| abstract
| - Hikage - Thursday, November 19, 2009, 6:12 PM Senegal Senegal is a moderately decentralized republic dominated by the Socialist Party, which has held power since independence. President Abdou Diouf, who had been in office since 1981, was succeeded in early 2000 by the newly elected president, Abdoulaye Wade. In 1996 the Socialist Party won control of all 10 regional governments and many local governments in the country's first subnational level elections, which were marked by credible allegations of widespread fraud and procedural irregularities, gerrymandering, illegal fundraising, and voter list manipulations. Due in part to the flaws in these elections, the Government's decentralization program has had limited success in defusing the secessionist rebellion in the Casamance region. The Casamance region is an important focus area for the economic development of Senegal due in part to its rich tropical environment. The region is centrally located to facilitate trade with neighboring countries and has some of the largest traditional markets in Senegal. At one time, Casamance was also well known as a major tourist destination in Senegal. Currently, a major constraint affecting development in the Casamance region is its armed separatist struggle that has lead to a sharp decline in the economic and social well being of the population. In 1982, supporters of the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de la Casamance demanded that the Govern-ment of Senegal grant independence to the Casamance region, an isolated section of southwestern Senegal located between Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. This demand sparked a two-decade-long conflict, which had seemed to be resolving but has recently become much worse. Contents: Foxfire Lavender Lambourghini Countach Ultra Magnus has arrived. Blades has arrived. Falling forward, Ultra Magnus transforms into his Semi-Cab vehicle mode! Fortress Maximus has arrived. Galen has arrived. Fortress Maximus drops Galen. Fortress Maximus has left. Lavender Lambourghini Countach is in his Resonance 'costume,' mostly because he's expecting to have to meet with Blueshift and Shockwave soon, and switching back and forth paint jobs is an incredible chore. However, since he's in vehicle mode, this really just means that he's a lavender lambo. He (and the others) are approaching one of the larger towns of the region, taking advantage of the cover of night time. His headlights are off, but his radar keeps him safely on the road. "All right, Foxfire. In this mode, my chemical sensors are ineffective," in other words, his sense of smell is shot, "so I'll be relying on you to pick up traces of the weapons. Everyone else, stay sharp - you're back-up in case things go wrong." It's almost like the set up for a joke. A lambourghini, a fox, a (horse-drawn?) helicopter, a car carrier, a ninja, and a Nebulan walked into a bar... Blades leaps into the air, expanding and reconfiguring his body structure into a Sikorsky S-76 Spirit helicopter within seconds. Aramasu Hikage is wearing some jungle green camo typical with the soldiers around here under a jellabah(sp?) and an olive and black shemag covering the head and face save the eyes. The ample jellabah is perfect to conceal the pistol and a a 24" sword tied to the back of the belt. Foxfire is, currently, in a holographic disguise, giving him the appearance of a particularly large donkey. He's not fond of the disguise, but he's doing his best to fit in to the environment. Every so often his ears twitch, just like radars. At this time he is moving along with his companions, keeping pace with them. "You got it, Red." He smirks. "Or...Lavender, should I say." Just a bit of light teasing. White Peterbilt 352 is trucking along, as silently as possible. Lights off, he follows closely behind Red Alert in him underused White Semi-Cab mode without the carrier kibble. He's much more effective at *secret* operations this way though, the carrier probably drawing more attention to their location if brought along. Prime asked him to show up merely as an advisory role only, to insert his strengths as needed ... because this is Red Alert's show, and Magnus is all too happy to participate in a soilders function. The City Commander says nothing, following along with the others. Galen is dressed in big concealing garments and a baseball cap, thinking this a good disguise. Rather than ride along inside one of the other Autobots he has procured a vespa for himself and is puttering along with a half busted headlight along the unever road. Why he decided to join the others is anyones guess but he seems eager to prove that he is capable even on his own. Timmy Greene, EDC's private third class techie (lacky) extraordinare, drives behind the other Autobots in his old and rusty Honda Civic. Judging from his barely controlled excitement, one can probably safely assume that this is the fellow's first mission. Will he survive the mission from the beginning to the end, or will he suffer the fate of all 'redshirts'? Only time will tell. Lavender Lambourghini Countach sighs. "I would have preferred not to do this. If I get discovered, I'll have to come up with something else for 