Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Silverwind Blade
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After the end of the mission to the island off the coast of Solernia, the intel recovered by the Ghost Hunters had revealed a network of locations and agents involved with the operations of the Silent Line. With so many leads to follow up on, and the need for secrecy - or at least, caution - had only been reinforced with the intel gathered. The Ghost Hunters had been split; now Silverwind and Max had formed the core of the new Ghost Hunters, while the rest had formed the 'Phantom Stalkers', a new unit under the same operational command and mission as the Ghosts.

That had been weeks - months, now - ago; Silverwind and Max had met and trained with their new comrades, working on forming a cohesive, flexible and reliable unit. Now, the orders for a new mission for the Phantoms had been handed down. The silver-furred fox reviewed the information displayed on the floating holographic screens projected from his pebble. His single eye moved between the displays; personnel information on one, the intel on the mission on another, and detailed files on the operational theater on the third.
He gave a growling huff of a sigh, and swiped the pebble to shut down the displays. He slid the pebble onto the back of his artificial hand and it projected the time; as he'd figured: it was time to meet with Max, and then to get the briefing underway. He roused himself from the comfortable chair and retrieved his flying jacket from the back of the door, pulling it on as he headed toward the briefing theater, suitably early and ahead of time.
A few minutes walking had him at the entrance, and he stepped through the double door. The room reminded him of a university lecture theater - appropriately to the name - albeit smaller. He leaned up against the desk at the front of the room, and set to waiting for the rest of the unit to arrive.
Hidden 4 yrs ago 4 yrs ago Post by FourtyTwo
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Maxwell Bastion stood outside the briefing room, on his own for a change as he stood with his Pebble in his paw, looking up to the holographic image, the sight of family one that didn't come often, but was one he had to deal with before things stepped up a notch.

In the middle of it all, family life had come back to him for a moment, the tall lion occupied with a video call.

"Look, Talisa, I know....yeah, I know I said I'd be back for Dad's 70th. You know how it is right now though." Max simply commented into his Pebble, the female lioness on the other end of the video call visibly and audibly sighing, as she shrugged. Talisa Bastion was Max's closest sister, her big sis who was probably too much of an influence with him. They played together a lot, and while she got herself together quite quickly, he really didn't.

"And they definitely can't let you go? I mean, c'mon Max, I thought you were seriously going to quit and take some time, do some contractor work, like you said right? Heck, even come work with me? A man of your talents, in a legal environment? You'd clean the place up!" Talisa replied as he sighed, shrugging his own shoulders.

"I signed up again. Can't tell you any details at all. It's a long one."
"Oh, Maxwell Bastion, man of international mystery! So elusive!" The sarcasm was clear from Talisa, as she didn't hide it at all what she felt.
"Oddly enough, sometimes I am one. Sorry, Tal. I can't. Just....pass on my regards, okay? I'll call him if I'm free...it is what it is."

"Bloody hell. Well, you go off to your briefing. For the love of everything don't go getting killed. Mum is worried sick about you as is. Always going away, and with last time, she was really angry."
"And she knows I'll never change. I literally said the same thing to Helen too. This is what I do best...it's how I help the world."
"Right, by coming back with more cuts every time you return home. Yeah well....we all love you anyway, Maxy. I mean that."
"You too, sis. I've got to go....see ya, bye!" With a reciprocation, Max cut the call, turning his gaze to see that he wasn't entirely alone right at the end of that.

The other members of the team were standing not too far away when they came over, the sight of Logan, Maxine and Anna a sight for sore eyes for Max.
"You're still getting shit from your siblings, "Maxy"?" Anna bluntly retorted, to laughter from the others, as Max shrugged once more.

"Yeah, well....it turns out being a special forces soldier when you were meant to use a History degree to go and do something "productive" in society wasn't in the plan?" Max chuckled, making the sarcastic fingers remark as the others chuckled in response.

"Yeah, I suppose. We have a briefing with your new honcho now, yes? This Captain Silverwind Blade, I heard he's a mean bastard." Anna commented, the blunt jaguar probably one of the only people Max demanded to be in his fireteam from day one. Nobody else could work with her, given her overtly blunt and sassy demeanour at times, but Max just loved it. It was almost a foil to him, as he was a foil to her.

"You might get on well with him. I fought with him a few months back. Handy as hell in a GEAR, even without most his limbs. Your type of person, Anna." Max retored, Logan nodding.
"Yeah, I heard of him. Crazy guy. But good at what he does. Looking forward to it." Logan said, Maxine quietly nodding.
"I'm sure we'll all get on. Look at us, back together again. I really hope you haven't signed us up to anything crazy...but thanks for bringing us back into it, Max!" Maxine added, the fact that there were technically two "Max"es on the team meaning Hopper was used much more commonly in response by the rest of the team.

"Pleasure. Let's just keep our heads screwed on, and keep an open mind for what comes next. Not too much, as this shit is serious. What we might be going into is gonna be crazier than that deep recon operation in Galandria." Max added, speaking to all, before Anna stepped up.
"Mr fucking namedrop, are we? "Oh yeah, back when I glided into a mountain base and killed like 20 guys and personally disrupted the Galantrian Guards servers all with a silened pistol, I'm Maxwell fookin' Bastion!" " Anna retorted sarcastically, with an indicated and obvious tease of Max's accent, knowing she enjoyed pissing off Max greatly.

"Shut your mouth....come on everyone, let's go." Max replied with a wry giggle, quickly shutting down the jaguar as he blew her a kiss to her, the jaguar sighing. It was a sarcastic relationship, but man, it worked and kept them both out of trouble.

They headed through the doors of the briefing room, the lion in the lead followed by the black jaguar, red squirrel and the Flemish giant bun, all in their fatigues and looking sharp. Their fatigues were the golden-grey-brown that the 505th Recon had, a special breed designed for grassland and light arid conditions, something that the team liked as their little signature compared to others. Max had gone back to having his farie locks, while Anna had an undercut of sorts, her noir black skin and hair gently pruned back, with her golden spots very tricky to spot in the darkness, whilst glaring a little in the light. Logan had a typically pruned cut, whilst Maxine's big ears poked over a cap she wore, the team medic carrying a sachel with her at nearly all times, almost in the same way Max carried a M8 on him almost by force of habit. Viper Team did not look like your ordinary bunch of special forces soldiers, more like a bunch of scraped together misfits from afar, but Maxwell and his team proved their results on paper every time.

The lion looked over at the desk at the front, giving a nod to Silverwind.
"Greetings, boss. Viper, this is Captain Silverwind Blade. Ghost Hunters unit commander. Captain, this is a band of lunatics I can't believe you managed to get me to bring on board." Max stated, a simple enough introduction and one that he hoped would get the ball rolling, Max comfortable enough to greet his commander with a little more casual tone, whilst the rest of the team held back.
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Silverwind Blade
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Silverwind smiled as Max came in with the rest of Viper and gave a casual wave to the new arrivals to the room.
"Hey there, Max. Viper; nice to meet y'all properly. Seen you all in passing, naturally, but good to get a better meeting with everyone. Please; stand at ease and try to relax a little. I'm not one ta stand too much on ceremony or procedure outside of combat. Rank and discipline has it's place and it's uses, but seems to me like if y'all are experienced or skilled enough to be here in the first place, then yer intelligent and experienced enough to know how to act, behave, and show respect for each other." He looked over the arrayed faces looking back at him, before looking back at the door as the rest of the units' personnel filtered in. The new pilots greeted Silverwind, and he nodded back. "I suppose it's my turn to handle some introductions. Again, sure we've all met in passin' if nothin' else. But this is Python, the new GEAR pilots who're making up the rest of our new formation. I've been training with them and evaluatin' their progress over the last few weeks, and I've got no doubt that we'll all be fine in the field - and their service records hold up to it too. No doubt we'll all get to know each other better in future too.
Python team took a seat, and Silverwind studied the faces in front of him for a moment, before he spoke up and launched into the mission briefing.
"We're all aware why we're here: the intel recovered from the first mission was a huge coup for us. We got a whole sweep of info we weren't expectin'. An' most importantly, we got some leads on who's been co-ordinatin' the kidnappings and abductions of personnel." He held on that to let it sink in, before grimacing and walking around the desk to lean over it, pressing his palms flat against the cool, dark-wood surface and his single eye roaming over their faces as he continued.
"Unfortunately, it ain't exactly in the most convenient place fer us all. The movements of the particular sack of crap we're lookin' for have been traced to the formerly-lovely an' now not-at-all appealing or welcomin' nation of Arbrentia, where our man seems to be thoroughly mired in supply, supervision, training and most likely fighting in their ongoing Civil War on the side of th' coup. ANL Special Force and Intelligence Operatives have been active in the war, assistin' loyalist resistance forces, as they're strugglin' without much in th' way of warfightin' tech or infrastructure, which is where we got the bead on this guy. But we're still goin' to be goin' right into an active warzone with ongoing combat.
"This is our MO: We'll be shipping out in a few hours, enough time for y'all ta pack a change of socks and yer toothbrushes. We'll be flown out of base on a long-range stealth transport. The bird will be met and escorted into the hot zone by Equerian fighters for escort. We paradop in over Arbrentia. A resistance unit will have a GPS transmitter for us to home on, along with IR strobes, so we can all - hopefully - land at the same point. The jets bug out and back to friendly territory, standing by for our word. We head on with the Resistance, where we'll get further intel about our targets' position; they'll have been monitoring his position. An op will be launched to bring our firepower to bear to help out the Resistance, while also gettin' our collective paws on the Tango, and any intel he has on the whereabouts of the missing folks, and what they're workin' on".
He let out a breath and stood straight behind the desk at the head of the room, and gave a shrug, raising one eyebrow.
"Almost sounds simple, don't it?"
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by FourtyTwo
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Max and the team took a seat, noting the rest of Python and making very brief introductions across the groups. An equally exotic team it appeared to Max, made up of the cream of GEARS operators hand-picked by Silver, as he listened in on the presentation. Listening in, Max paid attention to the fact that well, they were going back into a hot zone. Good thing he had Viper then, he thought to himself, as Silver continued- relating to the situation in play in Arbrentia. A lovely country, beautiful even, scarred by war and internal conflict. A dictatorship that proclaimed absolute power, which in reality didn't extend barely beyond the scarce parts of cities it held. A hellhole, and going in there was not an ideal by Max's standards.

