Mass Effect: Going Dark

[frigidmagi]

Across the messhall, the krogans were all on their feet, loudly talking and laughing as they each took a swig of a large bottle, filled with a red liquid that had a whitish-silver tinge to it. After the krogan to Lysander's right took a swig, he took a look at Lysander, and laughed roughly. "Take a drink, human! Let's see how tough you are!"

Lysander could see Ulluthyr Tanek, to his left, shake his head, and motioning to Lysander to hand him the bottle.

Before Earth, Lysander would have chugged the damn thing just to piss on the Krogan. These days? Lysander didn't much care about showing off how tough he was or wasn't. He passed the bottle.

[General Havoc]

"Stealth fields are employed for reconnaissance, ambuscade, or tactical mobility purposes," said Shaddai, turning its head to Iona. "Infiltration is not a battlefield element. It requires in-depth understanding of social, political, and societal expectations of various organic templates, employed via social engineering to produce valuable positioning for espionage and sabotage activities. The primary Geth collective has pursued a policy of proactive isolation from all organic life forms since the Morning War. In consequence, they have to our understanding made no effort to engage in infiltration on any scale, nor do they possess the necessary data required to successfully undertake an operation of that nature. This is the reason that other Geth do not infiltrate."

What that said about Shaddai was left unspoken.

[rhoenix]

Before Earth, Lysander would have chugged the damn thing just to piss on the Krogan. These days? Lysander didn't much care about showing off how tough he was or wasn't. He passed the bottle.

Ulluthyr Tanek grabbed the bottle, nodding once to Lysander before taking a large gulp. "You're smart, human," he said with a deep belch. "Should be promising to see you in action tomorrow. So - what's the difference between an Engineer; a tech - and a Combat Engineer? I wanna know so I know what to look for tomorrow," he rumbled with a grin.

[Marcao]

Alliance Space, Normandy II

The ship around him was everything that he had expected and more. Even his sister was a bit taken aback by the internal compartments of the Normandy. He would have loved to have spent more time exploring the vessel which had been at the Vanguard of nearly every victory against the reapers. For a time, the mere rumor that the Normandy had been in the system was enough to psychologically harden entire populations against Reaper forces.

This ship like Shepard became a symbol.

He did not take the time to explore the facility because he had other concerns. In essence, he made certain that his sister was taken care of. He answered her questions as best as he could and after making certain that their respective gear had been stowed away in their proper location. He took the time to guide his sister throughout the various compartments and locations that they were given access to. Ultimately, both he and his sister settled on the observation deck. His sister in particular had been thrilled at the views that the location offered. He had chosen that time to bring up the stories about the great Asari Justicar that spent most of her time there.

They spent several hours in the observation deck returning to their quarters only when his sister fell asleep next to him. After his sister was asleep he allowed himself sometime alone to wander throughout the Normandy. There were locations that he was not given full access to but that had been expected. Nonetheless, he saw more than enough to satisfy his needs. By the time that he returned to his quarter, his curiosity was satisfied. He had not approached any of the others. There would be plenty of time left for that. He had a feeling that it would be in his best interest to identify who were the men and women that he could rely on, who he could work with and who he would be best suited avoiding. It was with that thought in mind that he closed his eyes. It was the first time in months that memories from the War did not claw their way to the surface of his mind.

Alliance Space, Normandy II

By the time that the comm sounded alerting them of their impending arrival on Pinnacle station he was already up and sitting on the edge of his bed. It had been the transition from FTL to real space that had awakened him. His head turned, his eyes seeking the form of his sister and locating the tangled mass of blonde hair which signified her presence. He smiled briefly and stood, his right arm reaching out and gently caressing his sister's head. The arm was completely cybernetic but he could still feel each individual strand of hair beneath his fingers. He squatted down next to his sister's bed before he spoke.

"Helena, it's time to get up."

"Five more minutes." His sister mumbled, shifting in the bed and pulling the covers over her head.

"You have two minutes. You don't want to make your big brother late do you?" He said before taking a step back and reaching for his clothing bag. It did not take him longer than three and half minutes to get dressed. When he glanced towards his sister's bed afterwards she too was in the process of getting dressed herself.

