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G.I. JOE: Heroes & Terrorists
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04-15-2020, 12:53 PM
Lifeline_MD
Darth_Henning
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 21,174
Also, we have today our first significantly revised entry from an earlier story.
Here's a question for readers, for the older stories which have been updated and edited, but haven't significantly changed, I'm just updating the linked version in the first post. For ones (like this) that have had major rewrites, would you prefer that I just link the updated version in a post, or actually post it like below? Not sure what the best approach is.
The original version of
11/28/2031 - Scarlett
still appears on page 10 of this thread should anyone want to compare. But this is the canon version going forward.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/28/2031 - Scarlett
The Rock - Location Classified (Canadian-American Border)
"Approaching our destination Lieutenant O'hara."
"Can I take off this stupid blindfold yet?" she sighed exasperatedly. She wasn’t someone who loved or hated flying, she was just used to it she supposed, but the view was a heck of a lot nicer, wherever they might be, than the inside of a folded black cloth.
"Sorry, procedure states that you've got to keep it on until you’re inside the base." the pilot responded. "If it makes you feel any better, you’re far from the first to be anxious to get it off." She’d been introduced to him only as her Lift Ticket, and his cock-sure grin matched his upbeat attitude. Sadly it was doing anything but lifting her spirits.
Shana O'hara sighed, "I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know that it doesn’t. Who's crazy idea was this anyway?"
"No idea. It came in after I was on the team."
"So, that was...how long ago did you say?” She asked, feigning idle curiosity.
"A valiant effort ma’am. 'Fraid I can't tell you that."
"Figures. It was worth a shot. What can you tell me? Other than I’m not supposed to know where I am.”
"Er...well, you’re in a helicopter that doesn't exist, In the way to a military base that definitely doesn't exist. To meet with a general who doesn't exist. To interview for a position on a United Nations military force that doesn't exist because the United Nations has no military. That help?"
Shana allowed her head to hit the back of her seat. "No, not really."
"Ah well. was worth a shot," Lift Ticket chuckled.
She was completely sure he was having fun at her expense. And she did NOT like it.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lady Jaye watched the Tomahawk descend. She could see LT behind the stick and the new girl, she paused to check her tablet, Shana, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, blindfolded. She shook her head at the regulations. Another silly rule introduced for no real reason. Hollingsworth seemed to enjoy putting them in place for the pure purpose of amusing himself before he retired.
Just put them in the back, and black out the windows if you have to, she thought. Much more comfortable, but then again, this outfit did possess something of a flair for the dramatic. She ticked off her fingers, you’ve got your doc who wears red so the blood won’t show, you’re ninja dressed in all black, your standard testosterone fueled GIs, and a massive machine gunner who cooks gourmet meals and will. Not. Stop. Rhyming.
Ok, if the rhymes were the costs of THAT food, it was a worthwhile tradeoff Lady Jaye conceded.
The helicopter settled on the platform, and the overhead doors began to close. This helicopter bay was a new addition above the main aircraft hanger the floor below, and allowed potential recruits to come and go with comparatively minimal exposure to the rest of the base. The rock walls were still rough-hewn into the mountain, and had not yet been covered with a smoothed layer of concrete like the floors below, but it was a work in progress.
As the rotor blades slowed to the speed of a gentle fan and the downwash dissipated, Lady Jaye stepped from the alcove near the door, and strode up to the fuselage to meet the new arrival. The door slid open, and Shana hoped out, clearly not her first time disembarking from a combat chopper. She was saying something over her shoulder to Lift Ticket, thanking him for the ride and the conversation. It sounded slightly caustic.
LT was a fine choice to ferry the new arrivals in Jaye's opinion, one of the most sociable service members on the team, but still able to keep information to himself. Lady Jaye surreptitiously glanced at her tablet, O’Hara was Intelligence and… Jaye paused, she’d never seen a military specialty listed as classified before. That might explain the tension with Lift Ticket, this woman was used to having the answers, not being in the dark.
