Open Range || Roger

[Deleted]

Vitale set down his new Walther P99 Desmond Edition on the booth counter. The hat-obsessive genius had gone above and beyond on the pistol, and created an almost exact duplicate of his old Walther, on the outside anyways. The pistol grip had been coded to his palms, and would only fire if Vi, Keller or Davis were holding it. Dez's prints were coded to it as well, but Vitale wasn't sure he would be going out on missions with the team. Regardless, the barrel was brand spankin new, and he wanted to sight it in. So far, it performed admirably, with no ejection issues, and no miss-reads on the grip. He had Dez mold the barrel for high temp, rather than "accuracy" which simply boiled down to overheating barrels. Could it engage an enemy beyond fifty meters? Sure. Could Vitale? Nope. So what good would those high class pistol barrels do him? Besides, that's what the G36 was for.

Vi set several empty mags out along the counter and started reloading them. He was glad to retain the nine millimeter caliber of his pistol's predecessor, he liked the weight, and the low kick. The 5.7s were hella powerful, but the punch was a bit overkill for what he generally wanted out of a pistol. Tali thumbed fifteen rounds into each magazine, while music he'd stolen from Keller played over the loudspeaker of the room. Some kinda rock stuff, but it had a great riff for bein a gal singer. The good thing about the range, was that it's builders had the good sense to install sound proofing, so he could crank up the tunes as well. Vi was never overly concerned about his hearing, mainly because he could just buy the artificial implant, so the deafening sound wasn't in his 'I care' list.

He finished loading the mags, and then pulled seven mags for a MA1 out, and set them on the counter as well. Vi walked to the storage locker, and pulled more ammo and a rifle, signing with his handprint, and then went back to the counter to load up for another round. He hadn't played with the bullpups yet, but he sure wanted too. As he sighted the rifle, Vitale thought about the safety measures that the Peerless sported. It was very new tech stuff for a criminal funded op. He had honestly thought that Davis would hand them some guns, and tell them to shoot "In that direction." But nothing could be further from the truth. From day one, they'd been treating Vi like some kind of asset, training, food, exercise, the whole spread. He didn't know enough about Davis to judge anything, but he'd sure been curious. So far, this whole thing seemed underwhelming, the fights, the intel, the crew. It wasn't that he wanted it to be harder, it was just that he had been expecting... well. More.

Vitale sighed heavily, then shouldered his rifle, and took aim.

Two more days would tell the truth, they'd be on the ground, and in the shit. Davis had said he was going to brief everyone at once, but what Vitale wouldn't give to know what they were planning now.

(((OOC: For the music, think, Evanescence)))

[Roger Davis]

Peerless had just passed Lux's orbit and the nearby Persephone. They still had a ways to go, a little under two days, but they were more than halfway to the target now getting deeper into White Sun and the Core. Passing by within just a few AUs from their employer also meant a tight-beamed communication from Jax further detailing what to expect on Santo. They were nearing the destination and it turned out that this run would be even more dangerous than initially expected. Those two things together led Roger to the range to test out the new purchases.

Down on Deck 3, Davis stopped and peered through the door's small portal. Vitale was apparently of like mind, for he was at the line with one of the new rifles shouldered. The captain contemplated waiting outside until he'd emptied the mag instead of interrupting, but decided against it. They were professionals and should be able to deal with distractions, the least of which would be a friendly entering the room behind you.

As the seal of the door was broken, it was actually Davis who was caught off guard. Cordoba had set the range's system playing music, something unexpected and incapable of noticing from outside the soundproof room. Fortunately it was tasteful and though loud not testing the system's limits at a blasting level. It was likely Vitale hadn't even heard the entrance if he hadn't caught sight of the captain out of the corner of his eye.

"Worth every plat or did we get robbed?" Roger asked from behind the shooter. Half a mill for the lot of them certainly wasn't a bargain price. Fortunately they had the man responsible on their ship in case they wanted to flay him alive.

[Deleted]

Vitale didn't see Davis until he was nearly on top of him. He didn't wig out or anything, though he wasn't expecting anyone any time soon. Vi tapped the wall, and turned down the music as Davis spoke up. "Well Top," He said openly, "It shoots straight, it's light, and it has a hair trigger. I'd say it it was worth most of what we payed for it." Vi grinned at the Cap, and offered him the rifle. Truth be told, they hadn't payed for it, but had it been any less than worth the money, he was pretty sure Davis would have reacted like they had. Vi picked up his Walther again, and slid a mag home, grinning at the way it slipped into the well as though the pistol was hungry. "I gotta hand it to the guy, Dez can make some weapons."

