[@Starlance]

Skye shrugged, looking on at Ebrima, shaking her head. Enri had been fiery, and Skye had left no reply, the whirlwind of Ebrima's response and her walking the wrong way making her hold back a guffawing laugh. Whilst Skye was obviously not even as big as some of the others in the room, when you could take on certain enemies 
"You put two and two together after meeting new people, you work out certain things. It's how I know you inside out...I don't sit there neglecting your file. You probably owe her an apology. And she'll probably figure out in time how I got there. People kept busy tend to move on, especially when we have a world to save and fuck all sleep to do it on." Skye simply retorted, knowing Ebrima probably would wisecrack to that, but her smirk seemed to give something. She didn't really have to say she knew him inside out. And well enough how to push his buttons.

That was the weird thing about Skye. Her intelligence may not have been perhaps that of an academics kind, like that of Freya, or perhaps of a progidical brilliance like Sam's, but it felt like it just tied in lots of unrelated strands into one coherent, strangely. Her work as an operative clearly mirrored that of Ebrima's, perhaps on the other side, but it made damn sure that she understood people when she had to. Forgot herself, and put it in a case when she had to.

[@LadyAmber]

Meanwhile, Sam approached Adam, and her question was a simple enough one to answer. Sam was clearly capable, and Adam had no issues letting her continue- even if he would have preferred a little more control- well, she knew armour more than he did and could make it work. The specs looked right too, from what he'd gandered at on his tablet.

"We have plenty. If you think it will work, do it. You have the resources of the free world. Enough to get her back here too apparently...." Adam retorted, aside from Skye, looking to Sam, then back over. 

He had a history with her. One he wouldn't really want to go into right now, but it was complicated. Difficult even. The kind that stirred a lot of uncomfortable memories for him again, but well, that was down to their differences. In operations, style. For someone he thought he might have to put a bullet into, perhaps he was less comfortable with the fact that he was in charge of the other half of Raven, and it was her team really.

"There will likely be some specifics to follow. But, prepare us for what's to come. I am sure we will have one hell of a fight on our hands." Adam replied, a stoic and stern reply, but one that felt no less honest or dishonest about it all.


[hr]

[center][h2]0215 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Skybound :The Setup[/h1][/center]

[center][h1]Fireteam Icarus[/h1][/center]

[center][h2]Skye, Athena, Sam, Oliver, Purna[/h2][/center]

The hasty wakeup had risen the team, and they were coming through in batches.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pHotq9fGZU]Olafur Arnalds- Loom[/url]

Skye had slowly gone through the motions, starting with a thermal shirt and tights, piece by piece, putting herself back together. The scar was visible across her side, a particularly prominent one among the many that now lined her skin. She rubbed her hand over her neck, feeling no lump, nothing there at all. A procured softshell followed, as did a black beanie hat, wrapped over her slowly growing burgandy curls. A wash of her face, cleaning her nails, and washing the general grime off her helped restore some humanity. Not exactly the most ladylike, but well, it would do. The blue-eyed Scot saw back into herself, hands on the sink, looking into what was there.

None of this had really sunk in. Not properly. She was always waiting for a job, always working. Driven by a feeling that it always sort of did good, did right. And with it, purpose came easy. How long had Rose shared a life with her? How long had she gone away? And what had she done? All of it, all of it came into focus. Nearly dying, she remembered the hazy bits of life. All the stuff of dad and mum, happy, good times. She was so manic when she was little, so inquisitive, fascinated with everything and ahead. She certainly scared her parents, but now, it was a glimmer. And even afterwards, they had forced their way through. After....well, what happened. They never seemed to change....perhaps Mum never knew? Never properly understood. It all didn't make sense. It all felt wrong. And yet, looking back, she knew she had something to do. She was a fighter. Like the lion on her back, she had so much more to roar and scream before the void came back. Nearly dying was her thing. And actually doing it was Rose's. Time to go do some more.

With it, she walked through the early morning of the dark outpost, a far cry from home. It felt a lot less like home, more like an escape. An outpost, a large wooden shack buried in a hill, the lights now brought on and the first briefing room available for Skye's team. Whilst rustic in most part, a large digital table, board and maps were all set, loaded with the data from Oracle. As promised.

Skye led the meeting, even in spite of getting here soon, she'd gotten acclimatised to what was on the table.

