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May 2023 It's been hectic this last year, but we are alive and celebrating our fifth year of adventure and tales. A lot has been worked on to help make the Monoverse one that everyone can enjoy and explore their story while becoming a part of the greater cosmos. All of you, new and long time players, stay safe, and see you in the Sea of Stars!
Following the attempts of D-MODA to covertly investigate a strange signal broadcasting via slipspace frequencies in the globular cluster Omega Centauri, a Kromus facility was discovered and reported back to both the Confederation Department of Advanced Warfare and the offices of Chairman Kea'ton. Now, a full fleet task force has been gathered and dispatched to Tallon IV to meet the Kromus forces gathered in system, and with luck, eliminate Ridley and the Cunning Death once and for all.
A variety of possible rewards await players. As a major arc to the Kromus War campaign, much can be earned, especially as Tallon IV is not only a Kromus command center and research site, it is also the location of an abandoned Chozo nest, with possibly left behind information and archives from the Na'tra tribe. Be wary, however. Not all things that appear to be a reward for the taking are what they seem.
Early reconnaissance was overdue to the the small task group as it hung in hiding within the asteroid field that lay at the outer reaches of the now formally titled Tallon System. Despite the last several weeks of observation and build up to take the planet and the Kromus facilities that lay on the surface, the Confederation still had not made any moves as yet. Not until they had every bit of information they could verify.
Dozens of crackling swirls of blue twisted open in the black to spit out objects only a handful of meters long, their albedo only a few points higher than that of the surrounding space - and almost impossible to identify among the thousands if not millions of other objects among the asteroid belt they emerged into. While thrown and tossed by the turbulence and stresses of slipspace, few if any of the pods showed any outward signs of damage as they began to drift towards the world of Tallon IV, their trajectories having already been painstakingly calculated and set in place even before launch. Accompanied by a slew of other meteors and debris from the asteroid belt that regularly peppered the atmosphere of the world, hours would pass in relative silence... until the first handful of metallic pods scraped against Tallon's upper atmosphere, beginning to shed momentum and starting their descent into the planet's gravity well as they began to burn a bright yellow-orange upon entry.
First mission in a while, especially with his new Fireteam, Obelisk, and he's all warmed up too against the "Kronmud" or whatever they were called. The mere name when around the V's noticeably makes them seem much more tense, or, in this case, excited. He knew they were there to at the very least scout things out, gather information and intel for the coming forces, which is exactly what he planned to do, keep things as quiet as possible. Don't grab any unnecessary attention and all that. He turned to the rookies among him, which, was rather ironic of sorts for him, but that wasn't important.
Feeling the shaking of the pod as they moved in like a inorganic meteor, breaking into the atmosphere in a fiery star until it would inevitably land, piles of dirt and rock flying away to make room for the drop pod. With a simple kick open, the four Spartans emerged, eyes quickly glancing around them to spot any threats to the secrecy of their presence. Finding nothing, Quinn found it reasonable to try and initiate comms with the other squads they had dropped with, ensuring that when things went sour they could at least inform their allies of whatever went wrong and what needed to be done all while his three squad members kept an eye around the area, keeping an ever enduring watch. "Testing, testing. This is Quinn 123 of Fireteam Obelisk, testing communications." While he did even this, he too kept watch, eyes never distracted and distant from the important tasks at hand, ears listening intently on any foreign sounds nearby.
Among the many, many objects that entered Tallon's atmosphere on a daily basis, a handful of those that fell to the planet's surface this time would remain in a fairly tight grouping - only several dozens of meters apart rather than separating as they grew closer to the planet. Wreathed in orange and red flame with the ceramic alloy casing of each pod glowing colors to match, the formation would be maintained despite an outward lack of guidance.
Several hundred meters above the planet's surface, many of the objects would finally seem to scatter, a core grouping of five maintaining loose formation as additional flames blasted from the bottom of the objects - retrograde thrusters applying immediate correction to their velocity.
