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Recaptured HPG Complex, northern Artic Tundra North of Bascombe, Concord II Concord system - Free Worlds League May 27, 3031 (Friday) ______________________________________________ The snowfall billowed past my viewport glass, the howling winds buffeting Ares’ armored hull as the winds of Concord's harsh tundra whipped the flakes into vicious swirling patterns. The storm that Curie had been tracking throughout the morning was now fully upon us; an aggressive bomb cyclone that was quickly reducing our operating conditions to zero-zero. Even with our sensors tweaked to their fullest to ensure that nothing made it past us undetected, we barely had a consistent range of 15 meters. "Alright everyone, for those that don't watch horror movies, this is where we fatefully decide to split up into smaller groups so the supernatural killer can off us one by one," Orlex’s voice hissed over the comm channel from deep within the station. "Your guys call, we can stick together and clear the place slowly, hoping that the storm outside doesn't bury us completely and leave us stranded by the time we're done or we can split up and try to clear what appears to be a completely abandoned, and only slightly creepy, place a little quicker." "Yeah, well, if it weren’t for the blood and bullet holes everywhere, I’d be a little less convinced that there were malevolent spirits out to get us," I heard Steve retort, the echo of his voice against the seemingly empty station’s walls drifting through the link. "I mean, this place looks like it belongs to a vampire with a hardcore neon fetish. But what do I know? Splitting up sounds like the better of two shitty options." "Well, whatever you do," Mallory suddenly interjected in the channel, "make it quick, or you’re going to be setting up camp in there. Curie’s got the latest weather report, and it looks like we’re going to be burrowing in here for a while until this blizzard blows over. Be happy the ‘Mech Techs managed to shut those blast doors." "Copy," Orlex acknowledged. "I’m thinking we’re gonna get this building cleared a lot faster as two teams. Won’t be able to communicate once we're far enough apart, though. Idris, Jenkins, and Whitley, take the lower level. Schuster, you’re with me on the main floor; let’s see if we can get any of these terminals accessible and figure out what happened here. First sign of trouble, we all meet up back at the blast door." A series of affirmatives filtered back through the radio, along with the sounds of sidearms being drawn. "Eden to Defiance team - stay sharp in there. The last thing we need is another seemingly empty objective turning into a kill box without warning," I advised. "Couldn’t agree more," Jaeger responded, his voice crisp and authoritative. "Let’s move out." The channel went quiet as the two teams split up, leaving the garrison team and me to maintain the protective cordon outside while the others went to work. However, no sooner had the silence enveloped us than a new transmission, this time from Levi Wright, filled our ears. "Pandora to Eden, come in, please," his voice breathless. "This is Eden," I answered, suddenly very concerned. "What's wrong?" "Uh, well...you know how I said we were having a little bit of sputtering in the radar uplink earlier?" he asked hesitantly. "Yes," I replied cautiously, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. "Well, Curie’s advising that the link from the Pandora to the Command Van just went down completely. There’s no weather telemetry coming in at all. We’re blind out here, boss." "Blake damn it," I swore. "Any idea what’s wrong? And if so, can you fix it?" "I’m sorry, Captain, but I don't know yet. Diagnostics say we’re receiving and that the problem is on the Command Van’s end. But the techs we have posted up there haven’t worked with weather sensors before, especially none as old as what we used for that retrofit. I’m gonna have to do some digging. I think we have a serious problem that’s probably going to require a physical inspection, which is going to suck in these conditions. Unless you have any ideas." I bit back another curse. "This is normally where I’d ask Radar or Rebus to weigh in, but I don’t want to pull either of them off post at the moment. Have Curie work with you on that. In the mean time, we’ll have to make do without our eyes." "Understood, sir. I’ll keep you apprised."3 points
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Recaptured HPG Complex, northern Artic Tundra North of Bascombe, Concord II Concord system - Free Worlds League May 27, 3031 (Friday) ______________________________________________ The heavy metal doors creaked open loudly on what seemed to be unstable hinges, the hallway within faded away into darkness despite the sufficient ambient light outside now spilling in. The storm without, with its howling winds and newly added bursts of lightning, seemed to be swallowed up by the apparent emptiness of the facility; a wall of muffled silence engulfed all who passed through the ponderous archway and even the heavy snowfall that even now was already filling the entrance was silent compared to the fury outside. Stepping inside, to the edge of the limited light pouring in through the storm outside, one could note a warmth in the air the moment they crossed the threshold, somehow it