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[Kel Riever]

Slightly before the strategy meeting…

Iole had woken to the sound of crates crashing to the floor. When she looked up she saw Jenus wide-eyed in surprise, Tallis with her hand over her mouth in shock, and Frank in a pile on the floor, not moving.

 

“Frank!”

The meeting alert buzzed in each of the Commando’s omni-tools.  And Frank’s as well.

In a biotic dash, Iole was over at Frank’s side, making sure he was all right.  “He’s unconscious,” she informed the others.  Frank groaned.  “And waking up,” she continued, “Help me carry him, we’ve got to get to the conference room.

By the time they were outside the conference room door, Frank was on his feet, but not looking so good.  Iole had brought Frank’s helmet along for good measure and slid it on his head. 

“Remember to leave an empty seat next to him.” Iole emphasized.

Jenus and Tallis looked at Iole curiously.

Iole sighed.  “For his friend.”

The Commandos and Frank entered at the same time, as Mira and Captain Stone, just in time for the start of the meeting.

~ ~ ~ ~

When Mira finished her last sentence to the Captain, she realized they were standing in front of the conference room door for the briefing.

Did we just walk around in a circle?

This is the strangest conversation I have ever had.

Jenus, Tallis, a recently awoken Iole, and a groggy Frank caught up with Mira and Stone.  The lot entered the meeting and took their various seats.  Mira ended up sitting next to Jess on one side, and Avan on the other, while the other three Commandos and Frank filled in nearby.  Iole placed coffee and snacks in front of Frank, and then in front of the empty chair next to him.

Mira was beginning to wonder if she accidentally drank something from a red cup.

The meeting begun and Mira threw herself into her notes.  The whole time, she thought Jess was staring at her.  When Jess wasn’t, she thought Avan was.  Twice, each, Mira shot a glance over to each and noticed their attention focused completely on the discussion.  Mira was about to offer some advice when Jess asked VERA if there was a copy of ‘Moby Dick Goes Commando ‘ in the library.

Mira was close enough to see VERA send a message that appeared right on the datapad in front of Jess, reading:

Variable quantifier unidentified.  Please state context for the term ‘commando’.

A bead of sweat popped onto Mira’s forehead.

[Cknarf]

You've got to be f***ing kidding me.

 

Frank looked at the food in front of the empty chair, and looked to Iole for confirmation.

 

That's totally helping.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Essul sat quietly as he studied the map, his eyes occasionally glancing towards Irina and the alliance officer she'd brought as he listened to the situation, frowning deeply. This situation was far from ideal, given the layout of the room, and their plan for entry seemed unlikely to pay off. Going through the front door being one of the best ways in...it made a strange sort of sense, given it was the most obvious and apparently most well covered area of the place.

 

"We need to be cautious of snipers, who may use the front entrance as a bottleneck to pick us off...." Essul stated, looking at the map intently, "Vera, I'd like to know what kind of cover we could have going through the main entrance into the service tunnels, as well as if there are other ways besides the mines to get access to the tunnels?" he said, frowning as he looked to the map.

 

"30 men...heavily armed...they could very well have the place well covered, should they expect someone to use the tunnels. A distraction would help...but it'd be risky...Vera, do we know how trigger happy these hostage takers are? Have they demonstrated erratic or more methodical behavior?" he asked, wanting to know as much as possible before he set off.

[Cknarf]

Frank stood up, as Essul began to speak.  He moved towards the other side of the room, briefly stopping behind Iole. "Cabin 9." He whispered, before taking a seat further down.

 

"They're terrorists, buddy. I think it's safe to assume they're gonna be pretty goddamn trigger happy." Frank's tone was uncharacteristically harsh, as he looked to Essul.

 

"Who's handling the bombs? That's what I wanna know." He crossed his arms.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

VERA appeared standing next to the large holo-map. She held a pointer in her hand and would move around pointing out the details. One would gather she enjoyed being seen. Periodically her holo-image would glance at the newcomer, Williams, even though she was fully aware of everyone's presence.

