Silverwind couldn't help but give a grin of satisfaction as the bay came to life with the movements and sounds of GEARs swinging into action. Though he was thoroughly ensconced within the Harlock's cockpit and insulated from the outside world and its' sounds and smells, he could visualize the hum of turbines coming to life, the whine of the artificial muscles and joints, and the hiss of hydraulic systems, along with the thump of rubber-soled metal-shod feet on the deck; underscoring it all would be the harsh tang of lubricant, hot metal, and the stale smell of bodies in motion.
Despite his many years of the same thing, he still loved it; still got fired up seeing a Tactical GEAR Unit, a TGU, run through their paces. He felt the thrill rise in his chest as the C3i system lit up with the designations of the team, and the commo net burst to life with the chatter of everyone checking in and handing off details with the CIC decks above their heads.
On time cue, the cavernous bay door cracked open into a line of light that swelled into a rectangular opening to the world outside.
Moving to the front of the formation, and beckoning with one cocked hand, he engaged the GEAR's foot-wheels and sped down the ramp toward the outside, hitting the dusty ground at a fair pace.

"All right, Roughriders! Move out. Y'all have yer designated positions. Form up into your teams and keep in las-com contact. Regular check-ins, and do not engage unless fired upon. Ken, keep an eye on us from overhead. Esailia, let me know th' moment y'all find anythin' aboard that crawler. GogoGO!"
Rooster tails of dust flared behind the moving machine as Silver veered off on course toward the waypoint highlighted on the holo-projected HUD, flicking his single-eyed glance down to keep a track of the others as they split and head on their own course.

Mike didn't remember much of the bar besides good company, and corny music as he rubbed his head during the briefing. Not a regular drinker, 2-3 malt beverages would end his night. Despite this, the tiger was listening intently to the CO. Crawlers missing, potential gears, light and medium armor, and foot mobiles. As he listened he reviewed his loadout, and while routine, he decided it suitable for this engagement.

Once dismissed he sought out the Naida, and the rest of the ground pounders, wishing them luck. with not much else to do, he quickly donned his suit, armor, and personal weapons before running to the bay. Upon arrival he was once again greeted by the old badger and his assistant, both of which wished him luck and recited a list of worked that had been done. thanking them, he climbed up prowlers leg an into the cockpit.

mike stowed his gear and began the boot up sequence, muscles tightening, monitors winking into existence, and weapons spinning and dry firing respectively. Donning his helmet, the reticle tracing his sightline. Raising the visor he broke the aim assist and gave a thumbs up to the tech crew.

<Prowler to roughriders, reporting in, all systems green, moving to outside, heads up in the outbound lane!> Mike said, the last portion through external speakers. Prowler slowly stepped out and into the caution tapped lane, head down to check slightly ahead of its feet as it exited the 'Claw.

Kensington cleared his throat and nodded to himself upon hearing the order to move out. Like that the communications started coming alive with someone else, another team mate just minutes after Silver had come onto the radio. The pilot collected himself, though and started lifting off from the hangar, his eyes squinting only slightly as he peered out into the horizon.

The altitude climbed: 50, 100, 200, and 300 before the airman could get a good look of what's ahead. "This is your airman ensuring altitude... 300-400 meters. Trying to get eyes ahead at this time... Standing by for orders." Remember you're support role, Ken.. No need to do anything crazy. Was the first thing he thought after he gave his report.. This wasn't a training mission, after all.

Down below the hanger, Edward has already zoomed out of the engineering bay in the ATCV. "Private Edward reporting to Captain Esailia! All modifications are finished and secure. Falling in behind the GEARs!" the fox was yelling as he spoke into his radio, due to the roaring all around him from the GEARs' legs booming the ground and the sound of the engine. Meanwhile in the hanger...

The chopper's blades were almost at take off speed when Nathanial and Naida dashed into the hanger bay. "Next time listen to me!" The fox was yelling to Nathanial, who was already panting slightly. Neither said anything as the leapt for the chopper just as the skids were raising off the floor, only managing to get in at the last moment, Esailia staring at them the whole time. The pair gave a halfhearted salute to Esailia, who said nothing to them, simply looked back down at her PADD, clicking on her comm "Good work, Private. I knew you could do it." before swapping to the pilot's frequency "Captain Esailia to chopper pilot. My soldiers have jumped from low flying aircraft in the past. Inform me if the drop point is hot when we get there."

