Fell responded, "I think that's the right move, Mr. C. The sort of thing I brought you on for. I expect the vehicles will be heading down the same road you arrived from, so that might be the place to lay a trap."
"I don't know, Serenity; it could be risky. Might be hard to pull off without raising suspicions. If you think you can, though, I'm sure the team would appreciate a little more breathing room to get this done."
From her current position safely out of view of the sniper tower, Serenity was unable to see the compound at all, much less any parked cars. Uploaded to her memory from earlier were the simple, outward schematics of the compound, reminding her of the building's underground garage toward the south side.
Inside the compound
On the first floor, the three men were still talking amongst eachother. "I think I'd do the Offspring, just on my shoulder here. Maybe with a like a sword or a pair of guns behind it," the man gestured at his padded shoulder.
"That could be cool. Definitely fitting," replied another.
He asked the guard who sounded older, "What do you think? Maybe luminescent?"
"I don't know. To me, those glowing sigils reek of violation. Reminds me of the street scum who fashion their own bodies out of spare parts - they're always all lit up."
"Yeah... Maybe you're right. I'd probably just start with black outlines and go from there."
The other guard slung his weapon over his shoulder, mirroring Vespa's faux pas from earlier, and asked, "Hey, did you hear about the last plasma weapons test they did?"
"No, but I can guess how it went. Landsknecht just won't rest until they figure it out, will they?"
The guard shook his head, "That's just it - it was a Stygian experiment! Real public, too; they thought they had something, apparently. Brought on an army guy, a sergeant or something to come test it out, and this is the best part... The guy blew himself up!"
The stationed guard stopped looking at his own shoulder, "Holy shit, really?"
"You deal with devils..." the older guard shook his head admonishingly.
The conversation didn't show any signs of stopping soon.
edited 10th Sep '15 9:38:07 PM by StygianEmperor
Flesh is a design flaw.Vespa had to bite her tongue at the "scum" comment. Dammit, this arm of hers let her operate at normal efficiency again. And some of those same "scum" were decent people...if a bit morally ambiguous at times, but still!
Calm down, will you, A? You'll get your hands on Zaivous soon enough.
[forum cryptid: it/it's]Compound Second Floor
Forlorn held up both his palms in a gesture and shrugged his shoulders for a moment, before taking a few steps back and getting behind cover. He gestured for Vespa to hide somewhere too.
"We could use a bird to break up this conversation the guards have going on right now," he said over the radio. "Third floor, just some gentle cawing and flapping in the distance to irk them, then move it up to the fourth. Not too much, though."
edited 10th Sep '15 9:43:03 PM by nman
Compound Second Floor
"If that bird can make some of these guys pissed off enough to try getting rid of it, one of them might head up your way," Forlorn radioed in response to Sarah's question. "If all it does is make them forget their conversation, you could go back outside and deal with whoever leaves."
He exhaled into the mic. "And if they insist on keeping up their conversation, then we're just going to have to jump on two of their heads while we punch the third one."
"Deniability certainly seems like the better one", Bai answered. "I trust that your infiltration ability would make up for mine, if you are even considering it. Less killing, ultimately, as well."
He hummed, and turned his focus on their transport. "Though, us leaving would leave Ms. Mirivac and Mr. William defenseless. Are you willing to take that risk?"
The guards leapt back, cursing as the raven flew past. Fritz continued a ways down a corridor, looking but failing to find an open window; instead flying into and startling another guard patrol. Panicking, or whatever his simple AI's version of "panicking" was, he returned and flew back up into the tower.
"God dammit, Azrael," one yelled into his helmet comms, "You let a fucking bird in the building!"
The other guards snickered as he tried to reach the sniper the old-fashioned way, shouting up the stairs, "Hey! Did you hear me? A bird just flew down the stairs! Azrael? What are you, asleep? Check in!"
The other two were looking on now, clearly getting nervous. The second patrol, consisting of an additional two guards, made their way over to investigate the fuss.
edited 11th Sep '15 11:52:13 PM by StygianEmperor
Flesh is a design flaw.Compound Second Floor
Forlorn mentally groaned at the situation. He had expected things to not go well, what with Dr. Fell hiring so many kids for this operation, but not this poorly. Now, everything was going to go from cold to hot very fast, and very soon, all because one of those rookies couldn't even properly stick to a plan. At the very least, the five guards were getting pretty close to each other, in case they needed to be hit with a grenade.
"Relay this on their comms now, unless you can do a better job of it yourself," he said on the radio. "Window's stuck" he grunted out somewhat hoarsely, hoping to mimic the general voice of an adult male without having to get too specific.
edited 11th Sep '15 7:16:30 PM by nman
"Well, guess I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up," Fell sighed. "Don't go anywhere just yet, heavies. We may need you sooner than we anticipated."
"Azrael?" One of the guards confusedly asked his comm unit. "What do you mean, the window's stuck?"
The older one put a hand up, "Azrael; call sign, now."
The other guards raised their weapons to the stairs.
edited 11th Sep '15 11:57:35 PM by StygianEmperor
Flesh is a design flaw.Compound Second Floor
"Well, it was good while it lasted, now we're going to have to earn it," Forlorn said as he casually chucked his MED at the cluster of guards at the bottom of the stairs, sending it the wireless signal to detonate when it reached them, and the timer set to detonate a split-second later as a failsafe.

Vespa stopped wordlessly and waited for Forlorn's next signal. She cursed herself for not having a more technical expertise in espionage but was grateful that everything so far had been going rather smoothly.
[forum cryptid: it/it's]