Mass Effect: Going Dark

[rhoenix]

The aerogel screen at the center of the room alit, showing Spectre Commander Shepard once again, and the current station time of 0806. "Team Three is done with their trial. Team One, you are next - report to the training area by following the flashing hallway lights from your meeting room. As for the remaining teams, I suggest you work on planning."

The aerogel screen went dark once again.

[JD196]

The aerogel screen at the center of the room alit, showing Spectre Commander Shepard once again, and the current station time of 0806. "Team Three is done with their trial. Team One, you are next - report to the training area by following the flashing hallway lights from your meeting room. As for the remaining teams, I suggest you work on planning."

The aerogel screen went dark once again.

"That was lucky." Tallos breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay so we need a final plan. We set up a sniper perch overlooking the base, and take out the perimeter guards. Once there gone we rush in and Many can hack the cameras allowing us to figure out the best place to breach. Jager can plant the charges at one of the internal connections. Then Stars can put a barrier up to protect the room we're not breaching."

Tallos nodded to his teammates, "Once in we clear the rooms one by one. The scientists are priority but take care to salvage any research materials. Once the base is secure, we fit the scientists with rebreathers and if possible activate the defense weapons before proceeding to the evac zone."

[rhoenix]

"It's beginning to sound like we need to have smaller, specialized squads within our team, for coordination if nothing else," Sidonis said, drumming his talons on the table. "For the different tasks at hand that need to be handled simultaneously, and to be agile and responsive in case of surprises."

[frigidmagi]

Lysander looked at the map of the base again and shook his head.

"Breaching the internal connection puts us in a narrow space where we can be attacked from two directions or cut off. Better to breach an outer wall close to an connection. Let's us get to the connection and take control of it and have an opening worth using." He said.

[White Haven]

Iona's eyes narrowed slightly, frowning in thought and listening to the plans swirling into shape around her. Finally, she spoke up again, plucking a point in need of clarification out of the mass, "Tallos. I thought the idea was for Sings-to-Stars to hold a barrier over the breach itself so the scientists don't have a suffocation timetable to work with? If you need a second barrier for tactical reasons, I'll see what I can do on that score. I think I'd be of more use in an infiltration role, but if the plan calls for multiple biotic shields, that's that."

[frigidmagi]

"Okay let's get this sorted. Who is hacking the doors inside? Who is gonna eliminate the guards while I plant the charge? Who is doing the recon to find out where the hostages are? Most of us should be at the breach to hit when it blows. We need to be right on the heels of the explosion. Remember once that charge is planted, it's all violence and speed. We need to hammer them down before they can realize what's happening. Hacking the doors will help keep them isolated, but if they got one guy who thinks like me, they'll throw on mask and blow the doors to get at us. So who is the hacker? Who are the ninjas?" Lysander asked.

[White Haven]

"Ninja, unless I'm needed for barrier duty," Iona raised a finger, her lips quirking into a crooked smile as they stretched around the word 'ninja.' She's spent enough time around humans to understand the reference, but still, it amused her.

[rhoenix]

The aerogel display lit up again a short time later, showing the station time of 0827, and Spectre Commander Shepard, with a somewhat dour expression on her face. "Team One is now done with their trial. Team Five, you are next - report to the training area by following the flashing hallway lights from your meeting room. Teams Two and Four, make use of the extra time you have to expect the unexpected, and plan for it."

The aerogel screen went dark once again.

[Sabre72]

Who are the ninjas?" Lysander asked.

Junko raised a hand "Scout Ninja present."

[Cynical Cat]

"Lysander should plant the charge," said Jager. "He's the engineer. I can scout, provide cover, or handle close quarters as needed."

[Soleimon Berserker]

"Same thing for me, ship to ship boarding or urban combat are my forte, so I'll allow all of you to come up with the plan for this one. I'll stick to providing cover and close quarters when we get inside, just point and it dies."

The Quarian's shrug seemed nonchalant, however on the inside he'd grown a bit worried about his prospects, he wasn't used to combat planet side and this would be his first time doing so in any sort of wilderness.

'Once this is over i'm gonna see about getting someone here to train me, makes more sense than walking into a situation blind like this....Damn it I feel like an amateur!'

Rising from his chair the Quarian biotic moved toward the door before stopping to glance over his shoulder at the others, "Nevertheless, looks like we're up, we'll have to finish this planning session while we walk." S

Stepping through the door he glanced at the lights in the hallway he sighed. 'Welp...here we go.'

