#alastorzingari

[rbl-m1a2tanker]

Dye-cember-2018 Challenge 6 - Victoria Mikaru

Victoria Mikaru, a character belonging to @alastor-the-executioner and drawn by Blueessence.  I love adding colors to her work. It just gives it a nice, soft quality under her lines and shades.  

Original image: https://www.deviantart.com/bluessence/art/Pencil-Commissions-June-Collection-537653864

[demcorps]

A deep throated growl echoed down the city streets, announcing the arrival and passing of a beast of power, the twin cams rumbling and shaking the pavement even as the wheels kissed it in turn.  The figure seated on it, dressed in dark, thick biking leathers, kevlar constructed helmet and gloves, eased the bike around traffic, before pulling off and heading towards the docks. 

Minutes later, as it approached an old warehouse looking structure, the figure lifted a device and pressed on it.  The large door rolled up sedately, revealing cavernous darkness within.  The bike growled on, entering the warehouse without slowing down, the driver’s head barely missing the door as it began to close back down.  driving through a parking lot filled with a variety of vehicles, it stalked for another opening next to a structure set far back, and dove into the tunnel it revealed.

The bike huffed, seemingly in annoyance, as it rolled out from the ramps, and into a brightly lit mechanics shop, filled with all manner of vehicles, and machines in bays, where people bustled about in work.  At the sound of the bike, many of them stopped what they were doing to look, and then left to approach it.  The driver gunned the engine once, then twice as it rolled towards the middle of the open space before they turned the key and threw the kickstand out.  Open looks of appreciation were plastered on the faces of everyone who approached as the driver reached up and pulled the helmet off, revealing a wild shock of black hair with platinum streaks in it, and a grin on her full lips.  “Now now, don’t everyone crowd around at the same time.”

[rbl-m1a2tanker]

Another flats preview of a work in progress.  Three new characters take the stage: Laura Baker (belonging to https://alastorzingari.deviantart.com/ ), Lana Charwood (belonging to me), and Emma Baker (belonging to https://lordtrekie.deviantart.com/ ).  And they're hanging out on the beach, cause why not?

Highlights will come along, eventually.  Lineart was by jorgefranco, commissioned by me.

Original lines here: https://jorgefranco.deviantart.com/art/Ready-for-Summer-727197977

[rbl-m1a2tanker]

Dye-cember-2019 Challenge 31 - Alastor and Josie

The mercenary duo of Alastor Zingari (belonging to alastor zingari ) and Josephine "Josie" Acken (belonging to me) of DEM Corps hard at work, as drawn by CallMePo.  This was more challenging than I was expecting.  Though that would mostly be because Alastor's armor has a lot more color variance than Josie's.  Still, I think it turned out alright. :D    

Original image: No available online

Links https://www.deviantart.com/rbl-m1a2tanker https://www.deviantart.com/alastorzingari

[demcorps]

Contract Processing

Dustine stood over the holotable, moving digital files from one spot to another, creating new folders as she did so as she went about the process of reorganizing the company personnel filing system.  With the implementation of the first phase of “Oreo” Eden’s work, Dustine was wasting no time getting to work on putting it through its paces, giving it a solid stress test on the test servers while copying the data over from their production side. 

It was in the middle of this work that a ping appeared over her table: the ID showed as a file from Zingari.  She paused, reached out, and drew the small glowing dot towards her.  Spreading her hands apart, the dot expanded, was scanned, and resolved into images of a contract.  “Ah, I see Zin’s been busy.”  She mused to herself, flipping the pages as she read them quickly. 

“Looks like everything is in order...signatures in place for both of them.  Alright.  Let’s ‘s just wrap that up then.”  She took her thumb and forefinger, and mimed signing on the document.  As she did, her signature appeared on the contract, and when she tapped the date line next to it, the days date was stamped into place in precise, black font.  Creating a new folder, she proceeded to copy the contract over, and tapped on Alastor’s icon, sending a quick text back of “Contract approved.”

[demcorps]

Roanapur - The Message

Josie didn't burn straight out from the aircraft and back to the island of Roanapur at full speed.  As tempted as she was, she wanted to make sure she had a solid plan in place, and to do that, she had to call in some extra information.

"Dusti, I need the exact locations of the heads of the Cartel, the Yakuza, Triads, Russians, any of the big power players on Roanapur.  Their names would also be exceptionally useful."

