A Poisonous Path - Ricin

[Chxlls]

Anke Fisher - "Ricin"

Carrier Saar - Frankfurt

834 A.S.

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Anke looked around at her bunk on Carrier Saar. Given her position, she doesn't have to share her space with the rank-and-file operatives. Saar provided a quiet backwater for BDM operatives to rest and work discretely, without the hustle-and-bustle of the AESIR facility. A holographic screen floats above her desk, glowing faintly in the darkness of her room. An unfinished after-action-report from an earlier incident showed on the screen. She had recently been called out to deal with a Hessian incursion within the Hamburg system. Once the threat was handled, Anke came back to the Saar, where she could work in peace, and ponder her next steps.

"I really need to figure out what I'm going to do," Ricin muttered under her breath as she lay in her bunk. With Viper's disappearance, her work had been put on pause while the command structure of the Buro planned its next move. She met Direktor Siegfried upon his emergency promotion. She was impressed with his experience and willingness to stop back into the fold without hesitation. However, it became clear that the work she had been planning to start on would likely be put on pause, as priorities shifted from the top-down. Feeling restless, she got out of her bunk and sat at her desk, her unfinished report glaring at her in the darkness, almost daring her to complete it.

"Politics and bureaucracy, getting in the way of progress," Anke thought as she typed away aimlessly.

All-in-all, this left Anke at a loose end. Should she abandon her work, something she put years into, for greener pastures? Where would she go next? She had put her blood, sweat, and tears into the Buro and its mission, and fought alongside Rheinland on hundreds of occasions. Her retirement was anything but guaranteed. She had been in the cockpit for nearly a decade, without much to show for it. Her connection into the organization, and its subsequent projects, had gone missing and was presumed dead. Relationships within the Buro were professional at best, and thus, she felt no sense of camaraderie or loyalty to the operatives she worked with over the years.

And then of course, there was the incident with the Kolleda. A project years in the making, with Viper spearheading the operation, that failed miserably in their eyes. Hundreds of casualties, and for what? Unknown ships, since that incident, have been popping up all over Rheinland, and preliminary reports indicate that the infestation has spread to Gallia as well. The ineptitude of the Rheinwehr at large both during and after the operation has left the Buro with an impossible cleanup task. After all she and Viper had sacrificed, it ended up being in vain, the very thing they wanted to stop ending up being a larger threat to Sirius than previously imagined.

Anke felt the heat rising to her face, her restlessness now giving way to anger. Anger at her position, her career, and the house she had served valiantly for nearly a decade. An award sat on her desk, a recognition from Viper herself for help with completion of BACHTRATOXIN, their most recent joint project. She finished the report hastily, no doubt missing a few details. She climbed back into her bunk, determined to get a few hours' rest before deciding her next move.

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