Alaska and wash had been used to military rations but ever since they’d joined with the program they’d been treated like royalty, the meals were fantastic according to Alaska but Washington stuck with ‘military grade porridge’ he called it man’s food but Alaska couldn’t understand it to her it was sludge was a taste. Wash and Alaska sat down with the others, Alaska took off her helmet, she was uncomfortable with it but at least she was with her brother now. They both started eating their breakfast, whilst listening to others and silently agreeing. When north talked about South’s past operations some thing rang a bell in Washington's head. **“Wait, that hacker was south, a squad mate of mine tried to track you down, I have no idea what he meant but apparently you or the hacker linked your router through so many other places his squad ended up at a random civvies’ house, it gave them the fright of their lives when 6 armoured Spartans marched through their door.” ** **“Training sounds good,”** replied Wash whilst Alaska just shrugged whilst eating as much as she could. When Carolina mentioned his interest in vehicles Alaska’s eyes lit up; **“Vehicles, someone speaks my language it seems. I’ve been specialised as Air Assault, anything with wings and engines is my specialty”** Wash was a bit surprised when she brought this up, he knew she was a pilot but last time he with her she was a quarter master on UNSC cruiser not a pelican pilot. Washington spoke up about himself; **“Since we seem to be going around the circle I’m a Close Combat Specialist.”** He said examining his Visor.Alaska tapped his arm and nodded away she got up and left, Washington sighed **“well then I suppose I’ll see you guys at the sim room”**. **"What's the plan then Doc"** Alaska said entering the room with was following shortly behind, Wash joined in:**"as long as this one isn't doomed to fail I think I'll take anything"** he said slightly sarcastically and awaited for a reply.

Carolina got up after cleaning his plate of food, giving South a wave as he left. He walked down the hall running a scan on his suits systems, he needed to show them he could handle combat... More importantly he needed to prove to Penn he wasn't completely broken. He had managed to push back a lot of the bad memories and the good ones to, burying them deep but he still occasionally saw those frozen wastes begging him to go back and try to get it right, to save his soldiers. Shaking his head he jogged down to the sim room, entering he spotted most of the others having beaten him their. He smiled looking at them taking off his helmet and running a hand through his crimson hair as he smirked looking them all over. "Hey Iowa, make it a hard mission, I need a challenge. My brain could use a work out, if you don't mind I'll hang back and cover South, advise you guys from a distance. I'm thinking two fire teams, Wash, Iowa, and Penn on one. Me, South, and Alaska on the other. North can cover us, also the fire teams would be pretty even in combat strength." He spoke quickly and his eyes darting to each person as he said there name as if he knew each of there strengths and weaknesses already, he blushed and little as he put his helmet on. "Or ignore me, I mean I'm the lowest ranked soldier here."

Iowa had been in the sim room for a few minutes before the **“Nice to see you guys, and gals”** he said not looking up from his Data pad. **”Well I was thinking about an extraction mission in an abandoned city,”** Carolina walked in asking about the difficulty **“Sure, if you’re looking for a challenge we’ll go for a level 8 mission and as F.I.L.S.S tells me there is only ten levels, Hey Carolina don’t think of it like that, we are a team and we act like one. No matter what position you are my equal on the battlefield, and about the plan it might be a good idea to wait for the mission briefing first. ”** He said looking up from the data pad. **“You guys might want to get set up whilst we wait for North and south the simulation is ready to load so just choose your equipment and what not, and remember to be prepared though level 8 means that enemies have advanced motion sensors and are trained to military grade. Just keep that in mind I’ll show you what we’ve got, equipment wise when we are all in the sim, I’ll see you in there“** Iowa entered the Simulation picking up his shield, battle rifle and some extra ammo then entered the briefing room and stood next to the table with a 3D map taking his helmet off and placing it on the table and leaning back against the wall whilst he waited for the others to load in.