Esailia then turned her attention to her last two soldiers "Next time listen to her. Her nose is better than yours." The feline captain chuckled, and started coughing lightly "I hate flying." She muttered under her breath, staring out the door as the zipped through the air.

Kuraiko quickly hopped in his GEAR after suiting up in a hurry, double checking on the fly as he ran to the mech, he smiled seeing that even in the rush he was able to get everything right. His heart soared as he saw his GEAR ready for him, the crew maintaining it gave him the thumbs up as he jumped on the side to climb into the cockpit. Immediately starting it up and running necessary diagnostic software, smiling as the lights blinked green and told him that Blitz was ready to rock. Then his HUD came up, showing diagnostic display of GEAR integrity, ammunition available down to the last round, and fuel capacity sitting next to the movement tracker. Though the tracker would be useless with the distortion, it was a nice thing to have. He hoisted his rifle as he headed to the open doors, opening his comm channel to the team and announced his exit as the jump jets prepared to fire him off. "This is Kuraiko Aihara in the Blitzkrieg! Moving out to join Team Three!" As if on cue, the Blitzkrieg's jump jets flared, launching him to join his team in the fleld, loading the chamber of his rifle as his survival axe and his twin-barreled revolver bounced on their respective sides on his GEAR'S hips. the internal mounted wrist blades charged and ready to slice and dice. Something told him this would be one eventful mission as his caught up to his fellow teammates and took the proper formation.

“Alright, Doc, you heard the man—let’s shake a leg,” Adrian said as he fiddled with one of his auxiliary screens, not satisfied to check his map of the area just once. He marveled at how his squad’s radio became less and less effective the further they all went, but not from a lack of experience. He had dealt with the, ‘The Terrors of Magnetic Hell,’ in the past, but it was rarely ever not a tense, stressful situation, even in a squad as tightly knight as the Long Patrol was. The enforced quiet of laser and gestures steadily brought out the worst in him, as he was left alone with his thoughts. I’ve killed a lot of people. His thoughts began to wander. What does chicken taste like? I haven’t eaten lean in millennia, it’s kind of gross. Maybe if I had somebody shred it up and press it into a patty to make a chicken burger— His errant thoughts were repeatedly cut off as his eyes or ears picked up small bursts of activity. He would quickly snap alert, only to find he had been startled by a small tree’s branches in the wind. He sighed and checked over his shoulder. I wonder, is he a surgeon? How many corpses has he felt up? I dealt with a lot of those, back at the slaughter camp… They were all slimy and slippery though, from whatever brine they used to wash the blood away. Man, I remember this one— Adrian returned to attention as his waypoint drew near. The mine, unsurprisingly, was set among a small cluster of hills, which he and Aidan had just come to.

His GEAR signaled back [wait] as he hit the brakes and rolled to a stop at the base of one particularly abrupt incline. He checked left and right, on the lookout for scouts, before he inched up the hill, his rifle held up high. As a fire position, this was well below the standards of what counted as optimal, but through use of the scope’s camera feed into his cockpit, he was able to peek over the crest of the hill without exposing much, if any, of his GEAR to the other side.

"Go, Go, GO!"

At Blade's signal, Myrina zipped from the staging area, followed by a trail of dust that billowed from her GEAR's feet. Her target area was highlighted on her GPS, and a handy waypoint hovered over her visor.
Myrina took a route just behind an outcrop that hid her GEAR from view. As Blade had mentioned, the ground here was uneven, and her machine shuddered every so often from hitting a change in elevation.
The goat connected her comm frequency to Arcade's GEAR, giving the mic a tap before speaking. "Alright, Ruthless, we're headed to the irrigation facility. Stay close to me."
From a quick glance at the GPS imaging, the facility seemed to be a slab of flat land, dotted with drop-sprinklers. Anything that had been growing there was long shriveled up and dry; lack of maintenance had caused some of the machinery to wear down too. Nestled in a corner of the field was a building of some kind. Probably a storehouse for agricultural equipment and the field's operational center. If team two was to find anything here, it was a safe bet that's where it'd be.

