>>558301
Well, it's a cannon designed to shoot ships out of orbit. That's fairly large artillery- I'm assuming it's more the size of a building, and it may have additional housing to harden it from the elements and enemy fire. I figure that's large enough that a poor placement of charges could result in repairable damage instead of permanently wrecking the installation.

Although there's the added problem of how hardened the future building materials are, or how high yield our explosives are. ...problem might be moot if depending on what it uses for ammunition or a power source, and if we can place the charge there.

>>558308
>Although there's the added problem of how hardened the future building materials are, or how high yield our explosives are.

I'd expect there are generally two doctrines for deployment for AA: Mass and disposable, or hardened and resistant to return fire. Judging by the fact that this is defended from our advance by ground-based defenses and distance it seems likely to be hardened against return fire and probably defended against conventional attack. I'm hypothesizing that we're going to need the artillery fire just to deal with exterior defenses and to distract/attract the defenders in order to set charges somewhere effective.
That's why I imagine we need the most advantageous approach to the final assault possible. If we have some intel on that however....

You direct your team down the third path, hoping to avoid most of the enemy emplacements. The first few hours of travel are relatively easy, making good time across flat ground. Then you hit the rocky terrain and narrow pathways of a more mountainous region, complete with unstable rocks, and you begin having to guide your team through carefully. Mech has particular trouble with it, her TacArm having to go rather slowly to pick its way up the trails, but she manages, especially with Hive guiding her almost exclusively, leaving you free to lead the way. Another hour is spent just climbing, but you soon reach the top, and you begin making your way down the other side. About halfway down, Wash-Out spots the distant emplacements of the enemy. And you find that you can just barely make them out on the horizon. Another hours is spent picking your way down, and then the team is on the move across easy terrain once again. You've bypassed most of the enemy emplacements, and only one lies in your pathway. Thankfully, however, your team is overly prepared for bypassing something like this, and with a few well placed distractions you make it past them without any issues.

You eventually reach your destination, a small hilly area that gives you a good place to launch the artillery cannon from, as well as reasonably defensive. You let your team take a break as you eye the cannon in front of you. The base of the structure is massive, likely containing the more sensitive devices. The barrel of the cannon itself, however, is long and thin. You can only guess that it fires some form of plasma, and from what happened as you were dropping, you would guess it hurls large balls of the stuff. Regardless, you observe what you think is an entryway, and Wash-Out quickly confirms this, looking a bit unhappy.

"Hey, Grey?"

"Yeah?"

"The entryway there. It only opens up when one of the aliens goes through."

"That... could be a problem."

"Could be. I'm sure you could still get through it if you wanted to. Unfortunately, we don't really have too many better options here. There's what looks like an exhaust port too, although I can't really tell from here. Stuff comes out of it every minute or so, though. It's got to lead somewhere."

"You'd suggest I go down an exhaust port?"

"I'm not suggesting anything, Sergeant. I'm just laying the only other options I see."

"Alright. Well, I'll keep it in mind. TnT! What do you have for me?"

"I have three packages for you. You set them on things you think will cause some damage, and I'll handle the rest when you get back. Setting is easy. Got an adhesive sticker on the back of each, place it, then tap the button there and it'll arm."

"Understood. Any targets you think I should hit?"

"A generator is usually a good idea, but on things like that, I'd assume it's heavily guarded. Same for wherever they're keeping munitions, if there is any, and the command post. Otherwise, you're going to have to settle for structural damage. Go for whatever is keeping the rest of it standing."

"Alright. Thanks. Mech, Hive! You two ready?"

"Ready as we're going to be. Once Mech deploys the artillery cannon, she's a sitting duck. I'll be the same, once I start zeroing her in on targets. It'll be up to everyone else to keep us covered."

"Yeah, that's what they're here for. You got anything you think will cause a stir?"

"Well... I was thinking we might try bombarding that emplacement behind us. It would make getting out a little easier. Mech here would have to turn around though, and that means you'll get no fire support of any kind in case something goes wrong. At least, not until she turns back around. Otherwise, we can just start causing damage when things go crazy."

