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angelwheat · 8 months ago

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The Mundane and the Magic

༻ a codz x reader story ༺

➶ The Giant // ❝ Self-righteous Suicide ❞

➶ Chapter Four , 4621 words

Wobbly legs failed to support her as she nearly toppled over onto icy ground from the sheer unsteadiness of being exported from reality for a brief second and zapped into a land unfamiliar. Evidently, the experience struck the four men just the same, for each of them stumbled, struggling to recompose themselves as their heads were virtually spinning.

Hunching over where she stood, the girl pressed her hands to her hips, fighting to keep the bile down that she could feel bubbling up inside. Allowing the motion sickness to subside, she stayed put for a moment, listening to the men huff and grumble in displeasure.

After a short while she straightened her posture, smoothing down her hair that had blown askew at such a surprisingly harsh motion of blending through the linear fabrics of the universe.

Observing the foursome spaced out around her, (Y/n) noticed that the German appeared the most well composed out of them all, somewhat strangely unbothered by the experience of being teleported. Perhaps he was fortunate enough not to feel the sickening effects so strongly… or maybe he’s used to it.

The fact that he looked so unaffected but merely swayed for a second was enough to taunt the boys who almost landed with their faces in heaps of snow.

Dempsey staggered to composure, spitting his words at the German. “What the fuck was that Doc?”

Richtofen bit his tongue, infuriated with the American’s persistent use of his abbreviated title.

“Time travel.” He answered bluntly, looking down to smooth his attire.

“Yeah, no shit.” Dempsey coughed into his arm.

Nikolai had readied his shotgun the very second his eyes could focus steadily on his surroundings.

Immediately, the location struck as new, and eerie without a doubt, for there were tall, fully constructed buildings surrounding them, unlike the crumpled monuments seen prior to their hasty departure from Northern France.

These buildings towered high, some ranging from two, to perhaps three or four floors. The location appeared to be a group of factories; guess-ably of use for constructive purpose for the German army, for the writings on metal signs were stamped with painfully long words in Deutsch, that only Richtofen could make sense of.

Now they stand in the centre of the grounds, in a courtyard. A wide elevated steel platform stands a small distance away, with stairs leading up to a large machine, somewhat resembling the teleporter they had just been thrown into. Connected to the contraption were three chunky electrical cables, adorned with thick icicles along their length, which separated and lead to three mainframe facilities equal distance from each other. What they were connected to was as good as anyone’s guess.

Questions began to rattle around their heads as they observed their surroundings.

“Where are we German?” The Russian growled.

If Nikolai were to lock eyes with the Doctor, his deadly glare would kill him. But instead, Takeo eyed the German suspiciously, waiting for his predictable short-handed answer.

“We have arrived at a research facility.” Richtofen answered, as simply as predicted. “On the outskirts of Eastern Germany.”

The girl side-eyed him in disdain. His will to speak simply, almost like he was dimming down his intelligence to match that of the rest of the crew, or his frequent use of compulsive riddles and metaphors was already driving her mad, and she had only known him for a month or so.

Although now that time travel was brought into the equation, she could have very well known Richtofen for an eternity after discovering that shifting timelines and potentially re-writing history was entirely possible.

“What are we doing here, Richtofen?” She asked flatly.

All eyes landed on her when she spoke but flicked to the German when he shifted on his feet.

“I- We need to collect something.” Richtofen stammered, his eyes widening slightly.

The small slip up of his words raised wariness instantly, especially in Nikolai and Takeo for they narrowed their gazes at him in sync.

It fell eerily silent as all four pairs of eyes stared down the German, intimidating him as they all awaited a follow up speech explaining just what he needs to “collect”.

When he had no indication of opening his mouth to speak, Richtofen took a step forward, only to be brought to a halt when the barrel of Nikolai’s shotgun came mere inches from his chest before he could even blink.

“Explain why you have brought us here, German. You’ve been feeding us nothing but riddles!” Nikolai’s accent thickened, lacing his words with a menacing tone in his burst of rage.

Dempsey, Takeo and (Y/n) stepped up alongside the Russian, but none wanted to console the brute, instead believing he was right in resorting to a more threatening manner of interrogation. Richtofen raised his hands up in feeble surrender, his chest heaving as he stared down the thick barrel of the gun aimed at him.

“I can explain in time.” Richtofen answered hastily. “That I promise.”

Nikolai shook his head, his jaw setting in a sharp line. “I’ve heard that one to many times already. I do not believe you have any good intentions.”

The Russian adjusted his stance, planting his feet firmly on the ground, his gloved finger grazing the trigger on his gun, prepared to put a bullet in his chest without a second thought.

(Y/n) could have sworn she saw a plead for mercy in Richtofen’s usually dull eyes, hoping he can be granted some leeway, and a chance to move without the men of the group virtually always breathing down his neck, for he stared between her and the weapon threatening him rather quickly.

Perhaps not this time.

While (Y/n) had been lenient in the beginning, simply following him blindly as a means of keeping everyone alive, however, it now seems that she’s growing just as impatient as the boys. Richtofen had certainly foreseen this.

“Alright, easy now.” The girl intervened with a firm voice, her hand reaching to lower the shotgun Nikolai held. “We know that killing each other isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

Visibly infuriated, and practically steaming from the ears with boiling rage, Nikolai huffed loudly and retracted from the group, allowing Richtofen to lower his hands and exhale a long breath.

The girl dismissed the way the Doctor stared at her for a second, and instead focused on Nikolai in concern, albeit even wary of his next move.

His broad shoulders noticeably rose and fell with every heaving breath he took as he simmered down the fiery rage within him.

She could understand his dramatic actions for the world was flipped upside before their very eyes in a matter of seconds, and at this very moment in time, any action, no matter how drastic, could be deemed as justified.

Just when everything seemed tranquil, the sound of glass shattering made all unleash their firearms.

Staggered footsteps across icy ground emitted a small distance away, gradually growing closer. A stumbling decomposing corpse hauled itself through a beaten down wooden barrier. Yet another fallen soldier to have become a victim to the brain-rotting infection. But it seemed lost. Although it appeared to have retained some memory of marching; as the man would have done alongside his platoon before the outbreak.

Though given the unpredictability of the zombie, all but one keeps their weapons aimed steadily.

From what the girl could tell from discreet glances, Richtofen appeared to be studying the creature, or perhaps he was awaiting its next violent move. She had learned that he was not an easy man to read, at least not through his expressions, for he typically appeared emotionless.

She missed the way the Doctor rolled his eyes and swiftly breezed past the crew with his arm raised and pistol loaded to gun the zombie down with a single bullet its head.

With a heft thud, the lifeless creature dropped to the floor, the heap of snow its head landed in now absorbing the blood pouring from the gaping hole in its skull.

Richtofen holstered his pistol, turning to face the group looking utterly unimpressed when he was met with four scorned faces.

“I would simply suggest killing them when you see them.” He instructed blankly. “Research shows that they do in fact sense presence sooner or later.”

Silence enveloped once again, and (Y/n) felt herself shivering as the wind whisked through much stronger than before, creating an eerie whistle as it crawled through crevices in buildings. Her intolerance to the cold failed to go unnoticed as Richtofen witnessed her body quiver, and she pulled her coat snugly to her body.

“We must not waste time. There is much to be done.” Edward asserted, wanting nothing more than to hasten his own mission.

As much as the Doctor tried to ignore the thought, he wished to get the girl somewhere warmer, or at least direct her there if he could not escort her himself. He would not dare to admit that part of him felt a fondness for her, especially for her will to seek justice between the crew.

“Might I also suggest we search for supplies.” Richtofen added. “I’m sure we’ll be needing them.”

As if his queue to leave, Richtofen spun on his heel and made his way towards the central facility.

Dempsey made a hasty move to follow the German, but a light touch of a hand pressing to his arm had pulled him to an abrupt stop. He turned, only to be met with a look of annoyance from the girl.

He immediately opened his mouth to argue before she raised her hand to halt his words.

“I think we should leave him be.” She spoke generally.

The American stared at her in disbelief. “You’re gonna let him run off?”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s not gonna run off.”

Dempsey’s hands flew out beside him in confusion and frustration. “Then what- “

Cutting him off swiftly, she declared, “If he doesn’t separate from us for a while, I think he’ll get killed.”

(Y/n) discreetly motioned to Nikolai with her eyes, who had his back turned at the time, prompting Dempsey to scoff and shake his head in annoyance, knowing very well that she was correct.

As flakes of snow fluttered down into her eye view, she peered upwards, sensing an impending snowstorm brewing above. Takeo had followed her gaze skyward, thinking just the same as clouds tumbled in thicker, hiding away the stars that barely glimmered in the evening sky.

“I’m gonna go look for supplies.” She told, wanting nothing more than to find somewhere warmer to roam.

Like her feet carried her away automatically, (Y/n) turned her back and began traipsing carefully over the snow towards a building. The doors to the main entrance virtually inviting her in as they were wide open.

Barely two seconds had passed before Dempsey’s cocky accent caught up to her.

