There Is No Call We Do Not Answer [Night 2]

[Kannon]

[Paul, Razar, Bernard, Efren, Ambrose]

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They converged near the be-jungled thopter.

"I think we all realise we're running on borrowed time. We tarry and people die. It's in the Chaen Marek's interest to silence us all before we can call for reinforcements. We must take the initiative and strike decisively. There may not be a second attempt. I don't know if any of you took part in the assault on his previous plantations near the Arondi Cliffs, but I can brief you on the lessons learned then. If there is something I still need to know before we start planning, say it now, gentlemen."

[Ambrose Pantazis]

When the others were arriving, Ambrose was making his last preparations to install the freshly recharged fuel cells into the downed thopter. They'd still need to cut it loose from the considerable amount of jungle they'd become entangled with on the way in and there was some loose plating along the undercarriage, but she would fly and that's what mattered.

He came out of the thopter ready to extol his engineering prowess when he spotted the unmistakable Paul Atreides leading them. A shock not unlike what the trees had been judiciously doling out ran through his system and he snapped to attention, giving a crisp salute to the group in front of him.

Too stunned to address them or to share the good news, he stood at attention while Paul began his debrief. It seemed he had missed quite some developments while tinkering out in the jungle, but understanding was extraneous. If the scion of House Atreides called on him to strike decisively, then that is what he would do. He didn't know for certain who this Chaen Marek was, but context clues would suggest he was involved if not the head of this cartel. All the better.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren stood up straight and began to speak.

“This problem seems to not be easily solved by killing alone… A game of whack-a-mole with someone who seems to have a vested interest and the resources available to perpetuate a problem for us in the region…”

He paused, “We should try to figure a way to cut them off permanently if possible.”

[Razar Lanville]

Razar listens to the exchange that's beginning before speaking up, "Criminal organizations tend to be held together by threat of violence and fear from the top. Cutting off the head of the snake is likely to cause splintering, fracturing and make it easier to capture and eliminate more of the cartel members. It's impossible to eliminate crime, but it's much easier to destroy their ability to consolidate and operate as an effective unit by targeting their leadership and communications. A decisive strike won't wipe them out, but it will severely harm their capabilities. But that is going to require intel on their resources and points of interest to effectively target them."

[Kannon]

"Captain, Corporal, I agree. The final solution to this criminal infiltration, which must and will come, is strategic and likely political. Thufir would approximate powerful off-world support for them to rebound so quickly after the northern shutdown. We do have enemies capable of this. Chaen Marek may be the head of operations here, but some unknown distributor is reaping profits from ailar trafficking in the Imperium." Paul let himself get into Hawat's thinking mode.

"Here and now, we only have tactical means, so getting the hostages out is our top priority. We failed to capture Chaen Marek or run them through the first time despite having a task force, we might get another odd chance this time, but for a wipe-out operation I want more power to arrive. There is a host of well-armed mercenaries guarding the area. Duncan and I learned it the hard way. I am only here because he bought me time to retreat when we were overran. He'd rather I didn't do anything on my own before calling on reinforcements, but that would mean his death. I won't send you to senseless death over an insurmountable objective for the same reason I won't leave Duncan there to die. We are not Harkonnen, we reward loyalty with loyalty. And before any of you suggests I shouldn't go with you, ask yourselves what my father would do. Until he returns, I am the acting Duke."

Paul paused.

"Speaking of Ducal decisions. Ambrose... Pantazis." He thought for a moment as if recalling the surname from memory. "I'd like to hear where we are with the thopters."

[Bernard Martikova]

Bern stumbles back from the forest, having spent most of his time wandering around the woods trying to find the two escaped civilians. Unfortunately, not being much of a tracker, that ended up being a very poor decision, having only just found his way back into the camp hours later, with nothing to show for his efforts but sweat and mud on his clothes.

Quickly approaching the Captain, he salutes without really looking around. "Sir, reporting in, I tried hunting down the--." His attention turned to the young boy in front of him and he simply stared, seemingly dumbfounded. "I...I see we have made some headway with our mission while I was away, sir."

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"My Lord, I was just about to install the recharged fuel cells. It's in rough shape and needs to be extracted from the flora, but it'll fly. Shields aren't operational and some of the armor plating is damaged. I can retrieve the other thopter's fuel cells and recharge them as well. That one might be more combat ready, but I haven't done a once-over myself."

[Kannon]

Paul had invited Sergeant Martikova into the staff meeting right after his arrival so that he wouldn't miss a beat.

"Please expedite the effort to restore their propulsion and shielding, right after our meeting. Civilians by the coast are on preparatory work with this, give them tasks if it speeds the restoration up. I don't understand exactly how you obtain the power from the flora, but we can appreciate how you've made it work later. Then, ask to be taken where my thopter is and see what you can do for it. It's in similar condition for the same reason, and I've done some work on it, so it shouldn't take much time. Three thopters is almost a squadron, right?"

He smirked, adding some cavalier elan to their collective mood.

"I assume your discharge was swiftly rescinded for this operation, but I've noticed your rank hasn't been properly re-established. I'll do so now. We won't succeed without your effort, Sergeant Pantazis."

