Soph follows her master.

There's no sign anyone's noticed their landing. The mercenaries must be lazy, trusting in the natural lethality of conventional transatmospheric travel.

They haven't gotten far from the ship when the ground begins to shake, suddenly and violently. The worst of the tremors last for perhaps fifteen seconds.

Vincoria holds, and waits for the tremors to pass.

Soph takes a knee and waits as well.

Fortunately, nothing falls on them. After the groundquake subsides, Occlus straightens with a sigh.

"That was not in the briefing. I shall have to reprimand Intelligence."

"It does seem like it would be rather hard to miss that." 

"Quite." They continue on. A few minutes later, Occlus's comlink flashes, and she glances down at it.

"Apparently our pilot has some information for us. We will wait here until he catches up."

Vincoria spreads out her senses. It would be a wonderful thing if the pilot's information was "I am a plant, you are waiting to be ambushed."

There's no one around, and the pilot, when he comes up, is devoid of hostility.

"M'lords," he says. "I intercepted a transmission from the bunkers to the tower just after the groundquake. It was an all-clear signal, and some chatter about the quakes themselves. Seems there's been several over the last forty-eight hours, and they're getting stronger."

"I see."

Vincoria looks at Soph. 

"Worth following up on — later. Right now, speed is vital."

"Agreed. But a check-in from each station after a quake will complicate the process. A missed signal will alert our enemies. How frequent are they?"

"Every few hours, seems like."

Occlus shakes her head.

"Not enough time. Could you fake the signal?" When the pilot hesitates to respond, she arches an eyebrow at him.

"Yes. If the equipment is intact."

"This is going to take some precision. Soph?"

"I have the necessary equipment. Still, three at once..."

Vincoria turns to Occlus. "How tight a schedule are we on between strikes? Is simultaneity necessary, or might individual strikes on separate bunkers be concealable?"

"It should be done quickly, but it need not be simultaneous. Under normal circumstances, there is no regular communication between the tower and the bunkers. The quake check-ins are a complication, but a solvable one."

"In that case, I'm reasonably confident that we have the precision to prevent damage to the relevant transmitters."

"Then let us continue on."

They have to set a slightly slower pace to accommodate the pilot.

Soph pulls gear from the deeper pockets of her robes as she goes — flatcams and holobugs, the tools of covert observation.

The bunker, when they get there, is a short, squat building in the middle of a small clearing. It looks as though it could withstand a moderately heavy aerial bombardment. No windows, and only one heavy looking blast door. Two guards patrol around it at regular intervals.

"I sense fifteen beings within."

Soph eyes the bunker skeptically, and retrieves a datapad from her pocket. 

"One of the better-constructed installations I've seen. Hopefully they don't habitually run on isolated air."