As for dropping in, Max liked that. The use of GFDS packs on a GEAR was always an exiting prospect, one that Max was unashamedly proud of mastery in using. He had to admit, once you had one of those on, you weren't fucking around anymore. You were going into something very serious and that came with a piece of kit that asked the same requirement of the operator. Finding this target, whoever he was, would be of critical importance and Max knew that his recon team would be instrumental in doing so. While they weren't exactly a hammer compared to the other GEAR pilots, they were good at finding information and watching, waiting and observing, something that they could complete alongside the local resistance forces. Already, the lion was thinking of how to uttilise them or what loadouts to take, just running it in his head for the moment being. Silver then finished, the lion sitting up in his seat as he chuckled.

"No pressure bailing out of an aircraft into a hellhole near the Badlands and trying to find a needle in a haystack. But then again, you have the right people onboard." Max replied, looking across to his fireteam, then to the others.

"Let me know if you have any specific requirements, Captain. I'll tool up the team for it as appropriate, as well as get a GFDS setup sorted for the Lion Rampant. We might want to think about how we'll drop the rest of the team- either with wingpacks or getting them prepped for a long-range patrol vehicle run. I'm sure you have that in mind, Sir."
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Silverwind grinned at Max's initial reply and nodded, before his expression turned to one of thought with the lion's follow up.
"Wingpacks seems like it'd be the most efficient way of doin' it, and keepin' the team together too. We can mount extra cargo and equipment containers on the GEARs for the additional gear for Viper, and have everyone with IR beacons active so we don't get separated too much in the drop, with coded signal beacons so we can find one another once we're on the ground - though, we should be able to get pretty close, since we have landing co-ordinates already. We'll see about getting a utility vehicle palletised for an airdrop too".
He nodded to all assembled. "Duty rosters have been updated, and any tasks or jobs that need doin' have been sent to yer pebbles. We'll be loading up in eight hours; any other questions, well, I'll do my best ta answer 'em, but I've given y'all what I know. Specifics we'll be dealin' with once we're in the area. Anythin' else I'll try to brief on in flight, since we got an eight-hour flight to sit back an' enjoy too". He shrugged and spread his arms as he leaned back from the desk. "Dismissed".
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Max chuckled, nodding as he agreed with what had been said. Getting a DPV dropped in was a boon, so long as they could recover it of course....an issue that the lion knew the team would be able to get sorted even deep in enemy territory.

"Sounds good, Captain. That all works for me, my team is competent in using the wingpacks- they'll keep pace with a GFDS pack-equipped GEAR....depending on how hard the operator pushes. Don't ask how I know that." Max heard Anna giggling, sighing as he took the briefing notes he had and nodded back to Silverwind once more.
"I'll get us armed up first, then we'll get our work sorted out. There's also a few things I wanted to review as well...see ya later on, Captain." Max said, tailing off as he headed out with the team, aware that there was a seemingly long time to do a seemingly growing list of tasks in.

---

The armoury was teeming with Viper's activity, as they slowly but surely got their gear prepared for the operation ahead. A deep-recon mission in a civil-war torn country to find a HVT was always going to be an entertaining prosepct, so their loadouts would reflect that aspect of what they were going into. The lion, the jaguar, the squirrel and the rabbit all seemed at home with their work, Anna leaving for a moment to grab something of her own personal interest. In a couple of minutes she came back, Max casually chuckling as Anna walked back in with her wingpack, gently laying it on the main armoury table alongside the others that were there.

"I'm so fucking jealous. I have to fly a GEAR into a warzone, and you guys all get those Corvids. Seriously, I was tempted to just lose the GEAR and go on foot. Only reason I'm not is because we need the firepower." Max commented, Anna looking across it's surfaces, whistling to herself. A Viper classic indeed, the team one of the few RSDF Special Forces units that had clearnace to using such a specialist, freaky piece of kit.

The wingpack was nicknamed the "Corvid", after the crow and raven family of birds, a worthy name for the large-surface area carbon-fiber delta wing that turned an Arvaran temporarily into a gliding bird, the wing at roughly three-quarters the size of the team's resident jaguar, Anna. That made it fairly sizable, and even in spite of the carbon, weighty to the hold. It seemed to be an more advanced model compared to the primative basics that had come before it, likely benefitting from the advancement in military technology in the GEARS-specific GDFS unit, making it lighter, easier to carry and much more efficient as a wing surface as an unpowered Arvaran glider.

In the hands of Anna, it almost made her look pixie-like with it's long tail-wing that went down to Anna's lower legs, given the fact this thing was not like many would expect a standard mllitary-looking wingpack to look like. That was as the wing itself almost folded out in a butterfly mechanism into the delta-shape, making it remarkably small to carry on an operator's back when not in flight yet incredibly rigid in its individual components in fixed-flight, combining with a clever computer interface to stabilise and control rolls and movement. Like the GDFS which had a similar extraction mechanism, the Corvid was therefore a tool for low-weight, zero-detection insertions that required distance to be covered.

A parachute setup and was mounted on the spine of the wingpack that was the final handbrake-like stop for any flight, and had room for mounting other equipment in the near-hardpoints of the wings- with a specialist oxygen-feeding, tinted-visored helmet paired up with a wingpack. No weapons systems, but hey, it wasn't like the team were going to be engaging hostile air.....yet. The engineers were telling him they were still running tests on powered flight, and Anna certainly had some skin in the game on that one. Low-level, high speed infiltration with virtually no radar signal and relative ease of putting on the brakes, coupled to a wing that weighed hardly anything and took up hardly any room on an infiltrator's valuable kit-list? You just knew an infiltrator of her skills would kill, probably quite literally, for something like that. But alas, Anna wasn't daydreaming, as she checked over the flaps and winglets, as well as the condition of the parachute system attached, before flinging it on, the suit's wing opening up as she checked over one of the actuators on it.

"You bet. Holy shit, we haven't done this since what, that time we were in Galantria? Corvids are fun, but we're gonna need more than just falling out of the sky to actually last in a shithole like Arbrentia. So you've got our backs I guess." Anna commented back to the lion, Max nodding as he took his own M23 ISS and gently cleaned out the magazine well and lower reciever, nodding.

"Fair enough. We're gonna be in a real hotzone when we're in there. Tool up appropriately, guys." Max added, the team going back to quiet as he watched over at them kit up. It had to be said, the team's resident squirrel was probably the most exited he'd been in a while about using the Corvids, and somehow, Max wasn't at all shocked. What was it about squirrels that seemed to think gliding was the shit?

With one final sweep Max brought up his pad and reviewed the team's final loadouts:

Warrant Officer Maxwell Fitzroy "Actual" Bastion
"Team Lead/Marksman"
M23 ISS, Magnified Thermal Optic/Holographic
M57-2 Shotgun
M8A PDS

Corporal Anna-Marina "Spectre" Caldeira
"Grenadier"
M23 Rifle w/4x Optic/Red Dot Sight
MT-A1 Thumper MGL w/ Box Magazine
2x M8 PDS

Specialist Maxine "Hopper" Pavard
"Assault Medic/Anti-Tank"
M23 Special Operations Carbine with Holographic+Magnifier
M84 Infantry Rocket System (loaded in GEAR)
M8 PDS

Private First Class Logan "Kestrel" Vickers
"Explosives Specialist/JTAC"
M23 Battle Rifle with 4x Optic/Holographic
M8 PDS
Laser Designator
C4


-------

In terms of other tasks to do, once the birds were done pruning their fine wings Viper had gone their seperate ways to crack on with their own individaul tasks. Max was on his own going through his maintainance log for his Lion Rampant, Anna and Maxine were checking the landing site over and their DPV's drop-point, whilst Logan was working away on getting the team's uniforms sorted out and then had moved onto helping load up the oversized munition's into the Lion Rampant's extra gear stores. The rookie of the team had the worst jobs, but then again, everyone went through that in their induction to the team. Even Max wasn't alone in that when he first got into the 501st- it was a rite of passage, a thing that everyone did, like it or not.

Max in particular had finally gotten his manifest log, and looked up the sizable GEAR before him, with a wry grin on his face. A heavier arsenal than usual, not an ideal loadout for exactly flying in with a GFDS pack, but a necessity given how long they might be out in the field without any equipment- and the fact that he was de-facto the thing that would bring firepower for the fireteam. On their own, Viper was not a heavy unit- they had the basics but needed a GEAR to amp up their firepower when hitting a base or a precise target, especially when going into a more "hot" warzone that required more information live on the battlefield.

Information was key to have when fighting with a GEAR, especially when you were deep behind enemy lines and recon was more difficult- so the Lion Rampant in the Long Range Recon setup formed a cornerstone to that, connecting Viper Team's specialities with a GEAR unit that gave hard-hitting long range firepower and close-range 40mm fire, coupled to enhanced warzone information gathering capabilities and additional ammunition. Ordinarily if it was part of a larger unit it would rely on a different member of the team being responsible being responsible for ELINT in a wider GEARS unit, but given Max and his team could be on their own, he had to take responsibility for that side of information gathering here.

Manifest Tab

Request: Warrant Officer Bastion, Maxwell Fitzroy

GEAR Designation: XO-1514
User Name: "Lion Rampant"


All standard GEAR weaponry and features have been inspected/maintaned as per SOP

Requesitioned Loadout:
Package Designation: Long Range Recon


-30mm Sniper Rifle, Handheld/Rear Hardpoint

-Head-Mounted 2x LMG

-10x5 30mm Box Magazines, 4x5 30mm AP Box Magazines, 2x Fragmentation Grenades, 4x Smoke Grenades, Left and Right Hip Hardpoints

-Combat Claw and Ratchet for Rocket Anchor Lift, Left Forearm
-Automatic HE Grenade Launcher, Right Forearm

-Overwatch Advanced C3i Suite, Left Shoulder Hardpoint
-Rocket Anchor, Right Shoulder Hardpoint

-UAV charging and Quadrotor mount point, Back
-3x Limpet Mines stowed on Inside Left Shoulder (Shield)

Glider/Flight Deployment System

Other Stores:
-Personal Weaponry Container, Inside Rear Left Leg (Expanded)
-Basic Field Repair Kit, Inside Rear Right Leg
-Extra Equipment Container, Hip/Chest
-SERE Kit checked, inspected and mounted under cockpit seat
Hidden 4 yrs ago Post by Silverwind Blade
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While Max organised Viper and got them kitted out for their ground op, Silver was checking through and signing off on the loadouts for Pythons' GEARs. The rest of the team were taking care of the rest of the logistics and gear, and heading to the armoury to requisition their own small-arms. DiMarco had her team working hard on finishing the overhauls on the team's Harguns that had been prompted by the results from the first operation and feedback from systems analysts and design team. The changes were minor, but Jesse DiMarco was nothing if not professional and thorough, and had stripped the machines down in anticipation of the mission in a hostile territory and without support. Giving them as much of a fighting chance as possible was the least she could do.
All that Silverwind had floating through his mind, but the fox shook his head and turned his attention away from the spectacle and noise of the GEAR hangar. Sitting one a pile of tyres stacked alongside the bases' motor pool building, he swiped the pebble stored on the back of his cybernetic hand. Holographic screens sprang into life around him and he set to work reviewing and assigning the loadouts for the team.

