Kojima Corps.

((If you are looking to join the Kojima Corps GRP than please follow this link to the recruitment thread, acquaint yourself with the concept and PM me your character concept. Recruitment))

((To those who have already joined, your character information, and that of the rest of the participants, will be posted in the OOC thread. Please refrain from OOC talk while within the RP thread as an OOC thread is in existence. OOC))

The full moon hung low in the sky that night. It was clear to any who looked upon it that it was a bad omen. Long silver hair descended down a red leather clad back. The crimson coat clung tightly to the frame of a well endowed woman and fell below the knees. A black gloved hand rested on the holster of a Colt M1911 pistol. Her other hand moved to direct a group of men in black suits to move some cargo onto the black van that stood behind her. Her eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. A small smirk was placed firmly on her lips.

Nora Valentine, or "Boss" as she was called by her subordinates, was the commander of a small but effective band of mercenaries known as Kojima Corps. She was fairly relaxed when the team wasn't under immediate threat or in the middle of a mission, but she was strict when under pressure. Her reasons for starting the mercenary band, or even where she'd received her training was unknown.

A hovering object covered by a large cloth, likely being lifted by gravity cushions, a new technology developed by "The Next", was moved from the back of a white van, and into the trailer of the truck Nora had brought with her. "I trust there were no problems?" She asked one of the men as the object was moved onto the truck.

"We had to kill a few men to get it, but other than that, it was smooth sailing." The man said with a laugh. "So... About our money?" He asked in a serious tone.

"Don't worry, I've got it right..." Her words were interrupted by the bright flash of a spot light.

"Stay where you are! This area is under the jurisdiction of The Next!" A voice was proclaimed from the hover vehicle that was descending onto the scene. "You're all under arrest for curfew violation and the transporting of illegal goods!"

Nora gave a heavy sigh before quickly pulling her 1911 from it's holster and taking two quick shots at the men who had brought her the object. She leaped from where she was standing into the trailer the object was placed in, dodging machine gun fire from the vehicle. "This is no time for a fight... Yasado! Get us out of here!" She shouted. Knowing that the man should be prepared to get them out of the open and back to the trailer.

From the front of the truck, a young man hummed along to the radio, the strange techno and rock fusion brought by America after they took over. While they weren't all like this, they did all speak English. You wouldn't find a single Japanese station anymore, not with Next controlling it. Eh, wasn't so bad. Well, the oppressive, totalitarian government was pretty bad, but the music was okay.

"Boss, we done yet?" the purple haired man called out of the window, sticking his head out to look back. They were here to pick up... something, she hadn't said what. Boss liked to keep a lot of secrets. Eric felt he could trust her though, even after only knowing her for a short while. The woman seemed to be a natural leader: charismatic, quick-thinking, tough when needed. It would help to know more than her name though, but hey, he could live.

Eric looked back and continued to hum, until he saw the bright spotlight shine over them. "Shit," he said, immediately shifting the vehicle into gear. He didn't need her to tell him twice. As soon as he felt the truck shift from her getting back in, he slammed onto the gas pedal, tearing down the street. They were near some alleys, perfect for avoiding hover vehicles the Next used. "Hang on Boss!" he shouted, slowing to turn down said alley then speed off again.

Nora slid across the bed of the truck. She released a low grunt as her back collided with the side of the truck. She quickly raised her hands to catch their cargo before it could slide into her. "Be careful! This cargo is impossible to replace!" She moved to tie down the cargo before reaching into her pocket for a small com link. "Don't worry about them too much. I gave kammi a job for a reason."

"Kammi! It's your cue!" She said over the com link after making sure that it was on the proper channel. "Don't keep me waiting." She said before setting the com link aside. She quickly climbed up into the passenger seat of the truck and strapped in. "Nice work. I knew there was a reason I hired you." She said as she gave Eric a small smile and a nod. She turned her attention to the rear view mirrors so she could keep an eye on their pursuit. If Kammi did her job they wouldn't be a problem for much longer.

