Behold A White Horse - Log 2
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xp_logsOn the flight over, the mixed team of mutants discuss their approach once they hit the ground in Africa.
The Blackbird was a marvel of engineering; a stealth plane which had some of the finest engineering minds on the planet turn into an even more capable covert vehicle. Speeding over the Atlantic Ocean a little over Mach 2, even the most advanced radar detection systems would dismiss it as a small storm or a flock of birds. Anything but a plane.
It was normally the vehicle of choice for the X-Men, but today, it was largely filled with members of Snow Valley, for once outfitted in tactical gear as opposed to streetwear. Kevin sat near the front, waiting for Jean Grey to engage the auto-pilot before he spoke.
"We've got about three hours before we hit Marsabit, let's go over what we know and bring our host and guests fully up to speed." Kevin said, a nod of acknowledgement to Jean, Angelo and Kitty.
"A little over fourteen hours ago, SHIELD detected a massive spike of unknown energy in the centre of the Kenyan city of Marsabit. Marsabit is home to a little over ten thousand people, It's a trade hub and tourist destination for visitors to the Marsabit National Park and Reserve which mostly surrounds it. There's nothing about the city that seems like it would make it a target for any of the terrorist, extremist or criminal groups that operate in Africa. That energy spike apparently knocked out any electronic device, totally scrambling their systems. Doug has been trying to sneak through, but apparently what isn't overrun by viruses has already been destroyed. There has been zero communication with anyone inside Marsabit since the energy surge. Nine hours ago, the Kenyan military sealed off all access in and out of the city and currently refuse to say why."
Amanda squirmed and shrugged her shoulders, trying to settle the unfamiliar weight of the kevlar vest she was wearing. "From our previous research, there's an AIM lab in the city, around here." She pointed to a spot on the holographic map that Kevin had brought up for the briefing. "They might have had something to do with this energy spike, but to be honest, that's just a guess."
"Sydney, Pryde, and I will be checking it out," Felicia continued, giving a little nod and smile to Kitty. "It's the only way to get a definite answer, with everything being down, silent, or both, so in person it is. Which leaves the hospital," a pin popped up on the map, followed by another one immediately after, "and the city centre itself. We're on a quick timeline, our presence by the grace of Espinosa's very gracious contact alone."
"And a lot of favours called in," Angelo said with a wry smile. "I'll head for the city centre - and Phoenix, you're probably the best person to go to the hospital. Who's coming with me?"
Darcy's eyes came back into focus after another fruitless attempt to get inside anything smart electronic in Marsabit, the part of her mind paying attention to the conversation needing a few seconds to catch up and parse before she could respond. She turned the burner phone in her hands face down.
"That's going to be Marrow and Conduit, aka yours truly," she replied, giving Angelo a waggle of fingers and a smile. She was glad Kevin had decided to make her do some of her training in tac gear - "You want to be comfortable running and moving in it before you need to run and move in it," he'd said the first time, and she was grateful for it now.
"Still nothing electronically, Syd. Since I don't know what the viruses would do to me, I'm hesitant to try and push through." That was one Pandora's box she'd leave firmly shut while they were in the air. "Daytripper and Velocidad are with you, Phoenix."
Jean scanned the sky a moment before turning to the others with a nod. "I bet everything is running smoothly and everyone's fine," she said with a touch of a hopeful smile, even if she knew better.
"We all know how transparent any government is whenever the shit hits the fan, but what's the internet saying? Surely someone's talking."
The phone in Sarah's hand was set to notify her when something matched her search, but it hadn't gone off for hours. Still, she glanced down for confirmation that there wasn't anything new. "Only one video has shown up on any of the encrypted messaging sites, and since we know tech is fucked there right now, it's about as easy to interpret as a bigfoot sighting. People are saying it looks like someone being gunned down trying to escape. It looks more like a gray shape on a grayer background doing gray somersaults. And any text coming from inside is so distorted it's basically gibberish."
Gabriel, staring at his phone, made a vague noise to signal that he was listening, but he'd been mildly distracted by the thought of running around on a mission for however long with Amanda and Jean. Things had thawed, at least between him and Amanda, but there were still inherent tensions there, and he was uneasy about the squad assignments.
His phone emitted a tell-tale chirp of a certain location-based app favored by homosexuals, bringing back his focus. "Hold on, I'd been chatting with a few foreign military and government guys in Ethiopia and Somalia and Djibouti before we left, just in case they had a sense of things." He tapped the notification, opening Grindr. "Just to get a handle on things on the ground," he added defensively. "And I—" He blinked. "Huh..." He trailed off. "Well, that's not good," he muttered.
"What's not good?" Kitty asked. She'd been looking at the sky, not at Gabriel's phone, but when she turned back, it was apparent that he wasn't the only one glancing at a screen. She reached for her own phone, but stopped herself. "Care to tell the class?"
“Not really much to tell.” Gabriel frowned. “I’m not really sure…” He scratched his head with his free hand. “I mean, I guess we probably knew this but the military base on the Horn has a tech network that reaches into Kenya, and their systems are … corrupt? Broken? And this is military tech so…”
"So we assume even if the military has any actual clue what is going on, we're not getting that intel. So it's boots on the ground time." Kevin said. "I want to be clear. This is a recon op. If it turns out we run into heavy resistance or some kind of massive AIM presence, we abort. I'd like answers if this turns out to be mutant related so we can get out ahead of the potential repercussions, but I'm not risking any more than I have to for it. We'll be using analog coms to stay in touch in addition to Ms. Grey's telepathic switchboard. We see what we can find at the three locations, take we can, and fall back to the Blackbird in good order. There's additional tactical gear and weapons in the case in the back, incase Pryde or Espinosa want to gear up."
