"Have I mentioned that I hate the cold?" Rila grumbled quietly where they were crouched against trees in deep snow as they watched the comings and goings from the base in the cliff side.

"Only a couple of hundred times," Ali assured her, mainly ignoring her friend in favour of focusing on the data coming through her visor. She couldn't believe that she'd never thought to use one of these in tactical situations until Wood had pointed it out. The visors had been designed for engineering applications, giving augmented layouts or easy access to technical data and schematics. Ali had frequently adapted them for non-engineering uses, mainly for analysis but for general browsing as well, but she had ignored them for this purpose because she had always feared that they'd be a distraction when she needed to focus. That she'd get too used to relying on it rather than her own senses and the sight of her pistol. Wood had promised to kick her arse if she did, and she believed him.

"Are you not freezing?"

"Yep," Ali replied in a distracted fashion. "They seem to have a longer gap every six shipments, I'm wondering if they've timed them so that they only have to shift stuff from the hangar bay in large batches instead of single shipments," she added before Rila could grumble any further about the climate. Ali couldn't deny it was cold, and even decked out in cold-weather gear it was biting, but there was nothing they could do about it other than focus and not screw this up. Hopefully it'll be warmer inside the compound. All she wanted was a nice temperate, mild climate for once rather than either extreme.

"So we want to come in just after the first in the pattern," Rila agreed, "that should leave the least people in the hangar at any one time."

"That shouldn't matter if we can get Ed in."

"Always have a plan B."

"At least through E."

Ali and Rila shared a wry look at their shared experiences before they turned back to watching the compound from their lookout post. They were hunkered down with a group of Pixie's security team, hidden as best as they could be in the snow and trees as they watched and waited for the best moment to strike. Ali glanced up the cliff to where she knew Pixie and Olkant were waiting at their own vantage points along with another security detail. They couldn't get as near to the anti-aircraft defences as they could to the hangar due to the natural tree cover, but they were hoping to use the snow and weather to their advantage as a form of cover. It wasn't a blizzard, but it wasn't a nice snow shower either. It would have to do.

Ali and Rila shared another look as if to say that they had to make the decision to go or abort at some point, and soon, before they lost all feeling in their extremities. Ali tapped her comm to give a couple of quick static bursts that they'd already agreed on as the signal. She took a breath to calm the anxiety that was settling in her gut. She knew that it would develop into adrenaline once she was doing something, the waiting was the worst part.

However, there was nothing she could do now but trust her team.

~-x-~

Pixie and Olkant shared their own look as the signal came in. Pixie nodded as Olkant blinked his left eyes - the equivalent Vellurian gesture - before Olkant relaxed his chitinous layer so that he could slink as closely to the ground as possible. Meanwhile Pixie gave a few quick, efficient hand gestures to her team to indicate where she wanted them. It was mostly a reminder as they had already been through the plan a number of times.

If they could get to the towers without being detected they had a good chance, the tricky bit was not being seen beforehand. They had adapted their cold-weather gear so that it blended in with the snow as much as possible, but none of them were confident that it would have a great effect. They split into two groups, Olkant leading the attack on one tower and Pixie the other.

It was slow, careful going. Every time someone suspected a sentry was looking their way they all ducked into the nearest and largest snowdrift available to wait it out until they could press forward again. Pixie hadn't realised how little faith she'd had in their plan until she had her back pressed against her tower and she could finally take a breath again. There was a dull ache in her leg where her stab wound had been, but it was manageable. They quickly skirted around the far side - away from the sight of Olkant's team - to find their way in.

Olkant's team did the same, but once out of sight of Pixie's tower Olkant quickly made to scale his. Hauling himself easily over the parapet and launching himself at the sentry there, wrapping a tentacle around the guard's neck and applying enough pressure to carefully knock him out. As he did that he heard another approach and snapped out with another tentacle in a whipping motion to strike the man's stomach, before easily snagging the rifle from his hands and smashing it's butt into his face to also knock him out.

Olkant waited just long enough to check both men were out cold before retrieving their weapons and quickly making his way to the control tower to meet up with the rest of his team and start hacking.

Meanwhile Pixie was taking a slightly different approach, using a visor to let her know the movement of the sentries inside the tower she timed their movement until there was a gap that gave them a straight run to the main control room. Sprinting down the corridors until they arrived and rapidly opening fire with their energy weapons before the guards stationed there even had a chance. "Take their radios, don't give them any reason to doubt and take up positions to cover the door," she instructed as she positioned her team so that when the other sentries returned they would be dealt with efficiently and without alerting anyone else. She set one of her team to operate the console before taking her own position using a bulkhead as cover to await the return of the other guards.

It didn't take Olkant long to have control of both towers - especially with Pixie's team having opened their's to him - it would take a little more effort to hack into the compound itself. It also wasn't something they could guarantee wouldn't set off a dozen different security protocols. Therefore, the moment he had isolated the turret controls from the central system he gave the arranged signal back to Ali and Ed.

