Overture
@Awesomoman64@PerfectThoughtThe two hackers had gotten in close, and no doubt that only spelled carnage was going to play out- Sam dropping off the heavy of Asim and the pain in her ass of Xan to sort out the rods and mech respectively, whilst simultaneously fixing the SAM problem...not bad at all.
With a turn of the SAM platform, the missile flew off the rack of the platform that the other Sam had managed to hack into. That however, made the Hind bank out and dump flares, avoiding the first salvo, and before the second then flew out and actually scored a hit, the Hind's stray autocannon fire now ending and opening up the battlefield a bit more for everyone- now they could really go to town on even terms. Even with all of the advanced electronics, the team had fought their own fire with their own fire.
Meanwhile, the mech's pilot evisceration was every part as brutal as a high power uranium-tipped round would be, with Stafford doing his bit with Xan to sort that one out.
"Jesus, you redecorated that thing!" Skye chirped back at Stafford, seeing his scope view as she heard him ask for what next, knowing he was aiming directly at the Hind that had just in that moment, been struck by the missile.
"Chopper's down, so hold on that Stafford. Push in and help us clean up, there's a lot of bodies you'll need to take on. Glitch, take the mech and wipe anyone else out. If you can keep that thing running for longer than five minutes, we might be able to run some diagnostics off it...I want the data from that thing given we don't know precisely where it came from, and what the specs are." Skye retorted, knowing it would have probably stolen his thunder, but he'd done a hell of a service with his rifle today. That mech was no longer a problem they had to deal with, and he was professional enough to know it was an opportunity for a pipe before charging in as cavalry.
"Chaos, sit tight there. Got your feed, you've got more moving near your position but I've got the flank on them. Don't let the bastards destroy it before we have a proper look." Skye replied, knowing she'd probably just made the Australian's day- no doubt that he'd enjoy that, while Sam would need to hold her finding till Skye arrived.
@Theyra@ReusableSword@BigPapaBelialSkye was also now turning her attention to the fact that the ship was going to be a slightly more uncomfortable are to be, with the distant crack of canisters of tear gas giving Skye the initiative to get the fuck out of her position.
"Aye, let's get 'oot of here, Jaguar! Frigga, Ogre, you got plenty of hostiles coming out from the far end of the ship, there's a fucking horde of them, do your thing!" Skye knew that while the gas had gone into the far side of the shipwreck, the gas would gather quickly, and right now, she wanted to be nowhere near.
There were a lot of troops ahead and Skye knew she wasn't gonna get involved in that fight, or even raise any attention- as much as she was collecting bodies, today she didn't want to die and wanted the experts at pest control to do their gig- given they carried weaponry the size of her, and the Australian of the team now had a mech that would be able to probably help redecorate that part of the ship, leaving Frigga, Glitch and Ogre to it would be best. So Skye was out, and moving on the find she spotted in her glasses, where Chaos had headed to- hoping Hornet was following her lead.
Skye moved on Sam's position, going topside again on the ship with a leap and a double jump, avoiding the clusterfuck below that was about to untangle- like rats pushed out of a hiding hole, Skye was leaping a container and skidding on the far side of it, clipping a couple more soldiers with her MG3 on the deck as she headed towards Chaos's position, knowing that the American was probably about to take a lot more heat. With a fluid movement, Skye reached the edge of the ship, moving with intent and purpose, her never say die only getting warmed up as she looked down at the camo tarp, and the troops in and around Chaos. A little help was in order, but she wouldn't do all the work, given Chaos had that covered it looked like.
Using her Carl Gustav, Skye picked up the other two exo-armoured soldiers that were coming into position to start suppressing Sam, using a anti-personnel round to literally just blow up the container they were on, given the MG wouldn't get accurate enough from the range she was at. With that expended, Skye lept down, almost cartwheeling down as she used the exo and jump-jet built in to softly clatter into the ground right next to her, thudding with a gentle pat into the soft sand.
@LadyAmber"Well, hello. You seem to have had some entertainment out here...and that's some fun bruising you're gonna have from that round, Chaos. Try not to get shot, ey?" Skye noted with a wry chuckle, knowing the American had gotten herself into a spot of bother, but seemed to be holding up somewhat, and her find was particularly interesting. The mark in Sam's ballistic plate was clear to see- nothing fatal, but that would have hurt, and no doubt, Sam was going be aching with it.
Skye herself had taken a couple of rounds, but it looked like none had breached her armour- or at least, she wasn't showing it given the sheer amount of adrenaline in her system and the fact that her body had gone through far worse. Not invincible, no, but the little niggles just poked the fact she was alive a little harder more than anything, that stubbornness just underpinning her character. Her ribs hurt from being kicked by a hydraulic ram of an exo, but then again, she'd done worse as she wiped some of the blood off her face, the brief interlude given their immediate area was clear allowing Skye to take a look inside the camo netting.
