The Universe, 3029

[Charles Maxwell]

The following afternoon...

LuxConoTel d.b.a. Lay-Z-Daze Inn
Oberon VI - Oberon Confederation
October 8, 3029
_______________________________________________

The loud "plop" of a pair of HangEeeze tablets dropping into a glass of water heralded Alyssa's arrival in the small living room space allocated to our shared hotel room. I glanced up from my noteputer.

"Feeling any better?" I asked. Chase held up a hand and winced, chugging the elixir and running a hand through her dark, tousled hair, attempting to corral it into something resembling a part.

"Jenkins was right," she whispered. "Wine after liquor? Sicker and sicker."

"I tried to tell you," I chuckled.

"Worth it," Alyssa replied, slouching onto the couch next to me and squinting at the noteputer's screen.

"Fortunately, Jenkins also swears by that hangover cure. Give it thirty minutes," I added.

"Thank god. I don't relish the idea of trying to slice a corporate tower while navigating an epic migraine and barfing into a refuse bag. Not to be indelicate," Chase quipped.

"Noted. Speaking of which, I wonder how the rest of the crew's holding up. You weren't the only one that cut loose last night," I chuckled, saving the final draft of the attack plan to the briefing generator and switching the noteputer into presentation mode.

"I vaguely remember something about Mallory throwing up into one of the pockets of the pool table and Steve Jenkins beating the hell out of an exhibition wrestler."

"Yeah, about that, I'm going to have a hell of a time explaining to our accountant why we had to expense a pool table, three vending machines, and an umbrella stand to our corporate card," I grumbled. "I guess that's what I get for telling people to go nuts."

"You do consistently hire people that are good at following instructions," Alyssa quipped with a smile.

"Both a blessing and a curse," I retorted. Just then came a knock on the door. "I expect that'll be them."

I got up and answered the door. Orlex Jaeger, an extremely haggard-looking Mallory Aldon, and Steve Jenkins stood in the hallway, accompanied by none other than Octavia Incendio.

"Come on in," I nodded. "Steve, why are you carrying a crock pot?"

"I brought lunch to say sorry for smashing up the hotel!" Steve exclaimed, gleefully. From the living room, I heard Alyssa moan.

"Don't worry about it. You thought you were defending your battle buddy. But - uh - don't take offense if some folks opt out," I replied, tipping my head in Chase's general direction.

"No offense taken!" Jenkins beamed, practically sprinting toward the kitchenette to plug in the appliance. Octavia raised an eyebrow.

"Would you believe it if I told you I barfed in the pool table because I, too, thought I was defending my battle buddy?" Mallory asked, sheepishly.

"No. You're still in the doghouse," I replied, pointing toward the sofa. Aldon slouched dejectedly and shuffled toward the living room.

"Wild night, Captain?" Octavia deadpanned.

"You could say that," I nodded. "The crew needed to blow off a little stress. Speaking of which, what's the Scorched Earth roster going to be for this mission? The last communication I had from Johnny just said 'TBD.'"

"You are looking at her, Captain," Incendio replied.

I balked momentarily. "They sent you alone?"

"I'm quite capable of holding my own in a fight. Probably more so than you are." The Baroness maneuvered past me to set a large gear case on a nearby armchair, unbuttoning her emerald-green duster as she did so. Beneath the longcoat, I could see that Octavia was sporting a very heavy armored vest, festooned with a number of small arms and munitions.

"No doubt about your abilities," I responded. "I'm just surprised that you don't have backup from your own unit. I only send my folks in solo if the situation absolutely demands it. Lone wolf tends to be a reliable way get people killed."

"Well, maybe that was Johnny's plan," Octavia replied sarcastically. "Either that, or he's being a stubborn ass that cares more about the bottom line than his own people."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, gesturing toward the living room.

Incendio fell into step with me as we walked over to the seated Aegis Division crew, minus a few who still had yet to arrive. "Johnny's excuse was that the 'attrition to revenue risk' of this mission was too high for a full-scale deployment. But apparently, not so high that he couldn't spare me. I frankly don't know whether to be offended or flattered."

"Well, I'm glad you're here. We'll strive to ensure your safe return," I smiled.

"Don't worry about me, Captain. If I were you, I'd be more concerned about your own crew. Half the people here look like walking corpses this afternoon. Also, if memory serves, this is literally half your crew. Where's everyone else?"

I glanced out into the hallway.

"I'm sure they'll be along shortly."

[Levi Wright]

I shuffled down the hotel hallway, carefully carrying twelve of those bathroom sink water glasses in my arms, along with a pillow case with my Thermo Man helmet inside. Steve had really, really wanted real cups instead of the disposable kind at the breakfast bar, and I had no idea where to find those before the meeting started, and he said, “just grab the mouthwash glasses after people check out!” So I’d tried a bunch of doors and snuck into a few rooms that people had checked out of and only got screamed at in rooms that still had people in them twice.

 

No one recognized me though, the people who yelled at me were just upset that I was in their room. Either nobody was searching for me in the hotel right now, or taking off the Thermo Man gear, borrowing Steve’s sunglasses and unpicking my braids to give myself an afro was a good enough disguise. I hoped all that had been worth it, because I felt real silly with such big hair. Not that I had anything against big hair, my sister Genny pulled it off pretty good, but on me it just looked weird and whenever I walked by someone I worried if they were going to tell Bald Chuckie’s guys where to find me but also if they just thought I looked like a big weirdo.