Silverwind's GEAR gave a thumbs up to Edward and the others in the ATCV, before the machine leaned to the left on its' foot-wheels, gesturing to Mike and Kuraiko's GEARs to follow suit with hand-signals as the one-eyed fox veered off and headed for the small and seemingly abandoned settlement marked as one of the possible hostile locations.

As the GEARs left the vehicle behind, Silverwind intiated a laser-com between the three of them, glancing at the C3i display as he did.
"Prowler, once we're within a closer distance, move on ahead. Scout out and see if there's anything in the settlement giving a clear sign of the enemies' presence. If you do see any hostiles, engage to disable their rear area and infrastructure. Aihara, stick with me and we'll push up the middle using the buildings as cover. If we see hostiles, we engage to withdraw and wait for the others to arrive before committing to a battle."

The buildings resolved themselves from the afternoon heat-haze; a collection of white-washed buildings of only a few storeys each, mixed with a handful of generic municipal and business buildings. All of them looked ramshackle and weathered, with no glazing in the windows and once cheerful red-tiled roofs that had scattered their tiles across the ground, or lost them to the elements.

Meanwhile, the trio of Landcrawlers loomed large in the landscape. The orange-toned wheeled vehicles were somewhat less monolithic and imposing than the land-leviathans of Landcruisers, but still looked like mobile landscape features, and were impressive in size, dwarfing the ATCV, and twice the height of a GEAR.
All three stood silent and motionless, bearing the scars of the hostile incident that had resulted in the Roughriders being called out. Blast patterns and carbon-scoring decorated their hulls, and empty casings from shells were scattered liberally around the area. Debris and random items spread out in a halo from the vehicles; personal effect, empty crates and the like.
It was scarily still, with barely a sound carried on the wind, and the doors to the insides of the cavernous vehicles standing open.

Up slope at the Copper Mine where Adrian and Aiden had moved into position, the sniper scope revealed little of note. The mine, formerly sealed off with a grated gate, had been opened up. Tools and machinery were scattered around the entrance, but all were heavily rusted and weathered from years of exposure to the Badlands climate, Spoil-heaps and discarded containers and crates littered the ground, with the mine entrance itself a dark, gloomy opening wide and tall enough for a GEAR to enter with ease. Indeed, a half-salvaged mining GEAR lounged on the ground against one side of the upper slope, sat on its' behind with legs sprawled and one arm resting on a knee. Covers and access panels had been removed, and the UHD batteries and much of the electrical systems had clearly been picked clean.

"Roger roger!" Aidan replied to Silver and Adrian both and let the weight of his body push into his legs and against the pedals, his GEAR slid forward a few meters on it's wheels. He came to a halt and for a few other GEARs to pass first before he'd find himself a position in the queue; he took a few deep breaths and pushed back the last of the worries out the hatch, it was time again to be on alert, be concentrated and stay frosty. As soon as he was given the green light, the dog pushed the pedals down again, his GEAR accelerating towards the outside world, his body being pushed back against the seat by an unseen force. The artificial muscles protected by the outer titanium alloy panels took most of the shock as soon as the legs hit the ramp and the ground, Aidan barely felt any shaking in his compartment, but he did feel a few Gs as he took a hard turn to fall in line with Adrian. For the most of the ride, the dog relaxed in his seat, he even locked the arms of the vehicle in place and pulled out his own from the linear frames to stretch his torso and once he was far from the safety of the landcruiser, he considered strapping himself with safety belts. His mind drifted into places far from his duty, places that brought a taste of sorrow and absence in his mouth, tastes that made him sick to the stomach. Or it may be that stupid soft drink. His ears open to the chatter on the channel, his eyes on the dirt world in front, Aidan sighed to himself in the struggle to battle against sadness; a few bumps here and there coming from the pedals told him that he was now in a rather rocky region, forcing him to cut a bit of his speed and try to place himself behind his comrade leading the way to their waypoint. At some point he saw Adrian's GEAR turn its to head to him, the dog quickly shoved his left hand into the glove and gave him the OK gesture, completely oblivious to the hare's own grim thoughts.

