[Citadel/Nimbus] A Party On The Rocks (closed)

Arina jerked at the sudden reaction by Temria, but Rahi's reaction and Freh's additional question eased her up again. She took out her Predator and checked it, briefly aiming at a rock, before putting it away again.

"Yeah, let's hope this is over in no time," she muttered to herself but she shot Temria a doubting glance. With curiosity she looked at what the two huntresses came up with. She tensed a bit when the drone eventually moved out into the open.

Nothing immediate happened. She let out her breath again.

"Well...."

An asari was sitting next a console in a small room. There was a small window, more like a slit in the concrete wall, covered with thick multilayer glass. Outside was the diffuse buelish white light of snow and clouds.
A blinking light on the console interrupted her reading of “Six lives of the Hemmesh”

A blue alert and a thermo scan in a pop up window, very diffuse, nothing clearly identifiable. She put the datapad down and switched on camera, the screen showing a landing pad, viewed from the building, possible above a door. Turing the camera, she zoomed in and out, nothing moving, just snow, and rocks and snow.the image jumped back to wide angle view as she opened a com channel.
“Ma'am, the scanner at the cargo pad has picked up something, a thermal spike at approximately 160. But it’s only a two and now it is gone again. Camera shows nothing, Ma'am.”

She could feel her heartbeat in her aurals, all this waiting and all the alert orders the Madam had been issuing had gotten to her. The shifts had had been wearing on her, although the book had kept her mind off things. Her eyes traveled to the rifle and the grenade belt in the corner.

She had turned her back on it while reading. It reminded her of the real dangers the Madam seemed to be expecting

“Keep an eye at it, Nin. Whatever possible wanders around here means danger. I want you to gear up. I will have Tinay join you. Watch the scanners but don’t wander around. Make sure whoever is out there doesn’t see you before you see them. I hold you accountable for that.”

“Yes, Madam.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In another dimly lit room, another asari was hammering her fist onto a desk.

Was it possible…. Could someone really have made it? She thought there was time, but now she had wasted almost a full day and now this signal from the outside! Maybe it was just an animal… She could take no risks anymore, in fact she had taken too many already.

There was another asari in the room, her large mobile chair facing towards a naked concrete wall, the person seemed asleep.

“I wanted to make this a joyful experience but that will have to wait for a bit.”

She had to find out what the alert was about. She took the Paladin from the desk, weighing it in her hand.

She activated something on a console. The chair became engulfed in an orange force field and an alert was sounding from somewhere.

“Everything is done for your protection, Lady T’Veda….”

Freh’ya hunkered down, as Rahi sent out the small drone. She had her rifle ready under her arm, the tension made her barrier flicker a bit.

Nothing happened. She could see the small thing sitting the snow like some small rock when the holomatrix had switched off.

“Good, now let’s see what we have.” She looked over at rahi who was streaming the signal onto her omnitool and eventually activated her own, synchronizing it with the pilot’s.

The picture was a very odd angle and snow was obstructing it a bit in the lower parts but the quality and lighting was good enough to see a bit of a snow covered open flat area, descending from their position to the landing pad. The slight elevation enabled the low camera position to catch a view of the pad. Nothing on there, the hangar doors were closed, as was the man door next to it. The touchpad on the outside was glowing red to no surprise.

On the side of the pad stood a mobile defense tower, the gun still folded but the scanner on its top rotating at a constant pace.

“Look at that little friend there. This is a mobile anti personnel tower with a good angle where its set up. kinetic barriers at least.” The omnitool software identified the turret type and gave some technical data, but all factory standards. “I have seen the type before but you never know what kind of ammunition they use or what upgrades they have. Reaction time to fire is about two seconds if still folded. Maximum.”

She looked back at their guests, signaling them to stay put and quiet. Sometimes these things had audio sensors as well and in an area where energy field detectors were not working properly, unusual sensors could be more common.

“What else…“ she instinctively continued in a lower voice. “That alone tells us nothing, could be a regular defense setup for such a facility. No signs for any fighting… to bad we can’t see the front side from here. But if any fighting would have happened I’d expect all the entrances being affected. The rail station is underground so we don’t know anything about that either. Look at the roof, the ventilation units. If I could get up there, that might be a way in.”

