RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 8] That Sinking Feeling

"If I may add a suggestion, Sergeant," Noboru said quietly. He didn't stop moving forward to mention it, though - he waved the squad forward and spoke via the helmet's COMM as he went. One hand hovered close to the holstered .45 the entire way, as the bulkhead loomed up in the distance.

"I would suggest we keep a low profile when we go in," The expatriate reasoned. "Whoever is attacking this fortress is likely well-armed if they are to take on the Uniques and whatever other security forces are here, whereas we are armed with .45 pistols and our luck. Which -" and here Noboru grimaced - "hasn't exactly been lottery winning." He shrugged. "Anyways, we should probably stick to whatever cover is in the room. Or we could go straight through the center, reckon all of us could fit behind Stovaa."

Claire did not seem satisfied with Kokuten's explanation. "We may have armor, but let me re-state what should be obvious: We have pistols. Almost every other armed personnel here will likely have assault or riot weapons and the armor to protect themselves from it. If for whatever reason you think that we have a snowballs chance in hell of overcoming these people who will no doubt also be in groups, then you are insane. All I'm saying is, we should do our absolute best to -not- garner any attention. If we can't help some of it, fine. I understand it. But under no circumstance should we be attempting to engage anyone, even the pirates if they show up, only if we have no method of retreat or evasion should we actually return fire."

Claire looked over at Tweak "In fact, considering our objective, we'd be a lot better off having a smaller group infiltrate their way into the computer core and doing what needs to be done. If we overtake the core by force, and I can't imagine it not being staffed or guarded, what are we going to do when the attack ends and we are found in possession of it?"

"Just to clarify though, I'm not yet suggesting we take an alternate route, unless we come across an obstacle like a squad of uniques or pirates that aren't engaged with an enemy. Essentially, all I'm asking is that we treat this as more of an infiltration than a 'boarding action'. If we hear the words 'go loud' then we've essentially failed already and are being asked to go die against better equipped and probably better trained opponents."

"Of course, Mr. Akio, I'm not too sure who wouldn't take cover in the terms of such situations. I'm sure if we hug the walls, we'll keep a lower profile than walking through the center of these hallways." Kokuten said, stepping out of the elevator, wanting to urge everyone forward. If anything, he didn't want to repeat himself a third or fourth time. He went over to the wall as he suggested, his pistol still out. Though, he stopped and turned when he caught wind of Claire. It started to bother him slightly in how little faith some of these people had in his decisions, but he could understand that. The best he could do is ensure their faith as best he could.

"Let me clarify, Ms. Winters. First of all, I never said 'shoot on sight'. When I suggested a 'boarding action' I was simply explaining the fact that we face enemies of unknown count, and strength. Thus, in standard groupings during such situations, we have everyone stay together and deal with any encounters accordingly." Kokuten started, holstering his pistol as he spoke. "What we do know, is that we have anti-personnel weapons with limited ammo. As I've said before, we make our shots count if we need to."

"To try and sum it up the best I can, we do not know enough to simply devise a perfect strategy. As this Squad has rumored to do, and from my experience, done in the past, we will handle the small situations as they arise along our way to reach our overarching goal."

Claire seemed to relent a little, finally getting the point out of Kokuten. She took a step towards him and laid a hand on his shoulder, then turning her head to the rest of the squad. "Well I'm glad you understand, now if it took me about 5 minutes to get that of you, just make sure we don't have some trigger-happy idiot on our side starting fights we can't win, that just because there's an opponent in sight doesn't mean we have to engage them at any point." She let go and stepped back to her original position.

"Ready to move."

By the time the rest of the team had decided what to do, Stovaa was halfway down the corridor. Hugging the wall tightly, pistol held behind his leg, osbcured from view. He listened intently, on guard for the click of a lock tumbler or the gentle noise of a weapon's safety.

From the room ahead, the shouting was becoming more evident. He raised a hand in warning to Noboru before speaking over the team channel. "Noise ahead. Unsure of gender, language, sexual orientation or hostile status, but I'm certain they exist."

He continued sneaking, back to the wall as he crept, as silent as his Id-Sol body could go in his Cirrus uniform. "Any advice on how to treat them? I'll relay information when I spot anything new," he said before stooping lower and continuing his point walk.

