Down with the Syndicate

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2019 @ 3:34am by Lieutenant Commander Adlyn Rowley & Commander Logan Vance
Edited on on Sat Aug 3rd, 2019 @ 3:59am

Mission: Preludes
Location: In Orbit of Syndicate Outpost
Timeline: 2386 - 4 Days Later
Tags: Prelude

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Down with the Syndicate
Four Days Later
Time 0930
Scene: In Orbit of Syndicate Outpost
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Logan readied a couple of phasers but stopped for a moment to massage his leg. It was bothering him again at the worst possible time. If it didn't stop soon, he'd have to take a painkiller and that might further degrade his performance. "How ready for us do you think they are?"

"I hope that they are still reeling from the heavy blow we gave them at the Valley," she responded. "We were vastly outnumbered there. They had reinforced their numbers and hid them well within the complex. We were probably looking a thousand versus our fifty. They took out half of us before reinforcements arrived." She continued strapping in weapons under her pant legs and in her boots. "I'm hoping no more than a hundred. I can take a high point and provide you cover from above to get into the compound. Being realistic here, considering how he has built his network, we are probably looking a two hundred."

She reviewed the schematic on her ocular implant HUD. "Looking at some heavy reinforcements at the guardian positions. If we wait til the cover of darkness, I should be able to get some explosive assistance in place. That will be a last ditch effort cause once we sound those….it'll sound through the compound. I'll scope at our arrival and then formulate better. The Intel is two months old."

"We won't be able to get them all, obviously," Logan replied. "But we don't have to. Cut off the head of the snake and most of them will not want to risk their necks. There will be a few dozen who will want to take his place. Those are the ones we'll need to worry about on the way out." If there was a way out.

There was a moment, a breath where the two were silent. Logan took the opportunity to take her hand and squeeze it. "Thanks for this. No matter what happens, make sure to get your ass home. I don't want anything else getting killed for my family's mistakes."

"And on that note… if I'm captured or killed, high tail it, but make sure there is nothing left of me for them." It was the way of her people. She had the ability to fry her implants now but that wasn't enough to destroy her genetic code. Even though the carbon based lifeforms of the Alpha Quadrant struggled with duplication of their silicone based lifeforms, it was still a violation to leave it behind. The pleading look in her eyes should be enough to explain that desperation to him.

Logan gave a silent nod both to indicate he would honor her request and that he was ready.

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Planetside 2330
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Adlyn had spent the afternoon looking around the streets surrounding the complex and enough to get a flow pattern of how people were moving and what the towers weapon defenses were. The building itself was composed of brick, but the flip side was that there were transporter inhibitors through out the complex preventing them from just beaming in to make the job easy. There was a sensor jam too preventing her from getting ready locks on the people. All she had was her ocular implant identifying each communicator in play on the playing field and tagging it.

Now that darkness had fallen over the planet, search lights were in each of the towers, but were not turned on. She got close enough to the building and hid in the bushes hacking their immediate sensors to remove herself by matching their frequency. The longer she remained in the area, the faster her battery reserves were going to drain.

Timing everything just right, she climbed up the first tower and placed the detonation device in a crevice beneath the abutment. She then went down to the ledge and waited before walking her way over to the next tower until the patrol passed. Once it did, she then moved hand over hand as her finger tips held onto the one inch ledge. Right as she made it to the next tower, another patrol moved by. Her nerves were calm as she continued to methodically set up the explosives to take out their defenses. She repeated the process multiple times until all the turrets had explosives planted. She then snuck away with her power reserves nearly in the pits. She was wanting to save her power packs for when they were in battle. At least she had an alternative plan once she met him at the rendezvous point down in the warehouse.

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Warehouse 0330
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Logan watched the front guard as they patrolled the entrances. It was clear that this place was a hotbed for illegal activity but there weren't any police or authority within several miles of the place. That told him all he needed to know. This place was too heavily guarded for anyone sane to even attempt what they were about to attempt. Which is pretty much exactly what they expected.

He'd timed it out. If they struck during a shift change, which was due to happen any minute, they would need to silently eliminate two guards. That would give them about five minutes to breach the house and get as close as they could to Brakka before any of the guards were alerted. After that, all bets were off and they'd have to fight their way through. They'd split up to divide their opposition and give each of them a better chance of reaching their target. That would be where they'd reunite and with any luck, finish what they came for.

Adlyn slipped into the warehouse and went to the roof, where the rendezvous point was. “Explosives planted,” she whispered when she got close. Then she pulled out a small chip from her pocket. “It’s too risky to go without comms. I figure that I’ll cover you to that point over there,” she whispered pointing, “then you can cover me to the door; we breach together.” She watched him put the chip into his ear. =/\=”Comm Check.”=/\= she thought.

