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Within a short amount of time, the Revenant crew was armed and getting ready for the drop planetside, most of the members eager to get into some action after beeing cooped up in the ship for so long. Tibulus, was as good of a pilot as ever, and managed to get them relatively undetected into the planet's atmosphere and on an uninhabited stretch of forest in the middle of nowhere that the Skaldrum would likely consider insignificant and not bother raiding or patrolling. Benny spent most of the time reading the base architecture the Alliance had provided them, and trying to get a feel for the place so that he would not have to consult his holographic map every time he had to figure out where he was. Thankfully, Alliance architecture was designed for human practicality, and he had no trouble getting a general gist of how the place was put together, and logic was often enough to fill the blanks in his memory as to what rooms or facilities were near or connected to others. Given enough munitions, he even felt confident about being able to do a full demolition job of the place, but he wasn't packing that much firepower as their mission was rescue.

At the shuttle bay, Benny stood with most of the others as he adjusted the seals and locks on his hazard suit. Once he was satisfied with it, he activated Skelly's interface and synchronized it with his helmet HUD, to allow him to view and browse data without having to bring up the hologram, instead using a portion of Skelly as a touchpad to guide a cursor on his HUD to access and organize windows of information. He brought a backpack to carry his heavy explosives while the pockets on his suit were used to carry his grenades, and around 4 magazines worth of ammunition for his rifle. Once he was satisfied the way his detachable scope and Grenade launcher attachment was locked onto the weapon, he slung it over his right shoulder and snapped it onto the magnetized lock on the back of his armor, next to the backpack and stretched his neck around.

Next to the Scotsman was Matija who just finished reminding Koren about how he should use the new pistol that he had managed to borrow from Grayson before turning to the other. [color=burlywood]"Benny, I already told Koren this. We know the gig's simple. But shit can go wrong. We might have a warband on our ass, we might not. Bottomline is, don't die. I'd be disappointed if you do,"[/color] she told him. Benny smiled at the dry humor of her statement, and also her concern. [color=darkgoldenrod]"I dinnae knew I had expectations ta' live up to. I'll try not ta' disappoint,"[/color] He jested back with a nod. He then turned back towards Koren, the blue Juz' that seemed to be a close friend of Matija's. [color=darkgoldenrod]"I've been meaning to ask, how'd you an' the kid meet each other? Ya two seem to go way back,"[/color] He asked as the shuttle doors opened and some people began climbing in.

[color=burlywood]"Well..."[/color] Matija started as she thought about his question. [color=burlywood]"How's about this. I'll tell ya all about it when we get back, yea? Juss so we'll have something to talk about if we can at least get a bit of watered down beer to swill down,"[/color] Matija responded as the two of them began walking towards the 2nd shuttle entrance to climb aboard. Benny looked curiously at her but nodded nonetheless. He'd have to wait until their mission was over to get some answers.

[hr]

The shuttles carrying the Revenant's crew flew out, one of them stopping to deploy the disguised Taleste, while the one that Benny, Matija, and Koren rode on continued towards their destination. The ride was mostly silent with people checking equipment and gear along the way. Benny managed to pick up local satellite extranet services and used it to download a geographical map of the place they were heading to during the flight. Obviously the map did not have the Alliance facility on it, but it at least showed the plateau and the surrounding area, which would allow him to get his bearings should the shuttles be compromised and they need to leave on-foot. With that settles, he spent the rest of the trip playing a bootleg 3d remake of an old arcade game called "Bomberman" on the emulated interface on his helmet, visible to others who looked at his visor as he played against bots in a free-for-all mode.

They arrived at the plateau shortly after, with Stryker's shuttle coming in closely behind theirs as everyone unloaded onto the barren top, no sign of any facility of any kind. Benny tapped the ground curiously, trying to see if he could hear any hollow spots or signs of an opening, but found none. The dirt and ground seemed to be all there was. [color=darkgoldenrod][i]The Alliance hid it well, that's for sure[/i][/color] he thought as he pictured the facility underneath them. He figured that if they had hollowed out most of the plateau and the rocks and minerals within it, a powerful shockwave that manages to dislodge the facility's foundations would cause the plateau to collapse in on itself and bury the the whole facility along with anyone in it. Benny wondered if the Alliance had considered that as a contingency plan should they decide to destroy the facility and hide the evidence. As much as he would've loved to see something like that in action, he preferred witnessing it from a distance that he wouldn't get buried alive from.

