As the Captain went through his briefing, Harald let his gaze wander across the squad. In addition to the regular crew, a few more bodies had appeared; transfers most likely, although the Sergeant hadn't been informed as yet... Not for the first time did he gumble inwardly over Meulemann's decision not to give the squad a proper officer. He paid close attention to the briefing as well, although this at least he had been forewarned of; Squad Four had more than just the one objective and the buck had been passed to him as squad leader to plan their subsequent checkpoints on the road to Vasel. It took some time to go over the details of the operation, even though the briefing given was intentionally left vague; as a pathfinding unit, Squad Four would be expected to make their own decisions in the field. Harald made his first now. [b]'We will be taking the APC.'[/b] He gave Carn a reassuring nod as Meulemann nodded vaguely. [b]'But we most likely stash it a few miles out from each objective, so give us some chance of surprising the Imps.'[/b] The Captain offered a sheaf of forms to the driver, smiling dryly. [b]'Indeed; adequate noise and light discipline will be essential for this deployment, which is why I'm allocating Squad Four complete access to the vehicle armoury for this evening. Ensure that your vehicle is fitted with a low-light vision system and some engine mufflers. There may be a few other bits and pieces lying around, armour and cannon perhaps...'[/b] His smile turned more conspiratorial as Meulemann gave Carn a wink.

He turned his attention back to the others, raising his eyebrows as if asking for any other questions. At this point the two transfers stepped forward to introduce themselves. [b]'Welcome, both of you. I apologise for the lack of a welcoming ceremony, but in the circumstances I believe you will forgive me. Sergeant Harald here is your new NCO and is currently CO of the squad.'[/b] He didn't give a reason as to why a Sergeant was holding down an officer's role, merely nodding to the man in question. Harald cleared his throat stoically, giving the two of them an appraising look. Hunt was certainly an oddity; transfers from the Army were almost unheard of. He must have seriously pissed someone off to land that kind of demotion... MacDonald was less unusual, another victim of the Militia's constant restructuring. If only it were a permanent formation and not just an adhoc, well [i]militia[/i] then perhaps it wouldn't have had these teething problems... As it was there were admin issues everywhere, leading to over or understrength units, entire companies not issues weapons and apparently even the odd company being disbanded. Perhaps it wasn't so strange that the Army mocked them so hard... Harald gave them both a crisp salute, but smiled companionably. [b]'Welcome to Squad Four. We're a bit understrength due to a few wash-outs, so I'm glad to have able bodied men.'[/b] He waved to the others, introducing them in turn. [b]'Corporal Stichler, my 2iC and lancer, Dresner and Sykora on the SMGs and we've got Jatmoore, Fairglaive and Meyers as our eyes. Bons and Carn are engineers mainly, dealing with explosives and vehicles respectively.'[/b] As he wound down to the end of the introductions, Harald gave a start as if remembering something important. [b]'And me, well... I just shoot shit. What about the two of you?'[/b] Combat roles were generally allocated during training but tended to result in overspecialisation. Come to think of it he would have loved to train everyone on a few extra weapons, but time was of the essence. Perhaps after Vasel. The Sergeant was too busy talking to notice Meuelemann quietly collecting his paperwork and slinking off without drawing attention to himself. The old man had several more briefings to give before the day was out.