=/\=Check=/\= He whispered back. Without further hesitation, Logan started to his mark. It would put him on a direct beeline for his guard. He picked up the pace when he could see the guards begin to make their shift change. =/\=We need to go before they make the switch=/\=

=/\=”Agreed. Got your six,”=/\= she thought as she pulled out her sniper phaser rifle and leaned against the edge of the roof of the warehouse. He disappeared over the edge and she tracked him in the scope for a moment and then moved the scope up to clear his path and to take out the guards near his immediate vicinity, as well as those that would spot what they were doing. The pathing guards were taken out first in the dark spots where their bodies wouldn’t immediately be visible, and then she started taking out the guards that she could see along his path. He then got into position. She slung the rifle over her shoulder and then sliced open the power conduit running under the edge of the roof ledge. She grabbed it with her left hand for a couple of seconds allowing her energy reserves to fully charge. She then dropped over the ledge and slide down the water drainage pipe following the path that he took.

=/\=Clear. Go.=/\= he told her as he set up with a clear line of sight on her location. Quick as lightning she made her way into position. A cross team of guards was coming up behind. He waited until she was clear before he took any action. It was over quickly and with that they were both in position and ready to go. A handful clear, a couple of hundred between them and their objective.

She moved along the building across the way from the compound that she had scaled only hours before. A guard came around the corner and he shot him down. Still on the move, she continued until she got to the corner that would put her out of sight from him and into sight of the door guard. Waiting at the front side of the corner, her radar was up and active. Those that were left were a few minutes out. And the door guard wasn't moving. =/\=”It’s clear, hurry.”=/\= She knew that he would have enough time to make it from his position to her position that she held. Throwing daggers were at her fingertips in her both her right and left hands as that was where the guards were going to path from. She was ready.

Logan drew his knife and rushed forward, slashing the neck of the guard on his side of the door. The guard went down silently. Logan pressed himself against the wall next to the door. If everything had gone right, they would have escaped the cameras and the security net thanks to Adlyn. "Ready to breech."

She moved in and went to enter the encryption to only find it had changed. =/\=”It’s changed. Two guards that are slowly pathing this way. Doing this the hard way. Cover me."=/\= Her eyes closed as her HUD took over and showed an image of the different circuits contained within the access pad at the door. She quickly started breaching the firewall protocols, but it was heavily encrypted and was taking her longer than she had anticipated.

He slung his rifle over his other shoulder and readied his knife again. He wouldn't be able to shoot both of them before one of them yelled for back up so he had to time it just right. He closed his eyes so he could count the steps, calculate the stride and get in sync with their movements. It took a few seconds but finally he could hear them approach. With just a few feet left, he took a deep breath and swung around the corner. With a single stroke, he sliced through both men's throats, causing their throats to fill with blood and ending all threat of an early warning.

Her eyes were still closed as she continued breaking layer upon layer of encryption. The door popped open as her eyes open up. She opened the door wider motioning him through. He scurried past her and she closed the door behind them. They wouldn't have much time but at least all the guards directly on the exterior and around the compound were dead. They walked down to the end of the hall that ended in either left or right.

Logan motioned he would head right with a head nod in the direction. He held up three fingers indicating how many would be just around each corner. A bit more difficult to take out silently, even when you were prepared. They had four minutes left.

The advantage they had were the corridors were tight and they would have to be packed in tight. A single shot on wide dispersal dropped them to the ground and he stepped past them on the way to the next hallway.

=/\=”Good hunting.”=/\= she offered in parting and went left, down the opposite corridor than he did. A guard walked out unsuspecting and she grabbed him by the neck pulling him down into her knee. His face smashed hard into her knee and as he went down to the ground, she went down with him, kneeling on his neck until he stopped breathing. Another guard came from the same direction hearing the commotion. Due to the tight quarters and her not quite in view, he couldn't get a shot off. She grabbed his left arm with her left arm pulling him out of the adjoining corridor he came from. Taking his arm around his body, she now faced him. Her right arm went up and over his left shoulder and went straight down. Twisting hard, she pulled the guard's arm behind her and yanked sharply up as she removed her right arm that acted as a lever and held his chin up against his skull stifling a scream.

He struggled as she maintained control on his left arm continued holding his left arm and as it started to spasm, she pulled it hard, dislocating it from the shoulder socket. Finally in that act, she was able to get a purchase on his neck and it snapped. She then moved down the corridor he came from as her radar started picking up more guards filtering through the complex.

Logan's path to the second level was considerable less confrontational. The half dozen guards he encountered fell easily thanks to stealth and precision. He had a near miss at the end when the pain in his leg caused him to stumble and miss his mark with his knife. Fortunately for Logan, the guard was so stunned he was still felled easily by a second chance attempt. Logan breathed a sigh of relief and made his way to the second level where he saw Adlyn was waiting for him. She looked a little worse for wear but there was no time to count bruises just yet.

She went down the right as he took the left, as they circled both sides of the upper mezzanine level that overlooked the courtyard below. This was easier than downstairs, but far riskier due to the openness that the courtyard area provided. She had hacked the computer systems and the security tapes were replaying the last twenty minutes over and over; anyone looking at them would see the guards pathing the way they were from earlier. Her window she had created closed when the alarms blared.