Soon, the objective was in their sights, motivating Aidan to re-take control of Stumpy's arms; he leaned a little to the right, the GEAR translating the command into a strafe that put some distance between itself and Hyper Saber. The canine was ready to dodge shots, yet, none were fired and Adrian was confident enough to peek over the lip of the hill through the scope of the rifle. Stumpy came to a halt as Adrian commanded, Aidan switching off the wheels to brake slowly without risking to tip over the GEAR; he took a few more careful steps, knowing that no-one would be able to spot his GEAR due to it's height.

"Boss," Aidan called towards the colonel "This is team three, we've reached the target. No enemy activity yet to be spotted, over." After a few moments of waiting, Aidan grew a tad impatient, he hated to not know what's going on.

"Yo, you see anything?" He asked Adrian, shifting his gaze left to right, looking out for any form of enemy activity. "Stay put, I'll check the flanks." He re-engaged the wheels and started to roll along the crest of the hill on Adrian's right, keeping a safe distance from the lip so that he wouldn't be spotted from below. Not finding much, he took a very brief glance over to the mining facility where he found two elements that drawn his attention: the big door being wide open and oh-so-inviting, and, a defunct GEAR stripped of it's components. Returning to Adrian, he had really no clue as what to do yet.

"I don't like that door being so wide open, smells like trouble. And that dead GEAR's not a good sign either. I'm not about to charge into a clumsy trap, I feel a lot safer up here with a cloud of rockets headed towards the camp. Then again, they may have innocents down there. Should get around it and close in from behind?" The canine felt a little pumped and ready to go, yet, there was a pinch of reluctance in him that held him from taking any huge risks or daring maneuvers; being the other half of a team, he couldn't really put his neck out, especially since he's a support unit the whole squad of GEARs, the chopper above and the fire-team aboard depended on. At times, he felt he was extremely limited due to his role, but if it weren't for that thought constantly nagging him, his disregard for his own well-being might bring his life to an abrupt end.

<Aye sir, preparing to split off and provide recon> mike called through the COMS as prowler jogged next to the others. Keeping his head on a swivel, he kept scanning the exterior cameras, both normal and thermal for any hint of danger, at most he saw the sparse wild life scramble for their dens. Occasionally prowlers rifle would snap into firing position, pause, and lower as mike investigated an anomaly, but every time is was nothing of note, and his paranoia.

"Chill Nawlin, keep an eye out, but don't jump at everything, that will kill ya" he muttered to himself as he took a drink from his canteen. "...then again, bullets are instant, blood pressure takes years." putting the water away he picked up the rifle again, focusing on the buildings. Nothing obviously wrong, they looked like abandoned buildings, no glints from the windows, no mech arms popping out the walls.

At a click out, mike veered left and dashed forward, Rifle aimed roughly at the settlement. <prowler, moving out> mike grumbled as the mech shifted from coyote beige to more of a stucco grey with red near the feet. As mike slid into a crouch, he peered into the town, scrying any movement that would betray any presence. All seemed quiet, so after waiting to confirm, he opened a Beam channel.

<Looks clear from here sir, do I enter, or continue east towards the rear, while maintaining overwatch?>

Kensington kept his focus on the horizon ahead but immediately that focus was cut off when a voice came into his headset, the voice coming from Esailia the squad leader. He did lean to the side to glance over at the group and they could probably see the wide smirk on his face as he looked over those who were in the line of view. "Well!" The pilot said over the low frequency radio, giving the group a wave before he got back on the controls and slowly started the helicopter forward. "From the looks of it everythin's quiet but I haven't done a full scan of the horizon. If ya want cap' hook up the PADD to the helicopter's system or something something like that. Really, it just gives you the camera feed from the turret.. Nothing fancy like controlling the helicopter and stuff." As he spoke, the airman busied himself with peering into the thermal feed in hopes to find any dangers before he would have to move in and drop the team off, something in the back of his head was telling him he wouldn't take off again as soon as he lands. Once he got a good view of everything the wolf got on the main channel and began talking again.