 

"The bombs? Definitely not Jenus." Iole said, "She might blow up half the planet."

 

"Shut up, Goldie!"

 

"I think that Frank is qualified to handle the bombs, and perhaps Avan as a backup," Naleena said, "I can be the third option on the bombs. I'm not a demolitions expert, but depending upon the type of fuse they used, I could disarm it."

 

"With the inhabitants off the streets, the situation inside the dome has been rather calm. Authorities have cut power to exterior lighting. However, the dome is equipped with emergency lighting, which although it is not nearly as bright, will pose difficulty in certain places. I am certain the terrorists are patrolling the utility tunnels or have at least booby-trapped them. Still staying off the streets as much practical is desired."  VERA replied. "According to reports, the terrorists have not demonstrated any erratic behavior, nor have they been provoked thus far. We will be the first to quote poke the hornet's nest."

[Redbelle]

Jess put her hands behind her head and leaned back. "Okay okay.... if I were a terrorist here's what I'd do.....".

 

"We've got the main stage. The place where the performance is taking place. The actor's are in place and carrying out their assigned roles. That's the easy part. They're meant to be seen...... But every stage has stage hands. Understudies. People in the wings ready to take over if the main stage doesn't workout..... We need to make sure every comm channal except ours is surpressed. Stop anyone on the outside keeping an eye on things from calling in to say that secret entrance one has a team assembled around it. We need to cut them off from the outside world so that we control all the information going into and out of that place. They may demand that we give them comms back, butat least then we have one of them talking to us....."

 

"If we have one talking to us then that one is distracted. He could distract other's by what's being dicscussed if their nearby. We need to know who these people are. What they do in life. Families. Friends. Co-workers. We need to impress on them that as much as their ocmmitted to this act that it won't go well for them. And that they will make their love ones very upset if they push this to far..... Work their minds towards thinking of their future and not just this action their taking....".

[Cknarf]

With a sigh, Frank sat back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling.

 

Like I didn't know the answer already...

 

He sat back up, and leaned forward, using his hands to support his head.

 

This f***ing guy.

 

He couldn't help but smile, as he looked over to his previous seat.

 

"I get what you're saying, Jess." Frank looked at her from the darkness of his helmet. "But these are batarians we're dealing with."

 

He looked to Essul. "No offense, buddy, but when your people decide to blow sh*t up, they go for the f***ing gold." He shook his head. "I get the feeling that they're not the type that would be willing to just 'talk it out'."

[Kel Riever]

Mira wiped away the bead of sweat with a cloth and focused on the meeting.   “I take it, even if we could be quiet enough about opening another entrance, we cannot compromise the dome integrity for environmental reasons in any way?”

“Though one can create an environmentally controlled work area, to set one up against the exterior wall would take a significant amount of time and draw undue attention,” VERA commented.

“And what about creating a new underground access point, by creating one of our own once inside the service tunnels and under the dome?”

Iole stopped wondering for a moment about ‘Cabin 9’ and what Frank was up to.  “Why would you want to do that?”

“An option, I suppose,” Mira answered.  “Do you think they know about the underground access points that exist?”

“I like VERA’s idea about getting in through the main entrance and dropping into the service tunnels,” Jenus remarked.  “Naleena’s too good and too stealthy with a cloak for them to detect.  She could cut everyone down who’s guarding the main entrance on her own.  Then you have me and Red as a backup, should be no problem.  Everybody else could cover us for that part.  Then we could split into two teams, one each heading down these long service corridors.  We sync and pop up at the first two we reach, slice open any guards again using stealth.  They won’t even know what hit them.  We diffuse the bombs….”

“You seem to have this all worked out,” Iole said with a tinge of sarcasm.

Jenus missed it.  “Yes, I do.  Iole’s good with diffusing bombs too.  Anyway, once the first set of bombs are gone we basically hide bodies, get back in the tunnels, have each team moves up to the second set of access points, pop up, and slaughter more terrorists.  The ‘north’ team can get the hostages from this point.  The ‘south’ team can move in on the center bomb.  Once that center is gone and the hostages are in the service tunnels, both teams move to the mines.  We should send the hostages back to the main entrance with a guide.  I’m thinking Anika, because she’s big and hulking and she’s got a good command voice; it’ll give the civies confidence.  The rest of us diffuse the mine bombs and head out the service tunnel on that side.”

