Awesomoman64

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

"Glitch"

---

Kaitiaki

Xander chuckled at Sam’s response. “What the doc doesn't know won’t hurt her, and I don’t plan to tell her as long as you don’t.” He added with a wink of his own. Sam agreed to the drink, but as long as dinner was involved. Come to think of it, Xander had hardly eaten anything as well. With everything going on his stomach must have just been keeping quiet, but now that she had mentioned something he realized how famished he actually was. ”Heh. Deal. I’m sure there’s something in the kitchen we could scrounge up. Though it might take me a bit, given the arm and all.” He said moving his left shoulder just enough to wiggle his broken arm.

Before they could discuss any more details, Skye called out to them from the rec room. Sam nodded towards the room indicating he should follow. He obliged. Inside, Skye offered the two a glass of port while commenting on the doctor’s orders. It was rare to see her openly suggest they do something that was technically against the rules, but then again she was boss. The rules were whatever she said, and Xander was happy to go along. He slowly walked over and picked up his glass then raised it towards Skye’s.

“Cheers, mum!” He said as their glasses clinked. He took a big swig from his before making his journey past everyone lounging in the rec area and into the kitchen nearby. He set his glass on the counter and opened the large refrigerator to see what ingredients they had on hand. There were plenty of options to choose from, and by far enough to make food for everyone, now it was just a matter of what he could manage.

As he was looking, Skye let them know all their paperwork had been done then made a sly remark about how Sam had even made Xander look professional. He peered his head out from the fridge and fired back. “Hey. I am always professional! Isn’t that right, fridge?” The top of the minifridge near the bar opened up to reveal the lobber he had installed previously, only instead of loading any cans or bottles, it simply moved up and down as if it were nodding before folding back in. “The fridge agrees. Now, how do burgers sound to everyone?” Xander asked to the room as he pulled out a large package of ground beef. “Say ‘pass’ if you’re not hungry.”

Xander continued to pull out all the utensils and prep any cookware he would need while making a mental headcount of everyone who answered him. He could feel his legs ache and shake with each step as he walked around the kitchen. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was definitely taking him a lot more effort than it should to make food. For a moment he wondered if he could get approval to use his exo outside of missions for the next few weeks, but lost his train of thought when Freya started to raise her voice. Xander could only imagine what fear the person on the other end of that call felt as she became angrier with each word. At the end, she was able to cool her rage and apologized to the room.

“No worries. We’ve all had a long few days. If you want, I could use help with the patties. Smashing on some meat might be a good stress relief?” He suggested to the giantess.

Getting started himself, Xan began rolling and mashing the beef with his good hand until he had formed the first patty. He placed it on a plate he had set aside and started working on the second one. Once he had finished another, Mateao joined the party and asked how everyone was feeling.

“Well me arms busted, it hurts to walk or even stand for too long, and worst of all the doc has ordered me to ‘behave’ until I’m back in top shape. So you lot are safe for the time being. But mark my words, soon as I’m outta this thing, I’m gonna have something planned for all of you.” He gave a mischievous cackle before adding another patty to the stack and took the plate over to the griddle.

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

"Glitch"

---

Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

With the final IFV down, Xan tossed the empty Javelin tube to the side and grabbed his LMG. He was prepared to hold that position until his dying breath, but the chatter on comms indicated that their evac had finally arrived. Queen immediately ordered everyone to regroup on her. Chaos had confirmed she heard and was enroute, so Xander simply followed behind without a word. The two moved parallel to each other, one taking right the other left, while Mateo and Stafford sniped any stragglers. Empty casings poured out of his gun as he held the trigger down, not letting up for a second to give the enemy any breathing room. Once they reached the V22, his gun ran dry. No time to reload, he threw the LMG to be swallowed by the sands as he he hurried inside the aircraft and dropped into the first open seat. The doors closed behind Queen and the craft took off almost simultaneously. He quickly buckled up, then unlatched and removed his helmet. It practically slipped from his hands and onto the ground as he slumped in his seat. The cool air of the V22 combined with the sweat dripping from his head was a godsend from the overwhelming heat.

“Holy Dooley… We fucking did it…" Xander tiredly exclaimed before he too was overcome with exhaustion and proceeded to fall unconscious.