Good girl.

He and his sister managed to leave the living quarters of the Normandy II with two and half minutes to spare each carrying their respective luggage without complaint. He made his way to one of the shuttles awaiting the various candidates and sat down. As the door closed behind them, he wondered if he would ever have the opportunity to be inside the famous ship again. He watched as Helena leaned and struggled to look outside one of the several viewports into space and the station beyond. Their arrival on Pinnacle was relatively uneventful although Shepard was a presence that was impossible to miss. Everywhere she went, every eye seem to be drawn to her. He almost missed the older-looking man in alliance uniform.

Pinnacle Station, Docking Bay

Shepard spoke and her message was short and sweet. His head turned and he glanced around to the various candidates around him. He did not know what the others were thinking but he had every intention on winning. Shepard had opened a door, becoming the first human spectre and he had every intention on following in her footsteps. His head turned and he glanced at his omnitool, the information therein dictating his path. Livianus Velnaran introduced himself, his attention naturally gravitating towards the Turian.

"Where are we going?" Helena asked.

"We are going to the barracks to get you settled in. Afterwards, I am going to have a meeting with some interesting people." He responded.

"Can I come as well?" His sister inquired.

"I am afraid not. You won't be alone however, there are others that have brought their families as well. I am sure that you will find something to do." He replied.

His sister made a face but said nothing. She sighed softly and nodded. "Alright."

"Come on." He said softly. His left hand gently touching his sister's shoulder as he guided her forward and towards the Barracks that would likely be their home for some time. At least that was the hope.

I survived Earth. How bad could anything else be?

Pinnacle Station, Mess Hall

He made his way towards the mess hall without armor or weapons. They did seem to be rather redundant for an informal meeting that would lead to a dinner. Pinnacle Station was not a war zone and he felt that approaching without weapons and armor was a preferable approach at this point in time. It felt good to be in a location where every window did not indicate a potential sniper position and every shadow did not possess a hidden threat. Nonetheless, his senses were finely honed and tuned and he utilized them to their full advantage. His vision was slightly better than "perfect" for a human, genetic sequencing improvements had seen to that even before he had joined the military. His body had prior to the injury that had necessitated the cybernetic replacement of his right arm had been without flaw down to his genetic code. It had been one of the several advantages that had been granted to him through his birth right.

As he crossed the threshold into the mess hall his head turned from side to side, heightened senses greedily reaching out for any morsels of information. His senses were all finely honed a combination of military and civilian enhancements making him an enhanced if far from "perfect" being. He was not a biotic, but short of that gift he possessed all of the expected enhancements and a few more. He saw Turians, Quarians, Rachni and others. The humans in the group were a welcome sight, he was tolerant of the others but even now he felt most at ease with his own kind. He did not immediately join the conversations that were developing. Instead, he chose to orbit the room and gain first hand knowledge about the dynamics of the men and women in the room. He became an active observer, taking notes of the inflections in voice, mannerisms and the postures of those around him. Soon enough, it would be his turn to speak but until then he was quite comfortable getting a sense of the personalities within the room.

[Agent Fisher]

Finishing the last bite, Kalis looked around at the table as Shepard announced the teams and then the beings gave their names and specialties and a bit of history. He tilted his head and blinked in confusion at the Krogan's tale. A krogan soldier, attached to Turian Special Forces? Completely unheard of him to him. He was a bit confused by that one too.

He listened to the rest of them, blinking in even more confusion at the human joke. From a Krogan. Understood by an Asari and explained by a Turian. At least Sidonis had a obvious reason, human wife and son. The biotic resigned himself to many head scratching moments with this team.

Finally, it seemed like it was his turn. "Kalis Maraka. Hierarchy Special Operations Group- Cabal. Turian biotic. Not sure who nominated me. Most likely I was in the pool of Hierachy soldiers that was forwarded for consideration. And if you haven't studied the Palaven Theatre during the Reaper War, then I doubt you'd have heard why I'm here." He said and fell silent but something kept nagging him and he spoke up again.

"Excuse me, Tallos, but you said you led your team. You were in command of a HSOG assualt element?"

