Harold smoked. Bent over in his chair within the Rostosov's dreary cockpit, he was staring intensely at a projected holographic map of Joppa, with the unmistakable roll of a cigarette jutting out of his thin lips. He didn't partake in the vice for pleasure or from addiction, but rather he smoked to calm down his nerves. This was going to be his first real operation as a Framewerk operator and his nerves were getting just a bit jittery, even after simulation after simulation of gunning down Cruxi in the Rostosov alongside his trusty platoon.

Urban combat. The false-color projection of buildings and spires stretched towards the artificial horizon, and set his mech's domed cockpit awash with a dull blue hue. Joppa was a collection of closely-linked cities with a combined population of over 700 million people, and in the organized chaos that was modern warfare, collateral damage was an inevitable fact. Harold clicked his tongue, rolled his cigar to the other corner of his mouth, and exhaled a smoky sigh. Troan was even worse, with over 1.2 billion inhabitants. Harold leaned back into his chair, closed his eyes, and sighed again.

He already had a good idea of whom to assign to which team, but the message sent from the Caretaker certainly helped. It wasn't long before he was typing a message himself. He wondered who could have compiled such a report on such a short notice. Since it came from the Caretaker, perhaps it was Katya?

Perhaps, Harold thought, that he should reward the girl somehow, after all of this was finished.

"Platoon," he eventually said, over the comms. "This will be our deployment:"

[b]TEAM ALPHA - TROAS:[/b]
1.) Rostosov - Sq. Off. Buell
2.) AA-XOTRY - Cdt. Gene
3.) Caretaker - Cdt. Romanovna
4.) Eiswolf - Cdt. Sigma
5.) Yeager - Cdt. Rooney
6.) Magus - Cdt. Wilton

[b]TEAM BRAVO - JOPPA:[/b]
1.) Dynasty - Sq. Off. Shinkai
2.) Black Star - Cdt. Hero
3.) Paladin - Cdt. Sorus
4.) Logic Gate - Cdt. Liu'un
5.) Neo Angel - Cdt. Twilight

"I trust that you will do your duty," he said. "When we get there, let's kill them all."