She observed the tiger once more for a moment as he spoke, the strategic part of her mind which couldn't rest thinking and wondering of what his intention was. Of course she was sure there was nothing malicious involved. But the interest in finding out was there regardless. She took a moment to look around, thinking she should probably stay and meet with the other members of her new unit before she checked the time, deciding there would still be time for that. She met Oliver's gaze and smiled, "Sounds good to me, and I wouldn't worry about that, if we get caught I'll give the whole 'innocently got lost' speech" she joked before she picked up her PADD, stepping off her stool before she moved towards the door, her steps measured and neat while her tail carried elegantly behind her. Despite her role and the stereotype behind her job, she'd managed to keep the femininity about her appearance, something which could be difficult considering the fitness requirements for a pilot which for allot of the female pilots meant stacking on muscle. But Amelia had kept herself slender, toned and generally more matched for speed than strength. Also being the species of Fox had went a long way in that development. She would wait for Oliver to take the lead, as she still didn't know her way around the large Landcruiser.

"Wow." Shona looked suitably impressed. She hadn't even graduated seven years ago. She nodded in understanding as he continued, taking a sip of her drink. "Weeks of boredom punctuated by two minutes of adrenaline, right? I could see that. Still, you gotta have some good stories, right?"

As the music started to kick up, the bat shuffled a bit closer to hear the older sniper, cocking one large ear in his direction. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise at his last comment. "Really? Me?"

Aidan quietly listened to Ken answer his question, nodding every now and then as a custom to show his conversational partner that he was paying attention; his idle smile would turn into mild grins every time he felt amused. He took note of the sudden change in the drill session, intriguing him enough to start scratching his own chin as a sign that his brain immediately started to process and interpret the information; that and Oliver's antics.

"Curious how they just had to 'shut down' the training session. Sounds to me like you guys were doing a good enough job they had to cut you off and keep reports as gloomy as possible. Either that or you wrecked stuff you weren't supposed to. Eh, no difference for me." Aidan took himself a moment to finish his drink and place the empty bottle on the counter behind him and cross his arms as he turned his attention back to Kensington, bearing a light frown. "Now I kind of regret I couldn't come sooner and have a chance to see the team's dynamics on the field; if there are any recordings of the op, I'll make sure to digest it. It doesn't directly affect my style of "play" on the field per se, I only have to adjust to everybody else's style; I'm connected on a channel open 24/7 for emergency calls, so I basically have to interrupt whatever I'm doing to answer. But if I didn't like this masochistic life so much, I would have opted to become a gunship pilot or something similar, they have these really cool helmets...

Considering he drifted enough with the subject, he clenched his jaw tight to listen to Ken's first aid rules and as soon as he recognized the first two rules, he chuckled to himself; he knew those three rules, those were included in the graduation speech. He knew exactly what was coming, that one question medics answer it ever so averagely. As the wolf finished, Aidan snickered and shook his head.

"I know those rules, yeah. Spiritual words, they are." Aidan chose to look at the ground and tensed his crossed arms just a little. "Well, here's my realistical take on them. One: everybody dies; good, bad, young, old, pretty, ugly, rich, poor, no matter, they all die some time sooner or later; BUT on me depends just how long it takes until they expire. Two: I can delay it, of course I can't stop it; unless I somehow cure death, which would be kind of awesome. As for three-" Aidan's smile faded very subtly and turned his head towards the wolf "it's my job to bend the rules so I can save a life. That one guy that gets shot in the chest, I have to go and get him. He may have a child back home, waiting for him to return home ever so eagerly, maybe a loving wife, a girlfriend, proud parents; he may as well be a criminal, a rapist, an abusive person. But once bullets zip past your ears, politics, ideals, racial differences, religion and beliefs, they all fly out the window with the bullets; same goes for me, if the guy is hurt, it makes no difference to me. I am to go and take care of him, preserve his life for a little while longer."

"All I pray for is that neither of you ends up in that place where I have to fight against rule number one, Ken. But if it gets there, don't worry, I'll make sure to follow rule number three."

