[IC] The Depths of Deception

[Muttonhawk]

Taking her weapon in her hands, Shiva's expression became cool and serious as they approached the hangar. Shiva took Rareth's instructions as implicit that she would be accompanying the main party, which was slightly strange to her, but then again, Shuo was heading them up as well with his high profile suit. A terse "understood," from Shiva preceded their touchdown.

After Rareth and Shuo scanned their landing zone and declared it clear, Shiva emerged behind them and scanned her eyes over the area, plasma rifle raised. The hangar was relatively clear, but there were enough crates and vehicles around to make a rudimentary defensive position. "If they couldn't secure spots like this, maybe they really don't have the numbers to hold the station. Maybe it really was just a screw-up that stuck them here," Shiva speculated, though she quietened down once the team reached the edge of the hangar.

[EliteCommander]

"It looks like this hanger has been out of use for some time, but you're right. They are not numerous enough to maintain a presence on the entire station at the same time. Still, be on your guard; we don't know how often they send patrols down here." Rareth observed before activating her wrist computer and projecting the schematics of the station in front of her. "There are a few data centers that the rebels might be using to store their records. I would say we might try getting in remotely, but that opens up more room for detection. Plus, they might not even have that information on the network. Our best bet will be to access it directly. The closest location is three floors up, and about halfway to the far south side of the station. Patrols on the bottom floors should be sparse enough that we can use a direct route, but after that, we may need to get creative. Shuo, have your drones take point, I'll take the lead behind them. Anyone who isn't good as staying hidden, stay back a bit. If we encounter anyone we need to avoid them, or kill them quietly. Now, let's move."

With the insect-sized drones scouting for them, they were able to move through the corridors without much worry of running into someone accidentally. To get up to the proper floor, they were heading to the nearest elevator. They were not actually going to use it, but rather climb up maintenance ladders in the elevator shaft. Fortunately, the station didn't rely exclusively on mechanical labor, so they still had need of said ladders. It was not too far from the hanger, but they had to stop short, as Shuo's drones spotted a group ahead...right at the elevator. Two of them were obviously guards, while the third seemed to be performing repairs on the elevator itself. They didn't need the elevator to work, but they did need to get through, and there was no way they could sneak in while the rebels were present.

"Okay, we can't get past while that group is there, so we'll have to neutralize them. I need someone to help me take them out quickly." Rareth requested.

[Balmung1100]

Bit pulled a flashbang out of the hardcase on his chest.

"If there aren't any cameras present, we may be able to stun them and eliminate the guards. That repairman could be a hostage." Bit said quietly. "Or, at the very least we could try to get some information out of him."

There were still too many unknowns about this operation for Bit's taste and if they could find a bit more out, it could mean the difference between life and death.

[EliteCommander]

"You might be right on him being a hostage, but I think you should hold off on the flashbang. No need to alert anyone else that might be in the area if we don't have to. I'll move up and take out the guard on the right. Bit, you get the one on the left as soon as I take out mine. Once the guards are down, I want everyone to move up and secure the area around the elevator, make sure that mechanic knows he isn't getting away. If he tries to contact anyone, we'll need to neutralize him quick." Rareth said, motioning for the others to stay back while she moved up with Bit.

For Rareth, staying out of sight wasn't too complicated. The guards were just around a corner, so she was able to stay concealed until she got close. From there, she made use of her magic to cloak herself in invisibility. Even the most skilled magic-users could not become perfectly invisible, and it was draining to maintain, but she only needed to move a short distance to get behind her target. The two guards, a Masulu and a Human were talking amongst themselves while the mechanic, also a Human, worked. They weren't quite attentive enough to notice the shimmering in the air near them, so Rareth waited for a few moments with her blade at the ready while Bit got into position. Once she felt she had given him enough time, she thrust her blade straight through the Masulu's head for a quick, easy kill.

[Balmung1100]

The moment the human guard even began to react to Rareth killing the Masulu three soft thumps sounded as Bit fired his pistol. The human stood for another moment before collapsing. Bit retrained his aim at the engineer, Rareth was definitely in the best position to subdue the target, but the more guns pointed in their direction the better.

