[h3][center][u][i]AFFS Subaltern Johan Rosales-Eichberg
Rifleman RFL-5D[/i][/u][/center][/h3]

	Steelton. Johan had never heard of the world before. It was a warm place, not too hot, the briefing called it an arid planet. Arid it was, plateaus in the distance, sparse vegetation, brown and dusty. He'd never been to a place like this, and Johan found himself daydreaming about what kind of animals and insects were native to this planet.  His father cashed in a few favors and got him a Comstar developed Combat Neurohelm, a prized item for any mechwarrior, his father said proudly. 'If I were still active I would take this helmet for myself' his father said. He glanced upwards towards the sky, his Neurohelmet not too restrictive. The faceplate slid up obscured Johan's vertical peripheral vision a little, but it also provided some shade against the sun, and in combat he could always just slide the faceplate down. He found himself thinking about what kind of birds soared these skies, until the beeping of his lance radio channel pulled him out of his daydreaming about the wildlife.

[b]"Rat 1-6 here, we're redeploying the mechs from planned patrol to focus on sensor anomalies in the Pitt basin. Burns, von Wulfhart, Mattlov, use jets to obtain overwatch positions and maintain security. Rall, Bjornson, Eichberg and myself will push through along to grid 5-Bravo-9'er-Delta from here. Lieutenant Mazigh will oversee drone deployment and security to cover the flank approaches."[/b]

Johan swallowed, this was irregular, but it must have been important. He shifted in his seat, getting more comfortable, he took his hand off the right side joystick and slid down his faceplate. Screens inside the helmet displayed a small radar, displayed his heat gauge, his mechs armor and internal structure, and a host of other information. Despite having screens inside the cockpit which displayed the same thing, Johan enjoyed having the option between glancing at his neurohelmet information and his cockpit screens. He was more used to looking at the display screens anyways.
[b]"Aye."[/b] Johan simply replied. He heard Bjornson's reply and saw his Wolfhound speed ahead, at his speed Bjornson was easily twice Johan's top speed. Johan was admittedly a little envious at the speed of the other mechs in his group, but considering the Rifleman's firepower... maybe he wasn't about to give that up. Johan shifted his direction to match his lance's, he turned to look at the other group, the ones with jumpjets. He twisted his mechs torso to face them and tracked them, though his guns were facing downward. Practice. Johan needed to practice getting used to moving in one direction, aiming in another, and hitting that target. Stationary Johan was a crack shot, but the enemy rarely lets people just sit around. The Star Guards taught him that harshly, the simulated battles they did made Johan's shortcomings glaring. Against other cadets, Johan could afford to sit around and take his time aiming, but against veteran mechwarriors, experienced in actual war it was clear Johan needed to be mobile and shoot at the same time. The Star Guard mechwarriors showed incredible prowess at controlling their battlemechs, one even ran at full speed then halted in only a short two steps. That agility boggled Johan's mind and he made a mental note to ask that pilot how he did that. 

His radio beeped again, it was Bjornson. [b]"Captain, if I may, how far are we from the sensor network?"[/b]
Johan found himself the same thing, but he stayed quiet. Instead he glanced down at his radar and noticed that a UAV was moving in to shadow him, a few hundred meters behind to reveal any hidden flankers if there were any. Johan quickly flipped his visor up, awaiting a reply from their Captain. He grabbed a canteen of water that he had strapped to the side of one of the consoles, and took a quick drink of water. He strapped it back in and moved the visor back down. In actual combat he had no doubt his mech would get steaming in this ambient temperature, considering his heat heavy loadout, and he would need to stay hydrated if he broke a sweat. He peered ahead, zooming in with his mechs optics. The area ahead was particularly sandy, he saw dunes and plateaus with no signs of any water, but he knew that anything could be behind those rock formations.