15876/Blades of the Ivory Coast: Prelude!

Blades of the Ivory Coast: Prelude!
Date of Scene:	18 September 2023
Location:	Operations: Triskelion
Synopsis:	A briefing for peoples about the things!
Cast of Characters:	Alexander Aaron, Natasha Romanoff, Lara Croft

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Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Morning, Staff Sergeant." Agent Simms said as he walked past into the briefing room. The answer he got back from the man near the podium was a grunt of acknowledgement if not acceptance. Then when Agent Flannerty walked past and she said, "Sarge." She got another grunt as well.
    But Staff Sergeant Nathan Martin wasn't a sergeant. At least not in SHIELD. SHIELD had no such rank, but in his time in the corps before signing up with SHIELD he had most definitely been a sarge. He was one of those men who just had that look. Sure he wore the SHIELD combat and utility uniform, but his head was shaved, his body was fit, and he had that narrowed squint almost perpetually that made him seem like he was always on the verge of losing his temper.
    The staff loved him.
    He handled training and some level of recruitment, but often he was also handed a file for a briefing, sent out the needed pings to various personnel, and then he would take up his place at the podium.
    Though this time he grunted and leaned on it. "Gimme five, waiting on a satellite update. What it shows could change the whole shindig."
    Around the room various agents nodded and some took this time to enjoy their coffee. Or in Alexander Aaron's case... the free bagel that they're giving out in the cafe.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova is currently sitting back over in one of the chairs. A small tape recorder is out and she's ready to take notes. Yes, it's an old analogue style recorder. The type that won't be so easily broken, damaged by an EMP or hard handling, or having a sentient supercomputer rewriting everything on it. But she would still have to put her fingers in to spool up the tape when it got unwound to make it work.
    Then, ready to listen attentively she would remain quiet and observing. Sitting in a position where she could rapidly move to the side for cover and to get a free line of fire to target anything hostile.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara slips in to the back of the room moments before things kick off. Dressed in a black light jacket, with a dark blue cap on her head, Lara had been out at the airfield today, helping with helicopter piloting training of new chopper aviators. Being that she's a registered chopper pilot herself within the Agency, they often bring her out to help the new pilots get familiar with the basics on nice days such as today.

Lara finds a place at the back to sit down, sliding in to a chair and pulling her small black leather backpack off her shoulder to lay it down on the floor beside her right leg. She draws a tablet computer out of the interior of the pack, and keys it on as she grips it between her hands, using one thumb to swipe her way through the apps to load up what she needs to take in this briefing, and take down notes of what is said here-in.

After a few moments, Lara's eyes look up to the speaker, a calm expression upon her youthful face.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    After a bit of time one of the Comms officers emerges through the back door of the briefing room, walking up to the podium to hand the green folder to the man there. Agent Martin nods and gives a grunt of thanks much similar to his usual offerings of 'good morning', then he flips the folder opens and peruses the contents. Another very different grunt signifies his mild annoyance. For he is a man of many grunts.
    "Alright, listen up." He leans upon the podium and says, "The ping went out to each of you because you might be of use down the line to whatever this is. Right now what it is? Is not much."
    That's the moment when the lights come down and the back of the room illuminates as an image flashes onto the lowered white screen that's to the left of the podium. Martin gestures to the side as an image of a map comes up of the Ivory Coast.
    "Satellite metrics and intel assets have shown a marked increase in the amount of naval activity in the area on the border of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The port of Aboisso has had a degradation of communication. Cell networks have lost some recognition and the traffic from the area is down." Agent Martin pauses a moment to sip his coffee.
    "Now Aboisso ain't exactly sittin' on the on ramp of the information super highway, so this could be something normal. Also there's been some heightened military activity in the direction of the town Dunkwa."
    The Sarge looks around the room, "Now I know what you're sayin'. But Agent Martin. What's this got to do with us? Well there's this here."
    And as he says that he gestures with a nod and the next frame comes up on the screen. This time it's a ragged hazy image with washed out color of a ship in the background in the middle of some form of explosion, parts of its fore beam splintering outwards. While in the foreground a slight shimmer is seem sliding past whomever is trying to take the video. It's approximately four frames all semi-connected to each other, showing that shimmer sliding from left side of the frame into the right, and a wisp of smoke or vapor rising from it while the fishing ship in the background combusts.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would muse over while analysing the data, skimming it over for a moment. "Civilian, military, raiders.." She would be thoughtful now and look things over. "The widespread degredation of communications is hardly unheard of in that region. I take it that whatever naval assets in the area that are on anti-piracy patrols have already had their records evaluated if any? And that if not then patrols in the area have been extended to the region or are in the process of?" The unspoken being if they hadn't been extended to the area that the various militaries could be nudged to do so. Bset to have the initial information taken on someone else's dime after all for a level of deniability. She would go to scan along the data and listen attentively over.
    At the display of the frames and what might be a.. Cloaking device? Some sort of chameleon field over on the ship, she would be thoughtful. "Likely best on terrestrial technology if it's visible for a few moments." Alien tech tended to not flicker in the visible spectrum. Good Earth cloaking technology didn't either. So this meant in theory it could be a low or mid level stelath technology deployment. Considering.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara listens to the briefing, following then to Natasha speaking up. She looks over to the other woman occupying the back of the room, and nods her head once before she turns her attention toward the front once more.

