Shadow in the Light

[madimpossibledreamer]

….aaaand black helicopters. He is just first time stealthing aaaaaaallll the achievements.
desmond is absolutely showing off he just did ATC without getting caught. I don’t think I’ve ever done that one (yes I merged the two it only made sense)

Main Points:
Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Desmond and his recruits infiltrate a bigger Orochi base.
Word Count: 4024
Rating: Teen

 

         They manage to find ‘the kid’s’ plane, wedged in a tree. Desmond gets to climb up to get it, and sure, that should feel weird and different, but it doesn’t, and it takes him the climb back down to work out that was because of Connor. Pretty nice view up here, especially of the bridge and the Orochi operations on said bridge, which is probably exactly why the plane ended up here in the first place.
         The lights start blinking, and Desmond winces—maybe the crash had been a little too much and it’s broken? Except Nate says that it’s actually Morse Code, and Chelsea starts nerding out because she’d always wanted to learn that, and while they work out that it’s giving coordinates Desmond gets to think about the fact that it might’ve been incredibly useful to learn that, and they just...didn’t. Bill didn’t bother teaching a lot of practical skills that could really have been useful, just the traditional ones. And hiding in a crowd really didn’t work too well if you couldn’t blend in, never mind that actual real world history got tied into Assassin-Templar conflicts so often that might have been good to know, and there’s probably a lot more he’s not even considering that might have come in handy. He might be considering this from Altaïr’s point of view, how much he’d valued learning. Then again, he might just be a little salty that they never cared enough to put in the work as teachers and actually find something he was interested in. He considers that pretty briefly before dismissing the thought. After all, he liked climbing or freerunning or parkour or whatever the hell you wanted to call it pretty well, now, but back on the Farm, it hadn’t taken too long before he hated it. Mostly because nothing was ever good enough, but—
         His train of thought is derailed entirely by a warm, feathery body shoving itself into his arms. He’s really starting to get the idea Rukh knows when he’s not feeling so good and has made it his mission to make sure Desmond cheers up. That, or he’s just tired of being ignored. ...Maybe both, honestly.
“Sorry, buddy, you need something?” He considers what might be going on, and then adds, “You wanna rest a little?” Sure, birds...perch all the time, right? But they have to get tired eventually, just like if you’re crouching and watching somewhere, right?
         Rukh makes a contented ‘gwah’ noise and leans into the petting. Which means he won’t have his hands free, but he’s pretty sure the raven’s smart enough to stop that if they get attacked.
         “Ready when you are,” Chelsea informs him softly. And yeah, it’s kind of nice, when his bird decides to be adorable, rather than a terror, though that’s funny too.
         Along the way, they see a couple other dead Orochi, only these don’t have obvious signs of death on them, and Desmond could report their deaths, just like he’d been doing for the Sheriff, but he realizes he’d forgotten to do that in the first place for the one they found by the water. Yeah, sure, maybe it’s because John had decided to be a distracting little shit, but...they were lightly gold, he’s realizing, so maybe they’re going to be useful for something else.
         The Orochi-branded van doesn’t start, but there’s a laptop in the back. Password protected, of course, and it’s probably got tracking or something, but Desmond grabs it anyway. Of course, he has to set down Rukh to get it, who’s not too happy about the interruption and pecks at him. Carefully, but seriously, they need to have a talk about this. Even if he can just heal it and that’s like second nature at this point. “You realize your beak’s pretty sharp, right?”
         Rukh croaks quietly and rubs his body against the smear of blood on his hand, like an apology.
         There’s a produce stand over there. Mostly just pumpkins. It’s kind of sad seeing it like this, kinda like seeing modern-day Monteriggioni, except even there life existed and here it’s just still and silent and completely abandoned. It’s for the best that they just move on.
         Turns out the teenager, Danny, set up operations at a skate park, and surprisingly he hasn’t been bothered by a single zombie yet. Even if he sounds a little disappointed about that, like fighting a hundred types of zombies is fun. Danny’s even wearing a zombie t-shirt for maximum irony. He also calls them superheroes and makes a bunch of references Desmond doesn’t get (apart from the zombie game Rebecca had him play). Unlike Nate, Danny seems to be completely used to that kind of reaction because he just rolls right along.
