Tunnels.  Gale was not happy with this.  She tried to hide it, but she had to be honest.  Tunnels were not where she was comfortable, and most likely she would get in the way.  "Is there going to be a few of us left outside to clean up anyone who tries to escape or anything?"

"I thought about that.  We'll need someone doing combat air patrol, and unless there's a cry of protest that will be you and Solitaire.  And there's a reason for that too."

Dillon flipped back a few slides to a collection of photographs of Juan Tajillo shaking hands with a Zeta commander.  "Say hello to Juan.  Haven't seen much of him since Kansas City, but these photos are from three days ago.  I figured I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't let you have another crack at him, Sol, so you'll be the dirty surprise if he tries to slip away."

"You two should also worry about these this woman," Dillon clicked along to a few pictures of an Elite, an American woman with short-cut blond hair and a eufiber suit, colored in a shifting gray and blue camouflage pattern.  "Eleanor "Cloudburst" Shechter, from DeVries.  Last time we saw her was Nigeria.  She's been in Mexico doing 'weather observation' for an unnamed employer.  She's a flier and has some sort of invisible projectile attack.  Usually she's against criminal enterprises and murder, so I don't know what's going on here."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:20, Mon 01 Feb 2010.

Solitaire hits her left palm with her right fist and smiles evilly. "Oh, you're too kind Comstock, I've been waiting for this. I'm going to drop a mountain on that poor bastard, lets see him walk away from that..."

Juan was the one element of this that bothered her, Solitaire wasn't afraid of him, but he'd surprised her once, it wouldn't happen again. This 'Cloudburst' was just an Elite, beat them up a bit and they'd usually cut their losses and run. Jail didn't pay well after all. Still, it was depressing to see such talent go to waste.

"Stormy there shouldn't be a problem, Its either absurd pay or blackmail, either way, She'll likely bail if the battle looks lost. Sure you want me upstairs though? There won't be a lot of room to dodge down there, bullets don't bother me, but I suppose the rest of you, save Imp and Grav, can't fly."

Imp studied the files, basently rolling his silver coin whit his left hand. "So, when we talk about collateral damage, we're talking about the people topside, yes?  I'm guessing that there's going to be some, perhaps many, people in that barrio working for the Zetas.  Do we have contingency plans for if they take hostages?  Could get ugly.  Can we get some deep scans of the area and see if there is a tunnel network that tehy might bolt out of, or that we can insert into?  Also, thermal scans, they've gotta be powing that base somehow, and I doubt that they're getting their juice of the local grid.  Take out their generator, kill the lights, then go in and take advantage of the confusion.  We've got some pretty choice starlight optics systems that'll let us operate in the dark.  Can we jam their communications?  An EMP of somekind, or find and take out phone lines and relays?  Cloudburst, I remember from the Amp Room,  seemed like a decent person.  I don't know if she's working for the cartels, but I do know Anna doesn't usually hire know assets out to drug dealers.  Something odd there."  The silver coin continued rolling across his knuckles.  "If there wasn't the worry of civilian casualties I'd recomend taking a 5m long 30cm diameter tungsten rod up into orbit then fireing it at the compound.  Take the whole thing out in one apocalyptic flash."

Dillon nodded to Solitaire.  "Well, I figure you're used to the job.  And fast enough to show up at a moment's notice if we need you down there.  That and I want everyone with a partner at all times.  No one like Juan ought to get the drop on any of us alone.  Slider: you're with Dr. Jansen for fast response, by the way.  Fastest medical response on the planet."


Rods From Heaven had a certain appeal.  "I think they built in the middle of town specifically to avoid that.  Hide behind the factory workers and the unemployed.  But you're right ... we don't have time to get in there and clear out all the noncombatants without giving away our element of surprise.  And if we collapse any tunnels, it could pull in the houses over us.  Because of that, I don't know how useful I'll be in all this.  I'll be playing at half-strength until we've got a good idea of how well built the complex is."

"Unfortunately, I've got no detailed scan, no LIDAR, no seismic modeling.  Tip only got in three days ago, and this morning is about as fast as Zuniga could get his unit ready.  But," and Comstock pulled out a poster tube, "Frosty the Hitwoman has Halloween presents for everyone."  He pulled out a paper map and unrolled it across the conference table.  "It's a copy of a map courtesy of a Utopia psychic and a cooperative Zeta."  He turned to the displays again and fumbled with the remote, skipping past about half-a-dozen slides of other novas -- a woman in combat fatigues and a balaclava, a Hispanic man with a gleaming white aura, a man with bones growing through oddly discolored skin, a brown-haired woman in a sharp suit, a luchador, and a Chinese man in street clothes -- then scrolling back, and then finally going to the end of the presentation.  "And ... I think it lines up like this."