"Last I heard, the French military had a high presence of troops in West Africa. I'm not sure if that includes anything along the coast, but it could be worth asking French contacts for any information that they may have heard about recently." She quietly notes before shaking her head. "Beyond that, I know that a lot of naval forces in that region are constantly undergoing military training exercises. From what my mentor used to tell me, He was never fond of his journey near to the coast of west Africa... Pirates, and otherwise."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Official intel from the region we have is spotty to an active negative since there are a number of bad actors in the area." Martin opens the other folder and starts to go through the intelligence, shaking his head while he goes through. "We got official word from both Ghana and Ivory Coast that nothing is going down, that everything is normal, and that we should keep our noses out of their sovereign business. As it were."
    The erstwhile staff sergeant makes a face as he turns the page on one of the reports within, still shaking his head. Then he gestured with a nod toward the four frame animation of the exploding ship. "Now, the big brains in R&D have done their bit to piece together what they could, apparently this is the result of forty seven hours of focus, and the examination of one of our best analytics systems. So we have nothing concrete. No visible markers on the type of technology. For now, first steps, intel team is being sent in. We'll have three agents on the ground in seven hours. We've changed the location of one of our orbitals to give us a better window of observation. I've forwarded the needed files to your data devices. Your future possible involvement in this op will be determined by what we find."
    He takes a moment to gesture with the folder in Lara's direction. "That's a good point. We should put some feelers out to the French in case they've had anything of late." She'll see him open one of the folders as he pulls out a pen and starts to make some hand submitted notes.

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would nod at the elaboration from Matthew. "Understood." That meant that any data they had would be essentially useless to planning and operations and to be discarded - unless there was patterns in it of them being fed false data, which let them know official sources were compromised, which was useful in and of itself.
    As Analysis would go on she would consider. "Appreciated. Will there be deployment of long term reconaissance assets to the area or is this not deemed efficient use of resources to do so?" Long term recon teams, drones, observation units.. It could come in many forms.
    Nodding to the staff sergeant. "Somewhere to start. Also make sure to get the personnel on the ground in the area listed and who conducts active patrols." They may have more useful data than just the senior military bureaucracy.

Lara Croft has posed:
The response that she garners gets a simple nod from Lara. "Cote Divore is, however, attempting to make big strides to increase tourism to its various cities. I think many of its locals are eager to shed past assumptions about the region being dangerous to visit. But... desires, and realities, are often not one and the same."

She glances toward Natasha on her right again, before her eyes dance forward to the front of the room again. "I'm not sure how I can help with this, but I'm happy to provide whatever I'm able to." She quietly notes further before falling silent again, her eyes dropping down to the screen of her tablet again.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "That's a negative," Agent Martin gestures again with the folder, "No boots on the ground in the area save for one operation that has a higher critcality so those assets are not available to us." Though as to what that operation is he does not go into it.
    His attention shifts back toward Lara and he nods, "If you got the request to be here chances are one of the big brains thinks you might have some insight or..." He looks down again at his coffee but leaves it sitting for now. "They might have some people thinking on what it might be and that could lead one thing to another." That said he closes the folder and taps it on the side of the podium.
    "For a handful of you," He looks pointedly at one of the recon teams who are paying close attention to the data that's been sent to their handhelds. Then when they realize Agent Martin is looking at them they look up. He continues, "This means pack your bags."
    Then he turns to the rest of the people, "But for 98% of you out it means just keep it in the back of your head. If it turns into a thing we may have to move fast. Alright. Questions?"

Natasha Romanoff has posed:
Natasha Romanova would glance over at the agents, "If necessary long term observation may be deployed. Depending on the priority and availability of assets." And it wasn't the part of the world that they could just sit on a beach, having a martini, and being on-call in case a kaiju stomped out of the ocean.
    "THe more data we have, the better to narrow down the possible vectors." That's spoken to Lara over the bits on 'insight' as Natasha would go to fold her hands together.

Lara Croft has posed:
Lara was well aware of her world travels, and the skills she's picked up throughout all of that, has made her randomly get pulled in to more SHIELD missions than she ever originally expected when she signed up for the Agency a few years back. From being so versed in many languages, cultures, and more, she realizes there's a good chance someone 'upstairs' might have faith in her being some measure of a resource in such places, though if she were to admit it... west Africa was not her strongest forte.

She just nods softly to what Natasha says before her eyes go forward once more.

"Is the anticipation for this to be something that will draw larger resources toward the African coast? In the form of a Helicarrier, or ground bases?" She asks, curious about what may be suspected scope-wise here.

"If it is to be something fairly small in scale, I am more than happy to travel there and speak with whomever we feel may be helpful in acquiring as much information as possible."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    At Lara's questions he shakes his head, "Not currently, and we don't have the ok from the local governments for an... official presence." Though at the idea of her heading there as well he looks over at the recon team.
    "Sir, we do have a few questions, but better to take them offline." She lowers her hand and glances a little at Lara, smiling slightly before she looks back to the man at the front of the room. "And if Agent Croft wants to volunteer her time, who am I to disagree?"
    Martin gives a nod an says simply, "Roger that." He steps back from the podium, "Alright, if that's it then we're set. Good luck, ladies and gentlemen." He turns to start to walk over toward the door, tucking the folders up under his arm as he's intercepted by that comms officer again he murmurs into his ear.
    The recon team leader gets to her feet, giving a nod to the rest of her comrades before she walks over toward Natasha and Lara. There's a glance given to both before she says, "If you wish, Agent Croft, we can put you on our team list for the updates we're giving each other. Right now we're consolidating what assets and contacts we have in the region."