MERC XVII: You Can't Take the Pay From Me

[Zefir]

[Skyside Office]

Fade is a tall man and appears mostly human. He wears several layers of black rags and got a scarf that covers his mouth . The small amount of skind you can see from hims appears to have the perfect color, whatever that means for the people looking at him. His yellow eyes appear to gloom when he looks at you. Somewhere between his rags you can see two hilts, but his clothes cover the blades.

"The contract was only meant for members. " Fade says, his voice still soundless. He looks at Jakob. "I assume your a new member ?"
But befor the question got answered he looks back at their client.
"Since MERC doesn't take assassination, I assume you got a different idea to avoid this Ilpholin Xar'cha?"

[Green Elf]

Nadas looks Fade over. This place gets weirder and weirder.

"Yeah. Is that how this works?"
Now, how to explain this?
"I had a run-in with an evil wizard and now there's this woman trying to kill me. Ilpholin Xar'cha, out of Riverside. I need that to not happen and I'm not particular how."

[Skyside Office]

Fade is a tall man and appears mostly human. He wears several layers of black rags and got a scarf that covers his mouth . The small amount of skind you can see from hims appears to have the perfect color, whatever that means for the people looking at him. His yellow eyes appear to gloom when he looks at you. Somewhere between his rags you can see two hilts, but his clothes cover the blades.

"The contract was only meant for members. " Fade says, his voice still soundless. He looks at Jakob. "I assume your a new member ?"
But befor the question got answered he looks back at their client.
"Since MERC doesn't take assassination, I assume you got a different idea to avoid this Ilpholin Xar'cha?"

"I am a new member." Says Jacob. "I don't consider preventing an assassination is considered an assassination and evil. If you have another idea I'll do it."

[Recaiden]

"If you don't have ideas already I'm not sure what I'm paying you for." Nadas snarks at Fade.

"I'm sure you folks can convincingly fake someone's death? Ideally in Riverside, in public, where the assassin is sure to get news of it."

[Zefir]

[Skyside Office]

"I have ideas." fade says. No hint if he is mad or has any other emotions. "I rather ask the client what he preferes."

Then he turns to Jacob. "What I meant was the assassination of this Ilpholin Xar'cha. You should know that we don't take assassinations, even if it would be the best to preven an assassination."

He turns back to the client. "Do you have more informations about Ilpholin Xar'cha? We need to make researches, but any information you can give us will make things faster."

[Green Elf]

"If you don't have ideas already I'm not sure what I'm paying you for." Nadas snarks at Fade.

"I'm sure you folks can convincingly fake someone's death? Ideally in Riverside, in public, where the assassin is sure to get news of it."

[Skyside Office]

"I have ideas." fade says. No hint if he is mad or has any other emotions. "I rather ask the client what he preferes."

Then he turns to Jacob. "What I meant was the assassination of this Ilpholin Xar'cha. You should know that we don't take assassinations, even if it would be the best to preven an assassination."

He turns back to the client. "Do you have more informations about Ilpholin Xar'cha? We need to make researches, but any information you can give us will make things faster."

"I don't believe a fake death is an assassination. It would be helpful to have more information on your enemy." Says Jacob.

[Morty]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig keeps watching, without comment so far.

[8BitNinja]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig keeps watching, without comment so far.

((Since I'm going to describe the entire video, it's going to be a long post.))