The map was sketchy, at best, built from the memories of a thug that had only been in the complex once or twice.  But it didn't show any tunnels stretching three miles outside the city, just tunnels beneath the square-mile of residential zone he'd shown before.  "Big entrance would be here, around this two-story.  There's probably other entrances, but we'll have to rely on our backup to build a firm cordon.  Nobody in or out once we arrive."

"Gravitas, you'll have to get the team there.  Slider, will be taking our support group just outside of town.  As for communications, the general will be jamming all radio frequencies except priority signals.  I ... don't know what we could do for an EMP, though."

"For EMP devices i recommend grabbing this guy named Skew who's in training, he erupted in Miami a couple weeks back, blacked out several square blocks, Sol would like his fashion sense.
Failing that, you get me a big chunk of pure iron, maybe 20km of fine copper wire, and some capacitors and I can make an EMP bomb in ten minutes or so.  It won't be pretty, but it will fry everything within a couple miles or so.  Safe too, no explosions, sound, lights, anything, one quick push through the gate and whatever's in the radius is useless.  it would wipe out computers though.  I don't know if our resident cyberkinesis experts could put humpty dumpty back together again.  Of course, if they've shielded their base from this kind of thing it's going to fail entirely."

This was the first meeting Slider had been at for a while, and the strain from previous incidents was still obvious in the way she sat, and the tired, detached tone in her voice.  Leaving would be good for her, but at the same time it would be sad to part with friends and go on auxiliary again.  At least Imp would be stationed out of the Nevada base.  She would be moving around, and permanently stationed in Europe.  But it would also be good to get away from the memory of their recent losses...

Slider heard mention of her part in the plan, and looked up.
"I'll bring in the support group, but did you want me on anything else?  Or just stay there to evac them if anything goes wrong?

Oh, and a couple of things:
One, I talked to Skew recently at a meet and greet for the newbies, and even though his personality is a bit out there at times, I think he would be good for this, and it'd be good for him to get some training in the field.

and two, I don't think you want to EMP the whole base, not if we want to get evidence on these people.  Which I for one do... any scrap that links them back to Columbia is evidence we can use to support going into that country and taking down the cartels there."

"Yeah ... shit, I didn't think of that.  Guess we'll rule the EMP out.  Frostburn's actually got some wide authority on this op, so if you guys want more backup we could call in anyone in training or Auxiliary.  Even outside contractors.  They might be a little late, but it's still better than nothing."

"But yeah," Dillon nodded to Slider, "you just stay with Dr. Jansen.  He can work miracles, so if anyone on the team gets badly injured it's going to be your job to get the Doctor to them or them to the Doctor.  Don't wander off, don't try to get into the fighting, just stay ready to portal to the coordinates our headsets send back to you."

He checked the clock.  "Uh, okay, let me get through the rest of these files again so we don't run out of time.  We ... don't actually know how many novas we'll be up against.  Could be as many as nine.  Could be as few as none.  Violates our usual doctrine, I know, but we've got a lot of support so ... I decided it was worth the risk."

It only took about five minutes for Dillon to finish out the slideshow.  The complete roster of possible nova hostiles came to nine, each rated on an experimental threat scale from one to five:

1. Juan Tajillo [Threat Level: 5]
Electrokinesis, Strength, Stamina, Absorbtion.  Since his escape at Kansas City, Juan's been sighted building ties with Mexican cartel leaders.  After one incident with some Federal Police, the government has issued a strict non-engagement order and sightings of him set off alarms.  He was seen just yesterday in Chihuahua.

2. Cloudburst, a.k.a. Eleanor Shechter [Threat Level: 4]
Basic weather manipulation, flight, toughness, and coordination.  Back in Nigeria Cloudburst worked for the 'right' side and favored carrying dozens of grenades to drop on trenches and fortifications from above.  It's unclear exactly what she's doing here -- 'weather observation' is almost certainly a cover -- but her experience increases her threat rating.