The sounds of flowing water would dominate the landscape, ranging from the burble of small creeks to the quiet roar of larger rivers. All of it underscored by the soft patter of seemingly constant rain bouncing off rock, wood and densely packed leaves and undergrowth. Here, life was manifest, largely untouched and unspoiled by the guiding hand of civilization. What wildlife was present seemed to keep to themselves, content to avoid disrupting the status quo... at least for the moment. The system's sun had yet to climb over the horizon, leaving the soaked jungle largely cloaked in darkness with only the faintest hues of purple and orange in the distant sky to hint at the coming day. The only precursor to the disruption to come would be that of a loud but distant boom - seconds later followed by momentary chaos as the sky seemed to tear, the forest canopy ripping apart as a metal pod crashed through to bounce off an ancient tree trunk. Wood sheared but didn't break, leaving the ancient life scarred but still intact as the pod deflected off of it to skip off the soft mud and leaf litter of the forest floor and carving out meters long troughs before it finally came to rest against another similarly massive tree.
Mud spattered and steamed, the quiet sounds of rain taking command once again as the new sound of water on metal was added to the orchestra - mist rising from the pod's metal casing as the warm rain absorbed heat from the surface. Minutes of relative silence would pass before, finally, a section of the pod - on its side, front seemingly facing the sky - would pop forward an inch or two, gas hissing from the metal seams before explosive bolts violently threw the metal slab several meters into the air. As it came crashing down again and stuck to the steaming mud of the forest floor, a fiber optic camera would snake up and over the edge of the pod's interior. Slowly turning to survey the forest around the clearing, the camera would be retracted back into the pod's interior only when the occupant was absolutely sure they were alone - the camera replaced by a massive, armored hand as Vincent sat up and hauled himself out and over the edge of the SOEIV. Boots would sink into mud and soft earth as half a ton of man and machine stood in place, jet black MJOLNIR blending in almost seamlessly with the early morning darkness. Yet another check of his surroundings, the Prowler PDW in one hand sweeping to follow his gaze before Vincent turned his attention back to the pod behind him and holstering his submachine gun to free up both hands.
"Uplink with STARS established, downloading stored telemetry. This will take some time to sort through, especially on top of identifying and keeping track of Kromus transmissions - I imagine the point is to avoid being found out. In the meantime I've tracked the entry vectors of the other HEV and ordnance pods, placing waypoints on your HUD." The voice was soft, as if whispered, but despite the sound being contained to his helmet anyways Vincent found himself appreciating Nora's discretion as his hands moved over the HEV's interior, stripping it of every ounce of gear he'd packed. Ammunition, explosives, more delicate tools and electronics. All the while one eye was kept to his armor's motion tracker... even though the thing was borderline useless in this jungle. With so much moving water and wildlife there was no way for the motion tracker to distinguish between hostile contacts and general background noise. Pocketing the last of the pod's contents, however, Vincent would step back to allow his armored feet to sink back into the muck as he switched on the one thing that wouldn't have much trouble in the given environment - and even though Vincent's enhanced eyesight had little trouble seeing in the dark here the muted tan, green and blue overlays of his helmet's VISR system was a welcome improvement.
A moment later, additional contacts would be added to the HUD - namely the waypoints Nora had spoken of only seconds before.
"Thank you."
"Anyti-"
Midsentence, the AI's voice would be cut off as another came in over the Confed radio bands - encrypted, yes, but still a voice transmission and something that made Vincent hiss to himself in annoyance as he drew his Prowler, instinctively crouching down to lower his overall profile. Not a moment later a far more subtle message would follow. Not vocal, but text, heavily encrypted and a much smaller burst of data... far more difficult to detect.
ALL FRIENDLIES, MAINTAIN RADIO SILENCE. RENDEZVOUZ WITH TEAMS AND PROCEED TO OBJECTIVES.
Opal had always been quick.
"Nora, which pod is Hei-" Vincent started, only for the myriad of waypoints on his HUD to suddenly vanish save for one. Opal wasn't the only one, it seemed, and the Spartan could all but feel the AI's smugness despite lacking an actual face to put to the thing. Doublechecking his SMG to make sure that the displays were off and it was producing no light to give his position away, the black armored Spartan would begin making his way through the dense underbrush and towards the remaining waypoint roughly a quarter kilometer away.
