[My's Art in comment]
April 5, 2050 - 23:58
Da Nang, Vietnam - Tien Sa Port
Tien Sa Port, one of Vietnam's largest ports, was located on a peninsula connected to Da Nang city. It remained operational well into the night. Incandescent light filled the area, mixed with a few colored LED lights from the machinery, port cranes, automated trucks, androids, and the plethora of security drones buzzing about. Despite the port still seemingly alive and working, only a few dozen people were actually working there, mostly to monitor the automated equipment and meet the minimum on-site human staffing requirements.
Outside the port was a different world in its own right. The street was relatively empty, except for the auto-trucks, lit by sparsely spaced lights, completely unoccupied by regular people. When the time hit all zeros at midnight, a totally normal and unassuming SUV with tinted windows, carrying a few totally regular people, arrived just outside the port's wall and parked on the side of the road, deliberately in a darker area just outside of camera coverage.
Long, designated as the driver for the recon mission, put the car in park before radioing to command.
"Falcon, Whiskey 1 has arrived at the AO. How copy?"
"Whiskey 1, Falcon. Heard you loud and clear, wey. You have the green light. Whiskey 2 is on standby already. If any trouble comes, they are t-minus 2 minutes from your location." Luna replied.
"Roger roger, mi amigo."
"It's mi amiga, you should check Duobingo after this mission." There was a tiny bit of sass in the otherwise serious tone in her voice.
"Affirmative, Falcon. Whiskey 1 out."
Long cut the communication, then looked to his comrades in the car. My was in the shotgun seat, while Max and Katya were in the back. They were all in civilian clothes and carrying concealed pistols; however, Max was the exception, as he was wearing an optical camo cloak, a backpack carrying the battery for said cloak, and brandishing his G28 rifle modified with an MFMD and a thermal clip-on attached to its 3-20x50 scope.
"Alright Max, go find a good spot to set up shop." My said.
"Jawohl, ma'am, you'll be in good hands with my skills," Max replied with a smug on his face, even though no one was looking at him.
"Да да да. Everyone has seen you during the training already. Just go and cover us." Katya shooed Max away while still focusing on her laptop, preparing her drones.
Max opened the door and stepped outside. With a few presses on the forearm device, Max's cloak shifted from its default camo pattern to an almost perfect recreation of the surrounding environment, though it was still easy to spot some imperfections and glitches when the cloak moved faster than it could adapt.
My let out a whistle as she witnessed the optical cloak literally make Max disappear, and Long was gawking at the tech. Even Katya, who was usually uninterested in most things, was also staring at where Max had just disappeared.
"Goddamn, seems like the eggheads at R&D finally got it working." My exclaimed.
"Indeed, this is quite an impressive feat and very much a groundbreaking development for ground infantry." Katya praised with a bit more tone to her usual voice.
"High praise if it's coming from you."
"A personal optical camo that can be carried by an individual instead of having to fit a clunky battery unit that can only be fit into a vehicle or carried by a whole squad? Of course, it's high praise."
"Alright, Auf Wiedersehen, ladies… And Long, you too." Max chimed in through the comm. That made them realize that Max was already gone.
"Damm, I kinda want to have one." Long said
"Knowing you, it's best for all of us you don't get one, ever." My replied.
"What? Why? It's not like I'd do anything weird with it."
"Uh huh… sure. It's not like anything happened 3 days ago." My glanced at Long with a smirk.
"THAT was NOT my fault!" He yelled at first, then muttered the next part. "But I do appreciate the view, though."
Long was suddenly jolted forward repeatedly. My looked back to see the culprit kicking the back of the driver's seat while holding her laptop with both hands.
"Oww, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." Long begged, having his seat constantly shaking.
Despite the dimness of the car, My definitely see that Katya's usual stoic face was sprinkled with a tinge of blushing. A rare sight indeed, but for what specific reason, My didn't know.
The seat kicked stopped after a short while.
"Alright, no more dicking around, let's get the drone out." My took the initiative and stepped out of the car.
She went to the back of the SUV, opened the trunk, and then opened the case inside. The case was carrying a pair of quadcopters, the larger one with off-the-shelf six-inch frames and custom rotors to maintain stealth, and the smaller 4-inch FPV drone. My took both of them out of the case, turned both of them on, then placed them on the ground.
"Good to go!" My knocked on the car to let Katya know that the drones were ready.
My could see from the back of the SUV that Katya was putting on the FPV goggles. She wondered how Katya could handle controlling both drones at the same time; all she could chalk up to was that Katya set one drone for automatic surveillance and one to control by herself. After a bit of shuffling in the car, My finally heard the signature buzzing of the drone's motors.
Both drones quickly rose to the sky and flew toward the port, with one larger one flying higher and the FPV drone flying straight toward the target warehouse with the number 30 on it. My's gaze followed the drones for a moment, then got in the back of the car when the drones were out of view, blended into the dark sky.
