((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 [i]Claw[/i] will ferry us to within five miles, and then we'll proceed in our GEARs as advance scout, while the [i]Claw[/i] 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.