The Three Stooges...

Posted on Tue Dec 26th, 2023 @ 12:55am by Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

Mission: Christmas Cheer
Location: Earth, Hawai'i, remote beach
Timeline: Current

[ Earth, Hawai'i, remote destination ]

K'ner sat quietly on the ridge, easily hidden by all the broad-leafed foliage that was so abundant in most of the islands, in addition to the new exo's they just got. She liked them so far, and it was nice to give them a workout before it got serious in the field.

"Moe is stalking you Nod. He picked up your trail finally. These blue morons can't track worth a dang!" K'ner shook her head. The hit squad, or whatever their intentions, were urban-trained at best, and quite lost in the wilds... and this was hardly what K'ner would consider 'wild'.

On her HUD she saw the other two blue dots. Each one moving after their own 'pseudo-Mira' as she hiked along the trails. Bravo had carefully injected enough ambient RFI that their comms didn't work if they were more than 100 meters apart, seemingly natural interference from the heavy flora here, so right now, they couldn't report to each other that they were each following their target, each seemingly focused on being the one to bag her. Given their weapons, K'ner's crew still wasn't sure if they meant to abduct her, or terminate her, but they didn't plan to give them the opportunity for either.

At least Nod and Deena were females... They'd had to dress up Kotsoo to pull off the ruse, and he was none too happy about it. If Curly actually caught up to him, he wouldn't be pulling any punches in the mood he was in.

But orders were orders and they'd kept them occupied for 3 days easily enough so far. K'ner was all for just bundling them up and keeping them under wraps until told to release them. But who knows what relation they had to the diplomatic attachment, so they played the game, keeping 'Mira' just out of sight, and coincidentally managing to stay just out of their range as she went hiking, jogging, sightseeing, climbing...

Watching one trying to swim had been hilarious, especially when Nod used her cached air tank they'd left underwater for her. She appeared minutes later, well down the beach from the frustrated Curly. When he saw her he nearly lost his cool, and his cover, trying to get to her before she jogged into the jungle.

Chbet had already talked to several of the nearest residents, who hadn't taken the big blue meanies (their words) very well when they first blew in. They'd obviously thought they'd just stroll out and take Mira (or take her out). That certainly hadn't worked as planned, and fortunately for K'ner, she'd already had her team in place to observe, and cover the XO's exfil. They scurried around initially, thinking the locals had misinformed them on Mira's beach hut, but Chbet had waved in some of the locals when they looked like they were going to get heavy-handed, and those kids were pretty imposing, large even as youths.

The store keepers and guides gave them the pamphlets on the local sights, and soon enough the trio set out in search of their prey, not realizing it was the other way around. Separating them had taken just over a day, but now they were each trying to outdo the others, and take sole credit, making it easier to keep them apart, and each on the trail of their own Mira.

Armed with all the local geography tips Chbet had gleaned from their new friends in the village, the team had planned out routes to keep the tangos separated, but just close enough for Bravo to support each other if something happened. Charlie Element was due down tom'w and Bravo would relax on the beach, taking the downtime but still on hand, just in case, with two rotating an OP on their sleek stealth ship that wasn't so stealthily hidden after all. This far out from civilization made it all the more simply to find advanced tech, and their ship was full of it.

K'ner shifted her perch, moving silently to another position to look down on Shemp's rather crude chase.

"Deena, Shemp is falling behind so ease up just a little. Take some pictures and then move on. That should give him enough time to catch sight of you but not close enough to get off a shot of anything through all this foliage. Head up to the waterfall as planned and then back to the beach. See if he swims any better than Curly..."


:OFF