Spoiler: Video

Show

Tier starts the video. There is the aforementioned ski mask man with a Kevlar vest, beige T-shirt, and jeans, but also a man with a bandanna covering his face wearing shades and a baseball cap, and Kevlar armor. with what looks like a Model 700, but with some slight differences in the barrel and stock. There is also a man with a semiautomatic shotgun of unknown modern day model wearing a gas mask and beige armor, and a man with a surgical mask and shades, Green colored armor with red crosses on it, a medical kit attached to his ALICE web gear, and carrying a more advanced looking version of an MP5, all in a canvas covered truck. The man who obviously is supposed to be the team's medic says in a Russian accent "Hey Tier, what's that camera on your bucket?" The cameraman ((who I will now continue to refer to as Tier)) replies "I'm just using this for a future resume, who knows if I'll need to be hired by someone else? I'm not counting on it, but you have to be prepared." A bump in the road is hit. The man in the gas mask says "You better not rat us out with this, or I'll !@#$ing ((the word is not censored in the video, just for forum purposes)) kill you." "Calm down" replies the ski mask man "Do you see his armor? Probably an FFL or Mirage deserter, see how there used to be insignia on his armor?" The truck stops, Ski Mask says "Play time's over, grab your gear. Tier steps out of the truck into a sea of dunes with everyone else and the camera shakes a bit as he tries to pull something off his back. The top sights of the same kind gun Ski Mask is using can be seen being used by Tier. Baseball cap stays behind and fires at the enemy snipers as the others move in. Gas Mask puts a charge on the door and holds a detonator in one hand and nods to Tier. He sets it off and the camera is temporarily covered with smoke. Gunfire can then be seen and heard as Tier and Gas Mask fire at soldiers with red berets yelling at them in some unknown language, but it sounds similar to Arabic. The camera captures Tier aiming down the sights and firing at them. It's obvious that he is the point man for this operation. He moves into another room comes up on what looks like 5 more hostiles, where he ducks behind the wall. Ski Mask throws a grenade down the hall and an explosion can be heard. Tier looks around the corner and says "Don't go." Gas Mask looks around and says "Bull!@#$, I don't have any visuals." "Listen, who's the one taking point?" says Tier. Gas Mask doesn't listen and goes around the corner, one shotgun shot and a yell in pain can be heard while automatic fire can be heard. Gas Mask's corpse can be seen on the ground. Tier shows Medic and Ski Mask a flash bang. They cover their eyes as Tier chucks it down the hall and a loud ringing can be heard. The camera is temporarily soundless as Tier guns down 4 disabled targets and Medic attempts to pull Gas Mask to the side, which can be seen as Tier checks his 6. He moves down the hall and changes mags. The rest of the video has no dialogue, but Tier seemingly going alone through the entire base, gunning down the entire base;s worth of soldiers. At the end, Ski Mask walks up to him and says "You did all that by yourself?" Tier says, "that was just me?" "Yeah, we stayed behind you and you killed every one of them. Anyway, let's get back and get our pay." Says Ski Mask. The video stops.

[Recaiden]

Nadas shakes his head.
"Not nearly as much as I'd like. She was involved with AMEN, but is now also working as a demon hunter. Headquartered in south Riverside."

[Zefir]

[Skyside Office]

Fade looks at Jacob. Either Jacob doesn't understand him or Jabob doesn't want to understand. there is no reason to argue about this right now.

He turns back to the client. "What can you tell us about the wizard. I also need to know the reason this woman is hunting you. I just want to make sure if she would hunt for your body when she belives you are dead."

[Green Elf]

Nadas shakes his head.
"Not nearly as much as I'd like. She was involved with AMEN, but is now also working as a demon hunter. Headquartered in south Riverside."

[Skyside Office]

Fade looks at Jacob. Either Jacob doesn't understand him or Jabob doesn't want to understand. there is no reason to argue about this right now.

He turns back to the client. "What can you tell us about the wizard. I also need to know the reason this woman is hunting you. I just want to make sure if she would hunt for your body when she belives you are dead."

"Is there anything against questioning an AMEN member and not working with them. Sort of like an interrogation." Says Jacob. "Also, do you know a general location of this wizard if we were to kill her or turn her over to the police?"

[Morty]

[Lobby]

"That unit's cohesion could have used some work," Dipsnig remarks when the video is over.

[8BitNinja]

[Lobby]

"That unit's cohesion could have used some work," Dipsnig remarks when the video is over.

"That was my first job" says Tier. "I had no credentials then, other than I owned an M4A3 and some armor. They were the only ones who would hire me. I worked with them for a few more jobs, five actually, until the three left were killed off."

[Recaiden]

"She probably will want to see the body, I'm afraid. Thinks I've been corrupted with demon blood, which is true, technically, but it's completely under control. Not worth killing anyone over."
That sentence is chock full of deceptions but maybe doesn't contain outright lies.
"The wizard is the one responsible for that. When we met she was calling herself 'Maria Kayin', but who knows if that's a real name. We had a discussion about magic and -I'm a sorcerer, you see. Completely different. I have no idea what the motivation was for this odd curse."

[Morty]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig nods.

"We all had to start somewhere. The video looked like it was from a less-than-legal military operation."

[8BitNinja]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig nods.

"We all had to start somewhere. The video looked like it was from a less-than-legal military operation."

