After about ten minutes one of the doors opened and three people stepped inside the room. Two of them seemed to be high ranking officers, one of them wearing an OCU uniform and the other sporting USN colors. The third was a tall, dark-haired woman dressed in a long brown coat. The woman walked with a limp and moved up to the front row of chairs before seating herself. The two men both moved up to the front of the room, murmured to each other for a moment and then started setting up the projector. When that was done, the USN Officer made a little gesture to the guards outside and they shut the doors, giving the room some privacy. The two officers stood ramrod straight and stern faced before the room, the OCU gentleman speaking up first.<br/><br/>"Good afternoon. We apologize for calling you all out here on such short notice, but we have a crisis on our hands that cannot wait. As you may have noticed, the OCU and USN, as well as other countries, are all represented here today. The problem we are facing is potentially on a global scale. To get some small details out of the way first; your wanzers are all here and being prepped for combat as we speak. After this briefing is over you will be escorted to a changing room where uniforms have been provided. After that, the mission will begin. We are in no position to delay things."<br/><br/>It was at this point that the USN Officer turned on the projector and the screen displayed the first picture. It was of a dark-skinned man, simply massive and rippling with muscle.<br/><div class="floatright"><div align="center">(http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj499/MzHyde/Character%20Portraits/Durai.jpg)</div></div><br/>"This is Jericho Durai," began the USN Officer, "and he is the most dangerous man in the world at the moment."<br/><br/>"It started years ago," continued the OCU rep, "Let me tell everyone right now, that the papers we had you sign on the flight over swear you to secrecy. I will re-state anyway; the information you are about to hear must not leave this room." He folded his hands behind his back, taking a breath before continuing, "The OCU was investing heavily in a super soldier program. It would give the candidates superhuman strength, reflexes, and intelligence through a combination of gene therapy, implants, and drugs. It was an utter failure. Not only was it obscenely expensive, but nine out of every ten candidates either went insane or simply died of unexplained causes. Durai was one of the... success stories... if you can call it that. When we scrapped the program, we... disposed of the candidates. Or so we thought."<br/><br/>It was the USN man's turn again and he stepped forward, "It was then that Jericho came to us, seeking revenge against the OCU. We were at war at the time and while he seemed a tad unstable, his combat skills were above and beyond anything we had. So, we allowed him to join in on several missions with hand-picked candidates from our army. These attacks were made with the utmost secrecy; they left no paper trail, only verbal orders were exchanged between our soldiers and... myself. They were called Operation Void, as they do not, officially, exist. Jericho Durai was always unbalanced, but as time went on he became more and more erratic. What you're about to hear is an excerpt of one of those missions, just before we decided to cut ties with him. You're going to hear Durai himself, Second Lieutenant Saunders," he motioned to the woman with the limp, "And Sergeant Major Chao." He stepped back and brought something else up on the screen. It was video feed from Halle's wanzer, a transcript of the speech playing out along the bottom of the screen. The scene is at night, much of it illuminated in green due to the wanzer's nightvision mode being active. The wanzer is at some kind of OCU facility, one that seems to be producing munitions or weapons, judging by the large number of vehicles and boxes.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Halle: Grim, at point one. Clear.<br/>Chao: Dragon, at point two. Clear.<br/>[silence]<br/>Halle: Cerberus, report.<br/>[silence]<br/>Halle: Cerberus, report!<br/>[silence]<br/>Chao: I can't pick up his signal, Lieut.<br/>Halle: Damnit. Did he go inside the complex? That's not part of the mission parameters. There are civilians in there.<br/>Chao: What should we do? We're due to detonate the munitions soon. <br/>Halle: Hold. We don't know what happened. He could've been captured.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Suddenly, there's some gunfire and small explosions. The wanzer's view shifts to see the side of a nearby building explode and another wanzer come racing out. The sound of deep laughter fills the room. Durai's voice comes over the comms system, rich and booming, the man sounding like he's having fun.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Durai: OCU slime! Die! Every last one of you pigs!</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/><br/>The wanzer that emerged from the building is presumably Durai's. Halle's view zooms in on it. Durai's wanzer steps up to a wounded man, raises one foot and then crushes the suffering civilian with one stomp. Thankfully, the night vision makes this hard to see fully.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Chao: [cursing in Chinese]<br/>Halle: Durai! For fuck's sake! What have you been doing?! Don't harm the civilians! We're only after the weapons, not the workers!<br/>Durai: [laughing] Fuck that pussy shit! We're takin' 'em all out now!<br/>Halle: What the hell does that mean?<br/>Durai: I set my charges on the main stockpile inside! This whole place is going up! Time to get going, girlie! You got about thirty seconds! </blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>More laughing as Durai's wanzer retreats, shooting down anyone in it's path and knocking over vehicles with reckless abandon.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Chao: We have to get out of here! <br/>Halle: ...All those civilians...<br/>Chao: Lieut! Come on!<br/>Halle: ...Fine. Let's-</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>A massive explosion rips through the facility. The view screen goes black. After a few moments 'SYSTEM REBOOT' appears on the screen and the view is restored. Fire. Smoke. Smaller explosions as munitions go off. The sound of Halle coughing, and groans of pain from Chao. Chao crawls into view, apparently having ejected from his wanzer and crawling twords Halle's. He is grievously wounded, his legs wrecked.<br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Halle: Chao? Chao? Are you alright?<br/>Chao: F-fine... Lieut... <br/>Halle: My wanzer is trashed.<br/>Chao: Mine t-too. [swearing in Chinese]</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Halle crawls out of her wanzer, but the cameras inside can still pick everything up as she limps over to Chao, scoops up the wounded soldier and starts dragging him out of the way. Flames lick at them from behind and another small explosion knocks both of them down. Chao cries out in pain.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Chao: [screaming]<br/>Halle: On your feet! Come on, we can make it!<br/>Chao: [yelling in Chinese]<br/>Halle: Chao! Come on! Come on!</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Halle is struggling to pull him up but even with the green screen it's obvious Chao is too far gone. He must've lost too much blood, the man too weak to support himself at all. Halle yells out as she tries to pull him up, obviously suffering herself.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">Halle: God dammit Chao! Get up, soldier!<br/>Chao: Mom... I... want... <br/>Halle: Chao?<br/>[silence]<br/>Halle: Chao?<br/>[silence]<br/>Halle: Chao...</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Halle drops the man and fishes a pistol from his belt. She loads it and limps off screen. Gunshots are heard, then return fire. The video ends here. With a heavy sigh, the USN Officer shuts off the projector and looks at the assembled crowd. "At that point we decided to cut all ties with Durai. We took him on one last mission and at the end, we allowed him to be captured. We had heard his was imprisoned, but apparently this was either a lie or he escaped. Now, before we continue with the second part of this briefing, does anyone have any questions?"<br/>