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Clipping Hermes' Wings; Cpt_Bonkers & Zrooper
Topic Started: Aug 18 2014, 01:12 PM (199 Views)
Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
Nos Astra, Illium
Small Apartment just off the Spaceport
1300 hours

Alex stared at the map of the area and critical details of the operation projected in the air. He'd gone over everything a dozen times in his head already. It wasn't a perfect plan. No plan was; there were always too many variables to account for. But it was a good plan. He'd taken into consideration all the likeliest scenarios that could occur and constructed plans accordingly. He'd also prepared several contingency plans for if and when things went wrong. Everything was as prepared as it could be and he was ready. Hopefully the people he was supposed to execute the plan with were too.

The mission objective was relatively simple: capture the person codenamed Hermes, the director logistics and communications of the 'Old Gods' or whatever name the splinter group was going by these days. However in actuality the job was nothing but simple. These people were well well funded, surprisingly so, and well connected so this Hermes fellow was going to be well protected and they only had a small window of opportunity here. Hermes was on Illium to negotiate some deal with a Shadow Broker rep after which he would disappear back to where ever he went to do his stuff and Alex didn't know if they'd get another chance at this.

He'd set up the 'base' at an apartment few blocks away from the critical area. They'd brief there and torch the place once they set out, hopefully catch the bastard and disappear to one of the several new Cerberus safehouses Alex had set up. From there Hermes could be transported to a more secure location where he could be interrogated thoroughly. A man in his position was bound to know enough secrets of the organization to finally begin dismantling it and getting back that clone thingy Cerbanttes was so hyped about. Alex personally didn't like the idea behind it, both because it was basically a license to get sloppy as well because of the philosophical questions it raised. Was the clone waking up really you or someone who thought he was you?

Alex didn't do sloppy. Even now he was dressed for war. His matte dark gray custom medium armor lacked any insignia and most of all covered his face completely. Even if the other two members of the council liked to show their faces, Alex preferred to remain faceless shadow in the background. That was his home field, his element. Very few could touch him in there. So that was where he was going to stay, controlling the eyes and ears of the three headed dog.

"Is everybody ready to begin?" he asked from the operatives gathered in the apartment, his voice distorted by the helmets voice module. It was a classy one, not one of those demonic kidnapper modules. This simply made his voice sound different from his normal without making it sound ridiculous.

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Zrooper
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Soma was tense, to say the least. Her first mission for Cerberus since she had joined Yuri, of course an extermination mission. Yuri was still in the Sol system, so it was up to Soma to represent her cell in this operation.
So far the intelligence officer who was leading the raid hadn't shown his face, and Soma happily followed that example. Not that it was her idea, it was protocol for Thanatos operatives never to reveal their faces to Cerberus, apart from Yuri who usually represented them to the others. Yuri had assured her that this mission was vital to their own interests as well - these 'Old Gods' militants were not predicted to be friendly towards their Haven.
Soma had brought three other Phantoms with her - Bleys, Eric and Rinaldo. Every one of them wore pitch-black armor that was very similar to a regular Phantom's armor except for slightly different trimming/fitting and the addition of a bright red light on their face in the shape of a gaping, jagged mouth. There was nothing to distinguish Soma from the others except that she was the only female among them, no rank markings.
"I want a summary of our assault force." she said. Her voice was also modulated, much heavier than the Intelligence officer (whose codename she had missed), slightly deeper than the usual Phantom modulation. "In combat we will eliminate anyone outside of what is identified to us here, otherwise we would be vulnerable to IFF hacks. Thanatos has brought four Phantoms, myself included."
She gestured at her squad and identified Bleys, Eric, Rinaldo and herself as "Seraph, Throne, Virtue, and Meta." They were standard code names they used on these operations, not necessarily the same person going by the same name each time, but the leader was always called 'Meta'.
Her Phantoms just nodded as she acknowledged them, no salute or other word forthcoming. Ranks in Thanatos were enforced by will rather than discipline, so they didn't perform such formalities. They knew who was in charge between themselves, and they all trusted one another. The only one who was regarded differently was Yuri, who Soma had noticed was held in almost reverence amongst them. She had mentioned it once, and found that Yuri was aware of it and thoroughly annoyed by it.
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
Alex hadn't been too keen on involving the military wing of Cerberus in this operation, but the other councilors had insisted on including them. They had a valid point; this operation was far too crucial to completely trust on mercenary labor and the intelligence section couldn't remove enough operatives from the field to muster the required manpower. Thus the soldiers got to be involved. And of course the Tankbred had sent her private guard.