Shana finally turned around. Jaye was a bit surprised, based on the file info she had been able to review - served in Manchuria, numerous classified missions, field promotion to officer’s ranks for valour for a classified mission, she’d expected someone...older...and with a less flawless complexion. That, of course, likely was what made her perfect for intelligence work. Even knowing who she was Lady Jaye would not have guessed it to look at her.
"Good morning Lt. O'Hara. Welcome to the Rock. You can call me Lady Jaye, or LJ for short. I'll be your handler while you are on the base until your depart or are officially on the team."
"Handler?" Shana asked with a cocked eyebrow, "Should I grab my leash and start barking then."
Jaye fought down a smirk, stereotypical sassy redhead, "That won't be necessary. If you'll follow me please."
She refused to put effort into getting to know Lt. O’Hara until she was on the team. Over the past few months, more and more were passing through these upper floors only to depart the same way they came in.
Now that there was a decently sized staff in place, the Joes could run any number of smaller operations, so they could afford to interview a few more people for each position, and Lt. O’Hara wouldn't be the first one thrown out within the hour if it came to it. Shaking her head, Jaye had to admit she was surprised how the team had been assembled in 5 months since she'd been recruited. She’d found the position mostly because of her work undercover in Yemen where she had worked with a Hungarian agent Agota Laczi, who himself had served under General Colton during World War III. His recommendation had gotten her through the door and greased some wheels.
It wasn’t clear what connection O’Hara had, recruitment was still word of mouth, and mostly on the recommendation of senior officer. Though Lady Jaye had started to notice that quite a few of the Joes seemed to have served in Manchuria, and while they went to great pains to not show it, many seemed to know one another.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Shana O’Hara looked around her as Lady Jaye led her through the hallways. The place had clearly been carved and blasted out of solid rock and then finished off.
Though the walls and floors farther from the helicopter bay were now indistinguishable from any windowless military complex built underground, nearer to the hanger she'd caught glances down new side hallways that were still carved out of stone with wiring and piping being laid into grooves. The base was clearly located underground, and the rock suggested somewhere rather rugged without significant dirt cover. The stranger thing was, looking at the concrete of the walls, it didn’t appear new, despite the ongoing construction, it was starting to wear, not due to heavy use, but just due to age. A repurposed facility? She started running through potential sites.
Well THAT one was definitely out, she thought to herself, remembering the years she’d spent basing out of the strangest underground bunker on the planet in Manchuria. The flight hadn’t been long enough to leave western Canada, or perhaps some of the neighbouring states. But she wasn’t aware of anything that would fit this description here. The hanger had been close to the surface as the hanger had a retractable roof. Since they hadn't descended there must be next to no soil coverage in the area. He ears also had not popped on descent. Which suggested they remained at altitude. Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains then.
Jaye was pointing out various features along the way, none of them particularly important, but something to prevent silence, an old tactic to keep someone’s mind occupied. Instead Shana focused on memorizing a way out. Better safe than sorry. Though these people may seem on the level, the degree of secrecy surrounding the operation might have bad consequences if it was decided she didn't belong, and a quick way out may suddenly become a necessity. Some of her old friends had talked about a similar interview process a few months ago, and she hadn’t been able to reach them since.
Of course, that wasn’t unusual in a military life, but it still put her on edge more than she liked to admit. She’d seen what clandestine operations looked like from multiple angles, and wanted to be sure this one wasn’t the one that cost her her life.
The hallway they'd been walking through suddenly opened up into a larger concourse, and Shana gasped in spite of herself. The balcony they were standing on circled the open chamber. An elevator bank sat on the far side, descending, Shana quickly counted, approximately 15 levels surrounding the shaft. Her mind raced as she put the pieces together, even as Jaye led her along the arching walkway.
Much of the wall was still bare rock, the walkways neatly poured concrete, confirming that the whole shaft was underground. If the hanger was just under the surface, this meant that the whole facility had to be hollowed out of a mountain. She’d heard of old cold war bunkers in the Appalacians, and of course there was the Chyenne Complex, but even it was far from this scale.
