A/N I will be featuring a crossover of sorts with Never Loyal's author. We each feature the other's freelancer in their story. 10 internet points as to who the character is and the usual disclaimers still apply so do not sue.
Vermont awoke in his base, comfortable with the fact that he had struck back against Command and the Director whom he had always hated. He wondered if he should try to get revenge possibly also getting some new gear as well or simply become an assassin. He decided to first spend some time modifying his new aircraft before he tried anything. He climbed out of bed and lurched into the shower. 30 minutes later, he was in the kitchen eating a breakfast of MREs he had "borrowed" from Command while he considered some of the possibilities that he could do with the equipment lying around.
He remembered the ECM(1) and sensor jamming package that he had stolen off of a downed Prowler, one that had been shot down, and he was sent in to destroy it. He had done so, but had been smart enough to see a rare opportunity, so he swiped the jamming gear, destroyed the hulk then claimed that the gear went up with the rest of the Prowler. They had bought the excuse, and he had brought the gear home, repaired it, and then began looking for a buyer who was in the Freelancer program. He was not about to sell the gear to just anyone, he wanted to sell it to someone who he knew and trusted. However, no one had ever displayed the slightest interest in it, so he put it aside and forgot about it.
He got up from the table, and walked into the electronics room. The room was medium sized, and had several workbenches bolted to the walls with toolboxes on a couple of the tables. He strode over to the table with the new gear, grabbed it, and then he grabbed a nearby toolbox. He walked over to the elevator, placed the items on the floor, then he strode over to a nearby computer terminal, where he printed out a copy of the Longsword blueprints and put them in a pocket.
He then rode the elevator down to the hanger, where he walked over to the aircraft. He climbed into the cockpit, where he began searching the display for the upgrade slots. The Longsword had evidently been modified for long-range reconnaissance, as there was a cryotube display, a large weapons locker, and even a mini kitchen. He however, did see the universal plugs, and inserted the ECM gear's USB plug into a slot. It whirred for a second, while the systems synchronized with each other, but after a couple seconds, the ECM gear icon appeared on the HUD. He smiled, and looked at the blueprints, considering the possibilities. He saw that the missile bay's capacity had been increased, and filled to their new maximum capacity of 35 AGSM missiles. He also saw that the engines were configured so that they generated less heat than a normal ship's engines while retaining the amount of power.
He decided to do a test run of the modifications, as well as to tweak Command's noses. He decided to try to sneak into one of Command's weapon research labs, in order for him to set up a backdoor into their system and to see if he could score some potentially useful equipment. He checked the list of Commands' hidden research centers; there was 15 of them, and he decided on the most profitable target: MARS (2) industries' facility on Sidewinder. The facility had minimum security due to their budget from Command being slashed, it was isolated enough to prevent easy reinforcement, and best of all, they were rumored to be working on a top-secret project. He pulled up the virtual charts, and began plotting out his journey, which took about 30 minutes. He calculated out the travel time, which would take about several hours.
He pulled up the facility's blueprints and was amazed at the size of the facility. It was a huge underground complex, covering about half a mile of corridors, labs, and manufacturing lines. It even had a full-scale testing chamber for their weapons, so they could design weapons, test them, and make them all in one spot. He looked over the security diagrams and was instantly worried. It seemed that over half of the 284 staff members were assigned to security and it looked like his original impressions about their lax security was wrong. There was overlapping security cameras, sentry guns that were triggered by the cameras as well as independent targeting systems, blast doors, laser tripwires, a backup fusion reactor, air vents which had grates measured in millimeters, and to top it all off, the facility's electronics were EMP hardened in order to prevent someone from disabling the alarms. In short, the facility was built like Fort Knox and in order for Vermont to get inside he would need some help. He decided to pick up Tex, and then see if York wanted to have some fun.
He started the fighter's engines up, and set a course for Blood Gulch. In the meantime, he decided to plan an assault with Tex and York on the facility. He pulled up the blueprints, and began planning the attack.
(1) ECM= ElectronicCounterMeasures, stuff like chaff, flares, things that disrupt targeting sensors.
(2) this is from GI Joe, the Rise of Cobra which I borrowed. I do not own MARS industries, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this on my laptop.