Stranded

[Cat]

Day 1, 6:04 am
Moore Ridge
Planet Leeds

Moore Ridge was one of the few places on Leeds that could attract tourists to otherwise industrial planet. Well, could probably attract. In theory. The panoramic view of the city would’ve been great if the city wasn’t industrial. And smoggy. And damaged during the Gallic assault. Although, who knows, maybe some people like this kind of view.

- Alright, no time to enjoy the sights. We don’t want the locals to see us. According to the plan, we have to reach the city by 10 am. Let’s move out. Cooper, scout up ahead. Sunderland, you guard the rear.
- And here I thought he’d let the lady go first.

With these words Cooper engaged his suit’s stealth mode, becoming a transparent shadow. The others did the same thing, and the trio left the plateau where the shuttle dropped them. The Ajax had to disable the cloaking device to land, so it might have drawn attention. Or not. In any case, Commander Jacobs didn’t want to take any chances.


Day 1, 9:58 am
City outskirts
Planet Leeds

After a nearly 4-hour march the trio of operatives has reached the city. The way was more tiresome than dangerous: they saw a few refugees, and the stealth suits protected the agents from unwanted attention. Cooper managed to overhear something about the central part of the city being controlled by the invaders. If so, reaching the space port would be impossible. The only hope was that the agents they were looking for had left the area.

The operatives occupied the basement of an abandoned building. It appears that the building had been hit by a heavy missile, because it was impossible even to determine what the building had been used for before this war. However, its basement offered some protection from unwanted attention, and that was the main reason why it was chosen as a temporary shelter.

There the team could rest and have a meal. That is, of course, if you can call a tube of synthpaste and a sip of water a proper meal. The paste was very nutritious and could prevent dehydration. But at the same time it was tasteless, and what’s worse, it made people thirsty. The LSF solved this problem by giving each operative several tubes of synthpaste and a flask of water. One sip of water helped to deal with the sore throat feeling one would get after consuming this highly nutritious product.

The trio halted for a while to take some rest, have a meal and send a message to the HQ on a secure channel. They still needed to pinpoint the location of the lost agents, and it meant that Ryan would be quite busy for a while...