The Blackbird was a marvel of engineering; a stealth plane which had some of the finest engineering minds on the planet turn into an even more capable covert vehicle. Speeding over the Atlantic Ocean a little over Mach 2, even the most advanced radar detection systems would dismiss it as a small storm or a flock of birds. Anything but a plane.
It was normally the vehicle of choice for the X-Men, but today, it was largely filled with members of Snow Valley, for once outfitted in tactical gear as opposed to streetwear. Kevin sat near the front, waiting for Jean Grey to engage the auto-pilot before he spoke.
"We've got about three hours before we hit Marsabit, let's go over what we know and bring our host and guests fully up to speed." Kevin said, a nod of acknowledgement to Jean, Angelo and Kitty.
"A little over fourteen hours ago, SHIELD detected a massive spike of unknown energy in the centre of the Kenyan city of Marsabit. Marsabit is home to a little over ten thousand people, It's a trade hub and tourist destination for visitors to the Marsabit National Park and Reserve which mostly surrounds it. There's nothing about the city that seems like it would make it a target for any of the terrorist, extremist or criminal groups that operate in Africa. That energy spike apparently knocked out any electronic device, totally scrambling their systems. Doug has been trying to sneak through, but apparently what isn't overrun by viruses has already been destroyed. There has been zero communication with anyone inside Marsabit since the energy surge. Nine hours ago, the Kenyan military sealed off all access in and out of the city and currently refuse to say why."
Amanda squirmed and shrugged her shoulders, trying to settle the unfamiliar weight of the kevlar vest she was wearing. "From our previous research, there's an AIM lab in the city, around here." She pointed to a spot on the holographic map that Kevin had brought up for the briefing. "They might have had something to do with this energy spike, but to be honest, that's just a guess."
"Sydney, Pryde, and I will be checking it out," Felicia continued, giving a little nod and smile to Kitty. "It's the only way to get a definite answer, with everything being down, silent, or both, so in person it is. Which leaves the hospital," a pin popped up on the map, followed by another one immediately after, "and the city centre itself. We're on a quick timeline, our presence by the grace of Espinosa's very gracious contact alone."
"And a lot of favours called in," Angelo said with a wry smile. "I'll head for the city centre - and Phoenix, you're probably the best person to go to the hospital. Who's coming with me?"
Darcy's eyes came back into focus after another fruitless attempt to get inside anything smart electronic in Marsabit, the part of her mind paying attention to the conversation needing a few seconds to catch up and parse before she could respond. She turned the burner phone in her hands face down.
"That's going to be Marrow and Conduit, aka yours truly," she replied, giving Angelo a waggle of fingers and a smile. She was glad Kevin had decided to make her do some of her training in tac gear - "You want to be comfortable running and moving in it before you need to run and move in it," he'd said the first time, and she was grateful for it now.
"Still nothing electronically, Syd. Since I don't know what the viruses would do to me, I'm hesitant to try and push through." That was one Pandora's box she'd leave firmly shut while they were in the air. "Daytripper and Velocidad are with you, Phoenix."
Jean scanned the sky a moment before turning to the others with a nod. "I bet everything is running smoothly and everyone's fine," she said with a touch of a hopeful smile, even if she knew better.
"We all know how transparent any government is whenever the shit hits the fan, but what's the internet saying? Surely someone's talking."
The phone in Sarah's hand was set to notify her when something matched her search, but it hadn't gone off for hours. Still, she glanced down for confirmation that there wasn't anything new. "Only one video has shown up on any of the encrypted messaging sites, and since we know tech is fucked there right now, it's about as easy to interpret as a bigfoot sighting. People are saying it looks like someone being gunned down trying to escape. It looks more like a gray shape on a grayer background doing gray somersaults. And any text coming from inside is so distorted it's basically gibberish."
Gabriel, staring at his phone, made a vague noise to signal that he was listening, but he'd been mildly distracted by the thought of running around on a mission for however long with Amanda and Jean. Things had thawed, at least between him and Amanda, but there were still inherent tensions there, and he was uneasy about the squad assignments.
His phone emitted a tell-tale chirp of a certain location-based app favored by homosexuals, bringing back his focus. "Hold on, I'd been chatting with a few foreign military and government guys in Ethiopia and Somalia and Djibouti before we left, just in case they had a sense of things." He tapped the notification, opening Grindr. "Just to get a handle on things on the ground," he added defensively. "And I—" He blinked. "Huh..." He trailed off. "Well, that's not good," he muttered.
"What's not good?" Kitty asked. She'd been looking at the sky, not at Gabriel's phone, but when she turned back, it was apparent that he wasn't the only one glancing at a screen. She reached for her own phone, but stopped herself. "Care to tell the class?"
“Not really much to tell.” Gabriel frowned. “I’m not really sure…” He scratched his head with his free hand. “I mean, I guess we probably knew this but the military base on the Horn has a tech network that reaches into Kenya, and their systems are … corrupt? Broken? And this is military tech so…”
"So we assume even if the military has any actual clue what is going on, we're not getting that intel. So it's boots on the ground time." Kevin said. "I want to be clear. This is a recon op. If it turns out we run into heavy resistance or some kind of massive AIM presence, we abort. I'd like answers if this turns out to be mutant related so we can get out ahead of the potential repercussions, but I'm not risking any more than I have to for it. We'll be using analog coms to stay in touch in addition to Ms. Grey's telepathic switchboard. We see what we can find at the three locations, take we can, and fall back to the Blackbird in good order. There's additional tactical gear and weapons in the case in the back, incase Pryde or Espinosa want to gear up."
