Red Team Onward!

[voidtreckermods]

Through the Wormhole

The wormhole is shown on their SCA maps and they should be able to plot a course to it easily enough. Hopefully they time things with Purple team so they can use the chaos of the initial clash to manouvere around and through the wormhole.

The wormhole itself is a ring of light against the blackness of space. A ring that is large enough for five ships in close formation to pass through at once.

They come out into a different galaxy. As long as they are quick and move away from the wormhole in good time they will not attract attention. Their SCA's show four points of investigation.

Planet One

This planet is relatively small and seems to be made mostly of volcanic rock. There are some active volcanoes but there is enough of the planet that is safe.

It seems devoid of any settlements, though there is evidence of mining. Probably a good place to make a base for the Red team to use for scouting.

Planet Two

This is much larger but seems to be a military base of operations rather than a planet where people live. There are plenty of warehouses and factories to sneak in and explore. Most of them seem to be building ships, or at least part of ships.

They are all guarded and Voidtreckers will have to act fast if spotted. Guards are equipped with blasters and are very much trained in shooting first and asking questions later.

Space Stations

There are two large space stations that have a lot of traffic, cargo ships, smaller fighter ships and even larger battleships come and go. Sneaking in will take some subterfuge and tactics.

If they get inside they will find guards everywhere. As long as they don't act suspiciously they should be able to move around the main common areas. There are barracks, mess halls, training halls. A large hanger for ships and huge storage areas for ship parts to be loaded onto cargo ships and taken away.

Comments

Through the Wormhole (Now with Toplevels!)

[unfavorableinstigation]

Arrival Into the Empire's System

It's a rough ride in normal space - not in the least helped by her nerves, most likely - but Nita retains enough presence of mind to mentally scout for something beyond just the state of the target solar system: the source of the wormhole.

We're going to need to do a scan, Nita quietly informed the peridexis. And cloak it, at that.

/It'll take longer, but it should be doable./

Of course, then there was the matter of what they might find - was the source powering one wormhole, or both? Had the technology been in use frequently, or only recently debuted? And, of course, all around her Nita felt the discomfort of separate instances of space-time being forcibly paired together.

If there was need, Nita could work with that.

Planet One

When the Red group had their debrief, Nita would mention that, if the Empire had their wormhole-running facilities at their capital, then it wasn't in this solar system - or at least, not all of it. 'Your Princess Is In Another Castle' Syndrome had struck again.

Apart from that, she made herself useful with the Mason's Word, shaping willing stone for additional shelter, scouting for water, and searching the mining sites to determine what materials the supposed 'natives' had been harvesting.

Her perspective was focused on neutralizing the megaweapon's threat, or else turning it to their side. Sabotage - convincing it to malfunction - was also a possibility.

Space Stations and Planet Two

When the Red Team (plus or minus extra recruits from other teams...) sets their sights on these, Nita is on board to help with cloaking. When they come to the hangars, she will focus on feeling the place out; creating a mental diagram of the building she's touching, she can scout a larger area without physically travelling and thus increasing her risk of getting caught.

Not that the idea of setting up a large enough distraction to make the military force evacuate wasn't appealing...

[tinkerheart]

Through the Wormhole
It is easy to ignore the mayhem around when one has as many years of experience in maintaining laser focus necessary for his work. Passing through a ring of light should be at least a memorable experience but no. Not this time. The craft sails smoothly from one charcoal darkness right into another.

Planet One
The first one they found seems deserted enough to land there. So far, so good but Fëanor is cautious when he leaves his craft. He looks around studying the terrain. Conical shapes in the distance, mountains with steep slopes but even. Volcanic then. Good. He closes his eyes and evens his breathing.
Now, strange little world, what will you tell me about yourself? And then the world does.

"We need to set up camp somewhere here." Those are his first words to his fellow Red Teamers. Enemy territory or not, they need a base of operation.

Speaking of base... Fëanor takes out his palantír. "If any of you finds anything that looks like this rock here, tell me."

This not their primary objective and it might be slightly dangerous to try and haul rocks from here when he's not sure how much weight his craft is able to support. Still worth a try.
He turns his attention to the orb. Given the intended recipient, he doesn't even have to say it out loud, a thought is enough.

"We're in and setting camp" goes the message. It would flash red on its purple sister's surface.

[ooc: he's not very good at sneaking ha, understatement of the year but he can be told to be quiet it may even work. Hit me for plotting on bitweaver or VoidTrecker discord.]

[enthunder]

Wormhole

One of the members of Red team from a vaguely analogous level of technology, even if everything is hopelessly foreign, she didn't bother checking before sliding into the co-pilot seat of one of the ships cordoned off for their use.

She'd just end up backseat-piloting otherwise, and... Well. Control over the weapons systems suited her more, anyway.