"Just don't shoot anyone in a Blue Suns uniform or anyone in this room right now." Alex replied gesturing towards the five other operatives in the room from the Constellation cell, though cell probably wasn't the right word for it. There was no HQ for the cell, the members didn't know each other apart from codenames and were stationed in key locations around the Galaxy. Usually they operated alone but once in a while it was necessary to round them up for an op like this. Draco, Scorpio, Corvus, Carina and Gemini, all dressed in whatever suited them the best. Alex wasn't big on uniformity when it came to equipment. He trusted his operatives to pick the best equipment for them personally. "That's Orion, Draco, Scorpio, Corvus, Carina and Gemini."

Of course, no matter how good Constellation or Thanatos were, they weren't enough numberwise, at least not for an op like this. They were going to kidnap a member of wealthy organization from the street the middle of the day while he was escorted by a sizable retinue of armed and well trained bodyguards. You couldn't pull that off with 10 guys alone. So Alex had hired a platoon of Blue Suns to cut the target off of his way off the planet and chase him and his goons into an environment where Alex could control their movements. Namely a shuttle hangar nearby.

"Any more questions before I go over the plan?"
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Zrooper
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"Just don't shoot anyone in a Blue Suns uniform or anyone in this room right now."

"So long as the Suns don't step over their bounds." Soma replied. "I don't trust them, and I don't intend to turn my back on them."
Soma intentionally made the first part sound more threatening than she actually meant. Yuri's instructions had been clear, that to Cerberus Thanatos must be a cold-hearted and vicious cell, lethally efficient and not to be crossed.
Of course, on their other kind of missions they acted differently, compassionate and merciful, but still ruthlessly efficient.
She did find it amusing that they were cooperating with the Constellation Cell using codenames based on another kind of celestial beings.
"Continue." she said. She would listen to the plan, but she wouldn't withhold her judgement on it. Thanatos and pride must go hand-in-hand, Yuri had said. Respect must be earned and not given lightly.
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
Alex ignored the military bravado and projected the map into the air at the middle of the room where everyone had good view of the operational area. It was a fairly central location with score of bystanders and other traffic. If Hermes hadn't been so well protected Alex would've went with the good old drive next to the target, get out, put a hood on the targets head and drag him off screaming and kicking into the car. Simple and effective, if a bit crude. However Alex's source told that Hermes was moving with twenty men, minimum and wasn't going stay on Illium any longer than it took to have a dinner. That basically meant that subtlety was out of the window.

"Alright. The target known currently only as Hermes will dock here" he said, highlighting the spaceport on the map. "in about two hours. From there he and his company will proceed towards this hotel here where Hermes is supposed to meet a representative of Shadow Broker to hammer out some sort of deal. However in order to get there they will have to board a skycar, which will be waiting at this platform here."

"Once they cross this line here, our tech team will disrupt the local communications for the next fifteen minutes and the Blue Suns will move in and cut them off of the spaceport and skycar platform. They will then drive them through this rote, forcing them to take cover in this shuttle hangar, where we will be waiting for them. We'll eliminate what's left of Hermes' bodyguards and extract the target to safe location where the Intelligence will begin interrogating him."
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Zrooper
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Soma nodded. It was a good plan, as expected of the Constellation cell. They definitely had to block the enemy from making deals with the Shadow Broker; Cerberus was in no shape to fight a turf war with his network on top of these Old Gods people.
"What are their expected forces and armaments?" she asked. "That would heavily influence our approach and combat strategy."
She pointed to the area around the ambush site. "A communications jam is good, but if something flashy like so much a grenade goes off then law enforcement would become an issue. We must create a decoy beforehand to make sure the police or military isn't close enough to intervene, and watch our own operation length. A single gunship could prove fatal to many of you, not that I care much if the Suns take the fall for us; it would be a liability for a member of your cell to be arrested. We must leave no trace of our being there, not even a corpse. Illium forces might not be much of a hinderance in the future, but the Shadow Broker might start sabotaging Cerberus out of spite for a missed business deal."
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
"We don't have to worry about the local military. The nearest base is twenty clicks away so they won't popping for a surprise visit no matter what we do." The local military generally didn't intervene with things happening in the city unless the cops were completely unable to control a situation. A fire fight in the streets didn't really fall into that category unless it ballooned into a riot. And even if they for some reason took interest in this incident their combined response and travel time was too long for them to be a likely threat for the operation. Unless of course the Cerberus teams somehow spent an hour on the mission.