"Morning all. Right. Turns out our target.....it's an Airlander Class Twelve, a fucking blimp....of all things. An uprated design of something made for the American DOD almost a decade ago. And it's a priority target for us to hit, sitting 30,000ft over Dildo, Newfoundland. Yes. I laughed when I first heard it." Skye added, pulling up the blimp's location, and there it was.

"Now, we can't shoot it out of the sky. It contains the central server network to Rose's capabilities which could relocate if the central control isn't manually severed, and if what is known to have been delivered by drone, enough Sol Hestia aboard to spread over the eastern seaboard of America. I can't stress how important this is. We kill this, we're killing Rose, and any version of her able to come back again. Which kills, in theory, everything for good. And a major thorn in our side." Skye added, looking to it, then the team. They no doubt had questions of how they were going to get to a blimp, 30,000 feet over the coast of Newfoundland. 

"In terms of equipment, we're going to have to go light, with wingpacks forcing that. And not the regular kind." Skye added, reaching down, pulling open a crate, one that she'd prepared earlier. The team may not have got that reference, maybe they had. And with it, there it was. A black delta-winged lump, with an oxygen helmet attached at the top, and simple yet sleek controls.

"This is a Corvid Wingpack, might not be too familiar to some of you. It's a retractable, carbon-fibre wing, with two hydrogen-ion fuelled jets. It's a tool I've used once, goes like fucking fire. Has zero radar signature, and goes about 300mph, and more importantly....comes with one of these. Pull on your right hand and it fires 100m, and latches to anything magnetic, or with manual control on a HUD, penetrates." Skye turned it over, next to the parachute on the back of the wingpack there being a stubby lump, with a large ratcheted grappling hook poking out of it.

"So, one of these for you, each. Including Oliver and Athena, there's some we procured on short notice for you two. No heavy armour on this op, so Athena, Oliver, you'll need thermal suits and your lighter tactical getups, no exos for me either so you two will be the muscle on this operation. Our plan is to drop from the A400, fly to the blimp, and push through resistance, whatever we find, and destroy the servers, neutralise any compound, and sever the link. No stealth. We just go in, and hit them as hard as we can, before they can really defend. My biometrics will get us through, as it did before. Then we get out, and leave." Skye added, looking around, the faces looking blank.

"One last thing. One target of interest is aboard. The name is Kim Soo-Yang, known hacker and all around bastard last known to be working for the North Korean regime that is currently posted to look after the platform. He will be in charge of the blimp's defences, and no doubt, will make it as hard as possible to get through. He may even have an exo, so if you come across him, be ready to put up a fight. That, and of course, expect her. She'll fight like possessed to stop us. And believe me, I know what she can do." Skye brought up the picture of the hacker, and the scar on his face made it clear. He bad. The other picture wasn't needed of a certain Rose Lyons.

"Any questions? It's a bit more than our usual." Skye added to the team, wanting to get this wrapped up as soon as possible. There was a lot of kitting on to do.

Athena giggled, as Skye picked her out out first.

"Athena." Skye said straight, as Athena giggled like a little child.

"You know the blimp's shaped like a gigantic butt? And that I definitely want to steal it for myself? And that it's over....fucking Dildo!" Athena cackled, laughing out loud, probably way more than she should.

"You realise we're literally up against it, trying to save the world? You know, once in a lifetime opportunity, no opportunities to fuck up....really?" Skye replied, as Athena giggled, looking to Oliver, then Sam and Purna in his silence, then back to Skye.

"Guys, I'm just hearing it's a once in a lifetime opportunity to steal a cool as fuck blimp! I'd have so many parties in that thing! And oh yeah, killing the other version of you my sister split in two, permanently, yadda yadda that. That too. Also helps I know these things because I made sure to buy the first one that went to market." Athena grinned, cockily, and well, Skye had no reply. She gave a long sigh, and shrugged, a little deflated. She was literally everything she'd heard. Not good.

"Anyone else?"

[hr]

[center][h2]Briefing Room[/h2][/center]

[center][h2]0220 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Fireteam Viking[/h1][/center]

[center][h1]Icebergs Ahoy! - Setup[/h1][/center]

[center][h2]Jamie, Tahlia, Enri, Javi, Raphael[/h2][/center]

The levels of tension in the room were palpable, considering that on this op, there was the small matter of Enri and Raphael being in the room together. Let alone fighting together. The Kiwi leading the brief was wrapped up in a black t-shirt, and her tattoos now extended a fair chunk up her neck, almost to her chin. The same pattern of ink actually followed on her legs, whilst looking more like actual legs, having a painted pattern that she had added whilst the team were in Marrakesh and she was wearing them in. For a blonde, lightly olive-coloured sniper, she certainly still had her own look and the legs had been a revelation. Perhaps a weakness at least she wouldn't have to worry about like last  time, nearly getting stuck in a bog with her titanium-adapted sticks. She looked to the crew assembled, in all their various stages of being awake, based on the paperwork she'd been given, and the table in front of her, akin to the other briefing room.