[Muttonhawk]

Shiva hung back while the quiet killers did their work, facing down the corridor from whence they came to cover their rear. She was obscured from the view of Rareth's blade sinking into the masulu's head, but with the sound it made and his bleeding body on the floor, Shiva could imagine that it would have been a cringe worthy spectacle. Just as instructed, Shiva turned and faced the elevator shortly after the action started and paced forward with her gun raised at the mechanic. She didn't say a word, but trusted in the outcome of the last few seconds to convince the human that it was in his interests not to move.

[Kyelin]

As the others took point to eliminate the guards, Opus quietly hoisted himself up into the network of pipes and wiring that interwove just below the roof, and began to move silently among them, as Rareth and the other Dirophyd got ready. It was a short crawl, and the agent doubted that these rebels stood a chance even against one of them. So he patiently moved until he was just above the main group, waiting to take out the mechanic. As soon as the other two were dropped, was when Opus struck.

As the Masulu medic moved towards him, Opus hooked his legs around a sturdy pipe, and swung upside down behind him, while the human watched in horror at the guard whose brains were now dripping on the floor, Before he could react, The agent unsheathed his blade, and grabbed the mechanic forcefully, placing the blade gingerly on his neck and drawing a slight amount of blood to scare him. He choked and panicked quietly, drawing anxious shallow breaths as Opus quietly spoke in his ear:

"Did you know, that it only takes a human less than a minute to bleed out once their throat is slit? Make any noise and I'll prove it to you..."

[EliteCommander]

The mechanic hardly had time to register what was going on before Opus put a blade to his throat. Being frightened out of his mind, he started shaking as he tried to catch up mentally and form a rational sentence. "D-don't kill me, please. I'm...I'm not with them, I...I swear!" He said frantically.

Personally, Rareth thought Opus' ambush was a bit overkill, but there really was no way to tell if this mechanic was dangerous. She didn't point her weapons at him as she looked down on him, as there really was no need to at this point, but she still took on a commanding posture nevertheless. "Alright, then who are you? Name, title, everything."

Again, the human stumbled over his words at first, and with the stress of the situation, he had to think for longer than normal. "It's...it's Robert. Robert Allen. Associate Engineer of exploratory mining platform QBL-951Z. I...I've worked here for six months. You have to believe me!"

Rareth did not say anything immediately and instead activated her computer. For a few moments, she silently searched through screens on the holographic display until she activated the program she wanted. She then held out her wrist and expanded the size of the projection for him to easily reach. "Place your hand here." She ordered.

"My han..."

"Yes, your hand. Place it in the scanning area on the projection." Rareth interrupted. The man took a deep breath, then nodded and removed one of his gloves. After placing his hand on the scanner, it only took a few seconds for the program to match up his biometric scans with one of the crew members from the records the mining company had provided.

"Alright, he's good. You can let him go." Rareth said, finally relaxing her posture. "Sorry about the scare, but we cannot afford to take chances. We are here to save you and the other hostages. Maybe you can help with that?"

"Right, of course." Robert responded, rubbing his hand across his neck after Opus released him. He finally took a moment to look across the diverse group that had been holding him at gunpoint, then raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Who sent you all?"

"That does not matter. If our superiors wish it to be known, they will tell you after we rescue you. For now, time is not on our side, so I need you to answer some questions. First, do you know where they are keeping the other hostages?" She questioned.

Robert scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Well, um, kinda. I know where they have my group. We are on deck 23, storage bay D-12, but...there are more. They split us up, and I don't know where they are keeping the others. They rarely ever let anyone leave the bay; only engineers when they need us to fix something, and even that is becoming more rare. I think their engineers are getting better at understanding the station's systems."

"Hmm, well we still need to find the others. Do you know where these terrorists have set up their data center?"

Robert stopped to think, but his memory produced nothing. "I...I'm sorry. I don't know. They never took any of us to help them with that, or at least no one in my group."

"Unfortunate, but it's more than we had before." Rareth sighed. "Unless there is anything more you can think of that will help, you need to get to our ship."

The mechanic seemed at least slightly distressed at Rareth's suggestion. "To your ship, but...what about the others? My wife is still on the station somewhere, and..."

