Venessa finally opened her comms, she had been remaining silent to help conceal her whereabouts "All vehicles, move into position and fire at will" shortly after, the few tanks that had followed her orders, rolled over a hill, then opened fire on the flanks of the Rough riders. All shots were being manually aimed as jamming techniques were interfering with radar targeting, the total accuracy loss made Venessa uncomfortable, but if it could cause some chaos on the advancing GEARs, then it would be worth firing the inaccurate shots. Venessa herself was waiting for the right moment to strike.

She saw it when a GEAR began firing and moving in rapid success (Nawlin). "Engage conditioning system" the machine responded with a few whines and the sounds of joints preparing themselves for the strain they were about to receive. The distance from her to the target was quite notable, enough for the GEAR to react. "Prepare skates" the machine didn't respond with noises, only a message saying the skates were ready. Venessa nodded, then pushed her own machine into combat, the first step digging into the ground and leaving a scar in the ground, every step afterwards didn't dig into the ground as much, running towards the GEAR. No turning back now

Oliver noticed how his HUD showed that a new radiofrequency became active. "Clever girl. She only found things out mere minutes after tapping into the system" talked the tiger to himself. He could not help but to smile a bit. Whoever was piloting the sex legged GEAR was at least a worthy challenger that even tried to counter hack Oliver's GEAR. Now things would become really interesting. The tiger quickly diverted the communicationlink to an already running sandbox on his PADD. From here he planned to supply the enemy with false location information. Unfortunately for the young tiger, his CO just ordered to storm the base. Without time to set things up properly, his false info feed would never be convincing so that option was ruled out. Oliver quickly typed a message and send it to the enemy GEAR that would appear. "I'd really love to play and talk some more but I got some base storming and communication/radar jamming to do. So let's talk some more after the exercise. After all, a wise general once said keep your friends close but your enemies closer ;)"

Oliver quickly engaged all his jamming equipment as he entered the base as last of colonel Blade's group. The tiger made sure to jam all radio frequencies the enemy had been using so far. Also he started jamming enemy radars, rendering the enemy systems nearly useless. A chaotic scene was unfolding before the tigers eyes. Enemy infantry running around in order to reach their defensive positions as they were taken by surprise of the rapid assault. SAM installations went down as the Roughriders sniped them from the distance while their two main teams where fighting in the base. Oliver's attention was drawn to his radar screen as new enemy dots appeared. He quickly zoomed in on the location with his drone and could see multiple GEARs including a Blitzer variant. Oliver quickly opened his radio. "Looks like our welcoming party is here with one hell of a weird looking GEAR."

Oliver put his Saxknot into fireing position and aimed at the most forward advancing GEAR. Just like most of the enemy GEARs it was an improvised civilian GEAR armed with a rocket launcher and an assault rifle. It wasn't for long before the GEAR entered into effective range of Oliver's 20 mm assault rilfe. The tiger squeezed the trigger and fired the first burst of 3 shots. Dust and sand kicked up as in front of the enemy as his bullets missed their target. Quickly Oliver switched to automatic fire and pulled the trigger once more. Fire erupted from the muzzle of the gun as he sprayed the enemy with automatic fire. More dust was kicked up before the enemy GEAR finely turned red on the sensory screen, indicating that it has been destroyed. It wasn't before long that the other enemies started to return fire on his Saxknot. Quickly Oliver took cover behind a destroyed APC.

A series of warning klaxons rang in Myrina's ears, prompting a quick to dash to the side. The GEAR spun, in time for her to see a burst of earth and smoke erupt from the ground some meters away. As she scanned for a source of the shot, her data screen blipped, adding several new threats to the map. Myrina cursed as she made sense of the boxy shapes. Tanks?! With much more armor than a GEAR and their smoothbore cannons, a tank could easily take our their machines at range. But on second thought, the round that had flew at her had been imprecise, judging from the point of impact. A laser-guided round would have blew the Warlock's torso off, even as it skirted around, not to mention the warning siren had been a general danger indication, not the shrill of a laser-lock.

"Commander, Myrina here. The OPFOR's sent a squadron of MBTs to engage us at this position." Myrina shared the data her computer had collected with Colonel Blade, marking out the tanks on his screen.
"I'm certain their laser-guidance is out; they've been firing manually-aimed rounds at me." And thank goodness for that!