"I'll see what I can do on the exact location.  Being criminal underworld types, they tend to not stay put too often."

"Considering that island has been a wretched hive of scum and villainy off of Thailand since the 60's, I somehow doubt they've left yet."  Josie glowered, her fists clenching in her gloves as she flew sedately over the ocean. 

"Fair point.  And they have been moving into more digital realms...gotta be something I can exploit."  The master cyberhacker went silent for several long moments, long enough that Josie thought perhaps that she had closed the channel.  Her voice's sudden return actually startled the mercenary.  "Ok, the cartels frequently change, but there is a Colombian cartel that's held shop there for awhile.  Also a small Yakuza group, a couple other small timers, but the ones you'll want to pay the most attention to is the Neveral Cartel,  the branch of the Triads there is led by a Mr. Chang, and Hotel Moscow, the Russian Mafia branch, is lead by a Balalaika, also known as Sofia Pavlovena.  Prefers the former over the latter, based on these reports.  Chang was former law enforcement, and Balalaika was former Russian military, airborne specifically.  Those are the three you should focus on."

"Very well."  Josie drew out the disc from behind her back, and deployed it into her helmet before slipping it over her head.  The visor instantly brought up several feeds of data, from the location of the aircraft she had left, small inset videos of the crew of the aircraft tending to Oriole and Alastor, to a digital map of the area she was in.  "Locations?"

The map quickly changed as the other feeds minimized to the corner, with little green dots over specific points, with corresponding numbers one thru three next to each.  "These are where the heads normally are.  Cartel is at point one, Triads at point two, and Hotel Moscow at point three.  The head of the cartel is at that location, if cell phone traffic is any indication.  Still working on Chang and Miss Sniper." 

"Very well.  I'll pay the Cartel a visit first.  Let me know when you've found the other two."  She flared up her energy, and shot forward thru the air, a visible shock wave forming around her before breaking into a loud sonic boom.

------

Balalaika and Mr. Chang sat at a table in a high rise overlooking the city; though, they paid little attention to the view.  Instead, they were focused on each other, their expressions grim.  "So you had nothing to do with the deaths of my patrols?" Balalaika asked, gazing coldly. 

"None, but I would not be surprised if one of the other groups didn't take offense to your encroaching."  The Chinese man replied easily, drawing a cigarette and lighting it.  She sighed, expression relaxing, as she too drew a cigar, which he promptly held his lighter out to light it for her.  She puffed on it, taking a couple of good draws before blowing out the pungent smoke.

"I thought not.  Still, strange reports down by the docks.  I'd almost think some of my men had hit the product the Rip-Off Church was selling." She took another draw of her cigar.

"Would have thought so too."  He shook his head, blowing smoke out.  "But I heard some cartel goons say the same thing.  Too much of a coincidence." 

The former Soviet officer snorted.  "Babe, I don't believe in coincidences.  Question is, what do we know actually happened?" 

Chang's smile slipped slightly, before he sighed.  "Two people, trying to head for the docks.  Firefight in different parts of town, cartel and your people involved...also heard something about a couple flying people from the docks."  He looked at her through his sunglasses, gesturing with his cigarette.  "Sound about right?"

She nodded.  "Pretty much.  I know of no one who can 'fly' around here.  That's more the Americans style with their 'super hero's running around."  The blonde snorted again, taking up a glass of wine and sipping.  "Must have been a gas or something that messed with my men's perceptions.  As it's in my territory, I will go investigate it."

Chang shrugged: he wasn't going to quibble on that.  "Hopefully you find out what..it..."  His voice fell away as he saw her gaze turn towards the balcony door.  His own gaze followed, and he had a moment of complete and utter surprise: a heavily armored woman was hovering in mid-air, her arms crossed under her bust.  "The fu-" He started to say when the armored woman held a hand out towards the sliding door...and the metal frame began to creak and groan.

---------

Josie quickly brought up power to the electromagnet in her arm, and the sliding door bent, curved, and then finally pulled away with a loud scraping of metal.  Catching the door, she twisted and then flung it up to the top of the building, before floating foward and landing on the balcony.  The sound of the door crashing above trickled down as she stalked forward, her hands now curled in fists.  The cam build into her helmet was on, and transmitting it to Home, capturing the stunned looks of surprise on the faces of the two most powerful people in Roanapur. 