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind... Everyone! Check your gear one last time! I don't want any surprises!"

The whole crew goes through a final check of their equipment, and Wolf goes over your's as well, double checking the stealth suit's systems and computers. It takes a few minutes, and you find it oddly disconcerting to watch your hands disappear in front of your eyes, then simply reappear. Still, Wolf gives the ok, and goes over the system restrictions one last time. The suit works, at most, for a few minutes, so you'll have to find places to hide so that suit can "cooldown". It'll hide you from thermal and eyesight, but not anything else, although that shouldn't be an issue. You also can't move very quickly, a mild walk at best, maybe, otherwise the suit auto-disengages to save itself the computing power. Otherwise, you are ready to go.

You take a moment before setting out yourself, glancing at all the members of your team as they begin to build makeshift fortifications in case the worst happens. Was there anything else you needed to do before starting out on your own part of this mission?

>>>Input Command

i don't think so.
put up a list of all powers we have so we have a quick reference.

once we get closer we need to confirm how the door works. is it a detector or does it have a pad? if it's a pad we may be able to empathy the combination off of it. if it's a tracker we may be able to hide next to the door and slip inside with someone, if they move through the door regularly enough, do not want to risk waiting too long. if those both fail then we go for the exhaust.

First consideration: what's the time on these bombs set to? We want to know how long we have after we set them.

Second consideration: chain of command. We don't want these guys locking up if something happens and you're not here, or if you don't make it back. Meaning we should give them some standing orders, and probably put someone in charge (Geeze, who's suited for that).

(Remember, the best case outcome is we plant the bombs and get gone before anyone notices, and we're well away when the fireworks start. Fire support or blowing up the group behind us only happens if we're discovered, or we don't think we can get out or complete the mission without being discovered).

We'll pick which point of entry looks better when we get closer. Mapping lets us see through walls, after all. We'll be able to see what's on the other side of each, and what paths to possible targets there are.

>>560269
bombs are remote det.

If we're willing to make sure we take out the higher priority targets, I suppose there is also the option of using a bomb to open an entrance and use the stealth suit to get through. Not sure I trust two(or three really) charges to take out structural supports of an important military emplacement with Grey's probably less than stellar understanding of architecture.

>>560269
>probably put someone in charge (Geeze, who's suited for that)

Mech or Washout. Probably Washout, being genetech.

>>560286
unless we can use empathy to ASK the building where the most important places are.

Hindsight being 20:20, sneaking Grey through that unavoidable enemy camp and leaving a single bomb in a vulnerable position would have made for an excellent trial run of the suit and helped with opening a way to retreat. Oh well.

What we REALLY want to hit is Fire Control. Taking out a generator knocks out the cannon until they can rig another or repair it. Taking out Fire Control leaves them with a functioning cannon that can't hit shit. After that, you want to damage the barrel itself. At surface-to-orbit ranges, even minor damage will make boresight aiming worthless. Once you have mined those two, then we can hunt around for a generator or other power equipment if there's spare time and the suit is working well.

>>560299
another thing would be... what TURNS the gun? completely static emplacement blow up a giant gear and they have to IMPORT a new one.

>>560302
>what TURNS the gun?

If it's plasma it might not need to turn: Possibly they just kick a different spin or angle on the plasma electromagnetically or using lasers as it exits the barrel, which makes sense to me since electromagnetism and laser are likely candidates for what accelerates, heats and/or contains it before it's shooting off in the first place. This does however suggest that dropping a couple mortar rounds into the barrel itself could do some disabling damage.
Structural damage seems like a no-go unless we get inside and find load-bearing main supports. It's probably hardened against spaceship-scale return fire, so I wouldn't bother with external structural damage. Anything as critical as a vent is probably designed with redundancy and fault clearing/tolerance as well, damn.

It looks like we need to walk in the front door and have fun with field-expedient use of empathy and distraction powers. It would be nice if we could set a charge on it and some remote/timer activated mines for when we leave.

>>560236
First things first: Map the fuck out of that building. You don't care about walls, do you? Then preplan some routes: Were do you want to go in the building (likely points of structural importance etc) and were you can most likely hide on the way. We have time to prepare, use it!

