Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 52
"Then it is decided. Get to work, Scleesz." The hologram of the person giving the orders flickered and disappeared as did Seeladas's, the latter not bothering to give her own officer any words of encouragement.
"Admiral, I can have a shuttle deliver me to your vessel at any time you wish," Scleesz said.
"If you're ready to go now, Councilman, you can just ride back with me, assuming you're not taking your entire staff with you."
"It will only be me," Scleesz said. "I'm traveling light these days, and I'm sure I will be quite secure aboard your ship."
"I can assure you that you will," Kellea said. "I will await you in the hangar bay."
Kellea couldn't escape the conference room fast enough. She'd already begun having concerns about what was happening in the Cooperative when the Defiant was pulled off normal patrols and sent out to Eshquaria. Now, she was genuinely afraid. Having a ConFed Councilmember aboard calling the shots with the blessing of her commander in chief was not something she was expecting nor ready to plan for.
At least the corpulent little Scleesz was coming alone. She would have him discreetly searched and activities closely monitored, something that would have been far more difficult if he'd insisted on bringing his own staff or a squad of armed troopers with him. In the back of her mind, she was also aware that the connection to Jason Burke that Scleesz represented couldn't be just a bizarre coincidence. The Councilman's presence confirmed, at least in her mind, that Omega Force was already involved in this mess somehow.
Despite having fantasized about it on more than a few occasions, she hoped she wouldn't be forced to blow the Phoenix out of the sky with the Defiant's cannons before this was all over.
17
"This is actually looking easier than I expected."
"Why would you even say that?" Kage asked, tossing all four arms up in exasperation.
"Look," Jason said, pointing to the holographic representation being projected onto the tabletop of the terrain surrounding the depot. "There's no real security to speak of, most of the patrol flights are concerned about people smuggling things out of the big cities along the equator, and the lower latitudes aren't even covered by the ships in orbit. If we can make it down there undetected, we can be in and out before they could redirect forces to intercept us."
"We think that the boxes are being stored here," Crusher said, jabbing a claw into the hologram of the main building. "The northwest wing is said to control all sensitive communications and telemetry link equipment. It's the category that most closely matches our objective. There are no external entrance points into this wing and, due to the sensitive nature of the device, I wouldn't recommend breaching an outer wall. I think we'll need to move in through this auxiliary entrance"—he pointed to another spot on the hologram—"and move through an assumed security checkpoint to access it. Once we have the box, we can go ahead and blow a hole through the wall to egress."
Kage gaped at Crusher in slack-jawed amazement while Jason was able to hide his own reaction better. The big warrior was often dismissed as a musclebound idiot, a reputation he lived up to more often than not, but Jason had decided to try a different tact to see if he could get the big dummy to be a little more useful. Crusher, whose real name was Felex Tezakar, was the Guardian Archon of Galvetor and commander of the Galvetic Legions. He'd been trained from childhood in all manner of small-unit combat, discreet interdictions, large-scale battle planning, and advanced hand-to-hand combat training. In other words, this was a well-trained, intelligent, and capable operator who had been taking the lazy way out for far too long. Jason felt it was past time for him to pull his weight.
Still, he hadn't expected Crusher to actually do what was asked of him. There was still the same amount of complaining, shifting of blame, and a half-dozen other tactics to get out of any actual work. The difference now was that he actually would get around to doing what was requested of him…eventually.
"How do you want to take the auxiliary entrance?" Jason asked.
"Let the Phoenix do it." Crusher shrugged. "No point in lugging two breaching charges or a weapon so heavy that only Lucky can carry it. Besides…one hit on the building from the main cannons and there will be all the shock and confusion we need to sneak in."
"I think I can work that detail out a little bit to strengthen our advantage," Jason said. "Climate is still mild with predictable winds?"
"Yes," Kage said. "Here's what the box looks like you'll be going after." A standard looking avionics box replaced the building hologram with a scale marker down by the bottom. The box was big, but Lucky should have no trouble with it. "It's pretty rugged so don't worry about anything breaking inside, but don't throw it from the top of the building or anything like that. From what I've been able to tell from some contacts I still have on the surface here, the parts will be stored in locked cages, but nothing that should slow you down."
"How long until we're ready to break out of this traffic pattern, Doc?" Jason asked, leaning out of the conference room so he could be heard on the bridge.
"We'll be dropping out of detection range for our requested landing zone in nineteen minutes," Doc said. "After that it's an eleven-hour flight along the eastern coastline before turning inland."
"I’m going to adjust our flight profile for the final approach," Jason said. "Stand by for your new instructions. Don't worry…this will actually make things easier for you."
"Why do