Sipian Tundra, Eloch Province, Tridian Vale

16:37

Cassian landed with a soft thud from the pelican, a flurry of snow blowing around him. He unholstered his SRS and held in loosely in front of him, the designated camp should only be about five klicks out, normally he wouldn't risk coming in so close, but an unusually large blizzard had been raging in the north pole for about a week now. The storm would keep the pelican obscured long enough for a quick drop-off, the pelican itself would land itself in a rocky outcropping ten klicks south of his position. He took one last check of his surroundings and began a light jog, he wasn't expecting heavy resistance at this outpost, the Insurrectionist movement here on Tridian Vale wasn't well organized and struggled to expand its influence of power. Still if they had managed to scavenge to old UNSC equipment and repair it well enough, that'd make things more difficult, and it was rare, but scavenged covenant weaponry had been known to make its way into the hands of criminals or insurrectionists.

"Its times like this when its nice to have the top of line the line armor, no? What's the plan?" Kara remarked

"Avoid putting on a show. We don't want them to be able to alert Hasagawa."

"Good, I love action as much as the next A.I but I also despise complicating the mission more than necessary."

Cassian didn't respond, but he tended to agree, he had no qualms about starting a firefight, but unlike Emile, he thrived in it, he'd much more preferred to deal with the objective first, whatever came after was secondary.

He slowed his light jog to walk, the outpost should be located just over the ridge in front of him. It was a rocky outcropping but nothing a spartan couldn't handle, he pulled himself up to the top of the ridge and shouldered his SRS, peering through the scope he began to scout out the outpost. It was located in a small dip in the land, the outpost itself consisted of four buildings with a long-range radio tower. Cassian panned his rifle across the small area, carefully observing every detail, he spotted four guards posted outside, two seemed to be in fixed positions on the edge of the outpost, the other two seemed to have a roving patrol. With four guards outside and assuming amateur command experience and lack of general manpower, the guards most likely go in rotations of 8 hours, meaning there's likely 12 guard stationed here, give or take a couple and maybe add on an extra member assuming the leader of the outpost doesn't participate in patrol. Eight or so insurrectionists spread out through the four buildings, it'd be best to get rid of the two roving guards first and then head to the comms center, it didn't matter if the engagement went loud as long as they couldn't get to the long-range radio.

"Kara, are you picking up any usual radio chatter? Any indication that they know where here?"

"Nope, quiet as a mouse, seems they don't even know the UNSC is in orbit. It's almost sad how ignorant and weak they are."

With a plan set, he holstered his SRS to the magnetic strip on his back and climbed down the rocky ridge, hitting the ground with a soft thud. Crouching low he moved quickly to his first target, the individuals roving patrols followed the same path but on opposite ends. Once he took out the first, he'd just have to lie in wait for the second one to pass. The first patrolling guard walked behind one of the buildings and Cassian followed, standing up out of his crouch, he wrapped one hand around the man's mouth and the other hand around his throat. With a quick flex of his hand he crushed the man's throat and nary a sound was made. Grabbing the guard's body, Cassian moved the man's body and laid him down against the wall of building, the heavy snow would cover his body soon. Cassian walked towards the corner of the building and lied in wait for the second man to come, the only sound being the vicious storm until the sound of crunching snow began to grow. When the tip of the man's rifle appeared past the corner Cassian repeated his action, the man's throat snapping like a twig to the Spartan's strength. He lied the second corpse next to the first one and began to head towards the comms center.

There didn't appear to be any windows on any of the buildings, which made it nice to avoid detection, but also meant he had no way to confirm the number of hostiles in the building. Drawing his magnum, he slowly cracked the door an inch and peered in, there appeared to be three radio operators, two sitting at the large console and one standing in the corner seemingly reviewing information. He couldn't risk firing a shot at any of the two operators in front of the console, the UNSC would want it and he was unsure if the radio console had a fail-safe alert. Keeping his pistol out, he also drew his combat knife and continued to inch the door open until he had enough room. He flipped the knife in his hand and threw it at the nearest radio operator, the knife hit with a dull thud in the man's neck and blood began to spurt out, the man desperately trying to pull the knife out. Before the second operator at the console understood what had happened, Cassian sprinted towards him and pistol whipped him, a sickening crunch emanating from the mans face as he flew backwards out of his chair.

The final of three, still standing in the corner, fumbling with his radio and pistol, even if he wasn't panicking, its doubtful that he would've been faster than Cassian's magnum draw. The pistol meant specifically for Spartans to fight covenant was none too kind to a fleshly and barely armored target. A fist sized hole appeared in the man's chest and an equally devastating hole in the wall of the building, leading to a clear view of the blizzard outside.

