==== ISS Iron Ferret's Hangar - Night time ====
Just outside the ship, under the strong glow of a light projector, were several wooden and metallic crates of various sizes and colors, organized and piled neatly, singled out from the general penumbra of the hangar by the projector. On top of these very same crates sat Desmond, with his armor stripped from the waist up and - against all sanity - casually smoking a cigarette on top of a crate with live ammunition.
Organizing the ammo had taken the better part of the day after the raid on the gang's depot, and after just a few hours of sleep the bounty hunter was already up and going to do another task, he couldn't wait any longer as to not lose the initiative they had since his little trip with the neko to the gang's warehouse, and once the gang recovered their security would be very, very tight.
After a few puffs, the bounty hunter flicked the cigarette away, then lit another one up as he waited for Raven.
Raven made his way out of the ship after first stopping by the armory to grab up the Muur helmet they'd acquired from the last job. He'd figured that any further night infiltrations would be well served with making use of a helmet that was capable of enhancing his night vision and potentially blinding an opponent with the use of the light that was on it. When he saw Desmond he'd wave and call out " Hey Stroud, what's the plan for tonight?"
Raven was suited up in his Emrys body armor with his SGAR slung across his back, his HHG holstered on his right hip, a survival knife in a chest sheath, and his NSP holstered on his left to allow easy access to both sidearms if they were needed. He had several extra power cells for his rifle and NSP in pouches and several additional speedloaders for the HHG in his pockets.
After finishing his second cigarette, Desmond flicked the butt away and jumped off the crate, he regarded the other bounty hunter for a while before answering, "We're gonna take a look around the neighborhood. I'll tell you more on the way." He said, waving for Raven to follow him as he walked off the hangar.
"Works for me" Raven replied and followed Desmond, slightly curious as to what was going on but willing to wait and see what they were up to before making any kind of fuss.
The pair left the hangar, then turned left towards where Desmond's hovercar was parked. The vehicle had been painted in a non-reflective black coating instead of the original red that it was given to him. The vehicle looked brand new, since it was so rarely used, and was pretty hard to spot in the almost darkness that was the parking lot it was in, since the delsaurian night had little in the way of natural light at that time of the month.
"The computer we got from that raid had a lot of intel on the gang that ambushed us when the Iron Ferret first docked on the planet." He said, jumping onto the driver's seat, "We're gonna take a look around their main base tonight."
Raven hopped into the passenger side of the car. "Sounds like a plan to me, stealth mission this time not a smash and grab then" he said as he looked out at the darkness of the night on Delsauria.
Desmond nodded as he started the hovercar, and the vehicle instantly sprung into action and raised off the ground, standing at a comfortable distance of one feet away from it. "That's right." He said, increasing the vehicle's altitude before he took off to a random direction.
====Maharombi Spaceport outskirts - Night====
Different from his last 'trip' to the outskirts, that particular location was more barren of buildings, instead of being sparsely occupied by the occasional residential building the area instead had industrial buildings here and there, separated in large blocks which were intersected by dirt roads. To the very west of the entire area was a large drainage ditch, presumably where all the industrial waste was dumped into.
Desmond landed the hovercar a mile away from the place they were going to be scouting, parking the vehicle neatly on a dark alley between the outer walls of two such factories. The bounty hunter jumped off the vehicle and checked his wristwatch, the time was 32:00, way into the planet's 35 hour cycle.
Raven jumped out as well. "So which way are we heading?" He asked Desmond as he looked around cautiously and keeping a close eye on the shadows in the alley to make sure none of them were gang members who might turn out to be an issue. He had his rifle at hand and was sweeping the area carefully with the muzzle ready to deal with any problems that might arise.
Desmond, in turn, drew the pistol that was holstered on his chest armor, looking around the area. "This way," He said, walking towards one of the ends of the alley, "We're gonna take a look at the place before we move closer." He added, pointing to an industrial building with had a fairly tall smokestack inside its complex.
"Sounds like a reasonable plan to me" Raven replied and started walking in the same direction as Desmond while keeping a close eye on their surroundings and occasionally checking their backtrail just to make sure that they weren't being tailed by anyone who could compromise their mission.
As soon as they cleared the alley, the duo found themselves between a wide open, two way highway. The highway had a sidewalk that was surrounded on both sides by a chest high concrete wall, and it led straight into the cliff face of where the city had been built from; It was easy to guess that whatever goods were produced by the factories (most likely ship components) were sent straight there to either be used or sent off-world, that was, if the factories in that area weren't actually abandoned.
The middle of the highway was also dotted by the occasional street light, which were also, unsurprisingly, not working in their majority, casting small islands of light on the area around and under them.
Desmond didn't bother crouching or sneaking, since he hadn't seen anyone yet, and anyone looking from far away wouldn't be able to distinguish that he nor raven were armed. By that time, the bounty hunter was already in full armor as well, sporting the full matte black muur, with the exception of the arm plates.
He walked at a fast pace across the highway, ending up in front of the way of the first industrial complex.
Raven moved across the highway fairly quickly as well. He moved easily and smoothly in his Emrys armor and walked rapidly but calmly while keeping alert as well. He ended up in front of the same complex as Desmond and waited to see what they were going to do next. He hadn't had a chance to look at the intel as the other man had and decided to simply follow his lead until something went wrong.
"Alright, we'll get on top of that smokestack over there and take a look at the place." He said to Raven, "I'll boost you up.", he added, crouching on one knee and pointing at the wall behind him with a thumb. While the wall was taller than a person, they would have no problem going over it if one boosted the other up.
Raven stepped up and made use of the step Desmond gave him. Scrambling up to the top of the wall before sliding half of his torso on the other side of the wall and leaning down to help lift Desmond up over the wall to join him on the other side. "Need a hand?" Raven said as he offered one to Desmond.
Desmond took the proffered hand and pulled himself up, going up the wall and vaulting to the other side, landing on a crouching position as his equipment clattered. As soon as he landed and looked around he realized that they -he and Raven- were already in a pickle.
Standing not far from them and with their open palms pointed against a barrel fire was a group of Nepleslians, all four of them wearing rags but still looking alert and standing their ground. The biggest of the group, a man wearing a tattered longcoat and an equally ruined skull cap turned to look at the duo, what little of his face that wasn't obscured by grime or by his beard was pockmarked by scars.
"Well, what do we have here, boys?" He said in a hoarse voice, cracking his knuckles. As if on a cue, the rest of the group also turned and grabbed whatever they could find as a weapon, from rusty pipes to a folded metal chair and started to advance towards the duo. They were fairly close, barely six feet away from them.
Raven dropped to the ground and rolled to his feet drawing his combat knife and watching the other 4 men to see how they reacted to the bared blade. He'd shift his head side to side watching the more dangerously armed ones with the metal pipes since they were able to be swung more rapidly than a chair was.