 

I peeked through an open door, which I’d gotten very used to doing, but this time it was to make sure I’d found the place where the meeting was going to happen. I didn’t see Steve but some of the other mech people were there so I figured I’d found the place.

 

I tried to quietly slip inside, but my stack of glasses shifted and clanked and I caught the top one with my chin so it didn’t smash on the floor but now everyone was looking at me.

 

“Uh… Steve asked me to bring these,” I said sheepishly. A couple people shrugged and then they went back to what they were doing. I guess they’d known Steve was bringing drinks?

 

So I went and found Steve at the kitchenette, which was just one end of the counter of the bathroom sink which was outside the bathroom instead of inside it. So there was a microwave and the crock pot Steve got from the breakfast bar and some toothpaste and a hairbrush with hair in it and the sink and the soap all together in one place. It was kind of hard to find places for the cups among all that stuff, but I got them all set down without breaking any.

 

“Did you get the cinnamon?” Steve asked, practically bouncing in excitement at his creation.

 

“I was able to get some Cinnaminni Spice Bursts from the vending machine, will that work?” I asked, pulling the candies out of the “Kenny Milkenspill’s Towing” sweatpants that Steve had loaned me. Steve took them from me, and then I tugged the “Jenkins, Jenkins and Jenkins” hoodie to make sure my butt stayed covered because the sweatpants said “HAUL ASS” on the butt and I didn’t need any more embarrassment today.

 

“Well, it’s not what the recipe said, but I guess it’ll be okay once the crock pot melts them,” Steve said. Then he lifted up the lid and dumped the candies in.

 

The guy who I’d seen sitting under the bar last night came over and leaned against the wall next to the kitchen area and asked “what’s cooking?”

 

“It’s Wassail!” Steve said.

“What actually is that, anyway?” I asked. “You’d said something about spiced wine and apples, but then we ended up with Yangtze Ale, orange slices and weird candies?”

 

“It’s important to know how to improvise,” Steve said. “There’s also a secret ingredient, do you want to know what it is?”

 

“For the purposes of medical safety, I think that would be wise,” Doc Alden said.

 

“You promise not to tell?”

 

“I think we can consider this to fall under doctor-patient confidentiality,” the doc said, smiling.

 

“It’s Jump Jet Fuel,” Steve said in an exaggerated whisper. Then he clarified, “the energy drink, not the real stuff.”

 

“Do you need help with anything else, Steve?” I asked. “I should probably get out of everyone’s way so your coworkers can talk about your secret mission stuff.”

 

“Are you kidding?” Steve said. “You’re coming too!”

 

“He is?” Doc Alden said.

 

“Of course he should come, he’s a superhero!” Steve said.

 

“Um, whatever it is you all are doing, I’m probably not prepared for it at all,” I said, while having a stupid hairdoo and wearing sweatpants that said HAUL ASS on the butt. “But I really want to make it up to you - what I did to your mech I mean - so if your boss is alright with it, I want to help out.”

 

“Woot!” Steve said.

[Nicholas Schuster]

Last night had ended in a blur. Orlex and I had been talking and the next thing we knew, Steve Jenkins was chasing what amounted to a 31st century luchador out into the hallway of the hotel and to parts unknown while the new guy, Book Gamble, had fled like he was legitimately scared of the guy. I didn't see what happened next, but from what I had been told, Steve found "Captain Midnight" or whatever his name was somewhere in a vending room and had thrown him though a couple of vending machines. After that, I guessed that Book must have linked up with Steve and presumably had roomed with him, because as of this evening, as I walked into Captain Maxwell's hotel room, Book looked like a walking billboard for Jenkins Industries. 

"You getting paid for that?" I joked as I looked around, noticing that Steve was in the "kitchen" making something over an electric cooker. Book looked at me confused. "Getting..........paid? I'm not sure what you mean."

I pointed at the outfit. "The way I see it, if Steve and Kenny aren't cutting you in for a share of the profits, you're losing out. I would want a percentage before I agreed to wear "Haul ass" on my butt, especially with that line art of a tow hook and chain coming out of the seat of your pants. Anyway, glad that you didn't get caught by Midnight or whatever that was."

I wasn't really sure why Book was there with us, but then again I wasn't really sure why I was still with the group. I had assumed that Captain Maxwell would have sent me back to the ship to return to my Nikki duties, seeing as how my Phoenix Hawk had been obliterated and the next leg of the job didn't involve piloting giant war machines. Or at least, that's what I assumed given that we were apparently going to hit a downtown skyscraper and driving a BattleMech through the center of a noncombatant town would be a violation of the Ares Conventions. As laid back as Maxwell seemed to be about things, there was definitely a line there I had a feeling he wouldn't cross.

I wove my way through the crowd of people that had gathered for the meeting, nodding at Octavia and noticing she was the only person from Scorched Earth present. I thought that was a little weird seeing as how there had been a little less than half a dozen of them during our last encounter. I walked over to Captain Maxwell and waited for a break in his conversation. A minute later he finished talking with Octavia and turned toward me.

"Glad you could make it Schuster, I wasn't sure how many people survived last night." The captain commented with an ironic smile. "And it looks like both of your eyes are pointing in the same direction, so that's good."
"Uh yeah.": I laughed. "Me and Orlex didn't tie it off quite as much as some people. Not that there's anything wrong with that." I added after realizing that at least one of the people looking a little hung over was the captain's significant other.

"You don't owe me any furniture as far as I know, which is good considering that we didn't have line items in the budget for a pool table and a handful of vending machines." Maxwell said.