"Our op is different to the other two. It turns out there's a significant portion of Artemis troops at the Solveig Theta mine, a strip mine digging up various rare earth minerals on the shore of a beautiful glacier that has retreated back in southern Greenland. And critically, a repeater network reciever that connects to Rose's neural network, and therefore can trap her if we time this right. Now, assaulting the mine alone would be of course, a rather shit idea considering the amount of hostiles. But, we have some friends. As in, we have an entire NATO Assault Ship group, located within the area. A good 1,000 Dutch, American and British Marines are readied to help us plug this gap, with helicopters and assault vehicles of their own. And we have our little fight on the side." Tahlia pulled it in, the image of supporting forces visible.

"The plan is, they lead the assault with cruise missiles, an amphibious assault and clear the mine of hostiles, whilst we go for the transmitter itself, using a hovercraft. If we play this right, we'll make big enough a bang to make Rose believe we're hitting the place with everything we have. Of course, that will buy the other two teams an opening to get into their operations. But it'll also put a dent in Rose's, and by extension, Artemis's ability to broadcast herself out to anywhere else easily from the central server. Any quick reaction forces will be put out of operation, including any aircraft, helicopters or other equipment. And we cap off a significant element of Artemis forces there and then." Tahlia added, pulling in the map, revealing positions.

"Javi will drive in, and I'll post up on a nearby position to lay down sniper fire. Jamie, you are in front and centre. Raph and Enri will follow once they've carved a path through whatever resistance there is. And with it, we'll try and hijack that repeater for our purposes. Jam, rather than transmit. And no doubt, have to deal with a hell of a warzone. Then we get out when we're done. No point getting bogged down, we'll have a fight to finish and they'll be able to handle it once we soften things down. There's a lot of Artemis HVTs, too many to list, but expect some particularly scary enemies close to it. Prepare for a full on assault here." Tahlia added, pulling it out of the map, focussing on the area generally.

"Area is mostly green, but there's a lot of icebergs and snow left over from the spring melt. Anyone got any questions?"

[hr]

[center][h2]Briefing Room[/h2][/center]

[center][h2]0230 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]The Planet Saver: Setup[/h1][/center]

[center][h1]Fireteam Poseidon[/h1][/center]

[center][h2]Adam, Freya, Chuck, Ebrima, Ban, Vincent[/h2][/center]

The last team had arguably one of the most serious jobs to do.

Ferrovia Two was a geoengineering platform, a large, massive floating structure formerly made up of an oil rig that was now a high-tech, biochemical laboratory that floated in the sea, coupled with a gigantic, almost mystical-scale of pipework and smoke stacks. With a large glass front, it almost resembled a gigantic floating warehouse, filled with algae labs and various industrial equipment fronted and presented beautifully in an ultra-modern style. It worked on a hybrid of iron fertilisation, vapour generation and cloud seeding tech, in theory creating a perfect storm of algal blooms, cloud cover and temperature reduction across a series of turbines and stacks settled across the ocean around it. A fascinating piece of work, considering it all renewably powered by geothermal energy deep beneath the La Palma hotspot in the Mid-Atlantic.

Counter-intuitively, saving the world meant destroying all the Sol Hestia there, and shutting down Ferrovia Two before it could belch it out. After all, the particles that Ferrovia Two, when the winds were pointing the right way, would point at Europe and Northern Africa would spell disaster for billions...

No pressure then!

On the digital display, everything was visible, and quite a sight to see in terms of the layout of the facility, the location and the scale of it for all to see. A hell of a sight.

With it, Adam pulled it in, after the team had gotten a look. He wore his usual fatigues, and as usual, was dry as ever.

"Right. That's the details of Ferrovia Two. Now, we have a limited window. Winds are now blowing from the south, towards the Arctic, which won't be Rose's target. But as of tomorrow afternoon, it'll be towards mainland Europe, Africa and a significant series of population centres. This cannot be allowed to happen. We have a significant Artemis detail on deck, and serious SAM and other defences capable of holding a heavy fight. But we'll have some help."

