Final Missions!

[Kitty Kat Astra]

SPOILER: Click to show

Name: True Cross Torment

Rank: D

Objective: True Cross, a notorious dark guild that specializes in 'obtaining' and selling slaves, have wormed their way into Fiore, where they have been kidnapping citizens and going about their illegal deeds. Investigate a person suspected of purchasing a slave, prove their innocence or guilt and submit your findings to the proper authorities.

Reward: 50J and a D-rank weapon from the shop

Astra was once again out and about, looking for more work, looking for more jewels and more fame. This time, she had heard rumors about a dark guild poking forth their noses in the most unhonorable trade in the world. Trading slaves. The mere notion of it all disgusted her, and it was certainly something that she would want to shut down in the near future. That however, wasn't her current job. There had been a local congressman, who had been accused of buying slaves, to ship them all off to Bosco. The rumors were bound in the notion that out of nowhere, said congress man had come to earn a large amount of jewels without seemingly having done anything. Thus the speculations were all pointing towards illegal activity. Activity that Astra had been hired to investigate into. With the very limited information that she had, the first and most obvious place to go through would be the docks, where the shipping should've taken place. Hiding an amount of slaves completely would've been near impossible, so perhaps someone down there had seen something they would be willing to share with the right motivation?

As such, Astra began her trip through Onibas city, heading for the waters of the sea. The docks of this particular city were large, vast. It was a city that lived on trading, and the harbor was the main place for such activity. Scratching her head as she arrived on the scene, she wasn't even certain where she was meant to begin.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Looking around curiously, there were enormous containers that were completely sealed off, that were being lifted or otherwise moved onto the ships through ramps and the like. Some of these containers were holding food. Others were containing clothes, equipment, resources or even farm animals that were being shipped off for breeding. That very fact was making Astra raise a brow suspiciously. Surely, if animals could be shipped in this very manner, then humans weren't any different. Was it possible that the harbor was donning this kind of human trafficing within containers? Biting her lower lip, she looked at the name she had been provided with. Congressman Gerrardu Fountaine. There were many signs around this harbor. Many different people owning the different ships, making it somewhat of a jungle to track down which area of the harbor mister Gerradu would be making his business. Going to the harbor overseer, Astra cleared her throat to let him know that she was present. 

"Evening my good sir. Would you be able to tell me on which part of the harbor Gerradu Fountaine runs his business?" After a few moments of conversation and explanation, Astra respectfully bowed before the harbor overseer, slowly wandering down to find the specific area of the harbor that she needed to be on. One thing was certain to Astra as soon as she reached this part of the docks. The whole area seemed a lot more hidden and suspicious than the rest of the harbor, so the rumors were already making sense.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Missions completed: #1

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Astra quickly found herself hiding her own pressence on the docks, so that she could inspect the makings of Fountaine's docks crew. During the entirety of the day, nothing much was happening out of the ordinary. There were a couple of fishing boats docking to sort their nets and deliver fishes to the working crew on the harbor. There was a patrol of Rune Knight guards that were inspecting everything, so that nothing could be questioned. All in all, it seemed much like a regular fishing business. During the evening hours, when the world had entered the realm of twilight, things started slowly changing. The initial crew was heading home, and it seemed like operations had been shut down on the harbor for the day. However, as the initial crew had left, and Astra was about to get to her feet to move on, a secondary crew entered the Fountaine harbor district. These were even shadier than the initial crew, lowly cursing and speaking in hushed voices. There certainly was something going on. Keeping her eyes narrowed and her vision sharp, she could see something approaching the harbor from the water side...

It was a boat. A boat that hadn't been there during the day, or even during the morning. It was a boat that had been kept out on open sea, where it wasn't going to be intercepted or spotted by any guards. Then, when trafficing in the main harbor was dying down and the light was low, a ghost ship like this could be more easily procured. Meanwhile, the men within the dock building was loading the wares into containers and shipping them aboard. It was at this point that Astra made her move. Bursting in through a window in the ceiling, Astra took out the lights inside almost immediately. Astra caught the group of men completely unaware. They were falling over, attempting to draw their weapons and identify the mysterious intruder.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Compared to these lowly henchmen, Astra was a demon. They were roaming around in the darkness, bumping against each other, while she was moving quickly and silently amongst them. With her bladed staff, Loki's Sting, she was dismantling their forces with blunt strikes with the side of her weapon, mostly hitting the henchmen on the back of their neck or the sides of the head, causing blunt trauma. The whole conflict only lasted a handful of minutes, and wasn't even close to exhausting the young Valkyrie. Even so, due to the sickness in her body, she was still huffing a little at the end of the fight. Picking up a lantern, the girl went towards the container. An old, makeshift padlock was keeping the damn thing solidly in place. With Loki's sting having devoured the suffering of these insignificant fools however, it only took a single strike to break the damn thing open and reveal the contains of the container to Astra. Suffice to say, what greeted her wasn't what she had been expecting. 
The inside of the container wasn't holding slaves. It was holding illegal magicite, stolen from the Fiore Country to be sold as a miltary profit to Bosco. The reward for this kind of trade would be through the roof, as it wasn't only weakening Fiore to invasion, but also strenghtening the potential military power of the enemy. Rummaging through these crystals, Astra wasn't certain if she was to be pleased with what she had found, or disappointed. The lives of humans brought into slavery was worth far more to her than magical containers.