Proximity alarms were sounded but for a sparse second, warranting only a cursory effort by the Qymor technician assigned to watch the monitoring stations. When nothing further seemed to disturb the aerospace around Tallon IV, the Kromus gave a snort and reset the alerts, with a quick note logged that it had been another sensor glitch picking up local wildlife. They returned their attentions then to the efforts made to transport a very large containment chamber, over thirty feet in length, to an awaiting freight ship at the main landing platforms.
A series of snarls and growls were snapped at the Qymor , sending them into action as they hurried to man the main gate controls that allowed the various Kromus moving the containment chamber along to depart from the mining complex and toward the landing array. As soon as the cargo was loaded onto the freight ship and the entry doors seal, there was a roar of engines and the freighter lifted away from the landing pad in a highly noticeable departure.
With the sudden message showing up within his HUD, Quinn merely shrugged it off, making a mental note. He soon rejoined his Fireteam, eyes maintained around them, his voice garnering immediate attention from each one in spite of it's clearly intended quietness. "Alright, first, turn off any lights you might have on, switch to night vision. Now, here's the plan, Allea, you've got the SRS99, find the highest peak, and maintain overwatch as much as possible. Try not to be seen, and be sure to follow us as much as possible. That rifle's got range so you don't have to worry too much. Vigil, you'll be following her as much as possible, watch her back." The two he had just named nodded, running into the darkness of the woods, towards any peak of significant height, Roarke turning towards his superior officer "And what about me, sir?" Quinn rested a hand onto his shoulder, "You're with me. We're getting in a bit closer than they are. Out of the pan, and into the flames. Pretty sure that's the saying." Roarke coughed, shaking his head. "I don't think that's the saying, right idea, wrong execution." Quinn shrugged "Whatever, it doesn't matter, we need to get moving. Patch, where's the Crash Site?" With all that said, the AI directed them towards their desired location, the pair beginning to make their way to the Crash Site, keeping their spacing as much as possible.
The shattered wreckage of the Kromus frigate was half sunken into a large lake to the south of what appeared to be a series of ruins. Fragments had crashed into the ground, burnt from the heat of reentry and impact, while the intact bulk of the broken frigate lay deep in the lake, emerging from the murky waters just enough to find it. Dozens of bodies now littered the water's surface, many burnt, some not at all intact.
And yet despite the damage of entry, the impact and the flooding…something gave a snarling roar that echoed out in the wetlands.
For several long minutes little would break the silence that permeated the rainforest following the entry of Vincent's drop pod. The one sound that he did hear, the soft and quiet sound of falling rain and burbling water, became almost deafening in how all encompassing it was. Every direction, at every level and in all parts of his surroundings as the Spartan moved through the dense undergrowth, not even bothering to activate his armor's camouflage. In any other situation he probably would have, but here? The forest was hell for technology, even worse for those trying to make use of it. The optical camouflage wouldn't do anything for the falling water meaning the rain would be a dead giveaway anyways when it hit a supposedly empty space, nor would it stop the leaves and plants from rustling as he moved through them. By the same token, however, the chaos of the jungle also meant that anyone who came out looking for potential disturbances would be forced to deal with those same problems as well... and in the pre-morning darkness and under the forest canopy Vincent had complete confidence in both his own enhanced senses as well as his HUD's AI boosted VISR system.
Finally, something would change - and Vincent would come to an abrupt stop, his already lowered stance settling into a crouch as he remained still, eyes scanning the surrounding forest. There was still a distinct lack of animal life or sounds from birds or insects (or whatever passed for them on Tallon), but his gut told him there was something was off. Maybe not the most solid thing to go by, but Lieutenant Ambrose had always made a point of saying to trust that feeling. And after a moment-
Something that could have passed for a low, trailing bird call from the undergrowth several meters ahead and to the left, and Vincent forced himself not to relax as he responded in kind with a similar, low whistle, the first sound to leave his helmet since landing. Keeping his stance low, Vincent started moving towards the source of the sound only for the bushes to part on approach, a similar gauntleted hand pulling to part them aside and grant the black armored Spartan access to the small clearing beyond it - constructed in a hurry, but expertly made. Plants had been cleared from the ground and used to erect hastily constructed walls intended to act as camouflage for the bivouac, by all outward appearances nothing more than a particularly dense section of the jungle's underbrush. Unless you knew what you were looking for the only way to find it was going to be stumbling into the clearing and through the bushes by accident - especially since the four other Spartans present had all disabled their FoF tags, removing more or less the only easy way of locating them through technological means.
