"Only pretty one in this room is my ass." Valerie offered a small chuckle and smile before grabbing her helmet from the locker and her DataJockey, slotting it into her helmet. Though Jas' wink brought a roll of the eyes, "I'm taken, rookie."
Now that she stood fully suited and armed, Valerie tucked her helmet under her arm, wires for a cyber-ware link-up hanging loose from the helmet itself - not yet hooked up. The half ID-SOL agent stepped out from the womens side of the armory locker-room and gave the wall three hard-raps so everybody would be able to hear it easily enough.
"Okay, folks! Dress-up is over! Let's move!" She barked.
Zylis looked around at the others, at first wondering if they all were going to take half the armory with them. This, of course, was until he watched Jack practically load what was left of the armory into every nook and cranny he could find all the while still asking for someone else to take more. Feeling as though he were under equipped and equally under prepared, Zylis approached the weapons racks looking to better round out his loadout.
For mid to long range engagement, the HG36-1 he picked up would be more than sufficient, but for close quarters he needed something both accurate and with decent stopping power. Looking over the "Knuckler", it seemed like a solid choice. Double barreled, gracious clip size and fairly stable firing platform with the clamps. It also allowed him use of his other hand, if need be. He'd stock up on a few of the double clips as well.
Thinking back to Raphael's suggestion to get a visual on the port they'd be at none too soon, Zylis thought to reach out to ELINT for the feed. With his HUD up, he tapped into the secure channel. He wondered who'd been assigned to support Valerie's team, also wondering if he'd worked along side them during his stint as an IA agent.
The link was already set up for the team's communication. A quick glance at the user ID responsible would have shown that Valerie established it long ago before Field Team Six had been reconstituted. It was a communications link to a JANE, with an indication that the AI at the other end was standing by for input. As a member of the team, Zylis had the appropriate security clearance necessary to use the connection.
"JANE, could you patch me into the security feeds for the space station we're heading to in the Kovax system?"
The voice that answered could be heard by every member of the team, a soft female voice, with a pleasantly happy tone to it,
"Good morning, Agent Darkjasper!" It replied in greeting,
"I'm currently interfacing with port authorities to acquire the necessary system permissions. It shouldn't take more than a few moments."
Zylis couldn't remember the last time he heard someone so happy to hear from him, despite it being an AI, he'd find himself a little flush. Good thing everyone couldn't see his face. "Thank you JANE. While you're at it, could you check and see how long repairs to their ship still require?"
"Logs for required repairs place them at one day due to an unexpected failure of several key components in their ship's power grid and one stern thruster. However I am currently working to delay that to a further day to allow a more flexible operational window."
"Two days at best... Hopefully we won't need more than that. Though I'm sure you'll have us covered should we need a bit more time." The connection had been made to the feeds, and Zylis had four different cameras displaying on his HUD. Nothing seemed out of place, even scanning back through 24 hours of footage at high speed gave little useful information.
"I guess that should have been expected, they'd keep a low profile and their noses clean. I wish they would have given us something... anything..." Zylis thought to himself.
The dock was clear of anything suspicious. Over the course of twenty four hours little major happened, with apparent dock workers moving through the area. Little seemed out of place in regards to the cargo containers or any of the individuals on camera. Occasionally small groups of individuals could be seen coming and going from the ship - usually the many of the same people if examined closely - likely enjoying time at port.
"Castiel, nothing of importance could be ascertained from the footage. Just your average run of the mill port feed." It made sense to him though, if half his comrades just blew up a ship enroute to the capital, he wouldn't want to draw attention back to anything he may or may not have been doing. "JANE, much appreciated. Do you have anything else for us?"
"Nothing presently, Agent. But don't worry, I'll be keeping in touch."
Valerie piped up over the team's comm-channel, "As you may all have heard, that's JANE. She's our in-field tie to ELINT." An audible chuckle over the radio, "Be nice to JANE and say hello, ladies and gentlemen. She is going to be the best friend and voice in your ear when I'm not yelling at you."
"Chief Kohler, are you implying that I don't yell?"
"I'm saying your a softie for rookies, JANE."
Valerie rapped on the wall again, harder.
"Now let's
go!"
And with that she moved to lead the way again.
======================
The path through several hallways and elevators, led at a rushed pace by Valerie, led to one of the base's many underground hangers. Where, waiting after the ground crew had just finished prepping it, was an olive-drab
Onset shuttle. It wasn't the most comfortable ride in the world but it was likely nothing those in the team weren't used to or able to deal with.
When they approached they would be able to witness one of the two crew-members stepping from the passenger area into the cockpit. Valerie idly stood by at the base of the cargo ramp until the last member of the team was aboard before joining them. She found a spot at the rear of one of the two benches and secured herself in place.
The pilot's voice came over the speakers, piped into the passenger area,
"Attention ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are taxing to the runway now. The menu for this flight is - nothing - leave shit back there and the chief will flip his lid, and today's in-flight movie is '48 Cries of 'Fuck!': the Aethersperm Story'." Though this announcement was made with the sound of engines winding up just outside the hull.
"Okay, here's the rough plan." Valerie motioned for the attention of the team and leaned forward in her seat, "We're going in through the maintenance tunnels. The station maintains low gravity in them so it could be a bit of a pain to navigate, but it'll be a straight shot to the dock without civilians or are targets seeing us coming. The tunnel should bring us right into the bay in question. Plenty of containers and equipment mean we should have plenty of cover - but it also means tight quarters if we run into hostiles."
She pointed to four members of the team, firing off their names, "Sparken, Bardur, Blackburn, and Blackhawk. You four go for the engine room. Cut fuel lines, sever the bridge's connection, or just blow the whole damn thing if we have to. Make noise and do some damage to get them worried about you. It'll suck, yeah, but it'll make it easier to get the ship locked down."
"Castiel and Darkjasper will be with me. We'll make our way to the bridge, lock the ship down, and from there we take neutralize the crew and regroup as we can. While we're doing that JANE is going to try remote access but if she can't do that then we pull it manually."
Then, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, and if you can maybe bring in one or two of the crew alive, good. Maybe we can ask some questions instead of just scouring computers. But don't stick your necks out. Any questions?"
It thankfully wouldn't be long before the shuttle would meet with a much larger
Endurance-class transport in an orbital holding pattern where the crew would be able to stretch their legs during the short flight to the station.