Just then, a female voice addressed to him, drawing the medic's attention to a feline standing in front of him; she offered him a rushed nod, Aidan could only salute Esailia and straighten his slouching back. "Ma'am." After all, she was a higher rank than him, it is always good to pay respect to superior. She wanted to talk about the missing medical records, lifting Aidan's gloom by drawing his attention on a different matter. He took a moment to come up with a reply, a short time in which he scratched his furry chin. "Hm. A digital copy of the files will do, ma'am. I usually upload the records on an off-site storage server if I need to print them out... or in case my PADD gets shot at some point. Either way, thank you for addressing the problem. Ah, why don't you join us? Senior Airman Maxwell and myself are part of the relatively-low-blood-alcohol-concentration corner; since he's a chopper pilot and I'm an unlucky sod, we both need our brains alive." He really hoped he wasn't too informal with his invitation, he only tried to be as open as he could be, with the risk of being a tad annoying. Plus, her presence would be a good diversion to keep him away from grim thoughts Ken unintentionally brought up; it wasn't the poor fellow's fault that Aidan had a very rational, if not pessimistic view when it came to life and death.

Naida's head was lightly nodding to the tune playing, and as she grabbed the chair, she could be heard singing along with the female singer "Oh daaaany boooy oh daaany boooy...I see you like music to fit the scene. Should we put on Red solo cup next?" The fox took a swig from her glass, grinning at her newfound friend over the the rim, tail flicking back and forth behind her.

Across the room, the captain nodded at Aidan "Very well. You will have them before the day is out. And...I prefer the company of my thoughts at this time. Thank you for the offer." She gave a nod of farewell, returning a salute if one was given, walking around the small crowd to a relatively empty spot of the bar not too far away. "Bartender, skim milk with a fruity twist please. Alcoholic if you have it."

Mike smirked as he watched Naida enjoyed the music. "couldn't hurt, but then again I don't see any red cups." he said putting his glass down, and watching the fox grin, tail always in motion. in all honesty any fox with a grin made him wonder what their game was, but he decided to just go with it. "all bar songs seem to be country anyway, not usually my cup of tea" he said.

"what brings you to this metal leviathan with full bar?" he asked as he took a moment to check on his teammates, everyone seemed to be holding their liquor well enough. he returned his attention to Naida. "don't think I saw you during the last exercise."

Myrina had apparently had enough of talking, so Blade excused himself with his drink and moved away from the bar, circulating amongst the rest of the now-expanded squadron. Everyone seemed to have grouped into small huddles for discussions and chat, and were engaging well with one another. Feeling a bit like a third wheel, the fox drifted on the edges of the conversation, catching snippets of other peoples' discussions and feeling quietly glad that everyone was managing to get along with each other well, and seemed to be gelling into a group.
Except him.
Forcing himself to remain smiling, the fox finished the last of his drink and stepped out.
Taking himself on a walk,the fox went up a couple of decks and aft. Stepping to one of the outer hatches, he unsealed it and stepped onto the outer deck. A warm night breeze buffeted the fox as he stepped outside, and the scents of the night-time badlands assaulted his nose. Nearby one of the security team turned to regard him, saw the insignia - and the fact he was very distinctive - and then nodded to him and carried on with his patrol.
Digging a lighter out of one of his combats' pockets, he lit the cigar he'd been coveting inside and leant on the railing around the land-ships' upper decks, and watched the land roll by.

Kensington listened to the doctor with his glass being held with a tight grip, the pilot occasionally nodding to let the man know he was listening. When he concluded his statement with his hope for nobody to get injured the pilot only grinned, giving the man a big pat on the shoulder before turning to sit properly in his seat. "Heya don't worry. The burden ain't on only your shoulders, doc. If I gotta get out of my helicopter and run out to go slap a bandaid on someone I'll sure as hell do it, and I think the colonel ain't the type of guy to sit idle when he knows one of his people is in trouble." The pilot said cheerfully, falling quiet when the doctor started talking to another individual. He kept his back turned on the conversation so to avoid giving off the image of 'being nosey' while keeping to his drink, the wolf waiting for them to finish before he looked over at the captain who sat down, his ears doing a noticeable flick.