The helmet that greeted him at the entrance was that of a blocky EOD MJOLNIR variant, the rest of the armor similarly up-armored and a dull brown that heavily contrasted with the gold, goggle like visor pieces that reflected Vincent's own image. Beyond Amanda was another Spartan clad in pale blue, a far narrower profile as Opal and Anna, the latter wearing a suit of Mk. II AESIR armor, were carefully opening a recovered ordnance pod to salvage its contents and explosives. Finally, on guard behind all of them and wearing black armor not unlike Vincent's own but utilizing an ODST derived configuration was Heidi, MA5 lowered but her thumb resting on the gun's safety.
"Linking to local TEAMCOMM. Keeping the gain low enough that it should be safe."
"Appreciated, Nora. Vincent, you good?" Heidi said, voice low but readily heard inside his helmet and to the point as her silver visored helmet turned slightly, a clear glance over to the second black armored Spartan - to which Vincent could only nod as he stepped through into the small bivouac, Amanda glancing through the opening one last time before closing it behind him with a slight rustle.
"Far as I could tell. No followers, no sign of anyone coming to check up on my pod. Think we've got a clean insertion." Vincent replied, immediately holstering his SMG and moving towards the ordnance pod as Opal and Anna started extracting what were clearly be parts of an anti-materiel rifle - likely a Kraber from the look of it. Not something he'd personally had the opportunity to put time in with at the range since coming out of the freezer but comparable enough to the SR99 series of his era from what the Spartan knew of the platform. A lucky find this early in, but that wasn't what he was concerned with. While careful to avoid interfering with what his team mates were doing Vincent's hands would immediately move to start inspecting the explosives, which had correctly been disarmed and disconnected from the detonator and makeshift FoF/anti-tampering system he'd cobbled together on the Concordia.
Good. Without further preamble Vincent would start extracting the packages, moving them from the pod to the various containers, pockets and clamps on his own armor for later use.
"What I like to hear. We've already picked an approach for the mines, there should be a series of lifts scattered around the jungle if the intel from the Orpheon was right. Zach's team should be moving to secure the one to the area the Kromus set up their mining operation before moving on their own target." Heidi continued, finally allowing her MA5 to hang by its tactical rigging as she stepped towards the center of the camp to accept the now assembled Kraber from Opal, looking the weapon down and over before raising and dropping it over her shoulder to attach the oversized rifle to the mag-clamp on her back.
"Much as Amanda would probably prefer it, you've got point once we're on the other side of the lift. I'd like to do this as quiet as we can, she'll step in if things get noisy."
"Understood." Vincent responded, quickly pulling down one of the makeshift bivouac walls to camouflage the now gutted ordnance pod as Heidi started moving past Amanda, the brown armored Spartan doing the same to the other walls as the entire fireteam fell in behind the team lead as they moved towards the first rendezvous point.
The path to the mines was one surprisingly clear of opposition by the time Gauntlet arrived on scene. Kromus bodies of various subspecies were spread across the ground, ceal forearms wounds to reveal the causes of death. At the actual entry site to the mines, a series of cranes were inert, having been halted in mid operation. Metal crates were cast aside to await relocation that would never come, though a flight blue glow could be seen through the seams and opening of the containers.