Freh’ya switched to the broadband receptor of her omnitool. While electromagnetic transmissions were obstructed by the ore in the ground, they were close enough to make out if there was activity or not.

And there was! The scanner could detect signatures in all the white noise although wasn’t able to translate it into understandable signals.

“Look at that, some com traffic inside the building. At least we know it’s not deserted. So, question is, how do we find out if we are friend or foe. We could eliminate the tower with a concentrated attack. I’ll raise a bubble, buys us additional time, then warp, a pair or grenades and concentrated fire from various positions so it has to chose one target. Buys another second. It’ll be down before anyone’s barrier is penetrated.”

She looked at Rahi, then back at the picture.
“But if we’re friend, that’d be a weird way to say hello.”

Rahi blinked when Freh'ya looked at her, silent for a moment.

Is she asking for my input? I'm a pilot, what... Don't be like that, she doesn't want me to solve it for her, just contribute. Think of it as a naval exercise. Two warships - one significantly more deadly - and two civilian vessels in company, approaching a platform that may or may not be under hostile control. Work the problem.

"The tac drones have dazzler capability," she suggested quietly. "Not much, but they're not up against top-line sensors, not in these conditions. They can take range and bearing from our little spy out there, and direct their peak thermal output right into the turret's 'eyes'. It should take the gun's targeting VI two, maybe three seconds to recognise the signatures aren't warm bodies and disregard them. A five drone spread gives us good odds that's two or three seconds extra it won't be aiming at us."

She looked again at the image from the spy drone, and then at her map of the area.

"As for whether they're friendly," she mused, "we're not in a superior position. We need to make them show their flag, one way or another - at the very least, balance the situation so we don't give ourselves away in a way that gives them time to move." She swallowed reflexively, pausing to think. "We could use the gun drone? Its drive is a lot bigger. If we send it down behind these rocks, low to the ground, we could manoeuvre it into position to approach the main entrance. Shut down the thermal masking and broadcast a Republican IFF out of it, it's got a fair chance in these conditions of looking like maybe two armoured asari, closing on the facility from the front. If those are friendlies in there, we can route comms through the gun drone until we're happy it's safe to let them know where we actually are. If they're hostile, they can't just ignore what'll look like crash survivors moving towards their front door. They'll have to respond. If they set up an ambush..." She paused again, then went on. "We give the gun drone a tac drone rider - when it gets near enough to come out in the open, the tac drone goes out in its place, thermal dazzler on. It'll only have to fool them for a split second for them to open fire, and if that happens, we know where we stand with them, and we can hit the turret while their other guns are still covering the wrong landing pad. If they're careless - and they're not huntress good or they'd never have let us crawl out of the crash without at least scouting - maybe they'll even send troops outside the door to set up their 'ambush' on the main pad, and we'll be able to get a look at them with tac drones from here. And even when we show ourselves over here, they won't be able to rule out us having actual troops around the front either." She snorted softly. "If they do come all at us here and ignore the front door once our cover's blown, we can pop the gun drone up and unload it into their flank."

She looked at Freh'ya again, suddenly seeming younger than she had while she was explaining her ideas - the cold naval tactician was hidden again, behind the young woman looking to her elder.

"It'll get back to whoever's inside anyway..." Temria pursed her lips and strained her ears as best she could to hear Freh'ya over the sound of the wind, keeping her voice hushed enough that she could only be sure that of the two, Rahi would hear her clearly and pip up if any of it clicked. "And you can expect a response. Perhaps we should keep some of those drones in reserve for that followup."

The thought left a sense of dread in the bottom of her heart, but they had to confront it. They needed to be ready to deal with more than just an automatic turret and to be confident they can do so whether they were able to move ahead as planned or were driven back. And for her part, Temria was still struggling with the damn side-arm!

The Hae'Shang sat stubbornly at her hip, failing to respond even though she had her hand on the operator handle correctly. The sliding mechanisms had accumulated some frost or warped or something, and Temria had to exert a surprising degree of force on it before it finally gave. At last her hand slid downward while the top and bottom most edges moved up and outward, locking above and below her uninjured forearm and forming a smooth delta that converged just in front of her hand. The faint glow and follow through on her initial push told her at least that it was working, the firing mechanism encased in that upper arm was cleared for this type of environment and they'd had the chance to confirm it was still in operating condition. It somehow felt heavy to Temria, and her arm felt as ponderous as the other now, she'd get used to it.