"The local law enforcement on the other hand will likely prove to be problem if the operation runs past twenty minutes marker. Unfortunately there is little we can do to avoid it. Any large enough distraction to tie up them in mass is also large enough to scare off Hermes. We've created an artificial gridlock around the operational area and bribed a guy in local dispatch service to tell the cops to avoid the area due to rush hour, but that is about all we can do without raising too much attention."
he continued. Both Hermes and the Shadow Broker operative he was supposed to meet here were no doubt observing things around their planned meeting place with a keen eye to make sure nothing fishy was going on. A jammed flight lane or two might raise an eye brow but alone were unlikely to alarm them.

"And don't worry about any of my men getting captured. They won't. Just concentrate on making sure that none of your men fuck up my operation. " Alex had made sure that each of the Constellation operatives taking part in the operation had no existing file in the Cerberus files, had never in anyway been connected to Cerberus and any of its fronts or sympathizer groups like the terra firma. Non of them wore any Cerberus insignia either and neither did Alex. Plus they all had suicide on capture orders they were prepared to follow in case they were taken by Shadow Broker's forces. With Illium police they just had to hold tight and keep their mouth shut for long enough to be extracted by a hired third party.
Edited by Cpt_Bonkers, Aug 22 2014, 03:31 PM.
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Zrooper
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Of course, Soma wasn't at all worried about one of her squad being captured. She had fought beside them several times, learned to trust them and their skills. They all had a shared background, the burden of their birth, and thus they could understand each other much better than another group over the same time span. She wasn't very worried about any of the Constellation Cell being captured either, not because she trusted them but because she would kill them before they had a chance to test their 'kill on capture' orders' efficiency. Obviously he had only half-listened to her - all it took was a grenade going off to attract police, and once they saw the size of the firefight they'd probably call every SWAT team in the city to intervene. He might be right about the need to avoid tipping off the enemy, but Soma thought he underestimated the police - the Illium police force was full of Reaper-war veterans who had fought the invading machines street-by-street, biotic and firearm experts. They couldn't fight off both them and the Old Gods forces, let alone that any police dispatch would reach the Shadow Broker before they could say 'mouse'.
"We trust in each other, Orion. They are my brothers-in-arms, and that term carries much weight for us." Soma retorted. It was an inside joke, seeing as they were all tank-bred they were as close to being siblings as they could get, not counting cloning. "We do not fail, I only hope your operation will work."
Soma was willing to bet that if this fails for whatever reason, this will become 'our' operation, but only if it fails of course.
"Considering the time frame, it would be best if you engage their forces and we skirt around and ambush Hermes, take him out quickly. Assassination is one of our specialties."
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
The Thanatos leader didn't sound satisfied but Alex didn't particularly care. He'd taken every possible precaution against the police that he could risk without alarming The Old Gods or the Shadow Broker. He'd considered bribing couple of ranking cops to look the other way in case a report about a firefight came in, but a move like that would have immediately tipped off the opposition. So he'd minimized the police presence the area and made sure that no one except the Suns and Cerberus teams could communicate within about one click of the operational area. And since the objective was to capture the target, not kill him (unless they for some reason passed the thirty minute marker, then the objective changed into elimination), Alex had made sure that the Blue Suns didn't carry any weapons they could use to accidentally kill the target, like grenades and heavy weapons. All they were supposed to do was to kill the guys in armor and keep Hermes moving towards the trap.

The Old Gods wouldn't be carrying any explosives either. After all, their job was to keep Hermes alive and Hermes was going to be wearing a three piece suit instead of full body armor, just like all VIPs did when on their way to an important meeting, so anything that created shrapnel was out of question. That was why Alex also knew that they would be forced to keep moving instead of hunkering down behind some cafe tables and waiting for reinforcements. When your protectee isn't armored you need to get solid wall between him and gunfire. And when every cover is blocked by armed men you had to go with the path of least resistance in this case the route Alex had selected for them which led to the shuttle hangar.