[rhoenix]

The rest of the evening for the candidates passed well, with only a few minor mishaps - an asari former Eclipse member had been caught trying to examine the training room, and she had promptly been shown the interior of the station's brig for her trouble. The guards did offer to give her the full tour of her particular cell, but she declined the offer.

The next morning, the candidates walked, stumbled, skittered, or stomped their way into the messhall around 0700 station time. Most candidates knew they should try to eat more, as most of them remembered what this stage in military training was like, and they encouraged the others to do the same.

At 0740, all candidates were escorted to, and sorted into one of five waiting rooms, according to what team they were on. Once all of them had arrived at the proper room, an announcement from Shepard, in her customary black Spectre armor, came over the aerogel screen in the center of the waiting room.

"Candidates, you will have fifteen minutes to examine the mission data for your first trial. At 0800, one team will be selected at random to go through this first course. This will continue until all five teams have gone through the first trial, after which we will have a review of the trial for all teams. I look forward to seeing what all of you are made of," she said, before the message ended.

Planet: Zeona
Climate: Arid (volcanic)
Location: Research Facility Stellaris
Mission Objective (primary): Clear facility of all intruders
Mission Objective (secondary): Successfully retrieve scientists & research materials

Information: A fanatic faction of Blood Pack has destroyed the orbital defenses protecting this facility, and has taken the base, according to information ten hours old. The facility has been supposedly abandoned for years; however, research into materials sciences had proceeded apace at this facility until now.

The Blood Pack is expecting reinforcements any moment, but has not yet had time to bring the facility's orbital defenses back online.

(Map of facility and surrounding area included - the facility is surrounded by volcanic ash rock plains, with hills on the north and south-west sides of the facility where a shuttle could land safely. The facility itself has four main areas of several rooms each, all connected with sealed environmental tubing for pedestrian access, but the only entrances are airlocks at the NW and SE areas of the facility, the main entrance being the NW side. Each main room is 15 meters by 20 meters, and each of the airlocks are 5 meters by 20 meters.)

(EDIT: Added map)

[White Haven]

A hazy plan was drifting into existence in Iona's head until the words 'expecting reinforcements any moment' registered. Plans of guard shift changes and sneaking infiltrators inside as airlocks were cycled dispersed into a puff of logic. Her eyes narrowed as she looked over the map, shaking her head back and forth slowly with a
grimace of distaste at what it steadfastly insisted on showing her. Goddess-damned airlocks.

Finally, she broke the silence of the rest of the trial group with her own summary, "Well, no time to wait for shift changes, so passive infiltration is out. No information on motivations, demands, or psychology, so no real way to predict their reactions with regards to the scientists. Interesting that the scientists are classed as a secondary objective, sounds like someone up top is pissed that they're ever there in the first place. The two best options I can see are a distraction to draw out guards, followed by infiltrating through the airlocks, or a fast assault, try to get inside before they can react."

Another moment of silence followed, then Iona jabbed a finger at the map, not too far from the little compound, "If their orbital defenses are down, we can drop a rock here. Since it is a meteor, it should do quite a good job of looking like one, but they'll still want to investigate it to be sure it wasn't a drop pod of some sort, maybe a Ymir configured for high-altitude insertion. If we need a distraction, that should do nicely; nice and loud, but 'natural' once they investigate, so they can relax again."

The asari began to grin suddenly, "Alternately, we could go off the rails a bit and hold the entire training cycle up. Have our orbital support, I assume Normandy, but we should find out for certain before we finalize, intercept and detain or destroy the Blood Pack reinforcements. Jam their transmissions, so the groundside elements don't know they're on their own. Call that a tertiary objective, take another group of Blood Pack out of circulation as a bonus prize. Then that buys us time to wait for a shift change and infiltrate quietly, get one team in position inside to locate and cover the scientists. Then the other team assaults from the outside. If the Blood Pack go to kill their prisoners, we're there to stop it. If not, then we lie low until they're engaged at one airlock and either hit them from behind if the assault team needs help, or slip the scientists out the other airlock. If they're under full assault, the second lock is probably lightly defended at best by this point."