didn't feel like a welcoming warmth though, not like the kind you might feel beside a campfire or hearth, instead it was almost cloying, like the air was thick with some unwelcome scent. Clicking on his tactical flashlight he splashed the powerful beam of light around the entryway, penetrating the clinging darkness in small concentrated portions as the light revealed little more than aging ceramic tiles and spartan walls with nary a visible light fixture or any other feature for that matter. The ceiling was equally barren with uniform tiles in a repeating pattern as far as the light could reach. "We're inside Eden, place looks abandoned so far, and not the least bit creepy as all hell," I radioed to Charles, sarcasm coating the last part of my report. "Copy that Bastion, proceed into the facility and maintain radio contact, see if you can find anything of note. We need to make sure the Vagabonds didn't leave any surprises and maybe we'll get lucky and they left the hostages behind in their rush to escape," replied Charles, the optimism seemed forced but I wasn't about to call him on it. "Wilco, we are moving deeper into the facility," I replied, keeping the comm live, but not active, as I turned to the others. "Looks like we get to be ghost hunters," I said with a shrug, hoping to be funny though I felt like the joke didn't land as I had hoped. Upon our arrival at the HPG station, amidst what felt like the storm of the century to us but was apparently just a typically Friday for Concord II, we had split into two teams to secure the facility. The first group, consisting of Captain Maxwell, Lieutenant Lennox, Lieutenant Blackwood, and First Lieutenant Maxwell were securing the perimeter in their 'mechs. Charles and Marius, in the King Crab and Marauder respectively, had two of the biggest 'mechs and both were excellent brawlers, 'mech and MechWarrior alike, so they would hold the perimeter should anything untoward happen while the rest of us were securing the station itself. Alexander's Catapult could provide them support while Alyssa's Raven could both find and locate any enemy units despite the storms best efforts while also giving us the ability stay hidden away beneath the cover of her powerful ECM suite. The second group meanwhile consisted of myself, Sergeant Jenkins, Corporal Schuster, Technician Nasir, and Private Whitley, and we had the fun of exploring the depths of the HPG station's various facilities and buildings to ascertain whether the enemy mercenaries, Trinity's Onyx Vagabonds, had well and truly abandoned the place and we could claim it as being recaptured or not. We also had the not so pleasant task of finding out what happened to the Vagabonds hostages that had supposedly been held somewhere on the grounds, a situation that likely did not bode well considering what we knew of the Vagabonds and their actions thus far. Finally our supplemental forces, mainly the support teams aboard the Pandora BRV as well as their security teams, Aces Wild and the Bridgeburners, were rendezvousing with our first group at the HPG entrance and would soon be splitting up to attend to whatever task was needed, including accompanying us into the facility. Having originally planned for the Bridgeburners to clear the facility if required I didn't bring my full infantry kit with me when we hot dropped from the Sturmfänger, instead I had a basic survival kit that always rode in my 'mech along with a simple set of concealed ablative/flak BDU fatigues that I could easily pull over my standard MechWarrior outfit, or lack thereof, that had limited but still effective armour panels sewn into the fabric to provide a modicum of protection. The fatigues themselves consisted of the usual modified pair of pants that allowed me quick access to the storage unit in my prosthetic right leg and a basic vest that protected my vitals while not impeding any use of my prosthetic left arm. For armaments I had my signature Serrek 7875D auto-pistol and my more newly acquired AWA Wiliby MK4 Laser Pistol, a sidearm that I was quickly coming to appreciate and was seriously considering as a full time replacement for the Serrek. To say I felt underarmed and underprotected, compared to my usual fare, was an understatement of near epic proportions at this moment, however, with the Bridgeburners transport getting stuck in the snow and the worsening storm preventing us from delaying things until their arrival we needed to clear this facility now. At the same time, the Bridgeburners gear would allow them to operate outside in the storm with little impact meaning they could likely be more beneficial to keep on perimeter duty anyways. Checking that the power pack was fully inserted into the MK4, and that its charge was full, I motioned our team further into the dark facility, flashlight and firearm at the ready. As we crossed the transient threshold between the light from outside and the darkness engulfing the hallway before us I heard the click of a switch followed by the dull hum of electrical equipment firing up. Signaling a halt almost immediately everyone seemed to tense as we waited to see what was happening, a collective sigh of relief seeming to be released as what appeared to be very old incandescent lighting slowly flickered to life along the top border of the wall tiles. The lighting was insufficient by anyone's standards but