She pushed up her Oakley's so she could use the binoculars to scan the way ahead. She had been following the trail for three days now, it had been faint at first but it was much clearer now
It was three days since she had been pulled out of the Afghan cold and dumped into what felt like an oven at what seemed like only a few minutes notice. It had been Macauley who had briefed her on the flight down to Nairobi before immediately putting her onto a Hercules to be dropped into the far north of Kenya near to the border with Sudan. Apparently the Secretary of Work and Pensions daughter had gone missing while on a safari in Northern Kenya. Ordinarily this would have been dealt with locally by the Embassy staff and their protection squad but having set out to find her they had also disappeared. Their GPS signal had stopped over the border in Southern Sudan, a good 150 miles from where they were supposed to be.
As soon as it became apparent that something had gone wrong with the rescue Six had been called and asked to provide people with the requisite experience in tracking and problem resolution. Her name had obviously popped out along with 5 or 6 others including her sister and they had been gathered, seemingly from the four corners of the world to see if they could solve the problem. They were always referred to as problems or situations never what they really were, a point that always caused amusement among the "Resolvers", as they had taken to calling themselves. She had been a little worried that her sister had been called in but slightly reassured that she would be in field nearly a day before her sister got here from the west coast of America.
Macauley had explained that the initial rescue team had reported in that there were signs that the safari had come across poachers who had then taken them as hostages. However there were some inconsistencies that had rung bells within the Foreign Office, signal traffic picked up by GCHQ that seemed to originate from the same area, who had called in Six. Macauley had told her that it was now believed that the poachers were aligned with Al Qaeda, poaching to generate income for their cause. This had obviously changed how the incident was seen within the government and that was when they had been called in and tasked to resolve the problem.
So as each "Resolver" arrived in Kenya they were being equipped and sent out to search one of the areas where the poachers might be. As one of the first in she had been rushed straight off the plane and onto a Hercules to take her north to the area she had been tasked to search.
She had quickly found where the safari had been met the poachers, two badly damaged Landrovers, the remains of their camp, the signs of a struggle and the bodies of the Ranger guides who had been accompanying them. From there she had followed their trail, found where the rescue team had been ambushed and killed and now she felt she was getting closer. She had got out of her Panther off-roader to check the trail; it looked like something else had seemed to have joined it, making it more difficult to read. By now she was deep in Southern Sudan, disputed territory, ruled over by warlords and criminal gangs and through her binoculars she could see vultures circling ahead, not usually a good sign.
She pulled down her Oakleys and headed back to the Panther, looking at it she was amazed all over again, who would have thought it, an electric/solar powered skeletonised offroader, stealthy and environmentally friendly. Given this level of kit Six must be really serious about Al Qaeda being involved somehow. She set off towards the vultures; the only sound that of the tyres crunching on the sandy soil, whipping through the sparse desiccated clumps of grass. She came to a halt, behind the rise over which the vultures could be seen circling. She got out and started up the rise, crawling the final portion so as not to break the skyline.
Looking down she could see the remnants of a camp, a scuffed out fire, discarded containers and what looked like two bodies sprawled in the sand. So using the cover offered by the scrub, she crept forward, moving slowly, without rhythm, as her instructors had taught her so long ago in the Brecon Beacons that it had become second nature.
It became apparent that there was nothing living here, on inspecting the bodies she came to the conclusion that something strange had happened here. The bodies had been mauled, clawed and bitten by what could only have been lions but then they had been left. They had been killed but there were no signs of feeding, by the lions or even after by scavengers. The vultures which were still circling had not descended to feed, which given that the bodies were cooling was very strange, there were also signs that other animals, hyenas, jackals had been near but left the bodies. She started to spiral outwards and quickly found where the others had fled, there were signs of people, bleeding, running, dragging others.
The signs were distinctive, some of the runners were stumbling being pulled along and alongside these tracks were lion prints. It was almost as if the lions were herding the people. Then amongst the lion tracks she found something that made her stop and check very closely. In amongst the lion tracks were some strange tracks, almost like bare footprints but they seemed to change mid-stride into lion prints but of course that was impossible.
Anyway she now definitely had her quarry, so she quickly returned to the Panther, fired up the satellite phone and reported in with what she had found. After the three second or so delay, Macauley was there telling her that the nearest other operative was over 70 miles away. She told him not to worry and that she would deal with it and to task the pickup to get ready. She signed off and then went to weapon locker at the back of the Panther and several knives, a pair of Glocks and her hunting bow later she set out to hunt down her quarry. They were on foot injured and with the amount of blood present they would not be able to get very far.
