*Tinny voices crackle across a gnomish communication device on a channel secured for use by SI:7 personnel.*
"Status report."
"Signal source located. Package identified. Twenty hostiles and two suspected civilians with Package."
"Proceed with operation."
"Mission parameters?"
"Eliminate all hostiles."
"Acknowledged. Commencing operation desert rose."
***************************************************
*In the middle of the open desert in Uldum.*
The group of figures walked through the stiff, blowing sands of the desert, three miserable, hooded prisoners being herded along amidst the heavily robed travelers. Their race, allegiance, and even the size of their bodies was difficult to determine thanks to the swirling sands and flapping cloth that covered their head and faces as protection. Regardless, it was clear even from a distance that the three prisoners were being roughly handled and likely would not survive long without aid.
As the group crested the rise of a dune, one of the men near the prisoners stumbled and fell. The sound of distant thunder echoed across the sands, sounding like the rumble of distant dry lightning. The figure's companions turned, several swearing in crude common as they kicked their companion to urge him up. A second rumble of thunder sounded, and two more of the figures fell down. It was at this point that the realization that they were under attack slowly began to dawn on the group.
Rough voices shouted as swords leapt from sheaths, robed men running to and fro in an attempt to restore order to the group. Thunder rumbled again, and three more of the figures fell to the sands, the telltale sign of blood oozing from them indicating they'd been hit by a projectile. Two of the figures ran towards the prisoners who had stopped and sunk to the ground as they were no longer being prodded by their captives. Those two bandits fell as well, thunder rumbling once more over the distance. Any who approached the trio of slumped captives met a similar fate, the area around them being cleared intentionally.
One of the group shouted and pointed; he'd seen a flash of light from across the sands. Others took up the call, the remaining survivors dashing down the side of a dune and into the face of more light flashing from the sands, thunder rumbling again as three more assailants fell. With their numbers thinned dramatically, the group continued their charge, losing more and more men but closing in on the source of the light glinting from the sands. More men fell, their charge halted as they tumbled lifelessly to the sands and became motionless, the last of the attackers reaching the spot where he'd seen the spark flame from the sand.
As he neared it, the sands shifted and moved, a figure rising up from beneath them like nothing he expected. Raven black hair fell over a face masked with goggles and a sand-colored cloth barrier, the obviously human woman's body encased in light chain metal body armor wrapped in a stormcloak dyed the exact color of the surrounding landscape. All of this immediately faded from the robed man's mind though as the woman's rifle came up, the deadly end of the muzzle pointed at his chest and a small red dot playing across his robes from a gnomish sighting device on the weapon. It was, to say the least, an uncommon firearm clearly hand-crafted for enhanced range and accuracy, and it was wrapped in a desert colored cloth that protected it from the harsh sands. The man attempted to skid to a halt, attempted to turn and flee, but the rifle bucked in the woman's hands and he joined his companions, motionless on the sands.
"Clear," the woman said. Behind her the sands shifted and two more similarly cloaked and armed figures emerged from the ground. "Secure the perimeter and check the casualties. I'll see to the package."
"Yes, Ma'am," one of the men responded. The two snipers immediately began to trot up the dune's face at a brisk pace, pausing only to check each of the now still bandits that they'd ambushed.
The masked woman followed them, each of the snipers keeping their rifles ready for additional threats, the weapons sweeping across the fallen bandits as they moved, their footsteps silent amidst the howling desert winds. As she approached the three bound and hooded hostages, she reached down with one hand and pulled a small metal device from her pocket. A gemstone set on it began to pulse wildly as she held it over one of the three hooded prisoners, and she tucked the device away and quickly reached out to pull the hood from the prisoner.
A young, dark-skinned human woman emerged from beneath the hood, her mouth gagged and one of her eyes appearing as if she'd been roughed up a little. The sniper reached out and quickly removed the gag, her voice professional and curt as she spoke, "Agent Rosellina Cooke. Report."
Rosellina grimaced, her tongue moving to moisten her dry mouth before her voice croaked out a response, "I was able to confirm that orcs using Fel magic have created a portal and escaped to Azeroth before the assault on Hellfire. They likely are attempting to make contact with cultist elements here. They've established a magical communication network within their small group that will prevent us from eavesdropping." She paused, grinning for a moment, "Only bad thing for them is one of the civvies here saw them cast the spell and she swears up and down she can copy it exactly. Looks like the mission was a success. Except for the, you know, bad teleportation spell that brought us to Uldum and landed us in the middle of a slaver camp."
The masked sniper said nothing for a minute, a hand coming up to her ear. When she spoke, it was not to Rosellina but instead on her comm, "Operation complete. Package is secure. Operative reports that we have a civilian contact with vital intel. Heading to extraction point delta, eta fifteen minutes."
