Import/Export Team

Elite infiltration team of ZAPS agents, whose mission is tracking contraband throughout the Web (specifically Pyra) and eliminating its purveyors. Since the very existence of the I/E Team violates most treaties that Guardia holds with other nations, as well as all existing semblances of international law in the Web of Worlds, I/E Team members carry no identifying insignia, and operate with the knowledge that their home government will disavow all knowledge of their existence and mission should they be apprehended or fall in the line of duty.

Members

As with most ZAPS field agents, the members of the I/E Team are spellcasters, and as typical of Gatian wizards each specializes in a specific elemental discipline. Each member of the team also has his or her own particular specialty that they bring to the mix.

• L - The team leader, a crotchety old female Ogan whose temperament fluctuates wildly between calm and grandmotherly to absolutely vicious and unpleasant. An able bureaucrat, her talent is placing finishing touches on the team's various infiltrations by way of forging local paperwork and navigating foreign red tape. Her chosen element is that of holy magics -- an odd choice for a shadow operative.
• Penny Makosson - One of Spymaster Mako's countless offspring, born from a Guardian mother. She served as a MASS-ZAPS liaison before being laid off by Bekkler. Penny is multi-talented and quite formidable, as befits a child of Mako himself, but she is the only member of the team without magical talent.
• Bobb Olsen - L's second-in-command, and the team's only human. Before he was tapped for training as a ZAPS agent, Olsen worked in the Ministry of Finance as an import broker and customs agent. His chosen element is fire.
• Wei Ling - A lagomorphic Demi-human, trained in the bardic spellsong traditions of El Nido. Ling uses earth and lightning elemental magic, cast through the playing of his magic guitar.
• Mae Lam - A lagomorphic Demi-human, and Wei Ling's aunt. A career ZAPS agent, Mae joined the I/E Team as a favor to L. She pulled strings within ZAPS to get her nephew his current assignment. As a longtime spy, Mae has a very well-rounded skillset for a field agent, able to assist most of her teammates when asked; her particular area of expertise is linguistics and codebreaking. Mae's specialty is ice magic.
• Javier Jenchero - A large, burly Hench, formerly a soldier in Skull's rebellion during the KMT War. Recruited into the ZAPS by Bekkler himself. Javier excels in skill with assault rifles, grenades, demolitions and all manner of melee combat. He is incidentally trained in water magic.
• Rosa Jenchero - A female Hench, and Javier's younger sister. She is unnaturally small for a Hench; her natural psionic gifts were what drew ZAPS' attention to the Jenchero siblings. In addition to her mental powers, Rosa is trained in nature magic.
• Bouen - A Diablos, nicknamed "The Green Devil" for his deep emerald hide and swept-back, goat-like ivory horns. His name is pronounced "Boon," and he never misses an opportunity to correct (and threaten) those who mispronounce it. A highly skilled pistol marksman and knife-thrower. He is trained in lightning magic.
• Glenn Vulgle - A half-Mystic who most closely resembles an Imp with red-brown skin. Unlike full Imps, Glenn has a head of natural, spiky black hair, along with thick eyebrows and a clipped mustache and goatee. A skilled sniper, and trained in shadow magic (which helps keep him concealed when he's taking pot-shots from afar).
• Pattigongogli - "Patti" for short, she is the team's star infiltration specialist. Patti is a natural shapechanger. She most often appears as a young human woman with black hair and slightly pointed ears, but her race is unknown to all except Bekkler and L. The rest of the team suspects that Patti is either a Doppleganger or a Carrionese Shapeshifter, or maybe even a rare species of Mystic. When not assuming the form of this foreign official or that, Patti rarely speaks or emotes at all; she is nearly inert until L gives her new instructions and a new persona to adopt.

Mission Perameters

The I/E Team has one goal: stop the spread of Pyra throughout the Web of Worlds. Utilizing the whole team's range of talents, the mission is satisfactorily accomplished by way of the following methods:

• Exposition- Engaging in vigilantism, the I/E Team works to expose the Pyra trade in other countries by assisting local law enforcement and judicial processes in uncovering and prosecuting Pyra traders. All assistance rendered in this manner is done without the knowledge of law enforcement officials, and includes imparting surveilance data (and other intelligence) by way of anonymous tips, planting evidence, coercing informants, and so forth. These activities are preferred in regions where local law classifies Pyra as an illegal narcotic.
• Interdiction- When possible, the I/E Team attempts to stop shipments of Pyra before they reach their destination. The I/E Team has the capability to interdict shipments by sea, air and space, though their ability to deal with escort vessels/vehicles is somewhat limited. Lethal force is authorized at the team leader's discretion. Captured Pyra cargo is to be destroyed.
• Destruction- As an overall secondary objective to dealing with the Pyra traders themselves, all stores of Pyra captured by the I/E Team are to be destroyed.
• Assassination- When intelligence yields the identity of prominent figures in the Pyra trade, or when acting in regions where Pyra is not expressly forbidden by law, the mission perameters assigned to the I/E Team permit the use of lethal force. Since the Webwide Pyra network is still quite small, and only powerful and protected within Gate, the I/E Team is able to inflict severe damage on attempts to spread Pyra to the rest of the Web by way of targetted killings of prominent dealers and importers.

It must be noted that the I/E Team's perameters clearly define Pyra users as innocents. Users (who do not actively sell, import or seek to spread Pyra) are never targets of any of the team's efforts or methods -- though they are sometimes useful as informants.

Current Status

Before Bekkler escaped from the ZAPS Sun Palace, he made a point to fire all of his best agents (presumably, to keep them out of the hands of his successor). This included the I/E Team, which at the time was under deep cover and tracking the Pyra trade somewhere in Tasnica.

L, for reasons of her own, has kept this a secret from her team, and so they continue to operate as though still under ZAPS' auspices. Since the ZAPS firings were never common knowledge outside of esoteric international intel circles, and the I/E Team continues to operate under deep cover, there is little chance the team will become aware that they were fired unless L chooses to make it known to them.

It is unknown if the team continues to operate in Tasnica, or if they have moved elsewhere.