Also:
-We need at least one secondary firing position prepped, for after we've taken a shot with the mortar: If they have anything like radar (old radio tech) and trajectory tracing/calculation they should be able to figure out where the mortar was fired from after one or two hits. Never count on your enemy being incapable of return fire, and it would suck to lose the entire team from a long-range enemy response.

-We know where the nearest enemy reinforcements are stationed. Can we set some landmines or other traps/surprises for them?

-Is it possible we could use some terrain offensively?

Power List:
Map: Gives layout of area around you, increases if concentrated on.
Empathy: Can glean information from objects, places and people when concentrated on(exceptions exist).
Distract: Causes target to notice "something".
Third-Eye: Places an psychic sentry "eye" at a given point within mapping range, noting all mental signatures within it's detection range.

You pause before heading off on your own, and turn back to face the group. Final considerations had popped into your head, one of the most pressing being...

"Wash-Out."

"Yes?"

"You're next in command should it come to that."

"Understood."

"Also, since we know where the enemy is, it should be possible for us to set up-"

"Grey?"

"Yes?"

"In case you've forgotten, we've been at this longer than you have. I think we'll manage. Should we need your input, we'll contact you."

"... I see. Alright then. I'm off."

Minutes later, after carefully making your way down to the side of the building, you stretch out your mapping and get a general feel for the structure. It seems to be built mainly on a ring design, with two outer layers and an inner core section. It consists of three floors altogether, the ground floor, one above that, and one below. If you had to guess, the generator would be on the floor below, for keeping it safe from possible damage. Rooms seems to be built into the spaces between each section of the rings, although you can't figure out what each room is for. You also detect what feels like a lot of activity, the enemy is here in full force. You don't think, however, that they are expecting to be attacked, most are loitering around in what you'd guess are the equivalent of common areas, or bunk areas. Still, regular patrols occur in each ring, and there seems to be guards posted in front of certain doors.

Which leads you to your first step. You need to determine a way in. The front door, after a brief examination, seems to be inaccessible in any normal way, leaving you wondering how anyone comes and goes. You quickly discover the method, however, when a group of aliens passes through on their way in. Something seems to be telepathically checking them, a brief burst of psychic power becoming detectable as each approaches the doorway, and you would guess that it is looking for familiar mental signatures. Given the time, you are reasonably sure you could spoof a proper signature, but you would need a signature to copy from, which would require an empathic touch. In other words, you need an alien prisoner to copy from.

The other suggested pathway, the exhaust vent, seems to lead directly down to the basement level, and has an access panel down near the bottom, likely for maintenance purposes. You could easily enter through there, if it weren't for the periodic emissions that came through, blasts of superheated steam that would likely boil your instantly. It would be a test of your physical abilities to make it in time, but you would be dumped directly into what you think would be the generator room.

Of course, any other methods for getting in you could think of were always on the table as well.

>>>Input Command

move around looking for an alien on it's own. if they can loiter that means they have personalities, which means there is probably a loner in the base somewhere. and then distract it into a dead end where you ambush it.

Normally I'd perfer vent shenanigans...But well, I've heard it said that one can't tell where someone is in the vents not because they are quiet but because it's too loud to tell where they are coming from. Prisoner it is!

Dang. Wish we'd gotten empathy+, now.

Still, the door relies on your ability to ambush (relying on our very good stealth suit and empathic distraction abilities) and to use your mental powers. The vent relies on physical timing. We're pretty obviously better suited to the former.

Also, the problem with the vent entrance is finding a way back out. If we go in through the door, we can leave, too.

Kind of worrying they have any kind of mental tech, through.

>>561161
we do have empathy+

>>561162
Oh, whoops, you're right. We did choose improved empathy last time we upgraded. It just wasn't specified on the summary, there.

Even more reason to favor the door plan, then.

It's pretty obvious that our first choice is trying to crack or break their psychic ID system here.