3. Simón Espericueta [Threat Level: 2]
Powers unclear.  A very recent eruption.  He has some talent for vanishing from sight and eliminating evidence of his passage, as well as some clear mental issues.  He hates Dr. Zero and regularly manages to send him actual paper letters promising a long and preposterous death.  Likely very little threat.

4. La Alegría [Threat Level: 3]
Trans-human marksmanship, speed, coordination, and leadership skills.  A Zeta commander, former commando, and counter-insurgency expert.  Photos showed a woman in some sort of modern combat armor, a kevlar helmet and a balaclava.  She wore the mask in every photo in order to avoid being positively identified, but photos from her military days made their way into the mission file.  She carries assault rifle, grenades, a mean looking knife ... the works.  Most of the intelligence on her is sketchy, rumor and legend, but some of her Zetas tangled with Mexican military near the border, and the whole thing was caught on amateur video and posted to OpNet.

5. Prometheus, a.k.a. Diego Roman Salazar [Threat Level: 3]
Trans-human intelligence.  A Hispanic man with a gleaming white aura, black beard, and spectacles.  Prometheus used to be Diego Roman Salazar, a university professor of Chemistry.  After his eruption he was briefly in the public spotlight in Mexico City, espousing some pretty extreme political ideals.  Most of the information in the file was gleamed from Prometheus' OpNet site, a blog that took Zapatista rhetoric to a new level.  His ideal was complete reform of the Mexican government and people, and to that end he claims to have sided with 'those willing to exert the greatest power for the greatest good.'  Other intelligence suggested that he'd turned his thinking to problems of infrastructure and production, giving the Zetas a lot of their edge over the other Mexican cartels.

6. Boneyard, a.k.a. Walter St. Claire [Threat Level: 5]
Trans-human strength, durability, natural weapons and some capacity to immobilize victims with fear.  Boneyard has bones growing through his waxy, purple and gray skin, forming hard, sharp edges.  Walter isn't a proper ranked Elite and has never had an agent or anything like that, but he's made his way around the world.  Once a native of New Orleans, he's shown his face in three different insurgencies -- Eritrea, Colombia, and Cambodia -- in the last year.  Two months ago his bank-accounts in the United States were subpoenaed and frozen, and it was found that he'd received two and a half million dollars in July from accounts suspected to belong to Mexican cartels.

7. La Voz [Threat Level: 2]
Possesses a Sonic-attack, the precise capabilities of which are unknown.  Another recent eruption, "La Voz", as she has been dubbed, is a brown-haired Nicaraguan woman, photographed in street-walking-prostitute clothes (complete with a mug-shot) as well as more recent photos wearing a suit.  La Voz was una leoparda, a prostitute working for Los Zetas.  Her eruption followed the mug-shot; she broke out of her own interrogation at the threat of imprisonment and ran, the force of her voice enough to punch two-foot diameter holes in reinforced concrete walls.  The more recent photos show straight teeth, perfect skin, and a subtle redistribution of her physical features.  Her newfound beauty earned her attention, and she spends her time attached to Rogelio González Pizaña (the Zeta Cartel's leader).

8. The Mask, La Máscara, a.k.a. Luis Reyes [Threat Level: 3]
Trans-human strength, stamina, and presence.  The Mask is a well liked luchador, a very public figure with his own action figure.  It is suspected that he has very strong ties to the cartels however.  The Mask's expensive private home in the hills overlooks Chihuahua.  Soldiers are going to try and catch him there to keep him inside while the operation is underway.

9. Mr. Tao [Threat Level: 2]
Powers unknown.  An unnamed Chinese man with a wide nose, always in very casual street clothes, trendy sunglasses, and carrying a satchel.  It is speculated that Mr. Tao works for the Triads as a courier and hit-man, but he's only ever killed baseline targets so very little is known about him and his powers if he has any.  Mr. Tao leaves a trademark yin-yang on all his work -- this being the only means of identifying him or even speculating that he's a nova -- and two killings in Juarez place him in the area.

This procession was followed by a few slides of "people of interest":

1. Rogelio González Pizaña, the Zeta Cartel's leader.
2. A collection of scientists, including Esteban Perez, a kidnapped medical researcher thought to be held captive, likely here.
3. Governor Patricio Martínez García, Governor of the State of Chihuahua.
4. Four or five Zeta commanders of lesser status that might have the information useful to the investigation.
5. About eight different drug traffickers, notably Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, who it is suspected handles interaction with the Zeta's Medellín backers.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Okay, information dump over with.  Anyone who is interested could make appropriate Intelligence rolls to glean additional information and insight from the pile of data Comstock's sitting on.