"Shit," muttered Blade under his breath as Myrina's report came in. Tanks, even with manually-guided weapons were bad news. Even their heavy machine-guns would make a mess of a GEAR, not to mention the cannon they carried. And getting through their armour would be tough.
Fortunately, they had Ken around, and Blade dropped his las-des onto the lead tank, punching the target through the the chopper pilot as a priority.
"Hit the tanks, Ken," he said quietly and urgently. "Priority target. Everyone else in my team - pincer the armour. Kradis: Once Ken's made his run, follow it up with bombardment on the next target. I'll keep the designator on, and slide to the next target. I'll keep the bombardment rolling with mortar fire as we close range. Aim for tracks and sensors; and for their MG's. Mobility kill them and then try to close in to close range and pick 'em off. I'll hit from the rear with my ATGMs. Move quickly, hit hard".
The brief was concise and clipped, betraying the urgency of the situation, and the Harlock left rooster-tails of dust in its' wake as it shot off, leaning hard into its' zig-zagging course, sticking to rock walls and foliage for cover, as the tanks' turrets swung close. A round exploded close by the GEAR, and the damage readout illuminated red on the machines' left side. A drop in hydraulic pressure and muscle-fiber conductivity simulated damage, and a burst of simulated - and paint- machine-gun fire grazed the GEAR, knocking out a number of surface sensors and minor equipment - a broken searchlight, speaker and equipment hooks were nothing to be concerned about. Armour breaches, though, might be another matter.
Either way, the laser-designator was still on target, and he'd closed range well. The mortar coughed out the last of its' AP rounds, dropping them squarely on top of the rear-most tank, the laser switching immediately to the one on the far-right of the V-Shaped formation, keeping it highlighted for Kradis artillery, even as the vulpine moved and launched the last pair of the AT-missiles, which blasted clear on white trails of vapour, speeding away, before top-attacking; at least on the sim. One flew true, the second sim-defeated by the counter-missile defences of the tank. One target winked out, and the second registered as a mobility kill from the mortars, but was putting up a furious defence with everything at its' disposal.
"One down," the fox said urgently. "Two to go. One mobility kill."

Amelia's four Gatling machine guns roared to life as the Roughriders began their assault, four constant streams of light stitching across them as she demonstrated Sovereigns fire power. The six large legs raised the central chassis higher, giving her an even better vantage point as the large ninety millimetre cannon thundered more shells down at them. Red rings would circle each Roughrider for a moment before flickering and fading out, a result of their sensor jamming systems and EMP chaffs. Amelia's forces were taking losses but they held the line, each GEAR shouldering an assault weapon as they returned fire, strafed and engaged. Amelia was no fool though; aside from herself and the other officer pilot she knew her units were far out matched in skill which meant she would need to pull something out of the bag if she had any hope of pulling this back. She'd underestimated the Roughriders vigour and hadn't expected them to hit as hard as they had done without first giving away tells to indicate their plans. As Amelia continued to hammer the Roughriders from her hill she briefly glanced at the message which came back through the freq line, ignoring it as the Saxknot disconnected to prevent her infiltrating it's systems, she didn't have time to read it.

Instead she patched through to command who were watching this training exercise, "This is Winter, requesting access to military satellite Zero Eight Beta, 'Firefly' " she said as the six legged GEAR's autoloader began to feed more ninety millimetre shells into the chamber. "... For what reason Lieutenant" replied a deep voice. "... Armageddon" she replied. There was a small pause from the other end before some static fed through, "Access granted, uploading satellite feed now, over" he said before the line cut, a small sub screen appearing on her HUD to show the satellites perspective. "Synch" she spoke, watching out the corner of her eye as Sovereign synchronised with satellite Firefly. Suddenly her tracking systems amplified as the red rings began to secure around each Roughrider via the satellite's enhanced systems. The central chassis of the Sovereign then sank as her missile launchers tilted up. Amelia moved her hand delicately to her controls, lifting a transparent plastic protection cover from a black button before hovering her finger over it. She waited a moment before pressing it firmly. Each of the six legs steadied to compensate as her launchers erupted furiously, spitting streams of smoke into the sky like an angry dragon.

Each of the fifty six missiles rose into the sky, reaching it's apex where it began to arch before falling back towards the ground, directly towards the Roughriders. Due to their EMP chaff and sensor jamming; the missiles wouldn't be able to make direct hits on the Roughriders. But it would definitely be danger close. "I hope you can dance..." Amelia muttered before opening the COM to her units, "We're pulling back to secondary positions at the air strip, we'll make our last stand there. Everyone move!" she shouted before she began to retreat. The six legs thumping in engineering harmony before she picked up speed, the rest of her unit moving with her while shooting back to cover their retreat.

Kensington didn't take time to respond to Silver's request as he quickly assessed the situation and tried to pick out the most dangerous target in the line of his gun run. The pilot took note of the military gears and quickly went to comms to report their locations. "Hostile GEAR is adjusting location and engaging your marksmen. The second one is lighting up a-" the pilot was cut off when the missiles behind him detonated near the main force. The wolf cursed under his breath and glanced over his shoulder in an attempt to calculate the damage his comrades sustained. Seeing no big issue the pilot was eyes forward again only to see the hostiles making a tactical retreat. He had to throw a wrench in the machine.

"Sorry sir priorities have changed. Be advised I have to adjust fire to a different HVT." Kensington reported, his helicopter making a hard left to go around and intercept the opposition from the side. Within the minute he was circling around the retreating forces without any issue, but he also knew as soon as their tactician made the call he would be in trouble. Quick thinking was done, and what was presumed to be the biggest threat was locked on by the helicopter's weapon system. Three seconds passed, and the moment came to it's spark that turned into a flame. "Alright I'm calling guns!"

Upon entering the range he had his weapon zeroes on the pilot unleashed the wrath of an attack from the sky, spraying a calculated carpet of heavy caliber 30mm rounds that sliced through the retreating force, the airman himself hoping it could cause the infliction of damage he intended to do. It was moments like this he missed his rocket and missile pods and racks.