it did disperse the oppressive darkness, to some small degree, for about 20 feet ahead of us and as we started moving again some sort of sensor kept the lights moving forward as we progressed. The dull yellow glow shutting off about 20 feet behind us once we were far enough into the facility to notice, creating an effect as though we were being slowly swallowed up by the HPG station. Moving cautiously down the hall we kept our flashlights on to supplement the poor facility lighting, noting how old the structure appeared to be even though it was in constant use by ComStar up until a couple weeks ago. The odd sign hanging from the ceiling, written in a language I didn't immediately recognize, was the only thing to break up the monotonous hallway for the first 100m or so and it was disconcerting that there were no windows, doorways, or even other hallways that branched off from this main one yet. About halfway down the hall Idris noted what appeared to be a large blood stain on the floor, a slight smearing in our direction of travel indicating someone, or something was dragged through it before it had dried. His armoured exoskeleton, which actually fit easily within the large hallway, provided him access to thermal imaging gear which he used to verify there was no one else within range in the long corridor, yet another feature I was missing since my combat helmet was tucked away with the rest of my infantry gear aboard the Pandora. The powerful spotlight on the ICE-S's shoulder pauldron provided excellent directional light, although it also made it harder to see elsewhere as the stark contrast between it and the dim facility lighting meant our eyes had to keep adjusting. Spotting two more similar blood stains on the floor we finally reached the end of the hallway, the corridor opening up through a large, door-less threshold into what appeared to be an open cavern in the poor lighting. As we entered dim cathedral style lighting hanging down from the unseen ceiling flickered into existence, their orange and yellow glow offset by an electric purplish-blue that seemed to blaze along the perimeter like electric fire. Shining our flashlight upwards we could see the ceiling, some 4m (13 feet) above us, painted an obsidian black as though to purposefully hide its presence and give the false feeling of being in a much larger room. The purple-blue lights ringing the room were of a more modern LED design but were inset into equally ancient looking sconces along the wall while the cathedral style chandeliers appeared as though meant to mimic a candelabra or similar ancient lighting technology. We spread out slightly and whatever sensors had been tracking our progress continued to do so, lighting the appropriate fixtures for each individual in whatever direction we chose to move in, so at least it would appear the facility was still functional, however the "mood lighting" as it were did little to instill confidence and instead seemed to purposefully maintain a sense of awe or even dread about what may lie just beyond the limited lighting. Along one side of the wall we entered on a series of terminals were found, not powered up but otherwise appearing intact, these screen and keyboards appeared as equally ancient as the rest of the facility with a general design and aesthetic meant to come across as both ancient and high-tech at the same time, a fitting choice given the mystique and generally reclusive nature of many of Comstar's more devoted followers. "Alright everyone, for those that don't watch horror movies, this is where we fatefully decide to split up into smaller groups so the supernatural killer can off us one by one," I said with a half chuckle, getting little response other than an eye roll from Whitley I continued, "Your guys call, we can stick together and clear the place slowly, hoping that the storm outside doesn't bury us completely and leave us stranded by the time we're done or we can split up and try to clear what appears to be a completely abandoned, and only slightly creepy, place a little quicker."3 points
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Final approach to the HPG Complex, northern Artic Tundra North of Bascombe, Concord II Concord system - Free Worlds League May 27, 3031 (Friday) ______________________________________________ The cerulean beam of ionized particles streaked through the air, its characteristic helix of barely contained energy looping around the more coherent stream of particles making it look like man made lightning as it as the energy beam pierced through the blizzard, sublimated snow and ice directly into steam with its high energy output. The PPC struck home with a solid blow against the Black Knight's right torso, alarms blaring as the armour in that section was reduced to less than half in a single hit. The kinetic energy imparted by the particle beam sufficient to noticeably stagger the 75 ton 'mech as it advanced on its adversary. Returning fire I opened up with the quartet of medium lasers mounted across the Black Knight, the war machine letting loose with an impressive array of emerald beams of coalesced photons that punched through the winter storm in a manner similar to the PPC. Two of the beams struck large rocks and outcroppings that provided partial cover for the enemy Striker's legs while another beam missed entirely, the fourth however