"I reckon we could just throw 'em a party," Noboru said quietly, following four or five safe paces behind Stovaa, one hand wrapped around the grip of his still-holstered .45 holdout pistol. "Come in with gifts of booze and money, and get Claire topless. We could have ourselves a grand old time."

Once he was done indulging his sarcastic side, Noboru spoke in a more serious tone. "Leave them be for now. Stay out of sight as best you can, and don't let them see you. Stick to whatever shadows may be in there, and preserve your ammo." The expatriate smiled. "Either way, I've got your back. Just like that barfight at Sunny Side Up, right?"

"We'll investigate," Kokuten said, picking up on Stovaa's report. The Doctor followed behind the two of them, drawing his pistol, but keeping it pointed down. "and see what exactly the yelling is about. Then, as Mr. Akio has said, we will do our utmost to bypass them. The more we know, the easier our job will be."

Listening quietly, the male Kohanian took in all of the sounds around him, including those from Claire and Kokuten debating proper strategy. With a cant of his head, Deacon pondered both sides, and had to admit that in the instance they seemed to be facing, perhaps a compromise would have been in order. Of course, he would not question his commanders judgement, but small teams of two or three, following the same route, but more spaced out might have given them the advantage of a sort of pinscer maneuver in the open area of the upcoming bay. Have a few go left inside the door, a few go right, and scope it out.

A group of armored and armed soldiers creeping around in the shadows would raise even more suspicion when and if they were discovered. This, Deacon was preparing to point out, but just shook his head and hunched over, starting to creep after the rest of his squad the best that he could.

The growing tension was making Tweak wish they had split up...not for tactical reasons this time, but simply so she could get away from it. Tension was distracting, this was not feeling at all like a concerted effort by a team.

As she waited for a reply from Kess, the neko directed her hearing and vision focus into the room beyond the bulkhead doorway that she, Stovaa, and Noboru had arrived at. (She probably wasn't supposed to be there, but she had already started for it by the time Kokuten had assigned the other two scouting duty.) Tweak kept her head back and stood with her back to the wall, head and eyes turned toward the door, trusting her senses to clue her in on what was in the wing beyond.

Blake swallowed a ball of nerves and approached the door with the rest of the team. His tongue clung dryly to the roof of his mouth as he made his way down the hallway. With no possible way of scratching his itching head-stubble and no possible way of knowing the correct action, he was left with the one option he should've chosen from the very start: Waiting patiently for orders. His eyes wandered across his squadmates briefly. Each glance bringing more security to his mind. They were all experienced, all capable; and all prepared for duty. He likewise prepared himself.

He started by reminding himself that he probably wasn't going to be facing Junkers this time. His enemies were most likely living, breathing individuals who thought on their feet and had actual weapons. Individuals who were most likely more skilled and experience than he. He sang softly to himself as he pulled the slide back on his newly acquired pistol.

"Oh, Green, Green Nepleslia.
You shine in the night.
Oh, Great, Green Nepleslia;
May you give me might."

Cassefin shook her head and gave Serra a strained look. "I'm not sure I want to be moving this thing anywhere. The facility isn't safe as it is; I'm out of the way in here, at least until Captain Abeck arrives to rescue me," the Head Administrator said, her serious tone tinged with just a hint of wistful fancy. Casting a quick glance at the open panel in front of the Elysian, Cassefin's curiosity was piqued. "... what exactly did you have in mind?"

---

"Unfortunately," Kess gave Tweak, as well as the entire squad, a reply to her previous question. "The CSS Suit's visor isn't capable of visuals beyond what it was built for... they're little more than digital read-outs. I can, however, keep myself patched into your radio channel to keep you all update."

"I suggest we get a move on... we don't have much time."

---

As the team crept near the open bulkhead, the voices emanating from beyond the doorway became clearer. Shouting, mostly males voices, a couple short screams. Upon careful investigation, Squad 35 would stumble upon an odd series of circumstances.

