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Fo'get about it.
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Topic Started: Mar 24 2013, 10:54 PM (472 Views)
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Alpha Protocol
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Apr 29 2013, 12:43 AM
Post #31
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"What do I think? Well..." Alpha looked down at his glass on the table. Just what was Joe getting at? Was he. bEing serious? Or was this some kind of set up? The sort of thing he was talking about doing was dangerous. Not that he was worried about himself, but if someone decided to come looking for him it would be bad for Veanna and Ace.
"I think you're stepping into boots that are a couple sizes too big for you." he said, deciding it was in his best interest to redirect this pony to the nearest door that led out of his life. "All I'm hearing is talk of gain, and it doesn't sound like you've thought about what you could loose. You understand the consequences of the decision you're thinking of making right? No offense, you're a legendary spy... But I don't think freelance is quite you're style."
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Jane Doe
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Apr 29 2013, 12:54 PM
Post #32
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Joe looked onward for a moment before finishing off his drink and setting it down. He was nothing but curious of why Alpha, the freelance spy who had records of his previous work to show how bold and daring he could be would seem to dislike his proposition. "You must have misheard me. There are no consequences here. Any information I get ahold of will look as though somepony else retrieved it and any information you supply will technically come from one my next target, given that my next mission will involve some assassination or another as is the recent trend. If you care to append the word legendary to my title perhaps you'll find it best to assume that I've taken care of some damning details." he explained. From the corner of his eye Joe could see the bartender starting to approach to refill Joe's drink. With a dismissive wave from Joe the bartender turned around and continued his work behind the counter.
"I speak only of gain because that is all that is involved here. This is a rare opportunity for both of us, but it requires that I have a partner equally willing to handle this quietly and professionally. If you do not wish to take part, then I shall leave you in peace." he stated with a serious tone. "Regardless of that decission, however... I am looking for anyone with information to trade. Information on the war being preferable."
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Alpha Protocol
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May 2 2013, 05:38 PM
Post #33
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"I find this hard to believe." Alpha said. Joe seemed persistent on this one. "How can you prove that this deal is as low risk as you believe it is?" Alpha couldn't say that he wasn't at least a little bit interested. After all, he was always in search of a high-paying job. But he had to be sure that his tracks would be covered.
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Jane Doe
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May 3 2013, 02:11 PM
Post #34
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Joe took a second look at Alpha. He had his curiosity it seemed, but only slightly. "Because I've done this before." Joe stated in complete seriousness. "And I've become very good at leaving no trace and producing a scapegoat. The second time nopony even got blamed. That's the whole beauty of this scheme though my opportunities are limited and the window is slowly closing. I let the last opportunity go and it has been three weeks since. At the rate this war is going... We may not see another one until much later." he tells Alpha, before waving the bartender over. The barkeep returns to the table, fills up Joe's drink and then walks off to behind the bar again.
Joe's eyes were beginning to appear a bit red from his alcohol intake, though he seemed to do a good job of not acting differently. "But of course if you'd like to pass this up that's fine. And if a few select others of my associates turn down the offer as well then I will simply let it pass." he states with another sip of his drink.
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Alpha Protocol
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May 5 2013, 10:09 AM
Post #35
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Alpha was skeptical about the deal... Buuuuuuut, Joe seemed like he had his shit together. Or he could have it all wrong and it could go further south than Tartarus itself. "Alright, I'm curious." He admitted. "What would you need me to do?"
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Jane Doe
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May 5 2013, 03:37 PM
Post #36
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A single chuckle came from Joe as he raised his drink to his mouth. "Simple." he stated before taking a sip and then setting his drink back down. "I need you to produce something worth trading for. Now this could mean finding me a buyer and we'll split the profits or having something worthwhile yourself. Bits are fine but they can be tricky to cover if not handled properly. Information is my main desire of purchase. Specifically..." he explained, now trailing off for a moment as he contemplated taking another sip of his drink. He stared at his glass, turning the glass on the table back and forth as he stared into it. He soon continued his statement, now sure of how he wanted to phrase it.