Home Sweet Home

The first thing he remembered was the repeated beep of the heart monitor waking him like an alarm clock. His eyes slowly peeled open as his senses returned to him; including pain. He winced loudly as all the bruises, cuts, and various injuries all came back in full force. And his arm. Oh God his arm hurt. Maybe Skye was on to something with that cybernetic arm, at least then he wouldn't have to deal with this pain.

Pushing through it, he tilted his neck around to get a better look at his surroundings. He was definitely in the infirmary, hooked up to who knows how many machines. He was covered in bandages, while his arm was sealed in a cast.

“Finally awake, I see." Dr Sophie Keller said as she approached his bed. She pulled up the clipboard at the foot of his bed and began to review it. "You are a very lucky man, Mr. Clarke. You lost a fair amount of blood and you have a few fractures in your legs, but all in all most of your injuries were minor. The biggest issue was of course your arm. That debris we pulled out of you did some serious tissue and bone damage, but your nerves were mostly unaffected. All in all you’ll have to wear that cast for about 6-8 weeks, but as long as you don’t do anything insane, you should be fully healed and fit for duty by then.”

“Define insane?” Xan asked with a painful chuckle.

Sophie momentarily glanced up from the clipboard completely unamused at Xander's reply before going back to his chart and answering nonchalantly.

“For the duration of your recovery, I’m medically requiring you to run any idea you have passed Ms. Lyons for approval before you do anything. If she doesn’t give the okay; then it’s insane. And in case you think you can disobey these orders, may I remind you that I am the one who has to clear you before you can return to active duty?”

Xander scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Fine fine. You have me word. I’ll be a good boy. Thanks, doc.”

He was discharged the next day after a final examination. Despite getting a full night's rest and being in bed for most of the day, he still felt exhausted and achy as he staggered through the base up to his room. However, he did his best to hide his discomfort. Smiling and nodding at everyone he passed, acting like he was just fine aside from the cast. Once he got to his quarters, he stared at his bed contemplating if he would get more rest, or try to salvage what remained of the day. He decided that he had already spent too much time laying down. He wanted to see how the others were holding up. He could sleep when he was dead. After a quick shower and many many attempts to get dressed with one arm, Xan emerged from his room a few hours later sporting an old khaki army shirt and black jeans. He hobbled through the halls making his way to the rec room, but along the way he ran into his equally injured American teammate Sam.

"Oi, Sammy!" He said, raising his good hand for a quick wave. "How you holding up? Personally, I could go for a cold one. Maybe something stronger. And as I recall I owe you a drink as well. Care to join me?"

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

"Glitch"

---

Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

Xander held his arm completely still as Chaos poured the packet on his wound. It was a good thing she was thinking more clearly, as Xan hadn’t even thought of stopping the bleeding in his arm. In his mind the biggest and most immediate threat was the on coming wave of enemies and he was using all his brain power to focus on eliminating that. Anything else could wait until after that was dealt with.

“That sounds like a plan to me!” Xan chuckled at Chaos’ remarks. “Heh. Hopefully I can get more than four stars. Otherwise mum is going to chew me out at my next performance review. Not that she doesn’t already have enough reason to do so.”

Once the powder had been applied, Xander pulled his arm back and examined the wound. The bleeding had already slowed if not stopped altogether. He’d still have to worry about possible infections and whatever damage it had done, but at least bleeding to death was off the table.

Her ears must have been burning, as Queen came on the comms very quickly after Xander’s joke. She too reminded Xander to at least get the bleeding stopped before they moved forward with their ambush. Chaos let her know they were already ahead of her on that, but of course Xander had to chime in with his own comments.

“Yeah nah. I’ll pass on the bionics, mum. Unless the doc has no other choice, I prefer to stay 100% Xander.”

Smirking at his own words, Xander began looking at the Javelin’s CLU system to verify it was still functioning. Everything looked good, and he could already see some of the heat signatures of the IFVs in the distance. While calibrating the system, he gave a quick glance over at Chaos just to see how she was doing. He really must have been too focused on the task at hand because he only now noticed she was struggling to lift the launcher. He wasn’t certain, but it seemed like she couldn’t even lift her arms past a specific point. He wanted to ask if she was alright, but he had a feeling she would dodge the question and just push through and deal with whatever pain. It’s what he would have done, anyway. So instead he would just make sure he could offer any assistance while she set up.

By the time they were set up, Queen’s voice came over the comms calling for one final check to make sure everyone was in position and ready for what could be their final stand.

“Glitch in position” He responded over the comms. He briefly glanced down at his arm again before adding “and ready for some payback.”