'Resonance.' I'm also going to need to have my BIOS edited, but that's another issue enti- OUCH!" He thumps as he hits a pothole, then grumbles. They are now inside the town limits. It's mostly quiet, but there are *some* signs of life. Aramasu Hikage is riding on board one of the vehicules and checks out anyone suspicious or out of place...Like old women in big robes wearing combat boots and such. Foxfire suddenly makes a face, which looks weird on his donkey-disguise visage. "This is disgusting," he complains. "I'm smelling a lot of drugs. Probably in the process of being manufactured." He glances to Red as he hits the pothole and winces slightly. Galen seems to be doing an excellent job of avoiding the worst of the pot holes and other hazards on the road despite having little light to work with. As he scoots along along he manages to avoid hitting the nasty hole that Lavender Lert hit only to get smacked by a low hanging brach. "Flarfing tree!" Wobbling unevenly he puts his feet out ro try and steady himself as they make it into what passes for a town in these parts. Slowing he looks about and wrinkles his nose as even his unskilled sence of smell can detect unpleasent aroma's. The Honda Civic straggles behind the group as the inept driver behind the wheel, Timmy, struggles around with navigating the country terrain without headlights. The car wobbles left and right as it practically hits every single pot hole in the vicinity, "Ooooh shoot. They make it look so easy in the movies. Ooof! Good thing this is a company car, I hate to see the repair bills after this trip." Timmy winces slightly as he drives along, finally breathing a sigh of relief as he too can see the outer fringes of the town at last. White Peterbilt 352 swerves around the pothole, adjusting speed and direction to avoid wrecking into his fellow Autobots. Upon Foxfire's advisory findings, the City Commander absolutely seethes with anger and rage. Magnus /hates/ drugs. Instead of acting out however, he marks the location on his nav computer and tucks it away for later. Because duty calls, it's not time to march off taking down druglords all on his lonesome right now. Slowing down, he falls back to the end of the line ... bringing up the rear. There are a lot of people in big robes. And a few people in combat boots. But so far, no one in the both. "Excellent job on marking out the potholes for us, Private Greene," Lavender 'Lert observes approvingly. His own radar is sweeping the area, and he hmms quietly. "There is some activity down an upcoming ally. Perhaps we should slow dow-" and then he screeches to a halt as his radar picks up several chickens in front of him. "Oh, for the-" he starts, grumbling. Too bad the moment he stops, figures begin to lurk on the street edges, eying him greedily! "Donkeyfire" comes to a stop as Red Alert does, a frown on his muzzle. "Now I'm picking up the scent of gunpowder..." He goes quiet as the figures start eyeing Red, and he steps in front of the Lamborghini protectively, eyeing them right back. Aramasu Hikage takes a quick peek at the figures with some night-vision binoculars. "They look ugly but not 'armed'...least not with firearms at first glance. Probably just curious." Galen does his best to fit in despite being as out of place as they come. Not only is he alien to this area, but he's alien to the planet itself. As Donkey and Lavender stop he watches the chickens cross the road and wonders if Americhicken is doing ok back home. Shifting his glance as some onlookers turn toward the motley band he makes sure that his pistol is secure under his cloak, just in case. Fidgiting a bit he eases the scooter ahead. "G-glad I can help." Timmy croaks out, the vehicle he's been given hasn't been ac comfortable ride at all. The EDC techie is starting to get the suspicion that the special ops division didn't give him one of those fancy tricked out cars that their operatives get as well. Hell, he didn't even get issued a firearm. The only thing he has with him is his bag of equipment, meant to be used to disable warheads when opportunity shows itself. "Uh... hey, are we there yet?" Timmy pokes his head out of his window as he nears Galen, he asks nervously. Apparently in the techie's eyes, Galen is the most normal looking person out of the bunch, well except for the fact that the fellah looks like he's trying to revive the 80s with his fashion sense. Boy is he wrong. White Peterbilt 352 comes to a stop when the line halts in front of him. The band of chickens crossing the road, he takes a moment to activate his onboard sensors to sweep the area for any potentially hazardous threats. Receiving nothing on the systems, Magnus idles the engine and waits for the band of heroes to start rolling again. Fortress Maximus has arrived. Several of the ruffians at the edge start to approach Lavender, but then Donkey gets between them and glares! The humans open their eyes wide, terrified at the terrible beast, and run off to safety! Lavender breaths a sigh of relief. "I think we're getting close, Private Greene, if Fox- erm, Donkey is picking up gun-powder. Donkey, can you trace where it's coming from?" As Ultra Magnus comes to a stop, a dark figure starts to try to creep towards