"The air unit is going to push up to drop the units off at the crawlers like briefing called out.. Requesting the green light to switch tasks to drop-off. Be advised ladies and gentlemen the skies are clear and this helicopter is exposed, it's an anti-air missile spec's dream." The pilot reported, his eyes squinting as he peered past the sunlight at the field ahead. There was a sort of beauty to it all if you didn't consider the fact you were an active combatant, but that wasn't a luxury a pilot should be taking in yet. Wait till the fight's over Ken.. Then you can watch the sky all ya want.

Kuraiko nodded, checking his rifle as he stuck close to Blade, keeping the butt to his shoulder, though the barrel stayed down, the posture was a 'snap and shoot' sort of posture, when engaging you snap up the rifle and shoot. Simple, yet deathly efficient. "Got it. We gotta be cautious, those small spaces in between the structures are a sniper's dream shot. I'll try to judge the angles to give us a better chance of eluding the shot. We also need to move against the wind if possible, keep engagements to where our bullets are carried by the wind." He kept his eyes moving, scanning, analyzing, attempting to determine targets and possible threat locations. This area was ambush central, so one misstep and they both go home in boxes. His heart picked up a little, he was ready, ready to take down these bandits and get the hostages out. They needed to be quick though, no doubt these bandits had buddies though, so the possibility of them bringing back up was high. He would too, I mean they hit three Landcrawlers. They should know that there is going to be a military response. That made him wonder if they had GEAR'S too, if so...This would get crazy, bandit GEARS doubtfully followed regulation. So he wondered what their kits would be...Undoubtedly something badass in their eyes. It'll probably be structurally pathetic, so he could easily eliminate them. Today was a good day. He was finally ready to fight as the buildings got larger in his vision.

Blade slowed the Harlock as the trio approached the village. He gave a click of the radio in a confirmation to Mike as he broke away, before turning an ear to Aidan's transmission and listening intently.

"Roger, no activity at the target. Things look quiet at our location too. We're moving in to investigate now and will keep you informed. Stay wary, out".

An incoming signal sounded from Nawlin, and he toggled the channel to reply.

Looks clear from here sir, do I enter, or continue east towards the rear, while maintaining overwatch?

He hesitated as he considered the tactical situation. The terrain looked relatively clear, with no hostiles in sight so far. The buildings, though relatively few in number, were enough to block the line-of-sight between Prowler and the position of himself and Kuraiko. If there was anyone amongst the buildings, they may well be lying in wait. A pincer movement might help, and they'd get a better overview if they could approach from multiple directions. Especially since Mike's GEAR was designed to scout and recon - exactly the kind of scenario they were in, in fact.
"Move in toward the rear and approach, Nawlin. We'll get a better idea if there's anyone there then. We'll approach from the front and try and draw them out. If there's any hostiles, we can get them in a pincer movement".
He swivelled the grey-black head of his GEAR toward the sleeker shape of Kuraiko's. The wolf gave a tactical appraisal of the situation and an overview of his approach, and the fox replied, pivoting back to observe the approach toward the central cluster of buildings.
"I agree," he replied as he observed the streets and byways they had to approach on. The settlement was small and quite rustic, with unpaved streets and white-washed desert buildings, most no larger than three stories and separated by dusty patches of earth for yards or access to the rear or next street over of the grid-like pattern.
"Move up in a slight staggered formation, two abreast. Should give us enough cover if we're ambushed. Sweep th' angles as we move an' be sure ta keep an eye on the windows and doors - Infantry like firin' their heavy weapons from internal places at GEARs, gives 'em good angles at joints".
He'd learned that lesson in more than a few peacekeeping ops, and joint exercises with Esailia's team over the last week had re-taught the lesson as well.
"Keep it slow an' steady," he advised, before pulling the Harlock up from its' crouch and moving forward, the autocannon/rifle held out in front at a ready position, sensors sweeping the area as he moved in.

****

At the mine, there was similarly little evidence of the enemy, but no evidence that they weren't there either. The yawning mouth of the tunnel beckoned the GEARs to close in, and the lingering darkness inside the tunnel, big enough for the GEARs to advance single-file and upright, hid whatever secrets were inside.

