Smoke and earth reached to the sky as Oliver piloted his GEAR through a hailstorm of mortar shells. It might be all practice shells but none the less the tiger found it exciting to avoid the virtual destruction that rained down from above. He could feel his hearth pumping as the next shell landed even closer to his GEAR then the previous one. Adrenaline rushed through Oliver’s body as he piloted his GEAR with great precision through the desert like terrain utilizing both his legs and wheels to make tight turns, boost up speed or as an emergency brake to avoid virtual death and the humiliation of being the first to get knocked out of his unit. The young tiger might have a reputation of misbehavior, disobedience and being a poor soldier in general, but today he showed that he could pilot a GEAR with a skill level that was way beyond of what was to be expected from someone fresh from basic training.

One of Oliver monitors flickered as it showed and overview of the battlefield the recon team was fighting on. From the corner of his eyes he could see how Myria charged her GEAR forward to engage the last remaining enemy in the area. Oliver’s team leader seemed to understand that Oliver was pushing his luck dodging mortars and that it would only be a matter of time before she had to continue the trainings mission with one team member less. For a moment he wondered what pushed Myria to put herself in harm’s way for the one guy that had put up shenanigans on their first mission. Oliver found it hard to imagine that she’d do it to save the tiger’s ass. None the less he was happy that Myria made that split second decision that would allow him to turn off his jamming antenna. After all, the powerful radio signal that was coming from the antenna put a giant target on his GEAR. As the tiger followed Myria’s ferocious assault on his monitor he totally missed the next incoming mortar.

The sudden smoke and dust blocked the visual sensors as bright red flashes in the GEAR’s cockpit indicated that Oliver’s GEAR had taken some damage. “Damn it!” cursed the Young tiger as he frantically tried to assess the situation as his GEAR came to a halt. With one look around the cockpit Oliver noticed that most of his systems where still online. He looked at the monitor showing the drone feed just in time to see Myria finishing off the last enemy GEAR with her blade. Quickly Oliver *flipped the switch and stopped the radio jamming. He could only hope that enemy artillery would cease fire now that they had nothing more to lock on too. Luckily the radar screen stayed empty. He opened up a channel to Myria “Thanks for saving me from virtual obliteration.” Spoke the tiger as he checked his computer for damage reports. Apparently the computer had decided that shrapnel has penetrated some of armor plating on the legs, damaging the hydraulic system and reducing the GEAR’s speed with about 20%. Luckily for Oliver, the damage seemed only minor.