[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/pFzWxXS.jpeg[/img][h2]Reprieve[/h2][/center]
[indent][code]Skogsrå, Gelcastre Woods, 7th Supply Camp_
101st Special Forces Legion. Local Time: 1915_ [/code][/indent][hr]

[i]'They'll still do it if I flutter my eyes at them a little bit'[/i], is what Sabine was [i]about[/i] to say before Sagan took a shit all over her planned fun. No gambling? For a whole month? The point wasn't even to take their Rip-Gel away from the support staff because they needed it, the point was to do it [i]for the sport of it[/i]. Sabine gasped as though Sagan had just slapped her across the face and called her mother a whore in front of the entire crew. 

[color=pink]"Boss! You didn't!"[/color] Sabine's french lilt was somehow even stronger as she dramatically sighed and fell to her seat. [color=pink]"A whole [i]month?![/i] We're only supposed to be here a month!"[/color] Sabine tried to fake a weep, but she was never a particularly good actress. Reluctantly, Sabine snatched the coffee pot as it was set down and poured herself a cup, caffeine that wasn't won off the tears of their support crew didn't feel nearly as good, but it was still necessary.

[color=pink]"Sparrowhawk should be good to go in a few hours,"[/color] Sabine muttered, defeated, [color=pink]"The shifting servos got pretty banged up when I crashed into the apartment, but they should be done replacing them in a few hours- the wingtip is going to be harder to replace, so I'll have to be careful with my cruising speeds, but combat speeds should be unaffected."[/color] Sabine pointed out the tent window in nearly perfect timing as a several bursts of distant AA fire streaked up into the darkening sky, tracers visible from some miles away. [color=pink]"Not that I think we'll be doing a whole lot of flying any time soon. Gelcastre's got more AA batteries than a porcupine has spines. There's enough shit flying through the sky that getting dinged is more of a 'when' than an 'if'."[/color]

[color=pink]"No fucking around for a whole month."[/color] Sabine sulked into her coffee, [color=pink]"Can you believe that Rhino? A whole month. Shoot me now."[/color]

[hr]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/mb9aQvd.jpeg[/img][h2]Preparations[/h2][/center]
[indent][code]Skogsrå, Gelcastre Woods, 7th Supply Camp_
101st Special Forces Legion. Local Time: 2100_ [/code][/indent][hr]

Sabine's bitching and moaning would [i]eventually[/i] come to an end as the team was slowly filtered into one of the emptied supply vehicles for a planning meeting. Now that they were on their own, without Sarret watching over their every move, they were free to pick and choose their targets as necessary, their Comms officer patched into both allied and enemy communications. The result was an almost overwhelming deluge of information for them to sift through: unending calls for air support and casevac, fire missions and requests for reinforcements- from both sides. The 7th's goal remained the same: Find and secure the nanoforge, but that didn't stop the local 5th fleet commanders from requesting assistance from their attached special forces units.

[color=#EEE8AA]"Uh, Commander Kodos,"[/color] their comms officer, Ensign Dole spoke up, [color=#EEE8AA]"I, uh, hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of compiling what I thought to be the most high priority requests coming in."[/color] 

The kid was a nervous, sweaty mess- this was probably his first time this close to the front, but he steeled his nerves as best he could. [color=#EEE8AA]"We're getting a lot of requests every which way- but I tried to filter it out to requests that would actively help us- er- you guys in finding the nanoforge."[/color] 

[hider=Option 1: Strike][color=#EEE8AA]"uh- right, okay... so, first up on the shortlist is, um... a strike mission by East Gelcastre. This request came in from the 111st Helldogs. They, uh, say eastern Gelcastre is bristling with anti-air sites. You know... SAM sites... and flak cannons... laser batteries... the like.

These batteries have been chewing up 5th fleet gunships and landing pods making any kind of low-altitude pass over the city basically... well... suicidal. Most of the emplacements are heavily guarded, and the request is for you to take your MAS in and, um, knock those sites out. Loud, fast, and thorough.

While you're in the area, there's also a Coalie supply convoy due to pass through- lots of heavy ordnance according to intel reports. If you can... deal with it, that'd be, uh, appreciated. But it's secondary to the AA sites.

Now, um, this won’t... really get us- you- closer to finding the Nanoforge, at least, not directly- but if those guns are gone, you’ll be able to move and fly over that part of the city without... without having to worry about, uh... sudden unscheduled landings. Which should make it easier to run deeper ops later without, you know, becoming shrapnel."[/color][/hider]

[hider=Option 2: Infiltration][color=#EEE8AA]"Uh, okay, so option two is a bit outside your usual MO. This one came in from a recon force- a UEE Ghost that's been, uh, [i]ghost[/i]-ing around, in Gelcastre's outer districts for a couple of weeks now. He's identified a Coalition communications relay it's in a smaller district, not the main urban core and he thinks it's handling secure military movements. The Ghost is bugging out for some other objectives- he wouldn't tell us what, but that's a Ghost for you, so the relay is kind of just sitting there.

5th fleet Command still sees it as important, so the mission would be for a small team infiltration- no MAS, little to no support, and, um, preferably as little gunfire as can be helped. You'd be going in on foot, tap into their network, and pull whatever files you can without tripping alarms. Command is looking for updated troop deployments, artillery positions, supply routes- that sort of stuff. Oh! and uh, there's been some encrypted chatter flagged with the codename [i]Project Forge[/i]. Its a bit, uh, on the nose, so it might just be bait, but uh, but given our mission, I thought you might want to see it.

Coalition foot patrols in that district are present and as alert as you might expect a city under siege to be, but nothing overly conspicuous. If things go loud, extraction might be... difficult, but doable. But uh... quiet is p-probably best."[/color][/hider]

[hider=Option 3: Blackout][color=#EEE8AA]"I uh, thought Hex would like this one because, you know, [i]'blackout'[/i], like her... uh... yeah nevermind. Okay, so this one's going to be an attack on a power relay station in Gelcastre's industrial district- its the biggest one in the city. If we take it out, it'll cause uh, well, a blackout. Uh, the idea is to force the Coalies to reroute their power to critical sites, like the Nanoforge.

The Helldogs are launching an attack on a nearby garrison and will be deploying multi-spectrum jamming to cover the whole zone, which we can use as cover throughout. That means sensors- radar, thermal, electronic, won’t work here, ours included, so we'll have to equip each machine with short-wave directed energy communications- you'll basically be shooting lasers at each other to communicate. This also means uh, that the Coalies'll have to rely on visual detection only. So, uh, that gives you some cover to sneak in, but also means comms will be a bit... sparse.

Coalition forces should be distracted by the Helldogs, but they'll still be in the area, so using shadows, buildings, and the like to avoid enemy patrols and drone cameras- or just shoot them down, maybe they'll think its more Helldogs.

Uh, the relay station itself is fairly well guarded: turrets, infantry, and Coalition MAS guarding the place, but uh, you guys are used to that, right? Once you're in, you just gotta find the core and overload it- or blow it up. We have demo charges you can bring, but missiles and plasma weapons should do the trick too. 

Once the blackout happens, expect reinforcements to come rushing in fast, so you'll have to fight your way back out... and that's uh, yeah."[/color][/hider]

[color=#EEE8AA]"But uh, yeah, that's my short list,"[/color] Dole stuttered, [color=#EEE8AA]"H-hope that works for you guys."[/color]