Aidan nodded his head slowly, his eyes locked on the floor and his mind picturing possible scenarios; he started to rethink about the tactical capabilities of badlands bandits since, like Adrian said, they couldn't pose much of a threat. They weren't northmen, few of them would have any kind of formal training and Aidan knew it. Yet, he could only think of the worst case scenario.

[b]"Yeah, you're right, they're stupid. But stupidy can overwhelm us if there's a lot of them."[/b] He said with some concern in his voice. [b]"We'll see."[/b]

Then the hare commented on the dog's chioce of food and drink; Aidan shifted his gaze from the floor to Adrian and then at his coke and crackers. For a second he worried about his own digestive system, but he shrugged most of his doubts off and finished the pack of crackers and the seemingly toxic soft drink. But, as a safety measure, Aidan took a quick trip to the latrines before returning to his GEAR; he had to swim through the crowd of military personnel flooding the hangar in order to reach back to his own Dartwing, but lucky for him, it did not cost a lot of time. He still had a few minutes before go-time, yet, he preferred to storm up the ladder latched on the cockpit. Once inside the rather cramped box - which would be considered spacious compared to other GEAR models - the dog reached for the back panel, where he released the lock on the latch securing the DATMK; he rummaged it's insides, only to produce a small bottle holding 50 2mg Imodium pills, popping two of them. If Adrian was right about the drink, the doctor certainly preferred to suffer a slight constipation, rather than having to hold his bowels shut for dear life. With that done, he stowed away the PDW and the handgun, so they would not be a discomfort to him during the mission. He locked his kit back into place and crashed into the seat, which was stuck in a rather uncomfortable setting; he readjusted the seat so that his back was resting in a more comfortable, lower angle. His gaze darted to a pair of skunk ears popping from the lower lip of the cockpit; Aidan tilted his head to the left in confusion and once the pair of ears delicately placed his helmet on the floor, the dog tilted his head in the complete opposite direction. How could he forget about the damn helmet, he didn't know, but may the stars bless skunk-ears for bringing it up to him.

[b]"Yo, thanks!"[/b] He blurted, trying to throw a glance at whoever it was. Catching a glimpse of skunk-ears, he determined that it might have been a female.

Aidan slumped back into his seat and initiated the first steps of firing up his GEAR; his fingers twitched back and forth, flipping switches back and forth to perform last second checkups before he'd release himself from the clamps holding the machinery in place. After twisting three more switches, Aidan pushed his thumb into the ignition button and held it there until the GEAR gave off a low hum and the interior lit up; he shut close and locked his cockpit, sealing himself inside the darkness of the chamber lightly speckled with the lights coming up from the buttons. Three seamless monitors lit up around him, showing the world around him through the lenses of the optics installed on the head-like appendage of the vehicle; he turned on his helmet and after two seconds, it synchronized with the GEAR's copmuter and now displayed a complex-looking reticle that followed the movement of his eyes, while remaining within reasonable limits of the monitors. He fitted his upper limbs through the linear frames, aligning his shoulder, elbow and wrist with the articulations of the systems, translating the movement of his own body into the GEAR's own set of limbs; he pushed his fingers into the gloves that would read the very intricate mess of movements his hands were capable of and finally, secured his feet at the pedals. Being in direct control of the vehicle, Aidan pulled the submachine gun-like autocannon latched on the GEAR's torso and pulled the bolt handle just to reveal a 20mm projectile chambered and ready to be fired; he made sure the safety was still on and proceeded to run some quick checkups for the scanners, the computer verbosely confirming that they were fully operational. Finally, he linked himself to the comms and, as expected, the emergency/mayday line would directly connect to him too.

Just then, Ken did a comms check, to which one of the new folk replied quickly, followed by the colonel and Myrina.

[b]"This is Sykes, standing by. Squad, you should check if the emergency line establishes a link to my comms too, it's much easier for me to respond to any unfortunate contingencies on the field."[/b] He blurted as he started to micromanage all the tabs tagged with each squad member's name on his HUD, their name highlighting in green when they communicated. [b]"If anyone gets hurt, or even if you just don't feel right, you are to contact me immediately. Heroes don't die of heart attacks, aneurysms or untreated bronchitis."[/b]

With a few final checks completed, Aidan relaxed his body and allowed himself to sink into the slightly worn cushions of the pilot seat and closed his eyes. He was ready.