RP [FT6] The Patriot Gambit, Ep.1: "Bad Business"

As Raphael waited for a reply, Valerie walked up and began talking to him. "I'm actually not sure what they will have for me. Shit, in basic they just cut two slots for my wings to poke through. Here's hoping they improved on that design." He laughed.

Zylis sent him the tactical overview of the dock. The techie even highlighted some key points of interest. "Thanks Zy, I owe you one." He said patting the techie on the back.

As he checked the tac map, he realized that the area was not suited for long range engagement. Much to Raphael's chagrin, his brand new rifle might see as much action as he hoped. Still there was a sinking suspension that something was off. You wouldn't think that these guys, who ever they are, would have left there get away ship unguarded. Those vantage points might just be ambush points. Or he could just be paranoid. Still, might as well make it aware.

Raphael made his way to the front and right behind Chief Valerie. "Excuse me Chief. I forwarded a tactical map of our AO (area of operation) to you. It has several vantage points highlighted. I think that they might be ambush points." He said. "It might be nothing, and I might be bugging you for nothing, but I thought I should cover the bases."

Jack walked along listening to the conversations going on. "No PAs, we'll be a-goin' in with golems like the poor folks guarding the 'spacers, Cal," he said to Val not really bothering to turn around and most assuredly purposefully getting her name wrong. All the talk between everyone hadn't really interested him until the Elysian talked about having actually looked at the schematics for more than a cursory glance. "I was a-wonderin' when someone would look at that dang thing. An ambush prob'ly goin' to happen. You ain't goin' to leave yer ship all by her lonesome when planin' somethin' like what they were planin'," Blackburn replied before giving the chief a chance. At least one of them was thinking again and drawing some kind of logical conclusions.

Jas walked along, looking thoughtful. She tapped her chin as they made their way to the armory. "Hmm...and even if not an ambush, there'd be some sort of explosives as well. Just in case others got past the ambush. Either way, we all need to be on our toes."

She kept up with the others, though those with longer strides got further ahead. It didn't matter much to the Nepleslian. She was used to being last, though never left. She made a mental note to look it over as they traveled through space rather than try to focus on those points now. Not like she had the link most others had. Not yet. Maybe once this assignment is done she'd get that procedure.

Simon's face turned quizical at the Agents chatter concerning where they were headed. "An ambush? Seriously? They would have no reason to set up some elaborate ambush. There will be VE's (Violent Extremists) on board and yeah," Simon nods to Jasmine," probably explosives but thinking ambush is a bit much. The shipnis in dock for engine repairs and they assumed things would go well. An ambush would mean they know someone would get on to them and they have no reason for that."

It seemed his tactical map was of much more use than he'd thought initially. Zylis even got a pat on the back in addition to the verbal appreciation. Listening to the rest of the team, his mind raced as he thought of the possible scenarios.

(Castiel/Blackburn) Ambush - Most Probable... If they're expecting the IPG or anyone to come investigate as they forgot to tie up loose ends. (Blackhawk) Ambush and Explosives - Possible... Same as Ambush, but preparing for a heavy firefight. (Bardur) Explosives - Likely... Abandoned ship booby trapped to take care of loose ends. (D) Large Amounts of Explosives - Rating Unknown... If those involved were looking at causing a terror like situation at the space station, why not have it rigged with another Aetheric bomb to blow if anyone really went snooping around. And not just the type where a person looks under the "hood" and a bomb goes off.

A short list, the fourth one he considered after Simon had offered a counter to the "explosives after failed ambush" insight provided by Jas. Mental notes became digital ones as he looked over his tacmap once again, merging it with and updating the initial file he shared with the team. It wasn't until after he sent the update, that he realized his notes were attached. Zylis sighed and shook head at his oversharing.

OOC: Edited names for formality

"And here I thought y'all were payin' attention. There were six of the individuals on the exploded ship. The frigate that we're going in invest'gate requires a min'mum of a 14 man crew. Leaves at least e'ght we need to worry 'bout. Might not know who's askin' questions but they'll want to quickly and quietly do away with 'em," Blackburn shook his head slightly in disappointment. Perhaps he had given them too much credit earlier.

"Listen, Blackburn, no one is doubting there are more VE's on board, I'm just saying it's a big jump to being sure they are set up waiting to ambush. We will most assuredly come into conflict with them but they aren't going to be camping outside the ship in hidden caches waiting for us. So let's remember why we are doing this and that we are a team," Simon stated as he still walked casually his hands tucked into his pants pockets.

"Then you've clearly never dealt with paranoid people. Attack the gover'ment and there'll be repercussions. This shit's on the news an' now they'll be more paranoid. The big jump is that they'll not be waitin' for us. You 'ave no idea what we're gettin' into," Blackburn said coldly. He couldn't believe that someone could be this thick.