Lady Jaye was approaching the elevator bank, still droning on about the type of support beams used at the top of the central concourse. Shana wasn't listening, instead she was trying to calculate the exact flight time since she'd been picked up at the Edmonton International. The chopper of course had a limited range as it hadn't stopped to refuel at any point. They couldn’t be located quite as far north as Alaska, nor much farther south than Montana. There just hadn’t been enough time.
Not that that narrowed it down as much as she had hoped. There were still probably several thousand mountains in that range. Blindfolded and in a chopper, her sense of direction had been shot to blazes, so she had no way of knowing whether they went North, South, or just flew around in really big circles for a while to throw her off.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Out of the corner of her eye, Jaye watched Lt. O’Hara. She was a bright one, instead of being distracted by what she'd been telling her, she was inspecting the place. Few would have noticed except a fellow intelligence agent. O’Hara was nodding along at appropriate intervals, and acknowledging with assorted yes, uh-huhs, and oh really’s. Most people who were focused somewhere else got trapped using the same response repeatedly. O’Hara’s replies didn’t give her away, but the way her eyes were slowly circling did. Not the rapid flashing back and forth that gave away junior operatives, but a just slightly off center gaze which slowly slid back and forth at an imperceptible speed, taking in details with her peripheral vision rather than staring right at an item of interest.
That was good, thought Jaye, her actions so far put her a distinct cut above the last half dozen that General Flagg had looked at for the position. Again she idly wondered what this woman had for experience, but between rank and redactions, the file that she had on the lieutenant was very sparse.
Upon reaching the elevators, Jaye pressed the up signal and waited. The car arrived momentarily, bearing a single occupant.
"Good morning Courage, how are you today?"
"Hum?” he looked up from the old school file folder he was holding, “Oh, good morning Lady Jaye,” his voice had his usual clipped and formal tone, “Currently, I’m busy planning an operation to eliminate some targets in..." he trailed off seeing Lt. O’Hara. "Never-mind. Who is this?"
"A newbie, about to be fed to the wolves." That got O’Hara’s eyes to flick back towards the conversation Jaye noted with some satisfaction.
Courage smiled, "Well, welcome to you. Good luck with the Generals." With a wave, he departed heading towards the hanger.
Jaye stepped into the car with Lt. O’Hara and hit the signal for the top floor. O’Hara leaned casually against the side, her eyes still probing out the cab’s glass windows.
"May I offer a word of unsolicited advice Lieutenant."
"Yes?"
"I don’t know who you’re scheduled to meet with, but if you interview with General Austin, don't speak unless you’re spoken to, he’s very old-school. Hollingsworth will try and catch you off guard. G.I. Joe is probably the most normal of the bunch."
“G.I. Joe?” O’Hara raised an eyebrow, “am I being interviewed by an action figure or something? Now with real kung-fu grip?”
It was her first attempt at humour, and Jaye couldn’t quite repress a small snort.
“Sorry, General Joseph Colton.”
O’Hara’s eyes widened a little at the mention of the name.
“In case you didn’t pick up on the way here, most of us, except for some of the old generals, have code names. We’ve taken to using them around the base.”
“My old unit did as well,” O’Hara replied without further explanation, “so I understand.”
Interesting, Lady Jaye thought to herself. She’d heard the same thing from someone else on base before, Grunt maybe? She’d have to look into that a little more.
The car chime intoned "Command offices", and the doors opened into a foyer. Lady Jaye led the way out, and noticed O’Hara cock her head at the sight of the young woman behind the desk. Pink military fatigues and Beret were something that put everyone off guard.
Jaye wasn’t entirely sure if their administrative officer wore them for that reason, or just because she liked pink.
"O'Hara?"
This came not from the desk, but from the command hallway.
Lady Jaye came to full attention, as did O’Hara, but it was O’Hara who replied first, “Colo...General! Sir! I did not expect to see you here.”
