Hearing her comment, Tobias gave a chuckle, looking up to the tall frame of his Firehound's black-grey armour, the lukewarm feeling of the carbon-titanium composite skin something like a Formula One car would have, albeit the skin only masked a cold, armoured core that could withstand a beating. A slight variation to the Stormhound, but one that had a different heart, a different idea. But no less relevant as a prototype, one that was going to get
"Not yet...but with enough creativity and a bit more mechanical torque I'm sure it'll happen in time. For now, it'll skewer nicely." He looked at it one last time, following Alex and Gabby over to her suit, listening to her upgrades. It seemed like she had gotten a new series of tools, even from afar. Tobias whistled, seeing the cameras pop out of the Stormhound, quite impressed with that feature.
"They literally gave you eyes in the back of your head....and your hand. That is kinda cool. Gonna be super weird, but then again, what isn't in this line of work...that'll help with any breaches." He commented, looking around the Stormhound as Alex continued, showing the rest of the performance upgrades off, oh, and the taser. Damn, now that was a cool tool...no doubt they were going to develop that one further, given it was mostly a stun-based weapon. Good for crowd control, but even his engineer's mind was whirring away with how to develop, change and make it even more exotic than it already was. Safe to say, no contact-tasing sounded like one hell of a way of putting someone down, if a swipe of an arm couldn't. Alex's last comment made him chuckle though, that was for sure. Tobias gave a disapproving, yet warm sigh, looking up to the Israeli with only a slight disdain.
"Shit Gabby, don't give the game up! That's something I'm working in my shed! Wait, did I say that out loud?" He wryly commented, laughing as he sniggered too, Alex looking on with a bewilderment, the kind that came with dealing with the two of them being the kinds of people that weren't classical engineers by trade.
"Riiight....anyway, that's all your upgrades, you two. Should have some more coming through soon after your next op. I believe you're needed over in the briefing room. The one that isn't upstairs. So I'd assume it's something fairly important...it's always a pleasure, you two. But bring them back in one piece, please?" Alex replied, putting the tablet away into the pouch as the ginger-haired girl packed up her other tools and cables for the diagnostics, the Cornishman giving a firm nod and taking a look at his watch, then back to the two.
"We do our best, but you know the score....thank you, Alex. Cheers for sorting this out with the team, much appreciated. Anyway, that meeting sounds like it could do with the next op on the horizon. Come on, Gabby, let's get going." Tobias commented, Alex giving a casual salute as the Cornishman led their way out of the room, giving one last glance over his shoulder at the Firehound, giving quiet, approving look at the thing that had stopped him being turnt into Swiss cheese not too long ago.
Walking inside the small briefing room adjacent to the suits, the sight of Bluestone sat in a blue-collared shirt and a pair of smart trousers and shoes, or as he really was outside of the field, Gavin de Vries- a tall, blonde-haired mid-40s something former operative, and he was the sight of someone who proved that old men in a field where it was likely to get killed were people you feared. He wore a pair of designer glasses, and an expensive watch on his wrist- an obvious statement of the fact that you made money in this game. He had given up that life of being an operative given he'd made his money doing stupidly risky shit and survived- so now as a team leader, he knew he got more than enough to support his lifestyle doing this sort of work. He didn't even have to manage too many people. Just two assets with an incredibly expensive pricetag attached to them...no pressure, right? So unlike the stereotypical South African merc who was utterly scary as shit and made every other reference to being a complete badass, Gavin was actually calmed down, if anything, impassionate yet caring. Gentle, but always with a good sense of humour behind him because of it. He'd probably take a few more years of this, retire and enjoy the quiet life. Maybe run a vinyard back home, on a nice, quiet farm.
"Afternoon, you two. How are we? Grab a seat." Gavin asked, his Afrikaner accent still strong, even in spite of the fact he'd lived in the UK for the best part of a decade now, and always giving Tobias the feeling he was definitely in a stereotype of some kind.
"Caffineated. Not dead. S'ppose that's alright." The Cornishman replied, taking a seat and pouring a glass of water for Gabby and himself from the jug on the table, watching as Gavin fired up the laptop across the desk from him, already connected up to the interactive whiteboard.
"Marvelous. So, Papua worked out very nicely for you, eh? Diagnostics from our meeting earlier seems to say your suits performed admirably. The client has already settled up with us nicely, as we expected- so no doubt they'll keep us on their list for future work. Wanted to start with that. You definitely earnt your paycheck this month. We appreciate it." He started, sipping down his water as Tobias did the same, taking a gulp.
"Cheers, Gavin. We do our best." Tobias replied, as Gavin nodded, seeing the PC fire up and finally boot up the briefing, the main bit he wanted to come onto. He wanted to get pleasantries out of the way- because what he was going to give them was going to be a bit heavier, and something he needed buy-in into.
"Splendid. So, we have another contract that has come through...lucrative, but way more sensitive. They're not all as easy as Papua, after all." He added firmly, as he pulled up the map on the interactive whiteboard behind him, bringing up the Eastern Med, and in particular, zooming in on Cyprus, bringing in a UAV reconaissance shot as well.
