Where is Jade, Scene 5

In Starguard's Technical Division
Okami's analysis of the materials recovered from the overalls Ghost used at Tex and Mark's Spacecraft Repair Yard turns up a strain of pollen only found in a single valley near Joplin in North Carolina.

An Un-named Valley
Joplin is located near the Appalachian Mountains. The valley is nestled at the foot of the mountains themselves, a deep and narrow canyon with little vegetation and no source of water. One side of the valley is sloped, the other side is sheer, broken rock littered at the foot of the valley wall indicating a fairly recent landslide that left a sheer vertical face of granite and ironstone.

Okami approaches the small valley cautiously. Rather than entering straight through the mouth of the valley where there are more likely to be sensors or clambering over the top of the ridge where he might silhouette against the night sky he approaches the sloping ridge from the back side and then loops around, entering the valley high along the side.

As he approaches the edge of the sloping ridge Okami hears a faint whispering sound, like something moderately large moving through the still night air. If he peers in the direction the sound is coming from he sees nothing at first, and then a barely visible blurred patch of air slowing and descending towards the floor of the valley near the entrance.

Okami freezes in place at the sound of the whispering. He narrows his eyes, trying to focus better on the blurred patch, his nostrils flaring slightly as he scents the night air. Cautiously he makes his way after the moving patch, trying to keep it in sight while doing his best to remain hidden.

So quietly is Okami moving, and naturally with attention focused on the stealthy vehicle approaching, he is only belatedly aware of the presence of a deer settled for the night in a clump of sagebrush. The deer, startled by Okami's sudden appearance near its resting place bounds off in panic. If anyone had, for instance, a life sign detector on the area, that's likely to confuse its reading.

The stealthy vehicle moves into the entrance of the valley, setting down and becoming quiet although the visual distortion remains in effect. After a few moments the sound of a hatch opening can be heard.

Okami creeps closer toward the landing spot of the stealthy vehicle, doing his best to note any disturbances of vegetation that might help to betray the outline of the vehicle or its landing gear. He had not paid close enough attention to the specifics of the vehicle that was worked on in the space port but he makes careful notes now so that he can compare them later. He keeps himself hidden, merely observing to see who emerges from the vehicle.

There's movement, as two United Earth Marshals in their well known Power suits emerge from the stealth field and begin a quick search on the immediate area. Each is carrying a carbine style energy weapon held ready for use.

Okami scowls darkly. Apparently he isn't the only one to track Ghost and her crew to this valley.

Seeming satisfied that there's no immediate threat, the Marshals wave, and two more power suited Marshals emerge, along with a woman in casual clothing and three aliens. One of the aliens is the same race as the Guild Officials who appear on TV. The other two are brutish looking and much larger, about eight feet tall, wearing body armor and carrying massive energy weapons.

Okami scents the air once more, attempting to capture the smell of the three aliens and the casually dressed woman. He makes a note to pay especially attention to her so that later when he looks through photographs he might have an easier time recognizing her.

Sniffing the air, Okami makes the connection that escaped his sight. The woman is known to him, at least her scent is. Although he's only ever seen her in a lab coat previously. She's Marie Phillips, a technician employed in Starguard's Colonial Bay base. Not a very competent one though, and surly in manner to her work colleagues.

The Kulgan, his voice a squeaky monotone, tells the woman, "You'd better be right that this is the place were the samples came from. We don't pay you to make mistakes."

Marie replies nervously, "I had to sneak a look at the results the tech working on them got. That's what he came up with. I can only tell you what he discovered."

Okami grinds his teeth and curses quietly to himself. He had figured they were there because of the note he had written but he couldn't figure out why they would be so incompetent as to show up while he was still suppose to be scouting. With the Kulgan's statement however things become a bit more clear and as Marie speaks he finds himself at least slightly relieved when he realizes it wasn't actually his note that caused the problem.

The Kulgan tells the Marshals, "Search this place. Use the sonic scanner in case there's anything underground."

One of the Marshals returns to the vehicle, and comes out after a few seconds carnying a bulky device. He places it on the ground and activates it. Low frequency humming comes from it and earth and dust near it dances up in a low haze off the ground.

Okami begins to manoeuvre himself slowly through the undergrowth to a better position for an ambush as he continues to wait and watch.

The Marshal using the device calls out, "Up the valley twenty meters, on the left side. There's a cave behind the rock.

The Kulgan tells the Marshals in that direction, "Blast through the rock. Kill everyone inside."

Okami watches as the order is given. He thinks for a minute, trying to work out a plan to warn those within the structure but then pauses and sniffs at the air again, realizing with some relief that the inhabitants are probably long gone. Now all he needs to worry about is the damage the UEMS will do to any evidence blundering in.

With the Marshalls clustered around where they think the doorway to a hidden base is located, one brings up his energy weapon and fires a blast into the vertical rock face. Fragments of granite fly away from the impact spot, leaving a red glowing smoking crater. A split second later something pops up from the valley floor in front of the doorway, a palely glowing ball of bluish energy. It explodes outwards, flooding the valley with momentary light. Okami's communicator hisses with painfully loud static for an instant and then goes dead. The four power-suited Marshals topple to the ground, no longer moving. And the squad assault craft becomes visible as the stealth field dies.