Mira looked cautiously at Jenus, who seemed pretty satisfied with her plan.

Iole offered, “Dahlia, you seem to have a good barrier.  Maybe you should be on that team that gets the hostages.  You might be able to shield them if you can get close enough.”

“Disruptor.  Disruptor,” Tallis added.

“Right,” Mira said, “Though it won’t be any quieter if we’re shooting.  Still, disruptor ammo might just incapacitate a target in its first hit.  It will keep shields down as well, meaning something else can get through like a tranquilizer round…”

“I want one of those pistols the Spectre’s talking about,” Jenus interrupted.  “Everybody on the team should get one.”

“Right,” Mira said suspiciously.  Then she nodded over to Stone, “A distraction of some sort, such as a negotiator, something to kill their coms, and we move in.  I don’t know about kill on sight.”  She spared a glance at Frank, “But kill if we have to, yes.  And be ready because these people may just want to slaughter a bunch of people no matter what.  Those are the parts of the plan I can get behind.”
 

[Cainhurst Crow]

"Before we do anything...we still need to know who we're dealing with." Essul chimmed in, eyes looking to frank as he sent a cold, hard look his way, "Trying to negotiate with them shouldn't be taken off the table, if for no other reason then it'll give us a clearer picture of who we're going up against." he said as he looked to naleena.

 

"We have reports that the terrorists are heavily armed, but we don't know who they are. Could they be mercs hired by some extremist? A loose collection of mine workers who got their hands on equipment? For all we know they could be....they could be ex-military, gods know those who defect tend to drift towards these sort of operations..." he said as he broke eye contact, letting out a sigh of frustration at the whole thing.

 

"There's too much unknown variables to form a good plan. Anything we come up with, could end up needing to be changed in an instant... Who they are could dictate their mode of operation, how they'd react if we're discovered, even the type of explosives they'd have set up and how they might have set it up...and being the ones to test the waters on this front has me on edge..." he said as he leaned forward, shaking his head.

 

"And make no mistake, evne if they're just batarians..." he said as he looked to frank, "knowing more about them, as captian stone has said, could end up saving or costing innocent lives..."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"My cyberwarfare suite will allow me to drop an electronic blanket over the dome to jam all communications inside except our frequency. I have been monitoring the dome and have made note of the frequency bands. This has given me a list of potential equipment manufacturers and the band to which they could switch once I drop the blanket," VERA said as she showed an image of this happening over the dome. "Once I do so, their only communication with the outside will be the reporter they captured."

 

VERA finished her explanation and lit a cigarette.

 

 

Ashley raised an eyebrow.

 

Naleena knew this had to be done as well. "And expect one of the hostages to be executed the moment that happens. They will use the reporter's camera to show it visually in an attempt to garner sympathy and cause the authorities to hesitate. We will not be popular. Our liaison must spin this make sure the blame for all actions stays on the terrorists.

 

"VERA let's discuss the use of ammunition."

 

By this time, VERA was drinking a cup of coffee. She took a deep drag off her cigarette and continued. Ashley raised an eyebrow. VERA clicked to a different slide and pulled up a holographic image of a modern Carnifex pistol. As she spoke she showed a short video of it firing at someone with a kinetic barrier and showed in slow motion how its ordinance interacted with a kinetic barrier. "Very well, boss. Enemy shields are designed to harden against supersonic rounds fired by modern weaponry. There are different ways of countering them other than by tech overload or biotics: 1) with a high velocity armor piercing round; 2) with a disruptor round; 3) with a large number of other types of rounds; or 4) with a subsonic round." VERA said, and as she continued pulled up a holoimage of the the SIG Sauer P226 9mm in both assembled and exploded view.

