[center][i]Cut From the Same Cloth
A [@DearTrickster] & [@Mortarion] Collab[/i][/center][hr]

The advance through Site 1 was going well for Fireteam 2, with the help of Ryria and Serena - and the information provided by the latter’s drone - they had managed to elude several of the Kett’s forces patrolling through the failed outpost in search of the surviving researchers. Stopping to catch his breath, Tazen took the opportunity to look at the map display of Site 1. They had made good progress so far, but they were reaching a point where they’d be unable to continue circling through the failed outpost’s outskirt and would need to penetrate into the outpost itself. This, of course, meant that it was merely a matter of time for the Kett to find them, ideally that’d happen after they had located and extracted the scientist but Tazen wasn’t one to let such things to mere chance. 

“Noratus,” said Tazen into the team comms. “I was checking the layout of Site 1, if we want to make progress in finding the scientists we need to head deeper into the area, going around the outskirts is no longer viable.” He continued speaking to his turian comrade, “It’d be for the best if we go ahead of the group and signal Fireteam 1 to engage the Kett forces, otherwise I’m afraid that we might be caught before we’ve rescued the scientists trapped in the building. What do you think?” He finished speaking, waiting for Dex’s reply to his idea.

Dex was decidedly disappointed at the training event coming to an end so abruptly, but what she saw was telling enough of her teammates. She felt they weren’t ready to take on anything real. But working on infiltrating Site 1 was fine enough for her, away from the front lines of the fighting where things would definitely become chaotic. Confident in her own skills to see through the mission.

Had her and Haze stuck together they could have used the massive distraction Firu and Kargad created to slip inside. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be.

Dex pulled up a map from where they were crouched. “[color=007236]If they were ambushed by the Kett, they’d be exactly where they were working. The labs are over here.[/color]” She pointed to the map*, “[color=007236]Thankfully for us there’s a few entrances to pick from. Unfortunately according to Serena’s drone there’s Kett crawling all over the place.[/color]”

“[color=007236]We need to distract them, something big to pull the kett away to fight team 1.[/color]” Dex suggested to Tazen. “[color=007236]I’ve been trying to pick up on any communications from the scientists but their radio silence is across the entire board.[/color]”

“Makes sense, we still don't know the full extent of the Kett’s capabilities so it'd stand to reason that the scientists would try and remain radio silent.” Spoke the Salarian in response to what Dex had said. “As for your suggestion, I am of the same mind.” He said, stopping for a second to think what'd be the best way for them to proceed.

“Alright Noratus, I've got an idea.” Tazen said after a few seconds of silence, “You and me will proceed deeper into Site 1 while the rest of Team 2 stays behind, once we are deep enough we will contact Team 1 and give them the go ahead to engage the Kett, at the same time, we’ll try and assert whether or not the scientists locked themselves in the labs.” He spoke, turning to look at the rest of Team 2 and giving them the signal to stay put before he turned to look at Dex, “Ready to move?” 

Dex activated her cloak over the coms she confirmed. “[color=007236]Let’s go, see you guys on the other side.[/color]”

She waved a cloaked hand to Haze, Serena and Ryria.

The pair of former spies took off at a fast run heading deeper into Site 1. They skirted behind storage containers, pausing to let patrols walk by. Dex peeked above them, noting a few Kett were crouched down by a door pointing at it. Over the coms she whispered, “[color=007236]I think I know where our scientists are.[/color]” 

“[color=007236]I have an idea of what to do for a distraction.[/color]”

She beckoned for Tazen to follow her, she snuck off away from the Kett to a separate building. Out of sight of the Kett she opened her omni-tool. Picking from a generic list of SOS signals, she opened an unsecured network.

“[color=007236]I’m going to create a fake emergency call out, ping the Kett and pull them over here. You set an EMP to knock their technology around some, give the go ahead for the attack. We sneak back and remove the remaining Kett ourselves.[/color]” She suggested, looking over her shoulder. “[color=007236]If you don’t have a grenade we can make one.[/color]”

She took a second to realize the absurdity of working with Tazen. She had few rules set for herself and one of them was never to fuck around with anyone from STG. There was no telling signs with them, you could never trust nor figure out what they were really up to. Security airtight and all the resources to run you into the ground. It frustrated Dex quite often while she worked at Lorthan Brokerage. Any sign of STG and she dropped the job faster than a set of hot rocks, scrubbing her involvement from it completely. 

