[center][h2] [color=ec008c]Samantha "Chaos" Dalton[/color] 

[color=8dc73f]Chuck "Boomer" Simmons[/color] [/h2][/center]

[b]Soundtrack: [url=https://youtu.be/pAgnJDJN4VA?feature=shared] ACDC - Back in Black[/url]
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[color=ec008c]Samantha frowned at Skye. [i]Why did she ask for their input if she had already decided how they would deploy?[/i] Samantha was a little annoyed with Skye but she knew better than to take that out on other team members. Samantha gave Skye a dark look. [i]She had brought in a new team member?[/i] Samantha couldn’t help but wonder if Skye was coddling her after what happened in the last op. She had gotten her act together and Sophie had given her the go ahead to resume active duty. Samantha turned and regarded Purna with a raised eyebrow. She gave him a smirk and nodded. Looked like she would need to make some tweaks to the drones and gear and give Purna and Eloise a crash course in how to set it up. She would do what she could to make it simple and fast for them. Her eyes moved over to Eloise, the new face in the room. She gave her a nod of acknowledgement. Sam’s smile grew somewhat mischievous as she would get to know her a bit as she trained her on the infiltration gear that her and Purna would now need to deploy in her stead. Samantha knew from observing the training she had been doing with Purna that Eloise used a bow. She had an idea for some special gear for her but she didn’t know how much time they would have before they left. Skye had moved the briefing onto the others who had voiced concerns or ideas. [/color]

[color=8dc73f]Chuck couldn’t blame Duke for being infatuated with Freya. He was in love with her. It made sense that his dog approved. It was a good thing they liked each other. Chuck shuddered to contemplate what his life would be like if Duke objected to Freya or vice versa. Chuck shook his head in amusement that his dog got greeted before he did. Chuck laughed Freya told him if they divorced she wanted the dog. Chuck returned the kiss Freya freely gave him with enthusiasm before he leaned over and whispered in her ear. [b]“Well I guess that means you will have to marry me and keep us then. Duke and I are a package deal.”[/b] Chuck wrapped his arm around Freya’s shoulder and sat next to her during the meeting.

Chuck turned his attention to the briefing but was keeping track of Duke since he was off leash. He rarely leashed Duke since he was so well trained. Chuck kept track of Duke’s progress around the room as he checked on various team members. He noted the Duke simply passed by Skye but pressed against her leg on his way to Jaime. Chuck looked amused when Jamie startled as Duke went to him and demanded attention from Freya’s brother. Duke kept going around the room. He noticed Duke stopped to sniff at Eloise. He hoped she didn’t mind dogs. 

Chuck eventually removed his arm and crossed them, his face morphing into a serious expression as the briefing told them how bad the situation was. [i]Space? Hell no! He was not being crammed into a tin can that was built for people half his size. With his luck he would try to stretch and put a hole in the fucking wall sucking all the oxygen out.[/i] He turned to Freya a little worried that Skye would take her on the mission to space. Space was a hostile environment and Chuck knew enough to know that he was not trained for it or ready for it. He was not claustrophobic but he didn’t like small spaces because of how big he was. Duke had returned and was leaning heavily against Chuck’s legs. Chuck reached down to rub him reassuringly behind the ears. He was never sure in moments like this if he was supporting his dog or his dog was supporting him. Chuck  understood Skye’s point of view. He was suddenly grateful for Samantha’s upgrade on his armor. His armor had needed to be completely rebuilt after he only managed to salvage what was left of the leg armor. Samantha had completely redesigned his armor for better defensive and offensive power. He had been training with it since it was finished to get used to using it. It was not quite as flexible and maneuverable as his old set but it would stand up to more abuse and deal out more damage. [/color]

