"Any idea on how we could get into the facility in the Valley of Siweberjen?"
The question had been asked by Carolina as Kimball had to play the unknowing girlfriend and went out on a date with Hargrove as she wanted to get more information out of him. At least she had enough experience to play a role due to having lived for more than two hundred years by now.
How had that come about, by the way? Well, during her studies as one of the first women to attend a university, she performed an experiment on her own body.
She had found some blood of people everyone would call elven today. They had slightly pointed ears and lived extremely long. However, this race died out and only a few samples of their blood were left scattered all over the world.
During a trip to the Amazonian forest, she found a vial with elven blood in a forgotten temple there.
However, as the examination hadn't yet reached a breaking point, she decided to use a bit of the blood on herself to see what would happen.
In the end, some of the blood changed her DNA and had extended her life to an unknown extent.
Elven people had been able to live for way more than five hundred years back in the day, so not only Carolina was curious to see how long Kimball would be able to live. Maybe they would find that out together as Carolina was extremely long living herself given the fact that she was a Phoenix.
Back to the topic at hand.
It was deadly silent in the room, everyone obviously deep in their thoughts.
There was North, York, Grif, Kai, Sarge, Donut, Wash, Tucker, Alpha, Lopez and Doyle. The Mouser had come to the Sanctuary in Atlanta only to help get Simmons back as he was thankful for what the wolven had done for him during the past years.
Epsilon was missing for unknown reasons.
"I would say we get our shotguns ready and walk right in!" Sarge thundered with his deep voice and cocked the shotgun he had been carrying around since the attack on the Sanctuary.
"I don't think that would be such a good idea considering how heavily the facility is guarded." North replied with an apologetic smile towards Sarge.
Said Diacom only muttered something under his breath that sounded oddly like "Then go in and die. See if I care."
Carolina decided not to comment on the Diacom's antics this time around.
After this short intermission, it was Tucker who spoke up next, "I know this might sound fucked up, but how about we pretend we're working for them and get into the facility that way?"
"What do you mean?" Carolina asked, regarding the Incubus attentively.
Tucker had shown a great affinity for strategies during the last few weeks they had started involving him in planning raids.
Tucker rubbed the back of his neck, obviously having taken up that attitude from Wash, "You know, like putting rare Abnormals who volunteered into boxes and bringing them to Hargrove in this valley in butt-fuck-nowhere." He explained, "We know what kind of Abnormals he is looking for and we have some of them here. We could fake the papers and instead bring in our army hidden in boxes. Like you, North, Wash, York, Grif… They could open the gates then to let the others in." Tucker elaborated further, still looking a bit hesitant but getting more confident when Wash nodded supportively towards him.
Carolina pondered over the idea for a moment before replying with a small nod, "That sounds like a plausible idea, however we will need to have a detailed picture of the place there otherwise we can't plan the raid."
Before anyone was able to say more, the door opened and Epsilon entered the room. He looked extremely out of breath.
"You called?" He put a small camera on the desk they were all standing around.
The camera was attached to a necklace, which most likely meant that Epsilon had been wearing it around his neck as a bat.
"You weren't seriously spying out the facility, were you?" Carolina snarled.
Epsilon, already having his breathing back in check, raised an eyebrow at her reaction, "Why wouldn't I? A bat during the night isn't so unusual there given the fact that there's a bat cave in the proximity of the facility and lots of them fly around the entrance at this time. The light there attracts tons of insects they chase. One more or not doesn't really attract attention." His voice clearly gave away that he didn't give a fuck what Carolina though about his course of actions.
Said Phoenix growled and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Anything else I need to know?"
"Only one thing."
This time it was Grif who had spoken up, taking Simmons' tablet and typing something on it.
In the next moment, a blueprint of a building appeared.
"I found that on Simmons' tablet. He once got a package of data from an informant of ARA. He couldn't really put this blueprint into a logical relation with the other cases we had then, so he put it away on the tablet under 'Open cases.' I found it when I was looking through the tablet to find some information about his work and what he had found out so far." Grif explained as everyone looked at the blueprint.
