Know Your Enemy

[Anjali Sasyaki]

The Mount -- The Snakepit

Deep in a secluded section of the Mount, a place called 'the Snakepit'. Ruled over by it's new Commander, Anjali Sasyaki - mother of the late Julie Lei. Elite agents under her command trained in a large open area under her watchful eye. Despite her advanced age, she was still a formidable fighter and an even harder task master.

"Again!" she shouted from her perch a top a cargo crate. "Wilson you're leaving your left side wide open, Mondez you're using too much energy when you go in for the strike, you'll be exhausted before you finish him." Anjali clapped her hands together. "Now do it again and this time, learn from the last time, my great-grandchildren could take you down in hand to hand and they are but children!"

"Yes Commander." Mondez said with a salute.

"Dude, you don't salute Sasyaki, you just get ready to fight." Wilson said and cracked his neck. "C'mon, let's show 'er we can fight so we can end this... "

"You just don't want me to wipe the floor with your face." Mondez teased and lunged at him.

Anjali smiled when she saw them take her directions and they fought to a stalemate. "Enough! Showers both of you, you did better. Same time tomorrow." she hopped off the crate and walked over to the training area and picked up a bo staff and spun it around. "All of you need to learn to be better than you are. Otherwise you will be the next bodies I bury. Dismissed!"

Director Nicole Decker was standing off to the side watching the training session.

"Do not tell me you think I am too harsh with them." Anjali said as she popped open a water bottle and took a swig.

"Not at all, they need it. I... must thank you for agreeing to head this up." Nicole said as she looked at the training batons. "Do you think this will help them though? Against the Ajem?"

"Perhaps not, but I had my granddaughter Lana, whom I have barely trained to fight attempt to evade them and she evaded every single one of them. They need to better. They call themselves Elite, but they are not. Not to my standard of Elite that is." Anjali put the staff in the rack and closed her eyes. "But they need to stop relying on gadgets and weapons and learn to use these." she held up her hands. "I have been teaching them three different forms of combat, Muay Thai, Krav Maga and a form that I developed with my parents decades ago. I hope that something will stick and they will at least survive an encounter. Not simply be the next bodies in bags."

"Agreed." Decker said and spun the batons and threw one at a target, hitting her mark. "I've been training too. Jon and Isabella's rehab sessions, we go over Intel matters while we're all sparring, it's an interesting way of doing a meeting."

"From what I have seen, they are unlike any leaders I have ever served under. Which is a good thing. But Dominus has been far too quiet of late, he is either planning something or there is something else going on that is taking all of his attention." Anjali mused and sipped on her water bottle and chewed the edge of the straw. "I do not like it, six months and he's blown up planets yet all outside Alliance space."

"Then we need to be ready." Nicole said in agreement. "I may not... like the methods your team uses sometimes, but I will agree you are probably our most effective division here."

"And what of my daughter Arisu's team?" Anjali raised an eyebrow.

"She isn't happy. She doesn't talk to me. I get terse little reports and that's about it. She resents being called back here, but we need her." Nicole said and crossed her arms.

"Do not look at me, my daughters are just like me, strong willed, stubborn and prone to violence." Anjali laughed and patted Decker's back. "She doesn't talk with me either. Come Director, I will buy you a mug of tea in the Commissary and you can tell me what our next assignment is to be."

[A'mira Stormborn]

"If you wish it," A'mira said appearing out of nowhere. "I can help train the use of the sword. The foundries are churning out hundreds of the vibranium blades."

[Anjali Sasyaki]

Anjali nearly jumped and shook her finger at her. "Do not do that in here! We're all armed and I could have shot you or stabbed you. But yes, that would be helpful... what would also be helpful... you see my daughter Arisu often don't you?"

[Nicole Decker]

"I will leave you two ladies... I have a meeting actually with my cousin in law." Nicole said with a slight smile.

"Give Mrs. President my regards." Anjali said with a nod of her head.

"I surely will." Nicole tapped her watch. "Control, this is Director Decker, secure transport to Presidential Compound. Main lobby."

"Confirmed." the AI driven voice replied and in a haze of grey and blue lights, she was gone.

"Now... let us talk about stabbing things..." Anjali said with a grin.

[A'mira Stormborn]

"Of course," A'mira replied. "The way I see it: there are two counters to a kliden. Numbers, and a some sort of melee weapon. In our line of work safety in numbers isn't always an option."