Lloyd briefly considered his options - get the nervewracking trip over with, or hit twelve out of fifteen targets. Needless to say, there really wasn't much internal debate.
//apologies to Thexare for the very delayed reply.
Skarsi and Mr. Lloyd take their seats as Fith joins them at the last moment.
"Now Mr. Lloyd, on to the topic you came here to discuss. This occupation by the cretan dogs and your plans for resistance. You need a source of weapons and support. My clan can handle that. you've seen the resources and capabilities of this island and my clan."
Skarsi pours a drink for himself and Lloyd.
"All you have to do is provide a list of required supplies to my second, Fith" At this, fith nods his head "and they will be on their way to your group. We can supply any sort of weaponry up to and including.... well just about anything. in your case, We can supply everything you need up to handheld Anti-Tank and Anti-Aircraft weapons. That should cover you for anything you may face."
Skarsi gets up to leave.
"When you need more supplies, just send a message and more will be sent. Now if you'll excuse me, i need to send an important message."
Lloyd was taken aback at the man's generosity. 'We are all Zoners', but even so, it's rare for one to stick their neck out like this. Then again, their necks seemed well-protected at the Aett.
"That was... more agreeable than I expected. No demands to go with it? Just... that's it?" It occurred to the Zoner that this might seem somewhat ungrateful, so he hastily added, "I appreciate it, I'm just... well, I expect people to try to screw me over. Life in a warzone, you know?" He took a deep breath, and a big gulp of his drink, to collect his thoughts, and looked at Fith. "I'll gladly take you all up on that offer, but I'll need to head back and talk to Fairfax. He'll know better than I would what we need."
He paused, and took another drink. "Actually... I'm going to have him pick me up. If there's nothing else, I should go get my stuff."
Skarsi waits until Mr. Lloyd has left the Aett before he makes an important announcement.
His voice rings out through the entirety of the Aett. "Brothers and Sisters, our plans are advancing at full pace. Today, we move to Phase 2." Skarsi pauses and takes a breath. "Operation Wulfen is now in effect. From today, we show the Corsairs that this will not stand. They will learn that this is a ZONER planet. They will learn that the price for this planet will be payed in Corsair blood!!"
As Skarsi makes his speech, a building howl can be heard all over the Aett.
"From this minute on, all Corsair military personnel and bases are our target. We will free this planet or we will die trying!!!"
Skarsi steps back from the intercom and smiles as he hears the howl and joins in.
"I wish these fethers would hurry up already. I dont like missing lunch." Skarsi and a squad of troopers had been waiting for over 6 hours, layed up in camouflage dug outs waiting for a corsair military convoy expected to pass soon."If they make me miss lunch, ill eat one of them instead."
1 kilometre away, a second team lead by Fith is layed up watching the same track Skarsi's team is. "hahaha.... i'd rather eat a barking toad." at that comment, both teams crack up with raucous laughter.
The laughter dies down as Varangr radios a warning." Heads up! convoys close.""Team 1, get ready to assault the target. Team 2, lock and load. your game, Fith."
Fith and his team sight up their heavy calibre sniper cannons. "A barrel of Mjod for the best shot. just to keep you fethers interested. hahah"
The convoy rolls on, unaware of the imminent danger.
As the convoy enters the kill zone, Team 2 fires and disables the vehicles causing the whole convoy to come to a slamming halt. Skarsi's team moves in as soon as they see the convoy stopping.
"Fan out, cover every vehicle. dont shoot unless they shoot first. the goal is to take prisoners." The team takes positions as the 30 corsairs in the convoy recover enough to respond, hopping out of their vehicles and aiming at the raiders.
"Now listen up you feth heads, heres how its going to work. You will drop your weapons, or things will get nasty."
The corsair commander still in shock at the sudden attack can only bluster. " I dont know who you are, but i think you're a little outnumbered here. Now you best surrender now amigo!"
Skarsi laughs and then howls. a second later, the outline of the corsair commander appears on the vehicle behind him picked out in fairly large bullet holes. a final hole appears on the vehicle, milimetres below where the commander's cojones would be on the outline.
"Now, unless you want to lose a certain part of your anatomy in a particularly painful manner, you should drop your weapons now."
After securing the prisoners and loading them onto the dropships, 2 men paint something on the corsair vehicles. When they step back, it is revealed to be a howling wolf's head, along with the words "The wolves are hunting".
The raiders load up, and after a short detour to pick up Fith's team, return to the Aett to enact the second arm of phase 2.
"Move it people! Get those crates loaded and out of here ASAP!" Fith walks across the tarmac, weaving between dropships and gunships warming up for launch, or spooling down after landing. With Skarsi away at Baffin, Fith is in charge at the Aett.
Fith stops to help load some large crates into a dropship. "Come on, get it in there." with the crate loaded, fith hops into a jeep and heads back to message Skarsi.
Fith walks into the comm room and straight to the nearest comm set. "Brother-Captain, the first shipment is on its way to OSI's stockpile. We'll start getting things in order for future shipments. Fith, out."