"Привет, товарищи." Josie greeted.

The two crime lords began to rise when Josie held up a single solitary finger, shaking it slowly back and forth.  "Сейчас, сейчас, давайте не будем спешить. Я просто здесь, чтобы поговорить."

"Then speak in a language we all speak." The tall blonde replied, in accented English, as she settled herself back down.  The man also settled himself. 

"Good, because I'm not a fan of speaking Russian.  Or Chinese, for that matter."  Josie smiled tightly as she moved further into the room.  "I'm going to make this brief.  I'm Josie Acken, of D.E.M. Corps." As the two stiffened, she smiled a little wider.  "Clearly, you know of me and my company."

"How could we not?" The man, Chang, replied, his manner turning relaxed in his chair, an arm draped over the back of his chair as he held a cigarette up with the other.  "Your company has built up quite the reputation in the world."

"Exactly.  And right now, this island has two strikes against us."  Josie's expression became stony, as she pointed to the two of them.  "Or rather, your organizations, and the others on this island, have.  The first time I was here, a group of thugs tried to kill me at some bar called the Yellow Flag.  I took that to mean I wasn't welcome here."

"Yet here you are."  Chang pointed out, to which she nodded. 

"Yes.  Because earlier, some Neveral Cartel members tried to abduct one of my people to send up into the human trafficking highway, and both they and Hotel Moscow people tried to kill her, and the man who was with her."  Her gaze turned fully upon Balalaika.  "You should be aware that this man really hates Russians."

To her credit, the tall Russian merely shrugged negligently, brushing off ash from her cigar.  "Frankly, I could care less.  I don't concern myself with the feelings of a single ma-"

"You better be concerning yourself really fast."  Josie interrupted harshly.  "Because this man killed an entire Bodark Spetznaz team, with his bare hands, in the middle of Siberia.  And your people just made things worse by shooting at him."

By the woman's stiffening body posture, Josie knew that the Soviet officer knew of the incident.  Josie took another step forward, and then idly kicked a couch aside with ease, sending the heavy piece of furniture flying off to the side.  "I'm going to make this very clear.  We...are DEM Corps.  Deus Ex Machina.  We are the Ghosts in the Machine.  We solve problems that others don't seem to want to do, and we do it when and where you least expect it.  And right now, you people are becoming a problem.  We've been shot at, heavily wounded, and even had an attempted abduction.  All for trying to do business, or set up for the possibility for it, or for trying to do a job.  So let the word go out: D.E.M. Corps personnel that visit this island, are absolutely off limits."  She slowly stalked forward, watching the two crime lords slowly, uncontrollably leaning back from the presence Josie was radiating.

"We cross paths on a job, then it's just business.  But if you try to seek my people to abduct, ransom, harm, or even so much as fling a spitball at, I will make it my personal mission to solve the problem."  She hadn't leaned forward, but her cold, furious gaze seemed to press on them both.  Inured to threats and violence as they were, and as cool as were as they sat in place, their heart rates were noticeably higher, with sweat beading on their brows.  "Don't believe me?  Check with A.I.M..  They know what happens."

"And...how would we know that they are your people?" Chang asked, his expression suggesting amusement.

Josie speared him with a glance.  "You'll know." 

She then looked back to Balalaika.  "I'm sure you must have heard the howl earlier today." At the slight, hesitant nod, Josie continued.  "That was my man who hates Russians.  Someone shot him thru the head to make him dead. He got better.  And he was pissed.  That howl was him, and the torn apart body down at the dock was his handiwork."

The blonde woman's face blanched, and Josie knew she had hit the mark, so she finished it.  "He's not the most dangerous one in my company. The absolute only reason you're alive right now, is because they aren't actually dead." 

She seemed to relax and placed her hands on her hips as her voice became conversational.  "I don't care about this island, and have no interest in setting up shop and competing with your territory.  I run a business, and I'm watching over my people.  I'm hoping that you two are of a similar mentality.  So...have I made myself clear?  Have we come to an understanding?"

The two crime lords looked to each other, before looking back to Josie and giving a short, terse nod.  Josie returned a pleased nod.  "Good.  I'm glad you're willing to see reason.  The Neveral Cartel wasn't as smart." 