         Rebecca would also love and adopt the kid as a sidekick almost immediately, he’s guessing, because he’d added the video camera and lights himself, without messing up the balance, and once he’d noticed them retrieving the plane and the fact that they weren’t “MIBs” he’d sent them the signal to let them know where he was. “Usually I just get it myself, and then I just have to fix it up all over again.”
         Without getting noticed and attacked. Somehow. Hell, if Rebecca doesn’t recruit this kid for his “mad skills”, Desmond’s seriously considering it, because he hadn’t even managed that yet and he’s got the experience of several Master Assassins.
         “Sure you’re not just flying it out of transmitter range?” Nate asks, and the teen snorts.
         “You kidding? I juiced this thing up, man. I was compensating for the camera, and I guess you could say I overcompensated. Don’t tell the girls. Or the League.” He makes a face. “You know, if there are any left, I mean. I guess. It’s easy to forget, playing spy out here. Funny enough, though, the guys at the bridge, they’re not too hard to keep tabs on. It’s their main base at the airport that’s all souped up, probably got signal jamming and maybe even EMPs. I actually walked up once and asked them what was going on, and then I tried to sneak in once, at night. They’ve got drones, and I’m pretty sure they’ve got weapons on those, and I can pretty much guarantee they’ve got infrared. Whatever they’re doing down there, they’ve got it basically on lockdown.”
         And Beaumont had been using the airport, too. Probably for different reasons, but it’s worthwhile to check, especially when they’re in the area.
         He lights up just about as much as Chelsea when he realizes they’re going to look into it, though. “Oh, uh, hey, why don’t you take this baby here for a spin? Pretty easy to fly, and you’ll get the route. Plus, you can pick it up and bring it back, no harm done.”
         That just impresses Desmond further, because the route is thick with zombies and Draug and something new—shambling mud piles and humanoid piles of stone. According to Lydia, those are all called ‘golems’, just different types. They’re created by magic to serve a specific purpose. Desmond can almost wrap his head around that (though it sounds vaguely familiar and he gets the feeling Altaïr had heard of that before, just like he had the Roc). What he’s having trouble with is the why. His best guess is some kind of hasty defense: from Orochi, from Beaumont, from the fog, from zombies, whatever, only given that they’re now roaming around free and aimless, he’s guessing it didn’t work.
         Once the plane gets there, predictably it goes down like a rock, but Danny’s already going back over the footage on his own phone. It’s well-guarded, with tech and patrolling futuristic drones all over the place. They’re doing something out there. Desmond memorizes what he can but he’ll get a better look once he gets there.
         And he doesn’t need any more persuasion to say they’re up to no good and this is something he definitely needs to look into. All the guards are red. Not some of them. All of them. That’s been rare, since he’s gotten to this world, and wasn’t even true of the Orochi at the bridge. There’s nuance there, although pushing gives him a slight headache. He’s getting the feeling (and it’s probably the Calculations again, given, y’know, headache) that it’s not that they’re enemies, exactly—more like they have orders to protect whatever the hell they’re doing here with extreme prejudice and don’t care who’s on the other end. So that’s fun.
         “See here, these generators? Pretty sure they’re powering the EMP. Manticore’s selling a knockoff version, but, like, it’s training wheels compared to these bad boys.” Being able to keep an eye on them is a great idea, sure, but there’s other things glowing in there.
         Still, he feels weird about leaving him here on his own. “Oh, don’t worry about me, man. If you need me, I’ll be in my tent,” he pokes a thumb at it behind him.
         “I can look after the kid,” Lydia suggests, which is actually probably a good idea. Ligeia, he’s pretty sure, stepped in a couple of times to keep her granddaughter alive, but she’d been better about not being too obvious about it. Desmond wouldn’t have even caught it if not for the fact that he’s fairly sure, at this point, Lydia needs more training and practice fighting, and he’s also going to have to test her stealth abilities later. Still, thinking about it, it’s probably for the best. Because he’s got the beginnings of a plan, but they probably can’t pull it off if all of them go.
