woods to the location and calling it "exercise." After giving him a well-deserved beating, the four eventually reached the abandoned location where their mission was located. It was a village with about seven buildings, all of which needed to be thoroughly scoured and cleared before it can be repopulated.
"Well then," Forest said. "This is the place."
"Fucking finally," Bei said in exhaustion. "This had better be worth it, I refuse to walk back after we're done."
"I don't think we have a choice," Tenne said. "Forest here never planned for transport services."
"Don't worry guys," Silver said reassuringly. "I called for a bullhead to come and pick us up when we finish here."
"Thank the gods," Bei said.
After another thirty minutes of Forest receiving verbal abuse from Tenne and Bei for making them walk over twenty kilometres, Forrest began divvying up roles; he would take the perimeter and intercept any Grimm that could interrupt their mission while the rest cleared the buildings one by one. Just as he turned to leave, Silver spoke up.
"You sure you'll be fine?" He said concerningly.
"I'm sure," Forrest said. "Besides, I've got this," he then took out his weapon; a pair of axes that turned into an automatic rifle.
"Ok then," Silver replied, unconvinced. He went to rejoin the rest of his teammates to help clear the buildings.
Forest took a deep breath. He was finally alone with his thoughts, just how he liked it. Being a third-year at Beacon Academy took its toll on one's mental and physical health since one rarely gets a chance to just relax and clear one's mind of what's bothering them. Forrest took this opportunity to be aware of his surroundings and found it to be abnormally quiet. No insect sounds, no bird calls, and not even Grimm were approaching, which was weird as he expected at least one or two Beowolves to investigate. After his third lap around the village, he noticed something weird in the tree line.
"What the..." He muttered to himself. From this distance, he could someone or something moving in the shrubbery and trees.
He switched his weapon to gun mode and went to sneak closer to this mysterious figure as there were bushes and some boulders that could hide him from the figure's sight. Forest took cover behind a boulder and some shrubbery and looked at the figure. He could see now that it was a person, a tall person to be specific, maybe at least seven-and-a-half feet tall at least, fully dressed in armour and carrying a weird rifle in his hands. The thing that struck him the hardest was the figure's armour, which had three red stripes going down the left, right and center and had a weird insignia on its shoulder guards. Despite being an avid armour enthusiast, Forrest never saw any armour type like it; not from Vale, not from Vacuo and not from Atlas. The closest thing he can compare it to was the type they wore in Mistral, but he doubted they had tech anywhere near as advanced as the armour the figure was wearing. Then he heard the figure talk.
"是的, 我在这里, 我在这里看不到目标. 听着, 我已经尽力了, 他不可能在其他地方, 对吗?"
It almost sounded like... Mistrali? But in a form which Forrest couldn't even begin to understand.
"我在这里没有看到他, 我正在再寻找."
He decided he had heard enough and tried to leave but accidentally came face-to-face with the figure. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Forrest spoke.
"H-Hello?" Forrest nervously said.
"我找到他了, 他就在我面前. 开火."
Forest then heard a dull crack, then felt something strike him hard, instantly breaking his Aura and forcing him to make a run for it.
"他在奔跑, 所有成员都聚集在我身边!"
Forest then heard five more people running behind him, all trying to either capture or kill him. He then heard a series of paffs and saw darts embedding themselves in the ground and trees. After running for what felt like five minutes, he looked behind him and saw that the figures were still chasing him. He was about to turn and fire when he felt something sharp hit his arm. He looked and saw a dart sticking out of his arm.
"What the... fuck... is..." was the last words Forest said before he passed out.
45 minutes later
Silver, Bei and Tenne emerged from the village, their mission a resounding success.
"Whoo!" Bei said excitedly. "Finally!"
"That was easier than expected," Tenne said.
"It sure was," Silver replied. "Hey has anyone heard from Forest?"
None of them had heard from him in a hot minute. They began searching the area for him while yelling his name until Silver found Forest's scroll on the ground. Concerned, he called the rest of the team over to discuss what happened.
"Well here's his scroll," Silver said, confused. "Where could he have gone?"
