[center][h1][color=b0021d]Xander Clarke[/color][/h1][/center]
[hr]

[H2][center]KAITIAKI[/center][/h2]

While Xander appreciated the laugh he got out of Sam. The rest of the room looked less amused. Especially Skye who made her displeasure known. That was pretty much expected. What wasn’t expected was Sam making a very similar remark about how “ineffective” the design was. Xander looked at the already opened can in his hand, then turned back to the naysayers with a raise eyebrow. Clearly his design had worked as intended and the beer was not shaken up. However, this was his first and only test. There was every possibility it was a fluke and subsequent cans would explode upon opening. 

[color=b0021d]"Oi, give me some credit. I designed and built this beauty in a matter of hours. Give me a day and maybe access to Freya's lab and I'll have these cans flying across this place without even disturbing the contents."[/color] Xander said. Though he made a quick addendum for Skye’s sake. [color=b0021d]“Don’t worry, mum. I’ll test it outside or somewhere that any spills won’t cause a mess. I’m not an animal.”[/color]

After that, Xander stayed in the rec room and chatted with anyone else that had decided to linger. He had the advantage of being there a few days early so he didn’t have any unpacking or freshening up to do so he remained in his chair until it was time to head to the briefing room. On his way out he was tempted to call for another beer from the fridge, but a very angry scowl from Skye made him choose otherwise. At least until he had more time to perfect it.

[H2][center]Slight Change of Plans[/center][/h2]

[@ReusableSword]
After his failed attempt at a catchphrase, Ogre chimed in with a suggestion for his next try. Xander pondered it for a moment.

[color=b0021d]“Hmm. I might be able to roll with that. Thanks, Ogre!”[/color] Xander replied and gave Ogre a solid pat on the shoulder. 

[@FourtyTwo]
They had bigger things to worry about than catchphrases at the moment. Right away the recon teams had given them a full view of the situation, and Queen was giving them a full breakdown. She made sure they understood what they were up against and divided them into groups each with a specific focus for stopping this arm deal. No shock to anyone that Xan and Chaos were given the duty of turning all of Artemis' fancy gadgets against them, and fucking up anything they couldn't. 

[color=b0021d]“You got it, mum!”[/color] Xander confirmed and gave a two fingered salute to the scottish CO.
 
[@LadyAmber]
In the blink of an eye his tablet was out and searching for a backdoor into the enemy network. It would be tricky to not only find a way to break through their firewalls, but in a way that they wouldn't notice. Luckily, Chaos worked just as quick and was able to establish a hard dock with her drone. She gave him the frequency to use and just like that they were already in business.

[color=b0021d]"Oh you're making this too easy, Chaos!"[/color] Xander chuckled as he connected to the frequency. She had basically taken care of everything else, so that left Xander with just the mech. But that was more than enough for him.

Right away he hit the mech with a ‘sitting duck’ virus, making it completely immobilized. At least for the moment. To the unaware enemy it wouldn’t look like the mech was being taken over, just currently having a technical issue that caused it to stop responding. If the pilot was smart they would do a full reboot to restore systems, but it really didn't matter. By the time the mech was operational again Raven would already be hitting them in full force.

[@PerfectThought]
Next was the hind. It couldn't be hacked, but it didn't need to be. It just had to be destroyed. And Xander already had the perfect tool to take care of that. It was almost guaranteed the mech would be back up and running by the time the hind was in range, so all he had to do was rewrite some of the targeting protocols to mark the hind as hostile and a priority target. If the pilot wanted to use any sort of auto targeting, the hind would be the first thing it locked onto. Then when they try to fire on Raven the hind probable would be taken care of aaaand where did the sensors go? Xander tapped the screen several times but still no response. None of them had issued an overload to any of the systems, so why were the sensors suddenly offline like they were destroyed? Unless…

[color=b0021d]"Oh bugger me."[/color] Xan mumbled to himself before opening the comms. [color=b0021d]"Hey Stafford! Bloody ripper shot there, mate. But you blinded me new toy! Next time you wanna break something, make sure we ain't gonna use it first."[/color]

Xander tried to make sure his tone didn't come off as too harsh. He was annoyed, sure. But Stafford's action was more than justified, and in the end it was just a minor setback. He could still use the mech to take out that hind, it would just require a more "hands on" approach. And to do that, all he had to do was take over the hatch release. On command, the cockpit would open up completely exposing the pilot and the controls. Now he just had to ensure he could get to it.

Lastly, he took a bit of inspiration from Chaos for the finale. Once the communications tower was taken out, the mech could still be manually controlled. Great if one of them was piloting. Very bad if Artemis still had it. So Xander set a command for the mech timed to run exactly 4 minutes and 50 seconds from now. If someone did take control before then he could cancel the command at any time, but if not it would force the mech to shut the rocket tubes then prime and fire every rocket simultaneously. A misfire like that would certainly be enough to knock the mech out of commission, while still keeping the blast radius small enough to not risk the fuel rods.

With all the hacks taken care of it was time to move out. Xan snapped the tablet back onto his arm and followed the others back to their DPV. However, he did not pack his equipment into the vehicle like his companions. For his plan to work, he would need to make a quick exit. Instead of climbing into his seat, Xan clung to the railing of the roll cage with one arm and secured his feet against the side of the DPV. The extra grip strength from his exoskeleton ensured he wouldn't fall off until he was ready.

[@LadyAmber][@ReusableSword]
[color=b0021d]"Alright, conductor. Ready to earn those last two stars?"[/color] Xan asked with a laugh. He held his rifle in the other hand and pointed it towards the mech and all the soldiers around it. [color=b0021d]"I need to get to that mech. We're on a tight deadline so just swing by it and don’t stop! Don't worry. I've jumped out of things moving faster than this."[/color] He reassured them.

As they drove, Chaos posed the idea of having music but in a way that didn’t announce their presence. His eyes lit up at the suggestion. [color=b0021d]“Ooo! We could probably use the headsets built into our helmets! Then it’s just a matter of making sure our comms are still online without subjecting the whole crew to our tunes.”[/color] Xander turned to the passenger in the back to include him in the conversation as well. [color=b0021d]“How about you, Orge? Fancy having some theme music on these missions?”[/color]