As Raven drew his knife, Desmond reached behind him and drew the foot-long blade he had. He focused on the two remaining 'bandits', but paid more attention to the leader; if he could take him out it was very likely that the others would scatter, but the man was doing no effort to come up front and face the duo, which would force them to fight the three men before reaching him. It wasn't that Desmond regretted fighting all of them, he looked forward to it even, but he considered it a wasted effort.
The vagrants didn't seem to flinch when they saw both of the blades, but instead kept slowly advancing, circling the duo in a semi-circle since they had a wall behind them. Their leader fished a large pipe wrench from his overcoat, and slowly beat it against one of his open palms, at least until Desmond toggled the power field on his blade.
The weapon quickly cast an eerie blue glow on the bounty hunter, and that finally seemed to surprise the hobos, which hesitated for a moment, looking at each other. The power field hummed and made the blade vibrate, setting Desmond's teeth on an edge as they vibrated on their gums.
Noticing the apprehension from the group, the leader quickly stepped up, "What the fuck are you waiting for!? Fucking wreck them already!" He barked, and they all advanced, two of them, the one with the pipe and the other with the folding chair, towards Raven and the last two, another one with a pipe and the leader with his wrench, towards Desmond.
The two who went at Raven raised their weapons at the same time, and it was clear to see that they had little in the way of training but made up with that with the confidence of someone that already had been in several brawls as the man with the pipe swung his makeshift weapon down, much faster than the one with the chair.
Raven flipped the switch on his VBCS chainknife and the chainblade sputtered to life and the vibration device started up as he moved to block the one with the pipe's strike before retaliating with his own strike at the man's arm if the pipe was deflected by his blade. If that man was disarmed by the strike then he'd move to engage the one with the chair.
The VBCS caught the pipe, producing a shower of sparks as the teeth dug into the rusted metal and throwing that man's arm violently back. As soon as Raven went for his riposte the man stepped back, making the hunter's VBCS graze the sleeve of his coat. Also taking advantage from that, the other man with the chair swung his 'weapon' downwards, hitting Raven's helmet, and while the blow didn't do much damage by itself, since the helmet was also padded, it created a clear deformity in the chair and sent the bounty hunter reeling to the side, drawing him away from Desmond, who was also busy fighting the other two.
Raven shook his head quickly before getting back into a guard position against his pair of opponents aiming to not be caught off guard in the same manner. Whichever one made the next strike Raven would block and move for an immediate counter and if the counter failed to hit he'd shift back into a guard position so he would be able to block the next attack with his VBCS.
The hobo with the chair was surprisingly the one to strike back again, but this time his blow was also countered, since these men weren't trained fighters, so the fact that they had working in synchronicity the first time was purely by chance. As he did so, his partner also stood back, looking incredulously at his almost ruined 'weapon'. Raven successfully parried his blow, this time completely ruining the folding chair and leaving the man only holding a metallic stump, and his counter-attack caught him on the side of his torso, making the chainblades from the VBCS dig dip into the man's midriff and spray his blood on him, around him, and on Raven.
Instead of turning tail and running, the other man with the pipe advanced again after seeing his buddy get trashed, and managed to connect his downward swing on the bounty hunter's forearm, since the VBCS was still stuck in the other man due to the muscle contractions. The blow wasn't strong enough to break anything, since the armored suit Raven wore protected him, but was enough to make him lose the grip on the weapon while the man prepared for another blow
Raven dropped the VBCS and drew his survival knife and slashed towards the man with the pipe's hand to see if he could possibly slash a tendon to force the man to withdraw and possibly drop his weapon to give Raven time to get his VBCS back out of the other man's body. While the slash was successful in hitting the man, it had been shielded by the latter's forearm, which was also the one that was not holding pipe down, and cut through his coat and dug into the flesh. Fortunately for Raven, the man reeled back from the pain, giving the hunter another chance to attack again.
Raven feinted with another slash towards the man's arm, intending to pull him out of position before reaching down to grab and rip the VBCS out of the other man's torso to give him a larger weapon to make further strikes and blocks with.
The man, after seeing that his adversary wouldn't relent, seemed to have a sudden epiphany of good sense, or simply remembered to have forgotten something somewhere, but instead turned tail and ran, leaving Raven without any visible assailants.
Meanwhile, besides him, Desmond had just finished off the first thug, who was then unarmed. The bounty hunter ducked under a hook from his adversary, sidestepping him and countering with a kick with the sole of his boot to the man's rib. If Raven had paid attention to the fight previously, it would be Desmond's second blow to the same area. The man groaned crumpled to the ground, clutching at his ribs.
While that happened, the leader of the gang struck with his second blow, doing a diagonal swing with the pipe wrench. Seeing that from the corner of his eye, Desmond saw his adversary telegraphing his blow, since his eyes had actually looked where they would strike, betraying him.
The bounty hunter pivoted on his feet, this time dodging to the opposite side at a speed that was remarkable for someone in the Muur, even if it counted as lightweight armor. The energized blade swung up, cutting the cheap metal of the pipe wrench easily in a much greater show of sparks than Raven's VBCS had produced, and then downwards again as Desmond attack with the counter-swing, catching the leader of the group -and only remaining threat- on his midriff, between the neck and shoulder.
Desmond twisted the blade, to keep the suction from making it impossible for him to retrieve his weapon, and then pulled the blade out, listening as the power field boiled the blood in a fizzling noise. He looked over to where Raven was and nodded, shutting the power field off.
"Nicely done, at least it was quiet. I don't think any of these wretches will have anything of use or value to us." Raven said as he looked the corpses over and watched the last man continue to run away. "So where to next?" Raven asked somewhat lackadaisically.
Desmond crouched next to the one remaining thug, wiping the bloodstains from his blade on the man's dirty coat before sheathing it again horizontally on his back. "We get on top of that." He answered, nodding towards the smokestack that was right beside the abandoned factory complex they were in.
The smokestack was annexed to the main factory building, and from where the duo was there was a ladder that led to the building's roof, and then another one on the actual smokestack that led to two platforms around it, one in the middle and another one almost at the very top.
"Let's go." Desmond said, getting up and taking a slow run towards the building.
"Alright" Raven replied as he wiped off the VBCS and slid it back into its sheath, then he began to slowly run following Desmond towards the building and watching for any more squatters that may prove to be problematic for the pair.
If there were any more squatters in the abandoned complex, they sure made a case of not being seen by the duo after they had dispatched the first group. The way towards the side of the factory building was without incident, and so was the way up to the smokestack. As they climbed up, it was possible to see more and more details from the surrounding area, as well as the gang's headquarters that they were supposed to be scouting out.
