"Right, we can't determine who would be best to act as a guard until we get there and remove the ones that are already on duty. From there, we determine who is best suited, quickly change, and begin to head into the tunnel. The story is as follows: the remainder of us not taking up the position of a guard are to remain between the ones that are, and are to remain obedient. Every now and again it may be viable to act up and one of the acting guards must 'discipline' us. I'm not saying that we should end up having a punching match, as that's likely to attract more attention that we don't want, but we shouldn't act entirely subdued. We'd have just been captured after all."
"How far can we go then?"
"Maybe attempting to escape might be convincing if we need to prove that we're on their side. But nothing too drastic. Tried to imagine that you actually have been captured by HoN Co., which should be considerably easier once we have a few guard uniforms with us."
We set off towards the outpost, the plan set in stone and with everyone knowing their adaptive role to play in this attempt at entering the tunnel. We would have to hope that there were no incoming or outgoing guards that would be crossing the bridge, otherwise they would find the guards we would have subdued by that point. I suppose if that happened, we would just have to hope that we're far enough inside to remove the disguises and start searching the HQ for the Eyes of Ender.
The light was still on our side by the time we reached the outpost, and the guards were likely to be a relaxed mood as well. This should be a relatively easy thing to achieve before any suspicion is aroused. As we looked down on the guard post, myself, UOPETA and COLUS panned the surrounding area with the rifles. From what we could establish, there were only two guards currently posted here; one in the shack below us, and one in the overhanging guard tower a little further along the road. COLUS coordinated us so that we knew how to best approach this issue; I would go with UOPETA to the far North and approach the tower from behind to catch the guards unaware. Once they had been neutralised, we should be able to give a signal to the others to take out the one in the shack. From there we could determine who was playing the role of the guards and who were the captured members.
"Try to stay out of sight of the one below us, otherwise things could get ugly quickly. We don't know what they're armed with, and I doubt they would be using clipboards or swords later on in the HQ."
We moved off from the rest of the group, heading North along the tree line, but remaining close to where the road ran underneath the ground so we could scope out the area for any more guards. Once we were far North enough, we started to climb down so that we could loop back on ourselves to the tower. The sun had begun to rise by this point, and with the way the tower was orientated, the glare should provide enough cover. Having said that however, it was likely to hinder us as well, but we were coordinated. Once we were within range of the tower, we lowered ourselves close to the floor and aimed our rifles at the exposed area of the back of the tower.
"I spot two guards. One on the far right, one in the centre looking down through the window. How do you want to go through with this?"
I shrugged, saying that it was his call. I suggested that it would be better to take out the guard on the far right first, and then the guard in the centre. The worst case scenario, the guard in the centre would rush to the aid of the other, and become and easy target. UOPETA nodded, and motioned with his finger for me to take the first shot against the guard on the right. It was now or never to make use of these rifles. I had used them before, but not at this range. The guards on the bridge towers had been far closer and easier to hit, but remembering the techniques I had learned from the others, I inhaled to steady my aim, focused the rifle on the guard's head and squeezed the trigger. I wasn't strictly aiming for the guard's head, but his neck. I had to take into account the fall of the dart as it travelled the long range, and took the head to be a good indicator. I was almost right; the dart struck them just below their left ear, causing them to reflexively clutch at that spot. The other guard seemed confused, but quickly joined the other guard, slumped on the floor. UOPETA had taken his shot.
"Perfect! Let's get there quickly just in case any other guards see them through the glass..."
Standing back up, we dashed towards the rear of the tower to contain the situation, and to give the signal for the others to complete their part of the operation. Once there, we removed the darts from their necks, pulled them from view, and signalled to the tree line that we had completed our part. It was surprising how much glare the lights from the outpost were throwing up; only a dark figure could be seen of one of the others, and even then you had to look very closely. We stayed out of sight, but watched as COLUS crept down the hill, keeping close to the ground, and moved towards the side of the shack. We could just make out the feet of the guard, pointing towards the bridge, suggesting he had his back to COLUS's current position. COLUS seemed to know this as well, as he pointed the barrel of the rifle through the bars and fired, before quickly ducking back down. The feet of the guard twitched slightly, before falling back into a relaxed pose again. COLUS gave the 'all clear' signal, and we started to strip the armour from the guards in the tower.
---
I felt odd in the armour... It turned out that I was one of the suitable candidates to don one of the guards's armour, with UOPETA and THEROS being the other two. COLUS seemed a bit miffed at this, but only fractionally. Once we had suited up, we placed the rest of our Lone 7 armour into the bags that the others were carrying. Luckily there was enough space to accommodate everything, including one of the rifles when it was stripped down.
"Now, you three will take possession of the three other rifles and say that you confiscated them from us. I've been looking around for any pieces of information on the three guards as to what we're going to coming up against, but until we reach the HQ itself, we can't rely on anything but the PDA's. I did however find a guard roster in the shack. It seems that the guards from the bridge and the outpost are rotated on twelve hour shifts, before moving a new team through from the tunnel as a replacement. From the looks of the roster we've got a few hours before the next rotation is due, and that should be enough."
We ensured that we had everything ready to go before moving anywhere; looking at UOPETA and THEROS was a little unnerving as they were wearing the same armour as me. THEROS had opted for the armour with an attached helm, whilst me and UOPETA were left with exposed heads. I didn't know whether that was a good thing or not, but it wasn't important. I was to bring up the rear, whilst UOPETA and THEROS would take the lead. We were about to move when COLUS looked at me and tapped the top of his head.
"A bit of a give-away..."
Whoops...
Syeonyx signing off
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