With an absolutely stoic expression on his face, he made quite the grim proposal based off her choice of words just then. "Then for all ours sakes, we'd best identify these ruthless agents and have them killed discreetly before they figure out what we're about to do. War is dangerous, people die, sometimes unexpectedly. I'm aware you might not like this idea, but the people we're talking about are just pawns of a state apparatus, they're not truly people anymore. The people you're trying so hard to keep safe are." While he'd expressed this view, he wasn't dictating terms to her, how she was going to handle her own departure from the Insurgency was her call to make, it could be as bloody or as passive as she wanted, and it didn't bother him. What he did seem to care about was how this was going to end, the means were always just a pretext in service to some kind of desired result, whatever he hope to achieve was well secured within the privacy of his own mind.
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"It's not that easy to find them, especially when Insurgency general morale is still holding up. These people reveal themselves naturally when other start to doubt openly and they try to keep the fighting spirit high as ever and start to do some disciplinary threats.", she looks away from him for a while, pondering about her plans before turning her attention back at him again, "But there might be an option how to raise tension aboard without openly rebelling - crippling and isolating, or at least pretending so, ship deep within hostile territory. Then - acting like hesitant and cautious captain to remain hidden in order to not threaten the ship for some extended periods of time, while these more radical agents my start questioning authority openly, and thus, revealing themselves.".
She nodded at him, probably confirming her own theory for herself, "Some omnious and hostile territory for Insurgency, while also free from possible outside interference before the tension will rise enough. Even if not everyone is revealed, they'd be less numerous - and so hopefully, more manageable.".
Despite nodding emphatically in response to everything she just stated in response to his approach, he had some concerns about the exact nature of how she wanted to carry it out. "It would help, but I feel as if you'd be taking too much of a risk by playing bait in order to bait out loyalists. Too many moving parts, may just end up not being worth it. A simple plan, executed well and quickly is usually more than enough to catch people off guard. You just need to have the advantage of being able to make the first move when the time comes."
This time he nodded to himself, feeling more assured by this simpler nature of the original plan she seemed to be coming up with. "Get the families out, mix them in among a collection of random people, and once that deal is sealed, depart for that patrol of yours. We still maintain a few wings of Prosecutors from when our causes agreed on more than just a few things, with enough subtlety, your hardliners won't anticipate a potential escort wing turning out to be a strike force acting in support of you. And by the time they do, it'll probably be too late." It was a gamble, putting his people in the mix and therefore potentially costing lives from their side, and further without any actual assurances that this would actually end in their favor.
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Virginia sighed and nodded, "It began feeling too complex the very moment I said it aloud.", and scratched herself again under her her watches, "No, it must swift and simple, as any other surprise attack.".
She closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed bridge of her nose as she was thinking this through again, "One quarter of my crew are my veterans from times in Legion, they had issues with current Insurgency course before, so they will be on my side. Most senior officers, if not all of them, will be on my side or wouldn't be interfering. One half of my crew are clueless greenies who know nothing better than following their officers first and asking questions later. However...".
She stopped for a while as he opened her eyes, "Remaining quarter of the crew can have those troublemakers. They are more experienced men, who already have their own head, but haven't served long enough to be truly bonded with others and large portion of them will be loyal to the Insurgency - more or less. These might the most unreliable.".
"I wish there'd be some preparation I can in order to tip the scales in my favor without leaking whole plot prematurely. The only thing I can do now is to change shifts in way that unreliable part of the crew could be sleeping in quarters while this will happen, and thus - out of immediate reach of any key systems or potentially explosive devices. This can be even easily explained - I need to evaluate newer crew members, so they will be running the ship and my vets will be off duty in order to spread them around the ship.", she smirked and nodded at Damien, "Greenies will have their heads full of following orders so they might not even know what's happening until it's done. Your wings will surely have some psychological effects on them as well, making it looking more widespread and more acceptable.".
"Yes, this starts to sound much more sensible. Manipulating shifts in my favor to have any possible troublemakers sleeping, drilling newbies at their stations through the whole ordeal and your men justifying it as even another force who felt the same and changed cause, and to intimidate possible loyalists.".
Leaning on one of the arm rests of the chair and pressing his hand against his mouth in vacant contemplation as she spoke in the background, it seemed like he might have lost focus and stopped paying attention until that sharpness came back to his eyes and he spoke up to properly announce it. "If you can get some of my men aboard when you do decide to walk away from the regime on Veracruz, they'll handle the delusional mob that might try springing to action. Grant can lead the team onboard, he's my best. I'd make a pun about how you can take him for granted, but I don't think this is the right setting for it."
