Plot Log - ColTowers

Posted on 241407.22 @ 7:28am by Colonel Adam Towers

Mission: Insurrection [Fleet Plot]

=*= BEGIN LOG =*=

"Good luck." Towers whispered to Sharpe and the three marines going with him. They moved off without a word, leaving Towers with two marines of his own. Edmunds had already moved to an overwatch position inside the perimeter where he could see both the prison and the comm center.

Speed was key now, as the longer it took Towers to deploy his "distraction", the greater their chances of being detected by some sleepy, patrolling UFP guard. The security was lazy, despite being in a heightened state of alert. Towers would have been furious had his marines manned their posts like that.

Taking the two men with him, Towers stealthily crept along buildings, hugging the walls and avoiding the disinterested glances of sentries. A double click in the comm unit in his ear told him that Chase was in position and providing overwatch. Of course the first shot the young Sergeant fired would completely ruin any attempt at stealth. There was no way to silence a .50 calibre sniper rifle and the shot would be heard for miles.

"There." One of the marines whispered, pointing at the building. It was your standard looking communications building. Dishes and antenna were scattered all over it, and two bored looking sentries stood at the main doors.

STARFLEET COMMUNICATIONS - STARFLEET CAMPUS ARRAY was in large letters above the doors.

"How do we get inside?" One of the marines whispered.

"We don't need to." Towers said, pointing at the massive power transformer at the back of the building, protected by a simple fence and two more wandering sentries.

"Put explosives on that in the right spot and detonate it, and the feedback pulse will blow the thing up from the inside out, like a warp core breach." Towers explained.

"You can do that?"

Towers gave his comrade a withering look. "Son, I was placing explosives surgically when you were still in diapers. We need those sentries down. Silently. Blades only."

"What does it matter? The second you set that off, half the planet will know we're here."

Towers nodded. "Any second we can buy for Sharpe to get closer to that prison before this kicks off gives us that much better a chance of escape."

Not that escape was much more than a remote chance anyway.

The three men crept closer. Towers gestured for his two soldiers to split and go for one guard each.

"Remember. No noise." Towers said as he set his pack down and started rummaging inside for the correct explosives.

Thirty seconds later there was a muffled scream. One of the two guards had not been taken down as silently as Towers would have liked. Giving the marine a glare and getting a shrug of apology in return, Towers listened.

Boots clicked on the walkway as a third guard came to investigate.

"I thought I heard something, sir. Out by the generator." The reply of his superior was too quiet to hear.

Towers flashed a complicated array of hand signals to his two marines, finishing with a strong middle finger aimed at the marine that had caused the noise. The man glowered and ducked back to obey the orders.

Towers checked the time. Six minutes since he had left Sharpe's group. He needed to hurry.

On his orders, one of the two marines had picked up a small rock and skipped it down the road. The effect was instant as the guard brought up his weapon and pointed at the direction of the noise. This left him with his back directly to Towers, crouched against a wall.

This sort of thing was distasteful, especially being as this guard would have been, in different circumstances, an ally. Towers made it quick, using his combat knife to end the man's life silently by thrusting it into the base of his skull. This was an instant kill shot, and produced far less blood than the more gruesome method of slitting the throat.

Gently lowering the corpse down and dragging it back behind the building, Towers gestured to the two marines, a silent indication telling them "That's how it's done."

The second Towers had struck, one of the two marines began cutting through the fence using small hand-held wire cutters. A laser torch would definitely attract unwanted attention. The other marine joined him from the other side and within thirty seconds they had a man sized hole in the metal fence.

It took Towers only another fifteen seconds to slip through, find the appropriate power junction, wedge the explosive pack underneath it, and set the timer.

He shot back through the hole in the fence, whispering "Sixty seconds. Move." before hauling ass in the opposite direction. Phase two of Towers' part in this was to get as close as possible to the prison and provide Sharpe with whatever support he could, hopefully waylaying any reinforcements sent to the prison.

The two marines followed him silently.

The noise of the explosion, when it happened, was thunderous. The ground shook, and even two hundred meters away, which was how far they had gotten in the sixty seconds, Towers felt the heat wave at his back. The power was from the generator's feedback pulse, causing every EPS conduit in the building not just to rupture, but to explode violently. All that ferocious explosive power was pushed up and out, not levelling the building but sending massive chunks in all directions. Every antenna, with the delicate communications circuitry inside, was instantly disintegrated or fried.

Towers didn't need to give Sharpe a signal that their part of the mission was successful. The massive flare he had just created would do that job for them.

Alarm klaxons sounded instantly. The wailing was intense as guards stirred into action. Towers hoped that Chase would hold his fire until necessary. Giving away his position before things got bad wasn't a good move.

It wasn't long before Towers heard another, smaller explosion.

"Sharpe's breached it. Come on." Towers said, quickening his pace. They had been relatively unobstructed so far as every guard and response team would have been running to the now smouldering comm array building. Now with an explosion on the other side of the campus, the confusion was evident. One guard stopped and looked helplessly in both directions before calling his superior for help. Towers ignored him as they ran towards the prison.

Towers could see the smoke rising from the hole that Sharpe had entered in on the side of the prison complex only a few hundred yards away. Skidding to a stop, Towers crouched down and looked around. Cover was sparse around here.

"Up." He ordered. The three kicked in the door of the nearest building, a four floor warehouse, and quickly made their way to the roof. This was a risky strategy. It gave them good fire superiority, but it also trapped them, barring the rather moronic move of jumping off the roof, which risked broken legs.

"Chase. Watch our backs." Towers spoke into his comm.

A double click answered him.

The response was still minimal, as the odd guard scurried into the area to look at the prison, but it seemed like they were more concerned with the comm array. The prison also undoubtedly had their own personnel inside to deal with whatever Sharpe was doing.

Towers crouched on the roof with two marines beside him, hefted the M4A1 carbine he was carrying, and waited.

=*= END LOG =*=

Colonel Adam Towers