Jas listened quietly to the what the veteran and the others had to say. She was on the side of expecting something happening, be it ambush or straight up fighting. With or without explosives. Her only addition was to be prepared for the possibility of explosives as well. Either way, she was preparing for the worst...which most likely the others were two. She just didn't voice it since, at this point, there was no need.

Valerie had listened to her new team go back and forth. For the mast part she'd said little, content to just let them work out ideas and plans among themselves. Their chatter was mostly ignored by the office workers they passed. The team was regarded with occasional glances but for the most part, at this early hour of the morning, the hallways they passed through were relatively quiet and unoccupied with only automatically triggered lights clicking on every meter or so.

As they moved closer and closer to the nearest armory, the scenery quickly began to shift away from the comfortable and warm office settings to more mil-spec surroundings. Passing through halls that would be familiar to all the members of the team, and more freshly remembered for the more junior as halls they went down during training with instructors barking at them to move faster. Around some corners, it was even possible to hear the shouts of those instructors directing more newly recruited Agents through their early morning routines.

The armory was a quiet place as well with only a rather disinterested young woman standing guard behind the counter, tapping idly at her DataJockey until the team had come in. She immediately began tapping on her DataJockey, this time unlocking a door at the other end of the short "hall" they'd entered into. It slid open on the team's approach and admitted them into the actual armory.

At first they entered a hallway that formed a "T" with the one they'd been in. To their left was a doorway marked with a sign as being for females only. To the right, one for men. In the hall itself, directly in the center along the wall, was a bench with multiple sets of armor resting on it. Valerie moved to stand by the bench for a few moments.

"Golem assault armor." Valerie stated simply, "Higher command is talking about getting it modded or replaced, but until then it can get the job done. You should all be used to it from training. Raphael, your's still sports the slots in back and SynAras sleeves for your wings like you probably had in training, too." She motioned to the armor, "They're labeled, so grab your's, and move to get suited up. Do me a favor so we don't blow this thing with the first round and try to take something with a silencer, yeah?"

With that she motioned for them to head, as was appropriate to the gender, into the rooms to suit up, giving out a simple call of, "And everybody grab some tear gas while you're at it!"

In those rooms, on the walls, were cases and racks of pistols, rifles, and other weapons fit for the grabbing. Their being so new meant that the Agents had yet to be issued personal weaponry and were instead pulling from the general stock for the first time. Only the heaviest equipment such as the 30mm chain gun wasn't present, requiring special order from the agent in charge of the armory to get access to.

In the meantime, as they suited up, it seemed like this would be one of the few times before the actual operation that any of the agents would be able to talk to one another.

As the team's argument over the tacmap Raphael had brought up escalated, he became very quiet. He knew they were about to enter the armory and suit up. As the entered the hall, the Chief stopped and directed them to the two opposite changing rooms. As she spoke to Raphael he nodded and walked inside.

Sitting in the locker was a specially modified Golem armor set with wing sleeves, just like the boss lady said. He started striping down and began dawning, as he liked to call it, 'Full Battle Rattle.' He already knew that he was bringing his new AMR rifle with him. He had already fitted a silencer onto it earlier when he received it, so that shouldn't be a problem. He then decide to also swing for the Na-W/P-08c variant submachine gun since it had an integrated silencer.

As he finished up with his Golem armor, he thought of an idea to maybe solve the ambush problem. While the rest of the team would enter normally, Raphael would enter the docking bay from one of the facility maintenance hatches. He would then sneak to one of the vantage points and see if he could get a set of eyes in the room before everyone moved in. He voiced his idea to the guys in the room with him and sent it to the women's DataJockeys, as he finished suiting up, flexing his wings in the sleeve. "Fits like a glove." He thought.

He started grabbing his two weapons, ammo, grenades, and extra mags as he waited for the others to voice there opinions of the idea.

Simon rolled his eyes at Blackburn with a sad shake of his head as he casually walked into the armory. His first stop was his medical kit. He checked to ensure the contents were all in place. He turned to the group, "If any of you have any special medical needs now would be the time to speak up and don't be shy. I'm well versed in Nepleslian anatomy of course but I have only read on Elysian and Jiyuuian anatomy and medical practices."

He listened to any responses as he collects his weapons, a Styrling Silver Special .45 with sound supressor with 3 extra magazines stowed and a HHG with 3 moon clips of FMJ hybrid rounds, 2 moon clips of solid lead mass driver rounds and 1 moon clip of HE hybrid rounds.

Simon settled into his Golem armor bending and twisting to ensure he had as much free movement as possible. He attached his Styrling Special to his chest plate and the HHG to his thigh plate, letting the gravity shield hold them in place for easier access. He turned most optics off on the visor relying on his optical implants instead.

