“Greetings, Ephemeral. Today we begin our cleansing of the Starfall Sector, designation MG-271-K. Your mission is to infiltrate the Communication Compound within Alercia and eliminate Star Marshall Hayden Kolac. Kolac, or ‘The Archangel’ as his men call him, is a veteran of the Empire War, famous for his bloody defection to the successful side. In an event known as ‘Kolac’s Frenzy’ he and his one hundred of his most loyal soldiers announced their desertion by killing over one thousand Empire soldiers, though the true figure is estimated to be in the tens of thousands. With such a devastating blow dealt to the Empire under his belt, the Arakath quickly granted him sanctuary within their ranks, and quickly rose up through the ranks to become one of their Star Marshals. He must be eliminated for his traitorous past, and his men must be made an example of. The Arakath do not represent safety, especially for those who are disloyal.
Kolac himself usually dons Mark-XV Ironside Power Armor, augmented with an arm-mounted Ripper on his right arm with an attached personal anti-personnel chain gun. He also carries a monoatomic pole arm which is capable of rending through most armours. It is advised you do not engage Kolac head on as he is a seasoned fighter; doing so results in a 95% chance of being defeated and killed. Advise you strike from the shadows or distract him. Kolac is known as an extremely paranoid individual, who greatly fears the prospect of assassination. Use this to your advantage. It will be possible to throw him into panic, greatly increasing your chances of terminating him.
His powered armour is nearly impenetrable to small-arms fire. The designation, however, leaves a small exposed area below the neck that, if disrupted or damaged, will cause the suit to reactively seize up, eliminating motion and causing the facial panel to open as a safety precaution. It may also be possible to exploit this as a means of eliminating him.
Scans show a guard compliment of approximately 5 individuals. Their initial locations have been marked on the provided map data as the smaller red points. Background checks have been performed in order to better discern the personalities and capabilities of each of these soldiers.
Be wary of Kolac’s guard compliment.
Name: Lt Stanton Daryc
Role: Close Combat
Armaments: Dual Monoatomic Molecular Blades, Electroreactive mesh armour plating.
Ephemeral At Risk: Sirius, Alexis
Notes: Combining a set of impressive credentials from the Academy of Eliskon-V’s SPAW combat school, Stanton Daryc excelled in every aspect of his career as an Assault Trooper during the days of the Seventh Altrusian Civil War and the strife that followed. He became distinguished in his field after innumerable accounts of valour and victory against odds considered insurmountable with nothing but battlefield knowledge and ferocious skill with his weapons of choice: Dual Monoatomic Molecular Blades, a special set of close combat weapons that are composed of the nearly indestructible and extremely rare alloy known as Diridium-3. The special properties of the metal allow it to maintain it’s shape and rigidity even when reduced to extreme spacial dimensions allow the metal to be formed into molecular blades that can rend through flesh with such frightening ease that the weapons were banned from use even in all-out warfare in sixteen different systems.
Name: Austin Cattel
Role: Close Combat
Armaments: Dual-tipped High Energy Vibration Stave, Electroreactive mesh armour plating.
Ephemeral At Risk: Sirius, Alexis
Notes: Unlike his Close Combat Specialist partner, Austin Cattel has never received formal qualifications and honours from any combat establishment. He was instead recruited directly by Kolac during the Frenzy because of his renown on their home planet of Istanus-Zulu. The two are believed to have grown up together, but became separated when Cattel was arrested and charged by peacekeeper forces on fifteen separate accounts of murder, each more bloody and remorseless than the last. Remembering this deadly efficiency in the field, Kolac made it his personal goal to use his influence to remove Cattel from maximum security prison using a mixture of deceit and political ties. He was subsequently armed with some of the most experimental hardware available and set loose on Kolac’s enemies. Exercise extreme caution facing this individual.
