Aberrant: Infinite Earth - Fiction - Escalation (Complete)

[Charlie Cole]

Date/Time: January 14, 2010

Location: The DeVries National Tactical Solutions Base, Windhoek, Namibia.

The sands of the Namib Desert were serene for the moment, in a quiet heated way, before this particular patch of sand was blown about by the wind. Only, a difficult but good inspection could recognize that this was not natural, nor even any sort of wind at all. It was a speeding blur of motion, circling a distance in a couple of minutes that a baseline traveler would take an hour to make the heated circuit.

The blur, if viewed just in front of him, was a black-haired man with nut-brown eyes. He was dressed in combat boots that were sharp and eye-catching, and he wore a quite well-maintained set of combat fatigues that any good soldier would be proud of. Looping around once more, he shot off out of the desert heading for the large-scale chain-link fence that he knew so well.

,,

As he approached the NO TRESPASSING signs located just below, he could sight the fence in the distance from the great heights that surrounded what was the penultimate symbol of one of the mightiest corporations and driving forces of Earth in this Nova Age. And it was well prepared for any threat that could possibly appear.

Which was why he picked out his mini-radio attached to his utility belt and immediately took the time to contact the air control tower inside the fortified base to clear his way in without undue complication.

That only took a short period of time, and soon, he was touching down, feet resting firmly upon solid ground.

He breathed out a sign of relaxation and amusement, one shared by the well-exercised, common to baselines and novas alike. The crunch of combat boots pressing extremely hard into the ground caught his ears, and he turned about, eyes meeting another set of eyes, although these were blue, cold and emotionless. These amazingly matched the solid and icily angular blond man possessing them with a precision that horrified and unnerved anyone who happened to face them, even behind a mask.

"Cole. The Vice President wanted to see to in his office as soon as you got here."

Charlie Cole inclined his head in acknowledgment of the delivery and nodded. "Thanks Klaus."

The casual statement was respectful and quietly acknowledged by Klaus in turn. Most people would have fainted at the seemingly audacious respect and... well not easy- natural perhaps, action. That was assuming they knew who Klaus Kleisner was, though a certain skull mask would send them into a shrieking shock before they fainted to blackness.

Charlie Cole, known to the world as the famous and feared elite Air Rat, nodded once more and walked away from the man who was the even more famous and feared Totentanz.

He slipped through the new trainees on a run on a track using his amazing superhuman dexterity to dart like a fish through rocks, off to the HQ.

[Charlie Cole]

When Charlie knocked on the door of Frank Carrington's office, a Shropshire-accented "Come In!" greeted him, and he smiled at the charming welcome, as he shut the mahogany door behind him. Carrington sat behind his own desk, in a simple leather-covered chair, wearing of course, his general's uniform.

"Ah. Cole, Good to see you're here now." The smile on Carrington's face was thinner, as he gestured to another chair. Something in the look made Charlie a little nervous and suspicious of a special assignment.

"You're a little bothered sir. What is it?"

Carrington sighed, his concern a bit more clear to see. "You've been selected for a special contract, although I'm a little worried that you may be in for it as a result. Bloody Teragen."

Charlie's eyebrows lifted and scrutinized the ex-general. "Teragen? What do they have to do with this?"

Carrington pointed to a wide-screen television attached to a side wall, and he turned it on while beginning an explanation.

"Tampa, Florida's new mayor is taking office, Fredrick Reistein. He'd campaigned on the promise to enact a more limited restriction on novas. 3 years after Geryon smashed Rupert and it seems the city hasn't really learned anything. And then... this morning..."

Charlie watched the recording of Two Minutes Hate, and Frank Carrington's words seemed like a Care Bear against the torrent spewed forth by Geryon.

"N! got a package left by Geryon somehow, and they naturally aired the shit. Apparently, Reistein got some cold feet, and some urging from Utopia. Reistein contacted us shortly after. He wants a good Elite running part of the security detail he's assembling to protect his arse at the swearing in. We told him he'd get Air Rat."

Charlie hissed some unpleasant words under his breath, but he knew the rules. No real room for refusal, and DeVries did have his back if worse came to worse. Besides, his high position with the mercenary corporation meant, when combined with the seriousness of the mission, that he would have probably any tech that he would ask for.

"I'm going to say that you'd better be giving me a whole lot of tech, because otherwise, this could be very bad." Carrington nodded, in an intense agreement. "You'll get it, Cole. Seeing as we've only got five days until the ceremony, and you're leaving in three, you might as well give me the starting list now."

Charlie held a frighting and sharp grin, as he began to list his demands- requirements- that Carrington approved, one after the other.

It was quite a list. Charlie already had a personal whipsword, carbon-fiber garrote and maser gun. He asked for an invisibility suit, several swarm canisters of nanotech mosquitoes, all loaded with the most powerful kinds of of nerve gas, depressants and mox, a smartweb.

Carrington promised to personally arrange their being readily available and prepared for him. Charlie thanked him, then when all was settled, departed.

It was going to be a tough and intense training for the next three days for Air Rat. He had been ordered to presumably engage with one of the most dangerous wanted novas on Earth, and it would take his all to win here.

Time to be vigilant for Nova Vigilance.