Once in the armory, Zylis found his Golem Assault Armor and slid his DataJockey into the helmet. His helmet had been modified to work better with his digital mind. Since the Golem was designed to be supported by a DataJockey unless the user had a compatible cybernetic link and wired themselves to the helmet, Zylis thought to create a node that would allow him to maintain a mental link with the DataJockey, essentially rerouting controls through said link. This allowed for better symbiosis between his Minkan enhancements and his armor, amplifying existing comms systems and enhancing the visor systems allowing for thought command activation instead of a manual actuation. The downside was a seemingly slow 10µs (microsecond) lag in response time which he considered "workable" for now.

Calling to Simon, he shook his head at the medic's mistake, "I'm sure you'll find it easier to fix me up as necessary if you read up on Minkans, as there's much more source material. One is Jiyuuian more like an ethnicity, less as a species itself."

Looking through the firearms, a slight smirk grew as Zylis found a long barrel HG36-1 with a suppressor. His eyes looked to Raphael as he noticed the trigger had been replaced with an enhanced marksman one. Holding the weapon up, he called to Raphael, "Castiel, is this your handiwork?" Noticed or not he'd grab four clips, a few canisters of tear gas, and a IPG "Sunstick" for good measure.

Suiting up in his Golem Armor now, Zylis began a series of tests to make sure everything was working. First his modified tech, then mentally configuring targeting and visuals, lastly making sure all the Golems were on the correct encrypted comms signal. Lastly he sighted his HG36-1 as best as possible without firing the weapon.

Raphael smiled at Zylis. "Oh you like that do you? I been known to make a few modification on weapons down here for us snipers. If you want to bring me a weapon for long range engagement mods, I will gladly oblige." He said with a smirk

Women's locker room

Jasmine picked up her armor and even got the Styrling Silver Special .45 Caliber pistol out of the armory itself. She also grabbed a utility combat knife M01A. She put that in the boot of the armor and the pistol at her hip. She also made sure her DataJockey into the helmet. It wasn't modified for anything special, though the gloves of her armor was specially designed so that she could easily move the fingers for anytime she needed fine detail work.

She put her hair back into a braid, being sure the feathers were taken off. The only thing she kept on her in the armor, aside from her underwear, was the locket. She knew she could keep that with her at all times. Once she had everything on, she looked over at the other two, "Am I all hooked up? I sometimes miss things in the back where I can't see or feel as easily."

Val smiled at the companionship that the team already was showing. "Looks like we all seem to make a good team." She flicked a thumbs up and a smile as walked into the armory locker room with the other two females.

She quickly walked to her station and looked over her equipment, making sure it was as she left it. It could use a good scrubbing, but overall the armor was serviceable and ready to go. With the armor situated comfortably, she rolled the Na-TK17 Engineer Toolkit onto the Golem's back, sans the plasma torch and tanks. "You look fine to me, just don't forget to bring some extra ammo since you only have the one." Pointing to her handgun, "I got the same one." She grabbed the .45 and tucked it into a holster, reaching for a Styrling Shot 12 and it's accessories. She clipped on a sling and a shell bag to her belt. She lovingly grabbed the barrel and pulled it from it's cradle, "This big guy will keep me safe, my knight in shining steel basically. Let's just hope one of the males manage to grab something a little more accurate."

Jas laughed as she got more ammo as well as supplies for demolitions. She knew she'd need room for those as well.

"Thanks. And yeah, I keep it small what I carry on me. Gotta have room for the explosives!"

"Hey, more power to you," she raised a balled fist up in support. "This isn't as accurate as a rifle, but it will put a man down and keep him down." Feeling that her choice was a little weak she attempted to justify it but wasn't able to think of a solid reason why she chose the pump shotgun over a rifle or sub machine gun. "Well, they have it on the racks that means they want me to use it. I'll let you guys handle the silent stuff, I'll keep my forty five with a suppressor just in case though."

Zylis was testing the how well his mod held up, especially the enhanced comms before he responded back to Raphael. "Testing... testing..." As easy as it was to blink, he'd switch from a transmission sent to the entire team to one sent to a specific person. "I may take you up on that some time Castiel. Never hurts to pick up a few new tricks." He transmitted to Raphael alone, everything working to his delight without a hitch.

He'd make a few more adjustments to his HUD before lowering his rifle, waiting for the other's to finish getting prepared. Zylis seemed not overly excited, but definitely eager to prove himself to the rest of his team he belonged there with them.

Raphael finished suiting up, stretching the fabric covering his wings. He clipped his submachine gun to his side. He then changed his AMR rifle ' s barrel to a shorter variant. He switched his helmets coms to speak with Zylis.

"You teach me some of your tech tricks, and I'll make sure your shooting doesn't completely suck. It sounds like a fair trade." He chuckled.

He synchronized his HUD with the scope of his rifle, and stood up. Now he just had to wait for the others to finish.

He was ready to show everyone why an Elysian was put on this team.