“Flank and deception maneuver, eh?” Freh’ya shot Rahi a glance, chuckling. If it would not have been for their passengers, the two huntresses probably would have torn the place down in no time. It would also have helped if they had proper stealth equipment, like cloaking devices for example, but they had none.

“Sounds feasible. You’re more of a drone expert and what they are actually capable of, just in case you wonder… point me a target and I’ll smash it in a blink but I am no tech expert when it comes to recon drones or the like… only the basics, enough to make a wacky plan, some say.” She looked at the cam picture again, nothing changed. The roof…

“I like your idea of faking an approach from the front with the IFF. Are you sure you can move a drone back there without it being noticeable? But then, pirates could fake an IFF or could have stolen one as well. They could still react suspicious. I know I would… How often do you actually operate in a no-com zone these days? That’s so extremely unusual.” She looked up at the blinking beacon. The top of the mast was visible above the ridge they hid behind. If they had any sensors wide array sensors up there, the energy signature of a drone could be easily picked up.

“If I could get on the rooftop, I could plug into their internal com system and maybe even enter through the ventilation. Getting up there is not the problem biotically, but crossing the pad unnoticed is. I’d need three or four seconds to get a dash done. It’s a bit in one jump, I could do it in two.“ She rubbed her chin, thinking and staring at the picture.

"You also could run in a few drones from down there, divert the turret, let it pick them up and then blind the turret with an extra. I could use that time to get on the roof and into their com system. I’d find out immediately what’s going on inside and none of you have to come out of cover before that?”

It was a bit more of aggressive move but she had the urge to do something, instead of just wait. Looking back at Temria and Arina, she frowned. Should their 'opponents' roll out heavy resistance or troops, they would be easy prey once located. they were far too close for Freh's taste. Careful now. No offensive action if not provoked….

“Know what, we’ll go with this IFF thing. But we have to make sure we don’t lose connection, that’s a bit of a distance. The roof is plan B. Prepare the drone.” She ordered Rahi.

Arina had the feeling of missing half of the show. If she just wouldn’t feel so drowsy… She had watched the doctor fumble with her weapon. But at least that was something to focus on.

“Oh, that’s a neat device, Temria! I never tried something like that out, how does it feel, compared to a regular gun, I guess the recoil is much better to handle, supporting the structure with your whole arm, right?”

Arina had to admit the doctor had a cyborgish look now with both her arms encased in some more or less rigid structure.

"If they've had the facility all the while we've been freezing our tzus inside-out, they've had time to crack its internal databanks, at least," Rahi nodded. "Just have to hope they decide to take the first shot, rather than get fancy with misdirection. And if they do take the shot, that we can get them to do it in the wrong direction." She exhaled, tensing and relaxing the muscles in her legs to keep from tightening up in the cold. Freh'ya's glance up at the mast drew her attention, and she scowled as the same thought occurred to her. How good would a mining base's sensors be? Would hostiles have had time to emplace new ones up there?

Perfect conditions obtain only in Athame's embrace, she remembered Aliza saying. And huntresses who sit around waiting for them rarely earn a place there.

"Alright," she said, sounding more certain. "Initiative of action is yours, I'll back you up as best I can without leaving Arina and Temria uncovered. If we get separated and have to go to comms I'll have the tac drones chatter." It was possible their communicators, built for security, would be too difficult for hostiles to intercept or triangulate on, but the drones' designers hadn't bet on it. The chatter program would have them send signals back and forth between themselves on the same bands, randomly-generated orders and reports - if anyone was scanning tightly enough to compromise their comms, at least they'd have the night wind's time of working out which were the real huntresses, and what actions they were taking.

"Ma'am, doctor," she said, scurrying nearer the two civilians, keeping out of sight. "We're preparing to take action. My priority will be screening you two from harm. Unless you're in direct danger, please remain in cover. If anyone over there starts firing, keep watch on your omni-tools, you'll have access to the tactical drones. Watch for any hostile attempting to move around our flanks. If they try to get at you, I'll stop them." She hesitated, wondering if she should say something else. "We won't let you down," she finished, hoping it sounded more reassuring, and less like a line from a cartoon, to them than it did in her head.