"Bully for you." he replied dryly to her comment about Thanatos' specialization. He was hardly impressed considering his profession before re-joining Cerberus and even still occasionally to maintain his old reputation. Plus since every member of the Constellation cell also specialized in killing people who were proving to be problematic without being captured it wasn't that impressive. "But since we want him alive that's bit beside the point. You do remember that the objective of this mission is to gain information into the Old Gods operations and organization by capturing their Logistics and Communications Chief, don't you?" he continued, his voice void of sarcasm. He was just confirming the orders were understood.
Edited by Cpt_Bonkers, Aug 23 2014, 03:04 PM.
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Zrooper
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"The target won't be unprotected, even in the firefight such a strategically important person will have bodyguards." Soma countered, though she had just for a moment gotten mixed up. Thanatos did usually assassinate rather than interrogate, though in theory they were capable of it. "We'll eliminate the guards and get him away before the rest of their forces even notice he's missing."
She did find Orion's attitude a bit amusing, since it was pretty much how Yuri had described dealings between individual specialist cells. Last time Som was in Cerberus she had been only a child, so to speak, so she hadn't been aware of such matters. Now, she realized it was exactly like Yuri had said. Every Cell leader condescends over the other, vying for the nonexistent hierarchy in the cell organization.
Of course, Yuri had instructed Soma to play that game herself, for appearance's sake.
"I will take only my squad, but after it's over we'll transfer the prisoner to you for interrogation. We don't much care what happens with him after that, not our concern when the mission's over."
Of course Soma also had her own fallbacks. Cerberus could not be trusted, and they must be on guard at all times for betrayal. Therefore Soma had undeclared backup, two Nemesis snipers who will hide at a distance and intervene only if necessary. It seemed to Soma to be needlessly complicated for a plan to capture or kill her, but better safe than dead. Or worse, indoctrinated.
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
"We'll go with the plan we've prepared. Once they get inside the hangar we will already be in perfect flanking positions so no additional maneuvering is required to get the upper hand over the target." by the time Hermes and his protection detail would reach the shuttle hangar they would have by Alex estimate already lost 20-30% of their initial numbers and the remaining forces would have already expended several heat clips trying to fend off the Blue Suns attack that would continue into their rear once they entered, keeping them distracted. Their shields would also be low, some might even be wounded. There was no need for risky flanking moves when you could set a trap in such a way that you already were you wished to be in relation to your target's position.

Plus he didn't fully trust the Thanatos Cell. Sure they had an efficient reputation but Alex didn't trust anyone he didn't have much hold over. It was an attitude that had kept him alive in the cut-throat underworld of Terminus Systems and away from the hands of Spectres and alike for decades. It was one of the reasons he never showed his face either at least in a way that would connect his face to Orion. Currently only two members of the organization knew him without his helmet on and both of them knew that sharing that privileged intel with anyone would cost them and Cerberus dearly. This didn't mean that Alex was planning on betraying the Cerberus but he did have a plan in case it decided to betray him. They'd done it once before so whose to say they wouldn't try it again.

"Thanatos will set up here and here where the crates and shuttles provide best possible cover for you tactics and combat style. Gemini and Scorpio will set up on this catwalk here where they have the best vantage point to provide sniper support. Rest of the Constellation will be with me here where we can move in and catch them in a four direction killbox. And I know that none of you will miss and accidentally hit Hermers because I know Constellation doesn't hit anything but the target they're aiming and I've heard that Thanatos believes in the same doctrine."

Alex had spent a good while selecting the optimal positions for the Operatives. He'd read through every report, training manual or anything that gave insight to the strengths of the operatives taking part in the mission to make sure they had the best possible positions and was quite satisfied with the results. The Cerberus had the best cover and could shoot at the target without having to worry about shooting each other. And when the doors to outside would clamp down with fire seals on there would be no where for the Hermes run. He might even surrender in an effort to spare the lives of his men.
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Soma looked at the battle plan, and mentally shook her head. Orion was thinking in two-dimensions. There was always another flanking position.
"It would be better for us to wait either on the ceiling of the hangar or on top of something else high, that way we could drop on them and take them further by surprise. My squad will kill the bodyguards and I will disable and extract the target."
Quick and efficient was the Thanatos combat philosophy. Why should they wade through opposition to a target that's bracing for them when it could be over in two seconds flat? Not that bracing would do much good, it would just make things a bit messier for him.
"We would be cloaked, obviously. There's no way they could detect us, not even with thermal scanners."
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
"The roof's too high to come down from without aid and anything you could use to slow the descent the enemy would spot in an instant, cloak or no cloak, and there are no other suitable high grounds in the hangar for a drop attack. Besides, these aren't some rookies out of a boot camp. Some of them will be keeping an eye on the roof, even if they're being fired at, and they'll bee looking for anything out of the ordinary be it a biotic glow or a digital distortion of a cloak in use."