“[color=007236]You know Tazen, I’m glad we never met until we were in another galaxy. I don’t know what you specialized in STG whether that was intergalactic missions or toppling organizations on behalf of Sur’kesh but I think I’d be fucked if I stumbled on you.[/color]” She commented, pulling up some borrowed audio from a vid.

Tazen chuckled at Dex’s comments, “Probably, STG is notorious for wanting to keep its business hush hush after all.” Said the Salarian, shaking his head slightly with mirth while he prepared the EMP with scavenged material from the building. “For the record, feeling’s mutual. I’m glad we met here instead of running into each other mid-mission, I get the feeling that I wouldn’t walk out unscathed if we were to fight.” He said, finishing the EMP that he had been constructing. 

“[color=007236]You give me way too much credit, sir. I’m not much for close combat, the only way I get out of close quarters is hitting hard and hitting once. If I had it my way, most people I fight wouldn’t see me.[/color]” Dex admitted, adding the final touches on the SOS. “[color=007236]I’m suited better behind a scope.[/color]”

“And I think you give yourself too little credit Noratus,” He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. “Anyway, EMP is constructed but don’t send the fake SOS signal yet, I want to leave a surprise for when the Kett bastards come towards us.” Said Tazen as he moved towards the door they had used, planting a tripmine on its frame.

“Done, that way the bastards will hurt when they come here.” Finished the Salarian before he returned to Dex’s side, “You know, this feels kinda nostalgic, doesn’t it? Luring enemies into a trap with a fake signal, setting traps and all that stuff. Honestly, I thought I had left all that behind in the Milky Way.” Said the Salarian, letting out a chuckle once more while shaking his head.

“Anyway, I’m ready when you are.” He said, his hand hovering over his omnitool ready to detonate the EMP as soon as the Kett had entered the building they were on “We’ll probably need to dig in here and things might get ugly.” Commented Tazen, a grimace on his face “Well, here goes nothing.” He muttered quietly as he waited for Dex to send the fake SOS.  

Dex nodded, “[color=007236]Nostalgic would imply we actually enjoyed it.[/color]” She said matter-of-factly, no real discernable bitterness. “[color=007236]Okay, sending SOS Signal in three...two… one.[/color]”

“I suppose that is true.” Noted Tazen in response to Dex’s comment, “I guess it’s more appropriate to say that it feel all too familiar.” He said, nodding when Dex mentioned that she as sending the SOS signal.

The signal boosted by an unsecured network went out locally, even pinging on Dex and Tazen’s omnitools. It was responded to with an equally fake Initiative response. It had some key differences in wording and the frequency was similar. To an untrained eye it would have been believable. To Dex it raised red flags. She shivered, how many SOS calls have the Kett picked up from the Initiative? Another example of their brutal efficiency routing an enemy, severing emergency efforts.

“[color=007236]They’re on their way. Let’s go.[/color]” Dex said.

They snuck away out of the radius of the EMP watching for the Kett to approach. After a few moments, they arrived in a group of five Chosen. She watched through the scope of her Viper, signalling Tazen to detonate the EMP.

A cold chill went down Tazen’s spine as he processed the fact that the Kett had responded to their fake SOS with what could pass as a response from another Initiative team, to a trained agent like him and Dex it was easy to spot the signs that pointed to the signal being fake. How many of their people had been captured due to that trick? And if they could easily send a response to an SOS, that meant that they’d be able to fake an Initiative SOS of their own easily enough.

Shaking his head to snap out of his revelry, Tazen noticed that Dex had gotten ahead of him and hurried to catch up to her, “Apologies for the delay, was caught by a….decidedly unpleasant revelation.” Said the Salarian as he caught his breath. He nodded when Dex told him to detonate the EMP, but waited a second for the Kett to activate his trip mine before he set off the EMP.

“Fireteam 1, this is Tazen, you are free to engage the Kett forces on Site 1!” He broadcasted to the secure comm frequency of Fireteam 1, making sure everyone would hear the order. “Fireteam 2, you are cleared to advance, go go go!” He spoke after a second, having switched to the comm channel of Fireteam 2.  “Fireteam 1 has been given the go ahead to engage the Kett forces and I’ve given the rest of Fireteam 2 the order to advance.” Said Tazen as he pulled his Hornet SMG.