As for the map of the complex, here are the important zones:
Topside:
1. Northwest Barrio
2. Northeast Barrio
3. Southwest Barrio
4. Southeast Barrio
Underneath:
1. Northwest Complex -- large open spaces, presumably for warehousing.
2. Northeast Complex -- barracks, cell blocks, officers' quarters.
3. Southwest Complex -- no information available.
4. Southeast Complex -- chemical labs, food storage, ventilation and diesel power generators.

North of the neighborhood are the industrial parks.  South of the neighborhood is more city, eventually reaching the center of town where the state capital, a cathedral, and other historic sites are located.

Also, if anyone would like to have finished some useful weapons or other toys, such as the ones discussed after the Kansas City brawl, I'm all for trying them out here.  Just tell me what (or even who) you'd like to bring to the party.  Also, anyone wants to try something other than Comstock's "show up at the Southeast Barrio, find the entrances we know to be around there, and start punching" plan, I'm all for it.  It's your show.

Once everyone's satisfied and ready to go, we'll advance straight to deployment.

---

"Nine hostile novas?  Nine?  Holy crap 'Stock.  Your threat scale is nice, but I'm going to need some context.  How does it relate to our estimated potential for chaos and carnage if we went rogue? Would you be a 5?  Sol? Zero? Me?  You've read our files, how dangerous are we in comparison?
If we can bring in ringers I suggest Antaeus.  He can tell us withing a minute exactly how many tunnels they have, where they are, and can probably collapse them.
Further, at least initially, I'm going to be busy doing crowd control.  I'm going to want a megaphone and a large scale holographic emitter so that I can get those civilians to move out of there in case things get hairy.
Also, maybe having construction crews and materials  on standby to rapidly provide housing for these people wouldn't be a bad idea. They're going to be forcibly evicted after all, which is going to be highlighted by some jackass.  We should really have contingencies in place for them, yes?  We're going to be busy and drained after, so maybe getting some of the new trainees and Teen Tomorrow to do the grunt work would be best.
Also, I'm going to want some of those tranq darts loaded with Mox.  For the non combat novas turning them off is probably better than turning them into jam, yes?"

"I know, I know, I hear you Imp.  The analysts came up with the scale though, not me, and the thing is, each of us figures in at a 5.  Except Gale, who's sitting at a 4.  The thing is, any one of them might be down there for us or might not.  And they're not a team.  Most of them have never even worked together, certainly not in combat."

"Armory downstairs has all the Mox-rounds you could want.  I'll be taking a rifle myself."  He typed a pair of messages, one asking the support staff to locate construction equipment and materials in the city or nearby cities and another message requesting Antaeus' assistance on the operation.  Inside of two minutes he'd received a message back.  "Looks like he'll be a little late.  About half-an hour after we're scheduled to show up he says he'll catch a portal over and spare us two hours for whatever we need."

Quentin had been quiet during the briefing, merely absorbing information. "Holographic emitter that size should be in one of the storage closets. They're not really production-quality yet, but it should do the job."

He made a face, "Can't say I'm a big fan of the setup on this one. You've seen the sort of damage I do to buildings. I'm best locking down the battlefield so the rest of you can waltz in and take 'em down, but multiplying the gravity in these tunnels is likely to bring the neighborhood down on top of us. Guess I'm mostly playing fire-support. And detective," he grinned, "I do love playing detective."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:48, Sat 09 Jan 2010.

Gale was relieved that she was going to be outside, instead of in the tunnels.  She listened carefully to the rest of the briefing.  She was actually kind of surprised when she was told that she was at threat level 4.  She knew she was lower than the others; she'd only recently started getting new abilities.  But she didn't think of herself as all that powerful.

Of course, she kept such thoughts to herself. "I agree that we should try to capture any of these novas, or even the notable non-nova figures.  People are probably going to have more information about what's going on than anything we find in that compound."

"Well, no problems for me, stuff like this is perfect for what I do.  I can pull out a bunch of critters and have them flush nearby tunnels while I shield up and tear through whatever is down there.  Or I can go in stealthy and scout things out, really up to you guys.  Zero and I could probably go in together on that one; split up and take different directions, then be in place to strike inside whenever the rest of you make an overt attack at the entrance."