The roof was high enough to deadly, or at the very least bone crushing, if dropped without something to slow the fall, even if dropped on something human shaped, and everything that could be used to slow the fall (ropes, thrusters or biotics) would be glaringly obvious to trained eye or well equipped helmet's visor even if the people falling were themselves cloaked. Not that cloaking made anyone invisible; it was just a damn good camouflage.

"Also, even if you manage to reach the floor without being shredded by the enemy you won't be able to kill all of the men guarding Hermes. They'll be close quarters specialists, just like you and once you get within arms reach the Constellation can no longer provide effective support fire without risking hitting you." When it came to shooting targets engaged in close quarters combat with friendlies it was no longer a matter accuracy, but timing. You could kill the person you were aiming for and still wound an ally just because the bullet went through something or someone. "Remember these guys used to be in the Cerberus, so it's more than probable that the guys protecting Hermes are people equipped with top of the line Cerberus upgrades. We only have an estimation on their numbers, twenty to forty men, but we know they're among the best the Old Gods got. After all, Hermes is a key member of their organization not some easily expendable junior clerk. I wouldn't be surprised if they had couple of Phoenixes and Phantoms guarding his ass."

"The prepared plan provides the maximum efficiency of firepower and mobility with the necessary flexibility to change our approach if things do not go as expected. Your suggestion places everything on one card when there is no need to do so." he finished calmly. Alex wasn't gambling man when there was no apparent need for it. The plan he had prepared was a good one that could be modified on the fly if need be and would work. And if it didn't due to some unforeseen circumstances or variables he had a bunch of plan Bs to implement.
Edited by Cpt_Bonkers, Aug 27 2014, 12:14 AM.
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Zrooper
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Soma clenched her teeth but said nothing. Phoenixes and Phantoms could be identified quickly and eliminated before they knew what hit them. Taking them on otherwise would be less efficient, which was a term that carried significant force in Thanatos.
As for reaching the floor safely, they could use drop-boots together with their implants, and their cloak was a bit better than Cerberus' usual model. Still, there was no point going into an extended ego battle with Orion. Yuri might think that preferable, but Soma was already getting tired of it.
"Fine, we'll do it your way." she said. "But tactics are just one part of victory, there's also real-time strategy and we should not underestimate their's."
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
Alex was about to respond, when his comm let out a beep signaling an incoming transmission. "Just a moment. What now?" he demanded from Oracle, their overwatch. He wasn't supposed to contact them without good reason before the beginning of the mission so as not to compromise the location.

"You're compromised. Six Kodiaks without markings just converged at your location. Three went to the roof and three on ground level and people are pouring out of themzzzzrrrrr...an't hearrrzzzzat............." came the Oracle's response, but it quickly turned into static.

"Oracle! Come in!" he tried but no answer came. Not from Oracle at least. "I'm sorry but Oracle can't get to the phone right now. Shall I take a message?" an unfamiliar female voice mocked over the comm. Alex didn't have to know the voice to know who it was. He recognized the style from the investigations and it wasn't a good thing. Athena. Fuck. Off all the Old God officers Alex knew by codename his counterpart in the Cerberus splinter worried him the most. She was highly intelligent, ruthless and obviously well connected and funded. The only weakness Alex knew she possessed was that she liked gloating but she usually didn't go over board with it. If she was running this counter-op Alex and co. needed to get moving five minutes ago.

"Okay the shit just hit the fan. Old Gods know we're here and are coming down hard with Athena in the helm. Time to move out." they couldn't stay in the apartment, not if they didn't want to die slowly. Sure they could hold out for a while but in the end simple numbers would kill them. If each of those Kodiaks was in full load that meant that about seventy two Old God troopers and who knew what else were coming down to make a very anti-social house call. Their first priority was to get out of the building and then figure out a way to shake off their tail.