Any chance we can learn more about the structure itself through empathy? I'd rather have more information than less when it comes to trying something that could bite us on the ass. Once we've exhausted our likely avenues of non-invasive investigation we should proceed further. If we don't turn up anything useful try the following:

We have distraction powers, surely we can convince some single enemy to come stumbling out the door. We need to see how the system reacts to a legitimate, unscheduled solitary entrance/exit anyway, because it is plausible that this could trigger an investigation or some other response.

You take a moment to make sure you're are definitively alone before you press one of your hands against the side of the building, releasing the mental lock on your empathy. For a moment, there's the cold uncaring feeling of stone and metal, then a flood of feelings assaults your senses. You begin trying to force them into something of a more manageable size, and while it takes a few minutes, you order everything nicely and begin to sift through everything. Another few minutes pass before you come to a conclusion you hadn't expected.

Whatever is scanning people, it's alive. They're using someone, or something, sensitive to mental patterns to detect and verify approaching individuals. What it is, you can't tell, and it doesn't seem to notice or care that that you've identified it's presence. You test it further, setting off a couple of distractions into one of the guards to come outside, and there doesn't seem to be any major reactions at all from the detection system, just the normal ping of psychic power and then all is quiet again. You let the guard get back to his post, and then simply wait. It would be dangerous to lure out someone, not to mention difficult to simply distract them through all that. A returning patrol, however, well... that makes a lot more sense.

You wait for a long while, descending into a meditative trance to pass the time more quickly, and rouse yourself only when you feel the familiar presence of more minds. Sure enough, a patrol is making their way back, and as they come up to the door, you focus on one of those in the rear, snapping a distraction closer to you. He halts in his tracks, head angled towards the place you'd put it, before he waves away a concerned ally and starts treading towards it slowly. His fellows decide to ignore him, clearly capable of succumbing to indifference just the same as humans, and soon, he is alone, being guided easily by you with small distractions. Eventually, he is in place for your ambush, but you find yourself hesitating. The issue you suddenly find yourself in is expected, although you should have seen it coming.

How were you going to take the target down silently?

>>>Input Command

>living scanner
So they have their own psychics. I suppose that's interesting. Although it's interesting that it's so specialized it only gives a damn about it's particular task.

>How were you going to take the target down silently?
What are we armed with, again? Just a sidearm? (Rifle too big for the cloak). Do we have a combat knife or anything?

Could we get a much more detailed description of the alien? What it is, how the biology appears to be set up, how and where it's armored, stuff like that, is going to factor into how we try to hit it.

Do we need to take it alive, or can we still take the mental imprint we need from a copse?

...is distract an option? If all it does is deliver (false) sensory information to a target, could we try turning that up to 11? Hit it with sensory overload? That might disable it, or at least incapacitate it long enough for us to hit it over the head or something.

Can we not lead our target to fall into a hole or trip over something? I prefer to avoid attacking in any way that leaves obvious signs of enemy action at this stage.

once it place jump it and apply pistol to gap on neck.

Your mind casts around for a whole, or something that you could use to make it look like an accident, and not an enemy trying to raid the base. Unfortunately, nothing catches your attention as being suitable, and you find yourself starting to grow frustrated. It would have made things simpler to knock him out, a live body is more useful than a dead one, easier to copy off of. But if you have to...

Still, there might be a way to bring it down alive still. You just have to hope it's similar enough to human biology. It certainly looks human enough. For an alien. It's armor has noticeable gaps in it, easy enough to slip your pistol into, or even the small utility knife used as part of you field equipment, although the knife might not kill it instantly. Or even kill it at all, if not applied right.

It might be possible to overload it's senses as well, but that might just backfire on you. You'd essentially be hurling sensory data at the target, and without having trained your mind to do that easily, you'd essentially be applying your Gift towards something made up on the spot. Although, with your knowledge of Distract, it might be made easier... all you'd be doing is distracting the target... a lot...

You need to decide what to do fast, however, the enemy is getting ready to dismiss the distraction as his mind playing tricks on him and leave. You think.

>>>Input Command
There's a description of the four main aliens encountered in the First War over in the dis thread, for any who care to take a look.

