Draconia, Low orbit en-route to Mu, DC 'Shadowing Intent', 868ad

Strike Teams Animal, Night Stalker, Kick Back and Fury were present in the briefing room, all armoured in satin black armour, very little to distinguish them apart except for varying numbers of red lines down their right chest plates on a select few of them denoting different ranks. They were all around one end of a holographic table, which showed all remaining 17 Strike teams assembled down the same end of the table, presented as small, five inch high holographic figures. All were ready and attentive for the brief, except for Skylen... he stood leant against the wall to one side of the room, arms crossed, looking extremely pissed off. Another Dragon approached the unoccupied end of the table, wearing the same satin black armour, but the only one in the room with five red stripes down his chest plate, denoting his 'Vice Admiral' Rank.

Wrex lifted his head as he reached the table, meeting Star Light's gaze at the opposite end, she subtly nodded her head off to her right. He followed her notion, noting Skylen skulking off to the side in the shadows of the dimly lit room, looking at the floor. Knowing full well why he was over there and decided the best course of action was to not draw attention to him. Wrex pulled his gaze back to Star Light and shook his head in attempt to say 'Don't worry and leave him be', he could visibly see her exhale and gave a subtle nod. Wrex surveyed the rest of the assembled teams in front of him.
Wrex: "I'm sure you all know why you're here, as I know most of you were present at the time of this incident, but I'll go over it anyway so every is up to speed. At 2530 yesterday, merely 4 hours ago, insurrectionists launched a surprise assault and infiltrated Axis Mundis, and the Palace. Her Majesty the queen and Princess Arisu were well protected and unharmed. However... Princess Reikon..." he made a quick glance to Skylen, who's face had rage written all over it... "...Was unfortunately in another location in the palace and in the chaos, the Honour Guards lost track of her... We have received word that she was kidnapped by the insurrectionists, and she is being held here..." He tapped some controls on the table, the projection of the other Strike Teams changed and morphed to form another image, knowing that they were being broadcast the same image on their own tables on their own ships.

"...The city of Mu,..." He carried on, as the hologram displayed a city scape in front of them "...intel on her exact location and condition is sketchy, but what we do know is she's in the North East section of the city..." The image of the city zoomed into and high lighted the area in question. "...Our orders from the Queen her self are simple and clear... Retrieve Princess Reikon alive, by any means necessary..." He tapped some more buttons, the image zoomed back out "...Our ships will get us as close as possible, but they will have to keep out of range of the newly planted anti aircraft guns positioned around the outskirts of the city, which we have learnt that the designs have been pillaged from some our own ship to ship weaponry."
Eishin: "Have we got to push through the whole city?"
Wrex: "No, we'll be going in via Roclaws."
"That's suicide!, We'll never make it with those guns!" Another Strike team member shouted, but Skylen interjected before Wrex could answer...
Skylen: " 'Suicide'?! Pah, what are you? A Vanguard or a hatchling?!..." He growled, stepping closer to the group "... you're a Strike Team member aren't you? So if you have a problem of doing your job then I suggest you leave." eyeballing the one who voiced his concerns.

Wrex: "Skylen... Please..." Wrex stated in a calm tone, appealing to his better sense of nobility. Skylen shook his head and walked off to the back of the room now. Wrex had the hologram start following his narration, "...So... Our talented Roclaw pilots will do their utmost to get into the city unscathed and to the target area. Strike Teams Animal, Defiant and Inferno will each eliminate an AA gun near the North east quadrant. All 17 other strike teams will drop in, surround the target zone and push in, Myself and Strike Team Fury will drop in the centre of the zone, see what we can find, the Innies being attacked from multiple angles will cause mass confusion. We're also hoping that where ever Reikon is being held in there will be some high value Innies for the taking too, ideally alive for interrogation purposes, but this is not priority. Once our objectives are complete our extraction plan, once the North East guns are disabled, is to have a Roclaw fly in and extract Reikon, the rest us will to make way out of the city limits in the at the nearest point for extraction. In, smash, grab, out. Simple... Any questions?..." The room and the reappeared holograms of the other teams on the table remained silent "...Good... To your Roclaws everyone, good hunting." He finished.

The holograms vanished and the teams present in the room split up and headed to their launch bays and Wrex joined the back of his team heading for their Roclaw, following behind a silent Skylen... he needed to talk with Skylen, he couldn't let him go out on the mission like this... He made his move... grabbed Skylen's shoulder from behind to stop him. Skylen spun around at the tug,
Skylen: "What?!" he snapped. Star Light heard the retort, turned to asses the situation and stopped Eishin and Clayne with a short sharp "Hey" in their direction to grab their attention. They also stopped and turned on the walk way that lead to the drop ship to eye the pair. Wrex gave a short sharp upward nod to them,
Wrex: "It's fine, we'll catch you up". Clayne and Eishin turned and carried on, but Star Light hesitated, still eyeing the pair, gave a quick forced smile as if to say 'Good luck' before turning herself to carry on.