The group spent most of the time, taking up positions around the plateau, with Grayson and Stryker taking charge in assigning people into different overwatch positions to cover all the ways an attacker could use to reach the plateau and climb it. Holding a mid-range rifle, Benny was assigned to look over one of the edges that had a good view of the entrance of one of the paths leading upwards. sitting on the most comfortable rock he could find, he flicked his helmet to thermal mode to scan the treeline for activity, but no heat signatures presented themselves in the blue hue of the thermal overlay.The minutes passed by in tense silence as they waited for Taleste to call in that the job was done. Every now and then Benny would catch a glimpse of a heat signature in the treeline, and would zoom in on it, only to see that it was some sort of ostrich-sized two-legged bird that ran in between the shrubbery.

Eventually, Stryker received a call on his comms and Benny turned towards him in curiosity when he heard him speak up. He mentioned a long pass code of some kind, which implied that Taleste had reached her objective and was about to secure them passage into the facility. Stryker began walking up to one of their shuttles to pick her up when he suddenly stop and spoke loudly into the comms. [color=orange]"Taleste, come in.... Taleste do you read me? Damn it!"[/color] He exclaimed just as the ground began to shake underneath them all. Benny jumped up from the rock he sat on, looking around the ground of the plateau to track the source of the disturbance when he saw a hole opening up in the middle of it, with a staircase leading downwards.

[color=orange]"Taleste was captured, but she got the job done. If she's lucky, she's already dead, we have to honor her sacrifice by pushing forward and getting this job done. Besides... they're probably gonna follow that right to us, and we have a better chance of defending ourselves down there in cover than out here in the open."[/color] Stryker announced as everyone stood up from their positions and got ready to move. [color=39b54a]"They're already comin' Stryker"[/color] Grayson, their resident sniper warned as he stared off into the distant lights of the settlement that were small dots on Benny's thermal vision.

[color=orange]"Ok, everyone get down there!"[/color] Stryker ordered as he began tapping on his wrist computer. Benny flicked off his nightvision and ran towards the staircase with the others. It took a few minutes of jogging down the steel steps for them to arrive at a single doorway, while the open hole loomed far above them.

[color=darkgoldenrod]"So, we got a key fer this or am I makin' one?!"[/color] Benny asked, already preparing to retrieve one of his charges to blow it open if needed. Stryker ran up to the door and knocked on it harshly. [color=orange]"Hey! Open up, we're with the Alliance, here to rescue you!"[/color] He shouted. After a second or so which felt like a lifetime to Benny, the doors unlocked and opened up to allow them passage into a small hallway. The group quickly rushed inside the uncomfortably clean white walls of the facility.

[color=orange]"We need this to stay locked."[/color] Stryker ordered, to which SAL responded by breaking the door controls. [color=orange]"That works."[/color] Stryker responded. [color=darkgoldenrod]"Hah! I like tha' way ya think, tin man!"[/color] Benny complimented as he looked around the area they were in. From what he remembered in the plans, the entrance led into the living quarters of the facility, just past a security checkpoint. Benny felt that it was a dumb decision to have the entrance be so close to where the people slept, especially if this place were attacked, but figured they did it for the convenience of the employees. After the couple seconds it took for those thoughts to go through his head, Stryker began laying out the plan.

[color=orange]"Ok, Grayson, Amy, Benny, you three with me, we'll grab the eggheads. The rest of you stay up here. Sure, we killed the power, but the Skaldurm are nothing if not resilient, they will break through that eventually, so grab whatever you can from the rooms up here, barricade it off, and set up some cover points in case you have to fend them off. There's another way out of here according to the blueprints I got from the Alliance. Soon as we're ready to go, I'll call up to you guys."[/color] He explained.

Benny felt oddly uncomfortable about leaving Matija and Koren behind, though he couldn't quite place why. He shook it off and nodded at Stryker. [color=darkgoldenrod]"Aye aye"[/color] he said, wishing he had decided to bring the trip-mines after all so he could've handed it to the defense team. [color=orange]"Let's get moving. The rest of you, don't die. They don't get another win today."[/color] Stryker added as Benny followed him and his group deeper into the complex.

[color=darkgoldenrod]"These braniacs betta' not have left automated security or some shite online that tries ta' kill us, or I'm gaunnie be very upset!"[/color]