         “That works.” He considers—maybe this is a bad idea, but something is saying it’s the right one, just dangerous—before plopping the laptop down on the park bench. “This is actually an Orochi laptop. Knock yourself out, just don’t get yourself kidnapped or killed, okay? We’ll keep in touch.” He taps the earpiece.
         “Wicked! Cool, okay. I don’t have all my tech with me, but I should be able to rig something, and I like the gear. Though keep in mind, signal jamming probably blocks those, too.” Seems he’s torn between gushing about the laptop or the earpiece. Given his similarities to Rebecca Desmond’s half expecting to come back and find the teen’s taken it apart, reworked it, and it’s suddenly working ten times as well, somehow, and also that he’ll be inside Orochi’s networks digging out their dirtiest secrets. Unless he gets kidnapped.
         “Are we going to spy on them this time?” Chelsea asks. Her tone is a little conflicted, like she’s sort of looking forward to it but isn’t exactly sure she should say that.
         “Stay out of trouble,” Nate adds. It might be a joke. It’s hard to tell.
         Danny just snorts, while Lydia rolls her eyes. They do look around the same age. From the sound of it as they leave the goth might be meeting all the tech talk with talk about magic. It could be they’re not prepared for magic, which might give them the edge they need.
         “Before I explain my plan, I want to have a better idea if it’ll even work.” He doesn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but a time or two in the Animus kind of gave him ideas.
         It is honestly a little suspicious how easily it goes. Nate figures it out almost immediately the second they find the body of the first dead Orochi guy they came across.
         Chelsea squeaks. “What are you doing?”
         Rukh must be feeling better, because he takes off, silent as ever, landing on a tree and puffing up slightly. To indicate he’s taking this seriously, probably. Like he’s standing guard. Desmond looks up from where he’s helping get the corpse’s uniform off. “I know it’s gonna be smelly, but we’ll just have to make sure we don’t get too close to anyone, and this is a big part of infiltrating. It’s not glamorous, but…” He shrugs. “The main issue is the blood and the hole. That’s kind of conspicuous.”
         Nate pauses in manhandling the body to consider that. “I’ve gotten pretty handy sewing up clothes. Mom insisted after I started ripping everything in my teens. And it’d be good to practice that spell of Lydia’s.”
         “Sorry,” Chelsea whispers to the corpse when they lie it back down. “...Uh, Desmond? Do you think we could bury him?”
         That would be a particularly Assassin thing to do, wouldn’t it? “Yeah, hang on. I think there was a shovel over by the van and the produce stand.” There was, and it turns out Chelsea’s handy with more than just the hammer.
         It’s definitely nasty, trying them on in shouting distance, mostly because Chelsea seems uncomfortable with this enough already, but that’s one of the things being in the Animus and experiencing this before had done to help prepare Desmond, and it helps that Lydia’s cleaning spell takes away some of the smell, too, because dead guys (and gals) reek. Nate’s uniform hangs a little large, but he’s able to sew it so it’s not too obvious, and he’s going to hang back behind Desmond anyway, so hopefully it’ll pass muster as long as nobody gets a great look.
         And then his phone rings. “Hey, this is Desmond,” he answers cautiously, because it’s yet another unknown number. How the hell is everyone ringing or texting him?
         “It’s Danny. Lydia gave me your number, because we found a gold mine in their email. It’s bad enough they’re using email; it’s not a communication method that was ever designed to be secure, and—sorry, I’ll get to the point. They’re absolute morons when it comes to security. There’s a code for something, and it’s current: 739241. They also said not to print it, but who wants to guess somebody ignored that anyway? Seriously, I’ve basically baby-sitted a five-year old with better opsec.”
         It’s not like Desmond’s a computer whiz, but even he knows that letting people get codes is a bad idea, though maybe more from the opposite direction of breaking into things, or out of them. “That’s really helpful, thanks.” They’re probably going to have to basically sneak in, even with the uniforms, but that code might just be the ticket in.
