<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/1w6Sw.jpg)</div><hr/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>  Name:</strong>Abigail Brand<br/>  <strong>Title:</strong>Agent Brand or Ma'am or Miss. Not 'Hydra-Hair.'<br/>  <strong>Affiliation:</strong>  Resistance<br/>  <strong>Location:</strong>   Northern Egypt, Near Port Said<br/>  <strong>Tags:</strong>Open<br/></span></span><hr/><br/><strong>Port Said, Egypt</strong><br/><br/>Abigail Brand was checking the receiver on her Kree Plasma Rifle before slamming in a fresh power pack and heard it slowly whirring to life as the sun rising off in the distance. “I thought they'd attack during the night,” Abigail said, somewhat surprised. But they hadn't taken advantage of the cover of darkness and tens of thousands of refugees had managed to escape onto the Dunkirk style flotilla that had assembled offshore and as they spoke, was currently chugging their way to safe havens far to the north across the Mediterranean. “I just don't understand it,” Abigail then added, having put screening forces on alert for the entire night and just now being rotated out for a dayside crew.<br/><br/>A battalion of elite Jordanian Special Forces had arrived with helicopters and heavy weapons and the whole kit, ready for a fight. Abigail had them pulling security operations around the half dozen headquarters and command and control facilities that they had established in the tightly packed buildings that mostly made up Port Said and its sister across the canal, Port Fuad. Unlike everyone else in the region, everyone, even the Israeli's, seemed to have a semi-positive opinion of the Jordanians that they'd trust them enough not to opportunistically backstab them as they pulled security on all of the high value locations and people.<br/><br/>From her point on one of the taller buildings, Abigail then glanced back at the flotilla just hovering short of the horizon as navy ships were covering the withdrawal of the civilian shipping that was literally packed with the thousands of refugees they had loaded during the night, not just from here but along almost forty miles of coastline stretching from here to Damietta on the other side of the marshy lake. “Maybe they think it'd be too costly to attack us,” Agent Tokoro offered but she shook her head.<br/><br/>“Cairo has a population of almost... ten million people. Let's say half of them are dead or fled the city. That means five million are left. If the reports are true, this Apocalypse guy is transforming them into more mutants that are slaved to him. Less then ten percent survive. Lets say he captured... half of them by now. That's two and a half million. That means ten percent of two and a half million is a quarter million. Let's say half of them are doing other things... that means... if everything else is working perfectly, he can hit us with over a hundred thousand superhuman terrors. Amateurish ones yes, but we barely outnumber them if we pull out all the stops. And we don't have superpowers. Not all of us anyways... not by a long shot.”<br/><br/>“Agent Fisher would say an M-24 at a thousand yards is a great equalizer,” Agent Tokoro then said with a smile.<br/><br/>The sentiment brought a smile to Abigail's face too. “Anything from Fisher yet?” she then asked, knowing she was still several kilometers to the south, in a hidden overwatch position somewhere in the marsh to the southwest, right in the line of the possible avenue of attack if it came from Cairo.<br/><br/>“No ma'am,” Agent Tokoro replied when suddenly her holo-communicator buzzed. Her face paled. “It's Agent Fisher. She didn't send a call, just an emergency secure burst transmission.”<br/><br/>“Of what?” Abigail asked walking up next to her communication specialist. Agent Tokoro held up the small viewscreen of her datapad of Fisher's transmission. It was a short video clip Agent Fisher had taken through the camera on her Toughbook.<br/><br/>It showed the blue skies over Egypt... then suddenly from the south, coming in strong in neat formations almost looking like migratory birds, wasn't just dozens, or even hundreds of mutants clad in powered armor flying in at triple digits northward. Then she heard Agent Fisher's almost icy voice suddenly come over the audio on the video. “Many mutants. At least brigade strength. Probably multiple more.”<br/><br/>And that was that.<br/><br/>Multiple more?<br/><br/>What did that mean?<br/><br/>Multiple numbers beyond a brigade in the dozens? Or maybe just multiple brigades?<br/><br/>Then she realized it didn't matter.<br/><br/>Battle was upon them. It was time to get ready and stop worrying about the odds. Nothing she could do now would change the forces arrayed against them.<br/><br/>Unless the Israelis gave her some nukes to use on Cairo...<br/><br/>She didn't smile at the thought of it. Nuclear weapons were meant to be weapons of last resort, weapons that could only be used with threat of mutually assured destruction. As far as she was concerned, both of those conditions were met. “Tell everyone to get to battlestations and get ready,” she told Agent Tokoro before walking over to a communication station set up to lock in with Port Said's public address system normally meant to sent out calls for prayer.<br/><br/>“This is Director Abigail Brand. We have a formidable enemy force approaching our defenses as we speak,” she said in a voice that echoed throughout the entire city and on communication lines possessed by many of the defenders. “For those of you that have lost or missing loved ones, think on avenging them. For the rest of you, think of defending them. So far this Apocalypse character has had a great deal of success murdering innocent men, women and children. Let's show him how humanity fights on even terms. If they wish to deliver their murderers to our guns, let us deliver them to Hell. We will slay them wherever we find them. And we will fight them until their genocide ends. God bless humanity,” she finally stated, before nodding to Tokoro to cut the transmission.<br/><br/>She wasn't a particularly religious person, but well, in circumstances like this, you had to play for your audiences. And as she heard a rousing chorus of cheers as her speech was translated into a half dozen languages ranging from Arabic to Aramaic to French. She heard quite obviously the rising chants of Allahu Akbar however being exulted by the defenders and only receding when the swarm of superhumans could be seen approaching from marshes to the south.<br/><br/>“Agent Tokoro. Return to the communications bunker and close the door behind you,” Abigail Brand said, readying her own Kree Plasma Assault Rifle. “And keep your gun within arms reach. It's time to defend ourselves.” She pulled back her green headscarf, revealing a thick mane of lush green hair flowing in the strong coastal breeze and walked towards the edge of the roof, taking cover behind a sandbagged corner of the building and intent on taking down at least one of these murderous bastards before they got her.