[b][i]Specialist Catriona 'Burner' Burnside[/b]
"Heavy Weapon/Support"
-20mm Rotary Cannon - Hand Held, Ammo Drum on rear waist hardpoint.

-Anti-Armour Cannon - L/Shoulder hardpoint

-Rocket pod - R/Shoulder hardpoint

-Anti-Armour missile pod - L/Forearm

-Combat Knife on L/Hip hardpoint

-2 x Thermite Grenades on R/Hip hardpoint

GFDS-

Additional Equipment: External stowage boxes for field gear

Specialist Rarden 'Lowdown' Wyden

- Hand-held Shotgun/Rear waist hardpoint

- Pile-bunker R/Arm hardpoint

- Utility tool pod L/Arm hardpoint

- Rocket Anchor R/Shoulder hardpoint

- Auto-grenade launcher L/Shoulder hardpoint

- Shotgun & Pile-bunker reloads L/Hip

- Combat Axe R/hip

- Limpet mines/charges under shoulder shield

GFDS-

- Additional Equipment: External storage containers for infantry/field gear and equipment

Corporal Case 'Red' Redditch

- 20mm Assault Rifle w/underbarrel flamethrower handheld/rear waist hardpoint

- Anti-armour missile pod L/arm hardpoint

- ECM Pod R/arm hardpoint

- ELINT Pod R/Shoulder hardpoint

- Overwatch C3i Suite L/Shoulder hardpoint

- Combat knife on R/hip hardpoint

- Spare rifle magazines L/hip hardpoint

- 3 x frag, 3 x chaff grenade under shoulder shield

GFDS-

- Additional Equipment: external storage containers for field equipment/infantry supplies

Alisha 'Riser' Prosch

-20mm Assault Rifle w/underbarrel chainsaw handheld/rear waist hardpoint

-Auto Shotgun L/arm hardpoint

-Anti-armour missile pod R/arm hardpoint

-Anti-air missile pod R/shoulder hardpoint

-Advanced Sensor Suite L/Shoulder hardpoint

-Frag/Thermite grenades L/Hip hardpoint

-Smoke grenades R/Hip hardpoint

-20mm magazines under shoulder shield

GFDS-

-Additional equipment: External storage modules for infantry/field equipment

[/i]

Silver rechecked the loadouts. It was a good spread, and it seemed clear that the Python pilots had taken to heart the lessons taught by their exercises and drawn on their own talents and experience to plan their loadouts and maximise on their differing abilities and expertise, and take to mind the prospective range of situations they might be facing, as well as the urban environment they'd be fighting through, as well as the need to support Viper and the resistance fighters as need be. He cleared the loadouts and confirmed the requests to have them uploaded to the GEARs, as well as signing off on other work orders for DiMarco's team and other admin tasks.
Their loadouts confirmed, he turned his attention to his own GEAR. He was confident enough and experienced in his own abilities, and was capable with almost any of the Harguns' weaponry, but had his own favourite and familiar go-to's, and they'd round out the units' well enough. His decisions made, the fox nodded to himself with a murmur, and with his tongue sticking out of one corner of his muzzle, swiped and tapped at the holographic icons.

[b][i]Colonel Silverwind Blade[/b]

-20mm Assault Rifle W/Underbarrel Grenade Launcher Handheld/Rear Waist hardpoint

-Auto-Shotgun R/Arm hardpoint

-Pile-Bunker L/Arm hardpoint

-Anti-Armour missile pod R/shoulder hardpoint

-Breech-loading Mortar L/shoulder hardpoint

-5 x rifle magazine on L/Hip hardpoint

-2 x frag, 3 x thermite grenade on R/Hip hardpoint

-Combat knife under L/Arm shield

GFS-

-Additional equipment: External storage pods for Infantry/field equipment
[/i]

He checked off his own loadout, and reviewed the rest of the TO&E for the op. They'd have a pallet of additional containers dropped, which would be split-loaded once they were on the ground between the GEAR's external storage pods (which always reminded him of something like webbing pouches, when he thought about them) and a small two-wheeled trailer for the ground vehicle. That would carry reloads for other GEAR weapons. The resistance would also receive materiel and supplies from the drop, as well as sharing some of their own supplies and gear with the Ghosts once they had made it to a safe location. At least that meant that they wouldn't have to be lugging everything on their GEARs or their backs.
He checked the time on the holo displays. A short while left to go. More than enough time, though, to grab himself some chow, pack the last of his personal gear and effects, and snatch a short power-nap... and then sign out his personal weapons from the armoury. Feeling accomplished with the few minutes work, and with an itinerary to complete, the fox strode onward.
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Max had finished up with the GEAR, happy with the state of affairs with his equipment. The webbing-styled equipment containers would be helpful to carry in more gear but mounted on a GEAR, he was aware of the effects it would have. Still, Max had carried worse under a GFDS, he had to remind himself of that. Despite being relatively young compared to the silver fox leading this team, he was aware of that bit of kit. He could leave it for now though, wanting to get a bit of time to himself- all his jobs for the moment finished. GEAR ready, weapons prepared, DZ discussed and any other bits of logistics organised. The team would have a vehicle to use when they were on the ground, and that trailer too would be a help for keeping the team armed up. Of course, Max knew that Viper would want to minimise it, so he could divide them into two- Anna and Logan worked well together as a hunter-killer team, with Maxine at the wheel of whatever vehicle they had.

Heading inside the tiny room he'd been assigned back in the barracks of the military site they were on, he checked over his pilot's suit, the modified type he used when disembarking the GEAR, as well as a spare baseball cap to keep with him on disembarkation from the GEAR. He didn't like the heavy pilot's helmet for lighter infantry work, even though it could be a lifesaver in CQC situations- so it stayed on when he was breaching or entering buildings. For sniping, or any other type of marksman work he prefered the tan-coloured baseball cap over his faerie locks to keep the sun off his eyes and keep his hair from going everywhere. One disadvantage he reminded himself, of choosing the counterculture was that man, it was a lot of work. So much for sticking it to the man...

With that, the lion made up his bed and threw himself on top of his sheets, leaning back against his pillow and looking up at the walls, sighing. This was the life he'd chosen alright, the one that involved putting himself on the line for Solernia. It never felt like that though entirely. It was more for the people he worked with, and because it protected people. In some weird ways, he was like his brothers and sisters, following their example. For the greater good, but in his own, chaotic and strange way. Perhaps that was why they accepted him for what he was, even as reluctantly as they did. Max didn't like to dwell on it much, given the fact that he had a mission coming up that was going to be rough as hell. Urban combat in a GEAR was not as easy as some people made it out to be, it was gruelling, tough and required a lot of mental willpower. So a bit of rest was gonna come in handy right now.

The lion would happily kill someone for a couple more hours of nap time. But this was just gonna have to do.

----

A little later on and the rest of Viper were finishing up in the armoury and signing out their weaponry, the sight of them mean as they stood in their little corner. It was nearly go-time for this operation, and they were getting their last touches on after finishing up their work. Viper Team were clearly their own thing, an odd assortment of people Max had clearly trusted, even in spite of their flaws. looking on at Python coming in and grabbing their own small-arms. Without Max, the team kept to themselves but on this occasion, dared to venture over, the black jaguar, the flemish giant and the red squirrel tooled up in their battle dress. The grey-golden camoflage pattern was a little different, though not distinctive, the team tooled up in modular lightweight body armour and carrying their tactical combat helmets.

"Hello, Python. Corporal Anna-Marina Caldeira, at your disposal. This is PFC Kestrel, and Specialist Maxine Pavard. Your reconaissance people. We'll keep out of your way, just don't make too much noise around ours." Anna was blunt, very couth yet almost direct to the point, the black-skinned jaguar as elusive as many had heard her out to be. Most CO's had lost patience with her- Anna was highly intelligent yet was almost to the point of running on absolutes, with a sarky sense of humour that pissed off a lot of people.

It made her incredibly efficient at what she did as someone who often had to kill in cold blood, but there was a very good reason she'd never gone any further in the RSDF than she had. Her people skills were awful, especially with new people- her interactions were minimal and her circle of people she was willing to truly banter with was very small. Max was probably one of the few people that could tame her with his relaxed attitude, and throw just as much shit back at Anna that he got himself.

She might have carried on, before Logan walked forwards, the team's squirrel nodding as he chuckled.
"Don't mind her, guys. She's....well, a bit awkward? Cold killer cat, and all that. I'm the cool one." Logan added on, Maxine shaking her head, the team's rabbit walked forwards and introducing herself before Logan could do any more damage.

"Speak for yourself about being awkward, Logan? Anyway, Anna's right on that one. She's our resident grenadier, and inifiltrator when we need her to help out. Incredibly talented at it, and as she says, Anna tends to work more in the shadows. I'm the team medic, whilst Logan mostly works with a laser designator and explosives. Been doing this for about two years with Max now- he spearheads what we do with a little more ranged firepower. So yeah, we're a little odd, but we're a good bunch!" She added to Python, Maxine's friendly demeanour almost at a direct contrast to Anna's sour-faced attitude, the jaguar sighing at Maxine's constant optimism. While Logan seemed to have a youthful energy that came wie, Maxine was more experienced and upbeat because she'd seen the horrible side of it. She kept upbeat, even though

Max walked in mid conversation, looking across to Python as he grabbed his M23 ISS, the M8A variant he'd picked and the rest of the webbing that went with his pilot's combat suit from the racking, keeping quiet as the others chatted. He had to admit, it waas nice that
"Hey up, Python. Hope they haven't scared you too much. I wouldn't call them harmless, the very opposite of it in fact. Don't be shocked if you see them following close to the end of your wing surfaces....so no sudden moves, yeah?" Max added, chuckling as Anna looked up to the tall lion, who took a seat on an ammo crate.