“Oh, Chaos!” Xander’s gaze snapped to Chaos. Looking over his wound he realized he had almost forgotten to thank her for tending to it. “Thanks for the quick fix.” He said a bit sheepishly. They may have been in a war zone, but he still needed to mind his manners.

"Contact!"

No more banter. It was time to kick things off. Queen gave the command and was the first to engage with the enemies. The angry scot showed Artemis what happens when you mess with her squad by opening with an AT round straight into an IFV. It was a hell of an opener, and now it was time to follow that act. Xan popped out of hiding and aimed his sights as the nearest non-exploded IFV. Taking note of his position and making sure Chaos wasn’t liable to be hit with the backblast, he honed in on the IFV’s signature and locked on.”

“Target is locked.” He confirmed over comms. “Give me the signal when countermeasures are down.”

As soon as he was given the green light, Xan grinned from ear to ear and pulled the trigger. The missile’s thruster roared to life as it jumped out of the tube and flew up into the air. After a few seconds the missile redirected to the locked on IFV and came crashing down on top of it. The once heavily armored vehicle was now nothing more than a flaming ball of wreckage. Two were now confirmed down, and with Chaos firing at anothing one it was more than likely three. Just one more, then all they had to deal with were any infantry that remained.

“HA! How’s it feel to have your shit blown up by your own equipment, assholes? You want another one?” Xan yelled as he tossed the empty tube to the side and grabbed the next javelin. He could feel a dull pain throughout his body as he crouched down to pick up the launcher. His vision was shifting in and out of focus as he hoisted the weapon up and onto his shoulder. His exo was doing all the work at this point, while he mentally fought to make his second wind last as long as possible. Shouting random insults at the enemy certainly helped in that aspect, even if they couldn’t hear him.

Another Javelin on his shoulder, he repeated the process once more. Standing out of cover, locking on to the next IFV that was still moving, and calling it out over comms.

“Missile 2 ready to bring to thunder! Just say the word!”

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

---

Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

@LadyAmber
Despite his injuries, the aussie wasted no time in getting to work. Chaos was already one step ahead, turning the side of the tent into a sled to carry all the equipment in one go. It would be incredibly heavy to say the least, normally not an issue for his exo-suit, but with only one arm it could prove to be quite the task. That being said, the time it would save more than justified this plan.

Following his own advice; Xan started with the AT launchers. He opened up the nearest container that held one of the launchers and let out a whistle as he laid eyes on the merchandise. FGM-148 Javelins. Not only could these things punch through any armored vehicle coming their way, but the advanced guiding system was so precise that anything it locked on to was as good as gone. As long as Ogre and Frigga removed any trophy system in play, the Javelins could do the rest of the work for them.

“Well well. Can’t say these plonkers don’t know quality. This’ll make a mess of any armored vehicle they got.” Xan laughed as he placed the first Javelin in the tent.

They loaded a total of four launchers. It gave them each two shots which would hopefully be more than enough. Then it was time for the LMGs. Once again the weapons they had were high quality. There were a number of M249 each with its own crate of ammo boxes. Since these could actually be reloaded, they only needed two guns. But just to be safe they also packed enough boxes of ammo to feed the incoming company three servings of lead. Personally Xander was satisfied with the haul and thought it enough to hold the position. But Chaos must have had other ideas as she loaded some explosives into the pile as well. Xander raised an eyebrow and looked at his fellow operative.

“I trust you have a plan for those? I’m not exactly an explosives expert, meself. And we certainly don’t have the leisure of setting up traps around the perimeter.”

Whatever her response, Xander would go along with it. After all that had happened today, Chaos has more than earned his trust. Not that she or really anyone on the team didn’t have it before. They were all hand picked for this squad for a reason. If anything all today did was remove any doubts that may have lingered. Well, as long as they got out of this alive, that is.

Packed and ready, it was time to move out. Chaos suggested they each pull one side, something Xander was more than happy with given his current condition. It was a slow and exhausting pull, but together they were able to lug the tent and all the equipment on it to the remains of the ship. Once they had gotten close enough, Xander released his grip on the tent and dropped to his knees. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and his face was no doubt drenched in sweat beneath his helmet. The fatigue was setting in. Between the adrenaline wearing off and the possible blood loss he could tell his body was on the brink of passing out. But he couldn’t let that happen. No matter what he was going to push through this even if it cost him.