"We can't go through them, that'd be suicide. We'll have to get to the room 458. It has an old sealed off ventilation shaft we can use to reach the ground floor. From there we can try to find and commandeer a vehicle." The Old Gods might have somehow managed to find out about the operation and where they were holed up but they couldn't know about the shaft. Alex had never mentioned it to anyone during the planning or talked about it over the comm. He always preferred to keep couple of cards in his sleeve.

He didn't know how or from whom the Old Gods had learned about this op Alex fully intended to live long enough to find out and fry that bastard in an Eezo Core.
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Adrenaline rushed through Soma's body as she heard the news.
Ambush, that meant someone had betrayed them. Obviously not from Thanatos, but now wasn't the time to begin a witch hunt.
"Virtue and Throne, go right now and set up decoys in the adjacent rooms and corridors. Stay out of sight, do not engage." she ordered, and her men obeyed without so much as a salute or an acknowledgement.
"Seraph, run ahead of us and make sure the exit is clear." she ordered. Seraph was the fastest runner, having more advanced leg implants than the rest of them. He would be able to get ahead quickly and help avoid a double-ambush.
"Deus, Machina, we've got enemies en-route to our location. We've been burnt." she then commanded her hidden backup. "Stay hidden, report back to me with their encirclement formation. Meta out."
She turned to Orion and said "I'll take point, staying five meters ahead of you with cloak on. Once we're on the ground floor we regroup and focus all our force on breaking out of the likely encirclement. We must prepare for the possibility that this was pre-coordinate with the Shadow Broker and all local surveillance will be used against us."
She drew her monomolecular blade. "Let's go!" and disappeared from sight.
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
Shadow Broker being involved was certainly a possibility, though Alex did find it unlikely. Even if there was a partnership going on between them and the Old Gods it would be unlikely the Old Gods would trust the Shadow Broker access to the Cerberus' chief of intelligence and the research materiel that was Thanatos cell. Local surveillance was going to be used against them though. Athena didn't Shadow Broker for that. Anything that wasn't protected by a military grade firewalls and encryption algorithms she could take over in a blink of an eye.

He took out his Mattock and proceeded out into the hallway, Constellation spreading out behind him, and activated every counter measure he had prepared. He clamped down the fire seals on every stairways door and deactivated the elevators. It wasn't going to hold them off forever but it was at least going to buy them some time to reach their target. Their prospects still appeared bleak, even if they managed to get out of the building. They were vastly out numbered, had their communications cut off and lacked the air support the enemy obviously had. Except maybe not all their lines of communication were cut. They still had a connection to the extranet.

Granted it wasn't much, but it allowed some communication between them and possibly with allied groups. However there weren't that many of them near them. There were number of Cerberus operatives but mobilizing them would have compromised their covers and would have taken too long any way. The Blue Suns were near of course but Alex no longer trusted their loyalties. More than likely the Old Gods had paid them off. But maybe there were someone who always paid his debts and owed Alex one. Eidolon. "Calling in that favor you owe. Need extraction where I saved your ass. Reply if in Nos Astra." he typed in and sent. Few seconds later he received a reply. "Coming. ETA 10 ."

"I got us an extraction and reinforcements. We just have to make it to Hotel Merapis. It's half a kilometer west from where we come out, mostly covered walkways all the way." he informed the whole team in the closed short range communication network to lessen the chances of the enemy overhearing. It wasn't a perfect plan but at least it was one. The covered nature of the walkways would offer some cover against enemy aircraft and pedestrian traffic would hopefully deter the enemy from using their brutalest approach. Of course if they could pass it off as CAT9 or similar op then they could just mow through the crowd and have laugh at it.