"All that hinges on our orbital support and Sheppard's willingness to let us take hours to slip in on a shift change, of course."

Normally, of course the asari would be the one doing the infiltration alone, while the attack team would be made up of asari commandos. Still, she'd at least remembered to include the other stealthy members of the team...

[Soleimon Berserker]

Glancing down at the map in question, Sol'Amon's golden eyes narrowed as he studied the facility, as well as quickly glancing over the planetary climate and the terrain surrounding the facility. Sighing deeply he patiently waited for Iona to finish her briefing before slipping in his own thoughts on the matter, his lightly accented voice a bit tight due to the fact that he was deep in thought.

"I like those plans, but the main thing I'm a bit wary of would have to be that South-East entrance, something about it just seems wrong to me. I know most of these facilities normally have at least three or four ways in if your not scared to use ducts, and the thought of this place only having two confirmed ones is a bit unbelievable."

Tapping the map on the South-West side behind the hills, the biotic's black glove barely made a sound as it impacted the table. "But why look too far into this, I know Blood Pack and they'd have set themselves at both entrances with equal force. 'No retreat, No surrender, only Death.'. It's one of the Omega chapter's main quotes, and every one i've fought so far has meant that, the closest i've ever seen one of their members come to running is backing up to get into cover.

But I digress, judging from Iona's idea i'm assuming more than a few of us here know something about Infiltration? And if so then I'm also assuming they've equipped themselves with stealth nets. My opinion is that we use Iona's meteor entrance to land our shuttle behind these hills, then send in a team of our best Infiltrators to do recon on the facility, we need more info than just the entrances and the weather."

Leaning on the desk, the Quarian's eyes traced over the group, his normal flippant behavior gone in the wake of the mission, causing his body language to appear at least a decade older. "After that, if we still can't learn anything new, then we go to plan B, our heavy hitters assault the North-West gate while the Infiltrators do their thing around the South-East. We'll move in on the facility in a spiral until we meet up, hopefully with one team flanking any hostile flanking attempts on the other."

With a nod, Sol slipped back into his seat, his arms resting on his thighs as he leaned forward to waited for the next idea. So far, Iona had come up with a tactically sound enough plan for him to only think up small extensions.

[JD196]

"Excuse me, Tallos, but you said you led your team. You were in command of a HSOG assualt element?"

I wasn't to start with but after the CO got killed I took over. The 2IC was an idiot anyway, wanted to storm the enemy head on."

The next morning.

Tallos studied the plan carefully. "I think that we should draw away the guards attention with the meteor like Iona said but after they are drawn off we launch a diversionary attack on the side wall, blow our way in. While the guards believe that the diversionary attack is the main one, the infiltration team sneak in the south east airlock."

[Sabre72]

Junko been glaring and tapping away on her omnitool for some time while the others talk, then everyone's omnitool made a variety sounds.

Junko spoke up now ,"Ok there is my idea with some input from you guys we can expand/change consider this a draft, also omnitools on silent in the field please," Junko smiled.

MAP
[thumbnail]http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l158/ ... nmap-1.jpg[/thumbnail]
1). We land the shuttle into the hills to the south east.
2.) We set up a Sniper perch to recon/overlook the south east airlock.
2a) (idea) Some sort of explosive distraction to the north to get enemy units into the cross-fire zone and or away from south east airlock.
2b) Send in stealth unit to check airlock and possibility of hacking airlock to our control, which in turn would make the enemy unable to get into the rear airlock with haste,
2c) snipers would cover rear airlock until rest of team gets in then they enter building (or they can stay and shoot anyone trying to get into rear airlock)

Building
1) Airlock will be used to bring hostages to safety.
1a)(idea) One sniper could bring hostages from airlock and bring them back to shuttle under the cover of the other sniper or they can just sit in the south airlock depends what we do)
2) Room 1 will be stormed and cleared by platoon.
3) Platoon will then split into two squads Alpha and Bravo 5 man teams.
4) Tallos and Star will be Charlie team, they will be tasked with getting hostage to safety zone as well as being back up for either fire-team (team can be merged with other teams depending what we deiced upon see "alternate one" under fire-team listings.
4) If snipers stay, it falls to 5 man teams and no Charlie team see *alternate one* in fire-team list. (if they stay, rear airlock with the hack, plus snipers means south airlock is covered, or will give us enuogh time to move to protect south airlock or shift safe zone.)
5) Alpha and Bravo will charge their respected rooms at the same time, clearing and reporting for any hostages/issues and getting them to safety.
6) Once room A and B are cleared, both teams will proceed to room 2 to corner last of the enemy and their reinforcements, check your shots.