The aussie used his good hand to smack the side of his helmet a few times to wake himself up and pushed himself back up. His first action was to set up the LMG. He started with placing the weapon in a small opening in what remained of the ship's hull facing the direction the enemy convoy was approaching from. He used the bipod to hook the gun into place so that he would be able to grab it and start firing at a moments notice. He then grabbed a javelin, removed any remaining casing so that it was prepped to fire, and hoisted it onto his shoulder. He had no idea how much time had passed, but they probably had less than a minute before things kicked off. Ready for whatever was coming, he looked over at Chaos and smiled. He couldn't tell if she needed any reassurance, or if it was for his own nerves, but he chuckled and gave her a friendly nudge.

“Don’t worry. After all this, you’re definitely getting that five star review. Though I do wish we had some bevvies for this send off. Hell, I’d settle for that juice box.”

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Nice posts so far people :) I've started brainstorming the next scenario out (I know, this RP moves fast!)

Due to the intensity of it, would people prefer after we wrap this up mission up (probably around my post that follows after my next one) and give a bit more time for R&R in Kaitiaki for the team to bond a bit more, or straight into another mission that is a bit of the opposite to this? (don't want to spoil it but it's a slow burning, Bond-esque social occasion for the team!)

@FourtyTwo

I'm in favor of going back to the base and having some R&R. Give our characters time to recharge and give them a chance to interact a bit more. But if we want to jump to the next thing I'm down for that as well :)

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

---

Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

“Bloody brilliant, Stafford! You just earned yourself one free favor from yours truly!” Xander jested over the comms as he watched the sharpshooter repaint the cockpit a lovely shade of mech pilot red.

Now it was his time. Xander broke cover into a full sprint from going straight for the mech. He had to get there before anyone else noticed it was free for the taking. Once he had closed enough distance he launched into the air and slammed onto the mech. He grabbed hold of what was left of the pilot and tossed it out of the cockpit and climbed into the now vacant chair. With a simple press of a button, the hatch closed and locked into place. Xander now owned this mech, and he was just instructed to have some fun.

A terrible storm followed as Xander unleashed hell upon any poor soul Artemis had stationed out there. Bullets and rockets alike scorched the desert as the aussie made use of every second he had in that marvel of technical mayhem. Those who tried to use the ship for cover found their end at the barrel of the dingo, if not another member of Raven. Laughter escaped his lips with every ordinance fired… This was probably going to come up in his next psych evaluation… Oh well. These were terrorists afterall. It was really hard to find any sympathy or even feel remorse for them. Besides, they brought this mech to kill him and his squad. If they weren’t prepared to deal with it turning on them, that was their fault.

–

The carnage continued for a few more minutes until they had confirmed all hostiles were dealt with. The smart ones ran, and their reward was a chance to live as long as they could get out of this desert on foot. The rest were now permanent additions to the barren lands. The objective was secured, the area was clear, all Raven Squad really had left was to wait for evac. The happy hacker drove the mech to the regroup point and popped the hatch.

“Good on ya, mates! I think we taught those drongos a lesson they won’t soon forget.” Xander stated, satisfied with their performance.

He placed the mech in park and pulled out his tablet. He directly connected it to mech’s interface and started grabbing any and all data he could. It had a lot in there. Most of it was encrypted, which was to be expected, but he was more than happy to download it for now and decrypt it back at base. He had a whole setup for that in his quarters. A top of the line system completely isolated from the main network just in case there was any malicious softwares waiting to spring a trap. For now, he would kick back and take the moment to catch his breath while the download completed. He had just gotten comfortable when Queen started screaming over the comms.

"Shit! Bomb drone's been hacked, everyone, fucking run and split!"

“What? Ah quit messing, mum. There’s no way anyone was able to break into-” Xander started to brush off Queen's warning, until he looked into the sky and saw the drone descending: fast. His eyes grew wide behind his helmet as his mind taunted him with his thoughts from before about Artemis not being prepared to deal with tech they brought. “Oh bugger.”

Nothing could ever be simple. He ripped the tablet from the mech and secured it to his arm. Whatever he was currently downloading would have been corrupted by that interruption. Hopefully not all of it, but there wasn't time to check. He had to go now. He leaped from the mech and kicked his exo into gear. The drone was aiming at the mech, which meant he was starting from ground fucking zero. He pushed his exo to its limits, going as fast as it could even if it was more than his body could handle. A cracked bone would be preferable to death. He could only hope he was far enough out when he heard the bomb make contact.

