John looked at the tactical display showing the Duniden System; 4 planets, an overly large asteroid belt, and a red giant sun. Planet 3 was the only Green Zone planet in the system with 3 large continents and 5 major bodies of water. It planet was rain forest biosphere with a ton of plant life and mountains. At one point the planet had a very active volcano before the tectonic plates settled. Probably the reason why Planet 3 had very little in the way of ice caps.
The base was in the North-East portion of continent 2, very mountainous region. The local flora had not been cleared away which helped prevent long range reconnaissance but also would give the Marines cover during the insertion. The electrified perimeter fence would slow them down though and might alert the defenders that they had incoming as soon as Jimmy and his boys bypassed it. John was stuck on the Dragonfly though in the outer-system watching, i.e. playing guard dog, while Riptide snuck in close. 6 sensor drones roamed around the Dragonfly enhancing her sensors and watching for the surge of energy signifying a ship dropping out of warp. If the Riptide was on schedule, if the base had any backup nearby it would be coming within the next hour to the next 1 1/2 hours. Dragonfly was hanging at the edge of the system with all non-essential systems powered down encase anyone came along, she could surprise them. The signal booster satellite had been deployed and would immediately relay any message back to Atlantis once they were done.
Planet 3, Duniden System
Jimmy Carmichael-Assualt Shuttle on approach to Drop Zone Alpha
"2 Minutes to drop people." the pilot called over the intercom. "Alright people, once the bird get to the DZ we got 15 seconds to get everyone off so line up and get ready to jump." Jimmy called out. Everyone, even the MECHs stood. He had two squads on this shuttle and two squads on shuttle two. Shuttles 3 & 4 were bringing the last 3 squads and dropping them from the western side of the R&D Facility. If everything went according to plan they would all meet at the Facility perimeter. Everyone was checking last minute gear, jump jets, and radio checks. They would be dropped at 100ft height just above the canopy, then make the 1km trek through the rain forest, in a storm, and hope they don't get discovered until they hit the inner perimeter. Just another day for the Heirs... Didn't help the Wolf himself was in the system making sure they didn't fuck up. Then again, he was also there as backup encase this Op went tits up. Once they dropped off the squads the shuttles would stay on station encase they needed emergence evacuation or when they succeeded. "15 seconds......GO!" the Hatch in front of Charlie disappeared as he threw himself off the back of the Assault Shuttle.
Then it was the wind, the rain, and an occasional flash of lightning. Pretty soon the jump jets kicked in and oriented him, so he landed feet first, it had been like he jumped off a ten-foot wall instead of 100ft from a shuttle. After clearing the immediate area, Jim deployed two little sensor pods. They looked like softballs and contained complicated information that constantly updated his HUD about his surrounding and his squad mates. As the squads checked in Jim got on his squad comm line and started barking orders "Angel, scout ahead. Dump, you are on point I am right behind you. Squints get up on that ridge and get eyes on the pass. If they set up a check point we need to know what we are walking into. DOC and Sonic you guys got tail end. MOVE!" Natalie darted ahead already activating her camouflage her armor gave her. Squints was the squads' sniper, he activated a drone that acted as both spotter and close in fire support encase anyone tried to get in close with him. Dump AKA Dump Truck was a huge Cyborg/Human that was bigger then even Jimmy that was deceptively fast. Sonic was in charge of the squads Comms and ECM, while Doc was the Doc...self-explanatory.
The pass was the only natural choke point between them and the R&D facility. It was about 50ft wide and a little under 1KM out from the target. Squad 1 (Jimmys squad) was on point, with the remaining 3 squads staggered behind theirs. They had 20 minutes to get to the rally point Alpha and meet up with the squads sweeping the western end of the valley. "I have eyes on a 10ft Tower, energy shielded, with two guys on the ground and an Auto turret with AP missiles, patching in Sonic to my visual feed" Squints called out. "I got two sweepers in the forest, out of LoS (Line of Sight) of the checkpoint. Give me the word when you want them gone Dog." Angel called out from ahead. Bull Dog was Jimmys name, cause he was a pain in the ass that didn't give up. "I can take out both the shielding and turret but the security will know almost immediately." Sonic called out. "All squads hold 1." Dog called out. "Angel get a track on the sweepers and how long between check-ins?" About 30 seconds later she came back "1 minute check-ins Dog, take them?" Jimmy considered everything. "On the count of 3 Angel take the sweepers. Sonic you disable the shield, the turret, and blackout Comms for 10 seconds, Squints take out the guy on the tower while Truck and I rush the two guys on the ground. Let's make this as quiet as we can people....3...2...1." with that Comms went quiet as Truck and Dog rushed ahead covering ground quicker then anyone should. Jimmys right arm morphed into a wicked blade that jammed through the guys chest and armor. The other guard died to a snapped neck and the guard on the tower smashed into the ground with a smoking hole in his armor.