Garrote: NA
Punch/Hand-to-hand: No, we are weak and even with an element of surprise I wouldn't be surprised if we're too much of a noodle-wrist to pull it off. An elbow in the right part of the enemy anatomy should be capable of killing though.
Gun: This would seem to be loud, wouldn't the enemy have acoustic sensors tuned to pick up human firearms as well? You'd think that a serious defensive installation could manage to have a few area mics and some basic sound-recognition software running on it if they can have a brain-in-a-can security-key doorway.

Unconventional: Vertigo, make the enemy so dizzy they fall down and don't notice us touching them to mind-rape 'em.
The method we start with is distracting them towards points in circles and spirals, because that's probably the least stressful for us to try to start and might get us there with a generous application of thrown mud in the face as we progress.

We don't really have much training in hand to hand, and this thing's biology is entirely guesswork to us. Our only advantage there would be the stealth suit.

Whereas if we make a mental attach there's also the chance of a backfire, but at least we're practiced with doing sort of that kind of thing, and have stats to help there.

Basically, they're both chance rolls outside of our core competencies, but the psychic attack has slightly better odds to roll with, I'd say.

You take a silent breath to steady yourself, then dip into your Gift and begin your assault. You start with simple things, hoping to somehow buildup to your full mental overload, and throw distractions all around the enemy, forcing him to spin to try to catch things occurring at the edge of his vision. Then comes the flashes of light, of sound, of smells, of touch, of taste. Every sense you could get your hands on was hurled at him. As you begin to increase the power level however, you feel yourself lose hold of the Gift, and the amount that rips through you nearly makes you scream with pain. You feel yourself start to lose your grip on consciousness, but force yourself to fight through the pain, pushing the overwhelming psychic energy the other way along the connection you'd made. Unfortunately for the recipient, this results in the most unpleasant of endings.

The enemy's head explodes violently, spraying blood, skull and brain matter across the earth. It's body collapses forward with a dull thud, and you stare at it for a minute or two before you get to your feet and examine the now decapitated alien. A brush of your fingers confirms that some residuals of it's mind remain, perhaps just enough to construct a mental key, but you can't be sure this one won't be missed eventually. You can't be sure of your time frame, though. Perhaps only a few minutes before someone starts asking questions. You'd have to work quickly.

You drag the body somewhere a bit more out of sight and, despite the residual discomfort from your last attempt, force your Gift back to work. You take the residuals of the alien's mind and fashion it into a sort of mental cloak over your own thoughts. You can't being to hope it will hold, not for very long, but it'll do. You deposit the body into the venting tunnel, confident the superheated steam will dispose of the body, then it's time to test your makeshift key.

You slide hesitantly up to the door, body tense and uncertain, before taking another deep breath to steady yourself, activating the stealth suit's camouflage and approaching the door as quickly as you can. You feel the door's mental "eye" pass over you, then the door slides open to metallic hallways. You can hear footsteps echoing down the halls, and your mapping alerts you to a pair of the enemy coming towards you. You slip down the corridor and find an empty room, fumbling with the opening mechanism a moment before your empathy provides the answer and you disappear inside. What you find seems to be a simple storage room, containing pieces of equipment and such, and the pair strolls past you, completely unaware.

You deactivate stealth, letting the system cool down, and you reach out with your mapping again, hoping to gain more insights. Into the building now that you're inside. Nothing seems to have changed much, at least, not yet, and you quickly locate the ramps taking you up and down. You could easily get to either the generator or the control room from here, although you might no be able to access them with the guards stationed in front of each. You'll need a way to get the gone. There's also the issue of the workers within each.

Maybe if you had a major distraction of some kind...

>>>Input Command

>head exploded
...I'm going to assume that means we rolled poorly.

>where go?
I think I'd prefer to blow the generators over the controls. They're going to be bigger, with more places to hide explosives, and the potential to set off a bigger explosion. Also, the control will will likely be manned, but it's less likely there will be creatures doing in depth maintenance all over the generator.

>you deactivate stealth, letting the system cool down
How long is that going to be offline?

