Part - 1: Preparation

On a steep cliff, overlooking a highly-secured black-ops site was a figure clad in an all-black outfit.

The only noticeable feature of the lone figure who stood fully covered from head to toe in a skin-tight body suit, were her amethyst eyes.

The suit was not only stretchy and elastic to support the flexibility of the user but also highly bulletproof.

The lone figure was the first female on-field test subject, that the material was being used upon.

It was a new material that her country's secret science & technology department's research and development laboratory was currently working on.

Her country, didn't usually deal with creating phenomenal technological changes or advancements in the world, but that didn't mean they weren't involved in it at all.

They kept most of their scientific breakthroughs a secret, but one of their more renowned projects was her suit, which was being tested for this black-ops mission.

She was being used as a guinea pig because of her body weight, height and posture, which was remarked as the perfect body ratio standard for females in their industry thus, she was preferred by the scientists and technical designers back at home.

This trial would help in removing all the remaining errors for this new body-suit; so that it could be used on a wider scale for the other undercover agents of her country.

Yang Qiaolan sighed upon thinking that she was being used as a lamb for slaughter on the whim of those crazy and enthusiastic science lunatics.

But then again, she couldn't blame them as it was her approval on this matter, that resulted in her current outfit.

Her usual go to suit-up was It was having no armor at all or the little protection suit she used, which was barely enough to cover her vital organs.

Heavy armor would be a hindrance in her case, as it would affect her speed and flexibility, which was a boon and necessity to have on such undercover operations.

But because of this new product, she could have a little more back-up to her life which was NEVER a bad deal.

"Lynx 01 come in, Lynx 01 come in", her earpiece chimed. "This is Coyote 02. How do you copy? Over."

"Coyote 02, this is Lynx 01, copy loud and clear, over", replied, Yang Qiaolan, pressing on the comms. in her left ear. She turned her body away from the cliff's edge and roved her eyes over the hills surrounding their infiltration site for today's mission.

"What plan are you going for commander Lynx? Over", asked her technical backup, Coyote.

"Plan 'Charlie' with some modifications will do just fine Coyote, I'll be instructing momentarily, stand by, over", she answered.

"Roger that commander, over", acknowledged Coyote.

"Eagle 03, Eagle 03, come in, this is your commander Lynx 01, do you copy? Over", Yang Qiaolan inquired in order to adjust the plan.

"Lynx 01, this is Eagle 03, copy 4 out of 5, over", replied her scouting subordinate.

"Good. Listen carefully. We will follow through plan 'Charlie', set up the parameter according to plan 'Alpha', and exit as per plan 'Delta', secure your locations and notify the snipers, we begin infiltration in T-minus 30 minutes. Do you copy? Over", she stated slowly but clearly.

"Copy that commander, WILCO, over", answered her head scout Eagle, relaying her instructions further to his own subordinates.

"You got that Coyote? Over", she inquired from her technical support, whom she had asked to stand by.

"Loud and clear commander, over," replied her backup leader.

"Good, get ready to provide directions as needed. Over", directed Yang Qiaolan.

"WILCO commander, we will prepare here accordingly, over and out," answered Coyote.

"Panther 04 & Cheetah 06; Panther 04 & Cheetah 06, this is Lynx 01, do you copy? Come in, over", Yang Qiaolan called out for the two other comrades who will be going in with her.

"Lynx 01, this Panther 04, I copy, over", answered Panther, he was a great friend who had been with her through all their military missions, they were comrades since the day they joined the military, which was now 9 years ago.

"Lynx 01, this is Cheetah 06, copy loud and clear, over", came a sweet and melodious voice which didn't seem as if it belonged to the battlefield. This was Cheetah, she was a recruit who had joined, Yang Qiaolan and Panther a little later but became a part of their life as if she always belonged. They had know her for 6 years now. Having these both as friends was what brought a little color to Yang Qiaolan's grey life and bloody military career.

Hearing their acknowledgment, Yang Qiaolan further instructed and elaborated on their plan and asked her friends to prepare their respective subordinates.