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"All clear. Angel keep going." Dog called out as the Comms came back." All squads move out for point Alpha. Squints choose your over watch spot and set up. If anyone sees anything let me know." 10 minutes later Jimmy and company arrived at point Alpha. Sgt Bradley was there waiting "What took you so long Sir?" Jimmy smiled as his armor moved to reveal his face "Ran into some locals at the pass, had to introduce ourselves. They were very welcoming but I only had eyes for you. Now here is the plan. Sonic is going to open up hole in the fence, your three (5-7) squads will secure the surface facilities and hold the perimeter once they are secure. Grab any Intel from computers you can, copy it then destroy the originals. Call out if you find the entrance to the underground, Squads 1-4 will deal with the underground portion of the facility. We all know what the priority targets are. Keep that in mind once the shooting starts people. Sonic, on your mark we go in." Dog called out as the man in too much tech gear ran at the fence.
Jim checked his assault rifle, he had four clips for that. His arm was ready to shift in shotgun mode with enough energy for about 30 shot then he could shift it into knife mode or back to a regular hand. His shield on his left arm could activate for 30 seconds at a time with 3 charges. Truck would be on point with Dog and Angel right on his ass to provide support. Doc would be essential to keep them up and going as well as to check any Biological samples they found. "Going in on the count of 10...." Everyone started stacking up. "10....5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Go!!" Sonic called. Truck rushed through the gap and straight for the nearest building. On his HUD he could see as other squads broke apart and started moving toward other buildings. No alarms sounded yet though.
Truck kicked in the door and the metal screamed as the door warped and bent in ways never intended. The big man continued forward over the torn door, while Dog broke right and Angel went left clearing the room. Doc held the door and waited for the clear signal before going in. Only one scientist type was found and quickly subdued and restrained. His location was marked so someone from squads 5-7 would come get him later when they started gathering prisoners. Doc was quickly dumping memory from the three computers within the small lab while Truck smashed them afterword. After that they went to the next building that not been cleared.
As buildings were cleared, they were marked on the Tactical map as green so no two buildings would be checked twice. Downed combatants were marked off with a red X, actives were red O, and captured scientists were a green X. They had 4 green Xs, 3 Red Xs, and 1 red O that quickly turned to an X as Squints found the shot. A bright yellow flag appeared "Underground entrance found." someone called out. "Squads 1-3 rally at that point. 4 help 5-7 finish with the surface, as soon as the surface is clear get your asses down below." Dog called out rapidly as he made his way over to the flagged building. It was a heavily reinforced door, with a code pad, hand and retinal scanner. "Sonic, we need you to hack this door if you can, if not we got to blow it." Dog called out to the Tech expert. who scrambled from his position at the fence. The man was an artist hacking or using Tech, but in a firefight...not so much.
30 seconds later Jimmy led the three squads into the darkness, what they found there would forever cement the rebellion and the will to throw down both the IntelDiv and Admirals board. They found the corpses of 50 different aliens down there, young, old, male, and female. Jim also found two Traveler Scientists. Apparently they had both resisted and ended up with broken legs, arms, and jaws. Finding a way to restrain another traveler, so they couldn't just log off and appear somewhere else had been a difficult problem to overcome. The Devs solved it by saying as long as they did not torture them, they could be held as POWs for crimes they committed within Endless Online until they were freed or released or sentenced. Jimmy made sure everything was recorded about what had happened, samples were taken of what was being developed, copies of computers, then they deployed a tactical nuke to destroy the site. In the end, they captured 10 scientists and 1 IntDiv operator. 15 Mercs and 3 scientists died. Even though they succeeded, Jimmy still felt like they had lost after seeing what had been in there. 10 minutes later the last shuttle took off, 5 minutes after that a mushroom cloud could be seen from orbit as the R&D facility was turned to ash.
Outer System, Duniden System
John Port-Dragonfly Bridge
We just received a burst message from the Riptide, mission successful. 11 prisoners captured, samples and data were taken intact as well. The Riptide in on the way out and will meet us at the rondayview point Alpha." Jeeves told John over the comm. "Ok set course for point Alpha at 20% speed, keep our eyes peeled for any unwelcome company. Relay the message to Atlantis and inform them that we will be on the way home soon and will see them in 37 hours." John called out. It would take them between 30 and 45 minutes to reach the rally point then 36 hours to get home. Target Alpha should have been already cleared and the Raven and Orchid should already be on the way back to Atlantis and beat them there by 12 hours.
John had no idea the information that they had captured or what would happen when word got out.