Lisley crouched low next to the chain link fence surrounding the barracks. From their reconnaissance, she already knew the layout. The main part consisted of around fifty corrugated steel clad Nissan huts serving as living quarters surrounding a much larger one, which was used at the mess hall. A tarmac path surrounded the mess and several of the sleeping quarters on three sides, with the rest of the sleeping quarters positioned on the outer edge. The path opened up into a parade ground at one end and an all but empty vehicle park at the other, separated by the first of several brick built administration buildings that made up the rest of the base. Here the path widened into a road, connecting to the access road that ran along two inner sides of the fence linking the guard post at the entrance from the main public road with the administration buildings and a non-descript concrete building at the far corner of the base. Away from the rest of the buildings, it was inside this building that they had observed the General and the Engineer disappear into the subterranean facility. It was also here that the Bravo Team would rendezvous once each of them had achieved their objective.
Having been observing the barracks for two hours now, they had found it to be one of the most lightly guarded areas on the base. As far as they could tell the guards didn’t patrol the perimeter at all, instead remaining in the Guard post and relying on the alarmed fence to warn of any intrusion. To Lisley it showed how little the Optimum valuded the lives of its conscripted soldiers, seeing them simply as cannon fodder. However, that didn’t mean that she was going to allow herself to get complacent. It would only take one person to raise an alarm before they had completed their mission and she, along with the rest of her team, would suddenly find themselves facing over a four hundred drug crazed soldiers. Quick mobilisation was the advantage of controlling your troops in this way and the prospect made her shudder.
The base itself looked almost uninhabited, with the internal lighting of the Nissan huts all switched off as expected. However, several of the windows in the administration buildings were illuminated and Lisley took careful note of these as a sudden increase of decrease in their number could signify that they had been discovered.
She turned to Lieutenant Mendez crouched next to her, along with the rest of Bravo Team, and indicated for him to pass his tool kit. He quickly obliged and she reached inside and extracted the bypass cables before attaching them to pre-determined places on the fence. She scanned her work with a tricorder, checking that the cables had done their job and created a person-sized area she could cut away. Satisfied, she reached inside the toolkit again and pulled out a laser cutter. She then proceeded to cut away metal links until the section fell away with a light chinking sound.
Lisley looked around cautiously as she replaced the laser cutter back in the tool case. She then slipped through the hole she’d created taking refuge between a small crop of small bushes and the fence. Checking the immediate area to ensure she had been spotted, she then indicated for the rest of her team to follow and one by one they each climbed through the hole and joined her on the other side. Meanwhile Lisley carefully surveyed the area between them and the nearest group of huts.
Fortunately the nearest huts to their point of entry were a row of five, placed end on. It would allow them all to get into position and still keep Lisley in their line of sight so that she could issue the order to breech. Unfortunately, there was over fifty meters of open grass between them and the huts.
Lisley turned to her team and started to assign them to their targets. First, she signalled to Jones and Mendez to take the two buildings to the right and from there, work their way towards the guard post. Rhodes and Fleming she signalled to the left to take position near the two buildings there and work their way towards the parade ground. Finally, she’d take position at the end of the hut in the middle.
Her orders given she signalled them to take up position and the five of them sprinted to cover the distance between their cover and the ends of the huts in the shortest possible time. Lisley quickly crouched low by the entrance on arrival, turned first to the left and then to the right, checking that each of her teams were also in place. Satisfied everyone was ready, she signalled her team to begin.