My made herself comfortable in the back seat while Katya was focused on flying the drones; her fingers constantly fiddled with the controller's joysticks. The drone's feeds were streaming on the laptop monitor, with the FPV feed as the main focus while the automatic feed was on a smaller application. Since there wasn't anything to do for now, My decided to watch Katya do her thing.
My could see the drone quickly making its way toward the designated warehouse, dodging and weaving out of sight of all the security drones. The drone arrived at the warehouse undetected and scouted around the area.
The warehouse was a decent 1000 square meters building, about 25 meters in width, 40 meters in length, and 12 meters in height. Two main entrances at the front and back, two emergency side doors, and an external staircase leading to the rooftop. The rooftop was mostly empty except for an electrical box and a closed hatch, probably a ladder entrance to the roof from inside. There were a few cameras, mostly covering the gates and sides of the building; however, there was none on the roof or between the warehouses. There was also a ladder leading to the roof from the outside, located in the pathway between the buildings. There was no one outside the building. If it weren't for the recovered video feed, no one would suspect that there was something more to this warehouse.
My took the laptop from Kayta's lap to observe the warehouse more closely. Her eyes darted around constantly until something caught her attention.
"There. In the corner, there's a vent left open. Looks a bit enough for the drone to go through."
"Приємно."
Katya maneuvered her drone into the vent. Slow and carefully, the drone made its way through the vent and entered the warehouse.
The inside was a different story from its exterior. One side of the warehouse seemed to be a workshop, with various weapon-manufacturing setups organized in neat rows and a wall with loads of weapons on display, Russian AKs, Vietnamese STVs, and Chinese QBZs. The other side seemed to be some type of chemical or drug lab, filled with all sorts of scientific chemical equipment, which seemed like a typical drug laboratory scene in a B-tier action movie. Both were still filled with people working and operating the equipment, making weapons, and synthesizing chemicals. There was a small
On the side opposite to the drone was a small office, separated from the open workshop. The only view into the office was a window that offered a wide view into the workshop and a single metal door on the side.
"24 people, with an unknown amount in that office, presumably all armed. Six CCTVs, most likely all unconnected from the internet, so no hacking." Katya stated.
"Vietnam has one of the world's strictest gun laws, and here we are, a whole warehouse load of domestic and international weapons and a whole ass workshops, located right in a tourist city." My commented.
"Money, corruption, threats. The usual stuff. Any suspect for this whole operation?" Long chimed in.
Katya looked around with her drone before replying.
"Nothing to ID this group, no logo or anything."
"Probably the PT, since they have a foothold everywhere in Southeast Asia." My replied with a hint of disdain in her voice.
"Most likely, there's a high likelihood that they are working directly under PT control or an associate of PT. We know that they're always trying to extend their reach and absorb more underground networks."
"Be advised, I spot a vehicle moving toward the AO." Max suddenly reported back in.
Katya switched the feed to focus on the larger drone that had been hovering high above the port. Both Katya and My could see a van, the same one they saw during the mission briefing. Katya pressed a button on her controller, switching the normal camera into a thermal one.
The thermal cam highlighted a few heat signatures from inside the van. Other than the obviously hot engine, there was the driver, the shotgunner, and another 7 heat sources in the back.
Katya switched back to the normal camera just as the van arrived in front of the warehouse. The guy in the shotgun seat got out of the car, went to the back, and opened the door. From inside the van stepped out women still in provocative clothes, most likely their nightclub outfits, with their hands tied behind their backs and their mouths gagged; all six of them seemed to be in their 20s. The last one to step out of the back of the van was a man carrying a metal baton, wearing a tank top, and revealing a trident tattoo on his arm.
My squinted her eyes at the tattoo with barely restrained anger, her fists clenching hard enough to bend metal, and her ears were buzzing constantly, drowning out all other noises. If rage could kill, that man would have instantly vaporized.
'Breath… My, breath… not now, you'll have a chance later… not now,' she reminded herself while controlling her breath and relaxing her muscles.
Those old lessons when Harrison taught her to control her emotions and redirect her rage came back to her mind. 'Don't let your emotions control you; you have to be in control at all times. You must not let it consume you.' Harrison used to tell her that whenever she had an episode, whether it was her PTSD or her 'anger management' issue.
My took a little while to regain her composure, despite her external appearance looking slightly uncomfortable while she struggled with her emotions. She looked back at the laptop monitor.
The van was already gone, and instead the feed was back to the FPV drone's perspective. The group of women — still chained, crying, and begging — was forced toward the office. Once the girls were behind the door, Katya controlled the drone to return to the SUV.
"Falcon, be advised, there are at least 6 hostages present in the facility, all female. There's also a possible hidden facility below the warehouse, but it is beyond what we can scope out." Katya reported.
"Copy that, Whiskey 1, you are to RTB."
My pressed on her comm device.
"Max, get your ass back here. We're done with the recon."
"But I was just getting comfortable with my invisibility cloak."
"You're not a wizard, Max."
"Aww…"