The assembly room itself was little more than a large, open area occupied with sparse machinery and a single wide conveyor belt which was fed through the sides of the room and ran across one side. There were some storage crates and other miscellaneous items positioned around the room, but the middle of the assembly area was kept relatively open, most likely for the sake of convenience when moving materials... although it would appear that the transport machines themselves were nowhere to be found.

A single exit on the opposite end of the room seemed to be the only other entrance to the facility.

In the center area, several men and women where positioned on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Their similar outfits, green and white coveralls and office clothing, gave away their affiliation to Vinross Yu-Cranker Materials, but they didn't seem to be Uniques. There were many males and only a handful of females amongst the group, and none of them seemed particularly dressed for nor capable of combat.

Surrounding the group were roughly half a dozen individuals with no discernible affiliation. Their clothes were mismatched and not uniform, the only common factor between them being a forest green bandanna worn around their face or neck, and the fact that they seemed to be armed quite well, sporting Zen Arms 10mm submachine pistols, mean looks and an obvious aggression. One man amongst the group was on this back, hand clutched over a bleeding wound on his stomach, and off to the side near the conveyor belt, a single Unique laid still, a small pool of blood forming beneath the body. The men, possibly the eco-terrorists the Squad had heard about before, had their backs turned to the bulkhead door, and didn't seem to notice Squad 35's approach. They had their weapons trained on the helpless group in the middle of the group of unarmed Vinross Yu-Cranker employees, with one of the eco-terrorists holding a young woman in front of him, his submachine pistol pressed against her neck.

A quick glance to where the eco-terrorists were looking solved the mystery of where their attention was drawn. Standing a few feet away from the group of terrorists and civilians was Nell, the Unique they had seen run off just a few minutes earlier. With her helmet nowhere to be seen, she was easily distinguished from the short distance away from the bulkhead, her stance tense and her weapon raised at the hostage-holding eco-terrorist in front of the group. The thin glisten of sweat could be seen forming on her brow as she exchanged harsh stares with the armed men in front of her. Although Nell was facing the doorway, she didn't seem to notice the Cirrus security force from their distance away.

"You'd best do as we say, girl," the man holding the hostage spoke, shaking the young lady a bit as he spoke to enhance the dramatic effect. "Drop your gun, or I'm gonna drop her."

Nell merely narrowed her eyes and sneered unpleasantly, unsure of what to do.

Kess' answer was what the neko wanted to hear. Tweak tucked the SavTech's module securely into a pocket of her shorts (which she was wearing under the loose CSS suit). Then Tweak quickly reported the situation basically as described above to Kokuten (except for the conversation) after first listening to sonically locate the people in the room, then quickly poking her head around the corner for a second and memorizing the scene. She looked back at the squad leader after finishing the report.

"Orders, sir? Do we attempt a rescue, find a way around, or attempt both by splitting up?"

A hostage situation? Just our luck. Kokuten grumbled as Tweak briefed him. He looked around and counted off at the people in the squad. Blake, Deacon, Claire, Akio, Stovaa, Tweak, and himself, that was seven people to their six, and they had the element of surprise. If they moved quickly, they could either get them to disarm, or in a worst case scenario, they would have to shoot them. Even if they had Machine Pistols, .45 caliber bullets would match up just fine when they hit their mark.

"Alright, priority lies with our current mission," Kokuten frowned to the people behind him, "but I lack the hard-boiled nature to leave innocent civilians in the hands of terrorists. We will advance along their left and right flanks, and stay hidden amongst the containers. When we're ready, we'll come out and order them to disarm. If they open fire on us, we should be able to shoulder some hits from the 10 mm rounds, but we'll have to put them down if that happens. We will make it an angled approach, so that if we do have to shoot, we won't hit each other." The Captain sighed and closed his visor. "Claire, Deacon, Tweak, and Blake will take the left path with the conveyor belt. Stovaa, Noboru, and myself will take the right. Radio me when you're in a set position and we'll move from there." He looked at them, his green eyes darting amongst them from the looks of the glow behind the visor. "Everyone understand?"

Claire, apparently, disagreed. "Sir, he has a hostage. If you really care at all about them, ordering them to disarm will just put us in the same position as the... unique is in. Unless you really think every one of us can headshot them with perfect accuracy all at the same time." Not that she was doubting hers or anyone else's marksmanship.