While everyone else talks, Zero slides over to Solitaire. "You know, Solitaire, I'm all about revenge. I love revenge. Truly. But I love seeing your pretty face everyday, and I especially love seeing your pretty fists smashing people's faces. So, could you humor your neighborhood oddball, and call for backup if you meet this piece of shit? 'Cause he's not worth you. Just so you know."

"Seriously. I think we've made it this far because we tag team these pieces of shit. Fuck them. They make their money off of poisoning people. Fuck them to the wall. We'll kill them all before the day is done, but we'll get to see each other if we do it together. Promise me you'll kick his teeth in with a friend. Please? Don't make me do the puppy eyes."

"I'm with Zero on this one, none of us operates alone.  They probably will get in each other's way as much as they help each other, but I'm not a big fan of two on one."  he pauses, then smirks lasciviously, "Well, not this kind of two on one anyways.  Three on one is always a disaster."

Dillon nodded.  "I'm not calling for any specific buddies, but yeah, pair-up everyone.  Once we have better command of the town the lot of you can start zipping around, but until then someone's got to stick around and put up with my slow ass."

"And, much as it pains me, we do actually want some of the soft-ones for questioning with a friendly psychic.  So try not to kill everyone on first sight."

"I suppose I can try, since you asked so nicely Doc." Solitaire grins back at Zero. "But its rather hard to make puppy-dog eyes in a mask, don't you think?" Though to be honest, Solitaire wouldn't put it past him to have a 'puppy-dog eyes' setting for the thing. It was entirely keeping with his peculiar brand of crazy. But it was good crazy.

Solitaire turns to Gale and adds, "Since we've both drawn air duty, feel free to smack me if I get overzealous. You're a level headed sort, I tend to get, swept up in the moment, shall we say. By the way, whats your top speed in flight? It strikes me I've never asked."

"Waddaya say, Flare, feel like hanging around with me until the civvies start moving, then head down and in and cause some trouble?  Let the heavy hitters like Grav, Comstock, and Zero and Tasm go first, then you and I take care of anything they miss, and be on hand for some rapid reinforcement if needs be."

"I'm down with the buddy system.  If you send me and Zero in early, that makes him my buddy.  If we charge in, I call 'Kaze, I can kinda-sorta keep up with her.  At least enough that we won't get in each other's way anyway."

Gale nodded and smiled.  "Ok.  No taking on the big bad without me."  She honestly hoped they wouldn't run into Juan.  Sure, Solitaire was a heavy hitter, but this guy sounded nasty.

"Top flight speed? Um, I think they originally clocked me in at about 50 meters per second, but that was years ago.  I haven't really tested it since then."  She shrugged.  She didn't seem to care that much about showing off how much she could do, probably because she was at the bottom of the group.  "Why?  What's yours?"

Dillon snickered and covered his mouth.

"Yes! Alright. I like where this is going. You and me, kiddo. We own this." Zero holds out its hand to high five. Psychically, Zero speaks to Phantasm and Comstock. "If we are going to pull a Scooby Doo, and split up, shall we stay together mentally?"

Zero mused to itself how pumped it felt and sounded. It liked how the teamwork was really jiving. Its team were in their prime, and everyone was clearheaded and driven. This was as good as it gets. The Doctor also couldn't deny that the prospect of some guilt free murder was invigorating. "Ah, I feel alive."

In reply to Gale (msg #23):

"My top speed clocked in about 1750 kph last time I tested it, which is what, about 500 mps or so?" Solitaire replies, estimating the numbers, she'd never been good with math. "I'll tone it down a bit so you can keep up."

"Anybody have any other tactical insights? Or shall we simply deliver a good thrashing like we usually do?"

"Hmm, tactical insights, well for starters I'd suggest hitting them as hard as we can from as many different directions as possible.  Also, hit and fade, so they don't know how many of us there are and where we are aiming for.  If Tasm and Zero can get into the nerve centre and take it down or get control of it before the rest of us hit that'd be ideal." Imp tossed the coin into the air and caught it. "When's our roll out time, Frosty?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Mon 11 Jan 2010.

"486," Quentin supplied. "And some change; around Mach 1.4.

"I agree with Imp, and I can provide some of that 'fade' by enabling some rapid transit. Do we know which direction the General's men are planning to hit them from, or are they coming in from all over?"