OPSEC means that I cannot say much about who, what, when, where, how, or why, but I will tell you what I can.

Baba Yaga is a real scarey bitch, and useful for compelling children to obey their parents. It is also the code name for our mission to capture a witch down here in southern California.

In addition to using aerial recon, Sasha and I checked out the location on the ground, but in the open terrain it was very difficult to get close to our objective. There was not a lot of cover, and the size of dead spaces were a problem to cover with snipers. Indirect fire was an option left to the discretion and direction of the snipers. It was impossible for Natasha to prep the battlefield with her wards without being observed by the guards. However, once the action started, she could prep the escape routes.

Assault elements would not need to rely on stealth. The guards would see it coming. So the assault element was inserted by APCs. They drove right up to the objective, opened the hatch, and before long the assault team was inside the objective, but resistance was fierce and they had to retreat back into the APC... twice to regroup and reload. The third time was a charm. Unfortunately, however, the witch escaped - it was reported by operators that they shot him at least 6 times, which only knocked him down, but hardly damaged him; he was able to jump through a window and as the security element outside engaged he rocketed into the sky. I cannot say if we were able to relocate him or not.

However, the the assault team did recover the summoner, which was being held by the witch on pain of death to maintain control over the demon the summoner had summoned...which had been sent on a rampage as soon as the shooting started. Fortunately, our plan to channel it where we wanted it to go worked and it walked directly into a kill zone that was covered with enough firepower - including some of Natasha's wards to fix the enemy in place making the fire more lethal - to take the demon down. There was nothing left of it to identify, but the snipers' descriptions suggest a Shedim.

We are currently sifting through all the intel gathered at the objective as well - which was not a lot... a laptop computer and a file drawer. The witch left in a hurry, hopefully leaving some valuable information behind that could lead us to other elements of the larger network we are working on dismantling.

Good operation all in all. Too bad you guys didn't have something in the air. Would have been able to bring the bitch.. er witch down. You win some, you loose some.

Hopefully that information pans out though... if you got anything worthwhile that is.

Yea, no friendlies died, although a couple were lightly wounded.

We are hoping to take the witch alive; our ultimate goal is to get a shot at his demon master, which we think is behind some of the other mayhem we are running down. And, of course, we want to kill it... one less demon around.

Again, these posts do not reflect the actual time the events occurred... opsec and all.... and with some elements of the American government breathing down my neck, even less details than usual. Hell, I may just have to stop talking about it altogether.

Well, it is lights out for the witch; in an instant he was reduced to a bloody pile of bio-mass and bits and pieces - elbows and toenails. He set off a particularly nasty booby trap. The destruction was complete, except for one thing: a small jade-looking medallion found on the ground. No leads yet on what it might be. It is currently being analysed.

Having gained practically nothing from his computer and files we were hoping to use him to lure out his demon master as well as fill in a few blanks in our investigation. Well, there are a few leads yet to follow, including this strange mineral we recovered from the witch soup splattered all around.

Remember, tongs and a Hazardous Materials bag for anything weird you find.

If you need accses to a lab to check anything let me know? Also if you are willing I could check out the Medallion and see what kind of story it has to tell.

I just got off the phone with our geologist looking at it. Everything about this mineral says that it is Sergeevite - except that its colour and streak is green; Sergeevite is supposed to be white, and its streak is also supposed to be white. And despite having a hardness consistent with Sergeevite, it appears undamaged by the explosion that smoked the witch.

Furthermore, Sergeevite is thus far only known to be found in the Baksan valley in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, Northern Caucasus Region, Russian Federation.

Shadowstalker wrote:If you need accses to a lab to check anything let me know? Also if you are willing I could check out the Medallion and see what kind of story it has to tell.

That sounds great. I will be in touch. I definitely want to know if these thing has a story to tell.

Just give me a yell.

Yep, just sent you a message.

Kabardino-Balkaria... Nalchik is the capital and there is Mount Elbrus, too, where Zeus tied Prometheus.

We remember the terrorist acts in Nalchik.

We know there is myth about the mountain (and good skiing, too ).

I research more...

I not like where the research leads me...

I will post in Community Outreach next days when I will know more.

I do not want to return to the Caucasus again...

Um whats up with the Caucasus, besides the obvious.

You mean in Spanish?

Sorry, kneejerk remark.

Foo. I not follow the conversation at all.

Anyway. The summoner mage - more important than we originally thought...

Call Sasha. Make sure you get the questions you need asked... asked.

The summoner we captured says his name is Alibek the Egyptian - or The Red Dragon. According to the sources, Alibek published The Grand Grimoire - 13th century grimoire written on Italian - in Cairo. The grimoire instructs the mage how to summon Lucifer for to make the pact (I think, must be the connection with our witch). So far I know for very sure that he the powerful summoner and knows not less than two arcane languages, both languages of magic (one from them is John Dee's language of the angels from the 16th century).

He says strange citations - so I run here and there for to find them in the sources. I need some days for to complete all!

Suddenly, the Caucusus does not sound so bad...

Do what you need to do about getting more information out of the summoner. Call me if anyone prevents you.

By the way, you will be receiving a communication from Moscow regarding you and the Holister case. Good luck with that...

You will be working from Texas. Pack your bags - all of them.... I have no idea how long we are going to be there.

We are still sort hammering out a plan and the details.

Like I said, we have waded into something deep here in Texas. The Sowki is the prize, but like an old video game, we may have to rumble through a few levels of bad bosses until we get our chance.

That's when high explosives come in real handy; assuming you can get 'em all in one place.

I talked to Sasha. Alibek is quoting passages from another 12th or 13th century grimoire. This one the Liber Juratus - not sure how to write it with Latin letters - which instructs the summoner how to summon and control various demons, some magick rituals, and even the hierarchy of heaven (angelic order of battle, I guess).

I still not found the connection between the witch and the summoner and a small medallion that only comes from the small Kabardino-Balkaria republic in the south part of the Russian Federation. They never go there legally under any nickname we know. Maybe illegally, but Alibek not speaks Russian or Kabardian languages.

Very frustrating

Perhaps if we could get her out of Michael T's library...

Mya, I posted the solution.