LazarusBoard

Joint Imperial Intelligence services - secret headquarters

The adjutant approached him with nervously. In his long, distinguished career, Großadmiral Steffen Wiese had learned that a man (or women) approaching you like this always brought bad news. And so it was. "Großadmiral, one of our spies in OPERATION TELESCOPE has gone missing. Alpha-08 has not reported back for two consecutive mandatory reporting intervals. The last time we heard about him, he was near Fort Chicagov in the FRCP. His multi-function phone and transmitter has gone silent, which means it's either destroyed, disabled or out of power - the latter of which is quite unlikely."

The Großadmiral took a sip of Treadwellian Hot Chocolate he had recently grown fond of. He had already put on a kilo or two since drinking the stuff, but in its glorious-sweet-cocoa-warmth, it helped him to stay relaxed in times of stress and provided plenty of sugar for his brain to work hard. "What about the locator chip we implanted under his skin?" he asked the adjutant. The man dropped his shoulders. "I'm afraid that device, without the antenna in the multi-function phone/transmitter, only has a range of 15 km. We would need to get a vessel in close proximity to record a signal and pinpoint his exact location. Possibly even closer if they have put him in some bunker, cellar or other underground structure".

Wiese shook his head and raised his hands to his temples. The world felt heavy on his shoulders. "That's exactly the kind of complication I warned Konsul Leo about."

He got up and walked to the old-fashioned whiteboard. While everything in the Imperium was highly digitalised and technologically advanced, many Imperials liked to work with old-fashioned material things from time to time, instead of doing everything on screens or even holograms. Wiese used his whiteboard to gather his thoughts and discuss issues with subordinates and superiors alike. Once again, as he often did, he invited subordinates to share their thoughts. "What do you think, Zenturio? What are our options now?"

The adjutant slowly walked over to Wiese and took one of the marker pens for the whiteboard. He began writing and talking at the same time...

"Well, Herr Großadmiral, I think there are three possible outcomes of this situation." He made a bullet point on the whiteboard.

• "We could do nothing, which would mean that the spy is probably lost and will end up killed - if he isn't already - after his captors got as much information out of him as possible. Smirnov's Federal forces will then probably know about our involvement in their country, if they don't already do. This might compromise the entire operation.

• We could perform an immediate attempt of emergency extraction. That would most certainly be detected in such a heavily militarised area, and thus constitute a direct breach of the Treaty of New Krasnoyarsk. If the Federal troops then succesfully shoot down our extraction craft, they could use this to try and unify the populace behind them. Which might, incidentally, help to achieve our goal to accelerate an end of this Civil War...but with a possible result being another war between us and the FRCP.

• A compromise might be to stealthily insert an extraction team of our elite light infantry Jäger in the area. They will likely have to leave a few dead bodies behind, but we can probably make the Federalists believe that the Opposition forces did that."

Großadmiral Wiese smiled bitterly. "I like your thinking, Zenturio. You obviously don't want to remain Zenturio for the next years, do you? Go and talk to my friends at the 511. Legion and create an extraction plan together. You have one hour. I will probably have to put this up with the Imperator himself for approval, so do your best. And the faster you are, the better for our friend, Alpha-08. What was his name again, Tsokas Faschenko or something?" "Taras Formeko, Herr Großadmiral. Und jawohl!. I will get to work immediately!" He almost sprinted out of the room, his face blushing red.

Now, Wiese smiled in earnest. He loved giving people lifetime chances to further their career, and the adjutant had obviously realised the enormity of his task but also the chance that lay within. Not everyday a Zenturio got the chance to plan an operation that would be reviewed by Imperator Konsul Leo I. himself.

(OOC remark: A Zenturio is a low officer rank roughly equivalent to Lieutenant or at most Captain)