Framing: Set just after the events of Arise Serpentor Arise.
Removing his snake-motif headdress, Serpentor settled into the chair in Cobra Commander's private data room that he commandeered for his purposes. Suddenly he heard the door slide open but that did not concern him. "Hey, this is restricted to the Commander only."
"What belongs to the Commander is of no concern to me, Lt. Winters." Serpentor shot back recognizing Caroline's voice but not bothering to talk to directly. "He is hardly in the position to argue."
Caroline scowled at this test-tube Frankenstein at the lack of respect he's showing to the Commander. Under normal circumstances if Serpentor was any other Cobra officer he would have disappeared quietly but she couldn't do anything since it would be much more difficult for her to cover her tracks. "Yes, I know he's still in surgery from losing his hand to Grey Fox." Not the first time he was wounded by the commander of the Knight Sabers. But that's beside the point, this is his private data room, and I will report this to him."
"Your loyalty to the Commander is admirable. But quite misplaced… your loyalty should be to me above all others."
Fuck you! She mentally retorted, because the Commander has earned her loyalty and respect unlike something Mindbender should have flushed down the toilet like a dead goldfish. "Yes sir, would it be it disrespectful for me to ask what are you doing?"
"If you must know, the Commander seemed very concerned about these 'Knight Sabers' during our occupation of Washington. I must admit it piqued my curiosity." Extending a hand to a keypad to the left he punched up data on the Knight Sabers. "I must admit the information on them is extremely thorough."
"Yes sir, both Cynthia and I wrote some of those reports."
"Yes like this one, Dagger. AKA: Linna Yamazaki. Black-Ops. Hand-to-Hand combatant par-excellence. She has extremely extensive experience in Black-Operations; mainly single mission wet-works. Black bag operations. HUMINT. Expert with blades. Trained by the Arashikage clan during her formative years in Japan. Suffers from PSTD due to witnessing the murder of her parents."
"Yes sir. Storm Shadow can attest to her skills as well as a few others but we would have to dig them up and perform some unholy ritual to get their opinion."
"Storm Shadow will suffice, thank you." Serpentor tersely shot back. Soon Caroline left to check on the Commander; leaving Serpentor alone, clasping his fingers together in thought once he punched up Wolf's file. By all accounts he would consider Wolf to be a delinquent of the highest order and not worth his study but apparently this mere woman was referred to as the Angel of Death by many Cobra Vipers. He was amused that his brave Vipers would be scared of this woman. A heavy weapons and assault expert, she is considered Grey Fox's right-hand woman. Hpmh, this one is of little of concern as she nothing more than a mere a soldier; hardly worth my time.
He skimmed over Cypher's file as there was little that interest him… a hacker. He held a distain for "Cyber-Warriors," as they did their fighting from a laptop. Even though Cypher was on the frontlines with the other Knight Sabers, she was not worth his time… unlike Grey Fox.
He studied the image of Grey Fox on the screen. West Point graduate. US Army Rangers. Despite her beauty and youth, she was a soldier. He noted the many hardships in her career faced with a near wipe out of her unit but she still completed the mission. Faced a court martial for a massacre in Cambodia. Survived a one-man mission into Tselinoyarsk. She assisted in helping the traitor Aina Sahalin's defection and in destroying the Apsalus Mobile Armor. He glanced over a report filed by General Hawk attesting to her skill as a soldier and her ability to complete the impossible. He read further into the report. Hmm, perhaps there is some bias in his assessment of Lt. Stingray. Perhaps…are they lovers? Either way very unprofessional much like the loyalty shown by Lt. Winters and the late Lt. Hansen to the Commander. But from these Knight Sabers… Grey Fox will probably be the most dangerous given her skillsets and intelligence. Perhaps there is truth in the axiom of 'cutting off the head of the snake.' Given that Wolf has serious trust issues a new commander would produce disharmony but in combat they would be massacred.
Shutting down the data feeds he allowed himself to digest the information. He felt the reports on the Knight Sabers were something of an exaggeration, even the one Cobra Commander filed into his own personal database about Tselinoyarsk or the intelligence analysis written Berg Katse. Mere women. He dismissed with contempt, I'll ground them under my boot like any enemy. Picking up his headdress, he pulled it on as he headed out to oversee operations.