"Information on who started the war. It all seems so simple, doesn't it? The gryphons are militaristic and opportunists whilst the diamond dogs are pirates and will jump at any opportunity for riches. The Zebricans are on a genocidal rampage and have deployed some treacherous device that only the most wicked of minds could conceive... But target after target, mission after mission I cannot help but wonder why they decided to attack. Weakness in the Equestrian military could not be the only answer. You only attack a nation in force if you've intent to see it through. Diamond dogs do not do that. They're pirates and thieves, petty in their ways. To become organized and attack inland and establish slave camps... they intend to stay. The gryphons, being the more honorable of foes, have made a clear intention to stay with their conquest. The Zebricans do not intend to stay, but simply burn all in their path. They're angry about something that provoked them. Then you have the other smaller pieces of this puzzle which look so coincidental. The sinking of the Cervidian fleet along with most of ours in the initial stages of the war, the land-grabs to tactically separate Xi'Bian from us, the swift conquering of our neighbor nations as if somepony had all the right information at exactly the right times. Or something with the mind on how to destroy civilization with a deft and nearly flawless strike." Joe explained with a distant stare at his drink. He was thinking aloud mostly, but was still wording everything exactly as he wanted to.
"But things are hardly ever simple or coincidental in our line of work, Alpha." he said looking up at Alpha, his eyes set on his. "I've this unshakable feeling that something would seek our end, us ponies. Not simply Equestrians but our kind altogether. It may be some clever gryphon, the head of their military even. It may be a diamond dog who has a grand scheme that's simply working. It may even be some Zebrican network of spies for all I know at this point. But... there are answers and I'm at a dead end. For our sake I need to know." he explained with sincerity. He looked back at his drink and then lifted it up again, taking another sip. His long-winded explanations had sobered him up slightly so he had to fix that.
"That's the information I'm really interested in. But whatever you produce is what I'm offered. From you, at least." he stated before finishing his drink for the third time.
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Alpha Protocol
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May 6 2013, 07:15 PM
Post #37
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Alpha kept a straight face. But in reality, he was grinning like a madman on the inside. They had absolutely no idea how it started. And Joe was practically gift wrapping him an opportunity to make it look however he wanted. The ways he could profit from this were near endless. How many countries could he turn on each other with a chance like this? Wars made money after all. LOTS of money.
"Well, I'm not sure how I can help you there." He lied. "But if something comes up, I guess I could give you a call. Got nothing going for me at the moment anyhow." Alpha stood and left a few bits on the table. "Drinks on me." He said. Then turned and headed out. Many plans running through his brain.
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Jane Doe
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May 7 2013, 04:01 AM
Post #38
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Joe smiled and followed Alpha out of the bar. He could sense that something was wrong and it did nothing but interest him more. He would have to follow up with him and investigate further, but now was not the time. "Ahh thank you for the drinks. I'll have to repay in kind then, sometime next Saturday perhaps?" he asked, making plans for their next meeting. He could only hope that Alpha was the type to enjoy a good drink and perhaps trust him a bit more. "A few Canterlot officials need to believe that I'm on official business so I intend to help ease their collective conscience. I'll be busy until that day." he stated, giving a reason for his absence. In truth Joe would use his ability to disguise himself to keep an eye on Alpha to discover where he lived, worked and any contacts he might have locally. Friday would surely involve a report, but only by letter. It was all a grand game to Joe and one could never know when they were getting played.
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Alpha Protocol
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May 9 2013, 07:59 PM
Post #39
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Alpha smirked at Joe's attempt to get closer to him. He hadn't forgotten that this was another spy he was dealing with. And spies had a tendency to stab each other in the back if it would save their skin, so getting close wasn't on his to-do list. "You know, how about you forget Saturday, and I'LL call YOU if I find anything worth telling?" He said, putting the unicorn down hard.
"And try not to let me catch you following me." He said, putting on a set of shades. "I know your walk now." With that last remark Alpha turned from Joe and walked on, signaling he was done with him for the day. He would have to keep as much control over the situation as possible if he wanted his new plans to go over without a hitch.
