PHOENIX, MYRMIDON VETERAN OFFICER
Phoenix (Φοῖνιξ, Phoinix, “Color of blood” in Ancient Greek). In Greek mythology, son of Amintor, king of Dolopians. He participated in the hunt for the boar Caledon. Estranged from his father, he went to king Peleus who named him mentor of Achilles, who he would later accompany to the Trojan War as officer of his Myrmidons as well as one of his closest and most trusted advisors.
Phoenix is an old dog, a battle-hardened veteran from every campaign ever undertaken by the Steel Phalanx since the creation of the Myrmidons. He belongs to the first series of Aspects created specifically for the Sub-section and participated in the baptism by fire of the Myrmidons on the fields of Rubillon. He was the first to step onto the battlefield during the Xuanzhong Offensive and the last one to leave the operations zone during the Ishmailiyya Retreat. Phoenix embodies the bloody and glorious history of ALEPH’s Myrmidons.
The tattoos that cover his arms narrate this history. All of them have a specific meaning that can only be read by those in the know, illustrating each one of those battles. A custom lost among the first generation of Myrmidons of which there are few survivors.
Phoenix is a living compendium of direct combat experience, an experienced warrior with dozens of notches on his belt as well as dozens of anecdotes to tell. The Sub-section has been smart enough to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge of this veteran, naming him instructor-supervisor for all rookies recently arrived from the Hephaestus centers to be incorporated into the Myrmidons. As an instructor, Phoenix’s task is to refine and polish the already exceptional skills of these basic warriors. As a supervisor, his duty is to accompany them as escort during their first operations, participating and killing together with them, covering their advances, and clearing the way as the support shooter of the assault group.
YARA HADDAD, INTEL OPS MUTAFAWIQOFFICER
We all have secrets, spies even more. We all tell lies. Spies don’t tell more, they just don’t tell any truths. This was already known to Yara Haddad when she joined the Muhafiz intelligence department where she worked undercover in various operations outside of Bourak.
She of course worked against illegal Silk trafficking, the main concern of Muhafiz, but also corsair networks with
PanOceanian funding that were damaging the commercial interests of Haqqislam— also typical dirty work. It was difficult, yes, but nothing surprising in her job. Then one day they called her to headquarters to offer her another covert mission, the greatest of all of them: infiltrating the Hassassin Bahram.
The Haqqislamite High Command is aware that their supervisory capacity over this agency is limited. The Old Man of the Mountain has his own agenda, the longterm goal of which is to defend Haqqislam and the Search for Knowledge, but this sometimes collides with the short-term objectives of the High Command or even the Presidency. So having someone inside, an informant, would be of great value in order to know the movements of the Old Man of the Mountain in advance, since his objectives are sometimes inscrutable.
However, for a master of secrets and lies like this... man? either of these two tools are useless against him... or her. So, the plan they presented Yara was simple in its form but complex in its execution. She would be assigned as a liaison officer, openly and without guile; it wasn’t worth lying about her provenance, nor creating a false identity that, sooner or later, the Bahram would dismantle. For the first time in her career, Yara would infiltrate with her true name and rank.
In a secret and unreachable facility in the middle of Alamut, the Hassassin Bahram would subject her to an intensive instruction period so that she could participate in any standard Hassassin operation and be on a par with their highly trained agents. This is not as straightforward as it sounds. It’s not just about tactical combat instruction, it’s also Hassassin philosophy. Yara was forced to accept the removal of her Cube in exchange for recording sessions on an external Cube like the other Hassassin operatives to avoid revealing any secrets in the event of being captured, dead or alive.
Furthermore, she would have to overcome the ordeals that all Hassassin must master in order to become a member of the Society. And she had to undergo the undisclosed initiation rituals, supposedly with psychoactive drugs that illuminate the mind and reveal any secret. According to reports, Yara has never been very revealing about that. After these procedures, she would become an observer and liaison in field activities until she proved her worth and earned their trust, so that she could be promoted to Executive Operations and from there the great aspiration, which is to join the Society’s Inner Circle, where she would be in “direct” contact with the Old Man of the Mountain.