With Skarsi busy at Baffin a lot, the day to day running of the Aett fell to Fith Godsmote, head of Clan security. In the intervening year since the last flurry of activity, Life at the Aett has significantly calmed down.
The main problem now facing the Aett is the rapid cooling of the planet. That is, until Fith receives a coded message from Baffin alerting him to all the problems and the coming storm.
"Son of a Flax. we better get moving fast." Moving to an Aett wide broadcast system, he keys the mike and gets things moving. "Delta Company to full readiness! Striker Bravo to full readiness!. Delta and Striker Bravo to Hangar 6. Prepare for full embarkation. Supply company, organize full supply and munitions loadout for Delta and Striker Bravo."
Walking over to the Aircraft status board on the other side of the command center, Fith sees the Frostblade is due in from Baffin. "Alright, we embark Delta and Striker Bravo onto the FrostBlade, and then have the Navarre or OSI follow up with a full supply load." Fith codes in orders for the FrostBlade to be directed to Hangar 6 on arrival.
With the dispatching of Security to Freeport 9, Fith turns his attention back to more pressing matters. The cooling of the planet poses problems not only for the Aett, but for all the inhabitants of the planet.
With that in mind, Fith sent a message to Planetform Inc, seeking ideas and technology to keep the Aett safe from the changing climate.
"At least with the expansion and improvements to the Aett made over the past year, we are quite self-sufficient." Strolling to the motor pool, Fith signs out a jeep to travel out to one of the successful projects that is already bearing results.
Arriving at one of the farms now dotting parts of the island, Fith parks and goes to look around. Spotting a farmer checking over the crops, Fith goes over to chat. "Well met. How goes the farming?""It's going quite well. The farmers co-operative has a few suggestions if you'd like to hear them.""We are always open to hearing people's suggestions."
Turning to look out over the crops, the farmer begins."Crop yields for the first year have been good, however efficiency could be improved. Consulting experts would help a lot. We could use a greater variety of crops as well. Once we can optimize yields and efficiency, we will have more than enough food to support an expansion of the clan." Fith listens, occasionally nodding or raising an eyebrow at the suggestions, while waiting for the farmer to finish. "Your suggestions are of great interest. I will begin looking into them at once. Thank you for your time." Returning to his jeep, Fith begins the journey back to the main compound pondering who would be best to contact for the expertise, and for the crop varieties.
The last several months at the Aett had been a busy time. Major construction work to enhance the existing bases, several new bases constructed along with facilities for use by the Coalition. Phase one of Plan Hermod had culminated with the delivery of supplies and experimental war machines commissioned by Skarsi himself and recently delivered by an acquaintance of Gypsie Skripto's.
The maintenance areas were, due to the general needs and influx of new tech, were overflowing with all sorts of machines from light scout jeeps to heavily armored tanks. The mountains that stood out, even from a distance, were the prototype walkers.
Skarsi and Fith walked down the tarmac, stopping to check on the crews and new machines. Passing the vehicle bays. they continue on to the Mech hangars where engineer crews are working on Skinfaxi Light Assault mechs, Hrimfaxi main battle mechs and the key units for phase two, 4 Æsir Heavy bombardment mechs.
"Make sure to have them all prepped and ready, especially the Aesir. they'll be handling the bombardments that we'll be framing the corsairs for. When the time comes, have ships and birds ready with emergency supplies. we want to make it so that we wont be questioned once Phase three reaches full cycle." Skarsi says to a nodding Fith, inputting the instructions on a datapad. "Get a couple of the Titan variant heavy lifters ready and start practicing rapid deployment. Take a platoon of Hrimfaxi, support vehicles and engineers and start setting up forward bases on the mainland."
Fith nods. "We have secured pre-agreement with CNN to provide the appropriate news items to aid in the false flag operation. We're also on alert for any possible infiltrators. Order or otherwise." Skarsi starts walking off back to the headquarters. "One last thing, Fith. get me one of those Hrimfaxi sent to my hangar. I'll enjoy working on it." Fith just nods, already wondering how modified it will end up at the hands of Skarsi.
Location: 100 kilometers Northwest of Port Jackson
*The barren grassy plains echo the sound of heavy machinery.*
"Ok. Lets gets these mechs out and set up. We've got some firing to do." Fith says, directing men and machines off of the Titan landers. 4 of the large, squat craft were, at that moment, ramps down in an area of plains northwest of Port Jackson. The new mechs to be tested were being walked off, one by one and directed to their specific ranges. "How's it going? everything ok?" Skarsi says, walking over to Fith. "Mostly. One of the Skinfaxi has a malfunctioning leg, so its stuck in its bay while the mechboys tinker with it. Apart from that, everything's fine." Fith gestures over to where the mechs are getting thoroughly checked over. "They should all be ready in the next 24-48 hours for testing and live fire.""Once they're all ready, we'll commence testing."