[center][h2]And So It Begins[/h2][/center] [center]Themerlinhawk[/center] [center][b]Day 1, Crack of Dawn[/b][/center] [center][i]Megelis[/i] [/center] As Megelis suddenly snatched his hand back. “Damn. I’m so sorry I am needed elsewhere. Sentinel appears to have a message for me. Megelis skirted Peredur making apologies as he crossed towards sentinel. “Christian has sent a new recruit to plan for a new mission.” Megelis skimmed over the brief eyes darkening as he read it flicking across the lines of text Sentinel displayed. “Wait..do we really have..” Megelis frowned “Okay, okay. We’ll do it Christian’s way.” With that Megelis crossed to one of the open rooms on the edge of the practice field and began to clean his blades. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [center][h2]The Plan[/h2][/center] [center]Themerlinhawk, Monochromatic Rainbow[/center] [center][b]Day 1, Morning[/b][/center] [center][i]Megelis, Adéla[/i] [/center] Adéla hummed idly as she plummeted towards solid ground at lethal speeds, the vacuum tube lift pulling the steel container’s squishy organic occupant down to her certain doom. With a gut wrenching lurch, the elevator stopped, and the doors dinged open merrily. Staggering from the elevator, Adéla threw a dirty look back at it before setting off with purpose across the training fields. She knew Megelis was here somewhere, but where exactly proved to be a bit harder to pinpoint. Megelis sat with the microcomponents of his nanoblade open and a pair of magnification goggles on as he tuned them, the balance was feeling weird in the left blade and it was probably due to a replacement batch of the nanites in the blade. Tweaking around the control components he tested the balance with his foot which the blade was balanced on as he sat cross legged on one of the tables meant for cleaning firearms. Adéla walked up behind the man, watching him work for a moment before piping up, “Have you considered using compatibility drivers? Seems you’re using two different models of nanites and the drivers might not work on the other one, since you seem to be having some difficulty with them.” She walked around to the front, “Christian tells me I’m to work with you on a plan of action for Southgate?” Megelis looked up at her and pushed the lens off his face. “Yes I have actually, however I prefer to use the the two different models since one of them is for defense and the other is for offense. The nanites are coded differently so I use two sets of drivers for the two different models. The nanites in this blade are more durable than the other set.” Megelis closed the panel on the blade and sheathed it before standing up. “What are we doing again and why does it involve the highest security prison in Angel’s Landing.” He held out his hand “What did you say your name was?” “Adéla.” She replied smoothly, “I’m surprised you’ve not already been notified. We’re going to be staging a prison break, there’s an ex-Stygian Blade member there who we’d like to not be there. I was told to come and see you for planning. I already have a plan but I’m curious on your input.” She paused momentarily before eyeing the blades, “Judging by the canisters though the cutting nanites are still of two different models and would likely require the proper drivers to work optimally. It’s usually best to use general-purpose models for a defensive and offensive blade.” Megelis smiled at her and slid the blades into their sheathes on either hip. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. You can’t get these nanites on the market.” Megelis stood up. “Sentinel, download mission briefs for the Master of Blade.” Megelis’ eyes flicked through the air as Sentinel sent the briefs to his contacts. “Well I’ll be damned. Okay so where do you want to start with this? I’m assuming you know something about this hacker? or does that even matter? I mean I don’t mind running a blind snatch prison break.” Megelis looked back to Adéla. “I know her, yeah.” Adéla leaned against the table, “And yes, I do have a plan. It involves explosives, extendable bridges, and heavy firepower. I contemplated a more stealthy approach, but it raises the issue of actually getting her out stealthily as well, which wouldn’t exactly be easy.” Sparing a moment to look over the nanites, she smirked, “Guess there are benefits to being a high ranking officer in a powerful mercenary group.” “Anyway,” she continued without a beat, “the plan is pretty simple. One team stages a diversion on the other side of the prison, splits up, and sends in a smaller group to act like the ‘main’ rescue party. They’ll be ‘beaten back’ and the main diversion will continue while the other team goes over the trench and blitzkriegs their way up to the holding cells, extends the bridge and cuts through the bars, then back out in a bounding overwatch to ensure nobody pops out and gets Ludelle.” She shrugged, “It’s the product of a few minutes of planning, so it’s not going to be perfect. You have anything to add to things?” Megelis looked at her for a long moment. “Okay. How do you plan on dealing with the small army of security that Southgate employs? Their tech is really nasty and the whole damn building is an anti magic zone so unless you are an avatar we will have to match tech with tech. That or carry in our own magic. Adéla interrupted him, “I’m about as magical as dirt. Everything I do is with good old technology. Also, did you not hear the diversionary tactics? The goal is to draw the main force away and blitzkrieg the remainder with a fast moving heavily armed