“Woah woah, you’re not going alone missy.”

She could hear the way he spoke with a smirk on his face, and faced him immediately, quipping. “What? You don’t think I can handle myself?”

Tank’s eyes widened subtly upon sensing the stares from Takeo and Nikolai. (Y/n) couldn’t help the way she bit her lip in amusement as the American visibly regret his choice of words and fumbled to find a believable excuse.

But little did she know that Nikolai had turned away slightly to hide the way he smirked to himself, not wanting to have Dempsey bark at him in retaliation to finding his visible embarrassment amusing, but also, secretly, because of the way she held herself in that very moment. With her hand on her hip, almost proudly, as the corner of her lips curled up smugly. It made his heart skip a beat.

“What- No!” Tank breathed a faint awkward laugh, averting his eyes. “I just think we should stick together.”

(Y/n) shrugged. “Very well then, we’ll go in pairs. We can cover the grounds quicker.”

The three men perked up instantly, eyeing her attentively.

“Feel free to join me, but I’ve gotta get somewhere warm before I freeze to death.” She resumed walking away, this time much quicker as the cold air was nipping at her through her coat.

The trio exchanged blank glances, silently questioning whether to follow her footsteps. Yet not one of them dared to move, even though the girl had already entered the building.

That was until Nikolai wasted no time in taking a step forward, his boots imprinting the settled snow as he swiftly headed in the same direction as (Y/n).

In his wake, Nikolai left two men frustrated, with Dempsey visibly turning his nose up at the fact that the Russian had beat him to the same idea.

“That settles it then.” Dempsey grumbled, trudging past Takeo displeased. “Let’s just search this damn place.”

---

Hefty footsteps emitted behind her in a hasty manner, although not like the jagged pattern of a zombie. Despite how quick the person was walking; their steps had a steady pattern. She glanced over her shoulder, brows raised, only to be struck with surprise upon seeing the Russian following her path. She smiled politely when he reached her side, to which she earned the same in return.

“I was half expecting to see Dempsey behind me.” She admitted.

Nikolai couldn’t help the lie that slipped from his tongue. “He had agreed to pair with Takeo.”

(Y/n) nodded, oblivious to the fact that Nikolai was merely eager to join her.

Standing side-by-side, together they surveyed the room. From its spacey layout, and the huge vents surrounding a furnace central of a partially walled off section, it could be guessed that it was none other than a storage room, or perhaps a place that materials were discarded and burned for ashes littered the feet of the caged firepit. She couldn’t refrain from spluttering and covering her nose at the putrid smell that wafted from the furnace, one would assume the previous occupants were incinerating bodies what with such a foul smell.

A few crates and barrels lie on their sides, some of their contents spewed out and trampled across the floor, most of which were papers, scrapped rusty components, and bullet shells. Upon closer inspection, (Y/n) surmised that the bullets were splayed recently for not a drop of dirt covered one, and Nikolai had noticed this too.

“There was bloodshed here recently.” Nikolai thought aloud, moving forward a few steps.

(Y/n) hummed. “But the question is, where these people killing each other, or zombies?”

The thought of an army, once forged together by loyalty and discipline, turning on each other utterly driven to madness as the world collapsed, and people turned to flesh-eating murderers before their very eyes.

“I dread to think of it.” Nikolai responded, watching the girl as she crouched to view a crumpled sheet of paper.

Steel catwalks above their heads creaked and popped as the wind breezed through holes in the doors and walls, nudging its every obstacle with vengeance what with the force it was brewing up. Parts of the structure had already fallen from its rightful place, lying in piles of debris in random areas, the building being entirely torn apart by the harsh weather alone.

“We best not stay here too long.” Nikolai told. “My guess is that this place will be nothing but rubble before we know it.”

A fairy-light clink hit their ears, and as if ironically on queue a bolt from an overhead beam hit the floor, bouncing astray into a pile of ash. The pair locked eyes warily at the timing.

“Let’s see if there’s anything useful and get out of here.” (Y/n) urged.

Nikolai nodded and began his own deconstructive way of searching.

Little time had passed, and they had each found a great supply of fresh ammunition to be shared amongst the crew. Not being able to carry such a heavy amount of munitions between them means they resorted to shifting the supply crates to an area more safely accessible, for the crew to return to instead.

While (Y/n) had her hands elbow deep in a crate, she pondered on the earlier encounter with a raging Nikolai in the courtyard. His seething expression and merciless intentions to kill Richtofen remained permanently in her mind.

Knowing that she doesn’t fear the Russian in the slightest, for he has shown nothing but loyalty and kindness to her throughout the few weeks of knowing him, more so than he has shown anyone else, (Y/n) couldn’t help but wonder if Nikolai would have followed through with his drastic intentions if she had not intervened.

She looked his way, catching the way he swiftly averted his eyes to the crate he stood searching, taking herself aback when she felt her heart skip a beat.

Pushing away the thought of the mere instance, she called out to him. “Nikolai?”

The gentle way his name sounded when it fell from her lips made his rounded eyes met hers, prompting her to speak but the words were lodged in her throat as his eyes captivated and shimmered in the dim light the furnace glowed.

“You know I don’t blame you for nearly killing Richtofen earlier.” She declared with all sincerity.

However, the Russian scowled instantly.

(Y/n) watched as Nikolai drew in a deep breath, pressing his palms to the edge of the wooden crate.

“Richtofen is beginning to test my patience. What with all his riddles…” He told in his gruff voice.

“Tell me about it.” She muttered, fiddling with a bullet she had picked up.

“But I fear we are descending into madness by following his orders.” He admitted. “And I’m finding it nearly impossible to have any ounce of faith in his intentions.”

Something about the way Nikolai held himself in that moment struck her strange. He began to softly drum on the crate, his lips pressing into a line when he turned his attention back to the equipment before him. It seemed like there were words on the tip of his tongue, yet he could not allow them to fall past his lips.

(Y/n) chewed the inside of her cheek, staring blankly at the bullet she held, ruminating on his words.

“Do you believe that Richtofen has good intentions?” Nikolai blurted out.

The girl instantly locked eyes with him, noticing how serious he looked with such a hard-faced expression. His question made her ponder for a minute.

“I can’t say.” She answered truthfully. “He’s acting suspicious, that’s for sure. And God knows what he’s up to right now.”

Nikolai only nodded, acknowledging her.

“But let’s just get on with what we need to do. I’m already tired of stressing about his next move.”

Something sent a pang of guilt through the Russian. If the girl had not turned her eyes away, she would have seen the pitiful look on his face.

(Y/n) huffed and tossed small components back into the crate, walking briskly past Nikolai, and over to a smaller one yet to be searched on the opposite side of the room.

Another clink of a falling screw went unheard of as her footsteps overpowered the faint tap of metal hitting the ground. That was until the piercing sound of steel screeching, peeling away from the lengthy catwalk above their heads, a support beam overhead came barrelling down at an alarming speed driving terror straight through her as she froze beneath the collapsing structure.

She opened her mouth to scream, but she was voiceless.

Two hands gripped her sides firmly and dragged her out from under the beam’s line of fall, to which the enormous steel bar slammed to the floor with a deafening clang, rattling and shaking every inch of the building upon impact.

Riddled with sheer terror, the girl could not control the way she collapsed into the body of someone.

Nikolai almost toppled at the quick pace he moved, his back connecting harshly with the wall and audibly knocking the air from his lungs, his arms remaining locked around the girl in his arms.

Subconsciously, (Y/n) had pressed her palms to his chest to break her fall, and while still unable to comprehend such a flash of events, her mouth hung agape as she panted heavily. She could barely register a thing, feeling a dizzy sensation as she stared at Nikolai, her face full of fright at the thought of being crushed.

The Russian was worried that she could feel the way his heart was beating like a banging drum at such sudden closeness, but when her eyes dropped to see her hands planted firmly just below his shoulders, she came to her senses and almost jumped back out of embarrassment.

“O-oh my god, I’m sorry!” (Y/n) began to fret, adrenaline still rushing through her, causing such jittery movements.

She snapped around to observe the wreckage of the catwalk, that was once situated above their heads, now in a heap of itself, entirely blocking an exit route from the building.

“Are you alright?” Nikolai’s deepened voice called to her in pure concern.

When (Y/n) turned, she saw his face contoured with stress, and a hand readied to place on her shoulder, however, stopping himself when she nodded with a heavy sigh. She planted her hands on her hips, letting her head bow and eyes fall shut as she calmed herself.

“Thank you, Nikolai.” She breathed, wiping a hand over her face. “I owe you one.”

However, his face was flushed red as the thought of being so close together remained permanently etched into his mind. Unbeknownst to Nikolai, (Y/n) wouldn’t dare lock eyes with him, feeling the same embarrassment and awkwardness of being pressed so tightly to someone she hardly knew.

Neither of them could bring themselves to move as awkwardness was eating them up inside.

As if relieving them of the tense situation, Dempsey, tailed closely by Takeo, barged through the doorway atop the stairwell nearby, out of breath and clutching rifles tightly.