Nawlin's glance twitched over to Vanessa and her Gear, noticeing the dust trail. "well, looks like I've been found." he muttered. keying COM to the group as Prowler turned to bring his rifle to bear. <look like they found me, good news is its one of the modern gears> he said, sighting center mass. <engageing.> The rifle roared its challenge as mike slowly snapped shots at the charging enemy, after a few rounds mike stepped back into the brush. "second thought, you come to me" he muttered, the mobile armor shifting till it roughly matched its surroundings.

a few moments later mike had drawn his knife and pistol, and was readying himself for the confrontation when his computer began to wail urgently. "the hell?...oh god." mike flailed for COMs, Prowler sprinting from the flora <SCATTER!, Dump chaff, flares, vent coolent!> mike yelled to the group as the simulated explosion cut his systems temporarily, causing him to stumble for a moment before regaining his stride and visuals. "still moving, still alive" mike muttered prowler recovered.

A few seconds after Raisa had finished stretching, shots were fired and the first part of the battle for the fortress began. She had been ordered to deal with the six-legged machine's group and she had just finished transitioning into combat mode from stealth mode, which took about five to seven minutes, when the reinforcement tanks came rolling over the hills in an almost cinematic fashion. Moving out of her cover, Raisa checked her ammunition. She had more than enough rounds for her rifle, but she only had two more missiles left; one per wrist. She would need to choose her next target carefully. While they certainly could penetrate the armor of the tank, thanks to her choosing High Velocity missiles, it would be a waste to use them on the tanks. Instead, the point defense guns would be better targets...

MISSILE WARNING!

Suddenly, she was torn away from her thoughts by the sound of her GEAR's systems indicating that she had missiles inbound towards her. A corner of her view was changed to show her external cameras tracking the missiles. Give or take, at least eight were headed towards her. No problem, she would just deploy flares...

WARNING: SHOULDER DAMAGE: HEAVY BURNS!

Raisa cried out in pain as a burning pain erupted on her shoulders. Instinctively, she gripped her shoulders and she realized what had happened when she felt the distinct shapes of the shoulder-mounted ammo storage units. An old design problem that had been around since the days of the Fulcrum yet had never been resolved; the storage units blocked the flare and chaff launchers. This had catastrophic effects when the pilot had to fire flares or chaff. Raisa had completely forgotten about this. To begin with, she hadn't expected to face missiles in the mission based on the briefing, explaining why she had decided to use the storage units instead of something like minature CIWS, which she would definitely had used if she had known about the missile attacks beforehand. She gritted her teeth in response to the simulated pain she had received from the burns on the GEAR's shoulders. However, she still had the missiles to deal with.

Theoretically, she could force-jettison the shoulder units and then deploy chaff to mask her position, but she doubted she would have enough time to achieve such an action. Instead, she would need to do something in next few seconds or face annihilation and become the first loss for the Roughriders. Looking at her external feed with slightly teary eyes, she then looked around her and an idea hatched in her head. Without much time to think about whether it would work or not, she brought it into action without simulating the potential possibilities in her head. With a sharp command, she unlocked her rifle from its mount and brought it into her left-hand, rather than her right one as it was designed for and threw it to the ground next to her. Then, she threw her GEAR onto its back. With a thump, the Flanker's back hit the ground hard and Raisa gasped as the shock knocked the wind out of her. Not letting the new pain in her chest and back get to her, she launched her remaining missiles into the air and detonated them when they were high enough, destroying two of the eight missiles.

ABDOMINAL DAMAGE: IMPACT. REAR ABDOMINAL ARMOR AT FIFTY PERCENT DAMAGE!

Not resting for a moment and ignoring the damage indication, she grabbed her thirty-millimeter rifle with her left hand and positioning the butt on her left shoulder and using the ground as a support, she brought the rifle up with one arm towards the sky and did the same with her right hand's wrist mounted machine gun, aiming both at the remaining missiles. Raisa fired both at the missiles, which acted much like a CIWS, letting the bullets hit the missiles and destroy them, which was highly effective, but had one major problem, which Raisa hadn't had the time to predict...

The bullets fired were only simulator bullets, incapable of making actual damage. The shells ejected by her rifle were a different story.

HEAVY ABDOMINAL DAMAGE: BURNS. FRONTAL ABDOMINAL ARMOR AT EIGHTY PERCENT DAMAGE!

Raisa screamed out in pain once again as the shells ejected from the right side of the rifle fell onto her GEAR's chest, making deep burns in the armor. As earnest and frank as ever, her GEAR translated these burns and the pain that ensued to Raisa's own suit and thus her body. The missiles each went out with individual pop's like fireworks as they were shot down and she was safe for the moment. However, Raisa wasn't free of the pain caused by the hot shells. Gasping from the simulated pain, she let her arms fall to the ground and she gingerly looked at her GEAR's chest. It was deeply burned, leaving only the final and lightest layer of armor intact. Despite it not being her own true body, she still winced at the sight, mostly due to the pain. In reality, her suit was only playing a trick on her nerves to make her fell as if she was actually burned. An idea originally meant to give pilot's a closer bond with their GEAR, Raisa gave a curt opinion of it.

She hated it.