found its mark on the Striker's left torso, carving an angry furrow into the armour but only dealing about half the damage of the enemy's PPC. Not to be outdone I followed up with the Black Knight's own PPC, a Hellstar II model, and unleashed a blue-white stream of particles that was nearly washed out against the snowy background save for the wisps of steam dissipated in small contrails in its wake. The beam struck true against the 80-ton enemy 'mech's left arm, despite the difficulties with targeting in the worsening storm, and melted half the armour to slag in mere seconds, critical components momentarily exposed before the molten slag effectively resealed the damaged armour. The external vents over the Black Knight's heat sinks glowing a brightening orange as the 'mech's systems combated the sudden spike in temperatures the energy weapons produced. The opening salvos unleashed the two behemoth's jockeyed for positioning as their weapon systems cycled and waste heat was exhausted into the frozen air, the lower ambient temperature actually working in the Mechwarrior's favour this time around. Movement to my right drew my attention as I noted Jack Whitley in my personal 'mech, a 60-ton Merlin, flanking the enemy Striker at the edges of the limited vision still provided by the swirling blizzard. It appeared he was attempting to assist me against the technically heavier 'mech, although the Striker only had a mere 5 tons on the Black Knight I was currently piloting despite being classified as an Assault 'mech versus a Heavy 'mech. Of course it was equally possible that Jack was simply looking for an easy kill under the guise of assisting his XO, as he tended to be more worried about "Numero Uno" rather than any given teammate. The Striker's pilot however was equally eagle-eyed in the storm and spotted the smaller 'mech circling around him, pivoting just enough with the Striker's torso they unleashed a series of shots towards the Merlin in an apparent attempt to dissuade the flanking attempt. The medium laser and AC/5 went wide, disappearing into the storm to strike harmlessly somewhere beyond the 60-ton 'mech, but the enemy's PPC shot hit center mass on the Merlin, causing it to stutter step as its center torso armour absorbed the impact and the ablative armour dissipated the colossal amount of energy by vapourizing nearly 2/3rds of a ton of armour. The torso mounted PPC on the Merlin returned fire and melted the last remnants of armour clinging to the Striker's left arm, however the follow up medium lasers and LRM-5 missiles all missed their mark as Jack took on a more evasive approach. The distraction was all I needed to get around the side of the enemy and I unleashed the full fury of the Black Knight's impressive laser arsenal into the side of the Striker, the two large lasers combined melted a full ton of armour off the 'mech's right side while the quad medium lasers bored deep tunnels into the armour on multiple exposed surfaces. The heat spiked exponentially in my cockpit as the considerable, but still inadequate, 20 heat sinks mounted on the 'mech were overwhelmed almost instantly by the intensity of the barrage, one of the only drawbacks to the Black Knight and its all energy arsenal. The sub-zero temperatures outside helped mitigate any lasting effects from the heat spike but the life support systems in the cockpit still took several moments to even begin to cope with the surge, my cooling vest the only thing keeping me from being stuck in sauna on full blast. The heavy blast of weapons fire, despite being almost all energy based, still staggered the Striker enough that it appeared as though it may fall over for just a moment before its gyro, and the pilots own sense of balance through the neurohelmet, managed to right itself and compensate for the sudden loss just over 2.5 tons of armour. A series of detonations exploded around my 'mech in rapid succession, the initial blast making me think I had been caught by artillery until I realized none of the blasts were actually hitting me directly, or causing any meaningful amounts of damage. Gathering my wits after the initial disorientation I determined that the explosions were coming from ground fire and quickly deduced that a tank or similar combat vehicle must be nearby and appeared to firing Flak rounds at me; the proximity explosives and shrapnel laden rounds were extremely effective at bringing down aircraft with their exposed engines or rotors but the low penetrative power left them nearly ineffective against the heavy ablative armour of 'mechs. Noting that Jack had once again engaged the Striker I took the time to determine the trajectory of the ballistic fire and spotted muzzle flashes in the heavy snow that were located in a nearby depression, one that appeared to be perfect to hide a tank in. A momentary clearing in the snow, more of a slight reduction in the wall of falling snow rather than a true clearing, allowed me to spot a series of barrels on a turret that were aimed in my direction within that depression and I assumed that the enemy Pike had chosen to engage me in an attempt to assist the outnumbered Striker. I fired off a snapshot with my arm-mounted PPC, the Hellstar II projecting ionized particles to race across the battlefield at nearly the speed of light until they blasted through the edge of the rocky depression and