Jace stood in the situation room with a stoic expression as he put his final touches on the plan. The situation room was a large room with a holotable on a lowered area and seats on raised areas around it. It was the room where any attack plans were determined if there was a plan ahead of time.

    The Anvil had arrived near the asteroid at the edge of the Artemis System. It was one of the points in which they assumed Lord Hoodwink had a lab because Devan was delivering goods for him there. So in following his trail they would raid this hidden lab while another unit scouted out the facility located within the Leonair territory.

    They had started getting preliminary scans from this distance so they could start making plans. The plans were for their entrance into the facility. Since they were mostly going in blind they got a long range scan and learned that the facility had several airlocks and a single hangar entrance. They were not able to get any internal scans of the structure so they would be essentially improvising the whole time once they were inside with a single objective in mind.

    Their single objective would be either to locate and kill Lord Hoodwink. But since it was likely that he was not here the alternate objective would be to find the central control console which controls everything inside of the hidden lab. Either way they would be searching the facility from top to bottom to find everything they could.

    Jace smiled somewhat nervously when his audience arrived. It was not the first time he had been the center of one of these planning meetings. But it always bothered him to have an additional audience. There were the five members of his squad, the four pilots he requested for two different transport ships. Then there was the additional audience who would be staying aboard the ship, Captain Hammers, Cain, Anvil''s AI, and Agent Vana. Usually when the briefing was not classified other commanders, flight captains, and unit leaders could listen in on the briefing. But since this briefing was classified because of the nature of the foe it was a sealed meeting so they could not have any onlookers.

    "Welcome to our briefing regarding the raid on Hoodwink''s Hidden Lab." Jace started the presentation with a sigh. "All we know is that Lord Hoodwink has a facility here that we suspect is one of his labs. Back on Nymph we learned the smuggler called Devan moved things for Lord Hoodwink to three locations. The Vexical communication station, which is how he came on our radar in the first place. A location near the Leonair and Woltar border where the Leonair have been willingly working with Lord Hoodwink. The last of the locations we learned was in the system so we are going to it in order to hopefully find a lead on his current location."

    "This will be a hostile infiltration into an unknown environment. We will be going in the New Infantry Armor types equipped with a jetpack rated for space. Equip your weapons for close range combat in the equivalent of a space station. We will also be divided into teams of three. Myself, Ulin, and Charlie. While Nina will be taking Hielo, and Tako. Each team will be taking a different entrance into the asteroid as well as a different transport ship. One of the teams will be going to the hangar while the other will be entering…" Jace moved the hologram of the asteroid around and highlighted an airlock that was on the top of the asteroid. "Through an airlock on the other side of the asteroid."

    "Once inside we will make our way through the asteroid''s interior. We will be focusing on finding main facility functions so we can take control of the place. If we determine that Lord Hoodwink is onsite we will prioritize his capture or death instead. But we also have a secondary objective of retrieving any and all research data that we find. Myself and Hielo will be the ones doing the retrieving and determining if any experimental technology can be handled. The objective might change depending on the interior but in the event of a communication failure it will be up to the team leader to determine the course of action."

    Jace sighed as he took a breath of air. "Now as for the transport ships, you will not be landing in or docking to the facility. Instead you will move a distance from the asteroid but stay hidden nearby after you drop off your passengers. Now are there any questions?"

    There were a few minutes of quiet whispering as the pilots whispered among themselves while his own squad whispered to each other as well. It was normal for a briefing like this so everyone could get on the same page. The same was true of having a back and forth during the question phase because it would help people understand the plan better or in some cases make adjustments to make the plan better.

    The first to raise their hand was Taylor Hielo, the only other technology expert in his squad. Unlike the others she had not conversed with the others during the few minutes. Instead she had become bored with what was going on. He knew she was listening and understood his briefing, but he also knew her personality. Which was why he was the slightest bit suprised by her question. "Can I just not go? I have enough work as it is."

    "Taylor," Jace still sighed and shook his head, "I have seen your workload. I know for a fact you could already be done with it if you were not focused on your personal projects."

    Taylor looked away and clicked her tongue loudly. The rest of his squad began chuckling in amusement while he rolled his eyes. Nearby one of the pilots raised their hands and Jace nodded at him indicating for him to speak.

    "Do you want us to wait in a specific area or just nearby where we dropped off our respective teams? How far are we dropping off our teams from their entrance points?" The pilot asked as the other pilots were completely focused on Jace with data pads out, ready to enter their notes.

    Jace manipulated the hologram and it shrunk the asteroid and caused several other asteroids of smaller size to appear around it. "It is not sitting alone in space. There are several smaller asteroids located nearby. You will do a flyby and drop off your teams before going to an asteroid you pick out ahead of time with your team. You can find your specific team in the hardcopy briefings that I sent you."

    Another pilot raised their hand and Jace waved at him, "why are we waiting nearby instead of returning to the Anvil?"

    "Because there is a chance there is a jamming signal in the base. In the event that there is, we will need you nearby to do a short range transmission burst." Jace answered honestly while getting looks of understanding from the pilots.

    He looked over at the listeners again and saw Vana raise her hand, "how do you know if you have found Lord Hoodwink?" She probably waited until now to ask her question because she wanted to see if the others were done asking more relevant questions.

    Jace raised a finger and then started typing on the console until the hologram image of Lord Hoodwink''s hooded figure with skeletal-like hands appeared. "We do not know his actual appearance but we know that we could ascertain it if we saw him. As well as the fact that he is prideful enough that he will not hide himself amongst a crowd."

    "He will not hide among a crowd but he uses the underworld to accomplish his goals?" Vana asked in response with an obvious and understandable level of confusion.

    Jace just shrugged, "he is a noble. They are usually insane." Jace responded honestly.

    "Hey!" Captain Hammers yelled at Jace.

    Jace chuckled, "okay, are there any other questions?"

    "Yeah," Nina raised her own hand, "you said submachine guns and shotguns for our primary weapons. But can we bring any type of grenade we want as well as weapons for hand to hand combat." Her external voice box is doing the speaking for her in a robotic voice.

    Jace nodded, "yeah, just use your head. I do not want to scrape my squad off of a wall because they blew themselves up." Jace then did another look around and seeing there were no more questions he nodded again. "Then you are dismissed, this briefing is over. Go get ready, we leave in an hour." S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    As Jace began removing the data he used for his presentation from the table, Captain Hammers and Vana walked up. "Jace your squad are using the helmet cameras correct?" The Captain asked while Vana was looking between them.

    Jace nodded, "Yes sir. It is part of the hardcopy briefing but I will remind my teams so there are no issues." Jace guessed the captain''s concerns easily enough and the captain nodded in response.

    Vana on the other hand slightly raised her hand, "why am I not coming with your squad?"

    "Because it would be a detriment and would mess with squad cohesion, not to mention we do not have military grade armor that would fit you." Jace shrugged and waved a hand at her fluffy ears.

    Vana rolled her eyes and then looked at the captain, "I will at least be allowed to watch the helmet cameras, correct?"

    Captain Hammers blinked for a moment before nodding, "of course. It will also help you understand the kind of monster we are hunting if this is a lab of his."