"I know it isn't easy, but you need to trust us, Robert. We are going to save all of the hostages on this station. We are all trained specialists, but you are not. To be blunt, you'll do more harm than good if you don't get to safety.

The man lowered his head and closed his eyes. "I understand. Where do I go?"

"One of the abandoned hangers. Just follow the hallway behind us on our right and it will lead you straight to it. When you get there, announce yourself clearly and keep your hands up. Say that you are one of the hostages and you were sent by Rareth'Jharn. Our allies may detain you in the ship as a precaution, but you will be safe." Rareth explained.

"Okay, right away." The mechanic answered before complying and heading to their ship. The team had little time to pause, however, as they needed to move quickly. The elevator was stuck halfway up the door, so they were able to climb up on top of it into the shaft, then use the ladders inside to climb up a few floors. Apart from the drones, Rareth was the first up to their intended floor. She was just barely able to squeeze onto a ledge that allowed her to reach the door to their floor, which was still closed. Cautiously, she pried it open just slightly to peer through and, unfortunately, saw that the room was not unoccupied. It was the only room between them and the first potential data center, but there was an undetermined number of hostiles in the way. Looking down at the others still climbing the ladder, she kept the door pried open just slightly. "Shtara, it looks like there are hostiles in the next room. Shuo, send your drones in to get a look at the layout. Remember to keep them to the corners. We should also all be able to sync to the drones' feed, if you could go ahead and activate that."

[cqbexpt]

Shuo watched jaw tensed as Rareth and Bit executed the two rebels rapidly. Though he only noticed Opus once he had his blade at the engineers throat. While Shuo didn't find a problem with putting a gun to a potential enemies head he had issue with a blade. If the enemy was committed enough they would just jump into the blade in a effort to keep their groups secrets safe. With a gun however that was a bit more tricky and in this case he believed a firearm would have been much better. Shuo never understood powered melee weapons as they seemed less damaging and inefficient. Though when Opus proceeded to draw blood it only really furthered Shuo's point. He decided it was best to keep his thoughts to himself however as mid-mission was not a good time to get into semantics.

Once the technician was identified Shuo sauntered past to the broken elevator. Before Rareth had even asked Shuo had been maneuvering the drones upwards into the area above them through a vent he had found. When his robotic eyes looked apon the room from above he noticed there were cat walks along the walls as the ceiling was rather tall. He found it curious that noone was on the upper level but rather they were all below and not on alert. The room was filled with boxes and deactivated maintenance drones. There was also a lifter exoskeleton in the middle of the room which was also deactivated. As the drones sweeped the room from on high he managed to pick out 12 hostiles all of whom were not even on alert, it appeared as though the company had not lied to them. Some had even set their weapons down and were eating some sort of soup. There was only really three hostiles that seemed on guard and were actively moving about. Shuo made note of where they all were and put a red outline around all of them and he set the drones to activley track the movers and update his HUD on their positions.

The whole time Shuo had been transmitting what he was doing for the group too see. "We should be able to take them out before any alarm is raised. They don't seem terribly on edge at the moment. If we can keep all these rebel scum like that our mission will be much easier than anticipated." Shuo said over the comms as he prepared to climb up after everyone else.

[EliteCommander]

Rareth watched Shuo's feed from her own helmet to observe the layout of the next room, and those in it. It wasn't the greatest setup to be walking into, but it definitely could be worse. There were a lot of hostiles, but they still had some room to move. It looked like there was a group of five nearer the door, on the opposite side of a stack of crates and disabled machines, as well as a group of four on the far side of the room, nearer the entrance to the data center. The remaining three were each alone, and the only ones doing any real patrolling.

"Hmm, we should be able to, but I don't think it will be that easy. That group on the far side of the room is too far away to take out quickly from here, not after engaging the group of five closer to the door. Someone will need to get over there to handle them before we engage. Actually, we need to get a few people out there. The three lone hostiles patrolling are going to be the ones to give us the most trouble. They couldn't win the fight if we took out the other two groups, but all it takes is one to raise the alarm. We need people to get out there and get in position before we attack. Everyone else can charge out and gun down the first group when it is time. Who is up for the task?" Rareth asked.

