Arcanus sighed in frustration, curling his right hand into a fist, as he faced the three Dominion soldiers. "Sir, I can't give out information on visiting diplomats" the lead soldier insisted for the fourth time in the five minutes he'd been speaking with the mer. The Altmer assassin was clad in his black armour, and coat, his sniper rifle, an elegant, long barreled weapon was strapped across his back, and an elegant ebony sword was sheathed on his left hip. 'I should have just announced myself and had her arrested' he thought to himself irritably. He was hunting an Imperial diplomat that had hired several smugglers to raid an Altmer lords' vaults on Aldemer. Among thousands of Septims, were several classified military documents, that the Ruling Council wanted back as soon as possible. Arcanus Morne, the official 'fixer' for the Dominion, was sent to Starflare station.
Unfortunately, he was trying to stay undercover, and in this section of the station, Altmer soldiers picked up on that faster than the assassin would have liked. The diplomat, Arla Endersin, was leaving in just under an hour, and Arcanus was running out of time. Snarling in frustration, he pulled his official I.D from a belt pouch and held it up to the leaders' face plate. "Satisfied?" He snarled, stuffing the identification away. Apparently, the soldiers didn't want to delay him any longer than was absolutely necessary. They stepped to the side, allowing the assassin free passage. Growling thanks, the unaccented Altmer, made his way deeper into the station, ignoring the curious looks people shot his way. Most of their eyes lingered on the lack of hair on the elf's head. Weapons were expected, even the norm on Starflare. An Altmer without any hair on his head, was apparently, somewhat of a novelty.
Consulting the information scrolling down his data pad, he noted that her last known location was the market district. Arcanus frowned, and unclipped his helmet from his belt, placing the black metal helmet onto his head. Automatically, the datapad linked to his helmet, and he shut the pad down. With a couple of blinks, he shut down the scrolling info, as well. He set his helmet to use facial recognition software, searching for Arla. Minutes, later, he'd found her. Climbing to the maintenance catwalks above the marketplace, he took his rifle from his back, and knelt, the shadows cast from the overhead lights providing perfect cover. Removing a stretchy, polymer carbon-fiber rope, fifty metres long, and tied it securely to the walkway's security rail.
Then he lifted his rifle, setting the butt of his rifle against his left shoulder, looking down the scope, and placing the targets brown haired head squarely in the cross hairs. She had no bodyguards, nor was she armed. 'Stupid, or insanely brave' Arcanus decided. Then he decided he didn't care, and squeezed the trigger, then again. A double tap, quick and clean. Well...relatively clean. Despite the fact that laser bolts instantly cauterized injuries, it didn't stop the brains and pieces of skull scattering across the floor of the marketplace. Placing his rifle back across his shoulders and back, he seized the rope, and vaulted the security railing. He hit the ground hard, and knelt, absorbing the impact. Immediately, he was up, and heading towards the dead woman.
He knew he had to be quick before what passed for station security or Imperial soldiers showed up. Kneeling beside the corpse, ignoring the few shocked gasps and screams, he riffled through her clothing, grunting in satisfaction as his gloved fingers closed around the data pad. A quick look told him that it held the information the Dominion was after. 'Stupid. Definitively stupid' he decided, standing, and heading for the seedier parts of the station. A flashing light in the upper left corner of his helmet caught his attention. An incoming call...that was strange. Arcanus was supposed to call when the job was done, not the other way around. Blinking at it to accept the call, he said "I've secured the information. What is it?" The voice on the other end had the distinct Altmer accent of most of Arcanus' kin.
"We have a serious problem. Get to the Dominion embassy right now" the Altmer assassin cursed under his breath. That meant whatever had gone wrong was too serious to be discussed on a communicator, even one with a secured line, like the one in his helmet. "I'll be right....damn" Imperial soldiers and station security had arrived earlier than expected, and were blocking access to the Altmer embassy. "What!?" The voice on the other end of the comm demanded, sounding both angry and impatient. "I may be compromised. I'll make contact when I can" Already, he was setting his helmet to scan for a clear path,and in instants, it was clear he had to head to the A-section of the docking bays, or be caught. He faded into the crowd, wondering what had gone wrong so badly that he had been contacted by his superiors....Hopefully he'd find out soon.