~-x-~

"See you on the other side?" Rila half joked as Olkant's signal came in.

"You better," Ali replied in kind. Rila paused for a moment as if she was considering saying something else, but instead just beckoned her small team after her, leaving Ali to wait with the rest.

It wasn't long before Ali recognised Ed's shuttle on approach to the base. Yet again she found herself subconsciously holding her breath as she watched events unfold before her that were entirely beyond her control but involved people she was not only responsible for, but cared about. It was almost the worst part of any mission - second only to waiting. No matter how much you trusted the people you tasked with their orders, you knew that there were thousands of things outside their control that were a fine line between success and failure, life or death.

Just as Ed piloted his shuttle within weapons range of the compound Pixie and Olkant's teams opened fire on the other ships in the sky. "Now!" Ali yelled and her team jumped to their feet and made their run on the complex. They hadn't detected any kind of blast door for the hangar, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be one. They had to time their advance to give Ed enough time to cause enough damage to make their lives easier, but not to lose their opening because of defences they were unaware of.

She had to be focused on her run, but she couldn't help but keep casting a glance towards the chaos above them. Shuttles weren't really designed for precision manoeuvring but Ed was doing a damn good job of evading the ships that Pixie and Olkant hadn't had time to shoot down. It was like a battlefield above them as ships swerved and ducked to avoid fire from all sides. In between all of that Ed was still finding time to take shots on the open hangar bay. Causing at least one explosion that Ali and her team had to duck from because they weren't sure just how devastating it was going to be.

By the time they were halfway, there was no sign of any kind of doors sealing them out of the hangar. Ali didn't know if that was a warning or a lucky break. She chose to take it as the former as that was more likely to keep them all alive. Their natural angle of approach was from the side which minimised their time in the field of vision for anyone left in the hangar from Ed's fire.

The hangar itself was a mess. The ships that had been inside had been savaged by weapons fire and their propulsion systems exploding, most were still on fire. If there had been some kind of blast door the air would be thick with smoke and impossible to breathe in. Thankfully it just made their lives awkward, but not impossible, and would affect Cosmos' Champions just as much. Crates and their contents were strewn across the bay in various states of destruction and precarious positions. Ali took just enough notice of her data feeds to identify the main hazards before swiping the visor off so that she could focus on her surroundings with her own senses. Her kentarian telepathy helped in situations like this so long as she could take a second to focus between sprinting for cover and shooting at the enemies she did know about.

She had a team of seven with her, if all went well that gave each of them a buddy to provide covering fire. Their straight run to the entrance to the main compound was cut off by one smouldering vehicle. That would be their biggest issue. Sure, there were enemies scrambling to sort out some sort of coordinated response and once they got into the hangar bay their air support would stop - it would turn to focus on keeping Cosmos' Champions' air support out of the picture - but they had cover for the rest of their journey.

"Ed, we're entering the hangar bay now," Ali reported as she shared a final look with her team before they hurried into the smoke.

"I'll keep them off your backs, skipper," he confirmed.

Ali didn't spare a look at the sound of the engine noise changing above them. She needed to focus on what lay in front of her. Shooting towards the mercenaries to prevent them from getting a good shot on either her or her team as they scrambled between cover. Ali had just darted out of her second lot of cover - probably a third of the way to their destination - when she heard something above her. "Drones!" She shouted as a warning. She was about to duck back where she'd been when one of Pixie's guys grabbed her shoulder and roughly shoved her forwards. Ali took the message and sprinted to the next obvious cover, an upended pile of crates. She crouched as she got to it ready to help Hurwitz boost their sharpshooter - Kempa - onto the pile where she had a vantage point and half decent cover.

Ali had stayed on ground level, scooting to the corner of the pile so that she could take pot shots as the rest of their group tried to catch up to them. "Any ideas how to take out those drones, ma'am?" Hurwitz asked. He was the highest ranked in the team she had with her.

Ali hated being called that. She ignored it, however, as she frantically looked about their surroundings, flicking her visor back on as she tried to find some way to deactivate the pesky aerial devices - preferably without taking themselves out in the process. "If you keep them off me I can get the mercs!" Kempa declared as she easily despatched one of the mercs at the far side of the bay. Ali and Hurwitz both turned their attention above them without a second thought - though with occasional glances to make sure no one was about to sneak up on them - unfortunately even their best efforts were for nothing due to the speed and agility of the drones. They were able to damage a couple with glancing blows but they were barely making an impact.

"I've got an idea! We can use that ship's electronics to create an EM pulse to take out the drones!" One of their team suggested happily.

Ali was distracted by shooting a drone executing a dive bomb on Kempa. "Wait, what?" She asked a second later, turning towards the man and reactivating her visor to confirm her suspicion. "No, don't - !" She yelled, but it was too late. "DUCK!" She screamed as she twisted to yank Kempa off her perch and out of the way. She heard the 'oof' from the harsh landing but ignored it as she covered their heads as everything exploded above them.