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Jane Doe
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May 18 2013, 11:24 AM
Post #40
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A smirk came across Joe's face as he watched Alpha walk off. He would be an interesting contact, no doubt about that. Joe walked off in the opposite direction to spend the night in his apartment room. Alpha would more than likely expect somepony to tail him and Joe knew better than to press too hard in a game of subtlety. He would spend the next few days out of Ponyville as he went to visit a few of his closer contacts, or the liaisons of other contacts, with the same offer he had given Alpha. He kept the offer out of the ears of the more notorious or Equestrian-aligned contacts he knew and played it safe on not giving out any sample information.
Both the many spies of other nations and the occasional crime lords knew and have dealt with Joe Buck and they understood that his word was always good. He had a few interesting offers, but none of his contacts could offer the information that he sought. Instead, many of his contacts made the offer of information to tell who -didn't- start the war with guarantees as to who and why. Joe refused to take up these offers, though he found the little information he did receive to be valid and useful.
After the few days of being gone Joe Buck returned to Ponyville to keep an eye on Alpha. His tailing of the pony was very intermittent, just enough to see where he was at certain times of the day. He would tail him to see him turn a corner and then leave him alone for a few hours, often times just spotting him in the distance and watching where he went through the corner of his eye. His disguise would change twice a day and would be one of the common folk of Ponyville. It would be far too hard to notice that somepony specific was tailing him when they changed all the time, and Joe excelled at acting as others. Even better, he had yet to reveal his disguising ability to Alpha and Earth ponies and pegasi were included in his disguises.
He simply wanted to see where he lived, where he worked and any possible contacts he had in the town. He made no move to interact with Alpha or any of the others he would see him talk to. Instead he would patiently bide his time with an eye on the other spy. He knew that Alpha would make his attempt to contact Joe obvious.
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Alpha Protocol
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May 18 2013, 09:35 PM
Post #41
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Alpha currently sat in his office, doing one of the things he liked to do best: Forge paperwork. Paperwork that told an interesting story of a sleeper cell from the far east continents. The sleeper cell would be just that, a story, but the information about how the countries involved would benefit from Equestria being "reshaped" as it were, was more or less true. Now, on the outside, Equestria normally had no ill relations with the rest of the world. But as recent events showed, they had enemies right next door. He made up a nice report of the mass destruction of ships in Cervidas, and a few other details he would need to make it look convincing.
About halfway through one of his dossiers, of a 'friend' he'd made while in-country, he stopped and turned to another project. He was splitting his attention between his files, and the pile of explosive putty he'd received from Chef. Tactically disguised as gourmet food delivery so as not to be detected by prying eyes. He would try and use a couple in Ghastly Gorge to test their effectiveness. If he was lucky, and if Chef wasn't a cheap, lying rat, they would be more than enough to move whatever obstacle he needed moved.
He did this over the next few days, periodically making runs to ensure that he looked busy. One couldn't disappear from sight after all, that was suspicious. Around the end of the week, he finished a nicely sized folder of paperwork. Good enough for any spy. He'd gone through it again and again to look for faults that could be noticed. He just had to redirect Joe's attention until he could get in-country again and start working the other piece of the puzzle. Espionage was a delicate waltz of information floating around in all the right places. If you you wanted to make one partner change step, you had to ensure the other followed suit.
He left his office, where he'd been living since he'd met Joe. Heading to plant the signal that he was ready to meet. It would be the restaurant where he'd first seen the Spy, on Sunday, 0900. Joe would get the message. Assuming he read the paper.
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Jane Doe
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May 31 2013, 12:41 PM
Post #42
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The last few days of observing Alpha had yielded noteworthy results on the freelance spy as Joe Buck watched him from afar. He didn't need to be close to see the big picture of what was going on with him. A few runs to other places had told Buck that he carried on with business as usual. Buck did not dare to follow Alpha on these runs, often to dissuade any possibility of being discovered. He did, on one day, see him go to some chef's place more than once. It would be a place to investigate when he had free time. He would more than likely ask his black market contacts before he relied on his intelligence department for an answer on that, though it would take longer.
