They had chosen a small cave as a temporary base to retreat to at any time. So, once Rui sent the message out to his teammates, he simply returned the cave to find them there.
"Hey." Fae greeted him. "What's the plan now?"
"We wait for Kane to return." Rui replied. "Nothing more until then. But we can talk about what happens after that."
"We kick their asses after that!" Nel declared. "Vanish boy doesn't get to have all the fun!"
"He's not having fun." Rui sighed exasperated. "He's probably having a miserable time."
"He gets to fight the enemies while we sit in this cave!" Nel scowled at him.
"He's not fighting."
"Then why did he go in???" Nel frowned, confused.
"I told him to observe everything inside and tell us what's going on." Rui said. "He will simply look around and tell us everything."
Rui wasn't sure Nel was even familiar with reconnaissance as a concept, so he had to spell it out.
"So he's only looking at the enemy but doesn't get to fight them?" Nel's eyes widened.
"Correct. Now then, moving on." Rui quickly shifted away from the mindless conversation. "Kane's information will help us optimize our plan, but the choices at hand fundamentally remains the same. We have a handful of options which can roughly be divided into three broad categories."
"The first..." He continued, raising a finger. "Is the direct, straightforward and brute force method. We effectively walk upto the hatch and break it open forcefully and go on a rampage killing everything in sight."
"The second is the covert option. We infiltrate the research facility undetected or disguised and then launch a secret ambush once we're inside with a dominant element of surprise."
"The third is the semi-covert/direct approach. Where we ambush them at an opportune time with a decent element of surprise but then transition to a head-on approach after the initial ambush. This is the most practical approach in my opinion." Rui concluded.
"Why do you say that?" Hever asked.
"The head-on approach is probably not good. It's almost guaranteed that the research facility is able to communicate the with the government of the Commonwealth Duchy of Vinfrana. No matter how strong we are, we cannot possibly break open the secret entrance, kill all the Martial Apprentices, and then also kill all the personnel in the research facility before they manage to inform their government, and before the government sends some serious reinforcements."
"Even if they inform the government of the attack, can't we complete the mission before the reinforcements travel all the way and arrive here?" Hever asked.
"If they fought normally, we could." Rui replied. "But they won't. Not if they know that reinforcements are arriving."
"What do you mean?" Fae asked.
"If they know that there are reinforcements coming, then they'll fight to stall." Rui explained. "Not losing is easier than winning, much easier. If they spend every resource on prolonging our operation as much as possible, we're screwed. It will take an enormous amount of energy and time to complete it and it probably won't happen before the reinforcements occur."
"I see." Hever replied calmly. "That does make sense. What about the covert approach then, doesn't that approach completely solve the problem with the element of surprise and a huge head start?"
"It does." Rui admitted. "The problem is it's too unviable as far as probability of successful implementation goes. Only Kane could employ that strategy, realistically. There's no way we can sneak past the security via stealth or disguise, it was quite tight. If we attempt to, we'll probably get caught and be in an even worse version of the problems of the direct approach."
"That indeed does make sense." Fae admitted. "What about the third option? The semi-covert/direct option?"
"It's the best option as far as probability of successful implementation goes." Rui explained. "We use a minimal amount of stealth to ambush with a decent element of surprise and snowball that advantage with a quick devastating attack." Rui explained.
"Hmmm..." Hever pondered the matter. "There's one thing I don't understand. Can't the research facility contact the Vinfranian Duchy government even in this scenario?"
"That's only if all of us attack from the outside." Rui grinned. "But we have someone who can infiltrate the research facility and remain there undetected."
"Kane is your solution to the problem?"
Rui nodded. "The best role for Kane is to destroy communication devices and infrastructure and kill the department and security leaders from the inside. This prevents them from communicating with the outside and also prevents the security department and team from organizing efficiently. The more the chaos there is, the smoother our operation will be."
"You plan for Kane to not join us with the external attack, but be present inside the facility when we attack and coordinate the destruction of communications and leadership? That's..." Hever couldn't help but be quite impressed. "...Quite a brilliant plan. I cannot think of anything better, in fact."
"Kane can infiltrate a day before whenever the entrance is opened for a supply shipment and simply wait for the time of the attack." Rui explained. "We can simply beep him when we commence the attack and he can begin his operation. Once we meet inside, we can proceed with the clean-up."
"That is indeed a really solid strategy." Fae nodded. "How are we going to enter the research facility semi-covertly though?"
"There are several possibilities, but the best one is definitely intercepting and hijacking the supply shipment enroute to the research facility, when the hatch opens up and the documents are verified and they relax a bit, then we bust out and ambush them all." Rui explained. "We just need to kill them, asides from the driver perhaps and then compel him to proceed as if everything is normal. Jumping them at this point in time is quite high in the probability to succeed. In my opinion, this is definitely the best plan that can be employed in a short period of time."
