[@Ithradine]

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Sara and Hengeveld entered the squad locker room together. Hengeveld immediately broke off from Sara's side and went to his locker. Sara remained at the door and looked around, seeing the whole squad was already well on their way to being kitted out. Hengeveld looked back to Sara and gestured to a locker across from him, [color=cadetblue][i]"That one's yours, rook."[/i][/color]

Sara nodded once and stepped toward her locker, it was labelled 'Crash'. She guessed Lewis really wanted that nickname to stick. With a shrug, Sara opened her locker. The gear inside was a combination of familiar and not so familiar. The ballistic vest and padding in particular looked completely new age, far outside the ERT's paramilitary budget. She pulled the vest out and studied it, [color=white][b]"It's a bit bulky isn't it?"[/b][/color]

Hengeveld chuckled and nodded, [color=cadetblue][i]"A bit. But it's flexible, and the only armor that'll take a plasma round. You saw what plasma can do to conventional armors. I read the report on the Shangri La incident."[/i][/color]

Katsumi called out from her locker, she was in her underwear pulling on her winter fatigues. [color=thistle][i]"We all read it. Sorry it had to your team going in there, Lancaster. XCOM needed a team to slow them down."[/i][/color]

Sara looked over to the Japanese woman, [color=white][b]"We were bait?"[/b][/color]

Katsumi glanced over to Hengeveld as he shook his head with a sigh, [color=cadetblue][i]"Not the first word I'd use, but... I guess it's all the same, yeah."[/i][/color]

Sara rolled her eyes and took her clothes off so she could get into her fatigues. [color=white][b]"There's plenty I'd love to say right now,"[/b][/color] Sara mumbled.

[color=cadetblue][i]"But?"[/i][/color] Hengeveld asked.

[color=white][b]"But. The more time I spend arguing, the more time I waste to get ready. Let's just get this over with."[/b][/color] Sara let out a deep breath and went back to gearing up. She took hold of the white and gray ballistic vest again and slid it onto. Securing it to herself was easy enough. Her time as a police officer had made putting ballistic vests on a part of her daily routine, it didn't matter how different the vest was. She then went on to getting the rest of her pads on.

When the team was finished gearing up, they all filed into the command room. Sara gasped when she saw the large holographic projection of the Earth and all of XCOM's operations on it. Hengeveld placed his hand on Sara's armored shoulder, [color=cadetblue][i]"That's the Geoscape. The green dot there is where we are. HQ. That red dot North of it is our target."[/i][/color]

Sara nodded and took the information in. Hengeveld then let out a sigh of relief, [color=cadetblue][i]"Ah~ Seems we'll be getting backup for this mission. More bodies are always nice."[/i][/color] He left Sara's side to go meed with the other squad's team leader. Already, the soldiers of the Arctic Wolves were mingling with the Steel Tigers. Sara saw as they all were pretty tightly knit. Sara leaned against an unmanned console and just stared up at the Geoscape to wait for the briefing. She eyed the collection of dots around Vancouver City, seemed XCOM was operating in force there. Defensive positioning was most likely.

Sara felt nervous, her first encounter with the aliens ended with her team being nearly wiped out, herself getting abducted, and her brain being probed and left images of indecipherable things. There she was, waiting to go out into the field alongside people she didn't know. Against enemies she didn't understand. Sera looked around some more then, realizing that she was likely the only person on base that didn't have a military background. She felt woefully unprepared for what was coming.
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