From there, several observation pods could be seen, safe places for overseers to manage operations, or at least, safe places is what they should have been…
Slowly inch by inch, his body began to duck his head to be of a smaller size though not enough to slow him down to maintain his maximum speed, Roarke following the same, as Allea kept the right amount of distance to be safe away from any potential hostiles of the pair in front of her, but not enough that she would be ineffective, and unable to see them, her scope almost always kept on them. This would be the one moment where he attention had been diverted, looking on over to the ruins the ship had crashed nearby. Their comms sounded within the helmets of her peers, her voice questioning "Unknown temple north-bound. Should we check it out sir?" Vigil, always keeping an eye on her six, utterly silent, ignoring the presence of the temple and focused solely on following the orders he was provided.
Quinn and Roarke began to move closer towards the ship, or rather, what wasn't filled to the brim with water. As Allea's voice sounded, each footstep slowly beginning to splash against the wet ground, Quinn stopped, looking to the direction she had said it was, observing it for a second before providing an answer. "Not at the moment, we'll investigate after we're finished he-" And then unto their ears came a sound, one they were not expecting, silencing G123 from uttering another word as he and Roarke pressed their backs together, looking at the possible origins of where the roar had come from, guns aimed and ready for what may come next. Couldn't be the water, it was clear as day and no detection or remnants of bubbles, perhaps the neighboring forest? For Allea and Vigil, the two rushed up to the tree tops, hiding amongst the branches and leaves, prepared for what may come next.
Vigil was afraid of what could happen, what sort of creature had made this sound and what it would do to his new "family". Allea, nervous, but drowned her doubt in her years of disciplined training, steeling her heart to the potential combat. Roarke, not terribly worried, solely for the wrench it would throw into the mission, and the difficulties had, leading to irritation at the thought, something he'd have to take out on the poor thing if it showed it's face.
Quinn thought to himself, a small, inconsequential array of words: "Swear to god, if this goes bad and Vinny's having a better time, I'm gonna kill 'im."
The path to the waypoint that Nora had set would be surprisingly devoid of resistance as Gauntlet moved through the dense jungle underbrush. Initial reports and stolen Kromus intelligence had suggested that Tallon IV was... hostile, to say the least. A thriving and diverse ecosystem but one driven by a constant evolutionary arms race, moreso than most other worlds. Big, nasty predators, highly territorial wildlife even among those with more varied or plant based diets. Enough that the Kromus and apparent Chozo inhabitants before them had taken the pains of setting up automated door systems to lock out the native wildlife from the more sensitive areas... for all the good that did when the very infrastructure built around those chokepoints was crumbling into ruin, leaving dozens of holes in what was supposed to act as a barrier against intrusion. A brief pause would be the only break in the team's pace as Vincent cracked open a plate from one such door's edge to open it electronically as opposed to using loud, disruptive force as they'd been designed to be opened - through a short cave, and following that a several minute climb down a long, wide shaft that had been hewn into the planet's bedrock by centuries if not millennia of constant water driven erosion. Finally within only a few hundred meters of Nora's first waypoint, another short walk through an underground tunnel and past another pair of doors would finally bring Gauntlet to the room they wanted - and already within it another team of similarly armored individuals. All of them were considerably shorter than the Spartans in Gauntlet, most clad in the same AESIR armor that Anna herself was wearing and much closer to her build and stature... save one.
"'bout time. You're cleared to go, just be careful on the other side. Orbital recon hasn't given us a great look at the mines or what they're doing down there." A white armored Spartan spoke up from the back, hefting a heavily modified Stanchion rifle as he turned to look at the group entering the room and touching two fingers to his helmet's slim golden visor in greeting. Sporting armor heavily reminiscent of the GEN1's Recon platform, Zachary stood out like a sore thumb in the browns and greens of Tallon's warmer and wetter regions... although that was unlikely to remain the case for long.
"Obelisk's already moving on their objective, means we're behind on ours." Zachary finished, a clear indication for his own team of Spartan-Vs to begin leaving the room and moving to secure their own elevator as marked on the Kromus maps taken from the Orpheon. Smoothly moving to follow his team, Zachary would take only a moment to lightly thump a fist on each of Gauntlet's shoulders as he passed - a move that was mirrored in kind as the second Spartan fireteam filed out of the room. Without another word Gauntlet would move to take their place on the lift, Heidi bringing up the forearm mounted display to link her suit's ARTEMIS system to the lift controls to activate it.