He popped off a few rounds, and explained some of the modifications Des had made to the weapon. All in all, he was thoroughly impressed with Desmond, and Vitale made no bones about saying so. "And I'll tell you something else about your man boss," Vi added, "The man can shoot better than he lets on. I know it's expected of a good mender, but that's your man's handiwork right there." Vitale pointed to the gelatin signature across the range on the first lane. The face had a holey smiley face and was a good thirty feet from the line. "I'm not sayin I couldn't do it, but I'm also not sayin it'd be easy."

Vitale backed up to his lane and cleared two mags as Davis tried a couple himself. Vi wasn't using targets anymore, just holo silhouettes. The ballistic gel was expensive, and really, Desmond needed them for ballistic testing. Vitale didn't mind wasting Syndy money, but he did acknowledge the limited supply on board.

"So," He said after finishing off his last mag, and enlarging the image to check his score, "We get any new word from the Syndy yet, anything about the mission?"

[Roger Davis]

Roger gave a satisfied "humph" to Vitale's positive assessment of the rifle. After firing just a few rounds it was already handed off. Vitale moved to a pistol while Roger looked over the rifle, identical to what they'd seen back in the warehouse but still worth a quick inspection before firing.

As Vitale spoke Desmond's praises and stepped back up to fire, Roger looked over an noticed the gun in Vitale's hand. Similar but not the same weapon the gunhand had been carrying back on Beaumonde. The general tone of the weapon was off, certainly a newer sheen too. Then there were a few other oddities for the model, minor alterations the captain would not have noticed outside the context of talking about their new gunsmith. It seemed Cordoba hadn't wasted any time commissioning a new work.

Roger gave another "humph" as he sighted in on the gelatin target. The patter was a bit immature (or perhaps merely the work of a sociopath) but there was no denying the skill to pull that off, at this range, and presumably with a pistol. It could be difficult to get a single round exactly where you wanted it, but Desmond apparently had been consistent with his excellent aim. The "masterpiece" down range, however, was quickly altered as Davis sent a round straight down range and through the center of the dummy's forehead.

"Trying to convince me to take him into the field?" Roger asked not particularly expecting an answer from Vitale, nor even assuming that the gunhand had that in mind. A quick burst followed marking a straight line up from the base of the throat up to the forehead again. To be honest, Roger didn't know how he felt about it. You generally didn't put your skilled noncombatants into a dangerous combat role although they normally weren't equally competent at combat as their other specialties.

After a few more rounds went down the range from both of them, Cordoba spoke up again. "Yeah." Roger replied as he dropped his mag and grabbed one of the others already prepared for the rifle. "Came in about an hour ago actually." Of course the man wasn't asking if the mailman had come today but what had been in the mail. "Jax dug deeper into what Chev gave us and easily zeroed in the man he was talking about, Corvey, some Chwen Da Gher Da in charge of a Cobalt protection detail for some high roller named Sutton."

Roger chambered the first round and fired a few rounds off a little faster than normal, a physical showing of what he was about to say next, both slight frustration as well as mixed excitement for what was bound to be an action packed operation. "They're pulling protection for this entire tower and according to Jax we've gotta hit them there in their little fortress." Roger kept the rifle tight to his shoulder but turned his head to Vitale, "How does out-numbered and out-gunned sound to you?"

[Deleted]

"I think he'd be an asset," Vitale answered checking his Walther with repetition, "But I don't know. I just keep thinking about him wanting that pilot seat. Mitch is good and all, but a shuttle pilot who can dot eyes at thirty paces sounds like the kind I'd like keepin watch on our six." Vi was finally satisfied with his Walther and holstered it and two mags.

Vi went to the rack, and collected another MA1 along with a few more mags, then went back and set it all out on his counter. Davis test fired the twin rifle while Vi loaded his mags. After he was presumedly satisfied, Davis broke down the outline for him. He'd kinda figured it was going to go this way. Having to go after them in their own base. Tower. Whatever. He smirked when the Captain finished. "Is it ever any other way?" He thumbed a few rounds into the magazine and stopped, looking Davis in the eyes directly.

