Marcus stood with arms folded, looking around as he felt a measure of nervousness build up inside him and creep into his facial expression.

Before him, the rest of the SOSC 5th Company had all clustered close together in one of the briefing rooms of the Sirtha Prime Headquarters, gathering around the central table. They also had perturbed expressions on their faces, looking first to him for guidance, and then with confusion at the man who stood beside Marcus, whom they'd never seen before - Major Gideon.

However, the Unit 19 agent didn't have the courtesy to look back at them in kind. Instead, he focused entirely on his own business. First, he placed a large case he had brought into the room at the floor beside his feet, and then he reached for the table.

Jutting out the side of the flat metal piece of furniture was a small, rectangular panel, with a few wires running from its sides into the table. As Gideon reached towards the panel, it lit up with a holographic keypad, and the fingers of his right hand began to tap away, while his left hand took a small information chip and slid it into the machine.

"So, Major..." Marcus' gaze instant turned as he heard Jennifer's voice. She had placed herself just beside Marcus, looking intermittently between him and Gideon, who to her, was a complete stranger. 

"And who's this guy?" Ferro's gruff, blunt voice followed hers, and as he spoke, the Tartarusan flicked his chin upwards and towards Gideon, uncouthly gesturing straight at him from straight across the table.

Marcus' reply was accompanied by a warning glare. "Ferro..." As he said that, Gideon's gaze finally turned up from his work, but he remained leaning over the table, his hands resting calmly upon the control panel.

"Tell me, Major Winter..." the fair-skinned man asked in a level tone. "Who are these two?"

Marcus help up a hand, gesturing to his friends in kind. "Major Gideon, this is Captain Jennifer Sakong, my second-in-command, and Master Sergeant L.J Ferro, our NCO." Then, with a pang of reluctance in his heart , he said. "Everyone, this is Major Gideon... Unit 19."

A few murmurs escaped the lips of the SOSC 5th company - words that Jennifer covered up by politely saying. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Major" and giving him a slight smile.

Ferro, meanwhile, said nothing. But his look spoke volumes.

Gideon stood fully upright and nodded to both of them, seeming to take this all in his stride. "It's a pleasure to meet you both." He then scanned the room. "Now, does anyone else want to ask me anything?"

He asked his question, and was met with absolute, untrusting silence. But, still, he didn't seem phased at all.

"No? Then listen in." As he spoke, he leant over the table, and everyone, including Marcus gathered slightly closer to the table. Gideon held his hands aloft over the table, and as he did so, something happened.

The piece of metal furniture registered his movements, and a voice sounded through the room. "Identity confirmed. Generating tactical display."

Blue neon lines darted across several idents cut into the table's surface, and at each of the four corners, a bright blue light beamed upwards towards the ceiling, creating a great hovering field of colour that lit up the room. Inside this field, lines of text began to hover in the air, and vanished as quickly as they had come, and various images - some static, some full-motion videos that could be viewed from both front and behind - began to appear. Most of all, as Gideon's hands moved to swipe at and tap at the images, they moved where he commanded them, allowing him to organise everything with ease.

A holographic display - one of the many wonders of modern technology.

"Strategos Idriah has been clear - our orders are to get Haraq back into Union terriory at any cost." Gideon began in a calm, yet firm voice. "Following the Embassy Attack, High Command has been sending spy planes and drones over Xan-Klar territory for the past two weeks, and thankfully, we have discovered the location that he's being interred within."

Gideon gestured to one of the floating images - a looping video, taken by an intense-zoon camera from a Union aircraft. It showed Haraq, his hands shackled together and a guard of Xan-Klar warriors around him, being dragged through the doors of a large structure.

Marcus winced in both sorrow and anger as he saw the large array of whip marks that had been sliced across the Sirthon's back, his blood oozing across his skin in a great, glistening carpet of pungent purple and dripping onto the floor.

But while he and many of his troops watched the video in shock, Gideon just casually swiped it aside after a few seconds, the rectangular hologram vanishing from existence as he did so. Then, lifting his hands, he commanded the computer in the table to reveal another display. This time, it was a fully-rendered 3D model of the building Haraq had been brought to, rising up from the table as though it were ascending from beneath the surface of the ocean.

It was an ancient, ornate looking structure, its walls patterned and crafted with ritualistic patterns of an alien design. Cylindrical columns, thick fortress-like walls and towering stain-glass windows formed the outside, while the inside was formed of vaulted chambers and lordly halls. Several round towers protruded up from the corners of the building, and an open central courtyard marked its centre. In many ways, it reminded Marcus of a cathedral.

However, what he also saw were many signs of a secure environment. Standing out from the building's archaic design were modern-looking cameras, thick blast doors shielding the entrances of many parts of the building, and in each of the towers, the barrels of automated

"This is Fireheart Sanctuary..." Gideon dropped the name of this location. "Don't know why it's called that, but that's not necessary to our mission. Spy planes show that, in addition to the various security systems that you can see..." he said, gesturing to the cameras, doors and cannons "... we also know that there are many active guards who patrol the area from inside and out." As he explained this, he spoke with an unnerving sense of cold stoicism, not even to the point that he seemed confident that these threats could be beaten.