"Oh my word...that is quite the stash. Terrorist aliexpress really is getting impressive these days." Skye added, looking through, it a pile of exoskeleton frames, advanced western weaponry, rocket launchers, and more than enough ammunition to supply two company's worth of troops with modern 5.56 and 6.8mm ammunition. Hell, even a BTR-90 was here, though missing a turret which was located next to it. This wasn't skinnies with AKs, this was a serious setup of equipment, and within the back of it, she could just about see the most concerning bit.
"That is a very copious amount of explosives at the back. PETN. And about a quarter of a tonne of it....which will make a very big boom, and not exactly shite we can leave in the wild. It's more than I'm safely comfortable managing. Detonating it with our own explosives is one thing or trying to make it safe with time is another. But I don't think we have that luxury. What we do have, is a drone with a large ordinance on it which can delete this. Delete the lot of it. But I think there's something far more concerning to look about all of this when we get back to base." Skye commented to Sam, the Scot sincere yet professional, sliding the MG3 onto her back, the unarmed team lead moving inside the camo netting, making sure to keep her sidearm close to hand to take a bit more of a look.
The red-headed Scot adjusted her helmet a little, her gloved hands showing the sign of wear from the MG3 and movement, with the blood at least now wiped off a little now she had a moment. Claret was never a good thing to have, you know, professional image and all that to maintain, well, most of the time Skye thought to herself. She moved with a certain confidence, even despite being shot at, it seemed to her like another day out in the field, doing what she did best. It was strange- the enigma of her was one that certainly elicited respect, but under her blue eyes, you couldn't help but notice the wear that was always residual, like it never left. It wasn't PTSD, shit, she'd seen enough to make that run away in fear.
It was more the responsibility, the constant carrying of it that had gotten her to where she was, not wanting the easy option but taking the hard road wherever she could find it. Maybe it had worked well for her, but in another way, Skye Lyons was not someone who knew fully how to turn off. Family wasn't something she thought of, beyond the team she had, and the luxuries of life were just a comma inbetween the job. It was what made life a little more tangible for her, it felt like her place in the universe made sense doing this. A workoholic special forces mum, now, that was something of an enigma, and that one looked across to the American, unable to see her face through the visor, Skye's features visible beyond her bloodied cheek and blue buff.
"Keep an eye out for me would you?" Skye commented to Sam with a sincere nod, knowing that as unlikely as it was they would get visitors, she didn't want any surprises. Skye's direct manner wasn't meant to offend- well, she knew it did sometimes, but more to the point, it just kept people on track, and left little ambiguity. That came after a few more drinks, after all.
Going in, she took a couple of swabs of the PETN, and of the weapons too using another set of swabs she was carrying, taking footage through her tactical glasses, and recording the inventory of the pile for the post-mission briefing. It wasn't anything spectacular, but the intel haul on this was good. Enough to at least build a picture of who funded Artemis, who they were buying from, what they were involved in, and their capabilities. Oh yeah, and make sure they couldn't make yellow cake, the kind that tasted the literal opposite of lemon drizzle.
As seen, Raven had already done a number on them, and before that, other missions they had taken the fight to them in had gone their way. But this escalation wasn't good. So far they'd been in front. What happened when they fell behind and they had even more gear? Skye didn't want to dwell on that too heavily, because after all, they had to leave.
Leaving the netting, Skye brought her MG3 back into hands, looking across to the DPV, then across to Sam.
"Alright then lass, drive us back to the rest of the crew. All callsigns, clean up your sectors, and regroup at the position I've pinged to your display once you're done wasting these wankers." Skye added to the team, clambering into the back of the DPV, MG3 at the ready, as she looked back over to the American, the Scot wiping the remainder of the blood off her face, for a moment, knowing that as strange as a time as it was to admit it, this would be a good opportunity.
"You held up well today, Sam, nicely hacked. I'm shipping you and Xander, mind. I haven't seen him this excited to work with someone since...well, about a month ago." Skye giggled as she spoke directly to her, adjusting her position in the seat, sighing as she knew that she always would find a chirp for her team, not every day, but when it was needed most.
--
Over
With the clean up of the base nearly complete, all hostiles were about to be out of commission, or running. Short of a smash and grab, what would be a bad day for most special forces teams had turned into an utter hit piece against the Artemis deal. The other troops looked mostly Kazakh in ethnicity, perhaps some gangster outfit from the fact most of them weren't armoured, but there wasn't much left. There were not HVTs that Skye could see from the bodies- this truly was a grey deal, just a simple set up of shop, swap, and leave. Didn't explain the Hind, nor the mech, nor the exos of Artemis's mercs and various militants being more than capable of being a pain in her ass. That would come in the post-mission analysis she would have to undertake, and while this mission had been a relatively simple one, it wasn't over till they were back in the Osprey and homeward bound.
