Fireworks

I'm back in D.C. and not a moment to soon, I got back in town yesterday just in time to see the fireworks.
There's a hill I like to go up to every year, nothing special about this hill most of the year, but I can see a good portion of the town, and watch all the fireworks going off. It really takes my breathe away, everyone in town making on massive city wide fireworks show.

It also helps I PTSD like a motherfucker in town on the 4th, do you guys have any idea how much a fireworks show sounds like heavy combat?

.....

Anyways, yeah, so I was expecting at best, to be severely chewed out, striped of privileges and given a nice desk to sit at for the rest of my working career for how  blatantly terrible things went in Washington... Instead I was given a pat on the back, told what a great job we did out there, and to put our losses behind us. In there eyes, we brought down an Omega level threat, that also destroyed an artifact of the Abomination, and took out a blogger in the process.

Mission fucking complete in there eyes.

Anyways, I'm already back on assignment, there was a series of really grisly murders here in DC that needed investigated, I was confused by this mostly because we normally *Cause* those grisly murders. Turns out most of those killed however were agents of our Organization. Seems like someone has decided that we've all lived long enough.

Now I get to find how who its butchering our men, and kill them.

Should be a nice change of pace, and I can work from home.

Oh... one more thing, there won't be an after action report for Washington, it's been deemed classified. so I'm not allowed to post an after action report in this case, of course there's nothing stopping you from reading a detailed retelling of the end of the operation here.

Lot of empty seats at the table tonight

This isn't an official after action report, my official report has not been filed yet so I can't post a declassified acct of the end of  "Operation: Washington" for a few days.

We officially went into this mission with around 35 operatives, of those only two of us are left, Reaver, who I asked to stay behind to report if we didn't make it, and myself, who was the sole survivor of our task force to take down the Proxy known as Antonio....

So many deaths... I knew them all...

I'm used to seeing people die, I saw allot friends die during the war, but this is not the war.... It's apparent to me now that we were over our heads from the get-go, we really were outclassed here...

For this, I expect heads to roll, I lead the team, and I walked away from it alive, I'm at best looking at reassignment, at worse imprisonment for leading so many good men to there deaths...

The cleaning team already disposed of the remains... both my Rival's, and my team's....

To say this is a great night to start drinking again, well that's putting it mildly, Reaver is also helping file the bereavement reports, also known as letters to mothers. "Dear miss such and such" and all the "He died bravely for his country" lines you see in war movies....

You know, at least when it came to my former Army life, at least I could talk to someone about it, I mean, I had friends at home, parents to talk to when I got back, shit like that.

In the Organization, all my official reports are sealed, I'm not allowed to talk to anyone about my experiences, not to family, not to friends...

Fuck I'm not even using my real name on here. I swear there were other "Vergil's" before me.

I didn't even know there real names.

Anyways the Booze is hitting so I'm going to shelf the last of the reports for the morning, and hit my bunk, I'll post and after action report later on tomorrow... or whenever the fuck I can.

Operation Washington: Update 5: Collusion

I was litterly a half foot out of the door to go raid the Rival's stronghold when Reaver's cell when off to let us know the Outsider had changed his mind and accepted our offer....

I'm almost disappointed because I was very much wondering effect would an Armsel Protecta Bulldog, also known as the non-knock off version of the "Street sweeper" 12 gauge automatic shotgun, would have done to a telekinetic enhanced proxy, who was further empowered with an artifact of immense power...

I'm guessing, not a whole hell of allot....

Well in any-rate I spent the last several days in tense negotiations with the Outsider, in between his training to use what ever power he's gaining, as he gets sicker and sicker...

The plan is, to strike, with maybe a one day window to take down  the Rival, with the help out of what we all believe is going to be a supercharged Outsider, who will be at that point, almost on the verge of whatever is going to pass for death for him.

It really is a god damn shame really, the Outsider represents potential for a greater humanity, not bound by a world dominated in the shadows by the Abomination. That is of course if he wasn't such an asshole. If any one reading this put two and two together to know who I'm talking about yeah, he's actually a bit more of a dick in person than in his comments.

The Outsider and the Rival, were friends once, they fought with, and against each other, have bleed for each other, and now there going to kill each other... It's a tragic fate to be sure.

My team is breaking out the big guns, beyond the aforementioned Automatic Shotguns, were also breaking out the good stuff, combat armor, Kevlar with strike plates, Mono edge combat knives, Flashbangs, Multi-spectrum optical glasses, Heartbeat monitors, satellite images of the area... I mean shit I wish I was this well outfitted in the Army....