exploded violently against the front hull of the enemy tank. The armoured vehicle survived the strike but was forced to retreat, at least momentarily, lest they face the full wrath of a BattleMech, a feat that only a handful of combat vehicles could hope to survive. Turning back towards the Striker it was my turn to be on the receiving end of an attack against a distracted MechWarrior and the Black Knight ate all three of the Striker's medium lasers to the torso, alarms wailed again as damage levels increased past safety tolerances and I slammed the silence button as I watched the azure beam of a large laser skim past my cockpit and out into the storm. Returning fire, but mindful of my still high heat, I a trio of my own medium lasers back at the Striker one of which cored into the internals of the damaged left arm but failed to find anything critical, the other two carving paths into the armour that would render the replaceable panels useless if the 'mech were to survive this encounter. A weird stutter to its step, combined with some smoke now billowing from a new gouge in its armour that my attack did not create, indicated some internal damage caused by Jack in the Merlin while I had been focused on the Pike. My sensors indicated possible gyro and engine damage, and although that data was speculative by the battle computer it often was accurate enough. The impact of a particle beam flashed around from the back of the Striker, the bottled lightning silhouetting the large 'mech for a fraction of a second, before the 80-ton war machine stumbled forward and then fell face first into the snow. Its damaged gyro and potentially compromised frame unable to withstand any further forces in that moment and smoke billowed from the new hole in its rear armour like the barrel of a smoking gun, the assault 'mech bounced ever so slightly on the frozen ground before resting face down, sprawled out like some ungainly child that got pushed over. Intending to finish the job I lined up my large lasers and PPC on the prone 'mech, its stationary stance making things incredibly easy for the battle computer to calculate even with the interference of the storm, but before I could pull the trigger a renewed onslaught of flak rounds exploded in succession around my 'mech. The Pike had returned, determined to save its fallen comrade, and the attack worked. The flak rounds, while still causing minimal damage, were incredibly distracting and the Striker itself posed no threat in its current state. Instead I turned to face down the combat vehicle that had mistakenly thought it had a chance alone against a BattleMech and my sensors finally picked up a solid lock on the enemy unit, to my surprise it was not a Pike but rather a more generic AC/2 Carrier tank. A similar model to the Pike that we had identified earlier but it lacked the SRM racks of the Pike and carried 2 additional AC/2's at significant cost to its overall armour. The PPC blast from earlier had nearly compromised its armour, whereas the Pike would have been able to withstand at least one, if not two, more similar hits. Firing a single large laser and the PPC at the AC/2 Carrier my Black Knight immobilized the tank as the large laser cut clean through the track on its right side and the PPC slammed into the turret, the impact of the particle beam collapsing the superheated armour and structure in one fell swoop before blasting out the rear of the mechanism and leaving naught but smoking, twisted wreckage in its wake. The enemy tank refused to give up however and it still continued to fire whichever cannons were still left functional, although it appeared the turret itself was either destroyed or jammed as they were unable to track my 'mech as stepped away from their firing line. Jack in the Merlin showed up again from within the snow storm, its stout, broad-shouldered silhohuette instantly recognizable as he held down the firing stub on the twin machine guns sending a literal torrent of ballistic rain into the rear of the doomed tank. A sudden series of explosions ripped through the snow and up the side of the Merlin, putting a halt to the stream of lead chewing through the soon to be remnants of the AC/2 Carrier, the blasts rocking the Merlin off balance, though Jack was able to recover with relative ease. A sudden hail of lead streamed from somewhere within the storm clouds at the Merlin as though the storm itself was somehow fighting on the behalf of the stricken tank, the machine gun fire raking across the 60-ton 'mech and leaving the armour chipped and fractured across the torso and left side. Firing his PPC almost blindly Jack let loose a stream of particles into the air in the general direction the bullets were coming from but, unsurprisingly, hit nothing but empty air, the shot did however disperse the falling snow long enough for the outline of a Karnov Gunship to come into view. Following up with the arm-mounted medium lasers Jack managed to clip the left side of the VTOL, one beam carving away what little armour was present, but failing to cause any structural damage, while the other emerald beam scored glancing strike against the port side tilt-rotor causing smoke and flame to erupt from the housing, although the rotor remained functional enough to stay airborne for the time being. Disappearing once more into the storm the Karnov circled around but now