Ken gave Angus a careful look. "I'm not in the Marines anymore so I am not just snapping orders. We need to do this together. Let's get the flak jackets, riffle and SMGs from the mercenaries distributed so we are as well armed as can be. Then we can duplicate what you did here against the main force. We can pin them down from the front and maneuver to take them in the rear."

"Okay, lead the way, you know how it's done, we don't. We got lucky here. Alright, let's get suited up everyone." He grabs a flak jacket and loads his shotgun back to capacity, letting others use the SMGs and rifles.

Shukhunaar asks to be shown how to wear the mighty armour of the intruders. He refuses to take a different gun as he's only just got used to the shotgun.

Ken will help Shukhunaar with the proper fitting of the armor. He will also check carefully if any of the mercenaries or their boss have communication devices. Perhaps they might be able to listen in on their foes. He will also give the machine gun and other captured weapons a careful check.

"Let's get up to the main party and explain the plan and choose our positions."

They quickly distributed weapons and moved out to the rear stairs the reaction team had come down. Hanno grabbed the ACR and 40mm RAM grenade launcher, while Jerri picked up the box-fed LMG.

Listening on on captured comms revealed that the blocking force was confused as to what was going on. They had a few minutes to turn the tables on them if they moved quickly.

Once in the stairwell, it was clear the grenade that had gone off below had compromised the metal stairs as they creaked loudly and shifted in the shaft when they put weight on them.

Ken frowned at the stairs. "We'll just have to spread ourselves out as we go up to distribute the weight. I'll have the main party open fire to distract the blocking force in case we make a lot of noise. Also once we are engaged Lorrain and the others can make some false calls over the enemy communications network to further confuse them." He looked at the others and gave a thumbs up. "Ready? Follow me!" Ken will head up the stairs carefully to get into position. He also called the main party to start the distraction fireworks.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:22, Sun 21 Jan.

Angus follows when it is clear to climb the stairs.

Linus will tag along too.

Ken stopped and shook his head. "I am an idiot. We have grav belts! Let's organize them and lift up the the stairwell safely. Each person with the belt can take another so we can make this quick." Ken will rustle through his gear to grab his belt.

The plan was to break out the main expedition (trapped at the top of the elevator) by sending a smaller group up the side emergency stair well to outflank the mercenary blocking force. The main expedition was quickly briefed and a plan hastily put into place. Whatever they did would need to be done fast, as presumably the surviving mercs had reinforcements on the way and would sort themselves out sooner rather than later.

Although the stairs themselves were compromised and likely to fail under the weight of more than one or two at a time, grav belts were used to quickly ferry the members of the strike team (Ken, Linus, Angus, Shukhunaar, Blake, Jedec, Hanno and Jerri) to the top. This did not take time but they could hear over the enemy comms that they were starting to realise something had gone wrong with the blocking force below them.

At the top, they found their hidden grav sleds. Now they were fully grav-mobile. They were reminded how eerie and gloomy this ag module was. Vast columns of fibrous materials criss-crossed above them, partially blocking out the sun. They thought they could maybe see movement along these stalks, or in the surrounding forests, but they couldn't be sure.

The top of the shaft of the large freight elevator was a small building holding a lobby and some mechanical equipment. (The elevator platform was not raised and lowered by cables but small independently-powered redundant motors.) There were two doors, on opposite sides of the small building. The trapped expedition members said they thought there was a dozen mercs, six each covering both doors, using rocks, trees and the terrain for cover. Comms traffic indicated they were hesitating on rushing the building and digging out the trapped expedition members with grenades due to the risk of damaging the loot they were carrying. This what Kalananaru valued most. They were intending on waiting for reinforcements before rushing in.

They could see there was a gully that would allow someone to get behind one of the group of mercs and remain unseen. Or they could use the grav sleds and belts to conduct a "death from above" attack.

Ken evaluated the situation and knew that they had to make a quick decision before reinforcements arrived or the enemy became suspicious. "I think we need to go with the immediate assault using the grav belts. Do we have enough for everyone?"

"I have one." he replied as he reloaded his shotgun.