Her shoulders still burned from the flares, her back was still aching from the impact on the ground and now her chest felt like absolute hell. Still, after a moment of regaining herself, she weakly spoke to her GEAR. "Structural damage report." A chime confirmed her voice command and her GEAR's system gave her an image of the damage. Her shoulder armor was, of course, in the red zone, as was her frontal abdominal armor and her rear abdominal armor was colored yellow, but the structure of her GEAR was still in nearly perfect condition and save for the pair of chest mounted external cameras, all systems were fine. In short, she could continue the fight. With a deep breath, Raisa brought the GEAR up off the ground and picked up the rifle again and locked back onto her back. After recovering a few magazines from her shoulder ammo units and clipping them to her legs, then loading the surplus missiles into the wrist launchers, Raisa jettisoned the storage units. The smoldering flares fell with them to the ground, bringing a bit of smoke and Raisa felt some of the sting from the burns leave her shoulders.

Recovering her rifle from her back, she ejected the empty magazine and loaded a new one. She then verified how much ammo she now had. Three full thirty millimeter magazines, a half-empty fifteen millimeter and two missiles, plus blade... It wasn't great, but it would have to be enough, as she could only carry two magazines on her legs. Raisa cleared her throat and she attempted to sound strong despite the pain as she spoke over comms. "Biryukova here. I've sustained considerable shoulder and abdominal armor damage from the missile attack and I've had to jettison my shoulder ammo storage units, leaving me with only three more magazines for my rifle. Chaff launchers are inoperable. I can still continue the fight, though. Orders, Colonel?"

Silverwind's GEAR was moving slower as the simulated damage took effect. And the battle plan was falling apart. The tanks were still active; Ken had ignored his command to engage the armour, and instead had shifted to the lesser-armed and armour GEARs, and instead begun to engage them, along with Nawlin, Bell and Ray, whom he'd detached for precisely that reason.

"Sorry sir priorities have changed. Be advised I have to adjust fire to a different HVT."

"Negative! growled Silverwind, limping his GEAR as close to the tank as he could, diving into a shoulder roll to avoid a high-explosive round and a volley of machine-gun fire. "The tanks are the priority!"
He cursed as the helo wheeled in the sky to engage the GEARs, and the shook his head, before leaping the Harlock atop one of the tanks and scoring a melee kill as he tapped the blade of his knife against the engine compartment cover. Standing atop the vehicle, he aimed at the rear of the final moving vehicle; it's turret turning to range in on Oliver and Kradis' machines. He trained his rifle on the rear armour of the tank. The rounds weren't overly high-powered, but maybe with enough of them-
A proximity alarm clamoured for his attention, blaring their ear-splitting wails to him. The holo-prompts directed incoming from a high angle; artillery or similar guided rockets.
The pattern was off, but they were still grouped tightly around his position. Chances were, the blast pattern would catch him. He had a few minutes to impact, and he considered options rapidly. The triple-a was down, the tanks were down, and - if they survived the bombardment - Bell, Ray and Nawlin were in a good position to hit the GEAR formation, along with Ken. If he'd had the Claw as part of his forces for the simulation - which, he thought with a flash of anger, was decidedly unfairly stacked against the unit - he'd have ordered the Landcruiser to have engaged the long-range targets, or have taken out the satellite with a ANSAT missile, He could also have requested counter-battery fire. But the Landcruiser, like all off-field assets including satellite recon and such, had been ruled out of the Roughrider's TO&E for the exercise.
Apparently not for the opfor, though.
Ruefully pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind, he awkwardly leapt the Harlock from the upper hull of the tank - and deliberately sped as fast as he could toward the remaining active vehicle. The tracks' remote weapon station slewed around to track the GEAR as he approached, the turret turning, but the wily fox targeted the smaller RWS with his rifle and pounded it with paint rounds, doing the same to the viewports - before again leaping onto the armoured vehicle.
"Please, please, please..." he murmured, and then gave a grin as the missiles swerved off-course, their IFF trackers responding to the friendly in their sights. Again, he drew the knife and tapped the engine cover, as the inert training missile crashed into the earth some distance away.

"Biryukova here. I've sustained considerable shoulder and abdominal armor damage from the missile attack and I've had to jettison my shoulder ammo storage units, leaving me with only three more magazines for my rifle. Chaff launchers are inoperable. I can still continue the fight, though. Orders, Colonel?"

"Hold position. I'm coming to join you. I've received damage to my GEAR also, and I'm critically low on ammunition, but I'm still in the fight. All other units, report status and position".

Amelia didn't have time to intercept the helicopter as Sovereign placed a tracking ring around it, waiting for her to fire. She had two missiles remaining, both of which were in fact surface to air missiles. There had been a reason why she'd chosen to save them, but in doing so she knew it would cost her in this engagement. She tracked it's movements, watching it's trajectory as it circled around. As soon as the helicopter lined up she opened her COM, "All units adjust trajectory and thrust on axis south west by north east on my mark!" she said as the helicopter began it's run. She sank Sovereign's chassis and brought the six legs closer in to make it a smaller target and to use the legs to defend like additional armor. Unlike the other GEAR's her's lacked the ability to thrust in a dash like manner, the six legs simply unable to perform a movement and stabilize that fast.