After that she alerted every sub-leader for conformation and one final command before it all started.

"Do you copy that soldiers? Over", asked Yang Qiaolan, a.k.a, commander Lynx of this 'Sigma-A' black-ops. mission, in response to her instructions.

"I hear you, commander", responded Panther. He would lead a group of 15 battle hardened soldiers who were most apt for strength based attacks in order to take over their hostage for today.

"Roger that Lynx", said Cheetah. She would be leading a group of 15 subordinates who specialized in speed breaking through the enemy's defenses. Her and Panther's groups always worked together in order to cover up each other's shortcomings while boosting their existing aptitudes.

"Copy that commander", Coyote replied. He would be their technical back-up and support and would provide directions in case they were stuck in any pinch. He and his team of 4 were a few miles away monitoring in their disguised run down van, standing by.

"This is Dove 07, command received", this reply came from their military doctor, Dove, she and her team of 6 were stationed in another van like the tech team's just near Coyote group, ready for any unfortunate emergency that may befall their soldiers.

"WILCO commander", said Eagle. He and his team of 35 scouts and snipers were spread throughout the site, ready to provide long distance assistance as and when the needed.

"Tiger 05 here, copy that", said Tiger. He along with his 14 soldiers were guarding the medical and technical teams.

"Good. That is all for now, everyone should be on standby. No mistakes will be tolerated. This is an A - Class mission but we will treat it as an S - Class one in order to avoid any hiccups due to leniency. Prepare for infiltration, we have T-minus 20 minutes. Over & Out." With that one final statement Yang Qiaolan stopped speaking and let everyone get ready.

5 of Yang Qiaolan's personal subordinates had already infiltrated the site and were now posing as the enemy's soldiers. They would lead an opening in order to help the infiltration progress smoothly.

Instructions and commands were issued over the radio as everyone got into their positions, while double and triple checking their respective gears and ammunitions.

94 soldiers and their 6 squad leaders, were deployed for this mission, Including Yang Qiaolan they totaled to a 101 people.

There were some restrictions for this mission due to the site's location and they had barely managed to make it here undetected.

They were a group of 100 and such influx of people in a remote location which was not a tourist attraction nor had anything exciting to offer posed a challenge to their squad in terms of excuses they could use to settle here.

Their military used its connections to set up a labor requirement for mining workers in this area 6 months ago, in order to facilitate the continuous incoming and outgoing of supplies and people in this remote area, without seeming suspicious.

It took them three months just to settle down and make it seem as if they were poor harmless workers, who migrated with their families and friends in search of better work opportunities and improve their standard of living.

And don't even let Yang Qiaolan get started on how they smuggled in their gear, it was tedious to say the least.

The action would be over in a single night, but the preparation and resources that went into making it through here took up such a long time.

However, this kind of meticulous planning clearly suggests that this operation's target was no simple man for the government and failure to accomplish this task was unacceptable.

But her troop was ready. They came prepared, aware of the setbacks they might face and the challenges this mission would pose.

Yang Qiaolan's, Country H; was a highly-regarded country, for maintaining the economic and political balance of the world.

But such a high-profile country as hers also had many skeletons buried in their closet; some of these skeletons were loyal throughout their lives, some had died protecting these secrets, some were killed for trying to leak these secrets & some had vanished away with these secrets never to be heard from again.

The position of this mysterious girl, among the various buried skeletons of her country; was kind-of like the Grim Reaper.

She was among those bunch of people, who eradicated those traitors who tried to sell the secrets of her country for either money or revenge.

In most cases, it was money.

But today's case was bit special, her target for today was a traitor who wanted to sell core information of their country for revenge. A has been military personnel.

His name was Chen Goujin.

He use to serve as a military strategist for many of the wars they fought, be it the highly-publicized wars or covert operations much like the one she was leading.

He was an important driving force behind the success of the countless military achievements of their country, throughout his career as a military man.

He was a loyal and dedicated soldier with a loving family and many friends.

Due to his nature, he had many confidants and held quite some power because of the connections he made.

