Sergei slammed his giant fist onto the table, startling the Team Leaders with the echoing bang it made. 

"I hear talk of helicopters, I hear talk of boats, I hear talk of suppressors and snipers, and I hear talk of breaching charges," he sneered, his voice dwindling to a low rumble. "Let me remind you, that the Odessa will be powerless after the EMP - along with any electrical light source that pirates may have in their possession. That goes for the lights mounted on their zodiacs, and any torches they may have. What do you think will happen, if during this sudden outage of power beyond their comprehension, they hear a helicopter approaching?" 

He sighed, stepped back from the table and folded his arms again. "17 dead hostages, that's what happens," he said. "The pirates are dumb, they're illiterate and their trade is solely invested in the intimidation of the defenceless. But any dumb goat herd knows when they're fucked, and a helicopter engine will be just the give-away they need to start shooting."

The monitor at the rear of the room switched from the schematics view, to a local meteorology display. Swirls of vibrant green circled a red dot, titled 'The Odessa'. "It's going to be cloudy tonight. Approaching from the sea has my backing, but to you whirly-bird lovers, I can see a helicopter featuring in this. Therefore I propose that the Odessa's top deck [b]is secured by a single team seaborne insertion[/b], to minimise the chance of the pirates seeing us approach. [b]Once the deck is secure, we can move on the bridge and grab the captain - then we'll bring in the helo[/b]. Those dogs down on the bottom deck wont know what's happened to their friends. [b]The helo can unload the rest of the teams, and you'll be able to divide and conquer the lower deck...[/b] and of course, extract the hostages. I'd also advise you think about exploring non-lethal weaponry; things have come a long way since the Battle of the Somme, in that respect."

Sergei had no real jurisdiction over the Team Leaders; he didn't know their men, or their teams' capabilities. He was there purely as an advisor, but reserved the authority to force through decisions when stalemates occurred. However, he avoided doing this as much as possible, to minimise the chance of creating internal divisions. No one liked some jacked up dick playing King of the Castle, after all. 

"What do you think?" He asked, regretting that he had to ask the question.