When the Helicopter opened fire her HUD flashed up a warning as an alarm sounded, "WARNING: Hull integrity at ninety percent" warned Sovereign in a soft female voice. The helicopters attack had stitched across three of Sovereigns legs, they were operational but the armor was dented and bruised badly. "MARK!" she yelled, each GEAR unit thrusting in either direction to move out of the helicopters trajectory. A few of the GEAR's were caught and gunned down, but a good amount of them managed to evade the helicopters run. "All remaining units, get back in formation and continue retreating and engage that chopper" she ordered as her four Gatling machine guns pivoted and began to spray four streams of light up at the helicopter, joined by her units additional assault rifle fire. Soon they would reach their secondary position, but she feared once they reached there they wouldn't have enough numbers to make a strong enough defense. This battle was not going well for the young strategist.

“Good work on those emplacements, Shona. Now let’s—“ His GEAR’s alert system cut him off and Adrian snapped to full attention. The L-68 started into a slow roll backward as he searched for the incoming munitions. He spotted them high in the sky, the light glinting off their shiny, blue tips. Adrian muttered a few choice curses as he counted the missiles sailing through the air and assured himself that there was no way they could all be coming for him. He raised his GEAR’s rifle and managed to shoot down two of the missiles with several shots off the cuff—then the missiles sped up. “Oh.” He exchanged his rifle for the machine pistol with a fresh magazine and poured on the throttle as he sprayed cheap, little bullets as point defense. Sure to his prediction, the mass of missiles split up and began heading toward the other Roughriders, leaving only a few still headed in his direction. The relief brought no guilt—the others would be fine (probably)—as Adrian stopped his GEAR on a dime and instantly throttled backward. The force of the movement threw him into the restraints and the missiles’ tracking failed to turn them in time. Any that hadn’t been, ‘destroyed,’ by Adrian’s pistol buried themselves in the ground, save for one that harmlessly traced a large circle past the L-68 and flew off to ruin the day of some local wildlife in the distance.

Shortly after, the Captain’s call for a sitrep came in over the radio. “This is Ray, I’m just fine. I’m about to engage that six-legged GEAR.” Adrian said as he shifted back into a more comfortable position on his seat. He rose his rifle and took a few shots at the legs of the GEAR approaching Nawlin’s position, just enough to get the message across, before he returned his attention to his newest quarry. At this point, it seemed, the cover only protected him from direct fire and visual sight—whatever voodoo the opposition had been using would leave him well open. The best plan he could think of would be to nip the problem in the bud.

“Chopper, watch yourself, you don’t know what that big guy’s packing,” Adrian called out as he settled his magnified view on the hexapod across the field. Big is right. Nice armor, but what if I hit something else? He took his measurements and sent an experimental shot downrange to confirm. Expectedly, the slug plinked off an angled section of the leg armor with little more than dark scratch in the paint as evidence of the impact. “Got your attention yet?” he mumbled as he adjusted his aim towards one of the many tiny openings he saw and pulled the trigger.

Kensington flinched when the simulation rounds made contact with his helicopter as it flew into the funnel of death. Lights and warning sounds went off around the cockpit and the pilot, despite all that was happening seemed cool and disciplined for the time being quickly manipulating the controls so the helicopter to gain distance and adjust altitude constantly in order to avoid a shoot down. "Heads up I'm taking fire!" The wolf reported over comms, but after a few scrapes with the wall of bullets and a few sequences of dropping chaffs the helicopter made it to a safe distance.. Bad news followed shortly after.

With the danger behind him the pilot looked over his monitor and frowned when looking over the damages done. Fortunately, the hull did its job in withstanding against most of the rounds. The problem though was the fact the rotors were reportedly in orange status, that meant he was in the fifties when it came to a percentage. The airman knew he couldn't run up against the improvised AAA without risking a shoot down. He had to do CAS run instead of a gun run if he was ordered to attack. "Silver I am a bit beat up but the hits are minor and I am good to continue operation. Apologies again for the target adjustment."

"-All other unit, Report status and position."

Mike sighed as Prowler slowed to a stop and took a knee, a quick diagnostic gave him a rudimentary field report. being stuck in the tree line during the shelling took quite a toll. <Prowler's taken a beating sir, generally the hull is holding at about 65%, batteries are at 75% but the left side is the worst, shoulder joint is stiff as hell, and its got a half hearted limp. all in all, not good, but still moving> he replied, his proximity sensors giving a caution tone. "proximities, one enemy, going silent." Cutting coms and once again adjusting camo, mike crouched and waited for a glimpse of the target. conscious of his "damage" he focused his weight on the good leg, and gripped the pistol with his bad arm, switching the knife to his right.

"come on, I know you're out there" mike muttered to himself as he waited in the brush, getting ready to bum rush his opponent. his only real shot would be to get in close, drive them to the ground, and try to end it quick. he gave a half hearted chuckle. "my luck I get backhanded and blue screened" he muttered as he began to hear the mobile armor advancing on his location, soon he'd test his luck on his future teammate.