It definitely suited her once the Red ships peeled away, and when they were through the gate. She squinted across the screens, and nodded to herself.

"Transgate-- uh, 'wormhole' cleared. Shields steady. Everything looks good... Probably."

Making Camp on Planet One

Assembling the prefabricated shelter she 'liberated' from the locals back on the station would, perhaps, be a little easier if she wasn't also juggling a longsword and a blaster in an unfamiliar suit. Fortunately, Lightning comes to this realisation at roughly the same time as the person nearest does, and, arms full, jerks her chin in a summoning gesture.

"Can I get some help with this?"

Wildcard/Onwards

[OoC: Leaving this for when we decide where people are going! Or for other threads~. Plot with me on Plurk?]

[signseeker]

Will had been highly relieved to reach the planet. He'd done his own share of adventuring in the past, but the ships had been a complete mystery to him.

He had cast out his mind as he stepped on the planet, but it was just like the last planet. He could feel nothing like to the magic of his own universe.

"Should we look for water?" He remembered that that had been something that his many older brothers had always insisted on looking for while camping.

Making Camp

[unfavorableinstigation]

"With the holding or the setting-up?"

Because yes, tents were a good idea if they were going to be hunkering down here for an HQ, but carrying too many things at once... wasn't!

Whichever Lightning says, Nita walks over to help, absently checking on her personal shielding.

[tinkerheart]

Fëanor turns as he hears the question. Then he looks down. Ah, there you are.

"Good point. We most likely should." Shelter and access to water are the basics. "As long as it's safe to drink."

Then there's the question of concealment as they are after all on enemy grounds.

[signseeker]

Will quickly searches through his memory for any spells that could be of use. He knew the spells to control sea and river, and the spells to move through water as ably as a fish, and the spells to speak to the creatures of the wild magic who dwelled in the deep ocean.

But he knew no spells to purify water for drinking.

"I can create fire to boil it," he offers at last. "Fire without smoke, I think."

[tinkerheart]

Clever child.

"There are few things that fire can't kill." Poisonous gases for example. Does he really want to scare a child away from helping? No. "But it would be a good start." Somebody please remind him why they are dragging literal children on potentially deadly missions...

"I'll go with you."

[signseeker]

Will would be the first to insist that he was not a child. That he had not been a child since he had awoken on his eleventh birthday, more than two years ago, and found that his childhood had ended.

"Are you sure?" he asks. "There must be a great many other things that must also be done."

Communications

[les_magique]

Samata had given SOMEONE on each team a metal plate about the size of a dinner plate that was covered in complicated etchings. If you touched this plate in the center, it would notify Samata that you wanted to talk to her, and she could project a magical hologram of herself that could talk to you and pass on messages to the other teams or draw fire from guys with guns, if necessary.

[rieper]

After communications with the rest of the team 47 left the main group shortly after their arrival through the wormhole. Their quick survey upon arriving told the team that the first planet they came upon was empty and perfect for setting up a makeshift camp. While the majority of the team went ahead with that, 47 headed straight for the second planet where there was an obvious military force stationed.

He kept his craft low and far away while he looked for somewhere to set down, following tactics from Earth aircraft piloting and hoping that it would be similar enough to work here. Once he was on the planet's surface he trekked back to the nearest compound and scouted from afar quickly but stealthily. This was his specialty. Even going in blind he was quick to assess and come up with a plan on the fly.

His first order of business: find a way into the facility. His favorite tactic was to use a disguise to allow him easy access to places where he normally wouldn't be allowed to go. The plus side to this entire affair was that while he was dealing with aliens this was also a space operation and helmets were a very convenient item not uncommon to see. 47 stealthily made his way from cover to cover until he had pinned down a lone alien in an enclosed area with little to no line of sight from fellow soldiers. He quickly sneaked up behind the person and put it to sleep with a stranglehold. The uniform was stolen and put on by 47 after which the hitman carefully hid the body.

First order of business complete. 47 strolled right into the base and began the true portion of his current mission. He kept an ear out for useful information on the base as he wandered it and got the lay of the land. Whenever he could he got his hands on documents and computer terminals to read as much about the operations of this would-be conquest and committed it to memory. He may have even stolen a computer pad with information on it along the way out.

Once he'd gleaned as much as he could from the base he headed for an exit. He didn't bother to recover the borrowed spacecraft that he arrived on the planet in. Instead he headed for the enemy base's hangar and picked out one of their craft after a little research. Hopefully it would be the best for sneaking into other bases, including and especially the two space stations out there. The hitman left with hardly a hitch and safely flew away with his new disguise and spacecraft.