 

 

 

"This is the SIG Sauer P226 9mm. None of you, except for the boss has ever used one, let alone used one with tranquilizer darts. Tranquilizer darts are fired with a CO2 cartridge, hence their short range. Due to their low velocity, they will pass unimpeded through a kinetic barrier shield. The downside is that the shot has to be targeted on exposed flesh leaving this task to only our best marksmen, and I recommend the weapon have a scope."  A short video clip showed a person firing one of these with the dart lodging in its target neck or face.

 

"Thank you, VERA. I'm not taking any kind of negotiation off the table. The question is who has the best gift of gab in the group? I think that's you, Jess. You could keep them talking, but you're human," Naleena said. "Perhaps you, Essul, you're Batarian, or would they see you as a traitor? You're not negotiating for the Alliance. You're negotiating for me. What do you think?

 

"Meanwhile we need to get our teams into their positions. And I need to ask, aside from myself, who are our best marksmen?"

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 24 octobre 2014 - 03:59 .

[Cknarf]

I... probably could have worded that better.

 

Catching Essul's stare, Frank threw up his hands in a submissive gesture.

"Well I'm a pretty good shot..." He looked at his gloved hand, as if he were examining his nails, before turning to Iole. "Isn't that right, commando?"

 

"Yeah, with a rifle."

 

Frank shrugged. He just wanted a cool pistol.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I...suppose I can try. A fellow batarian could make them more open to negotiating...or they could see me as a traitor, or an enemy, if they weren't on good terms with the special intervention unit..." he said as he nodded, feeling a bit better about the plan, though also anxious. The thought that one of the hostages was going to be sacrified just to get radio silence ate at his stomach a bit.

 

He knew what he wanted to do though, he wanted to make sure that as many people didn't die from this as could be saved. That meant saving hostages, and so he quickly resolved himself, "I'm good at stealth, and I'm a decent shot though....I believe captain stone, could keep them occupied, at least for a while, while the ground team carriers out the operation. If possible...I'd like to help be part of that ground team."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Ashley raised her hand. "I'm a Master Marksman."

 

"Yeah, but stealth?" Irina asked.

 

"Hey, I can be quiet," Ashley replied. "I'll have to give up wearing heavy battle armor. What have you got?"

 

"We have a selection of Kassa Fabrications Colossus Light, Asari Commando Leathers, and Armax Arsenal Predator Light in the armory," VERA said while showing images of each. "The Colossus, while providing the best armor protection has the disadvantage of being red and black. I would suggest a more muted color for this operation. The Predator armor has the best shielding available. The Asari armor has better armor protection than the Predator but not as high quality as the Colossus, and the shielding is in between the Colossus and the Predator armor. It is your choice. For Frank, I would recommend Predator Heavy."

 

"I'll wear the Predator Light, no offense," Ashley said looking toward the Asari.

 

"None taken," Jenus replied.

[Cknarf]

But I like my armor...

 

Frank looked down at his battered white armor and frowned.

 

"Do I get to keep it?" He pointed at the image of the Predator armor.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"VERA, make sure we deduct the armor from Frank's paycheck," Naleena said.

 

"Right, Boss."

 

"Damn it." Frank lowered his head.

 

"That was a joke." Naleena said, "But I expect you to continue performing demolition duties as needed."

[Kel Riever]

Iole remarked, "I wish we had someone with a tactical scan device along.  Those things can see through anything.  Nothing beats the quarian models."

"Well, stick to what we do have, Goldie," Jenus scoffed.  "That's like wishing for one of those experimental pistols that Fotemi was working on."

"You mean the scientist from Duellos?"

Mira nodded, "They have a prototype that shoots some sort of ball of energy that brings down shields.  They can't get the charge to hold out of the barrel.  So they're going to try to make grenades first.  They'll bounce, actually, until they contact an energy surge area, like a shield, and then tear them down."

Jenus asked, "What about the arc grenades Vayne used?  I hear those are sweet at bringing down shields and basically frying enemies to the point they can't move."

