Departure

[Valiant 96]

The commander sat in the captain's seat of the ship. The Repentance was the flagship of the Soldiers of Fire. They could not afford to undertake the mission travelling in the Repentance. The key to this was to be inconspicuous. Soldiers of Fire involvement should not be known.

 

No, it must not be known, Xavi thought to himself. He watched the images from the cargo hold displayed on the screen before him. The necessary equipment was being loaded into the ship. A lone mobile suit sat awkwardly in the bay.

 

The Light Hazel was not built to hold mobile suits. Modifications were made to allow easier maintenance and repairing of the suit. However, Xavi was unaccustomed to the sight, as he travelled more often in the Repentance. He could hardly recall the last mission he undertook in the Marseille III class transport.

[Dimitri 0]

Dimitri loaded himself onto the ship, carrying his deck on his arm, and visor over his eyes. He wasn't uniformed, instead wearing more casual dress: Tee-shirt, overshirt, and jeans. Inconspicuous was the name of the game. A uniform would compromise that. But he was mostly distracted due to all the data he was receiving. So he immediately sat himself down into the first seat he could get, to get a better grip of the data. Concentrating on walking and data collecting at the same time was more likely to get him to run into a mobile suit foot than a proper seat.

 

His lips were moving slightly, mouthing out his possible courses of action, his right hand poised over the keyboard. "Mission files, strike locations, member files, operation procedures, contract info, registration data... Hell yeah..." His fingers became a blur over the keyboard, a single hand capable of typing over 60 words per minute. It'd taken a good lot of practice to pull a stunt like that. But now he was going to get exactly what he needed to help ensure their anonymity. A couple of minutes later, he had a few things he had to do with the ship itself.

 

The video communication window that opened up covered a few corners of the cargo hold, right in front of Xavi's eyes. Instead of Dimitri's face, it displayed a black screen with the text "no image available" in light gray letters. "Commander, I've obtained some information on Alliso that will help ensure anonymity. Vehicle identification chip numbers. If the ship's number is changed according to these numbers, we can be more reckless in our approach in regards to identity. We'll need to alert Celostratus to the chip modification if we do. And the change will be illegal under any and all government laws, as it's basically identity theft, on a military scale. This whole op is full of illegal anyway, so I don't think you'll have any problems with this. Still, I'll await approval before changing the ship's registration code. I can also change the code on the mobile suit in the cargo hold."

 

"Also, the information on the base is still limited, but I should be able to get more information once we're inside the base. Outside access is denied through wireless channels, so I'll have to plug in directly to their network. Once in I can manipulate their security and make things a bit easier on us. Call it a cliche stealth action movie move, but we'll likely want to knock out a few soldiers and take uniforms. Makes moving about easier, right? Don't want to light the place up unless things go south of acceptable. Since we'll need an escape plan, I've brought a network virus. We'll load up the tech, only what's necessary, and I'll activate the virus. The network will crash, chaos will ensue, and we'll make a break for the cargo ship under cover fire form the suit in the cargo bay, possibly even the obtained mobile suit if it's operational. From the descriptions of tech, we'll need one truck to carry the weapons, and one for the suit if it's down. Transport equipment should be nearby. We'll hotwire and load up."

 

"Any additional thoughts? Aside from 'You're so fired after this op'?"

[HHLkill3r 3]

When Houston walked into the hanger, he saw that there were various types of ships that were stationed there unlike the dock which he got off his small transport. Seeing one of the ships that is currently being loaded with equipment, he walked towards it and boarded the transport class ship.

Once upon the ship, he walked forward towards the passenger hold area and entered through the door. Seeing that the commander was already sitting in the captain's chair and a man who was wearing visor sitting on one of the first chairs that was just inside the door,  he walked in a little more and sat down  diagonally opposite the visored man, only realizing a moment later that he was Dimitri, he placed the suitcase down at his own feet and looked up to look at both the commander and Dimitri. He listened as Dimitri explained what would be occurring  during the mission.

"Any additional thoughts? Aside from 'You're so fired after this op'?"

He coughed a little before speaking err... I agree with the plan that Dimitri has come up but a little to add to it if I may, after bringing down the  network to let us all escape, blow up the entire lab after we get out of range. I'll be able to set the explosives to blow after we have all left the vicinity. Even though we can leave without destroying that lab, if there is still evidence of us being there they can investigate who the intruders were and then there is still the possibility that they might link it all the way back to us which is something we don't want, so destroying all that lab altogether afterwards would be the best option since it'll get rid of all the evidence he paused before emphasizing the next few words,  all survivors included, that is there as well as all of their research material that we can't carry.