"As for equipment, we're using rebreathers, and flotation equipment. Freya, you in particular will need the latter, and for the rest of us, the former will keep us alive. The VTOL can drop us close, but we'll need to use an SDV to get close, and then swim in. We cannot let any of the toxin go into any water source, or into any vapour at all. If not, we will be calling family to say goodbye, so that is priority to wipe first using the neutralising agent we have scaled up and available to send to the tanks. We clear deck by deck, and once all the toxin is neutralised, we sabotage any method the platform can use to operate in future. We'll try and stay quiet for as long as we can afford, but we'll need to go loud and we will be limited in support, so we need to fight like hell. That will require fire support and we have Vincent, who will have the VTOL on station once we take down the SAM sites to rain down Hellfires and 20mm rounds. We can't bring in any more forces until we can confirm we have the toxin secure. Then we can get reinforcements, but make no mistake, we are isolated." Adam started, and pulled through the next elements- the HVT here.

"Lastly. This is Luisa Vasquez, known Colombian mercenary. The stories are true, if you heard them, but she runs the security detail. Intel suggests she's got a souped up exo. And if we run across her, eliminate on sight." He added, pulling everything down.

"We cannot fuck up. If anyone has any problems, quarrels, issues with anyone, put some boxing gloves on and take five. Then come back and let's save a world." 

[hr]

[center][h2]Armoury[/h2][/center]

[center][h2]0300 Local Time[/h2][/center]

[center][h1]Another Night Out[/h1][/center]

The armourers and support had come in clutch. Fixing up Chuck, Athena and Jamie's armours had come in fast through the night, as had the other works needing to be complete, things were being put together. There were a LOT of people in the armoury. But then again, a team of about fifteen, up against thousands of paid mercenaries who were unaware of what they were able to be involved in at best and promised a lifeboat off at worst, were now in their way to saving the world from an omnicidal maniac that had Skye's face.

So there's a lot going on. Everyone in their own zone, and a lot of conversations, but mostly, focussing on getting the job done.

Viking:

For Viking, usual combat gear meant a plate carrier for Raphael and a IMI Tavor, not one he had been familiar with in a long time, whilst for Tahlia, that meant a dark, mossy-green ghillie and a specially selected FN Ballista, chambered in .338, Lapua Magnum. And a few special rounds. Always. A silencer, a modular stock and a lovely thermal optic, and well, the Kiwi was rather happy with her setup. An MP7 for any close encounters, and a Glock 17 joined that, as a few spares. Viking would be off to the A400, but with an assault hovercraft used as an assault tool, they'd be dropped first and into the midst of a warzone off the coast of Southern Greenland.

Icarus:

Athena had suited up in a tight, kevlar-lined padded suit that almost looked like a suit used in Kendo, minus the facemask, whilst Purna was back in his gear, the usual setup, with the wingpack attached. Athena picked out her twin MAC-10s, an AA-12 and a pair of MP412 REX pistols, just like her mother had once had, as traditions would have it. Skye on the other hand, couldn't use her exo was in a similar arrangement to Athena's, albeit a little lighter, a plate carrier, beanie and a full sleeved black shirt following on quickly. While nothing as comprehensive as Sam's advanced armour, but on short notice, utilised much of the same principles that Sam had proposed, Athena benefiting from that too. She checked her new railgun-based tool over, keeping it in a stream and low charge for the time being, as well as equipping her usual pistol and supplementary tools. Purna, lastly of all traded the MP5 for a higher-calibre SIG MPX, chambered in a .357 SIG round and a silencer, for some more creative action around the blimp, as well as trading the M14 for more mags. 

Poseidon:

Adam set up his exo the same as before, Puma-coloured fatigues on and this time, equipping an EVOLSYS light machine gun over the MSBS arrangement he'd carried before. Similarly, the rebreathers attached to the exo, as did the floatation equipment. He had a check over Ebrima, going through his arrangement, and got set to go. 

There's this air of intent, and whilst many of the team would have wanted a longer moment to react, this was the reality of it. There were consequences to failure here, and nobody but Raven could fix this. A lot of special forces teams could try and force an opening, but when the enemy had tech like they did, they wouldn't be able to last in one, let alone three of these missions. Discretion was key- much of the waking world wouldn't even find out that they came this close to the brink. Strange how these things worked.