"Drop point is gonna be interesting. It's a fairly tight LZ, more close in than I'd like, but it remains our best option for where we're going." Max started, looking across to his own team, before looking back to Python.

"Just as a heads up with the kit we're using...the GDFS is a great tool, but remember, you're not a jet fighter in one. I know we've all trained with one, probably even used them a lot, but when you limber it with equipment and go through turbulent clouds into territory that might not be friendly, it's very, very different. The system glides very nicely, but only at a rate of three-to-one at maximum- so you'll fall out of the sky if you try and keep it too flat on the horizon...especially with the weight we're all carrying.

"There's a lot of stabilisation tech that the GFDS module contains, but that only works when we don't do anything stupid, for three minutes we can all do that. No rolls, for fuck's sake. Also, don't be tempted to reach for the deployment handle too soon to put us into radar view- the parachutes can effectively deploy at 750 feet with plenty of time to spare, just under radar ceiling, and minimising the time you're gonna be helpless to AA, AT and anything nasty. Remember to bloody well pull it though. Metal box or not, the ground will make you go splat. Go over your drills if you have to on malfunctions and spins with the glider. I don't know much about GEARs, but I know that system like the back of my hand....so take that from someone who's done the mistakes already." Max commented to the team, hoping they'd heed his words. He certainly listened to Silverwind, but the GFDS was his little niche, like the Corvid, a niche that the lion had been involved with heavily. He looked across to Colonel Blade, and the rest of Python, Viper and Max both ready to get moving out.
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As Python team entered the armoury, they were greeted enthusiastically by Viper. Smiles and greetings abounded from the GEAR pilots as they were introduced to their comrades in arms.
Catriona, the towering and full-figured highland cow answered back first, as she went to the weapon racks and started picking out her own weapons, the rest of the pilots doing the same, and checking through them with efficient and practiced movements.
"Thanks for the introduction, Corporal. An' looking forward to workin' with you all in the field too. Be good tae have some eyes down in the places we canna reach. An' dinnae hesitate ta call on us for your support neither."
The big woman opened the feed cover of the M99 she'd picked out and examined its' internals, leaving Case to pick up the thread of conversation as Maxine interjected. "Well, much the same with our little group too," the kangaroo replied to her with a grin as he picked an M280 off of the rack and pulled the bolt back, examining the chamber before releasing the bolt and starting to strip the PDW. "We're from all over the place, and just sort of... smooshed together," he said with a shrug as he gave a sideways look and a grin.
Max walked in before the 'roo could say more, and the rest of the Python team looked over at his words.
"Not scared us too much yet, sir". Alisha replied with a smile. "In fact, pretty welcoming, and good to get to know everyone a little more too, since we're all going to be working together". The porcupine had picked out an M280 as well, examining in much the same manner as Case was. The GEAR team gave a light round of chuckles at Max's good humour, before listening intently to his words regarding the employment of the GFDS and his insight on how to use the system effectively, looks of concentration settling on their faces.
Silverwind had quietly slid in while Max was walking - much as the lion had done himself - and had let his 2IC give his expertise to the team. His words were sage and valuable advice, and he could use them as much as anyone. The silver fox had picked out his normal go-to for weapons; an M23 in battle-rifle form with a short-range scope, tactical light, and underslung shotgun along with an M61 revolver as a sidearm. The revolver had a holographic sight added to the top rail, and an underslung light/laser combo. A combat knife and a special operations machete rounded out his personal gear, along with some miscellaneous grenades and sundries.
Spinning the M2 blade around the forefinger of his cybernetic hand as Max finished speaking, the fox turned around.
"Wise words, Bastion, an' ones we all need to take note of. As good as our gear - pun not intended - is, and as much as it can do, we need to stay alert and rely on our own wits an' skills as much as always. Not that I need to remind any of y'all about that". He gave a small smile that turned up the corner of his muzzle and nodded to the group. "Well, looks like we all got our luggage sorted for this little trip. We got enough time to load everything up, and then get ourselves onboard too. Let's get movin' folks"
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To Silverwind's comment Max nodded, agreeing fully on what he had to say. The lion had to admit, her had a way with words that certainly came with his experience and time fighting, the spinning knife in his composite-metal hand suggesting it enough. There was a certain flair, a certain slyness that came along with professional, hardened experience that Silverwind had, no doubt being part of the reason Max was even here in the first place.

They clearly had meshing personalities, or else he'd have never ended up here. Whilst Max was a man of reason, he knew that even in Solernia there was always those who hired based on personalities close to their own. The lion was perhaps an echo of Silverwind, a tangent of his own in the past, or perhaps a part of it that he wanted reinforced. There weren't many like Max, after all. Rogues were far less common these days, the lion thought. It took a good one to remind everyone how fun, and difficult they were. Luckily for Max, just how he managed Anna he felt Silverwind "got" his wavelength, understood his play. And that for him was reassuring, to say the least. Taking his own M23 up, the lion pulled the charging handle and inspected the bolt, whistling as he looked back across to the rest of the crew.

"Aye, Colonel. We'll get ourselves finished up here. Logan, gals, get yourselves sorted ten minutes and over to the Lion Rampant. Good to meet you all, Python. " The lion commented, aware Silverwind had said all there was to say, and the team had geled in a little more now, getting to know each other a bit from there. He had finished up his bits and pieces in here- taking with him his M23 ISS, M8A, combat webbing and grenades loadout, as well as his trusty K8 knife and combat ancillaries. Rope, basic toolkits, and so on- a general-purpose walkabout assault pack that GEAR or not was always in his arsenal.

With a gentle scoot Viper had picked up equipment, Corvids and all their various bits of kit, the look of the team mean in the next few minutes. Whilst not equipped like most heavier infantry units, Viper seemed to have a very reductive, mobile-focussed attitude. In their equipment they had special-forces grade helmets and optics, with lightweight armour that provided key protection whilst allowing for movement. In the team's various units their specialisations could be seen as well. Maxine had taken her standard medical kit, a much more comprehensive battlefield surgery and advanced first aid kit, whilst Logan had calibrated his PLU device and coupled his explosives to a remote detonator. Anna on the other hand had loaded up with a grenadier's load-bearing vest on top of her modular armour, taking magazines of 40mm over the heavier drums. It made fire less consistent or reliable, but weight was key for this team- so anything for the MGL's weight would be needed. Coupled to the Corvid packs that they were slowly equipping themselves with and putting on loosely, Viper were practically complete- well, all bar their lion.

Meanwhile, Max had headed back towards the GEARS hangar and already tooled himself. Taking a breath, he punched in his key-code and opened up the Lion Rampant's entry port, chuckling almost at the bit. It had been too long. What, barely a week? Well....it always came back to him fast. Clambering inside, he could only smirk as he secured himself into place, the hydrogen-based power supply kicking in and whirring everything up to life. Keeping the door open, he could see the rest of the team coming over through the optics, bringing over their heavier weaponry. Max was already carrying a fairly substantial supply of ammunition for the team on his GEAR, as the team begun loading it into the other webbing pouch that the Lion Rampant was carrying. They loaded up their heavier munitions, including Anna's MGL and Hopper's AT launcher.

"Don't lose any of it, Max!" Maxine commented, the rabbit placing her launcher inside a case that went into the webbing, Max chuckling in return as he poked his head out. Once the team was finished, Max metaphorically and quite literally stood at the helm of the group.
"You better have gotten insurance with your hold baggage then!" He jested, as he turned the GEAR on its axis and led the way, gently getting moving and catching sight of the rest of Python and Silverwind getting themselves finished up. The Lion Rampant whirred gently, almost politely after it's latest service and the corvid-wearing reconaissance team led in front, ready to fight.
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Silverwind had mounted up in his GEAR in no short order, with Python following suit. The maintenance crews had fussed and bustled - as was their way, and a necessity - and checked over and confabbed with the pilots on the attachment of the GFDS packs and external carriage pods for the remaining ground-teams' gear and supplies. Banter and small-talk were exchanged liberally on all sides, and the wily old fox grinned as he saw the good-natured back and forth.
As the recon team moved out, the techs secured the last of the pilots and GEARs, and Silverwind punched in the activation codes for his machine, and it came to life with the familiar pleasant rumbling whine. The Machine gently shivered as power flowed into its' artificial muscles and taking a grip on the controls Silverwind couldn't help but grin as he pressed booted paws on the pedals and the machine rose, shedding umbilical cables. The glowing light of holographic displays surrounded him as he gave a casual touch of the brow with the machines' hand to the onlooking tech crew as a goodbye, and stepped out into the middle of the hangar, beckoning the others to follow and moving into line with Max.
With a combination of glances, gestures and fingertip controls on the GEARs' sticks, he opened a personal channel to Max, the lion's face appearing on a small hovering holographic window.
"Never gets old, strappin' on several tonnes of armour and robotics an' goin' fer a walk," he said with a grin as he saw that Max, too, had the look of someone who was enjoying what he did as they marched out of the hangar and onto the apron outside.
"Good to see the kids gettin' along," he said with a chuckled and one eyebrow raising, jerking his head back toward the hangar and the good-natured interactions between viper and python teams.
His attention was diverted as the Stealth Transport came into view, waiting on the tarmac ahead. It's appearance with the dark shadows under its' broad wings and the cluster of support vehicles beneath almost looked like some enormous bird of prey, sheltering its' brood from the bright sun overhead.
"Well, there's our ride," he murmured with some admiration. "Looks like it's up ta the job, that's for sure..."
Under direction from a baton-waving ground crewman, he walked the GEAR aboard, and to a tie-down point. He set the machine into a one-kneed crouch, and shut it down, the moment feeling all-too-soon for his liking, before he made his way out, sitting on the back of the GEAR as it was strapped into position for the drop.
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Max replied as he watched Silverwind clamber inside, setting up his comms lines as he saw the fox appear on the holographic window on his own end. This felt a little luxurious compared to running out there, the lion mused but hey, sometimes when you were leading a team you needed a very literal towering overview of the situation in front of you. Like operating a piece of plant machinery, Max didn't feel as organic as he did on foot inside of one of these, but it felt like having a lot more power, a lot more potency and like actually not having to dive out of the way when bullets came flying. The lion to some extent had adapted his own techinqiues with the Lion Rampant to fit a reconaissance operative- whilst the Hargun was built no different to Silverwind's, the way he uttilised it seemed to be more as another implement in his arsenal, using mobility rather than anvil-like qualities in a GEAR like this. Max was no stranger to loading up a 30mm rotary cannon and going all guns blazing, but the GEAR in this layout was effectively a squad support tool rather than a battleaxe when it came to the combat environment.