Being roughly the only place in that entire area of the outskirts that had electrical power, and while it wasn't bustling with activity, it was possible to see that it was occupied by people who weren't squatters. It was clear to see, even from there, that there was an order to the place.
Being the first to reach the top platform of the smokestack, Desmond made a point to press his back to it while he stared at the complex. "Heights." He said to himself as he swallowed, looking down towards Raven, "You got any optics?" He asked, already procuring a pair of binoculars from a pouch on the back of his belt.
Raven look up and replied "Yeah, I got the scope on my rifle and I think I might have a pair of binos around here somewhere." He got to the top of the smokestack and moved to the prone position and began scanning the complex with his scoped rifle and observing any movement on the ground and any potential high threat areas of the complex to include heavy weapon emplacements or large groups of gang members.
As both of them got eyes on the other factory complex, their optics allowed them to see it in a much more detailed way. The entire complex was surrounded by walls that were at least 3 meters (10 feet) tall, with the top having a neat row of barbed wire. On each edge of the complex there was a makeshift sentinel tower made of several kind of materials, ranging from simple bricks to metal plates.
Inside the complex it was also possible to see that the complex was composed of three main buildings, with several small metal pavilions strewn around to keep any vehicles protected from the planet's unmerciful sun. The first and biggest building was, unsurprisingly, another factory, much bigger than the one from the complex they were in and was at least three stories tall, with one of its sides -probably the one housing the administration- having at least 2 extra floors. The front side of the factory, which was facing them, had a platform on it, much like the ammo warehouse that Desmond had raided, to facilitate loading cargo into a truck's container.
The second building was a three story apartment complex, after counting the number of doors on the first floor and then multiplying by three it was possible to say that there were at least thirty six apartments in total. The building was made of yet again another metal plating, and actually looked like someone had simply piled several metal boxes together and called it 'home'.
The third and last building worth notice was a much smaller building, a simple, ready-made and square metal building supported by struts. What made that building remarkable was the fact that it had several antennae and satellite dishes protruding on its roof, as well as a small power substation to its side, surrounded by a metal fence.
Apart from these three main buildings there were the metal pavilions, as well as other small buildings in the complex. The whole thing seemed to be at least a square kilometer in side, with the area between the factory, residential building and the third building being a wide open courtyard for vehicles to access.
Desmond lowered his binoculars after scanning the area, letting out a whistle. "We're gonna have to call in more people to do this." He said. He already expected the place to be something major from the intel, but not something that big.
"I think we're gonna need more people and I might need to go shopping for a superior support weapon for this." Raven replied as he looked out over the complex and pondered what would be needed to interdict the guard posts and make it so that other members of the team could get inside the facility.
Desmond nodded at that, "Let's keep watching it for a while before we move in closer." He said, raising his binoculars again.
==== Maharombi Spaceport Outskirts - Late night ====
The duo was up in the smokestack for a few hours until they were confident that they had discerned a pattern in the complex. Although the gang wasn't a military force, they at least had some semblance of organization, instead of regular patrols around the place, they had a few groups strewn around the surrounding area, which was easy to see due to the barrel fires that they had lit up to keep themselves warm on the desert night.
Apart from that, cargo trucks seemed to visit the place at regular intervals of thirty minutes, sometimes either loading or unloading cargo into the factory building, although they had stopped once Desmond's watch hit the 34 hour mark, which prompted him to wait for an extra hour just to be safe. Once no other vehicle approached the place, during that time, he was satisfied.
What he also noticed was that the complex was very conveniently placed next to the drainage ditch, so it was likely that whatever waste it produced -if any at all- was dumped there, which already gave the bounty hunter an idea of how to get on the factory through the 'back'.
"The ditch looks like a good place to check out. Did you find anywhere else?" He asked Raven, lowering the binoculars.
"I agree that ditch does look useful for infiltrating. I don't see much else, although those walls would make good targets for high explosives to make breaches and distract whatever guards they have from an infiltrating team through that ditch." Raven replied as he scanned the compound one more time before lowering his rifle and pulling his eye away from the scope.
"Let's take a closer look then." Desmond said, stashing the binoculars back and beginning the long way down the smokestack again.
==== Maharombi Spaceport Outskirts - Near the gang's factory complex - Late night ====
Instead of heading directly for the complex, which would mean that they would most likely be detected by any of the groups there, the duo circled around it, heading straight for the ditch and then moved towards the complex.
The drainage ditch was made of concrete, and shaped in a U pattern, albeit with large pipes, big enough to allow the average person to walk inside them upright. Most, if not all, of the pipes weren't being used anymore, and the entire ditch was almost dry; That however, didn't stop the ungodly stench of decomposing matter, and neither the fact that there were several big chunks of miscellaneous trash strewn around the length of the ditch. Although none of the hunters had any of the flashlights on to avoid detection, the natural light still made it possible for them to discern things around them, with limitation.
Desmond reached the border of the ditch and slid his way down, since the inclination of it allowed him to pull that off comfortably, while also being possible for someone to climb their way back up provided they were wearing something with enough traction, which fortunately for him, was just the case.
He arrested his movement as soon as he reached the bottom, propping his feet forward against the concrete floor with a splashing sound. He then promptly got up and took cover behind the first junk pile he found.
Raven slid down into the ditch as well, making a slight splash when he hit the bottom. He'd move to find his own cover as well and signaled to Desmond that he was down and ready to move out with him.
Desmond nodded towards Raven, then signaled with his hand for the other hunter to move along as he took off, running in a crouched position as he maneuvered around the piles of junk, which ranged from discarded machinery to actual solid bits of chemical waste. The bounty hunter did his best to ignore the smell, with his only reaction to it being a deep frown and a wrinkling his nose in disgust.
Raven got up and ran along with Desmond as well. He smelled all the waste and in his head ignored it since he'd smelled worse during his time with the Black Syndicate group that had used him for their purposes before he became a bounty hunter. He kept an eye out for anything that could trip either of them up and made sure to move from cover to cover to keep from being observed in the open for too long.
The duo moved considerably slower in that new terrain, and although the distance from where they got down to the ditch was roughly half the one they had moved to get there, it took them almost double of the time as they checked for any traps or sentries. Not even once did any of the gang members appear until they got about 100 meters away from the walls of the complex.
A single ray of light suddenly came up, making Desmond duck behind a pile of trash, and it slowly scanned the area around them, then shut off again. Desmond waited and counted on his head until the same thing repeated itself thirty seconds later, then once more after the same interval. Whatever it was it was doing that in a regular pattern that was too precise, so he guessed that it was something mechanical, instead of an actual person.
The bounty hunter waited for it to scan again and then crept out of his cover, moving closer to the complex.
