@t2wave@Hawlin"Matthias and Letrouche, this is Stryker and Carver" Vanderos said, gesturing to each person as he said their name "They know the deal, you won't have to worry about them. So, last bit of business, I want a guarantee that I'm kept completely out of all of this business, like we agreed."
"Sol won't have a clue that you're involved." Stryker said "As we speak, the rest of our crew should be starting an attack on one of Farek Faroesen's ships. They have orders to acquire branded armor and frag the entire ship. We're gonna make Sol think Faroesen is behind the coup, draw them into a war. Once they're both off the board, should be easy for you to step into Sol's shoes. If he calls on you as an ally during the fighting, you answer it"
"Alright then" Vanderos said as he stretched out his arm for a deal-sealing handshake.
As Stryker was reaching out, Carver slapped his hand away as spoke to Vanderos.
"There's one last bit of business. The intel drop on the other pirate crews. I paid you half already. The other half is here"
A bundle of credit chips was produced and placed on the table, but Carver never took his hand away from them. Vanderos chuckled and reached into a pocket to pull out a data card.
"This is good information, so these chips better be clean."
"One of my men worked the black market in this region for decades. He assures me they've never been through a linked network"
With a nod from Vanderos, the exchange was made and hands were shook. He said a terse goodbye to Kaeci and Harriet, then exited the shack.
"Shall we?" Stryker said, leading the way out and back to the docks.
Nobody really spoke as they walked and picked their way through the crowd, not until they were a stone's throw away from the Maelstrom.
"This is us here" Carver said pointing it out "You folks got any gear you need to gather up? Or you ready to go now? It's no rush either way, we're not expecting the rest of the crew back for a few hours"
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On the Revenant, Kira had called for everyone to come to the War Room for final briefing. Grayson was half-way through getting his armor on when the call came in, so of course, he was late, but then again, so was Kira, who was nowhere to be seen as he walked into the War Room. Using the moment he tapped on Amy's shoulder and leaned in to speak.
@Xandrya"Hey, come by the armory for a second once this meetin's done? Made a few last minute adjustments to your suit an' I wanna go over it with ya before we start this fight."
"Alright everyone gather around, I'm only sayin' this once" Kira said as she walked in to the war room, already fully geared up save for her helmet. A hologram of the target ship came up on the table, a materials hauler retrofitted with an array of cannons.
"So, we're gonna come up on it from the rear, put a few blasts from the main cannons into the thrusters and across the bridge, see if we can either cripple them, or cut their head off. As we strafe up alongside it's rear, we're gonna split focus between disabling the guns on that port-side wing and blasting a few holes in this rear section. If we can depressurize it, that'll knock out a large amount of the enemy combatants before we even get boots on the ground. In fact if we pull this much off without any trouble, emergency airlocks will engage, sealing off the entire aft of the ship from the forward decks, where we're expecting the bulk of their people to congregate."
She stopped long enough to take a few breaths and to size up the Revenant crew before she doled out fireteam assignments.
"Here's how it's gonna work: Doesn't look to me like there are any easily accessible exterior docks, so we'll have to go after a not-so-easily accessible one. To that end, a small team will be staying aboard the ship, a pilot and a gun crew. You guys will use the full might of the weapons system to disable or destroy as much of the ship's defenses as you can. The bulk of us will be taking one of the shuttles down to this position here" she indicated the midsection 'dip' in the hull where exposed piping ran between the fore and aft sections of the ship "There's an access hatch here that ought to be easy to hack or blast our way through. Beyond that hatch we'll split into two squads, the main attack force, who'll proceed into the forward cargo area and begin the assault, and a stealth squad made up of myself and these two" she pointed to Amy and Taleste "We're going through the ventilation system and making our way up to this front section of the ship, where the hull widens out. While the main force is drawing their attention, we'll be securing this airlock for the Revenant to dock in and then close in on the fight so we can start picking off any stragglers in the rear. Still a chance of some depressurization where the Revenant will be fighting off the exterior defenses, so full hermetically-sealed suits on at all times. Once targets are down, we'll secure as much of the armor as we can grab off the corpses and then get back on the ship and frag it from a safe distance. Everyone clear? We'll be there in 20."
