In the space of the twelve hours the Spectre was out scouting, marking important landmarks, including the boundaries between the desert the Raider's mountain base occupied and the badlands between it and the rainforest, and taking note of a notable lack of enemies or potential enemies in the immediate vicinity, the base had progressed considerably. War factories were now pumping out fresh vehicles and parts to repair the damaged ones that had made it out of the battle on their original arrival, Wraiths, Vikings, and Banshees patrolled the skies alongside Ravens and Science Vessels, and now groups of Hellions were making trips between the farms near the river and the base, as well as regular patrols of them up to a mile out from the base with Predator mech support. The Hellion's speed makes them ideal for the desert, as well as their tires, versus the Cyclones that were filling up alongside extra Siege Tanks, Diamondbacks, and Goliaths in a vehicle depot, which had treads, while the Predators more even weight distribution made them good for back up.
Rave, looking at the organized chaos from his vantage in a room on an upper floor, could only marvel at it. Jim was out among his men, his black CMC-300 armor sticking out amid the red and blue of Raider and Dominion marines, giving orders, checking progress and over all just making sure the base was running at it's best. The other Spectres were training with the contingent of Ghosts that Valerian had attached to them on the lower floor of this barracks, which belonged exclusively to the Psi Ops division of the Raiders, and he could feel their minds working and hear them practicing their hand-to-hand combat with their bodies. It was impressive, given they'd started with nothing almost an entire month before.
With a sigh, he glanced at his helmet as it beeped and picked it up, glancing at what it was before putting it on.
"Lieutenant Mallard, what's up? The voice on the other end doesn't immediately reply and I can hear some papers rustling as they're rifled through and a chair creak as it's shifted. Finally, after about two minutes of silence, it answers, a woman on COMs duty for the day due to drawing the short straw.
"Commander Raynor wants you by the Node, Lieutenant. He said in the next two minutes or he's putting a new hole in your ass." The psion sighs, gives an affirmative and stands, stretching. He had just woken from some well earned sleep around ten minutes ago, but he was already feeling antsy, as was his norm. Going from being on the run from the Dominion to one of their top Assassins and Espionage operatives was jarring and he'd never quite lost his over-cautious edge. Putting on his HEA after removing his helmet, and then replacing the helmet, he retrieves his sword, rifle and pistol from a wall rack for weapons and heads out.
The Node, as Stetmann had called it after their discovery of it, was what made it possible for the mineral growths that the SCVs now harvested from daily possible as well as their vespene supplies that allowed the building of more than CMC armor and Hellion/Hellbat chassises. Rave, Matt, and Jim didn't bother pretending to understand it, but all the same, the commander had given Stetmann the go ahead to make more if he could understand it and purpose them to create vespene. Minerals weren't going to be a problem soon enough, and arguably weren't as far as Rave was concerned, but the gas was harder to work with. After a short five minute jog, the Spectre spotted the black suit of CMC armor and approached it, saluting him.
"At ease, Mallard. You know you don't need to do that with me." Rave grinned behind his helmet as he dropped his salute and followed the grizzled commander as he walked. [color=Gray]"I'm sure you're wonderin' why I brought you down here instead of sending you back out to scout."[color] The Spectre nodded and Raynor continued, lighting up a cigarette as he walked.
"I want you to head to the communications room and send out a call on all Dominion channels, see if anyone else ended up in this god forsaken hell hole. Let 'em know where we are, pick a place to meet 'em, and bring 'em home. Sure Warfield would appreciate it and I sure as hell don't believe in leavin' our folks alone out there."Rave hesitated for a moment, looking back towards the command center and then up towards the Hyperion in low orbit, where a Gorgon was being constructed in preparation for any upcoming combat. Several Light Scouts, a unit that had only recently been fielded by the Dominion after Jim made a hell of an argument for it, heading out to pick up where the Spectre had left off. Finally, he chuckled.
"Matt's back on the Hyperion, isn't he? That's why you're doing it now." Raynor chuckled and nodded, taking another drag of his smoke.
"That he is. He's gone to oversee the completion of that Gorgon and any other heavy aerial units we might need, along with coordinating with our towers on the ground to keep our pilots aware of the situation around them and alert them if they're needed. Since I knew he wouldn't like risking us getting decrypted, I waited til he left." Shaking his head ruefully, Rave looked up towards the Node for a moment before nodding.
"Consider it done, Jim. I'll let you know if I get any hits." Not waiting for the commander's reply, Rave jogs over to the command center and ducks inside, heading for the coms room where he met the woman who'd informed him to meet Jim near the Node. After appraising each other silently for a moment, she went back to managing the traffic with the help of the other officers, various men and women who had ignored the Spectre's entrance, while he went to an empty console. It took a few minutes to get ALL the Dominion frequencies up and running, along with ensuring the open frequency was shut down, but he finally had what he wanted. Taking a deep breath, the psion began speaking into the mic.
"This is Lieutenant Rave Mallard of the Spectre Ops with Raynor's Raiders. If there are any Dominion personnel hearing this, we are in the southern desert on a mountain. In one hour, I will be heading to the northern border where the desert meets with mesas and badlands, waiting six hours for you to arrive. I will be doing this for the next two days, this message looping every hour on the hour for the time I am waiting. Please let me know you hear me on one of these channels. I repeat, this is Lieutenant Rave Mallard of the Spectre Ops with Raynor's Raiders. It's time to come home." He decided he would wait in the coms room for the whole hour and then head to the border in a medivac.
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