strike team. We’re not launching an all out assault, just a single stab with a bunch of fancy motions on the other side to make it seem like we are.” Megelis tapped his swords as he stood. “It could work. We’ll need to set the magic users outside and direct the tech and carried magic users to the inside.” Megelis tapped the air and Sentinel deployed a hard light keyboard. “Have you taken a look at the personnel list yet? The Knights have pretty few personnel right now, which is actually the greatest limitation to us at the moment.” “I glossed.” Adéla replied, “We don’t exactly have many good non-magic users suitable for a blitzkrieg it’d seem.” She paused, “I suppose there’s Otto… whatever his last name is, Justin something, Vitalis I suppose? Though she’d be better utilized as long range precision fire support...” She looked over at Megelis, “You have any recommendations?” Megelis pursed his lips, “Crow. And Marielle. They are user mages. They won’t need to rely on outside magic in order to help out. That and Crow is just generally frightening. Never seen a djinn fae child before but it’s as frightening as it sounds. Oh and I think we might be able to make use of Theros, the Gæians likes his melee combat.” Looking back he shrugged “You got an exit strategy for the building?” Adéla shrugged, “More explosions? I was actually wondering if you had something to offer there. I haven’t quite thought out that bit.” Megelis looked up as though he were staring through the floor of the tower. “Well. I mean. We could always ask Raven to borrow her ship and just go back out through the top of the prison. It would through the guards for a loop since we’d enter through the bottom of the tower and then ascend once we have the target. The other thing to keep in mind is that we need to make sure the op isn't traceable to the tower. Adéla looked quizzically at him, “Sorry, Raven?” She paused, “I’ve not been here particularly long and for that time I’ve more or less been stuck in a room, so I don’t really know anybody.” Megelis chuckled. “You know how Christian is kinda scary with the whole lightning and storm magic stuff?” Megelis smiled. “Raven is the woman who shares his bed. And don’t worry you aren’t missing out. None of us has ever met Raven before, she left before the tower was ever built. Christian won’t say why but she arrived yesterday. And she has an airship” Adéla’s eyes went wide, “Alllriiight then. Maybe you can ask her. I’ll just be busy hiding over here, no big deal.” She cleared her throat, “But in all honesty an airship is kind of conspicuous and an easy target. This is supposed to be a lightning raid, in and out as fast as an a politician in an embarrassing situation. Blitzkrieg our way up, and then blitzkrieg our way out. Not to mention fighting to the top would be nearly impossible, and we’d be fighting uphill. I suggest we go out the way we came and have an armored car waiting and a dummy to draw their attention, presumably by shooting a lot.” Adéla didn’t speak for another few moments as she considered the second part of his question, “As to how we’d keep it from being traced to the Tower, one we use me, and I’m supposed to be dead. Two, no insignia whatsoever, all black, nothing identifying. Three, we don’t head straight back to the Tower, have a safehouse nearby to rendezvous and hunker down for a few days, or even a week, then sneak our way there under cover of darkness and throwing another diversion, feint an attack on the prison and leave a “corpse” there with SB markings. In addition, we’ll not only free Ludelle, but some other prisoners too so it won’t look as targeted.” Megelis shook his head. “Angel’s Landing law enforcement.” He snapped his fingers “Sentinel, what is the average response time.” Sentinel produced a list in the air “Average response time to assaults on government buildings is 5.4 minutes. Megelis turned back to her. “No way are we going back out the way we came in. We’d be wading back into a hail of fire coming back out through our breach. Besides The Blackwing has gunboats. Their fast as hell and pretty darn stealthy. We just make it to the roof and it grabs us on the way out.” Megelis had sentinel pull the schematics. “They seat twenty, we can modify them to make them faster if we need to. As for fighting up hill. if we take out a warden and get his key we can extend the bridges our self and avoid the guards.” Adéla gave his suggestion a few minutes of consideration before she replied. “First off, that would’ve been nice to know.” She paused, “But that is a good plan, yes, I’m used to working with the bare minimum so you’ll have to forgive me if I forget all these options. Twenty should be more than enough though, will you be okay leading the diversionary team? I know Ludelle personally, and I think that’ll be helpful in getting her to agree to come with us.” Megelis grinned “You got it, but I think Shard might have something up his sleeve. If I know him Ludelle know’s we’re coming. The Lord of Storms might seem absent minded but he really did earn his place at the top.” Megelis started to walk and gestured for her to follow. “How many people do you want with you? I’d say it’s probably a good idea for you to take Croweater. The bastard is strong as hell for his wiry frame but I’ve seen him pull so scary stuff inside antimagic fields. Stuff even I didn’t know was possible. That and he’s frightening as death itself, probably why Shard keeps him in the basement.” Turning Megelis started heading towards the Armory. “Who else do you think you want on your team?”