Giving them what she hoped was a confident-looking nod she slid back across to Freh'ya and the gun drone, and produced another tac drone from the hangar to fix to it. She linked her omni-tool to the gun drone's VI - Athame, was it only yesterday she had cobbled this together out of spare parts? - checked its programming and IFF feed, and closed it up again.

"Alright," she said with a sigh. "Ready as she'll ever be. If signal strength starts to drop problematically I'll launch another tac drone to detach and serve as a relay to keep us in touch." She patted the ungainly-looking thing on its casing, then sent it on its way.

"Here we go," she muttered to herself. If all went well the uneven terrain, and signal murk, would conceal the unit all the way to the approach to the front entrance, and the hostiles - if that's what they were - wouldn't even know anyone was over at the cargo pad. If not... well, they'd have to swim those waters when they got to them.

"I feel like a mech..." she muttered softly to Arina, testing the lift she could get from the hip or by training the gun forwards a bit. "It's steady, to be sure, I don't know if it's worth not being able to aim down the sight comfortably... But it'll do for us, I promise."

Temria had been trained with such a weapon, and used this particular model long enough to know its quirks... or at least know them enough to be sure they were not worth putting up with just for thermal clip compatibility. It would have been a nice showpiece, a way of showing off her era to the Matriarch... what she would give now for a rocket launcher.

She nodded to Rahi's instruction with a look of dread, but none the less maintained her composure as she moved with Arina to a crouching position with the rock between themselves and the tower. There'd be no stopping it now, she reasoned, gritting her teeth.

“I don’t particularly like guns and I hope we won’t need them anyway.” Arina joked and weighed her own pistol.
“I do think it’s time for some protective measures.” She said, checking her kenetic barrier settings and giving her biotics a push. A very faint glow was visible about her body, nothing major, it was more like a ‘ready, steady...’ thing to have the tension up for her. She really should train it more… yeah, she should have trained it more lately. Well, too late for that now.

Blinking a few times, she was actually happy something was going on eventually. She could easily fall asleep and so she watched the drone hover down a wound path, seeking cover between rocks and ice, to get around the building… and there it was out of sight when a sudden commotion captured all her awareness.

Just when the drone had covered half the distance to its intended position, something happened over at the pad. The personnel door opened for a brief moment and a large drone was deployed from inside the building!

Its orange matrix rotated, as the orb oriented itself for a moment. Then laser beams, vaguely visible against drifting snow and ice crystals began scanning the environment with pretty fast movements, closing in on the drone in the snow and definitely coming closer to their position!

Discovery was a matter of minutes.

Meanwhile, a similar drone had been deployed from the front door.

Freh’ya was seeing the drone off. She monitored the signal – very weak. Hopefully they connection would be stable and they would be actually able to see what the drone would achieve…

The motion was barely visible at first on a partially covered cam window on her omnitool but she sensed the danger instinctively. Maybe it was a sound, only registered by the subconscious mind.

Drone. Headed their way.

Whatever had set them in motion was bad news. Maybe the crew of the tower had picked up a stray signal and now wanted some recon. They had been one step ahead of them all the way probably.

Her vanguard instincts took over. Distraction on the way in form of the drone but discovery of the group had to be avoided. There was no time to set up a bubble and it would draw additional attention to the doctor and Arina.

“Drones!” She alarmed Rahi, while dropping her backpack on the spot. “Change of plans. I go out for the roof, they will focus on me. Grenades and prime biotics on the turret once it picks me up.” She pointed at Arina and Temria. “Heads down. Observe the cam feeds!” and off she went.

She needed a clear line of vision. Dive-rolling out of the last rock to provide cover, she focused on a landing light on the far end of the pad. Dash! The drone zapped only snow where she had just been.

The small red light was shredded to pieces on her impact and the drone’s scanners were all on her again in an instant but too far for a zap! The turret unfolded, swinging her way too, away from where she had come from, away from the others. She made another role to the side, shooting from her hip, hitting nothing, buying time. Cooldown twenty one, twenty two…Dash!

There was a huge dent in the ventilation unit on the roof, a panel fell off and sparks were flying as the electronics inside died down.

The drone was hovering around below where she had been split seconds before and the turret was already lining up with her again, although the angle was now very steep. Gotcha. Now where was Rahi?