Fire-team list

Alpha
tasked with assault of room A, then crossfire of room 2.
Junko Mori
Iona T'Shen
Gabriel Cipriani
Mikhail Jager
Urdnot Tallos(alternate one)
Shaddai (alternate one)

Bravo
tasked with assault of room B, then crossfire of room 2.
Sol'Amon Nar Tolshek
Kalis Maraka
Many-As-One
Andrew Lysander
Sings-to-the-Stars (alternate one)
Lantar Sidonis (alternate one)

Charlie
(Squad can be merged with any other at any time see "alternate one" listed members)
*tasked with hostage rescue and will link up with other squads frequently.
*Reaction Squad.
Sings-to-the-Stars
Urdnot Tallos

Hotel (sniper team)
(Squad can be merged with any other at any time see *alternate one listed members)
*tasked with over watching SE airlock.
*Shaddai will attempt to hack airlock to our control then go back to sniper perch.
*Lantar will cover.
Shaddai
Lantar Sidonis

Junko added,"my reason for not attacking both entrances is simple if "shit" hits the fan, there would be no way for help to arrive through the enemy. If we attacked room 1 and 2 it would leave A,B to enemy and the team would be cut off from help, also, both of our teams and the enemy could be caught in cross fire, also enemy reinforcements could come knocking on one teams rear, both are bad thoughts, so with that, a direct planed assault."

Junko sighed, "Finally, no plan survives contact with the enemy, however a plan is better then no plan."

[White Haven]

"Ah, yes, sniper cover and a hacking team on their doorstep before we've secured the hostages. Nothing could ever go wrong with such a plan," Iona's tone was mildly acidic as she ran over the plan contributed by the human, "And stealth-capable troops packaged together with everyone else, it'll be great fun trying to infiltrate that way." She gestured at the proposed plan hovering in the briefing room's projector, "And an 'explosive distraction' too. Why not just hop onto their comm network and order them to kill the prisoners? It'd save time."

The asari started to tag her fingers one at a time, counting off, "One, hope they don't equate sudden explosions with an attack and kill the hostages. Two, hope they don't have guards outside to notice a hack attempt. Three, hope they don't have someone on the inside to notice a hack attempt, or just the airlock suddenly starting to cycle on its own. Four, hope they don't have the airlock mechanically jammed, in which case not only do they notice the airlock trying to cycle, but we still don't get in. Five, hope no one notices Shaddai on his way back to the sniper nest after attempting to hack the airlock, thus compromising that entire part of the operation."

With a sudden grin, she tapped her index finger again, "Oh, and six, hope Urdnot Tallos here," she nodded at the Krogan, "doesn't brain you for pulling a Krogan out of an in-progress assault to play baby-sitter. Not liking this plan."

[SirNitram]

"Hypothesis: Use Southwest exit." Many reported after analyzing. He projected a hologram out of his omnitool, spreading troops out. His icon flashes, and a large hole is formed in the southwest corner. "Use unanticipated route to maximize surprise, delaying possible killing of of hostages."

[JD196]

"Okay stop all of you. If we keep doing this we will fail. Here's my plan, we lure the perimeter guards out with a call on their radio's that the reinforcements have crashed 1 click north. Many, I need you to hack their comms for that. Then when the guards are weakened we send an infiltration team with cloaks to secure the hostages. Once there secure, the infiltration team will radio us and we will launch an assault on the base."

Tallos looked at his teammates. "Any questions?"

