Felicity was not a fan of the cold.
As she trekked through the blizzard-like conditions, she shivered, even in spite of the thermal body suit she wore and the several other layers she was clad in over it. If it had been up to her, she would have been much happier taking a job somewhere on sunny Alderaan, or at this point, she would have even settled for the humid jungles of Felucia. Anything to get out of this cursed frigidness. She grumbled silently to herself, doing her best to snuggle herself deeper into the down parka which she wore, trying to hide her face as far inside the fur-lined recesses of the hood as humanly possible. Hell, couldn’t they have just sent a droid in her place?
Ellie knew better than to actually believe that would happen though. As a Mistryl, she took pride in the fact that she and her comrades were the elite of the elite, and it was a fact that the rest of the universe was well aware of too. For mercenaries, their fees were steep and they chose their work sparingly, but any person who actually managed to secure a contract with the Shadow Guard was guaranteed that their mission would be a success. It just so happened that her current employer was a very insistent client, and had deep pockets. Very deep pockets.
All of the briefing she’d undergone before she actually arrived here had been relatively standard – the job was straightforward, and there was nothing out of the ordinary at all about the work aside from one thing. The employer insisted that whomever the Mistryl sent had to be accompanied by one of their own; a Clone, if she wasn’t mistaken. Needless to say, the entire affair had seemed rather unorthodox, especially seeing as she was accustomed to operating alone – more people simply meant more liability, considering two people were much easier to spot in a place they weren’t supposed to be than one. Ellie hadn’t been particularly thrilled when she’d heard that part of the assignment, but even for her, there was a right price for just about anything.
At this moment though, she was beginning to regret that decision. Working with another person – or rather, having to babysit someone and keep them from getting killed – was one thing, but she hadn’t bargained for just how god-forsakenly cold it was going to be as well. She currently wasn’t making any particular attempt to hide her passage; after all, there weren’t going to be any patrols this far out from the objective, and any prints she left would soon be scoured away by the howling wind and driving snow. The only benefit of the climate here. Nevertheless, even when she wasn’t trying, it was still ingrained in her nature to be as inconspicuous as possible, and she moved quickly and silently across the frigid terrain, absentmindedly taking advantage of any cover which availed itself to her. There wasn’t much, that was for sure.
She was just about to pull out her data pad when a flicker of orange light caught her eye in the distance. Chances were, that was the location she was supposed to be headed towards, and where she was supposed to rendezvous with her ‘partner’. Either that, or it was possible that things were going to get hairy a little sooner than she’d anticipated. Making sure to keep to the shadows and any other cover she could find, she made her way towards the campfire, ignoring the cold for now in favor of keeping a sharp eye out for a possible ambush.
She was almost surprised when she basically waltzed right up to the makeshift campsite without meeting any resistance. A soft chirp in her ear told her that her scanning tech had picked up signs of other sensing probes nearby, likely placed there to warn the camp’s inhabitant of any unwelcome visitors. Unluckily for them though, being a part of the Mistryl Shadow Guard also meant that Felicity had access to the most modern tech, and on top of that, it was her specialty to get in and out of highly-guarded facilities without being detected. Her bodysuit was likely one of the most expensive pieces of tech she currently carried (its price alone would likely have been enough to arm a small army) as it was a mimetic suit that was woven out of baffleweave – designed to hide her from both visual and digital detection. To the unwitting probes and their keeper, she bypassed them without so much as setting a single one off despite the fact that she wore other clothing over her suit, making her way directly towards the fire.
Only one figure seemed to occupy the camp – she was sure that if there were any more, they would have been easy to make out amidst this bleak landscape. The one person was an entirely armor-clad individual – he cut a large silhouette against the light of the flickering flames he sat in front of. Ellie’s first immediate thought was a mental groan; for a stealth-based mission, it certainly seemed like her client knew how to pick the least sneaky-looking guy for the job. Great. Well, she hadn’t promised to bring him back alive and in one piece, so she wouldn’t worry about that fact now. If anything, she could trip him and use him as a quick getaway if necessary. The thought cheered her up just a little.
“Hey, there’s an intruder in your camp. Thought you might like to know.” Yeah, Felicity had never been known for her polite and tactful mannerisms and tone of voice. In fact, quite the opposite was true – among those she worked with, she was known for putting herself in unnecessarily dangerous situations simply for the joy of insulting an adversary. It was never anything she couldn’t handle of course, but after all, when your job was to steal important stuff and kill important people without being detected, it was nice to get some credit every once in a while. Even if that person would be dead within the next five minutes. She was sure that this man, as clumsy-looking as he appeared in that suit of armor, would be quick to react to her jibe (and likely in a less-than-welcoming fashion), but she was confident in her ability to outmaneuver him or any jumpy reaction he might welcome her with. After all, she was no stranger to being warmly greeted with a blaster bolt or blade aimed directly for a vital organ.