It was plain crazy and lucky, but in the right lower corner, there stood clearly and legibly: 'Siweberjen Base.'
Everyone gaped at the blueprint, Carolina starting to speak first, "That's fucking crazy but we can use that now too. Let's just hope this isn't an ambush."
"I don't think it will be." Grif muttered, opening another document out of this folder, "He sent it to an IT Specialist and to a specialist in construction to ask to verify it and to find out if the blueprint was even feasible to build. Both of them sent messages back and confirmed that it was possible and feasible. I think it's a pretty safe guess to say it is the real thing."
Everyone stood there in awe, staring at the clearly visible blueprint again.
"Okay then," Carolina cracked her knuckles before leaning over the plan, "Let's start discussing this so we can offer Kimball a fitting plan when she returns."
Immediately, the room was filled with low murmurs, people attentively watching Epsilon's video he had made and connecting the pictures with the entrances noted on the blueprint. Some were pointing to different points on the blueprint and signing something. There were notes taken, and there were handmade pictures drawn to illustrate what one was thinking would be the best course of action to take at a certain point of time or at a certain area.
Others again and again watched the video, asking Epsilon questions on what he had seen, heard, and smelled while he had been there, as well as what he had thought of having been there personally and all that.
It took hours for them to set up a plan, but there was still time for everyone to grab a bite and return to the situation room before Kimball returned and showed up there directly.
Nobody asked her about the date, as she started telling them about it herself.
"Don't ask, I'm going to tell you whatever information you need but I don't want to talk about anything else." It was so unusual for the leader of the Sanctuary to speak like that, and that made everyone shut up and listen to her attentively.
It took her some moments, but she was able to tell them some things about what she had found out from Hargrove. When he had left her alone for a moment, she had even managed to make a copy of his phone and pull out some information there without him noticing.
After Kimball was done talking about her experiences, Carolina and the others told her what they had found out and what they were planning on doing.
Of course, she hadn't been thrilled to hear about Epsilon's ego-show but thanked him in the end nonetheless but not without saying that she wouldn't tolerate another one-man-show like he had pulled without any consequences to be had.
Tucker explained the strategy he had set up, also explaining what they all worked out and how they planned on raiding the Sanctuary.
They would enter with a small group of around twenty people split up in ten crates and two drivers.
Thanks to Epsilon, they also knew how the uniforms looked.
The first group would enter the Sanctuary through the entrance with this cover. When the first group was in, they would split up in order to open two of the side gates and let in the rest of the army.
Each team of the door-openers would join up with a group and go together with them. One of the groups would gather as much Intel as possible and put out explosives. After that, they would follow the other groups into the facility and keep the way out safe.
However, the other groups would enter the facility and try to free as many Abnormals as possible. At the very least they would definitely free Simmons, no matter what the cost.
Everyone of the people joining the mission knew about the fact that they could die, but they were all okay with it.
Even Tucker was going to be joining the army, not wanting to sit on his butt anymore whilst his friends were in danger.
Sure he had a son, but the plan had been created by him and only he could make up alternatives when it came time to push and go. He was so good at tactics that he was able to come up with alternatives pretty fast, and they usually were pretty damn good ones if he did say so himself.
So Wash, the overprotective boyfriend that he was, had no chance to talk Tucker out of coming along this time. At some point the werecat gave up on the concept entirely and accepted the fact that Tucker would be joining their mission.
Grif and Kai looked rather miserable, but were well-trained and ready for the fight, so Kimball gave them her okay to join as well, but only under the condition that they wouldn't do something stupid during the fight.
Of course everyone knew that Grif would run straight into a firefight if it meant getting to his mate, but they decided to ignore that. Having the wolven's mate with you is more of an advantage than a disadvantage in this special case. They needed him. And they needed Kai because she was a pack member too.