“We’ve got company.” Dempsey informed loudly, his voice gruff and stern. “Get your asses out here.”

Apparently, the crashing noise was enough to alert the stray undead swarms nearby, for they were filtering in through any access point possible, with some of them even tearing of their own decaying limbs as they came through or impaling themselves on broken barricades.

Equipping their weapons swiftly, (Y/n) bolted for the stairs that lead to a vantage point, with Nikolai tailing behind. She breezed past Dempsey, and took position beside Takeo, who had found excellent position that allowed for quick and easy shots to the heads of zombies.

With the team regrouped the hordes were cleared strangely fast. Typically, swarms came in frequent waves, virtually endless, but this time the air stilled. Not a groan or cry was heard from a zombie around. Even some of the boys moved to peer through open barriers, surveying the area, but they soon reeled themselves back to the group with their brows knit in confusion.

“Strange.” Takeo spoke aloud in his husky voice. “The land is silent.”

(Y/n) acknowledged Takeo and hummed in agreement, both vigilantly looking over their shoulders for approaching danger.

“So, did you guys find anything?” She asked, filtering her attention between the other pair.

Tank shrugged, looking a bit defeated. “A little. Couple cans of food, but that’s about it. This place is deserted if you ask me. We ain’t gonna find much.”

(Y/n) sighed in disappointment, the idea of a delicious homecooked meal seemed so far out of reach. She’s certain the men craved something more than just a measly can of beans, and even then, it’s typically shared amongst the five of them, barely subsidising the painful hunger.

Clicking of a gun being reloaded sounded. It was Dempsey loading his sidearm. While keeping his focus on what he occupied himself with, he spoke.

“What about you? Find anything?”

A response was on the tip of her tongue, but her own mind caught her off guard, teasing the image of her body pressed against Nikolai’s, and the way his gorgeous blue eyes stared deeply into her own. Vividly recalling the way his large, gloved hands rested softly on her sides, supporting her knees that dared to buckle under the weight of embarrassment. She felt her hands begin to clammer up at the intrusive thought, wiping them subconsciously on her coat.

When (Y/n) never responded, Dempsey’s little task in his hands halted as he peered through his eyebrows at her.

“We found stashes of ammunition, but not much else.” Nikolai had interjected.

Mentally, the girl thanked him for taking the words she failed to speak, however, feeling more awkward when she saw Dempsey eyeing her suspiciously.

Starling her, Takeo breezed past silently, moving to a cracked glass window that overlooked the storage room. Apparently something had caught his attention from afar. He observed the sight of the wreckage of the fallen catwalk; it certainly stuck out compared to the feeble clutter in the room.

(Y/n) couldn’t help the way her feet carried her towards him.

Sensing that she was standing a small distance from him, Takeo spoke.

“We heard a crash on the opposite side of the facility. Was it this?”

Takeo sounded so genuine, strangely. His speech was typically blunt and didn’t have much change in low tones.

“It was the catwalk that collapsed. The place is falling apart at the seams.” She answered briefly.

Takeo nodded in acknowledgment. He had suspicions that the rumbling noise of steel landing with such a mighty force had alerted the chaotic number of undead creatures.

(Y/n) stared blankly at the structure below, somewhat in a daze when she confessed. “I was standing underneath it when it fell.”

Dempsey and Takeo pivoted to face the girl simultaneously, their shoulders visibly tensed and eyes almost bulging.

Snapping back to her senses, she forced a smile as she quickly reassured, “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

Both relaxed in sync, breathing relieved sighs.

“But I have to say that I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for Nikolai pulling me out of there.” She told, looking at the Russian sincerely. “I really owe him one.”

In that moment she hoped that the frosty air nipping at her skin had already tinted her cheeks a rosy hue, for she could feel a burning fluster rising from her chest. A smile threatened to tug at Nikolai’s lips as he glanced her way.

No one had seen Dempsey’s eyes practically burning fire as he snapped a dirty look towards Nikolai.

“Alright, enough with the sappy ‘who saved who’s life’ shit now.” Dempsey blurted out bitterly. “We’ve got shit to do.”

Thudding footsteps followed as Dempsey stormed off out of the building with his assault rifle under a mighty grip and chest puffed in hot rage. Takeo looked to (Y/n) who stood tall by Nikolai, only to be scrutinising the Russian with his intensive eyes before stalking out with a huff.

The girl knit her brows in confusion.

It could be said that Dempsey was known for his ability to lose his temper quickly, and few times she had seen his anger get the better of him, but Takeo’s strange reaction struck her differently. She had never seen him give anyone, but Richtofen, such a fierce glare.

“What was that about?” (Y/n) asked, sounding somewhat bewildered.

Nikolai swallowed hard, struggling to muster a response when she looked at him with beady eyes, hoping for an answer.

Unfortunately, the Russian knew all to well just what sparked Dempsey and Takeo to be so infuriated, with him only.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say they seemed jealous.” She spoke aloud.

Oh, but how jealous they were, and that’s only the beginning of it.

#cod zombies #tank dempsey #edward richtofen #nikolai belinski #takeo masaki #call of duty zombies #codz #codz x reader #call of duty

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oshlet · 2 years ago

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IPS-N Gibraltar, a pared down, mass production mech designed both for export as well as internal use by both Northstar Galactic Command and Trunk Security. Elements from the Tortuga have been taken to amplify the close-quarters capability of the frame, however it’s smaller and much more simple in construction.

Recently, a stock of these machines, among other mechs, has been loaded into the Trunk Security carrier 3030-Whiskey, a Tawa class operating in the long rim initially as a mobile anti-pirate base, but more recently as a vessel to ensure the acquisition of the anomalous asteroid known as ‘Crockpot’

#mecha #LancerRPG #IPS-N #Trunk Security

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mariacallous · 9 months ago

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In February of last year, Donggang Jinhui Foodstuff, a seafood-processing company in Dandong, China, threw a party. It had been a successful year: a new plant had opened, and the company had doubled the amount of squid that it exported to the United States. The party, according to videos posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, featured singers, instrumentalists, dancers, fireworks, and strobe lights. One aspect of the company’s success seems to have been its use of North Korean workers, who are sent by their government to work in Chinese factories, in conditions of captivity, to earn money for the state. A seafood trader who does business with Jinhui recently estimated that it employed between fifty and seventy North Koreans. Videos posted by a company representative show machines labelled in Korean, and workers with North Korean accents explaining how to clean squid. At the party, the company played songs that are popular in Pyongyang, including “People Bring Glory to Our Party” (written by North Korea’s 1989 poet laureate) and “We Will Go to Mt. Paektu” (a reference to the widely mythologized birthplace of Kim Jong Il). Performers wore North Korean colors, and the country’s flag billowed behind them; in the audience, dozens of workers held miniature flags.

Drone footage played at the event showed off Jinhui’s twenty-one-acre, fenced-in compound, which has processing and cold-storage facilities and what appears to be a seven-floor dormitory for workers. The company touted a wide array of Western certifications from organizations that claim to check workplaces for labor violations, including the use of North Korean workers. When videos of the party were posted online, a commenter—presumably befuddled, because using these workers violates U.N. sanctions—asked, “Aren’t you prohibited from filming this?”

Like Jinhui, many companies in China rely on a vast program of forced labor from North Korea. (Jinhui did not respond to requests for comment.) The program is run by various entities in the North Korean government, including a secretive agency called Room 39, which oversees activities such as money laundering and cyberattacks, and which funds the country’s nuclear- and ballistic-missile programs. (The agency is so named, according to some defectors, because it is based in the ninth room on the third floor of the Korean Workers’ Party headquarters.) Such labor transfers are not new. In 2012, North Korea sent some forty thousand workers to China. A portion of their salaries was taken by the state, providing a vital source of foreign currency for Party officials: at the time, a Seoul-based think tank estimated that the country made as much as $2.3 billion a year through the program. Since then, North Koreans have been sent to Russia, Poland, Qatar, Uruguay, and Mali.

In 2017, after North Korea tested a series of nuclear and ballistic weapons, the United Nations imposed sanctions that prohibit foreign companies from using North Korean workers. The U.S. passed a law that established a “rebuttable presumption” categorizing work by North Koreans as forced labor unless proven otherwise, and levying fines on companies that import goods tied to these workers. China is supposed to enforce the sanctions in a similar manner. Nevertheless, according to State Department estimates, there are currently as many as a hundred thousand North Koreans working in the country. Many work at construction companies, textile factories, and software firms. Some also process seafood. In 2022, according to Chinese officials running pandemic quarantines, there were some eighty thousand North Koreans just in Dandong, a hub of the seafood industry.

Last year, I set out with a team of researchers to document this phenomenon. We reviewed leaked government documents, promotional materials, satellite imagery, online forums, and local news reports. We watched hundreds of cell-phone videos published on social-media sites. In some, the presence of North Koreans was explicit. Others were examined by experts to detect North Korean accents, language usage, and other cultural markers. Reporting in China is tightly restricted for Western reporters. But we hired Chinese investigators to visit factories and record footage of production lines. I also secretly sent interview questions, through another group of investigators and their contacts, to two dozen North Koreans—twenty workers and four managers—who had recently spent time in Chinese factories. Their anonymous responses were transcribed and sent back to me.