"Wait a minute," Bei said as she checked everyone's Aura levels on her scroll and saw that Forest's Aura was completely drained. "Guys, somethings wrong." She then showed them her scroll.
"Okay, what's going on?" Tenne asked in bewilderment.
"Let's just get back to Beacon and figure out something from there," Silver said.
As Silver called for the bullhead, Bei and Tenne noticed something flying off into the distance, but never thought anything of it.
Forest woke up feeling sore everywhere. As he steadily regained his senses, he realized he was in a moving vehicle and surrounded by mysterious figures. As he tried to move, he realized he was restrained by something and felt very weak. The tall figures then realized he was awake since he felt a familiar sharp sensation before passing out again.
Observation post ANT-001, 384,400 km above Antaria IV, Antaria IVa debris field
Overseer Liu was eagerly awaiting the results of the abduction squad's mission or any good news. Ever since Aristotle squad reported the loss of two members, he was dreading his report for the Science Director. His analysts assured him that ever since the abduction squad landed, they reported no issues so far. Just then, he was yanked from his thoughts by a call coming in.
"Overseer Liu sir," an abduction member said. "We have the target. He is unsurprisingly uncooperative and terrified but since his psionic abilities have been nullified by the device you've given us, he's not a threat."
Liu breathed a massive sigh of relief.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" A voice suddenly screamed out.
"Squad leader," Liu said in annoyance. "You are free to subdue the target, over."
He heard the familiar paff of a tranquillizer rifle firing.
"Apologies sir, should we bring him to an examination room or an interrogation room?"
"Send him to an examination room, I'll be right there," Liu said before getting up.
Before leaving, he told his analysts to double their attempts to hack the four kingdoms' various databases. Before they could ask him though, he left the bridge and headed to the examination rooms, having no time for conversation. He had secrets to extract.
Forest woke up for the third time since he was kidnapped, except this time he was strapped by his arms and legs to a vertical table, as well as facing a normal table with a chair on the other end. He was still wearing the weird device on his neck, wrists and ankles and he still felt very weak. He looked around and found that he was in a white room with grey flooring, and the room was well-lit. There was a black stripe running the length of the room halfway up the walls with a red stripe inside the black and a weird insignia in the middle of every group of stripes.
Before he could dwell more on his surroundings, the door in front of him opened and a tall man stepped in. He wasn't as tall as the figures who took him, but he still towered over Forest. The man was also wearing a lab coat with the same stripes on the walls in its center. He also had the weird insignia on the coats' shoulders. A weird device covered the lower part of his face and a decent portion of his neck.
"Greetings Mr. Cooper," the man said with a slightly robotic voice, likely due to the device he was wearing. "I imagine you have a lot of questions, most of which I guarantee will be answered."
"Wh-who are you?" Forest said in a shaky tone.
"Who I am is not important, what is important, however, is your cooperation with whatever questions we have for you."
"What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
Information Data Logs:
Charles Han: 28 years of age, Charles Han serves in the Imperial Planetary Guard in the rank of Lance Corporal in a group with other soldiers. He served with distinction in the Human - Trilaria war where he rescued wounded comrades while being fired upon by enemy soldiers during the invasion of Artana I and the failed uprising on Alpha Centauri IV. He is currently stationed on observation post ANT-001 as a member of its abduction squads.
Psionic Inhibition and Restraining Device (P.I.R.D.): The Psionic Inhibition and Restraining Device (or P.I.R.D.) is a design by Johnathan Liu himself and widely used by the armed forces and law enforcement to suppress hostile psionics and make them easier to store long-term. It attaches to the subject's neck, wrists and ankles, thereby also restraining the subject and any non-psionic prisoner. It has proven effective for capturing Huntsmen and Huntresses that inhabit Antaria IV.
AM-120 "Longbow" Sniper Rifle: The AM-120 is the standard-issued sniper rifle for all IPD marksmen. It holds seven rounds per magazine, has the same properties as the HT-988 with the added benefit of being much more accurate at long ranges and with less recoil, and has the added benefit of having a silencer built into the barrel. It is also strong enough to instantly deplete a Huntsman's Aura should a shot hit the Huntsman.