As she started back she noticed that the vultures had moved, they were now circling further up along the trail where the people had run. Her only thought was that would make it easier to find them. Very soon the trail split but the drag marks were still apparent so she elected to follow those first. It soon became obvious that the trail was heading towards a narrow valley in the rising ground ahead. She was very aware as she dogtrotted of the smell of the disturbed earth, flinty slightly acrid, with an underlying smell of blood, a metallic smell which she could almost taste at the back of her throat. The sun was starting to set now and she knew at this latitude it was sudden so she sped up. She would prefer to catch them while daylight still remained, even though she had a set of night vision goggles in her pack.
Another body in the track, again apparently brought down by a lion, neck broken but now she notices a clean slash as with a blade across the back of the left knee, a classic ham-stringing cut. Without pause she returns to the chase thinking "Well now this is getting interesting, someone else is hunting them too. If I didn't know she was over a hundred miles away I'd almost think that it was my little sister"
She enters a clearing and she is suddenly brought up short by the spectacle, three men with machete like knives holding two girls and a young man backed up against some rocks, facing a tall woman holding some strange curved blades flanked by four lionesses.
"Aah I was wondering how long it would take you to get here my dear. As you can see we seem to have met somewhat of an impasse here Helena and I feel I may need your help if these young people are not to be hurt"
"How does she know my name and why does she look so familiar" she thought and then "What the hell she's standing with those lions as if they are hers...."
"I think that those young girls and that nice young man don't have to see what follows" and with that the woman waved her hand, almost dismissively and they slumped as if asleep, dragging themselves out of the arms of their capturers and falling to the ground.
One of the hostage takers decides to try to make a break for it and without even thinking about it she is on him as he runs, a swift kick to the back of the knee bringing him down, then the butt of one her knives crashing into the back of his skull rendering him unconscious. The others try to take advantage of the distraction, one running, the other raising his machete as if to strike down on the girl he held. As if by magic a knife blooms in his chest, thrown without thinking, disabling and disarming him. The other finds himself, within seconds, pinned to the ground by two snarling lionesses.
"Aha yes good, good, yes you are up to expectations"
She came out of her combat trance, the state she enters where the body does what is necessary without conscious thought. For the first time she gets to look properly at the woman and the familiarity clicks "She looks like Nferetiti", she thinks "but there is something else, around her head, an aura, a lionessesÂ’ head!"
"Yes you're eyes do not deceive you, you have the true sight my dear. I think my dear Helena that we need to talk"
Helena returned out of the scrubland a different person, Macauley noticed it, her family could feel it. A certain assurance, a calmness, a certainty of purpose.
Here is another sort of origin,or is that pre-origin, story
it is more suited to the version of Sekmet on Union and does tie into the previous story about Saitada's origin.
She pushed up her Oakley's so she could use the binoculars to scan the way ahead. She had been following the trail for three days now, it had been faint at first but it was much clearer now
It was three days since she had been pulled out of the Afghan cold and dumped into what felt like an oven at what seemed like only a few minutes notice. It had been Macauley who had briefed her on the flight down to Nairobi before immediately putting her onto a Hercules to be dropped into the far north of Kenya near to the border with Sudan. Apparently the Secretary of Work and Pensions daughter had gone missing while on a safari in Northern Kenya. Ordinarily this would have been dealt with locally by the Embassy staff and their protection squad but having set out to find her they had also disappeared. Their GPS signal had stopped over the border in Southern Sudan, a good 150 miles from where they were supposed to be.
As soon as it became apparent that something had gone wrong with the rescue Six had been called and asked to provide people with the requisite experience in tracking and problem resolution. Her name had obviously popped out along with 5 or 6 others including her sister and they had been gathered, seemingly from the four corners of the world to see if they could solve the problem. They were always referred to as problems or situations never what they really were, a point that always caused amusement among the "Resolvers", as they had taken to calling themselves. She had been a little worried that her sister had been called in but slightly reassured that she would be in field nearly a day before her sister got here from the west coast of America.
Macauley had explained that the initial rescue team had reported in that there were signs that the safari had come across poachers who had then taken them as hostages. However there were some inconsistencies that had rung bells within the Foreign Office, signal traffic picked up by GCHQ that seemed to originate from the same area, who had called in Six. Macauley had told her that it was now believed that the poachers were aligned with Al Qaeda, poaching to generate income for their cause. This had obviously changed how the incident was seen within the government and that was when they had been called in and tasked to resolve the problem.
So as each "Resolver" arrived in Kenya they were being equipped and sent out to search one of the areas where the poachers might be. As one of the first in she had been rushed straight off the plane and onto a Hercules to take her north to the area she had been tasked to search.
She had quickly found where the safari had been met the poachers, two badly damaged Landrovers, the remains of their camp, the signs of a struggle and the bodies of the Ranger guides who had been accompanying them. From there she had followed their trail, found where the rescue team had been ambushed and killed and now she felt she was getting closer. She had got out of her Panther off-roader to check the trail; it looked like something else had seemed to have joined it, making it more difficult to read. By now she was deep in Southern Sudan, disputed territory, ruled over by warlords and criminal gangs and through her binoculars she could see vultures circling ahead, not usually a good sign.