"On it," Rahi confirmed. Her own thought processes had gotten as far as 'that's unusual' on seeing the drone, but as soon as Freh'ya had decided on a course of action, she was committed.

"Alia," she ordered her omni-tool sub-vocally, as she rose up from her crouch and levelled her rifle over the top of the rocks in front of her. All but two of the remaining drones in her backpack hangar launched, darting off in a dozen different directions, some scanning the would-be battlefield from all angles, others following their dazzler programming, lashing the turret's sensor eyes with the best thermal spikes their little drives could produce; some distance away the gun drone switched task sets, adopting a defensive rather than evasive stance while it continued towards the main pad, ready to distract any enemy who showed herself there. She felt the 'pulse' sensation as her suit's barriers cycled up to peak strength, just as the turret came into her view - swivelling to try to follow Freh'ya - and her off-hand stretched out, wreathed in blue flame.

"Warp!" she called out. She had never quite shaken the habit of 'calling her attacks', a training technique most huntresses discarded as they developed, but she wasn't the strongest biotic, and every bit helped. She 'felt' it in her body as the field formed around the compact body of the turret - not the metal-shredding gravity storm a commando would have been able to produce, but enough to weaken, perhaps crush something internal if she was lucky. The next instant both hands were on her rifle and she was firing - burst, burst, burst, adjusting her aim each time as the previous volley's impacts registered on her HUD. Then she let the rifle go, both hands whipping back to her belt as it came to rest on the rock in front of her - left hand returning with grenades, tossing them towards the turret with a biotic field to steady their flight, while her right gripped the handle of her shotgun, drawing it and aiming at the enemy drone's glow in her peripheral vision, letting her arm move with the gun's kick as she fired it one-handed, far from ideal but the best she could do in a split second. Then the shotgun was on the ground beside her, her hands were back on her rifle, firing on the turret again as her grenades detonated around it.

Athame guides my hands, I am her sword and her shield.

Temria cursed softly under her breath as Freh'ya's voice picked up, no time now to stumble through a reassuring comeback now... No time for anything as she pulled Arina down behind the angled stone with her to keep the pair of them out of sight. She kept the diplomat between her and the hard surface, both to keep her covered from above, but to afford herself a better angle where she could lift the weapon over the lip of the stone and fire blind if it came to that.

She could hear gunfire echoing, joining the muddled drone of the wind and everything else, but still standing apart from the ambiance as something concrete and important.

Temria fired up her omni-tool as instructed, doing her best to try to keep track of the situation as it unfolded through the expression of pips on a map and tiny, thumbnailed video feeds. Through it she could understand more comprehensively where the gunshots were coming from, and be sure that each had more significance than a mere sound off reporting that Freh'ya or Rahi had at least lived that long.

Shields up, head down. The tiniest possible voice in the back of her mind would repeat over and over like a mantra. The rest of her was pouring over that tactical readout in some desperate hope she could see their would-be opponent's next move, trying to apply principles of defending a ship to the land-locked structure they encroached upon.

Captain Jena sighed, it had taken ages for the collection of com data from all over the system to arrive without raising a fuss and eventually to sift through it only to prove that she had been the last to have contact with the ship. But the associate of the Matriarch had told her, the Sala T’era had already left…. How did they get anywhere without communicating? But then, their diplomatic ID did discourage any controls or questions. At least the controller at the relay must have had contact with the vessel.

She thought briefly about calling the mininig site again but what use would that be, the results would not be different. She swung around her seat and was facing the com operator.
“Okay, this leads us nowhere. The associates of the Matriarch have already scouted their perimeter yesterday but they are limited, the area is treacherous too. I want an optical scan from orbit of the area if weather permits.” Radar wasn’t working since the ground only reflected a distorted image so hopefully no clouds.
“What ship is in the vicinity?”

The operator clicked through a few screens on her console
“There is a torpedo corvette, TDF-578, they will be in a good position in half an hour, their orbit will pass almost directly over the mining site, Ma’am.”