"Guess she ain't looking for someone to clank a cup wit. Oh well I guess we're a mix of everything from the quiet folk to the talkin' folk. How long ya think it'll be before we go back out there? Hours? Days?"

“Yeah, you’re not the best, but you’re clearly trying—you have the basics, decent form…” But there’s no substitute for real experience. Adrian leaned to the side of his chair, half propped against the armrest as he glanced out at the rest of the room. The music made listening to his surroundings uncomfortably difficult and the lessened awareness was starting to take its toll. He turned his attention back to Shona with both ears pointed away from the nearest speakers in the room. “The, ‘real,’ rounds felt different compared to the VR simulators, didn’t they?”

Time passed for Esailia. She kept to herself, mostly sipping her drink and occasionally poking at her PADD. Anyone nearby would see a map on the screen, with doodles of tactical scenarios. The cat seemed in her own world, and after awhile, she too picked up her glass and headed out the door. Wandering the halls of her new post, she would nod at passerby while she finished off her milk, eventually winding up at her quarters and turning in for the night.

Meanwhile, back at the bar, Naida was enjoying the smalltalk with Mike "I was just assigned here with my brother. Four of us, including our Captain. We are meant to prevent enemy fireteams from getting at your GEARs, and to balance the flow of combat on the battlefield. We arrived only this morning." She downed the remainder of her drink, slapping the mug down on the table with a gasp "Let me tell you, this is a better post so far than the last place!" She let out a yipping laugh as she leaned forward wiping her mouth.

Across the room, Edward had been nearly forgotten in the crowd, as was his usual strategy. He spoke better to electronics than to flesh and blood, aside from his sister. He maneuvered past a few of the more intoxicated people, and found Nathaniel sprawled across the bar, half asleep. Rolling his eyes, Edward slipped in beside the tiger, tapping his shoulder lightly "Eh..sir? I...thiink we need to get you to bed..." The drunken Nathanial groggily lifted himself up, looking at his comrade for a few moments, then grinned "Eddy! Good to shee youu shtuck arounnd!" The tiger slapped Edward on the back, nearly falling from his perch on the bar stool. "Heh...yeah, big surprise. Now...let's get you to your quarters, come on. No sense in being dishonorably discharged on your first day." Edward muttered as he wrapped an arm around his friend, helping him to his feet before heading out the door.

"Thanks." She said, quietly pleased at the praise. "I've been thinking about asking the colonel for extra time on the sims, there's a lot of stuff I want to work through while it's fresh in my mind." At the older sniper's comment, Shona grinned and nodded - this was something she could talk about with a little more authority. "Yeah, they really do. I haven't really had a chance to use those exercise weapons since the academy, but they're pretty close to the real thing, huh?"

It seemed that the feline did not have interest to share a drink with himself and Ken; as she turned around to head to the bar and grab a drink, Aidan's left year twitched as the wolf beside made the commentary. He nodded slowly as he tried to take a sip from his empty beer bottle, realizing that only when his tongue caught a single drop of something tasting absolutely repulsive. His snout wrinkled at the taste and smacked his tongue against his palate a few times in the attempt to wash away the lingering aftertaste; he placed the empty bottle on the counter and decided to order himself a large mug of, well, Coke. His thirst wasn't quite quenched after a boring ride on a truck. And not a moment too soon, the lack of sleep caught back up, as Aidan started to feel his head growing heavy, but at the same time dizzy and disoriented, his eyes would soon inject with blood and sting him at every blink; a quick yawn escaped from his mouth before he replied to Ken.

"Pfft. Knowing my luck, I'll be transferred again before I get to see any action here. Either that or the Northern Empire launches a surprise siege on this very particular landcruiser for no apparent reason; wouldn't be too surprised, judging by how they brusquely change their plans." He then proceeded to pour down some of the fizzy goodness that will damage his liver sooner rather than later. "Though, seriously, I think we'll be off to an adventure sooner than we can predict; I don't think the colonel acquired a fire team and myself just to keep us about for shits and giggles. Unless he's got that kind of humour."