my sensors had gotten a lock on it and despite the lack of visual acuity I was able to track the VTOL through IR and magnetic anomaly systems, my HUD projecting a 3D wireframe over its suspected location. Sensors indicated that the Karnov was carrying external stores, additional weapon payloads on wing mounted pylons, and they were listed as bombs and/or rocket pods, both of which could prove much more dangerous to a 'mech than the usual bevy of 8 machine guns, 2 on each facing, the gunship typically toted. Not waiting for it to attack again I lined up my reticule on the wireframe and pulled the trigger on the particle cannon, the Hellstar II PPC recoiled as the ionized beam ripped through the atmosphere, blue-white lightning piercing the storm until it intersected with the unfortunate Karnov. The lightweight armour on the support VTOL stood no chance against the particle beam and the PPC tore through armour and structure alike, the off-center strike carved straight through most of the right wing and fused the tilt-rotor in place, both its orientation and the blades themselves. The Karnov fell instantly from the sky, its 30-ton frame unable to remain airborne on a single, damaged, rotor and its torque as it pivoted towards the ground sheered off what little remained of the right wing and engine. Striking the ground a second later, its trajectory causing it almost land on top of the immobilized and critically damaged AC/2 Carrier, its entire cargo of 2 tons of machine gun ammunition plus the 3 remaining external stores detonated in a fireball that lit up the blizzard like a festive display. The destructive power of the blast vapourized what was left of the mangled Karnov and the blast wave alone, due to its proximity to the AC/2 Carrier tank, sheered off the remaining armour plates of the immobilized enemy tank. The rolling wave of fire that followed cooked whatever internals remained and melted the snow for nearly 15m in every direction from the point of impact. With both the tank and VTOL taken care of I turned back to face the Striker, mostly to make sure they were still no longer a threat. Once again to my surprise the Striker was attempting to get up, its pilot struggling valiantly despite the gyro and structural damage the 80-ton 'mech had received. Its left arm was little more than a skeletal framework, the mechanisms of the AC/5 within exposed and vulnerable with its barrel the only part of the arm that looked solid still. Its 'waist' where the gyro was housed was punched through with multiple holes and still had considerable amounts of smoke rising from somewhere within the bowels of the machine while its engine with the damaged shielding continued to pump additional waste heat into the likely already taxed coolant systems. Unwilling to let the 80-ton BattleMech rejoin the fight I slammed down on the triggers of every weapon I had available, the alpha strike coring the Striker as it tried to rise. The medium lasers pierced both the left and right torsos while the large lasers bracketed the 'mech with a blow to the back of the head and its left hip, the PPC meanwhile shattered the both the left torso and the shoulder, severing the arm as the cannon cut clean through the damaged 'mech. Red alarm lights and multiple klaxons immediately sounded within my own cockpit, heat levels shot through the roof and the computer intoned warnings about automatic shutdowns and heat levels being critical, I ignored them all and punched the override button, the noise subsiding substantially although the red overheat indicator was still lit and the HUD's display was still showing a "HEAT CRITICAL" alert. The override prevented the reactor from shutting down, temporarily, but I couldn't just use it indefinitely, aside from the fact that I risked literally cooking myself alive if I ever tried multiple alpha strikes in a row, the extreme levels of heat would cause internal damage and could lead to myomer or actuator failure or even an ammunition cook-off if the Black Knight had carried ammunition. As it was I was completely drenched in sweat, the cooling vest and cockpit life support had all but given up on keeping me even close to a reasonable temperature, and it still felt like I pressed against a hot metal pipe at midday on some scorching hot desert planet with two suns. But the threat was eliminated, for sure this time as its smoking ruin laying at the feet of my Black Knight, and I checked in with the others to see what threats might possibly remain. It seemed the Striker had been the last active threat and in short order Aegis Division had regrouped for our final push on the HPG Station. "Radar to Eden," came Alyssa's voice on the unit wide channel. "Go ahead Radar," answered Charles. "I'm still picking up what appears to be support elements of the Vagabonds but they have moved off a significant distance, barely getting readings at my max range. If I didn't know any better it seems like they might have abandoned the HPG station during the fight." "WOHOO!! WE ROCK!" cried Jenkins, cutting in on the line. "Let's hold on the celebrations until we confirm it Dionysus. That is good news though Radar, keep us posted," ordered Charles, "Aegis, let's finish our advance on the station and officially claim it. All support elements, rendezvous with us ASAP and we'll setup a perimeter. Good work everyone."3 points