[color=ec008c]Samantha sighed and tried to school her face into neutrality. She had felt off since her near death experience. Skye had not been acting quite like her normal self either. Both of them had been through a lot since Kaitaki. Skye had found out she basically had an evil clone who was a megalomaniac who wanted to take out the world. She had been on the run from the agencies she had worked for and trusted. She had to kill someone who looked like her. They had to stop the end of the world and here they were again just a few short weeks later. Samantha couldn’t help but feel as if Skye was pushing her away somehow. They had all been busy trying to figure out what Rose’s next move would be. Samantha couldn’t put her finger on what was bothering her about Skye. She knew Skye had been through more than she had. She knew that Skye was excellent at compartmentalizing and pushing away the emotional stuff. There was nothing in Skye’s behavior that was out of the ordinary for her. Samantha kept her thoughts to herself. [i]Maybe this was one of those times where she was obsessing over a behavior that was not there.[/i] She still struggled with social cues occasionally. Samantha couldn’t help the feeling that somehow Skye was saying goodbye or accepting that she was not coming back from this mission. That was not acceptable to Samantha. She sighed in frustration. She couldn’t come out and ask Skye what was up. She knew that Skye would deny it and the others would think Samantha had lost her damn mind. That was one of the reasons she had not shared her near death experience with many people. Conventional wisdom said that the experience was her trauma of losing her parents making itself known. Samantha’s eyes went around the room. She smiled a little to see Freya sitting with Chuck. It made her happy to see Freya content and happy. Samantha decided to take her cues from Freya about Skye who was treating this mission as business as usual. [/color]

Skye wrapped up the meeting. 

[color=lightblue]Skye: "Right. We'll ship out on the Galaxy that Blue Sword have here and rendezvous with the airship once ready. We've got a ghost transmitter for our little run, and you have your last chance here to sort yourselves out. We’ll be moving in eight hours. You can catch up on sleep in the plane once we’re done. EVA team, I’ll brief you shortly, so stay here. Rest of you, you’re all dismissed.” [/color]

[color=ec008c]Samantha grinned as she now knew how long she would have. She had just enough time to get the gear for Eloise made with a little help. She would tweak the insertion gear and teach them to use it on the blimp. She would catch up with Purna and Eloise then. [/color]

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[center][h1]LZ Zulu, Somewhere in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya
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[color=ec008c]Samantha made sure all the gear made it onto the trucks. She was mesmerized by the scenery. It was hot and she felt like she was melting somewhat. She was grateful that her complexion tanned instead of burning thanks to her Hispanic mother. She was enjoying the heat after being in the cold for so long. Samantha had been to Africa before but she had only briefly visited various hotspots. She had been deployed mostly in the trouble spots around the Middle East. When she had been in Africa, she had been in cities. She had never had the opportunity to enjoy the animals and wilds of Africa. While it was scenic, Samantha was self aware of the fact that she would always be a city girl at heart. She would appreciate nature but she felt out of place in such a rural place without all the trappings of society and technology at her disposal. [i]She liked modern plumbing, air conditioning, and electricity. Thank you very much. [/i]

Samantha was grateful when the bumpy uncomfortable ride across the savannah ended. The scenery was the only perk on that leg of the trip in Samantha’s opinion. She was helping off load the gear from the trucks. She was passing by Vincent and Skye as she overheard their conversation and met Skye’s mischievous look. Samantha gave Vincent a wicked grin as she kept carrying the box with the new gear she had made Eloise towards the blimp. [b]“Sorry Vincent, If Athena decides to kick your ass, I am not saving you! You do know she is Freya’s sister right? I have seen her action. Sorry buddy you are on your own!”[/b] Samantha laughed maniacally all the way to the loading ramp for the blimp. She made sure that box made it into the blimp before returning for the crate of infiltration gear she would need to teach Eloise and Purna how to use.[/color] 

[color=8dc73f]Chuck had enjoyed being close to Freya on the Galaxy. He figured this was as close as he would get to a domestic scene with Freya for some time. So he did what good Marines do… he embraced and enjoyed it. Duke had settled down easily on Freya’s chest for the duration of the trip. Chuck had helped Freya turn the tables on Jamie. The two of them ganged up on Jamie about when he was going to meet a nice girl. Chuck avoided the topic of Athena’s very fine derriere. He knew a girl trap when he saw one. The team didn’t need his help to share butt jokes and puns. As evidenced by the Flying Butt remarks by their fearless leader. Chuck was helping unload the crates of gear and weapons. His muscles put to use as he stacked the heavy boxes into the blimp’s cargo hold. It didn’t take long to unload everything they had brought with him. He had offered to help Samantha but she had brushed him off. Chuck hid a mischievous grin from Freya as Duke yanked on his leash wanting to explore the new and exotic scents that were assailing his nose. Freya had offered to mind Duke while Chuck had helped unload the gear from the trucks. Chuck knew just how powerful Duke was. If Freya had not been a fairly strong woman Duke would have yanked her over in his enthusiasm. Chuck went in search of Freya once more and found her in Athena’s penthouse suite on the top floor of the blimp’s cabin. This blimp was ridiculous. Most blimps had a single solitary cabin that was the control room. This thing was like a small flying castle. He liked the stealth capabilities of inserting from the stealth coated blimp. Hopefully their target wouldn’t see them coming before they got the drop on them. [/color]