A moment later the platform would vanish, sped along on metal rails at incredible speeds.
A dull roar and rumble of metal, the lift would rapidly decelerate before coming to an abrupt stop at its destination - oddly without transferring much if any of that momentum to its passengers. None of them would take the time to question this. Years of training and muscle memory would kick in as they quickly filed off of the lift in tandem to either side of the doorway within the small cave the lift had come to a stop in, weapons held ready and in breaching positions around the door as Vincent again cracked the panel and connected his datapad to the internal leads. A moment or two of silence, followed by the luminous panels sliding open to reveal the room beyond it.
Radiation warnings would immediately sound in everyone's helmets. The metal catwalk beyond the door was enclosed but the metal mesh did little to hide what it was suspended over, an otherworldly blue haze and glow filling the tunnel as energy crackled across the blue substance. Despite the crystalline growths the surface of the Phazon - as there was little else it could be following their briefings - suggested liquid, a direct contrast to the material's otherwise solid state.
"Armor's shields are holding, at least this far from it. Best we don't stay, though. One at a time over the walkway." Heidi muttered, the blue glow and haze only serving to accentuate the silver-blue of the woman's own helmet visor as she glanced through the doorway. As a chorus of green status lights filled the TEAMCOMM on Vincent's HUD the Spartans would move as instructed, quickly and carefully crossing over the metal walkway until all five Spartans had reached the other side of the tunnel and were presented with another door. Unlike the one they had just opened, however, this time there were contacts beyond it - hazy but present on their motion trackers all the same. Settling in beside the door again, Vincent once more began the process of accessing the guts of the door's electronic locking and opening mechanism. Unlike before, however, Vincent wouldn't open the portal - at least not all the way, cutting the power immediately after giving the command to freeze the panels with only a centimeter between.
Reaching into another pocket the Spartan would draw out another tool, carefully snaking a borescope camera through the small opening to get a look at what lay beyond the door - hopefully without alerting anything there to their presence.
Snarls and chitter were picked up from inside the next tunnel chamber. Ten of them, a mix of Qymor and Urtrahgan pirate troops, though none looked a thing like the "standard" of their respective soldier castes. All ten appeared to be augmented with heavy cybernetics, beyond merely harnessing weapons to their limbs, while eight of them had various glowing modules and weapons ports attached to their bodies. A pair of them gave motions that looked as if they were laughing before firing their main weapons at a pair of meter tall arthropods that seemed to be indigenous wildlife.
The resultant purple beams that waved around a central line of direction in particles was one Vincent had seen before, some nearly two years years prior, and the impact effects were just as familiar; the arthropods jittered as if hit by a high charged electrical shock, before falling dead. The mercenary who had helped them return to human space had a very similar weapon, with equally similar effects.
One of the Urtrahgans turned to be more frontally visible, barking at the purple-lit Qymor. As of yet, they had not picked up on their observers.
The wetlands were silent where there should have been wildlife teaming from all corners. The still smoldering wreck of the crashed frigate had no doubt been the initial source of abandonment of the area, but it had been some time since the vessel had crashed down from orbit. Something else was the cause of the lifelessness of the lake.
As the Confederation recon unit moved through the wetlands, not only did that roar echo out again, but they would find clusters of strange insectish creatures skittering about, scavenging the various floating Kromus corpses that littered the water. Each one was half a meter in length, moving along on their bellies with their two spindly forearms pulling them along, while a pair of mandibles clicked and five eyes gleamed in what light came down from the sky.
Post by Vincent A291 on Sept 11, 2022 23:40:17 GMT
I ain't no fortunate one
"Contacts, ten of them. Kromus, new armor configurations." Vincent said, voice low despite it being piped directly to the shielded and encrypted TEAMCOM where the only ones capable of hearing it were the other Spartans in close proximity. Old habits, but ones that died hard - particularly when you learned them back as a child.
"'New' how?"