         “Hey, no big.” He hangs up.
         They take the uniforms back off for the trek, though—no sense in getting them more bloody with fighting along the way. Between that and the ID cards, though, he gets the feeling this is going to work. Though it’s actually a little unbalancing not having a giant bird perched on his shoulder now—he’s been compensating for the extra weight long enough it feels a little wrong, now. Rukh’s very obviously following, sometimes closer than others (once he flies just over Desmond’s head, probably just because he can), but Desmond gets the weird feeling the bird’s practicing his own tailing skills. He’s definitely better about it than any of Desmond’s Templar tails in London, present company included.
         “The biggest thing you have to remember is, you belong there,” he tells Chelsea on the way, and she glances at him slightly hysterically.
         “I don’t,” she insists, and yeah, it’d be easy to think like that and get overwhelmed, but that’s not how this works successfully.
         “Yeah, but they don’t know that. If you can’t convince yourself, how do you think you’re going to convince them? If you walk around and act like you know what you’re doing and where you’re going, people don’t tend to question that. It doesn’t always last forever. If you say something really obvious, for example, or if some sharp-eyed Orochi notices Nate’s uniform is off. That’s when you hit them with the complaining and put them on the defensive.” He shrugs. “Just treat it like walking around London.”
         “That sounds like it’s easier said than done,” she notes, still quiet and a little concerned, but then a Draug spots them and that improves her mood. And it’s not too difficult to grab the plane this time. He’s actually a little disappointed, but he’ll get his chance to climb. Eventually. Tokyo, maybe. Someplace like this doesn’t have too much in the way of verticality.
         They case the Orochi base, if not too obviously. Rukh cautiously flies overhead, a lazy flight, but luckily none of the guards even seem too bothered. Animals have seemed a little few and far between since he’s been on the island, but not completely absent, which seems to be enough to make them completely ignore him.
         Orochi has taken over practically half the runway. Some of the buildings down at the end, too. They’re using the existing chain link fence, mostly because it’s too tall to jump normally, probably, but they’ve also set out some of those glowy tech barriers on the runway. He’s memorizing all of it, the drones and their movement patterns, the patrolling guards and the ones just standing around chatting, where all the black helicopters and cars are parked, the off-duty guards sleeping in that building. With the drones, he’s seeing a band of energy that looks like it’s scanning and might indicate what they can ‘see’, which would be awesome if he starts getting that for cameras, too, rather than having to make an educated guess. There’s what looks like a ramp, leading down to some service tunnels, which—bingo. Figures in red, on the other side, around a glowing table, and opposite that is a glowing doorway. That’s their ticket in.
         “We’ve got this. Follow my lead.” It’s back down to the water with them.
         Chelsea swallows. He pats her shoulder sympathetically. “Hey, remember we’ve got Rukh keeping an eye on the situation.” Though from the glow of blue on one of the masts, he’s decided perching is less suspicious, which is pretty smart.
         Once they’re changed, Desmond looks for the most inconspicuous place to put his bag and their clothes. It’s not exactly a sewer, but it’s not exactly smelling like roses, either. They’ll probably need a shower and laundry after this. Maybe at the hotel. It’d be funny just to keep going there to shower. The Dragon have been messing with him enough, so maybe he should mess with them a little back.
         Just as he’d expected, there’s a keypad keeping up the force field, or whatever it’s called. From the look of the pressed buttons, they’ve swapped out the passcode a couple of times, but the numbers pressed most often don’t include a five, six, or eight, which matches the passcode Danny found, and just as expected the hexagons wink out of sight once he’s put it in. It goes back up not too long after they’re out, but there’s another keypad on this side, so that’s the way they’re leaving, too. Chelsea’s sticking maybe a little close, but that might fit the image they’re trying to project, too, forming a general story in these people’s minds—a guy with some experience, something like a bodyguard, maybe, and the green, nervous trainee. Which...kind of is reality, but still. It’d be slightly better if they were more nondescript, probably, but he can make this work.