"Loud," Mira spoke as she thought, "But effective.  If things go south maybe we should have some on hand.  They might also fry the electronics on a demo charge.  Well, or it could set them off.  Only people with decent grenade experience should carry them."

"That'd be us, textbrain," Jenus teased.

"Right, but not just us," Mira replied seriously.  "Anyone with a good arm should have at least one, I believe.  Well, and a cool head."

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Look I'm not saying that we go in without any firepower," Naleena said, "I'm taking my Collector Particle Beam. It's unfortunate that our weapons fabricator can't duplicate it, but the materials are pretty exotic. It does seem to accommodate modified power cells. What I'm saying is no noise until we have the bombs diffused and the hostages secured. With the bombs diffused we saved the dome, and we can change the ROE. They will have tried to contact people and will get no response. They will know we're inside.

 

"Jess, this is where you'll have to do some fast talking. Buy us time. They don't want to do this."

[Redbelle]

"Oh believe me, they DO want to do this since their doing it. The trick is to get them to start thinking about what it's going to cost them. They may be radicalized which would make things harder since they'll have a dead set mind frame. But even then, we don't need to convince all of them. Just one to lower their defenses long enough for you guys to slips the knives in.... so to speak".

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I mis-spoke, Jess. I meant that you have to convince them that they don't want to do this," Naleena said. "Because of things you said."

[Kel Riever]

“So, let’s fire it up!  By the time they figure it out, they’ll have our guns to their heads,” Jenus said excitedly.  She reeled her excitement back and became self-conscious when she looked at Naleena.

“Not everyone has given their input yet,” Mira responded in an even tone.  “Perhaps we should hear them out if they have anything to say before we adjourn.” 

“Those hostages are in there, frightened for their lives.  We need to get out there, textbrain.”

Mira turned to Jenus calmly and stared her in the eye.  Jenus made a disgruntled sigh, but did not confront Mira again.

[Redbelle]

Jess sighed. "So Ahab".

[Kel Riever]

Jess’ comment caused Mira to look over at her, wondering about what she said and how it applied to the strategy meeting.  Prominent on the datapad in front of Stone was a picture:



With a description underneath, the first sentence being:

Captain Ahab is a fictional character, the monomaniacal protagonist in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851).

Mira put her head down and stared straight forward into her own notes.  She felt the temperature rise in her cheeks.

Jenus glanced over, and saw Mira transform from leader to sheepish schoolgirl.  With a glint in her eye, Jenus tried to spot what had put Mira into her shell by seeing whatever she could on Jess’ datapad from across the conference room table.

[Redbelle]

Feeling the meeting needed less input from her, Jess leaned forward and tapped her data pad a few times. There were so many things to take care of on the Medusa that any minute when wasn't working for the group, she was working on her ship. One aspect however was still not done. Her own personal wardrobe.

 

She hadn't been up there but Iyana had her cube. As much as she she didn't want to think about it, Jess knew she'd been up there. Probably left the place in a state given the care she'd taken of the rest of the ship. She'd already decided. Everything in there had to go. The whole room scrubbed clean and sanitized before she could even think of setting foot in there again. That meant new furniture.

 

The bed she'd been eying was a custom job. Steel framed and painted jet black with blood red padding. The real seller was the way the frame ran around the edges in a circle with chains that fixed to red leather cuffs on the ends. Perfect for her more intensive crew motivational sessions.

 

Suddenly she heard Naleena say something and her mind switched tracks efficiently and she leaned backward in her chair. The Data pad forgotten.

[Kel Riever]

"Cuffs?!" Mira blurted.

 

"Something to add to the equipment list for the mission?" VERA asked.

Mira was purple.  "Uh, yes.  We will need cuffs for any of the hostage takers we incapacitate."

[Redbelle]

"I have plenty back on the Medusa". Jess offered. Seeing that she'd been mistaken that someone was calling her attention she swiped her pad and brought up her selection of underwear, so provocative, that it was sure to illicit a reaction in any who saw her in it.

 

The one being modeled by the Asari was particularly enticing......