"Well....it's a nice leveller, isn't it? Nothing like it at all....it just feels powerful, you know? But with all that power comes responsibility......I suppose there's nothing like the concequences you get when you've got a 30mm rifle that can hit targets over two klicks easily...or at least, they're delayed, right?" Max replied, watching on as the other GEARS followed them out, as well as the sight of his own team making their way across the tarmac apron. Maxine waved to the Lion Rampant, the team heavily loaded up for an operation like this deep in enemy lines.

He moved along, folllowing Silverwind's GEAR, adjusting his helmet as he waved back to his own team.
"They're not too bad. Couple of them you'll find a bit weird or difficult to work with, but they come up good....especially Anna. She just has a skillset that comes into its own when you just leave her to it. I've never seen anything like it, so if you need something done quietly, you call on her and leave her to it." He added, seeing the sight of the stealth transport turn up. Solernia may not have been a large or great nation, but it had its priorities right, and an aircraft like this was part of the RSDF's technologically potent capabilities. And with what was going in, including their support vehicle driven by Viper and six GEARS, it had to be up to task.

Viper headed in first, the footmobile recon team quickly getting insde before the GEARS followed suit to get to the front of the aircraft via the rear ramp. Kit taken off once they got there, they were out of the way of the GEARs storage area and in position to get their gear checked over. Get some R&R, and some last minute sleep. What was to come would be intensive. After all, dropping from high altitude into enemy territory was never an easy prospect, let alone the fighting and work that would be done when they got on the ground. Max then followed Silverwind, taking a position opposite him and setting his GEAR down in a similar position, the weaponry of his GEAR tucked away- the UAV he carried stowed in one of his webbing-styled carrying containers.

Clambering out once more, Max helped the crew members tie down his GEAR, strapping it down to the floor of the aircraft. HALO was always a problem for anyone not inside a GEAR- you needed not just an oxygen supply but a pre-breathed O2, alongside warm clothing. Inside a GEAR's sealed cockpit atmosphere that wasn't much an issue, but beyond the cold composite armour it would be. The equipment that Viper had with their Corvid packs would do that job with the almost fighter-pilot styled helmets they had, but it was never fun running pure oxygen into the bloodstream for over half an hour before a jump in more or less montonous boredom until the red light came on. After all, if you wanted to stay concious whilst you were pilotting a wingpack, you needed to actually have air to think, Max thought to himself...

Walking over to the crew area Viper had settled in, Max took a seat near his team, the settled look on his team suggesting they were just wanting to get some rest and get ready.
"So, we got any particular directives when we hit the ground?" Anna asked, Max nodding as the lion took his canteen out from his personal kit, sipping it down while he had the opportunity.
"Permimeter security, and eliminating anything that can target the GEARs immediately. Then getting our vehicle recovered, ASAP. I imagine we'll be posted up on reconaissance and following up leads the loyalists find for us." Max replied, Anna nodding as Logan pitched his hat into the conversation.
"Right, and we got much in the way of fire support?"

"Your laser points out anything for me, Silverwind and Python to shoot, Logan. We get any more, I'll let you know."
"Right. This is fucking unreal, guys. Can you believe we're about to do this....it's cool as hell!" Logan called out, Max and the gang laughing as he shook his head.

"Calm yourself, Logan. Keep your head focussed on what's to come. But you are right though." Max replied, as Maxine checked over her own Pebble quickly, running through the team's own comms and internal networking to monitor the team's pulse and general nervous state, a network that connected to Max's GEAR and then could be relayed up to Silverwind's.

"Comms should be live for us, boss, diagnostics too. Right, last chance team. Anyone feeling any sickness, any problems that my diagnostics can't pick up? No headaches, stomach-aches, colds or anything that'll make you pass out when you're huffing pure oxygen in a few hours?" Maxine asked, the medic

"I had a really dodgy curry last night." Max simply retorted with an almost signature-like sarcasm, chuckling almost at his own humour as Maxine sighed, the rest of the team shaking their head- both to the joke and to Maxine.
"Apart from Max then, sounds all good. Same as usual then. If you go hurt yourself let me know, because the sooner I can look at it the more likely I can keep you in the fight. Anyway, other than that, Max, we all good?" Maxine ashed, the rabbit looking up to Max, now finished with her own tasks
"Yeah, we're all good. I'll let you guys crack on. I need to chat with our CO- give me a few." Max said, the team nodding as he left them to it. The lion had to admit, it was nice to have a relatively easy going relationship

Moving across, Max headed back over towards Silverwind, taking a seat near the fox as the lion with the braided hair finished sipping from his canteen. The lion's outward appearance whilst not as weathered as the fox was one that seemed fluent in what was to come, not a stranger nor unmoved by the prospect of this op. In some ways, he looked almost a little too comfortable living on this side fo the edge, perhaps a little more adamant and finding his flow doing this line of work- despite the horrors that came with. The feline seemed to echo his usual positive attitude, but the underlying pragmatism he had could be seen from his time spent working with his old team again. They weren't perfect, but he made them work for him, and that was what he felt mattered- even if other COs didn't feel that way.

"The lads are all good to go, Colonel. Keep in mind what you've got in disposal- while we'll hit a lot of targets together, my team can operate fairly autonomously, and bury themselves in if they need to gather information. Same goes with hitting targets that are a little more sensitive with regards to intel or HVTs- so long as you don't put them in over their heads and give a distraction, they can usually be in and out before anyone stops them."

(Random question (may have been covered already)- what sort of terrain are they dropping into? And just for clarity, what sort of support vehicle is it?)
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Silverwind slid and climbed down from his perch atop his GEAR to speak with Max as the lion made his way over. He nodded at the lion's advice and cast a glance over the two teams as they made their way aboard, the GEARs strapping down into position.
"While I can't say what it's gonna be like once we're in the field with the Resistance, I can imagine that we're gonna need to be fightin' in support of Viper as an advance team, and resistance infantry as well. Seizing HVT's or intel will likely be our priority, with Viper bein' the boots on the ground to get in and get the materials or the individuals after the GEARs break the doors down - literally or figuratively - and keep the heat off while they work." He shook his head and shrugged. "Droppin' into a civil war; it's a changable situation, but we got the benefit of experience, hindsight and a steady feed of info from assets in the area already. It's just the specifics of what and where we'll get once we get on the ground and linked up".
The foxes' words were cut off by the groan of hydraulics as the transports' ramp moved up into the closed position, and the noise of engines that had already pervaded the planes' interior climbed in pitch and intensity.
"Reckon it's about time we took our seats, looks like this bird's gettin' ready to make a move". He nodded to Max and called out to Python team to sit down and strap in.
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Max nodded in response to Silverwind's comments, taking into account what the wise old hand that was his commander had to say. The chaos of it all, Max had to say, was something he enjoyed and somehow used to his advantage. Where others saw distractions and problems, he saw flexibility and the ability to rip up the playbok that normal warfare almost rote-demanded. In particular the fact that they were theoretically on the guerilla side meant that they could use more disgresion to

"Aye, sir- nothing for granted in a place like that it sounds like. I can work with that." Max said, chuckling as he heard the engines kicking in, the aircraft wobbling and erupting into noise. Well, that was the end of long meaningful conversations, the lion chuckled....and probably as Silverwind said, a good time to grab a seat.
"Yeah, you're about right there...I'm gonna grab some sleep till we're closer in. I need a bit of headspace, Colonel- I'll be back in a few." Max understated, almost a classic trait, knowing full well a "few" meant a few hours in reality...

Grabbing a seat in the seated area of the stealth transport, the lion knew that the quicker he got some shut-eye in, the better. Less time to think about just how insane this was about to be. He loved it, but sometimes it took putting that away into a small part of his head, Maxwell considered to himself. Just remember perspective, he thought to himself. You're gonna fling yourself out of a plane in a heavy piece of metal, fly it into a potentially teeming LZ and try and land under whatever conditions, wind or gunfire came. Then came the harder bit- not dying after that, operating deep behind enemy lines and as if there was a cherry on top, making sure none of his team came to any harm. In an almost strange sense, he could live with death, after all, the operations him and his team did put him harm's way more often than not. It'd be a tragic event, sure, and his family would probably be horrified by it, maybe just annoyed at themselves for not stopping him. But same time, Max took solace in the fact that he owned his own choices. Flawed as they were, he was an indivudal who cared for those around him, not a collectivist who was urging to find his own self. Perhaps that was fatalistic- but in other ways, Max knew that it was right where he belonged, in all of this chaos and fighting.

Keeping the pilot's helmet on his knee and his head back against the transport's divider in the back, the lion exhaled as he looked out to the distance, almost disconnected for a moment from the situation. As much as he didn't want to think, thoughts came back to him, rapid rate. Almost like a harrowing memory of sort. Beneath the exterior of the fun-loving, quirky and rebellious lion was a hardened and conflicted operator, the look on his face reflecting an almost vacant and soulful expression. Lions were perhaps odd like that- leaders, figureheads, the brave Arvarans that they looked to for guidance and courage. Generals, politicans, lawyers, police officers. What a lion Max wasn't, was the one lion that had that civility about him that came with absolute ferocity. That look of chivalry, the look of someone you trusted to be graceful and civil just seemed to splinter more and more when he looked to his siblings at times. It made him the outcast, the isolated one in his mind, leaning towards the ferocity more than the smart and sleek look a lion had. If you looked from an external point of view, that wasn't the case. But Max saw it as that, and in his head, that occupied his thoughts.