>distraction
Like if your allies took this chance to blow that other group up? Or... maybe you could throw a distract at the control room. Make them see something on their sensors that isn't there. Then let it blip out. They'll be frantically looking for the threat in orbit they lost track off, trying to verify if it was a false positive or not. If they're busy looking up for enemies, they're less likely to notice one sneaking around below.

>>562548
actually, it could also have been a 20. i mean, we killed a guy with a non-combat power.
key here is, could we do it again, or better next time now that we practiced? and can it be done at range? i am sure the guards by the generator would freak the fuck out if one's head just explodes.

other idea of making everyone scramble to battle stations could also work. they would all move to fight a space enemy, when the real one is right here.

Uh, good thing we didn't try to do that with a *friendly* then.

Too bad we know so little about the in-base procedures for unexplained death like what we just caused. If we knew them we might even be able to exploit those for an opportunity to do our sneaky deed.

Unless they're using some kind of freaky, permanent-wormhole tech to connect the generators and the gun then the power conduits between those systems (and their cooling, capacitor banks and such) are another productive target. Alternatively, with a big or focused enough blast we don't necessarily have to set explosives in either the control or generator rooms to disable either.
Last but not least, we are in enemy territory here: Theft is a really fucking cool idea.

You check the computer on your arm and confirm the cool down time, about 30 seconds. Not the maximum amount of time needed, but then again, you hadn't push the device to its limit yet. Still, in the time you have waiting around, you might as well do something. And what better thing to do when in a storage area than loot. Unfortunately, you'll be limited in what you can take, small items at best, and not much of it, but it's better than nothing.

A quick and quiet ransack of the room gives you only a few options of loot-able goods. Small, egg shaped objects are the first find, a small button at the bottom(?) of them giving you the idea that they are grenades of some sort. The second find is a small device shaped like a box. While you can't quite figure out what it really does, it might have some sort of important function. The last was a case, hidden amongst a bunch of other boxes in a corner. Inside is a needle injector and a number of small vials, containing various liquids. A quick count reveals three of each of the three liquids, for a total of nine vials.

You place each find on top of a nearby box, do a quick check of your surroundings to find nothing amiss so far, and then go over your distraction plans. You could have Mech begin firing upon... anything, really, although that would draw attention to you squad. You could also try faking something in the control room, but you aren't certain you'd be able to fake a blip on the tracking system. You have no idea where that would be. Or, while a bit more violent than you'd hoped, you could simply cause some... ah... selective head popping, and get rid of the guards that way.

>>>Input Command

how many items can you take? order of priority is grenades, box device, case of vials.

for control room, look at it and see if you can tell if any seem to be watching something intently. then just induce massive paranoia in them. make them keep thinking they see something on their screen.

If I knew more about their generator(s) I would strongly suggest convincing some of their technicians that they have mechanical problems. If you're REALLY lucky with that you could get them to power down to investigate, disabling some of their security. It might still be worth doing even without knowing how to be convincing simply because their tech staff are aware that problems with their hardware are serious right now because there are already human expeditionary forces on the planet.

>you aren't certain you'd be able to fake a blip on the tracking system. You have no idea where that would be
Couldn't we let their own fears guide you? Or object empathy- what they've displayed before to get the right emotional emotional response?

>what loot?
Depends on if we're looking for short-term tactical advantage, the grenades are it. If we're looking for longer term advantage, and stuff for us to study, the drugs and box are more interesting.

Thoughts whirl in your mind as you try to puzzle out an effective distraction. Could you try to simply play on the various workers emotions? No. You couldn't touch people's emotions at range yet, you wouldn't even be able to understand surface thoughts, much less intent. But... the best idea you can come up with at the moment is forcing aliens who seem to be staring at the same thing to notice things on that thing right in front of them. Here's to hoping it works. You target one specifically, having no idea what they are staring at, and hope like hell it ends well. Then you start throwing distractions at the thing. For a moment, there is not response. Then all hell breaks loose.