[White Haven]

Iona looked over towards the Krogan with a surprised expression, nodding slowly as she mulled it over. "I like it. Slipping inside will be harder if no hostiles are returning to base on their own, but that'd thin things out dramatically. Wish we knew why they were here, though, it'll tell us a lot of their potential motivations. Still, good thinking, that's a promising possible plan."

[JD196]

"You pick thing's up after 200 plus years as a merc."

[Sabre72]

"Ah, yes, sniper cover and a hacking team on their doorstep before we've secured the hostages. Nothing could ever go wrong with such a plan," Iona's tone was mildly acidic as she ran over the plan contributed by the human, "And stealth-capable troops packaged together with everyone else, it'll be great fun trying to infiltrate that way." She gestured at the proposed plan hovering in the briefing room's projector, "And an 'explosive distraction' too. Why not just hop onto their comm network and order them to kill the prisoners? It'd save time."

The asari started to tag her fingers one at a time, counting off, "One, hope they don't equate sudden explosions with an attack and kill the hostages. Two, hope they don't have guards outside to notice a hack attempt. Three, hope they don't have someone on the inside to notice a hack attempt, or just the airlock suddenly starting to cycle on its own. Four, hope they don't have the airlock mechanically jammed, in which case not only do they notice the airlock trying to cycle, but we still don't get in. Five, hope no one notices Shaddai on his way back to the sniper nest after attempting to hack the airlock, thus compromising that entire part of the operation."

With a sudden grin, she tapped her index finger again, "Oh, and six, hope Urdnot Tallos here," she nodded at the Krogan, "doesn't brain you for pulling a Krogan out of an in-progress assault to play baby-sitter. Not liking this plan."

Junko ran over her notes and re-checked her information, "See now we are getting somewhere, Shaddai, I assume being a infiltrator class you have a stealth device?, if not, hack idea is out, since we need a stealth hacker.

Iona did you read the alternative squad member list, Charlie team was a alternate idea not a main one, however we still need someone to bring the hostages to safety, and worst case very fast, which Tallos could do that faster then anyone else here, also he wouldn't be watching the hostages once they are in the airlock, but I digress this point for the time being till more idea's are thought of."

Junko shifted in her chair, "Also "Explosive distraction or should I just say northern distraction is up for ideas on what it should be, stealth team members mixed with non stealth you ask, well yes unless you have a great idea to get stealth members in the base to get a location of hostages, airlocks are issue for stealth entry."

"Hypothesis: Use Southwest exit." Many reported after analyzing. He projected a hologram out of his omnitool, spreading troops out. His icon flashes, and a large hole is formed in the southwest corner. "Use unanticipated route to maximize surprise, delaying possible killing of of hostages."

Junko nods at Many, "Yes they could expect a attack from the south east hills, but get attacked from south west and we can leave snipers at south east spot and setup cross fire however, lets see what other think first."

"Okay stop all of you. If we keep doing this we will fail. Here's my plan, we lure the perimeter guards out with a call on their radio's that the reinforcements have crashed 1 click north. Many, I need you to hack their comms for that. Then when the guards are weakened we send an infiltration team with cloaks to secure the hostages. Once there secure, the infiltration team will radio us and we will launch an assault on the base."

Tallos looked at his teammates. "Any questions?"

Junko smiled when Tallos spoke up, "another great idea, however issue of getting the stealth team in might prove tricky, though when the guards leave the airlock to go check the crash, we can sneak in, thats of course if no one misses a re-cycle of the airlock back inside, and if the airlock has a weight scale someone would have to be watching however, if they are, a couple hundred extra pounds and only one or two blood-pack coming back in raises questions."

Junko sighed, "Am assuming you would be the one talking to the blood-pack Tallos, about the crashing?"

Junko shifted in her seat again, "Getting a general plan is good, when we are done with that, a list of squads should get made and I will whip up a new map as well, also there is nothing saying the scientists are "hostages" Junko grinned.

Junko raise her hand, "one more thing, when we lead the guards to the crash site do we pick them off from range with snipers, then have the assault team sit to the southwest, and the infiltrate team go through the north airlock, depending on what airlock the blood pack use however."