[Muttonhawk]

Observing with the display on her arm, Shiva found that the layout of the next room provided a lot of opportunities to be spotted, but it wouldn't be completely exposed in a firefight, if they kept the initiative for as long as they needed to.

With a noncommittal look, Shiva threaded an arm around the rung of the ladder she was up to and looked down at those below her. She was not one for stealth, but with the way Opus, Rareth and Bit handled themselves with the last contacts, they seemed like better candidates. If they could all stalk their targets, that is. Some might be better suited to assaulting the first group.

Politely leaning herself over to hang on to one edge of the ladder, Shiva motioned for others to move past her. "I'll wait for the order to charge. Killing quietly isn't my forte."

[Kyelin]

When it became clear that the engineer was in fact a hostage, Opus released his grip, and flipped onto the ground, landing lightly. After the scare, he was very talkative, and they released him to get to the evac point. A little shaken, the mechanic walked past the agent, who put a heavy hand on his shoulder and spoke to him. "Now, I'm going to trust you didn't bullshit your way out of that. But if we have any trouble because of you, I'm not going to be too far away. Remember that." The man nodded, and Opus joined the others in climbing the elevator shaft.

As they crept up in silence, Rareth notified the team of the slackers in the next room. While the plan was set up, Opus hung there, quietly thinking of how best to apply his skills in this attack as she spoke. "If you will allow, I would like to try my chances with the patrolling idiots. They look like the most fun." Opus calmly stated, analysing the readout of the room on his wrist PDA. "To help me out a little, anyone have any strong metal wire or rope?"

[EliteCommander]

"I do not." Rareth responded, shaking her head. She continued to watch the feed from Shuo's drones from the display in her helmet. Quite frustratingly, the three patrolling guards rarely seemed to move close to one another, but it wasn't anything they couldn't work around.

"It might not be possible to get all three patrolling guards close enough together to take them all out at once, but we might be able to split up to take care of them. I can get to the scaffolding and get above the group of four on the far end of the room. If I aim well, I should be able to incinerate them all with a fusion grenade. From there, I can fire on one of the patrolling guards, but it would be simpler if we could take out one or two of them beforehand. Bit, do you think you can get in quietly enough to get in position to take down one of the patrolling guards? If either you or Opus can take one of them down quietly before we attack, then when it is time, we can all have either a single target to deal with, or at least a tightly packed group." Rareth suggested.

[Muttonhawk]

In response to Opus' query, Shiva looked across to each of the team's faces she could see, then reached to a solid container hanging on her waist. She unclipped the container and revealed a collection of clean manual surgical implements that Shiva had to fall back on if she didn't have the energy to manipulate her magic. Secured to it was a spool of sturdy thread that she would normally use for sutures, but hardly ever had need to employ for that job. The thread was strong enough to hold masulu limbs together in a combat environment, so Shiva suspected that it would probably be strong enough to serve as a garrotte, or tripwire, or whatever else Opus might have had planned to use it for.

She unclipped the spool, then extended it out for Opus to inspect. "Will this be sufficient?"

[Balmung1100]

"I guess I could help you thin the herd." Bit said as he got into position.

He decided that it may be better to subdue the enemy rather than kill them, so instead of his pistol he withdrew a short range gas-grenade. The nearly silent explosion would release a highly combustible substance that would knock out anyone within about a meter and a half of the detonation. The grenade was made to be a short range incendiary grenade, but without an ignition pin would be almost harmless to any within range...well unless you counted the loss of consciousness and a few brain cells.

[EliteCommander]

Seeing as they now had a plan, Rareth pried open the elevator doors as quietly as she could, then stepped out and hid behind the large crate blocking the line of sight to the guards. She looked up at the scaffolding above her, then teleported just the right distance to end up on top of it. There was a small risk in doing so, as it put her within the line of sigh of the guards for a moment, but she was able to cloak herself in invisibility immediately afterwards to avoid detection.