FUBAR

Everything was dark. A void of nothing consumed Xander as he lay motionless in the sand. Finally, the void was breached by the sound of a high pitched ring. Then, a sliver of light appeared. It grew to encompass the void before manifesting back into his sight. The ringing too faded and morphed back into the sounds around him. It felt like forever, but it was only a few seconds before he returned to his body and Xander found himself laying face first in the ground. The last thing he remembered was the blast. Was he caught in it? Or was it just the shockwave? Didn't really matter at this point. He was breathing. And he could hear Queen in his ear asking for everyone to check in.

"We all still alive?”

He tried to reply, but the words wouldn’t come out. His entire body ached, no doubt he was beaten and bruised and bit delirious, but he was conscious and alive. If he couldn’t speak to let everyone know he was still going, then at the very least he had to get up and show them. He placed his right arm down and pushed up without issue, but the moment he moved his left arm and attempted to put weight on it, pain immediately exploded through it as he dropped back to the ground clutching his arm in agony. Rolling to his back, he used his right arm to lift his left into view. There was a thin bloody chunk of metal sticking out his left forearm. Only about 2 cm of it was visible while the rest was embedded pretty deep. Yeah, he was going to need surgery after this one. Fan-fucking-tastic. His tablet was obviously destroyed by this, not like it would do him any good anyway. And as long as the M.2 wasn’t damaged he could salvage whatever data he had downloaded.

That was stuff to worry about later. Right now, they had hostiles inbound and Queen was trying to rally the team so they could actually survive this. His job was to join Chaos at the weapons cache and move what they could to the remains of the ship and set up a defensive position there.

Okay. He could do this.

“Copy, mum.” Xan managed to grunt out over the comms. The jolt from the pain and adrenaline must have finally loosened his tongue “Just… Give me a moment… Need to… take some medicine.”. He reached into one of his side pockets and pulled out a syringe filled with… He wanted to say morphine or something? He wasn’t a doctor. All he knew was it was issued to everyone for field use and it made the pain go away. With a deep breath, he plunged the syringe into his shoulder and injected the solution into his veins. Immediately the solution took effect. The pain was still there, but it had faded drastically.

“Oh bloody hell that’s good shit!” Xan blurted out as he felt relief wash over him. Dropping the empty syringe on the ground, the aussie was at last able to push himself up, though he had to be careful how he moved his arm. It still had a chunk of metal protruding out, and he wasn’t sure if it was better to remove it or not, so he opted to leave it until he was told otherwise. Again; he wasn’t a doctor.

“Alright. One surprise party for Artemis coming right up. Let’s go, Chaos.” Xander said, nodding his head towards the weapons cache as he staggered to it. “I reckon we start with the AT launchers. Make sure we can deal with anything armored, then worry about LMGs. Worst case I still got a gun and a knife and those work pretty well on blokes. Tanks. Not so much.”

5 minutes is all they had. But even in this condition, it would be enough.

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

---

Aral Sea, Kazakhstan

Xander clung to the side of a DPV as it ripped across the desert at full speed. Chaos was really doing everything she could to test his grip as she swerved and dodged all around, even going so far as to drive into a ditch and catch some air time on the way out. For anyone else this would have amplified their anxiety. A wild ride on the way to what was surely a suicide mission. Instead, it took all of Xan’s discipline not to take his helmet off to feel the wind against his face as they rolled in. Maybe even scream and holler like they were on a roller coaster. He was having way too much fun for what was about to go down, but hey, this was what he signed up for. Why couldn’t he find enjoyment in it?

Unfortunately, his enjoyment did not last. As they neared the target Xan heard the blast from the communications drone. Great news for Chaos, but the lack of a bigger blast before it was bad news for him.

“Hang on. Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be a mech shattering kaboom!” Xander remarked as he attached his gun to his back and pressed the side of his helmet. The built-in camera zoomed in on the mech. Damn. It was still mostly untouched and completely functional. “Ah hell. They must have figured out what was going on and deployed a countermeasure to block my commands. Well. Guess we’re doing this the hard way!”

Only a few hundred yards between them and the mech, Xan decided it was time to act. He removed two of the smoke grenades from his belt and loaded them into his lobber. Each one fired out across the desert and created a thick fog along the sand in front of the soldiers and mech. It wouldn’t last long being outdoors, but it would be enough to give them an opening. His hand released from the roll cage as he leapt off the DPV and sprinted full speed towards the boat. His exoskeleton gave him a tremendous speed boost as he ran behind the DPV. They would be so focused on the car, they wouldn’t notice one of the passengers had gotten off a stop before.