Two large humanoid figures step out of the rock, one on each side of the doorway. They seem as if they are made from the very granite of the surroundings, stone given some form of life.

Okami winces at the brightness of the flash and the loud squeal of his communicator. Still, he finds it very interesting that the trap seems to have been designed to neutralize the attackers technology rather than simply exploding.

The large aliens raise their weapons and try to fire. Nothing happens, their weapons are just as dead as the Marshals' power suits.

Okami continues his surveillance, waiting to see what the two granite forms do.

The large aliens move forward, to protect the Kulgan from the granite humanoid. The fight that ensues is one of sheer strength and toughness versus strength and rocky hardness. The granite humanoids are gradually winning but it's no walk over. And time is gained for the Kulgan to exit the valley, leaving the servants to face the humanoids while he escapes. The servants fall back after their fleeing master... and when they leave the valley the granite humanoids return to the cliff face and blend into it again.

Okami nods as the fight proceeds largely as he expected. Ghost seems to be quite the planner and he almost finds himself wondering if she hadn't left the clue deliberately. With the granite forms returned to the wall he creeps forward in an attempt to better examine the area blasted by the Marshals, seeing if it provides entrance to anything of interest and if he can sneak past the granite guards.

There's a hole blasted through the rocky cliff face into a dark space inside. And no sign remains of the two granite humanoids after they melded back into the rock of the cliff face.

Okami creeps cautiously into the darkened space, alert for security systems which may still be active as he begins his search for clues.

There's quite a base hidden away in the cliff. But it's been stripped bare for the most part. Only when Okami gets to one of the inner rooms does he find anything left behind. On the wall facing the door is a painting of the globe of Earth with the letters 'E', 'L' and 'F' painted beneath it in the form of vines shaped to form the script. On a desk beneath the painting is a screen and keyboard combination, surrounded by a pale blue glowing ball of energy.

Okami makes note of the screen and keyboard. While they almost certainly know that something's happened he still wants to take the opportunity to finish his examinations before risking any form of communication. Moving on he searches for living quarters, looking for evidence of Jade Ashcroft's presence specifically.

The rest of the base has been stripped, and sanitised. Not only is nothing left behind, but it's been cleaned with exceptional thoroughness.

Okami scowls. No. Of course there's no trace of her here. That would be too easy. Well, might as well see what it was that they left for him. Given that the device was designed to remain functional after their own defensive pulse and their thoroughness it seems unlikely it was accidentally left behind. Taking a seat at the keyboard he looks at the screen to see what it says.

The screen is showing a stylized digital copy of the same content of the painting above it, a globe of Earth with E.L.F. printed beneath the globe.

It looks like a screen-saver to be honest.

Okami taps the space bar of the keyboard.

When Okami reaches through the glowing blue ball of energy he feels a slight tingle on his skin but nothing else. Tapping the space bar changes the image on the screen. A man's face appears, wearing a mask, his shoulders are visible with some kind of green cameo costume just in view. He smiles, "If you found this, you're looking for us. If you're from the Empire, know your days on this world are numbered. If you are a true son or daughter of Earth, read 'Guilded Promises, Alien Lies,' and after that, if you want to help, phone this number." The screen changes to show a international phone number and a count, starting at 60, and counting down at one per second.

Okami quickly memorizes the number. He wonders curiously if the computer will simply erase itself or if the entire structure will come down around his ears. He elects to exit the structure rather than take the chance, making sure the immobilized marshals and Marie are clear as well.

There's no big explosion when the countdown reaches zero. If Okami returns he finds the screen is blank and the keyboard unresponsive.

Interesting. A great deal of preparation and a great deal of effort spent to avoid inflicting casualties. Okami returns to Colonial Bay where he sets to work utilizing his streetwise skills to secure a disposable phone from which to call from.

Two Days Later: National News Roundup hosted by Bernie Sham, CBN TV station
Bernie Sham introduces a news clip from the impact site of the largest meteor to strike America in a decade...



Caroline: Was anyone injured or killed by the impact?

Mark Havers (FEMA): No. Members of the MSAR, that's our Meta Search and Rescue division, checked the area prior to the impact and made sure nobody was in the endangered area. After the impact we immediately inspected the site and determined there was no harmful material released.

Caroline: There was very little warning as I understand. Was this a failure of the Skywatch project?

Mark Havers: No, not at all. The circumstances were particularly unusual and difficult for that project. The meteor came in on a course that kept it behind the Moon's radar shadow until it was inside the Moon's orbit, and it was travelling exceptionally fast. Skywatch determined the impact location, and having confirmed it was an uninhabited area we made the decision to allow it to impact. It was already too close for any realistic chance to completely avoid a collison and any attempt by one or more of our MSAR personnel to divert its course might have risked shifting the impact to a inhabited area. In fact this incident might well be considered a validation of our procedures under extremely difficult circumstances.

Caroline: Thank you Mr, Havers.  The meteor is estimated to have weighed over six tons and been travelling at nearly 200,000 miles per hour. It impacted in a valley some twenty miles north of Joplin with the result you can see behind me. Several windows were broken in Joplin and one resident described it as the loudest noise she'd ever heard, but nobody was injured or killed. This is Caroline Charmers reporting for News Network.