After retiring from the military, he joined politics and served their country's president as his secretary and behind the scenes tactician.

However, fate deemed that he run out of favor and bad luck struck his family.

A group of unidentified underground criminal organization eradicated Chen Goujin's family as an act of revenge, because nothing could shake their country's government.

No amount of terrorist attacks was able to subdue their country, it's people and their spirits.

So, it was deemed that if they couldn't shake the government, then they would shake the pillars that hold up their fort and once one pillar is toppled, the next ones will follow suit.

The evil plan worked and showed its effect.

The strings of fate wove in such a way that everything went downhill from there and Chen Goujin turned psychotic.

Not caring for right or wrong he raged and rampaged in depression of the family he lost.

At one point his behavior crossed the threshold of what the government could accept.

The order to lock him up, till he got a hold of his faculties, was passed; but before he could be quarantined, he got a hold of this news and made an escape.

Coalescing with another underground organization different from the previous one, Chen Goujin started using their country's secrets for furthering his revengeful agenda.

And thus, a mission was issued, to capture and bring him back to Country H, and restore back the order and peace of their seemingly harmless country.

Secrets were a weapon and a weapon in the hands of a loony is a recipe that spells disaster in capital letters, bold and underlined.

She had to securely bring out the target and retrieve any data or information he may have provided to this underground criminal organization which he was being sheltered in.

If she couldn't secure him, then retrieving the data, destroying this branch of the criminal organization and silencing him would suffice.

This mission was an important one, Yang Qiaolan could feel it in her bones.

Though the particulars of her target's connections were not disclosed to her, Yang Qiaolan felt that the man was hiding far worse secrets than the country had confided in him.

Secrets and information that could bring her country to its knees and at the brink of potential destruction.

She had to put a stop to this nefarious façade put up by her target before all hell, literally, broke loose.

She knew that not all her targets were bad people; some were just appalled at her country's way of doing things and its skeletons.

These people thought it was necessary for those secrets to come to light, and if they got some money in that process there was no harm, but that was a wrong move on their part, because her Country H was anything but a saint.

Many a times, its one life or millions of lives and you have to make a choice.

Yang Qiaolan had made her bed and she was ready to sleep in it, even if it gave her nightmares.

This, making a choice between bad or worse and acting on it thus became her role in the cycle of life, she had made peace with it.

There was no black or white in her life since she joined the military at the age of 17 and started serving her country.

The colors in her world kept getting blurrier as the years went by.

She had started walking through more and more grey ever since she was enlisted for the black-ops. department of their military at the age of 23, and she couldn't retrace her steps back anymore.

Yang Qiaolan hailed from a military family and her own father, mother or grandfather might have been one such as her, a Grim Reaper, but they couldn't and wouldn't ever reveal it for the rest of their lives.

It's like taking a secret to your grave.

Her missions were a secret to all those who were her family and friends, for them she was just one of those ordinary military people who served their countries.

Her father who was the current Lieutenant General, would also not be informed of her real post in the army.

For black-ops missions, candidates were always assigned with code names.

Her military lineage played no part in her being recruited as a black-ops assassin.

It was all in a person's skill, talent and hard work, which brought them to this junction.

But it was not all just that, being an assassin gets to you eventually, it takes a toll not only on one's body and mind but also on one's psyche, that's why people connected to the black-ops. department of the military didn't remain proactive in this field for more than 10 years, and if they did, they would be gone far beyond redemption.

Yang Qiaolan had been working as a black-ops military assassin for 3 years now, making her 26 years old as of now, but her end goal was not to be mere a subordinate, albeit a high paid and high ranking one, but a subordinate nonetheless; forever stuck, following orders without a will of your own.

She instead wanted to be their country's Military Chief so that she could propel her nation forward and make better strategic decisions not only for her country's security but also regarding the life of her soldiers.

Getting back from her thoughts, Yang Qiaolan moved her body cracking the bones in her arms, legs neck and back.

She did some stretches for her muscles and jumped up and down as a warm up in order to loosen up her stiff posture.

