[b]Cassie A-313
February 21st, 2558
UNSC [i]Fortitude South[/i] Bridge[/b]

Behind the impassive face of her helmet, Cassie frowned. A Covenant Skirmisher turned Pirate. Her experience could make her valuable to certain groups, but more likely she had enemies that just wanted to pay to kill her. The jackals holding her stood to make a lot of money off of their prisoner.

[i]“Captain, coming out of Slipspace now.”[/i]

Subconsciously, Cassie braced herself against a bridge terminal as the ship lurched slightly upon re-entering normal space. Her attention turned to the planet, bearing the marks of Covenant plasma bombardment. Some corporations had taken to "mining" away the crystallized surface of glassed planets, but it seemed no such thing had happened on Verdant. Next came the map of the facility Nuc was being held in. A simple enough building, Cassie wondered if Zertrus would fit comfortably inside, however, as his massive frame likely didn't match up with what seemed to be a standard human designed building.

[i]"I will let you decide which you would like to do, any questions?”[/i]

Her gaze finally fell on Griffin Kelly, their CO for the duration of this mission, and her HUD pinged him as a Major, which struck Cassie as strange, as Major was not a rank in the Navy, which implied that Kelly had been part of one of the other branches of the UNSC before being transferred to ONI at some point. Moreover, his uniform showed no signs of rank that she could see, and his face was covered by what appeared to be a Gen1 MJOLNIR EVA helmet. An old one, at that. 

Back to the matter at hand, though. 

"What sort of resistance are we looking at regarding those two paths? Additionally, should we opt to negotiate, what do we have to bargain with?"

Cassie entertained no ideas about negotiating with Jackals, but it was important to know just what they had to work with.

"Finally, if I may, what makes this Matriarch so important, sir?"