"About that." I said. Maxwell furrowed his eyebrows.

"Don't tell me you ripped a urinal off the wall or something after we left the bar." The captain commended.

"No no no, not as far as I can remember. But I was actually wondering if the invite to be here was a typo. I don't have a Mech and I'm not on your crew, I'm not sure what my role is. I appreciate the work, I just want to be sure you meant for me to be here." I said.

"Yeah, I don't typically send invites to classified mission briefings accidentally." Maxwell replied. "I haven't pulled that field commission from you just yet, and I think you'll find this job is right up your alley. Grab a seat, we're just waiting for a few other people and we'll get started."

I headed over to the couch and sat down next to Alyssa and Mallory, wondering what we were about to learn...

[Baroness Octavia Incendio]

"Haggard" would be an apt word to describe the crew. Hungover, exhausted... they fit the stereotype of mercenaries, at least. 

 

Solo mission.  Not even giving me Luke as backup, citing concerns about "war crimes". Davion sensibilities. At least Luke hadn't told him about the POWs. Right now the Count had accepted the cover that those two sons had been killed by Victarion's men.  Easier to swallow that pirates disregarded code of conducts than a noble. Until Vic spilled the beans.  Or Luke. 

 

Still, listening in to the others,  I wasn't overly concerned. I was sober,  which meant I was already a leg up on half of them easily. Glancing over at the one cooking - Steve, or something - I quirked an eyebrow. "What in Blake's name are you making?"

 

At his responding half crazed grin, I decided to withdraw the question - and let someone else be the first to taste it.

 

If I didn't have quantity, I would need to bring quality. Easy enough being Capellan nobility, easier still considering I didn't have vulgarity scrawled across my clothes. Though I might be safe to tone it down a bit to avoid the "uppity bitch mode" that Johnny kept whining about. Uncouth dog.

 

"It seems you're all in one piece,  at least,  from your activities."  Polite should work.  "Is everything out of your systems now?"

[Steve Jenkins]

Octavia looked at me and ask a question. I threw some breakfast Fruit into the pressure cooler and clicked the lid on, then I put the pressure at HOT MAX. Then I looked at Octavia. 

"What in Blake's name are you making?" She asked,  I did a big smile to let Octavia know it was a surprise, then she asked another question

"It seems you're all in one piece,  at least,  from your activities.. Is everything out of your systems now?" I stopped to think about it, because I wasn't sure. There were some parts from last night where I had blacked out and I couldn't remember everything, but I knew about fighting the superhero in the vending room and in the bar, and how I had saved Thermo Man from getting taken out by midnight, I didn't really remember much after that except the next morning Thermo Man was asleep on the couch in my Room and he told me that I had let him hide out there on account of he didn't want to get identified by anybody. So I gave him some of my brand where to make sure nobody would recognize him and told him we could use all the help we could get on the mission. So I told Octavia about all of those things, her eyes bugged out and she said "Wow, that's crazy, did you even sleep??" 

"WELL, does a Alcohol Coma count, because that's usually how I unwind after a mission" "I don't think so." Octavia said. "I think that's more like a Medical emergency." 

"Oh you mean like when they give you Anastasia before surgery?" I said. 

"Huh?" Octavia replied, but before I could answer there was a huge BOOM coming from the pressure cooker and the lid blew off and sprayed fruit up the front of the mirror. "Awesome the drinks are ready!" I Yelled, then I went over and tasted it, it needed more cinnamon so I put more in and stirred it up until it was a pinkish greenish brown and then I took an ice cream scoop because I didn't have a ladle and I served cups for everyone in the room. Then I gave one to Octavia and then I walked around and gave cups to everybody else oh, then I went over to the coffee table and stood on top of it and yelled "HEY EVERYONE I MADE WASSAIL FOR EVERYBODY TO SAY AWESOME JOB AND GOOD LUCK ON THIS OP!" Then I took a huge gulp of it. Unfortunately I had not let it cool down and also I may have overdid it with the cinnamon, because the next thing I knew my mouth was on fire and I screamed Flames out and then I fell off the coffee table onto the couch. I was ready for the Briefing to start!

[Orlex Jaeger]

LuxConoTel d.b.a. Lay-Z-Daze Inn
Oberon VI - Oberon Confederation
October 8, 3029
_______________________________________________

I sat in the relatively cramped living room space of Charles' and Alyssa's hotel room, the area actually decently sized for what it was but it was never intended to have this many people present at once. Still we managed to make it work and this location was about the best option we had for the ad-hoc mission briefing we had been called here for. The poor Doctor, whom I had arrived with alongside Steve and Octavia, was still recovering from the effects of copious amounts of alcohol the night prior while Steve, who likely consumed just as much if not more, seemed to show no signs of a hangover whatsoever. I was both curious and scared to ask the man what his secret was, as for my self the few whiskey's I had enjoyed had not been near enough to put me on the same level as roughly half of the Aegis Division members that were present last night, instead this morning I found myself to be extra thirsty and a mild aversion to bright lights for the first couple hours. By the time of our meeting I had fully recovered and even had an opportunity to speak with Lieutenant Weyland briefly about the Captain and his little recon of the Irian skyscraper the night before.