But in all likely hood this is going to be the last dance for a whole lot of us, see, the Outsider is dying faster than we thought, I do believe that tomorrow is when were going to hit the Rival's hideout with everything we have....

Well fuck it, I don't plan on dying, like a bitch, if I need to I got one last secret, a "final solution" for if we fail.... May god have mercy on my soul if I have to use it, and if I somehow survive this? Well there's a girl back in DC I think I'm going to finally work up the nerve to ask out for dinner.

Operation Washington: Update 4: Contact

Today I made contact with the Outsider, we talked at length about the situation, about what his, I'm guessing former proxy friend did to my men, I offered my services in helping taking him down....

The Outsider brushed me off, it seems he's to busy practicing some esoteric Voodoo bullshit with some crazy old man, to want to seek out and kill the son of a bitch.

So I played dirty, I asked him one question.

"So what do you think would of happened if you ran a bit slower back in Pittsburgh? Maybe none of this would have happened?"

We got in a bit of a scuffle, without his weapon he's not much of a fighter, I got him in an arm lock, and took him to his knee pretty easily.

"Well if you think those moves can kill <Redacted> Then i'll just be on my way"

I left him my card... and I went back to camp... Lets see if the fish bites the hook.

Afterwards we took stock of our gear and weapons, if the Outsider doesn't respond in 2 days time, I plan on ordering a full assault on my Rival's encampment.

Operation Washington: Update 3: Fail State

Well this could have gone better, I sent a strike team to assault the Outsider as I had planed. to draw out my Rival, so would could take him down...

And in no uncertain terms, it was a disaster.

the Rival didn't let his guard down at all, he attacked his former partner, the outsider, and managed to secure a powerful artifact of the fucking Abomination.

An artifact he used to attack our base camp, I'm not down about 75% of my team, he ran through our base like a god damn wrathful god, killing anyone who tried to resist him.... the surviving members of my team are now at a secondary fallback point.

I don't have a choice now, we don't have the strength to finish the operation now...

I have to contact the Outsider, and get him on our side. We need to kill my Rival, or he might destroy the whole god damn city.

A certian fondness...

I find myself having to respect the runners who's stories I've been immersing myself with, many of them have had to suffer more deeply, and fight more fiercely than our strongest agents, many of them have suffered trauma worse than the most hardened solders I have fought with.

Which is why it pains me to have to fight them.

My secondary target in this area, is a runner, a rare case, not popular with other bloggers, and is likely going to die friendless in the end, but there's a certain respect there. Or there would be if he wasn't such an asshole.

I find myself, Respecting one blogger in particular, the runner Lucia. She has had a terrible time as of late, her lover is dead, something my secondary target has experienced during his time running. But they both handle it differently.

One represses, and lashes out, damning the world. They only can look at the past, and are unable to look forwards. This one seems to be seeking there own death and are playing with fire and endangering lives.

The other takes the time to accept what has happened, and look forward, and is actively trying to live.to protect what matters.

I can respect that, but that won't change the fact that I might find myself in direct conflict with them, espcially if the situation in Pittsburgh escalates.

About an hour ago, I ordered a kill team to test the might of the secondary target, they have orders to not kill anyone, but if my Rival is monitoring us, like I suspect, this will make him aware of the Secondary target's location...

The results should be interesting. To see if those two play there roles to the letter.

Operation Washington: Update 2: Target Acquired

He's in town, my Rival, and I got to test his strength yesterday.

He was sleeping under an overpass, we had a tail on him for most of the day, I sent a full 8 man kill-team, armed with automatic weapons, Stun-clubs, and a couple of our experimental nano-edged swords.

He wiped the whole team out in 45 seconds. to the last man. Shit I just got done overseeing the cleanup myself, But that's okay, we manages to put a tracker on him, so now I can monster his movements anywhere he goes.

The Analysis Team is going over the data from the battle, so far, it's not good, it looks like my old rival went and rebound himself to the Abomination, and that's bad, even separated from the Abomination he was powerful, he was able to beat me half to death in Pittsburgh, and now he's stronger.

I'm going to need a powerful friend from the outside, Reaver is working on that, he's gathering some usable information on the, well we don't have a classification on the secondary target, so for now. Due to his partially out of phase state, "The Outsider". In the Outsider's state, I have no reason to believe he would work with us in taking down his friend, so he's going to need convincing.

Were calling it a solid plan B. Untill then I'm going to get back to inspecting the damage to a Nano-Sword to see how he was able to block a blade that we have testing on tank armor with some success....