Ngawai nods. "After that, we move in as four pairs, sweep and clear the exterior ring, and then move in to clear the interior ring and square."
"We blind them, bottle them up, and then clear everything out," Garrett summarizes. "Questions?"
"Sounds good to me," Luis says. "Blind their sensors, bow them in, and roll them up before they make more trouble. Do we know any places we anticipate to have extra trouble, or do we just roll in hard and hit it as we find it?"
Angel nods at Zaef's question. "From what Garrett and I hit yesterday, stickbombs, beamers and chamakanas. They had a couple spare sunmines too, at at least one cogitator. So...I'd assume pretty much anything a heavily supplied infantry unit would have. Plus it's Afghanistan. The old man's not dumb enough to blow up his own compound, but all you need is a true believer or two."
Zaef grimaces as a few stories he's heard about desperate pirates and overloaded drive cores invite themselves into his head. Until we learn where their armory is located, nothing we can do about it.
"In that case, we should be prepare for drone use, as well. They're definitely something a well-supplied unit would have, and we shouldn't count on ignorance or...personal distaste to keep them from showing up."
Garrett nods. "The EMP should fry any they have in the air, and if they try to put any others up, well, we'll be cloaked and that should give us time to get eyes on and take them down."
"Only if we get them on their way up," Arketta says. "Once they're up there, spotting them will be almost impossible."
Ngawai smirks at Angel. "Sounds like a challenge." She turns to FTE. "Heard about your shot at the ambush from Arlana. You gunning to take over Angel's spot as top shot?"
"We wouldn't want him getting complacent, would we?" FTE replies, "smiling" at Angel. "But I think giant piles of money and the ability to uplift an entire planet's technological baseline is pretty good consolation."
Angel shrugs modestly. "Gives me somethin' to do once the robots take my job." He turns thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "Interdicting any likely drone launch points should be straightforward. Not easy, but we can get it done."
"Okay, sounds like we've got a plan," Garrett says. "Skimmer departs in five, and it's 90 minutes to the infiltration point. Suit up - we're going bad guy hunting."
---
An hour later, Iro is on the edge of his seat - literally, in danger of sliding off it - while even Arlana is fighting the urge to yawn as the Colonel up front brings up another table of coordination codes for fire missions. Gunny’s half-listening to the presentation, half simulating a fourth alternative scenario for the Battle of Agincourt, while Hug’sh tries to just keep sitting upright and pay attention and just generally look like he takes this seriously, which is admittedly a pretty difficult act.
“’And now, we come to the involvement of our off-world partners,’” Colonel Matthews says. There’s a decidedly awkward pause from the officer as he looks over the room back to Cooper.
“’Well?’” Cooper asks.
“’Sir, given recent...developments, we developed multiple options for off-world involvement,’ Matthews says. “’Primary course of action is no involvement, with a force left behind to -’” The slide changes to show the Narsai’i basically surrounding the rest of the alliance back at the base while the rest of the force advances forward.
“’That certainly is not happening,’” Cooper says. “’However, in light of these issues, I think alternative...three would be best.’”
“’Yes, sir,’” Matthews says, and the screen changes to show a plan with the alliance given their own areas to cover - away from the main thrust towards the Chinese border.
“’This gives the rough idea,’” Cooper says. “’What do our partners have to say?’”
Iro sits up straight. “Keeps my people out of the way of the Narsai’i tendency to run head first into trouble, I’m all for it.”
“’We’re cool with it,’” Gunny translates. ”I think the estimates for ground control on the Narsai’i formations are overly optimistic given the difficult terrain, and our scouts should be deployed more forward to take advantage of their mobility,” Hug’sh says, ”but I can live with it.”
“...the Wherren agree, too,’” Gunny translates diplomatically.
“’Good,’” Cooper says. “’Glad to hear it.’”
“’Then let us return to the start of the operation for coordination and fire missions for the off-world contingent,’” Matthews says.
“Vidas fucking Lam,” Iro grumbles.
“How do you meatbags not kill yourselves in situations like this?” Gunny asks. ”Experience,” Hug’sh whispers back. ”Let’s try to hear them out and take some notes.”
It's a quiet night in Kabul when Angel's skimmer settles down on the roof of a tall apartment building thrown up in the post-Taliban construction boom - one of the few buildings in the area that's big enough to let the skimmer land without much notice. A couple miles in the distance, Kabul's streetlights give way to four or five blocks lit like it's daylight with high-intensity white light - which Arketta, Zaef and Ngawai know is exactly what you'd want if you're trying to spot a squad of hostiles in active camo. The bright lights stress the system's brightness to its limits, and the high contrast shows off the ever-so-slight lag that active camouflage has.