Currently Jenkins, Schuster, and Gamble were in what passed as the kitchen discussing various things while Steve piled items into a crockpot style pressure cooker, I wasn't sure what he was making and was silently hoping he didn't decide to share. Schuster then broke away to go speak with the Captain while Octavia seemed to be observing everyone and likely assessing to what degree of a suicide mission she had been signed up for. I had overhead parts of her conversation with Maxwell earlier when we first arrived and it seemed that she was the only member of Scorched Earth that would be accompanying us on this leg of our mission. Technically it did fulfill their end of the bargain since it was never specified how much support they would give us, but it still felt like a bit of a cope out on Johnny's end. It would have been nice to receive more support from Scorched Earth, then again maybe not given Johnny's attitude, but one was still better than nothing.

Octavia herself was something of an enigma to me, she seemed quite competent, both in and out of a BattleMech, and definitely was confident in her own abilities but at the same time she projected this image of nobility like she was better than the rest of us and we should be grateful that she even deigned to assist us in such a direct manner. Now she was actually of nobility, her title of Baroness was legit even if she was technically dispossessed at the moment, so in some ways her mannerism was understandable though it still rubbed me the wrong way a bit. I didn't have anything against her personally, and it wasn't even the being a noble that bothered me, the fact that she was Capellan nobility was what tainted my opinion. My limited interactions with House Liao nobility had left me slightly jaded against their typically underhanded tactics and often unethical morals, combined with the fact that my estranged sister had died at Capellan hands, and it was understandable that my initial perceptions of any Capellan was coloured against them. I did however strive to let people's actions speak for themselves, or at least louder than my preconceived bias based on their heritage, although I've been known to struggle at times.

A sudden explosion from the kitchen area drew my attention as Steve excitedly proclaimed that the drinks were ready before he rushed back over to his crockpot and began dolling out drinks with what appeared to be an ice cream scoop. He then proceeded to pass out the drinks, now occupying the questionable glasses that Book had brought from who knows where, before he climbed up onto the coffee table, only teetering for a moment before hollering out to everyone.

"HEY EVERYONE I MADE WASSAIL FOR EVERYBODY TO SAY AWESOME JOB AND GOOD LUCK ON THIS OP!"

I looked dubiously down at the glass I had found shoved into my hand before looking up to scan the room, Octavia seemed to be doing the same thing and our eyes meet for a brief moment while Steve was yelling at us all. I could see the uncertainty in her eyes as though she was looking for confirmation if she was indeed expected to drink whatever this concoction was. In response I slightly shook my head while raising my glass just enough to catch her eye, hoping she would understand my meaning but then realizing it wouldn't matter as Steve downed his own glass of brew and promptly expelled most of it violently towards the ceiling with it somehow igniting in the air. How that man survived this long was beyond me, but it was always entertaining to have him around. He then stumbled backwards off the coffee table and fell heavily onto the couch, thankfully in a currently unoccupied spot, with a big smile on his face. I cautiously placed the "beverage" aside on a nearby end table, as did most everyone else in the room, before Maxwell stepped up towards the middle of the room.

[Charles Maxwell]

I pensively held my breath as the pillar of flame escaped Steve's mouth, rolling forcibly toward the ceiling, where an integrated smoke detector blinked dutifully. At the exact moment I anticipated the building's evacuation alarms would start, Steve crashed off the coffee table, landing inverted in a heap on the sofa. The smoke detector's light flickered to a solid red and a poorly-maintained fire strobe beside the hotel room's door began flashing erratically. But the klaxons I fully expected would be coming never materialized.

I cast a quizzical look at Alyssa.

"Shouldn't all hell be breaking loose right about now?" I quipped, my eyes darting between the alarm and the glass of sludge in my hand.

"I cut off all comm lines from this room a few minutes ago. Not because I expected Steve to make kerosene cocktails, but for OpSec. Keeping the fire department at bay turned out to be a fringe benefit of that decision," Alyssa replied with a hint of pride in her tone.

"Remind me to give you a raise," I smiled, setting the beverage down. "Any chance you can kill the disco light by the door?"

Chase nodded and rose from her seat, striding over to the entryway. Reaching it, she pulled one of the black socks from her feet and stretched it over the strobe's housing, blotting out the light.

"Done. Leet haxxor skills deployed," the Lyran joked, returning to the sofa and rifling through her gear bag for replacement footwear. Steve, still upside-down on the couch, let out a peal of laughter.

"Nice, thank you," I nodded, turning on a pocket projector that I'd situated on the coffee table. By some miracle, it had escaped Sergeant Jenkins' public proclamation and now whirred to life, displaying the Aegis Division logo haphazardly on a far wall. "Let's get this meeting going. I appreciate all of you coming, and I realize that this plan is...hasty...to say the least, but I'm afraid that our gig has taken a seriously unpredictable turn - one for which we'll have to quickly improvise if we're to have any hope of completing our mission. Some of you are already familiar with the discovery we made yesterday. For those of you who haven't gotten word yet - I'll bring you up to speed."

I clicked the "Advance" button on the pocket projector's remote. An improvised mission briefing scrolled across the hotel room's wall.

____________________________

- Displaying Coded Message -- Command Instruction Follows -
- LOCALHOST ONLY: NOT FOR XMIT -
- For internal use only -

____________________________

Operation Codename: Siege Engine
Planet: Oberon VI (Oberon Confederation)
Terrain: Urban (skyscraper)
Time: Night
Mission Type: Extraction Raid/High Risk/Covert Operation
NOTE: This is a child operation of Gray Demon. Refer to the parent operation for contractual details.