She fixed her sunglasses as she drew her pistol from her belt again. She dropped the clip to check her ammunition before sliding it back into the pistol. "Keep driving. We'll need to pick Kammi up before we can get back to the trailer."

"Got it, sorry Boss," Eric called back, gaze not leaving the road in front of them. Shit, not like he could stop the sharp turns, since they were sort of running from the cops. He did slow a bit more as they reached a turn though, now knowing they needed whatever this cargo was. The man gave a slight smirk as he heard her mention one of their new partners, their comm and computer expert, the lovely Kammi. He shook his head a bit to move his longish purple-hair back from his face after a part slid to cover an eye. Damn hair, maybe he needed a cut.

Eric looked to the side as he saw her form slip into the window, grinning at her. "Why thank you, I'm glad I could prove my usefulness," he said, turning once more, a bit slowly to save the cargo. His foot slammed the pedal to the floor, now on a long straightaway. "Hope she works quickly," he muttered, looking into the mirror at the glaring spotlight and flashing lights of the hover vehicle. "Got it Boss, where's she at?"

From a small building near the chase site Kammi kept track of her bosses vehicle as well as the pursuit. The encryption software of the hover vessels was a few days out of date. It was really a shame they didn't update their definitions more often. Kammi typed the commands hurriedly.

lease Insert Override Code:

That was a disappointment, but only cause for a mild delay. She hooked up the fast decoding scan. Generally it was a manufacturer's code or a preset police password. The background work was already done and the possible passwords attained before the start of the mission.

"And I'm in!" she said.

Police vehicle one was now under her control for the next three minutes. It would be like playing a video game. Picking up a device that looked like a game controller, she steered the first police vehicle behind the other and began firing on it. The timer was on, she had two minutes and thirty seconds before they fixed their coding and homed in on her signal. When she had cleared the other pursuers she would eject the pilot from her controlled vehicle and steer it into a water way or somewhere safe as possible.

Her position had been arranged for ease of pick-up. Her boss and Eric would probably be just as her game time ran out.

A short laugh escaped from her lips as she saw the vehicle begin firing on it's ally. "Just turn off up here." She said pointing at an approaching intersection. "She's in a building down the alley." She looked back out the window at the vehicle as it began to smoke from the continual fire. Eventually a fire burst from the damaged armor plating and began to damage the inner circuitry of the aircraft's wing causing it to drift towards the walls of the building. A pleased grin found home on her face. "Good work, Kammi." She said quietly, regardless of the fact that she wouldn't be able to hear her.

She gave a thumbs up to the remaining vehicle so that Kammi would know to be ready when they pulled up. She slid back into the window and turned to Eric. "Her control of the remaining vehicle won't last forever, we have to out run it!" She said quickly, glancing back the cargo. Luckily the restraints were keeping it from moving around uncontrollably.

Eric looked to the mirror as he heard the woman laugh, chuckling himself as he saw the cops start to fire at the other police vehicle instead of them. "I owe Kammi a drink," he said, smirking and continuing to drive, following Nora's instructions and turning as she said. Another chuckle escaped him as he watched the one vehicle start to falter and crash into the building, a nice, beautiful explosion shining down the alley.

"Got it!" Eric shouted, pressing down the gas a bit more to speed up. He hoped she would be ready, they had to get out of here fast and get back to the trailer. He spotted the building Nora had pointed out, pushing down on the horn as he slowed to a halt in front of it. "Come on," he muttered, looking back to the cargo to make sure it was safe. Bullet dents surrounded it, but the package itself seemed to be fine, they would be able to fully check once back in the trailer.

Click

The pilot was mercifully ejected from the floating vessel as the self destruct sequence activated.

"That would be a checkmate!"