Sirens begin wailing through out the station, screaming in your ears, and your mapping explodes with movement as xenos at rest suddenly burst into motion. Guards begin to move to predetermined locations, and workers being to head to their stations. Whatever you did, you got them riled up. The generator room fills with workers quickly, although the guards abandon their post to move to a new location. It seems Now would be your best chance. You ready yourself, make sure you have everything with you, then snatch up the egg-grenades and shove them into a spare pocket. It'll have to do. Then, activating the suit, you slip out the door when the coast is clear and head off, slipping from room to room as best you can and avoiding coming into any contact with any guards. With the help of the base wide alert, no one seems interested in searching for any impossible intruders, and you easily make your way to the doorway of the generator room. You halt, checking the computer on your wrist, and frown. You have ten seconds of stealth left before the system needs to shut down, and a room full of what you assume are technicians. And this is the only room down here.

You need to get out of sight. NOW.

>>>Input Command

Is there a closet nearby.
If yes-throw distractions, run for closet, get inside, and distract anyone who comes nearby for any reason to buy more time.
Once the suit cools, Mass distract again, then get out of there!

should be a closet or nook in the room. need to distract and hoof it in.

...really? Geeze. Maybe we should have hid the the supply room longer. Wonder how bad this problem would be if we'd rolled less than a top of the line stealth suit.

>where hide
Are there any common or rest areas nearby? A break area, lunch room, quarters? Storage? Places that aren't likely to be occupied while they're scurrying around dealing with an alert.

Heck, behind the door or around a corner if we're desperate.

You're going to need stealth to get in, plant the explosives, and get out again. You could grenade your way in and plant the bombs, but that's a desperation move. You take that approach and you're not getting out alive.

Too bad we don't know how to send our team status updates, maybe that comes with higher level empathy powers.

You check your mapping quickly, studying the generator room within two seconds before identifying a hiding spot. A burst of distractions occur, sent at every single technician in the room, a "burst of light" from the generator itself, and then you slip into the room and duck into the small alcove within, just as the system forces a shutdown of the suit. You control your breathing, heart rate calming as you calm down. You'd spotted at least six of the aliens, the numerous kind, although your mapping confirms at another four. This was not going to be easy. Regardless, the aliens soon go about their business, and you take an opportunity to get a look at the room itself, scanning for possible targets. Unfortunately, you can't say you're well versed in plasma generators.

The actual generator itself looks much like a small glowing sun, held suspended in an odd sort of container. Whatever it is, you can feel the heat from it, and you can't say it's very comfortable to be here, temperature wise. Still, the most pressing issue, where to plant the charges, is a difficult one. Without any real knowledge as to what makes it work, you can only guess at what might be good, but all of those lie among the technicians running the thing. Control panels adorn the room, tubes lead into the container itself, and all manner of electrical equipment seems to be taking readings.

Either way, you have three charges to set.

>>>Input Command

the most reinforced point of the container would be the best spot. it has the most strength because a breach there would be the worst.

a way to get some info without killing anyone would be to hide behind a dark nook and make a tech think they see something in it. they reach in from one side you touch their hand from the other.

>Where plant charges
I would guess losing containment or suspension of the glowing sun is probably a bad thing for them. I would target systems doing that. Power regulation might good to disrupt, also (if we can get it to overload?).

Obviously, you're prefer to place the charges where they won't be discovered long enough for you to get clear. I'd suggest placing a third-eye in the room, though. That way, you'll know the moment it happens if and when the charges are discovered, and you can thumb the detonator before they can be deactivated or removed.

Trying to blow up parts of a device designed to in normal operation withstand direct exposure to a compact fusor probably isn't going to work. But if it's not contacting the walls of the container, then that means that it requires active containment to remain stable. And a whole bunch of busy technicians to keep the thing tweaked means it's not going to remain stable for long without supervision.
Disrupting the physical container probably won't work, but destroying the controls for the active containment system will likely be a lot more effective. Connected between the consoles the technicians are operating and the generator itself will likely be a systems bank. That's what you want to take out.

I'm tempted to suggest taking out the technicians. Considering how many of them there are in here this thing must need lots of skilled TLC or else at a minimum it won't work. Taking out their tools and consoles seems like a great secondary measure in case they have lots of trained backups to replace them--we don't know if they have more surplus of personnel or tools. If we can do a good job of breaking the floors, walls, ceilings and other equipment it probably doesn't matter if the reactor itself gets damaged in the attack.