With the rest of Fury out of ear shot, Wrex turned his attention back to Skylen who was staring at the deck, hatred filling his eyes... Wrex had never seen him like this in the years since their childhood, he had never been so... so... dark, for the want of a better term...
Wrex: "We're gonna get her back... I promise, you know that don't you?" Skylen turned his head up slowly to lay eyes on him.
Skylen: " 'You promise'? You 'PROMISE' how can you make promises like that when you don't even know if she's still alive?! Those Insurrectionists? They want nothing more than the control of the planet handed over to the people, they don't like the way queen runs the show, nor the deliberate time she wastes making decisions! They can't stand the royals and want nothing more than them all dead!"
Wrex: "Shhh!..." Wrex stated, looking around to make sure no one had heard what Skylen just said "...I am no more a fan of some of the decisions made than you, but for the most part the choices made are for the greater good, and orders are orders and we do what the queen requests of us, we swore an oath."

Skylen rolled his eyes and huffed,
Skylen: "The oath, worth its weight in crap! if the queen actually performed the role she was meant to then it might be worth living up to the oath." Wrex waved a clawed finger at his face,
Wrex: "Watch that tone, brother, you're talking like one of the Innies!" he hushed growled back. Skylen's gaze burned back with hatred,
Skylen: "Maybe they have a point" he growled equally low back, stepping away from Wrex in the direction of the Roclaw.
Wrex: "Skylen stop..." Wrex said as calmly as possible, realising his plan to calm Skylen had completely back fired, but Skylen carried on walking. "...SKYLEN!"... Skylen stopped in his tracks and angrily looked over his shoulder with a growl. "...*Sigh* Brother... we've never faced this kind of weaponry before, not ground side anyway, this is a new game, with a very desperate and powerful enemy... if we argue, we will fail, we need to work together if we are to succeed... What do you say, brother?" He held out his hand, something that he and Skylen had seen the Humans do many times when greeting or making agreements, a sign of trust as they understood it. Skylen looked down at his hand, then back up to him, seemingly slightly calmer now, then after a few moments more of looking back at the hand, took it and gave it a shake. Skylen: "Agreed... but only for her sake, not yours..." he said begrudgingly "...But... if we don't succeed then I quit the Vanguard."

Wrex: "Agreed" Wrex said with a smile releasing his grip and walked past Skylen, who was shaking his head,
Skylen: "So... you're happy to accept that? That I'm just going to leave you all after this?" Wrex turned walking backwards to answer,
Wrex: "Completely, because I know you wont be quitting..." Turning back and carrying on. Skylen: "Yeah? and what makes you so sure?" Skylen dubiously asked, still stood on the spot.
Wrex: "Because brother... We're not gonna fail."

__________

The Roclaw drop ship, living up to one meaning of it's name dropped violently, as they usually do from it's mother ship, the Draconian Corvette 'Shadowing Intent' in this case, one of the six Corvettes and Frigates which were keeping outside of the known anti air weapons range in the insurrectionist occupied city of Mu. The AA guns had only been recently invented and cobbled together in the last few months using parts and plans scavenged from stolen and downed Vanguard vessels. The ship lurched from side to side as explosions echoed through the hull of the small craft, balls of plasma getting near to and bursting with a bang all around the ship. These dropships were nimble due to their size, it was named and modelled after an insect with the same attributes, the central hull was long, aerodynamically shaped, with a partitioned cockpit to the main load or passenger carrying area that could seat 8 if needed, 4 down each side. There were thee pairs of wings, that unlike the insect, were fixed in place, two larger pairs up the front that were positioned at 45 degree angles to the hull, and the last pair, slightly smaller, at the 'Tail' of the ship, each wing had a direction thruster that allowed for it's sharp rapid manoeuvres.

Manoeuvres which Strike Team Fury were now enduring in the passenger area, bracing hard as possible, as their armoured bodies were being thrown around in the harnesses like rag dolls. Even Wrex was starting to admit in his own mind that this was becoming too much. Then there was an even louder bang and strong jolt through the ship and the separating door between cargo area and cockpit blew open, shrapnel through the cargo hold, ricocheting off their armour and they tried to cover their faces. Wrex lucked out though, he felt a smack in his poorly covered right cheek which caused his head to be whipped to the left. His ears filled with ringing, but everything else fell almost silent, he was still conscious though and pulled his head back straight when he heard Star Light's muffled voice,
Star Light: "WREX!" He looked dead at her, in the seat opposite him, she was fine besides the look of horror on her face and he realised she started reaching to unclasp her self.
Wrex: "NO! STAY THERE!" he shouted back over the deafening racket that was returning to his ears, he looked back to cockpit and saw the pilot, or what was left of him, slumped in his seat and the city scape below in full view of a destroyed window canopy.

Instinctively Wrex Unclasped his own harness and leaped for the cockpit, sat in the pilot's exploded and charred remains and wrestled with the controls. It was of little use, the gimbal control was all but destroyed and very unresponsive and they were plummeting too fast and spinning out of control.
Wrex: "WE'RE COMING IN TOO FAST!..." He shouted back, what little control he did have he managed to wrestle the ship out of it's spin and somewhat pull the nose up... but it still wasn't enough, the ground was still getting too close too quickly "...BRACE FOR IMPACT!" He shouted again, hoping he would be heard... Last thing he remembered was a loud crash, being thrown forwards and everything going black.