Raven watched the light scan the area as well and observed the pattern and when Desmond moved he moved as well. They were best served by moving as a team since the light was on a set interval so they would have to move and take cover at the same time rather than staggering since the cycle was in a set pattern and a leapfrog strategy could leave one of them out of cover when the light came back on.
Moving at an even slower pace, the duo managed to evade the surveillance. When they got closer, they noticed that while it was in fact a mechanical object, it was also man-shaped, and once the light reflected back to its metal surface they saw that it was a spindly bot, with a V-shaped faceplate and no visible optics save for the flashlight attached to its helmet, which was the one that periodically turned on to scan the area.
A short distance away from it was yet another one of the drainage pipes, rusted and still with some slime slowly dripping out from it, and judging from how it pointed straight back to the industrial complex it was easy to assume that it led straight towards the place.
"Do you see that? We could probably use that to get in there." Desmond whispered.
"I think you're right, do we want to do a test infiltration or do we want to wait for the actual work time for the rest of the team to be ready for us?" Raven asked as he looked at the pipe and considered the possibilities.
"Me? You're gonna test it, my friend." Desmond said, turning around to regard Raven. It was clear to see the flash of white of his teeth even in the almost darkness of the ditch. "I'm gonna stay here and hold the fort."
"Oh this is going to be fun, just make sure I don't get trapped in the damn thing by a bunch of these idiot gangers." Raven said with a slight sigh before heading over and looking into the pipe, triggering his light once his head was fulling inside the pipe to keep the backscatter from being visible to any observers.
The pipe, much like the others was tall enough so that an adult could stand upright in it. That aside, the stench from the ditch only multiplied itself as someone got closer and deeper into to the pipe. Another thing that he was able to notice in the brief moment he used his flashlight was a thin metallic grated, which was badly corroded with some pieces of it missing due to that.
Raven looked at the grate in the pipe and figured that he could probably break through it easily, and if he couldn't then his VBCS would be able to cut through it even more easily. He waved to Desmond and began to make his way into the pipe, triggering his light once more once he was fully inside the pipe and when he reached the grate he'd slam his shoulder into it to try to break through by using pure force and the mass that his armor added to him. If it broke then he'd just keep moving and if not he'd step back and slash with his VBCS to cut through it and make a hole big enough for him to pass through.
The grate rattled and shook with the first blow, and again on the next, and the next. It was only after a few of them that something in it seemed to unhinge, and then it slowly started to give away until it fell from its supports after a few more and started to tip towards Raven.
Outside, Desmond simply crouched lower and watched his surroundings. While he could hear some of the noise coming from the pipe, the robot sentry either couldn't or wasn't able to, while further away the sound was masked by the noise coming from the industrial complex proper.
Raven stepped back to let the grate fall onto the ground and then proceeded to make his way through the pipe towards the facility. It fell with a wet splash as it landed diagonally on the pipe, spilling some of the foul slime on Raven.
From what he had seen when he used his flashlight a second time, the pipe extended itself a good few feet ahead, and had short intervals that protruded upwards.
Raven muttered invectives to himself when the slime splattered on him, but just shrugged it off and turned his light on to leave it on and started making his way through the pipe towards the facility. Just after a short walk, the bounty hunter was able to find that the tunnel went further down along the entire length of the complex, but on the first hole leading up he could see that there was an access ladder to it, and so it was the case with the next, and the next.
Raven switched his light off and went up the first access ladder to see where it went. As he slowly climbed up, he reached a metal hatch, much like the ones someone would find in any street. A quick pull of it would also reveal that it wasn't sealed.
Raven would carefully pull or push the hatch to open it before slowly letting just the very top of his head and eyes emerge to get a look around before ducking back in to keep from being seen by anyone hopefully. The first thing that he saw was two pairs of boots moving very close to where he was, followed by several pairs of metallic feet; If Raven had to guess, they were from the same model of the sentry placed outside of the complex.
What little else he could discern was that the entire surface that wasn't a building was made of concrete, and just like they had seen on the smokestack, apart from the three main buildings there were several pavilions -some empty and some others not- as well as smaller buildings for amenities.
Raven ducked back down into the hatch and closed it behind him. He'd then move up the tunnel to the 3rd access ladder. He didn't want to pop up in the same facility as close as the next ladder would be.
The next hatch was a few dozen feet away from the last one, it revealed the same thing but in a different angle. The only thing that really made it stand out was the fact that it was under a pavillion, which left the place around Raven in a relative darkness.
"Well that's two down" Raven muttered to himself as he climbed back down the ladder, closing the hatch behind himself. He'd head another couple of hundred feet down the pipe and find the next ladder there before climbing back up and taking a look around when he emerged from the top.
The next hatch gave the bounty hunter a clear view of the 'powerhouse' that they had seen from the top of the smokestack. He was a couple feet away from it and between the metallic premade building and the wall of the industrial complex. The place was more heavily guarded than the previous buildings, and had several sorts of antennae and satellite dishes protruding from it. Another thing that he noticed was that although there was only one Nepleslian guarding the door, several of the robots that he had seen around the factory were patrolling the area.
Before he had time to get any more details from the place, though, his communicator beeped, "Something's off, there's a lot of movement outside." Came the garbled voice from Desmond before he pulled his finger off his earpiece and the communicator beeped again.
Raven ducked back down closing the hatch, before heading back towards where he'd left Desmond. He'd scouted out a few promising locations for the team to infiltrate the facility through and it was probably time to scram. "En route back to your location" Raven sent back as he headed back that way.
Once he was back near the pipe's exit, Raven could hear the distinct sounds of engines coming from some vehicles, "Gotcha. There's some vehicles outside, but they haven't gone into the complex yet." Came Desmond's reply.
Raven emerged from the pipe and nodded to Desmond. " I think that makes a fairly successful recon mission. We should probably head back so I can get the new gear and let the others know about the infiltration route into the facility." He said.
"Right." Desmond said, still looking at the vehicles. The bounty hunter only had to wait a couple of minutes before the main gates to the complex opened and the vehicles were let inside, only to close just as fast.
He turned back around to Raven, "Let's get out of here.", he said, then started to get moving.
==== Aftermath ====
Since their infiltration was undetected, it was not only successful but perfect. There was no trace that either of them had found a way into the industrial complex. Although they had left clues on the street vagrants that they had engaged, it was just a small breadcrumb in the whole thing, and no one – cops or criminals- even bothered looking into it.
Although the duo had acquired vital intel on the gang’s complex, which would be critical for the subsequent mission, there wasn’t any official bounty on it. Nevertheless, Raven would still receive a substantial ‘bonus’ of 1000 DA, paid personally by Desmond. The bounty hunter would see the addition to his account the following day after their recon.
This intel, with the addition of the ‘procured’ ammo that had also been acquired by them would only help the main assault; The only thing that was left was to find the extra manpower to take on the criminals there. That, and collect the spoils afterwards.
