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!"