I. Planet One

Eventually 47 made it back to the first planet where Red Team had already begun to set up camp for their duration on this side of the wormhole. As he neared the area he got into contact with whoever was keeping watch to inform the team that the incoming craft was not an enemy ship but in fact stolen and that he was piloting it. He didn't need some trigger happy Red Team member shooting down his cover. He set the stolen spacecraft down far away from the camp, hidden between some large boulder formations, and hiked it back to the camp.

Once there he reported back to Lightning and Stark, telling them of his progress and outlined his future plan to use the stolen craft to help him infiltrate the enemy space stations one at a time and gather more information. His preferred plan once they knew where the weapon was located was to use part of Red Team to cause a distraction while a smaller group sneaked in to disable the weapon. 47 also leaned heavily towards destroying it or turning it against the enemy somehow.

After that he familiarized himself with the odd camp with a slow walk around and then found somewhere to set down and rest a bit. He would need his strength for the rest of this mission so food and sleep were high on his priorities currently. But before he caught some sleep he was easily approached before or after he ate his stolen rations.

Notably, Rieper was still wearing an enemy uniform from his earlier adventure. His helmet was off though so he should have been recognizable to most of Red Team. Please do don't shoot at him. Do ask questions.

II. Wildcard!

[[Leaving this option here for future shenanigans depending on what happens! It may get an actual prompt later in a new thread. But likely there will be more sneaking. I'll use plurk to announce updates. Also, hit me with plottings anytime!]]

Camp. Day One, after 47 returns from scouting.

[rieper]

The first thing 47 did whenever he got to the mostly finished camp was seek out Lightning. He had a few things to discuss with her and Stark but first he wanted to rid himself of the plate that Samata had given to him before he left the command base on the other side of the wormhole. Once he found her he walked straight up to her and held out the plate device to her.

"Here. It's a communication device. Samata gave it to me before we left. She stayed behind at the command center to coordinate. You can tell her what we've been up to once we discuss how my Intel gathering went."

And that was that. 47 didn't bother with a greeting nor mince words about what he had done. Everyone should have already known he'd taken off, he'd communicated that through the ships' comm systems before separating. She should have been up to date other than the new Intel he had to give.

Notably, he was still wearing a disguise taken off the form of an alien soldier. And he was completely at ease with it.

Planet One

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita approached Rieper shortly after the debrief, plans stirring to do some sneaking in those stations for herself.

But there was one thing she wanted to go over with the Agent separately.

"Rieper, a moment? That suit... I was wondering if you'd let me scan it; we may be able to replicate it." Without, ah, accosting more of the Empire's military.

Though if they were supposed to have individual identity keys or the like, that would take a little more work to spoof properly.

[tinkerheart]

"I am." Fëanor is quick to reassure him. "Water is a necessity and it's too dangerous to let anyone go alone." He'd rather insist that Will is indeed still a child. While the elves measure time on a different scale than men do, thirteen is still very young. Even for men.

"And there are others who can do them too. Securing a water source would help us in the long run."

He's not planning to stay here that long. Actually, he hopes they can find out if the rumours about the weapon are true, disable it if they are, and be gone from this place as soon as possible.

[signseeker]

"If you insist, then." He didn't quite see the need for it, himself. He hadn't seen anything here yet that could truly harm him. But there was no harm in it.

"Downhill, do you think?"

[rieper]

"With what?" he asked.

Although he was more curious about how she planned to replicate the uniform he didn't know what she planned to scan it with either. 47 was open to either version of his curiosity being quenched.

If she had some sort of device that could replicate the armor that was great. He couldn't imagine they'd have the materials to do it with anything he was familiar with however. If this was another magic thing...

Well. He really couldn't say he'd object. It was just strange and impossible for him.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Magic," Nita replied dryly - though she shook her head then and explained:

"I can rework clothes on the molecular level to follow a given design; any clothes we already have I can reconfigure into matching the Empire's own within a very precise framework."

Which came with another added bonus of being able to get their regular clothes back afterwards.

Prompt for Loki

[rieper]

After some debate on who to send where, 47 found himself paired with a Norse myth and headed back towards the other planet where the enemy army had much of their supply line set up. The goal was to procure another spacecraft to use as deception to get their team inside the space stations where hopefully they would either find the supposed super weapon or at least more information about it.

47 had no qualms about getting another craft for the mission. Splitting the effort up made sense with so much ground to cover, so to speak, and they technically had the resources. What he was less certain of was sending in this Loki character to retrieve the second craft. 47 had done it before, he could simply do it again even if he had to change up his method a little. In other words, he knew what he was capable of but he didn't know what the other man was capable of doing.

Stark had recommended the man for the task at hand though. So if he couldn't convince Loki to just let him repeat his last success 47 figured that at least being here would allow him to observe the other at work and assess his skill level. Either one of them could play taxi but 47 already knew it was going to be him. Fine. Let the man prove his worth as a stealth team lead. If the mission did get botched, 47 could always blow things up and get them both out of there. Wouldn't be the first time he'd had to go in loud instead of quiet.

