"Morning Sergeant" Major Valen called, watching Kanderin peering into the room from his comfy seat in the corner.

Once his vision adjusted to the significantly lighter room, Kanderin wandered inside.

"You could call it that. It's still dark out there and I only got to sleep an hour..."

Major Valen raised a hand.

"As delighted as I would be to hear your riveting story Kanderin, we don't have time. Take a seat."

Kanderin saluted crisply and jumped down into a seat across from the Major's desk.

"You probably know that we have already sent Darr and Rogue out on a mission, tracking a rogue spy who used to work for our ranks. Sparing the details, his last double cross lost us two squads of troopers"

"I heard sir" Kanderin nodded "You want me to support Darr then?"

"I'd love for you to be able to do that Kanderin, however literally hours after they departed, a delayed message came through from said spy, giving us details as to one of our prime targets within the pirate faction's currently circling us"

Pressing a button on his desk, a planet flashed up between them, slowly spinning on a tilted axis, every now and again displaying a large circular red dot.

"This is Alsakan, a planet very close to where we were last bluffed. We were given information that links the captain of one of these pirating groups to a small cafe in the city of Tefris. Our spies confirm it appears to be much more than a simple cafe, something big is going on there. Our guess is an illegal casino funding their weapons and ships"

The major stood up, stubbing out a cigar on his desk.

"Our worry is that this is another trap, so we're not sending out a squad. We thought we could send a Phantom team as a second test. In terms of orders, your first goal is to see if this is indeed a trap. If it and you spring it, you escape immediately. If it's a trap that you avoid, give us a call and we'll send some men to clean it up.

However, if it isn't a trap, you should get to this cafe and see what you can find out about it. This man is your target"

The photo spun along the desk and Kanderin caught it. It was of a man in a somewhat large beret and very dark sunglasses. He was human and appeared quite skinny, the stubble on his chin hiding quite a lot of loose skin. it appeared that he had lost a sizable amount of weight recently.

"His name is Vaken, and his groups have stolen quite a sizable amount of equipment from us. He used to work with us, and for that reason he has proved quite irritating. We are sure taking him out will cripple this particular group. Usual Phantom standards apply, leave no evidence of your existence"

"You mean I'm going solo?" Kanderin replied, looking up from the photo.

"Of course not, we would just prefer you to pick yourself a team-mate"

Taken aback by the generosity, Kanderin thought about it for some time. He didn't know most of Phantom that well yet. With the exception of Tnepres, he hadn't worked with anyone there before. Tnepes seemed the logical choice, but Wraith would probably need him.

"I'll take Gunnery Sergeant Luckystar preferably"

Valen smiled.

"Good choice, go get her and give her the brief. We have a shuttle prepped to drop you off planet side, it's leaving in thirty minutes. Don't miss it"

OOC:

Feel free to post Lucky

"Morning Sir" The man taking their bags saluted.

"And miss" He added, noticing Lucky emerge from behind Kanderin.

"Thanks" Kanderin replied, smiling back at Lucky and admiring the shuttle. "How long till we land?"

The man looked taken aback that Kanderin had spoken to him. Being a special ops transport, he probably wasn't used to the members thanking him.

"Once we get in the air sir, about two hours sir. But we might need to slow down to avoid detection, so it might take three hours sir"

"That little? This thing is faster than it looks"

"What do you expect wen the VE is funding it" Lucky smiled, moving around Kanderin to step onto the ship.

"Fair point"

OOC:

Very short, but I still don't have the time to really put work into this. This is just to show the story is still active

"So then Snipes got this keg of beer and poured it all over Arnaut. Good times" Xephilus laughed, imitating the actions of Arnaut scuttling around inside the barrel.

"Yeah, you're off the brandy from now on Kand" Lucky smiled, trying not to laugh as she watched Kanderin stumble into one of the flight attendants, who promptly threw the tray of drinks over the pair of them.

As Kanderin rolled over, a look of concern was clearly visible on his face.

"I'm not drunk, the ship lurched. Didn't you feel it?"

"No it didn't" Lucky replied, getting out of her seat and staring out of the window.

"This is the pilot to the crew" A voice suddenly crackled over the speakers, as if answering "It seems one of the pirating vessels circling the planet had slightly more advanced weaponry than it thought. It managed to catch our ship on its radar even though we were cloaked and fired a shot. We had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid it, although we think we're in the clear again, should be landing in about an hour"

"Told you" Kanderin said, grinning.

"Yeah yeah""