Lobo Malo

Chapter 10 - Ad Astra

The Theater
0732 EST

"Peace, wake up."

Gregory snorted as he awakened, looking around, seeing Ricky Tarvey looking down at him. "What's going on, Ricky?"

"Odessa's been talking with Lobo since dawn. Think they've been cooking up an op together."

"What sort of op?"

"The kind where we're probably going to need to cover you while you commune with the computers."

Gregory smiled as he got up from the sleeping bag. "Another wonderful morning in D.C., then. Let's grab some coffee and see what they're thinking about."

The two men made their way over to the open air commissary set up above Sawyer's quarters, grabbing chicory coffee and some slightly doughy apple fritters. Breakfast in hand, they came down to the folding table Sawyer had set up for the Theater's operations center. Sawyer and Ryckmen were poring over a map of the city, Annika Bundmeister leaning against the wall as she listened. "Morning, boys," Sawyer said, glancing up briefly. "We've been thinking about ways to stack the deck in our favor. We've got local comms over the city, ISAC's up and running in town. But we can do better than that. So we're going for a deep strike to re-establish the network across the country."

"If we pull it off, we're going to be bad and nationwide once more," grinned Ryckmen.

"How do we plan to pull it off?" Gregory asked, washing down a bite of fritter with his coffee.

"The NOA Space Admin building," replied Bundmeister. "That facility has satellite uplinks we can utilize to hit SHD orbital assets which are currently offline to agents in the field. We realign the dishes, ISAC will take care of the rest."

Gregory shook his head. "Won't work. Right now, our comms coming through ViewPoint are using VHF channels. We'd need a UHF communications module, either custom built or scavenged from an existing unlaunched satellite, to be able to reach the SHD satellites in orbit."

"Good to know you have a firm grip on the logistical realities," Bundmeister said with a wintry smile. "Luckily for us, there was a Quicksilver comm satellite body being assembled at the site. We cannibalize that module, and the Division will be back in business."

Tarvey looked over the map, frowning in thought. "Awful deep in Ridgeway's backyard," he said slowly. "Can we hold it once we get it?"

Sawyer gave Tarvey a firm nod. "Hell, yeah. I've got two strike teams put together, and Kelso's going to be lending her assistance. There's a solar farm right here," she said, pointing to a spot near 4th Street and Madison Drive. "You four, along with Kelso and the teams, will grab the farm first. Once that's secure, one team will stay behind to hold the farm while the rest of you make your way down to the Space Admin building. Kelso will take the remaining team to hold what we think is one of the True Sons' forward bases. It's in a hotel on C Street just east of 6th. It's a little risky, but if we can pull it off, we'll have cut Ridgeway off from his FOBs further west, as well as take pressure off the Castle."

"The Castle?" asked Gregory. "What's that?"

Sighing heavily, Sawyer looked at him. "It's a settlement being run by a defector from the True Sons. Guy named Mike Snow. He was an E-5 in the Virginia National Guard. I think he genuinely believed Ridgeway was going to try and keep things together. But something must have soured him on the man. Even then, he's never been real interested in taking the offensive. Keeps paying tribute to the son of a bitch, and it hasn't done a damn bit of good. Hell, his old buddies still with the True Sons have flat out told him Ridgeway's just waiting till he feels like squashing Snow. But still he persists. He's got guts, I'll give him that, but not a whole lot of sense. It's going to get him and everybody in that place killed one of these days." Shaking her head, Sawyer tapped the map. "The immediate concern is the Space Admin building. I've got just the team to make sure we keep it."