South sat back happily as the others spoke about the mission, though she did blanch a little when Carolina asked for a hard mission. She turned to see North entering as Carolina continued, splitting them up into teams and a worried look came over the girl’s face. Having sat back slightly South was fairly sure it went mostly overlooked save for her brother, who came over quickly to comfort her, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes. “Don’t worry, it’s just a sim. Nothing in it can actually hurt you. Besides, I’ll be there and I won’t let anything happen to you okay?” South nodded slightly, looking over to the others. “It’s just… what if they realise I’m awful at this?” She asked nervously. What if they didn’t want to be associated with her once they realised she’d never killed anyone before and was afraid to shoot people. “Just remember; these aren’t real people. So you won’t be hurting or kill anyone. If anything this is the best way to get you used to the idea of shooting people, and I promised you’ll only have to do it to defend yourself okay? You’ve got amazing aim, you’ll be fine if you just hold your nerve.” South once again nodded and North smiled at her encouragingly before he turned his attention to Carolina. “Hey Cal, making your moves early; putting yourself on the girl’s team hu?” He laughed, using the nickname South had mentioned earlier. Personally he liked it. “If you try to make any moves on my sister we’re gonna have a problem.” Despite the threatening words the tone in his voice and the smile on his face showed he was only joking. However there was this slight look in his eyes that hinted towards that fact that beyond the joke there was an element of seriousness to it, brotherly protective instincts. “Remember I’ll be watching you.” He then turned and began leading South over to the equipment table, helping her get geared up and checking to make sure everything was in working order. “We’re about ready when everyone else is.” He called out after a few minutes as he and South walked into the sim briefing.

Penn was chuckling at the displays between South and Cal, as folks had taken to calling him. Penn was thinking on the mission parameters so far. A rescue mission in a high danger environment. Abandoned city, close quarters, not the best place for most folks when it came to high explosive weaponry. But that also meant potential ruins, blocked passageways that would need cleared to expediate target location and extraction. And that could also mean densly packed, target rich entrenched positions. So direct explosives, like rockets, were out for now. So that meant one thing, and it was one of his favorite pieces of gear to use. Grenade Launcher, fully loaded and with spare ammo to boot. Perfect. Secondary weapon, just like before, he favored a pair of suppressed pistols just in case people favored a quiet outing rather than a loud one. He could do both with the pistols, but grenade launchers generally were not subtle things. Beyond that, he set up a series of demo charges, malleable explosives, landmines, and hand grenades for a backpack unit for his overall kit. While he was doing all of this set up prior to entering the simulation, he chimed in on the back and forth from North and Cal, poking his fun over at North for his stereotypically defensive reaction, even in jest. "Hah, I love it when love blooms so early in life. Relax North, not like he'll be spending every night over in your room, keeping you awake all night long from the, ahem, physical training. Probably. In all seriousness though, sounds like a solid plan Cal, fine by me. Just try to keep the harem in check, yea?" Penn laughed easily, clearly not serious about the harem jab. He had been serious about the solid plan comment though, heading into the sim after having said his piece to Cal and North, joining the ones who had entered so far, walking over to the sim holo display which held a map of what he figured was the area they were dealing with, directing a question right towards Iowa. "Alright man, what are we looking at dealing with here? Specifics on intel, I know generally the mission difficulty rating already."

Alaska chuckled a little bit, when Carolina was shot down by North, she had no idea if North was being 100 % serious or not but it still was funny in her opinion. She was so engrossed in the situation with Carolina and North that she didn't notice Washington was already in the simulation. Wash grabbed his Shotgun and pistol and entered the room with Iowa, Penn, North and South, **“What a coincidence seeing you lot here,”** He said with a smile taking off his helmet and holding it between his arm, Wash studied south and north, he could tell something wasn't quite right between them North was looking after South more than Washington ever did with his sibling, He’d be watching about how they performed separately. Alaska joined at the same time, picking up a Pistol and a DMR. **“We haven’t started yet have we?”** She asked walking into the room, **“After all I wouldn't want to miss the absolutely fantastic lecture you’ve probably got planned.”** She said sarcastically. Wash punched her in the arm and looked at her before saying; **“Grow up sis”** Alaska rolled her eyes in return.