York was announced to be the leader of one of the groups, while Carolina and Kimball each took over one of the other groups.
"I want you to prepare everything. I give us all two weeks to organize what we'll need." Kimball ordered, looking into everyone's faces only to receive a nod and see a determined face staring back at her, "Carolina, would you kindly inform Katie to start building up the arsenal and anything else useful that she can provide?"
Carolina looked at her and nodded, but waited for more information from Kimball before she acted.
"As I understand it, the delivery happens every day around noon. We will intercept the transport somewhere away from the valley on their usual route and take it over. Some of us will free the Abnormals and bring them to the Sanctuary for medical treatment and to keep some of them if they can't go back home or are too dangerous to walk around freely." Kimball explained, pointing to a spot about ten kilometers away from the northern entrance of the valley where the transport always drove through.
"When we take the uniforms from the drivers and replaced the Abnormals in the crates with our own soldiers, we will commence as Tucker suggested… Letting this group open up the gates." Kimball's expression became deadly serious when she continued, "But we all have to be aware that there can and most likely will be deaths and casualties along the way, and that we will lose friends and loved ones. We can't go in there and think we'll come out without so much as a black eye."
The people in the room were all deadly serious, looking at her with such determination that they caused Kimball to relax somewhat. She saw that everyone was aware of that and ready to pay this price.
"I suggest that you all write out your testimonies along with the others who will be involved in this attack. We don't know who might be coming back and who might not be."
This was a rather sound idea in Carolina's book and she would do that as well. She might be a Phoenix, but when someone knew her soft spot or hit it by accident then her life would be over too, no matter what.
Hell, they could step on her foot when her ruby was located there and crush it by accident which would mean her imminent death.
Soon after, Kimball announced the meeting to be over and asked everyone to do as asked.
Carolina immediately left to speak to Jensen, who happily accepted the task and took off with a skip to her gait and a happy hum on her lips towards her workshop in a safe place in the Sanctuary where explosions wouldn't have such a great effect on the Sanctuary as elsewhere.
After that, she went back to her room, taking a blank page from her notepad and started writing down her last will by hand.
She didn't have much, but she made sure to mention each and every one of her friends so everyone would have no worries besides her being gone.
There also was the matter of her mother's ring. She clearly wrote in the testament that she wanted to be buried with the ring and that she didn't want to be buried in the earth.
Her element was fire and she wanted to be buried in this element when it came to her last course of action with her body. She wanted to be burned until nothing but ashes was left.
Her ashes, she wrote down, should be committed to the wind from the top of the Sanctuary, letting her fly for the last time.
When she was done with everything, she signed the testament, sealed it and then brought it to Kimball who had a safe only for the wills and testaments of her guests to make sure everyone's last will was followed as well as possible.
After that, she went directly to York's room.
He was, as Carolina already suspected, still working on the testament and struggling with the writing as he never had been one for writing in general.
The Phoenix spontaneously decided to go back to her room and change into her sleeping wear.
When she returned with her clothes for tomorrow, York was gone, most likely to bring his testament to Kimball.
Carolina put the clothes on the chair York had been sitting on only minutes ago. Afterwards, she went to the bed and fell on it.
It was way past midnight and she was ready to crash despite the heavy weight of the situation everyone involved in this attack was feeling.
However, she mustn't be consumed by hatred, revenge, and nervousness, as otherwise she would fail in the most important moment. And not sleeping didn't help anyone. She would only be less concentrated and more of a danger for the others than a help if she didn't get adequate rest.
When York returned, she could see his features light up when he saw her lying in his bed, obviously waiting for him to join her in dreams.
He hastily got ready for bed and changed his clothes before carefully slipping under the covers and embracing his love in a tight but careful embrace.
They kissed each other good night before they soon after fell asleep, tightly huddled up together.
They both enjoyed this, as this could be one of their last times they could be together like this given what they were both going to be doing in the next couple of days.