him from the shadows. Foxfire makes a show of flaring his disguise's nostrils before the creeps run off. He watches them flee, and then turns to Lavender Alert. "I think so." He lifts a forepaw--err, forehoof--and points it toward another part of the road, which seems to lead into an alley. "Over there." Aramasu Hikage keys his communicator ,,Looking for gunpowder here will drive you crazy. At least 80 percent of the population is 'packing heat'. Can one of you access some database about chemical cleaning products? I remember those kind of warheads that can be used for VX need to be cleaned with something very sspecial to make sure there are no traces of VX left in them. If they are shipping empty it means they were probably cleaned before being put in storage or sold. The cleaning product smell will likely be easier to find or at least confirm we are in the right spot." White Peterbilt 352 sighs, what the heck is taking so blasted long? Isn't 'sniffing' out some chemicals "Donkeyfire's" speciality in the first place? Pulling forward, he tries to get a better view of the front of the line ... suddenly noticing a couple of shadowed figures creeping up from the dark. <> Magnus transmits on the shortwave, engine revving slightly. Galen isn't here to help scan or sniff out chemicals. In fact in his current unarmored state he's little more than a target with a water pistol. He does however have a quick link to the big guns parked off shore and can more than hold his own if requred given time to armor up. Giving Pvt. Greene a quick nod he waits for the others to lead on once again. "I think so, though I am not really sure where we were supposed to be heading to begin with. Maps of your would still confuse me a bit." Actually, Foxfire's speciality is blowing crap up. The whole sniffing thing is a collateral duty. The dark figure, bold as bold can be, kneels next to Ultra Magnus, reaching out with some tools in an attempt to steal his hubcap! :O "Hikage's... right," Red Alert admits reluctantly, forcing down his distaste over working with a Militant, ex or otherwise. "The cleansers are probably a better idea. However, for now, let's check that ally." He hmmms at Ultra Magnus's concerns. << Rev your engine really loud? >> <> Ultra Magnus moans, his internal sensors pinging off from inside the cab. Throwing the badboy in reverse, the Autobot revvs the engine quite loud and kicks up some dust in his wake. <> Foxfire is indeed good at blowing things up. Sadly, that's not what this assignment is about. As he approaches the alley, he has to stop for a moment and paw at his nose. "Chemical cleansers... Ugh, that's a strong smell." He pauses, and turns to stare at Magnus, the revving catching his attention. "What the..." "Maps of our world?" Timmy barely holds back his startled gasp, before whispering out, "Oh wow, you're those aliens that the military guys been talking about." The EDC lacky eyes Galen up and down, "They said you guys were rainbow coloured though..." Looks like Timmy has been fed a lot of exaggerated information. Magnus' sudden revving surprises the EDC lacky, putting the man into full alert status as he stares at all directions nervously. "Well we do seem to come in more shades than the people of your world. But.." He quiets hearing Magnus rev and reverse. Thinking that they have been had Galen guns the vespa accelerating a few feet right into an empty fruit stall, wedging the front tire between some now busted boards. "Flarf!", he exclaims as he stops and starts to pry the scooter free. Aramasu Hikage chuckles at Magnus worrying about his hubcaps <> <> Ultra Magnus replies sternly, rushing forward to try and scare off the crowd of bandits. He's grown rather tired of waiting around, hoping that "Donkeyfire" will get the show on the road. "Sounds like we're on the right path then, Foxf-" he cuts himself off as Galen runs into a fruit stall. "Galen! Are you all right?" Boy, it's a good thing he had his windows tinted during this. Luckily, by now the chickens have crossed the road, arriving at the other side, which lets Lavender 'Lert roll forward. "Hmmm. He has a point about them not having a reason to follow us around, but he *could* be just trying to talk you into giving up your parts on behalf of his *friends*," Red Alert tells Magnus. "After all, who *knows* what they may plant on you while they're removing body parts!" Yes. When you're a car or a truck, a hubcap is a body part. The crowd scatters as Ultra Magnus's engine revs, but they don't run off completely. They seem to be *watching* the outsiders. Foxfire makes angry donkey sounds at the crowd. His holograms come with sound, you know. He seems to be saying, "Shoo, go away!" But he's trying to stay in character. And then he turns toward Galen. "You okay?" he asks, echoing Red's concern. And yes, Magnus, he'll get the show on the road when things stop being weird. Galen climbs off his ride to extract it from the stall. "I'm fine, only my ego is bruised. This thing doesn't handle at all like the hover cycles I'm used to." Waving away concern he pulls the bike free and checks the tire. So far so good it seems. Donkeyfire and Lavender 'Lert might hear the slow hiss but not Galen so he mounts up and