"It was, we were hired to take that fort for some insurrectionists in a country in between Syria and Iraq called Sotonastan." While we won the battle, and several others, I went to a country Israel after my squad was completely wiped out, and our pay stopped coming." Tier remembers "Oh wait, I forgot, this is another world, you probably don't know what I'm talking about." He pulls out a prism like the one the video player and presses the single button on it which casts a holographic globe above it. He points at the respective countries and says "This is Syria, This is Sotonastan, this is Iraq, and this is Israel. They're all countries in a region we call the Middle East."

[Zefir]

"Is there anything against questioning an AMEN member and not working with them. Sort of like an interrogation." Says Jacob. "Also, do you know a general location of this wizard if we were to kill her or turn her over to the police?"

"She probably will want to see the body, I'm afraid. Thinks I've been corrupted with demon blood, which is true, technically, but it's completely under control. Not worth killing anyone over."
That sentence is chock full of deceptions but maybe doesn't contain outright lies.
"The wizard is the one responsible for that. When we met she was calling herself 'Maria Kayin', but who knows if that's a real name. We had a discussion about magic and -I'm a sorcerer, you see. Completely different. I have no idea what the motivation was for this odd curse."

[Skyside Office]

Fade looks at jakob again, still no emotions visible.
"You do know that killing a person as part of a contrakt is assasination? Futhermore do you know that MERC doesn't take such jobs?" Fade says. "On another note, this Illophen might just do her own job, which means that the police won't have a reason to keep her locked up. That is the reason while we were talking about a fake death."

He then turns back to the client.

"That would require a corpse identical to you.And what curse do you mean?" ((I think a curse wasn't mentioned until now unless it's something Fade should know and just his player doesn't.))

[Green Elf]

[Skyside Office]

Fade looks at jakob again, still no emotions visible.
"You do know that killing a person as part of a contrakt is assasination? Futhermore do you know that MERC doesn't take such jobs?" Fade says. "On another note, this Illophen might just do her own job, which means that the police won't have a reason to keep her locked up. That is the reason while we were talking about a fake death."

He then turns back to the client.

"That would require a corpse identical to you.And what curse do you mean?" ((I think a curse wasn't mentioned until now unless it's something Fade should know and just his player doesn't.))

"Listen here pal, a protection from a wizard isn't an assassination it's simply self defense. If we put ourselves in a situation to be attacked it won't be considered an assassination. Also, you have to get the job done, I don't care if you feel your little moral code keeps you from doing it. Actually, I've seen your agents in the field and they don't seem to mind being prepared for a fight. I have a plan, one, stop being such a pacifist, especially as a mercenary. And two, let's track down the wizard, put a shield around Nadas, and then make a fight happen and fight in self defense." Says Jacob

((You spell my name -J a c o b-))

[Recaiden]

Nadas gives a look to the troll clerk. He couldn't have picked a pair of mercenaries who want to get along?

"Okay, both of you seem a little confused."
"The wizard Maria put a demonic curse on me. Wizards are inscrutable like that. I have my own plan for dealing with the wizard. No killing involved."
"But because of that interaction, I have this overzealous demon hunter, Ilpholin, trying to kill me."
"I know you don't take contracts to assassinate people, right? So if you have the expertise to get a fake body, that'll do just fine."

He doesn't get into the (lack of) distinction between assassinating someone and causing them to be killed in a way that's not technically murder.

[Zefir]

[Skyside Office]

"Thanks to clear that up." Fade says still without accentuation.
"My colleague confused me with his 'go for the wizard'. I can get a body that looks simular to you. it would only need some help from you. The cropse needs to have a bit of your Aura or somethign like that."

He then turns to Jacob (Sorry it was from my main language where you rather write K then C.)
"Listen up New Guy. I fight if needed, but I follow the rules of MERC. If it happens that this Ilpholin Xar'cha will attack me, our client or MERC, then I fight her until one of us dies. I don't care for your view of things and if your so confident, I won't stop you."

[Green Elf]

Nadas gives a look to the troll clerk. He couldn't have picked a pair of mercenaries who want to get along?

"Okay, both of you seem a little confused."
"The wizard Maria put a demonic curse on me. Wizards are inscrutable like that. I have my own plan for dealing with the wizard. No killing involved."
"But because of that interaction, I have this overzealous demon hunter, Ilpholin, trying to kill me."
"I know you don't take contracts to assassinate people, right? So if you have the expertise to get a fake body, that'll do just fine."