With both DPVs back at the rally point, near where the mech had been prior at the cracked opening of the ship, Skye had the chance to call in her commander, her comms line currently separated to the team.
"Oracle, we've secured what appears to be some fissile material, looks like it's plutonium rods from a Soviet sub. Found a fairly big weapons cache of some advanced kit, I've got photos, swabs and a nice cache of intel. Plenty for us to look at. Requesting drone on station to come and clean up a significant cache I've marked on the AR for destruction. Significant volume of PETN, guns and all sorts that don't tickle my fancy." Skye called out, like it was a takeaway order or something. Nothing too unsettling, even if Skye felt that deep down.
"Affirmative, Queen. Head to OP Delta, extract will be there in 20 minutes. Don't keep them waiting, drone's inbound." Oracle called back, Skye nodding to the invisible handler, the redhead putting hand to ear again.
"Roger that, Oracle." Skye with that jumped off the DPV's side rail, keeping an ear, about to call the team to get in the vehicles and leave, the words almost leaving her mouth before her comms barked into life.
"Break, break, drone's gone offline, repeat, drone has gone out of link! Get your asses out of there!" Oracle's usual calm breaking completely, Skye stopped dead, in a manner the team hadn't seen so far from her yet.
"Shit! Bomb drone's been hacked, everyone, fucking run and split!" Skye didn't have the time or words to explain what it meant as she yelled to the others, but the team would know that from earlier, the drone that had been loitering and carrying a significant munition was now going to be out of control. And not in the hands of someone safe, either. There was only one outcome if that was the case, and it wasn't that Artemis was stealing the drone as a part-exchange for the plutonium that the team had stolen.
With that, Skye picked her angle, and with pelt, got running. The DPVs were more of a liability than it was worth, so too was the mech- they wouldn't start and get them out in the time they had, because that drone was going to be 20 seconds out in the munition hitting, and no Trophy System even on the mech meant it wasn't going to hold that thing. Glitch and Chaos weren't going to get control of that drone easy- and at best, they weren't going to be able to stop where it was going. Unable to fire the missile attached, Skye could see the propeller-based drone dive out of the sky and come into view, and only had one option in her mind. Don't fucking stop moving and dive for cover.
The drone whistled in, and thankfully, hadn't honed in on the team- instead aiming for the DPVs and the mech where they had stood 20 seconds ago, be it thanks to pure luck or shit hacking with a lag, Skye didn't know, but she'd ran her quarter and knew that the GBU-27 that was attached was now going to be set to do the damage they had wanted elsewhere, at another time, right here, right now.
The explosion was significant, blowing up the ship's fore entirely with remarkable destructive power and sending shrapnel flying and the mech into pieces with a secondary blast, with the explosion entirely throwing Skye off her feet as she dove into sand, aware that she had run the shallowest angle compared to the rest, who could at least run towards a dune for cover. Still, nothing had hit her apart from the percussive impact of the shockwave knocking almost all of the air from her lungs, the explosion mushrooming into the sky with a weapons cache inside the ship going up, shaking the ground and lighting the dawn chorus with a bright light.
---------------
It Wasn't Over
Coughing a little as she looked back at it from being thrown in the soft sand that had taken much of the impact, Skye took a moment to sit back up, and her audio barked in once again.
"Queen, you breathing? How copy, Queen?!" Oracle's comms chirped into her headset, the comms broken but clear enough for her to react, coughing sand as she looked around, dazed and a little confused.
"Just about! What the high wain fuck was that?" Skye crawled up, her exo helping but her body trembling, the adrenaline rush coursing out and in, with her face an almost splattered mix of dirt and blood, completely removing any humanity that seemed to be left from her pretty face, her glasses playing up a little too and coming off fairly immediately.
"I've got multiple armoured signatures inbound to your location, looks like six to eight IFVs about four kilometers out to the west...break.....comms and any networked electronics on the line is likely to be compromised too...and we don't have any further assets on line....going onto radio silence until we know the encryption's back. Hold tight." Oracle called out, and Skye swore, the only reaction it deserved.
"Bollocks! Affirmative...." Skye looked to the rest of the team, just hoping they were holding together- and for a brief moment, even the Scot looked bemused as to what the fuck was going on. A million thoughts were in her head...was this a trap, an opportune moment to bag them, or just pure happenstance? It didn't matter right now. The decisions made were going to decide if they were going to all get clapped or live, and given there was a number of infantry fighting vehicles, equipped with autocannons coming in on the ship and cleaning house. Oh yes, and they were in the middle of the desert, with limited anti-tank, and already depleted as is with ammo, weapons and their armour.
Even by Skye's high standards of bad days, this ranked pretty highly.