Just outside the ship, under the strong glow of a light projector, were several wooden and metallic crates of various sizes and colors, organized and piled neatly, singled out from the general penumbra of the hangar by the projector. On top of these very same crates sat Desmond, with his armor stripped from the waist up and - against all sanity - casually smoking a cigarette on top of a crate with live ammunition.
Organizing the ammo had taken the better part of the day after the raid on the gang's depot, and after just a few hours of sleep the bounty hunter was already up and going to do another task, he couldn't wait any longer as to not lose the initiative they had since his little trip with the neko to the gang's warehouse, and once the gang recovered their security would be very, very tight.
After a few puffs, the bounty hunter flicked the cigarette away, then lit another one up as he waited for Raven.
Raven made his way out of the ship after first stopping by the armory to grab up the Muur helmet they'd acquired from the last job. He'd figured that any further night infiltrations would be well served with making use of a helmet that was capable of enhancing his night vision and potentially blinding an opponent with the use of the light that was on it. When he saw Desmond he'd wave and call out " Hey Stroud, what's the plan for tonight?"
Raven was suited up in his Emrys body armor with his SGAR slung across his back, his HHG holstered on his right hip, a survival knife in a chest sheath, and his NSP holstered on his left to allow easy access to both sidearms if they were needed. He had several extra power cells for his rifle and NSP in pouches and several additional speedloaders for the HHG in his pockets.
After finishing his second cigarette, Desmond flicked the butt away and jumped off the crate, he regarded the other bounty hunter for a while before answering, "We're gonna take a look around the neighborhood. I'll tell you more on the way." He said, waving for Raven to follow him as he walked off the hangar.
"Works for me" Raven replied and followed Desmond, slightly curious as to what was going on but willing to wait and see what they were up to before making any kind of fuss.
The pair left the hangar, then turned left towards where Desmond's hovercar was parked. The vehicle had been painted in a non-reflective black coating instead of the original red that it was given to him. The vehicle looked brand new, since it was so rarely used, and was pretty hard to spot in the almost darkness that was the parking lot it was in, since the delsaurian night had little in the way of natural light at that time of the month.
"The computer we got from that raid had a lot of intel on the gang that ambushed us when the Iron Ferret first docked on the planet." He said, jumping onto the driver's seat, "We're gonna take a look around their main base tonight."
Raven hopped into the passenger side of the car. "Sounds like a plan to me, stealth mission this time not a smash and grab then" he said as he looked out at the darkness of the night on Delsauria.
Desmond nodded as he started the hovercar, and the vehicle instantly sprung into action and raised off the ground, standing at a comfortable distance of one feet away from it. "That's right." He said, increasing the vehicle's altitude before he took off to a random direction.
====Maharombi Spaceport outskirts - Night====
Different from his last 'trip' to the outskirts, that particular location was more barren of buildings, instead of being sparsely occupied by the occasional residential building the area instead had industrial buildings here and there, separated in large blocks which were intersected by dirt roads. To the very west of the entire area was a large drainage ditch, presumably where all the industrial waste was dumped into.
Desmond landed the hovercar a mile away from the place they were going to be scouting, parking the vehicle neatly on a dark alley between the outer walls of two such factories. The bounty hunter jumped off the vehicle and checked his wristwatch, the time was 32:00, way into the planet's 35 hour cycle.
Raven jumped out as well. "So which way are we heading?" He asked Desmond as he looked around cautiously and keeping a close eye on the shadows in the alley to make sure none of them were gang members who might turn out to be an issue. He had his rifle at hand and was sweeping the area carefully with the muzzle ready to deal with any problems that might arise.
Desmond, in turn, drew the pistol that was holstered on his chest armor, looking around the area. "This way," He said, walking towards one of the ends of the alley, "We're gonna take a look at the place before we move closer." He added, pointing to an industrial building with had a fairly tall smokestack inside its complex.
"Sounds like a reasonable plan to me" Raven replied and started walking in the same direction as Desmond while keeping a close eye on their surroundings and occasionally checking their backtrail just to make sure that they weren't being tailed by anyone who could compromise their mission.
As soon as they cleared the alley, the duo found themselves between a wide open, two way highway. The highway had a sidewalk that was surrounded on both sides by a chest high concrete wall, and it led straight into the cliff face of where the city had been built from; It was easy to guess that whatever goods were produced by the factories (most likely ship components) were sent straight there to either be used or sent off-world, that was, if the factories in that area weren't actually abandoned.
The middle of the highway was also dotted by the occasional street light, which were also, unsurprisingly, not working in their majority, casting small islands of light on the area around and under them.
Desmond didn't bother crouching or sneaking, since he hadn't seen anyone yet, and anyone looking from far away wouldn't be able to distinguish that he nor raven were armed. By that time, the bounty hunter was already in full armor as well, sporting the full matte black muur, with the exception of the arm plates.
He walked at a fast pace across the highway, ending up in front of the way of the first industrial complex.
Raven moved across the highway fairly quickly as well. He moved easily and smoothly in his Emrys armor and walked rapidly but calmly while keeping alert as well. He ended up in front of the same complex as Desmond and waited to see what they were going to do next. He hadn't had a chance to look at the intel as the other man had and decided to simply follow his lead until something went wrong.
"Alright, we'll get on top of that smokestack over there and take a look at the place." He said to Raven, "I'll boost you up.", he added, crouching on one knee and pointing at the wall behind him with a thumb. While the wall was taller than a person, they would have no problem going over it if one boosted the other up.
Raven stepped up and made use of the step Desmond gave him. Scrambling up to the top of the wall before sliding half of his torso on the other side of the wall and leaning down to help lift Desmond up over the wall to join him on the other side. "Need a hand?" Raven said as he offered one to Desmond.
Desmond took the proffered hand and pulled himself up, going up the wall and vaulting to the other side, landing on a crouching position as his equipment clattered. As soon as he landed and looked around he realized that they -he and Raven- were already in a pickle.
Standing not far from them and with their open palms pointed against a barrel fire was a group of Nepleslians, all four of them wearing rags but still looking alert and standing their ground. The biggest of the group, a man wearing a tattered longcoat and an equally ruined skull cap turned to look at the duo, what little of his face that wasn't obscured by grime or by his beard was pockmarked by scars.
"Well, what do we have here, boys?" He said in a hoarse voice, cracking his knuckles. As if on a cue, the rest of the group also turned and grabbed whatever they could find as a weapon, from rusty pipes to a folded metal chair and started to advance towards the duo. They were fairly close, barely six feet away from them.
Raven dropped to the ground and rolled to his feet drawing his combat knife and watching the other 4 men to see how they reacted to the bared blade. He'd shift his head side to side watching the more dangerously armed ones with the metal pipes since they were able to be swung more rapidly than a chair was.