Now that she was up on the scaffolding herself, she could get a better look at their purpose. Glancing up at the ceiling just above her, she could see the clamps hanging down just alongside the scaffolding's pathways. She had seen similar setups aboard human warships, so she recognized them as clamps to hold drones and other machines in compact storage, with the scaffolding making it easier to access them for repairs. In this case, they were probably meant to hold maintenance drones, but all of them seemed to be empty. Whether the rebels had managed to activate them, or they had simply never had any to begin with was unknown.

Fortunately for Rareth, the scaffolding was not transparent, so once she got into position above the group of four on the opposite side of the room, she was able to deactivate her invisibility and still remain hidden. She was not currently equipped with any nonlethal explosives, so she grabbed a fusion grenade from her belt. Instead of a traditional explosion, the fusion grenade produced a high-intensity sphere of energy contained within a magnetic field, the size of which could be set before being thrown. It could melt or vaporize most materials caught in the blast radius, and the group beneath Rareth was tight enough to all be caught within it. In her other hand, she held her pistol, just in case it became necessary for her to fire down from her vantage point.

"Bit, Opus, see if you can take out at least one of the lone patrolling guards quietly before getting into position to take out the other two. Once everyone is in position, I will call for everyone to strike at once. Be aware, I am going to use my suit's radio transmitters to scan for any hostile communications. If any of them manage to access their radios before we can kill them, it will automatically activate the program to force the station to block communications. As I said before, that will put us on a time limit. It cannot differentiate between their signals and ours, so once I initiate the attack, I am calling for complete radio silence until I give the all-clear. Now, sound off once you are in position." Rareth explained.

[Kyelin]

With a simple nod, Opus was underway, selecting the human guard as his target. Grabbing the offered surgical wire, he triple bound it together in a thick rope, and began to move among the crates, careful to avoid detection and moving silently, with purpose. One guard caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, and snapped towards it, weapon ready. But all he saw was empty wall between two crates. Letting out a perplexed "huh...", he went back to his duties as Opus hid behind the cloak gauntlet, separated between them by the field's shimmering glimmer.

Once clear, he hopped up the crates, and stalked the chosen quarry along the catwalk, like an animal stalks it's prey, before the guard set his rifle down and sat on a box, lighting a cigarette. The agent tied the wire into a loop at the end, and made eye contact with Rareth, nodding and letting her know he was ready.

[Muttonhawk]

After the stealthier members of their element moved into the room, Shiva hung onto the ladder underneath Shuo. His exosuit gave him not only more firepower, but more shock and awe. He would be better to take point with the noisy part. Shiva found a spot she could use as cover via the drone's video feed to the PDA on her wrist, then braced herself to move. With all the attention on Shuo or any other distractions, Shiva would easily be able to lay down some fire on the allocated group, adding to the noise and confusion.

Shiva took a deep breath to focus and reached around to her holstered weapon to double check the motion to draw it once she was a the top of the ladder. "Shiva, Ready," She mumbled over her comms.

[cqbexpt]

Shuo watched from above through his camera feeds as all the stealth elements slid into their perches. He had set the drones on holding patterns above the enemies in such a way that he had at least a constant view of them all, albeit some of them weren't very good ones. Shuo then placed his fingers on the edge of the breach of the elevator while his feet moved up another rung on the ladder in order to give him more leverage when he jumped up. He also gave a look to his right to see that the red outlines he had created on the hostiles were being shown through the walls to him. He hoped that in the heat of combat they would stay as having them was incredibly useful. Though he was unsure if the drones would be able to handle the processing load of that while he focused on actually killing them.

Shuo quickly thought about what he would do once he jumped up. He hoped Shiva would figure out to stay behind him considering his shields were tougher and plates thicker. He quickly gave a glance at the group of red outlines and quickly gave himself an order of who to take first.

Shuo pressed his mandibles together for a second as he heard Shiva call out her status. Shuo then keyed the comms "Shuo, ready." As he finished that quick sentence the rush finally hit him.

[Balmung1100]

Bit pulled his grenade launcher out and loaded the gas grenade. He quickly positioned himself where he could see his target. He calibrated the launching mechanisms so that he could hit the wall closest to his target and release the gas upon them without causing any lethal injuries. He thought that if they were to capture a member of this group, it could help quite a bit.

"Bit, ready." Bit murmured as silently as possible without being inaudible over the comms.