Thread: In Defense Of Humanity (PsionicCuttlefish & Rosina)

Scarlett's trip back to her quarters to freshen up went without real incident, but there were plenty of off-duty drunk HA soldiers wandering about the living areas, and several of them gave Scarlett whistles and 'compliments' on her figure or skintight outfit. Once insider her own quarters, Scarlett was able to shower in peace and change into a clean ESA bodysuit. On her way to Archer's personal office, she was again greeted by catcalling HA grunts, but little more than that--no one made any real advances on her. Once at Handler Archer's office, a beep on the door-comm panel got a quick Enter!, and Scarlett found herself in Archer's now-familiar office. It was at that half-way point between a field-officer's workspace and a desk jockey's. Archer didn't do fieldwork anymore, but he did continue to train new ESAs, so his office still had some of the spartan simplicity of a field officer, but some personal touches had begun creeping in pictures of family, trinkets he liked, medals he had earned from his early career on display. Ah, Scarlett! Wasn't quite expecting to see you so soon, but I am glad for it! Have a seat, I will call up the briefing. Archer said as he activated a holographic display, then settled into his formal attitude. Agent Mercer, you have been tasked with a data-retrieval mission. He said as he brought up the view of a planet. This is the second planet in a previously uninhabited system, Star GS25-A. We have learned that there is an alien pirate outpost on the surface. We haven't wiped it out because since we've known about it, we've been able to get some useful intel on the pirate group through some early and distant reconnaissance missions. The display zoomed in on some orbital images of the surface compound as Archer spoke. We know that a very important ship in this pirate's fleet will be docking at the outpost soon. This mission is time-sensitive because it will only be there for a limited time after it arrives--the thirty-hour limit the Head Supervisor mentioned is that you have to be in your Spec-Ops ship and in FTL transit no later than that--it will get you to GS25-A just before the pirate ship is scheduled to arrive, but the sooner you arrive before it, the better. One the ship is there, you should have three local days before it departs--the local solar interval is twenty-one-and-a-half hours. The display switched from the view of the planet to a rotating view of Scarlett's target. Your mission, Agent Mercer, is to land on the second planet of System GS25-A before the pirate ship does. You are then to recon and find a way to infiltrate the compound. While docked, the pirate ship will be linked up with the outpost's network as it undergoes maintenance and exchanges updates. You are to reach the outpost's hypercommunications module before the pirate ship leaves and disconnects from the network. You are then to hack the hypercomm module and make it transmit the entire contents of the pirate ship's databanks to these coordinates-- A set of interstellar coordinates in deep space were shown, and Archer also passed a small datachip over his desk to Scarlett. --where one of our listening-ships is currently holding position. Once you've done that, exfiltrate and return home. Archer then switched off the display, steepled his hands over his desk, and looked at the young ESA. I won't lie, this is probably going to be one of your most challenging missions yet, Scarlett. We don't have any close-up intel of the outpost's layout, so you'll have to figure things out as you go. There also aren't any other HA assets in the area, so you'll be on your own. You've handled both of these things before, but not both at once. Handler Archer said seriously, but then his mouth quirked slightly. But you are turning out to be one of the best ESAs I've ever trained, you were selected for this mission because your flawless 100 success rate thus far speaks for itself, and I am proud of that. Archer then leaned back in his chair slightly. Any questions, Agent Mercer?