As Raven drew his knife, Desmond reached behind him and drew the foot-long blade he had. He focused on the two remaining 'bandits', but paid more attention to the leader; if he could take him out it was very likely that the others would scatter, but the man was doing no effort to come up front and face the duo, which would force them to fight the three men before reaching him. It wasn't that Desmond regretted fighting all of them, he looked forward to it even, but he considered it a wasted effort.
The vagrants didn't seem to flinch when they saw both of the blades, but instead kept slowly advancing, circling the duo in a semi-circle since they had a wall behind them. Their leader fished a large pipe wrench from his overcoat, and slowly beat it against one of his open palms, at least until Desmond toggled the power field on his blade.
The weapon quickly cast an eerie blue glow on the bounty hunter, and that finally seemed to surprise the hobos, which hesitated for a moment, looking at each other. The power field hummed and made the blade vibrate, setting Desmond's teeth on an edge as they vibrated on their gums.
Noticing the apprehension from the group, the leader quickly stepped up, "What the fuck are you waiting for!? Fucking wreck them already!" He barked, and they all advanced, two of them, the one with the pipe and the other with the folding chair, towards Raven and the last two, another one with a pipe and the leader with his wrench, towards Desmond.
The two who went at Raven raised their weapons at the same time, and it was clear to see that they had little in the way of training but made up with that with the confidence of someone that already had been in several brawls as the man with the pipe swung his makeshift weapon down, much faster than the one with the chair.
Raven flipped the switch on his VBCS chainknife and the chainblade sputtered to life and the vibration device started up as he moved to block the one with the pipe's strike before retaliating with his own strike at the man's arm if the pipe was deflected by his blade. If that man was disarmed by the strike then he'd move to engage the one with the chair.
The VBCS caught the pipe, producing a shower of sparks as the teeth dug into the rusted metal and throwing that man's arm violently back. As soon as Raven went for his riposte the man stepped back, making the hunter's VBCS graze the sleeve of his coat. Also taking advantage from that, the other man with the chair swung his 'weapon' downwards, hitting Raven's helmet, and while the blow didn't do much damage by itself, since the helmet was also padded, it created a clear deformity in the chair and sent the bounty hunter reeling to the side, drawing him away from Desmond, who was also busy fighting the other two.
Raven shook his head quickly before getting back into a guard position against his pair of opponents aiming to not be caught off guard in the same manner. Whichever one made the next strike Raven would block and move for an immediate counter and if the counter failed to hit he'd shift back into a guard position so he would be able to block the next attack with his VBCS.
The hobo with the chair was surprisingly the one to strike back again, but this time his blow was also countered, since these men weren't trained fighters, so the fact that they had working in synchronicity the first time was purely by chance. As he did so, his partner also stood back, looking incredulously at his almost ruined 'weapon'. Raven successfully parried his blow, this time completely ruining the folding chair and leaving the man only holding a metallic stump, and his counter-attack caught him on the side of his torso, making the chainblades from the VBCS dig dip into the man's midriff and spray his blood on him, around him, and on Raven.
Instead of turning tail and running, the other man with the pipe advanced again after seeing his buddy get trashed, and managed to connect his downward swing on the bounty hunter's forearm, since the VBCS was still stuck in the other man due to the muscle contractions. The blow wasn't strong enough to break anything, since the armored suit Raven wore protected him, but was enough to make him lose the grip on the weapon while the man prepared for another blow
Raven dropped the VBCS and drew his survival knife and slashed towards the man with the pipe's hand to see if he could possibly slash a tendon to force the man to withdraw and possibly drop his weapon to give Raven time to get his VBCS back out of the other man's body. While the slash was successful in hitting the man, it had been shielded by the latter's forearm, which was also the one that was not holding pipe down, and cut through his coat and dug into the flesh. Fortunately for Raven, the man reeled back from the pain, giving the hunter another chance to attack again.
Raven feinted with another slash towards the man's arm, intending to pull him out of position before reaching down to grab and rip the VBCS out of the other man's torso to give him a larger weapon to make further strikes and blocks with.
The man, after seeing that his adversary wouldn't relent, seemed to have a sudden epiphany of good sense, or simply remembered to have forgotten something somewhere, but instead turned tail and ran, leaving Raven without any visible assailants.
Meanwhile, besides him, Desmond had just finished off the first thug, who was then unarmed. The bounty hunter ducked under a hook from his adversary, sidestepping him and countering with a kick with the sole of his boot to the man's rib. If Raven had paid attention to the fight previously, it would be Desmond's second blow to the same area. The man groaned crumpled to the ground, clutching at his ribs.
While that happened, the leader of the gang struck with his second blow, doing a diagonal swing with the pipe wrench. Seeing that from the corner of his eye, Desmond saw his adversary telegraphing his blow, since his eyes had actually looked where they would strike, betraying him.
The bounty hunter pivoted on his feet, this time dodging to the opposite side at a speed that was remarkable for someone in the Muur, even if it counted as lightweight armor. The energized blade swung up, cutting the cheap metal of the pipe wrench easily in a much greater show of sparks than Raven's VBCS had produced, and then downwards again as Desmond attack with the counter-swing, catching the leader of the group -and only remaining threat- on his midriff, between the neck and shoulder.
Desmond twisted the blade, to keep the suction from making it impossible for him to retrieve his weapon, and then pulled the blade out, listening as the power field boiled the blood in a fizzling noise. He looked over to where Raven was and nodded, shutting the power field off.
"Nicely done, at least it was quiet. I don't think any of these wretches will have anything of use or value to us." Raven said as he looked the corpses over and watched the last man continue to run away. "So where to next?" Raven asked somewhat lackadaisically.
Desmond crouched next to the one remaining thug, wiping the bloodstains from his blade on the man's dirty coat before sheathing it again horizontally on his back. "We get on top of that." He answered, nodding towards the smokestack that was right beside the abandoned factory complex they were in.
The smokestack was annexed to the main factory building, and from where the duo was there was a ladder that led to the building's roof, and then another one on the actual smokestack that led to two platforms around it, one in the middle and another one almost at the very top.
"Let's go." Desmond said, getting up and taking a slow run towards the building.
"Alright" Raven replied as he wiped off the VBCS and slid it back into its sheath, then he began to slowly run following Desmond towards the building and watching for any more squatters that may prove to be problematic for the pair.
If there were any more squatters in the abandoned complex, they sure made a case of not being seen by the duo after they had dispatched the first group. The way towards the side of the factory building was without incident, and so was the way up to the smokestack. As they climbed up, it was possible to see more and more details from the surrounding area, as well as the gang's headquarters that they were supposed to be scouting out.