"Do we have an insertion plan that doesn't involve death by bullet stampede? I have a vest, I think we all do, but you gotta figure at least a dozen guys in there. Probably armed with PDWs. Thats a lot of guns against us, even more if it's only you, me and 'Killer." Vitale sighed and started loading more ammo. "What we need is body armor, or a tank." He said aloud, setting his first mag down, and picking up an empty. He wasn't sure about how to go about this realistically. Any PMC was sure to have high end gear, and above average training. Maybe not to their level, but there were only three real soldiers on this ship willing to put it all on the line. At the moment. "Maybe we should just bomb the damn building..."

[Roger Davis]

Roger gave yet another "humph" as Vitale spoke about the mechanic/smith... Roger wasn't sure what to call him. Now he was also a gunhand and a pilot. "Can Mitch so a man who can shoot is in the driver's seat?" Roger asked as Vitale retrieved a second rifle. "I'd rather not have our pilot abandon the bird to join us on foot." That's what they needed. Run into trouble and Des comes running to join the fight while their evac is abandoned someplace.

Davis took another shot dead center mass into the now increasingly mutilated target and like sidelong at Vitale. "This ain't gonna be no two on four like back on Beaumonde." Although technically they were outnumbered, they weren't outgunned and certainly not outmatched. Four lifeless corpses back on Beau attested to that.

"There's a plan but it doesn't involve another shopping spree." Roger explained. There really was no time for that. This was also Santo they were talking about, not Persephone or Beamonde where such equipment was a little easier to come by and the risk of a Fed crackdown was lower. There was also that little bit about blowing half a mill on all these new guns. Spending cash was a little light at the moment even if the First National Bank of Onas Knox had more to tap.

"A frontal assault is out of the question for anything less than a team of commandos." They were good but they weren't that good, nor were they that numerous. "Jax's report suggested hitting their landing pad, but that doesn't sound like a feasible alternative either." Roger placed the rifle down and turned to talk fully business now. "And we can't take out the building even if we had the munitions for that. We'd never make it out of orbit with a high profile hit like that."

"I'm thinking stealth is our alternative... seeing as how we don't have a tank or a laser guided missile." The captain motioned with his head back over his shoulder and said, "I was thinking we sneak Choi in somehow. Get the security down so the rest of us can insert. Matheson can shoot so I don't see why we can't bring him. Doesn't need to be shuttle pilot to come along. Merrick is decent under fire too. Was thinking of keeping her with the shuttle to give us backup or a quick patch if things go south. Might mine the rest of the crew for shooters if we need too, but we don't want to hit with too many."

[Deleted]

"Point taken," Vi said while Davis explained how he felt about Dez in the hot seat. "It's your show boss." Davis finished shooting and looked at Vi from the smoking barrel, talking about the heat they were fixing to bring down.

"All right.." Vi said, taking full interest. They were fixing to get down to business now. Operational details were what he'd wanted, and now, that's what he'd get.

"There's a plan but it doesn't involve another shopping spree." Davis said, Vi just grunted a laugh. "A frontal assault is out of the question for anything less than a team of commandos. Jax's report suggested hitting their landing pad, but that doesn't sound like a feasible alternative either." Davis said setting the rifle down. Vitale leaned against the divider, and crossed his arms. "And we can't take out the building even if we had the munitions for that. We'd never make it out of orbit with a high profile hit like that. I'm thinking stealth is our alternative... seeing as how we don't have a tank or a laser guided missile."

Vi nodded his understanding, he'd been joking earlier, the captain wasn't stupid, and he didn't have to voice it, nor would he.

"I was thinking we sneak Choi in somehow. Get the security down so the rest of us can insert. Matheson can shoot so I don't see why we can't bring him. Doesn't need to be shuttle pilot to come along. Merrick is decent under fire too. Was thinking of keeping her with the shuttle to give us backup or a quick patch if things go south. Might mine the rest of the crew for shooters if we need too, but we don't want to hit with too many."

"All right then," Vi answered leaning up to standing, he stepped away from the divider and paced the shooter's hole while he thought. "I mean, it's a PMC, so you know they'll be well prepared..." He twitched his jaw thinking. "But they don't know we're coming, so that's in our favor. If you trust Mai, perhaps an aerial insertion wouldn't be a bad idea. Keller and I could hit from the top, and you and Dez could go from the bottom. Meet in the middle..." Of course, they would have to work the building floor by floor, God only knew how many unsafetied weapons would be waiting on them.