[White Haven]

Iona gathered her armour's lightweight helmet up under one arm and gestured theatrically at the door to the briefing room. With exactly the right blend of dry, wry humour that she picked up from her Salarian follower, she simply said, "Our chariot awaits. For given values of 'chariot' that fail to include wheels."

[rhoenix]

As the people of Team Five neared the training area, they saw a turian seated before the control booth, with Spectre Commander Shepard standing to his left, and a large krogan with a scar across his face standing to his right.

"Team Five," Shepard said as she looked at them, "step into the training room, and into the shuttle waiting for your team. Your will be taken via shuttle planetside, and when the shuttle doors open, your trial begins," she said crisply, before returning her attention to the screens. "Step inside when you're all ready."

The krogan looked at the team, and most of those gathered would recognize the scarred visage of Urdnot Wrex, the old, vicious, and canny Clan Leader for Urdnot, and who traveled with Shepard a few years ago to help her catch Saren. He nodded once to the team. "Good luck, kids. Tallos, if you screw this up and make me look bad for recommending you, I'll tether you to my shuttle for the ride home."

With that, the training area door sirens began to flash, and the massive doors opened to reveal a shuttle, sitting with its doors opened.

[Soleimon Berserker]

Wincing slightly behind his mask, Sol grinned before taking a step back to nudge Tallos in the ribs with a wide grin, his brow jumping up and down in comedy.

"I'm almost glad the Flotilla decided to take up my recommendation now, i'd hate to have that hanging over me."

[Sabre72]

Junko saw , Shepard, Garrus, Wrex all in the control both , she shook with confidence, that the alliance made the right choice in sending her here. She never doubted the alliances judgment, however she began to feel very small, with Shepard, Garrus, and Wrex in sight.

After Shepard spoke, Junko saluted to Shepard, then marched off into the the shuttle, in her medium N7 armor and her harpy pistol, she remembered to bring her cloaking unit as well, which is on loan from the N7 armory.

[SirNitram]

Many stalked forward, holding it's Widow sniper rifle. It would be operating as a jammer/disruptor, but if that was the best use of it's skills, it would do so well.

[White Haven]

Iona simply gave the troika a nod before stepping towards the waiting 'shuttlecraft' just inside the training room, reaching up and lowering her suit's narrowly-fitted helmet into place. As the collar settled into place and locked with a whisper of sliding polymer, her dark grey armoured form ceased to be that of an asari, friendly, approachable, albeit prickly. Lacking that soft-looking blue face, all that could be easily determined was that the wearer was female, humanoid, and not Salarian, Batarian, or any of the other species with outlying body shapes. In short...

Business time.

She stepped into the shuttle and then paused, drawing her pistol and starting to check it out. With a visible wince, she stepped aside, clearing the hatch for the team she's unaccustomed to working with to board the craft. That done, and with the helmet hiding a sheepish smirk, she went back to checking out her pistol before performing the same checks on the submachine gun that hung opposite it. She busied herself with systems checks, suit integrity, stealth field functionality, so on and so forth, until the rest of the team had boarded the shuttle, at which point she instructed her armour's com systems to link into the Team Five tactical net and spoke quietly, "Iona, tacnet check."

Of course normally the only other people on that net were either snipers or recovery teams, but that's neither here nor there.

[General Havoc]

Shaddai took its time, its lens-eye-head studying every element of the shuttle before finally stepping onto it. As during the planning session, the protoform said nothing, gave no overt indication of what was on its collective minds.

Or did it?

Its lens-eye was fixed on the Creator. That much was hardly new. But the head flaps around the Geth's eye seemed to be clicking up and down in rhythm, belying the frantic debate that was transpiring within its labyrinthine subprocesses. Several times, it seemed to be on the verge of speaking, and several times it thought better of doing so. But finally, at length, Shaddai stepped up next to the Quarian, and addressed it in the eternal monotone that was the voice of all Geth.

"Sol'Amon-Nar-Tolshek-Creator," said the Geth, rattling the name off as though it were nothing at all. "Please excuse us if we are interrupting your preferred pre-conflict initialization procedures. But we wished to ask a question. Has the crea -" the Geth paused, giving every sign of visible hesitation, and started again. "Have you engaged in actions similar to this proposed simulation previously?"

[Soleimon Berserker]

Feeling someone approach his side, Sol'Amon looked up from his sub-machine gun only to see Shaddai. The Geth seemed to be caught in the middle of a thought, an interesting quandary when the being in question thought at light speed, nevertheless the Quarian only smiled behind his mask and waited for his teammate to pose his question.