She pulled down her Oakleys and headed back to the Panther, looking at it she was amazed all over again, who would have thought it, an electric/solar powered skeletonised offroader, stealthy and environmentally friendly. Given this level of kit Six must be really serious about Al Qaeda being involved somehow. She set off towards the vultures; the only sound that of the tyres crunching on the sandy soil, whipping through the sparse desiccated clumps of grass. She came to a halt, behind the rise over which the vultures could be seen circling. She got out and started up the rise, crawling the final portion so as not to break the skyline.
Looking down she could see the remnants of a camp, a scuffed out fire, discarded containers and what looked like two bodies sprawled in the sand. So using the cover offered by the scrub, she crept forward, moving slowly, without rhythm, as her instructors had taught her so long ago in the Brecon Beacons that it had become second nature.
It became apparent that there was nothing living here, on inspecting the bodies she came to the conclusion that something strange had happened here. The bodies had been mauled, clawed and bitten by what could only have been lions but then they had been left. They had been killed but there were no signs of feeding, by the lions or even after by scavengers. The vultures which were still circling had not descended to feed, which given that the bodies were cooling was very strange, there were also signs that other animals, hyenas, jackals had been near but left the bodies. She started to spiral outwards and quickly found where the others had fled, there were signs of people, bleeding, running, dragging others.
The signs were distinctive, some of the runners were stumbling being pulled along and alongside these tracks were lion prints. It was almost as if the lions were herding the people. Then amongst the lion tracks she found something that made her stop and check very closely. In amongst the lion tracks were some strange tracks, almost like bare footprints but they seemed to change mid-stride into lion prints but of course that was impossible.
Anyway she now definitely had her quarry, so she quickly returned to the Panther, fired up the satellite phone and reported in with what she had found. After the three second or so delay, Macauley was there telling her that the nearest other operative was over 70 miles away. She told him not to worry and that she would deal with it and to task the pickup to get ready. She signed off and then went to weapon locker at the back of the Panther and several knives, a pair of Glocks and her hunting bow later she set out to hunt down her quarry. They were on foot injured and with the amount of blood present they would not be able to get very far.
As she started back she noticed that the vultures had moved, they were now circling further up along the trail where the people had run. Her only thought was that would make it easier to find them. Very soon the trail split but the drag marks were still apparent so she elected to follow those first. It soon became obvious that the trail was heading towards a narrow valley in the rising ground ahead. She was very aware as she dogtrotted of the smell of the disturbed earth, flinty slightly acrid, with an underlying smell of blood, a metallic smell which she could almost taste at the back of her throat. The sun was starting to set now and she knew at this latitude it was sudden so she sped up. She would prefer to catch them while daylight still remained, even though she had a set of night vision goggles in her pack.
Another body in the track, again apparently brought down by a lion, neck broken but now she notices a clean slash as with a blade across the back of the left knee, a classic ham-stringing cut. Without pause she returns to the chase thinking "Well now this is getting interesting, someone else is hunting them too. If I didn't know she was over a hundred miles away I'd almost think that it was my little sister"
She enters a clearing and she is suddenly brought up short by the spectacle, three men with machete like knives holding two girls and a young man backed up against some rocks, facing a tall woman holding some strange curved blades flanked by four lionesses.
"Aah I was wondering how long it would take you to get here my dear. As you can see we seem to have met somewhat of an impasse here Helena and I feel I may need your help if these young people are not to be hurt"
"How does she know my name and why does she look so familiar" she thought and then "What the hell she's standing with those lions as if they are hers...."
"I think that those young girls and that nice young man don't have to see what follows" and with that the woman waved her hand, almost dismissively and they slumped as if asleep, dragging themselves out of the arms of their capturers and falling to the ground.
One of the hostage takers decides to try to make a break for it and without even thinking about it she is on him as he runs, a swift kick to the back of the knee bringing him down, then the butt of one her knives crashing into the back of his skull rendering him unconscious. The others try to take advantage of the distraction, one running, the other raising his machete as if to strike down on the girl he held. As if by magic a knife blooms in his chest, thrown without thinking, disabling and disarming him. The other finds himself, within seconds, pinned to the ground by two snarling lionesses.
"Aha yes good, good, yes you are up to expectations"
She came out of her combat trance, the state she enters where the body does what is necessary without conscious thought. For the first time she gets to look properly at the woman and the familiarity clicks "She looks like Nferetiti", she thinks "but there is something else, around her head, an aura, a lionessesÂ’ head!"
"Yes you're eyes do not deceive you, you have the true sight my dear. I think my dear Helena that we need to talk"
Helena returned out of the scrubland a different person, Macauley noticed it, her family could feel it. A certain assurance, a calmness, a certainty of purpose.
Here is another sort of origin,or is that pre-origin, story
it is more suited to the version of Sekmet on Union and does tie into the previous story about Saitada's origin.