Babina Daisy looked at her watch annoyed.
"I'm bored!" She yelled at Jack, who dropped his cup of Roman tea. it used to be called tè but ever since the escalating tensions between Italy and The Second Roman Empire, a whole lot of Italian culture had been dominated by Roman culture to make sure no Italian forces tried to stage an insurrection.
"Just read the report Babina. I'm sure it'll keep you at the very least busy for the next hour or so. Plus you'll be doing your job."
"Jack, you know if there's anything I hate more than almonds in my chocolate then it's repetition. It's why I never became an engineer or politician."
"Yes, I know you hate repetition, but this is the only thing you can do to pass the time. You already finished the last chapter in your novel during the first ten minutes. And this is the only other thing you can read."
Babina sighed, she knew Jack was right but she rarely wanted to admit it. She thought it was part of her charm, Jack would say it's the reason she has no friends. Babina stared out the window for several more minutes. Not willing to give up against Jack.
But she sighed and slowly and begrudgingly picked up the file and began to read.
Mission File: #14259-7
Statement: Eliminate Nate Vis. Vat-Born, engineer.
Description: A Vat-Born Engineer. Nate Vis was recently attacked and beaten by a Birthest extremist group. He survived, with several of his would-be attackers being taken away and put under custody. Nate Vis is approximately 5'11 with dark brown skin.
He is a Vat-Born of Indian heritage, and one of the few Vat-Born left in the Empire with such a heritage. As such, you must recover back a genetic sample of his. Whether blood, teeth, or hair. And bring it back to the labs for the testing and creation of new Vat-Born.
His face and hands have been covered in various scars, use this along with the patterns imbedded in his skin to identify him. His face was badly compromised as well, forcing him to wear a mask.
The mask is of medium quality, covered in bronze and with silver engravings which spell out TARGET in Latin. This is accompanied by a glyph of Vulcan's Cult. The glyph has a tracking device planted in it that'll last for several weeks at most.
Find him by then and eliminate him.
Location: Nate Vis is currently in the city of Muddenburg. Known for its humid atmosphere and hot sweltering sun. It is considered a sanctuary for Vulcans Cult. This is ironic considering that Muddenburg now has a ninety percent Vat-Born population.
The city has been on a knife's edge for a long time. As such, your killing of Nate Vis will have to be as discreet and quiet as possible. Or you must frame him with enough evidence to justify the killing of him.
Muddenburg is ruled by an avid follower of the Cult of Vulcan. And has therefore been increasing more and more rhetoric of Birth's being superior to Vat-Born. This has created an unstable political landscape with new and old factions crumbling and reforming within days.
Add this to the sprawling criminal underbelly of the city makes it the perfect place to hide for any criminal. This also means that you will not be able to enter Mubbenburg in uniform and must wear disguises instead.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
There is a safe house built inside The Nice and Dandy apartment complex that you can access. Use it for one of you to monitor Nate Vis-s place of work, and the other will follow him and make notes on any criminal group he is working with.
Babina continued to read the file as it detailed the current political landscape of Muddenburg, the rate of socio-economic decline it was experiencing. Mainly due to its primarily being founded to serve as a city that supplied war materials.
She also noted several interesting things. First of all The Cult of Vulcan seemed to have some close ties to the government. Understandable since they were the people responsible for creating the majority of war machines and equipment for the southern front of the Great War.
Then there was the fact that there were barely any Indian Vat-Born left. That was a weird detail to add. Also, recover his hair and/or teeth? She and Jack weren't some hormone-fueled stalker!
"Hey, we're nearing our stop. Put your clothes for the mission on. Don't know if you noticed on the paper but government agents aren't considered the best in this part of the Empire."
"Yeah, I know. You wait outside while I change, okay? Good, you understand." Babina said as she opened the door and shoved Jack out of the room. Before promptly closing it again.
She carefully unpacked her clothes and began to change. It took her twenty minutes for her to fully get ready before she opened the door. Revealing three things to her. First and injured Jack.
Second, an Injured Jack delivering a fierce right hook to Third. A random Vat-Born with spikey red hair, clear half orange, and half blue eyes, a Christmas themed skin tone with a colorful fusion of red and green. Oh and a small green tail shaped like a point.
Babina took several minutes to process the spectacle going on before her. Which was fair since most people don't expect to open their door and find a man one v. oneing a Christmas tree with hair, eyes, and a tail.
With a swift kick, she struck the raging Christmas tree where the sun doesn't shine with the shoe that had an iron toe with it. And watched as the Christmas tree went down almost immediately.
She then turned around to Jack and glared.
"I thought you said not to draw attention?" Babina plainly stated. Though Jack swore he could hear a thinly veiled threat to do to him what she did to the poor Christmas Tree.
"Not my fault! You shoved me out here without my disguise so everyone saw that I was a government agent! Then this Vat-Born came up and punched me. Next thing I know I'm being beaten by him and I try to fight back."
"..."
"What!?"
"You're telling me some random Christmas Tree came up and assaulted you wheb you were minding your own business? No Vat-Born would do that unless you make the first strike!"
"How would you know?" Jack asked.
"Because we could kill them and ruin their entire family's lives with a drop of the hat while they can't do the same for us. So most don't take the risk. Meaning you pissed him off in some way, endangering the entire mission!"
Babina was now absolutely glowing with rage as she pulled Jack by his collar and pulled him inside their room.
Reports from locals would remark about a delightfully happy young Birthed walking out of a train in toe with someone who looked like they got run over by a train.
What makes a Vat-Born so different from a regular born human? The first and most obvious difference is due to them being born in Vats. Another difference would be the stark differences between the appearance of a regular Vat-Born and a normal human. Vat-Born often has strange and extreme skin tones. Such as them having blue skin or dotted hair. Vat-Born also usually have symbols put into their skin by their makers to further differentiate Vat-Born from normal humans. But while all of these would further drive away from both the Vat-Born and the Birthed. What really set them far apart would be one string of genetic code that all Vat-Born carry. This code, known as 'V-Code' was what allowed all these crazy and outlandish modifications to the human genome possible. Even twenty years after this discovery, we still don't know even a fraction of what this code can fully do.
-'What's the Difference?' Birthed v. Vat-Born