She hooked up her safety harness to the cliff wall behind her and fastened the belt on her waist.

Then she turned toward the steep end of the cliff and walked over the edge overlooking the site like a queen.

A queen who looked down at those subjects who were banished due to the crimes they committed.

Her eyes glinted as she moved them over the site and the high security personnel guarding its premises.

A chilled expression overcame her masked face.

Her aura completely changed becoming scary and formidable.

Then she looked over the sky, it was a new moon night and the stars were twinkling, shining brighter than any other night due the absence of the moon.

She admired their steady calmness despite the earthly frivolities they witnessed every day.

Taking a deep breath of the chilled mountain air, Yang Qiaolan closed her eyes as she steadied her heart & calmed her mind, shifting into a zone of zen.

All her emotions and expressions, thoughts and musings turned quiet and indifferent.

She relaxed and took a stance.

The stance of a predator, ready to pounce and started a mental countdown for the deployment of her troops.

As the countdown reached T-minus 2 minutes, the air in the surroundings shifted.

Yang Qiaolan suddenly opened her eyes due to this subtle and unnoticeable difference, but she became extremely alert.

'Anyone who can conceal themselves this well cannot be a simple presence', she thought. 'They are almost on par with my troops. No, maybe they are slightly better.'

"All stations come in, all stations come in, this is your commander Lynx 01, do you copy? Over", asked Yang Qiaolan.

"We copy, over", came a chorused reply.

"We've got company. It's a third-party interference. Number of subordinates, undetermined. We don't know if they are friend or foe. Stay alert, over", conveyed Yang Qiaolan.

"I felt it too. They could be trying to act as the fishermen here. Reaping all the benefits, while we do all the work, over", Eagle examined calmly.

"Hmm. I feel the same. Keep your eyes and ears open, they appear to be a tad bit stronger than us, could be due to their large number or their skills itself. Can't determine the exact situation at the moment. Over", Yang Qiaolan stated.

"Whatever it is, our main priority is to secure the target and retreat with minimal losses. Avoid direct confrontation with them and remember the goal. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT compromise this mission, it is of utmost priority. Stay safe everyone. Over & Out." Yang Qiaolan emphasized for the last time.

"Roger that commander", everyone chorused.

Keeping her gaze at the site, Yang Qiaolan started counting down again.

At T-minus 30 Seconds, she felt a gaze on herself, not exactly on her but someone was definitely looking in her vicinity; and it wasn't anyone from her group.

This gaze was different, it made the hair at the back of her neck stand in alertness. It was a stare she recognized.

'The sign of another apex predator, like me', this thought came over her mind.

She followed her instincts and looked up in the direction of said gaze.

Her eyes led her toward a cliff which was situated exactly opposite the one she was standing on.

She stared in the darkness and felt the same presence stare back at her gaze, unflinching, unafraid, bold.

Her heart skipped a beat and her body jolted in excited awareness of this presence.

She frowned in confusion at her body's response but chose to ignore it for the time being.

She figured that this presence might be the leader of this third party which appeared so suddenly.

'This mission might go slightly different than I expected', she chuckled.

However, she couldn't care less about their motive, 'As long as the don't interfere in my work and become a nuisance. I will not cause them any hindrance in their operation for this place', mused Yang Qiaolan.

In lieu of this new arrival and the possible threat that they could pose, Yang Qiaolan smiled faintly.

With a hint of challenge glinting through her eyes, she jumped off the cliff.

'Well then, 3, 2, 1', were her last thoughts as her body plunged through darkness. 'May the best man win, let the games begin.'

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Chapter Notes:

*Did u Know?*

WILCO stands for "Will Comply". Its one of the ways to acknowledge an order of the commander leading a military operation.

There is a 'universal rule of radio communication' and many such fixed phraseologies are used for the purpose of radio transmissions along with some military procedures to follow.

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I have tried to phrase the words in the best 'military' way I could. However, if I have made any mistakes please excuse me as I do not have any military background. This is a work of fiction and a lot of imagination and research has gone into making it possible so please be lenient...😅

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