He relaxed himself after he finished and sat back into his chair and closed his eyes getting ready for take-off.

[Blake0831 0]

    Blake let out a breath of relief when he managed to get to his destination without getting lost again. He looked around the large hanger, impressed by the number and variety of ships that are docked here. As he looked around, he spotted Houston, carrying a suitcase, moving towards the Marseille III class transport that currently being loaded with supplies and equiment. "That must be what we're going to be operating from," he thought as he hurried after Houston. As he boarded the ship, he smiled as he fondly remembers some of his missions abroad a Marseille III class transport during his time with the EA military. The smile was replaced by a frown as he also remembers how the brass has treated him like trash prior to him being discharged from said military.

    A man wearing a visor, later realized as Dimitri, was just saying,"Also, the information on the base is still limited, but..."when Blake entered the passenger hold. He silently saluted to the commander and Houston as he made his way towards one of the empty seats, his developing bad mood evaporating as he listened to Dimitri.

    After Houston had finished and settled back into his seat, Blake voiced out what has been gnawing him about the mission. "Our biggest problem will likely be whatever they have guarding the facility. When we try to escape with the tech and the MS, the forces guarding the lab may summon reinforcements, and if they really don't want the tech to fall into our hands, they won't be careful about preventing us from leaving with it. What forces are we dealing with? What is possibility of reinforcements? Where might the reinforcements come from if summoned? I suggest we set off some sort of distraction to lure whatever's guarding the lab away when we escape with the tech."

    "Also, it might be helpful if we locate whatever files related to the tech we're getting. It will give us a decent idea of what we're dealing with, so we won't blow ourselves to kingdom come if we mishandled it. The files will also come in handy if we need to use it against whatever will be coming after us. I think we should get more infomation, especially about the surrounding area before doing this.", he finished.

Edited October 26, 2007 by Guest

[Infinitedge 0]

Allan, being the sniper, had to be extra careful when it came to clothes... A completely black cloth and a few easy light scans will bust him immediately, and wearing white would be idiotic. Therefore as he approached the dock the top of his LandLawyer II outfit changed dramatically to a dark brown hoodie, so he could cover his face. As he entered the dock he could feel the aura of anxiety sweep over him as the dockhandlers handled the supplies. He noticed the many other ships, but, he knew the one being loaded by the moody dock handlers and half frightened to death inspectors was the one he needed to get on. As he had just arrived at the vessel he found Houston and Blake, the flamboyant hair tipped him off that the one wearing a visor was Dimitri, and the commander sitting at his rightful place. After a salute, he picked up his large rifle case and sat down in a seat right next to Dimitri's... Why? Because he had to ask him something... Blake was standing their facing Dimitri, so he thought it would be best to wait for Blake to finish his conversation before asking Dimitri what his role would be in this mission. Although he was psyched to finally doing some sniping, not always is a sniper needed. Although, in his defense, Allan had a bunch of tricks up his sleeves... He sat back, pushed a button on his belt to block out the sun from his invisible visors, and relaxed in his seat. His eyes were a bit tired after staying up all night yesterday, polishing his, already clean, rifle.

[Darkness 0]

Try not to be late. That's what she'd said to Blake. So why was she the one running late? It had been that blasted message that she had remembered just as she'd reached the end of her corridor. It had arrived on the transport that had gotten her here, but she'd been unwilling to open it in anything resembling public. Given that it was from her Aunt, who often forwarded Jake's 'upgrades', she'd decided to check it out, even though she should have gone straight to the hangar.

It had been worth it, and the short note from Alma (the older woman had forbidden Julia from calling her Aunt on the young woman's 20^th birthday) had done wonders to Julia's mood. It had pieced together the tattered effects of her meditation, restoring some of the calm Julia knew she would need for the mission.

The mission. Right. She was running late, and that wasn't good. At least it gave her something to think about, rather then leaving her to focus on the fact that this would be only her fourth time on a space transport. Following the aura of worry, she managed to find the transport without asking for directions. Upon seeing the rest of the group, she almost winced. She was late, and had only a vague idea of what was being planned. Listening to Blake, she managed to piece together enough of the information to have a decent idea of what they intended to do.

It also gave her a reason to be here, other then acting as back-up, if Dimitri and the commander agreed to Blake's suggestion. After all, who better then the Info Gatherer to get the extra information the group wanted and needed to pull this off with less difficulty? Of course, it all depended on the amount of information they already had on their target.

The communications ear-piece could wait, as it was evident that Allan wanted to speak to Dimitri first. With nothing to add to the planning, Julia settled into a seat near Blake. Already, she found herself liking the technician. Her foot absently tapped the bag she'd grabbed from her quarters as she waited.