Fort Liberty (Formerly Androka)
Madagascar
NATALYA CROTCHES LOW ALONG THE SHORELINE looking out at the cliffside. Not far from her location sat the new Fort Liberty set up by the United States' military shortly after DEP Six's assault on the compound.
With hostility in the region high with China the United States was quick to sweep in and take advantage of the facility already set up by Maltaus before anyone else had a chance to. Russia temporarily decided it best to drop out, but it was only a matter of time before they decided to change their minds especially given the opportunity to set up shop here.
Natalya knew the base would be heavily guarded and every way in and out would either be sealed or guarded, but when something was looked through with even a fine toothed comb there was always something bound to be missed.
Natalya sits dressed in a black and bark blue tight fitting bodysuit laced with streaks of silver. The suit itself is a specialized prototype suit developed by Section 8 giving the user an advantage in two parts. The first allows natural camouflaging with shadows but further casts a cloak of invisibility around the user using the surrounding environment. The second part masks the user that has
Second Sight
from being detected by demons. As an added benefit, does the same for a demon.
Specifically further designed and tailored for the
Succubus
, are a pair of clawed gauntlets made of synthetic
Mythril
separated by a layer of titanium to protect Natalya from its effects. And to accent the suit is a matching waist cape designed like hanging daisy flower petals.
The beach is quiet with the only sound coming from the crashing of the waves as they come up onto the shore. Natalya checks to ensure
Muramasa
is secured to her back. The expanse to the cliff face is less than five hundred yards and she covers it in the moon lit glow in less than thirty seconds.
The cliff face is rocky which provides the perfect cover to the secret entrance into the base and after a short climb she reaches it. After taking one last look Natalya slips into the shadows of the cave and completely out of the cast of the moonlight.
Because she is a demon she has no need for night vision or any other technological aides. Her eyes pierce the darkness making out the curves of the rock formations as if it were lit up with a torrent of flood lights. The cave forms out into a long tunnel just a head taller than she is and runs for another three hundred feet before it opens into a larger cavern.
Natalya pauses as she turns the last curve of the tunnel into the cavern to find a soft glow of light being cast into the tunnel itself. Slowly she draws
Muramasa
and proceeds cautiously forward. As she breeches the mouth of the tunnel she finds the source of the light to be a small lamp. Sticking to the shadows, she further inspects the lamp, tracing it back to a small generator. She isn't at all too surprised that the secret path has been discovered. The American military were pretty thorough when it came to things like this.
Voices carrying over an echo grab her attention and she quickly swings around low searching for the source. Her eyes scan the darkness following the conversation until they settle on two soldiers about to cross over a rope suspension bridge.
Heavily armed and expecting anything.
Natalya smiles and springs into a dead run at the two men. By the time either of the two men realizes she is there it is too late. She has
Muramasa
up and around cutting the soldier on the right in half sending both halves over the side then back around with a diagonal slash cutting cleanly through the other soldier's assault rifle and through him. The soldier steps back with a look of shock as he bounces against the rope of the bridge, mouth agape. He tries to speak but only blood fills the void. Natalya puts her finger to her lips, "
Sshh."
And then she pushes the soldier over the side.
She crosses the bridge slipping back into the shadows again upon reaches the other side. With the exception of the rift the cave is small and the exit tunnel lies within another ten feet from the bridge.
She crosses into the tunnel following its winding path toward a light flooding into the mouth of the tunnel where two more soldiers stood guard. Without breaking stride she continues forward dropping
Muramasa
horizontally and speeds through the middle of both men slicing the one on the right in half then in one fluid motion spins around to take the other's head off at the shoulders.
Natalya is crotched back in the shadows before either of the bodies has fallen to the ground. She scans the area taking note of guard locations. Once satisfied she has them all noted her eyes settle on her target: the main complex building. To her surprise it is still in its collapsed state from DEP Six's assault on it just months before.
Yellow caution tape has been strewn across every entrance and warning signs forbidding entrance are posted many times over. It seems to Natalya that either the Americans don't know what they have lying beneath the surface or they think this is the best way to keep things under wraps. Either way, it's not going to keep her out.
Natalya sheathes
Muramasa
and leaps from her position into a sprint. With near blinding speed she is across the expanse and diving through a window. The glass shatters, crashing to the floor alongside her as she rolls to her feet,
Muramasa
already in her hand. Silence quickly drops around her like a blanket as she waits for the shouts of alarm or the pounding of boots. When neither comes she stands and sheaths her sword and brushes off the dirt she collected.
Natalya walks toward what was once the
throne room,
looking at the chaos along the way.
At least they had the decency to clean the place up a bit.
The building was just a shell of its former self. The military had come through and pulled out the dead bodies and any weapons and important documents, but left furniture, rumble and blood where it lay. It seemed they were as much of a hurry to vacate the building as they were to move into the base.
Eventually Natalya comes to stand before the entrance of the throne room which is blocked by an impregnable wall of rubble. She snickers and slowly dissipates into a haze of mist and rematerializes in a tall cylindrical cavern. Standing on a ledge just large enough to sustain her, Natalya looks out to see Talilith floating in a bubble over an abyss of emptiness. The
Djinn
is motionless and her eyes remain closed appearing to be in hibernation.
Natalya reaches out and touches the
Djinn's
face and is instantly taken back...
~
"It has been months now and we are no closer to taking down the Asura than when I arrived here," Natalya said looking up from the bed of the small room.
Dasha Maykov crossed her arms and continued to look out the curtain of the door of their meeting place. She was not at all happy with the sudden meeting the younger Black List member insisted on calling but her older sister Talilith didn't seem all too worried about it.
"And I have told you not to worry," Talilith said with a smile. "My sister and I have been working with Maltaus since before your arrival and with his help we—"
"Maltaus is a demon himself, the very ones we are supposed to be hunting down," Natalya nearly screamed.
Dasha snickered and looked over toward the two women. "Look who's talking." She took a step away from the door letting the curtain fall into place. "You have been working with Delgrious for the last few months yourself."
Natalya's face betrayed her and both sisters smiled at the fact. "Yes we know of it," Dasha continued. "Tancheres' personal assistant will betray you the first opportunity he can get and you thought it wise to hide it from us, the only two that could bail your ass out of that when the time came?"