He doesn't get into the (lack of) distinction between assassinating someone and causing them to be killed in a way that's not technically murder.

[Skyside Office]

"Thanks to clear that up." Fade says still without accentuation.
"My colleague confused me with his 'go for the wizard'. I can get a body that looks simular to you. it would only need some help from you. The cropse needs to have a bit of your Aura or somethign like that."

He then turns to Jacob (Sorry it was from my main language where you rather write K then C.)
"Listen up New Guy. I fight if needed, but I follow the rules of MERC. If it happens that this Ilpholin Xar'cha will attack me, our client or MERC, then I fight her until one of us dies. I don't care for your view of things and if your so confident, I won't stop you."

"I have a couple questions though. What is this demonic curse? And, we'd have to find a way to make the wizard know about the corpse. How will we do that?" Says Jacob.

[Morty]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig waves his hand.

"Most people who come to us aren't Nexus natives. Now, let's watch some of your later missions."

[8BitNinja]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig waves his hand.

"Most people who come to us aren't Nexus natives. Now, let's watch some of your later missions."

Tier silently changes the player to video 545/602. The thumbnail is a picture of 5 mercenaries in black armor with a blue face area, obviously there for sight, each one of them holding a different weapon. They are inside of a vehicle that has multiple seats close together. Obviously some cruiser vehicle.

Spoiler: Video 2

Show

"So you're the one they call Tier? I see that you didn't lie in your resume, you do come well equipped. Where did you get that armor?" Says the man carrying what could've been previously inferred to be an M4A3 Assault Rifle. "It's none of your business where I got this. Let's just say it's unique." "State of the art armor, and yet you choose to carry archaic weapons. Don't you know, Isreali Weapons Industries was bought out by Dragonware Arms grandpa." says a man carrying what looks like a more updated version of the UMP 45 with a currently unidentifiable handgun on his side, as all the others do. "What, this?" Tier says as he draws his Desert Eagle, making sure to not point it at anyone. "I like this gun, and it gets the job done. It can blow your head off with the armor you're wearing if you make fun of it again, or my fist could do the job for it. "You better calm down guys, I'll make sure there won't be any friendly fire on this operation, even if I have to take your guns away from you." Says a man carrying a white colored 12 gauge pump shotgun with a southern accent. A man with a minigun acts like he's going to say something, but then over on the helmet "Alpha pilot to alpha leader, 1500 meters until landing." The pilot says over the headset. Rifle says "Alright men, stay frosty. Remember, we get in, plant the charges, and get out, that place is crawling with hostiles, and I'm pretty sure one platoon won't be able to fight off what we confirmed to be an entire corps. Alpha pilot, how's contact with Bravo?" The pilot comes on about 30 seconds later and says "Bravo has gone offline." "We'll see what happens when we land." The door opens. Rifle says "Alright, grab your gear and let's go." The mercenaries get off and right outside the cruiser there is one that can only be assumed to be Bravo Squad in pieces and smoldering. Tier scans the the vehicle for heartbeats. "Don't waste your time medic, they're all dead." "Ryan, rev up that minigun, we're gonna have company says rifle." Tier looks up at the complex, which is a dark gray box in the middle of a desert wasteland in the middle of the night. Rifle yells "Go, go, go" Ryan, the man with the minigun, gets in front of the mercenaries, and revs his minigun. He then says in a British accent "Hostiles at 11, 12, and 1" and fires his minigun. Tier looks down the sights of his Steyr AUG and assisted Ryan in gunning down the incoming enemy. Tier takes out ten until he turns around after a yell and thud. Ryan was hit and the medic was attempting to treat him "Sniper at 3" says the medic. The team's marksman aims a sniper version of a gauss rifle and fires. "Sniper eliminated" Says the marksman. "Everyone go, medic, stay back and treat Ryan" says Rifle. Tier charges in, spraying soldiers with his AUG. When he runs out of ammo in his first magazine. He draws his Desert Eagle and downs two more. He hides and reloads both of his guns. Before he peeks out, one of the enemy soldiers in army green full body armor, similar to the mercenary armor and says in a Russian accent "Don't move, or I'll blow your !@#$ing brains out." Tier grabs his rifle and punches him in the face, a splatter of blood can be seen. It can only be implied that Tier punched through his skull. Tier runs through the gunfire and kicks the door of the complex down and throws a flashbang is. After the sound of a flashbang going off is heard, he charges in and yells "Door has been breached" Bullets fly from behind him and takes out someone Tier just saw at 10:00. A german accent says "You take point Tier, I got you covered. Tier says "where is everyone else" "We've got 5 left" says Submachine Gun. The rest of the video has no dialogue, but Tier moving to the point where the charges being placed and Rifle, Submachine Gun, Shotgun, Medic, and Marksman taking out the green clad soldiers and eventually planting an explosive charge at the site." After they run out and detonate it, which creates a massive explosion, Rifle says "Congratulations Tier, you took out an entire company singlehandedly. I didn't know you could do that." Tier said "I wrote that I killed a company of soldiers in Southeast Asia 6 months ago." Rifle says "I thought you were bragging. Anyways, lets go get our pay."