"Have to assume the response time would be up to Alliance, even if it isn't, so seven minutes and the building would be in lockdown. Would you want Mai out before that?"

"Then theres the Peerless herself. If they did hunt us back to a dock, she'd be locked down tight as a drum... Maybe leave her in orbit, handle the whole thing via shuttle. She could stay on a swivel as backup." Vi stopped pacing and ran his hand over his hair, "Did Jax mention what floor we were looking for?"

[Roger Davis]

"Maybe." Roger replied. It made sense to work from both angles but at the same time he didn't want to divide their already small force. If Mai wasn't staying to fight then they also didn't want her getting caught in a crossfire while exfiltrating. "If we think we can get a team through the front door and a decent way into the building before all hell breaks loose then it would be worth it, but otherwise I think aerial insertion for everyone is out best bet. Let Mai be the only one walking in and then she can walk out all the same if she has to." That might have been wishful thinking but she had the skills to pull it off.

"And hopefully the feds won't know what's what until we're out." Roger added. "We'll need to plan for the worst, but I expect suppressors to win out over ragging gun battles. Unless someone sees through Choi's hack and calls out for help, we'll be long gone before anyone is alerted." Assuming the plan didn't go to shit.

"We can keep Peerless on standby to launch at a moment's notice." Roger continued. "The second anything goes wrong we have them take off, long before word will get to the feds and before the docks can be locked down. Otherwise I'd rather us not do a shady mid-orbit rendezvous. And Jax narrowed it down to four likely floors all within the top six floors of the building. Makes an aerial insert seem all the better."

[Deleted]

VItale listen to Davis then lowered his head to look at his crossed arms while he thought. "So then we drop in on the roof landing access, wait for Mai to clear you two from the bottom, then insert from the roof. We can take the top floor and work our way down to Mai, while you and Desmond start from the bottom. We can try for the top three floors, while take the bottom, unless you'd prefer to meet first." Vitale knew how to tap blocks into security radio towers, but he'd have to study up on the installed systems. It wasn't foolproof, but it would delay an alarm until someone sent the alert manually. "I'm pretty sure that I can at least knock out their rooftop communications so they can't radio out before we're done. Unless of course you green light explosives, in which case I can guarantee it.." Davis didn't have to say anything for his answer to be clear on his face. "All right then, I'll get to work on the building blueprints then, and find us an handshake. I'll collect Mitch too, we'll go over the basics, see if we can't come up with any better alternatives to offer."

Vi unloaded his rifle and returned it to the rack, he'd let desmond know to give them a quick once over cleaning later. Then he collected his extra mags, and loaded up his case. "You were military boss, tell me one thing, does the element of surprise really do as much as they talk?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that you two will get in fine," He looked at both Davis and Desmonds handiwork, and then considered his own, and the legend that had formed itself around 'Killer.' He hadn't seen her in combat yet, but he was ready to. That was days away though, Right now he had a job to do. Vitale picked up his gear and opened the hatch, "We won't have any problems on our end. I'll let you know when we have everything together Sir."

[Roger Davis]

Roger nodded as Vitale wrapped up his own comments on the operation along with a few suggestions and further opportunities to plan in the couple days before they arrived. "Good. We'll have it tight, as perfect as it can be. Let me know what you come up with."

Before leaving the range, Vitale stopped cleaning up and turned to the captain. It was a slightly more personal question, seeking one's personal wisdom rather than just their factual knowledge. "Yes." Roger stated plainly. "And it's all the more effective during peace time." Attacking an enemy platoon when they were unprepared always tipped the scales greatly. Charging into their lines when they were all having chow or most of them were asleep gave you those few extra seconds to get through the killing field and even once you were across now you were fighting guys who hadn't pulled their pants up from taking that shit, or they only had a sidearm because they'd left their rifle someplace else. And that was living on a gorram battlefield. Woe to the poor security guard who is sitting back in his chair while watching some stupid gameshow on the cortex then suddenly Vitale bursts in with weapon at the ready. There's no contest. That sumbitch is dead.

"In and out." Roger stated after Vitale's last word. The gunhand was already on his way out the door leaving the captain alone on the range. Davis picked up one of the new 5.7 pistols and began to load rounds into the magazine. "In and out." he repeated again to himself.

[End of Thread.]