She closed off her computer before she could be tracked and made her way down to the first floor with her equipment in a pack on her back. She was wearing what she would call her field gear. Form fitting black jeans with a comfy navy blue shirt that she could keep tuck in, and a pair of good sneakers for running. Kammi was unarmed, there was really no point in carrying a gun when you weren't trained to use it. She was much better with a gun when it was a video game style platform than she was handling one in the real world, computer aiming assistance programs and auto aim helped a lot.

She would be outside the building just on time. A bit out of breath for it, but she had to hurry down all those steps before an armada of police cruisers cased the area in response to the two that had just been downed.

Once they stopped, she would hop into the cab.

"Hey guys," she said with a smile.

Nora allowed herself to fall back into her seat when Kammi climbed in. She released a sigh of relief before tussling the girl's hair a bit. "Good work back there, kid." She said to Kammi before she turned to Eric. "We're not out of this yet. Get us home." She said before looking back at the cargo.

She gave a quiet nod. "Good, it's safe." She ran a hand through her hair before returning her pistol to her belt. She looked behind her as she heard the sound of more Next aircraft coming in to examine the scene. "They'll know it was Kojima Corps." She said with a quiet sigh. "I'm pretty sure they got a good look at me back when we were spotted." She crossed her arms and returned her gaze forward. "It's going to be pretty difficult to move around for a few days. I want everyone to lay low."

Eric let out a louder laugh as he watched the mirror, catching the vehicle eject its driver and send him flying away. "Very nice," he said, giving a grin as the girl climbed into the cab of the truck. "You're good," he said to her, lifting his foot off the brake once Nora spoke and pushing down once more onto the gas, sending them down the alley. He kept them on back roads and darker alleys, keeping the lights off and using the street lights to guide them.

The man gritted his teeth and nodded, Next had learned their style by now and would realize they were responsible for this. While it was good to be noticed, it sucked that they would now be investigating and coming down hard for a while. "Aye aye boss," he said to her command, turning the lights back on and getting onto an actual road, almost to the turn off that would lead them back to the trailer. "Guess we get some time to relax in the trailer then?"

It certainly felt good to be praised for something, but she tried not to make her pride to obvious.

"You might get to Relax," Kammi said as she leaned back into her seat, "I might as well enjoy the ride back because I have to rewrite new encryption software and new decryption software for the next mission. Plus I'll have to scan all software for any trace of counter hacking and possibly purge my computer system in preparation for the next mission. Not only that, I have to maintain all the ECM and communications systems on the trailer. So enjoy all that free time."

Kammi sighed as she set her equipment down and fastened her seat belt, it felt good to let that out.

"So um, by the way, what did we go through all this for. By that I mean, what's on the back of the vehicle?"

Nora had to hide her amusement regarding her allies and their behavior. "Now now. You'll both have plenty of time to relax." She said as she crossed her arms. "Eric, after we get back to the trailer we have to make this truck disappear. It won't be long before they have half of the Next security detail out looking for it."

She looked back at the cargo behind them and gave a quiet sigh. "I'll let you guys in on the details once we're safely aboard the trailer." She closed her eyes after a moment. Hopefully this mission will have been worth the risk. She looked up ahead to see that they were drawing close to the trailer. Even if the Next could find it, it was a mobile fortress. They'd always be safe as long as they were inside.

Eric gave a slight glare into the mirror at their partner, gaze moving back to the road to watch. "Didn't mean I was only going to relax, didn't plan on laying in bed for a few weeks," he muttered, that passive-aggressive mutter that is still clearly audible. He only teased though, giving a smirk afterward. "Got it Boss," he said, to both getting rid of the trailer and her telling them about the thing in the back they all almost were killed over.

After some time and a few turns onto more back roads the trailer was in sight. Eric couldn't help but smirk when he saw it, the thing was freaking awesome. You would have to hit the thing with a damn orbital strike to destroy it, and sometimes he even doubted that. More secrets surrounded this place, just as many as with Boss. Things like, who made it, how much was it, how the hell did Boss end up with it? Eric stopped near the back where a larger entrance was, then put it into park and exited the cab to help Nora with the cargo. "The lake close by could use a nice black truck, don't you think?" he asked, his plan to get rid of the thing after unloading it.