OVERVIEW

Operation: Gray Demon has taken an unexpected turn for the worse. The artifact we were subcontracted to exfiltrate from Oberon VI was removed from the target site ahead of our arrival. We suspect that this action was carried out by members of the Irian cabal for reasons yet unknown. We have determined that the artifact was likely delivered via aircraft to a skyscraper in downtown Port Royal. We need to recover it from the building and get offworld before being discovered.

MISSION BRIEFING

Assignment

Upon successful securing of the target recovery site in Black Canyon, our insertion team discovered that a third party had preemptively entered the dig site, removed IE-OBO-FE-01-3029 (hereafter referred to as "the artifact"), and departed with it to parts unknown.

Intelligence provided by Book Gamble allowed us to extrapolate that the artifact had been removed via an aircraft. Orlex Jaeger and Nicholas Schuster were able to locate the VTOL's tail registry in a flight database held in a nearby bandit stronghold. They determined that the aircraft's flight plan took it to a high-rise in downtown Port Royal. Reconnaissance performed by Bishop Weyland and Charles Maxwell identified the landing site as the OptiFire Communications tower, a 58-story corporate skyscraper with multiple tenants.

Bishop Weyland recognized one of the tenants, "Bluedream Consulting," as an umbrella compaby used by the Irian Corporation. Charles Maxwell and Alyssa Chase visited Port Royal's city hall earlier today and were able to pull the architectural records for the OptiFire complex. It appears that Bluedream applied for a permit to retrofit an extensive laboratory space into the 40th through 43rd floors of the building - an unusual project for a consulting firm, particularly one operating in a bandit kingdom.

We've determined that the OptiFire building is largely vacant at night. The projected OpFor appears to consist of heavy electronic security, automated patrol robots, and autonomous emplacements.

OBJECTIVES

Our mission objectives are as follows. Refer to the OBJECTIVE DETAILS diagram for all milestones.

1. Warrant Officer Alyssa Chase will overcome electronic security at the lobby level, enabling ingress to the upper floors of the building.
2. Simultaneously, Nicholas Schuster will use a landing craft from the Hurry Up Bessie to perform an aerial insertion of Sergeant Steve Jenkins and Book Gamble onto the roof of the OptiFire tower. Jenkins and Gamble will make entry into the 58th-floor security annex and disable the tower's monitoring systems, cameras, and automated patrols. Nicholas Schuster will remain on station with the landing craft and provide electronic warfare support and early warning of counter-intrusion activities.
3. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Orlex Jaeger, Octavia Incendio, and Lieutenant Bishop Weyland will penetrate the 40th floor laboratory, where we believe that the artifact is likely to be held, and recover it. Exfiltration of any other targets of interest is also permitted.
4. In tandem with the above actions, Captain Charles Maxwell and Warrant Officer Chase will breach the "Bluedream Consulting" office and attempt to recover any information that reveals the identities and motives behind Bluedream's operations on Oberon VI.
5. Insertion teams will evacuate via rooftop egress. Nicholas Schuster will facilitate evac via the Hurry Up Bessie's landing craft and return the team to the Port Royal spaceport. From there, we'll get offworld before we're located.
6. If rooftop egress is not possible. the first-floor lobby may be used as a fallback extraction zone. Assets leaving via this method should rendezvous immediately at the Port Royal spaceport.

NOTE: It is critical that we leave no evidence connecting Interstellar Expeditions, Aegis Division, or the Crayven Corporation to operations on Oberon VI. If the Irian cabal is indeed responsible for this counter-operation, the consequences of having our cover blown are, in a word, dire.

OBJECTIVE DETAILS: OptiFire Communications

COMMANDER'S NOTES

I know that none of us expected this turn of events and that this operation is last-minute and unrehearsed. I appreciate everyone's willingness to adapt, and I thank our Scorched Earth compatriots for their willingness to help out. Let's get this over and done with so that we can go home.

- TRANSMISSION ENDS -

____________________________

Sender: Captain Charles Maxwell
Encryption Priority: HIGH
HPG Relay: INAPPLICABLE
Received: INAPPLICABLE
____________________________

"Last night, Lieutenant Weyland and I took a ride over to what passes for this city's commercial district in an attempt to scout out the probable destination of the VTOL that Mister Gamble spotted in Black Canyon. At the coordinates recorded in the local flight controller's database is a fifty-eight story corporate tower called 'OptiFire Communications.' It's a multi-tenant structure that's home to a variety of firms, including, as it would so happen, a consultancy called 'Bluedream.'"

"'Bluedream?' What's that?" Doc Aldon asked. Bishop raised an eyebrow, likely puzzled by the medic's interest.

"What?" Mallory demanded. "I've been out here in the ass-end of space for a while, and I've never run into that name."

"I'm not surprised," I nodded. "'Bluedream,' according to Lieutenant Weyland, doesn't actually exist. It's a shell company run by the Irian cabal. The same parent corporation suspected to have been operating in Black Canyon and to whom we learned the Black Canyon aircraft was registered."

"They usually roll out 'Bluedream' when they want to do some below-the-level shit in a town where someone might actually take notice," Weyland added. "As immune as Irian is to most legal consequence, it's also an indication that whatever they're doing is really irregular."

"Unfortunately, what sort of activity they're engaged in on Oberon VI remains to be seen," I continued. "When we tried to pay a visit to their office on the upper floors of the tower, we were met by some particularly hardened security appliances on the elevator. We hadn't come equipped to bypass any of that, and brute force was out of the question. The lobby of the tower, while unmanned, is bristling with CCTV cameras, motion sensors, and what looked like a disarmed laser web. However, the next day, we were able to make some headway and find strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that OptiFire is where our artifact ended up."