"Sir, either we take the shot while they're distracted, which theoretically would give us enough room for a second follow up shot before they realize what's happening if we miss, or we keep moving. I would suggest the latter, as we have no way of making sure these hostages or the unique stays silent about our presence. Unless you have an explanation already for why we aren't with our charge to protect?" Essentially worried about witnesses, the lives of the workers did not seem terribly high on her priorities. Then again, she watched the cirrus workers die, perhaps that was the point?

"Mmm, shoot to kill then. They're unarmored, so any hits we make with .45 rounds should be fairly disabling with the force and size of the round." Kokuten mentioned, a hand on the chin of his helmet. He moved towards the bulkhead, and waited for the rest of his side to gather before moving into position. "I am, however, not bending around this. I will not stand idly by and allow the deaths of innocents."

He looked out towards the situation unfolding, "Not again."

Claire did not seem happy about the decision but apparently was tired of arguing the point when she obviously wasn't going to get out of it. She nodded with a sigh and moved off to the left as ordered to get into position, muttering something like 'spineless child' as she did. She did not approve of making their presence known to the hostages or the unique who, in her mind, would undoubtedly squeal to their superiors after they were done here about them not being where they should.

"I intend on making every last round count, sir.". Noboru said quietly over the COMM. The expatriate slowly pulled his .45 holdout gun from it's holster and checked the components, carefully pulling the slide mechanism back until the weapon cocked, then slowly moving it back.

He stood back behind Kokuten, covering the middle ground of the three-man formation, and was analyzing the little knot of hostile when the thought (or thoughts, rather) hit him. "Sarge," Noboru said quietly, "a couple things. First off, which target are we going for first? I saw a human shield in there, should we disable him first?". Noboru awkwardly placed a hand on the back of his head next. "And what happens when we take these guys out? It should go without saying that if we fuck up and they return sustained fire for too long, or if one of them has a radio and gets off a call, or even if we just do everything right and one of the terrorists happens to be passing by and hear us?"

Noboru shrugged, lowering his arm to his side again, and establishing a double-handed grip on his gun. "What then, sir?"

"I said shoot to kill, Noboru. We decide our targets when we a arrive to our destination. When we open fire, the first hit will either make them dead or disabled. Plus, from our vantage from the sides and behind, we should be able to kill the man holding the hostage easily, as she's being held in front." Kokuten responded to Noboru. "We'll handle extra details as they come, as we don't have time to argue them."

Blake sidled up behind Claire as she moved into position, preforming the same silent slide technique as Noboru had. He radioed to Claire, speaking in hushed tones, "Winters, this is Morris. I'm on your back and packing lead. Uh... Don't forget what I said on the shuttle. I'm deferring to you in this situation, uh... ma'am."

"I don't think this is a very good idea," Kess added her stern opinion into the mix as the group began to mill secretly through the sparse cover along both sides of the room. "With things as they are, we can't afford to waste any time. The system shut-down won't last very long." True enough, the team certainly had the opportunity; traveling to the opposite end of the room relatively undetected would be easy. They would, however, have to leave their cover to make their way through the exit doorway, but at the distance they would be the eco-terrorists would be hard-pressed to chase, especially so since they would have to go through Nell.

Claire, Deacon, Tweak and Blake would have a much easier time, as the length of the raised conveyor belt ran along the distance they had meant to travel. Kokuten, Stovaa, Method and Noboru, on the other hand, would have a tougher time sifting through the storage crates; they were sparsely positioned, leaving them out in the open for split seconds to the center of the room as they moved into position.

The green-bandanna-wearing eco-terrorists, luckily, didn't seem to notice the squads movements, their focus on the immediate threat in front of them. Nell, for a split second, seemed to catch a glimpse of Kokuten's group as they wove between the storage crates... however, it was hard to tell, as her expression and movements didn't change.

The lead terrorist shook the young female intern again, which caused Nell to visibly tense up as she peered through her stressed brow line. "I mean it, girly!" The man pressed the end of his weapon into the woman's neck, causing her to whimper in terror. "Drop it, or we'll drop this whole group."