"The lake!" Kammia said, "Really, why go for the easy way out. I can recode the electrical signature, we can make new plates, give it a paint job, and some minor cosmetic adjustments. These model trucks are fairly common so it's not like they would recognize it, especially if it was white and had a different plates and electrical system signature. If they just stopped everybody in trucks like this, they'd disrupt the economy and hence their revenue from taxing it. You never know when it could come in handy for a covert operation."

The first thing she'd have to do was scan for tracking devices.

Well that was her take on it. She didn't like to see a good piece of equipment simply trashed when it was so hard to get resources. How this group was funded, she had no idea, even her net research on the side hadn't revealed much. There was a syndicate in the city that operated as a shadow government opposing the Next, that was all she really knew.

Kammi stretched her arms, if she got ahead of her schedule she thought she might play some video games. Then she thought of something.

"Hey, should I check the cargo for any tracking device?"

Nora went about ignoring the two and their continued bickering. She walked around to the back of the truck and opened the bed. The gravity cushion was still active which meant they wouldn't have to lug the cloth covered object themselves. She climbed into the bed and began untying it. She pushed the large coffin shaped object out of the bed of the truck. The gravity cushion stopped it from falling to the ground and kept it suspended in midair.

She slowly began untying the cloth cover while guiding it towards the trailer. "Get the door." She ordered, not much caring which of them got the door. Once inside, she stripped the cloth away from the box. The container was a massive machine, though the top was only protected by a sheet of transparent material. Within the container, a dark haired woman's face could be seen. "This is what we risked our lives for tonight." She said as she moved it over and slowly deactivated the gravity cushion to lower it to the floor.

Eric sighed. "We can do that I guess. Jeez, gotta ruin all the fun, make more work," he said, bit loud at first but slowly getting quieter and muttering to himself. She had just complained about not being able to relax right? Made sense to make more work... though she was right, the truck could be useful after they modified it. That didn't matter though, she wanted to ruin his fun, and he disapproved. He stepped back with Nora, standing in front of the object as she pushed it out, helping it down. Ignoring their crap you had to hand it to Next for the invention of gravity cushions, made things like this so much easier. It looked heavy, but now they could simply push it along through the air. He nodded at her order and hurried forward, typing in the door code, the large piece of metal sliding open for them.

He followed her inside, standing over the box. Eric grabbed the cloth to help pull it away, dropping it down then looking into the coffin-like thing, eyes widening as he saw what sat inside. It was a woman... they'd rescued a woman from Next. "Holy shit," he muttered, crossing his arms and looking up to their Boss. After a few moments his gaze slowly moved to Nora, curiosity drove him to ask the obvious question. "Who, who is she?"

She'd let the big man do the heavy lifting, that really wasn't what she was hired for. So as a consequence she lingered in the vehicle, then when she did hop out she concentrated on her stuff and remained to the back as an observer. The upcoming down time was on her mind, and all sorts of ways she could fill it usefully at her own pace.

When Eric finished all the hard work she peered into the box herself. Her first thought was to wonder if that was a stasis system. The thought made her heart beat fast and sent a rush of blood through her spine. Spending all that time naked in a stasis chamber and having everyone leer at you, the thought made her blush and lick her lips at the same time.

She looked at the other two and laughed meekly and wiped a bit sweat from her brow.

"Why did we risk our lives for a person in stasis hibernation?" she asked, "Are we going to wake her up?"

She wondered who would greet her.

Nora wiped some of the fog from the glass with her hand so that she could get a better look at the woman inside. "So my sources were correct." She stood up straight again and crossed her arms. "I have no idea who she was. But I do know what she is now." She began, a small sigh escaped her lips. "If my contact was correct than what we are looking at now is a Cybernetic Organism designed for sub-conscious computer operations." She leaned back against the wall before brushing some bangs away from her face.