So that was the connection, Jaye thought. The hero of Beijing himself. Interesting.
“Well, there are some of us expecting you. Jaye.”
“Sir!” she returned the salute.
“At ease,” General Hawk waved her down, “we don’t stand on ceremony here. I’ll take the Lieutenant back. You can have her back after Joe and I are done with her.”
“Yes sir.” Jaye acknowledged, standing at parade rest beside the armchair set beside the elevator bay until the General and O’Hara were out of sight, then settling most informally into the plush cushions.
“So,” she said, exchanging a conspiratorial look with the desk officer, “what do we think THAT’s all about?”
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Rock - Sparring Room
Lift Ticket settled himself onto the bleachers beside Stalker and Lifeline.
"So, how was the pickup?" asked Stalker.
"Well, on the downside, she’s definitely an intelligence asset, kept trying to pry stuff out of me. On the bright side, I had a hot red-head beside me for almost three hours. Been a long time since that happened."
Stalker chuckled, "careful, you almost sounded like Flint there for a minute."
"Hey, I'm not that much of a horndog. Life, you got any Coke left in that cooler?"
Lifeline looked up from where he was fiddling with the popcorn machine, "probably. Have a look."
"Thanks man."
The machine started popping, and Lifeline resumed his seat. "A redhead, eh? Intelligence asset you said?"
“Yeah, why do you ask?” Lift Ticket queried, popping the top on a can just as the bell went off for the next sparring match.
Lifeline and Stalker exchanged an odd look.
“Oh, no reason.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Rock - Fiftieth Floor
Lady Jaye stood up and stretched as Shana came back around the corner from her interview. The clock had ticked off a full two hours while she waited, and General Hawk had headed down earlier to the sparring ring. Jaye hoped she wasn't too late to catch at least part of the week's rounds. Shana was holding a file folder in her left hand. It was the contents of that folder that determined whether Jaye would get to see the sparring session, or have to spend the next hour throwing her out.
"Well?"
Shana handed her the folder, "looks like you’re stuck with me."
Jaye saluted, now conscious that O’Hara had moved from candidate to superior officer.
“At ease,” O’Hara replied, “Colton has explained we tend to a more relaxed atmosphere. I hadn’t realized you were intelligence. Seems we’ll be working together.
Jaye smiled, "I had the edge there,” she waved the small tablet slightly. “Of course, we’ll get you settled into quarters and a full tour, but if you don’t mind, the weekly sparring match is going on downstairs, and it’s the closest thing to live entertainment we get around here. You can join me and get to know some other guys on the team, or I can drop you at the cafeteria for some ...grub.”
Jay decided not to spoil the food just yet.
"I'll join you, might as well get to know everyone."
"Glad to hear it. So, what do we call you?"
"Scarlett."
"Very Gone with the Wind."
Scarlett chuckled, "yeah, it’s what my family always called me when I was younger. I'm sure that's what they would have named me if I'd had hair when I was born."
“I like it.” Jaye offered.
“Trust me, I’ve had worse code names.”
“You’ll have to tell me about that sometime ma’am.”
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Rock - Sparring Room
Jaye led Scarlett through the doors. Duke was facing off with Quick Kick in the ring. The first sergeant never gave up. Even though he was outmatched by Quick Kick’s years of training. She shook her head. On the first set of bleachers she spied Stalker, Lift Ticket and Hawk in conversation with Sharpe while Lifeline had his back turned poking around with the popcorn machine. Well, there were worse things for their surgeon to be addicted to she figured.
"Afternoon boys. Who's in the infirmary?"
Sharpe turned, "Afternoon Jaye. So far Lifeline's had a quiet afternoon. Who's your friend?"
"Lieutenant O'Hara reporting fo...er...Scarlett sir. Sorry sir."
“Welcome to the Team Scarlett,” Sharpe made an informal salute, “I assume you must be the one that Lift Ticket brought in earlier. This is General Hawk, and Stalker. The man with his face buried in a bucket of butter popcorn is Lifeline, who keeps telling ME to watch my cholesterol.”