With a rhythmic tap of his fingers against the table, he stood up and paced around a little, running something through his mind quietly. "I think we've covered everything, but there's always the potential for unforeseen circumstances we can't be prepared for. Flexibility in terms of how we operate and quick reactions are what will secure what you need." There was an element of uncertainty to him despite saying all of this, something he just wasn't sure about, it didn't seem specific and was more of a general inclination under the circumstances.
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Virginia sat and looked as Damien was walking around the table, tapping with his hand and pacing through his thought processes. She looked overworked at first, but his movements caught her attention. There were still some pieces to be found and placed back together in order to have a better idea about him, but she was getting closer in actually knowing something about him without directly asking.
She grabbed and closed her cigarette case along with matching lighter, and put them into coat's, which was still put over her chair's backrest, pockets. "If your men want look inconspicuously and get onboard, give me their photos with legends and I can fabricate some transfer order to get them in. It won't be perfect, but it doesn't need to be for our needs if it will be only for hours, days at maximum.", Virginia said as she was still sliding case and lighter back into her coat.
She straight herself up and rested her back against the backrest again, "Plans within plans. We know how to take over the ship and we know how to get civilians out. The last question is - who will ferry those civilians to Erie? I had an idea of hiring one of those MedForce zoner folks.".
This was a lot of planning, but thanks to their collective brainstorming, it was much simpler than she previously expected.
With what sounded like pride in his voice and two outstretched hands constantly making gestures to silently enunciate the words he was going with, Morreti laid out an action plan for how the situation would unfold onboard. "Onboard, Grant and his men will move the second you give them a signal to do so. They'll be posing as a detachment of guards keeping the hangars secure, that way they keep access to flight deck storages locked down too. Once they start moving, they don't stop until the holdout of your loyalists is bogged down within a compartment you can access from C&C. When that happens, you lock down the section and-" Rather than say anything to explain what the next part was, he folded his right hand into a fist and thumped it into his left palm.
Crossing his arms and taking on a neutral posture, he continued. "Outside and in space, our fighters posing as your escort can take down the communications array with your help, all you need to do is disable shields and reroute the spare power to engines, burn your way to our territory and the job's done. I project we'll suffer a fair few losses forcing the loyalists through funnels and into a corner, but that's the cost of freedom and we're all willing to pay it." He was different when he talked about killing and death, like there was something stirring behind his eyes, it was hard to put a finger on or even gauge. But to the average person, it would feel as if the person they were talking to somehow wasn't one of them, that he was something different and out of place.
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"I expect some causalities, but hopefully not as many fatalities on our side. We will have initiative, almost any advantage we can have and large portion of my men are trained to not just fight, but to also do some triage when needed - plus, ship has fully equipped medbay, where they can save gravely wounded men from dying.", tapped with finger on her chin as she was thinking, "Best to do this in some large and half deserted system like Texas - and when it's done and safe, Grant can give us coordinates to our new home.".
"Ship will have full fuel tanks and will be fully stocked of gear and spare parts, so many compartments will be cramped. Expect mainly melee and sidearm fights instead of longarms and longer distance.", she said this mostly as a precation, so Grant his men will know what kind of environment they can expect and gear up properly, "But on the bright side, I intend to hand over to you and your men all strikecraft munitions we will be carrying in fully stocked hangar magazines. Most of my fighter craft has been already lost, so it won't be an issue.".
Virginia groomed her long, at least for soldier, blonde hair away from face with her left hand and looked back at him with question in mind, "Do we have everything settled?". Damien's sudden change of 'state' when talking about defeating their foes was surprise and made her to lean back against chair's backrest.
That look both in and behind his eyes didn't go away, a kind of malignant determination and something that almost resembled deep seated enjoyment for conflict. Even if he had no material vices otherwise, it was clear he enjoyed conflict, despite how noble the cause could make itself seem.
With a nod that only accentuated the strangeness and unpredictability of his nature, he answered.
"We do."
The only thing left to do was kill off people in the way and secure the families of those who weren't. Then their status as liabilities was converted into assets to call on in the future. Bodies to help prop up the LFR and serve as individual monuments to defiance and how far people were willing to go for what they perceived as actual liberty.
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Virginia stood up from her chair and put on her coat, spending few seconds in adjusting her clothing and hair to look presentable enough. It was like an instinct, or even bad habit from certain points of view, especially when someone was waiting for her.
Then she grabbed LFR emblem from the table and slid it into her pocket, nodded at Damien while doing so, "I'll give you a call once those civilians are on their way off Veracruz.", she said while smirking, "And then we can spring it.", and loudly snapped with her left fingers.