Taking advantage of that time, Xan removed the dingo from its resting place and hurled it towards the deck of the ship. The contraption bounced and slid across the rusted steel floor, but remained dormant. It would awaken in time, but for now Xan wanted all eyes on him. Queen had the right idea. With her causing mayhem inside the ship, all the personnel in that area would be focused on her while the other operatives slipped away with the goods. He would do the same on the outside giving maximum distraction, especially when he was behind the seat of that mech.

With the dingo on deck, Xan broke through the smoke and continued running at full speed. For the most part things were going how he predicted. The soldiers were focused on the other team who had already gone in loud, and the automatic defenses were basically useless. However, some of the ground troops must have realized the smoke cover wasn’t for the DPV and kept their guns trained on the artificial clouds waiting for something to come out. They opened fire the second Xan showed himself. Too bad Xan was ready for this. Their bullets failed to connect as he pivoted and ran parallel to the ship. He held down the trigger on his F88 and returned fire. While he managed to take down the grunts who had spotted him, others around them had started to take notice, and his mag was now dry.

The magazine dropped from the back of the F88 as Xan pressed the release with his thumb, while simultaneously grabbing a spare magazine with his other hand and inserting it into the slot. The plan was to get everyone’s attention, but only after he had the mech, and right now it looked as though he had drawn attention too soon. The soldiers had begun pointing their guns at him. Most of their fire was going wild or pinging off his armor. The real trouble came when the mech turned to face him and pointed the autocannon in his direction.

Raven’s exo-skeletons were top of the line, and Xander was a highly skilled operative who had been trained to use them, but even he didn’t stand a chance against a class 2 mech on his own. If he attempted to attack it now while it had him in its sights, he wouldn’t make it back to tinker with that fridge some more. No, he had to try a different tactic. He had one in mind, but he’d need some cover.

Pushing the exo-skeleton’s speed, Xander made a beeline for the bow of the ship. The ground behind him exploded into clouds of sand as the autocannon’s bullets missed their mark by inches. Once he had reached the bow, Xander ducked to the other side of the ship and pressed himself up against the hull then pulled his final smoke grenade and dropped it at his feet to give him complete concealment. It would take the mech a moment to get around the ship which gave him enough time to set up. Switching from his rifle to his tablet, Xander worked quickly.

First: He activated the dingo. While the soldiers on the deck were too busy trying to get sight of him or chase Queen down inside the ship, they had forgotten about or missed the device that had been tossed up there. In a split second the sentry unpacked and started searching for prey, and boy did it find a feast.

Second: Xander got the remote hatch program running. He wanted to handle this part himself, but at the rate this was going he would eventually be too exhausted to keep going while the mech still had plenty of ammo. If they wanted to take it out they would have to do it in one quick blow. Short range communications were still operational, and given the pilot of the mech came at him so quickly, he was willing to bet they still had it active to talk with their teammates. However, once they knew he had the ability to just open the front door, they would likely jam all signals and just stay cut off from everyone until the encounter was over.

@PerfectThought
Xander got on the comms and called for the team’s sharpshooter. “Hey Stafford! Think you can pull off another shot like before? I’m going to do a short range open on the hatch. Soon as I do you’ll only have a second or two before the pilot manually closes it and probably jams all signals. I need you to aim directly at the cockpit of the mech and fire on my mark. I’d do it meself but that thing’s got a lock on me. I stick so much as a toe out there and it’ll turn me into red mist.”

“I’m counting on ya, mate. If you can pull this off I’ll owe you one. If you can’t, I will give you shit for the rest of my life, which at that point would more than likely only be a few minutes. Alright. Let me know when you’re in position.” Xan waited for Stafford’s signal before he mashed go on the hack, activating the hatch release. Sure enough a large mechanical click came from the mech as the hatch unlocked and began to open.

“MARK!”

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

I should have a post ready to go tomorrow. If I'm delayed for any reason I'll let you know and you can skip me!

