The Campaign Builder's Guild

You are relaxing in your quarters after the day's business on Sol IV watching the latest winged race from Mars.  That Burton is a beast, flapping furiously and overtaking competitor after competitor during his signature final stretch dash when a priority mail message pings and begins flashing in the upper left corner of your video screen.  A word to the computer pauses the race and opens the message.  It's from Solaris Security Services, and it's orders for a mission.



OPERATION "BLACK CANDLE"
GMT-E
INTCOM
1.   SITUATION.
a.   Enemy forces:  Unknown / <redacted>.
b.   Friendly forces:  Contract Private Military Personnel.
c.   Attachments:  One XQM Shuttlecraft with a Pilot Team, attached from 14th Darksiders Space Recon Element.

2.   MISSION.
a.   Primary:  Recover <redacted> data from Procyon Research Facility.
b.   Secondary:  Rescue surviving government personnel.  Personnel are expendable in reference to Primary Mission.

3.   EXECUTION.
a.   Intent:  Recover Data.
b.   Concept of operations:  Insert small PMC Team to recover data with limited civilian knowledge of operation.
c.   Tasks to maneuver units:  Darksiders will insert Team from INTCOM Orbital Station.
d.   Tasks to combat support units:  Full access of Military-grade hardware given to Solaris Securicy Services in reference to OPERATION BLACK CANDLE.  PoC is CPT Williams.
e.   Coordinating instructions:  Movement is required ASAP.  Shuttle team is on immediate standby.

4.   SEVICE SUPPORT.
a.   <redacted>

5.   COMMAND AND SIGNAL (optional).
a.   Command:  INTCOM.
b.   Signal:  Full-spectrum communications.  Operation site is dark.

ACKNOLEDGE




The race has been over for an hour now, but no one Earthside has seen or heard results yet.  Light doesn't travel that fast.  You resume the broadcast while considering the orders.  They look typical of EarthGov.  Twenty seconds later, Burton pulls off another win.  The winged man, still panting heavily, stands on the finishing platform congratulating his competition and thanking them for a challenging meet.

The lights dim as soon as you enter the conference room. The walls are the same heavy steel as the rest of the orbital station, although this particular chamber sports an overlarge window to the stars outside. A large U-shaped table dominates the room, surrounding the center console that sits on the ground. Before you can even take your seats, the console begins to project a bright light, creating an off-green text message that hovers over it at eye level.

"Connecting..."

This is soon replaced with the image of an overly tall and lanky man in a fine-tailored suit. The hologram is near-perfect, but every color seems to have a barely noticeable green tint. Sporting greying hair and an over-50 face, you recognize the man as Roy Walton. Whether from past dealings or from actually bothering to read your in-processing paper work, you know him to be the Senior Representative and Vice-president of Solaris Security for the region.

"Good evening," he says, "I'm glad you were able to make it on such short notice. Such availability demands extra compensation, and you will be accordingly." He shifts his tie at the knot and then flattens it down his shirt. Those of you with dealings in SSS before notice Mr. Walton is looking much more rushed than his usual deliberate professionalism.

"Unfortunately, the briefing on this operation is going to be much shorter than our normal standard. I have requested additional information, but I am being told it is hung up in the de-classification process, and the operation needs to kick off almost immediately," he scowls as he gives his reasoning.

"The task is relatively straight-forward. There is a research facility in the Procyon system that has stopped responding to communications. The government suspects foul-play may be involved, so your mission is to get down there and retrieve the research data. Hostile presence is unknown to me at this point, but they generally don't demand hires of people of your caliber without a reason." Walton shrugs, which is a first.

"A shuttlecraft is prepared and will leave at 1700 tomorrow, your time. The government is being rather bureaucratic on funds, so I'm authorizing a personal Operation Fund from Solaris Security directly in the amount of 5,000 SIDs, spent at your discretion. Not much, but it has not been classified as an operation that requires on-site spending. Anything you requisition will be delivered priority to you by trans-time. "

Mr. Walton clears his throat.
"Questions, comments, concerns?"