The reality was that instead of a noble, chivalrous almost idea of what a soldier would be protecting their country was bullshit to him. It took a fear, a teror equivalent to what they were fighting to make them scared. Someone to make the bad guys remember, they weren't gonna sleep at night well because people like him were coming for them. With whatever tools or methods required, it was just the order of things. And after a while, like Silverwind had, Max thought to himself, you stopped thinking too much about the details. It all sort of became one blur. From an external view, perhaps it was almost like a PTSD-like symptom, a mind that was already just unable to keep laughing it all away permenently. That did help, but there were one, maybe two things that stuck. Stuff that he hoped didn't show, or come through. But it was one that ran deep, that thought of acting in cold blood, or just letting horrifying things happen before your very eyes, helpless. Watching a distant thermal image go limp after a shot, or watching the sight of civilians being forced into a truck at gunpoint from afar felt disenchanting, almost like he was removed from the situation, especially in something like a GEAR. A lesser mind would have lost it by now, or at least, chosen to walk away while they still had control. Still, Max knew he was in it now, and it was better he was in that slot than anyone else. More capable, more willing, and more importantly, able to compartmentalise it when it absolutely mattered. Better more damage were to happen to some poor bastard with a gun than a civilian on a train back in Solernia, the lion mused- and that wasn't even on his mind anymore. But it was there, somewhere. Someday, he knew he'd suffer badly for it, but till then, and so long as he kept up a life that gave him exitement and constant occupation, he wouldn't deal with those chaotic concequences for a while.

Max had to think sometimes, it shouldn't have been this way. He should have done something meaningful with himself. Quit a year ago, taken the pay, joined the police, maybe his sister at that law firm, the place she always thought he'd succeed. For such a messy haired-character he could clean himself up, turn straight-edge and live a civil life doing that exceptionally well. It wasn't like his intelligence would hold him back, he was plenty smart enough for it, and plenty street-smart to thrive there. But he was too stubborn, too unwilling to change. Too set on this path now, one that had already caused him all manner of shit. Pushing that thought aside was hard, an overriding one almost as he itched his eye a little, noisily yawning as he mulled his wired up mind over a little more.

"You sleepy, Max?" Anna playfully commented, Max giving a middle finger as the jaguar chuckled, setting down her own equipment and strapping into her seat.
"A bit, Anna...you know, you could do actually resting rather than bouncing off the walls before an op. Meh, leave me to it." Max replied cooly, eyes shut as he knew roughtly wherabouts Anna had sat herself down.
"Ah, but you know me. Where's the fun in doing what we do without feeling like total shit? Ahh....screw it. Sleep tight, dream warrior." Anna added, bumping Max on the shoulder as he chuckled, setting his head further back and setting off to sleep. By the time the noisy aircraft had actually left land, Max was snoring and on his way to cutting out his mind for a while.
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Silver casually tossed Max a wave of acknowledgement as the lion excused himself. In truth, he could use the same. The flight would be long and boring, with nothing of note for the unit to do, and no way to entertain themselves other than what they had on them. The silver fox had packed a paperback in his backpack and of course, had his pebble and all that gave access to. But for the moment all he felt like doing was resting. He set himself into one of the folding jump-seats lining both sides of the huge jets' bay. The rest of Python had sat along them too, mingling with Viper and their personal kit piled up in seats between or in front of them.

While Max's mind was active and full of introspection, Silverwind's was calm and steady. It wasn't that he didn't have concerns about the mission, or about how it might go wrong, but they were present for any mission, and his experience had taught him that worrying wouldn't solve what could or might happen, nor change it. Python and Viper had been trained and drilled as hard as they could be and to all reasonable expectations. All of them were there because they were good enough to be, and him or Max riding them harder wouldn't make anything less or more likely to happen.
Instead, the Fox let the thoughts drift out of his mind and leaned back in the canvas of the jump seat and closed his eye, letting the vibrations of the aircraft lull him to a restful state.

Alongside him, Alisha peered at the fox, and then looked further down at Max, also seeming to drift off to sleep, and shook her head, the pink-dyed quills rattling slightly as she did so.
"Unbelievable," she said with a wry smile. "Guess all the experience they have counts for something if they can both drift off to sleep with all this," she gestured around the bay at the noise surrounding them.
"Speak for yourself," Catriona replied with a wide yawn, stretching out both arms and fidgeting to try and get comfortable in her seat. Large as she was, it wasnt a great fit, but the bovine would make do. From under the shaggy fringe of red fur that covered her eyes, she looked across at the much shorter woman. "I can sleep anywhere, and if there's one thing I've learned from the chief over the weeks we've been here, it's that if he or Bastion do something, it's best to follow the example". She leaned back in the seat and settled down more comfortably, leaving the others to exchange glances, before Case leaned out and grinned at Alisha.
"Oi, Riser, I'll trade you all the desserts in my field rations if you can get a look under the boss's eyepatch".
Alisha raised an eyebrow and the quills on the back of her head bristled, before she looked over at Silverwind.
Without moving or opening an eye, the fox spoke.
"Don't even think about it, either of ya. I've got my eye on you".
"But, you've got your eyes closed?" Case said in disbelief
"Yeah," the fox replied, before yawning again. "But I still got my eye on ya".
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Whilst Max dozed off to the land of dreams, the rest of Viper had continued on, not immediately going off to catch some shut-eye.

Anna in particular was busy at hand with checking the optics on her helmet-mounted NVGs, while Maxine had taken a book to hand, the rabbit reading a science-fiction novel she had recently gotten into- part of a longer series, so this would keep her hopefully occupied for a long more downtime. The Flemish Giant was a caring bunny, with her long floppy ears set back and a gentle light-brown fur, a true squad mum in every sense of the word. Caring perhaps, a warm alternative to Anna, who seemed to be in her own zone of things. She had a partner back home she wanted to have children with, perhaps after all this was said and done. The pension would be good but for now, she knew she had a purpose to serve in this team, helping them out. She flicked the page, listening in on both conversations of the two teams, but mostly keeping to herself as well, knowing she'd get some sleep soon.

Meanwhile, Logan headed over towards the rest of Python, a little exitable and chuckling at the sight of Silverwind keeping his eye open despite being basically asleep.

"I suppose sleeping in combat does that to you, heh. Max is way too much like that." Logan commented to the team, chuckling as he sat down by them, wanting to mingle and join in with another team whilst his own was occupied with their own little bits and pieces.

The red squirrel's soft Scots accent contrasted heavily with Catriona's, the red-headed Highland cow in the corner opposite to the recon team's squirrel. Logan had a gentle short hair, with his bushy tail righting him on every turn and every movement. Of Viper Team his energy and enthusiasm was second to none- he had a certain cardio that just couldn't be beat, combined with an incredibile ability to climb and just mantle up and over any restraint. Grapple hooks were not something he leaned on, and that energy he brought to the table was why he sometimes carried a DMR of his own, alongside his trusty laser designator. His look was almost the sort of Redwall-esque, medieval look you'd find in a red squirrel, a demeanour that looked like it hadn't been fazed nor stunned by what he had joined in for. Then again, doing just a year so far in Recon hadn't taken it's toll on him. Perhaps it never would, if he kept this rate of enthusiasm up...

"Anyone up for some cards? There's no way I'm gonna be sleeping anytime soon!"

---

A few hours later, and the lion had woken up almost perfectly on time with the wobble on his wrist, his watch waking him up with a gentle buzz. Yawning, the lion pulled himself up, seeing the sight of the team also pulling themselves awake, a bit earlier than him to the Warrant Officer's disdain. Well, he had them drilled....but he needed to be earlier. Damn it.

Nonetheless, the lion yawned noisily and brushing his hair aside, stood up to take a look at Anna placing her Corvid pack on her seat, the pack mounted up. She slid her legs through the parachute harness and brought it up onto her shoulder along with the wingpack that was attached to it, running through the wingpack's calibration. As sleek as the wingpack was so too was the black feline, a tool that looked like it fit her perfectly as she began to tighten her harness up. She took the flight-helmet too that was attached to the "neck" of the pack, and ran through the pre-checks of the O2 tank she would carry, attaching her combat helmet on her tactical pack stowed on her front.
"Nothing like it, eh?" Max asked, Anna nodding affermatively and in her silent manner, as the other team members followed suit, weapons stowed on their sides and unloaded. Running through a few more things, Anna took the full-face helmet once more and popped it over her head, the tinted visor making it almost impossible to see the noir-jaguar's face through the polycarbonate, as she tested the wing's extension.

"Radio check, one-two, Actual." She spoke into the radio, coming through on Max's end as he gave a thumbs up.
"All clear, Spectre. Viper Team, get yourselves set. Forty-minutes worth of this, hook your O2 supplies up to the aircraft supply- then five minutes prior, switch to your own recirculating supplies. None of you are fuckin' passing out on me, so no shit here." Max reiterated to them, the team replying with a simple agreement respectively, as he himself checked over the rest of his kit. Peering through the window, the clouds far below illustrated that they were holding at high altitude, an air that was cold and low in oxygen content. Inside their metal shell they weren't affected by it, but soon they would be out there and seeing it for themseles, that cold relentless sky never holding back.

And with that, Viper was slowly but surely getting ready. Even Logan, who had actually gotten some sleep in was somehow getting himself set up in spite of the fact that the squirrel had now tempered himself back down to focus. Sitting there, packs on and equipment ready to go, they were in their own zone for the moment being. Max knew that his team was awake before the rest of Python as well as Silverwind, so knew he'd probably have the difficult responsibility of waking up his commanding officer, the lion thought to himself. If he wasn't awake already that is...

"Boss, sorry to wake ya. We're thirty mins out now. Viper's on pre-breathe- we just need to get inside our GEARS before they open that big bloody rear door." Max calmly said, looking across to his own GEAR, the lion keeping a hold of his pilot's helmet in his hand for a moment as he heard a little more hubub of movement with regards to the aircraft crew.
"It's a bloody fine day to fly a big hunk of metal in..."
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The hours had passed pretty uneventfully; Case and Elisha had taken up the offer of cards from Logan, with Rarden joining in a few rounds later. One by one they played out the game, but moved onto chatting sociably about home, families, friends and past adventures and generally shooting the shit as soldiers are wont to do. Most of the team slept on and off, here and there.