Too damn slow, she had the diffuse feeling something was slipping through her hands. But she could not just order the ship of the Trategos Defense Fleet to change its orbit unless there was an emergency and that hasn’t been declared. And really, what proof did she have ? A broken up signal and a missing relay log… maybe the ship had passed and somehow didn’t get logged properly or logged differently with their diplomatic ID and the matriarch on board? She should check again, this time for the type of ship or the Matriachs personal codes…. Tides, no, she should actually do something! She had a bad feeling about this and this was the one time were following all the steps and the chain of command was… she opened a secure com line to that corvette.

“TDF-578, this is Sunda control. May I speak to your captain please…”

Arina ducked her head, when hell seemed to break loose, immediately being covered bay the doctor as well. Talking about feeling insignificant! She tried to turn sideways between Temria’s breasts and the hard rock so she could follow the feed on the omnitool.

“Damn, what just happened? Why did Freh attack?” So much for a fast and easy ending. But wasn’t this logical, something everyone had been just blacking out? The facility was the only structure in a wider area, whoever was out here and hostile towards them must be in some connection to it. The idea of random pirates living in caves in the vicinity of a Matriarch’s home or hideout or whatever had been naïve. And they had been fucking shot down and could be happy to be as alive as they were? So sorry for being a tad overeager now. Just please, Freh’ya, don’t kill anyone of the good guys….

Such were her thoughts as she flinched while watching the feed.
“Temria, I think, she wanted us to stay in cover… Maybe we could move so they… whoever they are don’t know our position.”
Her head suddenly hurt like hell again and she wanted to smash something for that.

Freh’ya stepped back when the turret started to fire at her, the impact in her barriers was remarkable but it didn’t go down just yet and rebuilt as she ducked behind the edge of the flat roof.

All she needed was peek, she focused on the turret and hoped for a warp or something already in place… Dash! Booom.
She felt the ripple from the biotic explosion she just had triggered. Had she missed this feeling? In fact she had not triggered one since the war and a faint memory of London came back. Had she avoided this on purpose during all the field exercises with her recruit commandos on Nevos?

Damn turret, not out yet! The prime had not been strong enough. A burst ripped into her shields, just as she added a heavy melee – which eventually put that turret out for good.

A drone was already flickering from various hits. Someone else managed to put it out before it could reach her, its small core crashing to the surface of the pad with a metallic noise. She had no idea where the other was. Not around and most likely out as well.

She pressed her back to the wall next to the personnel door, activating her com.
“Pad is clear.” After a moment she added:“Anyone listening to this: This is Republican Task Force Sala T’Era! Open a communications channel and identify yourself!” Yeah, that was a bit of a bold call but making an impression and keeping the pressure up helped more often than not when things already had come into motion.
Switching to a scrambled channel that was audible for all of the crew, she added: “Rahi, set that IFF signal to maximum.”

What did they have now? Either it was the Matriarch and her associates – then she still could always excuse the action with the attack on their craft and the unclear situation. Property damage.
If it was already a hostile takeover though, she had to lure them into the open somehow. She would crack this bunker anyhow (which it really wasn’t since it was never built for that purpose).

Now for trying to hack the door console or at least the intercom. She extended her omnitool and tried her luck with the various automated tool that were standard commando issue. The orange pad around her gloved hands displaying various concentric circles moving back and forth as the macros went to work. Where was a tech expert when you needed one?

"Everyone scramble here, cover the pad."
It seemed logical, the defenses had been set up to keep trespassers away from the building. The closer they got the more the housing relied on its walls alone. She wanted everyone together now, no need in hiding anymore as well.

She then repeated her call.
“Anyone listening to this: This is Republican Task Force Sala T’Era!”

In the control room an asari was frantically pushing her comrade who was sitting at a console, yelling with a shrill voice.

“What the fuck, all the wheels in the sky did just happen?” She started to shake and her eyes went back wide. “we’re blind, they are going to kill us all, you know that, right? Kill us or sell us into the Abyss. I hope they just kill us.”

Freh’ys voice came from a speaker:
“Anyone listening to this: This is Republican Task Force Sala T’Era! Open a communications channel and identify yourself!”

“What in the…”

Another, rather excited voice came from the intercom: “Do not reply, you hear me? We have to defend the Matriarch, this is a trick, lure them into the main corridor and annihilate them! You are sworn in with your lives, you hear me? The Matriarch is in danger, I try to reach Sanves for help!”