"There it is, room 458. If the owners are at home and resist kill them. We don't need witnesses pointing in the direction we went."
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Soma didn't need to be told that. Her blood pulsed, would she really be able to murder innocents for this mission? This was exactly what she had wanted to avoid!
She held that thought back as she pressed against the door, applying a lockpicking gadget to the panel which quickly unlocked the low-security system. She pushed inside quickly, and found nobody there.
Lucky. She thought to herself. I shouldn't rely on such luck always saving my soul...
She quickly uncovered the ventilation shaft hatch and went down, feet first, using biotics to control her speed.
"Meta, you've got agents converging on your position from all sides. They're in civilian clothing but they're carrying hidden weapons. Some of them have Eclipse tattoos.."
Soma clenched her jaw - more mercs, and it wasn't like those damn Suns could be trusted either.
"Roger, we're going out to the west from the ground floor." she reported. "When we exit take out the lookouts on our side and cover us for twenty seconds, then extract and take up positions close to Hotel Merapis. This could still be a trap."
Edited by Zrooper, Sep 6 2014, 01:21 PM.
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
Alex followed the others down the ventilation shaft, wrapping himself in an mass lowering biotic field to slow down the fall, but not before he set up a bunch of grenades to go of when the door to the apartment was opened the next time. Hopefully that would kill couple of the hostiles if they tried to enter the apartment. He made a solid landing, just to catch the heads up about the Eclipse operatives.

He pulled up the map of the surrounding area on his helmet's HUD and quickly assessed the best route to push through a possible enemy encirclement. Heading north, going up a level and then turning to west and dropping to the walkway below. Going directly west was the fastest route but if there were Eclipse approaching, the west route became risky. It had a bottleneck that could turn out to be lethal if they got bogged down into a fire fight. South on the other hand was the scenic route and so the last choice.

"We'll head north, go up a level, take west and drop back on the route to Merapis." Alex said keeping his biotics ready in case he needed to lob some people around. "When we get out, Draco'll take point. He's a vanguard. You phantoms move in close behind and make sure that the opening he makes stays open while the rest of us catch up and cover your rear."
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Zrooper
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"Acknowledged." Soma replied to Orion, and then switched channels. "Deus, Machina, we're leaving from the north on an erratic route. Take out the sentries on the west as planned and set up some decoys before you leave to keep them occupied before we break through. Afterwards stay updated via Ghostwheel." she ordered, referring to Thanatos' custom crypto-communication system. As well as being heavily encrypted and transmitted almost solely by QEC, they borrowed an old Earth army trick and used a secret language within it. It was based around similar principles of Cerberus Battle Language, sounding close enough to suggest it as a root, but in fact it was completely distinct.
"Understood, Meta."
Soma and her phantoms moved quickly into formation behind Draco, blades out but cloaked and out of sight. If anyone engaged the vanguard they'd get far more than they bargained with, and wouldn't live to regret that decision.
Edited by Zrooper, Oct 10 2014, 10:55 AM.
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Cpt_Bonkers
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El Capitan!
The Phantoms and Draco did good job at making a route for the rest of the group. They were still facing Eclipse in civies, so not exactly a hard wall to crack but at least their aim was decent. Good for the Cerberus team, they were better. Alex kept his aim steady and every time Eclipse merc made the mistake of peeking out of cover he or she received a slug between their eyes or were hoisted in the air by Alex's biotics. Or rather yanked off the walkway and into an express lane to planet's surface.

The main force of the enemy was still on the floor their HQ had been situated on but were already making their way down some by steps and some by that same ventilation duct. Soon they'd be in prime position to give chase. Likely more were on their way to cut them off ahead should Athena figure out where they were headed which was likely given her intelligence. But if Alex and the others kept up their current pace, they at least minimized the time they would have to set up positions.

"Left here!" Alex shouted once they reached the upper level. "Then keep straight until you see the billboard advertising Azure. That's where we jump back down."
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Zrooper
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"Acknowledged." Soam repeated, turning left as instructed. In a corner of her HUD she saw her squadmate's progress, so far unimpeded.
Soma pulled a device from her belt and threw it sideways to the bottom level walkway. It immediately rolled sideways into cover and began projecting a decoy Phantom hiding there, complete with semi-quiet Battle Language chirps. At the very least it'll make them hesitate, at best divert a few soldiers to check it out.

"Virtue, split off and run interference." Soma ordered. "See that Asari statue? Cut it up in front of the civvies, draw attention, shoot a few windows. Since they're chasing us it's to our advantage if police arrive and interfere. Top priority is survival: leave before the Olds catch up to you, but mark a trail to distract them before rejoining us."
"Roger, Meta." he replied, moving off and breaking his cloak some distance away, making lots of noise and waving his blade causing the populace to panic and run about. A few opened omnitools and called police, but most ran for their lives, quite a few in the direction the Cerberus group had come from. Doubtless this will impede the pursuers.
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