Hamphire's Office

[npc]

Colonel Steven Hamphire sat watching a blip on the monitor in front of him. He rubbed the hard stubble on his chin, realizing that he had forgotten to shave. Clicking an icon on the computer monitor, he switched to another view.

On the screen was the image of a 3d humanoid in low detail, since the only important items where the readouts coming from the rather crude image.

the Colonel watched the heart rate began to climb slightly as the blood pressure began to rise. The body climbed a fraction of a degree in temperature, then dropped almost as quickly. "never let them see you sweat..", Steven mumbled. His new agent in the field was doing better then he had anticipated, though he would never let her know that. It was better to keep her under his thumb keeping the pressure on. That way she would never lax up and lose her edge.

Leaning back against he high back office chair, he stretched placing his hands behind his head like a pillow. Steven picked up the cigar in front of him and took a long deep drag, he puffed the smoke from the side of his lip allowing it to drift aimlessly in the room.

A beeping noise from a panel on his desk, drew his attention. "What'd ya want!", Steven barked into the intercom like device. "I t'ld ya not to disturb me!"

"Sir,its Tyler Monroe. It sounds urgent, sir."

"All right patch 'em through.", a dull clicking noise followed by static from a bad connection.

"This better be good, Mr Monroe. Why are you contacting me? You have your orders!", the sound on the other end was a long pause.

"Sir, I can't...", a long sigh followed, "I can't do this anymore.. they are getting close, my files have been checked and they've been into my computer. If they find out.."

"Let me get this straight, your chickening out? Your giving up, throwing in the towel? After what those mutants did to you and your family!?", the colonel paused for a moment taking a deep drag on his cigar, "Your nothing but a mutie lover! Thats your problem kid, you ain't got the guts to stand up to those freaks! I want those files and I want them now, or else I'll be the one dealing with you and your family! You understand me boy?!"

Tylers voice shuddered as he spoke, any resignation he had before was now clearly gone. "Yes sir.. I understand..."

"Good, now if you ever call here again, I will break your legs as an example to all the other mutie lovers out there! Ya got me!". Steven slammed the button with his fist, wishing it was a phone he could have slammed down instead.

Turning back to his computer, Hamphire grabbed the keyboard pulling it toward him. He typed in a simple message

" M. We got a problem, contact operations ASAP, CH". Coding it he sent to the recipient.

"Now lets see if she even answers the damn thing."

[npc]

It had been 30 minutes since the last mission change to M had been sent. So the last thing the Colonel expected was a call back.

"Sir, we have an incoming message from M, on normal range."

"Normal range? What the hell is she doing?"

"I don't know sir, receiving message now.", The comm came to life as series of digital binary bleeps and whines echoed through the speaker.

"This is M speaking," ...static... "The message didn't go through. Please repeat, over."...static... "Please repeat,"

"It just repeats sir, same message."

Hamphire bit into the back of his hand, then pointed with that same hand. "Sergeant get me a spectrum wide frequency check, find out why our message didn't get through. I want diagnostic technicians going over every piece of circuitry in that uplink system! Priority One!"

"Yes sir!", the Sergeant rose to his feet and quickly began delegating orders to the rest of the crew. "Transmitting standby orders for all field operatives."

Hamphire grinned, they were a well oiled machine. Just how he liked it.

[npc]

It had been almost five hours since the diagnostic had been run, apparently M was cut of from communications. This put the Colonel into a very dangerous position with his superiors.

"We can assume that the mutants gathered there are a threat?", a voice resonated from the computer screen.

"Yes, I believe we should began insertion of one of the new units. My people could have it prepped and in the field in less then two hours."

"Colonel Hamphire, we expect results. If we are to rid ourselves of this nuisance we must proceed with caution. However after considering the possible security breach perhaps a degree of initiative on our part, should be considered."

Hamphire grinned, the X-men bested his assault on Xaviers Mansion, but this time he would have the upper hand, they wouldn't even know what hit them until it was to late. The new models were more sophisticated, better emotional stability and quicker response times.

"Then its a go?"

"Its a go, we hereby authorize you to use the tracker units."

The Colonel winced, he hated that name. "Uh we've changed the name of the program, something a bit more melodramatic to our cause."

The face on the screen appeared to be intrigued, "Changed it? To what if I may ask?"

"We call them sentinels, since they will be our main line of defense against the muties. I hope the board doesn't object."

"No not at all, however I would advise in the future clearing in such project name changes with us before adopting them."

"Understood, Hamphire out."

A wide smile began to grow on Hamphire's face. He was finally getting the chance to rid the world of these abominations. "Sergeant, get me Denning, tell him we want those new Sentinel units online. Tell them they have a two hour prep."

"Yes sir, contacting Denning."