She turned away, and headed for the wide open balcony when Mr. Chang called out, "What happened with the Neverals?  Not that I care, mind you, this is just...professional curiosity."

Josie paused, and then looked back over her shoulder.  "They're going to need new leadership.  Also, a new place, after I blew up it up before coming here." 

"How did you know we were here?" Balalaika asked, her voice genuinely curious.

"That is part of what we do. For a price, of course." Josie started walking forward, before stopping at the threshold.  "I think we might set up a little outpost here.  Just so we are available in case our...services, are needed.  Or to solve a problem, like the Cartel was."  She shrugged, before looking over her shoulder once again.  "I'm not a fan of cartels.  Remember this agreement, and we'll do fine."  Looking forward, her energy flared around her, and she launched herself towards the sky.  Her takeoff cracked the concrete in concentric circles from where she had been, the carpet shredding, and the metal frame of the sliding door and balcony railing becoming instantly warped as the building rattled from her passage. 

The two criminals instantly rushed for the balcony, but Josie was already out of sight.  In the distance, smoke could be seen rising from the general location of the Neveral Cartel's territory.  They looked to each other in stunned silence, before Chang went back inside, went to a cabinet, and drew out a bottle of very expensive hard liquor.  "Fry-Face, I think we earned this today."  He mused, filling up a large glass with the amber liquid. 

"Babe, you're not just kidding." Balalaika replied, moving over to accept the glass.

[demcorps]

The Menace: Outside Contact

Dustine stood in the center of the Hub, hands waving and swiping over the holotable's surface as she brought up files, created code, started searches, accessed databases, and worked up mission packages as she got a closer look at Bougainville.  The librarian, Oriole, had been a fantastic source, bringing in context that not even Alastor had been able to.  To be fair, Alastor's expertise had been on combat and the EXO suits, as well as the general leadership procedures.  But the minutia of everyday processing of paperwork, documentation, understanding syntax and context of reports and in-office language...that was another matter.

Not that Oriole had provided that much.  Maybe it was a bout of paranoia, or just being careful, but she was generally tight lipped.  In Dustine's estimation, that was a wise thing to do.  Still, the data she had provided, the manner she had done, suggested a trained method, and some of the phrases used were similar to some of the context in the downloaded database and had clued Dustine in on how it was processed.  She really wanted to pick at Oriole's mind, if just to satisfy her curiosity about what they had downloaded...but, today wasn't going to be that day.  Today, she had other things to take care of.  With Josie taking a short nap to recover from the trip, she wanted to get the briefing packages ready before Josie woke up.

The recon data stream from the stealthed Firebomber and its drones was starting to come in, and she immediately directed it into a folder, activating an algorithm to parse the data into useful intel, when something bumped the stream. 

She paused, confused.  One does not bump a data stream.  "Hey, Jim, look at the drone data stream, back about thirty point nine seconds, do you see what I see?"

A dark man, his face highlighted by a monitor, brought up the stream and looked it over.  His brow furrowed.  "Is that...a bump in the stream?"

"Ok, I'm not crazy.  Something bumped the stream...how the hell do you bump a data stream?" Dustine shook her head, bringing up the stream and zooming in on the spot, breaking it down into it's actual bits-

-the section of stream she had been looking at suddenly reformed, swirling and spinning before coalescing into a small figure of a woman, dressed in a light blue bodysuit, her hair up in a tight bun, her pupil-less eyes glowing blue.  "Greetings, my name is Darcy, and my apologies for placing this message onto your data stream.  However, my Master asked me to contact you, and I felt this was the most effective way to reach you.  You appear to have a significantly advanced technological capability, and my Master is in need of a location to continue his mission.  If you are interested, send a single toned signal on the following frequency, and you will be contacted."  At that, the figure bowed her head, and she vanished, leaving behind an actual frequency sine wave, complete with numerical digits for the frequency setting and timing.

The room was completely silent, all eyes focused on the holotable, and then Dustine.  For her part, the silver haired woman took a slow swallow, knowing her face was pale.  There was only one A.I. that she knew of, and ALICE hadn't shown any proclivity for being able to slip in a full holographic message into a completely different type of data stream, and the recomposite itself at the target location.  Throat dry, she activated the comm system. 

"Zin...I need you in the Hub, immediately."