"Lot more colorful. Actually sort of reminds me of the old Coven-" Vincent started speaking, slowly twisting the borescope to get a better view of the surrounding tunnel - only for his voice to cut short as the laughing alpha bravos suddenly fired one of their weapons at a fairly large arthropod in the tunnel, to very unique yet familiar effect.
"Oh."
"'Oh' isn't helpful." Heidi said, although the impatience in her voice was somewhat tempered by the tone that had been in Vincent's - and that tone had likewise earned a glance from both Amanda and Anna, although Opal would remain the only one among the group that maintained a steady watch on the tunnel they'd all just come from. All four present had been with Vincent long enough to know that both that word and the tone attached to it usually mean something unexpected, and unexpected was unwelcome when it came to the kind of work they did.
"I'm guessing they're the new beam troopers the intel dump from the Orpheon mentioned." Vincent continued, turning the borescope back to center on the purple one that had fired. He'd seen that weapon once before, and while it had struggled to kill them outright anything capable of making a Brute stop dead in their tracks wasn't to be taken lightly. The intel package had been vague but it had given names and origins for the tech - all Chozo in origin, yet another race he'd had to catch up on and learn about since coming out of the ice. The wave beam in particular was electrical, and while Vincent was tempted to believe that MJOLNIR's shielding (both energy and EM) could handle it... that was a dangerous assumption to make, to say nothing of the other colored Kromus troopers in the room. Presumably power, plasma and ice - the last of which had most of his attention. The first two could presumably be shaken off by their energy shielding but Vincent had no idea how it would handle a bootlegged ice beam that the Kromus reports had referred to - or how the Kromus shielding would handle their weapons. "So how do we want to handle this?"
A moment of silence, Heidi's gaze fixed on Vincent and the borescope he was manipulating. She'd seen the same intelligence reports he had, and shared many of the same concerns as they'd both been aboard the Anvil. It was clear the gears in her head were turning when another voice suddenly lit up the TEAMCOM, this one not belonging to anyone physically present.
"I'm in, cracked their comms. Sorry- bad time?
A collective breath held by most present was released at Nora's sudden appearance and update, Vincent feeling his shoulders physically unbunch.
"No, you're good. Just keep monitoring them, let us know if there's movement. Try and pin down their patrols and guard locations if you can." Vincent responded, reeling the borescope back in before pocketing the length of prehensile cord.
"This is on you and Amanda. I've no doubt Nora could handle it but I don't want to tip our hand too early. Just do it quiet." Heidi finally said, visor glancing to Opal and Anna with two quick hand gestures for them to move away from the door. Letting out a long breath himself, Vincent's visor would flash in Amanda's direction for but a moment, about the closest one could get to a long suffering expression through body language alone. Standing up slightly into a more mobile crouch, Vincent's form would waver and vanish as his armor's active camouflage turned on - and only a moment later the door would hiss open, Amanda tapping the wires of the exposed access panel to open the portal. With each Spartan hidden well off to either sides of the door the most the Kromus inside would see was an empty doorway, Vincent quickly and quietly making his way into the room, careful to not kick up dirt, dust or bootprints with his footsteps.
The lead Urtrahgans barked in a guttural snarl from one, followed by a series of clicks and hisses from the other. One of the beam troopers marked with bright blue light emanating from their modules would step toward the doors, sniffing at the air while its weapon arm was raised and ready. A low hiss was given in response while the two troopers with red lights in their modules readied their own weapons. Waves of heat were already rising from the scorched openings of the arm mounted cannon ports.
The two lead Urtrahgans looked around, eight eyes shifting rapidly while their subordinates spread out in anticipation. They could sense something was there; the door would have not opened of its own accord otherwise. Another clicking from the hinged jaws that rattled a moment. The blue lit troopers nodded and fired through the doorway, releasing what looked like glowing shards of ice that spread into a thick jagged coating on the rock walls wherever they touched. Any scans taken would show the effect to be almost at absolute zero.
Another volley was released by the Ice Beam troopers, the directions sporadic, yet not just random actions. A flurry struck the open doorway, coating it with ice and instantly rising vapor. The troopers took a step back, then continued their sweep, now firing around the room as they stepped back again.