The workers, all of whom are women, described conditions of confinement and violence at the plants. Workers are held in compounds, sometimes behind barbed wire, under the watch of security agents. Many work gruelling shifts and get at most one day off a month. Several described being beaten by the managers sent by North Korea to watch them. “It was like prison for me,” one woman said. “At first, I almost vomited at how bad it was, and, just when I got used to it, the supervisors would tell us to shut up, and curse if we talked.” Many described enduring sexual assault at the hands of their managers. “They would say I’m fuckable and then suddenly grab my body and grope my breasts and put their dirty mouth on mine and be disgusting,” a woman who did product transport at a plant in the city of Dalian said. Another, who worked at Jinhui, said, “The worst and saddest moment was when I was forced to have sexual relations when we were brought to a party with alcohol.” The workers described being kept at the factories against their will, and being threatened with severe punishment if they tried to escape. A woman who was at a factory called Dalian Haiqing Food for more than four years said, “It’s often emphasized that, if you are caught running away, you will be killed without a trace.”

In all, I identified fifteen seafood-processing plants that together seem to have used more than a thousand North Korean workers since 2017. China officially denies that North Korean laborers are in the country. But their presence is an open secret. “They are easy to distinguish,” a Dandong native wrote in a comment on Bilibili, a video-sharing site. “They all wear uniform clothes, have a leader, and follow orders.” Often, footage of the workers ends up online. In a video from a plant called Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods, a dozen women perform a synchronized dance in front of a mural commemorating Youth Day, a North Korean holiday. The video features a North Korean flag emoji and the caption “Beautiful little women from North Korea in Donggang’s cold-storage facility.” (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) Remco Breuker, a North Korea specialist at Leiden University, in the Netherlands, told me, “Hundreds of thousands of North Korean workers have for decades slaved away in China and elsewhere, enriching their leader and his party while facing unconscionable abuse.”

In late 2023, an investigator hired by my team visited a Chinese plant called Donggang Xinxin Foodstuff. He found hundreds of North Korean women working under a red banner that read, in Korean, “Let’s carry out the resolution of the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party.” (The company did not respond to requests for comment.) Soon afterward, the investigator visited a nearby plant called Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff, and found a North Korean manager sitting at a wooden desk with two miniature flags, one Chinese and one North Korean. The walls around the desk were mostly bare except for two portraits of the past North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The manager took our investigator to the workers’ cafeteria to eat a North Korean cold-noodle dish called naengmyeon, and then gave him a tour of the processing floor. Several hundred North Korean women dressed in red uniforms, plastic aprons, and white rubber boots stood shoulder to shoulder at long metal tables under harsh lights, hunched over plastic baskets of seafood, slicing and sorting products by hand. “They work hard,” the manager said. The factory has exported thousands of tons of fish to companies that supply major U.S. retailers, including Walmart and ShopRite. (A spokesperson for Donggang Haimeng said that it does not hire North Korean workers.)

At times, China aggressively conceals the existence of the program. Alexander Dukalskis, a political-science professor at University College Dublin, said that workers have a hard time making their conditions known. “They’re in a country where they may not speak the language, are under surveillance, usually living collectively, and have no experience in contacting journalists,” he said. In late November, after my team’s investigators visited several plants, authorities distributed pamphlets on the country’s anti-espionage laws. Local officials announced that people who try “to contact North Korean workers, or to approach the workplaces of North Korean workers, will be treated as engaging in espionage activities that endanger national security, and will be punished severely.” They also warned that people who were found to be working in connection with foreign media outlets would face consequences under the Anti-Espionage Act.

Dandong, a city of more than two million people, sits on the Yalu River, just over the border from North Korea. The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge links Dandong to the North Korean city of Sinuiju. A second bridge, bombed during the Korean War, still extends partway across the river, and serves as a platform from which Chinese residents can view the North Koreans living six hundred yards away. The Friendship Bridge is one of the Hermit Kingdom’s few gateways to the world. Some trade with North Korea is allowed under U.N. sanctions, and nearly seventy per cent of the goods exchanged between that country and China travel across this bridge. At least one department store in Dandong keeps a list of products preferred by North Korean customers. Shops sell North Korean ginseng, beer, and “7.27” cigarettes, named for the date on which the armistice ending the Korean War was signed. The city is home to a museum about the conflict, officially called the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. On boat tours, Chinese tourists purchase bags of biscuits to toss to children on the North Korean side of the river.

Government officials carefully select workers to send to China, screening them for their political loyalties to reduce the risk of defections. To qualify, a person must generally have a job at a North Korean company and a positive evaluation from a local Party official. “These checks start at the neighborhood,” Breuker said. Candidates who have family in China, or a relative who has already defected, can be disqualified. For some positions, applicants under twenty-seven years of age who are unmarried must have living parents, who can be punished if they try to defect, according to a report from the South Korean government; applicants over twenty-seven must be married. North Korean authorities even select for height: the country’s population is chronically malnourished, and the state prefers candidates who are taller than five feet one, to avoid the official embarrassment of being represented abroad by short people. Once selected, applicants go through pre-departure training, which can last a year and often includes government-run classes covering everything from Chinese customs and etiquette to “enemy operations” and the activities of other countries’ intelligence agencies. (The North Korean government did not respond to requests for comment.)

The governments of both countries coördinate to place workers, most of whom are women, with seafood companies. The logistics are often handled by local Chinese recruitment agencies, and advertisements can be found online. A video posted on Douyin this past September announced the availability of twenty-five hundred North Koreans, and a commenter asked if they could be sent to seafood factories. A post on a forum advertised five thousand workers; a commenter asked if any spoke Mandarin, and the poster replied, “There is a team leader, management, and an interpreter.” A company called Jinuo Human Resources posted, “I am a human-resources company coöperating with the embassy, and currently have a large number of regular North Korean workers.” Several people expressed interest. (The company did not respond to requests for comment.)

Jobs in China are coveted in North Korea, because they often come with contracts promising salaries of around two hundred and seventy dollars a month. (Similar work in North Korea pays just three dollars a month.) But the jobs come with hidden costs. Workers usually sign two- or three-year contracts. When they arrive in China, managers confiscate their passports. Inside the factories, North Korean workers wear different uniforms than Chinese workers. “Without this, we couldn’t tell if one disappeared,” a manager said. Shifts run as long as sixteen hours. If workers attempt to escape, or complain to people outside the plants, their families at home can face reprisals. One seafood worker described how managers cursed at her and flicked cigarette butts. “I felt bad, and I wanted to fight them, but I had to endure,” she said. “That was when I was sad.”

Workers get few, if any, holidays or sick days. At seafood plants, the women sleep in bunk beds in locked dormitories, sometimes thirty to a room. One worker, who spent four years processing clams in Dandong, estimated that more than sixty per cent of her co-workers suffered from depression. “We regretted coming to China but couldn’t go back empty-handed,” she said. Workers are forbidden to tune in to local TV or radio. They are sometimes allowed to leave factory grounds—say, to go shopping—but generally in groups of no more than three, and accompanied by a minder. Mail is scrutinized by North Korean security agents who also “surveil the daily life and report back with official reports,” one manager said. Sometimes the women are allowed to socialize. In a video titled “North Korean beauties working in China play volleyball,” posted in 2022, women in blue-and-white uniforms exercise on the grounds of the Dandong Omeca Food seafood plant. (The company that owns the plant did not respond to requests for comment.) A commenter wrote, “The joy of poverty. That’s just how it is.”

Factories typically give the women’s money to their managers, who take cuts for themselves and the government, and hold on to the rest until the workers’ terms in China end. Kim Jieun, a North Korean defector who now works for Radio Free Asia, said that companies tell workers their money is safer this way, because it could be stolen in the dormitories. But, in the end, workers often see less than ten per cent of their promised salary. One contract that I reviewed stipulated that around forty dollars would be deducted each month by the state to pay for food. More is sometimes deducted for electricity, housing, heat, water, insurance, and “loyalty” payments to the state. Managers also hold on to wages to discourage defections. The women have been warned, Kim added, that if they try to defect “they will be immediately caught by Chinese CCTV cameras installed everywhere.” This past October, Chinese authorities repatriated around six hundred North Korean defectors. “China does not recognize North Korean defectors as refugees,” Edward Howell, who teaches politics at Oxford University, told me. “If they are caught by Chinese authorities, they will be forcibly returned to the D.P.R.K., where they face harsh punishment in labor camps.”