With that the sniper bent down, gently placing her rifle on the ground for a minute as she pulled out a combat knife and began to undo the rope binding Rosellina's hands behind her back. Once the SI:7 agent was free, she began to rub her wrists, wincing as the circulation returned, ""You haven't told me your name, operative."
"My name's not important, and I'm not an operative. I'm on loan from the 7th," the sniper replied, turning away from Rosellina and heading for the prisoners. She grabbed the hood on one and pulled it free, revealing a frighted looking human woman who appeared to have nothing magical about her. Shrugging, the sniper moved on, her hand coming out and yanking the hood off the third captive.
Two enormous cyan colored pigtails tumbled free from the hood as a night elf was revealed. Silver eyes blinked at the sudden sunlight and then looked up at the masked sniper a moment later. A smile crept across the elf's face and a high-pitched, energetic voice erupted with a greeting, "Hi there! Thank you sooooo much for taking that thing off my head! It was super stuffy in there and it was really messing up my hair too. Hey why are you wearing a mask? That's a really great idea for not getting sand in your eyes and oh my heavens why is everyone around us dead?!"
For a moment the sniper simply stood there, staring down at the elf who was blinking in shock at the remains of the slaver group. She seemed to tremble for just a second before her hands slowly came up and pushed the goggles off her face and into her hair. She pulled her mask down, a look of disbelief on her face as she spoke, "Malandrae Moonwhisper...."
"Oh my heavens! Miss Belleri! What are you doing here?" Malandrae exclaimed happily.
Belleri simply stared at the elf, shaking her head and mentally groaning. Of course the mission would take a turn like this. Nothing was that easy, and her punishment for thinking it would be was that she was going to have to somehow get the scatter-brained Highborne across miles of open desert in a speedy fashion. She exhaled slowly, calming herself, "I'm here to rescue Agent Cooke. I suppose it's too much to ask that you are not the one who saw the orcs casting their spell...?"
"Oh I totally saw it! They didn't even do a good job hiding it!" Malandrae said happily. "I was just picking some herbs and they came into this clearing and starting using their magic so I made myself invisible but then I tripped over this nice lady here and it made me visible and they got mad at us and-"
Belleri held up a hand, already feeling a headache coming on. Behind her, Rosellina approached, looking confused, "You...know this elf?"
"I do," Belleri replied with a long-suffering voice. "If she is the one who saw the spell, then we need to get her to safety because the information she holds is vital intel. I've...protected her before. This is going to be more difficult than I'd imagined."
Rosellina scoffed, "How hard could it be to protect one little..."
Her voice trailed off as Malandrae's hands burst into flame and burned away the ropes that had bound her. The fact that she probably could have done that the entire time they'd been captured started to dawn on Rosellina as the Highborne hurled herself at Belleri and wrapped her arms around her, "I'm so happy to see you, Miss Belleri! I'm glad you're doing good!"
Belleri sighed, gently patting the Highborne and then firmly putting her a few paces away. She freed the last prisoner and retrieved her rifle, signaling to the other snipers that were on-loan to SI:7 that it was time to move. She turned to Malandrae, her voice serious, "Miss Moonwhisper, I need you to very carefully follow my instructions okay? You have information that the Alliance needs very badly and I want to make sure you can get back to Stormwind to tell someone about it. Do you understand?"
Malandrae nodded, her eyes wide, "Oh I totally understand! Don't worry, Miss Belleri, you can count on me!"
"Good, thank you Miss Moonwhisper," Belleri said, not really believing it. She turned to Rosellina and nodded, "Agent Cooke, we're ready to proceed if you are, Ma'am. I have evac waiting two miles from here."
Rosellina nodded, "Let's get out of here. And thank you, Belleri was it?"
"Ranger Captain Belleri Giano," the sniper replied. "Let's move out. We need to get to the evac site quickly."
With that the two masked snipers with her began to trot off at a brisk pace, Belleri leading the freed prisoners behind them. As the howling winds blew sand at them and made travel miserable, a happy, excited voice echoed for long distances across the sands, "It is super hot out here did you know that? I feel kind of bad that I ended up getting us in a desert! It would have been better to land somewhere with snow I guess right? Hey! I can make snow if you guys want and-"
"No!" several voices shouted in unison. Malandrae's voice trailed off for a moment, the silence a blessing until she broke it again, "Miss Belleri? Did you ever end up going on that date with that pirate? You remember? Back in Stormwind...?"
The cursing that answered the question brought a smile to Rosellina's lips as she mentally began to write her report up. While her mission had taken an unexpected turn for the worse, all was well that ended well and it looked like SI:7 had made the right choice in linking up with a skilled team of snipers from the 7th. As she watched Belleri trot ahead of her and attempt to deflect the Highborne's peppering of questions, it became clear that the woman would be a valuable asset to the Alliance in the days to come, and there would be special mention of the Ranger's contributions to the mission in Rosellina's reports.
Who knew, in time perhaps the sniper would join SI:7 itself, or one of its affiliates. The King would be well served in any event.