“With our objective completed, I say we punch through the disorganized Kett forces and rendezvous with the rest of Fireteam 2, your thoughts Dex?” He asked her, although it was easy to notice that Tazen was preoccupied. Not so much due to the prospect of fighting against the Kett, but more due to their ability to mimic Initiative signals so easily.

Eyes on the Kett, the detonated EMP knocked their shields out Dex answered, “[color=007236]Way ahead of you, sir.[/color]” Punctuating her answer with three consecutive shots against a Chosen, one pierced their abdomen, their chest and finally a headshot. The Chosen crumpled. Her Viper ejected the thermal clip in a quick vent of steam. Dex reloaded a new clip.

“[color=007236]Next.[/color]”

Tazen nodded in response to Dex’s words, aiming down the sights towards where the Kett forces where. However instead of shooting his gun the Salarian took a small disk that was maglocked to his hip and threw it towards the Kett, a small turret popping into existence where the disc had landed on the ground. “Figured a bit of extra gunpower wouldn’t be a bad thing.” Said the Salarian before Dex said anything while taking aim with his Hornet and hitting a Chosen squarely in the chest, the Kett soldier crumpling to the ground as the life left him. 

“Say Noratus.” Said Tazen as he aimed at another Kett, letting out a barrage of gunfire that unfortunately missed its mark, “How do you figure the Kett managed to get their hands on the message they sent. It’s a standard Initiative response, not something kept terribly secret, but...well, the implications disturb me slightly.” He asked the Turian, biting his lip slightly as he took another shot at another Chosen. 

Dex took aim once more, answering Tazen, “[color=007236]Scavenging. It wasn't a perfect replication. My first impression is assuming they have come across our own emergency efforts, targeting the party in danger and then later ambushing the rescuers. It's an insidious tactic. I want to bring the issue to the Initiative’s intelligence teams and report what we saw here today. This kind of breach is affecting us directly but also… those that are on their own.[/color]” She said, thinking of the exiles. “[color=007236]The Kett see us exiled or not, to them it's us doing their job for them. Dividing skilled forces then isolating them.[/color]”

She took down a third, taking cover - the Kett firing back at their hiding spot. 

“Yes, we’ll need to rework out our codes and channels to make sure that the Kett forces don’t have a backdoor into our networks.” Said Tazen, taking one last shot at the Chosen before he had to replace the thermal clip on his SMG. “My main concern is precisely how they obtained the information. We know that they’ve captured APEX teams before, so I’m worried that someone might have talked under torture.” He mentioned as he finished loading the new thermal clip, popping from cover to take another shot at a Chosen.

“This is a mess, we’ll probably need to start ordering everyone to destroy their omnitools or something if it seems like they’ll be captured.” Tazen mumbled to himself, his mind already trying to patch the security leak.

Dex squinted at him, what exactly was he implying? That someone from the Milkyway wanted to sell them out to the Kett? She scoffed. 

The situation with the Exiles also concerned him, but in an entirely different way than it seemed to do for Dex so he opted to keep his mouth shut and not bring them up into the discussion. His thought train was briefly interrupted by a small explosion as his turret was finally destroyed by the remaining Chosen left. “Only one more left, then we can rendezvous with the rest of Fireteam 2.” He said as a shot from the remaining Kett whizzed past him, leaning for a brief second from cover to lay suppressive fire. 

Dex opened her omnitool, readying an Incinerate. “[color=007236]Take the shot, sir.[/color]” She peeked over the cover then threw the particle fire, it exploded across the Chosen’s chest.

Tazen nodded in response to Dex’s words, peeking from cover once the Incinerate made contact with the Kett. It was easy enough to hit the disoriented Chosen, three rounds hitting him square in the chest and immediately killing the last Kett soldier.

“We are done now, good job Noratus. Shall we head back and rendezvous with the rest of Fireteam 2?”  

She nodded, initializing her cloak once more. “[color=007236]Yes, sir.[/color]

This wasn't neither the time nor place for her to question or grow suspicious of her superior officer. She believed they were on the same page but could she trust him to not hold her sympathies with the exiles against her? They were cut from a similar cloth, she had no doubts Tazen would remember this conversation. Suddenly she felt like she had been too chatty. 

Contacting Fireteam 2 she went for a lighter tone then how she felt, “[color=007236]On our way back, hope you lot didn't miss us too much.[/color]”