Junko continues, "things need to be planned out and expanded into some detail people, your abstractions are good, but when we pick one we like lets expand on it, since it will allow us to see weakness in our plan and gives us idea's on how to counter it, all within the time frame of course."

[Sabre72]

n when the guards are weakened we send an infiltration team with cloaks to secure the hostages

Junko coughed, I dont mean to pry, but how would the infiltration team secure the hostages when they are surrounded by blood pack and the only way out is slow airlocks that you could get trapped within with a angry krogan, I just dont see the hostages being secure until they are behind our whole team and how many stealth units do we actually have?"

Junko raises her hand for being a stealth unit, " Yes, now you see where am coming from too."

[JD196]

"Good point but if the blood pack have no idea that the infiltration team is coming in then we should hopefully be able to catch them with their shields down."

Tallos studied the map. "If you can slip into the airlock and wait there, we could use the radio to lure someone inside out, allowing you to sneak inside when they open the airlock. As for stealth generators their should be enough to equip at least 3 of us."

[Sabre72]

"Good point but if the blood pack have no idea that the infiltration team is coming in then we should hopefully be able to catch them with their shields down."

Tallos studied the map. "If you can slip into the airlock and wait there, we could use the radio to lure someone inside out, allowing you to sneak inside when they open the airlock. As for stealth generators their should be enough to equip at least 3 of us."

Junko smiles in joy, "yes I like this idea, as long as they are not alerted, so no opening fire anywhere until the stealth team finds where the hostages are, and hopefully in one room, then when we position ourselves around hostage stealth team calls the assault team to attack, then the stealth team observes the hostages and waits to see what unfolds, the assault team will have to move to where the stealth team is asap in order to gain our full strength with my idea of being safe, full team with hostages behind us in one area or at lest a majority of the hostages if they are even hostages."


Junko beamed, "One mile out for the crash with Shaddi jamming their comms, execute them via sniper fire, so sniper team somewhere around crash area, assault team south west."


Junko added, "now, the sniper team could cover the main entrance instead and wait for the guards to come back from their crash, that would allow the sniper team to already be ready if and when reinforcements come hoping they use the main north airlock that is."

Junko looks at Tallos, "If am allowed to use my stealth generator then we should be ok"

(edited with some core corrects)

[Agent Fisher]

"Excuse me, Tallos, but you said you led your team. You were in command of a HSOG assualt element?"

"I wasn't to start with but after the CO got killed I took over. The 2IC was an idiot anyway, wanted to storm the enemy head on."

Maraka narrowed his eyes. The story sounded highly unlikely. One didn't become a Special Operations officer and be an idiot. Before he could comment further to Tallos, the conversation shifted. But the Krogan's words stuck with him, grating him. In a less official setting, he would have called the Krogan a liar and demanded he retract the statements.

********

His eyes scanned over the map of hte facility, listening to all the conversations. A HSOG training scenario. He recognized the layout and basic plot. Oh, it wasn't always Blood Pack. Sometimes it was Eclipse, Blue Suns, ERC mercs, pirates, Batarians. Even System Alliance or Human merc companies. At least, before the Reaper War. After all, while they may not be at war, there was no love lsot between the Hierarchy and the System Alliance. Just another group to train against their tactics. But it was a relatively simple scenario with alot of ways for things to go wrong.

He listened to the Quarian, Asari, Krogan and Human discuss a plan. Maraka spoke up. "So, how do we know what to tell them to get them to leave the facility? We don't know if they're using code phrases or not."

[Sabre72]

He listened to the Quarian, Asari, Krogan and Human discuss a plan. Maraka spoke up. "So, how do we know what to tell them to get them to leave the facility? We don't know if they're using code phrases or not."

Junko chuckled, "another good hole in our plan it seems, keep them coming." Junko yawned, "it seems though that we have built up some good idea's, id suggest a recon of the base be the first thing we do, see what we get and be ready to use any number of our idea's. Junko stretched her arms, "if we keep at this as Tallos said we wont get anywhere, however splitting up when we know nothing is generally a bad idea."