Ken made a count. "With the two Sky Raiders grav sleds and our belts we can move the whole attack force. Lead with grenades where you can. We need to stun and confuse them as much as possible. Hopefully we won't need LMG. Load up your ammo and check your gear. Let's go." Ken will head up the lift shaft.

Ken reconsiders the opposing forces and smacks his fore head. "We're not doing this in combat armor with orbital support. I was wrong about a rush working after a bit of reconnaissance. What we are going to need is to establish the laser rifle, grenade launcher and LMG under cover to provide a base of fire. It will take a little time to get the weapons set up but it will be worth it in lives saved. I need two folks to service the machine gun. One to the use the ACR grenade launcher firing HE and smoke as well as another firing firing the laser. The rest will use grav to make a flank assault once the heavy weapons are in place." He looked around and points. "We will set up the heavy weapons over there in cover. I can help. The assault force will stage over there and move forward on my command or when I join. Any questions?"

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 813):

Their group included Ken, Linus, Angus, Shukhunaar, Blake, Jedec, Hanno and Jerri. The latter 4 volunteered to form the group that would provide covering fire with the LMG, ACR/RAM GL and laser rifle.

GM Note: obviously, these are the NPCs. If any PCs volunteer to be with this group they could be put in command.

Ken helped to get the covering fire group set up and oriented. Then he turned to the others. "Let's start moving into position and then we will have the covering group open fire."

Angus nods his head and follows orders as he knew nothing of military tactics!

Hanno took command of the support group. He'd not been in the military but had picked up a thing or two in the Scouts.

With Ken's help they infiltrated forward quickly and efficiently through the forest. They found perfect cover in some boulders that were concealed by overhanging branches. Satisfied the support group was optimally placed he returned to the assault group.

On Ken's signal the fire support group started raking the enemy position with MG fire, sniper fire and 40mm RAM HE and smoke rounds. Using his Scout PRIS binoulars, Hanno reported of the 4 mercenaries on the flank they were targeting 2 were dead or down, 2 were suppressed and keeping low out of sight.

With the foe suppressed Ken called out to the assault group. "Follow me and when we get close open up with the weapons in the general vicinity of the remaining foe. That will keep them heads down while we close." He got up in a low crouch and hustled forward towards the flank of the enemy position. Ken would open fire if he saw any movement.

Angus nodded to Ken and followed suit, shotgun at the ready!

Shukhunaar advanced, following the lead of the warriors with more experience. He was used to not firing until close range, but who knew what devilish tricks the invaders may have?

Using their mobility, the group exploited the hole in the mercenaries' perimeter created by the suppressive fire.

Landing, they quickly captured or killed the small number of mercs on that side. Quickly, under Ken's leadership they put pressure on the other mercs, who now risked their flanks being rolled up. The assault was so sudden that they took no casualties of their own.

The remaining dozen surviving mercs disengaged in relatively good order, leaving behind 8 dead and wounded. The mercs withdrew to a heavily-wooded area about 500m distant. That patch of woods was the base of the large ropy 2m-diameter columns that stretched for at least a kilometer or more into the dimly-lit sky. This one stretched toward one of the other "faces" of the ag chamber.

With the mercs surrounding them gone, at least temporarily, the group pinned down in the elevator building were able to make contact and verify they were free. This allowed them to start getting organised to travel to the entrance tunnel that led to the hidden docking bay.

Now the choice was to either assist the main expedition group or pursue the mercs. Once they reorganised in a few minutes, and were possibly reinforced, they could counter-attack. And this time to kill or overrun them, not just hold a blocking perimeter.

Ken congratulates the assault and covering fire groups. "Well done everyone! The Marines I commanded could not have done a better job." He considers the situation and turns to the entire group. "Let's leave the wounded here at least stabilized while the main party makes all haste to get out of here. The combat group will set up as though we are going to launch another assault. Let's get the firebase set up over there and make a lot of noise and movement off to the flank as though we are going to assault. We will keep their heads down with the machine gun until the last minute, fire smoke and then the last few people will flee using grav belts. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Sounds good, you think we can bluff them long enough to get out of here?"

Shukhunaar nods his head. He doesn't know what "Fire smoke" means, because the shotguns and other weapons make much less smoke than his old gun, but obviously there must be some technique to create smoke with all the guns available.