Coming to a halt, the canine realized he didn't have anything rather interesting to talk about at the moment. Thus, he decided it would be best to engage in small talk, something a bit out of Aidan's reach. "Right. Yo, are there any hotgirls in the squad?" He then resorts to whispering, he wouldn't want to make a bad impression this soon. "A doctor's gotta have a bit of fun, eh? Pulling out ticks, treating gunshot and puss-oozing wounds gets tedious; a mammary exam here and there would cheer me up." Of course he wasn't serious, he's been through enough examinations to get bored of that too. Sadly.

Kensington took a small sip of his drink while reading the man from where he sat, the wolf's tail doing a few patient sways during the man's response. Hearing his statement about the colonel got the pilot to smile and nod to the doctor before he took yet another sip, the talk about transferring drifting him off into deep thought. With more wings being handed out the demand for a pilot wasn't as bad as the old days, but it was pretty important to reserve a helicopter pilot for yourself now a days, especially one who was associated with the med-evac operations back home. He went for the cream of the crop it looks like.. The airman thought, his eyes drifting about the room, Went for skill instead of discipline might be my assumption.. Maybe that's what has had the c- It was then the man started asking about the girls drifting around the crew, the statement causing the fox to even do a slight flinch as his train of thought was blown off the rails.

"Eh? Uhm.. Well.." There wasn't much coming out of Ken', he hadn't even looked over the team with the eyes of a man with needs yet, only with his modesty that came with his background. He had to pull something out, couldn't look stupid or get any wrong ideas after all. "Well... There's a bat, snow leopard, fox... And... Well.. I haven't really gotten a real good look at everyone, eh? Because... Because well we went straight to business as I walked in." The wolf said, rubbing the back of his neck then bringing his beverage up to his lips to down the whole thing, his tail stretching out while he did so. I should've gotten alcohol.. Then my lack of knowledge might have a reason.

“I suppose they are,” Adrian mused as he leaned back in his chair with one leg crossed over his knee and his hands clasped together in his lap. Wait, defensive position. Get comfy some other way. When he began to speak again, his foot slid back to the ground and he returned to his original, skewed position against the arm of his seat. “They’re not as heavy, but if they got any more dense, we may as well switch over to live ammunition.” He grinned at his own joke as his ears turned to scan the room—and quickly snapped back to their previous positions when they met the loud music once more.
“I’ve never used the simulator. I’m pretty unfamiliar with that video game stuff overall, really. Are you allowed to adjust the settings on it? How accurate would you say it really is?”

((Feel free to finish off your conversations before moving on to the next day in replies to this post, but I'll move things up all the same))

The next few days aboard the Landcruiser for the squadron passed in a flurry of exercises, study sessions and other routine activities. Everyone drilled and trained together, practicing and evaluating their tactics alongside one another, working to understand and unify their skills. Special attention was paid to working with the infantry unit and helicopter, developing and evaluating working together in the field in wide varieties of combinations. The ideas of using the squad as spotters for the GEARs' heavy firepower was practiced, along with various combinations of GEARs, Infantry and helicopter all supporting one another in various combinations of bait, trap, ambush and so on and so forth, until the squad had dizzyingly carried out what seemed like almost every permutation and combination of working with each other. Similarly, the various GEAR pilots and their machines had now worked on enough dry runs and deployments to be familiar with their machines and one another.

