RidOv Chpt-32

<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Ridiculously Overboard!! (A Captain Roberts Tale!!)Chapter 32 - Week 1; Devil's Breath system...==
----
===Commando Raid===
Spaceport, Devil's Breath - Outworlds Wastes, Periphery
----
The time they'd spent...
...preparing hadn't been all peeks at relics or meetings with Colonial leaders or even planning.
The Lyonesse slid to a halt on a tarmac that was partially hidden under dust, outside a collection of semi-translucent domes.
That's the visible light spectra.
On the integrated night-vision of their PA(L) suits, vibrowire and minefields were starkly visible, some of it had residual current running through it.
<{"Left, ten meters, kneel one half meter from it."}> Desmond instructed.
Amanda did, and did what seemed natural. The sabotage devices deactivated. "Someone is definitely here."
Her vision showed her the position, condition, and relative range of her team of suits. Wireframes from the suit transceivers revealed partially hidden objects, and her mouth spoke instructions to each of them. Sometimes even when she intended to.
It was like seeking out the data trunkline, only with helpers she/they had to communicate with, Desmond was 'up in the front' a lot more, like Desmond was when she didn't know how to power up the ship, or how to fly the shuttle.
Be careful, step-step-hop-stepstepstep... she skipped over a non-networked antipersonnel mine, landed one-footed, and speared it with the cutlass-half Desmond, half Amanda that one-she made it look flare and flashy.
desmond made her feet land where they wouldn't trigger the mine's proximity sensor.
a 'compass bar' with a waypoint marker and range scrolled in the top of her vision, as the team approached, disarming or avoiding defenses.
From outside, from an external view? it would, if someone saw, look like they'd simply strolled languidly through a defense meant to slaughter an infantry assault at division strength.
Combat knife She drew the vibr-bayonet, and sliced the casing on the access panel of the door frame, revealing the wiring going to the biometric reader, punch-pad, and keyway.
deftly she rearranged the wiring contacts as if her hands had been doing this for decades in the factory.
It overrode the airlock's security protocols and opened the door.
Which was a surprise to the six men donning Typhoon armor on the other side.
"I AM THE GREAT PIRATE ROBERTS!!! SURRENDER YOUR BOOTY!!!"
There's a time for stealth, and then, there's a time for theatrics.
the local reaction team went for Zeus heavy rifles and what looked like most of a Firedrake needler.
Desmond took over completely for this.
Shoot-step-slash-stab-step-shoot
Status indicator showed Seron and Jones were delivering aimed covering fire along the second bank of lockers, Adams was moving up and loading a flashbang grenade, and Caffrey was already closing the inner lock door and securing it.
The firefight in close quarters lasted less than five seconds.
"Uh, 'surrender your booty'?" Adams asked, "What the hell?"
"Anybody we can question?" she asked.
"These are Tornado Power Armor, Comstar issue from the 3050s and 3060s." Seron asserted, "they also sold them to affiliated mercs, and a lot of those mercs went to work for Word of Blake."
"Should I be saying 'Arr' with all that, Captain??" Caffrey asked.
"Maybe. Maybe we'll do a talk-like-a-pirate-day." Amanda answered. She tapped the side of her head, "Remember? Imaginary friend? YOU volunteered to work with a crazy person."
"No, I volunteered to work for a so-called 'crazy person'." Seron spoke up, "which crazy has just launched a series of commando raids on Bandits...ARRR."
The moment of levity after the shock of slaughtering eighteen men in an armor fittery was enough to unlock Jones and Caffrey and get everyone moving for the elevator.
Her display flickered for a moment, and Amanda had to unseal her helmet, pull her eyeball, and plug it into a service port.
"Helmets on." she spoke up, matching her own movements while her eye gazed lifelessly from the data plug.
"I need a big, floppy hat." she said over the common channel, "and a cape." 
A wirefame of the dome, with locations of personnel and prisoners laid out on her heads-up in the suit.
"Sixty prisoners alive and accounted for on the next level down...we need a bigger boat." Seron was getting the signal from her command, and he spoke up.
"Yeah, we do. There's a service lock in the next dome over with a pair of Mark VIIs (not Clan model, but Inner Sphere) personnel transport smallcraft. There appears to be half a dozen guards, I'm redirecting the alarms you triggered, Amanda."
"Keep redirecting them." she said. "Can we take them?"
'We? No. Redirect Mister Seron and the volunteers to take this location-" one of the dome's inner chambers lit. "we-meaning-you-and-I, will handle the removal of these...persons more efficiently without needing to keep track of the rest of the team."
"I don't like that plan." she argued, "Single rule in FPS games-never split up the party."
"Your logic is sound. The next best option is to take the complex's command point here..."
"Mister Seron! Hop on the transmitter and call in our backup. We're taking the prison." She ordered.
"Aye, Ma'am."
----
Laird General Buellin had...
...converted the former SLDF special military prison into a sort of 'forward headquarters' for sorting 'livestock' and goodies for The Sons of Plunder.
The specials kept in lower tier one were for Laird General's use-recreational assets, to be shared out to the officers for 'shore leaves'.
Mixed with those, were 'skill types' who needed conditioning either before use, or sale, and a few that could be broken and turned into recruits.
The base was almost self-sufficient thanks to SLDF's overengineering and SLIC's paranoia in how to deal with Hostages, and occasionally a hostage would be kept here temporarily before being taken to The Fort on Tresspass.
Mostly so that harvests in the Wastes could go on a regular schedule.
This left Lord Leftenant Doakes stuck here being guard and castellan until whichever Battalion was on circuit stopped by or the Laird General himself came in for a bit of the sort of fun you don't have at your chosen home.
Appearances, after all, must be maintained.
The perimeter alarm hadn't been dealt with, it just shut off, and Knight Sergeant Frieze had not reported back with an answer.
Doakes had a bad feeling about that. "It's been twenty minutes." He said, "Red Alert, we're being attacked by commandos."
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
32