When a small UNSC fireteam would arrive later to secure the outpost, they said it looked as if a ghost had cleared it. The insurrectionists had never got a shot off, instead they it looked as if they hadn't even known they'd been killed. A trio of insurrectionists were found sitting at a table playing poker, all their cards still held perfectly in their hands, their bodies so perfectly undisturbed in death that a rookie on the fireteam had accidently fired at one of the corpses because they thought they were still alive. Cassian had unknowingly been dubbed the "The Tranquil Death" as tales of almost surreal scene had found its way throughout the UNSC.

Cassian finished off the last of the insurrectionists with a quick draw of his knife across the man's throat, he let the body fall unceremoniously into the snow and began to scour the base for any relevant information.

"I don't think I'll ever experience something like that again, I know why they classify you as hyper lethal vector." That was the first positive things Kara had said about him since they met, it wasn't much but he'd take it and with Kara it seems like that's the highest compliment she'd give.

"Flattery? I don't know if I'm ready for such talk in our relationship." Cassian deadpanned

"Oh? The stoic spartan makes a joke? Or at least as much of a joke as you can manage."

"Sorry I forgot to uninstall my humor setting." Raising his hand to the side of his helmet, he radioed in while continuing his search.

"Pharoah-2 this is Pharoah-1, copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear, is the outpost clear?"

"Affirmative, there should be an area in front of the outpost that's wide enough for the pelican to land."

"Got it big guy, I'll be there in ten minutes."

While searching the outpost, Cassian stumbled across what was presumably some sort of Captain's quarters, it had piles of papers, documents, and a terminal located by the bed. He was never as good as Kat was with technology, but that didn't matter now because he wouldn't have to do any of it. Popping Kara's chip out of the back of his helmet, he slid it in the terminal, while he waited, he searched the room for other valuable information. There was nothing of value he could find, until a glint from under the bed caught his eye, he crouched down and reached under the bed until he felt a familiar shape in his hand. Pulling it out only confirmed what he already knew, it was a plasma pistol, in poor shape but functioning, nonetheless. He flipped it around to examine it but saw noted nothing unusual, he tossed it on the ground and stomped it underneath his boot. Walking back to the terminal, he pulled the chip out and replaced it back in his helmet.

"Did we find what we need?"

"Not specifics, but we never thought we would. We can trace these emails and vague situational clues to lead us to his location, it appears to be an abandoned quarry in an unremarkable mountain range to the Southwest. Its location makes it difficult to access however, most of the mountain is uninhabitable, far too unstable and rocky, so only a small number of troops can be offloaded at one time, which presents obvious problems." Cassian hummed in agreement but was broken out of his reverie the sound of a pelican touching down outside. Walking outside he saw the pelican not far off, hoping into the back he walked through the seating and into the cockpit next to Yokovich. He nodded to the pilot and they began their return to the Return to Sender, he grabbed the radio in the pelican for secure communication.

"Pharaoh Actual this is Pharoah-1, copy?"

"I hear you Pharoah-1, did you get what we need?"

"Yes sir, Kara has the data stored, but we'll need to rework our original plan."

"I see, we'll discuss the plan upon your return."

"Understood sir, Pharoah-1 out."

UNSC Return to Sender, Command Deck

18:11

"Our original plan simply won't work sir, the Hrangel Mountains have no clear spot for large troop deployment. Our options would either be to work our way from the bottom of the mountain, or to unload small groupings of marines repeatedly at a spot closer to the compound. Both have the same problem of time; they'd simply take far too long for it to be a viable option." Cassian pointed towards the two spots on the holographic map, the mountain range not being massive but staggeringly steep. A red outlined object deep within the holographic mountains representing Hasagawa's compound.

Admiral Montinaro squinted a bit at the map and sighed, rubbing his forehead. "And what do you propose Lieutenant? I'm sure you'd love to volunteer to do it by yourself, and I'm sure you could do it by yourself, but we're not taking chances with him. We need at least some sort of secondary defense to prevent him escaping."

Cassian nodded in agreement, "I'd recommend a much smaller but highly skilled group to drop off at this location." He zoomed in and highlighted a ledge not far from the compound. "We have bullfrogs aboard; we utilize their jetpack experience and have them hop from this area and make their way to the back of the compound. I can get in undetected, and get a vantage point for a clean shot, once I take it, they can come in through a forgotten mining tunnel underneath the compound." A red line appeared on the map, showing the bullfrogs path going under the compound and up into the center of it. "I'd like to recommend Staff Sergeant McCarthy; I have previous experience with him back in New Alexandria."

The admiral moved around the table, quietly mumbling to himself about certain aspects, and moving the holographic map. He stood up and swiped the map off the holographic table, "Alright Lieutenant, we'll go with your plan. The ODST's you want aren't technically under my command, but I shouldn't have any problems transferring temporary command and I'm sure they're getting cramped in this ship anyway. We don't want to let this moment slip so as soon as I get authorization, you're heading out to deal with Hasagawa."

Cassian snapped a crisp salute, "Understood Sir."