On the morning of the seventh day after the exercise and subsequent party, Blade assembled everyone in the briefing room, early after breakfast.
"All right, ladies gentlemen," he began, standing at the front of the room. "We've all trained well and trained hard. And it looks like we're about to put all of that theory into action. There's been an urgent request for a sortie; a civilian supply caravan of land-crawlers traveling west across the badlands from the town of Redonda, close to the Arvaran border with the Badlands. They were heading to The city of Luiton in Mirchusko. Travelling across the Badlands is the most direct route, but as I'm sure you all know - there's risks involved".
The wall screen behind him lit up as he spoke, showing the routes involved, and pictures of the various craft concerned. A satellite image showed the last known location of the crawler convoy, before he continued.
"The exact specifics of the attack are unclear; the crawler convoy called in as they were under attack, mentioning multiple GEARs and light armoured vehicles with infantry support. The Claw will ferry us to within five miles, and then we'll proceed in our GEARs as advance scout, while the Claw uses it's LIDAR and other sensors to monitor and co-ordinate from stand-off distance. We need to locate whatever base these bandits are striking from too. It looks like they hit the crawler convoy as they approached this oasis-"
he used a laser pointer to circle a marked body of water on the map, and the handful of buildings around it. "-they likely intended to resupply and take a break there, before continuing onward. The hostiles would've marked it as a fixed point, and likely attacked on the approach or departure. That said, if they were based only in GEARs and vehicles, they must also be located in the local vicinity. There's a number of abandoned sites and structures in the area we can check out".
He pointed out a quartet of locations. An abandoned copper mine, a long-disused irrigation and agricultural center, a disused rock-crushing plant, and the remains of a pre-fab residential area for the workers at the facilities nearby.
"Looks like people had ideas of getting businesses out of the area, but they just didn't work out. The buildings are still there, however, and mostly intact. We need to sweep each facility to locate the hostiles and any potential captives or hostages, before we move in as a group to take on whoever it is that made the attacks in the first place and put 'em down."
He paused to study the squadrons' faces, looking to see if the information was sinking in, before continuing.
"Terrain in the area is typical badlands: dusty, dry and rocky earth and ground with irregular rock formations, outcrops, cliffs and canyons, with changing elevation across the area. No large concentrations of buildings or people, beyond what's been mentioned. No particularly large bodies of water beyond the noted lake and numerous small streams and narrow rivers. Weather is currently dry, with good light conditions and low wind - but this could change suddenly. And you'll be pleased to know this is a relatively geologically stable area, compared to some. There's strong geo-magnetic interference in the area, so we'll be restricted to LIDAR and visual signalling. Additionally, no satellite uplinks or up-to-date recon are available for this theater at this time.
"Our go time is roughly four hours from now, so we'll be launching late afternoon."
He paused to allow the information to sink in, and the first round of questions to come, before he continued, looking at the assembled faces once more in the dimmed light of the briefing room.

The prospect of the team's first real sortie fluttered in Myrina's chest. While she'd seen plenty of action before, the thought of combat out in the field always made her as psyched as it made her anxious. In fact, Myrina swore that whoever said he didn't get a tingle down in his gut before a deployment was a liar. As it was, this was the pilots' first true action working together as a team, and at least one of them probably feared making a mistake on the Roughrider's first mission.

Myrina raised her hand, leaning up in her chair. "Sir, do we know just what those land-crawlers were transporting?" Their cargo had to be of some value to their attackers; going out of their way for a combined-arms raid on the convoy probably meant they were well-organized with a clear objective in mind.

During the briefing, Adrian sat in his chair, hunched over with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped under his chin, with one foot propped up against the chair’s legs and the other free to fidget at odd intervals. He was not happy about his situation, but just on the edge of tolerance. More bandits, was all that passed through Adrian’s mind. Nothing I couldn’t have done just staying with my old squad. Why in the world was I transferred, again? Even so, a job was a job, and Adrian was bound to carry it out. It was his purpose in life.
When Myrina was the first to ask questions, Adrian took the opportunity to jump in. “It’d also be nice to know how many of the crawler there were.”

Captain Esailia and her fire squad stood near the back of the room, as Esailia wanted to avoid stepping on toes and looking like they thought they were more important. During the speech, Nathaniel leaned over and quietly whispered "Give you three guesses what our job'll be once we find those crawlers." Which got a quick retort from his CO "Quiet. You'll have your say afterward." A moment passed before Esailia stepped up and saluted "Sir, sudden dust storms could affect the chopper's ability to carry my squad, permission to have our ATCV fueled and ready as backup?"

Behind her, Naida and Edward were having their own conversation in hushed tones "I don't like this, bro. I have a bad feeling about those Crawlers. I've seen the inside of one. The corridors are murder if you get into a firefight in one. One 'nade and the interior gets a new c-" Edward cut her off with both hands waving in her face "Shh. Less I know, remember!?" Naida nodded in agreement "Well, I just hope the crawlers haven't been infested."