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

---

KAITIAKI

While Xander appreciated the laugh he got out of Sam. The rest of the room looked less amused. Especially Skye who made her displeasure known. That was pretty much expected. What wasn’t expected was Sam making a very similar remark about how “ineffective” the design was. Xander looked at the already opened can in his hand, then turned back to the naysayers with a raise eyebrow. Clearly his design had worked as intended and the beer was not shaken up. However, this was his first and only test. There was every possibility it was a fluke and subsequent cans would explode upon opening.

"Oi, give me some credit. I designed and built this beauty in a matter of hours. Give me a day and maybe access to Freya's lab and I'll have these cans flying across this place without even disturbing the contents." Xander said. Though he made a quick addendum for Skye’s sake. “Don’t worry, mum. I’ll test it outside or somewhere that any spills won’t cause a mess. I’m not an animal.”

After that, Xander stayed in the rec room and chatted with anyone else that had decided to linger. He had the advantage of being there a few days early so he didn’t have any unpacking or freshening up to do so he remained in his chair until it was time to head to the briefing room. On his way out he was tempted to call for another beer from the fridge, but a very angry scowl from Skye made him choose otherwise. At least until he had more time to perfect it.

Slight Change of Plans

@ReusableSword
After his failed attempt at a catchphrase, Ogre chimed in with a suggestion for his next try. Xander pondered it for a moment.

“Hmm. I might be able to roll with that. Thanks, Ogre!” Xander replied and gave Ogre a solid pat on the shoulder.

@FourtyTwo
They had bigger things to worry about than catchphrases at the moment. Right away the recon teams had given them a full view of the situation, and Queen was giving them a full breakdown. She made sure they understood what they were up against and divided them into groups each with a specific focus for stopping this arm deal. No shock to anyone that Xan and Chaos were given the duty of turning all of Artemis' fancy gadgets against them, and fucking up anything they couldn't.

“You got it, mum!” Xander confirmed and gave a two fingered salute to the scottish CO.

@LadyAmber
In the blink of an eye his tablet was out and searching for a backdoor into the enemy network. It would be tricky to not only find a way to break through their firewalls, but in a way that they wouldn't notice. Luckily, Chaos worked just as quick and was able to establish a hard dock with her drone. She gave him the frequency to use and just like that they were already in business.

"Oh you're making this too easy, Chaos!" Xander chuckled as he connected to the frequency. She had basically taken care of everything else, so that left Xander with just the mech. But that was more than enough for him.

Right away he hit the mech with a ‘sitting duck’ virus, making it completely immobilized. At least for the moment. To the unaware enemy it wouldn’t look like the mech was being taken over, just currently having a technical issue that caused it to stop responding. If the pilot was smart they would do a full reboot to restore systems, but it really didn't matter. By the time the mech was operational again Raven would already be hitting them in full force.

@PerfectThought
Next was the hind. It couldn't be hacked, but it didn't need to be. It just had to be destroyed. And Xander already had the perfect tool to take care of that. It was almost guaranteed the mech would be back up and running by the time the hind was in range, so all he had to do was rewrite some of the targeting protocols to mark the hind as hostile and a priority target. If the pilot wanted to use any sort of auto targeting, the hind would be the first thing it locked onto. Then when they try to fire on Raven the hind probable would be taken care of aaaand where did the sensors go? Xander tapped the screen several times but still no response. None of them had issued an overload to any of the systems, so why were the sensors suddenly offline like they were destroyed? Unless…

"Oh bugger me." Xan mumbled to himself before opening the comms. "Hey Stafford! Bloody ripper shot there, mate. But you blinded me new toy! Next time you wanna break something, make sure we ain't gonna use it first."

Xander tried to make sure his tone didn't come off as too harsh. He was annoyed, sure. But Stafford's action was more than justified, and in the end it was just a minor setback. He could still use the mech to take out that hind, it would just require a more "hands on" approach. And to do that, all he had to do was take over the hatch release. On command, the cockpit would open up completely exposing the pilot and the controls. Now he just had to ensure he could get to it.

Lastly, he took a bit of inspiration from Chaos for the finale. Once the communications tower was taken out, the mech could still be manually controlled. Great if one of them was piloting. Very bad if Artemis still had it. So Xander set a command for the mech timed to run exactly 4 minutes and 50 seconds from now. If someone did take control before then he could cancel the command at any time, but if not it would force the mech to shut the rocket tubes then prime and fire every rocket simultaneously. A misfire like that would certainly be enough to knock the mech out of commission, while still keeping the blast radius small enough to not risk the fuel rods.

