At the far end of the airfield, near the hangars, Fionn and Leslie's assault had caught the defenders off guard. The rapid tempo of their attack had given them little time to react, and left the rebels scrambling to fight back effectively. 
	Small arms fire lashed out from the hangar doors toward the GEARs, and a quartet of pickups and off-road vehicles with heavy weapon mounts raced out from the doors, which slowly rolled open. Auto grenade-launchers, recoilless rifles and heavy machine-guns lashed out toward the pair of GEARs as the drivers weaved and dodged across the flat ground. As the doors to the hangar opened wider, a small transport jet rolled out, escorted by another pair of vehicles. 

In the vicinity of the comms tower, reinforcements moved into place. Summoned by the sounds of battle, one of the terrorists' improvised GEARs marched up the hill. A civilian cargo handler, it had been modified with improvised armour plate over delicate systems and jury-rigged heavy-weapon mounts. Spotting the pair of unmanned GEARs, the hostile jogged across the cleared space, and turned to face the only intact cabin, covering the doorway with its weaponry. The PA system crackled to life as the pilot spoke. 
"Come out of the cabin and throw down your weapons!" 

Meanwhile, Silverwind had pushed on, clearing the defensive positions. The trees thinned out at the border of the small airfield. He stopped the GEAR within the boundary of the trees and scanned the surroundings using both the onboard sensors and the feed from the Big Eye drone. A few defensive positions stood out on his thermal imaging, and the Big Eye's footage picked out the shapes of GEARs and an IFV guarding the operations building. 
[i]Okay,[/i] he thought to himself, [i]nothing I can't handle[/i].
Even as he said that, the jet rolled out of the hangar and onto the runway with its' escort, and his radio came to life with Max's message. 
"Roger, Recon. Secure the prisoner and move to the airfield to secure it with the rest of the unit. All units; stop that aircraft from taking off if possible; it's likely they're trying to move someone or something of high value!"