Instead, he talked as if these obvious threats were completely harmless. Brave, perhaps, but also arrogant.

"How do you propose we get inside?" Marcus asked, bearing a measure of skepticism as he placed his palms upon the edges of the table, where his movements wouldn't interfere with the hologram. "Surely we can't do an all-out assault on the sanctuary?" he asked aloud. 

When Gideon responded to his query by giving Marcus a cunning smirk, a confused look crossed the Horusan's face.

Surely that wasn't the plan? There were too few of the 5th Company to pull of such an attack - 15 where once there were 40. Also, such an assault would be diplomatic incident, and would be seen as an open act of aggression by the Union again the Xan-Klar Empire.

And that would mean war.

Thankfully, Gideon said no to the idea of attacking the sanctuary. In fact, his plan was very different altogether.

"We're going to sneak in," he said boldly. "Unfortunately, our radar pings and drones have been unable to grasp the inner workings of this place. But it's not a huge environment, so it shouldn't be to hard to navigate." He said. "The plan is to drop in from a stealth bomber overheard, land on the north-west tower, and the creep inside while avoiding detection to locate any internment or prison wings. Once we find any, we go inside, find Haraq, and assuming that he is alive, we escape the facility into the wilderness, where an extraction zone will be marked for us."

Marcus listened and watched as Gideon detailed the operation, keeping a close eye on where the other Major gestured on the hologram of Fireheart Sanctuary. His entry tactic was sound, and he was smart enough not to have to ask what would happen if they would Haraq dead - if he was, they would leave him there and escape as quick as possible.

There was one thing that did concern him, though.

"How are we going to get past all the guards and security systems?"

As he asked that, Gideon looked up at him and smirked again. "Already covered, Major Winter," he said.

There was a heavy clunk as the officer from Unit 19 then lifted the metal-clad case at his feet onto the table. In the click of two latches, the lid flipped open, and Gideon produced something from within, flat and neatly folded like a bedsheet.

As he opened it, though, its nature was revealed. A one-piece body suit, lined with black wires and made of a near-black, translucent fabric patterned with small, near-unnoticeable dots. Its long sleeves had gloves permanently attached, and its leggings ended in padded footwear that looked similar to diving shoes - plain, flat and simple.

However, something in particular caught Marcus' eye. While the suit was partially see-through, the material it was made from seemed to be quite thick. Almost unusually thick, with wires and strange pags of wiring half-hidden under the surface. And as Gideon held it up, the fabric seemed to ripple and shimmer in eerie, spectral patterns. Not in the sense that it was reflecting light, but more as if it were phasing in and out of reality.

"What the..." Marcus and Ferro both commented at the same time.

Gideon looked at him. "This, Major Winter, is the Panther Chameleonic Stealth Suit." he said, a speck of pride almost slipping through in his frank, near-monotone voice. "Brand-new Union tech, straight out of R&D. Using built-in cameras, it projects the wearer's surroundings onto their body, making them near-invisible to the naked eye, and the padded footwear and special fabric construct helps neuter all sounds made through movement."

Marcus' eyes widened slightly as he heard this. Talk about pulling out all the stops...

"How many do you have?" he asked.

"Four." Gideon replied. "Give me ten minutes to teach them how the suits work, and I'll take a small team to the Sanctuary. We'll locate Haraq, break him out and bring him back." he said.

Marcus briefly considered. Their role as special forces meant that the Orbital Commandos were trained in stealth and infiltration ops. After all, sometimes you needed to use specialist equipment and covert tactics to get into somewhere quietly when busting through the door was impossible.

But in all his years, he had never used anything like this stealth suit...

"How will these suits help us infiltrate the sanctuary?" Marcus asked openly. "Surely those cameras will have infra-red sensors or motion detectors built in?"

Gideon replied. "Indeed. But this suit has another trick." Still talking, he gestured to the wiring pads within the thick, semi-see-through material. "Using these generators, it can create a skin-level energy field that traps the body's emissions of infra-red light, causing the wearer to be invisible to heat-detecting devices like those in cameras by making them appear the same temperature as the environment around them." he explained, continuing to smile. "It uplinks to the same neural implants you use to control your Wyvern armour, and the field can be turned on and off at will."

A voice then spoke up from the crowd of Orbital Commandos. It was Elizabeth.

"But wouldn't trapping your own body heat close to your body cause you to boil to death?" she asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Yes." Gideon replied. "Which is why I'm going to teach you how to turn it off..."

His last remarked was with a deeply patronising tone as he looked right at Elizabeth, his grey eyes stabbing across the room like two icy daggers. Marcus felt a shock of impulsive anger rush up his spine as this happened, and he noticed a few people looking at him to see how he would react.

But Marcus' hands were tied. They had to get Haraq back, and he wanted to do so. Both to save him from the Xan-Klar, and to get any information that the Sirthon had on the Hand of Reclamation. 

And so, with a slight smile, Marcus stood fully-upright and gave Gideon a nod.

"Plan understood, Major Gideon." he said, putting on a proud and confident look to inspire the onlooking remnant of his company that such a plan was feasible. "Jennifer, Arjun and I will go with you." Then turning to look at all his troops. "You three, down to the hangar at once! Everyone else, dismissed!"