2421
Beta Site, TKBZ-1 System
Southeastern Quadrant
06:34 PM (Local Time)
Hangar B-12
Steps echoed throughout the narrow steel hallway and past the dozens of reinforced bulkhead doors taking turns to open for the lone woman passing through. As she passed one of the doors another, more slender, woman stepped out of the shadows and followed suit.
"Duchess," said Nathalie.
The other woman grinned. "Nat."
Nathalie sighed and glanced up from her datapad at the woman next to her. She didn't care much for the assassin. As far as she cared she was just a traitor that had been forced into service- and armed. Then again she didn't care much for anyone in their unit. They were all 'bad' or 'inherently unique' in one way or another as far as the SSOID was concerned.
"Did you hear about the new guy?"
Nathalie nodded. "I think he's coming in with the next shuttle." She glanced at the digital watch on her wrist. "Which is in twenty minutes, assuming they're not late."
Duchess smirked. "I heard he's some kind of super-soldier from a couple of centuries ago. Apparently they thawed him out like a popsicle after he was found drifting in the Contested Region."
Nathalie grunted and nodded. She had read the reports and for once Duchess wasn't full of it. There had been a surprising small amount of censoring in his file. His early years had been inked up but the reason for him to exist wasn't. By the sound of things he had been created by some now-defunct government on Terra back when there were actual nations around, or at least that's what Nat had managed to piece together.
I hope he's not some old geezer they expect us to lug around during missions.
The doors opened, revealing the large shuttle bay. Several eyes were suddenly on Nat and Duchess as they entered. Stingray, who was standing in front of a quad-legged mobile holoprojector currently displaying the hologram of their handler, Goblin, nodded towards the two women. Nathalie returned the gesture while Duchess largely ignored it as she seated herself on a shipping crate next to the other members of the team. Scattered around the imminent area the members of Taskforce Predator were either seated, standing or lying on the numerous crates inside the hangar.
As for the hangar iteself there wans't much to look at; a couple of automated service vehicles, some dockworkers operating a forklift and a team of SSOID agents waiting for the shuttle. With each shuttle new agents rotated in while others rotated out. Such was the nature of work in the Southeastern Quadrant. Stay too long and you'd be burned. If you were burned then the remnants of either one or all factions that previously waged war against Sol would find you and torture you to death.
In short, not the most friendly of places to work in as a clandestine intelligence operative.
Nathalie approached Stingray and crossed her arms. She nodded towards the hologram of Goblin which was, as always, blurred out to protect his identity.
"...once your latest addition arrives I want you brief the team on their next mission."
Stingray nodded. "What assets do we have?"
"You'll get the Modus Operandi for starters. It just finished its monthly refitting and should be one step ahead of whomever you come across. We stocked some new gear onboard to help you get started though most of it is prototype gear for your newest addition. We're also moving several covert assets into play- just in case."
"Routine precautions?" Asked Stingray.
The hologram's altered voice grunted. "Affirmative. You're not getting special treatment if that's what you think."
Stingray glanced at Nathalie and shook his head. "Would never dream of it, sir."
Just then Wraith spoke up. "There's the shuttle." Everyone turned away from the hologram to look at the jet-black craft slowly approaching outside the hangar shields...
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