Oliver looked at his watch as he was walking across the base in the early morning. Still 30 minutes to go before he had to report to colonel Blade of the 101st Tactical GEAR unit. For some reason the top brass decided to select him as a GEAR pilot out of all people. An odd choice considering usually the highest grade students would get such jobs. None the less Oliver was excited to start this new adventure. Some might find joining the military their patriotic duty or joined out of sense of idealism. Not Oliver, his motivation was utter adventurism. New and exciting experiences, new people to meet and new bonds to form. But first there was time for a cup of coffee.

As Oliver looked around the mess hall to see if any of his friends from training where up already but none where around. Last night Oliver’s friends had thrown him a Farwell party where the ale flowed richly. Most of them where lucky that they had either a day off or had to report with their new unit a lot later. Unlike the tiger, his friends had plenty of time to sleep away the hangover but Oliver was less fortunate. He had to do it with a couple of aspirin, a shower and a lot of coffee. He quickly ordered his coffee and a few sandwiches for breakfast and continued his journey towards the loading platform where the landcruiser was located.

As the Parvan’s claw came into sight Oliver thought back about his first day training on a landcruiser. Much to the annoyance of his instructors he had parked his GEAR on top the giant machine with some heavy scolding and 100 additional push-ups as result. None the less the view and the look on the faces of the instructors where worth the trouble. The young Tiger smiled at the already great memories of his first year in the Landren’s military. Even though it was all training , he has had fun doing it. Most of the time at least. Now a new challenges lies ahead. Active deployment would be a lot different than training. 

Oliver climbed the stairs onto the loading platform and looked around for a middle-aged red fox. The tiger didn’t know much about his new commanding officer apart from some vague descriptions the desk lady at the human resource department gave him after a smile and some friendly words. Oliver actually wanted access to colonel Blade’s file but the girl was professional enough to not fall for the tiger’s charms. It only took a few seconds before Oliver spotted a weathered looking fox standing in front of a loading ramp. The tiger approached the men and kind of saluted “Colonel Blade? Private Oliver Stone reporting for duty”. This was about the maximum formality Oliver usually gives. As Oliver spoke the words he just hoped the signs of a short and rather wild night weren’t too obvious.