Super-Secret Report
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Admiral Poontang had informed the field agent entrenched in the Southern Anaranean jungles of Thorad, codenamed Balding Eagle, vital to the mission success was that the enemy mustn’t be aware of his presence at all.
According to the intel gathered, the enemy had no access to thaumaturgists or any advanced clairvoyancy. This meant the agent only had to worry about the auditory and visual parameters, the confides of reality, when operating in the region. Illusionary spells could deal with the problem of him being spotted, however his presence and movement could still be heard. The Brass admitted to affording only the most basic of measures to ensure the agent made minimal sound: modern specialised skin-tight infiltration suit with the M81 Woodland pattern, noise-dampening soles, high-grade strength armour weave offering superb damage resistance whilst remaining perfectly inconspicuous in the fertile jungle.
However, approaching the area of operations at night-time would have been detrimental to the success of the mission, because—and the Admiral had been sure to drill this into the psyche of the agent—while the enemy lacked any known mystical capabilities to hinder the mission, they possessed heat-vision technologies.
Communication on the mission had been made possible by the use of runic stones, these have been in development in the UNA’s military for years and have thus far proven themselves useful in keeping an clear line of communication between soldiers in the field and command.
The mission itself: to ascertain the status of the lead researcher of a dead language. While most of the convincing and legwork to get that researcher on the right side of history was done by the informant and our spy, the higher ups decided we could no longer afford to delay action—rumours spread of a breakthrough, one that would inevitably tip the scales of world powers too much in the favour of one nation.
One could imagine the frustration of the Mission Control Commander, when the agent procured a four-wheel drive vehicle, ZaAZ-S77/4W, a multipurpose light transport known for its loud rattling engine. By the Admiral’s own admission, it was a miracle the agent had not been caught. In contrast, according to the Eagle, anyone who’s ever been to that jungle would know of the noise generated by the wildlife living in it. The agent went on to add that as time was of the essence, and as daylight “waned”, he had to use every available resource from the area to reach the site before day’s end, before night set in, otherwise risking further delay in the mission.
This issue was unquestionably due to the agent being sent to the wrong coordinates in the jungle. In order to elaborate on the critical failure of the C&T Department (Conjuration and Telekinesis) and their technomancers, it is important to understand, all research concluded transporting a living organism from one place to another, still required a lot of complex calculations and energies not only from the side of the casters, but also the subject being teleported. Due to these circumstances, and the time-critical nature of the mission, a preliminary analysis of the agent’s actions during communication between the Admiral and the agent concluded that driving a loud four-by-four towards the enemy encampment during the middle of the day was an acceptable, though risky, solution.
Barring the teleportation infiltration site being found by the OSSR forces later, causing havoc in not only their news-media but also this nation’s—in spite of this Country’s best technomancers calculating the most risk-free position to teleport the agent to, the agent’s actions afterwards were not acceptable.
The agent reported the site to be a well-guarded flat swath of land, an archaeological dig site: with two rectangle buildings standing side by side, one of which he had infiltrated, and one large square office building, while the rest of the site was flat land with holes where the researchers and diggers combed through the area. Verdant greenery surrounding it all.
Inside the building, the agent went through several documents on the kinds of research conducted as well as the guard schedules. He was spotted and attacked by an enemy soldier. After an altercation, the soldier was confirmed to be subdued while the agent stole his equipment, combat briefs and cloak, and wore them over his suit. The enemy soldier was left alive in the building, knocked out inside a locker.
Prior to this, the soldier was interrogated, revealing the whereabouts of the researcher’s living quarters: the largest of the three buildings on the site. The events transpiring thereafter weren’t clear, as the comms runic stone had been disabled when the agent successfully breached the interior of the building. Technomancers’ preliminary analysis suggested interference most-likely caused by the disruptive material in the walls. Though the timing of this was oddly convenient when coupled with the screaming of a female immediately following comms reconnection. Upon recovery of the researcher and the agent’s exfiltration of the site, dialogue between him and the researcher, Tatyana, suggested that he found her living quarters and hid when she entered the room. She, unsuspectingly getting ready for a shower, removed pieces of her garments one by one. Allegedly, he did not reveal himself until she was naked.
In the end, with the researcher recovered and the OSSR only suspecting UNA’s involvement, the mission was a success for the Central Intelligence & Mystics Agency—however, because of the myriad of issues during this test run, based on my evaluation, the Brass recommends immediate disbandment of this, “Birds of Prey” covert operations unit within CIMA.
To ensure the secrecy of this and any following reports, a pyromancy spell has been placed upon its contents. Anyone without sufficient authorisation level will spontaneously burst in flames. Thank you.
THE END