"Wonder what all the buzz is about." Aren queried, traversing the corridor towards the briefing room next to Orkos. "How's your leg doing?"
"It's been better…they really fucked us over months ago. How you think Chavsa's doing?"
"Knowing her? Having the time of her life." She huffed in bemusement. "Free of our totalitarian regime, venturing into the great unknown. Sure she's loving all the seat time she's getting."
Her next step sent the familiar, annoying sharp pain down her leg. She learned to mask it well, but the subtle change of her gait couldn't hide it from the well-trained eye. Physical therapy and light duty on the mend still left behind grisly reminders.
Orkos wasn't quite up to where he was himself taking a knife to the gut either. Some food still didn't sit right with him even after all that. Candor nailed him good, and Aren wasn't that much better off either. "I wanna get back at those bastards."
"They'll get theirs. Deris, you, me…Lorlo…they'll get what's comin' to them." She assured with conviction. "...wonder what they have planned for you and me though. No replacements since that day, half our team Irk knows where now…not like they're gonna send just the two of us out, right?"
"Probably lump us in with Mirage's Black Team that joined us or something. Maybe. Phla did run out with Haxx and Radec though. Nice to have more people here despite it all." Orkos sighed, "Deris was…actually doing real well that day. I was proud of him."
Aren gave a pursed smile, nodding faintly.
"Yeah. Me too. They're gonna wish for a quick death after I get my hands on any of them."
Her attention shifted from harbored, justified grudges to the familiar, towering face of Aero as she joined them at an intersection.
"Lieutenant-"
"Aero!"
"...Aero…do you know what this is all about?"
"Nope! Not in the slightest." She admitted with a shrug. "Do you?"
"Not a clue. Must be big if it's all-hands." Aren deduced with a sigh. "Only one way to find out, right?"
"Well let's go see what's what?" Orkos looked to Aren, "Ladies first."
"Aren't you just sweet…" Aero snickered at him as Aren rolled her eyes despite smirking as they moved past the man towards the waiting doors.
Within sat the rest of the present team around the conference table. Based on held expressions and searching eyes, they weren't the only ones in the proverbial dark. The past several months were largely spent recovering from Mirage's ambush and what could pass for down time. Day-to-day duties, training and upkeep, but otherwise uneventful. Until today.
Hesa was coming in behind the trio, bringing in a tray with cups of fresh brewed Vortian bean water before taking her seat next to Vult. Orkos sat down, hand on his abdomen as he took a seat, the pain was still fresh.
"So, what's the word? What are we going to do?" Orkos was quick to ask.
Vult, waiting until everyone settled in to pay attention, brought up the holographic projection at the center of the table. A rotating, three-dimensional representation of Destructia. All known Imperial facilities across its surface identified, including overviews of capabilities, strength, and logged positions of known defensive fortifications.
"Vacation's over." The Commander announced, having their undivided attention. "As you recall, we visited this place briefly in the past. This time, we're planting our banner on it. Coalition wants to move forward with taking Destructia after the Planetjackers threw an entire toolbox into the Empire's gears, intentionally or otherwise. A very narrow window of opportunity with their logistics disrupted. Conventional forces are planning their approach, we are the leading edge of the spear to ensure they make planetfall before Destrucia's defense network turns them into dust."
Aero blinked, looking around the room before back at their commanding officer.
"For realsies?"
"...for realsies, Lieutenant."
"I thought we were waiting until that Invader guy did his job first before doing anything drastic." She observed, confused before awkwardly clearing her throat and straightening up. "What I meant to say was our standing orders are to await instruction before proceeding based on intelligence gathered by our imbedded agent, Sir."
"Correct. Slig has provided the intelligence we need to perform our part of the operation." Vult responded, zooming into the largest cluster of Empire facilities. "Our primary objective is to hinder and prevent Imperial response through familiar methods: sabotage, assassination, and destruction of critical infrastructure…"
The model snapped to a particularly large communications array adjacent to the spaceport.
"Specifically this. Coalition forces are standing by and awaiting our signal to begin their maneuvers once Destructia's long-range broadcasting dish is taken offline. Once the planet is in the dark, the operation will begin in full."