[rhoenix]

"Well," Sidonis said slowly, as he examined the map and the mission details, "I can tell you that I don't think the stealth option will work. What I think might be better is to set positions for all of us first, and bull-rush in, as a synchronized strike, as has been suggested before," he said, nodding to Tallos. "There simply isn't enough time for the sneaky approach."

Sings-to-the-Stars, on the other hand, was watching the interaction between the others of his team just as much, if not more, than he was studying the mission briefing. "We may have to sing repulsion-songs if we clear out the facility before the Blood Pack reinforcements arrive," he added, in a thoughtful tone of his mind-voice. "Should we sing planning-songs to hold the base against reinforcements afterward?"

[Sabre72]

"Well," Sidonis said slowly, as he examined the map and the mission details, "I can tell you that I don't think the stealth option will work. What I think might be better is to set positions for all of us first, and bull-rush in, as a synchronized strike, as has been suggested before," he said, nodding to Tallos. "There simply isn't enough time for the sneaky approach."

Sings-to-the-Stars, on the other hand, was watching the interaction between the others of his team just as much, if not more, than he was studying the mission briefing. "We may have to sing repulsion-songs if we clear out the facility before the Blood Pack reinforcements arrive," he added, in a thoughtful tone of his mind-voice. "Should we sing planning-songs to hold the base against reinforcements afterward?"

Junko nodded in extreme agreement with both Lantar and star, "The basic idea of my plan was a head on assault a Blitzkrieg, it is why my plan had almost no stealth elements at all, other then to see if we can get control of a airlock, which we would probably try eventually when we bull rush, however it seems my plan went a little to detailed to be seen as a bull-rush."

Junko crossed her arms, "I dont know about some of you, but I do not want to be the one stuck on the other side of the airlock surrounded by blood pack when they deiced to lock the doors down, sheer numbers is the power here, not three stealth units, there must be a reason why Shepard made the teams this large, and to justify a infiltration team for a secondary objective doesn't really make sense given that we have very limited information to start with."

[Cynical Cat]

"She's half right," said Mikhail, speaking up from the first time. "We do need to act quickly when we make noise. The Blood Pact won't be eager to kill the hostages because in doing so they take out their leverage. But they'll do it if the alternative is losing it and given the composition of the Blood Pact and its tendency to be on the violent and sloppy side they'll do it sooner rather than latter if they don't get a clear order from their bosses."

"We can't fuck around at the airlocks, hoping to hack them. We can probably do the job, but they are the places we know their will be guards, surveillance, or monitoring. Or all three. They're also natural fucking bottle necks and grenade pits with the survivors, if any, getting the joyful experience of close quarters combat against krogan and vorcha. This is a recipe for failure.

"We need to know exactly how toxic this fucking atmosphere is. If it's merely unbreathable then we don't have a problem because we can bring rebreather masks with us and evac the hostages that way because the facility won't loose air fast enough. If it's nastier, we use a sealant bag to close the hole after us. We have a combat engineer with us. Fuck going through the door."

[rhoenix]

"She's half right," said Mikhail, speaking up from the first time. "We do need to act quickly when we make noise. The Blood Pact won't be eager to kill the hostages because in doing so they take out their leverage. But they'll do it if the alternative is losing it and given the composition of the Blood Pact and its tendency to be on the violent and sloppy side they'll do it sooner rather than latter if they don't get a clear order from their bosses."

"We can't fuck around at the airlocks, hoping to hack them. We can probably do the job, but they are the places we know their will be guards, surveillance, or monitoring. Or all three. They're also natural fucking bottle necks and grenade pits with the survivors, if any, getting the joyful experience of close quarters combat against krogan and vorcha. This is a recipe for failure.

"We need to know exactly how toxic this fucking atmosphere is. If it's merely unbreathable then we don't have a problem because we can bring rebreather masks with us and evac the hostages that way because the facility won't loose air fast enough. If it's nastier, we use a sealant bag to close the hole after us. We have a combat engineer with us. Fuck going through the door."

"Exactly," Sidonis nodded. "The atmosphere would be breathable if it weren't for the pumice, so rebreather masks it is. We didn't get a count of hostages, so we may have to either bring a few extra masks, or arrange to make trips to the shuttle."