Everyone disembarks but FTE, who knows what's coming next as Zaef pulls a backpack-sized impeller drone out of the cargo compartment. Strapped to the back of it is a small fusion cell and a box that's mostly stacks of coiled wire - a military grade EMP device, courtesy of the Bashakra'i. With one last warning for everyone to turn off their armor and a double-check that FTE is shut down and safe in the skimmer, Zaef sends the drone on its way. A few minutes later, Zaef pushes the button on the drone's disposable control tablet, and after the screen flashes green, a bright flash lights up the sky in the distance over the compound. Moments later, a wave of darkness spreads out like ripples in a pond, first the xenon lamps of Wazir's compound, then the streetlights, headlights, and buildings around it go black. A moment later, it's as if someone dripped ink into the Kabul nighttime skyline.
Ngawai and Garrett activate their cloaking. "Let's go," Ngawai says.
(Go ahead and describe your approach and who you're moving with)
Luis waits out the blast blind, waiting after the blast for the few heartbeats before his vox begins to power back to life. "Well, at least now they're the only blind ones," he says. He pulls his beamer and turns to Arketta. "With me?"
Front Towards Enemy gasps back to life as its timed reboot brings it back after the EMP. It does the Sheen-equivalent of spectacles, testicles, wallet, and watch before disembarking the skimmer as a blur of active camo, a deeper shadow within the darkened village.
"I didn't think I'd feel this... queasy," it says. "Hale, you got my six?"
Arketta's hand never left Luis' shoulder while he blinded himself waiting for the EMP, but once he's back up and running, all she needs to do is nod and activate her armor's camo.
Hale, on the other hand, seems more than a little hesitant about being partnered with a Sheen, but after a noticeable pause, nods and activate his own camo. "First time for everything."
Angel gently slaps what would be the "shoulder" of FTE's chassis. "It'll wear off. Eyes to the sky."
The scout nods at Zaef, getting his own rifle out of the skimmer. "What say you and I go find a quiet back entrance while the heroic infantry types storm the front? There's bound to be some climbable roofs around here, and while it's not my area of expertise, my understanding is that it's easier to stab some bastard if he's looking the other direction."
As adjusted as he has become to the "Kesh" part of his role in the world, it's quite evident that storming some insurgent compound is still squarely in what Angel considers his wheelhouse.
The irony being, as the team split into their four pairs and started their separate approaches, there's not much spotlight - or indeed any light at all - to stand in.
----
(2d8 Garrett and Ngawai move = 6+
Garrett and Ngawai's path is the most direct - right from their landing site towards the center of Wazir's little haven. The blocks around his compound are reacting like you would expect anyone else on the planet would: wandering in the streets, talking with their neighbors, commiserating about yet another power outage. It makes the approach interesting - bumping into an invisible person definitely would give the game away, but between the veteran CIA officer and Grand Apprehendress, they know how to make their way through a crowd, and slip easily past the crowd building in the outer edge of the blackout.
----
(2d8 Zaef and Angel move = 1+4)
Well, it looked like a good approach at first, but that's what everyone tells themselves when those best laid plans go belly up. There was a beautiful alley that looked like it lead straight to a couple easily climbable roofs, and unfortunately, they weren't the only ones that thought that. Halfway down the alley, a technical pulled up with four militia soldiers in the back: one stayed with the RPK in the back, and the other three dismounted and took up positions covering the alley approach. Both Angel and Zaef managed to make it to cover in time, but on opposite sides of the alley. There's a climb up and over, or doubling back to find another route.
----
(2d8 Luis and Arketta move = 3+3)
Neither Luis nor Arketta covered covert approaches too deeply in their individual training, and instead counted on their active camo to mask a fairly cautious and conventional approach. By the time the check-in for final approach pings in Luis' brain, they're more or less where they need to be.
----
(2d8 Hale and FTE move = 1+6)
Hale's breath is heavy in FTE's vox - the poor meatbag has struggled to keep up with what FTE thought was a very reasonable pace. "Did they...not teach you..." Hale pants, "how to move with others?"
Despite Hale's slow pace, they're not too far from the checkpoint.
"You're a natural!" FTE says. "That's just like something Nick Nolte would say. But you gotta stop acting like an over-the-hill Earth cop and use your real speed now, okay?"
punkey