When Max came to wake Silver, the silver foxes' eye opened calmly as the lion approached, and he nodded at his 2IC's words.
"Cool. Thanks for the wakeup call, Bastion." He gave a wry smile as he stood, stretching a little and wincing as several somethings popped and clicked. Sotto voce, he raised an eyebrow and spoke to the lion. "A'tween you an' me, while I might well be fightin' fit an' all, I sure as hell ain't as young as I useta be, an' all these war wounds take a toll. I'd be mighty glad if the next big GEAR innovation is findin' a way to fit a proper bed inside a cockpit..."
Adopting a more formal and commanding voice and posture, he straightened and addressed Python team. "Ladies, gents, an' any of the rest of y'all, mount up. The barn door is openin' soon, and the crew of this here fine aircraft have decided they're bored of our company, so it's comin' up on time to leave. Unfortunately, that means the air is leavin' with us, so pack up your crap and get in your GEARs, post haste!"
Most of Python were already at work, Catriona having chivvied them along in her position as 'commander when Silver or Max aren't around', with Case being a little slow and still blinking sleep from his eyes, but slogging away nonetheless. The fox felt a flush of pride at his little group for doing so well without his need to poke them, before turning to his own business. He took his helmet in hand and slid it on, buckling the chinstrap before climbing into the GEAR's cockpit. Red standby lighting illuminated the inside before he hit the power as the cockpit hatch closed around him and the cool blue-green lights of holographic displays swimming to life in the air around him replaced the crimson glow.
External views showed the rest of Python team slinging their gear into storage compartments and webbing on their machines, and assisting Viper with stowing the last of the equipment into the ground vehicle or external storage. Fist-bumps and high-fives were exchanged, before the GEAR pilots mounted up, hatches closing one by one.
"Sound off, Python"
"Burner, all systems green"
"Lowdown, everything in the green"
"Red, reading all good"
"Riser, all systems nominal"
"Fantastic. Bastion, how's it looking on your end?"
As he said this, the aircraft gave a slight rumble, and the hatch at the rear cracked open, and the lights inside the bay snapped to red lighting. A sliver of dark, but slowly lightening sky painted with a brush of stars appeared and grew bigger as the ramp folded down to reveal the pre-dawn inky night skies.
"Python all ready for drop. Standing by"
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Max chuckled, shrugging his shoulder.
"You know what they say, Silverwind....an old man in a young man's game is a scary bastard indeed. Especially one who has a disability sticker on the dash of his GEAR...." Max chuckled, already knowing how to tease his CO, to whatever effect it would have, taking the GEAR helmet resting in his hand and sliding it over his locks-covered temple.
"Politely speaking, let's go kick some heads in, Sir." Max added with a grin knowing Silverwind would react well to that. There had to be a little bit of banter, and Max was almost certain he was gonna get some thrown back, twice as hard in all due course.

Meanwhile, Viper were finalising their checks, the wing-pack equipped squad giving themselves their last checks over, Anna running through Logan, who then ran through Maxine, who then ran through Anna in turn. A logical, systematic process no less- nothing short of what any of them expected for a run like this, Max reminded himself, as they loaded up the last of their things into the squatting GEAR of the Lion Rampant.
"Checks complete, we're set, Actual." Anna coldly commented through her radio, the team now on their own O2 systems, already at a completed pre-breathe for their drop, Max walking across to see his team before they dropped.
"Aww. I thought I'd be able to hang onto one of you for the ride, Spectre." Max sarcastically commented back, rolling his tongue at her, the jaguar not getting the sarcasm just yet....
"Get in the fucking GEAR, Max. Or I'll ride you down." Anna replied, unknowingly slipping her tongue as Max giggled like a schoolgirl, Logan and Maxine hearing the same. A moment of catharsis for pretty much anyone that heard it, as Anna merely flipped him off and Max just slowly walked away, adjusting the cuffs on his pilot's suit and the tilt on his helmet's comms channel.

"Don't ever change, Spectre. Alright Viper, like Silverwind says, door's gonna open in a bit. Remember, nice, calm, easy. Don't make uhh....too many shenanigans. We still have a job to do, so let's not fuck it up right now." Max said succinctly and to the point through teh radio, heading over towards the Lion Rampant's entry hatch, punching his code and sliding himself inside. With a flicker the holographics were online, the displays back to life as the GEAR stood upright once more, firing into action.

Gently checking over the GEAR systems, the lion engaged the GFDS wingpack's extensions, the wingpack locking into place and giving a position to rest the Lion Rampant's arms onto. The HUD altered, displaying a more pilot-styled azimuth and heads up display, complete with altitude, glide ratio and speed. The datalink was already working its magic to already recognise the other aerial-oriented GEARS, pinging them up with a square box for distant visual. In fact, the system was fairly clever- it wasn't an autopilot, but for flying a GEAR in, more than just a pilot's brains were required. An augmented-reality DZ marker linked to an optimal pathing projection, almost like a GPS checkpoint system that the pilots could use to set up a formation or use. Flicking it aside, he checked the comms link to Silverwind, the lion's blue and green illuminated face seen in the link.
"The Lion Rampant is wonderful as always, Silverwind. Viper, sitrep?" Max asked, waiting for his team to chirp up.
"Spectre, all good!"
"Kestrel, ready to go!"
"Hopper, all set!"

"Two minutes to red, everyone!" Anna called out, the jaguar in contact with the jumpmaster at the apex of the ramp, taking responsbility for this side of the aircraft operation alongside the quiet-mask wearing German Shepherd standing near the door. While Catriona was certainly running things in Max and Silverwind's absence, Anna taking control of that was seemingly something nobody was complaining about, or at least, Anna didn't want to hear it. Time felt like it ticked forever inside the GEAR Max was inside, the displays all reading five by five and suggesting that the oxygenated environment inside of here, as per any CBRN attack, would keep him alive.

"Red is on!" Anna yelled out on the comms, Max looking over his GEAR's right hand side to see where Viper were walking out, the red light and the warning klaxon punctuating the fact that soon, the very air they breathed inside of here would be sucked out with barely a moment's notice. The wind howled beyond the mechanical-sounding ramp as it slowly opened, Viper holding at the front of the door, right in front of the Lion Rampant, in a position to at least not get squished when Max pushed the GEAR forward onto the ramp.

The sky beyond the opening cargo ramp was an impressive sight, the very distant sun beyond the clouded sky revealing a slither of glowing orange to Arvara, contrasted with the still glistening and bright white stars in the sky above. The light pollution even in spite of the sunrise showed the stars brighter than most would see in the cities of back home, a glistening blanket of silvery white on navy blue. The noise of whistling could even be heard from inside the GEAR, even in spite of the layers of armour, it was a howl, a shriek, almost a yell to the abyss. An abyss Max had no problem whatsoever looking into. It seemed strange, but after enough of this, you just accepted the void that you went into on a regular basis. Trust yourself, trust your equipment, trust your team, and it's a void worth travelling through, Max reminded himself...

With a gentle turn, Max stood on the edge of the ramp's downcline, bracing himself as he saw Viper move to the side, getting out of the way. If Viper went first, they could risk having a GEAR fall on top of them if their GFDS system failed- and that was pretty much game over, so knowing that the Viper operatives could catch up, they would wait and wave their collegues on by.
"Standby, Actual. All callsigns, prep for deployment, aircraft is on 250 bearing, speed 220kph- adjust for bearing 265 pathway on exit. Bastion, Python, Blade, you're all first. We'll follow you out." Anna commented, the jumpmaster giving her all the details she needed, the red light still on. Viper had fully deployed their Corvid packs, the sight of their protruding wingpacks on their backs an odd and strange one to see, the sight of Arvarans who looked like they'd looked to birds for ideas.

"Green is on!" Anna yelled out, the lights lurching from red to green on both the panel and across the cargo bay as the klaxon changed tone, going to an even harsher buzz. Like a "get the fuck out" sort of buzz, because when the green was one, it was go time.

With a gentle flick of the controls, the GEAR wheeled itself down the last remaining part of the ramp and fell right off the end, the intial inertia making the Lion Rampant sink with the wing surfaces braking hard, using the momentum to turn barely a couple of degrees, and ultimately, pivot immediately into a sharp, steep glide.

And it was a rush.

"All systems good, tracking on flight pathing 265, all datapoints live, holding pattern. Fuck....this never gets old!" Max called back, his head professional yet his heart just all himself. The GEAR's glide flattened quickly as he adjusted the wingpack's dive, giving him a good position to hold at the front of the pattern, or at least, hold in a spot to give Silverwind room in front.

With the other GEARs sending it to the end of the plane, Spectre, Kestrel and Hopper were running out of the back, throwing themselves out sideways and in probably the coolest fashion the jumpmaster alone would be able to witness, flying onto angle immediately from the exit. As if a bunch of GFDS-equipped GEARS wasn't enough, the three other Viper team members were following into the breach, already keeping an eye on the cluster down below as they turned and caught the wind effortlessly.

Flying down to the main group, flying a few degrees onto their bearing the three wingpack-equipped SOF operators had actually flown fast and caught them up, hanging right above the main group. It was something to behold, both from Max's and Anna's perspcetive, the sight of not falling but gliding GEARS and Arvarans into the dark black sunrise from high altitude. The fluttering noise was howling even with earplugs and their helmets, Anna holding steady above Max's GEAR and the rest of the group.

"Viper, sitrep?"
"Right on top of you, Actual!" Anna, or Spectre called back, in a rare show of her exited self, as Max chuckled back, running through the AR checkpoint system as Max saw them come up on his camera, chuckling to himself.