angles back onto the street. Timmy Greene steps on the gas as soon as he watches Lavender 'lert move forward. The Honda Civic rolls forward slowly while the driver inside does his best to give the thugs in the area his angriest looking glare to dissuade any car parts shopping on his expense. Well... technically the EDC's expense, but ol' Timmy is such a grade A employee like that. The locals seem terrified of the terrifying Donkey! Strangely, they are far more frightened of him than of all these cars driving about without drivers! Timmy, however, mostly just angry glares, and hand gestures no doubt picked up from American entertainment sources. Some of them snicker at Galen's predicament, however. Foxfire is very terrifying when he's angry, apparently. Horrifying, even. White Peterbilt 352 corrects his allignment and follows course, departing the area with the others. He's all too happy to leave the ruffians behind, perhaps getting to some answers in this quest. Lavender Lambourghini Countach just rolls forward, a bit closer to the alley in question. "I'll have to shut off my radar, just in case any of it's live. Wouldn't want to set anything off accidentally." Foxfire moves ahead of the others toward the alley. Who knows what he'll find! He hears the faint sound of someone talking, though he can't make out the words, and for good reason. "I've got some voices up ahead, in some language I can't understand. The smell of the chemicals and the gunpowder is getting stronger." Aramasu Hikage gets out of the vehicule and follows 'Donkey-fire' because a Donkey sneaking around an alley is just weird without an owner nearby. Hikage checks out the buildings for openings, doors, fire escapes or stuff that would easily allow to climb onto the roof. Lavender Lambourghini Countach creeps along behind Donkey-fire and Hikage, because a lambourghini sneaking around an alley is not weird at all! Also because he totally doesn't trust that Militant. >:(Galen putters towards the alley keeping closer to the vehicles than to the donkey. Not only would that just looks odd, but he's also one of the more vulnerable members of this team and would rather not be the first one shot. Timmy frowns as he is given the bird by a passing thug, "Just the sort of thugs that I expect to find in this hive of scum of villainy!" The EDC lacky mutters and continues to drive into the alleyway along with the other Autobots. It did occur to him to step out and walk into the an alleyway like a normal person would do, but he probably would be missing his ride, or at least most of the parts to his ride, when he returns. Too bad his driving skill is craptacular and the Honda Civic earns itself a scrap mark across its right side as the vehicle turns into the alleyway. Good thing no Autobot volunteered to let Timmy Greene ride in them. It would seem that the people up ahead are a patrol of some sort! They walk partway down the alley, one of them smoking a cigarette. Luckily, the group spot them before the patrol spots the outsiders (because lavender lambourghnis, sneaking donkeys, techs in civics and Nebulans on scooters are totally easy to miss). Time to hide! Lavender Lambourghini Countach hides behind a dumpster. :(Sikorsky S-76 Spirit tests. Foxfire lets his disguise vanish, and then he activates another hologram to make himself look like a dumpster, which is probably the one Lavender Alert is hiding behind. White Peterbilt 352 follows closely along at the back of the herd, keeping an optic on the rear for anymore hooligans in the night. His attention drawn back to the front, he spots Red Alert pulling up behind a dumpster ... and then he spies the patrol. Crap. He's easily the largest one of the group, and it's going to be quite difficult to hide in his alleyway. Thinking quickly, the City Commander transforms as silently as he can and wedges himself inbetween two buildings. Only faint scrapes can be heard as his chest grates against the building. The extra kibble dissapears, reavealing Ultra Magnus' real robot mode AKA White Optimus Prime Doppelganger mode! Timmy Greene panics as he watches the Autobots and other people in the group fan out into their own hiding spots. Too bad the EDC lacky isn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to on the field improvisations. He quickly turns off the engine and ducks below the dashboard. With the lights and everything turned off. The damage the vehicle took on its trip to get here, which is probably fairly extensive, at least visually, might help it blend in. Maybe not. Go Timmeh. You can do eeet! Aramasu Hikage dives into the holographic dumpster as this seems the best course of action for him. These guys could raise an alarm and they have not done anything wrong yet. And should Hikage go on a killing spree Big red white and blue will probably not agree with it. For now he simply focuses on slowing his breathing to make the least amount of noise possible. Noticing the sports car ahead do a quick swerve to hide behid a Dumpfire, Galen is forced to think quick. Turning off the engine he leans the vespa agains a wall as if it was parked and ducks into a doorway. Pulling his cloak tight he sits down and tugs his hat low. Forcing his breathing to slow