Jaye had reached over to grab a drink from the open cooler beside the bleacher, but was sure she saw Lifeline's back stiffen while Scarlett introduced herself.
Stalker seemed to smile a little, "No worries Scarlett, if your military, it takes a while to break the habit and default to the code names, but don't worry, none of us bite."
"Nice to meet you Stalker,” something in O’Hara’s voice conveyed that that wasn’t exactly true. “Good to see you again Lift Ticket."
Now Jaye was quite certain Hawk was suppressing a smirk. And he was definitely glancing over at Lifeline.
"And now, if our Chief Medical Officer would take a break from the snacks..." Sharpe hinted.
Lifeline turned slowly, almost cautiously, "good to see you Lieutenant. How have yo-"
A sharp crack could be heard over the sound of the sparing as Scarlett delivered a vicious slap to Lifeline's cheek about half a second after he turned to face her.
Heads in the nearest seats looked on in shock. Lifeline shifted his jaw left, then right, checking to see if it was mobile, then turned back.
"Yeah, I probably deserved tha-"
A backhand this time. Other cheek. Scarlett stormed off to the other side of the gymnasium.
Lifeline didn't move until she was well out of earshot, then rolled his neck. "Still holds a grudge I see."
"What gave it away?" Hawk replied feigning shock, "but be honest here, you can't really blame her for being mad."
"You’re just thankful she never blamed YOU."
"Damn straight ol’ buddy,” Hawk grinned at Lifeline.
Jaye was thoroughly confused, she was well familiar that Hawk and Lifeline had grown up together, but didn’t know much more than that, "you guys know her?"
"Yeeeah," answered Hawk, clearly thinking of how to respond. Lifeline and Stalker seemed to exchange glances.
Hawk continued, “We...uh...we went to high school together. All three of us."
"What exactly happened?" asked Stalker.
Jaye wasn’t a fool, the three of them all knew her, and given that Hawk and Lifeline were several years senior to Stalker and Scarlett, they definitely had not been in school together.
"Well you see," Lifeline said, taking up the story, "back when we were in high school together, I sort of rigged it so she and her boyfriend at the time appeared on stage during prom."
As much as Jaye saw through the ruse, it appeared Sharpe was buying into it, possibly since he was watching Duke get shoulder thrown in the ring and not paying as close attention., "What's so bad about that?"
"Well...they were under the impression that the bed they were using was in a private hotel room."
Jaye took a second to follow the logic, “you’re really sick, you know that right?" Even if the story was made up, it wasn’t where she’d expect Lifeline’s thoughts to go first.
"No, sick would be uploading the video as the new screen-saver to all the Rock's computers,” Lifeline pointed a finger in what was intended as a humorous gesture, but just made Jaye uncomfortable.
Hawk leaned over and stage whispered, "you still have that?"
"I don’t know if you’re allowed to ask him that sir," Stalker said, getting in on the act.
"I think the man did," said Sharpe. "Now here's my question: did the carpets match the drapes?"
"Couldn't tell," replied Lifeline, taking a seat on the bleachers, "all hardwood."
Hawk smirked, "So was half the audience if I remember correctly."
Jaye shook her head. "Your pigs. All of you." And liars, she added mentally. But perhaps whatever disagreement there was between Scarlett and Lifeline was her opening for a conversation to learn a little more about what was going on.
Lifeline watched her go.
"What are you thinking?" asked Hawk.
"I almost don’t think she believed us.” The two exchanged a concerned look,
“Hey Mainframe," Lifeline called to the next bleacher, "I've got a little job for you."
Code Name: Scarlett
File Name: Shana O'hara
Birthplace: Grand Prairie, Alberta
Rank: O2
Primary Military Specialty: Intelligence
Secondary Military Specialty: CLASSIFIED
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Updated April 14, 2020 -
"2022/02/03 - Major Bludd"
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