Name: Sgt Winslow Halbrook
Role: Heavy Gunner
Armaments: Exon-34 Machine Gun, Powered Phoenix Armor
Ephemeral At Risk: Elizabeth Colt, Harvin Tong
Notes: Winslow Halbrook is the subject of much debate in the Dust Belt sector. His origins are hazy and obfuscated, even to the most knowledgeable of battle historians. There are few reliable sources detailing his exploits, but popular stories recount his personal crusades in three wars and eleven skirmishes that focused on the Straight of Arvu and the surrounding nebulae. Deadly, determined and skilled; Halbrook is armed with a rapid-fire, small calibre machine gun that can lay waste to unarmored targets with a flurry of bullets. Despite this, heavily armoured Ephemeral are advised to exercise caution, as such sustained fire can wear down even the strongest armour on mere moments.
Name: Lt Rylan Myatt
Role: Sniper
Armaments: Anti-Material Plasmatic Rail Rifle, Alloy Mesh Plating
Ephemeral At Risk: Alexis, Sirius, Harvin
Notes: A licensed Marksman Assassin, Myatt has been drafted into multiple political disputes as a dealer of ‘peaceful resolutions’. This ruthless killer is highly accurate, which poses a problem for even the most dangerous warriors attempting to face him, as he has in recent years chosen to arm himself with an Anti-Material Plasmatic Rail Rifle, a weapon known for it’s ability to simply ignore even the heaviest and most advanced of armours and decimate the flesh underneath with such force that most targets suffer completely irreparable trauma, dying in the field with little chance of retribution.
Name: Pvt Errol Moon
Role: Rifleman
Armaments: AR-53 Rifle, Alloy Mesh Armour.
Ephemeral At Risk: N/A
Notes: Pvt Errol Moon, as his title suggests, is neither particularly experienced nor particularly motivated to fight for Hayden Kolac. He stays with the Star Marshal simply for the wages and the protection that such a position affords to his family. Given proper persuasion, it may be possible to extract both information and possibly even assistance from him. Though the techniques imposed upon him to achieve such ends would have to be well thought out, indeed…
Kolac has been traced to the ruins of Alercia, a city that was previously destroyed by the Arakath during their advance upon Earth. The city was never rebuilt, and served only as a monument to the destructive power of these ancient warriors. There is little of salvageable use in the ruins anymore, but it’s strategic position between Arfina’s remaining two planets can either make or break a communication link between other outposts in the system. It is presumed that this is the purpose of his presence. The chance to deal a double blow to the Arakath is present, we can eliminate communication between the planets of Arfina and remove one of their Star Marshals from duty, permanently.
The Iron Hulk has pre-programmed commands to arrive at the drop-off point upon target termination. Elizabeth Colt will guide you back to the Hephaestus as the designated pilot upon reaching the extraction zone.
You are Ephemeral. The Galaxy depends on your success. Do not fail. “
— — — — — — — — — —
Name: Hayden Kolac
Age: 346
Race: Human
Status: Alive - Active
Designated Objective: Terminate
— — — — — — — — — —
And with the distinctive sign-off tone of the Terrarial H.A.K.E.S.A.T.H, the dropship which carried the deadly team of Ephemeral slowly and subtly engaged it’s inertial dampeners, softening it’s acceleration until it did little more than creep forward with a dull lurch. The dropship had been cloaked thus far by a special array of extrusion powered light-bending displacement beams on board the Hephastus, enabling it to set down into low orbit without commanding much attention. The timing was immaculate, precise, utterly perfect. It could not have been executed by any being other than the H.A.K.E.S.A.T.H; it’s technical and logistical superiority was becoming apparent as the dropship had managed to slip in-between frequent scanner sweeps and a complex tripwire complex of aerial laser screenings. A mere microsecond off-target would have spelled disaster, but the autopilot carried the ship confidently through the defences without even a shudder of mechanical doubt.
With another minute lurch, an indiscriminate metallic clunk and the unmistakeable sound of decompression, a small insertion pod was fired from the bottom of the dropship with immeasurable velocity, flying with such speed that the naked eye would barely able to follow. It was followed by a second, a third, a fourth.
The dropship was delivering it’s deadly payload directly into the compound. A payload which had only one purpose: seek out the traitor Hayden Kolac, and bring his life to a violent, bloody end.