he rests an empty bottle in his hand and feigns a drunken sleep. The BAD MEN look suspiciously around the alley. Their visual range passes over the dumpster, the lambo, the guy ducked behind his dashboard... even the giant robot tucked between two buildings! He shrugs and turns away, saying something to a companion in his own language, but one gets the idea that it roughly translates to, 'Eh, false alarm.' Obviously, everyone's disguises are VERY good! With that, they start to head back down the alley, and disappear into a large, fenced in lot at the end! The Foxfire dumpster subtly starts moving, slowly following the men. Holograms are a wonderful thing. Lavender Lambourghini Countach creeps along behind the dumpster! Aramasu Hikage gets up and follows the guards with uncanny silence with one hand on the short sword's handle. Hikage hugs the wall as much as possible to minimize his shadow. Galen quickly gets to his feet when the coast is clean and moves to retrieve his scooter. It is only now that he notices the front tire is flat. Muttering he takes a better hold of the bottle he's holding and starts to stagger along after the others. He stays near the walls so he can pretend to be using them for support. Ultra Magnus peeks his head from behind the building, whispering "Coast is clear?" Seeing the others creep forward following the patrol, the City Commander tip-toes out and transforms as silently as possible once again. Falling forward, Ultra Magnus transforms into his Semi-Cab vehicle mode! The men suddenly turn around, as if they suspect the dumpster is following them! Red Alert stops moving forward. Foxfire-dumpster abruptly ceases all movement. It's nothing more than a normal dumpster. Nothing to see here, move along. The men decide it must have been their imagination. Obviously that dumpster isn't moving anywhere! And that white semi-cab was there all along, right? And that abandoned scooter at the end surely means nothing at all! They shrug, and head back towards the lot. Foxfire moves along once more when the men turn around. He eventually gets close to the lot, near enough that he can see inside. All the while, he remains subtle, simply a dumpster that was there the entire time. Lavender Lambourghini Countach also creeps forward, as stealthily as a lavender lambourghini can creep! Erhm... The lot is a munitions dump. Close inspection by dumpsters or those with the correct sensors would reveal that it does, indeed, contain the weteyes that are scheduled to be sold to the villainous Boomslang! The Honda Civic's engines rumbles to life again and slowly begins to follow the rest of the unlikely bunch of sneaky... er... sneakers. Timmy Greene leans forward as he spies the lot, "Hey. How are we supposed to get in there?" Galen continues creeping up to join the others careful to not be run over by a Civic or stepped on by Magnus. Peeking as best he can to see what's in the lot and say unseen he seems happy that things are going well. their combined skill and the stupidity of movie villians has served them well so far. Aramasu Hikage grabs his binoculars and examines the security around the ammo dump. Looking for cameras, blind spots, misplaced lights that cast big shadows and such. "We're not. Well, most of us aren't," Red Alert says quietly. "Now that we've found it, we just need to watch it." White Peterbilt 352 pulls to a stop at the end of the alley, killing his engine. This is where he'll draw the line, he's not built for this kind of sneaky work ... and he'll likely just get the group caught if he tries. Instead, Magnus will act as a lookout for the group incase any hijinks come their way. "Looks like we've found what we came for." The Lavender Lambo starts to go in reverse. "We had better get out before we're found. Everyone, mark this location on your maps!" When Red Alert starts to back up, the thugs who had crept out of the shadows while he was waiting to steal his hubcaps run off. Foxfire-dumpster starts after Red. "I'm good with that, man." Aramasu Hikage marks the location and shall return soon to start monitoring the guard schedules and the little details. Galen nods and quickly slinks back down the alley to his scooter. Surprised to still see it there he hops on and starts her up. Backwalking a bit to get out of the alley he begins driving out of town to the evac spot. *thoomp* *thoomp* *thoomp* Off he goes on his flat tired Vespa. "Wha? That's it?" Timmy Greene puts the Honda Civic into a reverse and follows the rest of the Autobots back where they came from. "Wow, that's it then isn't it? I'm a full fledged, hardcore, no nonsense special ops veteran too now, ain't I?" The EDC lacky asks, excitedly, he's already having delusions of grandeur, "No more boring desk jobs for me, ya?" "Sure, sure, very good Private Greene," Red Alert mumbles, pulling out into the road proper. Better Greene than the Militant, so far he as he's concerned! Although he still has his phases where he's certain the EDC is really a front for something far more sinister. ***** *** * * * * * * *** *** **** * * *** * * * * *** * * *** *** ** * * ** * ** * *** *** *** * * *** *** * * * * *** **** * * *** * * * * * ,
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