I clicked the remote again, tossing it to Weyland as an annotated wireframe of the high-rise splashing into existence.

"First thing this morning, the Captain and I paid a visit to the city records office. After we dropped a couple of bribes, we were able to get ahold of the plans for the tower. Come to find out, someone spent a shit-ton of money nine months ago to lease out the 40th through 42nd floors of the building and convert them into one big-ass laboratory. The central core of the building also contains a heavy lift system that starts on 40 and exits at the rooftop helipad. An express elevator runs from the 41st floor directly to the Bluedream office on the 51st floor."

"More than a coincidence," I nodded.

"We also learned from our records review that, near the conclusion of the lab's construction, Bluedream paid OptiFire to refit the entire building with an enhanced automated security system - surveillance cameras, robotic patrols, card readers, laser detection grids, and remotely-controlled turrets, all managed from a control cab on the 58th floor. The system's so advanced that the building only requires a minimal security staff. That's the good news. The bad news is...the system's so advanced that the building only requires a minimal security staff."

Bishop tossed the remote back to me before jabbing a finger at the defunct detector on the ceiling. "Hey, you mind if I have a smoke since that thing's not working?"

"As attractive as that sounds, let's not risk setting the carpet on fire," I chuckled, advancing the slide. A series of gold-colored tactical routes and objectives flashed across the lime-green wireframe. "Lieutenant Weyland, leaning on his years of experience dealing with Irian, strongly believes that what we've learned about the OptiFire Communications tower, coupled with the VTOL returning there instead of going to the spaceport, suggests that the artifact is being held by Irian in the laboratory."

"Something doesn't make sense to me," Nick Schuster interjected. "Sirs."

"Speak your mind, Sergeant," I replied.

"I totally buy the idea that Irian's running some kind of skunkworks here. That makes perfect sense. What better place to do some of your most heinous R&D than a backwater world out in the middle of a lawless bandit kingdom? But - why would they want some random doll that's only notable because of the ghost stories about it? Sending a lance of BattleMechs in to retrieve it and then locking it up in a high-tech citadel? It just doesn't add up," Schuster explained.

"I don't disagree," I nodded. "I think there's more to this artifact than what we're being told. Which is why we need to do two things."

I advanced the presentation. A series of animations began to play across the wireframe, illustrating each stage of the operation as I spoke.

"We're going to infiltrate tthe OptiFire Communications tower tonight after business hours, where we'll recover the artifact and try to figure out what Irian's doing here. The locals suggest that most things wind down in the building after 1700 hours. We'll give it an hour or two after that for any stragglers to clear out. Once that's happened, and we're afforded the cover of night, we'll hit the complex as two separate teams.

"Ground team will consist of Lieutenants Weyland and Jaeger, Warrant Officer Chase, Octavia Incendio - who we are fortunate enough to have on loan from Scorched Earth - and me. We'll access the building's lobby, where Chase will spoof the security cameras, use electronic tools to overcome the elevator lockouts, and fool the system into allowing us to access the upper floors of the building. However, that only gets us as far as the lifts. That's where Sky team comes in.

"Sky team will consist of Sergeants Schuster and Jenkins, along with our friend Book Gamble, whom I've come to understand has some proficiency in breaking and entering along with overcoming conventional security emplacements. At the same time we penetrate the lobby, Sergeant Schuster, piloting one of the landing craft from the Hurry Up Bessie, will facilitate an aerial ingress of Jenkins and Gamble onto the roof of the OptiFire Communications tower. Steve and Book will assault the security annex on the 58th floor, put down any resistance present, and shut down as many of the building's countermeasures as possible. They'll also attempt to unlock as many secured doors as time and resources allow. Meanwhile, Nick Schuster will remain on station at the rooftop helipad and attempt to get control of Bluedream's computer systems."

"Weyland, Incendio, and Jaeger will work their way to the 40th floor laboratory, breach it, and recover the artifact, along with any other targets of opportunity that present themselves. If Irian decided to help themselves to this object, it stands to reason that other ill-gotten goods may be present. While that's going down, Chase and I will hit the Bluedream office itself and try to collect as much information as we can about the Irian operations in this end of space. When we get home, I want to be able to paint for Kauffman as clear a picture as possible of what we're dealing with. I have a feeling that Irian is going to be a persistent thorn in our side. We need to get ahead of that.

"Once the artifact has been secured, both Ground and Sky teams will extract via the rooftop helipad. Schuster will take us directly back to the spaceport, where Captain Nikki Harlow will have the Hurry Up Bessie on hot standby to get us out of the world as soon as we're aboard. We'll haul ass to the system jump point and keep our fingers crossed that we can be out of the Oberon Confederation before 'Bluedream' figures out what's going down."

Multiple grimly-nodding heads met my response.

"If egress via the rooftop becomes impossible for either team, you're authorized to use the ground-floor lobby as a fallback plan. Rendezvous with us at the spaceport immediately, taking any means necessary to ensure you're neither detained nor identified in the process. That last part goes for all of you during the entire operation - we cannot leave any evidence of who we are for Irian to find. Neither Aegis Division nor the Crayven Corporation are equipped for a war with a private army of that scale."

"That's all I've got. Get in, get the artifact, and get out. Questions?"