Closing the door, she figured that since this was criminal business, perhaps one of the henchmen would know where she could go next. Walking over to one and placing her boot onto his chest, she tilted her head to the side. "Now, are you going to tell me where I should go search for the criminals who are abducting people into slavery, mmh?" Applying a little pressure, it didn't take long for Astra to squeeze information out of the henchman. Afterwards, she shot a flare into the air to alert the authorities of the situation there, making sure that they knew she was responsible for the cleanup. Though, her night wasn't over, not yet...

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Mission completed #2

[Kitty Kat Astra]

The information that she was given was of dire consequenses, and it needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. On the opposite end of Onibas, towards the Sleeping Forest, there was an orphanage for the most unfortunate souls in this forsaken world. Their lives were a mixture of fates that noone deserved to live. There were those who had lost their parents, and due to their inability to manage their own had been placed in the orphanage. There were those who had been abandonned by those who were meant to protect them, and thus had been brought to the orphanage from churches or the like. In short, children who didn't deserve more hardships. Though, as it were, they were also souls that almost noone would care about. If these children were abducted and sent to Bosco, there were so few that would even notice their disappearing. Heck, there were people who would claim it to be a good thing. Less mouths to feed, more money in the pocket.

Rushing off through Onibas as quickly as she could, the Valkyrie wasn't going to let such an atrocity happen. While the woman certainly wasn't the kindest of souls, there were actions that were simply too dishonorable to let fly. The air was gathering around the Valkyrie, as she rushed forwards. Hopefully she would make it there in time!

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Arriving at the orphanage gates, the Valkyrie came to an absolute halt. There were tracks in the ground, from some kind of vehicle. They had used this vehicle to ram the gates of the orphanage and force their entry. Within the orphanage itself, the lights were turned off, and there was screaming and fighting going on all over the place. On the outside of the orphanage, a group of raiders were standing guards with torches. They weren't going to let anyone enter through the gate, or get out from the inside. The children that were caught, were tied up and dragged out, placed in cuffs in a line so that they couldn't escape. Their faces spoke of anguish. Several of them had been hit, brutally, so that they couldn't resist during the capture. Astra could feel it welling up inside her. The world around her had gone grey, and all that she could hear was her own heartbeat. Adrenaline was pouring through every vein in her body, as the heart of fury itself was enraging her very spirit. This atrocity would not go unpunished. This sacriledge would not be forgiven! Letting out a roaring cry of agony and war, Astra charged into the gate, wielding the spear in her hands. It was a storm of metal and blood, as she cut down the two guards standing in her way, before they even knew what was really going on.

In war, there could be no beauty. Even so, the Valkyrie was portraying extreme grace while cutting down her foes. Dancing in and around the enemy, as they were frantically attempting to attack her, the conclusion arrived quickly. All of the raiders, except for one single individual, had been slain mercilessly. The Valkyrie herself was covered in their blood, as their stinking entrails were scattered across the orphanage grounds. Naturally, the children were scared out of their mind at the arrival of a war-driven divine creature... but when she sliced open their bondage, they soon learned that she had come there to assist them. As such, the evacuation could begin.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Mission completed #3

[Kitty Kat Astra]

When all of the children had been successfully evacuated, the young Valkyrie returned to the one person that she still hadn't killed from the raiders. Within the orphanage, he was tied down on a chair, gagged in such a manner that he couldn't possibly hope to escape, nor even hurt himself enough that he would die. Entering the room with a confident smirk on her face, she knelt down before him to explain to him how this thing was going to work out exactly. "So here's the deal. The other raiders are dead, and noone will be coming to your rescue. Because I am in such a good mood today, I am going to allow you to live, on one condition. You tell me who you're working for. Then I drag your ass to the authorities and you explain to them exactly who is involved and why."

Ripping the gag from his mouth, Astra looked into his eyes, smiling widely, like a predator. It was clear that she was going to torture him until he gave up the information, if he wasn't being cooperative. Astra had reached a point where she was done doing things the nice and correct way. All that mattered to her now, was getting things done. Pathetic humans such as the scumbag in front of her wasn't an honorable person. Thus, she saw no reasons to treat him honorably, at all. In the first little round of exchanges, he was betting on the fact that she wouldn't harm him, that she was a hero. As the blade of her staff rended through his leg, and his screaming echoed through the abandonned orphanage, his mouth quickly learned how to speak the information that Astra wanted.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

It didn't take long before Astra was headed back towards Onibas, dragging her wounded prey alongside her on a cart. He had been placed with his back against the cart itself, and hands locked tightly to the frame of the wooden carriage. His one leg was tied up tightly, so that the bleeding from the wound Astra had inflicted wouldn't get him infected or anything else horrible. For while she certainly wasn't treating him honorably, she had to act with some amount of honor herself, which meant that since he had spoken and done as she had asked, he was going to be offered at least a little kindness. The lateness of the day was apparent as she reached the local police department, as everything was slowly being shut down as the officers were on their way for their final patrols.

"Evening, gentlemen. I am Astra, the Black Howling, here to report what my investigation on the slave matter yielded of results. I believe this man here has something important to share with you all." Placing down the cart, she crossed her arms, looking at him calmly. It was clear that he was considering shouting about how she was crazy, and how she was the one who had done everything at the orphanage. With the staff there having seen her come to their rescue however, he chose to explain the truth. How the orphanages were their main targets, and that some orphanages were even cooperating by recieving some funds to the organisation by providing orphans for adoption. From there, the police took over, and Astra could recieve her payment for a job well done, before leaving. From here, hopefully the authorities could put an end to this slave trade.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

Completed mission #4