Silverwind tilted his head as his people spoke up, one by one. All of their questions were relevant and to the point, and he addressed them one by one. Nodding to Myrina, he replied.
"The manifest from the Crawler convoy indicated they weren't carrying anything unusual: non-perishable food stuffs, farm supplies - like seeds, grains, and the like; some general supplies such as hand tools, farming equipment, and building materials, as well as other general goods. Clothing and textiles, a small amount of medical supplies" he shrugged. "I believe there's a small handful of firearms in there, but nothing honestly worth stealing for the effort it would take. However, looks like there mighta been some passengers as well".
He turned his attention to Adrian, and nodded as the rabbit spoke up. "Good question - there were three crawlers in the convoy. The cargo was split among all three, and one carried a utility GEAR for loading and unloading, but it wasn't armed or armoured. None of the crawlers carried much in the way of defensive weaponry either".
The conversation turned more tactical as Esailia spoke up, and the fox was interested to hear what the fireteam captain had to say, and listened politely and intently as she spoke before giving his answer.
"Sounds good to me," he agreed to her suggestion. "Ken can as act as overwatch and fire support, and should we need to evac any hostages or casualties, the chopper can double duty that, too".
He looked around the room, checked eyes with the others. "Any other questions, comments or queries before I move to the tactical section of the briefing?"

Seeing Ken react the way he did, Aidan chuckled silently and sucked on one of his canine teeth and replied something like: "Nothing noteworthy, aye? Otherwise you'd tell me..."; other than that, the rest of the night was a blur in his head. At least he did catch some sleep that night. The days that followed were rather uneventful, the dog spent his days keeping his physical condition up to maximum: carrying tonnes of medical equipment, harnesses and a wounded soldier on a stretcher required endless amounts of endurance. Normally, he wouldn't be on field work all by himself, but one can never rely too much on chance. If he wasn't maintaining his exercise routine, he'd either read something from his PADD or hang out at the infirmary; he was getting used with his new life on the landcruiser, he was also getting used to constant, low hum the was making especially during the night.

Then came the day he was anticipating, Aidan just managed to finish his breakfast goop before he got to the briefing room, bringing along a cup'o'Joe and his PADD. He quietly listened to his superior present what seemed to be a run-of-the-mill skirmish: get there, investigate, retaliate, haul ass. Repeating the info in his head over and over, he thought of a question he considered to be worth asking. Seeing that Blade didn't mention anything about the civvies aboard those crawlers, Aidan lifted his left hand with a small knot in his neck; this would be the first time he would speak loudly with every member of the squad present, he had to somehow make a good impression, even if he were to say but three words.

"Are there any confirmed casualties or wounded civvies on the spot?" Aidan asked when he was given permission. Depending on Blade's answer, his medical kit could weigh a few extra kilograms worth of bandages, antiseptics, tissue adhesive, utensils and gloves. Maybe some food, most likely the people aboard those crawlers didn't touch the cargo they were hauling, Aidan considered.

The after-party

"Well, they're obviously not totally accurate," Shona replied, tapping her chin in thought. "But as far as numbers, GEAR systems, all that stuff goes, they're pretty good, and they're improving all the time." She noticed that the sniper looked a little uncomfortable, shifting in his seat and avoiding turning his ears towards the speakers. Her own sensitive ears were folded back slightly against her head, and she gave the guy a sympathetic smile. If this keeps up, we might have to have a word with the DJ...

"Next time we have time on the sims, I'll show you how to tweak the settings, if you want."

---

The briefing

Shona, as usual, was sitting in the front row, her ears perked up attentively and her PADD sitting on her knee, using a stylus to jot down notes as Silver spoke. She forced herself to sit still, realising that one of her feet was jigging nervously against the leg of her seat. Her first real combat mission with the Riders. Her first real combat mission for months, full stop. Real bullets, real baddies. She took a deep breath, focusing on the files on the screen and on her PADD, and on her squad-mate's questions.

She frowned in concern as Aidan brought up the possibility of wounded, biting her lip as she glanced at the data on her side-bar. "Just hope there are survivors to be wounded at all..." She murmured half to herself, her ears wilting a little. She really hoped they weren't going to be riding into a massacre...