Chinese companies have significant incentives to use North Korean workers. They’re typically paid only a quarter of what local employees earn. And they are generally excluded from mandatory social-welfare programs (regarding retirement, medical treatment, work-related injury, and maternity), which further reduces costs. In 2017, Dandong’s Commerce Bureau announced a plan to create a cluster of garment factories that would use North Korean labor. The bureau’s Web site noted that all such workers undergo political screenings to make sure they are “rooted, red, and upright.” “The discipline among the workers is extremely strong,” it added. “There are no instances of absenteeism or insubordination toward leadership, and there are no occurrences of feigning illness or delaying work.” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to questions for this piece, but last year the Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. wrote that China has abided by sanctions even though it has sustained “great losses” as a result. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently said that China and North Korea have “enjoyed long-standing friendly ties,” adding, “The United States needs to draw lessons, correct course, step up to its responsibility, stop heightening the pressure and sanctions, stop military deterrence, and take effective steps to resume meaningful dialogue.”

North Koreans face difficult circumstances across industries. In January of this year, more than two thousand workers rioted in Jilin Province, breaking sewing machines and kitchen utensils, when they learned that their wages would be withheld. Many North Koreans—perhaps thousands—work in Russian logging, in brutal winter weather without proper clothing. Hundreds have been found working in the Russian construction industry; some lived in shipping containers or in the basements of buildings under construction, because better accommodations were not provided. One recounted working shifts that lasted from 7:30 A.M. to 3 A.M. In preparation for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, held in Russia and Qatar, thousands of North Koreans were sent to build stadiums and luxury apartments. A subcontractor who worked alongside the North Koreans in Russia told the Guardian that they lived in cramped spaces, with as many as eight people packed into a trailer, in an atmosphere of fear and abuse like “prisoners of war.”

Although it’s illegal in the U.S. to import goods made with North Korean labor, the law can be difficult to enforce. Some eighty per cent of seafood consumed in America, for example, is imported, and much of it comes from China through opaque supply chains. To trace the importation of seafood from factories that appear to be using North Korean labor, my team reviewed trade data, shipping contracts, and the codes that are stamped on seafood packages to monitor food safety. We found that, since 2017, ten of these plants have together shipped more than a hundred and twenty thousand tons of seafood to more than seventy American importers, which supplied grocery stores including Walmart, Giant, ShopRite, and the online grocer Weee! The seafood from these importers also ended up at major restaurant chains, like McDonald’s, and with Sysco, the largest food distributor in the world, which supplies almost half a million restaurants, as well as the cafeterias on American military bases, in public schools, and for the U.S. Congress. (Walmart, Weee!, and McDonald’s did not respond to requests for comment. Giant’s parent company, Ahold Delhaize, and ShopRite’s parent company, Wakefern, said their suppliers claimed that they currently do not source from the Chinese plant in question, and added that audit reports showed no evidence of forced labor.)

Two of the plants that investigators from my team visited—Dandong Galicia Seafood and Dalian Haiqing Food—had an estimated fifty to seventy North Korean workers apiece. One worker who has been employed at Galicia said that the managers are “so stingy with money that they don’t allow us to get proper medical treatment even when we are sick.” Galicia and Haiqing have shipped roughly a hundred thousand tons of seafood to American importers since 2017, and Haiqing also shipped to an importer that supplies the cafeterias of the European Parliament. (Dalian Haiqing Food said that it “does not employ overseas North Korean workers.” Dandong Galicia Seafood did not respond to requests for comment. One of the U.S. importers tied to Haiqing, Trident Seafoods, said that audits “found no evidence or even suspicion” of North Korean labor at the plant. Several companies, including Trident, High Liner, and Sysco, said that they would sever ties with the plant while they conducted their own investigations. A spokesperson for the European Parliament said that its food contractor did not supply seafood from the plant.) Breuker, from Leiden University, told me that American customers quietly benefit from this arrangement. “This labor-transfer system is for North Korea and China as economically successful as it is morally reprehensible,” he said. “It’s also a boon for the West because of the cheap goods we get as a result.”

North Korea doesn’t just export seafood workers; it also exports fish—another means by which the government secures foreign currency. Importing North Korean seafood is forbidden by U.N. sanctions, but it also tends to be inexpensive, which encourages companies to skirt the rules. Sometimes Chinese fishing companies pay the North Korean government for illegal licenses to fish in North Korea’s waters. Sometimes they buy fish from other boats at sea: a letter from a North Korean, leaked in 2022, proposed selling ten thousand tons of squid to a Chinese company in return for more than eighteen million dollars and five hundred tons of diesel fuel. Sometimes the seafood is trucked over the border. This trade is poorly hidden. In October, a Chinese man who said his last name was Cui posted a video on Douyin advertising crabs from North Korea. When someone commented, “The goods can’t be shipped,” Cui responded with laughing emojis. In other videos, he explained that he operated a processing plant in North Korea, and gave information on the timing of shipments that he planned to send across the border. When I contacted Cui, he said that he had stopped importing North Korean seafood in 2016 (though the videos were actually from last year), and added, “It’s none of your business, and I don’t care who you are.” My team found that seafood from North Korea was imported by several American distributors, including HF Foods, which supplies more than fifteen thousand Asian restaurants in the U.S. (HF Foods did not respond to requests for comment.)

Chinese companies often claim that they are in compliance with labor laws because they have passed “social audits,” which are conducted by firms that inspect worksites for abuses. But half the Chinese plants that we found using North Korean workers have certifications from the Marine Stewardship Council, which is based in the U.K. and sets standards for granting sustainability certifications, but only to companies that have also passed social audits or other labor assessments. (Jackie Marks, an M.S.C. spokesperson, told me that these social audits are conducted by a third party, and that “We make no claims about setting standards on labor.”) Last year, one of my team’s investigators visited a seafood-processing plant in northeastern China called Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff. The company has been designated a “national brand,” a status reserved for the country’s most successful companies, and supplies thousands of tons of seafood to grocery stores in the U.S. and elsewhere. At the plant, our investigator was given a tour by a North Korean manager. On the factory floor, which was lit by bright fluorescent bulbs, more than a hundred and fifty North Korean women, most of them under thirty-five years old, wore head-to-toe white protective clothing, plastic aprons, white rubber boots, and red gloves that went up to their elbows. They stood with their heads down, moving red, yellow, and blue plastic bins of seafood. Water puddled at their feet. “Quick, quick,” one woman said to the other members of her small group. (Taifeng did not respond to requests for comment.) Just weeks after that visit, the plant was recertified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Marcus Noland, who works at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said, of social audits within the seafood industry, “The basic stance appears to be ‘See no evil.’ ” Skepticism of such audits is growing. In 2021, the U.S. State Department said that social audits in China are generally inadequate for identifying forced labor, in part because auditors rely on government translators and rarely speak directly to workers. Auditors can be reluctant to anger the companies that have hired them, and workers face reprisals for reporting abuses. This past November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection advised American companies that a credible assessment would require an “unannounced independent, third-party audit” and “interviews completed in native language.” Liana Foxvog, who works at a nonprofit called the Worker Rights Consortium, argues that assessments should involve other checks too, including off-site worker interviews. But she noted that most audits in China fall short even of C.B.P.’s standards.

Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who helped draft the American law that banned goods produced with North Korean labor, argues that the government is not doing enough to enforce it. “The U.S. government will need to put more pressure on American companies, and those companies need to be more diligent about their suppliers and their supply chains, or face stricter sanctions,” he said. Chris Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey and a specialist on China, noted that social audits “create a Potemkin village.” He added, “The consequence is that millions of dollars, even federal dollars, are going to Chinese plants using North Korean workers, and that money then goes right into the hands of Kim Jong Un’s regime, which uses the money to arm our adversaries and repress its own people.”

Late last year, when I set out to contact North Koreans who had been sent to China, I ran into significant obstacles. Western journalists are barred from entering North Korea, and citizens of the country are strictly prohibited from talking freely to reporters. I hired a team of investigators in South Korea who employ contacts in North Korea to get information out of the country for local and Western news outlets—for example, about food shortages, power outages, or the rise of anti-government graffiti. The investigators compiled a list of two dozen North Koreans who had been dispatched to a half-dozen different Chinese factories, most of whom had since returned home. The investigators’ contacts then met with these workers in secret, one-on-one, so that the workers wouldn’t know one another’s identity. The meetings usually occurred in open fields, or on the street, where it’s harder for security agents to conduct surveillance.

The workers were told that their responses would be shared publicly by an American journalism outlet. They faced considerable risk speaking out; experts told me that, if they were caught, they could be executed, and their families put in prison camps. But they agreed to talk because they believe that it is important for the rest of the world to know what happens to workers who are sent to China. The North Korean contacts transcribed their answers by hand, and then took photos of the completed questionnaires and sent them, using encrypted phones, to the investigators, who sent them to me. North Koreans who are still in China were interviewed in a similar fashion. Because of these layers of protection, it is, of course, impossible to fully verify the content of the interviews. But the responses were reviewed by experts to make sure that they are consistent with what is broadly known about the work-transfer program, and in line with interviews given by North Korean defectors. (Recently, the investigators checked in on the interviewers and interviewees, and everyone was safe.)

