Black Star Recipient Lani

The Mistress had laid out a plan to completely cut off any chance of the rescue of Dione along with alerting Caterina to her daughters predicament.

The mission was of extreme importance and could not fail.

Lani was selected by The Mistress because of her previous combat prowess in command and as a combat unit. 

But

She was selected for these reasons but not for the reason you would expect. 

The Mistress wants units of high competency and reverence gone. 

Once Caterina is out of the picture she will begin to need to downsize her forces to maximise operating costs. 

Even if she doubled her standing force, it would have zero impact on her personal wealth. A true Trillionaire by todays monetary standards, one can only buy so many Yachts. 

But its a game to her. Its all a game, one of greed, power, money. 

Caterina is beginning the withdrawal of her company, with many of her former employees vowing to return. 

The risk is that, people like Lani, Vanessa, Phaedra, even Ahna, know that a power vacuum in the Zone without CPD there is their prime chance to move in.

All of these young women are dangerous to the Mistress, which is why she wants them dead. 

She wants Lani Dead, she wants Vanessa dead, Phaedra aswell. 

Black Faction started as an energy company, women bravely engaging Azologoth, crawling into the creature and fetching the elusive Neon Dark.....

Concessions on human life were made, one extraction technician here or there consumed is kind of expected

Then

quite a few a week

Then

We need to defend ourselves against aggression from the other company

Then

We need to militarise 

Then

Losing combat units in fighting for Neon Dark is acceptable

Then

Dying is part of their job

Then

I will dehumanise all of them and sacrifice them by the thousands every year to make me more power and money

The normalisation in operating like this became a sickness for her, a fetish which she passed down every rank from Vanessa down to fresh recruits

Vanessa was right, its a death cult. Sacrifice for the Mistress. 

Sure those who make out out, there are alot - make it out with alot of money. 

Alot fall back in, they go back, they are drawn back by the promise of more money.

But their time with Black Faction, serving the Mistress was the highlight of their lives. Life is very simple there, you dont have to think, there is a security in that. 

The assurance is a prison in a sense. Youll be fed, you wear the same thing every day, you have simple tasks

Your responsibility is really just to shoot when you need to. and if you look a the service records from previous posts, its few and far between. 

So what happens from now?

The reigns of the Black Faction operation have been taken over by the Mistress from Vanessa.

Vanessa has now been relegated to ensuring the Mistresses plans work. 

Lani was taken out.....or was she?

Other commanders can see the writing on the wall

The Mistress has allowed the deployment of Sublets to smaller operators (almost immediately after the failure of the CPD Elites) 

and the Mistress is enacting her  "permanent force"