<strong>Talia Kastuev</strong><br/><strong>Dalton</strong><br/><strong>Dalton System</strong><br/><strong>Duchy of Oriente</strong><br/><strong>5 February 3145</strong><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Nobody<br/><hr/><br/>Talia was laying belly down on a tall hill about 1.5 clicks east of the action zone. Prone as she was, most sensors wouldn't touch her, but the drab brown thermal blanket atop her was the added assurance to make sure her thermal and visual signature was non-existent. Her mech, Duck, was exhibiting its namesake, crouched behind the hill, its position chosen to mask it from the patrol routes of the pirates that Talia had been observing for the past week, its systems in standby for when she'd need it.<br/><br/>Today represented more than just a weeks work for Talia, it represented a solid month's work tracking a target that had made it to her personal most wanted list, a Jenner pilot named Johannes Wilkes. The sting of her lance's death was still sharp in her heart mere days before the ambush, and it was a violent turn of the blade when she found out that two of the executioners had survived: Johannes Wilkes and Varent Roberts. The small band of pirates had disbanded as well, having suffered a similar catastrophic loss as her own team, and the two survivors had separated and gone their own ways. Varent's trail was cold, but Johannes was obviously inept at disappearing and left a trail as white as phosphor fire for her to follow right to the doorstep of these pirates. It's amazing how well a few C-bills work at greasing lips, and a snitch had informed Talia of Johannes' intent on joining a group on Dalton, a ragtag cobble of malcontents and lowlifes pulled together by someone close to the Principality of Regulus's government, but the details didn't matter, only that she was within a bullet's arc of her prey.<br/><br/>Incommunicado for a week, Talia hadn't received the news of a mercenary group having been called in to clean up the pirates. Rather, her first sign that something was up came a couple days ago when the patrol patterns of the pirates had changed. She had wondered then what was going on, but now she hard her answer: They were preparing for these newcomers. Ultimately she had two real options for taking down Johannes: Either when his turn to patrol came up, or when he went out on raid. This new development, however, produced a third option: When the pirates respond to this new band of muscle.<br/><br/>Talia figured that, being a light mech pilot, Johannes would most likely keep to the side lines away from the direct heavies and fulfill one of a number of potential roles there in trying to put down these mercs. If she could strike from behind and take him by surprise, she might be able to subdue him and exact her revenge before his new found allies had a chance to respond. Johannes would be a corpse briquette before anyone knew what was up. With any luck, the plan would go off, but in all honesty, plans are as fickle as the assumptions they're built upon.<br/><br/>Talia continued her observation, watching the mercs and two hovercraft dance through her binoculars.