Being roughly the only place in that entire area of the outskirts that had electrical power, and while it wasn't bustling with activity, it was possible to see that it was occupied by people who weren't squatters. It was clear to see, even from there, that there was an order to the place.
Being the first to reach the top platform of the smokestack, Desmond made a point to press his back to it while he stared at the complex. "Heights." He said to himself as he swallowed, looking down towards Raven, "You got any optics?" He asked, already procuring a pair of binoculars from a pouch on the back of his belt.
Raven look up and replied "Yeah, I got the scope on my rifle and I think I might have a pair of binos around here somewhere." He got to the top of the smokestack and moved to the prone position and began scanning the complex with his scoped rifle and observing any movement on the ground and any potential high threat areas of the complex to include heavy weapon emplacements or large groups of gang members.
As both of them got eyes on the other factory complex, their optics allowed them to see it in a much more detailed way. The entire complex was surrounded by walls that were at least 3 meters (10 feet) tall, with the top having a neat row of barbed wire. On each edge of the complex there was a makeshift sentinel tower made of several kind of materials, ranging from simple bricks to metal plates.
Inside the complex it was also possible to see that the complex was composed of three main buildings, with several small metal pavilions strewn around to keep any vehicles protected from the planet's unmerciful sun. The first and biggest building was, unsurprisingly, another factory, much bigger than the one from the complex they were in and was at least three stories tall, with one of its sides -probably the one housing the administration- having at least 2 extra floors. The front side of the factory, which was facing them, had a platform on it, much like the ammo warehouse that Desmond had raided, to facilitate loading cargo into a truck's container.
The second building was a three story apartment complex, after counting the number of doors on the first floor and then multiplying by three it was possible to say that there were at least thirty six apartments in total. The building was made of yet again another metal plating, and actually looked like someone had simply piled several metal boxes together and called it 'home'.
The third and last building worth notice was a much smaller building, a simple, ready-made and square metal building supported by struts. What made that building remarkable was the fact that it had several antennae and satellite dishes protruding on its roof, as well as a small power substation to its side, surrounded by a metal fence.
Apart from these three main buildings there were the metal pavilions, as well as other small buildings in the complex. The whole thing seemed to be at least a square kilometer in side, with the area between the factory, residential building and the third building being a wide open courtyard for vehicles to access.
Desmond lowered his binoculars after scanning the area, letting out a whistle. "We're gonna have to call in more people to do this." He said. He already expected the place to be something major from the intel, but not something that big.
"I think we're gonna need more people and I might need to go shopping for a superior support weapon for this." Raven replied as he looked out over the complex and pondered what would be needed to interdict the guard posts and make it so that other members of the team could get inside the facility.
Desmond nodded at that, "Let's keep watching it for a while before we move in closer." He said, raising his binoculars again.
==== Maharombi Spaceport Outskirts - Late night ====
The duo was up in the smokestack for a few hours until they were confident that they had discerned a pattern in the complex. Although the gang wasn't a military force, they at least had some semblance of organization, instead of regular patrols around the place, they had a few groups strewn around the surrounding area, which was easy to see due to the barrel fires that they had lit up to keep themselves warm on the desert night.
Apart from that, cargo trucks seemed to visit the place at regular intervals of thirty minutes, sometimes either loading or unloading cargo into the factory building, although they had stopped once Desmond's watch hit the 34 hour mark, which prompted him to wait for an extra hour just to be safe. Once no other vehicle approached the place, during that time, he was satisfied.
What he also noticed was that the complex was very conveniently placed next to the drainage ditch, so it was likely that whatever waste it produced -if any at all- was dumped there, which already gave the bounty hunter an idea of how to get on the factory through the 'back'.
"The ditch looks like a good place to check out. Did you find anywhere else?" He asked Raven, lowering the binoculars.
"I agree that ditch does look useful for infiltrating. I don't see much else, although those walls would make good targets for high explosives to make breaches and distract whatever guards they have from an infiltrating team through that ditch." Raven replied as he scanned the compound one more time before lowering his rifle and pulling his eye away from the scope.
"Let's take a closer look then." Desmond said, stashing the binoculars back and beginning the long way down the smokestack again.
==== Maharombi Spaceport Outskirts - Near the gang's factory complex - Late night ====
Instead of heading directly for the complex, which would mean that they would most likely be detected by any of the groups there, the duo circled around it, heading straight for the ditch and then moved towards the complex.
The drainage ditch was made of concrete, and shaped in a U pattern, albeit with large pipes, big enough to allow the average person to walk inside them upright. Most, if not all, of the pipes weren't being used anymore, and the entire ditch was almost dry; That however, didn't stop the ungodly stench of decomposing matter, and neither the fact that there were several big chunks of miscellaneous trash strewn around the length of the ditch. Although none of the hunters had any of the flashlights on to avoid detection, the natural light still made it possible for them to discern things around them, with limitation.
Desmond reached the border of the ditch and slid his way down, since the inclination of it allowed him to pull that off comfortably, while also being possible for someone to climb their way back up provided they were wearing something with enough traction, which fortunately for him, was just the case.
He arrested his movement as soon as he reached the bottom, propping his feet forward against the concrete floor with a splashing sound. He then promptly got up and took cover behind the first junk pile he found.
Raven slid down into the ditch as well, making a slight splash when he hit the bottom. He'd move to find his own cover as well and signaled to Desmond that he was down and ready to move out with him.
Desmond nodded towards Raven, then signaled with his hand for the other hunter to move along as he took off, running in a crouched position as he maneuvered around the piles of junk, which ranged from discarded machinery to actual solid bits of chemical waste. The bounty hunter did his best to ignore the smell, with his only reaction to it being a deep frown and a wrinkling his nose in disgust.
Raven got up and ran along with Desmond as well. He smelled all the waste and in his head ignored it since he'd smelled worse during his time with the Black Syndicate group that had used him for their purposes before he became a bounty hunter. He kept an eye out for anything that could trip either of them up and made sure to move from cover to cover to keep from being observed in the open for too long.
The duo moved considerably slower in that new terrain, and although the distance from where they got down to the ditch was roughly half the one they had moved to get there, it took them almost double of the time as they checked for any traps or sentries. Not even once did any of the gang members appear until they got about 100 meters away from the walls of the complex.
A single ray of light suddenly came up, making Desmond duck behind a pile of trash, and it slowly scanned the area around them, then shut off again. Desmond waited and counted on his head until the same thing repeated itself thirty seconds later, then once more after the same interval. Whatever it was it was doing that in a regular pattern that was too precise, so he guessed that it was something mechanical, instead of an actual person.
The bounty hunter waited for it to scan again and then crept out of his cover, moving closer to the complex.
Raven watched the light scan the area as well and observed the pattern and when Desmond moved he moved as well. They were best served by moving as a team since the light was on a set interval so they would have to move and take cover at the same time rather than staggering since the cycle was in a set pattern and a leapfrog strategy could leave one of them out of cover when the light came back on.