"Blade, we're all green here- should be about a ten minute flight to our DZ....the visuals are just mad here. There's a patch of cloud on the path, want us to re-round around?" Max asked, calm as you like as he gently gave a slight adjustment in angle, the GEAR turning back onto angle and onto pathing, the wingpack-wearing operators following suit as Anna dived to barely within a couple of meters of Max's rocket anchor, quite the sight to behold. It had to be said, Viper weren't kidding when they said they could fly very tight to Max, their Corvids making it look effortless as they kept right on top of the Lion Rampant, out of the burble path and on the collective flight route.
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Silver's GEAR was alive under his gloved hands, and he almost felt like it was anticipating the action as much him, by the soft hum of its' running systems. The ribbon of dawn sky called to him as the machine moved to the rear of the transport, poised on the precipice of the ramp. As the harsh buzz of the drop sounded, he pivoted the GEAR over the edge. The fox drew the knees and the arms in, somersaulting into a spin to change direction, before spreading out the arms and legs in an aerobrake. The GDFS flight packs' wings and control surfaces extended smoothly with a whine of servos lost in the whirling wind of the drop. Holographic displays through the AR interface showed him well in the pipe and dropping on course, with Python strung on like beads on a line behind him as they plunged toward the ground in a graceful glide. The pulsing thrill of adrenaline surged through the old foxes' veins as the ground loomed closer through bands of cloud.
"Negative on the redirect," Silver replied to Max as they spiralled on the glide path. "Stay the course; the packs can handle it and so can we. LZ is looking good"
The cloud engulfed the GEARs and wingpacks, buffetting them as they descended and a spray of icy rain blasted across the external cameras, plunging things into a dark mist for precious hearbeats, before the light of the sun breaking across the horizon bathed them in a radiant glow as they emerged from the underside of the wispy mass.
Blades' sensor alerts came to life a moment later, passive systems showing a small gaggle of forces emplaced at the bottom of the hillside below, in the meadow where they'd been due to land.
"Too late to change course," Silverwind growled to the others over the commo network. "They haven't targeted us yet, push our advantage and rush them!"
Shifting his orientation, Silverwind unlimbered his GEARs' rifle and let off a volley at a light vehicle, along with a three-round volley of high-explosive from the mortar on the shoulder. The steep hillside rushed up to meet him, and the fox purged the flight gear, dropping onto the earth of the hillside and skidding on the bipedal machines' heels. Python followed suit, flowing like liquid into the charge and working in a single, continuous charge, working in sync.
Burner suppressed a truck-mounted gun with a volley of fire from the rotary cannon her GEAR carried, giving Lowdown the opening to bound forward on back-mounted jets and waste a utility vehicle with a shotgun blast. As the light truck tumbled and rolled over, Red plowed past, skidding on foot mounted wheels down the slope, firing off an anti-armour missile in concert with Riser as her GEAR landed from a bounding leap from the hillside, the missile slamming into a hostile GEAR as it turned to fire, before being caught and exploding, the debris tumbling and rolling in a sheet of flame and smoke. The porcupines' auto-shotgun tore through the gun crew on an anti-air platform, which was then blitzed by anti-armour cannon fire from Burner, giving Silverwind an opening to skid past on foot-wheels and slam the pile-bunker on his GEAR's forearm into the chest of a second hostile GEAR, pinned in place by rifle and shotgun fire from Case and Lowdown.
The LZ was a mess, but Ghosts had arrived in decisive style
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Max grinned, the feeling of the GEAR's joystick wobbling under his hand, even in spite of all the technological wizardry at play perhaps an example that no matter how smart the systems you had were, there was always an organic element to this.

"Roger that, Silverwind. Viper, stick close through the clouds, no funny business!" Max called out, the wingpack-equipped recon team did just the funny business that Max really didn't want them to do. They hung almost a meter out, Anna even closer right by Max's cockpit, a feat that even the lion was almost spechless at. If he could see her face through that visor, she'd have a shit eating grin....but he didn't, as the turbulent cloud came into immediate sight and they all went through without much of a hitch. The sight of the orange glow on the horizon was becoming more and more powerful, the darkness all below in the rolling hills and green pasture-like farmland in Arbrentia.

The LZ itself was a steep hill and a meadow that it naturally flowed in, one Max knew complimented an aggressive, hard landing without the use of the GFDS's parachutes- a more risk averse operator might have said it was a stupid move and prefered deployment, but Max was not that, neither were the team. And Silver had a point, when the Lion Rampant's own C3i systems picked up the ping of infantry. Either risk losing the advantage and getting spotted by trying to deploy and becoming a sitting duck to whatever mess they had, or hit them before they could react. The literal momentum of falling out of the sky was not exactly easy to counter, not when it weighed over 10 tons and was also firing hot lead. Mind you, Max knew he wouldn't be any immediate use down there, not unless he really threw himself into the absolute mess. A split-second decision had to be made, and the wisened Warrant Officer knew what to do.

"Copy, Silverwind....I'm gonna try and land higher up the hillside, I'll target high-value as best I can from afar! Viper, switch to the alternate LZ and get some fire support running as soon as you're down!" The lion called out, diving fast and dropping a little quicker than the rest. If he was going to be there to provide fire support, he had to beat them down, and Max knew these things could do that if he needed to, the GFDS and the GEAR shifting downwards and picking up speed. It would put him on a much steeper part of the hill, and worse, at higher speed.

The landing was hard, very, very hard even for an experienced operator such as Max. The GEAR like the rest of Python and Silverwind didn't naturally flow but skidded nastily along the grassy hillside, kicking up mud and dirt as he struggled to dig into the hill, a nasty landing but one his GEAR could survive, Max reminded himself, well, also be operational after! Coming to a halt as the hill flattened slightly, Max engaged the GEAR's non-GFDS systems and threw the GEAR forwards against a rock outcrop, swinging the 30mm rifle off the GEAR's back. Already picking up thermal signatures, Max loaded a AT magazine into the oversized rifle, watching as the other three came in hot and already were lacing targets on their way down.

"Contacts, fucking everywhere! AT's loaded!" Max called out, shouldering the 30mm rifle and lacing a third GEAR down at the bottom of the hill about to cross over a small stream, quickly picking out it's "head", before firing another decisive round into it's power unit, disabling it in a non-dramatic fashion before switching the magazine out. Going with a standard 30mm round, he put a few rounds into a couple of soldiers running towards a machine gun post, quickly dicing them up with the rest of the magazine, the large 30mm rounds making easy pickings of their position.

-----

The others meanwhile had flown low and dirty on the other side of the hillside, barely flaring on the side of the ridge to get the very last speed out of the wingpacks, and stall them out to safely land in a manuever that Max himself would have been proud of. After all, they weren't going to be as tough as those GEARS were- they still needed parachutes, and didn't have the luxury of being able to hit the steep rocky hill and survive, and pulling very dirty low meant they had to at least try and make sure their openings were as clean as possible. Altimeter going off and screaming at her that they were far too low, Anna flared out and deployed the wingpack's parachute, the deacceleration jolting her upward almost as she looked across to the chaos to her left hand side.

Floating down under the grey parachute, Anna was speechless as she watched five GEARs all pile in, the steep hillside allowing them to avoid the use of the GEAR parachutes and instead slide down, in a highly dramatic fashion. She and Max had done some insane shit, but that was quite something, especially that hot. Whatever it was, it made the jaguar tense up and get a hold of herself fast, steering herself quickly down to the ground as she took her helmet off.

"Holy shit...." She simply commented, the noise of explosives and rounds flying on the other side of the steep hill something to behold in the dark morning. It was still dark enough to be using NVGs, but the explosions were making it light enough like it was day now.

While steep, a tiny terrace was right below her, something Anna was steering towards and already putting herself on a landing pattern. Due to the exceptionally low deployment they had barely less than 20 seconds of canopy time, it gave her little room to react, but enough to get down to the surface. She'd done more stupid, but the wingpacks allowed for some degree of confidence when it came to low-altitude deployments.
"Copy Viper, we all alive?" Spectre called out, waiting a response eagerly as she focussed just on her own accuracy for right now.

"Yeah, not bad, Spectre. Kestrel's with me, we're all good. What's the sitrep?" Hopper replied, the rabbit deploying a little higher up, under her own grey parachute too, and only just taking in the sight of what was going on beyond the hillside.
"Lots of them, our guys are handling it but there's a few weapons platforms up ahead. This wasn't in the intel...mobile AA guntrucks, AT, shit, technicals too. Follow me down, team." Anna cooly replied, the sight of the other side fading from view as they fell beneath the horizon into the dark hillside. Pulling the riser down and turning hard right, she picked up speed under the rectangle-shaped parachute and flared hard onto the rough grass, enough to kill her speed and put her right on the edge of Viper's alternate LZ.

With a gentle exhale, Anna looked up to see the other two coming in, already dekitting her stuff and wrapping her parachute around her wingpack, the wings folded back in and now in a lightweight carrying configuration. If this fell into enemy hands, they'd be confused as hell at first, Anna thought to herself, but they'd certainly be curious as to what the fuck was coming- so they had to try holding onto them as much as possible. Thanks to their relatively light-weight it wasn't too bad, but even so, it was an extra few kilos on top of full combat gear, the type she was adjusting on herself as she took her M23 into her hands. Sliding a 6mm magazine in, the long-barreled M23 Grenadier was back in her trusty hands, as she took a knee and checked their sectors.

"LZ's clear. C'mon, let's go." She called out, Anna confident as she ran with a formidable, confident pace up the hill, NVGs on her helmet and a silenced rifle back into her hands. Exactly how she liked it.Running up to the apex of the hill, a short two minute jaunt, Anna took cover by a stone wall, peering over with her M23 and taking a moment, as Kestrel and Hopper joined her.

"We ain't gonna survive if we join them. Shit, we've had worse but that's heavy down there. Alright, Kestrel, give Hopper your rifle, you're lasing shit and spotting- let's pick off targets from here. No fucking arguing." Anna called out, as the two did exactly as she said, Anna adjusting her combat optic as she rested her arm on the stone wall, Hopper taking Kestrel's longer-sighted battle rifle and adjusting its grip on the stone wall, looking down the long-range optic down towards the engaging GEARS.

"No kidding, Spectre." The rabbit gently replied, adjusting her sight and taking a few deep breaths.
"Alright, Hopper. Weapons hot then. Let's not keep them waiting." Spectre replied, giving a wave as she spotted an infantry fireteam further down the hill, another group moving along the GEARs flank and quickly started putting accurate semi-auto fire down their way, quickly dropping two soldiers with ease as Hopper found her mark too. The silenced 6mm was drowned out by noise, so they were almost invisible from their position up top, knowing they could pick stragglers off with ease. That was, until Spectre punted a 40mm round into a machine gun nest on another part of the ridge, the sight of two soldiers being blasted out of a foxhole being the mark for the infantry element to relocate further down the hill, using a thin dirt path to the nest they'd destroyed.

"Spectre to all, Viper's down safe. We're giving you fire, Kestrel has a lase on a distant two IFVs, looks like a temporary encampment down there, about five tents and a fuel truck. Wait...."

"Fire's sent!" Max replied, already one step ahead of his 2IC, the AT round already in and targetted at the distant base. While it was almost 1km away, the round felt like it made shockwaves when it hit, the sight of the large explosion on the horizon lighting up the dark morning even more, as the lion chuckled, Max engaging his wheels and following down to the rest of Python Team, aware they could use a little more close in help after his fire support. The explosion had lit up bits of a nearby tent, and the fire had already picked up, spreading across the grass as he reloaded, picking out a technical with a couple of rounds and quickly taking it down before the rest of the team engaged it.
"Alright, Viper, move and take out any stragglers, clear up anything we can't hit. Once we've wrapped this up, get your shit off us and let's get moving fast, before we get tied up in a long-term firefight. Maximum aggression. No fucking around!"
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