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[color=ec008c]Samantha waited till they had all checked in and were in the air before going in search of Eloise. She had slipped away from the main group in the confusion of the blimp’s departure. Most of the team was hanging out in Athena’s sparkly play room. Samantha was never the princess type. She was more rock and roll and grunge than pretty princess. She found Eloise in the vehicle bay eating a snack of some kind. Samantha made sure to make a little noise. She didn’t want to startle her. If Eloise was anything like Samantha, she had probably sought out a little space to catch her breath. Samantha had come a long way from the lone wolf operative she had been in the CIA. Skye had taught her to work as a member of a team and value it. Sam still had moments where people didn’t make sense to her or she felt overwhelmed by them socially. She wanted to talk to Eloise before they needed to jump out of this perfectly repaired and functional blimp in a vehicle drifting to the ground on parachutes potentially under fire. Yeah… now would be good. She still needed to teach Purna and Eloise how to use the gear. 

Samantha approached where Eloise was sitting. She smiled up at her in her perch. She waved her down. [b]“Hello Eloise. I am Samantha or Sam. Can you come down here? I have something for you. I also need to show you and Purna how to use the infiltration gear.” [/b]

Samantha waited for Eloise to join her. She then handed over a very modern looking tactical quiver full of arrow shafts. Samantha explained how the new piece of gear worked. 

[b]“I understand that your callsign is Archer and that you like to use a bow. I didn’t have a lot of time to get any gear ready for you. This is not much but I wanted you to give you something to welcome you to the team. This is a very special quiver and arrows. The shafts are all a lightweight aluminum alloy blend with aerodynamic fletching. The shafts are all identical. They have a threaded end that will screw into the arrow tip. The quiver has a mechanism that will attach the arrowhead you ask for. I sent an update to your armor system so it should work with your HUD. You can subvocalize or select what you want to fire from the menu. The possibilities for speciality arrows are only as vast as our imagination and what I can engineer into them. The quiver holds 40 arrows. I didn’t have a great deal of time so I went for simple and what I knew I could get done. You have ten arrows of each type, acid, electrical, explosive, and armor piercing. The acid vial on the arrow tip will break and spray acid on your target. It will eat through almost anything carbon based. The electrical arrow discharges a volt strong enough to take out most electronics that are not hardened against electrical surges. You can use them against soft targets but its much stronger than a taser. It might kill what you hit. The armor piercing arrows are barbed and strong enough to punch through most operative armor. The explosive tips use a special mix I got from Boomer. It will put a sizable hole in what you hit.”[/b] Samantha passed it over as she finished explaining the gear. She shrugged a little and looked down and away. [b]“I am sorry I couldn’t do better with so little time. Welcome to Raven Squad.” [/b]
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[color=ec008c]Samantha finally got Purna and Eloise together to discuss how to use the infiltration hacking gear. [b]“The drones just need to be activated and let loose. I reprogrammed them to seek out targets of opportunity. They can be controlled remotely by Rafael and Enri to provide close air surveillance support as well. However if you target the communications tower. You will need to take off the access panel and strip the main wire of its casing. Then simply attach this box to the wire. That will allow Rafael and Enri to take over their communications and hack gear remotely from the base. It will give them a hardwire connection that the PLA can’t sever without physically disconnecting it and they have to find it first.”[/b] She made sure they understood how to attach the communications box. She showed them videos and diagrams of what it might look like. If they had the opportunity it would certainly help the hackers sow dissension among the PLA. Samantha had done that once on one of their ops. Since then Artemis had hardened their communications against wireless hacking. This would allow them to send troops in the wrong direction or feed them conflicting orders. Or shut down their communications altogether. The drones would seek out automated heavy weapon platforms such as SAM launchers and automated gun turrets. [/color]