"Simply put, she's a bio-computer." She turned to face Kammi. "Kammi, I want you to go ahead and begin defrosting our new friend here. Once she's regained consciousness I want to know. We'll need a full set of clothes and, likely, a towel brought to her before anything else is done. She'll be confused and possibly scared."

She turned and began walking towards the stair well leading to the upper decks. "In the mean time, I'm going to go take a shower and plan our next move." She then disappeared up the stairs, proceeding towards her personal quarters.

She had to be important, at least Eric hoped so. Kammi raised that point, they had risked their lives for her safety. It wasn't even a contract mission, just a thing Boss told them to do. She started to speak and explain, Eric listening intently as he looked at the face of the girl. She was... a computer? They'd rescued a cyborg. The words would obviously mean more to Kammi than him, but he did realize how significant this was. Obviously Next wanted them all dead already, but taking this was huge.

"Aye aye, have a good shower, Boss," Eric said, giving a teasing salute as she moved up the stairs. He looked from the frozen girl-computer-person up to Kammi. "I can get the towel for her. I'll stay away when you start to wake her up, she'll probably appreciate not having a guy around when she wakes up nude and confused," he said, giving her a nod and heading for his living area for a towel.

"I'm taking her to the computer lab," she called to Eric.

And that was that, a quick explanation, some orders, and the boss was off to take a shower. Eric went to get a towel as she reactivated the gravitational lifters on the crate. She couldn't very well wake the girl up in the hanger and she needed to properly monitor the reactivation process. If she wasn't careful the subject could be killed or severely damaged. With cold storage type stasis there were no promises she wasn't already. Whatever the case, Kammi nodded, she would do her best to make this reactivation process a success. As for clothes, Kammi had a kimono she could lend out, but not much else that would be suitable. She didn't even know this person's sizes!

A trip down a short hall and a few automatic sliding bay doors later Kammi reached the computer lab and set the container down in a safe spot. She most likely spend half the night just finding the right hooks up, organizing wires, setting up the scanner, checking the programs, and making sure proper safety protocol was followed.

The packaging was removed first and replaced with a thin privacy blanket. After the crate was set up and the first few wires were properly plugged in she stopped and lifted the covers to take a long look at the subject. Her lips pursed as she gave a long and thoughtful stare.

"A bio computer," she said, looking downcast just a bit, "I suppose that means... well... if that's so it can't be helped."

Nora entered her private quarters, closing the door behind her. Her twin 1911 pistols and her High Frequency Blade were set on the weapon mount located near her bed. She slowly stripped away her red & black leather combat attire, before disappearing into her bathroom. With a few turns of the dials a steady stream of hot water was produced from the nozzle. She climbed in, her body shuddered under the sudden change in temperature as she breathed a slow sigh of comfort.

Her face grew more serious as she stood beneath the flowing water. Kammi might become concerned that she had the cyborg brought to them to replace her. It couldn't be further from the truth. "Kammi..." She spoke her name softly. Her fingers curled around the bicep of her other arm. As she closed her eyes. She'd have to do something to ease Kammi's concern, or prevent it if possible.

After a few moments, she emerged from the bathroom, dressing in a pair of blue jeans and a tight black tee-shirt. She tucked the shirt in to the form fitting pants, before pulling on a pair of boots and proceeding out of the room. She pocketed her hands as she descended the stairs and began walking towards the computer labs. Before anything else, she had to talk to Kammi.

Eric whistled slightly as he entered his room, stopping by his dresser. Reaching around the mission clothing he wore, he undid the holsters for several knives, throwing types and fighting types, big and small. His love for them bordered on psychotic, and they knew that. A weapon stand similar to Nora's rested next to the dresser, holding well over fifty once they were all back in their spots. Luckily he hadn't used any throwing knives today, those were hard to get a hold of. Boss seemed to find a way though, whenever he had to use them on a mission she was able to get replacements. He used a pretty standard throwing dagger, easy to replace and not easy to trace.