With it being bleak as it is, Skye killed the team's networked electronics where she had access, including her display connecting to the team, and almost everything else bar the team's shortwave comms and exos, encrypted thankfully to a different frequency and from what she could tell of her arm's display, not currently frazzled by a cyberattack. It was strange as hell, but whatever it was, they'd surged something- this wasn't someone pulling strings, this was someone crudely trying to do as much damage as they could. Which didn't help her understanding of the situation, in fact, this was getting weirder by the moment. So she was effectively blind now to her team's actions, but she could still talk and move, and more importantly, frag the bastards delaying their return home.
Chaos and Glitch's hacking was going to be offline now too, their stolen mech was dead as was their two DPVs, and a significant amount of the ship had been removed from existence into shrapnel but remarkably, the weapons cache that Chaos and Queen had gotten to hadn't been blown up, located next to the intact part of the ship's aft. Of course it was.
In spite of the fact they were now very much screwed, it was time to put things back into their hand. Skye wasn't backing down today, as she dusted herself off, and looked across to the others, knowing they'd probably be asking as many questions as she was right now. There was no point talking to Oracle- the line was dead, and until the mysterious commander had restored that connection, right now, Raven Squad was on their own against whatever was about to be thrown at them. If they could destroy the counter attack, they could improvise something to get out, or at least await an alternative. Hell, even stealing an IFV was half an option, but survival came first when in a crisis like this.
"We all still alive? Christ, that was close....we're not done yet. We're going to get a counterattack come our way, armoured no less with a platoon's worth of IFVs coming our way. Likely to be highly armoured, autocannon carrying and full of infantry. They'll probably go for the front of the ship, try and secure the bomb site and anything else left."
"Shortwave comms is still secure, otherwise we'd have been hit by that cyber attack...if you have anything left that gives a long range signal, turn it off or else they're going to direct munitions on your wee fuckin' arse, first class. Oracle ain't getting us any goodies. We're on our own till we sort this out. Get yourselves patched up, and get some air in your lungs. We're gonna be busy." Skye started, moving with a bit of a stagger, still a little shell shocked and feeling a little weaker, her energy sapped by the shockwave, but she knew she had to remain strong to direct the team. They had limited time, and were very up a creek without a paddle.
"Alright then, let's give it back to the wee bastards. I was sick of watching yous on feed anyway."@BigPapaBelial@ReusableSword"Ogre, bury and tag the rods for now. You and Frigga need to hide in the intact end of the ship and come out only when they're right in front to take out the infantry, and go head on into the IFVs at point blank, and destroy any Trophy System or anti-missile systems they have, likely one or two has one for sure to help protect the cluster. That gives your various weapons systems the best chance to work and you can run at the bastards getting out, mortars, direct energy, anything to basically blast them open. I'll be with you above on the ship, so I'll cover your flanks from anyone trying to give you shit. If you can take the weapons out of one of them, see if you can make it spare to steal. Hornet, you're with me on top of that ship, see if you can grab any anti-tank, RPGs or anything that might be able to help us defend." @Wayward@LadyAmber@Awesomoman64"Glitch, Chaos, I need you both to go to the weapons cache, I spied a few guided AT launchers in there...you can steal those and some LMGs, then find a position in the remains of the ship to defend from. We'll use those to ambush the IFVs masse when they get close and the Trophy Systems are dead. Bring spares, and we'll then decimate them. There's nothing you can do about that network- the hack's hit mine and Oracle's link, so we aren't going to be able to patch it locally and without that, we have no way out. Once our network's online, we need to keep any hackers off our patch and ideally, light their server up before they try again."@PerfectThought@Theyra"Stafford, Jaguar, set up a sniper position south of the ship, and get ready to snipe off troops coming in. Cloaking and camo will be needed- you need to make them confused from your firing positions, more chaos the better when they're figuring out who's shooting. Your systems might be fine, but don't count on them entirely." Skye looked across to the team, knowing all of them were weary, and likely very pissed off, but right now, they had no choice but to get this done, literally, it was do or die.
"We're going to let them come to us, so don't fire till they're close- I give us about five minutes till they arrive. They'll know we're here, but they just won't know where. Let's make them work for this arms deal in bits, aye? On my order, yous' can unleash hell, so let's show them some proper hospitality if they want to come visit, ey!" Skye yelled, getting them back into a positive frame of mind, knowing with tasks to complete, they were going to get through this.
Some team leads would have panicked, but Skye seemed to be a bastion of trust, knowing she believed in them as much as they would reflect it back. Their tech was fancy and gear was good, but now with what little they had, they were going to hold their own. And use their own weaponry against them, no less. Deep down, Skye knew she was weary, but the illusion had to remain. A good leader led with example, and enough fire to throw it back. She wasn't letting that die down, they'd have to try better than that.