[Nicholas Schuster]

I stared at the tactical overview, looking at what amounted to a corporate fortress as various animations illustrated its emplacements and security measures. We were basically about to be stepping out on faith. A huge leap of faith that the assumptions made by Captain Maxwell and Lieutenant Wayland were correct. And a huge leap of faith that what we were walking into wasn't a meat grinder. Which it had the increased risk to be as once again, Captain Maxwell was using his Mech pilots as infantry, generally considered a bad move by most tactical experts. The sum of the situation was as I had heard someone use the phrase one time, deeply insane. But, if I was in for a penny, I was in for a pound, and in the instance of this mission, the only way out was through.

Before I asked my question, I decided to read the room. Something that they had taught us in the Intelligence Corps was that you had to weigh the risk vs reward ratio of questions you might decide to ask in a group like this where the odds were stacked against you. The right question could foster a boost in morale and camaraderie, while the wrong question could demoralize and potentially turn people against you. Captain Maxwell and Lieutenant Wayland wore their normal poker faces. Alyssa had a neutral expression, likely because she'd seen most of this mission briefing as it was being assembled. Orlex looked deep in thought. Octavia had a stoic, guarded demeanor. Gamble looked confused and slightly terrified. And Steve...I was starting to get the impression that Steve always looked excited at the start of a mission, no matter how deeply insane it was.

IIn other words, three-quarters of the room looked on worried. Hopefully, my question could alleviate some of those fears.

I put down my glass of grog prepared by Steve, which looked like it had started to eat through the bottom of the container a bit, and raised my hand.

"Nick, go ahead." Maxwell said. 

"Thank you sir. So I'm looking at this setup and I have a couple questions. First of all, how do we plan to spoof the security cameras in the lobby to even get inside and attack the elevators? Based on what you were saying, it sounds like you were being monitored from the minute you walked into the lobby, and in my experience, buildings with that level of paranoia almost always have the street under surveillance too. Have we thought about how we're going to deal with that problem? The rooftop insertion makes sense, but I'm not so sure that walking right in through the lobby does. With all due respect, barging straight in seems audacious even by your standards. Unless this plan calls for my team to hit the security annex just ahead of when you try to go in through the lobby? Maybe I missed that detail. The other question I had concerns what I'm supposed to do when I'm on the roof after Alyssa takes down the initial security net. You mentioned that she is going to hand off to me, but have we given consideration to how I am supposed to both keep the landing craft on hot standby and breach the security network of the building? Usually, I would need to have some fairly direct connection to the corporate network be able to pull that off. I don't think I can do it from the cockpit. Lastly, is there any chance that I could get a copy of that Locura software Alyssa used back on Gan Singh? Assuming I am able to get into the network, I'm going to need something that can cause mayhem really quickly."

[Baroness Octavia Incendio]

This Schuster fellow had decent questions. Good head on his shoulders. I was curious to these answers as well. 

 

Luckily Luke had provided additional explosives,  no doubt stolen from Johnny's self-made stash. I set one on the table, pushing it towards Schuster.

 

"I have a handful of explosives to help with the beach, but I do need to ask the stance on acceptable collateral damage levels. With the level of anonymity you're wanting,  cameras and witnesses will be a concern. If we fail to get computer control,  or if they piece together what we're moving towards,  we may have quite the mess on our hands."

 

I didn't bother raising my hand, just added my questions to the list.

 

"Any possibility of leveraging any employees? Take their identification or have them turn off the systems for the promise of funds and survival?  Easy enough to take care of that loose end prior to our departure as well."

 

Tempted as I was to punctuate my words by showing the spring loaded blade in my cyberarm, I kept that tidbit to myself for now. It worked well to remove guards and witnesses. Better to keep it as a backup weapon. Plus... I didn't trust this... Steve... to not try to make kabobs on it,  or something.

 

[Orlex Jaeger]

I sat listening to the mission brief with rapt attention, going through mental checklists as objectives were laid out and teams were discussed. There was an astonishing level of detail given how unexpected this particular leg of the mission was, although that wasn't really too surprising given Maxwell's attention to detail and thoroughness. The teams were sufficient and made sense given their intended roles, Lieutenant Weyland, Octavia, and myself were likely to run into the stiffest resistance, as far as automatied security systems went, breaking into the hidden lab facility and we were also the strongest combat team of the three. Bishop was a powerhouse and likely able to force his way through any trouble we found and despite that he was also a master at stealth and slipping into the shadows, even with his newly increased bulk. Octavia I wasn't entirely sure about, I didn't know if she had any particular set of skills or inclination towards a certain style of combat but I was sure she could handle herself. Her prosthetic arm I remembered from our initial meeting contained a deadly blade, and her noble upbringing meant she was likely well trained in one martial art or another. Her Capellan background, combined with her relatively light frame, lead me to believe she preferred subterfuge and hit and run style tactics over standing and fighting but I doubted she'd have trouble holding her own if it came down to it. Myself on the other hand, I had extensive infantry training, well extensive when compared to most MechWarriors, during my time with the Outworld's Alliance Militia and had kept up with most of it through the years. I was also pretty handy with tech and engineering, at least on the hardware side, and I had a feeling that would come in handy given the level of automation this facility was rumoured to have.