Vard's hand hesitantly rose.
"Yes, Sergeant?"
"Won't knocking communications out trigger a reactionary response from the Empire? They'll send the Armada to investigate, Sir."
Vult paused, giving it some thought before speaking again.
"Can you send a message out prior to our intervention from the array stating it is being brought offline for maintenance and calibration? May buy us a little more time, should it not?"
"In theory, yes. How much is difficult to determine, Sir."
"Some time is better than none at all. Hopefully by the time they realize something is amiss, it will be too late.
"He's not wrong." Amka nodded, "Standard procedure for communications maintenance is within the realm of seven or eight hours. It's not much, but it's some time until we can take control of the facility and send back false positives, if we need to."
"You all remember Praaxus 7? Essentially the same play here, minus destruction of the facility. Collateral damage needs to be kept to a minimum. The coalition intends to use Destructia as a base of operations for future campaigns against the Empire. Destroying everything does us no good." Vult elaborated further.
"Any secondary objectives, Commander?" Aren queried.
"Anything we can do to take the heat off of the conventional invasionary forces. Turning defenses on the Imperials, deactivating defenses, that sort of thing. Optimistically, if this place is wired up like Devastis, there are centralized controls for the defensive network…likely here…"
The map snapped to the largest structure on the planet's surface. Also the most heavily fortified and occupied.
"Internal Affairs likely calls this place home and operates out of it. After we are done at the spaceport, this will be our next target. Take the planetary defenses offline, friendlies can make planetfall, and the ground engagement can begin."
"Slig is inside, we give him some objectives, he can take some of the heat off us, right?" Hesa looked at the maps of the facilities. She pointed towards a power station. "There. Get him to shut down power distribution? At least until we can move in and kick some ass."
"It could work, even better if he can manage it digitally, turn control of the power distribution center over to us. Shut the power down so their defenses are down, they're left on emergency power. Power up the control station once we get there, and once we take control of the defense grid to fire on Armada vessels and Imperial IFFs, should be easy pickings from there, yeah?" Amka mused, smirking, "You got a smart woman, Commander."
"I learn from the best, what can I say?"
Red Team's second-in-command's hand shot up.
"Yes, Aero?" Vult called upon.
"Okay, hear me out…what if…we hit both at the same time? One team on shutting down communications, the other turning the defensive grid against the Empire?"
"Vard can only be in one place at a time, Lieutenant."
"What 'bout Phla? Surely she could handle one or the other, right? No…wait…right, she's…yeah-oh,oh, oh! Jur! He could do it!"
"'Course he can." Vara grinned, "How else you think we managed to cause chaos on Devastis?"
"So we'll have Vara and Jur go for central control along with some of us," Hesa went over the plans, "While our mix of Green and Black teams go to the comms relay. Slig could meet them there, or perhaps hack it remotely to take it offline. That deals with two of the three." She paused, looking over the maps, pointing to the various cloning facilities. "So what's stopping them from just throwing fresh, untrained bodies armed with knives and forks at us?"
Vult glanced to Hesa before clearing his throat awkwardly.
"...our allies. The Major General made it abundantly clear of their approach until our objectives are secured. If we can hamper their response once the element of surprise is lost, we may reduce needless brutality…but I don't disagree with his commitment to total war against the Empire."
"Just be aware, the Orenkians are very much of the mind of committing to the use of nerve agents." Amka added with what was said in the meeting, "Make sure there's not any gaps in your armor seals. Can imagine we don't want any losses from friendly fire."
"Yeah, no shit. Glad I don't have a busted visor or helmet anymore." Hesa sighed, "So, anything else we're missing? Comms, central control, the cloning facilities, that's the big three I can think of."
"Spaceport," Orkos answered after studying the maps.
"Why?"
"We're not taking out or provoking the naval presence up above, right? Likely going to have some guys coming down from above for either some shore leave or some other reason. Do we want to make sure that there's not any problems that way?"
"Ideally, once defenses are down or turned against Armada vessels, taking the spaceport can be performed by the first waves of the invasionary forces…as well as our subterranean shock troopers standing by for our signals." Vult explained, revealing the unit markers well below the surface…and the extensive tunnel network formed between their locations. "The Vylatians and Haven Legion have been busy. Soon as we are made or the initial landings begin, whichever comes first, they will burst forth from beneath Empire forces to take them by surprise. I have no intention of fighting them fairly."