Pulling out small swords, she moved to attacking positions, dodging the incoming phaser blasts the best that she could hiding behind the pillars as necessarily. Time was now of the urgency. She ran at the guy as he struggled with his weapon and went down hard on her knees, sliding down and under him and sliced upwards killing him as she moved between his open legs. As soon as her momentum stopped, she pivoted and stabbed him down in the back killing him. She then turned and threw the other sword in her hand towards the guy that was coming down the stairs at the end of the mezzanine.

When they moved to the end of the mezzanine, they went side by side up the staircase towards where the office should be from what she could tell from the sensors that Brakka had been hiding in. Climbing to the top of the stairs, it was guarded by three guards. They both hid behind opposite pillars as they fired in their direction. Her hand slipped something out of her beltline and tossed the grenade at the entrance. It was small enough that they didn’t see it and it would be enough to take care of the guards while breaching the doors.

Logan marched into the room and shot one guard inside that tried to get a shot off. He then tossed his rifle to the side and unsheathed his knife once more. Adlyn followed in behind him to clean up the rest of his immediate guard and any reinforcements that would try and make it to the second level.

Brakka appeared to be nowhere to be found but Logan knew better. Brakka was known for being a stealthy killer himself. Rumors were he had a highly dangerous and highly illegal personal cloaking device. He used it sparingly because of the potentially lethal effects but when your life was threatened anyway, there was nothing left to lose. =/\=Keep your eyes open=/\= he warned her as he proceeded into the room carefully.

She was running low on energy, her passive implants were now down to her ocular implant and communication. Her hacking and connectivity to the compound’s computer system was now nothing. She was flying nearly dark. As she turned because she felt a cut on her shoulder, she turned back to face the stairs, and took a phaser shot to the shoulder. It hurt, and she cried out a bit, but with the extra energy, her nanomachines were able to do what they needed to do and converted the energy that made it through her skin and charged up her systems. She reactivated her connection to the compound and set off the sprinklers. Her ocular implant may not have been able to pick him up, but her cochlear and radar would be able to with the help of the sprinklers.

Moving further into the room, Logan suddenly stopped. He nearly didn't get his arm up in time when a cloaked Brakka lunged at him. He blocked the initial stab but a second slash cut across his chest inflicting a flesh wound. Logan countered and disarmed one of Brakka's knives before driving one of his own into Brakka's shoulder. Brakka squealed in pain as he wrestled himself free.

The two men stared each other down trying to predict the other's next move. "Your fucking family has been a pain in my ass for way too long. After I kill you? I'm gonna take my time with your sister!"

Brakka lunged again with his remaining knife. Logan dodged, grabbing Brakka's arm and snapping it at the elbow. Brakka shreaked once more and was now completely defenseless. "You've fucked with my family for the last time."

"You're all dead. Neither of you is getting out of here alive," Brakka cursed him.

"I guess that's one thing we have in common," Logan replied before driving his knife through Brakka's eye.

She pressed something on the inside of her wrist, a small control device. The timer started. She then took point at the top of the stairs as more guards came running to their commander’s office. =/\=”Thirty seconds.”=/\= She took aim and started firing at the line of guards starting to make their way towards their position. They just needed to hold it for that long before her distraction measures ignited.

Taking down another couple, the bombs then went off, shaking the brick compound from all directions at the same time. The guards downstairs all went unsteady. Some fled, the more loyal ones pressed the staircase for their position. She took them out and Logan joined in from the other side, and between their cross fire, they were able to clear a path. They started to push forwards against the line of guards. When they got to the mezzanine, they split directions again. She tossed the last of her daggers towards one of the guards and pushed forwards.

Two managed to charge her at the same time. She struggled with the large guy who stood easily a foot and a half above her as the other one got picked off from across the way. The big brute held her between him and Logan on the other side, not giving him a clean shot. As she struggled against his grip, she kneed him hard, and pulled against his arm, using it for stability and rotated her legs up and over around his neck. The momentum of her move made him unstable, as she was going for the final stab, they both toppled over the railing and down into the courtyard. She landed on top of the brute who was now dead and rolled off coughing from the fall and the dust. Her knee did take some of the fall and it throbbed. It took her a couple of moments to gather her senses and take a defensive point to meet him at the stairs on the other side of the courtyard.

Logan covered his retreat with one of the guard's rifles. He fired wildly and hit little but it kept them at bay and that was all he cared about. One of the guards surprised him and got off a shot that caught him on the arm. Logan returned fire, hitting him square in the chest.

Joining Adlyn in the courtyard, most of the rest of the Brakka's men were in full retreat. "Come on. Let's get the hell out of here," he said between heavy breaths. The two made it outside of the range of the transport inhibitors. Logan took one last look back as he waited for Adlyn to initiate transport.

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Lt. Adlyn Rowley
Intelligence Officer

Agent (Lt.) Logan Vance
Intelligence Officer