In their answers, the workers described crushing loneliness. The work was arduous, the factories smelled, and violence was common. “They kicked us and treated us as subhuman,” the worker who processed clams in Dandong said. Asked if they could recount any happy moments, most said that there had been none. A few said that they felt relieved when they returned home and got some of their pay. “I was happy when the money wasn’t all taken out,” the woman who did product transport in Dalian said. One woman said that her experience at a Chinese plant made her feel like she “wanted to die.” Another said that she often felt tired and upset while she was working, but kept those thoughts to herself to avoid reprisals. “It was lonely,” she said. “I hated the military-like communal life.”

The most striking pattern was the women’s description of sexual abuse. Of twenty workers, seventeen said that they had been sexually assaulted by their North Korean managers. They described a range of tactics used to coerce them into having sex. Some managers pretended to wipe something from their uniforms, only to grope them. Some called them into their offices as if there were an emergency, then demanded sex. Others asked them to serve alcohol at a weekend party, then assaulted them there. “When they drank, they touched my body everywhere like playing with toys,” a woman said. The woman who did product transport in Dalian said, “When they suddenly put their mouths to mine, I wanted to throw up.” If the women didn’t comply, the managers could become violent. The worker who was at Haiqing for more than four years said, of her manager, “When he doesn’t get his way sexually, he gets angry and kicks me. . . . He calls me a ‘fucking bitch.’ ” Three of the women said that their managers had forced workers into prostitution. “Whenever they can, they flirt with us to the point of nausea and force us to have sex for money, and it’s even worse if you’re pretty,” another worker at Haiqing said. The worker from Jinhui noted, “Even when there was no work during the pandemic, the state demanded foreign-currency funds out of loyalty, so managers forced workers to sell their bodies.” The worker who spent more than four years at Haiqing said, of the managers, “They forced virgin workers into prostitution, claiming that they had to meet state-set quotas.”

The pandemic made life more difficult for many of the women. When China closed its borders, some found themselves trapped far from home. Often, their workplaces shut down, and they lost their incomes. North Korean workers sometimes pay bribes to government officials to secure posts in China, and, during the pandemic, many borrowed these funds from loan sharks. The loans, typically between two and three thousand dollars, came with high interest rates. Because of work stoppages in China, North Korean workers were unable to pay back their loans, and loan sharks sent thugs to their relatives’ homes to intimidate them. Some of their families had to sell their houses to settle the debts. In 2023, according to Radio Free Asia, two North Korean women at textile plants killed themselves. The worker who told me that she wanted to die said that such deaths are often kept hidden. “If someone dies from suicide, then the manager is responsible, so they keep it under wraps to keep it from being leaked to other workers or Chinese people,” she said.

This past year, pandemic restrictions were lifted, and the border between China and North Korea reopened. In August, some three hundred North Korean workers boarded ten buses in Dandong to go back home. Police officers lined up around the buses to prevent defections. In photos and a video of the event, some of the women can be seen hurriedly preparing to load large suitcases onto a neon-green bus, then riding away across the Friendship Bridge. In September, another three hundred boarded a passenger train to Sinuiju, and two hundred were repatriated by plane. Workers who return face intense questioning by officials. “They asked about every single thing that happened every day from morning to evening in China, about other workers, supervisors, and agents,” the worker who processed clams in Dandong explained. As 2023 ended, the North Korean government began planning to dispatch its next wave of workers. In the past couple of years, according to reporting by Hyemin Son, a North Korean defector who works for Radio Free Asia, labor brokers have requested that Chinese companies pay a large advance; they were being asked to pay ahead of time, one broker told her, because “Chinese companies cannot operate without North Korean manpower.”

Some North Korean workers have yet to go home. One woman said that she has spent the past several years gutting fish at a processing plant in Dalian. She described working late into the night and getting sores in her mouth from stress and exhaustion. In the questionnaire, I had asked about the worst part of her job, and she said, “When I am forced to have sex.” She also described a sense of imprisonment that felt suffocating. “If you show even the slightest attitude, they will treat you like an insect,” she said. “Living a life where we can’t see the outside world as we please is so difficult that it’s killing us.” ♦

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hebuiltfive · 1 year ago

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Thundertober Day Two: Espionage

This is a long one (sorry!) but the next two days are shorter so that kind of makes up for it. Minor Pen&Ink in this, but it's mainly spy!Penny.

AO3 here Day: One

Warnings for: bad language Tracy Industries has always had a target on their backs. But this time, the attack hits a little closer to home. Tagging: @thunder-tober @skymaiden32

Tracy Industries was a pillar in the world of aerospace, construction and finance. It held a desirable reputation and was run by a family of charming philanthropists who seemed to consistently beat the odds that were forever stacking against them. They were renowned in their techniques and had contract offers left, right and centre. With all of this factors combined, the target on their backs grew increasingly larger.

As a company they had witnessed, and prevailed, through many, many attempts of sabotage before, whether that was from other companies trying to convince major shareholders to sell their shares, or from jealous rivals trying to wreak havoc by circulating false whisper numbers around Wall Street in an attempt to sow doubt within and around Tracy Industries. In fact, in the first few months following his father’s tragic and untimely death, that had been one of Scott’s first challenges. The eldest Tracy had dealt with an insurmountable amount of attempts in the years that had followed, and he had managed to fight each attempt valiantly, managing to keep Tracy Industries afloat one way or another.

This recent hack, however, had been a much larger threat that could have ended in a devastating blow.

At first, they had assumed the security breach was credited to the Hood, but after being reassured by Colonel Casey that their nemesis was still securely locked away, they began to search deeper. Their result was unpleasant. Angry and dramatic vows of revenge followed, though they would never be acted upon.

The breach couldn’t have been described as anything other than a direct attack and it was far deadlier to the company than any other previous sabotage had been. This breach threatened to expose more than just a few financial details, or ways in which to win bigger contracts back from Tracy Industries.

As the main exporter and provider for International Rescue, this breach threatened to expose the blueprints Tracy Industries had kept in their files for the organisation’s crafts and machines.

Much to all of their reliefs, the blueprints for the actual Thunderbirds themselves were kept safely locked away on the island, but that still left some of their other life-saving equipment being at risk of leaking. The thought of other, perhaps less ethical companies, getting their hands on any of their design blueprints was bad enough. With the added fear of them selling them to the highest bidder, regardless of who that buyer might have been, was terrifying, and that panic alone had them all cursing themselves over the lack of security surrounding those files.

Regardless of John’s reassurance that the security system fitted by both himself and Brains was impenetrable, keeping some of their top secret files over on Tracy Industries’s databanks, just for the convenience, was incredibly stupid, and it was something they had planned to rectify in the following months. The move was one made from pure carelessness on their part.

To add insult to injury, Scott had then received a personal invitation to a party hosted by the very man that they strongly suspected as being the one behind the attack. He had almost declined. The thought of partying with a man who had committed such a violation to their company, whether they were rivals or not, had his stomach churning. He would have much rather turned the guy in for corporate espionage and be done with it… Until he realised that what they had, mere traces of evidence, was not evidence enough.

They’d have to dig deeper.

Enter Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, long time friend of the Tracy family and associate of both International Rescue and Tracy Industries.

The party’s location was being held at Randall Gardener’s private mansion in Beverly Hills and not at the office of his company, The Acorn Corporation. They had been aware of that fact from the moment they’d received the invitation and had planned accordingly.

Gardener’s home office would be Penelope’s target. Brains had developed a special drive to expertly download all of Gardener’s files in record time. The device hid within one of the solid silver bangles she had dangling from her wrists. Though she rather worked alone on these sorts of missions, she couldn’t deny how conspicuous she’d look if she was the only one representing Tracy Industries and so she had relented when Scott suggested one of them attended with her.

Kayo was out on another mission with the GDF and so Penelope’s first choice was blown out of the water before she could even consider the Chief of Security’s company. Virgil offered his services, only to be quite literally batted away by Gordon.

Once it was revealed that she would require a Tracy to hang off her arm for the night, Gordon had practically begged to be the one to go with her. Penelope wasn’t keen on the idea. At first he had so vehemently claimed to want to catch the ‘dirty bastard’ red-handed at his own dinner party, that Penelope wasn’t sure Gordon was the best option. Volatile, bitter and hurt were not what she was used to seeing with Gordon and, if she was honest, the sight worried her terribly. She had been inclined to take up Virgil’s offer instead but after a week of stewing, Gordon had seemingly calmed down enough for Penelope to feel comfortable with having him along.

Throughout the evening, John would monitor them from Thunderbird Five and EOS would translate guidance through specially crafted earpieces, though this would only be when necessary to avoid distractions.

With all the technical aspects prepared and ready, Penelope began to focus on her favourite part of any mission: her closet.

Penelope’s colour was pink. It always had been. It probably always would be. Her love of the colour came from societal’s childhood expectation of her; to adore the pretty and the sparkly, but her appreciation of the colour had grown in her later youth. By the time she had reached adulthood, Penelope knew how to use the colour pink to her advantage.

Just like tonight.

The gown she had chosen to wear was pink and sparkly. The hue matched her golden hair that was clipped in a way so her styled waves fell over one shoulder. Her manicure she’d had done earlier that day had her nails matching the colour of her floor-length dress, and her choice of necklace - diamonds inset into platinum - accentuated the modestly swooping neckline. Her outfit, as always, was a reflection of what they wanted to see. Pretty, poised and elegant. All the pieces helped her play the game all the more easily.