The reply was a hesitant “Yes Ma’am.”
Two young asari looked at each other… Both eventually gripped their guns.
“I don’t want to die, you know.”
“What if they are really….”
“Just stop it! You heard the Madam!”

Rahi quickly stowed her rifle and picked up her shotgun, slinging Freh'ya's discarded backpack over her shoulder, against the drone hangar - with them all in the air, there was no need to keep it unobstructed for the moment.

"Ma'am, doctor," she called out to Arina and Temria. "The pad is clear, move along behind me please! I'm bringing back our heavy drone for cover."

She directed the pair around one side of the pad, with herself between them and the approach to the front door, shotgun ready. While they were moving she picked up where Freh'ya had left off, broadcasting a signal on all bands, and retasking the gun drone to close on them.

"This is Republican task force Sala T'Era, on a diplomatic mission overdue to this facility by... twenty-nine hours. Our craft was shot down by hostile fire on approach and believe this facility to be compromised. We are operating under Rules of Action Troya, I say again Troya, will fire to defend our unit." The gun drone hovered into view, skimming quickly across the snow and rock now that the turret was no longer a concern. Rahi quickly reset the parameters of its IFF signal as she talked. "We are broadcasting Republican IFF and declaring Condition Indigo, allied troops please respond IFF, repeat please respond IFF." Goddess, she did sound very Navy, compared to Freh'ya's feet-on-ground commando style.

She slowed and let Temria and Arina move around behind her, sheltered now by the heavy structural supports of the wall - probably the best defensive position they had out here, at least the one with the fewest avenues of approach, short of someone just coming around from another entrance and crossing the pad in the open. She positioned the gun drone behind one of the pad's exhaust plates, keeping watch in case anybody did try just that - you never knew - and moved nearer the doorway.

"Arina and Temria are with me, in cover," she reported. "IFF at max, not reading any artificial jamming. Unless they've switched their receivers right off, I think they can hear our broadcast. I'll set it to automatic repeat. Maybe detach a drone from our cloud and send it on deeper inside, broadcasting by speaker, just in case?" She adjusted the drone cloud's settings, alternating recordings of her own and Freh'ya's challenges. She edged closer to the open door, but stopped short of it, sending a pair of tac drones whirring through to scan whatever lay beyond.

"Corridor, unoccupied, eighteen spans," she relayed. "Minimal cover, open far end, side doors closed, maybe locked." She set two drones to query one door after another, checking whether their access panels were available or sealed off, and glanced at the readout of her defences - the turret had scored a hit on her barriers, but it hadn't penetrated to do physical damage, and they were regenerating. "Ma'am," she added, switching to a channel for Freh'ya only, "if we get no response and meet unknowns... My barriers are fresh, if we need to take that chance." Not that she was looking forward to it - it seemed more likely than not that the facility was hostile, but she wasn't sure, and if she had to risk a defender taking a snap shot at her to realise they weren't the enemy, she was certainly more expendable than Freh'ya. Hopefully even if it was pirates, they wouldn't be set up to take their first shot with an anti-material rifle.

"Are they answering? It doesn't sound like they're answering..." Temria was huddled against the heavy ribs of the outer wall, her voice doing little to hide her anticipation to finally get inside where it was warm. None the less she knew to keep the comm link from broadcasting to the wide world while she rambled to Arina, "Over there, that's the intercom speaker, they couldn't have left the place on automatic, could they? I mean... do you suppose they're still here?"

She and Arina had made their way there at Rahi's behest, Temria offering her injured arm to Arina for balance should she need it. The approach was awkward somehow, after day and a night of tromping around in the snowy wilderness, her footfalls on the very flat and occasionally very slippery artificial floor felt abrupt and halting.

And now they were here, on the verge of salvation. Temria had to do what she could to keep herself from getting overexcited, to remind herself that what her exhausted subconscious mind told her was safety was in fact a very different kind of danger. So as much as she wanted to run through the door and take that constricting hood off at last, she wouldn't risk so much as a glance at it until she'd received the all clear.

She looked back at the intercom speaker forlornly, this had the makings of a disaster...

The realization hit her suddenly, and almost embarrassed she nudged Rahilan's arm to get her attention. "If they used the intercom..." she said in a hushed tone, "They'd only prove they have control of the comms hub, which we'd have to assume already, yeah?"