You flick your will out, placing a psychic "eye" in a corner of the room, where you can observe the work going on with ease. As you place it, you feel a strange stinging in your right eye, and as you close it to rub at it, you suddenly find yourself watching the room. Your eye snaps open in surprise, and you're back to normal, but when you close your eyes again, your seeing things from your new "eye's" position. You smile a little to yourself, not expecting it to work quite so well as that, before you being to use this new vantage point to find places to destroy. You scan for a few seconds before locating a few places of interest. You straighten out your eyes, that irritation in your right one easily ignored now that you know what's going on, and you slip out from cover as the suit's system blankets you in invisibility. You slips between technicians as they go about their tasks and begin placing your charges. The first goes on a central console, or at least, what looks like one, hidden on the underside of the fragile electronic equipment. The second finds it's home among what looks to be a system that is measuring something. You hope it's something important, like pressure controls or power regulation, but you could say for sure. The last goes on another console similar to the second, but measuring something else. You can only hope it goes well. You slip back into your hiding place between placing each charge, and once more before you leave the room again completely.

Still, you find yourself feeling a bit pleased with your work. At least until a different set of alarms starts to blare through out the facility, and something spoken in a harsh, guttural sounding voice is heard announcing something. You find the good feeling you have disappear when you notice guards scrambling through rooms, hunting for something. Or somebody. Just as you reach the halfway point on the ramp to the 1st floor, a pair of guards starts to make their decent, and you freeze in place, mind working to find a solution. It seems likely that they've discovered the missing soldier, or at the very least have somehow identified that there is an intruder of some kind.

Either way, you'll have to decide now how to deal with the issue.

>>>Input Command
Stealth Time: 5s

Well that's just lovely.
Okay, so how far are these guys from Grey?
We might be able to just walk past them, so when we drop stealth, we're out of their viewpoint, get to a hiding place, and then resume the sneaking. We could also toss out a Distraction (I think?) to help ensure the gaurds don't notice us once the stealth falls.
Alternatively, we could get ready to just enter full 'crap hit the fan' mode and try to gun them down, but I don't see that ending well.

So they're looking for an intruder, huh? Easiest way to buy yourself an opening might be to give them one with distract. Send your searchers running in the wrong direction, chasing after someone who isn't there.

>halfway up the ramp to the first floor
So... that means we're out in the open with nowhere to hide if stealth goes offline? We need to make it to the next floor or double back down if we want a room to hide in.

>full 'crap hit the fan' mode and try to gun them down
Seems suicidal to me. We left the rifle behind, I think. It was too big to cloak. One pistol versus two alien toughs isn't a good match up for us.

If we really needed to kill some of them, the grenade might be the best option. Although we don't know how big the boom is, or what a safe distance would be. Also could potentially be used as a distraction- give them an explosion to investigate.

Make sure you keep tabs with that third eye. If the planted bombs are discovered, you need to thumb the detonator immediately, before they can be removed or disarmed. Preferably, we'd like to be outside before we blow the place but...

yeah, they WANT an intruder. if they think they see one they will dash after it.

Heightened security sweeps can only be sustained for a limited period of time before they just give up if they don't find anything. The problem with that is they could do some force recon and discover our team even if we manage to find a great place to hide in here. That team may have already begun mobilizing for such a sweep, or even perhaps have begun the sweep. Sneak out as quickly as possible is the obvious preferred answer because it gives them less time to either find you or the team.

Practical considerations: How much space do you have to travel inside the installation before you reach the outside? How many autonomous weapons emplacements and guard stations do you have to pass on the way?
If it's a short distance with few hazards/obstacles then we may be better off whipping out our gun, deactivating the stealth and shooting some bitches while they're caught on a ramp and can't dodge or hit the dirt to avoid our fire. If revealing ourself now gives them too many chances to catch us before we leave then you have to slide over the side of the ramp out of the way of these two. Even if you can kill them it may be better to avoid the fight, since the enemy having a knowledge of where you are decreases your odds significantly.