After all, who would think to question the young socialite in her diamonds and sequins if questions were to arise?

Not that she was expecting questions. There was a reason Penelope had a stellar reputation within intelligence circles. She was quick on her feet, agile enough in her social abilities to dodge unwanted questions and stealthy enough to leave no lead back to her doorstep. She liked to think she’d done her father proud.

Getting into the venue was easy. There were no checks on the door and there was barely any security on the property that could be seen. She didn’t want to jinx their mission but Penelope couldn’t help but think that perhaps this task of their’s was going to be easier than she had could have first anticipated.

It was a shame she would be proven wrong.

Sandwiching the main event of a fanciful dinner, networking was common during events such as these. This party was no different. The first half an hour, Penelope walked the room with Gordon, glasses of a sparkling wine filling their glasses before the party was called into a large, ornate dining room. Gordon was seated opposite her and both he and Penelope made patient small talk with those sitting closest to them. Once the many courses had been served and eaten, more networking commenced in the Grand Hall of Gardener’s mansion. Seamlessly, they played their parts and continued to blend in with the rest of the party as they mingled.

“God, I hate this part.” Gordon had whispered to her after they’d said farewell to a greying gentleman. He’d offered Gordon his business card in the ‘hopes it finds your older brother well’. The fake smile he plastered on his features told Penelope everything she needed to know about how he felt about that situation.

“I thought you hadn’t ever been to one of these before.”

“I haven’t. Well, not officially. Usually I was with Scott. I wouldn’t mind it but… being the sole member of the family here means that I’m having to receive all the weird conversations.” He sighed. “When is the sleuthing going to begin?”

Penelope did her best to hide her fond smile, gesturing over to their host for the evening who was standing beside a nearby table. “Distract Gardener. I’ll go looking for the office.”

Gordon glanced at her with his eyes wide. “You mean I don’t get to do the cool spy stuff with you?”

“Gordon, you don’t know how to do the cool spy stuff.”

He looked at her, a little stumped by her frankness but, unable to think of a decent response, he merely grumbled, “I could have learnt on the job.”

“I’m sure you could have.”

“How long do you need?”

“Thirty minutes.”

“And if I can’t keep him that long?”

“EOS can warn me.”

Gordon offered her a nod. He eyed his target, clearly not looking forward to having to be the front of the conversation once again if his apprehensive bounce was anything to go by. “Good luck,” was whispered before Gordon melted into the crowd of attendees.

To appear as casual as possible, and to avoid as much attention as possible, Penelope waited a few minutes before making her exit, only leaving once she heard Gordon’s joyful greeting boom across the event hall as the distraction she was hoping for.

“Randall! Long time, no see, buddy! How are things?”

---------------------------------------------------------------

The office was far enough away from the rest of the party for Penelope not to have to worry about drunken party-goers getting in her way. She remained wary of possible security, though she came across no guards on her journey and, whilst she thought it odd, she wasn’t about to complain. It was making her job a whole lot easier.

With the door already unlocked, her compact lock picking kit became redundant. Making sure the door behind her closed as quietly as possible, Penelope entered the office, making her way to the main computer unit at the far end of the room.

Gardener’s office was state-of-the-art. Various gadgets sat on shelves, experiments he was conducting from home being strewn out over various worktables, and floor-to-ceiling windows which seemed to draw Penelope in, captivating all her attention for a moment despite her attempts to resist the distraction. From the mansion’s position in the Hills, the sparkling city of Los Angeles far below looked stunning. It was far too picturesque to ignore.

She only snapped out of that trance when she thought she heard footsteps outside the door.

“EOS, how long do I have?”

The AI’s childlike voice felt bizarre in replacement of the usual Cockney accent of her chauffeur. “Gordon is successfully distracting Mr. Gardener. I estimate he will continue to provide sufficient distraction for a while longer yet, Lady Penelope.”

Regardless of this reassuring update from EOS, Penelope set to work immediately. She knelt down behind the desk to avoid anyone being able to easily see her from the corridor, just in case that office door ended up opening somehow during her work. Bangles jangled as she retrieved the drive from where it had been inset into her jewellery and plugged it into the main terminal.

The screensaver image of the Acorn Corporation logo that had been lighting up the desk flickered away to reveal two windows. In one, the files of Gardener’s computer system. In the other, those same files being copied from device to device. Now all Penelope had to do was wait.

Brains had assured her the gadget was quick and she had never had a reason to doubt him before. Yet, watching the seconds tick by, the percentage staggering upwards ever-so-slowly, Penelope began to wonder whether, for once, Brains had been wrong in his design. It began to feel like she had been waiting forever.

“EOS, how much longer?” Penelope whispered, wary of the fact that she had no idea who could have been lurking outside that office door now. For all she knew, the device she’d plugged in could have triggered a hidden, silent alarm. It wouldn’t have been the first time she’d been caught out by a sneaky security trick.

The lack of a response from EOS had Penelope begin to feel uneasy.

Her eyes caught the screen in time to see the ninety-eight per cent mark tick over to the ninety-nine. Anticipation built up. It had almost completed. One more per cent and then she could find Gordon and get out of there.

Except the ninety-nine per cent never reached one hundred.

The entire system seemed to just… switch itself off.

Penelope, trying her hardest to not start panicking over what could simply have just been a minor mishap, began flicking buttons.

It was pointless.

“EOS? EOS, can you hear me? What’s happened?

Faint static told Penelope that the line was still connected, if a little disturbed by interference.

“… I’m sorry, Lady Penelope.” EOS’s pause before she finally responded was so full of emotion, of guilt in particular, that Penelope could no longer deny that feeling of building dread that was creeping up from the pits of her stomach.

“You’re sorry—? What for?”

EOS remained silent again.

“What do you mean? Did you do this? EOS?”

“I was told it was for the best.” The AI defended herself before finally cutting the line off.

“By who?” Penelope tried despite the lack of static in her ear.

“By me.”

The voice had come from behind her, from the door which had now been swung open, from a voice she knew all too well and had trouble believing.

“… John?”

She wouldn’t believe it. She couldn’t. He was supposed to be on Thunderbird Five! He wasn’t supposed to be here. Her head span as Penelope jumped up from her position behind the desk.

“I’m sorry, Penelope,” John continued, stepping into the room properly, “but I couldn’t let you download those files.”

To his credit, John did appear to truly feel guilty over his words and his apparent actions.

“Why?”

John’s silence in regards to that question hurt her the most. Ignoring all the fears that were now whirling around her head, she attempted another question.

“Where’s Gordon?”

“Safe.”

“Can I trust you with that?”

There was a venomous quality to Penelope’s query which she didn’t regret one bit. Trust, it seemed, was not something she could currently equate to John. Was it ever something she could have attributed to him? Was it ever something she could honestly and safely expect from him again?

“He’s my brother.”

“Why didn’t you want me to download those files?”

Two guards, dressed to the nines which suggested they’d been blending in with the rest of the party just as Penelope and Gordon had been, entered behind John. Penelope eyed them and then the escape route that was just out of reach.

“Don’t.” John warned, sounding increasingly tired.

“You know me too well.”

“That’s the problem.” He sighed, as though that was her problem. Before Penelope could argue against that, John tapped his ear. “EOS?”

EOS’s voice filtered through Penelope’s earpiece once again. It had Penelope questioning if the AI had actually left earlier.

“Message relayed.”

“Message?” Penelope asked, more frantically than she’d planned. “What message? To who?”

“To Gordon. To tell him that you’ve left, following a clue that you wanted to go in search of without him.”

“He won’t buy it.”

“I don’t care if he buys it. I just care that he’s out of the way long enough to not get caught up in this any further.”

“And what is this, John?”

Red rings circled his eyes and bags had long set in. His complexion was paler than normal, even by John’s standards, and Penelope found herself searching her memory to remember a time she’d ever seen him look so troubled. She wasn’t sure she ever had.

John spoke no words. He signalled to the two guards to take one of Penelope’s arms each before leading them all out of the office and down the hallway. Penelope didn’t try to fight them, instead opting for trying to get information.

“Who put you up to this?” She asked John, not expecting a reply and being pleasantly surprised when he offered her one.

“What makes you think someone put me up to anything?”

“This is your family’s business.”

“So?”

“So, why not let me look at those files?”

They turned a corner which led to a set of stone steps, which in turn led down to God knew where. John slowly stepped down them, as though each step was a step towards Hell itself. Penelope prayed it wasn’t.

“You wouldn’t have liked what you saw.”

“Which is what, John?”

The stairway curved around in a spiral, heading deeper and deeper below ground. That panic began to build in her stomach. It would have been easier to fight off if she knew she could trust John, but she couldn’t anymore apparently.

“We can’t help you if you don’t tell us what is happening—”

The fury of John Tracy was something Penelope had never witnessed in person before. Icy chills went down her spine as he span around to face her. His face was shrouded in shadows from the minimal light making it almost impossible to see his real emotions play out on his face.