Before getting the towel he took off his mission garb, black vest and black pants with lots of hidden and some visible knife holders. Eric reached into the dresser and pulled out some casual clothes, jeans and a purple t-shirt. He liked purple, clear from the color of his hair, not being naturally purple as it was now. The clothes he wore seemed like typical street clothes, but like essentially everything he wore, had been adapted to hide some knives inside of them. Some from Next for more undercover missions, some more recently obtained. He went with a different, smaller knife slid into a holster on his right leg and some throwing knives on his left. Easily within reach. It wasn't that he didn't trust his fellow members of Kojima Corps, after the things he'd been through, training with his grandfather, missions with Next, he liked to have a weapon at all times. He could be considered a weapon himself with the fighting styles he knew, but he liked having a knife also.

Eric left his room after grabbing a towel from the bathroom, heading to the computer lab where Kammi said she'd take their lovely new cyborg. He got to the hallway as Nora did, giving a smile until close enough to see her face. She had certain looks that they just knew, and this one was clear. He tossed the towel to her, giving a nod and leaning against the wall a few feet from the entrance to the computer lab. She had to talk with Kammi, and he would wait until they were done to speak with her about the truck and other tasks that might need doing.

[[Quick question: Is the bio-computer a new player waiting to be introduced and start playing, or will she be an NPC kind of thing? Just curious. Loving it so far, by the way ^_^]]

It would take a few hours just getting all the equipment ready and checking it over. Kammi was in the middle of that process. The power supply was ready, the scanners were set up over top the unit, the data input and output wires were firmly secured and tied to her computer console. The basic stuff, virus scans and software error scans were underway to make sure there was no software glitch that could freeze the program midway. That sort of thing was a disaster that had caused the death of subjects coming out of stasis. Kammi was a bit overly cautious when it came to things like this. It may have been dragging out the time, but it also prevented errors and helped to make her work so clean.

As she went about her work and checked the data on temperature scans she hummed a little tune to herself and turned on a bit of music softly in the background. (( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X95-a_k_9mw ))

She heard Nora enter, it was easy to distinguish peoples style of walking when you had your head to their back most of the time. She liked to be less formal when they weren't on a mission.

"Nora! Everything is going well, I should have her awake by morning," she said without looking up from the screen, "Do you feel better now?"

Her fingers were typing code at a rather fast pace.

"I'm feeling much better, thank you." Nora spoke as she approached the woman. She rested a hand on her shoulder while she watched her work. She couldn't make sense of any of the codes that were flying by on the screen. She gave a small smile as she gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You never cease to amaze me." She pulled up a seat near by and collapsed back into the chair.

"I wanted to thank your contribution to the team thus far. You've been a huge help." She brushed some bangs away from her face before smiling. "Things should get a little easier around here for you once we have her up and running." She said with a nod towards the stasis tank. "You work hard enough as it is, I thought you could use some back up."

She looked around the room quietly. "Anyway, Eric was bringing some stuff down for our newest addition. I'm going to go ahead and leave you to it. Don't work too hard." She said giving the young girl a pat on the back before rising to her feet and walking towards the exit.

Eric waited a little ways away from the door, leaning against the wall and playing around with a knife. Finger twirls, tossing it and catching it, he'd learned a few fun things over the many years of using the weapons. His fingers had a few scars from bad cuts he'd got while practicing, but nowadays he usually didn't cut himself. Usually.

He heard footsteps coming to the door, telling him their conversation was over. He slid the knife back into a holster, then grabbed the towel and walked to the door. "Want to handle the truck after I get whatever Kammi needs?" Eric asked Nora as he reached the entrance, then moved into the room. "Here you go. Want me to get anything else?" he said to Kammi as he got closer to the computers and stasis pod, laying the towel over a chair near Kammi. His gaze went to the pod and then back to her as he waited for a response.