         The spot opposite of them is probably the trickiest, aside from the drones. And there’s something glowing there by the entrance. He confidently strides over, the other two following, and smoothly hits the button as he passes. An alarm starts going off. The corner next to the stairs might look like it’s in the open, but it’s glowing white, so he just smoothly walks there and casually leans against the wall, Chelsea and Nate following. The scientists don’t even glance in their direction as they run out, evacuating.
         “You are unreal,” Chelsea whispers after they’re out of earshot, but they’ll probably figure out there’s no real fire or whatever quickly enough. Time to snoop while they can.
         “Thanks. Look out for anything that looks useful, but stay close.”
         He makes a beeline for the golden laptop in the middle of the room. And hey, looks like there’s a flash drive just sitting there, shame if something happened to it. Like, if somebody used it to download whatever’s on this computer. It’s even easier because they didn’t bother with a password. Sure, they might notice the flash drive’s missing, but hopefully after they’re long gone.
         “They’re doing autopsies on Draug,” Chelsea whispers with horror, and Nate corrects her while taking pictures on his phone.
         “They might be called necropsies. They are for animals, anyway. I don’t think there was ever an official designation the Council of Venice decided on for supernatural creatures.” The download finishes. It’s too bad they can’t take this laptop, too. That’d be too obvious, but Desmond’s pretty sure Rebecca would commit multiple homicide for this kind of speed. Still, the eagles are screeching, so it’s not like they can afford to waste time now.
         “Back to the corner,” he instructs them tersely, and they barely make it there in time. After all of them seem to be back in their positions, and with none lurking outside, they just get to walk right back out up the stairs.
         From there, it becomes a little more of a dance, smoothly, constantly moving, except when they’re downloading whatever’s on a few of the other laptops they just have...sitting around. Like, they’re guarded, obviously, heavily, but they’re so confident none of them bothered password protecting anything either. Even Vidic had the security pen thing, and other than the fact that he’d severely overestimated Desmond’s skills (seriously, he was rusty at the time) he’d had every reason to be confident, since he was in heavily guarded territory. Desmond has to agree with the kid, this is just kind of sad.
         They even manage to snap a few surreptitious photos of some suspicious cargo in the back of one of the black helicopters, when they’re out of sight between the helicopter and the fence.
         One time they get a little close to one of the groups, and they get the typical, “How’s it going?” She could be a good actress, but she doesn’t sound suspicious at all, so maybe it’s not weird she doesn’t know everybody by face. There have to be over fifty people here, so it’s not too surprising, plus she might think they’re here on official business from the bridge people.
         “Eh, better than the saps out there,” Desmond responds, going with the first thing he thinks of, pointing a thumb at the fence. The laugh in response is kind of ugly, but hey, it worked, he’s not going to knock it. He can judge the woman all he likes once they’re out of here.
         When they get to the generators, Nate smoothly steps up, acting like he’s repairing them or ensuring they’re working or something, but if Desmond’s not seeing things, he’s surreptitiously zapping them. Probably with magic. With him, it’s usually magic.
         Then, they’re almost back at the exit, when someone shouts. There’s red lights from the red drone, and it looks like Chelsea got just a little too close, and the drone’s getting closer and he’s pretty sure the kid’s right; it’s probably is armed with something.
         Which, there’s pressure, sure, but there’s only so fast he can put in the passcode, and he’s used to this, to working under pressure, between his dad and the Animus, this isn’t going to get to him—
         And then the ground shakes, with the familiar sound of an explosion.
         “Holy shit.” That’s...the first time he’s heard Nate swear, he’s pretty sure, but the Orochi are sufficiently diverted. They can slip out and grab his bag and their clothes, though they’re absolutely not changing until they’re further away. Rukh comes to greet them, looking very pleased with himself.
         “He dropped a bomb,” Nate elaborates.
         That he’d probably stolen from the Orochi, too.
         “Way to go, buddy,” he tells his bird, who literally preens.
         Lydia’s report consists of the fact that Cassie’s trying to seduce Danny by sending him suggestive pictures, and that’s it. He needs to introduce the kid to Rebecca, now.