With all the hacks taken care of it was time to move out. Xan snapped the tablet back onto his arm and followed the others back to their DPV. However, he did not pack his equipment into the vehicle like his companions. For his plan to work, he would need to make a quick exit. Instead of climbing into his seat, Xan clung to the railing of the roll cage with one arm and secured his feet against the side of the DPV. The extra grip strength from his exoskeleton ensured he wouldn't fall off until he was ready.

@LadyAmber@ReusableSword
"Alright, conductor. Ready to earn those last two stars?" Xan asked with a laugh. He held his rifle in the other hand and pointed it towards the mech and all the soldiers around it. "I need to get to that mech. We're on a tight deadline so just swing by it and don’t stop! Don't worry. I've jumped out of things moving faster than this." He reassured them.

As they drove, Chaos posed the idea of having music but in a way that didn’t announce their presence. His eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Ooo! We could probably use the headsets built into our helmets! Then it’s just a matter of making sure our comms are still online without subjecting the whole crew to our tunes.” Xander turned to the passenger in the back to include him in the conversation as well. “How about you, Orge? Fancy having some theme music on these missions?”

Raven Squad: Second Storm (Military/Spy-Fi RP)

Xander Clarke

---

Working Hard

A certain aussie hovered over the rec room’s mini fridge. Tools and spare parts scattered around him as he was hard at work tinkering with something. He was so focused on what he was doing that he didn’t even notice Mateo enter the room. It wasn’t until Mateo had sat down that he realized someone else was even there.

“How’s it going, mate? Don’t mind me. I’m just making a few… ‘adjustments’ to the fridge here.” Xander gave the fridge a soft pat as he explained.

“Actually, would you mind helping me test it? I want to make sure the voice commands work for everyone.” Xander said cheerfully. He pushed himself off the floor and walked to the otherside of the rec room. “See, people come here to try and relax. Maybe kick back and forget their troubles.” He plopped down into the nearest chair, still maintaining eye contact with the man. “Only sometimes, that’s not all you’ve forgotten. See, I didn’t grab a beer before I sat down. Now I’m gonna have to get up and walk all the way back to get one, then walk all the way here again. Doesn’t sound like I’m relaxing, now does it? But don’t worry, I solved that problem.”

Xander held out his hand and called out,“Fridge! Beer me!”

Hearing the voice command, the top of the fridge opened to reveal a hidden mechanism that looked strikingly similar to Xander’s lobber. The device rotated for a moment before it detected Xander’s open hand. A can of beer was then automatically loaded into the device and with a soft *thump* was launched across the room and into the aussie’s grip. The device then folded back into the fridge and the top closed concealing it once more. Proud of himself, Xander cracked the can open and took a very satisfied gulp of beer.

“Don’t worry. I cleared this with mum. Well, more accurately I sent her a message, but she was already on her scheduled run. Either way I’m sure she’ll be fine with it. If not, I can always put it back how it was.” Xander gave a soft chuckle before leaning back and taking another swig.

---

Hardly Working

Despite calling driver before they left, Xander was relegated to shotgun as Chaos beat him to their assigned DPV. On top of that there wasn’t any way for him to remotely take control of the vehicle, which meant he was pretty much forced to let her take the wheel. He was upset at first, but he couldn’t complain too much. After all, she at least knew what she was doing. Oh well. He would just have to make sure it was his turn next time.

While it was a bumpy ride there, it was far from boring. There was some entertaining banter between Frigga and Chaos that Xander brought a smile to his face. It was nice to know he wasn’t the only person on the team who could joke around. Last thing he wanted was to be surrounded by stuffed shirts who never learned to have a good time.

Once they had reached their destination and came to a sudden stop, Chaos made the remark “Thank you for booking with Chaos Rides”.

Xander chuckled at the comment. He calmly pulled out his tablet and dictated aloud as he pretended to type a review. “Driver was lovely and got us to our destination on time, but there was a distinct lack of on board snacks and drinks and too many camels. 3 out of 5.”

Finished with his bit, he slipped the tablet back onto his arm and hopped out. He grabbed his gear from the back and did one final check. Weapons: F88 Austeyr and Glock 19 locked and loaded. Exo-suit: fully functional and powered. Dingo: secured and ready to bite. Everything seemed in order, all he had to do now was wait for the recon team to give them the all clear and Queen to give the signal.

“Ready to crash their system!.. You know, ‘cus my callsign is Glitch… Yeah nah, I’ll keep working on it.”