***

At the Landcrawler location, the vehicles remained quiet as a tomb. Fabric flapped in the dry breeze, and paper danced on the wind, stirred up as the helo came into a hover. No tracers exploded from cover, and no seeking missiles lashed out from below. The dominant sound was the clatter of helicopter rotors and engines as the aircraft hovered above.

Dust devils chased across the dry terrain of the Irrigation Facility ahead of Myrina and Arcades' GEARs. The terrain was mostly flat with a gentle roll to it and enclosed by hills on three sides. A few stunted, splayed-branched trees grew here and there, reaching at their best the head-height of the 20-foot GEARs, but too sparse to provide cover for much of anything.
The control station for the Irrigation Facility was at the opposite end of the 'canyon' (to give it a gracious name), a low, two-storey concrete building with flat roofs and narrow windows. Unlike most of the other buildings in the area, it was squat, grey, and gloomy-looking. Smaller outbuildings dotted the area, providing cover from the elements for the supposed workings of the irrigation facility. Water storage and collection tanks filled in other spaces, spread out over the plotted-out fields but still large enough to provide creative cover.

Something gleamed briefly in the shifting sunlight, at the rear corner of one of the large outbuildings, a good mile down the length of the spread-out area. Then everything fell back into stilness.

Meanwhile, Silverwind gave a brief 'affirmative' to Ken's request to drop the troops, leaving them free to conduct their business with the co-operation of the helo pilot. Below, shadows shifted within the depths of the 'crawlers, and a door flapped briefly in the downdraft from the rotors, dust swirling up in a haze.

At the pilot's suggestion, Esailia did hook up her PADD to the chopper's gun cam, and what she saw did not make her happy. open space and no dust clouds to block possible sniper shots. She flipped to Kensington's frequency once more "Pilot, when you land, get as close as you can to the crawler. My squad will hot hop and you can get back into the air. If we see signs of infantry inside, you'll be the first to know." The feline captain kept the comm open as she started scanning the outside of the crawler's hull while, in another window, she brought up the usual blueprints for the huge vehicles.

"I don't like our choices. It's either up the front ladders, or in through a roof hatch. I doubt we can get one of the cargo doors to lower from the outside. Both the other options can be easily covered by a single soldier. How's your aim, Kensington?"

Esailia waited for an answer, then swapped to local comms for her squad "Wynn, get up those stairs as quick as you can, White and I will be right on your tail. Breach the moment White taps your back, and get inside as fast as you can. Tight quarters might not be the best, but it's hell of a lot better than having our brains blown out by sniper fire." Her soldiers nodded, cocking weapons and checking their gear as per usual operating procedure. The feline swapped to the ATCV's channel "Edward, your time will come if the chopper comes under fire, we will need you to come up and cover us and any civvies we find. In the meantime, get to a safe spot, and get your hacking kit set up." Edward had been driving over the bumpy behind the GEARs, but slowed to a stop out of sight of the crawlers and threw out a quick "Yes, Ma'am!" before scrambling into the back of the ATCV to prep his station.

Flipping to the overall comms, she reported in "Fire squad is moving in. We will head for crew and passenger quarters first. Find any survivors we can. Then to the bridge to find out what happened. Esailia out." She cut out, slipped her PADD into its secured position in her vest, before grabbing up her rifle to check herself. With all three ready, she once more clicked the pilot's comm on "Ready for drop off."

Kensington slowly scanned his surroundings from the cockpit he sat in, his hands tightening, then loosening their grip on the controls before Esailia's voice interrupted the somewhat silent environment. It almost cause the fox to jump, but fortunately he was expecting something to come his way after the squad leader had checked the camera feed, and the pilot had to nod in agreement to her statement before her question rose up about his accuracy. He had to pause for a second, then chuckle before he began speaking with a rather boastful country accent. "If I were a bad shooter I would be still on cargo duty. Don't worry ma'am, if I got to draw a handgun and shoot out the window then I'll get her done."