"So who's going?" Orkos looked around at the team leaders. "I mean, my time and Purple's basically gone."
"Rha's coming back here with the job of training the troops being done," Amka replied. "So that gives us half a team."
"Yeah, half, Corr, Haxx, and Radec are still gone."
"Yeah, but I'll be going with what's left of Purple. I'll take the short team, seems like it should be my duty as interim XO until Corr's back."
"Myself and Aren?"
"You two will go with Black Team. That should round out the roster just fine with myself and Phla being out of the picture. As for who's going, should be everyone, right, Commander?"
"More or less. Admiral 'Narr has Ohmantu available for tasking as well. Their teams went in first for surface recon to coordinate with the shock troopers. Eyes and ears everywhere for us. Not going in blind this time." Vult explained, gesturing to their unique positional markers across Destructia near most Empire facilities in some capacity or another. "Any questions?"
"So what about Haxx and the others?" Orkos had a burning question, "I mean, where are they gonna go while they're on Destructia?"
"Oh, they're coming too."
"How? We didn't give them a stealth shuttle."
"They're coming back with six SIS agents from Earth in a stealth corvette. Small group of them is joining us directly and defying their Director."
"Can't imagine Haxx is too thrilled all things considered…but, still firepower on our side is more firepower on our side. I'll take it."
"Wait…they defied their superior…who is part of the Federation…that we're helping…to help us?" Aero blinked, furrowing her brow. "I'm confused…are they with us or against us…they're not gonna try to fight us, are they?"
"They have no reason to as far as I'm aware of." Vult responded, allaying her concerns. "What is handled between them and their superiors is none of my concern. We all share a common enemy: The Empire. We're here to win a war, not make friends."
"...but don't we need friends to win the war?"
"..."
"Right, shutting up now, Sir."
"Just expect five augmented Vortians and a non-augmented one, that's what Haxx told me." Amka paused as he looked at Vult, "He told me you had a run in with the non-augmented one before, back in Tallum. Kaz confirmed as much."
"Speaking of that elusive son of a bitch, what's the plan with him? He still keeping the fort on Earth warm?" Orkos queried on the status of the unit's infamous loner.
"What, don't think we have enough snipers between all of us in Ohnmatu?" Vara jabbed lightly at the Lieutenant.
"No, it's not that, but I mean an extra sniper is an extra sniper, right?"
"Kazak is less than inclined to leave Earth. We have more than enough manpower for the time being and maintaining a presence there is vital should this all go sideways in the worst way imaginable." The Commander reasoned. "Hopefully it never comes to that but as we all know, war is unpredictable."
"Can't really complain, we've spent almost a year down…actually itching to get back out there." Aren commented with a shrug. "We'll try not to take all the fun for ourselves if they ever come back out this way."
Vult nodded with a smirk. "What I like to hear. Any other questions?"
"Only when we leave, sir."
"Basically as soon as Rha arrives, we'll get on our way. So we have a bit before we get going." Amka quickly answered.
"Enough time to dust off your kit and gear up. As soon as they arrive, we're stepping off. We have a planet to take. Dismissed." Vult made to adjourn the gathering.
Just everyone began to rise and take their leaves, his terminal chirped with a notification. A message received. Expecting the likes of their allies or other members of the team, only when he saw the originator of the missive did he give pause. His expression bordered between disbelief and elation, prompting a concerned Hesa to approach.
"What is it? Something wrong?"
He responded with a point to the screen, huffing in bemusement.
"See for yourself."
Brow furrowed in concerned confusion, she scanned the same text for herself:
Negotiations successful. Engaged a Mirage team, will have a full report for you later. En route with the Republican Navy. We'll see you in a year.
Hesa herself seemed absolutely dumbfounded, "I can't believe it."
"Believe what?" Aero, curious, looked between the two of them.
"The impossible. The Captain accomplished the impossible." Vult responded, shaking his head with a chuckle. "...well, now we can't fail."