(former) Commander Lani

Lani Lei was working as a waitress in restaurants in the North African Economic Zone in a resort town trying to support her academic endeavours. Barely a year into studying to become a system analyst the company that had subsidised her course went bankrupt. With little to no prospect of a future where she was all seemed hopeless for the young Lani. Frequenting one of the venues she was working at were a small group of seemingly wealthy women in their early 30s who left her a large 50CR tip one day. Lani couldn’t help herself but as what do they do for work? When they announced they were retired, she couldn’t believe it. One of the women explained “we were contract mercenaries working in the exclusion zone” Seeing young women commanding such confidence and wealth had Lani fascinated. “Mercenaries? as in soldiers?” The three women pulled out their phones, each with a QR code, trying very hard to get Lani to scan it. “scan this and you will get all the information you need”.

Down the rabbit hole

Joining shortly before her 19th Birthday and finding out the woman who’s QR code she scanned received a 15,000CR bonus for recruiting her, Lani boarded a transport from Santiago, leaving her name behind to embark on training to become a Standard Combat Unit.

Training was not uneventful as her training sector experienced a live fire accident where 13 recruits were expended. Seeing it up close, off ORC and prior to her indoctrination to the Mistresses ideals, Lani began to have doubts about her decision to join Black Faction.

Passing out as a Standard Combat Unit 270319 she was placed into Sector Coastal North where there had been continued heavy contest over key Azologoth rich territory. Unit 270319 was thrust into skirms on her 3rd day of service. Unit for Unit Skirms ensued for 4 months straight with Unit 270319 becoming one of the senior combat units after the majority of her cache were expended. Assuming a Rotunda leader role after being promoted to Major Standard she managed to pull off stunning victories against numerically superior, seasoned CPD forms.

Up The Ladder & Back Down

She was tasked with conducting a “monetary sacrifice” where she was to move in Standard Combat Units to cover the escape of a High Value Elite Combat Unit. Given an addition 12 units above her Rotundas 40, she reached the waypoint but refused to utilize her units to see the Mission through. She didn’t want to waste her Standards on the objective. A competing Major Standard moved in and completed the task, sacrificing her entire Rotunda in the process.

On review Lani gave her reasoning against suspicions of her developing relationships with the units. Her reasoning was that expending 50 plus Combat units to save one is wasteful and not in the interests of the company.

For that she was demoted to Standard Combat unit and moved back to HQ 1, just in time for the Zuvic Incursion.

Crammed into transports with thousands of other Standards, Elites and Commanders she had no idea what was going to happen. The Mistress had decided that there was no room for Zuvic on the Island and she needed to eliminate everyone in a green uniform no matter how many Standards would go down.

Her transport was disabled by Zuvic systems just as she stepped off, the engines winding down flinging much of its contents into the liquid earth below. Before she could even watch the transport sink or process just how close to expenditure she was one of the most intense skirms in the history of Mallera-9 broke out. The battle for the landing zone. Eventually overcoming the Zuvic forces she was assigned with guarding the the service access points on the platform, watching transport after transport deliver load upon load of Standards to the platform, running into the facility never to come out. Once the platform was disabled Lani was extracted with the remainder on the platform on standby to chase down any escaping Zuvic units…..which there were none.

Following the Black Faction victory over Zuvic a great deal of her sectors leadership was expended. Her previous experience as a Major Standard and her performance on the platform worked in her favour and she was promoted to Commander, where shortly after Black Faction was handed its biggest defeat in Mallera Deep.

The operation started and The Mistress directed Jayda to throw everything they had into the objective. Merely hours in the Operation went south. Whole caches were being swallowed by the walls, floor, roof and other horrors in the deep. CPD embarked on the same mission, resulting in massive skirms across the operating area. A rogue Alya was the cherry on top of a pile of destruction.

Watching units rapidly tick off her digital manifest, Lani was prepared to get her hands dirty, she embarked on a mission to establish comms between units fighting in the deep and the surface. Sooner than later her and her small contingent were cut off, with little to no option but to fight their way out.

Making it to the surface to a severely depleted and defeated Black Faction the Apex wars had concluded. The Privateer era had begun.
The Privateer era is synonymous with private contractors procuring Sublets for small scale missions in non company held areas. However from a company perspective it was a period of austerity with limited resources to conduct Azologoth extraction missions. Efficiency and effectiveness in application of resources was essential & Lani Excelled during this period.

The end of the Privateer era seen the rise of the Vanessa Era, where Lani seen herself drawn into a web of lies spun by Kandi.

Being completely trustful of everyone in the company she did not suspect that her sector would be involved in an embezzlement scheme where Kandi was siphoning combat units for cash to CPD.

Vanessa being the ruthless matriarch gave Lani two options for disposal, Azologoth or shooting which Lani chose shooting.

Knowing this was her preferred method, Vanessa ordered her to be fed to the Azologoth.

Phaedra knowing Lani did not have anything to do with the scheme, turned her loose instead. Disobeying her Mistresses orders to save a valuable asset.

Lani was captured by CPD shortly after escaping & held as a prisoner for 6 months. A newly minted commander in the form of Kandi tried to convince Lani to join CPD, where she refused. She was mercilessly sent for interrogation and disposal where by a miracle she was rescued by Ana Dark.

The departure of Phaedra as Vanessa’s right hand woman left large shoes to fill. The rescue was orchestrated by Phaedra as she knew she needed a woman of high competence to take her place. The relationship had a rocky start more due to Vanessa missing Phaedra than Lani holding a grudge.

After successful operations against CPD and the eventual capture of Caterina’s Daughter, Dione. Lani and Vanessa had placed The Mistress and Black Faction in a position her or the company had never been in. They were on the eve of giving Caterina the ultimatum to leave Mallera-9 or her daughter will be eliminated. Caterina agreed to remove her forces on signing a contract. However a plan had been hatched to rescue Dione from Black Faction HQ using a squad of highly elite CPD units. The best of the best, The Mistress knew this was coming and that it was likely to succeed without covert intervention. Lani was selected to lead a mission, posing as a CPD combat unit and lure the elites into a trap.

There was no going back, The Mistress had presented her a Black Star. The symbol reserved for those who willingly make the ultimate sacrifice for the Mistress. Her token of appreciation that can also be taken as a mark of death. Both Lani and Vanessa had become far too powerful for the Mistress to contain, her company was at risk, her position of power threatened.

As the standards closed in on her, she remained dedicated to the Mistress, to Vanessa and the company. No where to go, far from anywhere of meaning, expending was always her destination….or was it?