"That one was taking a Russian military base on planet Gamma-298 for an unknown army that remained anonymous." says Tier.

[Recaiden]

"No problem, uh, what's your name?" Nadas asks of Fade.
"So, like, would you be making a body from my blood, or just giving a dummy the proper magical signature to match me?"

He shakes his head at Jacob.
"Not important right now and not related to the job. I don't want you to do anything to any wizard."

[Green Elf]

"No problem, uh, what's your name?" Nadas asks of Fade.
"So, like, would you be making a body from my blood, or just giving a dummy the proper magical signature to match me?"

He shakes his head at Jacob.
"Not important right now and not related to the job. I don't want you to do anything to any wizard."

"Okay, you do the fake corpse and I'll make the wizard know that she's supposedly dead. I'll track her and, I'll take ideas here, but maybe make a fake assassination on the game corpse in front of her. Hey, actually, do you know a wizard? I could make a great fake assassination if I had one." Says Jacob.

[Zefir]

[Skyside Office]

"The name is Fade and my methode is a bit different." Fade says still without accentuation.
"I would need to copy your shadow. Then I can put it into a cropse and it will appear like you for some time. Then you fill the body so it got your magical sinature."

He then turns to Jacob.
"Our job has nothing to do with the wizard. Ilpholin Xar'cha and the Wizard Maria are not the same person and as I see it The wizard maria has not hired Ilpholin Xar'cha. So the fake death only needs to be presented to her."

[Recaiden]

Nadas, predictably, looks at the shadows around him that the office lights cast.
"My shadow. I can work with that. I mean, the sooner the better. Not that I expect you have corpses on hand."

[Green Elf]

[Skyside Office]

"The name is Fade and my methode is a bit different." Fade says still without accentuation.
"I would need to copy your shadow. Then I can put it into a cropse and it will appear like you for some time. Then you fill the body so it got your magical sinature."

He then turns to Jacob.
"Our job has nothing to do with the wizard. Ilpholin Xar'cha and the Wizard Maria are not the same person and as I see it The wizard maria has not hired Ilpholin Xar'cha. So the fake death only needs to be presented to her."

"I'm sorry, I meant the demon hunter Ilpholin. I can present it to her. But is there a wizard here that knows teleport, especially one that can use it on two people, or objects at once? They also need to be invisible." Says Jacob.

[Morty]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig watches the video intently.

"Your skills can't be questioned, but I do prefer to keep the bickering to a minimum when working a job."

[8BitNinja]

[Lobby]

Dipsnig watches the video intently.

"Your skills can't be questioned, but I do prefer to keep the bickering to a minimum when working a job."

"Almost every group I've worked with the squad bantered with each other or me. It's just how people are where I'm from. We didn't hate each other, although I do admit that we weren't best friends, and I would kill him if I could gain from it, but it was nothing personal. Most groups had much worse bickering, but at the end of the day, we laugh it off and get drinks to celebrate another day of staying alive." says Tier.

[Zefir]

[Skyside Office]

"Very well." Fade says. Then his shadow starts to animate and stands next to him. With a nod from the real one , the shadwo steps forward to Nadasshadow and will slip into it. The process to copy someones shadow needs a bit and Nadas might have a strange feeling like someone removes a plaster. While they wait, Fade looks back at Jacob.

"I think you should tell us your idea in generell. I hope you didn#t planned to head for her home with the cropse in hand.
As fora wizard. I'm can't tell you if there is someone here, but if you really need it, you could go for Mallside and by items to do the effekt you want. Still I prefere to hear through it first."