Things that make you go Boom

Posted on Sun Jan 20th, 2019 @ 6:11pm by Staff Sergeant Andromeda Dreik & Major Hailey Weston & Staff Sergeant Nyx'e'Trixe Valentine & Gunnery Sergeant Ami Rori

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: Shalti Hive

Andi moved out of the storage area at the back of the shuttle, straightening her clothing and tucking her pony tail back under her hat. Catching Hailey's curious glance, She grinned and winked in her direction. "I took your advice and used Chavez," she quipped lightly. "Demo is ready for action. I can get us out of any situation the good Corporal there might put us into. Are we about ready?"

"I don't care, find a fucking solution!" Sabrina's voice carried from the cockpit through to the rest of the shuttle as she moved into the back where the others were. Her expression darker than thunder, one hand holding a PADD, the other curled into a fist so tight her knuckles had already started to turn white. Sinking down onto one of the bench seats, she threw the PADD onto the seat next to her, burying her head in her hands and taking a few deep breaths before looking up at the array of faces all staring directly at her. "We've got a slight problem," she said quietly.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Ami remarked, then saw Nyx’s confusion, but waved the question she guessed the Tialan was going to ask, then glanced at Hailey before asking the question she knew the Major was thinking, “What’s wrong, ma’am?”

"It looks like another hive in the area has been destroyed or rendered unfunctional. The shalti activity in this hive is well above what it should have been. We can't get close enough to get in using the EV suits. We can transport in, but that means we'll be detected almost immediately." Sabrina's voice was relatively calm as she spoke, but her concern was evident in her expression.

“Oh, is that all, My Lady?” Nyx asked, unconcerned at the fact that there would be heavy fighting, apparently looking forward to it.

“No, Nyx, that isn’t it.” Hailey said before Sabrina had a chance to respond, also having gotten an in depth briefing about the Shalti’s capabilities, then looked to Sabrina herself, “Your team should still be the primary, you know what needs to be done in the specifics. I think the Gunny and I should take a team each and make the Shalti think of other areas.”

"There is the possibility that transporting in will expose the shuttle so Brayden can't hang around and wait for us. He'll have to get out of range and come back just in case so we're going to have to work to a set time frame. I don't want you running off in the hive on your own, you've not been in there..." she ran her fingers through her hair and sighed inwardly. "Set your team but take McLellan with you, he's been into the hive at least once. He'll make sure you get back to the rendezvous point. Other than that, I guess we're just hoping for the best."

“Makes me wish we had a backup shuttle, with Cally at the controls.” Hailey said under her breath, then raised her voice to audible, “That’ll leave a hole in your own team. Take Nyx with you, she’s... Versatile. This is an at-all-costs mission, right? She’s one of those who will do what’s necessary.”

Sabrina nodded. "Alright, I'll take Nyx. We need to remain undetected as long as possible. I'm hoping that once we get in, so long as we don't make ourselves obvious we might be able to buy enough time to get to the central hive. One we get to the central hive we upload the virus. Once the virus is uploaded then that's where booms over there," she nodded in the direction of Andi and Chavez," come in. Announce our presence, loud and proud. Hurt them from the inside. We need them to start regenerating so the virus can start self modulating. The more they regenerate, the faster the virus will spread to other ships in the area. Then we get the hell out of there."

"Sounds good to me." Hailey agreed, "Possible refinement? We break off a team to go wreak havoc moving away from the central nexus? Keep them looking in that direction."

"Only once the virus has been deployed, unless it becomes life or death urgent," Sabrina replied. "The virus is going to be more effective if their regeneration sequences are dormant when they're uploaded."

"Even if we only target drones and other 'personnel'?" Hailey asked.

"They are all interlinked," Sabrina explained. "I don't know how to explain it, but the creatures, the ships, the hives, they are all interlinked. They all know what's going everywhere at any given time. The longer they don't know we are there, the better."

"Damn, and we don't have a starship to make a really big distraction for us on the outside as we go in. Where's a starship when you need one?" Hailey did give off a laugh, because it was anathema to Raider teams to have something that big 'knocking on the door' as it were, it just drew too much attention that SOMEONE was there. "We'll just have to keep as covert as we possibly can, then."

Andi grinned at Hailey as she made her quip. "It's all good, we don't need a starship to announce our presence. When the Colonel gives the word I'll make sure they know we're here." She patted the small carefully packed backpack at her feet.

"Fifteen minutes until intercept!" came the shout from the front.

Sabrina glanced around the small gathering and offered a wan smile. "Well, I guess this is it. Everyone make sure you're ready for transport. Leave weapons disabled until we're inside the hive. Stay quiet, stay smart, stay safe and stay alive."


=/\=


Sabrina Hunter
Filler Inner of Places
USS Icarus

Major Hailey Weston
Marine CO
USS Wellington

Staff Sergeant Andromeda Dreik
Marine
USS Wellington

Gunnery Sergeant Ami Rori
Marine
USS Wellington

Staff Sergeant Nyx'e'Trixe Valentine
Marine
USS Wellington