Suddenly Oliver's cockpit turned red from all the warning lights flashes. Missile inbound, missile inbound warned a voice as 3 high trajectory missiles from the six legged GEAR closed in on Oliver's position. "Why the hell can they target me with such accuracy when blocking all their radars and communication" yelled Oliver as he began evasive maneuvers. Just the moment the tiger moved his Saxknot out from the cover of the dead APC the enemy GEARs started to engage him with rifle fire. Simulated explosions surrounded Oliver's GEAR as he jumped out of the way for the incoming missiles and rifle fire. For a moment all screens turned black before coming online again. "Damage report" growled the young tiger is his mike. His GEAR's build in computer responded in a monotone female voice " Front armor:40%, Leg armour:35%, rear armor: 70%, left arm: offline, 5,56 mm machineguns: offline"

Sweat broke down from Oliver's head and his body was still shivering as he just realized he'd been almost annihilated by the missile fire. The then question of why they still were able to fire rockets with such pinpoint accuracy. Then he noticed it, on the screens that shows all radio activity a new frequency had appeared. One of the reserved frequencies used for satellite communication. It must be one of the military GEARs that had requested the uplink as Oliver knew his unit had no access to satellite intel for this training exercise. The tiger quickly opened up his comlink to the colonel. "Why the hell do the OPFOR have access to tanks, military GEARs and satellite intel?" Spoke Oliver angrily. The OPFOR has been pulling one trick after another ever since the battle for the camp begun up till the point that the scenario became some ridicules caricature of what it was supposed to be. Well, if they we're going to play it rough there was no point for the Tiger to hold back at all. With a few button presses Oliver's code cracking computer began to work.

Data packets of the satellite communication started to roll in as the Saxknots antenna's listened to the frequency. The more data was fed to the computer, the better shot Oliver had at cracking the encryption. Anxiously the tiger watched the meter move slowly towards the 100% mark. Judging from the speed of it, completion would take some time, giving the tiger a moment to judge the situation. From the looks of it, Colonel Blade managed to take out the tanks in a grotesque action hero like way. None the less, the group under control of the unidentified military GEAR (Vanessa) still had a few operation makeshift GEARS. The Group lead by the six legged GEAR was in full retreat after a strafing run from Ken. Judging from the info on Oliver's monitor, all the Roughriders took damage but where still in action. Suddenly a bright green message flashed at the Tiger's HUD. "Access granted". Oliver was in.

It was the first time the tiger did hack into the LDF satellite system and doing so he was in direct violation of LDF laws but Oliver didn't care. The tiger quickly uploaded a message to the satellite that replaces the video stream to everybody connected to the stream. "Dear brass, I suggest you stick your stupid tricks where the sun doesn't shine. It would be rather problematic if the entire satellite surveillance system would go offline for the coming hours due to unexpected maintenance don't you agree?" With the satellite problem out of the way, it was time again to focus on the problems on the ground. There were still operational military GEARs in the area that had to be taken down before the extraction team could be flown in.

Oliver looked at his radar as he scanned the area looking for the Blitzer. Taking down the leaders of the enemy would decrease their combat efficiency with a great deal. It wasn't for long before the Tiger had spotted his target and locked on to it. With the Saxknot's left arm down, Oliver could only accurately fire his 20mm assault rifle in single shot due to the kickback. He quickly took aim at the joints of the machine's legs and took the first shot. The dummy round kicked up dust near the right leg of the Blitzer as it narrowly missed its target. Fire was spewed from the muzzle of the Saxknot's assault rifle as the Tiger fired his next few shots before he retreated once again behind the cover of the destroyed APC.

In the Command Trailer, where the officers were overseeing the exercise, the operators at the consoles exchanged glances and grimaces. The balance of the exercise had been thrown fully out the window when the OpFor gained Satellite support and military-grade GEARs, and the Roughriders didn't have the same. A glance back toward the 'overseers' of the op and General Houseman. The Lion had a face like thunder as he watched the progress of the battle, observing the uneven distribution of forces. Someone had interfered with his order of battle, and he had a good idea who, as he looked back to the table the duo who'd come to observe and oversee the operation were sat.
"I think you've proved your point, sirs," he said, the last words dripping with undisguised contempt. "The Roughriders can't hold their own, unsurprisingly, when the opposing force have access to capabilities that were not part of the original scenario when they themselves aren't resupplied or supported. What a shock".
The larger and older of the two, a badger with rows of elaborate decorations on his immaculate uniform shifted his bulk and frowned irritably at Houseman before he spoke. "Are you implying, General, that we have somehow altered the parameters of your mission-"
"I'm not 'implying' anything, I'm outright accusing you. I know what the scenario was, and I specified the ORBAT for both sides and the parameters for the mission. Someone has changed them".
As he spoke, the screens in the trailer lit up with Olivers' message, and the Operators on the screens called for attention as the pair of higher-ups shifted in their seats.
"Just think," said Houseman, his voice dropping a tone, and his eyes steely. "What might happen if we were to go into the files and see who's made changes. I wonder if the JAG office would be interested in seeing how the official records have been defrauded? After all, this is an officially authorised program".
The pair exchanged glances, before the Badgers' formerly disinterested look changed to a dark one.
"Fine," he spat venomously, eyeing the scrolling message on the screen and the tactical disposition of the Roughriders. "You have your unit, general, but don't expect things to be easy from here. We'll be watching you. And we'll be in touch."
Both men rose from their seats and left without a glance back, slamming the door as they exited the trailer, leaving Houseman and the two sysops alone.
"Sir?" asked the one seated at the left with an uncertain tone in her voice. Houseman laid a hand on the Coati's shoulder, before speaking into his own headset.
"All units, this is Houseman. The exercise is complete; stand down. Repeat, ENDEX. All units safe your weapons and return to the field HQ for debriefing. I think we have a lot to talk about. Well done, everyone, Houseman out".

