Aleczander put the headset on carefully so it didn’t affect his perfectly coiffed dirty blonde hair as he sat down at his communications station. He was aboard a Drost IIa Dropship, truthfully one of the many clones of that venerable design that was ubiquitous throughout the Inner Sphere.
Across from him sat Sitara, at a table with what seemed like a dozen different datapads as well as hardcopies of maps. He looked over at the data analyst trying not to get annoyed at the ugly glasses she wore. Somehow, she managed to be obsessive compulsive and have a messy braid. Her green eyes rose to meet his blue ones, she was shorter than he was, and he was only five and a half feet tall. She was a makeover away from being an astounding beauty. He wasn’t sure if she was intentionally trying to mute her natural looks or if she just had no idea how to dress.
“Who have I got today?” Alec asked.
“Ariel and Cassiel. They should be in position soon.” Sitara told him.
He nodded, “Where is Dina?” he asked, wondering where the team’s hacker was stationed.
“In the field trying to intercept communication traffic.”
Alec didn’t ask about Sariel, though he was curious about the male agent. They were on the world Angel II in the Free World’s League. The water supply on this planet was contaminated by a chemical called citrium, a natural depressant that could slow human metabolism to dangerous levels. The rare wealthy few who possessed water purification technology were extravagantly wealthy on this planet. Those beneath them were called, ‘drones’ so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the planet had a history of civil unrest. Rival nation states had attempted to take advantage in this extreme inequality. The Federated Suns had been financing and training groups of insurgents on this planet in the middle of the last century and there were still cells that existed on the planet.
Sariel had made contact with those groups and was working towards convincing them to stage a raid on one of the oligarchs in the capital city of Ark.
His assignment today was to be the communications officer for Ariel, a trueborn mechwarrior washout named Keilani who who had just joined the Sea Fox Clan Watch. This was her first mission, she was young and untested, but Alec was hoping for the best. Clan covert operatives had a bad reputation, but Clan Sea Fox’s watch had earned a reputation for skill, efficiency and ever since the wars of reaving in the homeworlds they were also known for sheer viciousness. Ariel had undergone some strange elective surgeries considering she was a trueborn, the agent had gills implanted as well as a liver implant to filter toxins.
Cassiel, the callsign for Evelyn a female elemental was providing transportation for Ariel, they had acquired a Sea Fox battle armor, ironically not made by Clan Sea Fox, but rather the Federated Suns. The suit had stealth armor and couldn’t be traced back to Clan Sea Fox if things went wrong. She was providing transportation to an important oligarch ship. She would also be there to provide fire support if things went wrong and finally they would be using the communication equipment on her battle suit to piggyback Ariel’s weak com signal from her implanted communications unit.
“They are arriving on-site.” Sitara told him.
“Ariel, this is Gabriel. We are reading you near the target. Lose the wetsuit and board the vessel in your… ahem, tactical camouflage bikini. Your mission is to make your way to the target’s computer and plant the USB device. Dina will do the rest from there. Be careful, you’re unarmed but more importantly you’re very unarmored. There is security on site you can acquire a weapon from if you need, but let’s try to avoid going loud on this one.
Cassiel is there to support you but let us try not to blow this super yacht up. If you need an extraction jump overboard and she will help you escape.”
