Drifting through space aboard a ship that was not listed in any official UEN naval registers, running on experimental tech that dampened and dispersed scanning signals effectively making it invisible on radar though looking out a window was still a viable option it seemed. All of it reeked of wetwork black ops and undercover espionage, the saboteurs sabotaging the enemy military from the inside out, the charismatic spies charming their way through checkpoints and filtering dangerously close with the enemy intelligence. Or maybe she had been reading too much Captain Accel before her reassignment and all the action novel nonsense had somehow seeped into her brain. That was probably it the mission was not going to be some action drama it was war like everything else, just like Kryes and so she had to be prepared for anything to happen. Her father had tried to force that idea of unpredictably and moving on the fly into her brain from a young age especially when they used to play those wargame simulations together replaying mock battles of the first war with the Coalition. She never had a mind for it though controlling whole armies and thinking three steps ahead of your opponent, she preferred the combat simulations where it was gritty and personal were the enemy was not some abstracted figure but a human. 

Not much had changed it seemed from when she was a young girl playing with her father. When she was first approached for the mission she had actually turned down the offer believing that a deep undercover operation was not suited for someone like her who had passed through the 101st infiltration examination by the skin of her teeth and after two previous failed attempts. She was a soldier not a black ops operative she fought on the front lines against insurrectionists in the fringe worlds and coalition aligned terrorists the visible and immediate threat to the people of the UE she left he backroom political subterfuge to Ghosts and the infiltration teams. Though in the end it was evidently her father that ended up pushing her to finally accepting the offer with a stern reminder that if they had asked her it meant that they needed her and that a Campbell does not turn down an important mission offered by upper brass that could lead to a promotion and a nice officer position just because she does not feel like it. That was her father always looking out for her "best interests". But he did make some valid points if they had come to ask for her it meant they needed her set of skills. She was in the top tier of heavy assault specialists in the 101st and her track record spoke for itself and if other 101st operatives died because she was apprehensive she could of never forgiven herself and so she took up the offer and once again put away the needs of the one for the needs of the many.

The distinctive whoosh of an automatic door sliding open was added to the myriad of industrial noises being produced in the hanger as Ashe stepped out. The hangar crew was rushing about the VTOL that was to be their transport planetside prepping it for take off: loading the missile pods, replacing the ammunition canister for the chain gun, loading their equipment upon it and making it sure it had that nice new drop ship smell to it. By UEE terms the VTOL was a flying dinosaur the line of transports having served eleven years in the coalition forces and still based upon the old schematics used during the conflict between the two empires with minor modifications to increase performance and update the technology running the ship. Coalition engineers always were big fans of the if it was not broken than don't fix it approach recycling where they could as they did not have the luxury and resources the UEE had. 

Ashe had little time to ponder how such an antiqued piece of technology was still even considered flight worthy in a period where the UEE seemed to replacing their equipment and vehicles with updated models within months of one another and so she pushed on. Though she stopped as the glint of her reflection across the polished metal floor of the hanger caught her eye. For one thing the time that had designed their Goliath uniforms were good. She looked the part of a private security contractor with subtle flare and sleek design that the military was just not into.Wearing a tailored black trench coat that clung to her frame with an emblazoned bright yellow Goliath logo upon the right pocket and a matching pair of black business pants all made from Kevlar microfibers with a black compression shirt and bulletproof vest on beneath the coat, all standard high class civilian contractor gear found being worn by most Coalition and UEE security firms.And even without the fancy outfit one would be hard pressed to place Ashe as anything else than a soldier just by her build. Inside her PA-2 she was just another titan among giants lumbering about in heavy plate but outside of it among regular people she looked immense with a body made up of all hard and large muscle built from constantly lifting heavy mortars, rocket launches and the BS-MKV for so many years now that did not just come from working a desk job. But that was okay even though she was undercover and no longer 101st Heavy Assault Operative Ashe Campbell she was still supposed to be a professional and her build in that line of work was not uncommon. 

Letting out a small and almost unnoticeable sigh among the sounds of heavy machinery and loaders as the deck crew were finishing operations Ashe stepped up the landing platform and into the VTOL. She was the second one in with the infiltration specialist Sykes having already been inside when she entered. She gave him a small nod and a formal hello as she found her seat and sat down.The higher ups were not fooling around when they had put the team together it seemed, most of the operatives were the best at what they did with Sykes being the talk of the town in 7th Company. They say that he was one of the best they had ever seen, that he could outsmart even a Ghost. These claims were yet to be proven true but if he had been asked to join the mission they must of had truth to them or at least that was what Ashe believed. But she would have time to become well antiquated with her team latter for now it was time to be prepped to infiltrate the planet and make contact with the Ghost Operative already planetside. And so she collected her thoughts the ideas of it all mulling around in her head wondering the consequences of what they were doing and what was being held on the line if they failed to stop the construction of a Coalition super weapon or worse if they sparked another war altogether.

[I]How did I let you talk me into this one old man? This is going to be such a pain.[/I]