Moving at an even slower pace, the duo managed to evade the surveillance. When they got closer, they noticed that while it was in fact a mechanical object, it was also man-shaped, and once the light reflected back to its metal surface they saw that it was a spindly bot, with a V-shaped faceplate and no visible optics save for the flashlight attached to its helmet, which was the one that periodically turned on to scan the area.
A short distance away from it was yet another one of the drainage pipes, rusted and still with some slime slowly dripping out from it, and judging from how it pointed straight back to the industrial complex it was easy to assume that it led straight towards the place.
"Do you see that? We could probably use that to get in there." Desmond whispered.
"I think you're right, do we want to do a test infiltration or do we want to wait for the actual work time for the rest of the team to be ready for us?" Raven asked as he looked at the pipe and considered the possibilities.
"Me? You're gonna test it, my friend." Desmond said, turning around to regard Raven. It was clear to see the flash of white of his teeth even in the almost darkness of the ditch. "I'm gonna stay here and hold the fort."
"Oh this is going to be fun, just make sure I don't get trapped in the damn thing by a bunch of these idiot gangers." Raven said with a slight sigh before heading over and looking into the pipe, triggering his light once his head was fulling inside the pipe to keep the backscatter from being visible to any observers.
The pipe, much like the others was tall enough so that an adult could stand upright in it. That aside, the stench from the ditch only multiplied itself as someone got closer and deeper into to the pipe. Another thing that he was able to notice in the brief moment he used his flashlight was a thin metallic grated, which was badly corroded with some pieces of it missing due to that.
Raven looked at the grate in the pipe and figured that he could probably break through it easily, and if he couldn't then his VBCS would be able to cut through it even more easily. He waved to Desmond and began to make his way into the pipe, triggering his light once more once he was fully inside the pipe and when he reached the grate he'd slam his shoulder into it to try to break through by using pure force and the mass that his armor added to him. If it broke then he'd just keep moving and if not he'd step back and slash with his VBCS to cut through it and make a hole big enough for him to pass through.
The grate rattled and shook with the first blow, and again on the next, and the next. It was only after a few of them that something in it seemed to unhinge, and then it slowly started to give away until it fell from its supports after a few more and started to tip towards Raven.
Outside, Desmond simply crouched lower and watched his surroundings. While he could hear some of the noise coming from the pipe, the robot sentry either couldn't or wasn't able to, while further away the sound was masked by the noise coming from the industrial complex proper.
Raven stepped back to let the grate fall onto the ground and then proceeded to make his way through the pipe towards the facility. It fell with a wet splash as it landed diagonally on the pipe, spilling some of the foul slime on Raven.
From what he had seen when he used his flashlight a second time, the pipe extended itself a good few feet ahead, and had short intervals that protruded upwards.
Raven muttered invectives to himself when the slime splattered on him, but just shrugged it off and turned his light on to leave it on and started making his way through the pipe towards the facility. Just after a short walk, the bounty hunter was able to find that the tunnel went further down along the entire length of the complex, but on the first hole leading up he could see that there was an access ladder to it, and so it was the case with the next, and the next.
Raven switched his light off and went up the first access ladder to see where it went. As he slowly climbed up, he reached a metal hatch, much like the ones someone would find in any street. A quick pull of it would also reveal that it wasn't sealed.
Raven would carefully pull or push the hatch to open it before slowly letting just the very top of his head and eyes emerge to get a look around before ducking back in to keep from being seen by anyone hopefully. The first thing that he saw was two pairs of boots moving very close to where he was, followed by several pairs of metallic feet; If Raven had to guess, they were from the same model of the sentry placed outside of the complex.
What little else he could discern was that the entire surface that wasn't a building was made of concrete, and just like they had seen on the smokestack, apart from the three main buildings there were several pavilions -some empty and some others not- as well as smaller buildings for amenities.
Raven ducked back down into the hatch and closed it behind him. He'd then move up the tunnel to the 3rd access ladder. He didn't want to pop up in the same facility as close as the next ladder would be.
The next hatch was a few dozen feet away from the last one, it revealed the same thing but in a different angle. The only thing that really made it stand out was the fact that it was under a pavillion, which left the place around Raven in a relative darkness.
"Well that's two down" Raven muttered to himself as he climbed back down the ladder, closing the hatch behind himself. He'd head another couple of hundred feet down the pipe and find the next ladder there before climbing back up and taking a look around when he emerged from the top.
The next hatch gave the bounty hunter a clear view of the 'powerhouse' that they had seen from the top of the smokestack. He was a couple feet away from it and between the metallic premade building and the wall of the industrial complex. The place was more heavily guarded than the previous buildings, and had several sorts of antennae and satellite dishes protruding from it. Another thing that he noticed was that although there was only one Nepleslian guarding the door, several of the robots that he had seen around the factory were patrolling the area.
Before he had time to get any more details from the place, though, his communicator beeped, "Something's off, there's a lot of movement outside." Came the garbled voice from Desmond before he pulled his finger off his earpiece and the communicator beeped again.
Raven ducked back down closing the hatch, before heading back towards where he'd left Desmond. He'd scouted out a few promising locations for the team to infiltrate the facility through and it was probably time to scram. "En route back to your location" Raven sent back as he headed back that way.
Once he was back near the pipe's exit, Raven could hear the distinct sounds of engines coming from some vehicles, "Gotcha. There's some vehicles outside, but they haven't gone into the complex yet." Came Desmond's reply.
Raven emerged from the pipe and nodded to Desmond. " I think that makes a fairly successful recon mission. We should probably head back so I can get the new gear and let the others know about the infiltration route into the facility." He said.
"Right." Desmond said, still looking at the vehicles. The bounty hunter only had to wait a couple of minutes before the main gates to the complex opened and the vehicles were let inside, only to close just as fast.
He turned back around to Raven, "Let's get out of here.", he said, then started to get moving.
==== Aftermath ====
Since their infiltration was undetected, it was not only successful but perfect. There was no trace that either of them had found a way into the industrial complex. Although they had left clues on the street vagrants that they had engaged, it was just a small breadcrumb in the whole thing, and no one – cops or criminals- even bothered looking into it.
Although the duo had acquired vital intel on the gang’s complex, which would be critical for the subsequent mission, there wasn’t any official bounty on it. Nevertheless, Raven would still receive a substantial ‘bonus’ of 1000 DA, paid personally by Desmond. The bounty hunter would see the addition to his account the following day after their recon.
This intel, with the addition of the ‘procured’ ammo that had also been acquired by them would only help the main assault; The only thing that was left was to find the extra manpower to take on the criminals there. That, and collect the spoils afterwards.