On the field, Blade received the message, and felt a sense of relief - the exercise had turned from an operation the Roughriders had tactically planned and prepped for, into a one-sided slog set against them, and something about that didn't sit right with him. He had a sneaking suspicion that would be part of what Houseman would want to speak to him about.
Nonetheless, his men and women had done exceedingly well in the circumstances, and had followed all of his orders well - for the most part, at least - and despite the odds stacked against them, they had come close to victory.
"Okay team," he called out on the squadron-wide channel. "Y'all heard th' man. Safe weapons and stand down - the exercise is over. Form up on me, and let's head to the field HQ for debrief. Well done, everyone."
Spinning the Harlock on the spot, he headed for the low rise at the edge of the exercise area where the command truck was parked up. As he did, all the exercise programs dropped out of action, and the the targets all changed to friendlies, their IFF systems reasserting themselves. The Landren Army unit that had done their job simulating the hostiles began to leave the field as well, heading back for their own debrief, the soldiers and drivers waving to the GEARs as they passed by, a gesture he returned with the Harlocks' metalshod hands.

As the Colonel's orders were relayed through her headset, Myrina shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The exercise had ended awfully abruptly, and she didn't know what to make of it other than the possibility that the Roughriders had somehow failed. No, they did not meet their primary objective, but they were still intact. Was there a cutoff time to have completed the exercise by? No, the Colonel would have mentioned it in his briefing. But she had heard the words "Well done everyone," twice. That had a positive tone, certainly?

Myrina wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and engaged the safety of her weaponry. The debriefing would tell them what they needed to know. As she turned her GEAR around an rejoined the others, she hoped her own performance was an adequate one.

Suddenly the roaring sounds of the simulated combat silenced as colonel Blade's message came through on Oliver's radio. As the orders to stand down reached the young tiger he could see the OPFOR troops standing down too. For some unknown reason the exercise had been halted prior to the roughriders completing their objectives. For the tiger this outcome wasn't really satisfying. Ending things prematurely without a solid conclusion just felt wrong for him. It was like picking up a girl at the bar, take her home and then find out that she doesn't want to go beyond first base. It just felt like a big disappointment to him, especially when you consider that the Rough Riders came very close to victory.

For a moment Oliver watched how the OPFOR units packed up and moved out. He could not help to think than that this was the most ridicules exercise he'd ever participated in during his short military career. A bandit scenario with tanks, military grade GEARS and spy satellites just didn't make much sense. None the less the tiger did enjoy the adrenaline rush he got from the chaotic attrition battle at the OPFOR base. It was only now that Oliver realized that sweat was pooring down from his head and that his mouth was as dry as the desert. He could reall go for a nice cold beer now but that had to wait. Standard army doctrine demanded that the GEAR pilots would sit through the agonizing debriefing first.

Oliver moved his GEAR into formation with Blade, putting down the Saxknot wheels for additional speed. Thank god all the limiters from the virtual damage had been removed. As the tiger moved out he called back his drone. He had almost forgotten that his bird was still in the sky and it was almost out of juice. Oliver opened up the entire units channel and spoke. "This was without doubt the weirdest exercise i've done since joining the LDF. The scenario was totally off and the ending doesn't make sense. I hope they have something nice and cold to drink standing ready for us when we return"

Amelia furrowed her brow as the messages broadcasted on the top right of her HUD ordering all units to stand down. Especially just as two shots slammed into her two forward legs causing alarms to sound off as her computer assisted AI expressed its concern "WARNING, Mobility integrity at eighty percent. Advise evasive manoeuvres" it said before Amelia reached over to her command console to power down her weapon systems, switching her GEAR to standby mode. At the same time she sent out a ping from her GEAR which would change her blip from red to blue on the Roughriders trackers.

As her GEAR's six legs powered her towards the others she tagged onto the Roughrider COM frequency just in time to hear mention of something cold to drink. "Lieutenant Winter checking in sir. I'd say it was a good excercise but I think we both agree something isn't right here" she said, her accent (English) coming through quite clearly. When she spoke her GEAR would light up, indicating which GEAR the voice was coming from. "Task force Beta, form up on me" she said to her units which closed in behind her as they joined with the Roughriders.

Raisa was preparing to return to battle as the pain from the damage began to subside when without warning, she and all of the other combatants were given the order to stand down. In response, Raisa blinked in surprise. Within a moment, all sounds of battle had disappeared, leaving only the sounds of the wildlife and the nature around her. The sudden change broke her chain of thought and now she stood there, asking herself silently if this was real or if she had suddenly gone crazy from the aforementioned pain. A message appeared on her HUD, her wide range battle map's target indicators turned green and the waypoints that had been set disappeared from view, replaced with a single waypoint indicating the way to extraction. Bizarrely enough, she didn't hear the sound of her rifle locking and she thus checked it. Apparently, it hadn't yet been deactivated. Raisa guessed it was because the LDF hadn't yet gotten the correct codes for remote deactivation of the new model Avto's, which was usually kept very hush as to keep it from falling into enemy hands. If enemies knew the codes, they could potentially lock any weaponry that opposing Iyuli GEARs were using. A war machine without working weapons was just about useless.