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Ambrose stiffened his shoulders and straightened his back a bit more, or at least felt like he had, at Paul's acknowledgement and declaration.

There was a shift, from a subject and their lord to a soldier and their commander. "Yes sir! It may be pertinent. We found a false eye attached to a tree, likely of Tleilaxu make. The modifications were... extensive. Not something that could be done by some localized cartel trying to set up simple security. I would hazard there are other forces at work here."

[Kannon]

That gave Paul a pause.

"If the Tleilaxu are the criminal stakeholder here, this puts the earlier extreme behaviour in context. They disregard every life. It wasn't in all reports, but last time the criminals shot lasguns at our shielded thopters. The scale of the sub-atomic fusion was toward the lower end, but Captain Reeson's whole squadron was immediately gone, along with the transgressors. As much as we may find it revolting, they may do it again and so we have to factor it in."

[Bernard Martikova]

"Well," Bern says with a nod to what his Duke said. "We still have the explosives and the antenna with us. We may need to get in close to use it, but at least we'll be prepared to handle most of those things if we can get in close to use it."

Any thoughts and comments on Ambrose being now the same rank as him was kept to himself, merely reacting to the information with a nod of approval towards his direction.

[Razar Lanville]

"Do we need to get close to use the explosives? We could give the cartel something to investigate, and pack whatever it is with explosives. Could be good as cover and a distraction when we catch them off guard," Razar suggests.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren nodded at the young Atreides’ comments.

Most of them hadn’t seen the savagery manifested in the cave… He wondered if Paul and Duncan had.

There had to be some way to hinder the operations here without the full and long process of infiltration. People were dying today…

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"Those cowards. If they'll stoop to such a level, I could move repairing the shield far down the priority list.

As far as getting our thopters airborne, I've got one set of charged fuel cells here and the charging port nearby. I could run these to our other bird, bring those cells back here to charge, run those to your thopter, and bring its cells back here to charge for this bird." At the mention of the word bird, Mr. Bravo flew out of the thopter and alighted on Ambrose's shoulder squawking.

"Are we going to rally in the clearing Captain Lanville landed in? Communication between thopters will be an issue. We'll have to rely on planning and visual signals by line of sight."

-----
I had enough regrowth injections to keeping it going for two thopters worth of fuel cells. Is a third going to be Medicine checks? Also, I've got two ranks of Stimpak Specialization, so I'm more efficient with them if that helps.

[Kannon]

"Explosives and an antenna? That's good news! Good thinking, Captain, we'll need a well-timed destructive distraction so that our people have the window to get into the compound or wherever they hold Duncan and others."

He thought hard for a moment.

Come on! What would Thufir recommend. The action least expected...

"...We could let them taste their own medicine. Turning one thopter into a large missile if your efforts restore all, Sergeant. If we hit their sensor field camouflage they have undoubtedly spread like the last time from air with enough explosive power, we can short it and expose them. The pilot would have to time the ejection well... Such a Duncan job."

Or mine.

"About the antenna! My understanding is that proximity to vegetation is our problem. If we get the antenna to the top of a mountain we could perhaps call in the cavalry to back us up in the second phase. And to get communication with and between thopters at high enough altitudes."

He smirked on the landing issues. And the bird.

"Best as far from the mantas as possible. We can converge on my spot."

[Specialisation saves you every fourth stimpak]

[Bernard Martikova]

"So we need a small team to place the antenna down, then." He looked as best he could towards where he may have seen some mountains earlier. "How many clicks you think that would be, sir?" He motioned. "Also, we should probably rely on our smaller forces. If they know how many of us are out there, they'll likely be arrogant about it. Perhaps there could be a way to use that to get them to make small mistakes that could open themselves up for a large response."

[Kannon]

"My thinking as well, Sergeant. A few. One team of fliers. One team to lock them at the pass to trigger them, harass, and block retreat or cutting us off. One team of climbers, to get the antenna up there and then descend on them from the least expected direction to extract our people. Because the climb is prohibitively hard. How does that sound, gentlemen?"

He formed it from leaves while speaking.

"Will the Muadh help us with the climb, Corporal?"

[Efren Lanville]

“I can speak with them about it. They should be amenable.” He replied.

[Razar Lanville]

"I can pilot the missile thopter," Razar volunteers. "With you here we have someone to lead the mission and I have the most piloting experience. I'm most likely to be able to bail out with proper timing," he says.

[Kannon]

"I presume they know this side of the mountains better than us even if they have not scaled them, Corporal. I'd see you arranging our base camp there, with ropes and whatever climbing gear we can muster, and an idea for approach. We'll have to pull up not just us, but also the antenna and weapons. Perhaps even parachutes if we have enough, for quick base jump evacuation of hostages."

He then looked at Razar.

"I'd grant you that, Captain, with full confidence in your ability, but I see one issue. Once you eject, you may be out of action at the time your leadership may be needed. We can have some communication if we're lucky but in the end every team must have the capacity to be commanded independently. You know people in this operation better than I do. Give me a sketch of how you'd split our capability between the teams and we'll see if we can afford losing your leadership early into engagement."

[We can use Eileen and Dominic as redshirt NPCs]