The Captain and Alyssa were also a good pairing for their portion of the mission objective, infiltrating corporate offices rarely required brute force and Alyssa's skillset would be much more valuable deployed against high end corporate security software than dealing with automated security systems that could be circumvented in other manners. The Captain was more than capable of holding his own against any resistance they should encounter, not to mention Alyssa herself, despite her lithe frame suggesting otherwise she was far from helpless in a fight. Sky team was the most interesting one, despite Steve's inherent zaniness he showed himself time and again to be a more than competent fighter, even if it often was over the top it was still effective. He also had a knack for pulling off the impossible regardless of the odds, and Nick's impressive hacking skills would only serve to complement Steve's own skill set as they took down the security office on the top floor. Book Gamble was another wild card, though in this case he came across as more of an unknown Joker rather than the possible Ace in the Hole that Octavia represented. He didn't strike me as someone who was familiar with actual combat and that could prove to be a liability, I would have to make a point to talk to him after the briefing, but he did seem to have some useful skills, and a silent entrance for them would likely be more useful than an extra gun in a shootout.

As per usual we had a distinct plan laid out from start to finish, including a contingency or two since even the best laid plans never survived enemy contact. The plan was solid and provided that we didn't take too long in the lab collecting the artifact it should be a relatively quick snatch and grab mission. Things rarely went according to plan though, at least not fully, but we seemed to have covered as many bases as we could. Unsurprisingly Schuster had a few questions at the end of the Captain's spiel, and also unsurprisingly they were solid and well thought out questions too. His concerns about the lobby entrance mirrored one of the few misgivings I had, although I wasn't sure off hand what we could do about it. His concerns about taking over control of the security systems were also valid, if slightly less difficult to overcome given the circumstances.

Octavia stepped in with her own opinions and suggestions before anyone else did, her mention of using explosives to breach the facility was useful, although likely to be kept as a secondary option since we would likely try to limit collateral damage as much as possible. Her suggestion to use employees to gain access to the tower itself was brilliant and in hindsight I wondered why the thought hadn't even crossed our minds before, or at least mine. That suggestion itself also threw open a door that quickly lead to another potential solution for the lobby entrance problem. Her follow up suggestion, and thinly veiled threat, of then eliminating any collaborators did not sit well with me, but was also not overly surprising given her Capellan background.

"If I may," I said raising my hand slightly and turning towards Octavia, "I believe we will want to keep collateral damage to a minimal for this one, especially any civilian casualties, given we wish to maintain anonymity as much as possible. That being said, these explosives could definitely come in handy if access to the lab is considerably more robust than we currently believe it to be."

Turning towards Schuster I continued, "In regards to your concerns about maintaining security system control from the rooftop, if you require direct connection that could make things a little more difficult but I think I might have a workaround. Facilities like this, housing so many corporate offices and other important services, would likely have a robust communication system. I would think both traditional radio antennas and satellite dishes along with site-to-site laser arrays would likely be present on the roof, would you agree Bishop?"

"Yes, Irian would definitely maintain multiple communications methods with both their own satellites as well as the planet's HPG network whenever possible, including communication links to offsite servers. It's reasonable to assume that they have done the same here," came Bishop's deep baritone reply.

"I thought as much, those antennas and dishes require a direct connection to the associated system in the tower. If you could identify which one connects to security, or if they happen to share a common communications hub on the roof, you should be able to tie in directly from an access panel at the base of any of the antennas or satellite dishes on the roof. The tower has a helipad that should be large enough to accommodate the landing craft, mostly, and while you won't technically be in the craft to be on 'hot standby' you would be close enough that it shouldn't make much difference. Alternatively, once Jenkins and Gamble capture the security annex you could always jack into the system there. We'd just have to assess on the fly whether maintaining security control or having evac on hot standby is more important at the time."

Turning back towards Octavia again I laid out the idea I had gotten from her suggestion about using employees, "Back to your suggestion about using local employees to gain access. How well known are you in these parts Octavia?"

At first she seemed taken aback and almost balked at the idea that she wouldn't be known to anyone and everyone that mattered, most likely her Capellan nobility rearing it's head, before she thought about it and slowly replied, "I should think well enough, though to be honest it is not likely I'm known outside of my unit and its employer on this backwater world. What did you have in mind?"

Octavia narrowed her eyes at me as finished her question and I couldn't help but smile slightly as I answered, "Well, aside from Captain Maxwell and Alyssa here, you're the only one that could easily pass as a corporate executive that belongs in that tower. Hell, you could probably pull off pretending to own the entire damn tower. And that's good, that could actually be our ticket in. As Schuster mentioned, going straight in the lobby is bold and audacious, possibly dangerously so if we don't do it right. Bishop and myself, we wouldn't get in unnoticed. Too many cameras with nowhere to hide and neither of us are going to blend in as corporate employees, and we're probably too notable to pass of as regular bodyguards that people tend to ignore at these places."

"Hmph," Octavia's pointed grunt was her only response to my suggestion that she could impersonate a corporate executive, both an agreement and a statement that screamed OBVIOUSLY, as if it was a given thing.

"To that end, I'm thinking that you and Alyssa could literally waltz through the front door at closing time, I mean who is going to question a pair of beautiful executives re-entering the building on a Thursday just before the end of the day to retrieve some paperwork they forgot. Or something along those lines at least. These buildings also tend to have some form of underground parking, often limited to employee access only but in this case any employee of the multi-tenant building could have access. I'm sure the two of you could work out some way of acquiring a keycard or two, preferably without violence. Once office hours are finished and the building is emptied, the two of you could make your way down to the parking garage as though you're late leaving work. That's where Maxwell, myself and Bishop will be waiting, gaining access to the relatively less secure parking garage in our own way, and then Alyssa can do her thing with security while Sky Team takes out the security annex upstairs. Ground Teams 1 and 2 can then regroup and then go our separate ways as needed to reach our own objectives."

"What does everyone think about that option?" I asked the room after a short pause.