Carolina blushed under the helmet. He hadn't even thought about South or Alaska like that, he could tell South was to gentle and beside's she had been a pacifist in his sim, only shooting a man when North was endanger. He hoped to cover her in the field, plus Alaska was the kind of firefight lover he could use and due to there shared love of vehicles they could no doubt borrow a few and South could disable any electronic system on them. "Relax North I'm not after your sister, I could never keep her fed on my pay check. As for Alaska well I figured it would be fun to talk shop with someone while were in there, maybe convince command to let us make a few adjustments to the vehicles here." With that he grabbed a assault rifle and a grenade launcher as well as two sticky grenades. He stepped in and looked at the others. "So what's the brief?" He smiled as set up a private comm channel for everyone to use once they were in the field. He smiled, it felt good to be back with a team even if he wasn't leading. "So question, is Iowa leading this OP or should we see how our number one handles the job of leading in the field?"

**“Well then everyone I suppose it’s time to begin”** he loaded up the Holographic map on the table. [Map](http://i.imgur.com/IwUvplf.jpg) **“Right As you can see our blue point is our drop off point, we’ll be taking a pelican flown by a member of our squad. All the buildings are grey surrounded by a black to red outline the outline dictates the height of the building; black being sky scraper level and bright red being a one story house.”** He said pointing at each building. **“Abandoned Vehicles and barricades are marked with the colours black and red. Right now that’s sorted out we can begin the mission.” ** He pointed towards the objective **“The enemy camp is here it has regular patrols around the perimeter and advanced alarm system I estimate that by the time we arrive they’ll be changing shifts, perfect for a night op.”** Iowa Pointed towards the red and pale red squares to the right of the left of the camp, **"These are patrol warthogs fully armed with machine gun turrets.”** He then moved to the vehicle to the right **“This is a hornet, fully armed with missiles and machine guns all vehicles are manned so any alarm triggered will send these on patrols.”** He pointed to the red dots on top of the warehouses **“These are snipers they function as the patrol force and all have fully stocked ammo although recon has no advice on the snipers. Our primary Objective is to extract a civilian held hostage by terrorists and if that fails then we ne need his briefcase and decrypt whatever is inside. And that’s all I’ve got, oh and Control will be available throughout the mission for tactical support. I would prefer if we gave our number 1 a chance to lead”** He gestured towards Penn; **“The floor is yours.”** He stepped back from the table and took his helmet.

South glanced over at Penn and then nibbled at her lip slightly before looking over to Cal and then up to North, who was already looking at her and nodded slightly. She was never sure how he seemed to know what she was thinking, but it was always when it mattered the most so she decided to speak up. “We um…” As the words came out of her mouth and she drew attention to herself she stammered for a moment, before calming herself again. “We already know Penn has the ability to be great, I mean he’s already on the top. So why not give someone else a chance to show off what they can do?” She looked around, but it was impossible for her to gauge what everyone was thinking with helmets on. “Someone like Cal for example? He already put forth a good team structure earlier… he’s got a lot to gain if he gets the chance I think…” She didn’t really want to be difficult or cause arguments or seem like she was favouring Cal… which she kind of was. But she wasn’t intending too. Wash would also have been another choice for someone who had something to gain from a few chances to prove himself, but he hadn't been screwed over during the testing like Cal had.