“Shut up.” He spat in the most un-John-like way Penny hoped she’d ever have to hear. John sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose as he reined in that panic. “I didn’t mean— Just, please, if you know what’s good for you, Penny, then just stop talking.”

In a way, that was answer enough for her. Add all the little factors she had and Penelope found herself jumping to the worst conclusion: John was responsible for the Tracy Industries hack, or at least had a major hand in it. Why was still a major question that he clearly wasn’t willing to answer, neither was the how.

A trickle of light glinted off his eyes, betraying the fact that he had tears in them, but Penelope found herself with little pity to give.

“Your brothers are going to be very disappointed in you, John.”

“I know.” He replied, head hanging lowly as he turned to continue leading them down that darkened hall way. “I fucking know.”

#thundertober 2023 #thunderbirds fanfiction #five fics #lady penelope #gordon tracy #john tracy #thunderbirds are go

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darkthare · 10 months ago

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I don’t normally draw mechanical designs but I wanted to try my hand at showing the differences in some “Arcanotek” horse models. Arcanotek is the name of the magically powered constructs and machines that run around in my world

“Mormag Style” refers to the country of origin, Mormagia/the Mormag Arcanum, which is the leading exporter of arcanotek creations.

#art #dnd #sketch #fantasy #concepts #magic #machinery #designs #I have no clue what to tag these tbh #tstc

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viktorviolettaenterprises · 2 years ago

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Finnish Army WW2 Light Tanks

One Of My Patron Request and Also Part Of Great Projects about Weapons and Heavy Machinery That Used During Winter War (1939-1940) & Continuation War (1941-1944) About The Finland Wars Against Soviet During during early and later Stages Of World War 2. For Your Informations Finnish Army During WW2 Heavy Machinery During Winter Wars Are Rely On Captured Soviets Tanks, Obsolete WW1 Products Or Licensed Products From Allied Countries Disclaimer:Due Heavy Censorship Regarding Swastika Usage in Western Society, The Details of The Tanks Are Replaced With Roundel Instead of Finnish Hakaristi. However It Just A Minor Details that May Missed.

DOWNLOAD Support Me In Patreon for Exclusive Business Agreement Or Support Me In Paypal For One-Time Support

BT-5 Light Tank The BT tanks (Russian: Быстроходный танк/БТ, romanized: Bystrokhodnyy tank, lit. "fast moving tank" or "high-speed tank") were a series of Soviet light tanks produced in large numbers between 1932 and 1941. They were lightly armoured, but reasonably well-armed for their time, and had the best mobility of all contemporary tanks. The BT tanks were known by the nickname Betka from the acronym, or its diminutive Betushka. The successor of the BT tanks was the famous T-34 medium tank, introduced in 1940, which would replace all of the Soviet fast tanks, infantry tanks, and medium tanks in service.

This Particular Variant is BT-5: Armed larger cylindrical turret, 45 mm 20-K gun, coaxial DT machine gun. Earlier tanks used simpler fully cylindrical bolted turrets with rear bustle welded on.

BT-42 Light Tank During the WWII, the Finnish Army utilized captured Soviet tanks as their significant armament. Among these was the BT-42 assault gun which the Finnish Army created by pairing the hull from a captured Russian BT-7 Model 1937 light tank with a British 114mm howitzer and a redesigned BT-7's large boxy turret. 18 units were produced from 1943 to 1944 and they were deployed to the Svir River region to attack the Russian bastion. In June 1944 during the Battle of Vyborg, BT-42s saw fierce combat against advancing Russian forces.

Renault FT-17 Light Tank

The Renault FT (frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17, FT17, or similar) was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to have its armament within a fully rotating turret. The Renault FT's configuration (crew compartment at the front, engine compartment at the back, and main armament in a revolving turret) became and remains the standard tank layout. Consequently, some armoured warfare historians have called the Renault FT the world's first modern tank. Over 3,000 Renault FT tanks were manufactured by French industry, most of them in 1918. After World War I, FT tanks were exported in large numbers. Copies and derivative designs were manufactured in the United States (M1917 light tank), in Italy (Fiat 3000) and in the Soviet Union (T-18 tank). The Renault FT saw combat during the interwar conflicts around the world, but was considered obsolete at the outbreak of World War II.

This Model Armed with Puteaux SA 1918 37 mm gun While The Other , Equipped With 8mm Hotchkiss Mle 1914 Machine gun for Anti-Personnel Purpose (Not Showed in Review)

KhT-130

KhT-130 is Flamethrower variant of model 1933 which is Variant Of Soviet T-26 Tank, The Most Successful and Most Modular Pre-WW2 Light Tanks using a larger 45 mm gun turret (a gun was replaced with a flamethrower for Anti-Personnel Purpose).

Landsverk L-62 Anti II

Landsverk L-62, also known as Landsverk Anti II or a combination of both, Landsverk L-62 Anti II, was a Swedish self-propelled anti-aircraft gun construction that was specifically designed for Finland by Landsverk between 1941 and 1942.

The vehicle was an improved Landsverk L-62 Anti I where the turret and chassis had been improved for better protection. The chassis was based on the Landsverk L-60 tank but was lengthened with one extra roadwheel per side. The turret was circular and open for a better view against planes. The gun was a 40 mm Bofors L/60 anti-air gun which was already in service with the Finnish military as the 40 ItK/38.

Vickers Mark E

The Vickers 6-ton tank or Vickers Mark E, also known as the "Six-tonner" was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers. It was not adopted by the British Army, but was picked up by many foreign armed forces. It was licensed by the Soviet Union as the T-26. It was also the direct predecessor of the Polish 7TP tank.

Hotchkiss H39 Light Tank (German:PzKpfw 38H-735)

The Hotchkiss H39 (a variant of the Hotchkiss H35) was captured and used by Germany as the PzKpfw 38H-735.

The Hotchkiss H35, or Char léger modèle 1935 H, was a French light tank developed prior to World War II. Despite having been designed from 1933 as a rather slow, but well-armored, light infantry support tank, the type was initially rejected by the French Infantry because it proved difficult to steer while driving cross-country, and was instead adopted in 1936 by the French Cavalry. In 1938, an improved version was produced with a stronger engine, the Char léger modèle 1935 H modifié 39, that from 1940 was also fitted with a longer, more powerful 37 mm gun. It was intended to make this improved variant the standard light tank, and was to be produced in a number of at least four thousand in order to equip new armored divisions of both the Cavalry and the Infantry. However, due to the defeat of France in June 1940, total production of both subtypes remained limited to about 1200 vehicles. For the remainder of the war, Germany and its allies would use captured Hotchkiss tanks in several modifications.

Hotchkiss H39 Light Tank (German:Panzerkampfwagen 38H 735(f))

Variants of A Captured Hotchkiss H39 Tank by German, Outfitted with Nebelwerfer 42, A 30mm German Rockets.

Soviet T-50

The T-50 was a light infantry tank built by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. The design for this vehicle had some advanced features, but was complicated and expensive, and only a short production run of 69 tanks was completed.

Soviet T-26

The T-26 tank was a Soviet light infantry tank used during many conflicts of the 1930s as well as during World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and is widely considered one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s. It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 produced. During the 1930s, the USSR developed approximately 53 variants of the T-26, including other combat vehicles based on its chassis. Twenty-three of these were mass-produced. The T-26 was used extensively in the armies of Spain, China and Turkey. In addition, captured T-26 light tanks were used by the Finnish, German, Romanian and Hungarian armies. Though nearly obsolete by the beginning of World War II, the T-26 was the most important tank of the Spanish Civil War and played a significant role during the Battle of Lake Khasan in 1938 as well as in the Winter War in 1939-40. The T-26 was the most numerous tank in the Red Army's armored force during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The Soviet T-26 light tanks last saw use in August 1945, in Manchuria. The T-26 was reliable and simple to maintain, and its design was continually modernized between 1931 and 1941, with a total of 11,218 vehicles built. However, no new models of the T-26 were developed after 1940.

Soviet T-26E

Variant Of Soviet T-26 tank with additional armour plating (appliqué armour). Some modern sources mention this tank as T-26E (E stands for ekranirovanny or "screened"). The Factory No. 174 developed the design of 30–40 mm appliqué armour for all types of single-turreted T-26s during the Winter War. On 30 December 1939, factory tests proved that the T-26 with appliqué armour successfully resisted fire from a 45 mm anti-tank gun at a range from 400 to 500 m. Side and front armoured plates were mounted with the use of blunt bolts and electric welding. Toward the middle of February 1940, the RKKA received 27 screened T-26 mod. 1939 tanks and 27 KhT-133 flame-throwing tanks; an additional 15 T-26 mod. 1939 tanks were armoured by workshops of the 8th Army in Suoyarvi in the beginning of March 1940. All in all, 69 T-26s with appliqué armour were used during the Winter War and 20 more were delivered to tank units after the end of the war. Combat use proved that Finnish light anti-tank guns could not penetrate the armour of these tanks.

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