Zooming the map in, Gavin highlighted a large villa on the northern coast, the part Tobias knew was in Turkish Cyprus. The part that had been left behind after the Turkish invasion, a chunk that sat in legal no-mans land, even after decades of disputing. It hadn't recovered, if not, it had become worse, what with companies using small chunks of Northern Cyprus as a "R&D Zone" and effectively fencing off their chunks for labs, research centres and weapons-based facilities. More than just a bit of private land, it was theirs to do what they wanted with- beyond rules, law, and order. A part of the world that nobody wanted anyone to pay much attention to, even if it was so glaringly obvious to look at from the Israeli or western side. While it didn't compare to the DRC's, Greenland's or Central Asia's zones, which were enormous and allowed private firms to do far more, it did show an influence- the Turkish had ceded private companies the ability to run riot, if it brought in jobs and the ability to draw down their troops in a cold warzone, they would take it.
"This isn't going to seem like much, but this one will be a bit of a bastard. The man who owns this big coastal villa here is former General Mehmet Ali, a retired fella from the Turkish Army. Retiring in fact, from pretty much everything. Our client wants him captured, not killed, and a laptop taken from his office. Can't tell you what's on it, all you need to know, the client wants this, badly enough that they went to us very directly."
"What you're allowed to tell us? This sounds spicy. Definitely not our usual."
"It is...and don't read any more into it, Tobias. Now look, I know you two are specialists in blowing things to pieces, and this job doesn't fit your usual MO of killing insergents and taking on lots of them. But from what I can tell, he is well defended and most wouldn't be able to crack this nut. Not unless you get someone to infiltrate it....far too high a risk though. He has a platoon of troops on station given his connections and his need for security, automated sentry weaponry, and worse, the area he's in is a Centurion Security R&D area- small as it is, they have a QRF that would be on station if someone intruded on their land. And they aren't a farmer with a shotgun, as you know....turn that platoon into a couple of companies within an hour. They aren't protecting him- they just don't want any armed personel sniffing around, and if they see you...you will have a fight on your hands. It won't be easy, given a proper aerial or naval intrusion just won't be an option, and unless Centurion were willing to fuck over their reputation, they aren't going to want to hand this on a silver plate to us." Gavin began, zooming in on the villa, and the approach road it had up to the coastal villa.
"So, our plan instead, is to get you in as close as possible via other means. Mehmet has some building work going on at the bottom end of his villa, and his builders are bringing in an ISO-standard container....our client has pulled a few strings, and you can see where this is going. Before you can even say Trojan Horse on a greek island....yeah, we know. Our intel on this one from the client suggests they don't perform checks until his front gate.....at which point, you basically are going to have the chance to spring the trap on them. Get up the drive, clear the villa, find the General and grab him. And his laptop, and any dossiers, or paperwork. He'll likely hide in his safe room neext to his office...which given it's mostly bulletproof glass, you'll have no issue ripping him out of. There's a dock at the bottom of his villa you'll need to wait at once you get out- we'll have a boat get you out of there and back via the south." Gavin went through the plan, the look on Tobias's face firstly of shock, knowing this seemed a bit...well, out of wack compared to their usual insertions. Out of an aircraft, or in a mlitarised truck, it made sense but a cargo container? It seemed preposterous...but their boss hadn't let them down yet.
"What, and that boat will be fine? After a massive firefight in a remote villa? And Centurion are gonna just be fine with Operation Trojan Container?" Tobias asked with an enquiring look on his face, as perplexed most likely as Gabby was, the insertion one he still couldn't quite grasp.
"Yeah, that's one to write down for the actual op name, cheers Tobias. But yeah, it'll be fine. We can't insert you on a boat given you will get shot on sight from the compound. But given Centurion don't have a heavy amount of naval assets on station, we'll be able to get you out. I know it seems a bit insane, but given your armour, the fact they won't be expecting a threat like you, and the fact you'll be past most of the perimeter defenses, it plays into your hands nicely. Speed, aggression and clearing out the garrison will be key." Gavin reiterated, the enigmatic Bluestone knowing that it was going to be a difficult one to convince, but at the same time, their best play of action.
"Right, that works. Anything else?"
"I'd advise you don't take weapons that blow things up or shred things too much, and you go lighter than usual for this one- automatic shotguns and LMGs might be a better call for this run. Be ready for close-quarters fighting, basically. The soldiers guarding it are competent, they aren't skinnies with AKs, they have grenade launchers, LMGs, even light anti-tank weaponry, fuck, they're just about ready for World War Three down there. But no doubt your anti-personel loadout is something more than that. So you'll need to have the firepower to basically level them, but also something to work inside the villa with. Ah yeah, it is all plasterboard by the way....so you should be fine breaking through walls if your frames don't make it in his doorways. There's one area that isn't going to be accessible to either of you- the top floor of the villa sticks out of the hill he's had it built on, and if there's any hostiles in there, one of you will need to go on foot in there with cover." Gavin started, as he adjusted the map's zoom.
"Oh yeah!" Tobias said, with the accental voice, knowing the reference might be lost on people- what of breaking through a wall like the Kool-Aid guy. He felt the judgement from Gavin, as the South African shook his head, bringing in the map one more time, sighing.
"Right...Gabby, any questions?"