Penn honestly had no idea what to say when he was put on the spot by Iowa. Sure, he ranked individually well, and that meant individually, not as a team. He never was good at organizing people, they were, in ways, far more volatile then anything he would ever handle, and not in a predictable or safe manner. So he kind of had no ability to say anything, nothing that would have been useful in the slightest to the planning phase at all. Of course, the praise was far too kind, he was just good at making things explode, that was all. "Far too kind South, that rankings board doesn't mean a damn thing. I can make things explode, and that's rightly about it. I just apparently made pretty enough fireworks to entertain the monkey's in command." Penn was quick to back South and her suggestion on letting Cal have his go at doing his job, being a tactician and strategist. It let him focus on what he did best, rather than having to play at being some glorious leader. That, and while he wasn't aware, his thoughts were somewhat inline with South's. Cal had gotten screwed over in the tests, so he deserved a real chance at leadership. And not get shoved out because of some number on a board. "Seconded, Cal, you have the floor now. Good thinking on your part South, I would certainly think.

Cal smiled, he was thinking smash and grab with his personal twist, he had a highly skilled and qualified people. "Alright here's what I'm thinking. Penn, Wash, North, Iowa move up the street, North pick a spot and set up, your going to need kill the snipers when I give the green light, the rest of you take it slow and move up towards the front gate pick a nice spot for you to go work. Now before any more harem jokes are made, South is going to help me disable warthogs and get Alaska into that Hornet, Once that's done we good loud, Iowa your escorting the target, Alaska's your support Wash and Penn your covering Iowa. South and I will head back and start up the pelican." He looked around at the others through his visor and sighed. "However this plan relies on you all being able to work together and trust that everyone can do there jobs. No plan survives the battlefield, but it's better than nothing." He checked his rifle and then looked up. He then pressed a button, suddenly in the corner of your helmet a list of your squadmates appeared for each of you. "Alright, so once your in position wink the green light once. If things go wrong wink the red light, the start signal is two green lights from me. Also if you go down the name vanishes from our screens." It was a basic system, didn't even let them check each others vitals. "So questions? Comments? More jokes?"

Neither of the siblings had problems with the change in power, although Washington and Alaska had only met Carolina for a short time they believed he was more than adequate in command of the squad, If he wasn't it would most likely turn into to mission failure.in which would put him even lower down the table. Washington listened closely to Carolina’s plan. Picking up as many flaws as he could; He couldn't find any, **“I don’t see anything against it, and if anything it’s a sound plan.”** Whilst Washington was trying to find any flaws in the plan Alaska didn't really care until she heard her name and a hornet in the same sentence, she was nearly jumping with anticipation she hadn't flown since her last UNSC mission. And if she could she was going to do the best damn job she could do.

Iowa had no objections when the Carolina stated his plan to everyone; in fact he was quite pleased with how he had planned it out, combining the squad attributes to make a sound plan. Iowa was happy with being on escort duty it allowed him to do what he’s good at; looking after someone, and the fact he was getting support from the number 1 and number 2, it was a god send. **“Well, if there are no other questions. I believe that we should get a move on.”** He pointed towards the door on the far side of the room **“Exit through that door, once everyone is in there the simulation will begin. We should start at the back of a landed pelican. And the mission will end when the pelican leaves the area with nothing or the package.”** Iowa left to go into the room the door slid shut behind him and the Simulation world faded into existence he was in the back of the pelican with the door closed. He waited for the others to arrive.

Despite the fact that she had personal issues with the plan, logically South couldn’t fault it at this point. So she was forced to agree to it and nodded in agreement. “Sounds solid to me.” North agreed with a nod as he and South turned towards the sim entrance, exchanging a high-five as they passed through. South was nervous, but she decided then and there that she’d at least try to fake it during the mission. Despite everything, the approval of her fellow recruits was important to her so if she had to pretend to not be overwhelmed then she would if nothing else to save face and not embarrass North. Inside the back of the large ship she looked around in awe. It was probably the first time she’d been in one of these, since she’d never been part of a field mission on the actual field before and due to the special nature of her skills she was usually moved just on her own. Beside her North bumped against her gently and she looked up at him and smiled despite herself and the fact that she had a helmet on and he wouldn’t be able to see her. “I’ll be watching you.” He assured her, keeping his voice down.