"You're certain you want to go in there?" the hitman asked one final time as they approached the enemy base.

Planet One

[tinkerheart]

Fëanor approached 47 at his place of rest.

"That distraction plan you came up with. How exactly do you see it executed? We don't have resources to pull it off. This was supposed to be a full stealth mission."

He's not happy with all this sneaking around, that's for sure. One could say that setting a whole fleet of ships on the shore almost immediately after arrival does not single him out as someone particularly stealthy. That person would be completely right. He hates skulking in the shadows.

The thing is: he does not have a fleet to set on fire here. Unless...

"Unless you don't need anything real," he adds. "If a plausible illusion will do, I think I can help. It worked on the train, it should work on the aliens too. But I doubt it will work on their instruments."

There's one flaw in that plan. You need a mind to get swayed by the songs of the elves. Machines don't have them. So that is a problem.

[morethanatrickster]

There was a reason the mortals of Midgard regarded Loki was the god of chaos, revolution, and destruction. He thrived on chaos to the point most considered him mad, and perhaps after everything that had happened, he was. He'd always been prone to deception rather than directness, and this mission suited him just fine. He didn't know anything about this '47' character, but that didn't phase him at all.

At his question, Loki's lips curled in a smile of anticipation. He'd spent too long trapped on that train. "Oh, yes, quite sure." There's an eagerness in his eyes that suggests he might be a bit too excited about going in there. "Perhaps we can cause a distraction while we're there, something to dampen the base's ability to provide reinforcements."

[rieper]

Well, it certainly made it convenient to not have to carry bulky technology around when magic was an option. 47 concentrated on what she did tell him rather than asking more questions about how magic actually worked. It probably wouldn't help him to understand it anyway and understanding what it could do was simple enough.

"Useful," he responded. It sounded very useful if she could pull it off.

He nodded and stood up straight. "Go ahead."

What he didn't know was how the scan portion of the magic would work. But he was just going to have to go with it. If there was something he didn't like involved he probably wouldn't be able to stop it anyway. Less he wanted to cause trouble by hurting her to stop it.

The problem with trying to play nice was that he couldn't just do things his way.

[rieper]

47 didn't really care for the glint in Loki's eyes. In his experience, men with looks like that tended to be prime cause for trouble and not the good kind typically. If this were anything other than a stealth mission he might not care, but being that it was he tended to avoid such wild cards as much as possible.

He tried to ignore it. Which almost became a moot point when Loki made his suggestion. 47 gave it consideration, however, as he maneuvered the spacecraft down towards the planet's surface.

"That could be arranged," the assassin finally conceded. He was always up for a bit of destruction. The real question then became a matter of how they would proceed to cause it. Loud and pride or quiet and disruptive. Or 47's favorite: a bit of both.

Curufin joining Red Team

[so_dark_a_road]

Through the Wormhole

Curufin comes to join Red Team on Loki's transport ship, along with whoever else is responding to Tony Stark's call for reinforcements. They slip through the Empire's defenses and plunge into the wormhole, the ring of light swallowing them up swiftly and completely.

"Stars of Varda!" exclaims Curufin. He doesn't swear by the gods of his world very often, so you can guess he's impressed by this strange (natural or unnatural) phenomenon. "It's REAL!"

He gets to work on navigation as soon as they are through, checking his SCA against the star maps in the navigation console.


Planet one:

First stop for the transport, the planet where Red Team is encamped. Curufin disembarks and goes looking for the camp. Also, he does a bit of prospecting for volcanic rocks -- obsidian, that is. Material with which to fashion more palantir stones.

"Say, has anybody seen Fëanor?" he asks the first Red Team member he meets. "Or for that matter, Tony Stark? We Orange Team members are supposed to confer with Tony before we do anything else."

Planet One

[so_dark_a_road]

Shortly after he arrived with Loki on Loki's transport ship, in response to Tony Stark's call for reinforcements, Curufin went looking for anybody who knew what was going on. He saw Rieper sitting down and wearing an Empire soldier's uniform, eating some k-rations. Clearly the man had been on some recon mission!

"Hello?" he greeted the man. "I'm Curufin Fëanorion from Team Orange. I came on the transport ship with Loki. Is there anything I can help with or participate in? I'm a warrior by vocation, and I have fought in a great many wars. I'm sure you've already met my father, Fëanor."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin arrives later on, on Loki's transport ship, after Tony Stark calls Orange Team for reinforcements.

He goes looking for his father almost as soon as he arrives. Well, almost. He makes a detour to check out the volcanic rocks, and he collects some.

"Father! I came as soon as Tony called us and said Red Team needed more people." He smiles. "You came to help me with the goblins and flying wolves and the my firefighter's rescue work, so this time, I'm here to help you."