...He almost wished he hadn't.

Needless to say, the Vanguard could have hidden his surprise better, his eyes widened and a small twitch of alarm settled across his shoulders before he realized it. Silently growling at himself in annoyance, Sol sighed as he closed his eyes and glanced over at the AI platform.

"If you mean battle under planetary conditions? No, my normal combat environment would easily be seen as urban and metropolitan areas, as well as ship based combat. I've received theoretical training in how to approach a fight on a field where weather and such factors in but..."

The biotic's shrug was a bit self-depreciating as he holstered his sub-machine gun and stepped up into the shuttle before glancing back at Shaddai, "...your right, not really my forte. Needless to say I plan to rectify that the first chance I get."

[frigidmagi]

"Alright everyone, enough hanging out. Hackers get into the shuttle first, then me and the assault crew, ninjas last. We get out opposite order, so no one grab a spot next to the door unless you're a ninja. Let's move." Lysander said.

[Sabre72]

"Alright everyone, enough hanging out. Hackers get into the shuttle first, then me and the assault crew, ninjas last. We get out opposite order, so no one grab a spot next to the door unless you're a ninja. Let's move." Lysander said.

Junko just smiled at Lysander, then gave him a nod for shouting orders at the other team members, she didn't really care about alliance rank structure right now since someone had to knock common sense into the team.

However she still feels she should have stepped up for the simple reason of being Lysanders superior, but she had no idea where to start.

Junko has only commanded humans, so having other races apart of the team has thrown Junko off a bit , being a biotic in the alliance she had no choice but to become a officer.

[General Havoc]

If Shaddai considered the Quarian's admission to be shameful, he gave no sign. But as the Geth protoform boarded the simulated shuttle, it turned to face the Quarian and ventured another comment.

"Perhaps... we can be of assistance?"

The Geth's monotone voice sounded just a tad more hopeful than was normally the case for Geth asking questions.

"Our programs have worked together since the Morning War three hundred years ago. We would consider it an..." it stopped again, another hesitation that seemed so un-Geth-like. "We would be privileged to assist the Creator... to assist you in any way possible during the upcoming operation. May... we render such assistance?"

The Geth seemed to wait for the answer with unusual interest.

[JD196]

"Okay lets kick ass" Tallos grunted looking forward to the fight but wary of their chances of success. He boarded the soon to be cramped shuttle making sure to stay between the hackers and the door.

"This is going to be tricky but if we all do our assigned tasks then we should come out okay."

[Soleimon Berserker]

If Shaddai considered the Quarian's admission to be shameful, he gave no sign. But as the Geth protoform boarded the simulated shuttle, it turned to face the Quarian and ventured another comment.

"Perhaps... we can be of assistance?"

The Geth's monotone voice sounded just a tad more hopeful than was normally the case for Geth asking questions.

"Our programs have worked together since the Morning War three hundred years ago. We would consider it an..." it stopped again, another hesitation that seemed so un-Geth-like. "We would be privileged to assist the Creator... to assist you in any way possible during the upcoming operation. May... we render such assistance?"

The Geth seemed to wait for the answer with unusual interest.

Turning to stare at the Geth, Sol was silent for a moment as he began to work Shaddai's offer over in his mind. Needless to say he was intrigued, this one Geth could possibly know almost all of the military tactics of the Pre-Flotilla Quarian people, land and space based. It was an amazing amount of combat information, and to give it all to someone who didn't even wish to return to the Fleet...and if he did then working with Shaddai and revealing this history could easily be seen as his contribution, the end of his 'Pilgrimage'

...Which he didn't want.

Nevertheless he still did need the training and others would notice them doing so. Sighing slightly at the inevitable, the Quarian teenager finally broke the silence as he took his seat in the Shuttle.

"Thank you Shaddai, I really could use the help during the mission. Though let's make sure it's only when we're both near each other, it wouldn't do to have you ignoring mission parameters to save me due to ignorance." His voice grew a bit tight at the end of that, revealing his worry about his lesser experience compared to the others.

"Afterward though....do you think you could train me so this won't happen again?"

[Cynical Cat]

Mikhail entered the shuttle wearing a suit of black painted personal armour that most observers would not recognize. A sniper rifle was collapsed along his back and a heavy pistol and a submachine gun were attached along his thighs. He took up a position by the shuttle door.