Joe's break came when Alpha had read a newspaper, though he seemed to quickly dismiss the paper and left something inside. Joe knew that this was far from unintentional and kept an eye on the paper until Alpha had left the area. When no-one else came to retrieve it, Joe stepped forward and grabbed the paper. Flipping through it, he soon found a note that had been left inside. He read it quickly before putting it away within his disguise. Joe, currently disguised as some other random unicorn, headed off towards the direction Alpha had walked off to. Once he had a sight on the familiar maroon and yellow tail, Joe stopped off behind a building to read the note. Joe did so quickly and then carried off to follow Alpha again.
Rounding another building he saw that Alpha was heading towards a new direction. Perhaps it was another one of his runs and Joe contemplated whether he should follow. Currently he could see that he was alone and so was Alpha as he trotted off. He risked making an obvious tail if he decided to follow Alpha, but this new direction seemed to be different than before. The decision was made for Joe, however, as he watched Alpha disappear as a portal briefly opened and swallowed him whole. Joe blinked a few times, unsure of what had occured and he looked around for clues. Finding nothing, Joe cautiously approached where Alpha had been. A careful, slow movement of the perimeter of the area Alpha had been gave Joe a good view of where he had disappeared. An hour went by with only a few careless ponies passing through and nothing out of the ordinary.
Joe was dumbstruck, but he could only assume that it was no coincidence that Alpha had disappeared. With that idea in mind, Joe found a nice shady place to overlook the area, in fear of an ambush. He then read the note that Alpha had left him rather intently. There must have been something he had missed. They would have a meeting soon, so why would he just leave as he did? Or perhaps the portal was not intentional on his part? Joe could not obtain the answers now and he shelved them for later. He still had a job to tend to.
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Alpha Protocol
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May 31 2013, 12:46 PM
Post #43
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The note hidden in the newspaper:
"Meet me at the restaurant where I first saw you. 0900, Sunday."
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Jane Doe
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May 31 2013, 01:25 PM
Post #44
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Joe smirked at the note. Alpha had made a claim to noticing Joe prior to their more hostile meeting at the hospital. It was attention to detail that kept spies like himself on the tips of his hooves. With his invitation for a meeting in place, Joe knew what he had to do. That night Joe had returned to the small apartment he lived in and filled out a small report before locking it in a small black box. The box would be placed upon his bed as he locked his room and left for the morning. It was his failsafe that many an Equestrian spy used. The box would contain codes that would mean nothing to anypony but those in the intelligence department in Canterlot.
Sitting in the cafe Sunday morning at 8:55 in the morning, Joe looked around. He had chosen a booth located near the back of the restaurant, with his back to a wall. From where he sat he could see the whole restaurant and anything that went on around him. It was, in fact, the same spot he had been in when he first saw Alpha. He sipped on a hot cup of tea as he waited for Alpha and paid for his drinks as they came, assuring the waitress that his friend would arrive soon. The time soon turned to fifteen minutes past the hour and Joe began to wonder where Alpha was. At half an hour past, he couldn't fight back the feeling that it had something to do with the portal. At fifty minutes past the hour Joe was curious if Alpha was planning to ambush him or something, but then wondered if maybe he just needed a set time when Joe would be out of his room. At ten o' clock Joe left the restaurant, having consumed one too many cups of ginseng tea.
Joe made his way back to his room and he cautiously approached the scene. After finding nothing out of the ordinary, he soon scribed another report and added it to the black box. Joe then moved to the mirror in his room and began to cast his disguise spell. He began adjusting his body shape, made his horn disappear and added wings. He changed his pelt to a maroon color and his hair a darker maroon with yellow highlights. Then a fake gold chain and piercings came into display as did a black jacket and the occasional scar and other body mark. His eye color was the last to change before he soon looked at the living representation of Alpha.
Joe then left his room, locked, once more and headed to the one place he would find clues: Alpha's office.
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