After his response silence returned to the cockpit, and his eyes were rather focused on the land crawler. He even did a few cautious sways with the helicopter, so to not keep them still. The airman was minute away from starting a circle pattern, he hated the idea of getting shot through the windshield, but then the word came over the headset requesting him to land. "Understood. GRID check on landing zone is.. 075, 113. Landing at this time get ready to start off with a dash." The wolf replied, and like that he started to descend from the sky, the hairs on the back of his neck beginning to stand up. Despite the few seconds he was landing this was the most dangerous time for a helicopter, there was no momentum to run nor was there the elevation to retaliate. All he could do is hope nothing comes up on his blind side and gives him a nasty welcoming. I feel like I am gonna have to use my VOSS today.. Seconds passed and the dust started kicking up from under before them, then the helicopter came to a halt just inches from the ground, the pilot leaning sideways out of his seat to wave the passengers off the helicopter. "Stay safe and stay alive! Don't be cocky and call your evac whenever you need it!"

Adrian sat for a moment as the gears turned in his head. He played with the scope of his rifle in half successful attempt to peer into the darkness. Rocks. Not sure what I expected. He sucked on his teeth as he willed the L-68 to lower its rifle. “No, you stay back here and cover me,” he said as he turned around to scan the horizon behind the team. He stowed his rifle on his back and withdrew his pistol from its holding clamps. “I’m gonna go smash my face against a landmine or two.”

The L-68 inched out of cover on its skates and loosely circled the perimeter of the mine’s entrance. It stopped at regular intervals to scan the ground in front of it as Adrian made notes of his path. By all appearances, they just picked the good stuff and moved on. He eventually reached the open mouth of the mine. But this place probably looks like a great hangar, doesn’t it? Adrian manually widened the aperture of the L-68’s camera array and peered into the darkness. The picture was much clearer than what his rifle’s camera had shown.

From the entrance, the mine extended some ways as a straight tunnel into the earth, before it broke off into an array of intersections. Adrian turned back to his teammate and signaled, [One minute,] before he slowly advanced into the darkness. It quickly became apparent to him that the mine had seen recent use. Fresh tracks from the skates and feet of GEARS marked a clear path down the center of the entryway, with any junk that had obstructed the flow of traffic pushed against the walls. There were definite efforts to patch up the crumbling, unstable, badlands rock that lined the tunnel, but some had clearly fallen loose. “That’s, that’s very reassuring.”

Adrian had not moved very far when one of the poorly applied, metal plates that had been drilled into the ceiling came loose and fell to the ground in front of him. Thunk! A rock bounced off the head of his GEAR and Adrian threw himself against the back of his seat. The L-68 flew backward on its skates as though it was carried by its pilot’s momentum as a slightly larger rock tumbled to the ground where it had been. The GEAR burst back into the outside light with a trail of dust behind it. Adrian never missed a beat in his retreat as he retraced his path back to the hill and signaled, [No go,] the whole way.

“The place is falling apart,” Adrian said to Aidan after he collected himself. “But it looks like this is where they hid their mech units. So there’s that. If we’re going in, we need to find another entrance. Preferably one that won’t collapse at a moment’s notice.”

Prowler knelt among the sand, rifle propped up on its knee, sweeping as nawlin inspected the scene. The few glares that instantly gained his attention seemed to be from heat shimmers and broken windows. "I really don't like this" he muttered off the channel. Standing, prowler retreated back, keeping eyes on the buildings.

"Move in toward the rear and approach, Nawlin. We'll get a better idea if there's anyone there then. We'll approach from the front and try and draw them out. If there's any hostiles, we can get them in a pincer movement".

Nawlin keyed affirmative as he strafed left, glancing at his sensors, pulling up thermals he scanned the distance, watching the buildings becoming a wash of colors, mostly yellows and greens. The Fine sand compacted under his feet, causing the gear to sink into the ground. "moon dust..." mike cursed, reaching over to pulse back pressure through the air filters, trying to blow excess sand out of them. The stuff was persistant and reguardless of care, would eventually cause even the toughest gear to break down.
As the filters blew out the sand, a small cloud of dust surrounded prowler, the silica fouling his sensors.

"Ruthless, did you see that?" Myrina toggled her helmet optic to get a closer view on the facility. "Thought I something behind that storehouse." It was about the right size to protect a GEAR, tall and wide enough to fully obscure its frame. It was difficult to get an accurate image, even with the zoom. Dust hazed through the air, and heat ripples danced at the far end of the horizon. Switching her vision to thermal, Myrina tried to get a clearer look - and then she saw it.