In any case, she still had the possibility of shooting at something, but it was futile. They were simulator bullets to begin with and with the training programs shutting down, they'd only bounce off whatever she shot at harmlessly and it would probably earn her a few problems with the CO to boot, so she refrained from doing anything too radical. Instead, she simply put her rifle back on her back and after regaining herself, the fox began steadily walking down the wooded hill towards the courtyard of the base, where she would then turn away from to head to the extraction area. With her mind now free from thinking of battle, she now took in the sights of the former battlefield. As the "wrecked" machinery and "dead" infantry had already moved away while she had been skulking atop the hill, the landscape had now been freed from war and its machines, save for her own Flanker and a few others that still hadn't moved away. There being no actual damage anywhere due to it being only a training exercise, only a few footsteps and track marks remained on the ground and aside from those, Raisa almost had the impression that no battle, even imaginary, had ever been fought here.

When she reached the middle of the field, she decided to stop walking and after taking a few breaths to regain herself, the pain having drifted away like the dust of battle in the breeze. Looking around, she realized that it would be amazing to get a taste of fresh air after the battle before returning to the landcruiser. She thought it over for a moment before shrugging and removing her helmet. Automatically, her GEAR's controls switched to manual control, with physical controls moving near her seat and the cockpit's walls lit up to show the landscape around her. As expected, the front of the cockpit only showed an error, as the torso cameras had been destroyed during her struggle against the missile attacks. No matter, Raisa would mutter to herself as she calmly gave the command to open the cockpit. After confirming this, the front opened with a smooth motion and Raisa felt a gust of warm wind come into the stagnant and sterile cockpit. For a moment, the girl simply sat and stared in awe at the beauty of the land. In the distance, the sides of the valley went upwards, eventually becoming somewhat rocky looking cliffs, but none of them were high enough to be topped in snow. Lower, there were a few forests and Raisa guessed there may be a body of clear water somewhere in the area.

A few birds flew overhead, mostly small birds such as swallows, making agile and lithe movements through the air. Taking in the air with a breath, Raisa could smell a multitude of smells; the burnt armor of her cockpit, gunpowder and other odors of war, but also the scents of the landscape. The typical smells of grass, dirt, but also a breathtaking scent of flowers wafted over from a nearby meadow. Instantly, Raisa felt all stress from the battle dissolve and it was only when she was hailed by one of her comrades that she continued moving.

"Private Biryukova, you still alive? We don't 've all day here." One of the infantry, probably one in charge of moving the GEARs out of the exercise area, spoke to her over comms and Raisa used the controls to make her GEAR start walking towards the waypoint. She didn't speak in response, but the sight of her GEAR on the battle map would probably be enough of a sign for the infantryman. The warm air kept going inside the cockpit as the GEAR moved in a pre-programmed walking motion and Raisa could easily hear the sounds of the GEAR walking, even with the dampeners on. Though, even with the sounds of machinery, the leisurely jog across the former battlefield was a relaxing experience, to say the least. With a regular walking pace, it felt like a child's rocker and Raisa could almost feel herself drifting off. To keep herself awake as she pressed on the movement control, moving in a straight line towards the waypoint, she returned to the old routine of polishing her helmet.

Eventually, she arrived at the first waypoint towards returning back to the Claw and Raisa made a wry smile as some of the men looked bewilderingly at the state of her GEAR. Not only was it irregular procedure to have the cockpit open at most times, but the fact that she had actually sustained damage in a training exercise must have been an utter wonder to them. Admittedly, it was a wonder to her too, Raisa remarked as she followed the rest of the group. It was then that she heard the ever charming Private P. Tom speak once again.

"This was without doubt the weirdest exercise I've done since joining the LDF. The scenario was totally off and the ending doesn't make sense. I hope they have something nice and cold to drink standing ready for us when we return." For once, Raisa agreed with him. They had gotten off to a bad start, but it seemed that he could redeem himself yet, especially since they seemed to share the same ideas in terms of opinions on missions.

"Yeah, I'd rather have fought to the last breath-" She stopped herself when she realized how much damage she had taken. Would she have been able to fight the enemy in the state she had been in, especially with the reinforcements they had received? "-actually, no, scratch that." The fox went silent for a moment before speaking again. "I can agree about the drinks though. Care to join me afterward, Private Tom?" She allowed herself to giggle for a moment off comms and let a smile return to her face. It wasn't good to wallow in such trivial things such as the results of exercises. There were better things in life to worry about.

Like if the char marks on the chest of her GEAR could be washed off.

Kensington was flying back towards the area of operation after his close scrap with the opposing GEARS until an unexpected message hit him. "Okay team, Y'all heard th' man. Safe weapons and stand down - the exercise is over. Form up on me, and let's head to the field HQ for debrief. Well done, everyone." The pilot in response let out a huff of breath and followed that breath with a chuckle, the helicopter's combat patterns returning to a more typical patrol and idle one.

"Understood sir uhhh.. Does the air unit return to the ship?" The wolf inquired, looking over his monitors once again before his eyes were caught gazing out into the farmland he flew over. During the moment of waiting for Silver's response the young airman seemed captivated by the view despite it's bland flat lands. It was just the mere fact he was soo high and can see it all that he was very drawn into such small things. He was almost ignorant of everything else around him, but then he saw the other GEARS that were against them moving about towards wherever they were needed, a chuckle escaping the pilot once again. "Ya think we could've beat 'em all?"