"Contact!" She saw the GEAR silhouetted through the building's windows, moving on the other side. Just a shoulder and a partial head, but it was enough for her to confirm it. "Colonel Blade, Myrina here. We've got eyes on an unknown GEAR at the irrigation facility. I count one but there may be-"

PAMPAMPAMPAM! Myrina thrust the belly of her machine down against the canyon slope, as a staccato of gunfire erupted nearby. It hadn't come from the building - where the hell? "Taking fire!" She grimaced over the radio. Popping briefly out of cover, she let off a salvo in return, not entirely sure where the shots had come from, or if they were directed at team two, even. As she pulled the trigger, the irrigation fields suddenly burst with activity. The GEAR behind the storehouse had shifted around the corner, scanning in Myrina's direction. She counted at least two others behind water tanks in the field, bustling at her return fire.

"I count three GEARs," she huffed. "Presumed hostile!" Another barrage scraped the canyon formation which provided Myrina cover, kicking up rock and dust over her machine. "Ruthless! Put some fire on them!" With suppressing fire keeping them down momentarily, Myrina edged out from the corner of her cover, getting her autocannon barrel clear. She tapped the trigger three times, spitting 40 mm armor-piercing shells down into the facility. The slammed through one of the water tanks, which gushed as it contorted under the impact. From behind, a GEAR slumped to the ground, from which it made no effort to push itself back to its feet.

"One down, crew kill," Myrica announced.

As Myrina and Arcade came under fire, everything seemed to erupt into action all at once.
In the irrigation facilties' bowl-like valley, gunfire erupted at the pair of GEARs from numerous directions, along with blooms of 'hot smoke', laced with IR and sensor-jamming metallic elements, shielding the movements of vehicles and other forces fighting back.

At the mine entrance, as Adrian emerged back out into the light from the tunnel and spoke to Aidan over the comm-channel, the abandoned work-GEAR at the entrance to the mine moved with a groan of long-abandoned and half-rotten electromuscle and alloy, jerking into a more upright posture through embedded LOS commands, before the sevel dozen pounds of composition explosive and ball-bearings embedded into its' frame detonated with an apocalyptic roar and a blinding flash of light, engulfing the pair in clouds of smoke. As the clouds of smoke and blinding dust whirled about the two machines, tracers slashed through the murk, and proximity alarms clashed with lock-on warnings and sensor paint notifications.

At the Landcrawlers, the upper hatch on the forward of the two vehicles, the one most open to the elements, lazily fell open, as if in the wind - and moments later the concussive boom-hiss of a shoulder-fired SAM sounded, arcing upward toward the hovering helicopter. Moments later, without waiting for a hit confirmation, a scrambling mis-matched formation of a pair of dirt-bikes, a track-bike* and two quads roared away from the crawlers, their heavily armed passengers glaring over their shoulders with desperate expressions as they headed for the direction of the irrigation farm.

At the Town, Silverwind and the others saw the eruptions of smoke and light, and then later heard the concussions of smoke in the wind, reaching them a few scant moments later.
"Shit," hissed the vulpine through his teeth, ears flattening under his piloting helmet. "The others have run into trouble," he growled. Taking the initiative, he snapped over the radio to the others. "Nawlin, Double time it! We gotta clear this area and move ta reinforce th' others!"
Pointing with the Harlock's hands, he bounded forward, autocannon rifle pulled into the machines' shoulder tightly in a firing position as he moved up the street in a fast run, sweeping window frames and doors with the forward camera in sweeps of the head, miniguns covering possible firing positions as the head moved, and the autocannon covering other positions as he ran. He kept an equal eye out for traps and wires, ready to disable or tangle the legs of a twenty-foot war machine, as he moved.
"Mike!" he yelled, abandoning protocol in the heat of the moment as he moved. There was no sign of the enemy here. "Anything on your side! Kuraiko, back me up - move a street over and check the structures!"
The thought of the others in distress bothered him. How many GEARs could there be, where could they be hidden, if not here? Was it at the mine? After all, that was where one of the explosions had come from. He gritted his teeth as he saw Prower grow larger as he closed in on Mike's location.